A/N: Hey! A small one shot of a rare (one sided) otp (imo). I needed to refresh my mind before going back to SR (as well as touch up on my writing skills lol). Fluffy maybe? I don't know, my skills in this department are mediocre. Mmmm anyways enjoy!
Shikamaru Nara was a normal child. He had a caring (nagging) mother and a supportive father. He had plenty of friends, always welcoming towards other kids. He did enough physical activity to keep him in shape. He was smart enough to pass the tests without much effort. He went to the academy like every other young and aspiring shinobi. He had his future planned ahead. Marry an average woman, have two children-one boy and one girl. Eventually die before his wife, surrounded by his loved ones.
Overall Shikamaru's entire being screamed normal.
So why was he not feeling normal?!
Shikamaru pulled his pillow over his head, feeling the heat rise to his face. He couldn't believe himself. How could this have happened to him? It wasn't normal for him to be feeling this way towards someone so much older! Especially towards Iruka-sensei no less!
"Ugh…what a drag…"The young teen grumbled, burrowing his head further into the pillow. He just wanted to forget the entire day all together! He wondered if Ino could erase the day's events but she would want to know, and that spelled work for him.
Thinking back on it, he knew it wasn't anything life threatening. He would most likely forget about the entire incident by next week…but he knew the two witnesses wouldn't.
-earlier that day-
"Alright! Today we'll be having class outside, so lets get going! Also bring a pencil." The authoritative voice of Iruka rang throughout the class. Many of the students complied while a few complained.
"It's too cold to have class outside!" Naruto shouted, walking with his hands behind his head.
"Maybe if you brought a sweater you wouldn't complain so much." Iruka replied, bopping the young blonde on the head with his clipboard. Naruto grumbled, sticking his tongue out as his response. The Chunin teacher sighed at his actions, waiting until the last of his students left the room before closing the door. He quickly walked to the front of his class, leading them to the fields just beyond the academy. Content with the surroundings, he stopped and turned towards his students.
"Iruka-sensei? What are we doing outside?" A confused Chouji asked aloud. Iruka smiled as he pulled out a stack of papers.
"Today you'll be identifying the various herbs and insects in this area." Iruka explained, handing the sheets out.
"Eh? Do you mean all of this?!" Sakura widened her eyes. Many others were shocked as well. The field was at least twice the size of the classroom.
"Yes. To make things a bit more challenging every single sheet is different. So some papers may have more questions than others. Also! Don't trade your papers!" Iruka said.
"How troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered, grabbing a sheet from the stack then passing it along.
"I bet Iruka-sensei is only making us do this because he didn't have anything planned." Kiba whispered/yelled to a couple of other kids. Iruka heard what the Inuzaka said, irritated he dismissed his class to go about and finish their papers.
While he didn't appreciate what Kiba had to say, it wasn't a lie. The Chunin man didn't have time last night to plan today's class. Instead of working on the day's lesson, Iruka was out drinking with the other Chunin instructors. He pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed at his lack of responsibilities. The papers he just distributed were apart of a booklet from several years ago. He wasn't even sure if it was up to date with today's facts.
As Iruka supervised his class, still thinking about last night's activities his students were trying their best to complete the assignment.
"Hey Shikamaru! How many questions do you have on your sheet?" Chouji asked his lazy friend.
"I don't know, I didn't check yet." Shikamaru replied. He turned over the paper in his hand, expecting the sheet to be filled with questions. Instead he was greeted with one line of text.
"Huh, lucky me." Shikamaru grinned. Chouji peered over his shoulder, instantly feeling sad. Shikamaru took a look at Chouji's paper and saw it was only half full.
"That's not that bad Chouji."
"Then lets trade."
"I'd rather not." Shikamaru said. He gave his best friend a comforting pat on the back before they spilt up to finish their individual sheets.
"A plant that has both healing and poisonous qualities…" Shikamaru muttered to himself, wandering around the field. It wasn't a difficult question for him. His clan often dealt with herbs in and around the forest.
Looking up at the gloomy sky, he knew it would rain soon. Shikamaru would've blown off doing this assignment and instead lay in the fields and sleep, however the looming clouds above helped change his mind. Crouching down, he placed the sheet on his knee to stably write the answer. He took a quick glance around and saw that most of his classmates were helping each other out/talking. Shikamaru noticed that Iruka was standing off to the side, not really paying attention to the others.
'How could the most strict man in the academy be so deattached today…' He thought to himself. Sighing, the young teen got up and stretched his tired joints out. He felt the cold wind rush at him and promptly shivered. Shikamaru disliked the fact that he had to be out in the cold. With strong winds like this his hair would be blowing all over the place despite being held in a hair tie.
"Shikamaru! Did you finish your sheet?!" Said teen slowly turned around to see a smiling purple clad blonde run towards him.
"Hey Ino." He greeted with much less enthusiasm. The longhaired blonde pouted at his effort but quickly regained focus.
"I finished all the questions about plants but I have no idea about the bugs." Ino showed Shikamaru her paper.
"Don't ask me. I only had one question on a herb." He shrugged.
"What!? No way!" Before Ino could grab his sheet a strong gust of wind went over the entire class, causing both teens to hold tightly onto their papers. They looked around and noticed some had their papers blowing in the wind.
"What a pain…" Shikamaru grumbled.
"Geez, you'd think Iruka-sensei would consider the weather." Ino complained, looking at their instructor. Shikamaru shrugged as he turned away from his blonde friend and towards Iruka.
"Huh? Wait you're done already?" Ino grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Yeah, like I said I had only one question." Shikamaru smirked, flashing his one line of text proudly.
"That's so unfair-Ah!" Ino shouted as her paper was snatched by another gust of wind.
"You should go get that." Shikamaru commented at the angry blonde. She frowned, adjusting her ponytail before running off to chase her paper. Shikamaru shivered once more. The wind was starting to pick up as evident by his hair blowing in every direction. He noticed he wasn't the only one to have finished as there were two others walking towards Iruka.
"Hey, so you guys finished early." Shikamaru said, catching up to his other classmates- Sasuke and Hinata. Of course Hinata was a few steps behind the Uchiha. Like always the ever stoic Uchiha didn't reply.
"Ah Shikamaru-kun! D-did you have a lot of q-questions on your sheet?" Hinata managed to stutter out. The teen in question showed her his paper, earning a surprise look.
"W-we have t-the same question." Her quiet reply came. Hinata took out her neatly folded paper from her pocket and showed him.
"Huh? I thought Iruka-sensei said they were all different." Shikamaru wondered aloud. He looked towards the silent Uchiha who glared at him before showing his paper to the two. Shikamaru furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"M-maybe some p-papers were photo c-copied?" Hinata suggested. Shikamaru thought it over in his head. It was rather stupid of Iruka to do such a thing if he wanted this to be an individual assignment.
"Hey! What are you three doing?" Iruka caught the three teens attention.
"I'm done." Sasuke replied, handing his paper over. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at Sasuke's lack of also mentioning Hinata and himself.
"Same over here." Shikamaru took Hinata's paper and his, handing it towards the tired looking Chunin. Iruka looked at the three sheets with confusion.
"Did I take from three of the same booklets…" Iruka muttered to himself.
"Can we head back to the academy?" Shikamaru yawned.
"Well I suppose since you three are done, but I'll have to unlock the door for you." Iruka stashed the papers into the clipboard. Before the four could leave Iruka told the rest of the class to stay where they were.
The walk back to the academy was a cold and windy one. Every once in a while Hinata would sneeze, signalling that a flu was to come over her. Sasuke was indifferent of course, but he had his hands stuffed into his pockets. Shikamaru however would not stop sighing about his hair. Out of the three teens his hair was the longest, thus leading it to be blown in every direction. He reached a hand up to hold his hair in place but next thing lead to another and-
"Kyah!" Hinata's high-pitched scream caught the attention of the other three.
"Hinata! Are you alright…huh?" Iruka quickly turned around to see the young Hyuga nurse her now red nose. It was a sight that made him curious as to how it happened but one quick look at Shikamaru and he knew.
"Sorry about that Hinata, didn't know my hair tie would snap like that." Shikamaru consoled the teary eyed girl. She nodded, wiping her tears away.
Shikamaru pushed a hand through his now loose hair. With the wind blowing everywhere his hair did the same. He reached into his pockets for another hair tie but found none.
"You don't have a hair tie I could borrow do you?" He asked Hinata. She shook her head; her short locks indicating as much.
"Oi. Can't you just leave your hair as is." Sasuke frowned. He didn't mind the cold, but standing outside over something so trivial was testing him.
"No I can't. Unlike you I don't style my hair into a icicles." Shikamaru shot back. The dark haired Uchiha glared at him.
Hinata glanced from the two to Iruka, still holding her sniffling nose. Iruka knew he would get a headache after a night of drinking, he just didn't expect it to be from three students he found tolerable (maybe not Shikamaru but). Sighing, the Chunin man walked over to Shikamaru and pulled out a hair tie.
"Huh, what are you-" Shikamaru was surprised when Iruka began to hand comb through his hair.
"The sooner I get this done, the sooner we can get inside alright?" Iruka explained. Shikamaru stood still, looking at the floor. Nobody else but his parents actually fixed his hair for him, but that was when he couldn't do it himself. He had to admit that the feeling of somebody going through his hair was nice, even if it was rather rough. It took a couple minutes for Iruka to neatly gather his messy hair. Shikamaru had never been so close to Iruka. Even when handing in assignments or getting scolded at for sleeping in class he made sure to stay back at least an arm's length away.
Maybe it was just the cold wind but Shikamaru felt much warmer in the young man's presence.
"There, all done. Lets get going now." Iruka smiled, putting a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder.
"Thanks…" He muttered, feeling the heat rise to his cold cheeks. It was nothing more but a quick action but it brought out something from him. Watching as the academy instructor walk ahead, the dark haired teen looked back up noticing the stares of Sasuke and Hinata.
Shikamaru knew they weren't confused looks, instead they were knowing looks. Turning away from the two, he knew exactly what they knew.
-ll
Shikamaru slowly got up from his laying position, abandoning his pillow behind him. He mulled over the thought of Sasuke or Hinata calling him out on it. He knew Hinata wouldn't say anything. The Hyuga was too shy (or scared) to confront him on it. Sasuke on the other hand…
He didn't seem like the type to do anything about it. Shikamaru was sure the depressing teen didn't care about him at all. However the look that the two gave him made Shikamaru unsure. Did they think it was weird? Shikamaru thought it was weird. Not about liking a guy. He knew things like that happened, but liking somebody so much older than him. Especially since it was his teacher!
Kami-sama, he was only eleven!
Shikamaru brought a hand up to his forehead. He could just play it off as catching a cold, but he knew better than that. The two kekkei genki users were far from stupid. Sighing the tired teen stretched out his arms, falling back into his bed.
"This is too bothersome…" Shikamaru yawned. He knew the little incident would come back and bite him in the ass, but right now the only thing he could care about was Iruka's ass-
"Argh!" Flustered, Shikamaru grabbed the pillow and slammed it against his face. This was not normal! It was definitely not normal too think about Iruka-sensei like that!
Feeling the heat from his face rise, Shikamaru decided to skip dinner. He'd rather deal with his angry mother than talk about what was currently bothering him.
Twenty minutes passed before his door opened. Shikamaru didn't bother checking who it was because by the lack of nagging it was his dad.
"Shikamaru it's time for dinner, come on." The older Nara called, leaning against the doorway. He watched as his son wave him off, pillow still lying atop his face.
"Shikamaru."
A grunt and a wave of his hand was the young teen's response. Shikaku frowned, walking towards his son.
"Shikamaru get up." Shikaku narrowed his eyes as Shikamaru gave the same response. Fed up with the lack of progress the Nara clan leader kicked the bed, causing the young teen to fall in surprise off the bed.
"What did you do that for dad?!" A bright red Shikamaru shouted.
"Your mother will start nagging if you don't get out of your room...not that she hasn't started." He explained, crouching down to the fallen teen. Shikamaru frowned but knew his dad was right.
"Hm? Why are you so red? Did you catch a cold?" Shikaku asked as he pressed the back of his hand to Shikamaru's forehead.
"N-no." Shikamaru stammered out, backing away slightly. As much as he liked talking with his dad, in the current situation he'd rather not. However Shikaku was amused with his son's unnatural behaviour.
"Not a cold huh, then what's got you so flushed?" Shikaku pulled his hand away, studying his son's face. Shikamaru avoided his dad's prying eyes. He knew the older male knew exactly why he was so bothered; Shikamaru just didn't want to talk about.
"I noticed your hair looks a bit different from this morning." Shikaku commented, dark eyes staring straight at his son's.
"Yeah, the wind was crazy today." Shikamaru replied. Shikaku continued to stare intensely at Shikamaru before getting up.
"I suppose the wind will do that." Shikaku yawned as he walked towards the door. He reminded Shikamaru to come out for dinner before finally leaving. Shikamaru stayed still, listening until his father's footsteps could no longer be heard then let out a sigh of relief. He felt his face cool off from earlier. Did his dad know about Iruka? He couldn't have…
Shikamaru, shaking his head from the thought got up from the floor and prepared himself for the dinner his mother made.
-!
"Hm…" Iruka hummed to himself. The young teacher busy with marking papers. He wouldn't admit it himself but the assignment he gave his students yesterday was a rather stupid move. The dark haired man didn't even bother going through them all. Instead he threw them out the moment he got home. Sighing, Iruka put his pen down and held his head in his hands. There was at least twenty minutes before students would start coming in. Thinking over the class plan he made, the Chunin failed to notice a young Nara slip through the door.
"…Hey." Shikamaru greeted, standing in front of his desk.
"Shikamaru? What are you doing here so early?" Iruka asked. The young teen scratched the back of his head, avoiding Iruka's eyes. Curious, Iruka folded his hands and waited for his student to explain. A moment of silence went by before Shikamaru sighed and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"How troublesome…" He muttered to himself. Brown eyes looking around the classroom before settling on the Chunin.
"I wanted to...thank you…for uh fixing my hair." Shikamaru explained, feeling his blood go to his cheeks. Iruka raised an eyebrow in confusion. Was fixing the young Nara's hair that important that he needed to thank him. Iruka knew that Nara men often take pride in their uniform hairstyle. However he didn't think nothing of the small action…unless of course having another touch their hair is the same as…
Iruka suddenly brought a hand up to his mouth, face much more red than Shikamaru's.
'Did Shikamaru tell his dad' Iruka thought to himself. He looked at his blushing young student. What was he suppose to do now? Looking pass Shikamaru and out the window he caught sight of Shikaku.
Squinting his eyes he could make out the words the older Nara was mouthing.
Take responsibility.