chapter 10

The next day's walk towards the Academy was awkward. Not only because it was the first day both, Naruto and I, woke up in our new house but also because of all that had happened the day prior. There was also the fact that we had left the Akimichi's house after being notified of the attack at Naruto's apartment. The others were sure to have at least some questions about the matter.

I, for my part, had another set of thoughts not entirely disconnected with the events of the last night. I looked at my blond friend from the corner of my eye. He didn't know about the note and if I had my way, he wouldn't ever do. The boy had enough in his plate without having to worry about anything else. More than he already was that is.

After stepping inside the classroom, we had a whispered conversation with Chouji and the others as both of us explained what had happened. Obviously, I omitted the Kyuubi secret, for now at least. The Akimichi heir decided that he would stay right besides Naruto for the rest of the day apparently as he sat right next to him instantly. He was a loyal friend indeed, I thought with a smile as I sat in another table with Shikamaru and Shino on each side.

"What are we going to do?" Shikamaru whispered and I had no trouble suppressing a smile. That question brought enough bad thoughts to quench down my happiness. With a look I could tell both boys were angry. Not that it was evident, but anyone that knew them well enough could tell. Shikamaru wasn't sprawled lazily over the table. Instead he was sitting almost straight while resting his head on his fist and facing me, the fingers of his other hand slowly drumming over the wood. The ever silent Aburame was even less obvious, he looked the same as always, but the almost unnoticeable buzz of his bugs told me about his annoyance.

"Why do you think there's something to do?" I asked feigning confusion and both frowned at me.

"You look angry. So, either they haven't found the culprit…" Shikamaru started counting with his fingers. "or they did and did nothing about it or you can seriously hold a grudge."

"Or one of the first's together with the last." Shino added while pushing his glasses up.

"Shino's right." Their frowns deepened.

"What are we going to do?" The Aburame was the one to ask this time and I looked between them.

"I have a name." I whispered back and their faces snapped towards me.

"How?" Shino asked this time.

"I don't know how or who. But someone gave me a clue." I explained and Shikamaru's eyes narrowed for a second.

"A ruse?" He questioned.

"I'll have to check."

"We'll have to check." The Nara corrected me as Shino nodded in agreement. "I don't know why everyone hates him. But it can't be a good enough reason."

"I know." Once more both of them all but snapped their necks at me. "I can't tell you, not right now at least. I can't." Both of them regarded me for a few seconds before nodding their heads in understanding.

"It isn't a good reason, is it?" Shikamaru continued prodding.

"Not even close." I answered with a shake of my head.

"Then… what do we do?" Shino asked and I turned my eyes to him. "We are going to help. Why? Because you would do the same for any of us." This time it was me that regarded both of them.

I trusted Shikamaru. He was my closest friend right next to Naruto. Him being smarter than average and me being older than I was supposed to made it pretty easy for us to understand each other, even if he was smarter than even me. He was the closest I could get to talking with someone my 'age' without having to talk with an adult. And I was truly grateful for that.

Shino, for his part, wasn't nearly as close with us. But I trusted him on this one. Mostly because I had come to understand why he approached us. He could relate a lot with Naruto's case. His clan was treated with disgust most of the time and while not nearly as bad as the outright contempt directed at the blond, it was still something that they shared. A kindred spirit of sorts. And as such, he would support the Jinchuriki.

Not to mention that none of our group had ever reacted badly towards his specialization. He had even told us how grateful he was for it, in his own indirect way. His personality prevented him from having truly emotional conversations. That made it even more important to let him in on this one. He was being emotional now.

"Track, confirm, gather information, plan and punish." I told them and turned my attention back to the class with a neutral expression.

As the day passed, all of us tried our best to stay right besides Naruto. Now and then his mood would drop and we would have to cheer him up. I decided after the second time that I would have a chat with him after classes. I needed to know what was going through his head and put a stop to it. The blonde should never look like that and if I had any say in it, he wouldn't.

"What the hell happened to you, idiot?" I clenched my fists together as Kiba asked his stupid ass question to Naruto. The blond had been much more subdued than normal and even the dumb mutt could tell, apparently.

"Kiba." I called out coldly and he turned to me almost snarling. "Shut up." I said curtly. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with him.

"What? Mad that I insulted your girlfriend here?" He mocked while pocking a clearly irritated Naruto.

"Will you shut up, Dog Breath?" The blond said, contrary to the shouting he would usually do. His downtrodden mood made it even more difficult for me to control myself. I got really angry every time I noticed how affected Naruto was by what happened.

"He finally realized his stupid dream won't come true, right?" Kiba asked this time as if suddenly everything made sense for him. My knuckles were sure to be white with the amount of pressure I was putting on my fists. "It was about time, dumbass."

"Enough." Iruka called out over ours and the others conversations for the Taijutsu spars. Our group sat together as usual, but this time I didn't start a Shogi match with Shikamaru.

"Ignore him." I said even though my own voice gave away how angry I was too. "You'll prove him wrong when you become Hokage."

"Believe it." Naruto replied with a resolute nod and I gave him a small smile.

"It's getting more annoying." Shikamaru pointed out with a disinterested tone as usual although he was pointedly staring towards the Inuzuka.

"Why? Because he is getting lower and lower in the rankings. His pride is being hurt, so he tries to hurt others more." Shino analyzed and once more I heard the buzzing of his bugs.

"I wish I could-" Chouji started before being interrupted by Iruka.

"Kiba Inuzuka vs Eiji Satou." At another time, I would have grinned at the match up. I would have been pleased to finally being able to prove to the mutt that I wasn't here to be his joke and target. As it was, my expression didn't even twitch, remaining neutral the whole time.

"He is a clan heir." Shikamaru pointed out as I stepped towards the circle.

"I know." I reassured as we did the Seal of Confrontation and stepped back to take our stances.

"I'll finally be able to prove that your first place is just a fluke, Weakling." He said snarling at me. "I imagine it'll be another nail on the coffin of the idiot's dream." That was it. He was going down.

"Start." Sensei said and I instantly started calling out mentally. For a split second I noticed that Kiba had frozen in place and a screen had appeared in the corner of my sight. I ignored it.

'Running. Free Running. Intermediate Taijutsu.'

A second later, just as Kiba was recovering from whatever had stopped him, I was in front of him burying a fist in his gut. Taking full advantage of Free Running's buffs, I jumped over him while using my arms to 'maneuver' after grabbing his head midair. I swung his body on the air while I was still up before landing and threw him against the ground with a loud thud. I stared at him as he tried to get air inside his lungs.

"I'm tired of you insulting my friends." I said and with a simple kick, I knocked him out.

"Winner, Eiji Satou." Iruka called out and while he looked a bit surprised, he didn't look angry. That was a relief, not that I would apologize. The mutt had it coming for some time now.

"I told you he was an heir." Shikamaru said and I shrugged.

"What? He'll recover just fine." He snorted at that. Not even Chouji looked put off by what had happened, he even gave me a stiff nod when I looked his way.

Now a little calmer, I looked at the screen that had appeared before the spar.

[Bloodlust (Active) – Lvl 1

Increases the user's projected desire to kill, maim or hurt onto the target or targets. The effect increases with level.

Consumption 10 Energy Points per second]

'I thought I would get this skill much later.' I thought to myself. Although, considering everything that had happened the last day, it made some sense. I was sure the effect without the skill was minimum and with the skill it wouldn't be that much. And it certainly hadn't been the reason for Kiba's freeze. He must have been surprised by it thought, and that should be the real reason.

[}-o-{]

After classes, Naruto and I guided our friends towards our new house. As a celebration of sorts, although all of us knew it was to keep the Uzumaki's mood up, all except him that is. Soon enough, Chouji and Naruto were already sparring in the improvised Taijutsu circle we drew in the garden and Shino, Shikamaru and I were looking from the side.

"So, first, we have to find him." The Nara took over once I had informed them of the name I was given. "Then we have to follow him so that we can gather information and confirm he is guilty."

"I'll be the one to do that." Shino took over from there. "Why? Because I'm the best at stealth." I had to grudgingly nod at that. The guy was twice as good as I was with Stealth active. I was sure that if I was an Aburame I would get some kind of perk to buff Stealth skills or something. There had to be a trick, I grumbled internally.

"Once we get that done, we'll be able to plan a punishment." Shikamaru finished. "We'll have to be careful. He is an Inuzuka and as such it'll be even more difficult to get away with anything. They can track you down easily with their enhanced senses, not to mention their ninken."

"My clan has a species of insects that can mask scents." Shino informed us and Shikamaru and I turned towards him with wide eyes.

"That… will be perfect."

"Still, I have to be the one to do it in the end." They both turned to me with frowns and I quickly explained myself. "They'll suspect us. Especially Shino if they can't find a scent. We'll have to make sure you all have an alibi. If we can do it without leaving evidence then they won't have anything to get me. And no one knows where I am most of the time besides Naruto. You on the other hand have families keeping their eyes on you." Their frowns stayed in place for a few moments before both grudgingly nodded.

I was glad I had decided to tell them. Kami knows what crazy thing I would have done to get away with a punishment for the Inuzuka. There was no way I would have found an effective way to conceal my scent from their senses and dogs after all. It had been a risk. But I trusted my friends. I had to, otherwise, I would be back to how I felt at the start. Alone.

"For now, this is all speculation." Shikamaru concluded. "We'll plan more once we get the information."

"You'll plan either way, won't you?" I asked sending a smirk his way to which got a sigh out of him before he returned the gesture.

"Let's go, Chouji. It's getting late." He said ignoring my question and getting the other two to stop their spar.

"See you tomorrow, guys!" Naruto said while waving as the others walked back to their homes. He looked a lot more cheerful than he had been during the day, thought with a smile.

"Let's go. I'll make ramen." I said and I swear that his eyes sparkled.

"Wohoooo!" He exclaimed as he practically shunshined inside.

"Set the table, damnit!" I shouted at his back. "I'm not doing everything again!"

"Ok." He grumbled from the seat he had already taken at the table. I shook my head at him. How had I ended up babysitting a Jinchuriki? I asked myself not for the first time.

"Aren't you going to tell me, Naruto?" I kept myself from turning to look at him as I prepared the meal.

"A-About what?" The nervousness in his voice told me that he knew exactly what I was talking about. I stopped myself from sighing and kept going.

"What's in your mind?" I asked softly and for a long moment the only thing that could be heard inside the house was Naruto setting the table and me preparing ramen. Until I heard what should be the last thing my blond friend had to get. From then on, only the sounds that I made were heard for what felt like an hour.

"I… I'm too much trouble, aren't I?" He muttered, so low that I almost missed it. My hand clenched and I was sure bloodlust would have leveled up if I didn't have to contain myself around Naruto.

"What are you talking about?" I questioned in annoyance. I knew. I already knew.

"Everybody hates me." He started. And I felt the need to track down everyone that glared at us in the streets and do a little more than just pranking. "You've seen them, I know you have. You are too good to have missed it." The sliver of pride in his tone as he spoke on me made my heart both swell and ache. "Everyone glares at me, as if I was the cause of everything that goes wrong here. The shops don't want to sell to me. More than once someone has cursed my existence." He went silent for a moment. "Nobody had done something like this before though." Once more, his voice went so low that I had to strain my ears to hear it.

"I'm too much trouble, aren't I?" He repeated. "You have to endure their hatred just by walking besides me on the street. You have to buy and cook for me because I can't and nobody else will."

"Well, I can't very well let you burn another poor kitchen, can I?" I said mirthlessly. It was true though, the one time he had tried to cook something had been… abysmal. He chuckled hollowly.

"True." He sounded so tired. I hated this. I hated seeing and hearing Naruto like this. I was used to his cheerful self. Not this. This was just wrong. "And now… now you have to worry and fear about someone thrashing your home." He continued his voice breaking more and more as he went on. "I shouldn't have asked for you to come with me… Now you'll-"

"Shut up, Naruto." I was done listening to this. This wasn't like Naruto at all. My friend stayed silent after that. "You are my friend, Naruto. And no matter what anyone does, that's not going to change. You are the only one that can push me away, Naruto. Do you want me to leave you?" I asked.

Silence.

"I thought so." I said although a small part of me was relieved by his 'answer'. Both of us kept quiet as we started eating and it was after Naruto's fifth bowl that someone broke the silence. To my utter shock, he stopped eating at which was half his meal and turned towards me.

"Maybe I should." He said looking more nervous than I had ever seeing him. His arm shook almost violently as he scratched the back of his head and his eyes kept darting around. Before I could ask what he meant, he clarified. "Maybe I should ask you to leave." My hands froze midair and my neck almost snapped to look directly at him. His hand went from behind his head and rested on the table. On the other side laid his other hand and, slowly, both started forming fists, adding more and more strength until his knuckles turned white. "But I don't want to. I want you to stay." His gaze firmly set down on his hands as he spoke.

"Then, I'll stay." I said simply and before I could even think about it. I didn't need to consider my answer after all. A big smile crept on my face as I considered his words.

For all his emotional self, Naruto had never said something like that to me, or anyone for that matter, except maybe the Hokage. I wouldn't know about that. I didn't usually participate in their conversations after all. But to me, it was the first time he openly accepted that he appreciated my friendship. Usually, the most he would say was something along the lines of a boastful 'You're the best!' or the like.

"I'll stay for as long as you want me to, Naruto." And I truly would, through whatever the plot wanted to throw at him, even if I had or would change it for the worse somehow. Naruto was my friend, my best friend. It was as simple as that. He was the first person I had truly met since coming to this world. He was the one that showed me that surviving wasn't the best I could do.

"Hm." He hummed, before looking up at me with a watery grin and tears in his eyes. "You're the best, Eiji-nii." I felt my grin widen even more and a rush of warmth flow throw my body. Yes, I could do so much better than surviving.

"Now, how about we play some games. I found some in a cupboard last night." As I spoke, I saw his face lit up before he nodded enthusiastically. 'Brother, huh?' I shook my head in amusement still feeling like nothing could wipe the smile off.

Obviously, I was wrong.

Soon, Naruto had gone to bed and I sat once more at the dining room. Because, as great as my one on one moment with the blonde had been, I wouldn't be able to be truly happy with the bastard that had started all this still living happily. No, if anything, I had more reasons to get payback.

Slowly, I stood up.

I had to prepare.

[}-o-{]

Shikamaru POV

I had to prepare.

It was late that night, but my brain wouldn't let me sleep. Normally, I wouldn't have much trouble getting rest. But today was different. It was still fresh in my mind.

"There was an attack to your apartment."

I could still remember Naruto's face as the ANBU said that at Chouji's house. I had never seen him with anything other than that stupid grin of his or an occasional annoyed expression. And that was before I had to witness his downtrodden mood through the day. I hoped Eiji would set things straight before tomorrow. Or so help me, the Inuzuka, or whoever it was, would suffer. A lot.

Most would be surprised at those thoughts coming from me. A Nara being active at anything was a shock for almost anyone. But any member of my clan would be able to confirm. A Nara's mind in their lazy mindset was more active than most people in a normal one. However, there was a small detail that had to be added. I wasn't in a lazy mindset.

No, someone had targeted my friend.

Granted, Naruto wasn't exactly the closest person to me in our group. But everyone in our circle was important. I was betting that in most members minds, we were almost brothers. We had all bonded together as the outcasts we were.

I was always seen as the lazy guy or the scary smart guy, depending on who you asked. Chouji would always be that kinda shy guy or the fat guy, much to his ire. Shino would always be that creepy bug lover guy. Naruto… was difficult. He was obnoxious, but the hate he received didn't make sense. I hoped Eiji would be able clear that for us soon. It was giving me headaches some times.

And then there was Eiji.

For the longest time, I thought he was the odd one in our group, funnily enough. Because he was too normal. He was too good even. He never criticized. He never judged. He defended all of us. It was too good to be true. But, after months of being with him, I resigned myself to have to wait a long time to know what was up with him.

For a while, I was content with finding out about other aspects of his person. Like the fact that he was much more mature than the rest of us. Or that he was smarter than most people. We had bonded over those things. It was a breath of fresh air to be able to chat with someone that wasn't intimidated by my intelligence or annoyed by my attitude. Especially if it wasn't an adult.

I would go as far as to say that Chouji was my brother in all but blood. However, I connected much better with Eiji. And this wasn't even considering the fact that the Satou seemed to love playing Shogi with me as much as I loved playing with him. Fact that never stopped baffling me. The only person so far that had never been bothered by my skill at the game was my father. And he was, coincidently, the only person I knew that could beat me.

But it still bugged me. The fact that I knew there was more to Eiji. There was something there. Something that made him an outcast too.

At one point, I had gotten a glimpse of it though.

"But we still will eventually go out there, probably with a team, in missions that will be dangerous. I don't want it to be my fault when a team member dies. I don't want it to be my fault if someone I know is killed or worse."

That day I had witnessed something. And for the life of me, I never could put my finger on what. But the final piece had come soon after that.

"Can I go too?"

That's when I saw Eiji for what he truly was and I found myself oddly at peace. Even as I heard that commanding tone that I had only heard on my father. Even as I looked that cold expression take over his usually warm face. Even as I saw my friend's eyes turn absolutely murderous.

I felt relieved.

Because now I could say that I knew what made Eiji Satou different. Now I knew just why he fit so well in our group. Because, yes, he had several attributes that made him stand out. But I had never seen a flaw in him. Not until that day. A fact that was quickly confirmed that day during the split second before his… spar with Kiba.

Eiji was scary.

Maybe calling it a flaw was exaggerating. It wasn't like my friend was overly aggressive or anything of the sort. The fact that it had taken us months to know about this not-so-little detail of his nature proved that. But it was still there. And I could safely say that Eiji was a wolf in sheep's clothing. For good or bad.

And the wolf's pack had been attacked.

I smirked to myself. I could finally make sense of my friend. When we first met, I thought that his dream of being Shinobi no Kami was too simplistic for someone like him. A fact that was proved more and more as I interacted with him.

But now I knew. He wanted to be Shinobi no Kami for the power it would give him.

"I don't want it to be my fault if someone I know is killed or worse."

And he wanted the power to protect those he cared about. Everything made sense now… not.

No, there was still more to Eiji. I knew. But I knew what I had to know about my friend now. He still would have his secrets, and maybe I would never know the whole of it. However, as it was, I was satisfied with the fact that my friend was someone that knew darkness. That had that in his heart but instead of being bad, he used it for those he cared about. That was everything I needed to know about Eiji.

I shook my head. I had gotten really sidetracked. But I couldn't help it, all these answers I had been seeking for so long were still fresh in my mind. However, I needed to think now. A friend had been attacked, I thought as I brought my hands together in what my friends called my 'thinking posture'.

I needed to prepare.