I Do Not Own Naruto
Chapter 8
The following weeks fell into a routine for her after Gaara left. She found herself on more surveillance missions for the Uchiha than not, and at night there was a nightly game of shōgi with Shikamaru before going to bed.
Part of her was relieved she didn't interact all that much with Shikamaru with her surveillance assignment on the Uchiha; though what Sakura was trying to accomplish she didn't know as she watched over Haruno.
However, there was a larger part of her which was happier to see Shikamaru rebounding to his normal self again. It seemed that grief was a process which he was getting through but also, he seemed to realize on his own that there was work to be done and started getting to it. He didn't need her now, which was alright since she rather liked having her bed all to herself again. But also, he seemed to be planning, making plans, and moving forward much to her relief.
But there was something changed in him, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something different in him now that he was moving forward with his life. She wished she knew what it was, but ever since the day he had returned from Ino's home he had been more withdrawn in a way. All she knew for certain was that there had been a fight between him, Ino, and Chōji about something and it had not been pretty.
He had come home freaking out because he was saying how quiet his mind was, when she had finally gotten him to calm down again he explained. She still didn't understand what would unnerve him so greatly but it had clearly done a number on him. But other than that incident he was alright, or he seemed to be which was why she was here rather than relaxing around somewhere else.
"Head's up, two chakras are closing in and fast," her Hyūga companion said suddenly.
"Who?" she demanded as she pulled her fan then and prepared to intervene. After surveilling Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke for the past three weeks she knew exactly why Sakura had kept everyone at bay where the Uchiha was concerned and she didn't want some horrid accident to happen today.
"Don't know, they're moving fast, prepare for intervention!" the Hyūga ordered as he stood up. She pulled out her fan then and stood at the ready to blast the two coming people back to their village.
"Wait, Akimichi is coming after them," the Hyūga said and she stared at him.
"What!?" she snapped.
"They are the Cloud-nin," the Hyūga stated.
"Yes, and they've just returned, how do we know they aren't going to attack Haruno and Uchiha?" she demanded.
"We're not interfering yes," the Hyūga said firmly. Temari just looked at the practice field she was too far away to make out but near enough to see, and watches as those two came into the field.
Shikamaru had figured out how to move forward, he had; and he was working on it. But there was something which had freaked him out to the core and after the royal battle he had had with Ino about her going to work in Intelligence, she had done it.
His worst nightmare, and it was something he had never thought about since losing his father.
See, a part of him was always connected to Ino's mind through her jutsu, it was just an absent minded connection which linked him to her and Chōji and always told him they were alright and alive. And it had never been a big deal, never, not in all the years they had had that connection, because it just was for them.
However, it had become something of a lifeline for him after having lost his father in the war, and he hadn't even realized how terrifying it would have been to have the connection severed. See, during the war, during the fights, there had never been any time to process what had happened to them or what they were losing, there was no time to grieve and there was stuff to do. It was important that they keep moving forward and fighting even after losing their friends and family in the fighting.
There was no processing grief, there was only moving forward and going to survive and fight.
But the thing which terrified him, it scared him to his bones now, was having the mental connection with his friend severed and leaving him with nothing. And Ino, had severed their connection, she had shut off her mind and disconnected herself from him and Chōji, and honestly it was freaking him out. His father had been connected to his mind when he had died, Shikamaru had literally felt his father, a man who he considered to also be a friend, fade away, to die, and just cease to exist. It freaked him out. He knew Ino understood this sensation, she'd been connected to her own father's mind and many other's minds during the war, but she was a Yamanaka and as much as he hated to say this, she knew what to expect and was even trained to deal with it. It was her family's secret jutsu after all. But having it happen in his mind was… terrifying.
However, Ino had severed their connection despite this.
And it was not going over in his head all too well as he sat there looking over the diplomatic reports from the Hokage. Part of him kept expecting the odd Ino thought to flitter through their connection, or a Chōji craving to pop into his head, but there was nothing. Nothing there at all, and Ino was avoiding him so he couldn't tell her to knock it off.
Setting his paper down he rubbed his temple then and cleared his mind before he looked over the reports again. There was work to be done, and he would not let Ino know just how much it hurt not having the connections he normally had to her and Chōji.
Temari was awaiting the overzealous attackers when they were sent off of the Uchiha compound and found herself looking at two Cloud-nin she recognized but couldn't remember their names as she glared at them both.
"We were told the rules," the girl grumbled.
"Good, now take shifts, rest, something, just follow the rules from now on and there will be no problems." Temari firmly believed this after three weeks of following Haruno Sakura around with the Uchiha. She could not believe she had been reduced to a glorified babysitter. This was humiliating but at this point she only had a few more months of it before she was back to being an actual diplomat for her village. Which was something she could look forward to.
Resuming her watch, she made it through the day when she was finally free to return to the Nara compound and she sighed in exhaustion. A yawn was escaping her lips as she stretched up and walked into the compound only to see Shikamaru playing Go against himself and looking agitated. He had stopped sleeping with her a few weeks back, but she didn't think he was sleeping based on the bruises beneath his eyes. She set aside her weapon as she sat across from him and joined the game.
No words were exchanged between her or Shikamaru as they played his game. She was shocked when she won for a change, but he set up the game again and they continued playing it. Something was clearly bothering him and she was tempted to demand to know what it was, but he seemed uneasy since his fight with Ino. Which was why she was not prying, even she knew when to step back and leave a person be. Even if she didn't want to.
"Girls are troublesome," he finally grumbled and she flicked her eyes up to him, he wasn't looking at her as they played the game he was scowling as he made his next move and she countered it. They continued this way for a while in silence when he finally destroyed her which had her studying the board trying to figure out where she had gone wrong. She was good at strategy, she could think five to ten steps before her enemy, but with Nara it was like she was still twenty or thirty steps behind him. Which was slightly baffling to her.
"Night Shikamaru," she said and stood, she was leaving him to his thoughts because he was scowling at his game and the moon was raising. She'd have to get up earlier for her shift of watching the Uchiha and Kami knew it was tiring because they never seemed to stay in one spot long. Sasuke was always going around the Uchiha compound with Sakura and it was exhausting to try to keep up with them so they could counter an attack should he go rogue again.
Shikamaru finally gave up his game as he stood and walked to his quarters again, part of him was tempted to go to Temari's and seek a moment of peace, but the door was shut on that. He had stopped seeking comfort from Temari because he found he didn't want the comfort anymore, he just wanted to get to normal again. And that meant acting normal again, and keeping up the act until he was normal again. He could do that.
Sitting in his quarters he thought over the treaties, and the diplomatic requests, the requests from the smaller villages asking for help rebuilding, and the people bringing their injured in because of blow back from the war.
The Land of Fire was not in chaos, completely, but it was not completely stable either. There was unrest, and there were reports of radical groups forming which were following the beliefs of Uchiha Madara and seeking to create the Infinate Tsukiyomi. Which was concerning to him from the reports he was reading because they were not ready for a coordinated attack should one happen. But so far the reports were indicating only small groups that were growing in radicalism.
Pulling his hair down he raked his fingers through the mass and sighed.
The fight he had had with Ino was still plaguing his mind as he sat down on his futon and thought about it. He just could not understand how she could want to work for the sadist Mirino Ibiki, especially since she was… well, she was Ino.
Falling back on his futon he just tried to clear his mind to sleep. There was so much to rebuild in this world, it was terrifying. But there was much to improve upon and this was the time to implement those helpers. If people could change after the war, then there was hope for the world. But he wasn't entirely certain how they were going to change.
There was so much pain in the world from the after effects of this war which was scarring the people who had survived and lost. He knew, he was one of the ones who had been horrifically scarred by this war, however, there was hope. He knew there was hope in this world.
There had to be hope for this world for them to change.
Also, there was that knuckleheaded blonde who could help change the world. It was about time the world changed, the only hope was it changed for the better this time.
At least, this was his hope.
The pragmatic person that he was knew there was always going to be unrest and conflict in the world, human beings were not going to see eye to eye on everything; it wasn't possible to see eye to eye on everything. But he had a good feeling about the change to come to this fragile world. And he was going to see to it that he helped the world moved in the right direction.
It was what Asuma and his father would want of this world and what they would hope he'd help with.
That's all for now folks!
Enjoy Until the Day I Act! =)
