Catching Butterflies

eight

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Shikamaru waited anxiously when Naru was called by their teachers to do her final assessment of the day. He had trained and taught her the past few months to prepare for today, and he knew all her weaknesses and her strengths. He had seen her improvements in her taijutsu and he had drilled her to the point of tyranny regarding her studies, because he knew that her hope to graduate was in her accumulated points for each test.

Naru cannot do clones. No matter how many chakra exercises they did, Naru found it impossible to do the required three clones for the last exam. So he settled on making her do one and had her perfect it to the point that it could stand straight and have a semblance of Naru ─ even if it was a little transparent, he hoped they would make it count.

He had heard of a student named Rock Lee that had passed the previous year who had a weak chakra system that hindered his ability to cast jutsu's. If he could pass, Naru should pass.

So he gave her a smile as she had turned to look at him before disappearing into the other room where both the teachers Iruka and Mizuki would assess her competence with ninja skills.

Shikamaru didn't trust Mizuki with Naru. Outwardly Mizuki could be seen as someone who pays attention to Naru, but he had seen the minor changes he had done to her taijutsu lessons that had ended up with serious injuries for Naru ─ a fact he had been a cause of a few times while he had practiced with Naru at home. Just an arm lifted a little higher that was easy to squeeze a jab at the rib, or a block with a slight rotation to the forearm that made it easier to break.

He may seem like a good man. But the flaws that he instilled in Naru under the pretense of teaching, were things that were so subtle that Shikamaru feared if he didn't practice with her, she'd be gravely injured in the field.

Shikamaru's thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and only Iruka and Mizuki had entered back into the room. Naru was nowhere to be seen, and the few minutes after Iruka and Mizuki announced their congratulations to the room for passing, there was still no sign of Naru.

Shikamaru didn't think, he just got up and left the room and found himself standing in front of Naru ─ sitting on the swing all on her own, surrounded by parents of children that didn't even like her, waiting for the good news that she'd never get.

He felt sick.

"Naru."

Naru refused to look at him. Insisting on talking to him with her head down. "I didn't pass."

Shikamaru took a step close, the only thing he could look at was the top of her head, blonde hair covering her face from his view. But the tenor of her voice, the grip of of her hands on the swing and the gentle shiver of her shoulders indicated she was crying.

Why?

"I couldn't do the clones as they wanted."

Why were they so unfair?

"They wouldn't accept the one good clone I could do."

Why the different rules?

"They wanted three and I couldn't do it ─ they looked so pathetic."

What was it about Naru that she had to have different rules than everyone else?

"I can't graduate with you Shikamaru!" her blue eyes blurred before him as the tears pooled around them and trailed from her eyes.

Shikamaru took her by the shoulders and her muffled sobbing was loud in his ear and he couldn't help but pull her in a little close as her shoulders shook uncontrollably with her despair and her tears soaked his shoulder.

He didn't know how long she allowed him to hold her, but it was Naru who had pushed him away too soon for him. She wiped at her tears, her eyes a horrible shade of blue and he couldn't help but think it was the end.

"Naru, I can stay with you." He was a Nara, what's a year to him being held back? He was already steps ahead of everyone, and it will always be that way no matter what advantages everyone had on the field or not.

"No." Naru looked at his the Konoha band on his left arm, and Shikamaru couldn't help but feel like ripping it away. "Can you do me a favor?"

Anything. "What is it?"

"I need to be alone for a little while."

And with that, Naru left that way she does when she didn't want to be found. Leaving Shikamaru to stand in that academy, for once in a long while, alone.

A cold seeping anger built up inside him, and Shikamaru turned and marched towards Iruka who was congratulating the parents of those students who succeeded. He waited till the man's attention was on him and him alone. And in that spot, with the families around them, and with his own parents approaching, Shikamaru levelled Iruka with a stare that he hoped the man could feel to the very depths of his being the disappointment and the anger and the hatred he felt for what the teachers had done.

"Rock Lee." Shikamaru enunciated the name and waited until Iruka understood what he said. "Rock Lee, you allowed to graduate with minimal abilities with chakra." He stressed his words. "He can only ever be considered a taijutsu specialist and he graduated."

Shikamaru felt his father's hand rest on his shoulder but he brushed it off.

He wasn't finished.

"With all his flaws, you graduated him ─ deemed him competent enough to be a ninja."

Shikamaru looked Iruka directly in the eye's, seeing the man understand exactly what he was all about, and hoping the man could see how this one action of his alone ruined his opinion and respect for him as a person of authority.

"And you couldn't graduate Naru?" Shikamaru never raised his voice, speaking his mind with an even tone, regardless of his anger. "With everything she could do ─ even after all the obstacles this whole system sets up for her ─ you fail her?"

"Shikamaru that's enough." His father whispered to him, pulling him away from his teacher who looked distraught, which he should be.

The man needed to know that he was like everybody else.

That he was no better.

That Shikamaru was ashamed to have trusted him, even for a little bit, in being fair with Naru.

Shikamaru was mistaken, and he couldn't help but feel that he had wronged Naru in someway, for giving her hope that she could graduate as someone before her did without the use of chakra. That they would grant her the same thing because the system took in your overall point qualification.

But that was all calculated with Iruka being fair.

Iruka made him a liar.

Shikamaru turned away from the man who considered himself a teacher and followed his parents away from the academy. With the lack of apology from his parents to the man, Shikamaru knew they were with him. And that was enough for him.