Chapter 4: Cravings

"It took days for the effects to wear off, and until then, everyone had to listen to the voices of those zombies driven mad by a hunger they could never satisfy. Even the people inside were nearly driven insane, having to listen to the voices of their friends and family pleading for a dangerously addictive snack. The end," Boruto said with satisfaction.

A marshmallow oozed off Inojin's skewer and into the firepit, sending up tiny sparks.

Shikamaru was the first to break the ephemeral silence with a chuckle which gradually became a laugh. Sai also looked rather amused by the tale and was laughing as well, though not as much as Shikamaru.

"What's so funny?" Boruto asked, taking offense.

Shikamaru's laughter subsided but he was still smiling. "Nothing. It was a very entertaining story."

"What he means is it's ridiculous," Shikadai told Boruto.

"I liked it," said Sai.

"I did, too," said Shikamaru. "I enjoyed the twist."

"What twist?" Boruto asked.

"How instead of fresh-eating zombies like you see in lore these days, you made them snack-craving zombies. Much more believable."

"Yes," said Sai. "This story is very plausible. Compared to others."

"No, it isn't," said Inojin, replacing the marshmallow at the end of his stick.

"Oh? You've never craved anything so much that you couldn't focus on anything else?" Shikamaru asked him.

"Have you?" he returned.

"Yes, actually," said Shikamaru. "Yakisoba."

The boys looked at him with their brows raised. "Yakisoba?"

He nodded in affirmation. "Usually it's sold at festivals, but there were none going on and I had a craving for it all day. My lunch was disappointing and didn't taste as good as it usually did because I wanted something else. I couldn't focus on my work with my mind on my meal. It's all I wanted to eat. It went away after a couple of days."

"Ha!" said Boruto, pointing at his friends. "See? It is a perfectly plausible story. Who's to say it didn't actually happen?"

"Us," said Inojin. "If something like that happened in the Leaf, don't you think we'd remember it? Especially if our parents were involved."

Boruto already had an answer prepared. "You could have been on a mission, you know. And since the effects wore off, this could have happened and you just didn't know about it."

"If something like that did take place, it'd have been all over the news," said Shikadai, putting a hotdog over the fire.

"And what were the twins' names?" Inojin asked. "You never said, did you?"

"That's because he's not clever enough to come up with any."

"They had names!" Boruto insisted. "I just… didn't want to tell you to protect their privacy."

"Or so we couldn't look them up to verify," said Shikadai.

"They could have given him fake names to protect themselves," Inojin pointed out. "Even if he knew their names, they may have given him fake ones to make him look like a liar."

"Don't help him," Shikadai told Inojin. "I know that story was made-up. Having everything go back to normal doesn't mean it happened and we didn't know about it. For one thing, why wouldn't our parents say something?"

"They could have wanted to save you from the trauma."

Shikadai scoffed.

"I still enjoyed it," said Sai with a smile. "Whether or not it was based on fact. It's hard to imagine myself as a snack-craving zombie, though. I wonder how that would look?"

"Try it," said Boruto. "Give us your best zombie impression."

"I'm not sure how," said Sai.

"Try to look crazed."

"No."

"You could tell we weren't in our right minds in that story," said Shikamaru. "I would have used my shadow to stop Boruto from running the moment he entered the office looking for help."

"And why was the Hokage's jacket on the ground?" Sai wondered.

"Probably to add to the scare-factor. Classic misdirection."

"I thought the misdirection was having you and another figure eating something on the desk. Since everything was dark in the scene and the jacket was found on the ground the next day, it led people to think perhaps they were eating people and the Hokage may have been the victim."

"You read it that way?"

"Snacks that make people into horror movie zombies would make even less sense. The food-craving ones were much better."

"I agree."

"At any rate, it was very nice," said Shikamaru. "Very entertaining story, Boruto."

Boruto folded his arms. "It wasn't meant to be funny. It was meant to be scary. A plausible tale that could have happened in the village while Shikadai's team was away on a mission or just ignorant."

"Couldn't have been away on a mission," said Inojin. "Chocho was in your story and we wouldn't have left without her."

"Then you were just ignorant of what was going on."

"How could we have not noticed?"

"Alright, alright," said Sai, hoping to defuse the situation. "Does anyone have a story they want to tell?"

"I still need time to think of a good one," said Inojin. He wanted his to be better than Boruto's.

Shikamaru repositioned himself on the log. "I think I got one."

"You?" the boys asked in surprise.

"Yeah, why not?"

"You tell a campfire story?" Shikadai didn't seem confident in his father's ability.

"It's probably going to be something boring or tactical," said Boruto. "One of those murder mystery type of deals where you have to remember every single detail and lose track of the story because you're thinking too much."

Shikamaru folded his arms in a very similar fashion to Boruto's earlier gesture. "I can tell a good story that doesn't require intricate detail or a tactical mind to understand."

"I think Shikamaru can be very creative," said Sai. "That's been proven may times."

"Really?"

"Of course. You'd have to be creative to pull off some of those plans and battle strategies."

"Missions are different from telling a good story," complained Boruto.

"Why don't you hear my story and judge for yourself instead of all these preconceptions?" Shikamaru asked.

Curious, the boys settled down to listen to his tale. Boruto put a hotdog on his skewer and hovered it over the flame as Shikamaru cleared his throat.

"Ok, here's my story…"