Better Left Unsaid | By Kenchi618

Chapter 7: Have Blade, Will Travel

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. But I should have owned the Slapchop… damn copyright first-come first-serve laws… I swear, the kids were going to love my nuts.

It was a two day excursion moving at the fastest speed that Team 10 could collectively muster to get them from the side of the country they were on all the way to the other side where they were meant to head over to. A message from Konoha to Asuma and his team informed them that they were needed to head to Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves) to provide assistance to another squad of genin along with their jounin sensei that were in over their heads.

Despite cutting a very good pace to make it to the coast that was where they ran into a problem as getting from the mainland to the island nation would prove to be rather bothersome in itself as seemingly no ships were making their way to or from the country.

Ino had a hand on her hip as the three genin of the squad took a rest in a port town at the border of Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire). She looked out at the ocean where she could barely see the outlying island at the outer limits of the horizon, "How did anyone else get there in the first place? What are we supposed to do if we can't even reach the place we're supposed to go? Are we just going to fail our mission off of a technicality or something?"

Naruto was sitting on the edge of a nearby wharf, kicking his legs over the edge and looking at the ocean, he had never seen it up close before, it was great, "Asuma-sensei is handling it Ino. All we can do right now is just wait for him."

"Yeah Ino…" Shikamaru said, laying down in a pile of thick rope as makeshift bedding, "Asuma's a jounin, they're supposed to be experts at every aspect of shinobi life. I'm sure he can find a way to get us to Nami no Kuni sooner rather than later. Until then just chill out and rest up… No doubt whatever we end up doing once we get there is going to be troublesome."

Ino rolled her eyes and walked over to the pineapple hair-styled genin, poking at him with her toe, "Shikamaru rolling out of bed this morning and putting on shoes was troublesome to you."

Shikamaru closed his eyes and let out a yawn, "That doesn't mean I'm wrong about this though, does it?"

Ino looked at him with a twitching eye before giving up on him and turning back to Naruto who was for some reason doing pushups, "Naruto what in the world are you doing?" She asked him.

Naruto didn't stop and continued, "I'm bored to death here Ino."

"You should be resting. We ran all the way here." She said, trying to convince him to stop for the moment to save some energy, "What's going to happen if we run into trouble-?"

"-When we run into trouble." Shikamaru cut in blithely.

"Right." Ino said, acknowledging the fact that he was more than likely right about that, "What's going to happen when we run into trouble and we have to fight? You'll be all tired."

"Nope." Naruto said brightly, "I'm A-ok. And pushups never made me tired, I might as well do something while we wait. *laughs* At least I'll be all warmed up when it's time to actually fight right?" Ino shook her head at his answer and plopped down at the edge of the wharf much like Naruto had done beforehand with a sigh, "What's the matter Ino?" Naruto asked, slightly concerned, "You look upset."

Ino panned her eyes over to him, noting that he had stopped with his random exercise so that he could listen to her, "Well, why is it us that had to go? There had to be a squad with more experience that could have been sent."

Naruto stood back up and dusted himself off, "Come on Ino, you were one of the best in our class, are you saying you can't handle it? And Shikamaru is smart, really smart. Like, he's scary smart. Besides, we've got Asuma-sensei with us and a whole 'nother team. We should be fine."