It All Started With A Smell

Chapter 9 - Hers

Naruto was a jerk for pushing him into the arena, yet, he wasn't complaining about the result. He had finished his fights so now he could just watch everyone else's. And on top of that... well...

"HEY, I WANT TO TALK TO YOU, YOU IDIOT!"

Naruto hadn't stopped paying attention to him since she pushed him into the arena. It took a lot of effort to keep the grin from his face as he stretched after his match.

"Who are you calling an idiot, Idiot?"

"WHY DID YOU GIVE UP? ARE YOU REALLY THAT LAZY OR ARE YOU JUST A BIG CHICKEN?"

"Hey, it's over. Let's just forget it, okay?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING? NO, IT'S NOT OKAY! YOU HAD THAT MATCH..."

"Will you skip it? Are you forgetting? There's another match." Why was it that when Naruto was being hot headed and unreasonable Shikamaru thought of the strangest ways to shut her up? His hands that sat on his hips tightened their grip. He couldn't trust himself at this moment.

"I MEAN TO QUIT RIGHT WHEN YOU..." Naruto stopped. "Huh, another match?"

Shikamaru smiled, watching at it dawned on the blonde that her team mate was up next.

Once Sasuke showed up she was happy for Shikamaru to grab her by the arm and drag her from the field. It was disappointing that Naruto's attention was pulled away from Shikamaru to the show off Sasuke. She was, however, still scolding him for having forfeited. Admittedly, now that he was actually listening to her words he was enjoying it.

"You had her! You had her and you THREW IT AWAY! You could have won. Honestly, that trick with your jacket was brilliant. How did you think of it? You could have done something like that and kicked her butt." Naruto kept pointing at him accusingly, at one point stopping to stand in front of him as she yelled at him. She was so close that he could see the flecks of light blue within her eyes.

"Sounds like you just complemented me," Shikamaru teased as they walked up the stairs. He put his hand on Naruto's lower back to push her forward. Unfortunately at his push Naruto started running up the stairs, realising she had to get to the top to watch Sasuke and Gaara's fight.

"WILL YOU HURRY UP? COME ON!"

"Relax, Naruto, you're going to give yourself an ulcer."

He was enjoying his time with Naruto until they saw Gaara slaughter two members of the Grass Village. Their screams rang through the hallway, chilling Shikamaru to his core. Naruto seemed as frozen as him as Gaara calmly walked down the stairs between them. When Gaara's footsteps disappeared into the distance they both collapsed. He shouldn't have reminded Naruto of the fact that Sasuke was going to fight Gaara.

Naruto seemed to get it though. They weren't good enough for Gaara, they wouldn't fulfil his blood lust. The blonde started shaking, making Shikamaru worry about what was running through her mind. She finally settled only to gain a dark look. Moments after commenting about talking to Kakashi-Sensei she took off towards the stadium, wanting to stop the match.

Shikamaru had no choice but to follow after her, wondering how she was hoping to stop the fight. It was a fight to the death, or to a forfeit after all. She was on edge again, like at the hospital, as though she was seeing something he couldn't.

"Sasuke!" Naruto muttered. "He's about to fight that psycho! But Gaara wants to kill all of us too. He plans too."

Unfortunately Kakashi-Sensei and Guy-Sensei didn't seem to fully understand the gravity of the situation. They seemed to believe that Sasuke could hold his own against that guy. Unlikely! He didn't have the killing intent that Gaara did. Gaara enjoyed killing. Needed to kill. Sasuke just wanted to win the fight and become Chunin. He probably also wanted to show how skilled he was, he was always a show off after all. But to kill? That didn't seem like something he was capable of doing. Especially not in a match that he doesn't expect to have to kill to win.