Found and Lost
Naruto looked at Shikamaru seriously as everyone else entered the room. In total there was Naruto, Shikamaru, Hinata, Gaara, Haku, and their respective kitsune partners, the blond on the bed took in a deep breath, "yes," he said as he slowly got to his feet. It seems that the spy we placed in the villages that we left is starting to catch on to our scent. I do not doubt that they will be onto us before the first part of the chunin exams is over with."
"If that's the case, then we need to plan our escape before they can find us," Haku said stepping forward. His partner, Ren, agreeing with him all the while, as well as some of the others in the room.
"I agree," said Hinata, "we shouldn't give them a chance to catch us if we don't want to."
"Yeah, we are the "Big Five" after all," Shikamaru boasted, "I'm not going to let all my hard work go to waste just because our old parents desired us back now that we've made a name for ourselves."
"What about you dad? Don't you want to go back with him?" Gaara asked in a small voice that it was barely heard, but Shikamaru heard it and frowned.
"Well....yeah, I would like to be with my dad again, but-but that doesn't mean that I want to go back to the place that I ran away from. I mean c'mon, I ran away from there for a reason. why would I go back now?" Shikamaru stated trying to appear mad, but in reality, he was scared of going back to Konoha, even for just a day. He still has nightmares of what his so-called mother did to him while he was there, it came to the point where he didn't sleep more than just a few hours a night, most nights he would be lucky to even get one hour of sleep. His dreams haunt him at night, maybe more than Naruto's did when he was having nightmares of his own, back when he could remember them at least. At night, sometimes they would wake up to find that the other was already awake, and then they would spend the night doing whatever they could to forget. But since Naruto got his memories erased, Shikamaru has been spending those times alone, except for the occasional company from Jin, he's been feeling kind of lonely a night. He sighed, "I miss the way things used to be when we could run around like civilians, not a care in the world."
The others looked at Shikamaru, it looked like he had gotten lost in thought again. His words struck a cord with all of them, "when did we become so big?" Naruto asked himself.
The others looked at him, "what makes you say that, Naru-chan?" Gaara asked the blond.
Naruto shrugged, "I mean, its grate being a ninja, but....who are we doing this for? ourselves?"
"Aren't going doing this to protect ourselves from those that want to hurt us? To take us away and cut us up, just so that someone else can have our power or something. Isn't that why we do this?" Hinata asked, "to protect ourselves?"
"And the ones we love?" Haku asked, "if it wasn't for papa and mama, we wouldn't be where we are now, right?"
Naruto looked at Haku for a long time, "we are grateful to them, yes, and we are happy in our lives now, more than when we were in our villages. However, are we truly happy living this way?"
"What do you mean?" Gaara asked, "I thought that you were happy doing what we do now? Being ourselves and stuff, isn't that why we ran?"
Naruto shook his head, "I don't even remember why I ran, but every time I hear the name of that village, my heart gets heavy and my skin craws. I don't want to go back to something that I don't even remember, and I know you guys know what it is I ran from, but I don't." He looked to the ground, admiring his perfectly painted toes on display in his matching sandals, "it's like not knowing is the worst part of this because it makes me even more scared of what I could know."
Gaara hesitated in his reply, he couldn't find a way to comfort his blond crush, but he knew that he had to. Taking a step towards the whiskered cheek blond, he said, "walk the earth, swim the sea, dance with the wind, run with fire, and strike with lightning. But whatever you do, don't lose hope for freedom, because that's even harder to get when it's gone. Do you remember when Hidi told us that when she was training us?"
Naruto looked at Gaara for a moment, "yeah, it was before we started training in the Dashing Windmill style."
"She said that we must remember these words because it may save our lives one day, but I don't see how, other than being a cool mantra or something." Haku stated as he sat down in an empty chair by the bed, "what does that saying have to do with us now?"
Gaara turned to the gray silvery haired boy in the chair, he stared into his amber eyes, searching. "I think it's time we pay a visit to Trickster Alley again," he said as he turned away from the Haku and started for the door.
"What? Why? What would we need from there right now?" Haku asked.
"Help," Gaara opened the door and walked out.
The others left in the room looked at the left open door for a few seconds before following the redhead out into the hallway, Hinata took a moment to pick up her partner Soul before following the others. "Panda-chan, what help do we need? You mean with the escape plan?" Shikamaru asked with Jin hanging on his right shoulder.
"No, not escaping, we need help with ourselves," Gaara stated in a monotone voice.
"Wha-is there something wrong with us?" Shikamaru asked, "because I feel fine."
Gaara paused in his step to turn back to Shikamaru, he looked over the ex-Nara for a second, "you're seeing things again. You also haven't been sleeping at night," he turned around fully to face him, the others looked between them, wondering what Gaara meant.
Shikamaru felt as if he was caught in the act, "no way, I'm fine, I haven't been seeing anything again, and I sleep fine enough," he lied.
Gaara pouted, "there's no need to lie, it's only us here, we can help you."
"I don't know what you're talking ab-gaah" Shikamaru was interrupted when Jin hopped on top of his head and walked him in the side of his face with his fluffy tail. "What was that for, Jin?"
"That was for lying, you baka," Jin stated in an irritated voice.
"No I'm not-" Shika started, but Jin whacked him again with his tail, his red fur puffing out around him, a sure sign that the kitsune was upset about something.
"You forget that we are connected, I've been with you for years now, I know what's going through your head. You think that I don't see your dreams when you sleep too?" Jin said, there was a clear hint of sorrow in his voice that everyone heard, but didn't say anything about it, it wasn't there placed.
"You can see my dreams when I sleep?" Shikamaru asked, surprised by the information.
"Of course I can. Any one of us can see into each other's dreams if we wanted to, but we kitsune's can enter those dreams whenever we want, especially if they're bad dreams that haunt you at night." Jin hopped off of Shikamaru's head and landed like a cat on the floor in front of his master, "who do you think wakes you up when you're having one, after all those times, I thought you were smarter than that."
Shika watched Jin, his small back was to him so that he could admire his bright red fur, "jin, I'm sorry, I-I didn't m-"
"Save it, thee sooner we get out of her, the better, for the both of us," Jin said as he walked away from the group.
The other's Watched the little fox walk away before turning back to Shikamaru, "if it makes you feel better, Shika, we didn't know that they could do that either," Haku said, patting Shikamaru on the shoulder before following after the little red fox.