Chapter Text
Shikamaru should’ve known by now that nothing that revolved around a certain blond Uzumaki would be peaceful, no, not in a million years. And it wasn’t even Naruto’s fault— Poor guy seemed completely unaware of the way chaos followed him around, it was like it simply got stuck to the other like a leech.
Even from the time they were kids, he remembers pretty clearly how chaotic things had been and that always, somehow, Naruto was in the middle of it, in the eye of the storm, but as much as he was certain of that, his friend had a unarguable talent to also fix or clean any mess afterwards, it wouldn’t matter if it had to do with him or not, he’d do it anyway simply because Naruto has never been a person capable of minding his own business, no matter how hard he tried.
Shikamaru also noticed that, in all the years he has watched Naruto from afar –sometimes from the sidelines, but not by his side. No, never by his side. Not even when they were young Naruto stopped being this distant figure in his life, like both he and the Uzumaki had always stood on different sides of the life, living and following completely opposite sides, but at the same time close, so close that he’d have the feeling that they were standing side by side – he noted an unexpected cleverness in his fellow shinobi and former classmate, one that was commonly overlooked, cast aside, because of how often his friend was a knuckle-head, a nickname that even he used to describe himself.
Said cleverness surely came from the time he had to look after himself when no one would, and he had to adapt to that.
This time, though, they might have needed to pay attention to the warning Naruto had said when they set foot on those ruins and came across the Ootutsuki clan’s crest decorating the walls.
Apparently, the nine-tails was restless, and something about that place made it nervous – Or at least that was what Naruto remarked, and also noted how he was kinda getting an odd feeling out of this place too.
The feeling did nothing but worsen as they entered the shrine.
While it was concerning that something there was making a Bijū uneasy, they couldn’t leave this place unexplored and unreported, as long as they didn’t touch anything, Shikamaru thought, they shouldn’t have any problems.
He certainly didn’t have in mind the chakra absorbing characteristic of those special seal arranges they’d found, which immediately had seemed to have taken a liking to Naruto’s own chakra, slowly and little by little taking droplets and droplets of chakra out of the Jinchūriki, who didn’t even notice.
Or at least didn’t seem to, and Shikamaru wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t, Naruto had the largest chakra storage among the entire village, and probably among the entire continent, and he also had a high resistance and was able to replenish chakra faster than he’d spent it.
The chakra had been more than enough to feed the seal array and activate it on its own, Naruto’s chakra simply too strong to be ignored. Shikamaru didn’t have a clue of how seals worked, aside from the commonly used ones like the explosive tags and some storage scrolls, but it had never been an art that had interested him, one that shinobi normally didn’t find any interest in learning and least teaching it.
He recalls perfectly a scorching, very bright light litting up the room and then, Naruto was gone.
It took them weeks until they had finally noted what exactly had happened to him, and more so to study the seal in the shrine and replicate it.
Three weeks later, they had just then managed to replicate the seal to its fullest, not even one ink drop from perfection.
The moment Naruto had disappeared and word run around of what happened, panic and confusion were the major reactions out of it, after all, it had been not only Konoha’s Hero and the Savior of the Fourth Great Ninja War the one to disappear, but the next in line to become Hokage after Kakashi-sensei decided to step down and let go of the hat.
It was an occurrence, to say the least. And it had been one hell of a few past days with all the preparations, they’d encountered numerous problems and issues during the process of replication and trying to use the seal array they’d found in the Ootutsuki shrine.
After the Uzumaki clan was completely decimated, and along with them, the Fūinjutsu masters and techniques did as well, followed by the seal art on its own, once that happened, few knew the art and could use it, and one of the few that had, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin, died three years ago.
And just when they had everything they needed and managed to replicate the ridiculously complex array, they found another problem and it was that, well, none of them had enough chakra to activate it, probably because those of the Ootutsuki clan once had the largest chakra storages to have ever existed before the Uzumakis and Senjus had –The implications, the mere idea of someone- a entire clan filled with powerhouses, having enough power to lit a continent probably, it was terrifying even of those that had seen what true power was like during the Fourth Great Ninja War three years ago. – and so, it took them a while before they managed to reunite enough people to activate the seal, among them.
Tsunade was one of the principal people that had volunteered and had spared the bigger amount of chakra, followed by the rest of the Konoha 11, including Sasuke who had showed an unexpected cooperation during the process.
From what he’d understood, the seal array had been a kind of space-time one, similar to the function Kamui and the Rinnegan’s space-time ability yet, described in the Uchiha’s own words, way more useless with how much chakra it needed to function.
But at least it’d take more than two people in one trip than what the Rinnegan could do. Team 10 had been assigned this whole ‘Retrieve Uzumaki Naruto’ mission given that they were the more well-versed team in recognition and strategy than the rest, and even though they didn’t have a sensor or a Inuzuka with them, they should be able to track him using Ino’s clan jutsus, and even if they didn’t, they’d make a quick recognition of the zone before doing anything else.
They had a version of the same array they used to travel to this new dimension, one that could be activated once they found Naruto, if not, the rest on the other side had orders of retrieving them or sending another team in to see what was going on, but Shikamaru was sure they’d be able to accomplish the mission right away without the need of external intervention.
He is sure he’ll be able to come up with something if they didn’t.
Upon activation, they woke up completely disoriented of their whereabouts, not recognizing their surroundings at all.
They jumped into action almost immediately, doing a quick recognition of the zone before doing anything else, there were no chakra presences around them, but everything looked almost normal, the forest around them looked quite like one of theirs back home, all green and everything, so did the sky.
So it was a relief to know that wherever they were, at least they didn’t end up in a weird-ass dimension. Ino took a few moments to try and enlarge the range of her clan jutsu and find Naruto with it, normally, finding and connecting her mind with his wouldn’t be so hard, not when Naruto was pretty much a giant sun made of pure energy, even those that weren’t sensors could notice his presence –as long as the blond wasn’t concealing his chakra, if he did, there was no way of feeling him–
However, after trying for thirty minutes while Chōji and he secured that zone for the moment, she finally opened her eyes and groaned, “Something is wrong or– I don’t know, but my jutsu isn’t working.”
Chōji turned towards her, a puzzled look on his face, “What does that mean?”
Shikamaru, who was already cursing under his breath, passed a hand through his hair before speaking, “It means that she can’t find Naruto. What do you think might be the reason, Ino?” He inquired his teammate, jumping down the tree he had been standing on before.
He didn’t thought it’d be easy, no, but at the same time he was confident that Ino’s jutsu would work– This kind of issue, it had the chances to become a pain in the ass, truly, given that the sole purpose of this mission was to find Naruto and bring him back with them before anything else happened, or the idiot ended up dying.
The blonde woman mumbled something under her breath that neither Chōji or he managed to hear, but it apparently wasn’t mean to when after a few seconds of thinking, Ino decided to speak, “Normally when I can’t use this jutsu is because the other person I’m trying to find is too far away from me to do so. My range is the largest of my family, but it has some limitations, if the person is underwater or underground, I can’t reach them. I’m mostly capable of feel Naruto-kun or reach him because well- He is like a giant beacon of chakra, so the fact I can’t now could be for multiple reasons, for one, he could be blocking me on purpose, or unconsciously- That’d mean he is aware of my presence, though. Two, something happened that is blocking his chakra, or three…I could be wrong about this one, though.”
Okay, he didn’t like where this was going. Ino was normally an incredibly self-confident person, sometimes even bordering egocentric, to see her like this was highly unsettling.
Something about this place totally threw her off.
Shikamaru crossed his arms, deciding to encourage the other to continue, “You can say it, it can’t be that improbable.”
At his words, Ino averted her eyes and bit one of her nails, before finally making eye-contact with both her teammates, “I’m not a sensor, but there’s something really off about this place that just- It’s not that my jutsu isn’t working because Naruto is too far away from here, or because he is underground, underwater nor downright blocking me off– This place, there’s something causing interferences, a interference I can’t seem to be able to cross, I’ll keep trying, though.”
That was what he was fearing. Shikamaru groaned, lifting a hand to his face and so massaging his temples, he knew this was going to be a pain. Why does everything that has to do with Naruto always end up like this? Poor guy can’t really catch a break apparently.
Chōji looked quite worried now, “Uh, guys, how do we know that Naruto is okay?”
Ino and he shared a look, before the blonde waved her hand around in a dismissive way, “Oh, please, It’s Naruto who we’re speaking of. I’m sure he’ll be okay. He always is.”
Shikamaru spared her a look, before averting his eyes. Despite the truth behind her words, and that he knows how resistant Naruto can be, and that there really wasn’t anything back in their world that could actually kill him, not when he always has had the luck on his side even though chaos and disaster seems to always be able to find him not matter how hard he tried not to, he can’t help but worry about him.
It was stupid really, and highly irrational, Naruto could be a moron sometimes, but he still was a trained ninja and Jōnin at that, he’d be reckless as much as he wanted but even he had some kind of limit, he is sure that Kakashi-sensei taught Team 7 all they needed to know to survive in the wild or what to do on emergencies, and even if he didn’t, Naruto commonly acted on pure instinct and he had the nine-tails with him who’d surely make sure he didn’t get himself killed like an idiot— And yet, here he was, trying to drown the concern he felt for Naruto, he just had to be okay, right?
One look towards Ino, and he’d tell she was feeling the same way. And so did Chōji— In a way, of course.
It was no wonder, when all three of them had grown somehow close to the blond after the war.
The months after the Fourth War finally ended had been the toughest for him and Ino, having to come to terms with their parents deaths, be there to pick up the pieces when their respective mothers simply couldn’t seem to bear the grief anymore, and grieve on their own too as well.
Once they were allowed a break, they were finally allowed to grieve in peace for the death of their parents.
It certainly hit them harder than with Asuma-sensei’s death, and on different levels too. Ino got through hers while she took care of her family’s flower shop, or at least tried to, but having something like that to do, caring for living things, was the best she’d do.
However, during the first weeks, she was a mess, she couldn’t really bring herself to part from her mother’s side, who had been reluctant to leaving the house since then war ended and Ino had to make sure she was taking care of herself, and without knowing, Ino ended up mimicking her mother’s depressive aura and taking it in as her own.
They’d moved away from the main house because her mother couldn’t take be somewhere filled with so many memories and Inoichi’s things From what Shikamaru knows, it got so bad that Ino couldn’t find energy within herself to go to the main house and take care of all the different plants and flowers they grew there, she just… Didn’t feel like it anymore.
For weeks she had deemed them dead, and that the scenery once she came back would be demoralizing, and yet, when she finally found some strength in herself to go back to the main house, she found every single plant and flower to be in optimate conditions, their colors were vibrant and lively, and the few bonsai trees had been taken care of as well.
As a expert botanist, she knows that plants and flowers can pretty much survive on their own for a few days, weeks and months in some particular species as long as they had access to water in rounds, but they had some plants in pots inside the house, those should’ve been the first ones to wither but they didn’t.
Ino had no clue of who had decided to take care of all the plants –They were a lot–, her first suspicion had been Sakura, who normally had access to the flower shop and sometimes helped Ino around when it was only her attending the shop and had a spare key to the main house since the moment both of them had started their friendship from scratch a few years ago after the Chūnin exams –This was before the pink-haired kunoichi started doing daily rounds at the hospital and was too busy to even drop by those days. – but upon confronting her, Sakura said that it hadn’t been her, that she had been too busy to do so.
And that left her without a single other clue, because she wasn’t close enough to the other members of the so-called Konoha 11, aside from Shikamaru and Chōji of course.
She asked both her friends, and both told her they weren’t the ones that took care of the plants.
Ino wasn’t close to either Tenten or Hinata, at least not close enough they’d go and do her that favor.
She asked Sakura again, and the girl said that she knew who had been. ‘That? Oh, yeah. It was Naruto. When he came by for his physical therapy a few weeks ago he heard me complain about being so busy, because I started to take care of your plants for you when you and your mum left. I was simply so busy I simply couldn’t anymore, he offered to do it himself. I was really doubtful at first- Because, come on, it’s Naruto. Yet when I dropped by once I finally had some time to spare, the plants were still alive. I guess he took it to heart then.’
To say Ino had been shocked out of her mind then, was an understatement, her mouth parted and her eyes widened. Because not even in her wildest dreams she’d taken Naruto by someone who’d actually take care of such a delicate thing like plants and flowers were, and yet, all were well-taken care of, those that were still growing had been passed to a bigger pot so they’d have more space to grow their roots in.
Those were things only someone that actively took care of plants knew.
And among everyone in their friend group, she would never have guessed that person would be Naruto.
Sure, she had come to respect her former classmate long before Pain devastated Konoha, and that respect did nothing but intensify during and after the war, she’d feel and transmit all his feelings, and they were so pure, so full of determination, determination to protect them all and win.
And the way he had mourned and felt every single death of their fellow allies, even if he had never met them before in his life.
Something like that…It was hard to overlook.
And yet, they weren’t close at all. Sure, she had long stopped being disgusted or annoyed by him, since they got out of the academy she didn’t really pay attention to the blond, boisterous and hyperactive boy, but the words shared between of them were scarce, and Ino wasn’t even sure if Naruto liked her or considered her a friend to begin with.
So why would he waste so much effort and time to take care of her plants?
So she confronted the other about it, deciding to pay Naruto a visit.
After lots of nagging from Tsunade-sama, Naruto was actually given a better apartment than the one he previously had, on the shinobi side of the village, and the place was nice and freshly-built. Ino had never visited Naruto before, not even when he lived on that other apartment before while they were teenagers, but Shikamaru and Chōji had, and of course he and his friend had said Naruto’s place was…Not a mess, surprisingly, but too big for one person certainly.
This time, she had brought with her some flower bouquets, primarily as a ‘thank you’, wanting to be grateful to the other when he had decided to do that favor for her.
Upon knocking, she heard some rustling from outside, before the blond’s familiar voice was heard, ‘You’re quite early today, granny! I thought I wouldn’t see you for a few more days–’ he had rambled as he opened the door and Ino saw the exact moment where he had frozen in place when noticing that Ino was standing there and not Tsunade.
Ino gave him a friendly smile, and greeted him, Naruto reciprocated her greeting once he recovered from his shock, and invited her in, still quite confused to the reason she was visiting, like he seriously didn’t expect her of all people to visit him.
Shikamaru told Ino then, when she told him how confused she had been of his reaction, that Naruto normally didn’t receive many visits -or at least that’s what he thought- and that he always made that face when someone did, a expression that soon changed to one of pure joy once he registered they were there to visit and not for any other reason like for a mission or something like that.
And that his mood would sour once he finally registered that the visit had to leave, and that though he’d try to smile, it wouldn’t really reach his eyes and he bid them goodbye all those times the rest of the boys, including Chōji and Shikamaru himself, had dropped by to play some card games and spend time with their former classmate.
One thing Shikamaru had noticed after years of knowing Naruto, is that he didn’t actively seek out others to spend time with, if someone didn’t go out of their ways to actually spend time with the blond, there was a high chance one would no see Naruto in anyway then, and he’d certainly don’t ask either.
He didn’t know if it was out of an unexpected shyness, or because he preferred to not bug people with his requests just because he felt lonely, he used to do so when he was young but stopped nowadays.
This was something Ino also noticed when she visited him that one time, he had been so surprised by the gift and had immediately put the flowers in a vase with water and made sure they were in a comfortable place in his balcony where they had both shade and sun on both sides.
That was something only someone that knows their way around plants would know to do, and Ino noticed immediately there were plenty of plants around the blond’s house, all looking well taken care of, with vibrant colors.
And then she noticed there were some of the bonsai trees they had back at home, all alive and well taken care of, like Naruto had actually took his time trimming the dead leaves and branches off and the overgrown parts actively with care and patience.
That totally wasn’t something someone that was only doing others a favor would do. And here they had thought Naruto and patience were two things that came separate ways.
Upon telling him the reason for her visit and the gift, Naruto looked embarrassed and suddenly quite shy, averting his eyes as he scratched his neck with an ashamed smile and a chuckle, ‘U-uh, yeah. When Sakura-chan told me about it, I offered to take care of your plants instead. I would’ve only drop by occasionally to water them, make sure the ones that like the sun or shade more respectively were moved…Then I saw the bonsai trees and- I took them home with me because they didn’t look very good– Not that they were ugly or anything like that! They just had lots of dead and overgrown parts and- I took the liberty of trimming them to its original shape.’
Without yet being able to make eye-contact, he added, “I just…Sakura-chan told me she was worried about you and your mum, after…Uh, y’know…And I figured it wouldn’t be nice to go back home and find all the plants dead or withering, I just thought I’d do something nice to help, y’know? I never spoke to your mum, or to Inoichi-san for that matter, but your flower shop was some of the only places I was welcomed in the village. So…I guess I wanted to help?’
His words had struck her deeply, because she had never thought Naruto would care for her so much to do something like that, they’d never spoken before aside from a few words here and there, mostly only greetings or during missions, and yet Naruto cared so much he did that for her and her mum even though he didn’t really had to in the first place.
Since then, needless to say, Ino had decided she’d take her time to get to know Naruto. She’d drop by occasionally to talk with him, and she gifted him one of the bonsai trees he had been tending to before when she was incapable of. Ino could proudly say now that they’d be called friends now, Naruto was surprisingly someone quite nice and easy to get along with, he was all smiles and happiness and knew a thing or two about plants, at least those one normally finds in a house.
Within months, Ino found herself simply spending lots of time with the blond, even talking to him about her increasing crush on Sai, which was starting to develop into a strong infatuation –They’d simply started to spend time together during shared missions, and he sorta just…Grew inside her heart, he struggled with emotions and everything, but there was something gentle and sensitive about him it just made her like him, and as a plus he was quite handsome– and Naruto, instead of bugging or mocking her about it, had only chuckled and offered his help to get them to spend more time together, and asked about more details and the like.
Similar to Ino, Shikamaru had also been struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, he had first planned to move out of his parents house before the war, but now that his mother would be all by herself on the main house, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her alone, not matter how much Yoshino insisted that she would be fine on her own and that he didn’t need to worry about her so much.
Shikamaru still did, much to her annoyance.
Even if he tried to move forward with his life, spending his days doing his job as Kakashi’s advisor, visiting both Asuma’s and Shikaku’s grave occasionally to talk to them every two days, and spare Kurenai-sensei a few visits here and there to babysit Mirai or merely to spend time with her, he had only been able to maintain that routine for a week or so, before he spiraled into a working spree and stopped doing all those other things for days, he’d only drown himself in his job, take the matters left by his dad into his own hands.
Things like sleeping and functioning like a normal human being stopped being all that relevant to him, this behavior of his got bad enough to be noticeable by others, and despite Kakashi’s efforts to get him to rest, or Chōji’s insistence in getting him out of the house when he didn’t have work to do and take him around the village to eat something somewhere, or meet with Ino and the others, Shikamaru had strongly refused, and downright ignored their suggestions or offers.
He was drained, and somehow stressed at the same time with all the work he had to do, and this continued for weeks before Kakashi had to practically ban him from the Hokage tower to make sure he’d rest, only for his mood to worsen and barely leaving the bed for days, only sleeping and eating from time to time.
This continued until Naruto appeared.
Shikamaru doesn’t know when it started exactly, or when he started to come by, but he remembers how Naruto would absolutely annoy the shit out of him on purpose so he’d find a reason to rise from the bed to shut him up, saying things like ‘Fine, I’ll shut up and leave, but only if you get your lazy ass to make me leave!’ and despite how childish and silly his attempts were.
They actually worked when after a few days of more nagging, Shikamaru finally rose from his bed to make the boisterous blond shut up. ‘Oh for god’s sake, could you just shut up, Naruto? Man, you’re such a pain!’
He didn’t even notice that he was standing and out of his room to rush after Naruto, not until he had finally registered how quiet the other was once he had finally catch him, placing a hand on the annoying blond’s shoulder, and he opened his eyes to glance down at Naruto’s face, and found him smiling widely at him, eyes narrowed and sparkling.
It hadn’t been a smile of victory or smugness or anything like that, it was warm and filled with joy and relief.
Not even when Shikamaru had harshly shut him up and grabbed him that smile did waver, he simply tilted his head with that same bright smile –Shikamaru remembers quite well how he felt like the sun was standing in front of him, how the other’s eyes simply seemed to get a few tones brighter, and the way they sparkled. – and said, ‘Welcome back, Shika.’
And just then Shikamaru took in his surroundings and noticed he was outside after weeks of simply lying down in his mattress without doing a single thing besides eating and drinking water to keep himself alive to a bare.
It was just then he noticed Naruto had been doing all that just to get him out of bed, and he didn’t stop after that one time, no, Naruto simply kept dropping by, he’d talk Shikamaru’s ear off, suggest they went out to eat, or simply stayed by his side, and then they’d cloud gaze just like they did on their academy days, or would play shōgi.
Even though Naruto would lose every time they played, he’d still eagerly suggest they played, and Shikamaru found himself simply following along, after days of that routine, he noticed that it didn’t bother him at all, and that he instead appreciated and enjoyed Naruto’s company more than ever, sure, he was really talkative, but his attitude, laugh and smiles were highly contagious and he just got used to having him around.
Later, he found out that apparently Yoshino was the one to fill Naruto in about Shikamaru’s…Situation, the blond had dropped by after hearing it from Kakashi, and had decided to spare him a visit to see how he was holding up exactly, and upon finding out about the state he was in, Naruto decided to help him.
When Shikamaru asked him about it, the blond only said that ‘You did the same for me when I was- When I couldn’t process Ero-sennin’s death properly, and dragged me out of my apartment so I’d get better- You were one of the first friends I ever had, Shika- I know we stopped hanging out after the academy but- I just couldn’t leave you like that, what kind of friend would I be if I did that? Besides! I’ll need my advisor to be in one piece when I become Hokage, right?’
It was just such a Naruto-thing to say and do, that he only found himself surprised at the blond’s commitment to help others around. And he also felt bad and guilty at the other’s reminder that yes, he had been Naruto’s only friend for a long while when they were kids.
They just started hanging out, cloud gazing and all, they skipped classes together with Kiba and Chōji, but once they grew closer to graduation, and after that, they just stopped hanging out.
Both were too busy to do so with missions and the like, but still, Shikamaru hadn’t been aware then how much all that meant for Naruto, he remembers very clearly just how alone the blond was, having someone to hang out with like Shikamaru surely meant the world for him, and yet, when they simply stopped hanging out and went separate ways…Naruto didn’t seek him out though, and Shikamaru guiltily recalls how little he cared back then.
Chōji, on the other hand, has always considered Naruto a friend, and unbeknownst to them, they often hang out after school and every time they come across one another, they’d have a nice conversation or take a walk together around the village, and sometimes take a trip to Ichiraku to eat and have a competence of how many ramen bowls they’d eat and who’d win between the two of them, –Chōji mostly did, but only because he was used to eating large portions of food, but Naruto was a close second. Old man Teuchi was simply happy to have more customers eat his food. – Chōji even went out of his way to nag his mother until she decided to prepare him a spare bentō only so he’d share it with Naruto.
It was because of all this, that they collectively decided there was no way they’d leave this place without finding Naruto first, and least leave without the blond with them.
They’d to get Naruto home one way or another, they promised the rest back Konoha that they’d find him and bring him back unscathed.
That was Team 10’s mission, and the thought of failing or getting remotely close to failing or quitting never crossed their minds.
Shikamaru took off his Jōnin vest then, and his hitai-ate next, “We’d sorry for ourselves for now, if there’s someone we shouldn’t be worrying about is that moron. I’m sure he’ll be fine– Let’s do a recognition of the zone first, not wander too far off, and try to stay close to one another in case something happens. We don’t know what kind of place this is, I saw some buildings far away, maybe if we go there we’ll be able to find someone or some clues of where Naruto might have gone off to. Take off your hitai-ates and vests first, though.”
The other two followed his instructions without doubt, trusting his judgment, but with confused expressions nonetheless, they placed all three of each into storage seals and stored them away, Chōji inquired then, “What for?”
He shrugged as a response, “We don’t know what kind of things- or people we might find, that was Ootutsuki shrine, so maybe one of them got here? Remember Kaguya and Team 7’s report? Who knows, there might be more of them. Though I suppose that if one of them had happened to be here, they’d have sensed our presence already, and even Naruto’s, so if they didn’t that can mean two things; There’s none, or this peace won’t last. And I really don’t want to make it easier for whoever they’re to be here in the open and with two big targets on our backs. Besides, if there’s some kind of shinobi organization here as well, because I can tell this place is habited, we won’t want them to know our ranks nor the village we come from, just in case.”
His friends nodded immediately at that with serious expressions on their respective faces, with that settled, they decided to scatter just slightly to cover more terrain.
The first thing they came across was a road, and at the end of a road what looked as a city rose before them, neither of them had seen buildings like those, they were so tall and many, though the entrance to the city was deserted, like no one had been there or passed by there on a while.
There was a sign, but they couldn’t really read what it said, “What kind of language is that?” Ino had asked, confused, while Shikamaru kneeled down to copy what he saw written there in a scroll while he replied.
“I don’t have a clue, but maybe we’ll find someone that can translate it to us, or someone that will tell us what it means. Maybe it’s the name of this place?”
Chōji hummed, his eyes glued to the city before them, “Should we go inside? It’s… Kind of giving me the creeps for some reason.”
Ino nodded beside her, hugging herself, “Yes, I don’t really like the vibe of that place, I don’t know, something is wrong with it. And I can see no one from here.”
Noting the same they did, Shikamaru finished what he was doing, stored the scroll and everything back, before rising to his feet once again, “Maybe we should make a clone wander in, I can’t make as many clones as Naruto can- No one could probably- but I can try-”
Ino shook her head, “No, your chakra storage is thinner than mine, I should be the one to make the clone, my limit is two shadow clones. But-”
A loud noise made them take immediate defensive postures and turn towards the source of the noise, the noise was followed by a voice, quite rude if he had to define it as anything, “Hey, ya bunch of chicks, haven’t you seen the sign? Or do ya have some kind of death wish? I mean, I won’t stop ya, be my guest.”
Shikamaru frowned, but decided to be the one to speak and ask the important questions, this man was accompanied by other that looked somewhat alike to him, maybe they were related or something, and this one was driving some kind of vehicle they’ve never seen before, made of metal and it was loud as hell.
“Death wish? What do you mean? There’s something wrong with that place? We’re not from around here”
The man hummed, he had a thick accent that they didn’t really recognize or could tell from where it was, “Travelers, huh? Well, won’t ya look at that, baby brother? We found some naive travelers! Welcome to Atlanta, or nowadays called the Dead City!”
He made some kind of bow towards the city with a smug grin on his face, the other accompanying him stayed quiet, completely unamused by his older brother’s, apparently, antics. “Don’t tell me ya haven’t seen the dead walking around?”
He laughed at their puzzled expressions, and Shikamaru shook his head, “As I told you, sir, we aren’t from around here.”
Nameless Man looked quite unbothered by their seemingly unawareness, “Lucky for ya, then. The walking dead, walking corpses, walkers- Whatever shit ya wanna call them, it started roughly a few months ago, some kind of virus or sickness, some kind of that shit, infected people and they started eating one another! Crazy, I’ve never seen a spectacle like that” He laughed again like he had said some kind of joke or something, and it only made them more wary of him.
This man was nuts, or had a loose screw –perhaps a few, actually– to be laughing around like that. “They eat ya alive, and then, ya will come back and start having a thing for human flesh, ya know? Like some kind of shitty, street dog— Whatever, unless ya wanna die, I woulda suggest ya don’t go inside the city, the place is full as fuck of those damn things. Pretty much everyone died and turned, yeah. A tragedy, truly” He clapped.
Zombies…?
Well, that was reassuring — The three of them thought. And just then Shikamaru noticed that Ino had connected their minds with just a glance their way, she had gotten so good at it that she didn’t even need hand signs nowadays.
‘Is he…Playing with us or actually telling the truth?’ Chōji asked through their recent mental bond.
Ino replied next, ‘I think he isn’t, but there’s no way to tell if he is such a crazy dude or something. Shika, what do you think?’
Humming internally, Shikamaru replied to them then, ‘I think we should pretend to actually trust his words, or we might get into unnecessary trouble.’
‘Understood’
Being it the best card they had, they decided to follow the pair of brothers back to their camp, after some more chatting and once they said they had a large camp with lots of people at the outsides of the city, and that it was pretty secure there.
Only because these people didn’t seem to have any kind of training, and they’d probably take them out easily.
Neither of them could feel their chakra or anything, so they must be non-shinobi folk. True to the oldest brother’s words, Merle –That’s how he introduced himself as– showed them said camp, and just like he said there were lots of people.
Shikamaru was surprised he had been so quick to trust them, maybe it was because he thought they were naive kids or something like that.
Secretly, Shikamaru looked out of a bright blond head, feeling expected disappointment when he didn’t. It wouldn’t be that easy, he figured as much, what were the probabilities Naruto was remotely close to them? He would have already felt them if he had.
These people were idiots, or too trusting, because yes, sure, some of them had been mad and wary of them, but that suspicion went away pretty much all at once after a while.
This is when Ino’s extrovert personality helped them greatly during missions, she simply knew what buttons to push to get people to do what she wants without them even noticing what she did.
They spent some time in the camp and met lots and different kinds of people, there were some families, but they only talked or saw a few. A shy woman named Carol, her nasty husband Ed, and their little daughter Sophia.
She wasn’t the only kid in the camp though, there were two other kids there, a boy named Carl and some others Shikamaru didn’t think of memorizing their names for some reason.
It seemed a man named Shane was the leader of the group, Dale, an old man, was their sentinel, two other girls, which were a pair of sisters, Andrea and Amy were who mostly found their food around.
After a few days of getting used to this, and a woman named Lori, Carl’s mother apparently, shouting at them to at least do something –Even though Shikamaru didn’t really see her do anything but whatever.
A day or two passed, without any news or at least a sign from Naruto’s whereabouts or wellbeings, and Shikamaru’s mood was getting worse and worse with each passing hour.
Ino had rolled her eyes at his complaints and dismissed them altogether.
That was, until one night Shikamaru was trying to sleep, he felt something poke his chakra, and he immediately rose up from his dozing to a dark tent and Chōji’s snoring, thinking it had been merely a dream, until he felt it again, this time stronger.
It was with no doubt someone else’s chakra reaching out for him, it was faint, but it was there.
And he found himself reaching back at it, it had been gone in a few seconds, but Shikamaru is pretty sure he didn’t dream it.
He would recognize that bright, warm chakra anywhere, so familiar and welcoming. Like a sun – it was Naruto’s.
He felt absolutely relieved then, and didn’t even miss a beat before waking his best friend up with a few pats on the arm, Chōji woke up with a start, incredibly confused, but when Shikamaru told him he had felt Naruto’s chakra, the other seemingly brightened at that, so did Ino when they told her about it.
They just needed to know where he was, or wait for Naruto to reach out again.
The next day, they met one of the other members of that group named Gleen, he was a nice person, maybe around their age, and apparently was the one who took the risks for the group and went in and out the city to bring back more resources and the like.
Dale had decided to introduce him to them, patting the boy’s shoulder, “This one over here, is the craziest man I’ve ever seen, coming in and out of Atlanta with no problem, thanks to him we have all these things!”
Gleen groaned, a little embarrassed if Shikamaru was reading his expression right, “Come on, it’s not like that.” He sighed, and finally turned to them, “My name’s Gleen by the way, and don’t pay attention to Dale, he’s just messing around.”
One of the women, Andrea if he recalled right, passed by them just then and scoffed, “Yeah, Dale, unless it’s getting trapped in a farmacy like a rat Gleen isn’t that lucky anymore” She laughed, and at her lighthearted joke.
The younger grimaced, “Oh, come on now, Andrea. Don’t remind me of that, we almost didn’t make it back if it wasn't for Naruto, if there’s someone crazy as hell that’s him, I’ll tell you that.”
The name he just said took a few seconds until it sank in each of their minds, Shikamaru shared a look with his team, only to make sure all three of them heard the same thing, and by the look on both Ino and Chōji’s faces, it was clear that they didn’t just misheard.
To be sure, Ino chimed in, taking a step further towards Gleen, “Wait, did you just say Naruto?”
Gleen spared her a puzzled look, clearly not understanding what the big deal with what he said was, he raised an eyebrow as his gaze drifted from the blonde to the other two boys with her, “Uh…Yeah? I came across a group of people when I was sacking the farmacy, we got stuck there for a while when we helped a family and some other guy with a little girl with him get inside, Naruto had appeared from nowhere and saved that family’s little boy– It was crazy.” He recalled with a huff, and a small smile, but everything Shikamaru could think was.
Yes, that sounds like something Naruto would do.
Ino continued then, “Had he bright, almost golden blond hair, baby blue eyes and some kind of birthmarks on his cheeks?” She inquired more just to be extremely sure that they were talking about the same Naruto, “Always smiling? About this tall–” she gestured with her hand.
Gleen nodded then, “Yeah– Wait, you know him?”
The smile on both Shikamaru’s teammates was a wide one, the three of them were happy and over all that relieved that Naruto was okay, or at least he was when Gleen last saw him.
Hell, for all they know, Naruto could still be around that place they mentioned.
Ino’s grin widened, “That’s our Naruto!”
Things were starting to look better now.