I'm just a budding writer so please go easy on me...Sorry to disappoint all the ShikaTema and NejiTen fans out there but there seems to be a tragic dearth of good ShikaTen stories and I decided to take that fandom under my wing.
I do not own Naruto. As evidenced by the fact that nobody seems to be mourning that particular loss.
The beginning may be a little dry but I promise that it gets better later. For the other ShikaTen fans, check out Anthropomorphichybrid's works. She is amazing.
Chapter One-Beginnings
It was a beautiful and sunny day, and Shikamaru Nara, lounging underneath the
shade of a large banyan tree, did not happen to particularly like it. He had
skipped the Academy and risked the wrath of his instructor, Iruka Umino, to
sneak out of class. To his great dismay he found that there weren't any clouds out
and so he settled for a light snooze beneath the shade of the tree's outspread
branches.
His snooze was disrupted by the subtle whimpers coming from somewhere to his
right. Despite his desire to turn over and ignore the sounds, he couldn't quite
ignore the muffled sobs. He sighed. He stood up and walked all the way to the source. He found a tiny form, curled in on itself, sobbing with a heart rending note.
He stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. A face, partially hidden
by the voluminous locks of pure chestnut, peered out and promptly hid itself
again.
"Go away," a querulous voice commanded.
"I'm afraid, that is something I would have normally done but not now
Tenten-chan. You're probably going to have to excuse my rudeness," he said
as he seated himself beside her. He draped a protective arm over her shoulder
and applied a gentle pressure on it. Her small form was trembling. He waited
patiently. For a long while she sobbed silently, her little shoulders shaking
convulsively with each sob. Shikamaru found his discomfort at not being able
to comfort her growing. He pulled her into his arms. She started at the
contact, shocked enough for her sob to subside momentarily.
"Hush….." he murmured against her hair. He felt her relax in his arms. She
turned her face inwards and cried for a long time hence. He did not ask her
why and she didn't seem willing to tell him. At last when she had stopped crying, he had
taken his neatly folded kerchief and offered it to her. She took it with
thanks that were wrested from her much abused and very much sore throat. He
led her to her street by hand at the junction, she had bid him adieu, saying
she could find her own way. She waved away his protests with a "thank you" and
a smile.
He watched until she turned into her street. He then turned and returned home.
Needless to say, his mind was haunted with thoughts of a brown-eyed angel that
night. Thus began an unlikely friendship, between the slacker clown of the
village and the constantly hard-working kunoichi.
Seven years later,
That morning found a restless Nara bending over a brown-haired kunoichi. He
checked her temperature. It was still high. He was getting extremely irate,
extremely quickly. The kunoichi in question stirred, as if sensing the danger.
Her long lashes fluttered, sheathing her burgundy eyes from the harshness of
the daylight.
"Tenten" he began softly.
"Mmm…" she said. Realization struck her and she sat bolt upright.
"Shikamaru, you stayed?" she asked him, sounding surprised.
'Of course I did, I couldn't just leave you when you had a temperature high
enough to heat hot springs,' he thought.
"You have a fever," he said, noncommittally.
She smiled. "What will the neighbours think?" she teased.
"That you need a lecture from the Godaime about taking care of yourself," he
retorted.
She blanched. The only way the Godaime "reinforced" the concept of "taking
care of oneself" was through her fists and that was something that Tenten was
certain that she would not come out of alive.
Shikamaru noted the change in colour. He frowned.
"We need to get to the hospital and see a doctor," he said.
"I'm feeling fine," Tenten assured him as she stumbled out of the bed. She could basically feel
the disapproval rolling off him in waves as he eyed her drunken hobble to the
bathroom.
"Yes, I'm fairly certain you're feeling absolutely fine," he said, his voice
dripping with sarcasm, as he watched her hit her head against the door.
"Tenten….." he trailed off as he moved towards her.
She was crumpled in front of the bathroom door. She turned her face away. The
mortified look on her face told all.
"I know you don't like hospitals" Shikamaru insisted with a slight frown gracing his face " But doesn't mean you should avoid them even when you're sick,"
His statement was replied to with an undignified snort. She hated being sick.
He was fairly certain that her dislike stemmed from the fact that she was
averse to the idea of being dependent on people. Even when she was sick. It
was during times like these that he found her truly troublesome.
"Fine. I'll go get Sakura to come to you," he said, sounding exasperated.
Tenten's eyes widened in surprise for a moment. She gazed fondly at his
retreating back. He was always like this. He was such a mother hen. He had
been that way since the day he had found her crying. She stood and made her
way to the bed. As she snuggled under the dark green quilt embroidered with
pictures of deer grazing, she remembered their times together.
The day after the one wherein he found her weeping, he had followed her around
until he was certain she was feeling better. Then there had been a period of
time when they had greeted each others with halting hellos.
He had then dragged her with him to watch clouds. They spent their days like
that whenever she could find time to spare. He would wrap his arms around her
whenever he found her crying. He would never ask her why. She never told him
why. She accepted the solace he offered, but she could not bring herself to
tell him why.
She would join team ten for their cursory ice cream weekends. They would eat
ice cream to their hearts' content with Ino glaring daggers at the three of
them. Anger would then change to longing. She would then say that having one
ice cream would not hurt her dieting. One would turn to two and two would turn
to three and pretty soon she would have finished by herself what Tenten and
Shikamaru had eaten combined. Tenten would laugh at her expression when she
realized this. She would swear she would never look another ice cream in the
eye, only to repeat the same cycle the next weekend.
She began to feel drowsy…..
Shikamaru had been promoted to chunnin. She had failed the preliminary rounds.
This had sparked an unquenchable thirst to succeed in her. Shikamaru had been
assigned mountains of missions. They had not spoken to each other in a month.
She was too busy training and he was too busy with missions for either of them
to spend much time cloud watching. And then one day he had then turned at her
doorstep unexpectedly. It was late. Far too late for him to be up.
"Do you want to have some ice cream?" he asked her.
She wanted to pummel him to death. The kid had some nerve, entering her
apartment, through her balcony nonetheless. He just waltzed in and didn't
apologize at all for ignoring her the past month. She was on the verge of
physically tossing him from the balcony when she saw it. The dark circles
under his eyes, the pronounced stress lines on his forehead and his exhausted
slouch. He was smiling half hopefully, half shyly. She blew out a breath.
"Fine. You're paying, "she said as she walked to the door, "Try to use the door when
come next."
"I'll try," he said smiling softly.
They walked in friendly silence for a while. They were wandering in aimless
circles looking for 24-hour convenience stores. It took a lot of roaming. They
managed to find one. They proceeded to purchase two popsicles and circuited half
of Konoha once before finding a park. She stumbled to the nearest park bench
and collapsed. She blew out a long sigh.
He seated himself beside her. She cast a sideways glance at the boy who was
clearly fighting sleep.
"Tenten tell me why," he demanded.
"What do you mean?" she asked him tiredly.
"It's been nearly a month and you haven't spoken to me at all," he said.
She bit back a litany of profanities and a surge of cold hate. She threw him a
scathing look.
"Oh! Of course, little Mr. Perfect has no reason to have anyone mad at him. Especially not someone he made fun of," Tenten spat.
"What are you…" He trailed off before his eyes brightened with
understanding.
"Is this about the chunnin exams?" he asked.
"I see now why everyone is so smitten with your genius, Shikamaru," she said
acerbically. He had disregarded all the hours of sweat, blood and tears that she
put into making it so far. That pompous ass had declared that she would lose to
that blonde. He had said it so callously, with absolute conviction. Wasn't she
allowed the benefit of doubt?
Shikamaru stood and then knelt before her, taking her hand in his.
"Tenten, I did not mean to hurt you. It was simply an observation," he
pleaded, black irises imploring.
She sighed, deciding to be divine.
The last thought in her mind as her consciousness retracted into the realm of
the unconscious, was that of peace.
Shikamaru ran over the rooftops, lost deep in thought. He knew the way to
Sakura's apartment. Tenten was one of her good friends and he was fairly
certain she would comply with his request. What he didn't know was how she
would receive him. Sakura often worked late into the night. She would be
exhausted after her hospital shift. He did not particularly relish the thought
of having to wake someone who could throw him across the village with a single
punch.
Tenten was always extraordinarily stubborn about not visiting doctors. He had
a feeling that the reluctance stemmed more from her dislike of needles more than
antiseptic smell that she claimed that she detested. He did not know why he
cared so much for her. He landed on the windowsill and tapped.
The mop of pink did not stir. He tried again, only slightly louder. There was
an imperceptible twitch before the candy floss mane disappeared underneath the
pillow.
"Sakura, I need your help," he said.
Sakura threw the pillow at the window with a resounding 'go away'.
He sighed. Women were so troublesome.
"Doctor Sakura Haruno, I need your assistance," he said, hoping to persuade
the doctor in her.
She got up.
"What is it this time? Does Tenten have a headache or does her pinky hurt?" she asked sarcastically.
"Persistent high temperature, throat infection, runny nose. That hardly
qualifies as headache." he said, his eyes narrowing.
'Why do people have to assume my concern is born of something beside
friendship?' he thought to himself.
"I hope you know where her apartment is," Shikamaru continued. Sakura snorted.
"Of course I do," she said, "Now get out so that I can dress and go deal
with my crazy patient and then get some sleep before my shift starts again."
He nodded. Tenten had a reputation of avoiding hospitals, no matter how
severely she was wounded. Speaking of dressing up, he needed to head to home
and clean up. He blew a frustrated breath had to report to duty in exactly an hour and that too on zero hours of seemed like it was going to be a long day.