His friends did

Naruto turned to see two familiar people approaching him as he stood right in the middle of a bustling street. "Kiba! Shikamaru! Hey, how are you two doing!", he exclaimed as he turned to meet his friends again after that one, long month.

"I'm good as new again, as you can see!", Kiba laughed and patted his chest to show he had recovered completely. The gesture failed a bit as Kiba winced while doing so.

"I'm doing fine as well...", Shikamaru sighed. Then, uncharacteristically, Kiba sighed as well.

That surprised Naruto a bit. Where they sulking about something? "Huh? What's with those faces? Oh yeah, what's with that Sasuke-idiot? He made it to the next round as well, right?", Naruto asked, already in high gears about the upcoming exam. And Sasuke was just one of the people he would just love to fight... so, as he had learned, he tried to collect some information on them.

Shikamaru just shook his head in response. "Eh, Kakashi-sensei took Sasuke with him on a special training. I was trained by my dad, but I dunno... I think I might just surrender my match.", he suddenly said something unexpectedly.

"What? How can you say that! You don't even know who your opponent is!", Naruto cried out. It was incomprehensible to him, how could his buddy, lazy as he may be, give up before the fight?

Kiba chose to answer that one for Shikamaru. "Thing is, they posted the match-ups for the final round just the other day. Turns out that our Shika-boy here has to go up against that Gaara-kid from Sunagakure.", he explained and pointed at his teammate, but not without chuckling a bit. Maybe it was his dark humour that allowed him to ridicule his friend for having such a bad luck with his opponent.

"It's really a drag. I think I would be better off just giving up right away.", Shikamaru conceeded. After all, it was Gaara they were talking about.

But even if Naruto could understand where he was coming from, surrender seemed to be no option for Naruto. "How can you say that? Wasn't it you yourself who said it would be a hassle to just give up after making it this far?", he exclaimed, remembering Shikamarus words before his battle with Kidomaru.

Now Shikamaru seemed to get a little angered himself. Mostly frustrated at the sheer blockhead-level Naruto exhibited here. "Yeah, but at least then I would be able to go through all that again in the next exam. If I fight him, odds are I won't come out alive, or at the best, like Rock Lee.", he reasoned.

That set Naruto back a bit. He remembered the viscious match and how Rock Lee had lost. "Oh yeah, how is he?", he inquired. The last he had heard of him was that he was in operation right after the preliminaries.

"Hmm, he's still in hospital. His life isn't in danger anymore, but they say he has a lot of fractures in his arm and leg, so it's even doubtful if he can make a full recovery.", Shikamaru told him the news. "But at least he's conscious again.".

Heavy silence hung among the three. True, Lee was a weird fellow, but he was a nice guy after all. And seeing him literally crushed like that had an impact on the Konoha-ninja. But Naruto had to know something else, now that the matches had been decided."What about the other matches?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, Sakura will be fighting that Temari from Sunagakure. That Neji-dude is up against our Shino and Ino is up against the chick that mopped the floor with me.", Kiba said, chuckling a bit in self-irony. It seemed that, even while it hurt his body and pride to be beaten by a girl, he took it well and with humour.

"Really... I hope they're up for it.", Naruto muttered, getting a little worried. Temari had effortlessly disposed of Tenten and Tayuyas match was only overshadowed by Gaara in terms of pure brutality.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. As far as I heard, your sensei had them train 24/7. I wouldn't be surprised if they're a lot stronger now.", Kiba said with a laugh. For a moment there, Naruto had a vision of a muscled Ino and Sakura in front of him. He shuddered, thinking it to be utterly unfitting for them.

"So how about you, Naruto? Did you train or what did you do in that month while you were gone?", Shikamaru asked, an eyebrow raised. It had surprised everyone to learn that his new teacher had taken him out of Konoha. So now he was naturally curious to see the results for himself.

Naruto pumped a fist in the air in confidence. "Oh, I trained a lot! I've gotten a lot stronger too, just you wait. So, who am I going to fight first?", he asked.

However, neither of the boys got to answer that question as a female voice called out to Naruto. "Narutooo~...".

At first, Naruto thought his girlfriends had found him, but as he turned towards the voice, he saw that this was unfortunately not the case. Instead of his loving girlfriends, a very different girl stood there in the distance, waving at him before approaching the group. "H-hiya, Haku-chan.", he greeted the girl nervously.

Haku gave a little pout as she seemed a little angry about something before that creepy smile appeared on her face again. "Oooh, there you are again, Naruto. I was searching this whole month for you, but I just couldn't find you. But, that's not important anymore. In two days, I'll fight you in the very first match of the final round.", she announced triumphantly.

"What?!", Naruto exclaimed in shock.

He couldn't share Hakus joy about this fact. In contrary, Haku seemed really giddy about the prospect of fighting him. "I'm so excited about it, I can't sleep at night. I'm always thinking about our fight... oh, how I'm going to enjoy it. Just promise me that you won't give up or die too early, alright?", she asked a disturbing thing again.

"Uh, okay...", Naruto nodded nerviously. He was sweating profusely now... how could this girl be so scary yet seemingly so innocent at the same time?

Hakus smile widened. "Great. Well then, Naruto, I'll see ya.", she said before taking off again, leaving a panicked Naruto behind. "I've gotta fight... her first?", he nearly screamed and turned to his comrades.

Only to see that they too were about to leave. "Yeah well... good luck with your fight, Naruto.", Kiba said with a pat on his buddies shoulders and turned to leave again.

"Huh? Wait, where are you going?", Naruto asked as he was now even more uncomfortable than before with Haku nearby. Where they fleeing the scene or what?

"I'm helping out my sister a bit. Akamaru is still not quite ready to come with me, so she's taking care of him. That's why I do my part to help her.", Kiba explained. Now that he mentioned it, Naruto indeed saw that the little puppy was now with its owner here today.

"And I was just on an errand with my mom when I met Kiba. It's troublesome, but by talking to you guys, she's probably gonna yell at me again. So, I better get going too.", Shikamaru explained himself as well.

There was nothing to say against this, but Naruto still had a question left he needed to ask, lest he would be wandering the village for a while. "Alright... uh, any ideas where I can find the girls?"

The Inuzuka boy seemed to think about it for a moment before answering. "I think they should be at Ichiraku about now. They wanted to meet up there after training. You know, they're all really close lately... strange, but I guess that's how women are. Always conspiring against us guys.", Kiba lamented with a grand gesture.

"Yeah, but they don't seem to mind Naruto all too much...", Shikamaru noticed.

Only now that his teammate mentioned it, it occured to Kiba that this was really the case. "You're right... well, then you'll be our inside-man in that evil organization called women, okay? I wanna hear everything about it later, Naruto.", he demanded as if it were vital, top-secret information he expected from Naruto later on.

"Uh, sure...", Naruto slowly said as Kiba and Shikamaru waved him off and went their own ways, leaving Naruto to do the same. And his way brought him straight to Ichiraku Ramen. Not only did he have to go without it for nearly a month, but he also hoped to find his girls there, so it was win-win here for him...