On the way 2
After they ate lunch, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Hinata had to get to school before they were in even hotter water. Shikamaru looked back at the house they just left to see Naruto watching them from the window. Shikamaru could not help but feel like he was abandoning him in his time of need, but the Nara couldn't afford to miss a whole day of school again. They still had half a ton of homework left to do for extra credit/punishment.
The trio reluctantly made their way back to school, they did their best to sneak into class, but they were not sneaky enough. Iruka spotted them entering the room from the back even though his back was turned, and he was in the middle of a lecture. "Shikamaru Nara, Hinata Hyuuga, and Chouji Akimichi see me after class," the tanned chunin said without turning to face them.
The mentioned three groaned, knowing full well that they were caught.
And this would only add to their load of homework.
Once the three late students sat down, whispers amongst the students started up, the mentioned three being the main subject. "Hey, what do you think is going on with them?" One girl asked.
"Donno, but I heard that they're spending a lot of time together lately," another girl whispered back. "Seems a little off to me that she would be hanging out with those two."
"When did they even get close, it's kind of sudden, so weird," the first girl whispered with her friends nodding in agreement.
"Hey, didn't those two used to hang out with that Uzumaki kid?" One boy whispered to his deskmate.
The other boy nodded, "yeah, but that kid's long gone by now," he said with an odd smirk.
"What do you mean by that?" The first boy asked curiously.
"Isn't it obvious?" The second boy asked, "that Naruto kid's dead, my dad told me so himself." This conversation caught the ears of just about everyone in the class.
"What, for real man?" The first boy asked, "but my big brother said that kid couldn't be killed, no matter, he just keeps coming back. Like a monster."
The second boy nodded, "it's so true man, my dad said that he knows some friends who ganged up on him and killed him. They even chopped off his limbs and burned his body just to make sure that he couldn't come back to life."
The first boy cringed, "whoa man, that's pretty sick, isn't he the same age as us? He might have been an annoying guy, but what's up with that?"
The second boy shook his head, "no, no, it's fine because my dad said that Naruto was the Kyuubi." He explained, "he said that is what you're supposed to do when you're dealing with an unkillable monster."
Just then a piece of chalk came flying at the second boy from the front of the classroom, "that will be enough talking during my lesson." Iruka stated angrily, the two boys quickly bowed their heads behind their test books, Iruka scuffed, "honestly. Can't I teach a class in peace without my own students disrespecting me anymore?" He sighed as he started to turn back around to the board when his eyes lifted up to the top row where Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji had decided to sit together. He couldn't help but notice that those three have gotten much closer in recent months, "was it because of Naruto's disappearance?" He wondered as he went back to writing on the board, "I know I have seen Shikamaru and Chouji hanging out with him a lot before now. Is this a rebellious phase they are going through after losing someone they thought could have been their friend?"
Meanwhile, Sh8ikamaru took out a piece of paper from his pocket and a pen, he wrote something down on it and tapped the desk next to it to get his friends' attention. Chouji and Hinata both read the note he wrote, it said for them to talk outside after class, they nodded their heads and waited for class to be over. In the end, when everyone was leaving for the day, the trio made their way over to Iruka's desk. After being lectured by their sensei and being given extra homework to complete, the trio was about to leave to go back to their hideout and see Naruto again, but Iruka stopped them.
"Wait, I'm not done with your three," Iruka stood up from his seat and looked down on his three students seriously. Hinata, Shikamaru, and Chouji looked up at him with somewhat blank looks. It was clear that they only wanted to hurry up and get out of there, as far as Iruka was concerned, they didn't seem to care if he was angry with them or not. "Hmph, what's wrong? You three never acted this way before, why are you suddenly acting like troublemakers now? In only three months, the three of you have gotten into more trouble than Naruto had gotten into in a week."
"Uh, yeah, it's probably not that big of a deal," Shikamaru stated.
Iruka raised an eyebrow at the Nara's words, "what is that supposed to mean?"
Shikamaru shrugged, "you know, it's not really all that big of a deal, since you let us stay in class. The only real punishment we happen to get here is extra work to do at home."
"Not to mention getting yelled at by you and our parents," Chouji added.
"...But if we are going to be punished after all this time, then why not punish us like you always do with Naruto?" Hinata asked staring directly into Iruka's eyes.
The chunin faltered under her gaze, "that's...you..." Iruka couldn't say anything because he didn't know how to respond. "That is not necessary," he said after reclaiming his composure, "you three have to tighten up your attitude, less you get held back."
Chouji sighed, "let's just go guys, we have a mountain of work to do."
"Hold on," Iruka called to them, "where do you think you're going when I haven't dismissed you yet."
Shikamaru shook his head, "our apologies, Iruka sensei, we didn't mean to seem so rude...we just miss our friend."
Iruka frowned, he looked over at the Akimich, "Chouji is right here. You also have Hinata standing next to you as well, and everyone else in the class. Who could you possibly be missing?" He didn't know what was wrong with these kids, he didn't think that they were really close to Naruto all that time ago, now they were acting out. He wasn't sure if he understood the reasoning behind that just yet.
Shikamaru nodded, "but there is someone missing, sensei, someone very important." With that said, he turned away from the stunned teacher, his two friends following behind him as the three of them left the classroom together. As they walked down the hallway, Shikamaru looked back at his friends, "I don't know about you guys, but it seems that everyone is already writing Naruto off as if he were really dead." The Nara didn't really like stating that fact out loud, but it needed to be said, Chouji nodded in agreement while Hinata was silent.
The Hyuuga paused when they got close to the front exit, "what if that's a good thing?" She asked as she stepped in front of the two boys.
"What are you saying Hina, how can that be a good thing?" Chouji asked curiously.
Hinata shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, I was just thinking that this might be a good start for Naruto. If he was assumed to be dead by just about everyone in the village, maybe it would be better to have him dead than alive. I mean that in the best way possible though, to be honest, I think it might be a good thing."
Chouji looked at her a little confused, "what do you mean by that? You want everyone to think that he's dead? Then what if someone finds out in the future?"
Hinata shrugged, "right now, I don't know, that's something for the future, isn't"
Shikamaru nodded, "yeah, she has a point." He folded his arms, "if everyone thinks that Naruto is dead, then Mai can just take his place and live a better life in the light than he ever did in the dark." He took a few steps away from the two as he thought, there was silence in the hallway for a few minutes. All of the students had already vacated the building leaving only a few teachers roaming around the building near the office area upstairs. Shikamaru turned to face Hinata and Chouji with a smile, "looks like Mia is going to have an easier time blending in here, we just have to cover her back to make sure that she doesn't fall behind." He motioned for them to follow him out of the building, the sky was starting to get dark and the clouds looked dark enough to rain, "we'll be like her guardian angels."
"Oh, I get it now," Chouji smiled as he hit his fist onto his palm, but then he frowned, "but wait. wouldn't his transformation be hard to maintain for long periods of time? And what about DNA, I don't remember sensei talking about the jutsu affecting that." They made their way out of the academy gates and started walking towards the abandoned west area of the village, "what if he gets injured on a mission and needs to do a blood transfusion? Wouldn't they need to know who is getting the blood?"
Shikamaru shook his head, "no, that's because transfusions can change a person's blood type if the hospital doesn't have enough of that person's blood type. Of course, that's only a small possibility." He looked over to Hinata, "by the way, what is his blood type?"
"Lucky for us, he's an O negative, a common type in the blood bank from what I hear," Hinata answered.
"Good that kind of help," Shikamaru said. "As for the DNA thing, we can just have him processed as Mia instead of as Naruto. Since all genin has to get their DNA sampled before they start going off on missions after graduation, then Mia shouldn't have a hard time replacing Naruto's DNA. Once we get him to pass the genin exams, then the DNA no longer becomes an issue for him and he can live out his normal life as Mia."
"It sounds like a good plan so far," Hinata stated.
Shikamaru nodded, "yeah, let's hope it stays that way."
Back at their hideout
Naruto had transformed back into himself and changed his clothes into the pink shorts and a white shirt that Hinata had given him. He was out in the backyard watering the flowers when Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata returned from the academy. When the trio entered the house, they closed and locked the door behind them and set down each of their bags by the dining room table. Hinata started taking out the papers she had been given by Iruka, she wanted to get started on the extra assignments she had gotten before the new ones she just received earlier. Chouji went into the kitchen to get a quick snack before doing the same thing.
In the meantime, Shikamaru spotted Naruto in the back from the window that looked out into the backyard. After placing his things down onto the table, he walked out into the backyard to see Naruto finish watering the field flowers that were growing there. Some of them he recognized as herbal ingredients, but he did not get far enough in his medicine-making class at the Nara compound to know how to do that just yet. "Hey, Naruto, how are you?" Shikamaru said softly.
Naruto jumped a little when he heard Shikamaru's voice, "oh, hey, you guys are back already?" He turned to face them with a small smile, "so, did you guys get into a lot of trouble with Iruka sensei?"
Shikamaru scuffed, "did we, what a drag, he gave us a tone of homework to do on of the other assignments he already gave us."
Naruto chuckled, "well, at least you didn't get expelled, right?"
"Right," Shikamaru shook his head. "You wanna go inside now?"
Naruto and the two started walking but then he paused, "oh, wait, Shikamaru, before that, I wanted to you tell you something before we go in." Shikamaru turned to face him, Naruto gave him a nervous smile, "um, I was just thinking that...Uh, well, actually, if it turns out to be true, then...I was thinking about keeping it."
Shikamaru looked at Naruto for a long moment, he was trying to put two and two together, better yet, he was trying to figure out if he was hearing things or not. "You want to keep...what?" He asked slowly.
Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat, "uh, you know, if...if Dr. Filo finds out that I'm...p-pr-pregnant," he sighed as he found that the word was hard to say. He was still coming to terms with what was happening to his body, or at least, what is supposedly happening to him, "I...I was thinking that...if I was, then, I could keep it." He looked down at his feet, "I mean, it's not this kid's fault that it was created, so if it's really alive, then...then I would want to keep it so that it-they can have a better life than me. One where they don't have to be mistreated or pretend to be someone else."
Shikamaru stood there silently for a long moment before nodding his head slowly. "Alright then, it's up to you, whatever you chose to do, we will support you," he replied. Naruto looked back up at him slowly, he seemed to let out a breath and nodded, Shikamaru placed a gentle hand on the blond's shoulder. "Come on, let's go inside and tell the others. Then we can all suffer through the mountain of paper we were sent home with."
Naruto chuckled, "sure," he was more than happy to hurry up and change the subject. On the inside, he was still nervous about what he would hear about himself in the morning.
To e continued...