Title: What You Make It
Summary: Shikamaru's into Naruto, and Naruto will fool around with anybody. It only means what you make it, right?
Pairings: NaruShikaNaru
Warnings: Um. Slut-like behavior? In the best possible way.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything else to which I allude, or anything else I mention by name.
No spoilers, which is why the topic of the strategy meetings is vaguely danced around.
Slightly more smutty (and slutty) than I usually go. I love Shikamaru to bits, so he gets to be used for this practice writing.
"So, Sakura and Ino?" Shikamaru prompted Naruto.
He was referring, of course, to how he'd found Naruto as they were supposed to be leaving for Suna. Which was, incidentally, with Sakura on one side and Ino on the other, both leaning on him and, upon Shikamaru's arrival, giving him goodbye kisses on the cheek.
They were currently relaxing in the room they were sharing while in Suna. Shikamaru was lying on his back on the bed, and Naruto was in an armchair, over-organizing his bag, unable to sit still.
"Ah? Eh," he replied eloquently, answering Shikamaru.
Curiosity heightened by the vague answer, Shikamaru sat up. Noticing this, Naruto turned towards him and dropped his bag on the floor.
Secretly, Shikamaru was very curious about the answer. He was, against his better judgment, trying to steer this conversation in a specific direction. He was fascinated, enthralled, by Naruto. A boy who became more modest with every success and would fight valiantly for any flicker of friendship or bonds. He wanted to be around that. In more ways than one.
"They were just being friendly. A little over-friendly, but just flirting."
"They kissed you."
"It was on the cheek! Well, it was on the cheek that time."
"This happens to you a lot now?"
"Not specifically that. Kisses, hugs, handshakes. Other… things."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that comment.
Naruto responded as though Shikamaru was dragging answers out of him, despite the silence. "Okay, yes, sometimes it's sex! Jeez!"
"So you've become popular with the ladies? Having all sorts of meaningless sex with random girls?" he asks, as non-judgmentally as possible.
"Hey, it's not random or meaningless! Or… always girls." Naruto mumbles.
Shikamaru's interest is immediately re-peaked. "Really?" he asks, not realizing that Naruto could consider this question for any of the points that he'd made.
"Of course it's not meaningless. Things only mean what you make them, right? So sex can mean 'you're important to me; I value your friendship; I find you attractive.' Or it can mean 'I'm in love with you,'"
Shikamaru wants those hypothetical thoughts directed at him. "Still," he says, composing himself and trying to sound like a mildly interested observer, to get Naruto to tell him what he's doing without making it overly personal, "it sounds like you're playing a dangerous game."
Naruto nods. "I try as hard as I can to avoid differences of opinion. I couldn't sleep with Hinata since she loves me and I just think of her as a friend, for example. If feelings don't match, it can't work."
This makes sense, enough, to Shikamaru. "So who have you slept with?"
Naruto hesitates. "I can't tell you. Not because I don't trust you with my secrets. But this involves two people and I can't tell you without them knowing."
Shikamaru had figured that's what he'd say. "How many?" he asks, hoping his casual mask hasn't slipped.
"Uh, ten? Seven guys, three girls. I don't know if you've noticed, but we have a female shortage." They both laugh awkwardly.
"I have to say, I didn't expect you to swing both ways."
"Hey, it's all about personality. If I get along with someone, I'll consider it. It's pretty much that easy."
"Good to know," Shikamaru says, almost inaudibly. "What would you think of me, hypothetically, in that context, in theory?" he asked, losing confidence with each word, repeating himself.
Naruto looks surprised, but masks it quickly. "Hm. You're a lazy, smart, trustworthy guy. It's a shame that your laziness makes you waste your intelligence sometimes, but you come through where it matters. You care about the future of the village. You made me want to be a cool adult."
That was nice to hear, considering what he thought of Naruto. He makes me want to walk with him.
"But, as far as…"
"Sex?" Naruto asks, extremely bluntly, to which he can only nod. "Well, look at yourself. You're decently tall, attractive, maybe a little on the thin side, but all around easy to look at. I trust you completely. I'd think about it."
That was a little disappointing, until Naruto clarified, "to make sure that nobody would get hurt, of course. Not because there's anything wrong with you! Really!"
This certainly gave him a lot to think about. As did the alone-in-a-room-with-a-bed prospect. Shikamaru, of course, knew the best-case and worst-case scenarios. He had figured them out early on, on the journey to Suna. He hadn't been consciously planning this, but the thoughts in the back of his head were pretty thorough. During the entire conversation, he had been adding knowledge, amending theories, and changing opinions like crazy. And he realized. If Naruto wanted to be his friend, and always would, and he wanted to be Naruto's, then they really didn't have that much to lose, now did they?
Shikamaru abandoned his game of looking anywhere but Naruto's eyes, but at the genuine (and why wouldn't it be genuine, from Naruto) expression on his face, Shikamaru solidified his resolve. He was really going to do it, then.
Slowly, with patience mastered from shogi, among other things, and very slightly shaking, Shikamaru raised his right hand and rested it on the side of Naruto's face. Naruto looked at the hand, and raised his eyebrows. The combination of that and the smirk on his face made him look expectant, slightly surprised, but not at all unpleased. Shikamaru took this as a good sign, and, grabbing Naruto by his far away shoulder, and pulling him until their mouths were less than a centimeter away from each other, then stopping. Naruto laughed; he had closed his eyes at some point, though Shikamaru hadn't. He watched Naruto, feeling his breath on his face, and hesitated. Would this change everything? Would he get it out of his system, or become addicted? Would he –
"Well?" Naruto said, not unkindly. On the 'w,' his lips just barely touched Shikamaru's.
That was all it took. Shikamaru closed the (tiny) amount of space that remained between them. He controlled the kiss, moving his mouth slowly to get a feel for Naruto's style of kissing, and they managed to find a rhythm quickly. Shikamaru's hands ended up on Naruto's neck, Naruto's on his waist. Suddenly the kiss was moving almost faster than Shikamaru's brain, and he was pretty sure that there was nobody to blame but himself. He was losing his head; he'd stopped conscious thought. Were he in his right mind, he would have filed away the information as something very interesting about himself. Since he wasn't, he simply ran his tongue in between Naruto's lips. He felt him nearly open his mouth. Then, the hands on his waist (which, up until this point, he had been thoroughly enjoying) completely betrayed him, pushing until the two mouths separated. Shikamaru really hoped his disappointment wasn't pathetically visible on his face.
Naruto looked him up and down. "Sorry," he said. Shit. He could tell. "I just… Are you sure? I don't want you to regret anything."
It had been long enough since the kiss had broken that Shikamaru had regained coherency and began to recall their earlier conversation which had led to this in the first place. "Naruto. If we have sex, what would it mean to you?"
"I… don't know. That's the problem. This could mean more to you than it does to me. It could mean more to me than it does to you." (Shikamaru highly doubted the second thought, but he knew the worst case scenario like the back of his hand.) "I usually have a better guess going into these kinds of things. It's not fair if you don't know what you're getting into."
Shikamaru was glad that his intelligence was still there with him, and he smiled a bit. "Believe me; I know the risks."
"I figured you would."
Something that he would later recognize as self-restraint broke inside of Shikamaru. He stood up, dragging Naruto to a standing position with his hand, spun him around, and slammed his back against the wall. He took a few seconds to thirstily drink in the sight of Naruto, shocked, out of breath, and aroused, looking back at him through half-lidded eyes, before he brought their lips back together, where, he decided, they ought to spend much more time. There was a thrill in overpowering the hyperactively strong man, giving him these feelings. The kissing was of the openmouthed, tongue, delicious variety, and Naruto's hands were everywhere. Shikamaru would swear that the ponytail was yanked out of his hair at the same time as his ass was groped and squeezed on both sides, while his face was caressed, and his abs stroked. He moaned, embarrassingly loud and unrestrained, and felt an answering self-satisfied smirk on Naruto's lips.
Well, that did it. Shikamaru was determined to use every ounce of his brain power to make Naruto lose control, experience be damned. He brought his leg up, wrapping it around Naruto's thighs and pulling them closer, groin to groin. Naruto groaned at this, kissing more fiercely, and Shikamaru had a few seconds to bask in the glory before his plan failed miserably.
Naruto grabbed Shikamaru's other leg behind the knee, wrapping both around his hips before spinning around so Shikamaru was caught, back against the wall, with Naruto keeping him there and no feet anchoring him safely to the floor. After half a second, however, Shikamaru had entirely forgotten how this was a loss at all. Naruto's mouth moved to kiss his neck, and Shikamaru expected that he'd have a chance to catch his breath. He could not have been more wrong. It was impossible to breathe, or think, properly with the way this felt. Shikamaru tilted his head back to give Naruto as much room to work as possible. He just could not believe that this was Naruto, village hero, man loved by all, paying him this much attention and ravishing his neck. Suddenly, memories and thought came rushing back to him. He was supposed to be rocking Naruto's world! He needed to be aware, paying attention to slight differences in breathing and facial expressions to know exactly what Naruto liked better than anyone.
Using the wall as his only leverage, Shikamaru pressed Naruto forward far enough to get his own feet back on the ground and immediately, before Naruto could be offended or Shikamaru could over think, he was pushing Naruto backwards with the advantage of shock on his side, until Naruto hit the bed and landed on his back. He all but jumped on Naruto, straddling his hips, and leaning down to kiss him while raking his fingers up Naruto's abs to his chest, pulling his shirt halfway off in the process. He paused, sat up, took off his own shirt (as Naruto watched appreciatively), and finished the job of removing Naruto's. He started his mouth on Naruto's neck, then licked a line down his chest, heading further south. He made sure to obscenely grind their erections together as he continued his downward motions, licking, biting, and kissing Naruto's stomach.
"Fuck," Naruto said, and Shikamaru knew he was onto something.
As he was undoing Naruto's pants, however, there was a knock at the door.
"Everyone's meeting to continue the discussion," a hard to distinguish voice called through the door. "You might want to hurry; you're both pretty important, but if you want to be more important…"
Shikamaru jumped off of Naruto faster than he'd done anything in his life. He couldn't remember being this frustrated (and not just sexually, either.) He could feel angry tears begin to gather in his eyes, but he knew they wouldn't fall. One chance to try something with Naruto. One chance to prove himself, one chance to prove that he's different. That he gets Naruto better than anybody. And it was gone. He should have figured it into his plans, the reason that they were in this room in the first place. Once again, his oversights were costing him things he couldn't stand to lose.
Naruto eyed Shikamaru suspiciously, and way too perceptively. He smiled, ninety percent easygoing happiness and ten percent understanding disappointment. "You know after that performance that we'll have to pick this up where we left off later tonight, right?"
Shikamaru fought a smile. "Of course," he answered, though until then he'd felt anything but sure of himself.
Naruto's good natured grin was still on his face. "Then let's go make this meeting go as quickly as possible."
Though he'd rarely used his intelligence to make something faster instead of painstakingly slower, Shikamaru knew that was exactly what he was going to do.