InARealPickle- I fixed it. Obviously I am new to all of this stuff and it really was just a slip of the mind. But that's why i need people like you to help me improve, thanks for that. And lol, swamp hair XD
shirohara- it isn't weird :) I'm trying to keep their relationship going slowish.
InitialsS.A.T.- thank you :)
I see you see- thank gosh you said she wasnt a mary sue, i was going out of my mind :)
httydismylife- I'm so glad you like it! I'm trying my best to keep from making them annoying :)
"Robbie could you please put that thing down?" Rosile asked tiredly, her brother had been amped up ever since ninja academy had finished and she was loosing every ounce of patience she had to try to keep him from breaking things in their house.
Although there wasnt much, having sold much of their previous belongings during the move to Konoha there was only the bare minimum in their large cream coloured house.
But everything was a target for the white-haired boy.
With sound effects streaming from his mouth at a constant rate Robbie continued to jump on and off of things and pretend he was taking on several shinobi at a time.
And normally, this wouldn't bother her, if only she hadn't had a headache from focusing on her blood flow all day and Robbie wasnt so intent on using real knives to throw at the walls.
One actually made it at least an inch into the wall where he aimed and he was quick to yell his victory, and although impressive, Rosile really wasnt in the mood to be plastering over holes all day tomorrow.
Or perhaps a few days later depending on how long she slept and how this seal thing went, she wasnt exactly sure and the only thing she was grateful for was the fact that since she'd worn herself out in training today she didn't have the energy to be nervous.
Much.
Even though it was getting removed the day after tomorrow.
Oh lord here we go again.
With a frustrated sigh Rosile asked him again quietly to put down the knives and come and eat dinner with her already, which had been sitting on the table for at least ten minutes now and was probably not so appealing right now.
It wasnt even appealing before it was cold.
Robbie ignored her again and Rosile felt her patience thin some more, she'd had a shower, had Robbie take a shower, made dinner and even out a load of washing on but nothing seemed to make her less agitated.
There was just so much on her plate right now that she could barely stand it.
She was thirteen.
Thirteen years old, almost fourteen who was given the responsibility of looking after a seven-year old boy, who also wished to become a shinobi while Rosile was training to be one as well.
And with all of this frustration she found herself instictually trying to point blame and only came up with one person.
Her father.
He really hadn't planned for this at all?
Did he even care about them?
Sure, he bought them a house in Konoha, fully furnished and a more than decent size, but what about money?
What about food? And what about them?
Yet as she pondered on this she realised with a grim feeling rising in her gut that her father was not the only one to blame for all of this.
Her mother, Their mother.
Completely abandoning them for her own selfish reasons with a father who probably had no idea what he was doing without so much as a goodbye.
Rosile had no idea who the woman was but found herself getting increasingly agitated with how much her father used to compare them.
Rosile didn't leave. Wouldnt even dream of leaving Robbie.
God why were these things happening to her?!
Knock Knock.
Rosile's attention was stolen from the hard rapping coming from the front door and looked down to see her fists clenching the side of the table so hard that they were beginning to go numb with how hard she was clutching.
Her knuckles were practically as white as the dinner plates.
As she calmed her breathing down she noticed how worked up she had gotten and was instantly ashamed of herself for overreacting.
Perhaps she just needed a good nights rest or a hot cup of tea to calm herself down to her usual mild outlook on life.
Rising from the table and smoothing out her shirt distractedly, trying in vain to calm herself down, Rosile was quick to answer the door by pulling it open with a haphazard smile tugging at her lips.
When the spiky haired Shikamaru came into view behind it Rosile pondered on actually letting the smile fall and instantly just confessing all of her problems to him one at a time.
Yet she didn't since this was Shikamaru and he wasnt the type of guy to sit there and let a 'girl' ramble on about her problems.
And since Rosile was too afraid of scaring him off with the insane amount of baggage she carried around with her.
The cool air from outside blew in past her bare arms and she idly heard Robbie continuing to yell in excitement while taking on his imaginary opponents behind her in the living room.
And with the breeze came his scent and the feeling of his blood.
God this was getting annoying.
His face was passive, like always yet instead of his usual ninja attire he wore a dark grey yukata, though he still had his hands in his pockets and stood in the same lazy postured stance that she had grown accustomed too.
It made her feel slightly under-dressed since she only wore a white long-sleeved shirt and grey pants.
"Shikamaru?" she asked, inwardly berating herself for sounding so rude and hoped he didn't take offense.
He merely gave an annoyed sigh and glanced at her with half-open eyes, "This is such a drag, but my Mom asked if you wanted to come over for dinner"
He'd said it like a statement, not actually a question but Rosile had a hard time to null it over anyway.
She was physically and mentally exhausted from training today and she was sure Robbie was already destroying something somewhere in the house now so if she agreed then she would have to somehow get Robbie to calm down which was a recipe for disaster.
And then judging by the way Shikamaru was dressed, in that yukata that made him look very important Rosile had the added tension that she would have to dress up for the occasion.
And also dress Robbie for the occasion as well.
She wasn't even sure if they even had nice clothes like that, before their father died they were pretty average in wealth.
"Well?" Shikamaru pressed, his voice sounding exasperated and she wondered how long she really had been thinking about her answer.
Sometimes her mind just wandered off.
"Um- I- Ah.." Rosile tucked her hair behind her ear again and looked down, stuttering out a few syllables and tried to find the right sentence to say that told him that she didn't really want to go.
She was tired, irritable and she had a hyper Robbie with her, she couldn't imagine the dinner going smoothly.
"Look if you don't say yes now my mom's gonna come over here and probably drag you over herself" he added.
Rosile's gaze returned to his face and she bit her lip in thought.
Well, if his mother's going to come over and get her anyway..
Before she had the chance to say yes, a roaring Robbie made himself known by running towards the door, but in his haste his little foot got caught and his hand came out to steady himself, unintentionally throwing a knife directly at Shikamaru.
Rosile barely had time to gasp before it flew past her head and almost as if in slow motion flew towards an unsuspecting Shikamaru's head whose eyes widened and it was obvious he wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time.
So with her heart pounding in her ears, blood burning for some unknown reason, Rosile did the first thing that came to mind and brought her hand up to try to catch the knife.
Which was probably not the brightest thing to do but hey, you can't blame her right?
She didn't register the pain, didn't even register her weight being pulled forward in her haste to catch it and knocked into Shikamaru, but what did register to her, was her blood.
It was as if it was the only thing in the world right now.
And it was terrifying.
Her blood, dark red and running like syrup freely down her hand and staining her shirt seemed to put her in a trance, the knife already dropped and forgotten just like everything else around her.
Rosile thought she may have cut something deep if it was bleeding this heavily.
She didn't notice her left hand bracing on Shikamaru who was laying underneath her or that Robbie was calling her name warily from the doorway.
All she could see was her blood.
And how it felt as if she was drunk.
And the worst of it all, was when Shikamaru's face came into her view and the first thing that registered in her mind was to bite down on his skin until she felt his blood on her tongue.
"Rosile?" he called, waving a hand in front of her face and taking her forearm in his hand gently to get a better look at her cut, but none of that seemed important since his concerned face made her smile goofily.
Rosile barely heard Shikamaru curse before a worried Robbie came over to ask if she was okay, but only two things existed to her in that moment, her blood and Shikamaru's.
"Whats happening?" Robbie demanded in a panic next to her, Rosile only dazedly concerned which should have been a giant red flag to her.
"We've gotta get her to my Mom" Shikamaru stated, barking it to her little brother like an order and Rosile only just having enough presence of mind to nudge him lightly with her non bleeding hand and reprimand him with a small 'hey'.
He merely responded with a grunt and somehow maneuvered her from him and standing upright, him bracing her weight while she continued to watch her hand like it was the most interesting thing in the world and noted that Shikamaru also told Robbie to lock their door.
And then he proceeded to half drag and half carry her towards his home.
It wasn't an ideal dinner, Rosile sure wished that it probably would've happened differently but there was no way she could change it now.
The second they had stumbled through the door Shikamaru's mother was on them instantly, wondering why in the world they took so long and had dropped the tea-towel in her hand with a gasp when she saw Rosile's hand.
Quickly ushering them into a nearby bedroom Yoshino was quick to clean the wound and bandage it up, sitting Rosile down on the edge of a bed, gently smiling at Rosile the whole time and seemingly just shrugging off Rosile's zombified stare on her hand as shock.
If only the older woman knew.
Shikamaru was standing in the doorway, arms folded and his back leaning on the arch, watching his mother fix her hand with an intense stare, Rosile wondered why he was so tense.
Robbie of course was feeling incredibly guilty and had done nothing but apologize ever since they'd gotten inside, Rosile trying her best to calm him down with soothing words but while her bloodied hand was still in view she doubted she was doing any good.
With her free hand she took hold of Robbie's wrist to pull him gently towards her, then had him sit next to her so that he had to lean on her before she ran her fingers through his hair.
Remembering that she always used to do this to calm him down and the boy quickly settled, cuddling in and making a guilty face.
Yoshino smiled at the sight and was done with her wound easily, clapping once when she was done and looked her over fondly.
"That was quite an entrance you made young lady," she teased, making Rosile blush lightly and tuck her hair behind her ear, looking down at her feet mutely.
Yoshino seemed to notice Rosile's attire and was quick to get on that as well, noticing the blood on her shirt and pants and blankly said that they 'had to go'.
She shooed Shikamaru and Robbie who protested but was pulled by the back of the collar by Shikamaru who was whispering a 'just don't argue with her' in the white-haired boy's ear, and began to rummage through a closet that Rosile hadn't noticed.
Rosile took deep breaths in order to process what had just happened.
Cut. Check. Shikamaru's fine? Check. Stitched it up? Check. And what was going on again?
Rosile felt drugged but welcomed the distraction from her annoying blood limit which had progressed to the point to where it was an involuntary obsession that she really wanted to just get rid of already.
Yoshino huffed on the other side of the room, stealing Rosile's attention.
"We don't have any young girls clothes, and all of Shikamaru's clothes would be far too big on you wont they?"
The woman was seemingly talking to herself and Rosile felt herself inch away from the woman as she could feel waves of some kind of emotion roll off of her.
Rosile had a feeling Yoshino didn't like it when things didn't go her way.
But then again Rosile didn't blame her, she had kind of just barged into this nice lady's home, bled all over the place with her new friend demanding the woman to fix her hand.
Oh that's right.
Shikamaru had been worried about her.
Perhaps she had found a proper friend.
Well, he showed more emotion that Rosile had seen him show in the whole time she'd known him, which decidedly wasn't really that much.. and had even practically carried her over to his house himself.
And Robbie.
Oh poor Robbie.
She really owed him big time for this.
"Aha!"
Rosile flinched at the loud exclamation from the older woman who turned around with a big smile on her face, holding out a simple dark yukata much like the one Shikamaru had on now, only smaller.
"This should fit you fine!"
Yoshino bumbled over happily and set it down next to Rosile, turning to leave and gave a 'come out when you're done' before her hand touched the door handle.
Rosile panicked.
"Wait!"
Rosile's hand quickly reached out for the older woman, bunching up in the back of her pink dress and keeping her from leaving the room.
Yoshino turned around to look at her but Rosile couldn't meet her eyes, feeling ashamed of herself and quickly reeled back her hand.
Girls don't snatch things Rosile..
"What is it sweetie?" Yoshino soothed. Yet Rosile couldn't speak yet.
Girls don't yell Rosile..
"I-I just.."
Only girls get to wear dresses Rosile..
"I d-don't.."
You're not good enough to wear one..
Gathering up enough breath, Rosile finally looked up, making sure her eyes weren't teared up or that she was showing any expression other than her usual shy one.
"I don't know how.. to put it on.."
Oh god she said it out loud. What now?
Would Yoshino laugh at her? Would she tease her about not knowing something so simple as to put on a yukata?
Would she be like her step-mother?
Were all mothers like that?
"Well why didn't you just say so Sweetie?" Yoshino breathed, as if it were no deal and that Rosile was just being silly and dramatic.
But her reaction was dramatic to Rosile.
Yoshino didn't mind.
Didnt mind that she was incompetent and that she yelled or that she grabbed the back of her dress.
Didnt mind helping Rosile dress and even brushed her hair a little as well, gushing something on the lines of 'I wish i had a daughter, sometimes I even brush Shikamaru's hair..'
And Rosile found herself staring at Yoshino in a light that would never be put out.
Yoshino was lovely. And even if she talked an awful lot, Rosile wanted to be around her all the time.
"This is my dad, Shikaku."
It was scary.
And it seemed unnatural.
There, standing no more than five feet away from her, was Shikamaru.
Only twenty years older, with a beard and a scar.
Oh lord help her.
And it only got worse when he introduced himself as "Shikaku Nara" with a scratchy and deeper voice.
Rosile was glad she couldn't smell his scent with her blood loss, because if it was anything like Shikamaru's Rosile feared she may faint.
His hand was calloused and rough, just like the man himself and Rosile found herself a little intimidated but more or less intrigued by the older Nara, she wondered how much like Shikamaru he was.
Maybe Shikamaru got his sexism from his father.
"Rosile.. It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Nara" she said softly, doing her best to keep her voice inside volume but she was so spooked that it was barely more than a whisper.
"You can call me Shikaku, I'll make an exception since you are the first girl other than Ino Shikamaru's ever brought home"
His sentence was accompanied by the older man sending Shikamaru a look that Rosile didn't understand nor want to, judging by Shikamaru's face it was probably some weird boy thing.
Rosile spluttered in surprise, not really knowing if she should take his words or not, perhaps he was testing her to see if she'd call him by his first name.
That wasnt exactly respectful and Rosile didn't have anyone to look at for advice.
Rosile brushed her hair behind her ear and looked down to hide her confusion, stuttering out a "Oh.. al-alright MrShikaku."
Rosile knew that probably wasnt what he wanted but she didn't get to hear a reply since Robbie was on her faster than the older man could speak, his white hair buzzing around the table and Robbie attached himself to her leg with a small grunt on impact.
"Rosie does it hurt?" he asked, tears beginning to glaze up his eyes and Rosile felt her heart go out to him, running her fingers through his hair to soothe him and pulling him closer.
"No Robbie, it doesn't, you were so brave" Rosile cooed, feeling a little embarrassed and guilty for ignoring the Nara family but they seemed to be fine with her brothers outburst.
The young boys head raised with hesitant questioning, his eyes shining bright "Really?"
"Yes" Rosile smiled, ruffling his hair and felt her heart sing when he smiled back, hugging her again.
The moment was lost when a weird high-pitched sound rung out in the room and everyone's eyes flew to Yoshino who looked as if she was swooning.
Her hands clasped together in front of her and Rosile swore she could see little stars in the womans eyes.
"You guys are so cute! But no matter, its dinner time!" she announced and had them all take a seat around their table, Robbie stealing Shikamaru's seat next to Rosile and Shikamaru was forced to move next to his mother and Robbie.
Although it didn't look as if it bothered him, but then again nothing really ever did bother the lazy boy.
Yoshino cheerfully named everything on the table and told them to dig in, Robbie immediately took the cue, piling on things Rosile wasnt sure he knew about.
Everyone else was a little slower.
"So Rosile. I've heard that you have a seal on your body" Shikaku noted, his tone polite but Rosile almost choked on her food.
Ever since her cut she hadn't been able to notice it much, and she honestly was extremely grateful for it since it felt like she was normal for the first time in a long time.
She had begun thinking of an appropriate answer yet she was interrupted by Shikamaru.
"Dad." Shikamaru's tone was so firm that Rosile had to gasp in shock. She'd never heard him so serious in her life, and to be speaking that way to his father.
Was that even allowed in this house? It certainly would not be in her house.
Oh that's right, she couldn't do that anymore.
Shikaku had dropped it and smiled a meek smile that made her want to laugh, it seemed as if he were teasing his son.
Shikamaru gave a sigh and continued eating, like he thought they were all idiots and he was the only sane one at the table.
Yoshino doted on Robbie, Shikaku.. thought and Rosile merely just enjoyed it.
For the first time in a long time she didn't feel alone, and she didn't want anything to happen to them.
The walk home was quiet.
Robbie was fast asleep on Rosile's back and Shikamaru had been ordered by his mom to walk her home and the Lazy boy accepted hesitantly, even opening their front door for her and rolling his eyes when his mother squealed in delight.
But his actions raised a question in Rosile that she felt she needed to ask him, "Shikamaru?" She asked tentatively, and quietly since Robbie was still asleep. She was answered with a low grunt and she smiled gently before asking "why do you.. care so much?"
Shikamaru's expression froze and Rosile stopped walking to check his face to see what was wrong, the boy fake coughed and turned his head to the side, the dark sky making it impossible to see his face.
And she wasnt sure he would answer her yet, in a small voice he spoke "Because you're-" ...
Rosile waited.
And waited.
And waited.
She wasnt sure what the boy would say but something inside of her told her it would be important so she didn't interrupt him.
His dark eyes looked at her and Rosile felt a gaze of something completely different inside of them stare right into her soul.
BUt he seemed to notice what he was doing and coughed again, spurting a "ahem, my responsibility.." he explained with a large 'smile' and scratched the back of his head, pausing a moment and then blurting "and I don't care that much!" with a pout on his face.
Rosile smiled bright, closing her eyes and not noticing the look on Shikamaru's face when she did and continued walking,Shikamaru following at a laggy pace behind her.
When they did reach the door Shikamaru helped her open it and Rosile turned to him with a grateful look, "Thank youShikamaru.. Sweet dreams.." she said, reaching up on the tips of her toes to press her lips lightly against his cheek in a sign of affection.
Noticing the boy turn bright red Rosile backed off and smiled, hearing him mumbled before walking off with his head turned away and his hands in his pockets.
But as he left Rosile only had one thing on her mind.
Just what kind of friend was Shikamaru?
Preview:
"What is the Chunnin Exams?"
And
"Rosile, it's about time we talk about that seal of yours"
So I was late but this story is a lot harder to write than my other one, please review ! :) I love it
I wont talk too much but if you have any questions just ask and I'll answer them in the next chapter :)
Take Care,
-PrincessJade
