I'm sorry for the amount of time it took to update. I started this chapter last month but life had a way of keeping me very busy for the last few weeks. I also had a bit of writer's block so I'm sorry if this chapter sucks because I feel it was rushed.

Chapter 7: Home

Naruto jumped through the trees as fast as he could. He still couldn't believe everything he had seen and now here he was running away. He knew everything he was running away from to begin with was no longer behind him but he didn't feel like stopping. After he felt like he was far enough away, Naruto decided he needed to rest. He stopped on the next tree he jumped to and sat down on the branch staring at the ground below.

"God damn it!" he yelled as he slammed his fist down on the branch.

Naruto's heavy breathing was silenced when he heard the trees rustling and was surprised when someone stopped on the tree next to the one he was resting on.

"Naruto, you made it too!"

Naruto looked to see it was Shikamaru.

"Man, I'm glad to see you," Naruto said. "Where is everyone else?"

"There was so much commotion, I couldn't keep tabs on everyone," Shikamaru replied.

Naruto looked to the ground feeling like a failure. Ino had been right behind him and then all of a sudden she wasn't.

"Should we go looking for them?" Naruto asked but his voice was soft, it was like he didn't want Shikamaru to hear him.

"No, we don't need to go looking for them. We go to the rendevous point that we set up, remember?" answered Shikamaru.

Naruto nodded, "Let's go then."

A Day Earlier

"Well, we are right back where we started," Kotetsu said.

The group made it back to the bridge that was blown up to try what Choji suggested two days ago. Naruto already knew what to do and formed a hand seal.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he yelled and several bunshin formed.

The bunshin started climbing on each other, one after the other until a tower of Naruto was formed. Naruto then threw a kunai to the otherside and the tower of bunshin threw themselves to the ground with the top bunshin grabbing a hold of kunai. Once the bunshin were in position, they transformed into a wooden rope bridge.

"And we have ourselves a bridge we can walk across," Naruto said. "I just took Choji's suggestion and tweaked it."

"I can't believe I didn't think of this first," Shikamaru said.

"I'll cross last," Naruto said.

Shikamaru nodded and crossed Naruto's bridge first. He reached the other side with no problems and looked around.

"It's safe!" Shikamaru yelled.

Choji crossed Naruto's bridge second and was followed by Kotetsu. Ino was hesitant to leave Naruto to cross by himself.

"Go on, I'll be okay," Naruto assured the girl. Ino nodded and crossed.

When Ino reached the other side of the river, Naruto heard grunting coming from behind him.

"Naruto, you better hurry. It sounds like there is a huge horde of Walkers coming!" Kotetsu warned.

Naruto looked back to see the Walkers slowly approaching. He couldn't count how many there were on his fingers alone. He quickly crossed his bridge and once he reached the other side, he allowed the bridge to transform back into his bunshin and dispersed them. The horde of Walkers reached the river the group just crossed and walked over the edge of the canyon and into the river below. Naruto and the group just turned away and began walking away.

After traveling for a bit on the road, Shikamaru stopped the group.

"Alright, we should jump through the trees from here on out, just in case there are Walkers around."

"Do we have to?" Naruto protested, "I'm tired of..."

"Yes we do," interrupted Shikamaru. "For the safety of this group, he must not let our guard down yet. We don't know if there will be Walkers around here or not."

"Yeah Naruto, you don't want me getting bit, right?" Ino added in a seducing way.

Naruto turned to the girl and smiled while trying to hide the blush that appeared on his face. Luckily for him, the blonde girl didn't notice.

"You guys ready?" Shikamaru asked. "We should make it to Konohagakure tomorrow."

The group nodded and jumped into the trees.

"We will rest here for the night," Shikamaru said. "And just to be on the safe side, we should stay up in the trees."

Naruto let out a growl of frustration which no one heard. He didn't want to stop, he just wanted to go home. Being away from home for over two months since leaving for his mission to Kusagakure territory was torture. He also didn't feel like sleeping a hard branch of a tree one more night. The entire time they were traveling since getting across the canyon earlier in the day, they had not seen any group of Walkers. To Naruto, the area was deemed safe.

Naruto sighed, the group was going to rest for the night whether he liked it or not. Naruto jumped around a few trees until he found one he could comfortably sit on. Taking a seat on a branch that almost seemed made for him, he looked to the ground below and quietly listened. The only sounds he could hear was a weak night time breeze and crickets. When he was near Kusagakure, all he could hear were the grunting and groaning of Walkers every single night he had stopped but not tonight. Naruto started to believe that Konohagakure may have been spared and it was still standing.

Naruto was shaken out of his thoughts when he felt the branch he was sitting on shook a bit. He looked to his right to find Ino had found him and sat next to him.

"Sorry, did I disturb you?" Ino asked. "You looked deep in thought."

"No, you didn't disturb me," Naruto replied. "I was just noticing the different in the sounds over here compared to what I head around Tanzaku Town and Kusagakure."

"Meaning?"

"Before we reached the river and canyon we thought we wouldn't be able to cross, at night while we would rest all I could hear were Walkers but tonight I just hear the breeze and crickets," Naruto explained.

Ino didn't pay too much attention to the sounds of the night before, but she listened in only to hear what Naruto was hearing, the weak breeze and crickets.

"Wow Naruto, you are very observant," Ino said.

Silence fell between the two, Ino not knowing what to really say.

"I'm very sorry for how I've treated you through the years," Ino just blurted out.

Naruto was surprised, "It's okay, I know I'm not the smartest ninja and I didn't help everyone's opinion of me by being the class clown and pull my pranks while I was in the academy."

"Well my opinion has definately changed. This past month I've got to know the real you and I think you're a great person, one that I didn't give much credit for in the past," Ino continued.

Naruto chuckled, "I tend to change people's opinions of me all the time."

Silence fell upon them as Naruto shifted his body to rest his back on the trunk of the tree. Naruto closed his eyes thinking Ino would move to a tree of her own, not that he mind her there with him, but was surprised when said girl sat in front of him and rested her back on his chest. Naruto opened his eyes because he wasn't expecting it.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked thinking something was wrong.

"I'm fine," Ino replied as she began to blush, it was a blush she was able to hide from Naruto. "I feel safest when I'm around you."

Naruto didn't say anything and closed his eyes and slowly wraped his arms around the girl. As he did that, a feeling which had been reserved for Sakura for years, overwhelmed him. Was he actually falling for another girl? He loved Sakura though, right? Other questions began flooding through his mind like, 'is Sakura even still alive out there? Did she purposely leave him in that house? These questions scared him, this weird feeling for Ino scared him. Shit, he wasn't getting any sleep tonight.

Unbeknownst to him, in a tree nearby, Shikamaru watched Naruto and Ino. He had a faint, displeased look written on his face.

Naruto opened his eyes, the sunlight dancing around him as it peaked through the canopy. He looked down to find blonde hair. Ino was sound asleep on his chest. He then saw something he never noticed in her before, her beauty. She looked beautiful sleeping on his chest like she was and it brought a small smile to his face.

"Hey over there, we're getting ready to head out. If we leave now, we'll make it to Konoha by lunch time!" Shikamaru called out.

Naruto shook Ino lightly. The girl stirred and she mumbled something along the lines of 'just a few more mintues.'

"Come on sleepy head, Shikamaru wants us to get ready to head out so we can make it home by noon," Naruto said into Ino's ear as he shook her lightly again.

The blonde girl opened her eyes and blushed when she saw Naruto's face close to hers. She turned away to hide it before Naruto could see it. She couldn't believe Naruto, of all people, was making her blush so damn bad like he was. After being saved by the blonde twice and being told he wouldn't let anything happen to her, she found Naruto to be the most sincere person on the planet, more so than her teammates Shikamaru and Choji and even more so than her former crush. Oh my God, she was feeling something for Naruto and she didn't care.

Ino got up from Naruto's lap and stretched. Naruto stood up as well and stretched. He grabbed his backpack he hung up on the branch above him and put it on while Ino did the same.

"We're ready!" Naruto yelled to Shikamaru.

Shikamaru turned his attention to Choji and Kotetsu, "You two ready?"

The two nodded.

"Alright, let's go!" Shikamaru commanded.

The group continued jumping through the trees with only one destination in mind, home.

The group had been jumping through trees for a good hour since waking up when Shikamaru suddenly signaled the group to halt. He looked down to see a large rock on the side of the road with the Konoha symbol carved into it.

"Just in case shit goes sour and Konohagakure is overrun and we get split up, we meet back here to this rock," Shikamaru said pointing to the rock below them.

"That's right on the side of the road, if we get scattered in the woods, how the hell are we going to be able to find that?" Naruto questioned.

"Naruto's right, Shikamaru," Choji added.

"It won't be that hard to find, it's the only rock with our village's symbol on it," said Kotetsu.

"Kotetsu's right, all you have to do is find the road and look for that rock," Shikamaru said.

"Ok fine, but how long should we wait?" Naruto asked.

"I would say a few days just to be safe," Shikamaru replied.

"So if we get seperated, we come to this rock and wait a few days," Naruto repeated. "I got it."

"With that settled, we'll take a small break and then we'll head out, it won't be long until we reach home," Shikamaru said.

Everyone nodded and proceeded to sit down in the trees. Before Naruto could sit down, Shikamaru placed his hand on his left shoulder.

"I need to talk to you," Shikamaru whispered. Naruto nodded and Shikamaru turned to the group, "Me and Naruto will be right back."

Shikamaru jumped through the trees out of the groups range of hearing and stopped.

"So what do you want to talk about?" asked Naruto.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Shikamaru asked sternly.

"Huh? What are you talking about Shikamaru?" Naruto asked, confused.

"What the hell do you think you're doing with Ino?" the genius asked.

"I'm not doing anything..."

"Cut the shit, I saw you two last night. Ino was sleeping in your arms and I know you're in love with Sakura so quit leading Ino on," Shikamaru interrupted.

"Are you jealous?" asked Naruto.

"No, but she is my teammate and I'm looking out for her," Shikamaru answered.

"I'm not toying with her heart if that's what you are so worried about. I think I'm falling for her," Naruto confessed.

"What? What about Sakura?" Shikamaru asked, surprised.

"Honestly everyone thinks I'm an idiot for trying or too dense to realize she has no interest in me, but I know she doesn't and I've wasted a lot of time trying to get her to notice me. I don't even know if she's still alive. Hell, who's to say whether her and Kakashi-sensei, Sai and Yamato-teichou were unable to return to the house or they just straight up abandoned me on purpose," answered Naruto.

"I suppose you're right," Shikamaru. "She spends a lot more time with you than anyone in this group. I can see she's starting to fall for you too and I'm sorry for being so harsh, I just wanted to make sure you weren't toying with her."

"It's okay and no, never," Naruto said. "Come on Shikamaru, you know me better than t hat. I would never do anything to hurt my friends."

"Good."

The two headed back to where the group was resting.

"Let's get going," Shikamaru commanded.

The gates of Konoha, Naruto could see them getting closer and closer as he and the rest of Shikamaru's group continued jumping through the trees. Naruto had a big, stupid smile on his face as he was finally going to be home and it was almost as if Naruto picked up speed as the group was right on the gate. They jumped to the road as they searched around a small perimeter to find no Walkers wondering around. The gate was closed but the situation called for it. Naruto looked to the west to see smoke rising into the air. However, he brushed it off not realizing it wouldn't be a chimeny since it was summer time.

"Izumo!" Kotetsu called out. "Izumo man, open the gate, it's me Kotetsu!"

Nothing.

"Is anyone at the gate?" Kotetsu yelled.

Still nothing.

"I don't like this," Kotetsu said to Shikamaru.

The group focused chakra to their feet and walked up the wall. Once they reached the top, they walked across the wall until they could see the village. The view stopped them in their tracks and they were stunned. What they were seeing, they couldn't fathom it right away.

"Oh my God," Shikamaru said.