Chapter 6: Fractured Hope

Trees blew in the wind but the sound was drowned out by the sound of running water. The late evening sunlight trying to infiltrate the forest floor. Naruto stared at the river as he rested up in the canopy. His group was taking a rest after jumping through the trees for several hours straight. Naruto couldn't take his mind off of reaching Konohagakure and he wanted to keep going so he could get there but he knew the rest of the group needed rest because they were tired. Naruto then allowed his mind to drift to thinking about his pink-haired teammate. Even in a group of a few of his friends, he still felt he was all alone. Naruto sighed, he was getting anxious just sitting there when he could be on his way already.

"Good news," Shikamaru said, his words drew Naruto out of his thoughts. "We don't have to travel all the way to the Valley of The End after all. The river's current is slower up ahead where we can easily cross the river using our chakra."

Naruto was relieved, their trip was cut down. However, what Shikamaru said next deflated his spirit again.

"We're going to stop here for the night, we are all so tired so we need rest because we will reach home tomorrow," Shikamaru said. He heard Naruto groan.

"Something wrong Naruto?"

Naruto turned to Shikamaru, "Nothing's wrong."

"Who's going to keep watch first?" asked Shikamaru.

"I will," Naruto answered. Shikamaru was a bit shocked since Choji usually took the first watch.

"Are you okay with that, Choji?" asked Shikamaru.

"Sure," replied Choji.

While everyone took out a scroll with food sealed inside, Naruto just continued to stare off into space. He contemplated sneaking off from the group and getting to Konohagakure first just to see if it was even worth the journey. His heart, however, wasn't fully into that idea. All he cared about was...

"Sakura," Naruto mumbled underneath his breath.

"What was that?" asked Ino as she sat down on the branch on the other side of the tree Naruto was sitting in. It brought the blonde out of his thoughts.

"I didn't say anything," Naruto said but not believing himself, "Did I?"

"I don't know, it sounded like you did though," answered Ino. Naruto nodded but his cheeks turned red when his stomach growled loudly causing the blonde girl to giggle a bit.

'I'm surprised I'm hungry at a time like this,' Naruto thought as he grabbed a scroll from his backpack and unsealed it, revealing a bag of chips.

Naruto opened the bag and began munching even though what he really wanted was some instant ramen but he knew he couldn't hang out on the ground and boil up some water with the fear of Walkers walking through the forest.

"You're still awfully quiet, what's on your mind?" Ino asked trying to get the awkward silence removed.

"I'm just hoping Konoha is still standing," Naruto answered. "It feels like my mind is playing tug-o-war whether it is or not."

"That brige being blown out was a good sign, they're trying to keep Walkers out," Ino said trying to ease Naruto's mind.

"Yeah, at first I was excited about it but now I'm not so sure. Wouldn't Tsunade-baachan have people guarding on the other side of the river to make sure Walkers don't find another way across the river?" asked Naruto.

"Maybe, if she had the full force in the village," Ino replied. "Remember Naruto, quite a few of us are scattered."

"Yeah, but I'm not saying have everyone stand along the river bank and watch, I'm just saying more like a team passing up and down the river," Naruto explained.

The two got quiet as they heard the bushes underneath them began rustling followed by grunting and groaning from three Walkers. Ino and Naruto watched quietly as the Walkers slowly made their way to a cliff. The Walkers reached the edge but did not stop, they walked off the cliff into the river below."

"I think there's your answer why we haven't seen a patrol, they don't need one," Ino said smiling.

Naruto chuckled lightly and maybe Ino was right. Konoha might be spread thin to have a patrol and it was obvious now they didn't need a patrol.

"Ino?" Naruto said in a serious tone.

"Yes?"

"Before all this happened, you never spoke a word to me. Why now?" Naruto asked.

Ino fell silent and pondered the question. Back in the day, she thought Naruto as nothing more than a loud-mouth, no talent idiot. She then remembered seeing him in a new light after Naruto defeated Pein.

Naruto began to feel like an idiot to ask that question because Ino's silence became too awkward to take and was about to find himself a different tree but her voice stopped him before he could.

"After you defeated Pein, I viewed you as some mysterious enigma considering I used to think badly of you before. I wanted to speak to you then but I never had the chance until now," Ino replied. "With the world it is now, I don't want to be an enemy to you and besides, it's nice to talk to someone else that isn't Shikamaru or Choji."

Naruto smiled a bit and finished the bag of chips he had stopped eating when the Walkers came around. Silence fell between the two as the sun began getting closer and closer to the horizon. Another hour of silence passed as the sun set and the darkness took its place. Naruto, believe Ino had fallen asleep, was surprised when she spoke.

"Do you like me?" she asked.

Naruto was taken back by her question. What did she mean? Naruto couldn't find an answer because he didn't know how to answer.

"You know, as a friend?" she specified realizing Naruto's silence meant he was trying to tread lightly.

"Yeah I do, why?"

"I don't know, you just seem so cold," replied Ino.

"Don't worry, my heart hasn't become Ice. I've just had a lot on my mind for a long time," confessed Naruto.

"Yeah, I should have known better than to think you've become cold, you just want to get to Sakura," Ino said sadly.

Ino got up from the branch she was sitting on and jumped to a tree close by and then jumped to the branch Naruto was on. It startled Naruto a bit because he wasn't expecting her to just appear in front of him like that. She walked closer to Naruto and kneeled down in front of him.

"I know when we were younger that I wasn't the nicest person to you, in fact, you can say that I was a bitch to you. When you saved me from that horde of Walkers in the cave a couple days ago, I've just been so grateful to you because for some reason you jumped into action first, instead of Shikamaru or Choji," Ino said as tears began to fall from her eyes.

She couldn't form words anymore as Naruto looked at her stunned as he didn't realize saving her meant so much to the Yamanaka. What came next shocked Naruto to the core. Her lips touched his. The shock was so much he couldn't even gather his thoughts to either kiss back or push her away. Her lips parted ways and when Naruto finally came to his senses, he found Ino crying into his chest. Naruto sighed and awkwardly wrapped his arms around the girl. Moments later, he found Ino asleep. He picked her up and jumped to the tree nearby and sat her down to let her sleep. He jumped back to the tree he was originally and went back to being the look out over the group but even then he couldn't get himself competely focused on the task as the kiss was fresh in his mind. Did he like it? Did he not? Was he an idiot for not returning it? Was he an idiot for allowing it to happen in the first place? So many questions were popping up into the blonde's head and it was confusing him to no end. Four hours of being jumped up inside his head, he was finally broken out of his state of confusion by Choji.

"Get some sleep man, I'll take the next watch."

Naruto nodded and settled himself into a position that would allow him to sleep. He drifted off to sleep with his mind still breaking itself down over Ino.

The sunlight danced on Naruto's eyelids in an attempt to get him up. Finally the light became too much and Naruto opened his eyes. Shikamaru was in the place he saw Choji last before he went to sleep. Shikamaru looked over at Naruto.

"You okay?" asked Shikamaru.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Naruto answered the question with a question.

"Choji said when he took over watch you looked really trouble," Shikamaru replied.

"Oh he did, did he?" Naruto said and Shikamaru nodded. "I'm just fine."

Naruto dared not say that Ino kissed him. He wasn't sure if Shikamaru had a crush on her or that girl from Sunagakure he saw Shikamaru with when he first returned to Konohagakure from his two and half year training trip with Ero-Sennin.

"You sure? Choji said you looked almost broken," Shikamaru said still trying to get Naruto to open up.

"It's nothing, my mind is just stuck on finding Sakura-chan," Naruto lied hoping that would be enough to get Shikamaru off his back and it seemed to do the trick as Shikamaru didn't ask anymore questions.

Ino, on the next tree near Naruto, woke up to find herself alone. She was sure she accidently fell asleep on Naruto's chest. She looked to find she was moved and was saddened.

'I guess he didn't like this kiss,' she thought as tears formed in her eyes.

The group got their things together and began their trip. It was short as they came to a cliff with water falling into the canyon. The group climbed up the cliff and sure enough, ontop of the waterfall, the river wasn't in a canyon and was current was slow up until it got closer to the waterfall. The group reached the point where they were going to cross and all focused chakra to their feet and crossed the river. It was quick and easy and they were now on the other side finally. Kotetsu was the first to begin climbing back down the cliff, when his feet touched the ground, he turned and what he saw next nearly made him shit himself.

"Son of a bitch!" he yelled and climbed back up the cliff.

"Kotetsu, what the hell man?" Shikamaru asked.

"There's a bunch of Walkers down there," Kotetsu replied. "We are not going to be able to follow the river."

At first Shikamaru didn't believe him so he looked over the cliff and sure enough there was a large group of Walkers.

"Damn it, hold on everyone," ordered Shikamaru and everyone stopped before climbing back down the cliff.

"What are we going to do now?" Naruto asked.

"We have to go back to the bridge and use Choji's idea after all, it looks like it's the only way," Shikamaru answered.

The group understood and jumped back into the trees to travel back the way they came. The group was back at square one.

Naruto stared at the sky as it turned from blue to yellow as the sun continued to descend towards the western horizon. He was losing hope that they would ever make it to Konohagakure. Naruto looked at the rest of the group and saw them conversating amongst themselves, it was most likely Shikamaru planning out just exactly what was going to be done to get across the river. Naruto sighed as the anxiousness of getting back home was become harder and harder to bear and overhearing Shikamaru talking his plan over with everyone wasn't helping either. Naruto began to fume with anger and at that very moment, his hope of getting home was fractured under the weight of his doubt.

"Shikamaru just stop!" Naruto yelled. His voice held anger.

"What is it Naruto?" Shikamaru asked. He was surprised by Naruto's sudden outburst.

"It's obvious we're never going to get back to Konoha, so just give it up and let's just find a new place to keep ourselves safe!" Naruto continued.

The look on everyone's face was enough to Naruto to turn around and storm off. It was obvious they weren't going to listen and continue to come up with bullshit plans that were not going to work in the first place.

"Wait, Naruto!" Shikamaru called out. He was about to go after him when Ino held him back.

"I'll go talk to him, I think he'll listen to me," Ino said and walked off toward the direction Naruto went.

Shikamaru wanted to protest and looked to Choji for support but he shook his head showing to let Ino go.

"God damn it!" Naruto yelled as he punched a tree several times with both his fists.

Everything he had been holding inside finally spilled out as tears began falling from his eyes.

"God damn it," Naruto cried as he fell to his knees.

Why did he have to get injured so badly that it put him in a coma? Why couldn't he just have been faster to get away? Maybe he would still be with his team instead of journeying through this God awful place the world turned into searching for people that may or not be alive. So many questions and so many what if's, it was finally just too much for the blonde and there he was on his knees a broken man.

Ino searched through the woods for Naruto. She had been looking for ten minutes and saw no sign of the blonde. He couldn't have gone that far, could he? She stopped for a few seconds then heard what sounded like sniffing. She turned and walked in the direction of the sound. What she saw broke her heart. Ino found Naruto on his knees in front of a tree, crying. Ino slowly approached Naruto so she wouldn't startle him.

"Naruto, are you okay?" she asked, her voice was gentle and caring.

Naruto looked up, surprised Ino had come looking for him. Naruto shook his head. Ino fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around him. The two stayed this way for what seemed like an hour. Naruto moved from the girl's embrace now that he finally gotten his emotions in check.

"You okay?" asked Ino.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine now," Naruto said, his voice coarse and strained.

"Want to tell me what made you snap at Shikamaru?" the girl asked.

"I was so anxious to get back home, it was just too much," confessed Naruto.

"You've been holding back all this pain since you woke up from your coma, haven't you?"

"I think so," Naruto replied.

Naruto's head shot up when he heard some grunting and turned to find several Walkers coming out of the bushes near them.

"Shit! Ino stay behind me!" Naruto ordered which the girl did, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Several bunshin formed, protecting Ino. The bunshin quickly charged into the group of Walkers. Each one formed a ball of spiraling chakra and slammed them into the Walkers head, blowing their heads apart. Brains and flesh splattered across the ground while the blood soaked into the dirt. As soon as Naruto's bunshin destroyed the group of Walkers in front, Naruto heard Ino scream, he turned around and found her trying to fight off another Walker that came up from behind them trying to bite her. She struggled to hold it off while trying to grab a kunai.

"Shit," he mumbled and sprung into action. He created four bunshin. Two of them grabbed Ino and pulled her away from the Walker. Another kicked the Walker away from Ino and the fourth bunshin, with chakra spiraling in his right hand, slammed it into the Walker's head, blowing it apart. The bunshin dispersed as the Naruto rushed to Ino's side. She lunged forward as he caught her, wrapping his arms around her. Ino began to cry as it was the second time in a week she was almost bitten by a Walker.

"Shh, you're okay now," Naruto said trying to comfort her. "As long as I'm around, I won't let anything happen to you."

Ino nodded as she continued to cry, although Naruto saved her again, she was still so terrified.

"Thank you so much!"

It was the first words she could say since Naruto rescued her. Naruto smiled his first real smile in a while.

"We probably should get back to the group, they're probably worried about us," Ino said.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Naruto said.

Shikamaru was pacing back and fourth. It had been nearly two hour since Ino left to find Naruto. Surely she didn't need to talk to him that long to bring Naruto back.

"Choji, Kotetsu, we've waited long enough. We are going after Naruto and Ino, they could be in serious danger right now," Shikamaru ordered.

Just before the three of them were about to set off to search for Naruto and Ino, the two very people they had been worrying about came out of the darkness. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as Naruto's arm was snaked around Ino's shoulders. He was going to question it but Naruto spoke as he let go of Ino.

"Sorry, I just needed a bit to clear my head," Naruto said. "Let's get back to that bridge."