Chapter 4: Surviving

A week passed since Naruto was found by Shikamaru. He found himself adjusting to the group as he spent most of his time helping Ino look after five surviving civilians from Tanzaku Town while Shikamaru, Choji and one resident from Tanzaku Town who knew his way around the town, would sneak into town to grab supplies. Naruto wanted to tell Shikamaru about an easier method using his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but he didn't want to intrude on the group's ways of collecting supplies at the moment. When Naruto had spare time, he would practice the jutsu Shikamaru taught him to open and close the boulder that sealed them off from Walkers that may come by. It was a simple technique, but Naruto couldn't really focus on the task at hand because he was conflicted. He wanted to stay with Shikamaru's group so he could be safe but at the same time, Naruto wanted to brave the world and search for his team.

Naruto also found himself in an unusual situation, since he was the one staying behind and helping Ino look after the Tanzaku Town survivors, he found Ino talking to him more than she ever did during their years in the academy and being Genin. It was all to him but he didn't mind it, it helped a little, allowing to ease a bit of the loneliness he had been feeling since trying to escape Kusagakure's territory.

While passing out food rations to the civilians, Naruto felt the cave shake, it signaled that Shikamaru and his scavanging group had returned from their supply run. Ino, who was always worried that Shikamaru and Choji wouldn't make it back from those runs, stopped what she was doing and quitely waited for her team. Shikamaru, Choji and Kotetsu walked into the large cave area but they were missing their fourth person.

"Where's Kenji?" asked a femal civilian who had long, lavender hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in a few days. She wore a red dress that was stained with dirt.

"We lost him," Shikamaru admitted. "A whole group of Walkers surrounded him and he..."

The woman began crying. Ino kneeled down to the woman and tired to comfort her. Naruto sighed, he should have told Shikamaru about how his Kage Bunshin could have slipped by Walkers and maybe that would have kept Kenji from being killed.

Shikamaru took off his backpack and opened it up followed by Choji and Kotetsu. They dumped out a handful of scrolls which containted more food they had found and they were sealed inside the sealing scrolls. Choji and Kotetsu picked them up and placed them inside a bin that Naruto had constructed with his bunshin to replace the bulky rack the group had salvaged a couple weeks ago.

"These should last us a couple of weeks, so we won't have to go into town again for a while," said Shikamaru.

He walked to his spot in the cave and sat down and sighed. He cursed himself for losing Kenji. Shikamaru had been successful in keeping the group alive while in Tanzaku Town since they began using the cave for shelter.

Naruto walked over to his friend and sat down next to him knowing that he was beating himself up inside for not being able to save someone's life in his group. It was something Naruto just exprienced two weeks ago.

"It's tough isn't it?" Naruto spoke. "Being unable to save someone from those Walkers. You remember that girl I told you about, the one that slipped from my grasp and fell into a group of Walkers and was eaten?"

"Yeah, I remember," Shikamaru whispered. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"I didn't just leave her and let them eat her alive like they did," continued Naruto. "I tried to save her by using my Kage Bunshin in an attempt to distract the Walkers away from the girl so I could pull her to safety but it didn't work. The Walkers still went after her, it was like they knew who's a real person or a bunshin."

Shikamaru didn't speak, only listened.

"I felt like shit for days until you found me," Naruto continued. "But I realized that no matter what I did, I couldn't do anything about it."

Shikamaru nodded but he didn't speak. Though he felt a little better knowing Naruto experienced the same thing not too long ago but he still felt like shit for not being able to save Kenji. He felt responsible for keeping these townspeople alive and he failed. Shikamaru was brought out of his depressing thoughts when Naruto continued to speak.

"This does bring me to an idea on making supply runs," Naruto began. "I think us phyiscally going into town to get supplies will be obsolete. I believe I can just send my kage bunshin into town and let them gather supplies for us."

Shikamaru thought about it, playing all his moves in his head. He decided he wanted to see what Naruto told him in action just to see if he was telling the truth and that it would work.

"Alright, let's go back to town and show me if it works," Shikamaru said as he got up from the ground. Naruto grinned and got up himself.

Shikamaru and Naruto were hiding near the road that lead into Tanzaku Town. They looked around to see if any Walkers were wondering about. The coast was clear for the moment and the two Konoha-nin walked out of their hiding spot onto the road. Shikamaru looked down the road into town and down the road behind Naruto.

"Okay, I think we're okay for now," Shikamaru spoke. "Go ahead and create a bunshin and send it into town for bottled water."

Naruto complied, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

An exact copy of Naruto appeared beside him.

"Alright, go into town and find bottled water and seal them inside these scrolls," Naruto said, handing the scrolls to his bunshin.

"You can count on me!" the other Naruto said and walked into town.

"You'll let me know if Walkers attack your bunshin, right?" questioned the lazy Chunin.

"Of course," Naruto replied.

The two ninja walked back to the bushes to conceal themselved from any Walkers that might be wondering around and waited. The two stayed quiet as two Walkers wondered out of Tanzaku Town. They slowly walked passed the two ninja hiding, making sure not to draw they're attention.

An hour passed as Naruto and Shikamaru rested up in a tree near the road. Hiding in the bushes got tiring, so they moved to the tree so they wouldn't have to worry too much about Walkers. Naruto spotted something coming out of town, when the shadow figure stepped into the sunlight, he realized it was his bunshin.

"Hey Shikamaru, my bunshin just left town," Naruto said.

Shikamaru and Naruto jumped down to the ground and walked to Naruto's bunshin. The other Naruto was smiling as it handed Naruto the scrolls.

"Well I'll be," said Shikamaru. What happened next shocked Naruto as Shikamaru punched him in the face.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!" Shikamaru yelled. "Kenji would still be alive!"

"I-" Naruto couldn't say anything as he rubbed his face. He wanted to tell Shikamaru that he didn't want to disrupt his system of running the group but he couldn't find the words. He also thought he was helping but it only made things worse. Shikamaru walked off leaving Naruto behind. Naruto sighed and looked toward town.

The cave rumbled, the sign Shikamaru and Naruto returned to the cave. Ino waited paitently, still nervous that someone would not come back. When Shikamaru walked into the cave area alone, she didn't want to believe Naruto was killed.

"Shikamaru, where's Naruto?" asked Ino.

"I don't know," Shikamaru said as he walked past Ino.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Ino continued with her interrogation.

Shikamaru didn't respond and just sat down on the ground. Choji walked over to him.

"Hey man, what's going on? Where's Naruto?" Choji asked.

"I don't know, he didn't follow me," replied Shikamaru. "I punched him out of anger over Kenji's death and walked away."

Choji sighed and nodded, Kotetsu joined Choji as they walked to the boulder and left to cave to search for Naruto.

It had been an hour since Shikamaru punched Naruto in the face and stormed off. Naruto stayed behind because he wasn't sure if he was still welcomed in the group. He wished he would of let Shikamaru deal with Kenji's death before trying to help because now he was out in the world alon again. Naruto just waited for nightfall in a tree near Tanzaku Town, he decided he was going to head back to Konohagakure to see if it was still standing or overrun with Walkers. Naruto heard rustling in the bushes below and behind him and Naruto tried his best to conceal himself as he waited for whatever it was to pass. He peaked down and saw it was Choji and Kotetsu. Were they looking for him? Maybe they were so they could tell him Shikamaru wanted him out of the group. Instead of hearing it from them, Naruto chose to stay hidden and once they were out of sight, Naruto would take off towards Konohagakure.

"Naruto? Are you out here?" called out Kotetsu.

"Naruto? Come on, Shikamaru wants to apologize!" called out Choji.

Naruto was surprised and decided to show himself, "I'm up here."

"Oh thank Kami, we thought you were Walker meat," said Choji.

"Wait for me at the cave," began Naruto. "There's something I got to finish up here first."

The two Chunin nodded and headed back to the cae. Naruto sat back down on the tree branch and looked towards town and waited.

Choji and Kotetsu patiently waited for Naruto to return. Thirty minutes had passed since they returned to the cave and began waiting for Naruto. Naruto walked up the hill into their view.

"What took you so long?" Kotetsu asked, "We thought you died again."

Naruto smiled and motioned them to go inside. Kotetsu peformed tha hand seal which opened up the boulder and the three ninja walked inside with the boulder closing off the cave behind them. They walked through the narrow part of the cave until they came to the large room the group was living in. Shikamaru noticed Naruto walk in with Choji and Kotetsu and got up.

"Look, I'm sorry for earlier..." Shikamaru started but was interrupted.

"No worries," Naruto said as he walked over to the food and water bins. Naruto pulled out a larger scroll and unsealed crates full of smaller scrolls, the blue scrolls sealed bottles of water and the red scrolls sealed food.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" asked Shikamaru.

"After you punched me in the face, I thought I was pretty much kicked out of the group so I decided to send in a few more kage bunshin into town and fetch me some supplies for a trip," Naruto began. "But when Kotetsu and Choji told me you wanted to apologize, I decided to do you a massive favor. I created hundreds more of kage bunshin and sent them into town and grabbed all the food and water that was left and now we don't need to ever step foot inside Tanzaku Town again."

"Naruto, I don't know what to say," Shikamaru said out of disbelief.

"Just look at it as me saying I'm sorry for not telling you my experience with my kage bunshin earlier," Naruto said, smiling.

Kotetsu and Choji high-fived Naruto. The group had enough food and water to last them months. The group no longer needed to expose themselves to the outside world for quite some time and Shikamaru was happy they were safe from harm.