Shikamaru glanced at the clock. Its face wasn't friendly, then again it wasn't unfriendly; it was just the only one he could see. 5:25, it read. Their team was to meet in the specified classroom to meet their new member: Kitsune, who was to replace Ino after she'd been transferred. Shikamaru hadn't slept well that night, he could come up with no reason to keep trying, and, thus, he figured he might as well head on over to the school, hence his being there 45 minutes early. And only ten minutes had passed since.

'What does a man do in life,' he was contemplating, 'when he's sitting around waiting for someone else's move?' Philosophical as it might have sounded aloud, the thought had been simply focused on wading through the darkness of boredom in a room with nothing even slightly amusing to study, physically or mentally.

But finally – about twelve minutes further into the wait – Shikamaru overheard a girl's voice some distance down the hall. "Well, I must have lost it," she said casually.

"Then I can't let you in," a familiar male voice stated, completely emotionless on the subject.

"Oh, come on, it's no big deal, I'm Asuma-sensei's new student, I-"

"Then you were given a pass. Hand it over to me and I'll let you in."

"Oh, please, sir – Asuma-sensei will recognize me-"

"He's not here yet. You'll have to wait."

Heaving a sigh, Shikamaru decided to possibly intervene, if he thought it was his place after observing for a while. Several moments later, the unmotivated ninja had climbed out from the desk he'd been settled in, making his way – at his own relaxed pace – to the door.

Peering out a minute and twenty-six seconds later, his drowsy eyes searched the entrance at the end of the hallway. The girl Shikamaru presumed to be the one speaking – previously attempting to charm her way in - was now pacing several feet from Hayate. He was the jonin making certain preparations for the day and had also become the unofficial morning security.

The girl was small, slender, her narrow face framed gently with wavy auburn locks of hair. The eyes, active and lively as an ocean wave, stood out especially - dark lashes outlining the cerulean irises. Breathing in and out - clearly finding it difficult to relax - the girl finally backed against a tree several feet from the school, seeming to have surrendered to whatever struggle she'd faced. "I guess that's Kitsune," Shikamaru muttered to himself.

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"Shikamaru," the extended call of his name aroused him from dozing off in his idled state. Kitsune was a few feet from his face, just then lifting a bandaged hand to presumably test his visual reaction. But she lowered it again, satisfied when his eyes focused on her.

"What, did you daydream again? Right through the Hokage's lecture too," his former teammate shook her head at the jounin as though to scold.

With a groan of annoyance, Shikamaru rubbed at his droopy eyes, stretching the skin back and forth as though to refresh the surrounding circulation. "Dozed more like it. Daydream would be when I had something worth dreaming of – like not being here anymore. Don't worry, I got the gist of her speech. The Akatsuki are nearer to town than ever before, probably only a few inches with the paranoia so common in our village these days, but our mission is to track down any who get too close, right?"

Kitsune shrugged, hardly impressed. "Okay, maybe you did cover the basics - you're smarter than I thought." Her teasing smirk was responded to with no real change in Shikamaru's sluggish expression.

Eventually the jounin looked past his partner to take in how the present atmosphere differed with that before he'd fallen asleep. The room was practically cleared of the ninja; a few pairs of jounin still sat around the levels of tables – which differed in height similarly to a set of stairs - with their own private discussions, but no figures of authority seemed to have remained. After all, what reason would they have to stick around, busy as adults tended to be? "Lady Tsunade certainly knows how to clear a room fast - one of the reasons I like having her as the Hokage." With that comment, his head laid against the wall behind him.

Scoffing slightly, Kitsune sat in the desk to his right. "Alright then Shikamaru, if you think you can be such a snob about it, tell me what new schedule was posted for our scouting missions?" She crossed her arms defiantly in an attempt to 'cease his flow of personal bragging points' – as she had once referred to it.

Shikamaru yawned, his gaze unwavering from the ceiling. "We leave today at two; tomorrow's an hour early according to security regulations. Every evening this week is at six." His pride usually didn't get the best of him, but he couldn't help glancing at his partner for a reaction. Though he'd potentially cheated and found that out even before the meeting, he thought she might as well be impressed, unaware of that truth. After all, she hadn't specified where the information had to come from.

The confident smirk exhibited by Kitsune's expectations dissolved, but she knew better than to display too much surprise. However, before she took an opportunity for her comeback, Choji had stepped into the doorway, tossing a couple of crunchy, brown ovals into his mouth even as he spoke - much to Kitsune's disgust, though both of his partners had grown more used to it throughout years of experience.

"Hey, what're you guys doing? Kitty, you said you were gonna grab Shikamaru - I've been waiting for like twenty minutes," Choji expressed casually, though with subtle exclamation toward the self-reliant claim.

"Impressive, Choji - especially considering Lady Tsunade's meeting hasn't even been over for that long," Kitsune offered a grin as she made the comment, to which Shikamaru snorted lazily - a sign that he found the circumstance amusing.

Smacking his lips, Choji apparently decided to resort to no comment, following up with a nonchalant change in subject. "So anyway, I persuaded Asuma-sensei to buy us some lunch today - since we don't know if we'll ever see each other again, the Akatsuki being extremely dangerous and all. We've gotta meet him in about five minutes at the tea shop." His tone was softened and he spoke quickly. Shikamaru assumed it to be the result of guilt getting to his companion - that he hardly believed it to be the last meal for any of them.

"Nah, sorry, Choji," finally, Shikamaru pressed his hands against the table before him, bracing to push himself up to his feet. "I've got some preparation to do for the final chunin exams - might as well get it done before we have to go on lookout…man, when the village is all rushed about an improbable occurrence…being a jounin can be such a drag…"

"Tragic story, Shikamaru - too bad you don't have time to tell us another one," Kitsune called after the ninja as he slinked his way to the hall.

Shikamaru cracked his neck back and forth as he walked. However, he chose only to give a surrendering wave in response to his companion's remark.