The lives of the Nara clan centered around their deer. Their entire lives, from birth to death were spent caring for them, for the forest they called home.
Growing up Shikamaru was often told the same story. Within the Nara clan there was a legend about the dedication of one of their own. Legend had it that one Nara gave up their life to live with their deer. It was a story any Nara could recite by heart by the time they reached the age of eight.
It went along the lines that one Nara girl gave up her life to the woods. In the afterlife her soul looked over the lives of her precious deer as a mixture of everything she represented. As beautiful and graceful as any deer, she walked with the antlers of the proudest stag and eyes as dark as those of the gentlest doe. Her touch kept the food plenty and the deer healthy. She walked the creatures through their deaths and watched over every birth.
Though she had turned her back on her people in life, she didn't forsake them in death. As protectors of the deer, the lives of her animal children were irrevocably linked with the lives of the Naras. Various customs brought this spirit into their lives from the moment they were born. Babies were brought into the woods to be acquainted with the animals and recognized as good by the spirit. Elders made prayers to her at every antler harvest and birthing season for good luck. The dead were honoured in a sacred space by the main watering hole, with the belief that they too will watch over the forest in death.
Shikamaru listened to the familiar voice of his father telling this story, easily recalling millions of times he fell asleep or was comforted to the same thing. It was comforting now, relaxing in its familiarity. It hunted and killed any last nerves that had refused to leave his body before this day.
He stood proudly among the trees of the Nara clan forest; straight and tall as the mighty oaks themselves he listened as his father called the deer from their hiding places. This would be the last time his parents called the deer to introduce him as their son. After today the deer, the spirit would recognize him as his own person, an adult that stood separate from his parents.
His clan was gathered among their animals, looking up at him. Everyone was present for this ceremony, as always. Shikamaru himself had been present to witness this multiple times throughout his own life. It was better, he found, to be the one standing up front.
The end of the story came, and his father gave up his position to the mother of the bride.
Bride. She stood next to him, radiating her beauty for everyone to see and bathing him in it. Despite his friends' continuous reminders of how odd it was to see him settling down, Shikamaru couldn't shake the feeling of how right this is. He was meant to have her by his side. With her the world was simple, easy to handle, hardly even troublesome.
His bride took his hand before he realized her mother had finished her contributions. For a second he was aware of the ritual silence, but it slipped away under the bright gaze of his beloved. Now, everyone would watch as the deer accepted the new couple. It was the promise of a lifetime; the herd would never allow either of them to take a new mate while the other was alive.
One deer leaned over the shoulder of Shikamaru's beautiful bride. For a moment every last clan member held their breath. Shikamaru himself fought to not allow a flicker of his apprehension show. For that moment Shikamaru saw the possibility of losing this woman. No matter if they had already preformed the public ceremony for his friends outside the clan, if the herd didn't approve of their union, all was lost.
The woman Shikamaru had set his heart on giggled against the nose on her cheek, her smile scaring every fear into oblivion. The doe chuffed lightly, putting her head deploringly on the brides shoulder. Lovingly, she rubbed the nose that tickled her, and a second later Shikamaru followed suit.
A cheer went up from the crowd watching. In that moment that had followed the fear, she became his. Everything in Shikamaru got lost in this single new truth. One happy glance from those eyes and he was lost completely.
As per Nara customs their life together would start in the woods, in a small cabin deep in Nara land. For awhile, they would live on the land with nothing but each other. Same as their ancestors had done, so would they. Without a glance at the family he was leaving he took her beyond the tree line to the beginning it. Shikamaru swept his wife into his arms, intent only on drowning in her beauty.
Notes- The usual disclaimer, any characters or places mentioned are not mine. Before this confuses anybody I made up the marriage ceremony custom thing. I actually have no idea if the Nara have any special traditions or anything, so the romantic in me decided to make one. I never specified anything about Shikamaru's bride on purpose. I figure I'd leave it to the reader to come up with her. She could be Ino, or Temari or that code translator girl whose name I don't know or some random Nara woman who never gets mentioned. So don't go asking about who she is, because I never figured it out.
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