A New Path

Ch. 25 Terror of the Red Death

Shikamaru was a pretty laid back person, sometimes misunderstood as lazy, he believed. For some time now he had been walking around the desert with his team, looking for any sort of sign of their target. By now he had come to a conclusion, he hated sand. It got into very uncomfortable places and walking on it was a pain in the ass. He couldn't wait to get back to the Leaf and watch the clouds from his favorite spot at his home, a wooden porch on his backyard.

A sigh escaped his lips, thinking about his home just made him hate the sand even more. The sediment kept him from going home and each step he took made him miss home even more. He glanced around at his group and suppressed a groan. Naruto was walking ahead of them with clones miles away from them as scouts, Gaara walked behind the blond Chunin with his arms closed, while Sasuke was as far away from the group as possible. Not the most stable team and he was sure that it would cause problems on the future, it was certain.

"Nothing," Naruto sighed out, gaining the memories from the clones he used as scouts, breaking the silence amongst the group..

"The desert around the village is too vast," Gaara began, his voice emotionless, "Even with your clones, it will take at least a week to cover it."

Shikamaru groaned, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Let's just go to that small village the council was talking about," he suggested, "If he attacks there we'll be able to ambush him and finish this pain in the ass mission."

Gaara shook his head. "That wouldn't be wise," he responded, "The council is not to be trusted."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked in confusion, having no idea of how things worked on the Sand village or councils for that matter. Back in the Leaf, everything was left to the Hokage with the council only intervening on the most important matters.

"They do not trust the Leaf," Gaara began, his gaze on the Leaf team, "I was to kill you if the situation arose and I'm sure that they hid things from us. Ever since the Kazekage was killed the council took over and became corrupt with power."

Shikamaru sighed and crossed his arms, trying to think of some kind of plan. In retrospect, walking around the desert looking for their target wasn't the brightest idea since they could be walking into a trap for all they knew. If they were to take down someone who was surely stronger than them then they would need to outsmart him.

"We should head to that village," Shikamaru concluded with a serious look on his face, "Even if the council is not to be trusted, we still might find something there. We'll send some clones first to make sure it's safe."

Naruto nodded at Shikamaru and made four clones, having three of them henge like his team. "Go to the village marked here," he instructed, giving them a scroll, "Make sure that it's safe and dispel as soon as you're done."

The clone henged like Gaara scoffed, crossing its arms. "Why should we go?" it complained with a frown, "It sounds like you're just too lazy to go."

"Just go already!" Naruto snapped in anger.

"Shut up! You're not the boss of me!" the clone yelled back.

Shikamaru watched the two argue with a tired expression on his face. He really had no idea how or why Naruto's clones had personalities but it was always troublesome to have them argue.

"Then don't go! I'm sure some other clone could do it a lot faster!" Naruto yelled at the clone.

"Then I'll go! I'll finish looking around to show what an idiot you are," the clone said before leaving with its counterparts.

Naruto chuckled. "I knew I'd get them to go," he boasted with a proud smile, "Those clones are really stupid."

"You know, they're exact copies of you so if they're stupid then you're stupid too," Shikamaru pointed out, inwardly smirking at Naruto's shocked look.