Prologue
It was early afternoon and the sun was high in the Konoha sky. A young man sat pondering at his desk surrounded by piles of paperwork. He was looking down at a certain sheet of paperwork, a pen in one hand and his head in the other, when there was a knock at the office doors.
"Come in!" He yelled looking up from the paper.
The door creaked opened and a man dressed in his chunin vest over a completely black outfit came in stood in the middle of the room one hand in his pocket. "You called for me Hokage-sama." He said
"SHIKAMARU" Yelled the man at the desk throwing his hands up into the air. "Just the man I wanted to see! Emm... help?" The man said awkwardly as he pointed to the pile of paperwork that sat at his desk.
Shikamaru sighed. "Hai, Hokage-sama" He went over and pulled up a chair and sat in front of the desk.
"Please Shikamaru, just call me Naruto. I'll never be a sama to you!" He chuckled as he handed Shikamaru a pen. "Right, this is what I've finished," He pointed to the pile to his left. "And this is still what I've still got to do." He pointed to the two piles to his right.
Shikamaru smiled. "How troublesome and on my day off Naruto. I'll work on this pile and you work on that one." He grabbed the top sheet and started to fill it out. Naruto just laughed and carried on working through the sheet in front of him.
After a couple of seconds of silence Naruto decided to speak. "Speaking of troublesome how's Temari?" He said smiling as he tried to power through the pile of paperwork.
Shikamaru let out a laugh. He wasn't sure how to take the comment. I guess he could only blame himself with the amount of times he has called her troublesome in Narutos company. "She's fine. She is actually visiting right now." Shikamaru said. Naruto smiled devilishly at that.
"Actually, Naruto," He put the pen down but didn't look up at his friend. This caused Naruto to look up from his work. Normally when Shikamaru stops working and goes quiet like this something was troubling him. "I was thinking of asking her to marry me..."
Narutos face lit up with a smile that stretched the whole way across his face. "YEAH" He Yelled "Way to go Shikamaru! Taking the big step"
Shikamaru smiled again turning slightly red with his friends embarrassing reaction. "But Naruto that involves..."
"I'll go find the marriage papers now!" Naruto interrupted bouncing up from his chair and heading to a cupboard. He started racking through it flinging pieces of paper everywhere.
"Naruto" Shikamaru attempted to get his attention only to be ignored by the now overly excited Hokage.
"Oh can I be the best man?" Narutos head appeared from around the cupboard door his face was still lit up with a ridiculous smile.
Shikamaru laughed awkwardly. "No, when we do get married, Choji will be my best man. But Naru..." He was cut off again.
"Awwh that's a shame" Narutos face pouted before then turning back to the cupboard. "I'm still going to help you out with the wedding!" He carried on talking as he raided through the endless piles of papers and boxes.
"Naruto" Shikamaru attempted again.
"Hey look I found it!" Naruto yelled cheerily jumping out from behind the cupboard door with a couple of sheets of paper. He still has that ridiculous smile plastered across his face.
"Naruto!" Shikamaru couldn't take it anymore and he yelled at his Hokage. This caused Naruto to freeze his happy expression was wiped from his face and he tilted his head confused.
Shikamaru cleared his throat out of awkwardness and began to speak. "If I purpose to Temari that will either involve her moving here and staying with me or me moving to Suna to stay with her. Either way both villages would be losing an asset member and it will be likely that I would be moving to Suna as she is the Kazekage sister and he will need her. I still need to ask Gaara permission to purpose and hope he doesn't kill me since it's not only his sister but his older sister. It would create a link with our two villages however." Shikamaru could continue on with the list of reasons as to how them getting married could cause complications and create benefits but decided to leave it.
Naruto took a seat back down in his chair. He sat looking down at the marriage papers that were still in his hand and thought about the situation. Silence started to creep into the room. Eventually Naruto nodded. "Alright" He said "Whatever happens I'll be okay with it." He smiled to his friend and Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief. Naruto opened a drawer in his desk and placed the marriage papers there for safe keeping.
Then Naruto got an idea. He started searching through the unfinished paperwork. After a minute of rummaging he pulled out a sheet of paper. He read it over and then handed it to Shikamaru. "Here" he said.
Shikamaru looked at the document. It was a mission, to Suna!
"I was going to give it to one of the new genin teams but it looks like it could be used for a pretty good excuse. I still expect the mission to be done." Naruto said to Shikamaru with warning.
It was only a basic mission, more of a check up really. Even though it was a year or so after the 4th Shinobi World War, Konoha and Suna have sent a team of genin to each other's village as check up every couple of months. The mission consisted of the team sent to stay and survey the village for a week before then heading back to their village and reporting the news to the Hokage or Kazekage.
"Thanks Naruto. I'll pack my things and I'll head there tomorrow at first light." Shikamaru said secretly amazed by his friend's stroke of genius.
They carried on working for the rest of the afternoon until evening was upon them. Naruto and Shikamaru we sitting laughing with one another and just enjoying the company. They very rarely got the chance to just chat with each other like they did this evening.
"So Shikamaru how is your mum?" Naruto asked as he sorted out the files before then putting them where the belonged.
"She...She is alright. I'm sure Temari will look after her while I'm away. They get on well with each other. She is only staying for another couple of weeks though." He replied. Talking about his mum was a touchy topic.
"Hey, I'm sorry about what happened to your dad." Naruto said feeling a bit guilty about bringing it up. He could in some ways relate to how Shikamaru must have been feeling. Narutos only father figure Jiraiya had passed away not long before the Pain invasion.
"Don't be sorry. It wasn't just me who lost someone close to them. Ino lost her dad and Hinata and Team Guy lost Neji. We all lost someone. It was a hard time for us all. Anyway we have healed since then." Shikamaru said reassuring Naruto not to worry. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Asumas lighter. He flicked it open and watched the flame as it danced about in the gentle breeze.
Naruto gave out a sigh. "Hey don't you think Ino and Choji have been acting a little weird?" Naruto said his upbeat attitude restored as he tried to lighten the mood. Shikamaru flicked the lighter shut and looked at him.
"Yeah, your right, Ino and Choji have gotten very close since she lost her dad and are dating but I have noticed that Ino especially has been acting strange. I have asked Choji if she is alright but he just either avoids the question or says she is fine." Shikamaru added. He was very good at picking up hints that something was up and normally it doesn't take long for him to figure it out.
"I don't suppose she is pregnant?" Naruto asked.
There was a moment of silence before Shikamaru burst out laughing and was soon joined by Naruto. After they both settled down from laughing Shikamaru stuck the lighter back in his pocket and picked up the mission he had been assigned too.
"I'll catch ya later Naruto." Shikamaru said as he turned to leave the Hokages office.
"Cya Shikamaru." Naruto said cheerfully as he watched his friend leave.
"Oh and give Sakura my regards." Shikamaru added as he gave one of his backwards waves and left the room.
As Shikamaru closed the office door he had a strange thought that maybe Naruto was right. Maybe Ino was actually pregnant. He shook his head. She can't be, could she?