Kit or Fawn

-.-.-

D/C: I Own Nothing.

-.-.-

"Yin-Kurama Speaking."

"Yang-Kurama Speaking."

'Naruto and Shikamaru's mental link to each other and to their respective Kurama's. Or to emphasize something.'

-.-.-

Naruto and Shikamaru walked out of the academy, both wondering what they should do next. They had just received a reward for a mission and the thought of spending it sounds very tempting. Very tempting…

'We could get our folks something?' Naruto offered.

'Get them what?' Shikamaru responded he scratched the back of his neck thinking over what they could get to their parents. With their combined earnings, they could afford to take them out for dinner or something of that manner. Shikamaru paused when he sensed Naruto had stopped walking, he looked over to see Naruto staring up ahead with an unreadable expression. Looking over where the blonde was staring it, to only see Kushina whispering something to Hinata Hyuga. Normally, this would not be an issue… however, right now the young Hyuga kept glancing over at Naruto has him worried. Especially how Kushina smirked towards her son's direction. 'What…'

'Mom is corrupting Hinata-chan… Mom is corrupting Hinata-chan!'

Robotically, Naruto marched forward to stop in front of Kushina and Hinata. Kushina gave her son an all-knowing smile before she lightly pushed Hinata towards him. "Hinata-chan's caretaker had a last-minute mission he had to do. He had asked if we could take her home."

Hinata for her own part was able to look at Naruto directly in his eyes without feeling faint or having to run off. She did, however, sport a blush. This would have never happened if it weren't for one Kushina Uzumaki. From what Naruto had heard and known, his mom used to be good friends with Hinata's own mom before she passed away some time back due to an unknown illness. Hiashi had asked Kushina to aid his daughter during this time as he was not allowed to do so for fear what the elders would do. It was mainly mentoring the young Hyuga through a tough time in her life. Of course, Hinata changed but no one knows if it was for the best or for the worst.

Naruto looked over at his mom to see her giving him a grin and that sparkle in her eye only made him want to run away. Without saying a word, he took hold of Hinata's hand before leading her to her home. He did speed up the pace when he heard his mom yell out how he could take his time getting home.

-.-.-

'The graduation exam is pushed back by a week. This gives us more time to study or train.' Shikamaru thought to himself, making his way to his favorite cloud watching spot. He needed to think about what he should do next. It was clear he needed to pass the exam to move forward which he knew he had in the bag. The only thing that keeps running through his mind is the team matchups and dealing with whoever becomes their assigned Jonin.

For himself, it was no doubt that he would be teamed up with Choji and Ino. To continue off with their family's legacies of InoShikaCho. Who is going to be the assigned Jonin, is still up in the air. Long as Shikamaru sticks with Choji and Ino, it all should be good.

As for Naruto… It is completely up in the air on who he is going to end up teaming up with. The academy did have a history of sticking the strongest with the weakest together. Which is something that had Shikamaru rolling his eyes. They would only do this once possible specialized teams were created and go from there, like InoShikaCho for example. Going from that, he wouldn't be surprised if Hinata, Kiba, and Shino will become teammates considering all their backgrounds and what they specialize in. Everyone else, it is still up in the air.

"What a drag…"

"Worried about that idiot brother of yours?"

'I'm more worried over the fact he might end up with one of his fan-girls.'

"Mainly that pink-haired girl?"

'Mainly her. There is so much he could take before he snaps again.'

"He really stopped liking her after that one event, huh?"

'What do you think?'

-.-.-

Naruto waved at Hinata-chan as she was more or less, dragged back into her home by one of her clansmen. He has a good idea onto why said clansmen kept shooting glares at him and whispering furiously at her to not wanting her to be seen with the demon child.

The Uzumaki didn't frown until Hinata-chan was out of sight and shooting back a glare at the clansmen that attempted to intimidate him. He would have to talk to Hinata and Neji at a later time to figure how much hatred the Hyuga has against him. With one last glare, he turned around and made his way back home. There was nothing else to do for the day except to possibly study some more for the delayed graduation exam, help with the deer, go do some pranks… or get ramen. Getting ramen does sound like a good idea at this point.

Walking through the village, Naruto saw everything differently. Before, he did notice the glares, the whispers, and the snide insults were thrown his way. However, Shikamaru was the one that took the brunt of it. Now he could see how much hate that is thrown his way. It was far worse than he original thought it was. As much he wants to shrug things off, he could not. His anger continued to grow and he could not figure out w-

'What the hell are you doing to me?'

"What?"

Naruto could sense the devious grin from Yang-Kurama, it caused him to twitch uncontrollably. So that is why he his emotions were out of control. 'Stop it.'

"Stop what? You and I both know that deep within you, you resent them. You resent the glares, the whispers, and it doesn't help how they attempt to whisper in that girl's ears. I'm just amplifying what you attempt to squash down."

'Leave Hinata-chan out of this and stop messing with my emotions.'

"It's just a matter of time until I take full control of you, brat."

'Not if I have anything to do with it.'

TBC.

R/R.