Naruto-Darkest Before the Dawn
Chapter I- THE FALL LEAVES OF THE HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE
Nara Shikamaru shifted into a more comfortable position atop the roof of his house. He yawned lazily as he watched the clouds roll by. It was late in the year and the weather had finally begun to cool off after the heat of the summer. Though, he thought, the real heat had not come from the weather, but instead had come in the wake of the battle with the Sound at the end of the Chuunin Exam and the subsequent flight of Uchiha Sasuke from the Hidden Leaf Village.
Nothing had been heard of either for the six months since. The Hidden Sound Village had evidently been on their best behavior and Sasuke was simply gone. Uzumaki Naruto, the most annoying person in the village by Shikamaru's logic, had also been gone since then, but he had gone to train with Jiraya, one of the three legendary ninjas. Good riddance, Shikamaru thought, it had been considerably quieter since Naruto had been gone.
Shikamaru stood and stretched. He was literally aching all over from all the missions he had been going on as of late. The Hidden Leaf was still at a lack of ninjas, so he was forced to pull double-time. He hadn't even had much time to do his favorite thing in the world: Sit and watch the clouds roll by. Everything had been so much easier when he was young, just a lazy-ass student in the ninja academy. Now he had to be a lazy-ass chuunin, which wouldn't have been so bad if not for all the responsibility it had pilled onto him. Just no place for people just to stop and appreciate the fall leaves anymore, he thought.
He jumped down from the roof, landing easily on the stone street below. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking. He didn't have anywhere to go, really. His best friend, Akimichi Choji, was at a family reunion deep in the mountains and wouldn't be back for at least a week.
Shikamaru kept mostly to alleys and back streets as crowds bugged him. All those people couldn't be going somewhere, so they were probably just out there to annoy him. His feet treaded the streets easily and guided themselves having gone these routes so many times so far during the summer. He had spent a lot of time lately walking to avoid messengers bringing him missions. He was harder to catch if he didn't stay in one place.
He walked for a while before the sight of a certain pink-haired girl roused him from his semi-lethargic stupor. She was sitting at a small umbrella covered table in front of the Kunai Café, deeply absorbed in reading the paper. Shikamaru walked over to her, sat down in the chair opposite her and began helping himself to her half-eaten plate of fries. It was a moment before she even noticed he was there, lowering the paper just enough to peek over it then quickly going back to reading.
"Hello to you to, Shikamaru, feel free to eat my lunch."
Through his mouthful of fries Shikamaru managed a thick "Yo" and a grin.
Haruno Sakura had become a good friend of his over the course of the summer. Since the other two members of her team had gone, she had mellowed out considerably, which suited Shikamaru just fine, she had always been a little high-strung for his tastes before.
Sakura folded up the paper and sighed.
"Nothing?" said Shikamaru, mouth empty this time.
"Of course not," said Sakura airily, "Not like it's any surprise though. Nobody's heard from Sasuke since he left, I don't hold out much hope about him being in the paper anymore."
Sasuke had been Sakura's romantic interest when he had been here and she still read the paper everyday in hopes of hearing anything about him.
"Well," Shikamaru began, "It's not like he's just gonna go around razing villages hoping that no ones noticed. He's training under the most wanted shinobi in the world, and now he's officially a missing-nin. You don't just go advertising that."
"I suppose…" said Sakura, trailing off. "Well, anyway, are you doing anything today? This is the first day off I've gotten in a while but I really don't have anything to do."
"Well, I probably should go check in with Hokage-sama, but I just can't get in the mood to go on a mission today," said Shikamaru.
"Okay then, come with me. We can call it a date, how about that?" said Sakura, standing and smiling down at him.
Shikamaru sighed an "Okay". Dates were almost as big of a hassle as missions.
A/N-"Do you like this? Review!"