The Way Through Stone Village (Naruto)

19: Bit By Bit

[OP: "There Beneath"--The Oh Hellos.]

"Okay, boys," Wally addressed most of the guys while the girls were talking. "The real fun part begins. We get to put in the fertilizer...and let me say, what you guys put in that stuff is really...uh, potent."

"It's probably fish guts," Shikamaru said.

They gave him a questioning look.

"I've known Ino for years," he shrugged. "You really think she's never mentioned this stuff? Not that I enjoy gardening, though it's not the worst chore. At least you can sit in the shade."

"No, you can't," Kankuro said.

"I guess if you were on your porch...?" Wally said uncertainly. "But there's not a lot of shade right now. You're gonna be okay, genius?"

He didn't say genius in a mean way.

Shikamaru sighed. "I just want to get this over with. I hope Stone Village ends up liking this for all the work it's taken."

"You know, without West-san this would have taken weeks," Gaara reminded him. He'd already conferred with the Tsuchikage, and everything seemed to be on track.

"Oh, I couldn't have done it without you guys," Wally said. "So, who's gonna volunteer to spread that gross-smelling stuff?"

No one put a hand up.

"I could use clones..." Naruto said.

"Yeah, just let him use clones." Suigetsu made a face. "I hate fertilizer."

"When have you ever used it?" Jugo asked.

"The idea of it is enough," Suigetsu said.

"Shine tells me it's not as dirty as you think it is," Wally said. "I hope that makes her feel better about it, because personally I've never warmed up to that idea of moving poop around...and fish guts isn't much better... Still, it's important, and you don't want to make the girls do it, right? Ladies love it when guys do things for them that they'd rather not do."

"And who's trying to impress the ladies?" Shikamaru said flatly.

"I wouldn't mind impressing them," Naruto said. "But can I use clones to do that?"

"Let's ask a lady." Wally pulled Hinata over. She wasn't quite ready for it, but Wally was so used to grabbing people and moving them that he sometimes didn't think of how surprising it was. "Hey, Daytime Girl, can you tell us if the girls will be impressed if we use clones to do the dirty work instead of doing it ourselves?"

"Impressed?" Hinata said, not ready for this.

"Yeah, we're talking about how to impress them," Wally said.

"But...you already have a fiancée, Wally-sensei," Hinata said.

"Oh, sure, but you can't stop impressing a girl just because she already said yes to the ring," Wally said. "What kind of hero would do that? I mean, what if she changed her mind?"

"My mom says men stop trying as soon as they're married," Shikamaru said.

"Then your mom got what she expected," Wally said. "But no offense, I'm sure she was happy."

"Well, maybe...if she's ever happy..." Shikamaru said. "She's a harsh woman."

"You talk about your mom like that?" Kankuro said.

"Well, it's true." Shikamaru wasn't used to anyone objecting to him saying it.

Kankuro couldn't have imagined talking about his mother like that--then again, his mother was very different from Shikamaru's, but then, Kankuro didn't talk about his father that way, and his father had been a jerk.