OK, another really weird pairing, and for that I apologise. I seem to be to drawn to creating relationships between shinobi who don't actually speak to each other much or at all. This is partly due to a friend of mine who has declared these guys her current favourites, and partly due to the fact that they're both just so damn cool.
What can I say? There is no excuse.
Shikamaru is surprisingly easy to write. And that probably means that I've got his character completely wrong.
A fair amount of this is taken from actual anime/manga dialogue, so apologies to those who were reading it thinking "I know all this! What the hell?!" I was trying to make it as authentic as possible to compensate for the odd pairing... (lol)
This will be a series, if I can actually write more. I've got a SasuNaru fic on the go as well that I should really make my first priority, so sorry if it takes a while for me to update ^^; If anyone actually decides to read this, that is XD
Disclaimer: All named characters do not belong to me and the Naruto franchise itself is not mine.
If you do end up reading this, I'd really appreciate a review =D
"Pretty good, huh?" Temari grinned, looking in equal parts awesome and terrifying. Not bad – for a girl, anyway.
Oh well, Shikamaru thought, shrugging mentally with a smile. I guess this time I should be grateful she's so scary.
"Kankuro says hi, by the way," the Suna kunoichi added, fastening her fan back onto her shoulders. It was a casual enough comment, but something about her expression made the newly-appointed chunin feel uneasy.
"Uh...OK, I guess..." he responded slowly, more than a little confused as to why the puppet master would bother to acknowledge him. From what he knew of the sand ninja, they weren't the type to try and make friends. And besides, he and Kankuro barely knew each other, aside from a little mutual observation during the chunin exams. In fact, Shikamaru couldn't remember them ever exchanging any words, friendly or otherwise.
Maybe he was just overanalysing a simple – if unexpected – greeting, but something about it screamed troublesome. And after a chakra-draining battle for his life, troublesome was not what he needed right now.
"Come on," Temari said, jerking him out of speculation. "We'd better head back to Konoha, get your wounds looked at."
"But Naruto–"
"Idiot, you're completely drained of chakra. If you continued after Sasuke right now, you'd be about as useful as a doll."
"Fine, fine," Shikamaru relented, deciding arguing was too much trouble. He staggered a little with exhaustion when he tried to move, which just make Temari grin wider.
"Need me to carry you?"
"No way," the chunin replied shortly, crouching down and preparing to spring to the next branch. "A man never admits weakness in front of a woman."
The blonde girl merely snorted in reply, but Shikamaru noticed that she kept a close eye on him as they began the long trek back to the leaf village.
***
When they arrived, it was pandemonium. Most of the medic nin they encountered were rushing about, desperately fetching ingredients for medicines and books of remedies. One nurse found time to splint Shikamaru's broken finger and tend to his more serious cuts, explaining the situation as she did so. Kiba was badly wounded, but his condition wasn't life-threatening and – although it would take a while – he looked set to make a full recovery. But Choji and Neji...
***
Shikamaru paid a brief visit to Kiba, then spent most of his time sitting outside in the hospital corridor, only leaving when he had to, returning as fast as possible, dreading bad news or – almost as bad – no news at all. For hours (he'd lost track of the time by now), all he'd known was that in one room, Lady Tsunade was working desperately to halt the erosion of the cells in Choji's body and in another, Shizune and a group of other medic ninja were channelling chakra into Neji, using his hair as a focal point, trying to keep him alive.
The uncertainty of the fate of his teammates was slowly driving the chunin insane. He twiddled his fingers as he waited, guilt eating away at him, Temari sitting with him as constant, silent company. He had been responsible for them, should have been able to protect them, should have planned things better, should have–
"Come on," Temari said suddenly, speaking for the first time in hours. "It doesn't help anyone, working yourself up. With every mission comes sacrifice. You've had psychological training."
Shikamaru was startled at first, but his surprise quickly turned to annoyance, and he glared at the sand kunoichi.
"There's a big difference between training and doing," he told her, not bothering to keep the irritation out of his voice. "I've been on missions before...I thought I knew what it was like to be a shinobi. I..." he faltered, briefly reminded of the danger his comrades were in, but then cleared his throat and continued. "This was the first time I was named cell leader. It helped me realise..." Again he paused, wondering how to voice the fact he'd been mulling over for hours, eventually deciding that it was best to put it bluntly. "I'm not cut out to be a shinobi."
There was a short silence, while Temari debated this pessimistic conclusion. Then she snorted, tone full of disdain, "Well, look at mister delicate. You call yourself a man?"
Ignoring the jibe, Shikamaru got to his feet. "As a cell leader, all I could do was put my trust in them. I was too naive...inadequate for the task. This is all my fault."
"So, you're afraid of getting hurt?" the blonde girl's voice came from behind him, still laced with derision. The chunin didn't bother to reply, instead making towards the exit, focused on nothing except getting out as quickly as possible.
"Hey, Shikamaru!" a difference voice called out from his right, halting him. "So, when a girl whips her tongue, you turn tail?"
With reluctance, Shikamaru turned to face his father. "I don't have the energy right now for quarrelling, that's all," he said shortly. "That's what women do. And I'm not a woman, all right?"
"No," Shikaku agreed, glowering at his son, "but you're not much of a man either. You're just a coward." The chunin bristled, but said nothing. "Whether you're here or not, the missions will continue. And someone has to carry them out. They'll send your friends, just under a different leader. It's just the way these things work. They'll be no less likely to die then, but maybe, if you're their leader, your friends will survive."
Shikamaru's chest began to ache. There was nothing he wanted more than to just carry on walking, through the doors, away from all of this, but his feet seemed to be rooted to the floor.
"You made it back," Shikaku continued. "Reflect on what happened this time and learn from the experience. Then your next mission will be perfect." There was a brief pause while he allowed his words to sink in. "If you really care about your friends, then instead of running away, you should set your mind to improving yourself. Isn't that how friends are supposed to behave?"
His father was right, the chunin knew that. And immediately he felt disgusted with himself for the way he'd behaved, shirking responsibility, turning back at the first sign of failure instead of learning from his mistakes, the way a good shinobi was supposed to.
At that moment, a door slid open behind him – the door to Choji's room – and he recognised the voice of Lady Tsunade as she said the words he'd been hoping for but never expected to hear, "He's going to be just fine."
Intense relief flooded through Shikamaru, causing the tears already in his eyes to gradually spill over. It was for this reason that he didn't turn around, keeping his back to the group as the Hokage congratulated his father on the family medicine guide, refusing to show his weakness in front of the most powerful kunoichi in the village and the best female genin he'd ever fought with.
"Lady Tsunade!" At the cry and the sound of running feet, the chunin stiffened, fearing the worst. It was Shizune's voice – she was overseeing Neji's treatment...
"Neji Hyuga is out of the danger zone!" she announced, sounding exhausted but triumphant. Shikamaru let out a long breath. They're OK...
"What's more," Shizune continued, "I've just received word that Kakashi Hatake and Naruto Uzumaki returned a moment ago. Naruto is injured, but his life isn't in danger."
Mixed feelings at these words. He was pleased about Naruto, of course, but there had been no mention of Sasuke. And that meant...
"Shikamaru, your mission was a failure."
The words hit him with the force of a blow. Trembling, he bowed his head as more tears overflowed down his cheeks.
"And yet you all survived," Tsunade went on. "I can't ask for more."
"Next time..." Shikamaru shakily drew breath, fighting back sobs with difficulty, "...the mission will be perfect. I swear it."
***
Although they were in a stable condition, Choji and Neji were still very weak and weren't allowed visitors. Shikamaru spent a short time talking to Tsunade, before the Hokage told him to go and see Naruto. The genin looked exhausted, but was sitting up when Shikamaru went in. The chunin told him about the others, before tentatively asking about Sasuke. In reply, Naruto shook his head. "He's gone."
Sakura came in then, followed by Tsunade, and the expression on Naruto's face was almost painful. It was obvious how guilty he felt, even though he'd tried his utmost to prevent Sasuke from leaving. Shikamaru needn't have worried though, because Naruto quickly returned to his usual determined self, declaring that he would keep his promise, even as Sakura told him to forget it.
"I never go back on my word," the blonde grinned, "because that's my shinobi way."
You had to smile when faced with an expression like that.
Sakura made for the door, and Shikamaru prepared himself to comfort Naruto if she made some hurtful comment on the way out, but the words that left the leaf kunoichi's mouth almost floored him, they were so unexpected.
"Naruto, I'm sorry. You'll need to wait for a while, but next time I'm coming with you."
And with that brave declaration, she left.
***
Shikamaru stretched and yawned, heading along the path in the direction of his house. He felt calm for the first time in a long while, like he could finally get some rest. At least, he was calm until he noticed that there was a figure blocking his way, some feet ahead of him.
"What's up?" he asked Temari, grateful to her for keeping him company, but still hoping that whatever she wanted him for, it wouldn't require an extreme amount of effort.
"I've been asked to detain you," she replied, looking vaguely annoyed, like she was being commanded against her will. "Come with me."
"What?" Shikamaru almost laughed. "Look, no offence or anything, but I really don't have time to mess around with girls right now." He made to get round her, but the kunoichi stuck out an arm to stop him.
"Sorry, I'm following orders." Again she scowled – obviously not impressed with either the command or whoever was making it. Most likely both. "I don't want to force you, but you know that I can. I'm much stronger than you, at least at the moment."
"Who's asking you to do this?" The chunin asked her, eyes narrowing. This felt like a trap, although he couldn't believe that the sand ninja would switch alliances again so quickly.
"I can't tell you," Temari shrugged. "But I can say that you probably won't get hurt. Whereas you will if you don't do what I'm telling you."
"How far is it?" The more Shikamaru heard, the more reluctant he was. "If it's outside Konoha then you can forget it. I may be tired, but I'm not stupid."
"Chill out, little man," the blonde scoffed. "You'll still be well within the village boundaries. I'm not your enemy. My village has cut all ties with the Sound Village since Orochimaru murdered my father. You'll be perfectly safe. Most likely," she added, and Shikamaru could have done without the afterthought.
What a drag.
"Fine," he agreed eventually, dismissing further argument as too much effort. "I don't like it, but I'll come with you."
"Smart move," she smirked, before turning away from him and leaping into the trees, leaving him to follow and wonder who the hell would be so secretive about seeing him.
He was running on his last reserves, so he was thankful when they stopped after a few minutes, having arrived at a clearing where a black-clad shinobi was waiting, leaning casually against a tree.
And of all the people, this was the last one Shikamaru would have expected.
"He's all yours, Kankuro," Temari told her brother, giving Shikamaru a mock salute before disappearing out of sight. The sand shinobi merely stood there, regarding him with a nonchalant expression and remaining silent. After about a minute, Shikamaru felt a twinge of annoyance. It had been a long couple of days. He was exhausted and desperately needed sleep. This wasn't the time to play games.
"So what is it?" he asked finally, crossing his arms and fixing Kankuro with a cool stare. He didn't like this – either the secretive meeting or the ninja who had arranged it. "You've gone through quite a lot of trouble to get me here."
"Guess so," the older teen replied, but that was all he said, which further infuriated the chunin.
"What the hell do you want?" he snapped, finally losing patience. "If you're just planning to stand and stare at me then I'm leaving."
"If you try to leave then I'll stop you." There was no menace in the sand nin's voice, only pure fact. Shikamaru glowered at him, but he seemed unperturbed.
"I thought you weren't my enemy."
"I'm not. If I was, I'd have attacked you by now, wouldn't I?"
True. But there was something weird going on here, the leaf nin could sense it. And whatever it was, it couldn't be good. The secluded surroundings weren't comforting, for starters. The glint in Kankuro's eye wasn't exactly reassuring either.
Hang on. Wait.
Oh f–
Shikamaru realised exactly what was going on about a second before he was grabbed roughly and shoved against a tree, hot lips roughly covering his own.
And OK, his first impression should probably have been something like 'What the fuck, get this dude off of me'. But, if he was honest, what he actually thought was the much shorter, slightly more eloquent but infinitely more complicated Whoa...
Because, although this was his first kiss and therefore he didn't really have the experience to be able to compare, the chunin thought that if he'd had other kisses and if he had chosen to compare them, then this would probably blow all the others away. There was no doubt that Kankuro was either a natural at this or had had a lot of practice, and Shikamaru suspected – as strong hands pinned his wrists up above his head – that it was more likely to be the latter.
The sand nin's teeth bit into Shikamaru's bottom lip, and the Konoha shinobi found that this resulted in some very interesting stirrings somewhere around the region of his stomach. From that point on, it didn't really bother him that he had no idea what he was doing, because some other part of his psyche pushed his reason aside and he began to kiss back, trying to imitate some of the techniques Kankuro was using on him and he guessed by the fact that the Suna ninja's hands tightened around his arms that he wasn't doing too badly, for a novice.
Then the puppet master let him go, which Shikamaru was quite put out about really, but he decided not to let on and also not to jump on Kankuro and continue, which was another all-too-tempting option.
"I'm going to be here for the next three months," the sand shinobi told him, make-up slightly smudged around his mouth, which was far too distracting, "and during that time we're going to have a relationship."
"Like hell we are," Shikamaru scoffed, not really serious but feeling like he should at least pretend to put up a fight.
Kankuro merely raised his eyebrow. "Really? From what I could tell, you weren't all that anxious to get away."
"You jumped me when I was defenceless. I didn't have the energy to get away. Besides, even if I had, you'd just have caught me and dragged me back again."
"Fair point," the other conceded, smirking. "But still. You're a smart guy. I'm sure you know that I'm stronger than you, at least physically, so there's not much point in disagreeing with me. And I bet that you already know that I won't back down on this, and also that, if you're honest, you don't really want me to, do you?"
"What do you know," Shikamaru said, drawing a couple of fingers across his lips, not really surprised when they came away stained purple. "Guess you're smarter than you look."
"Funny." The grin the chunin received was unexpectedly genuine. "Well, at least we both know where things stand."
"What a drag." Sighing, the leaf ninja put his hands in his pockets. "I don't have much of a choice, do I?"
"Not really."
Calling on the little energy he had left, Shikamaru moved fast, catching Kankuro off guard with a fierce kiss, before pulling back with a grin.
"Until we meet again, I guess," he told the sand nin casually, heading off in the direction of the village with Kankuro's amused laugh echoing pleasantly in his ears.
Until next time *bows* Hope you liked it =)