Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine nor is Shikamaru. But i wont accept it. I will not let Temari have him. Never. *evil laugh*
"The mission was a success." Shikamaru reported in, handing her the official scrolls. "Although, the nobles did take an awful amount of time to prepare the statistics document even when we informed them prior of our visit."
"Hmm… Any complications?" Tsunade said as she scanned through the scroll.
"No. Even the survey reports are included in this."
"Fine." She said while closing the scroll shut one more time. "That's it for now. You are dismissed until further notice."
The day for Shikamaru went exactly like he imagined it to be. He spent the whole day watching clouds go by while he laid back on the soft green grass. It was his favorite spot for relaxing after every mission. The spot was ideal for him- it was secluded from the main crowd and had the perfect shade and breeze for an afternoon nap. Here, nobody would disturb him unless it was an emergency. This was an unsaid rule and everybody who knew him was aware of it.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
'So she has black hair. I didn't noticed that last time.'
His eyes jerked open with her thoughts reigning on his mind. Upon realizing that the first thing he thought after closing his eyes was some unknown Anbu person, he sighed. 'So… that person is back on my mind, huh.' He thought, his eyes fixated on the only cloud above him.
"Talk about a quiet dinner…" Shikamaru mumbled as he looked around the table of team 10's favorite food joint. He was surprised as well as shocked to see the crowd of his friends currently sitting around the table, devouring the food.
"When did our three person dinner transformed into a feast for seven person?"
"It happened all of a sudden, actually." Chouji informed him as he swiftly snatched a piece of meat from the grill into his mouth. "I invited Lee and Tenten as they too were headed this way…" snatching another piece of meat, "Ino brought Sai and…" and another piece of meat, "Kiba and Shino just tagged along."
On hearing the explanation Shikamaru couldn't help be sigh at the situation that had gathered his friends at one place as a faint smile crept on his face. Without any delay he too started chowing his share of food.
"So, Naruto and Sakura haven't come back from their mission, eh?"
"Sakura did. I met her this morning. She is working late shifts with the medic researchers."
"Man… everybody is so busy these days. I rarely get to see you guys!"
"Don't worry! The flame of youth inside all of us will always connect us no matter where we are!"
"Wait…what?"
"This is too delicious. I'm ordering another round."
Everybody was enjoying their free time, chatting and catching up what they had missed in their friends' lives when suddenly Shikamaru stood up from his seat. Everybody quieted down to enquire the reason behind his action. He didn't realized it but he had a very serious expression on his face. Seeing everybody's questioning looks, he quickly added, "I'll be back in a minute." And bolted out of the booth.
"What happened to him?"
"Went to pee, I think."
'I definitely heard it right.' He looked around the aisle between the booths. 'and I heard it real close. It's her voice! Here, in this restaurant!' He kept looking at every booth near their's, feeling too curious to feel embarrassed by the glares of the users. Excitement built up somewhere inside his chest as he made his way toward the entry/exit of the restaurant. 'public space… meaning no Anbu mask…maybe this time…'
Dreading of losing his only chance to find out about the person behind the mask, he quickened his pace toward the front of the restaurant, eliminating the possible contenders on his way by the only clue he had, 'her black hair'. As he made it to the reception area, he saw a figure by the restaurant owner, exiting the building. Barely getting a peek of the black tresses and a hint of a fabric, he immediately concluded:
'That's got to be her!'
He rushed ahead to the exit only to get disappointed. He was late by just one moment or two. There was no one present at the front door except for the owner. He scanned the road up and down but saw no one resembling her description. Only a scent of night mist lingered at the vicinity.
"You want something?"
"Umm… yeah. The person who was with you just a while ago, where did she go?" Shikamaru asked, even though he knew the answer of it.
"Hah? You know Tsu chan? Are you a friend of hers?" the owner beamed at him. "She just left. She disappeared right in front of me! I don't know why she keeps doing that–"
'Tsu chan? Her name? More importantly, this guy knows her?'
" –never met any of her friends before, even though I've taken care–"
"It's alright. Sorry for bothering you." He smiled and excused himself from a misleading one sided conversation.
"No problem. Any friend of Tsu chan is a friend of mine!"
The dinner went uneventfully for Shikamaru, after the sudden dose of excitement at the restaurant. However, that little excitement made him distracted from almost all the conversations going around him. His mind kept repeating the words of the restaurant owner.
'Tsu chan. Her name is Tsu- something.'
'Even if I search for her in the leaf database, what chances are there for me to succeed? ...This is too less of an information. I don't even know her full name… ugh, I'm becoming obsessive...'
The near face-to-face incident with the Anbu girl did nothing but raising up the curiosity level of Shikamaru. And it was really becoming annoying to him. The one thing Shikamaru doesn't like having in his life is to be curious- it makes people restless, makes them go lengths to satiate their curiosity, disturbs their peaceful life, and it is one hell of a drag. This problem of his had nagged him all night long and continued to do so in rest of his free days. He wanted to quench his thirst for curiosity but to search in the ninja database with just a small clue of half of her name is beyond him. This whole oddity was already becoming a drag, and he was not ready to give up and let it consume him till the state of paranoia. However, he did took the free chances to find out about her while being subtle about it.
"…and thanks for helping me out in this work, Shikamaru. Almost everyone excused themselves out of this problem and I'm stuck with it." Yamato said as he and Shikamaru headed toward the daily patrol routes.
"Ah… no need to thank me. I had to comply since it came as an order from higher up." Shikamaru replied. But even with the reply, Yamato's good mood didn't got affected. It was time to take advantage of this light mood.
"Say…Yamato san, are you frequent to this patrolling duty?"
"Almost. If the appointed Jounins are not available for some reason, I get to fill up the spot."
"Oh… didn't you used to work in Anbu before? Why not rejoin it?"
Yamato chuckled but did not answered the question. "You interested in Anbu?"
But Shikamaru replied with a question. "Do they have ninjas my age?"
"Of course they do. There is no age nor gender difference in the ranks of Anbu. I've even worked with ninjas of your age." Yamato agreed. "You'll be surprised to see such young recruits doing flawless works…"
'My age? Yamato san might be talking about her. The way the restaurant owner talked about her, I think she is probably close to my age and now that Yamato san confirms it, it greatly reduces the search to a limited area...but I really doubt I remember anyone called Tsu-something from our academy days.'
He was pretty sure that he had not came across any 'Tsu-something' girl in his batch in academy; he crosschecked it with Ino. Since he became Chuunin soon after graduation, he had access to the batches junior to him and he knew that the two girl's name starting with Tsu was only chunnin at the present time. That left the batches senior to him. This was simple enough, he thought. He just had to go up to Rock Lee and ask a simple question.
"Starting with Tsu?" Lee enquired again. "I don't think we had someone with that name in our batch. Why do you ask?"
"Just going through some…stuff." Shikamaru replied nonchalantly.
"Oh…" Lee, still thinking hard. "but are you sure she is in our batch? I mean… other than that, I did knew a girl with the same abbreviation but was a batch higher than us. Actually, she was my classmate but then I failed to become a genin that year so she graduated before me."
A feeling of elation born inside Shikamaru as he finally saw the coming result of his search. Finally, with this, I could rest in peace, he thought.
"… I think her name was Tsukuyo."
'You think?'
"Pardon me that I couldn't provide you with solid lead for your investigation." Lee said earnestly. "If need anything other than that, feel free to contact me. I'll help with whatever I can."
"…Its okay. I'll work something out. Thanks anyway."
I can't express how much elated i feel when i see that my story is being read by someone, somewhere in the world! It feels so good to know that your story had peeked interest inside someone and wants to read it further!