Konoha fox

Chapter 17

"Troublesome."

Shikamaru had been relatively happy with how they had managed to blend into the background once Ino had stopped her bossy antics and let Naruto be.

This whole exam business was just a worrisome affair, and he firmly believed that their team should avoid attracting unnecessary and unwanted attention.

Sure, their entrance had gone a bit against that, but the pros outweighed the cons then. Now however...

"Get away from Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!!"

"If it isn't Sakura... Same ugly forehead as ever..." Just troublesome.

"What did you say?"

Should he interrupt them and explain why what they were doing was so stupid? On the one hand, it would be bothersome and he'd only get yelled at for simply stating the truth, but on the other hand, Ino was his teammate, so if she painted herself as a target the whole team would end up attacked.

While he was confident in his abilities and those of Naruto and Ino, he was smart enough to know that there were good chances that many of the older teams could wipe the floor with them. That is if his goggle-wearing teammate didn't pull other awesome skills out of his ass like in Wave.

Still why go looking for a fight when they could sneak by in the shadows, hiding from everyone else, like ninja were supposed to? Why did he become a ninja again? Oh, right; his mother and his father. Troublesome parents, they'd have had heart attacks if he came out saying, "I want to be a civilian".

Not that he really wanted to, because as annoying as it was, being a ninja also gave him the opportunity to protect his village and his friends.

Losing them while he could prevent it would be... irritating. It would really piss him off, even more than sunny days without clouds.

He was distracted by a dog barking. Akamaru and Kiba were joining the already loud group. At least if he was here it meant Chouji couldn't be too far.

"Hey Shikamaru! Naruto! It's good to see you."

The young Nara smiled at his friend, as happy to see him as he was with the subdued tone he used. It gave him a proud feeling knowing that his friend had enough common sense not to shout like the Inuzuka.

"Liquorice?" Naruto offered.

"No thanks, I have my chips." Naruto shrugged and continued to suck his licorice root, which Shikamaru idly wondered when he took out and from where. Really, he knew that his friend had lots of sealing scroll on him all the time, but it never ceased to surprise him how many things he carried all the time, some of which were so random as to make him question the boy's sanity.

Then he remembered that the very same boy wanted to buy a house made entirely of sponge...

"You guys should be more quiet." A tall teen wearing glasses and looking some years older than their group interrupted, halting the... shouting match between Ino and Sakura, as well as Kiba's one-sided one with Sasuke.

"So sorry chief librarian..." Naruto muttered around his licorice root, making Shikamaru smirk.

"You are rookies just out of the academy, right?"

"No we're just in, isn't this a classroom?" Naruto murmured, and this time his lazy teammate chuckled lightly.

Unaware of the orange-haired boy comments, the older teen went on, "This isn't a picnic."

"And that explains why me and Chouji are the only ones with food." Shikamaru coughed quietly to cover his snickers. The older boy after all was just stating the truth, sparing the young Nara the hassle of telling his troublesome peers himself.