Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter/Naruto.
"I could make you satisfied in everything you do
All your secret wishes could right now be coming true
And be forever with my poison arms around you
No one's gonna fool around with us
No one's gonna fool around with us
So glad to meet you"
-Elliott Smith, Angeles
[Chapter 7]
"Shika!" a shrill voice cuts through the vast green land.
'What a drag.' Narrowed black eyes close themselves in annoyance, and the slightly spiky haired teen inhales the distinct smell of a forest. Sighing exaggeratedly, Shikamaru looks down from the bright blue sky, and inclines his head towards the incoming figures.
Yamanako Ino was an outgoing girl, and confident in a way only a person blessed with a charming face could be. The platinum haired girl scowls irritatedly at her lazy classmate, her sea-blue eyes twitching slightly. Behind her, a plump, slightly short boy with a chubby face stands serenely, munching chips in his mouth.
Akimichi Chōji, the freshly graduated academy student, had a rather timid personality, mostly due to his not exactly slender appearance, however, behind the calm facade, lie a fierce loyalty, and a determination to protect his dear ones.
Easily provoked from being ignored, Ino stomps toward the seemingly sleeping figure, aware of the closed eyes being only a decoy.
"Shikamaru! I know you're not sleeping. Lying here when you just became a genin, I can't believe you!" Furrowing his eyebrows before sighing in defeat, Shikamaru gradually opens his eyes, and stands up from the forest ground, the Nara forest to be exact. Muttering 'troublesomes', the said teen nods at his best friend, Choji, and proceeds to walk towards the direction of the Konoha Academy, accompanied by the two classmates he was previously interrupted by.
"Why are you even with us, troublesome girl. Aren't you supposed to be with Sakura?" Ino's expression falters a little before she haughtily exclaims,
"Hmph, none of your business! Just be honored I'm being seen with you two", glancing at the bored and the subdued faces of the two, Ino grudgingly continues, "besides, my dad told me that it's likely I would be in a team with you two. Ugh, and here I wanted to be in a team with Sasuke-kun!"
However, as the trio reach their shared classroom, Ino's dreamily sighing face disappears, a slightly disturbed look coloring her eyes while Choji immediately halts from eating his junk food, hesitatingly glancing at the three figures sitting at the back of the class.
Tom and Ivy, followed by Naruto. Shikamaru guardedly observes them, his relaxed postured tensing in apprehension. For some unknown reason, the mentioned three were completely isolated, no one in their class 'dared' to interrupt them. Naruto, especially the twins, they were not segregated because of scorn or disgust. Contrastingly, they trio 'would' be rather popular, and fawned upon in ordinary standards, being at the top of their classes, and being one of the most beautiful people anyone has ever seen.
Admittedly, Shikamaru had observed how the villagers, even some of the teachers seemed to look at the blonde guy with disgust, however, when it came to their division in the class, it was not exactly clear, only everyone knew that the enigmatic trio were not to be disturbed. Everyone could feel it from behind their masks of normality, behind their naive selves, his classmates were scared, because, they, the trio, they were dangerous. Everyone knew that fact.
"Ino-pig!" Almost as if waken from a witch spell, Haruno Sakura muses interestedly, her three classmates standing near the classroom door blink at her blankly. Curiously searching for the root of their distraction, Sakura, too, looses her confident smile, and wearily stop as she reaches Ino.
"Forehead girl!" Masking her slip, Ino raises her nose, braiding her arms across her chest, and attempts to look down at her pink haired friend- she would never admit of course.
"Hello, Sakura-chan," Choji kindly smiles at the girl, snacking for his food as if nothing happened. Shikamaru, too, lazily nods at the direction of a pink hair, before slumping on one of the wooden desks in the middle region, and lets out a big yawn.
The spiky ponytailed teen closes his dark brown, almost black, eyes and pretends to sleep. In the chamber of Shikamaru's mind, however, was anything but sleep. Carefully organizing the facts, the Nara kid, once again, attempts to piece certain events together. From the very beginning, he remembers the vivid crimson twin pair of pools clashing into his own ordinary black, and even after five years, he could still feel the weight of those gazes. Shikamaru could have sworn those eyes were peering into his very soul, dissecting every inch of it. Tom and Ivy were extraordinarily handsome children. If he were to go further, he would even proclaim the twins looked 'foreign'.
Pale skin, to the point of seeming unreal, was very unusual amongst the Hidden Leaf villagers as they had rather sunny weathers most of the year, and aristocratic features decorated the twins' face. Although, the most bizarre aspect of their appearance were the huge rouge eyes. Few years ago, red eyes, accompanied with black lines, were rather common in their village, however, since the massacre of the Uchiha clan, those bloody eyes had become scarce. 'But then again, even amongst hundreds of Uchihas, those unnerving eyes, devoid of anything expect bloody red, would still stand out from the rest.' Vivid, 'glowing' crimson eyes. Shikamaru could never forget.
Compared to the brunette twins who reminded others of starry nights, andcrimsoncrimsonblood, Naruto was like a sunshine. Bright blonde fringes, so yellow it seemed to smell of the sun, and the cerulean turquoise eyes, like the color of his favorite sky, Naruto, too, had rather stunning looks. The only odd feature of his would be the pair of whisker lines engraved to his skin, locating right on his cheeks.
In a way, even their personalities seemed to be similar to their outward appearances. The twins were more quiet and more subdued, while Naruto was wild, and bold. The twins planned, and analyzed while the blonde favored actions more. However, all three of them were outrageously talented, the raven haired teen had, more than occasionally, observed the ease of their participation at class, almost like an adult playing a child.
Exactly three months before, there was a horrifying murder, murder of an unassuming civilian worker at the orphanage, that the twins resided in-coincidenceornot, who was later revealed to be the criminal responsible of the homicide of a young girl five years ago. Shikamaru had found it strange, the slightly, almost invisible, changes in the trio during that time.
Naruto had always been a friend of theirs, he supposed, however, he remember pitying the kid for chasing after a Sisyphean case- the blonde was surely attempting something that was glaringly impossible- to be a part of the crimson eyed twins' world. If you observed the twins for even a day, you would almost immediately realize that they lived in a world differing from many. The speculative glances, the unconscious touchings, and the way they simply seemed to dissolve into one another, the opposite sides of a bridge- one being the beginning, the other being the end. Ivy and Tom seemed to echo each other. Shikamaru had pitied Naruto for trying to be one of them, part of the echo, part of the bridge.
Curiously, extremely much so, during the time the murder of the civilian worker was investigated, the relationship between the trio had changed. You wouldn't notice it at all, unless you had the IQ of two-hundred or greater. It was all the small insignificant signs that would later prove to be the key to the puzzle.
First of all, it was their sitting arrangement- very unassuming indeed, however, for the past few years Shikamaru attended the academy with the said children, he had always noted how Tom was outrageously possessive of his twin, alarminglysoornnot, he never, never allowed any skin contact between them and others (but then again, Naruto had been able to touch the twins without any resistance against him). Three months ago, Shikamaru was flabbergasted, the moment he saw Naruto sitting 'between' the twins. Between. And it continued. As if it had always been that way.
Another rather obvious, for his opinion, sign was the slight altering in Naruto's personality. While, the blonde kid seemed to continue being his normal self, the things he smiled to, and reacted to, it had all changed. Before that event, if you were to ask Naruto to join you in a game or a lunch and request him to bring along the twins, the sapphire eyed teen would smile guiltily, and refuse, however, after the said event, if you were to do the same thing, the blonde would smile blankly, apologize, and for the rest of the day, you would feel the burning gaze on your back, fr some unknown source, perhaps the blonde himself. Naruto had given him the impression of someone who is terrified of loosing something, or someone.
Like a person addicted to drugs, usually used in seduction missions to lure in your enemy by making them unable to resist the idea of meeting you and feeling the wonderful feeling emitted due to the drug residing in something you have secretly given to the said person. Usually, people addicted to such drugs would appear alarmingly angry when thwarted from gaining the dangerous chemical.
It was like Naruto was intoxicated, obsessed.
"Team 7, Ivy Riddle, Uzumaki Naruto, Tom Riddle, and Uchiha Sasuke. Team 8-", Iruka's voice boom loudly through the lesson hall, the concept of his exclamation putting stop to his pilling thoughts.
Shikamaru's eyes snap open, his shoulders tensing as he pondered on the reason of such high ranking students being in the same team. However, most of all, beneath the feeling of bewilderment, there was a seeping relief.
Shikamaru was alleviated, despite the interesting mystery surrounding the genins responsible for his distraction. After all, if Naruto was indeed addicted (and how strange that sounded), the Nara was not sure how the blonde would handle someone who could end up stealing the twins' attention and time, thepotencyofthedrug.
Relieved, indeed. Fucking, ecstatic.
