Mission 10 - "Familiar feelings."

Almost a month has passed since Ruka had woken up from the hospital, who later was reunited with his father a week after that. His father, Seiichi, was very happy and grateful to have finally found his son after two months since they went to the airport. Even though he had asked his father what happened, all he could get was, "I don't know. We just arrived there and the next thing I knew, we were seperated!"

It was rather disappointing that his father honestly had no answer for him but he didn't mind. Ruka was just glad to be back with him, safe and sound. He may have amnesia and not sure what could have been so horrible for him to block it out of his memories but now that his father was happy, he was happy, too.

Today was Thursday, September the 13th.

School had started almost a week after he had returned home, which meant he had to start sixth grade this year. He was happy to be back in school, it was always fun. Sure, he didn't like how the guys seem to be getting much bolder with their advances each year but he knew how to take care of himself.

Right now, he was having lunch with a friend outside on the fairly large playground, sitting on the picnic tables while happily chatting away about random things just like any normal little boys and girls. But not Ruka. No, he was far from that. He kept rubbing his temple as he ate little of the food his father had prepared for him. His head always seemed to hurt but that might be because he kept attempting to remember what he had forgotten a month ago. But no matter how much he tried, nothing came back to answer his questions.

'What was it? Why can't I remember? It feels like its important. Well, all my memories are important but still...I can't shake off the feeling that there was something...something about that dream I had some time ago. And that boy...just who exactly is he?' He thought, sighing and shaking his head at his own thoughts.

"...uka?"

'What am I thinking? It was just a dream. I shouldn't be so focused on that dream. Its probably something I saw on my anime shows. Yeah. That's got to be it!' Ruka nodded, agreeing with his own logic.

"Hey! Ruka!"

"Huh?" The brunette blinked up to see the annoyed look on his friend, Scott. It took him a second to realize he wasn't paying any attention at all to what he was saying. "Oh! Sorry, Scott. I wasn't paying attention." Ruka grinned sheepishly. Scott glared for a second then sighed. "You know, you've been doing that a lot lately. I mean, you didn't even notice that your fan girls are over there, drooling over you again." He pointed to the area where said fan girls loomed under the tree.

Ruka looked over his shoulder once, smiled sheepishly, and waved a bit weakly, receiving lots of squeals and happy sighs from them. He turned back with a grimance while Scott just snickered behind his hand. It took a few minutes for Scott to recover from his laughter before turning his attention back on his friend, who was giving him a rather annoyed expression.

"You done laughing now?" Ruka grumbled, miffed.

"Yeah, I'm done. Anyway, I'm serious here. Is something wrong?" His friend asked, both worried and curious.

He sighed deeply and leaned on the right, his elbow on the table with his head on his hand. "I don't know. I keep thinking about this dream I had before school started. Nothing to worry about!" He offered a smile to reassure his friend but it didn't work.

"Well, what's it about? And don't tell me its nothing cause I won't believe it!" Scott cut him off before he could say anything.

He pouted for a second then sighed again. "Well, okay. I'll tell you." And Ruka proceeded to explain his dream. As he explained the dream he had a month ago, he tried to put in as many details as possible about the mystery guy. Though he couldn't see his face, he described what he wore and his voice a little. Near the end of the conversation, Ruka noticed that Scott was very quiet and looked over to see a solemn face of his friend. "Scott? What is it?"

His blonde friend rubbed the back of his neck while slowly trying to choose the right words to say. "...Well, the guy from your dream sounds a lot like that lazy guy from the Naruto show you watch." He muttered seriously.

'Ah-ha! I knew it! It IS one of my...wait a minute. Naruto? Wha?' The brunette gave him a weird look.

"...What?"

"What's a Naruto?"

There was silent between them for a few long moments before Scott's brain slowly registered what he just asked. "Wh-What did you say?" The blonde asked. "Um, what's a Naruto?" Ruka repeated meekly, nervous under his stare. He continued to stare at him for a good long time in utter disbelief, not sure whether he was faking ignorance or not, and decided to voice his own thoughts. "What Do You Mean What's A Naruto?! You've Been Watching It Ever Since You Got It!!"

Ruka didn't know why but the name Naruto sounded familiar to him. It felt like he knew what he was talking about but at the same time, he had no clue what a Naruto was. All he knew is that its a fish cake. But why would Scott know the proper Japanese word for fish cake? Did he teach him that or was it at random? Now that he remembered, he still need to learn his father's language but right now, there are more important matters.

"I did? So it is an anime?"

"Yeah! Its like your all-time favorite! And I can't believe you forgot about Shikamaru! You always talked about him whenever we bring up that subject!"

'...Shi...ka...ma...ru? Why does it sound...so...'

He rubbed the side of his head when a dull pain started aching upon just saying that name. Scott was at his side at a moment's notice, worry painted all over his face. "Hey! You okay?" He asked worriedly. "Y-Yeah. I'm fine. Just that my head started to hurt all of a sudden. I dunno why it does-ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" The pain came back, only a bit stronger than last time.

It hurt so much that he didn't even remember where he was, focused only on the pain. Placing a hand on each side of his head, Ruka tried to shake it off but that only made it worse. "Ruka! Hey! You okay? Ruka!" Scott tried to get an answer out of him but received nothing. Instead, he watched as Ruka swung his right hand as if reaching to hold onto something but missed and knocked over what remains of his lunch, which threw him off balance and fell backwards off his seat to the ground. "RUKA!!"

Even though he was in so much pain, he could still hear his friend's voice calling him. But it was slowly being overpowered by another voice.

Who is it? Whose calling him? Scott?

...No, that couldn't be. He heard him earlier so it had to be a different person. But who is it?!

He tried opening his eyes but instead of seeing his friend, he saw the same shadowy boy from his dream standing over him. He couldn't tell if he was the second person calling his name but the sharp pain pulled him back into reality and groaned, curling up into a little ball on his side with his hands on his head again.

"Ruka! Wait here! I'll go get the teacher!" That time, he knew for sure that was Scott.

The other voice seemed to have vanished as quickly as it came, just like its owner. Ruka can feel the darkness pulling him down into unconsciousness as he struggled to stay awake. But the thought of no pain in a blissful slumber was quite delightful so he let it take him. But as he fell into the darkness, he managed to open his eyes to see where his friend was running to but was replaced by the shadowy back of the dream boy. Slowly, he lifted a hand to touch it but stopped and let it fall in the grass, watching the shadow for a few long moments as his eyes slowly closed shut.

'Shikamaru...just who are you?'

(NEXT SCENE)

"Aww, we haven't seen or heard from Ruka-kun in a while. I wonder where he is." Sakura sighed sadly.

"He's probably busy with studying at the academy." Naruto nodded, agreeing with his own logic.

"But still. We should've at LEAST seen him when we pass by."

"I'm sure he's fine. He's not a girl, you know."

The last surviving Uchiha just leaned against the railing of the bridge, their meeting point before they started their missions. Of course, their jounin sensei hasn't arrived yet but what's new? He glanced over to see his teammates still conversating amongst themselves about the same thing they've been talking about first thing in the morning for the past couple of weeks. Man, why couldn't he be put in a normal team?

"Yo! Good morning."

Speak of the devil.

All three turned up and glared where the voice came from, which was from on the railing a little further. It was their teacher, Kakashi Hatake, crouching on the balls of his feet, eye smiling and pulled out a hand in a sort of wave. "I got lost today on the road of life, so..."

Here it comes...

"YOU'RE LATE!!"

Bingo.

(NEXT SCENE)

Sometime later that afternoon...

"Man, what a day. These missions are so troublesome." Shikamaru yawned loudly.

He stretched his arm in the air while his hand went behind his head and grabbed the forearm of its opposite, pulling only slightly for a few seconds before dropping them back down and stuffed his hands in his pockets. Sighing, he headed straight for home, trying to think of other things besides his duties as a full-feldged ninja. It wasn't that hard, though.

He stopped in his tracks after several minutes in front of his house to stare at the clouds for a minute or two before sighing once more and entered the building. Walking straight for the kitchen, he found that his mother wasn't there but shrugged and made his way to the fridge. He opened it and frowned when he noticed the lacking of produce inside and figured that's why his mother wasn't here, nagging and yelling like always.

He shook his head at the thought of his mother. 'Troublesome.'

Closing the fridge, he decided to grab a banana from the basket in the middle of the table since it was the only edible food around. After peeling the peel off, he took a bite and stood there for a while until all that was left was the banana peel. Throwing it into a nearby basin and grabbing another, he walked out of the kitchen to his room to drop off his weapon pouch and anything ninja related before, once again, heading to leave the house.

Once outside the house, he headed for his usual spot for cloud watching, which was close by the area where his team often train in. Swallowing the remains of his banana, he held the banana peel in front of him like a rag and stared at it with a rather bored like expression, as always. He looked around to see if there was a trash bin anywhere nearby before disposing it in said bin outside of the flower shop his female companion's family run.

Shikamaru stared at the shop after getting rid of the peel, unable to look away from the daisies that sat in a flower pot near the entrance inside the tiny building.

He still remembered that day when the eleven-year-old brunette tried to give him the supposedly dying flowers after diving into the stream to get away from a swarm of angry bees but they were washed away. It was still burned into his memory. That boy just didn't know when enough was enough.

Ruka. Ambitious, sweet, innocent little Ruka.

The shadow user chuckled lightly to himself, shaking his head as a shadow fell over his eyes before walking away. It took less than ten minutes to reach his favorite cloud gazing spot and, within seconds, he was staring straight into the wide, bright, clear blue skies above on his back and arms behind his head. A soft sigh escaped his lips, his mind and thoughts plagued by images of his small friend, whom has disappeared weeks before.

Just what about him seemed to nag into his thoughts?

It was probably from guilt. For making Ruka cry and disappear in a puff of smoke.

After all, it is his fault, right?

'Crap. That brat sure is a pain in the neck when he wants to be. Teh, troublesome.' He scoffed, shaking his head.

Keep! Say! Everything about me! Troublesome! Well...I disappear! Maybe! Wouldn't! So troublesome for you!

A frown crossed his lips when Ruka's angry words echoed back into his thoughts like some annoying insect that just couldn't die, no matter how much you swat at it. The clouds above him continued to float on by as he remained on the grass, staring into the sky but no longer paying any attention to it. 'Dammit. Can't think straight. ...Ngh...oww...my head hurts.' He made a face as he lifted a hand to his forehead, trying to ease the growing headache.

Apparently, this was becoming a routine.

Every time he thought of the younger brunette, his head would start hurting. Sighing in frustration, he pushed himself up into sitting position and stared at the ground at his feet. He seemed to be in deep thought before standing up and walking away from his spot back into the village with lazy determinitation...if you call it determinitation.

(NEXT SCENE)

With a long yawn, Sousuke put his hand down as he watched Nanami practice her weaponry skills in flinging her kunais and shurikens at a dummy, which was pinned against the tree. It had been exactly a little over, wait, well over a month since he last saw their smallest and youngest teammate come up for training. It was like he up and disappeared all of a sudden. His brows furrowed, narrowing his eyes and seethed quietly.

And it all was HIS fault.

'Damn him! Because of him, Ru-Ru's gone and its all his fault! Now we don't even know if he's here or back home or some other unknown worldly place! Sure, I tease him and make him mad but I wouldn't do anything I know I can't fix! Dammit!'

The kunoichi jumped a little and whirled around to see that Sousuke had punched the tree that he was sitting under, only to yell and curse profusely as he held his now bruised fist. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, giving him an exasperate look. "Okay. I understand how you feel and everything but you really didn't have to take it out on the tree." Nanami lectured.

"Shut up. I know that. Fuck, that hurt!"

"And stop with the language. Hayate-sensei may not mind but I DO."

"Again, shut up. Who the hell put you in charge of what I do?"

"Geez! I'm just asking if you don't do that around me! Is that so bad?!"

"You know, you're starting to piss me off!"

"Same here, idiot!"

They glared at each other for one long minute, both not willing to be the first to back down from the other. But their little stare down was interrupted when Hayate interfered. "Alright, that's enough (cough, cough) arguing." The sickly jounin coughed behind his hand. The genins glared at each other for a good few seconds before turning away with a humph. Hayate looked back and forth between his stubborn genin and sighed with a cough.

'Oh god, can't someone just take my place? I can't take this anymore.'

--

Itai (ow; ouch)