Underlined - English
NARA SHIKAKU
His son had brought a girl home.
This was roughly 13 years earlier than what the Nara Head had expected.
Well - more like 9.5 years.
Looks like he would have to give Shikamaru more credit in the future.
Unfortunately, the girl was the foreign orphan that lived with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and spoke a language that he had never heard before.
Him. The Nara Clan head and Jounin Commander.
His pride felt wounded, but no one would ever know.
Except Yoshino. And Inoichi. And Chouza.
But no one else.
It still was a surprise when little Shika dragged a slim, dark skinned girl with the most wild hair I'd ever seen through the house to the back porch just to teach her shogi.
The girl picked up the game rather quickly, only needing Shikamaru to explain one or two rules again before jumping right in. Her style was rough - customary of a newcomer to the game - but was a good first effort that was more in line with what first time adults would try, rather than ten year old and poorly educated orphans.
I grabbed a bottle of sake and a bowl and sat down on a cushion to watch them play. Hokage-sama may be confident that this girl was loyal both to Konoha and it's people - but it never hurt to have a second opinion.
When I sat down, her body language shifted slightly. Her posture stiffened and she turned casually in her cushion so she could see both me and the door behind me better. It was unconscious, I was sure, but her microexpressions showed just how little she trusted me. She wasn't focused so much on how to respond to a physical attack it seemed, just to be ready to get out of there if she felt uncomfortable.
She's an orphan who grew up in the worst parts of Konoha and must've been treated terribly because she lived with the "demon child." I imagine she hates being around adults.
I smile lazily at her, and try to put her at ease by relaxing my body language and keeping my hands in her view. She relaxes incrementally, and Shika eyes me thankfully.
He was worried for her. How cute.
Eventually, after she loses the first game and they begin to set up their second, I break the still slightly tense atmosphere. "Shika-kun. I don't believe you introduced me to your guest."
I see my son's shoulders tense up slightly, and a blush creep up his neck. The girl also saw this, and was trying - and failing - to keep a giggle from escaping from her lips.
"Tou-san. This is Noa - from the Academy. Noa, this is my Tou-san, Nara Shikaku."
I smile again at her, warmer this time. "It's nice to meet you Noa-chan."
Noa's eyebrows scrunch up almost imperceptibly, and turns to Shika, "Tou-san? That means Dad right?"
I cock an eyebrow at the unfamiliar word, and turn my gaze on my son as well, curious if he knows what she was saying.
He thinks for a moment, then nods once, "It's a little more formal than Dad but less formal than Father . Somewhere in the middle."
Noa nods, satisfied, and turns back to me, "Nice to meet you Lord Nara. Thank you for having me."
I hide my confusion at the form of address and simply nod at her once. As she turns her attention to the game, I lock eyes with my son.
" We're talking about this later ," I silently promise with my eyes.
"Troublesome," he mutters.
Noa looks up, "Huh?"
Shika sighs again. "Nothing, you troublesome girl."
She sticks her tongue out at him.
How cute.
Noa-chan leaves before dinner, insisting that she needed to be home to make sure that "Ruto-nii eats something other than salt or chemicals."
Once I can no longer hear her footsteps on the cobblestone, I turn to my son.
"Explain."
Groaning, he flops down on the couch. As lazy as he may be, Shika knows better than to mess around when something as dangerous as a foreign nin is involved - even if the foreign nin was 10 years old and has been under ANBU watch for six years.
"Noa has been in my class since I was 7, when she and Uzumaki Naruto transferred over after some less serious students dropped out. I didn't actually talk to her until earlier this week, because I was always around Ino and Chouji and she always with Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
Last week, I noticed that Noa was having difficulty reading from the textbook and understanding the concepts. I was confused, because she was really smart - not Nara smart but close - but simple things were tripping her up. I was curious, so eventually I asked her one day during lunch break, earlier this week.
She told me that she was an orphan, and that she never had anyone teach her how to understand our language. She learned what everyone was saying by listening to other people talk, but she was limited to learning only the words that other people around her knew. Since she spent almost all of her childhood alone or with Naruto - who was also an orphan - and Sasuke - who barely talks, she never really learned that many words in our language. But she was able to understand things she saw or did for herself because she had the words and ideas to explain it in her mother tongue.
I asked her why she didn't go to the library, and she told me she couldn't read very well. She grew up with her Auntie - her Aunt - who only could write her native language, English.
So I told her that I would help her read and write and understand what was being explained in class, but only if I could learn English while we did it.
So for the last couple days while we went cloud watching, she taught me words and I taught her how to say and them in our language and kanji. I found out earlier today that she had heard of a game similar to shogi, but had never actually played. So we came here."
I think this over as Shikamaru slumped back into the couch. I knew that I couldn't ask Shikamaru to teach anyone else this English. It would betray her trust in him, and was a cruel thing to ask of a ten year old. But this girl's relative goldmine of knowledge of words terms that no one in all of Konoha had ever heard before was too much to ignore. Shika knew this all, and in not bringing it up he was trusting that my response would be a well thought out one. One that he would listen to, even if he disagreed.
"Keep teaching Noa-chan. And keep learning from her. I won't ask either of you to share this knowledge, but at some point in the future someone else may."
I can feel the tension ease out from him, and he slumps more comfortably into the couch.
But then I remember something she said, "What was it that she called me?Lawrood Nara?"
With his head limp against the back of the cushion, Shika laughs softly. "Oh that. Troublesome. Noa doesn't really get honorifics. Naruto never used them, so she wasn't exposed to them almost at all. She gets so mixed up that she just omits them or uses English honorifics. Only problem, English doesn't use honorifics the same way. Titles come before the name. Plus they're only used formally - never really casually - and first names are used far more loosely than we do. "Sama" is a formal title, but for you it isn't like you are a daimyo or a prince or something. So she said ' Lord Nara,' which is an appropriate title for your position. If she as being informal, but still polite, she'd call you ' MisterNara.'"
I nod thoughtfully, cataloging this form of address for a later date. The Nara never were one's for formalities.
"Troublesome." Shika mutters again.
