Prologue
It should have been me. That fucking kid... That lazy, genius fucking smart-ass. My lazy kid...
They keep on telling me that it's not my fault. But excuse me if I have a hard time being so easy on myself sitting at the grave of a teenager. A teenager that was my responsibility. It should have been me.
I'm the only one here; it should be Shikaku mourning, not me. I don't even deserve to cry. But of course he isn't here, he wouldn't be here with the man who let his son get killed. Of course they had to fucking bury him in the dirt... where he can't...
Are you up there, Shikamaru? You get to.. do what you always wanted to do, right? You're up there, floating on with the clouds. You... You be a good damn cloud, you hear? Meet a nice, simple cloud girl and have a little cloud kid of your own... You... you float on.
Ino she... I've been trying to teach her how to play shogi... We miss you, buddy.
It should have been me.
And then this baby! Just.. isn't that just the icing on the cake... But it's okay. We're going to have a baby, I'm gonna be a dad... And I'm going to get the bastard.
I bet... if it were me, you'd probably feel just like me...
Float on...