Not Alone

Chapter 16

DISCLAIMER: THIS CHAPTER WILL HAVE SOMEWHAT MAJOR NARUTO SPOILERS!!

Naruto opened his eyes to a blinding light coming through his window. He groaned before sitting up and stretching.

"Ugh, my shoulders hurt. Maybe I went a bit overboard yesterday." He said, rubbing his shoulder a bit before getting up and getting ready for the morning. He walked out of the bathroom and checked the time.

"CRAP, I'M LATE AGAIN! Ohh, Sakura's gonna kill meee!" He screeched, running out his shoes and stumbling out of the door. He ran to make his way to the bridge, praying Kakashi was later than him. Once he got there, he was panting and out of breath. To his relief, Kakashi wasn't there yet.

"Naruto! Do you know how late you are? This is a record, even for you. You should get here on time!" She said, punching him in the arm. Sasuke watched as Naruto said profuse sorries while Sakura huffed and turned away before turning right back around and scolding him further. Then Kakashi jumped down onto the bridge.

"You're late too! Ugh, both of you! Sasuke is the only one with a sense of time, hmph!" She said, glaring at the two of them. Naruto looked away like he was some child who got caught stealing candy.

"Alright, alright, so we're a bit late. But that means you guys'll have to train harder today. So come on, today we're just gonna do some stamina exercises," Kakashi said before leading the three of them over to the training grounds.

•Shikamaru's POV•

Shikamaru arrived to the training grounds with a jar of stamina pills in his hand. Ino looked at him with confusion, and Choji just shrugged it off.

"Shikamaru, what do you need stamina pills for?" Ino asked, making Shikamaru shrug.

"Personal, but hey, Ino, if my mother asks, your mom needed them, and she was out on garden week, okay?" Shikamaru said, looking at the girl intently.

"Uh, okay?" She said, looking at him with an odd face before deciding towable the situation alone. She didn't want to rope herself into anything dangerous.

In around five minutes, Asuma showed up, asking them if they were ready to start the day before Shikamaru interrupted him.

"Actually, Choji and I were wondering if you could take us to the Fourth Hokage's house. We learned about it in school, but we want to actually see it. Right, Choji?" Shikamaru said, knowing Choji would catch on. Choji immediately nodded.

"We heard that it was really big and had huge gardens! I want to see if there are some apple trees, or maybe some orange trees. Please?" He said, looking at Asuma with the same eyes he used whenever he wanted Asuma to pay for barbecue. Asuma looked confused before smiling and shaking his head.

"You two, and you Ino? Do you want to go see the Fourth Hokages house? I shouldn't really take you there, but if you really want to, I can take you guys. But just to see, not to go inside. Then we'll start training for the day, okay?" He said, facing Ino.

     Ino nodded before looking at Shikamaru. Asuma sighed and rubbed his head.

     "Alright, I guess if all of you want to go. But it might be a bit run down, so we won't go inside, okay?" He said. The three nodded before Asuma started leading the way. Suddenly Shikamaru heard Ino and Choji's voice in his head.

     'Just what are you doing, Shikamaru. The Fourth Hokage? Stamina pills? You'd better not be getting into trouble!' Ino said, making Shikamaru sigh.