Mini-chapter, since I made the fatal mistake of signing in on msn :O . And, I wrote a Canon!Shikamaru and Sakura friendship thingy. KINDA friendship, that is. Please go read that. I'm proud of it.
Edit: that fic was written for Utuu. Ooooooooooooops!
Next post will have actual stuff happening, but this is kinda a study of reactions, with just a little bit of plot here and there. I'm practising my descriptive skill, and I'd ADORE constructive criticism for it.
I don't know if anyone wants to know, but I figured I'd explain my choices of title. Every chapter title for Interest has started in A, for no reason other than I noticed the first two did and wanted to carry on the theme.
-Attracting Interest - attraction because Ino and random!Girls were looking at him, Interest because it's the story's title, so it reflects that, and because people are 'interested' in Shikamaru and the Kyuubi (id-est, trying to catch him. Poor Shika.)
-Ask a question: was more random, but it's because Shika's asking himself his question, trying to figure stuff out. Also, because they're demanding things of the council.
-And lose out on sangfroid. I was going to just call it sangfroid, but I wanted to carry on starting the titles with a. Sangfroid is french for 'cold blood', and it means composure or calm. Shikamaru ends the chapter completely freaking out, because he's got the answer to the why-did-they-leave question. So: ask a question, and lose out on sangfroid when you get your answer. See, continuity.
-alma mater means 'providing/protecting mother', so it was going to be that to reflect the fact Yoshino feels Shikamaru's grown beyond her.
-tua culpa means 'your guilt'. Shikamaru feels guilty. Both those phrases are Latin.
Do people have any interest at all in the reasoning behind the chapter names? I'll explain them at the end of each chapter if you all want. You can further your knowledge of random stuff.
Shikamaru and Yoshino moved to the kitchen, sitting at the table without speaking. The varnished wood would have had holes burnt into it by Shikamaru's stare, if he possessed the skill of psychopyrokinesis. It was probably a good thing he didn't.
There were crumbs on the table; he swept them into a pile with the side of his hand. Like the rest of him, his hand was tensed, fingers hooked because he was bending the top joints down; tendons drew lines down from his wrist to each digit, and the length of each finger was trembling.
It's my fault.
Yoshino now held the three things Itachi's clone had bought. She'd taken them from Shikamaru's hands, almost afraid those strong fingers would close on her like a trap – not that she feared him, but there was so much pent-up frustration in her son she wasn't sure he could control himself. She knew ninja, and she knew feelings.
She'd put the braids down on the table, then convulsively snatched them up again. The fox and the two braids, when had Rumiko got that necklace? Yoshino didn't recognise it, and she almost hated it now. The fox: stylised and sleek, the gold image was of a dangerous animal, one crouched to spring. But its face was incongruously calm, eyes rounded rather than the stylised slits kitsune had in paintings.
She looked at her son, the kitsune. Shikamaru showed every sign of tension, he looked like the fox, something about to strike or attack.
He sat on the edge of the chair, hands now resting on the table with fingers splayed, the tips of his fingers pressed hard into the wood so they were flattened against it, parallel to his palms, while the lower two sections of his fingers jutted up between them. His nails, long and hooked now, curved down, and the points made two sets of tiny indentations in the wood in crescent shapes.
His posture was bad, she thought randomly, his spine must be curved because his head's jutting forward. His knees were apart, and his elbows out sideways, he's sitting like a gawky teenager or an Inuzuka ready to spring up and attack. Inuzuka, fox. Whatever works.
She put one hand over her face, because thinking about this fox or that led her back to the dilemma. They want one of my children, they've got the other. Fuck.
"Shikamaru?" She said, voice strained.
He looked up, blinking. And raised one hand to wipe a nascent tear from his eye (she hadn't realised he was crying). The back of his finger-tip ran across the rim of his eye, and she almost darted forward to pull it away. That claw could cut deep, she could tell, and it was too close; she had just imagined him putting his own eye out. She pressed her own fingers into the soft flesh around her eyes, trying to drive away the mental images.
"You were going to agree to go with him, weren't you?" She tried to not crack and cry.
"I – I dunno. I don't know what I would have done."
"I wouldn't have been able to stand that." Her voice sounded calm, but it wasn't.
"They wouldn't have given her back, most likely." He said, obviously thinking along different lines to her. His voice had been as weak as hers, but it was getting stronger and he had already began to think logically again. My son's all grown up (she thought hysterically) all grown up and a ninja, a cold-blooded logical ninja.
"And although there's no trace of chakra to indicate a genjutsu over those-" those items, tokens of the kidnapping "-we've got to consider that they could have been lying or deceiving us somehow. I needed more information."
"Sorry" She said faintly, almost mockingly. Sorry for trying to defend you, you're the man of the house now.
"But it can't be coincidence that dad's been sent on a mission now. Who was that man with no eyes on the council, Adiuvat?"
"Adiurat." Yoshino corrected with distaste, "A poncy bastard."
"What happened to his eyes?"
"He got them and a lot of the rest of his face burnt off – oh. When - the Kyuubi attacked."
"Fuck" Shikamaru said, and then realised it was the first time he'd sworn in front of his mum and felt slightly guilty. He explained himself quickly, feeling awkward: "I'm concerned that he's helping the Akatsuki; that gives him a motive to act against us – me. He got dad either out of the way to leave us vulnerable to another attack or – possibly just because Dad'd stop me giving myself up if he was here to do it. I hope that's it. But we can't rule out... Well, other options. They might attack again, if there wasn't just one clone. I wonder what type of clone it was, what range they have..." He drifted into speculation, and Yoshino watched him.
Fingers had stopped trembling, he regularly raised one hand and reordered his hair. It looked nice down, she thought, though the front few locks – the shortest ones – were spiky with dried sweat. They hung to the sides of his face once he'd brushed them back, leaving his eyes to catch the artificial light and shine glorious red.
She was proud of how her boy had grown up – the mention of that councillor had brought up thoughts of how others felt, but she would show them that her opinion was otherwise. The fox's change hadn't just made him look animal, it had made his face more mature. His eyes were sharper round the edges, the lids lifting at the far end of his eye so his thin eye-lashes rose. It gave him an alert appearance. His jaw and chin bones were more visible, but she thought that had been a gradual change. It was just the darker whisker-marks that made it obvious.
They say a mother sees no ill in her child, and it could well be true: to Yoshino, even those marks of the demon didn't detract from her son's looks. In their new form, they were a little more jagged than she would have liked, yes, but there was still a basic elegance to them. The lines followed his facial structure, and she was used to the way the dark lines twisted as he spoke. They were obviously natural (she thought), obviously a part of him.
She shook her head: Yes, he's grown up now, move on, proud mummy. You've got another child.
And she tried to listen to his muttered theories, but ended up following her automatic routine: put the kettle on, make a pot of tea.
And returned to her seat, setting cups done. She looked at the table again to do so, and remembered the braids, the necklace. Okay, end of the displacement activities.
She looked at them fixedly, eventually coming to a conclusion. It was clear in her mind, but hard to express.
She cut in to his speech anyway: "Shikamaru. If they have you, you know what their aims seem to be. And. You know that... it's putting the whole of Fire Country and more at risk, if -."
He looked at her, eyes pained.
"I can't ask you not to risk it, but. You understand, I can't in good conscience allow you to surrender yourself in Rumiko's place. Not without a plan – I can't. As a mother or as any random concerned citizen. We should talk to Inoshi-san or someone, but-- I forbid you to act on your own."
And they both considered that: Shikamaru's half-spoken plans were silent, Yoshino's tea went cold untouched. The significance of that ran through both minds, heavily.
And at midnight, Sarutobi Asuma entered through the window, speaking almost nervously: "Yoshino-san I have to tell you – Ah, you... know already?"
"Fill us in, Asuma." Yoshino said, voice tight.
"In brief: this morning, the tour convoy your daughter was with was ambushed. Almost all of the group were found dead, but a couple and two individuals are missing. Rumiko... was one of the missing."
"Yeah, we knew that." Shikamaru said darkly. But then he turned to his teacher, more questions in his mind. Let's gather information, because I will make a plan.
I will get her back.
Much like chapter two, this has a hint about later plot. More subtly, though. If you can see it, please do report your findings :O I would be very impressed. And write you a fic.
