A Day in the Life of Shikamaru

By: WhiteFang72

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Summary: Shikamaru is not your average ninja and, as he lives in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, nothing about his day is average either.

…

"How utterly troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. He'd been lying on his bed, his soft bed, pretending to be asleep, when someone had thrown the curtains open, letting in the full rays of the morning sun. He didn't need to venture a guess as to who had done it. His mother was always doing things similar to that, throwing open curtains as if she were parting the Red Sea, industriously cooking breakfast on their small, cast iron stove, running around the house after his little brother as if she never wanted to stop moving. Really, he had no idea where she got her energy from.

"Nara Shikamaru, you get yourself up this instant!"

Shikamaru let loose a heavy sigh and turned to face his mother. As usual, she had her hair pulled lightly back in a ponytail, and a few strands had fallen out of it to frame her face. Her eyes were stern, completely unyielding. There would be no arguing with her today. Not that there ever is, Shikamaru admitted to himself.

"Why's today so important?" He asked, and, though he hadn't intended it, a bit of a whine accompanied his voice.

His mother frowned. "No whining." She paused, "I got you up early today because you've been too lazy lately. You need to go somewhere, do something, meet some girls. Do something that other kids your age do."

Shikamaru stiffened. His mother's speech, he'd heard it often, was getting dangerously close to the part where she ruffled Shikamaru's hair. That was always a bad sign. As soon as Shikamaru's hair was ruffled it meant that his mother would give him two choices. Either endeavor to socialize in the outside world or stay at home and have his mother's fist painfully meet his face. Not only that, but afterward he'd have to wash the dishes.

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head and put on a small, fake smile. "I'll go outside mom."

His mother only shot him a delighted smile, one which she undermined the very next second by taking out her favorite kunai. Then rubbing a cleaning cloth along its length.

Shikamaru shuddered. "Why do I know such scary women," he thought. He pulled on his clan vest , dull green with his clan symbol and his Konoha Hitai-ate on the sleeves, and shut the door to his room. Once in the hallway his smile wore off and was replaced by a scowl. There in front of him, hands clapping together excitedly, bounced his six year old brother. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"What do you…"

"Guess what, guess what?" His brother screeched. The octave was just short of piercing.

"You've finally stopped following me…"

"I won a game of shogi! I won it, I won it, I won it!"

Shikamaru smirked, though he tried to hide it, "Who were you playing aganinst?"

Here, his brother managed to look completely serious, "Akamaru."

Shikamaru paused, then blinked once, slowly, "Kiba's dog?"

His brother nodded enthusiastically. "Kiba, Naruto and Sakura are here. They all said that their sensei's let them have the day of. Kiba said that Akamaru likes shogi so I said that I'd play against him. Oh, they also said that they're bored 'cause everyone else is planning on sleeping in 'till noon."

Shikamaru nodded, as much as it was against his better judgement to hang around the three most annyoing people in Konohagakure village, he knew his mother would find out if he did not. He walked down the hallway, opened the screen door to the front of his house and was greeted with the oddest sight he'd ever had the misfortune to see.

Both Naruto and Kiba were standing on his front lawn, shivering, and clad only in their boxers.

Sakura was dancing around both of them, holding out their clothes to them in a teasing way and bursting into giggles every so often. As Shikamaru watched, Naruto shouted a war cry and, rallying Kiba as his general, rushed Sakura with a kunai in each hand.

Enough was enough. "Hn, what's going on out here?"

Caught off guard, Sakura forgot to move and both Kiba and Naruto turned to face the direction the voice had come from. Unfortunately, the law of momentum was still in effect and it all ended with Sakura smashing into the nearest tree.

Shikamaru gulped and stepped back, he could practically feel the atmosphere changing from playful to absolutely murderous.

Sakura pulled herself up. Here it came. "Which one of you?" It was said so calmly, maybe… "Which one of you?" Sakura's voice gained an edge Shikamaru rarely heard. Naruto and Kiba cowered on the ground in front of the pink haired girl. Sakura raised her fist. BAM!! Then took it out of a twelve-inch hole in the tree.

"Yahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" So scary…

…

After being chased ten blocks by a pink haired girl holding knives, not even kunai, those things had to be butchers knives, Shikamaru finally made it back to his house, and Sakura finally blew off steam.

Shikamaru now felt safe enough to ask how and why the whole situation had started in the beginning. Though, he did manage to sit eight feet away from Sakura and make it seem like he wasn't using the distance for safety's sake.

Sakura smiled and began, "Well, Naruto was being his usual self, an idiot in other words, and decided that since he had so much energy he needed to find someone else to share that energy with." She shook her head, "We didn't expect you to be up but we had already checked with everyone else, even Neji, and they were all too tired to put up with Naruto. Then Kiba joined, he'd been out walking Akamaru, and he and Naruto both decided that they should have a soda-drinking contest. Then, for some reason, they thought it would be fun if you joined in so we came over here."

"And the part about the clothes?"

"Oh yeah, that. Well, ummm," a red tint came to Sakura's cheeks, "we got here and met your little brother out front and he asked if someone could play shogi with him. Naruto had heard from Konohamaru that your little brother couldn't play shogi for anything, so he said that even Akamaru could beat him. Then Kiba went and bet your brother that if Akamaru won your brother would have to run laps with Lee. Well," she sighed, "Your brother than, said that if he won and not Akamaru then Kiba and Naruto would have to walk around half naked all day."

"Huh." Shikamaru nodded and smiled to Naruto and Kiba. They were both currently hiding in a bush from Ino, who had just woke up. She was apparently very amused at the sight.

"Oi, stop taking pictures of us!"

…

Author's Note: Hello, I'm WhiteFang72 and this is my first story on this site. Please bear with me, I have no beta reader but I do have enthusiasm. So I will try to update a lot. Thank you for reading! Review if you like… Hopefully none of the characters will be OOC…