A/N: Written as a Trick or Treat 2017 exchange gift for higuchi.

The whole village said he was crass, rude, noisy, and his voice grated their ears. Shikamaru never really understood what the villagers were talking about. He never heard anyone in the village that defined that description. He didn't care, either.

To Shikamaru, he never heard Naruto speak. He wondered if they were just picking on him because he contained the kyuubi within him. Naruto wasn't that annoying. Shikamaru barely heard the kid speak! So he didn't understand the hate. He should feel distain for him. He didn't. That required effort he didn't care much about, and Naruto seemed like a nice enough kid. Usually, when his big mouth was open, he was scarfing down a huge bowl of food. Shikamaru didn't get what was so obnoxious.

All the kids in the village were annoying and bugged him. To an extent they were, anyway. Sometimes he liked listening to their conversations as long as he didn't have to contribute too much too the cause.

When he reached his mid-teens, he finally realized that he couldn't avoid it much longer. He supposed he couldn't disappointed someone that much. He had to read his palm and figure out his soulmate. His parents were bothering him about it to the point he couldn't just avoid the issue these days.

Oh, he had seen the scrolling of words on his palm flash by in the blink of an eye. Random words popped up like "ramen" and "Hokage" and "lonely" and even "Sasuke." His soulmate must be someone pretty weird, and had a fixation with Sasuke. He didn't care about it still. Every girl in the village had her heart set on super hunk Sasuke and it was natural to assume it was a woman. He didn't want to tangle with that, so he lost interest even quicker.

No. Shikamaru didn't end a soulmate. End of story.

Truth be told, Shikamaru was just too lazy to read his palm. He didn't care about reading words from someone he didn't even know. Nothing was more of a hassle in life than marriage. Eventually, after you made amends with your soulmate, they forced you to marry. Shikamaru wasn't having any of that. Then his parents would expect little bundles of joy. He would have to do things like playing with them.

Shikamaru skated along in life. He lay out on the grass and didn't think about how he didn't care about reading his palm, or how those words that his soulmate couldn't say to him were etched on his palm. That was the other side effect. Hearing you soulmate was impossible, but those words were still with you. It hurt people. Shikamaru understood why. It wasn't the same. Not being able to hear while being so close was painful. Being attentive was important, paying attention to body language.

Sometimes he wondered if not hearing but seeing was to show people that they shouldn't rely on words alone. Shinobi dealt with deception. Words weren't all their was to life and relationships.

Even Shikamaru wasn't blind to something like that.

So when Shikamaru met his soulmate, he didn't get it at first. He didn't get the urgency. He was simply walking down the street after a mission. He had nothing to prove, and he was hungry, actually, looking for a place to rest his wings and eat.

A whiplash of yellow, black and orange shot past him. Something hard and painful bumped into his side. Shikamaru caught himself easily. The other guy wasn't so lucky, though; he fell face-first. He rolled over, stars in his eyes, and his mouth opened. It opened… no sound came out. That didn't feel right.

Then, he realized the shock of blond hair was Naruto. Naruto jumped to his feet started yelling at him, mouth flapping but absolutely nothing coming out. Shikamaru's blood curdled. No, you mean to tell him that his soulmate was… the village loser?

From the corner of his eye, Shikamaru noticed blurs in the distance. Oh. He must be in trouble. Grabbing Naruto he pulled him off to a backalley. When he thought the trouble passed, Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief. Naruto continued to scream and gesture at him for some reason, then cross his arms as he calmed down, turning his back on him.

Shikamaru didn't know what to say. He wanted to say he was sorry, or anything, really. But Naruto would realize it. And he didn't want him to. Im fact, he was probably yelling at him to apologize.

What a pain…

His reputation would be shambles, possibly. If anyone knew who he soulmate was. Not that Shikamaru cared. He would just walk away from them all and do what had to be done; he had never cared much for extraneous chitter-chatter.

Curious. He was a little bit. So curious he raised his hand and read from it. This guy is totally ignoring me! one note read. I'm trying to say thanks and he's being an aloof jerk. Oh, so he had been right. Naruto looked up at the sky and sniffed the air. Shikamaru snorted at the next phrase: I want ramen.

Actually, ramen would good. Did he know any good places around? Shikamaru could deal with Naruto if he just helped him find a place to eat. He wouldn't have to bother wasting time looking for himself.

Sighing to himself, he grabbed Naruto's wrist. He wasn't going to deal with this anymore. The mission had been long, he was tired, and he supposed Naruto was good enough company. He didn't bother him. Shikamaru even kind of liked him—Naruto was a bit different compared to everyone else (mostly because he couldn't hear him, which was a start). He raised it up and showed him the writing on his palm. Naruto's eyes crossed, befuddled at the action, but he read the note on his hand. His eyes widened, and he looked at Shikamaru's face for confirmation. Shikamaru's expression was deadpan enough for the message to fit the words scrolling by on his palm. The words flowed like a line of marquee text.

All you ever talk about is ramen.
So show me what's so great about it.
Since you're my soulmate.
What a drag.

Naruto stared into his eyes for a moment. Honestly, Shikamaru hoped he wasn't the mushy kiss-now-type and would bulk straight out of there if he was. To his surprise, Naruto's face broke out into a grin. Shikamaru didn't know what to make out of that. Naruto dragged him by the arm out of the alley. Shikamaru sighed again. Now, he would have endure this. The cat would have had to claw its way out the bag eventually and scratch him—soulmates always found each other despite his objections—so he might as well do this on his own watch.

Well, he supposed, they would find a way. And if it didn't, he didn't have to listen to Naruto yelling at him. Suddenly, he understood why he was loud; the print on his palms raced in a flurry of thought as Naruto chattered on to him even though Shikamaru couldn't hear a thing he was blabbering about.

He regretted it already, but his stomach thanked him. Naruto surely knew of some good ramen haunts.