Friday seemed to pass in the blink of an eye; Shikamaru spoke with Ken'ichi again, then he stopped by Choji's house and spent most of the afternoon talking with him. When he got home his father was waiting on the porch.
"Shikamaru, there are some things I want to speak with you about." He said.
They spent the next hour or so talking, Shikaku gave Shikamaru fatherly advice like 'Spend money in cash not credit' and 'Always stand behind what you say, your word is your honor'. Yoshino called them in for dinner and they ate in relative silence. At the end of the meal Shikamaru offered to do the dishes and was, yet again, turned down by his mother so he went upstairs and lay down on his bed. He thought about his life up until now, from the entrance ceremony at the academy, to receiving this damn mission.
He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them his alarm was going off, a harsh reminder that it was Saturday. He readied himself for the day and grabbed his bag before heading downstairs. Neither of his parents could come to the gates with him because they had their own missions, so he said goodbye to them and made his way into town. When he got to the gates, Ken'ichi and Lady Tsunade were waiting there, as well as Choji.
"Could Ino not make it?" Shikamaru asked Choji.
"No she'll be here in a moment." He responded.
Sure enough Ino came dashing up to the gates.
"Good, you're still here, I thought I'd missed you." she said breathlessly.
She threw her arms around him and gave him a suffocating hug.
"Be safe Shikamaru." She whispered.
Ino stepped back and Choji said his goodbyes. Shikamaru turned to face Ken'ichi and the Hokage. Tsunade handed him a scroll that was closed with a complicated seal mark.
"This is for Lady Mizukage." She said.
Shikamaru nodded. "Alright" and he put it in one of the scroll pouches on his vest.
"Have a safe journey." She said.
Shikamaru looked at Ken'ichi. "Are you ready to go, sir?" He asked.
Ken'ichi nodded and they set off. After twenty minutes of awkward silence Ken'ichi finally questioned:
"The blonde girl who came running up right before we left, is she your girlfriend?"
"No, she's my team-mate." Shikamaru said, chuckling.
"Ah, so was the other boy your team-mate too?" Ken'ichi asked.
"Yeah, Choji and I have been friends for a long time, we met back before we started in the academy." Shikamaru replied. "What about you? I noticed that you didn't have anyone see you off."
Ken'ichi smiled. "That's because they're all dead."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Shikamaru said. This guy probably didn't want to think about his deceased comrades.
"It's all right," Ken'ichi said. "actually they aren't all dead, my best friend is still alive, but he was- well he's very sick at the moment so I said goodbye to him on friday."
Shikamaru glanced at him sideways, he seemed so calm talking about this, though he'd probably had a lot more time to come to terms with his comrades deaths.
The rest of the day was spent in relative silence, at sundown they stopped to set up camp.
"What techniques do you use? You use shadows if I remember correctly. During the chunin exams you had a paralytic jutsu, but I'm sure you've learned more since then." Ken'ichi said.
"Yeah," Shikamaru said swallowing the food in his mouth. "Shadows are my clans specialty, I've learned few more since then, hopefully you won't have to see them put to use though."
"I also remember sitting next to Asuma Sarutobi, he said that you were quite the strategist." The older man said.
"Asuma was my sensei, he used to play shogi with me so that's probably why." Shikamaru replied.
He really hoped this conversation wouldn't drag on too long, he didn't really feel like talking about Asuma-sensei. He decided to steer the conversation away from a sensitive topic, he asked: "Have you ever played Shogi before?"
"Once, but I was never gifted in strategy so I lost, horribly." Ken'ichi said with a chuckle.
"It's just one of those things you need to practice. Just how most artists aren't born knowing how to paint a masterpiece, though there are a few exceptions." Shikamaru said poking the fire with a stick.
Ken'ichi looked a little sad for a moment.
"There are exceptions to everything." he said.
Quickly composing himself he pulled out a small journal and began writing in it. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He pulled out a map and started planning tomorrow's journey. He decided on a a route that would extend their journey by a couple hours but they would get to spend tomorrow evening in a village rather than out in the woods. After a bit he lay down resting his head on his pack and drifted to sleep.
Shikamaru was standing on a pond, Choji, Ino and Asuma-sensei were standing on the far side, so he started making his way towards them. His chakra suddenly vanished and he fell into the water. Shikamaru slowly sunk to the bottom of the pond, he tried as hard as he could to swim to the surface, but the darkness slowly closed in. He woke up in someones arms, he looked up and saw a woman, her red hair covering her face, she softly sang his mother's lullaby and slowly rocked him.
Shikamaru woke with a gasp and sat up, it was still very dark out, Ken'ichi was on the other side of the fire in a deep sleep. He lay back down and looked up at the sky, he traced out the constellations that he recognized. After what seemed like hours he finally drifted back to sleep.
Shikamaru and Ken'ichi woke up about the same time, they made quick work of packing up and set off.
"I planned a route that will take us through a village so we'll actually have real beds tonight." Shikamaru said.
Ken'ichi merely nodded and they set off, they walked for several hours making small talk about their favorite places in the village and mutual friends. As it turned out, Ken'ichi was very good friends with Jiraiya, though he had never met Naruto. The village came into view just as the sun started setting, they made their way inside and soon found a hotel. Shikamaru could tell that the town was not a tourist hotspot due to the small number of hotels. They settled in their room, it was very simple just two beds, a bathroom and a sitting area. Since they were in town Shikamaru decided to buy some real food, so on the way to the hotel they stopped at a store and bought some food that would be very easy to prepare and did not require the use of a stove. They conversed over dinner then settled in for the night.
Well that's the end of chapter four! Shikamaru and Ken'ichi have finally started on their journey! I had to use the first three chapters for set-up and it really killed me to do the pre-mission around town stuff, but I couldn't just jump straight into were I want this to go with out some back story. Anyways I'm going to stop this Author's note here before it becomes a one-shot
~Writing Impasse
Ps Kakashi, Sakura, or Deidara? Evil Grin XP