Sweet Dreams
Naruko X Shikamaru One-Shot
No matter how troublesome life got for Shikamaru Nara, whether Ino was nagging his ear off or Chouji was whining about how hungry he was, when Shikamaru made the time to relax beneath a shady tree and watch the clouds float by.
It was a simple past time that Shikamaru shared with nobody but himself. Though he would often peg it down to either nobody simply having the patience or the desire to find value in the simple act of lying down and watching the world go by. After all, it was people like Ino who told him that he was wasting his life by doing nothing with himself and Asuma-Sensei often wishing that he would put in the effort to push himself to his limits given the potential the Nara boy had to become an excellent shinobi.
But as always putting in more effort than what was required was such a drag. Shikamaru didn't understand why people even bothered pushing themselves to do things. Maybe it was a motivational thing that he didn't understand or perhaps it was simply a case of two different people who's mind operated on a different plain of existence to one another.
Shaking his head at the thought Shikamaru dispelled the idea that an alternate universe version of himself would be so energetic, hyperactive or driven to push himself beyond his limits. Like Naruko for example. Now that was a scary thought, Shikamaru running around in an orange jumpsuit shouting believe it while guzzling down Ramen as if it was the air he breathed.
The sweet embrace of sleep began to take hold of the Nara boy as he felt a wave of tiredness overcome him.
"Maybe I can kill a couple of hours without having to do anymore work today" Shikamaru yawned as he began drifting off to sleep.
"SHIKA WAKE UP!" shouted a loud obnoxious female voice from right above him.
Grumbling as somebody snapped him out of his sleep the lazy boy opened his eyes to see a blonde haired girl with whisker marks on her cheeks, wearing an orange and blue jumpsuit with a cheeky grin on her face, upside down to the view.
"(Uh oh… that can't be good)" Shikamaru thought as he recalled the times that Naruko grinned like that only when she was pulling a prank on somebody.
"What do you want Naruko?" Shikamaru queried sounding slightly annoyed that somebody had awakened him from one of his favourite past times.
"I wanna do something fun" Naruko answered cheerfully as she moved around to face Shikamaru right side up in his perspective.
"No" Shikamaru answered bluntly in his usual deadpanned voice.
"Aww, but Shika I'm bored" Naruko whined, putting on a mock pout.
"I don't care" Shikamaru replied before closing his eyes again only to open them again to see Naruko fuming with her fists on her hips
"Why not?" Naruko asked unable to fathom why Shikamaru didn't wanna do fun stuff like her
"Because doing something 'fun' as you call it would require me to get up, and that would be too troublesome" Shikamaru answered hoping that Naruko would go away and annoy somebody else.
"Stop being so lazy Shika and do something fun" Naruko fumed, demanding that the boy get off his lazy ass before she grabbed his hand and tried pulling him up only for the Nara boy to resist her tugging.
"Come on Shika" Naruko grunted trying to pull him up.
"No I'm pretty comfortable down here" Shikamaru replied lazily while in this little game of tug of war with the blonde girl.
"Grrr lazy Nara" growled Naruko getting tired of Shikamaru's resistance to her attempts at making him have fun. "Troublesome girl" sighed the Nara boy prepared to just give up given how much effort was being put in here.
Releasing her grip from his hand Naruko huffed out of exhaustion over the pointless struggle.
"YA KNOW WHAT, FINE! How about I just lie down here with YOU ya lazy Nara" Naruko snapped throwing her arms up in the air out of frustration before sitting down briskly whilst pouting with her arms folded.
"Fine by me" Shikamaru remarked with a small grin on hi face that this time he was actually allowed to kick back and relax whereas Ino would have dragged him away whether he liked it or not. The Nara boy supposed that he could give Naruko credit for not dragging him off.
Barely five minutes passed before Naruko started fidgeting nervously.
"Something up?" Shikamaru asked surprised at how Konoha's hyperactive knucklehead could remain so silent for so long.
Naruko mumbled something so incoherent causing Shikamaru to raise an eyebrow in curiosity
"What?" Shikamaru asked not catching what Naruko was saying.
"I don't like silence" Naruko whispered silently, still inaudible to the lazy boy.
"Geez the one time I want you to talk and you're almost dead silent" Shikamaru remarked in his usual deadpan voice though internally worried that something was wrong.
"I HATE SILENCE OKAY! There I fucking said it!" Naruto shouted angrily shocking Shikamaru enough to get a visible reaction of surprise and concern.
A brief pause came between the two as Naruko uncharacteristically hid her face from Shikamaru's view either out of embarrassment or because there was something that she didn't want Shikamaru to see.
"Why?" Shikamaru queried this time no longer deadpan in tone, conveying concern if someone as cheery as Naruko was sedate-phobic.
"…" Naruko remained tight lipped, still not facing the lazy boy
"Troublesome… How am I supposed to help you if you don't tell me what's going on" Shikamaru spoke frustrated and really unsure of how to handle these kinds of situations.
Naruko quietly murmured something beneath her breath with her obscured face all while Shikamaru sighed as he decided to go for a different approach.
"Look, I'm not good at dealing with stuff like this, I'll admit that but if you want me to help you out with this then I need to know what you're dealing with okay?" Shikamaru said, proposing something that would allow the normally hyperactive knucklehead to speak freely about her fear.
Naruko seemed to agree with this as she nodded her head.
"So tell me, why do you fear silence of all things?" Shikamaru asked in a neutral tone whilst taking the role of pseudo psychologist.
"I… I hate feeling so alone" Naruko spoke softly and melancholically
"And what makes you say you're alone? You have your Team don't you? Sasuke, Sakura? What about them?" Shikamaru asked delving deeper into Naruko's mind.
"Like the Teme or his fangirl would care, Sasuke's driven by killing his brother and Sakura's looking to get into Sasuke's pants. The only thing they have in common is that they hate me" Naruko explained expressing her frustrations of her own teammates.
"And your Sensei?" queried the Nara boy, surely the scarecrow looking pervert would've taken a degree of care into his students? After all if Gai, Kurenai and Asuma-sensei fairly treated their students with as much respect then certainly Kakashi would've been no different.
"The only thing Bakashi-Sensei cares about is reading porn and on the occasion training Sasuke" Naruko stated angrily, resentful that her sensei only ever taught her tree walking and almost nothing else compared to the time he spent teaching Sasuke cool Jutsus and fighting moves.
"You don't sound scared as much as you do angry at these people" Shikamaru remarked as he saw a side of Naruko that he thought wasn't nearly as bitter as she appeared otherwise.
"Don't you get it? I'm not on the same wavelength as my team, MY FUCKING TEAM! They're the guys who I'm suppose to trust, but they don't trust me, hell to them I'm dead weight" Naruko explained, snapping a reply to Shikamaru's observation becoming painfully obvious to the Nara boy that Naruko though not the sharpest tool in the shed was smart enough to be self aware at her own mortality.
"Look I'm not stupid like everyone says I am, or at least I'm not stupid enough to not know when I'm the weakest link of my team" Naruko sighed, adding on to her rant through a melancholic tone to her voice.
"But I'm always stuck being the dead last because nobody wants to teach me because I'm the nine t-" Naruko squeaked as she clasped her hands over her mouth upon almost letting out her secret out when she was told not to by Old Man Hokage.
"The Nine Tailed Fox?" Shikamaru stated getting a gasp out of the blonde Jinchuuriki.
"H-how did you know?" Naruko asked bearing a fearful expression on her face, worried that the lazy boy would hate her just as much as the villagers did.
"To be perfectly honest with you… I didn't, I just guessed. Although now that you mention it, that only makes too much sense" Shikmaru answered finally deciding to sit up and face the fox girl as he was about to tell her how he figured it all out.
"When we were all first indoctrinated into the academy my father told me that no matter what anyone else said that I bear no malice towards you" Shikamaru began. "A strange thing to point out considering that I was going to the academy to become a Shinobi, but whether subconsciously or I just picked it up over the years I began to notice that most of our Sensei's wouldn't bother helping you when you asked" continued the Nara boy as he took a deep breath before he continued his explanation. "But what really put the pieces together for me is how you managed to become a Genin even though you failed the Academy Exams. Normally you would have to undergo another year at the Academy to even think about passing the Genin exam again, but instead you passed…" Shikamaru explained to an anxious Naruko worrying about Shikamaru's opinion of her now that her secret was out.
"Maybe it was because it was too troublesome to think about back then but now I'm dead certain that after how everybody looks at you as if you killed their relatives that you would've been related to a certain major incident" Shikamaru continued before coming to the conclusion of his summary.
"From there all I did was remember that you were born on October 10th and from there I could only assume that you were the one chosen by the Fourth Hokage to be a sacrifice" Shikamaru concluded taking a large breath, afterwards muttering how talking for so long was troublesome. "Besides, the whiskers are a dead giveaway" added the Nara boy before another pause of silence took the two.
Neither of the two knew what to say to each other afterwards, one fearing that the other would abandon her and the other unknowing of how she would react considering that nobody but a select few from what he could gather knew about the fox girl's secret.
Seeing Naruko fidget anxiously again was what made Shikamaru decide to make the first move.
"Look if you're worried about me telling anyone don't worry, I don't feel the need nor the patience to indulge anyone on your secret" Shikamaru spoke reassuringly.
"But tell me why you're fear dead silence?" Shikamaru queried now getting to the bottom of her fears.
"Because I'm always alone…" Naruko answered.
"I don't care if people hate me, want me dead or anything but at least I know that they acknowledge my existence. But when people treat me like I don't even exist… I can't handle that" Naruko explained with her voice absolutely devoid of any joy or happiness.
"I hate silence because it's only when it's quiet that I have to listen to my thoughts… I know you think I'm dumb but when I stop for just a second and think about what I'm doing without any noise I think about what a loser I am and how maybe the others are better than I am" Naruko continued only for the Nara boy to raise an eyebrow.
"And what happened to the knucklehead who says that she'll never give up?" Shikamaru remarked only for a dark chuckle in return somewhat frightening the lazy boy.
"What, you actually believe someone who's ignored and shunned by everyone she knows can keep up that act for 12 fucking years? This isn't a Shounen Anime Shika… this is the life I live, and for my entire life I've been alone" Naruko spoke sounding far removed from the fear and the anxiety she displayed previously.
"Then tell me why you feel alone?" Shikamaru asked picking his questions carefully considering the sudden dark shift in character.
"Because even in a crowded room full of people I still feel alone… and somehow I think even becoming Hokage won't change that" Naruko replied settling down back into the melancholic mood she was in before.
And that was when it hit him.
"I get it" Shikamaru remarked with a small grin finally knowing how to help her.
"No, you really don't" Naruko replied bitterly
"You say you feel alone because people ignore you or because they hate you for being a vessel for the Nine Tailed Fox. But I don't think that's why you feel alone" Shikamaru began only for a pair of skeptical eyes to peer into him.
"Well then Mr psychologist, what's your diagnosis" Naruko sardonically remarked rolling her eyes.
"I think you only feel alone because nobody else has bothered to take the time to understand you on a more personal level" Shikamaru stated which caught the attention of the fox girl as she held a look of guilty introspection as she felt she had been a little too harsh on the boy who was trying to help her.
"Far be it from me to say this but I don't think anyone else has ever seen you like this right?" Shikamaru asked as Naruko pooled back into her memories recalling that not even in front of Old Man Hokage or Iruka-sensei did she ever tell them how alone she truly was despite of how they did care for her.
"No" Naruko answered simply.
"I'll tell you what Naruko, lie down next to me" Shikamaru suggested with a smile on his face causing the blonde to tilt her head in confusion as to what the lazy boy was doing. "Huh? What for?" Naruko queried as her usual loud tone of voice returned to her. Something which Shikamaru took as a sign of her feeling better.
"I wanna show you something" Shikamaru replied as Naruko did as he said, carefully lying down beside him placing her arms behind her head.
"I don't get it? What am I supposed to be seeing?" Naruko asked dumbfounded by the fact that all she could see was just clouds floating on by in the sky.
"Just take a deep breath and relax. You'll see what I mean" Shikamaru answered as Naruko complied with his instructions. Inhaling the fresh air Naruko exhaled as she usually would only this time to find a strange feeling overcome her. One that she could say she hadn't felt in such a long time.
Peace.
The feeling of complete and total serenity was astounding. It was an emotion of security and warmth that resonated with Naruko to such a degree that she never felt those negative thoughts penetrating her psyche. A contented smile spread across Naruko's face as not once did she think about her curse as the Jinchuuriki, never did her bastard Team enter her mind, and no longer did the village's hatred for her matter. She was at peace with not only herself, but with what and who she was with at this moment.
"I think I can see why you love this so much Shika" Naruko spoke in a cheerful yet calm tone as her ears picked up a light snore coming from beside her which prompted the fox girl to turn to her left side to see Shikamaru's eyes closed with his chest rising and descending slowly as he breathed.
"(He fell asleep)" Naruko thought still smiling that even for all his efforts in the time that she spent with him today he was still the same old sleepy Shikamaru.
"Lazy Nara" Naruko remarked as she decided to follow the Nara boy into the land of dreams, snuggling up beside him and cuddling his upper body, leaning into his ear.
"I'm not alone anymore Shika" Naruko whispered before kissing his cheek and falling asleep next to the Nara boy unknowing that he was awake the entire time.
"Sweet dreams Naruko" Shikamaru whispered planting a kiss on her cheek as well.
A/N: *sigh* I'm such a sap for fluffy romances… But man my mood was all over the place when making this going from KAWAII to depressed to psychotic ETC… Although I think that's why I think this came out as well as it did.
But in any case I made this because I ship Naruko X Shikamaru and anyone else who loves it can now have a little something sweet to read and I'm glad I could add my own little something to this pairing.
