Friendship

Four kids were sitting under a tree and eating chips in Konoha.

Two of them seemed pretty happy while the other two looked awfully tired.

"How do you deal with these two man?"

Sato lazily asked Shikamaru.

"I don't, it's such a drag."

Shikamaru replied just as lazily, both boys were sleeping side by side under a tree in the Nara forest, Ino and Choji were sitting besides them.

"Stop calling me a drag Shikamaru!"

"Don't listen to him Sato kun, he is a boring guy."

"You should play with me instead, let's leave him alone."

Ino grabbed Sato's hand and cursed Shikamaru mercilessly, making the boy roll his eyes and look the other way.

'And I was thinking of helping you escape, what a drag.'

Shikamaru yawned and decided to take a nap, he knew that Sato was no longer interested in attacking them.

He didn't know why that was the case, because he didn't know why Sato wanted to attack them in the first place.

But he wasn't interested in knowing about it either, all he knew was that he and his partners were safe, and that was all that mattered.

"Sato kun, where do you live?"

"I haven't seen you around here."

"Are you new to Konoha? Your clothes are of a different fashion than the one's around here."

Ino kept asking Sato questions while he barely replied to any of them.

Although this didn't make Ino any less enthusiastic.

In fact Ino didn't expect a reply this time either, but Sato uncharacteristically did reply.

"I am not from around here Ino."

"I was looking for people to fight when I stumbled upon you three."

"I heard clan kids were strong, so I figured you three will pose a challenge."

Sato lied with a gentle smile on his face, now that he had calmed down and managed to gauge Ino's character, he had decided to take a different approach.

Fighting these three was not worth the effort, only Shikamaru will care about his defeat, the other two won't even understand that they were supposed to be afraid of him.

Even if he beats them down right now, Choji will just think he is trying to steal his snacks while Ino will think he was playing ninja with her, they are too thick in the head to remember fear.

So Sato decided to use the Ino-Shika-Cho trio for his goals instead.

'Ino might have made all my ideas go to waste, but that doesn't mean I don't have a backup plan.'

'I am coming for you, Kiba.'

Suddenly grabbing Ino and Choji's shoulders, Sato pulled them close to him.

"Hey, do you guys know any clan kids like you, I wanna see how strong they are."

Choji had a thoughtful look on his face while he ate his chips, Ino on the other hand was simply smiling widely.

"I know Shino.."

"He's from the aburame clan, you can fight him if you want."

Choji said after eating his fourth serving of chips, but Ino immediately made a disgusted face.

"No! He is always crawling with bugs, we are not going there."

"Don't fight him Sato kun, he is creepy."

Ino grabbed Sato's hands and begged him to not fight Shino.

She hated those crawling bugs.

Sato also didn't put up a fight against her idea, he didn't want to go against Shino aburame either.

He could probably fight the guy with body flicker, but aburame bugs were extremely dangerous, it was one such bug which killed Shisui Uchiha.

Shisui, the Kage level mangekyo owner was killed because he was bitten by a bug.

It wasn't that hard to see why Shino was the only member of Konoha 12 who had never lost a fight in the series.

'But I can't just say that, if I avoided fighting an aburame it will show hidden cloud in a negative light.'

Sato needed an excuse to not fight Shino, and Ino had just given him an excellent one.

"Okay, I won't fight Shino if you say so."

"I trust you Ino."

Sato smiled and acted as if he was listening to Ino's advice.

But this action made Ino squeal in happiness.

"Sato kun!"

Ino quickly started to ramble on and on about stuff which Sato ignored.

He was looking at Choji and was wondering how he should bring up Kiba to them.

He wanted the Ino-Shika-Cho trio follow him into the fight, instead of him going in alone.

So he needed them to agree to this fight, if he was with them he can move around the clan lands freely.

"Hey Choji."

"I heard the Inuzuka clan is strong, do they have someone I can fight?"

Choji slowly ate another handful of chips before thinking out loud.

"There is Kiba.. but I don't know if he's strong."

Ino immediately interjected from the side.

"But he smells of dogs!"

Both Sato and the sleeping Shikamaru twitched their lips at Ino's reaction.

She hated everyone equally it seems.

"I gotta fight someone Ino."

"I'll just close my nose when I fight Kiba."

"That should avoid the smell of dogs."

Ino scrunched up her nose as if she was already feeling the smell hitting her in the face.

But she didn't counter Sato's desire to fight.

"Okay, I know you will win Sato kun!"

"I'll cheer for you from the side!"

Ino cheered for Sato before the fight even began.

Choji ate a candy bar from his pocket and seemed to be searching for some more.

Shikamaru on the other hand opened his eyes and looked at Ino, he asked the most important question in his mind.

"Do we have to go Ino?"

Before Sato could say something, Ino started yelling at Shikamaru.

"Of course we are going! We can't let Sato kun fight alone!"

Shikamaru sighed and didn't say anything more, he didn't want to do this because it was such a drag.

"It's such a drag."

Sighed Shikamaru with a helpless smile on his face.

Sato caught onto that and gave the boy a smile of his own.

It seems he somehow managed to make good relations with the Ino-Shika-Cho.

'Well, that's not a bad thing either.'

Sato thought while getting up from his spot.

He decided to go to the Inuzuka clan right away, he wanted to finish the fight while he still had Matatabi's chakra in him.

Advanced chapters ahead on patréon

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