Title: Fuzzy clouds and sunshine
Rating: G
Pairing / Characters: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji
Word Count: 260 words
Warnings: Spoilers for the Sasuke retrieval arc
Summary: Shikamaru remembers when he and Chouji were younger
A/N: It's short, I know, but I find sometimes that shorties are just as good as the longer ones. These two… they've captured my imagination somehow and I hope to write more about them. Such a sweet, solid friendship is seldom seen and I think it's wonderful.
They used to lie on their backs in the sunshine, watching the clouds drift lazily in the sky and making shapes out of fuzzy nothingness. Even when they grew older they never grew out of the habit; often spending whole days doing nothing but lying on their backs in the grass, planning their futures.
'When we grow older,' Chouji would say, 'we'll be famous jounin – you with your kage mane and me as the number one coolest chubby ninja.'
Shikamaru would laugh and say that he was far too lazy to be a jounin, it was just too troublesome, but at least they wouldn't have stupid competitions like Gai and Kakashi did – they were best friends already.
At that Chouji would go pink with pleasure and nudge Shikamaru in the ribs, telling him off for making him blush. Shikamaru would grin back and point out that there was one more potato chip in the packet and if Chouji wasn't careful, he would steal it.
Ino doesn't understand their friendship and never will but that doesn't matter. It never has.
Now Shikamaru lies slumped in a chair beside a too thin Chouji's bed, his eyes tired and sore from crying. This isn't the way their futures were supposed to be, not with his first mission in ruins, his team decimated and his best friend inches from death.
'When you get better,' Shikamaru promises silently, 'we'll make our futures together.'
After all, there will be another day with fuzzy clouds and sunshine.
Shikamaru only prays Chouji will be alive to see it.