hello everyone this is my first story in a very long time...
this took me like a whole week to get through bc i couldnt think at some points and i had to keep rereading it but i wasnt happy when i re read it because its my own writing i was hoping it would be longer but idk. Anyways i was thinking about rewatching naruto maybe and i got this idea after i woke up from getting my wisdom teeth taken out! LMAO! so i'll probably have to rewatch it now if i want to continue this. i dont have a beta reader idk how to get one of those but i hope you guys enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

He didn't know what he did to deserve this. He asked why he was cursed. This was the worst thing that could ever happen to him in his whole life, including his adult life he has yet to live through.

You see, Shikamaru Nara was walking through the streets of Konoha, ignoring vendors calling out to him and promoting their products. He was finally on his way home with a bag of groceries that his mom all but forced him to go get, when it happened...The little demon saw him and latched onto his soul, sucking out his life-force. Shikamaru once had a nightmare where she killed everyone by talking too much. The she-demon spotted Shikamaru while he lazily dragged a bag of groceries through the streets and she latched on, she sunk her claws into his brain and followed him.

Shikamaru was already 3 hours late to getting groceries and going home due to his sworn illness, the chronically lazy one. But now she decided to make it worse. She is Momoka Itou, a civilian-adopted-current-academy-student. Of course Momoka had to be Shikamaru's age, she was put on this plane of existence as a curse, as a punishment to him for something he did in a past life. Shikamaru even considered that his mother might have paid her to harass him. Momoka's biggest weapon was her mouth, she never stopped talking. Iruka-sensei constantly scolded her in class for it, he even separated her from the rest of the class and she started talking to herself instead. Not to mention, to Shikamaru's annoyance, her self-introduction lasted almost 30 minutes on the first day at the academy. Stupid and troublesome.

Shikamaru couldn't handle it anymore, he tilted his head to Momoka and asked, "Do you ever shut up?" He glared at her vehemently.

That was a mistake. A giant mistake. He was so dumb, he couldn't believe how stupid he was. Momoka's eyes lit up after realizing he finally addressed her, "Y'know kaa-chan says the same thing! Tou-chan yells at her for saying it and then sometimes she tries to send me to my room for it but tou-chan won't let her! Tou-chan must really care about me, don't you think? Sometimes he likes to bring me to the shop and let me talk to customers! Actually, tou-chan let me go to the Yamanaka Flower Shop today, and I talked to the plants a lot and Ino-chan's mom came out and told me that it helps them grow, did you know that? I already knew that, but she said I must have a natural green thumb! Whatever that means..."

Shikamaru's eye twitched, she didn't even stop to take a breath, she just kept talking and kept following him. He was almost to the Nara compound by now and he was dreading the fact that she was going to follow him home.

"So I told Ino-chan's mom that I like to help kaa-chan garden and that kaa-chan has a lot of pretty plants, and she said that's really good. Ino-chan's mom is really pretty, isn't she? Not close to my kaa-chan, but she's really pretty. I wonder what I'll look like when I grow up, I hope I have a husband and a lot of kids! My tou-chan and kaa-chan don't have kids so they said that they picked me and they said that with me, they feel like they have three kids!-" Shikamaru's brain was about to start melting. Momoka was obviously a demon, obviously contracted by his mother and sent to harass him. First his mother put a curse on his dad and forced him to marry her—Shikamaru knows that's what happened—and now she goes far enough to curse her son too?!

Shikamaru was living in a nightmare. This was definitely a genjutsu. This was way beyond troublesome. The little demon followed him all the way to his house. He could only watch in slow-motion, he would remember this for the rest of his life, nothing could traumatize him as much as this would. Nara Yoshino, the most evil woman alive, swung the door open as soon as the two children reached the front door. His mother's was face contorted in anger, ready to yell at him, wooden spoon ready for the back of his head, and then she noticed Momoka. Her face relaxed in a practiced manner, her eyes took in the small girl who was still talking to her son.

"Shikamaru! You brought home a friend!" Yoshino said. Shikamaru resisted the urge to roll his eyes, that would be a death wish. The only friend he ever brought home was Choji, unless his dad forced him to hang out with Ino.

"Ma, she's just a classmate. A troublesome one." Shikamaru groaned and dropped the bag of groceries onto the floor and turned to stare at Momoka with a look that said 'go-home'. "Ow! Ow!" His mother pinched his ear in a death grip and dragged him inside.

"Invite her in for dinner, you little brat." His mother hissed angrily. Shikamaru huffed, the last thing he wanted to do was invite Momoka in so she could talk more. He habitually looked around for an escape from the threatening vibe of his mother, and saw his dad watching the scene with amused eyes. He wiggled against his mothers grip on his ear, and turned back to Momoka who was still standing outside, staring at both of them with her mouth opened like she was interrupted mid-sentence.

'That's what you get, troublesome demon.' Shikamaru thought.

Half of a minute passed before his mother tightened her already tight grip on his ear, he knew better than to ignore her demands, "Would you like to stay for dinner, Momoka?" Shikamaru bit the question out, albeit a little rudely, a couple of seconds later the grip on his ear was released and he immediately moved his hand to rub the bright red aching skin.

Momoka recovered from her shock, and quickly nodded her head. "Okay!" She stepped inside of the house, and looked towards his parents. Shikamaru could already see her vibrating with energy and knew what was about to happen. "Hi Shika-kun's dad, Shika-kun's mom! It's nice to meet you, I'm Itou Momoka, you can call me Momo-chan! I'm 9 years old and I was born on June 6th, Shika-kun and I are in the same class. My tou-chan owns the tea shop by the market, so I know a lot about tea and tea leaves and other stuff! Shika-kun's house is really nice, my house is nice too, but you guys have a lot of stuff we don't have…." Momoka glanced around at the items decorating their walls but kept talking, ignoring Shikamaru's groan as he dramatically hit his head on the wall.

Nara Shikaku, the evil sadist, the man who enjoyed watching his son being tortured, chuckled lightly once he realized Momoka was not going to stop talking anytime soon. His wife looked equally amused by the chatty 9 year old, both parents now knew why Shikamaru was so resistant to inviting her in. The lazy child was currently glaring at Momoka as she continued to blabber, annoyed that his parents seemed to find this funny and annoyed that she decided to follow him home when all he wanted to do was nap after being forced to do the exhausting task of buying groceries.

Shikamaru, now laying sprawled out on the floor near Shikaku, watched in disdain as his father asked Momoka if she knew how to play shogi, he wasn't sure what his father was thinking after seeing how she talked her gums off for the past 6 minutes. Momoka answered the question with a quick 'Nope!' and Shikaku offered her the seat across from him, she quickly fell silent as Shikaku started explaining the rules of the game to her. This was the quietest Momoka had been all day, the temporary peace with the only noises being from his dad's soft words and the slight noise from his mom in the kitchen had Shikamaru's eyelids closing lazily.

Shikaku while waiting for Momoka to pick her first move, glanced to his napping son with amusement still in his eyes. 'It seems our little Shika is a bit of a drama queen.' He thought to himself with a slight smirk, thinking over his son's actions from earlier in the evening. He looked back to the child sitting in front of him, she was small but average sized for her age, her honey blonde hair was pulled into high twin tails, her bangs were pulled to the right of her face stopping just above her eyebrow. Her eyes were big and innocent, they shined an eccentric yellow, and a button nose tied all of her features together. It was hard for Shikaku to believe she was an Itou, the Itou heir if he remembered correctly, yet the demanding and energetic aura that surrounded her told him there was no doubt about it. Interesting, that she of all children, decided to follow his son home.

Their shogi game progressed quietly aside from the low mutterings of Momoka, she seemed to be a quick learner and thinker, Shikaku could see it even though her movements were clumsy. Their first round ended with Shikaku, of course winning, however after a couple games it seemed like Momoka was finally getting the hang of it, getting close to winning more than once. But Shikaku also wasn't going to tell a kid that he was going easy on them.

Yoshino poked her head out of the kitchen and turned her sharp gaze on her husband, "Come help me." She said without room for him to try to get out of helping. Her eyes moved to Momoka and seemed a bit softer, "Wake up Shikamaru, please."

Shikamaru groaned as he finally came into consciousness, his eyes stayed closed as he slowly woke up. He had the worst dream ever, it was probably the scariest dream he ever had, the annoying Itou girl from the academy had followed him home and his mother let her in the house. It was the scariest dream ever, even scarier than the one where she talked everyone to death, but that's why he was glad it was just a dream. Logically, there was no way Momoka could ever follow him home. He lazily opened his eyes and saw two yellow ones peering back at him, making him groan loudly and lightly push her face away from his own. It wasn't a dream. She really did follow him home.

"Why are you still in my house?" He grumbled, not even attempting to sit up yet.

"You seem a little grumpy, my kaa-chan says that babies need naps during the day or they get fussy, but I think you're too old for that.." Momoka trailed off.

Shikamaru felt a surge of annoyance when he heard what sounded like laughing coming from the kitchen and now he really, really considered closing his eyes and going back to sleep, so that maybe this annoying leech would be gone when he woke up. He knew his mother would kill him if he even tried it, the last time he skipped dinner to sleep his mother's rage could be felt from Sunagakure. Even someone as stupid and troublesome as Momoka probably knew that it was never a good idea to test Yoshino Nara's rage. His brain started to feel like it was pushing against his skull, he was getting a headache. Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his temples.

Yoshino and Shikaku emerged from the kitchen bringing pots of food to the table, "I made a lot, Momoka so eat as much as you want!" Yoshino said merrily.

'This is such a drag.' Shikamaru thought bitterly to himself, as he watched stupid troublesome Momoka happily chatter away to his parents once again, they didn't seem to mind her blabbering which bothered him the most. If they started to like her….Well of course that would mean his life would be over. Shikamaru reluctantly sat in the chair next to the outgoing girl, his shoulders slumped and he took in the food his mother made, fish on rice. Maybe his mom slipped poison or something into his dish.

"So, Momoka how do you like the academy?" Shikaku asked, watching both of the children in front of him.

Momoka, who currently had chipmunk cheeks from the amount of food she stuffed in her mouth, furiously tried to chew through the giant bite she had taken so that she could reply to him as quick as possible. Shikaku quickly looked down at his food to keep himself from laughing at the girl.

She finally finished chewing after almost a minute, her face shined brightly with excitement as she answered him, "It's awesome!" She dragged out the word. "I love it! Iruka-sensei is so cool and he knows a lot! Even more than kaa-chan and she says that she knows everything." The hungry girl put more food in her mouth even though she still wanted to talk.

"Do you have a lot of friends?" Shikaku inquired. His wife and son were eating quietly, usually dinner with them was never this quiet. Yoshino normally was always provoked and yelling at Shikamaru or himself.

"Well, I don't think so. I'm not too sure, but some of the girls say I talk too much." Momoka said and stabbed at her food, "Some of the boys don't care, I think, I don't know. I talk to Kiba a lot! He doesn't mind unless I'm too loud! Choji listens to me too!" Her mouth was turned up in a small smile.

Shikamaru knew that a lot of the kids in class ignored Momoka, and he wasn't sure how much she realized that. She did get along well with the other kids who didn't seem too liked also. Momoka was very abrasive and could have a bossy streak, she also had a tendency to be over familiar with others and she ignored all signs of annoyance from the other kids, she also didn't understand volume control too well, but as far as he knew, she had always been like that.

Momoka continued to chat her way through dinner at the Nara's, the only one who seemed to mind was Shikamaru. She immediately appointed herself as clean up duty once everyone was finished, despite Yoshino lifting and washing everything, but Momoka got to dry all of it! Internally, Yoshino was thrilled that there was a girl in the house, even if it was for a couple of hours. The men in the Nara household were lazy and filled the house with testorone, she hoped that Momoka's endless energy would rub off on her lazy brat of a son. Getting Shikamaru to even get groceries earlier would be considered the accomplishment of a lifetime, even if he was three hours late and probably dragged the bag of items on the ground the entire time. The kid moved less than the clan elders in their senior years, he probably took more naps than them too. These hours were a refresher for Yoshino, the 9 year old girl was sweet and cute even if she did talk all the time, it made Yoshino remember her desire from years ago to have a daughter until Shikamaru was born. He was even low energy as a baby and rarely cried or made a fuss, so she figured she could settle, but now that he was older he was turning into an exact replica of Shikaku. The thought of that almost made her huff out of annoyance, she loved them both, but she hoped Shikamaru would end up with someone who could tolerate his 'quirks'.

"Leaving already?" Shikaku asked as he watched Momoka slip her shoes on.

"Yea! My family might start to worry if I'm gone for too long." Momoka said, looking at the time. She would have talked more, but it was really time to leave.

"Do you want Shikamaru to walk you home?" Shikaku asked, watching his son's eyes bulge out of his head. The child quickly sent a pleading look to his father, who pretended not to notice as he took a sip from a cup of sake that Yoshino brought to him earlier.

Momoka smiled brightly, "No, I'll be okay! Shika-kun seems a bit grumpy, so he can relax." She slipped on the jacket she had taken off and walked towards the door, "Thank you Shika-kun's dad, Shika-kun's mom, for letting me come in and eat. I really like it here, I would live here if I could but I'd really miss my family!"

Shikaku chuckled a bit at the 8 year old's logic, and watched her as she left the house and walked down the street. Yoshino walked out of the kitchen once he closed the door, making Shikamaru eye her wearily.

"An Itou, huh?" Shikaku mused, wondering if his wife was thinking what he was.

"I don't remember any Itou that I ever met acting like that." Yoshino said, thinking back to the personality of the little girl who had just left. The Itou were a mysterious bunch, they were quiet and composed. Yoshino remembered hearing about the clan randomly being gone one day except for one very young child. She wondered if Momoka knew or remembered anything about her old family, but she was probably only four years old when she was found. Shikamaru had decided he didn't know or care about what his parents were discussing and tried to sneak out of the room. Only to be stopped by his mother.

"Where do you think you're going?" She said, grabbing the back of his shirt.

Shikamaru grunted, and tried to escape the iron grip on his shirt. No luck. "To my room." He grumbled.

"You are going to mop the floor tonight, because I told you not to be late with the groceries and instead of listening to me, you were three hours, forty two minutes and twelve seconds late." Yoshino stated. Shikamaru looked back at her, she looked like she was about to start breathing fire, he groaned and she shoved the mop in his hand and pushed him into the dining room, "Now, Shikamaru." And with that, she left to go sit with Shikaku.

"What a drag." Shikamaru muttered.

"And I like that Momoka girl so you better invite her over again!" Yoshino said loudly from the next room.

"I didn't even invite her over in the first place!" He whined back. If he thought hard enough maybe Momoka would be beamed up somewhere else for good.

"What was that? You want me to invite Ino to stay over for a couple days? Well alright then, I'm sure Inoichi would love that!" Yoshino threatened.

Shikamaru almost choked on his own spit at the threat and sighed in misery. Maybe he was meant to be tortured his whole life. Maybe this was a miserable existence for him and only him. Was it karma for falling asleep in class all of the time? His arms were already hurting from mopping and he slouched with his head on the handle, frowning dramatically. This was worse than when his mom threatened to stick him to a wall so he couldn't sleep laying down. If this was a genjutsu, it was probably the worst one that ever existed, he couldn't imagine anything more terrorizing than this.

Stupid troublesome Momoka.

OooOOoOOoooO spooky i wonder what happened to Momokas family...

shikamaru is a little bit of a brat, isnt he? kinda mean too? but hes only 9. this chapter is supposed to be more of his pov and in the ones moving forward it will be momoka's pov. i like shikamaru a lot as a character. kiba has been my favorite since i was a child but i don't think i could ever do him justice with my writing though.

please review if you like it, i'd appreciate it a lot! i'm still trying to be comfortable with my writing...it's hard