Chapter 9: The Reason

"Hey man, where's Ino?" asked Naruto as he and Naruto jumped through the trees of Hi no Kuni's forest.

"I.." Naruto paused, "I don't know. One minute she was right behind me as we escaped from Konoha and then the next, she wasn't. I should have been protecting her better and I fucked up."

"Yes you did fuck up but we'll find her," Shikamaru said. "She's probably waiting for you at the rendevous point as we speak."

"I hope so," Naruto replied. "So what happened for you to lose Choji and Kotetsu?"

Shikamaru sighed, "It's a long story so you better pay attention. It all started after you and Ino ran into the village..."

Few Hours Earlier

"Naruto, wait!" Shikamaru yelled.

He watched Naruto as he ran down the wall and into the village. He looked overe to find Ino following right behind Naruto.

"Ino, not you too!" he yelled.

The blonde girl didn't aknowledge him and Shikamaru sighed.

"Troublesome..."

"Should we go after them, Shikamaru?" Choji asked.

Shikamaru thought about it for a bit and then decided no and shook his head to answer Choji.

"No, they'll be fine. Let's walk along the wall to see if the village is completely abandoned or if any Walkers are around," Shikamaru said.

Kotetsu and Choji followed Shikamaru as they slowly walked ontop of the wall, looking down at the village below. They still couldn't believe their home was left abandoned. However, something about that fact was bugging Shikamaru and it was the reason he decided to walk on the wall around the village.

As they slowly made their way, Shikamaru spotted Walkers heading into the village. Their path was strange like they were all coming in from one location. Shikamaru stopped the group.

"You see that?" Shikamaru asked pointing at the Walkers.

"Where are they coming from?" asked Kotetsu.

"I don't know, but doesn't it look like they're coming into the village from somewhere?" asked Shikamaru.

"If they were villages, they would be just walking aimlessly around, right Shikamaru?" asked Choji.

"Exactly, there's something wrong with this picture," answered Shikamaru.

"Do you think we should investigate it or just leave it alone and find Naruto and Ino to warn them?" asked Kotetsu.

Shikamaru thought about it quickly but he decided he really wanted to know why a village with protection from the outside became abandoned.

"Let's go check it out, I trust Naruto will keep himself and Ino safe," answered Shikamaru.

Shikamaru led the group going into the direction the Walker horde was coming from, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Shikamaru also felt guilty for leaving Naruto and Ino to their own devices as he started to think he should have gone after them and warn them of the Walker horde. He then tried to justify his decision by thinking if he had gone in, they would all somehow get trapped inside the village with the massive horde.

Shikamaru didn't realize that Choji and Kotetsu got ahead of him while he was torn between his decision to go investigate the village instead of finding Naruto and Ino. As he caught up to them, the two stopped.

"Holy shit..." Kotetsu said.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked as he walked up beside Choji as he turned from them to look.

What Shikamaru saw was almost unreal. Ahead of them, part of the wall was gone. The wall had collapsed into the village and a massive horde of Walkers were walking into the village from the breach. Shikamaru walked closer to the edge, did the horde gather on the wall and thier wait made the wall collapse? No that couldn't have been it, the wall was too sturdy for that.

"What could have done this?" Choji asked. The question startled Shikamaru because he didn't notice his teammate walk up to him.

"I don't know," replied Shikamaru.

"The Walkers certaintly couldn't of done this, could they?" asked Kotetsu.

Shikamaru stayed silent as he looked around to see any signs leading to something else. Kotetsu looked down to the village to see the last of the massive hode of Walkers make their way inside the village.

"Man, I really think we need to go find Naruto and Ino, there is a lot of Walkers inside the village now," Kotetsu said.

Shikamaru ignored him as he continued to search around. He searched around the rubble when he found burn marks on the pieces of broken wookd mixed in with the mangeled steel and iron.

"I think I found something," Shikamaru said, motioning for Kotetsu and Choji to come to where he was standing.

Choji and Kotetsu walked up to Shikamaru and looked at what he was pointing to. Seeing the scorch marks made them a little worried.

"You think the village was attacked?" asked Kotetsu.

"It sure looks like it," Shikamaru replied. "It really looks like someone dilaberately destroyed this wall to get inside," Shikamaru said.

"If there was a battle here, wouldn't there be dead bodies all around?" asked Choji.

"Hmm, not that you mention it Choji, you might be on to something," replied Shikamaru. "There is no signs of a major battle here, just the destruction of this portion of the village wall.

"Maybe whoever attacked the village were using the Walkers as a weapon after destroying the wall?" Kotetsu.

"I don't think so, because these burn marks aren't fresh and this horde of Walkers just go into the village today," replied Shikamaru.

"There had to have been some kind of battle," Choji added. "Maybe survivors buried the dead before abandoning the village now that it is vulnerable of Walkers?"

"That is a possibility..." Shikamaru stopped when the wall made some cracking noises.

"Shit!" yelled Kotetsu.

The piece of the wall they were standing on broke off, causing all three ninja to fall with the debris. They landed on a pile of broken, burned wood and mangeled metal. Choji looked up to see a few Walkers had heard their fall and began walking to them. Suddenly they stopped dead in their tracks. Choji then noticed Shikamaru was using his Kagemane to keep them from getting any closer to them.

"Choji, I need you to get out of here and wait for me back at rendevous point. I'm not going to be able to hold them for much longer," ordered Shikamaru.

"But.." Choji tried to protest.

"Don't argue with me, just go!" commanded Shikamaru.

Choji nodded and got up. He looked himself over real quick to make sure he didn't have any serious injuries that he didn't notice or feel right away and darted towards the outside of the village.

Once Shikamaru saw that Choji had escaped the village. He turned back to see the Walkers he was holding with his Kagemane were now missing their heads and Kotetsu was standing behind them.

"You can let them go now, they're not going anywhere now," said Kotetsu.

Shikamaru released his jutsu and the bodies fell straight to theg round. Shikamaru looked past Kotetsu to make sure that no more Walkers were coming up from behind Kotetsu.

"Come on, let's get out of here," said Shikamaru.

Kotetsu nodded and the two began climb up the debris. As soon as they reached the edge to make it outside, they quickly had to turn back as another horde of Walkers were coming their way.

"Where the fuck are these coming from?" Kotetsu said as he turned and began running back into the village.

"From all over the place, this shit is everywhere!" Shikamaru yelled as they dashed back into the village.

They didn't get very far as they found themselves in the back of the original horde of Walkers that had made their way into the village.

"Shit, what do we do?" Kotetsu asked, panicing.

"Let's get on the rooftops," answered Shikamaru.

The two ninje climbed up the wall of an building they were near and got onto the roof. Kotetsu looked over the horde and saw two blondes running through the streets trying to escape the horder of Walkers too.

"I think I just saw Naruto and Ino running for their lives," said Kotetsu.

Shikamaru sighed, that was the last thing he wanted to hear. Another questionable choice ended up being the wrong one and now two of his friends were running through the village for their lives. He just had to be curious about the village.

"What should we do?" asked Kotetsu.

"We'll just jump from rooftop to rooftop and escape from another point in the village," Shikamaru answered.

The two ninja began jumping across the rooftops as they headed back towards the village wall to escape. They didn't get far as Kotetsu didn't jump hard enough from one building to the other. He slipped from the edge and fell. He managed to grab the tin of the roof to keep him from falling straight to the ground and into the path of the Walkers. Shikamaru stopped and turned back.

Kotetsu could hear the growling and grunting of the Walkers below him. He could have sworn he felt one nearly touch his foot but he couldn't be sure as he sure as hell wasn't going to look down to find out. Shikamaru reached out so he could pull Kotetsu up to the roof. Kotetsu grabbed Shikamar's hand and Shikamaru pulled him up to the roof.

"Man, you need to be careful," said Shikamaru.

"I know, I guess I misjudged my jump," said Kotetsu.

"The Hokage Tower is right over there, let's hide there until nightfall. Hopefully the Walkers can't see us then like they can right now," Shikamaru said.

Shikamaru and Kotetsu blocked the door into the Hokage's office with a bookcase so if any Walkers managed to wonder upstairs to where they were hiding, they couldn't get in.

"Stay away from the windows, we don't want the Walkers to see or hear any sign of life in here," Shikamaru ordered.

Kotetsu nodded and laid across the floor, tired from the journey. Shikamaru looked at the Hokage's desk. As he looked through the papers that were scattered on the desk, he spotted a folder and read it outloud.

"Unknown Outbreak."

Shikamaru opened the folder to find a coded message that had been sent from Kusagakure.

"We are sending a warning of an unknown outbreak of a virus that has sickened individuals. The virus is fatal and so far no one has survived. However, once the victim is dead, they somehow return from the dead and have become some kind of monster-like cannibal. This virus comes just days after an unknown orange dust blew through."

Shikamaru turned the page to find handwriting from a different person but he could tell it was from the Hokage.

"Orange dust blew through Konohagakure three days after being reported from Kusagakure."

Shikamaru noticed an update written three days after getting the message from Kusagakure.

"It's been three days since the orange dust blew over the area, people are getting sick left and right. The hospital can't keep up so we had to set up a triage in the stadium."

"It sounds like the virus began in Kusagakure, seeing they're the first to report this," said Kotetsu.

"The last update from this file is three days after recieving the message from kusagakure, so who knows when the village was attacked," added Shikamaru. "Nothing is making sense to me, not only do we have Walkers roaming around that died from some virus, but we come back to a village that is empty had has signs it was attacked."

"What the fuck is going on?" asked Kotetsu.

"There's something far bigger going on," Shikamaru stated.

Shikamaru put the folder down and laid down on the floor himself. Kotetsu was still laying down.

"Get some rest man, once night falls, we're getting out of this village," said Shikamaru.

Shikamaru woke up to darkness. He realized he was asleep on the floor and noticed it was no longer daylight. He crawled out from under the desk, even though he wondered how he got there in the first place because it wasn't where he had laid down. He looked to where Kotetsu was laying and he wasn't there."

"Kotetsu?" Shikamaru called out. No answer.

"Kotetsu?" Shikamaru called out again. Still no answer.

Suddenly the bookcase that was blocking the door began to shake. Shikamaru could hear the groaning of Walkers outside the door. Shikamaru turned the window behind the desk and noticed it was knocked out.

"How troublesome, that bastard left me here," whispered Shikamaru.

Shikamaru jumped out of the same broken window onto a rooftop below. He began jumping from rooftop to rooftop as the wall got closer and closer. He could hear the groans of Walkers below but he ignored them. All that mattered at this point was getting out of the village and finding Choji. Kotetsu, on the otherhand, deserves an ass kicking for what he did.

Shikamaru made it to the wall and jumped onto it, chakra on the soles of his feet keeping him latched the wall so he could climb up it and escape the village.

"And right after that, I found you," Shikamaru said, compeleting his story.

"Who would of attacked the village?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know," Shikamaru said. "Oh we are here."

Shikamaru stopped and pointed below, they had found the rendevous point. The tree above the rock, Shikamaru could see someone was in it but he couldn't tell right away if it was Choji or that bastard Kotetsu.

"Psst," Shikamaru called out.

"What? Who's there?" the silhoutte said. Shikamaru recognized the voice as Choji.

"Choji, it's me Shikamaru and Naruto's with me," Shikamaru said.

"Oh thank Kami," Choji said relieved.

"You've seen Kotetsu?" asked Shikamaru.

"No, not yet, why?"

"That snake left me to die while I was asleep in the Hokage's office waiting for nightfall," replied Shikamaru.

"Why the hell would he do that?" asked Choji.

"I don't know," replied Shikamaru.

"Hey Choji, is Ino over there with you?" asked Naruto.

"No, I thought she would be with you," replied Choji.

"She was but we got split up," admitted Naruto.

Naruto sighed, feeling like shit. First having Sakura abandoned him back in Kusagakure and now him losing Ino. He quickly wiped away tears that were forming, he wasn't going to break down about it now.

"We'll wait for a few hours to see if either one of them show up," Shikamaru said.

Naruto nodded and went to sit down on a branch and he stared into the darkness. He felt like such a failure for not protecting Ino properly but he was determined to find her at all costs.

"I will find you Ino if it's the last thing I do," he whispered.

Shikamaru, who was standing on breach on the opposite side of the same tree, heard Naruto whisper. He smirked and decided he would help Naruto find Ino. He was going to suggest the option in the morning but now he didn't have to. Before sitting down on the branch where he was going to rest tonight he looked up through the canopy and stared at the stars in the sky that he could see.

"Ino, you better be ok. Naruto and I will find you," Shikamaru whispered.