Deaths first Fic, and Wolf is gonna hate it (he's a friend) But without further ado,

He was In Shadows, She was In Spotlights

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, cept the title and plot.

"Wake up!" yelled a voice in his head. He shot up and looked around yawning. He noticed his father standing over him with his arms crossed. "Why are you waking me up at..." he looked over at the digital clock that lay on his night stand, "6:30?!?!?" he shouted.

"Shikamaru," his father sighed. "It's September seventh and it's the first day of your high school life." Shikamaru turned around and noticed his calendar, the sports illustrated edition (wink wink) it indeed was September seventh.

Shikamaru glared at his father and slowly got out of bed. He motioned for him to leave so he could change into appropriate apparel. He batted through his drawers looking for something descent to wear, he through a stained white tee over his shoulder and noticed a thick hardcover book labeled Konoha Pre-High 06' He snickered at the sight of this.

He opened it up and skimmed through to the eighth grade section of the year book. He found himself, half asleep, but he always tended to like as though he was bored, because most of the time he was.

Directly beneath him was Choji Akimichi, a large fellow who almost took up the whole frame, but he was Shikamaru's friend none the less. About two rows to the left of Choji was Kiba Inuzuka and directly to the right of him, Naruto Uzumaki.

Sigh

'Those two...' he thought. They were always battling it out about something completely pointless and troublesome. Those were all the kids in his homeroom he had befriended over the years.

He turned the page and again skimmed through the photo's. His face turned a bright red. In the dead center of the page was Ino Yamanaka. All there was to say was that she was beautiful beyond belief. Shikamaru then frowned at the two surrounding her. Sasuke, star of every sport there is, and Sai getter of every girl there is. Also in that class, Sakura, another popular girl, Hinata a pretty, shy and innocent girl. There was Neji who was Sasukes sports rival, although kept quite to himself. Lee a black belt in five different martial arts. And then there was Tenten... Hyper freak Tenten...

Shikamaru smiled as he threw the book back in the second to the bottom drawer, with a yawn. He found a green polo shirt and tan jeans, formal enough he sighed. He turned towards the clock, 6:45 he read. He trudged towards his bookbag, hidden beneath a chair in the corner of his room. He brushed off the spiderwebs and pulled the buspass out of the front pocket.

Bus seventeen it read, Pickup time: 6:55. He quickly snatched up his bookbag, unaware of its contents, and stumbled down the stairs a few feet from his room. He walked into the kitchen and noticed a piece of buttered toast laying on a soggy paper plate. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his Dad eating fried eggs off a frying pan.

"Aren't I suppose to get the better breakfast?" Shikamaru asked dully.

"Yeah" His father said, continuing to eat the eggs, "These eggs are crap"

Shikamaru grinned at the dry humor of his father, he took a bite of toast and threw it in the overflowing trash can.

He opened the wooden door, then the screened one. He noticed across the street Naruto and Kiba yelling at one another, all Shikamaru heard was," Buttered...Goat milk...Quantum Physics" Shikamaru sighed, he would have to go another year of this. As he walked closer to the street sign in which they stood under, Choji jogged up from the side, which was about as fast as Naruto or Kiba walking.

"Yo" Naruto said waving his arm in Shikamaru's direction. "Hey" Shikamaru replied. Choji finally reached them, although it sounded as if he was about to die of a fatal heart attack. They conversed, caught up with one another and Kiba looked up at the street sign, " Hmph, Another year of school eh?" Shikamaru shrugged, he wasn't to happy about it either.

Naruto broke the silence," Does anyone know what time it is?" Everyone shrugged.

"6:55" Shikamaru said.

"How do ya know?" Naruto replied. Shikamaru pointed at a big yellow bus. Doors opened.