Scattered Memories

By FuyuKaze

Summary: Instead of meeting the ghost of Fujiwara no Sai, Shindou Hikaru received something more interesting during his contact with the Goban. After all, memories of an unknown legend in the Go world are kind of mind blowing…

Notes: I have decided to take up a story about Hikaru no Go. The development will be slow and unfortunately, Sai will not be present per se in the Hikaru no Go world. You'll understand when you reach the end.

Disclaimers: I honestly forgot to put this at first… Anyways, I do not own Hikaru no Go or Nara Shikamaru.

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GAME III – TRAINING

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On the mountains of truth, you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

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'Sai, calm yourself' the pineapple haired master calmly advised his young purple haired student. It had only been a month since he had taken the young Sai as his pupil and he was amazed by the boy's progress. Not that Sai was near his level of course. No, he was amazed by how Sai had forced him to think for a few seconds here and there. That certainly was a feat, as he never really paid any heed to his opponent's moves. After all, after the first few moves, he had already the end game played out in his mind.

'I don't understand Shikamaru-sensei! I'm not getting closer to beating you and it's been a month already!' the teacher sighed as he continued to patiently wait for the boy's outrage to subside. Youngsters, to him these days, seemed to be excessively focused on winning. Not that winning was a bad thing mind you, but always wanting to win and not being able to accept defeat. Where was the point in that? Then again, who was he to question their drive? It was their life and it was too troublesome to interfere anyways.

'Troublesome kid… If I recall, you have only been losing by a good twenty mokus nowadays Sai-kun' the pineapple haired man spoke softly once more after a few seconds of silence. It seemed that Sai needed to gather his breath again before continuing his tiresome tirade.

'That does not mean anything positive to me Shikamaru-sensei' Sai's teacher sighed once again. He had noticed the boy getting restless from losing and losing every single match for the past month, but he had no idea that it would end up this bad. Nevertheless, Shikamaru was a patient person. If he was patient, enough to join in the troublesome path of reaching the Kami no Itte, then dealing with a kid that still did not know the importance of the game was nothing. After all, the last time he had counted, he had to deal with two others like the young boy before him in his past lifetimes.

Shaking his head and muttering a quiet, yet audible, "mendokuse", the teacher quickly cleared the goban of all the stones. It would too troublesome to explain and it was usually something one learnt anyways. Unlike shougi where winning was a necessity, considering its extreme use in war tactics, Go was more refined. It was cooperation between the two players to reach a beautiful end within a fierce game of tactics and strategizing.

'Be patient kid. You're still too young to know the importance of Go anyways' seeing the young boy nodding and hearing the kid growling in frustration, Shikamaru let out another sigh while mentally thinking about how troublesome this kid was being. With a determined drive not to give up on the kid now, he bowed lowly and offered to play another game. Sai bowed as well and growled once more as he opted to try out something different this time.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the strange opening. To him, it seemed that Sai wanted to take him on with a tengen opening. Chuckling mentally, his thoughts went back to thinking on what a troublesome pupil he had picked up. Of course he wouldn't abandon him now of all times. After all, he knew that his already troublesome life would become even more so if he ever abandoned the young boy as his apprentice…

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Shindou Hikaru sweated profusely as he stared at the board before him. He unconsciously gulped as he shakily held the black stone in his hand. Looking fervently at the board, his mind tried to find a way to salvage his current situation. This was currently his third game of the day and it wasn't fairing any better than his previous games. Then again, he was playing against a ludicrously lazy but intelligent man. As his eyes scanned the goban once more, his mind finally gave in.

'Makemashita, sensei' the partially bleached haired boy sighed as he felt a great weight lifted. Playing against Shikamaru-sensei was extremely stressing. The large amount of people crowding them was not to pleasing as well. During the beginning of his training, his sensei trained him in private, away from prying eyes. However, just a week ago, they had begun playing in the Will of Fire, making their training sessions public.

To say that the extra pairs of eyes watching his game was unnerving would have been quite an understatement. It was freaking distracting. It was even more distracting when hushed whispers resonated in his ears and more so when they were audible comments about his Go. To make matters worse, his sensei kept on giving him that annoying look of his. The same looked that irked him to no end ever since he had met the lazy genius.

'Seems you're not used to the troublesome people' the words shook the boy out of his thoughts. He glared at his sensei as well as growled at the man in frustration. He had to admit that playing Go was more fun than he had previously thought, but that didn't mean he wanted anyone to know he actually played the game. It seemed that his sensei thought that the young boy wanted to go public with his Go or something of the sort.

'Why do I even have to get used to them' he kept his glare on his sensei, not faltering one bit. Shikamaru mentally sighed. Seriously, what did he do in his past life to get in this kind of situation? That thought was quickly discarded as he might have come up with troublesome theories. He didn't want to deal with anything excessively troublesome, even if his current student is reaching that point.

'You still have a lot to learn kid' Shikamaru said with a sigh. Clearing the board game, he motioned towards the clock. Hikaru's eyes followed the movement and soon widened at the time. His mom was going to kill him! Cursing mentally, the young boy bade his sensei goodbye before running out of the store as fast as his legs allowed him too.

The surrounding people that were watching the game mumbled to themselves as they moved away from the table. Shikamaru sighed as he watched the customers go back to their affairs. The few Go players would probably try to recreate the game he had played. After all, he knew that they were perplexed by the game, since his newest protégé played the game with thoughts way ahead of what the spectators were capable. Hikaru had a knack of seeing moves further than what the regular folks can see and he was quite sure that he saw further than inseis. He was certain that some of the lower level pros would fall into Hikaru's subtle and merciless traps.

Memories of his first protégé flashed through his mind. They, Hikaru and Sai, had quite the similar game play. Yet Hikaru possessed more of a brash and daring attitude than Sai at first. Not to mention that the boy was easily distracted compared to his pupil from ages ago. He was aware of things others weren't and he could come up with multiple theories on Hikaru's strange likeliness to Sai or, better yet, Hon'inbou Shuusaku. However, doing so would cause him more trouble than what he was willing to take.

With a mental sigh, the pineapple haired man shrugged and moved towards the back. It was time to take out more of the shougi stocks for his usual customers…

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Akari narrowed her eyes as she spotted Hikaru leaving a store, running for his dear life. She was rather surprised to see him not hanging out with his soccer friends. It was even more surprising that he was actually near a shopping district. It was nearly impossible to drag Shindou Hikaru near a shopping district ever since that incident with her, his mother, and him.

Shaking her head out of her thoughts, she turned her gaze towards the store he had just left. Raising a brow at the rather peculiar name, she decided to peek at the inside of Will of Fire. After all, what kind of store manager would name their store such a ridiculous name? Maybe they sold fireworks or something of the sort. Once again shaking her head out of her thoughts, the young girl proceeded towards the building.

Seeing through the windows, she spotted a large number of elderly people playing a board game. She peered at the brown shapes being moved about and soon recognized them. They were pieces for shougi. The board game said to emulate a war like scenario.

That was rather confusing. What would Shindou Hikaru be doing here of all places? Looking around, the girl tried locating Shindou Heihachi, but to no avail. So if Hikaru didn't go here to find his grandfather, then what exactly was he doing in such a place? She pondered on what to do as she started to get more curious.

Hikaru had been acting differently all week and it surprised her a lot. Scratch that, Hikaru's sudden abilities during history class shocked her, as well as the rest of the school populace. Japanese class was apparently something Hikaru had also taken seriously, if his grades weren't an indication. Furthermore, the other courses he managed to get passable grades. They might not the best, but they were passable nonetheless.

That made not only her, but also everyone else that knew Hikaru to be quite curious about the sudden increase in academics. It was bizarre to hear the boy actually answer questions during class, and it was even weirder that he sometimes adds a bit more information to whatever their history teacher was giving them.

She had also noticed that Hikaru acted less brash and less impulsive. They were times when it looked like he was going to join into a useless argument with his friends, but ended up not saying anything back. He, instead, easily manoeuvred the conversation into something else entirely. His friends, being the typical simple-minded soccer players they were, quickly forgot about whatever they were talking about and joined the bandwagon.

Further things she noticed that Shindou Hikaru actually entered the library. She had spotted him walking around the school one day all surreptitiously. That was the day that she had actually followed someone in secret. Akari was a curious person and whenever something piqued her curiosity, she wouldn't be sated until it was fulfilled to the fullest. Therefore, it was on that day that she had learned that Hikaru actually entered the school's library. Seeing him enter answered a few of her questions. Questions on how Hikaru actually know stuff. To her, it looked liked the boy was actually studying nowadays. She kept note, however, of the sad expression he had the next time she saw him.

However, the partially bleached haired boy actually entered the library to see if it had anything Go related. To his utter disappointed he couldn't find anything of the sort on his own, since he didn't even know the first thing about the library. Akari had left after following her friend to his "secret" location and moved out to join her friends. After all, it was lunchtime.

She had finally dismissed her curiosity. It remained that way until a few weeks ago when the boy started asking people questions about dealing with stage frights. It was random, very random. So random in fact that no one really knew how to answer him. They, instead, asked him why he was asking them such a thing. That usually caused Hikaru to frowned lightly before shaking his head and replying with a "never mind".

Then the boy began mumbling things when he thought no one was listening. They were things that sounded like a bundle of coordinates, ranging from 2-6 to other such combinations. They thought that the boy was going crazy with all of the mathematic materials they were learning and dismissed it as such. Akari did as well and her curiosity died down once more.

Now, however, she once again got curious. What was Hikaru doing in a shougi place? Might all of those change in behaviour he was showing were related in some sort of way? Maybe those weird coordinates' thing he was mumbling wasn't for math class but for this very board game. That day when she caught him sneaking into the library, maybe the boy was looking for something shougi related and did not find one. After all, it seemed like Hikaru didn't want anyone finding out about his apparent newfound interest.

Yes, she was curious and today increased her curiosity even more. With a mental sigh, Akari stepped inside the building; not knowing that in doing so would change a part of her life…

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Hikaru growled in annoyance as he finally got home. His games with Shikamaru-sensei lasted for a good while. That was why he usually went there quite early. To avoid his parents' questions, he gave an excuse about soccer playing with his friends the morning. He really didn't want anyone to know that he was playing that old peoples' game.

Today, however, the games lasted a bit longer than usual. When the crowd first started to watch his games with Shikamaru-sensei, he was nervous and all. However, that didn't affect his game at all. After a few awkward moves, he was able to adjust to the extra pairs of eyes watching the goban. Today, however, was the day that they finally started commenting audibly about his Go. That was what made him question his moves and made him think longer than usual.

Today he heard them commenting on his strange moves. He even heard them say that some of them didn't make sense. He had frowned at the comments and started questioning them himself. Did his moves really seem that troubling and insignificant? Then did his Go really did not improve at all during the past couple of weeks? He shook his head to get rid of his thoughts. He would just ask Shikamaru-sensei about it tomorrow morning.

Stepping inside the house, he gulped as he came face to face with his gentle yet glaring mother. He had told them he would be back by lunchtime, or at the latest around three in the afternoon. Glancing at the clock, he gulped further as he noticed it to be around five in the afternoon. He mentally cursed those old geezers that were watching him as he softly mumbled an "I'm home".

'Home Hikaru? Why I thought that you were supposed to be here by three?' the glare intensified, but the voice came out in quite a gentle way. That made it oh so much scarier.

'I got caught up in soccer?' Hikaru sounded completely unsure, which caused his mother to intensify her look even further. Shindou Hikaru had never even known that such a feat was possible.

'You have a lot of nerves not calling to say you were going to be late mister! And where exactly are you going in the mornings till late in the afternoon?' this caused Hikaru to look at her in confusion. Did she spot him near the shopping district when he went out to get something to eat? No, he made sure he was covered up and walk in a clandestine manner.

Seeing the confused look her son was giving him, 'Your friends came by and asked to see for a game of soccer' he mentally cursed his friends at that. He quickly had to think of something. What would his sensei do? No, that would be a bad idea. Calling his mother a troublesome woman would surely get him grounded again.

'I… uh…' he stammered, as his mother's eyes seemed to look into his very soul. He knew he couldn't hide it anymore. It seemed that Shikamaru was right again. "Never, ever, hide things from women Hikaru. Especially mothers because they are the worst of the bunch. Women are, in nature, troublesome and they will be even more so if they find out you are hiding things from them" was the exact thing the pineapple haired man had said.

'Troublesome woman' he muttered, completely agreeing with Shikamaru-sensei.

'You, young man, are going to show me where you go tomorrow' that was even worse than being grounded. His mother was going to find out and it might enter the gossip vine. "You will be lucky to find a woman that does not enter the gossip vine. They tend to babble on and on to people when they find information of interest. The stuff they say to their friends is soon passed down until everyone from a single point knows" he just hoped that his mother would do him the favour of not sharing his secret to anyone.

'Good, now go do your chores' Hikaru grumbled in defeat and replied, 'Yes mother' mentally adding a "troublesome woman".

He honestly didn't mind doing chores anymore. It used to take him forever to finish a chore since he always mentally complained about it. However, ever since he started thinking while doing his work, he had noticed that he was completing his chores faster than before.

Since Hikaru didn't have his own goban, he would always have to go to his grandfather if he wanted to recreate a game he played against his sensei. After a week of his training, he didn't even know why they called it training; he was able to start visualizing the board in his mind. It surprised him on how he can memorize every single move that was played. He was also able to store all of those games in his mind.

Exact moves played and moves that could have been played. That had surprised him too no end, but he quickly dismissed the thought. After all, it gave him something to think of during times when he was completely bored.

He began his chores and started replaying the games he had played against Shikamaru-sensei today. Not noticing the strange looks his mother was giving him. Yes, tomorrow, she would find out what was going on in her son's life. She had been cleaning his room during his outing and had found his tests during the past week. She was quite surprised to see such grades coming from Hikaru.

Yes, tomorrow she would find out. Something was going on with Hikaru and she wanted to know what. Such a positive thing should not have been kept secret from her. She wanted to know what had made such a positive impact on her son and she was downright going to encourage him to continue whatever it was. That is if it wasn't illegal. Shaking her head, the matriarch of the house went on to cook dinner…

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'Sai, I worry that you have forgotten the joys of playing Go with all of your losses these past few weeks' the pineapple haired man said as he looked at the sad expression plastered on his student's face. He had noticed the strange behaviour Sai was exhibiting and it was troublesome. He had to deal with it as soon as possible.

'It's just I don't see how my Go is improving if, after all this time, I still can't defeat you' Shikamaru mentally sighed. Why was it that kids always went through this phase? No matter, he had to deal with it soon, but how would he deal with it?

Chuckling mentally to himself, he gestured for the boy to follow him. Sai just looked on in confusion before doing so. Mind still stuck on whether or not his Go was actually improving. Shikamaru took a glance at the boy's pondering face. Today would be a day that Sai would cherish the most. He needed to see that his Go was completely above most people and what better way than to show him that than to place him against a complete beginner?

After a few minutes of walking, the two arrived at a house. Shikamaru knocked on the door and soon it was opened to reveal a young girl. She looked to be around the same age as Sai and had shoulder length brown hair. Her confused gaze soon turned to one of happiness as she saw the pineapple haired man.

'Shikamaru-sensei!' she exclaimed happily as she tackled his leg. The pineapple haired man mumbled a "troublesome woman" before patting her head.

'Sai-kun, meet Shana-chan'

Hikaru dreamt that night, he dreamt of white and black stones dancing awkwardly with each other. Strange moves were performed by the black stones. That, in consequence, caused the white stones haphazardly try to move alongside the black stones.

Confused and unaware that these dreams sometimes reflected his now everyday life, he dreamt of the ongoing awkward battle going on the board. Trying, at the same time, to figure out the weird harmony that was taking place within the mess on the goban…

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AN: Chapter three done and I apologize for the slow update. After New Years, I had these random thoughts for other fics that had to be written down somewhere. Then I started reading Love Hina stories and I was sorely disappointed in the lack of KeiMot ships out there.

Therefore, I decided to write a Love Hina story as well, something more serious than Love Hina gave us. I just need to get back into the Akamatsu-verse to get a good feeling about stuff again, especially for Love Hina so I can get their characters down properly.

Anyways, on to this story. Yes, for those who are wondering, Akari will be an important character in this fic. Furthermore, chapter four will be held back for a while until I get that Love Hina story started. It's been plaguing my mind for the past weeks and I'm getting tired of the whole Naruto fandom. Then again, I've started getting tired of it after the whole Sasuke retrieval arc.

On the good news, I have half of chapter four already done and it'll be more insights on Hikaru questioning his ability and a bit more Akari-centric. As I said, she's going to be important.

That'll be it for now. Questions about whether Hikaru is Sai's reincarnation or what not, well… I'm not going to say much on that. Scattered is defined as occurring or distributed over widely spaced and irregular intervals in time or space; "scattered showers"; "scattered villages" or confused: lacking orderly continuity; "a confused set of instructions"; "a confused dream about the end of the world"; "disconnected fragments of a story"; "scattered thoughts".

For you people to figure out. Oh and the whole Naruto thing? It's not that prevalent. I just needed a figurehead for Hikaru's and Akari's trainer. I didn't feel like making an OC so I figured so I'd borrow someone from Naruto.