Painfully Aware with So Much to Learn

Chapter Three: A Shadow's Suffering

Previously:

"Wanna see something cool?" Naruto questioned, with another foxy grin.

Now:

Shikamaru was gonna say no, but then Naruto gave him big blue puppy eyes that made Shikamaru's face feel hot, he turned his head to the side, "tch, fine-"

Shika POV

Without warning Naruto grabbed my hand and started booking it. My feet could barely keep up with the tiny blondes pace, my surroundings were a blur, all I could see was sunshine blonde as he dragged me in whichever direction we were going. 'HAS HE ALWAYS BEEN THIS FAST????'
I questioned as the supposed dead last lead me across town in a fraction of a second. Suddenly Naruto stopped, the pressure of the momentum kept carrying me though, knocking over Naruto and myself as we landed ourselves in a very awkward position with me pinning him to the ground. I froze, not only because of said awkward position, but also because he pretty much carried me the whole way without breaking a sweat. He also seemed to be frozen. I eventually snapped out of my daze and climbed off him, apologizing. He just sat up before the foxy grin returned, that's when I noticed we were just outside the forest of death. 'Ah'. I thought as I realised this would be the day I died, in the forest of death, doing whatever shit Naruto had planned. Naruto got up and gave me a hand, I let out a half-hearted "you better not drag me across town again" before taking his hand and pulling myself up. He lead me into the forest, his eyes seemed diligent and his hand kept holding mine as we walked. Eventually we reached a clearing in the forest, not a huge one, but big enough that sunlight seeped in through the leaves and you could hear the birds overhead. It was quite a peaceful place, considering it was a good ways into the forest of death. Naruto tugged me along until we were in the center of the clearing. Naruto sat down cross-legged and patted the ground next to him to get me to sit too. I did, not seeing a reason not to, and we sat in silence for a few minutes. It was quite odd for Naruto to be quiet for this long, I then notice that he was carefully studying his surroundings, specifically, the burrows that seemed to congregate the area.

"They're getting fluffier this time of year" Naruto whispered, gentler than I had ever heard him. "Winter's coming so they're getting warmer coats, it's super cute" he said in a quiet excited voice. Before I had time to question anything a small fox peeked up from its burrow, he was right, it was fluffy and cute. But what surprised me was when the small animal skittered up to Naruto to rest in his lap, content nestled in his baggy orange pants. It reminded me a lot of the deer that wander the Nara forest. More and more foxes skittered up to Naruto, inspecting me but preferring the small blonde. After Naruto was finished giggling and scritching the foxes heads, he got a look of concern.

"What's wrong?" I asked as Naruto started scanning the area.

He ignored me, instead turning to one of the foxes and asking "wheres Kage?" In a gentle yet concerned tone. To my surprise one of the foxes yipped a response, leaving Naruto's eyes wide. "We'll go look for her, you guys stay here and wait for us" he stated, turning to me for assurance.

"S-Sure, what's going on?" I sputtered, trying to rap my head around the fact that he just spoke with a fox.

"Kage left the hunting grounds and hasn't been seen since yesterday, I'm gonna go look for her" Naruto said, as if it were obvious from the conversation he had with a fox. I knew Inuzuka's could get the basic idea of what a dog means when they bark, like 'I need food' or 'danger' but not once had he seen a person understand the details of a description from a wild animal that spoke in yips. How is disney princess dead last???? And before I knew it Naruto had yet again dragged me to a different part of the forest at a stupidly fast pace. At this point I might as well just roll with it because Naruto is obviously from another planet. Naruto stopped and started a few times, dragging me by the hand, 'troublesome' I thought as Naruto looked for his shadow.

But then I saw it.

A little black fox, shaking and whimpering, bleeding out from a gash in its stomach.

Naruto ran over in a flash and started examining the fox frantically before pausing and turning to me.

"Can you turn around for a second, please" Naruto said in a grim tone that spoke everything unsaid.