Shikamaru and Temari: A Naruto Romeo and Juliet
by Phantom Crimsonnight
Author's Note:
Okay everyone! I thought this up on the way home from an anime convention with my friend yesterday. :3 It's the basic plot of Romeo and Juliet, but I added, of course, the twist of Naruto. So instead of meeting at the 'ball', they're going to meet in Konoha while doing something for the chuunin exams. ^.^ Yes, this set after timeskip, so Temari would be 18 and Shikamaru 16. We're gonna pretend that they never met before. xD :3 So yeah enjoy 8D
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or the story of Romeo and Juliet. I do, however, own the characters Natsu, Raidon, and Aika. ^.^ I don't own the character Azami, but she does belong to one of my good friends. :3
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Act I, Scene i
The heat from the sun above didn't bother anyone who walked the streets of Sunagakure at the moment. The inhabitants of this village were very much used to the scorching temperatures of their surroundings, and it didn't seem to bother the two shinobi that were standing with their backs against one of the buildings, and their arms crossed over their chest. At the moment, they were locked in quite the conversation. Or...at least the shorter of the two seemed to be conversing with himself in a way.
"...And so then he thought he had me, and was just about to kill me. But then I slipped a kunai out of my sleeve and I killed HIM!" the smaller one elaborated, moving his arms in quite a wild fashion. His green eyes were wide, his dark brown hair was spiked up, fishnet-covered arms now moving back down to his sides.
"I see, Natsu," the taller of the two said, staring down at Natsu with dark eyes. "You're quite the quick one, are you not?"
"Pssh, of course Raidon! I'm quick as a wink. I'll start a battle with anyone at any time, especially if they're from that damned Leaf Village!" Natsu said, bringing up the age-old quarrel between his village and the village of Konohagakure.
"Of course, Natsu. We all know that you will press the weakest up against the wall, whether it be a strong shinobi or one of the lady kunoichis," Raidon responded with a nod. Even though he was a shinobi and everything, he was still a gentleman. A part of him on the inside had always wanted to give the ladies a benefit of the doubt, even if they WERE Konoha shinobi.
"Screw that! It doesn't matter if they're ladies or not. They're kunoichi, they've been trained to take whatever the hell life throws at them. At least, I know our kunoichi are. The Leaf Village's kunoichi may be slightly weaker than ours, of course," the shorter male declared with complete sincerety.
"But they weren't really involved in it, were they? The kunoichi, I mean. Isn't it a quarrel between the leaders of our two villages and their head ninja?" Raidon prompted. Yeah, on the inside he was really just one big softie.
"So what? They're part of that damned village, they're our mortal enemies. I'd cut off their heads and have no problem stealing what they hold as their most precious virtue," Natsu declared.
"That's sick, Natsu. It's pure cruelty," the taller male replied.
"They're probably all bad at it anyway, Konoha ninja don't have talent at anything," he countered.
"Look, Natsu. Here they come now, shut your mouth or draw your katana," Raidon warned him.
"Psh, here it comes! You go ahead and talk their ears off, I'll back you up, man," Natsu said, tapping Raidon on the shoulder and drawing his long katana blade with his other hand and holding it there.
"So you hide behind me now, mister high and all-mighty?" Raidon said, taking a stab at Natsu's ego.
"Don't push my buttons you fool," Natsu said.
"We can just glare at them as they walk by, maybe then they'll get the message," the taller male suggested, which made Natsu cackle in amusement beside him.
"Dude, I'll just flip them off," the shorter one said once he was done cackling at his friend's suggestion of just glaring at them as they walked past.
Sure enough, though, walking up the streets with a slight look of disgust on their face were two shinobi from Konohagakure. One of them looked like he just claimed all authority wherever he went. His hair was quite long, longer than really any of the other males that he knew. It gave him almost a feministic look, but if you knew Neji well, you would know that he was really anything but feminine. His eyes were a pale lavender color, and lacking pupils, a sure sign that he was a member of the famous Hyuga clan of the Leaf Village. His companion, though...was very different looking. Rock Lee had large black eyes and black hair that was cut as if someone had put a bowl on top of his head and cut his hair around that. He was dressed all in green, wearing his headband proudly around his waistline.
"What do you think you're doing?" Neji asked, staring at Natsu who seemed to be holding up his middle finger quite freely. "Are you flipping us off?" This wasn't good. The Hyuga was really in no mood for fun and games whatsoever.
"Hm?" Natsu looked down at his finger nonchalantly, "Oh this? Yes, I have my finger up."
"But are you holding it up at us?" the Hyuga prompted impatiently. With a thoughtful look on his face, Natsu turned around to look at his taller teammate.
"D'you think they can beat us if I say yeah and they start a fight?"
"Probably," Raidon replied lightly. "We've got that Hyuga prodigy, remember."
"Damn, okay..." Natsu said before he turned back around to face Neji and Lee. "No, I do not purposely give you two the middle finger, I just raised my finger. But if you do happen to be in the mood for a fight..."
"If you are challenging us, then yes. We are in the mood for a fight!" Lee declared.
"Then so be it!" Natsu said, raising the katana that he had unsheathed not very long ago.
It had all turned out quite well. The battle was matched up quite evenly and quite fairly by anyone's standards. Raidon and Lee seemed to be having it off in a battle of taijutsu, while Neji had activated his Byakugan and was throwing blows at Natsu's chakra points. He had gotten a few of them in, but it wasn't enough to slow down the brown-haired sand nin. Natsu was doing quite well when it came to his defensive skills, using his katana as a defensive weapon. It was very common for battles to break out between the members of the Sand Village and the Leaf Village.
"Stop!" the cry came from Konoha's own blonde knuckleheaded ninja. "Guys, stop it! Not again, you remember what happened last time..." Sure, Naruto Uzumaki had never been one to listen to when it came to a voice of reason, but this time he really did have a point. Normally he would be the one who was participating in one of these battles, but he was really in an urgent mood to get back home.
Of course Naruto's efforts were completely pointless when it came to this battle, because waltzing down the street right now just happened to be the Kazekage's older brother, Kankuro. Now when Kankuro saw a battle...well that battle was going to happen or it was going to get even worse. In the case of today...well that battle was going to get worse. The makeup-laden Jonin made his way over to the large brawl, brown eyes taking in what was happening so far. He turned his head to look at Naruto.
"Well, well, well, why don't I just fight you, you little punk?" Kankuro said, unwinding the bandages on his back which held his puppet, the Crow.
"Shut up, Kankuro, I'm only trying to keep everything peaceful," Naruto snapped back.
"Coward, fight me," Kankuro prompted, pushing Naruto's ego over the edge. Finally he cracked and stepped back.
"Fine, I'll fight you."
In a matter of moments, the place was swimming with shadow clones of Naruto. It was a complete mad house, especially once Kankuro had managed to clear out some of the clones with his puppet. If Sunagakure had ever seen 'disaster', it was happening right now in it's streets.
"Kankuro, what's going on here?" The voice of the Kazekage stopped all of the chaos that was going on in the streets. Arms crossed, sea green eyes peering at his brother with a questioning look within them. At his side stood his wife, a kunoichi of the Sand Village named Azami. Her amber eyes stared at the battle just as Gaara's were, though her eyes were taking in more of an observation instead of asking a question. She knew just what this battle was about, she didn't even have to ask a question.
"The Leaf Village punks started it all, Gaara," Kankuro said, returning his puppet to its spot upon his back.
"Naruto, Neji, Lee! What are you three still doing here?" this voice, however, belonged to a woman. Turning around quite quickly, the three Leaf Village Shinobi turned around quite quickly to see the Hokage standing right before them.
"Granny Tsunade!? What the hell are you doing here!?" Naruto asked, making Tsunade's lips turn into a scowl.
"Shut your mouth, Naruto. Gaara, did you start all of this up?" the Lady Hokage asked, an intent look on her face.
"Lady Tsunade..." Shizune began.
"Not now, Shizune."
"I am just as clueless as you are on this situation," Gaara replied to her cooly.
"Can we just finish this battle and get it over with?" Kankuro asked, sending a glare towards Naruto.
"Hush, Kankuro," the Kazekage ordered with a glare at his younger brother. Just as Gaara had finished speaking, guess who showed up but everyone's favorite...pervy sage.
"Hey, hey, woah...what's going on here?" Jiraiya asked, his eyes moving from Tsunade to Gaara and then back again.
"What does it look like?" Tsunade snapped at him.
"Pervy sage! What are you doing here?!" Naruto asked, pointing a finger at Jiraiya.
"I told you not to call me that!" Jiraiya said, sending a glare at the shorter blonde. "But on the other hand, we've got another one of these street fights going on again?"
"Obviously," the Hokage stated dryly.
"They started it!" Naruto said, gesturing to Kankuro, Natsu, and Raidon.
"Shut your mouth, Naruto. Let's go home," Tsunade said, turning on her heel without another word. Shizune followed quickly behind, as well as Neji, Lee, and Naruto. Gaara's eyes traveled from his brother to Natsu, to Raidon before he looked down at Azami at his side, placing his hand on top of hers and leaving his three shinobi where they stood. Jiraiya just shrugged and continued on his way.
-
The journey home from Konoha wasn't fun, especially the silence of it. It was obvious that the Hokage wasn't happy at the moment, and that was never good when Tsunade was displeased. It wasn't good for really...anyone's health.
"Naruto, were you there when the whole thing started?" Tsunade asked, turning to look at the blonde who was walking quietly for once in his life.
"Me? Yeah, I was there. At first I tried to split up Neji and Lee's fights, but then that jerk Kankuro came up and challenged me to a fight...and then you saw what happened," Naruto explained as the group entered Konoha's gates.
"Naruto, have you seen Shikamaru?" Shizune asked.
"Huh? Yeah, this morning...I couldn't sleep because I woke up really early and I was hungry...and then I couldn't fall back to sleep. But yeah, anyway, I saw him out really early this morning laying in the field just staring up at the sky like he usually does. But he looked really sad for some reason, I don't know what happened," Naruto replied. "It's really unlike him to be up before me, even."
"I've seen him there a couple of times in the morning, always solemn looking or...crying even. His parents say he spends a lot of time locked in his bedroom at night and that he's always gone before they even wake up, which is very unlike his normal behavior," Tsunade said, a thoughtful look across her face.
"Do you know what's wrong with him?" asked the blonde.
"Does it sound like I've figured out what's wrong with him?" Tsunade retorted.
"Well fine, Granny!"
"Maybe if you're so curious about him, you should find out what's the matter with him yourself," the Hokage replied.
"I will, believe it! Look, there he is now! See you later, Granny Tsunade!" Naruto said, breaking off into the training field where Shikamaru lay with his lazy eyes staring up at the sky. It wasn't an unusual occurrence to see whatsoever, many a day the Nara would lay out there instead of training. His being lazy was just something that all of his friends were used to.
"'Morning Shikamaru!" Naruto said, waving to the lazy shinobi as he leaned his head up to focus his brown eyes on the blonde that was walking towards him.
"It's only morning?" came the monotonous voice of Shikamaru.
"I guess...it was nine the last time I heard," the Uzumaki stated.
"Hm."
"Shikamaru, why the hell are you so depressed?" Naruto blurted. What could anyone say? Oh Naruto.
"How much are they paying you to find out?" Shikamaru asked.
"They're not paying me anything!"
"Fine. I'll make it short and sweet. Ino dumped me."
"HA! I knew it!"
"I'll take that as your sincere showing of sympathy."
"Come on, Shikamaru, don't be depressed over her! There's a bunch of other pretty girls in Konoha that are better than Ino! I'm sure that you could date any one of them...except for Hinata-chan, you're not allowed to have her," Naruto said, blushing a little when he thought about his shy girlfriend.
"Yeah, you have fun with that..." Shikamaru responded dryly.
"I can even show you some of them!" Naruto pestered. The Nara rolled onto his side to stare up at the blonde, obviously not convinced by any standards.
"How about no."
"Ugh..." Naruto sighed.
This whole thing was going to be harder than he thought.
I had to cut it off somewhere. xD So yeah, next shall be scene two. :3 Reviews are always loved.