Shikamaru took a deep breath in. He hung his head and muttered, "What a pain." He sighed and lifted his head again. Slowly, deliberately slowly, whether due to laziness or anxiety, he opened the door slowly.
For the first time he was entering the upper level shinobi building. A building dedicated to the chunin and jounin of Konoha. It was where they could fill out paperwork or just simply relax and hang out. It was where they could go if they came back late from a mission and needed something to eat. And it was Shikamaru's first time in it.
He walked through the door and looked around. The building was… entirely unremarkable, was his first thought. The walls were cream colored with light red accents. He didn't know why he had expected anything more spectacular, looking back he knew it was stupid, but he did. He saw the main lobby had a few cushy chairs and bulletinboard. He walked into the room off to the left of the lobby. There was a lounge with chairs and beanbags and couches. There was a book shelf and a shogi and go board. A few men were talking, they were chunin, Shikamaru could tell by their vests. They looked at him and he nodded and they went back to talking. He made a mental note of the shogi board, this place might be good to get away from his mother and he wondered whether there were any good opponents around.
Shikamaru walked back to the main lobby and into the room on the left. The room had several desks with supplies on it. There were papers on the desks and Shikamaru looked at them. Mission Detail Forms. Shikamaru bit his lip, let it go and walked into the next room… the bathroom. He rolled his eyes and walked out.
Back in the main lobby he took the stairs up and found himself in another lounge room. Through another door, he saw, was a kitchen.
"Shikamaru," Asuma greeted him with a smile, cigarette hanging from his mouth. With him were Kurenai and Kakashi. He walked over to them and flung himself down into a beanbag chair. "So this is where you are when you're late meeting Sakura, Sasuke and Naurto," he said looking at Kakashi. Kakashi shrugged and kept reading his little orange book.
It was Shikamaru's second day as a chunin and knowing what the job would entail he was fine with just sitting around for the moment and relaxing.