Hey, everyone! Thanks for all the reviews again, especially Reviews for the Poor and Leilani22. Here's the next chapter:
"You're filthy!" Midori cried as her daughter walked into the house. Shizuka sighed and nodded. She was careful to avoid brushing by the furniture should she get it dirty. "What happened on this mission?" Shizuka pointed to the painting of a farmhouse on the wall. Midori nodded.
"You were at a farm, eh?"
Nod. Shizuka decided not to tell her mom about her run in with Natto, but it was too late because Midori saw the bruise on her hand.
"What happened to your hand?" Shizuka pretended to bite her palm and put her two index fingers up on her head to make them look like ears. Midori sighed.
"You got bitten by an animal?"
Nod.
"Was it rabid?" Shizuka shook her head.
"Be careful because next time it might have rabies... So, what are you planning to do tomorrow since your team doesn't have any missions?"
"I'm going over to a friend's house," Shizuka wrote.
"Which friend?" asked Midori.
"Shikamaru."
"Who's Shikamaru?"
"He's a boy on my team." Midori gave her daughter a suspicious, yet amused look. Shizuka gave her a confused one.
"I didn't know you associated with boys all of a sudden, Shizuka-chan," she said. Shizuka rolled her eyes and scribbled down the Natto story for her mother.
"You should have been more careful," Midori said once she read the part where Shizuka let the horse loose. Shizuka stuck out her lower lip. She had heard enough from her sensei, she didn't need anymore grief from her mom. Once she was done reading, Midori shrugged.
"You brought this on yourself, Shizuka," she said. "Next time you shouldn't try and deal with crazy horses. Now go take a bath before you stink up the house." Rolling her eyes once more, Shizuka ran up stairs, got her bathrobe on, and drew herself a bath.
--
The next morning Shizuka slept in late. She was in no rush in the morning. Her arms ached from the hard work yesterday, and the bruise on her hand had turned a weird purple-brownish colour. When she went downstairs the clock read eleven a.m.
"When are you going over to this boy's house?" asked Midori, looking up from her breakfast. Shizuka showed her mother ten fingers, and then just two.
"Noon? Well, you better get ready." Shizuka ate a quick breakfast and went back upstairs to brush her hair, teeth, and get dressed. All that time she was wondering how Shikamaru was going to help her use her brain.
So far, her thoughts on Shikamaru weren't very positive. Shizuka had inferred that Shikamaru Nara was a lazy pessimist that wasn't much of a help on mission. But then again, he was pretty smart, and seemed nice enough, so maybe he wasn't all that bad. Shizuka just hoped they wouldn't sit around and do nothing while she was there...
Shizuka waited outside the Naras front door. This was the second time she rang the door bell and nobody had decided to come answer it. She was about to ring the bell again when she heard a sharp woman's voice yell.
"Shikamaru will you please answer the door?" she called.
"In a minute..." said Shikamaru's voice. Shizuka rolled her eyes.
Come on!
"Shikamaru, it rang twice; get-the-door!" shouted the female voice. After that, the door opened. Shizuka raised her hand in greeting.
"Hi," Shikamaru said. "Sorry about that. Come on, let's go get this over with." He made way for Shizuka to pass. She looked around Shikamaru's house.
The wooden floor boards creaked a little as she walked. The walls were pretty plain with a little paint covering them. On one wall was a plaque with deer's antlers on it. The place was kind of bare, but it had a somewhat cozy feel to it.
"Shikamaru, close the door if no one's coming in or out!" barked the same voice that told him to answer the door. Shizuka turned her head.
Approaching the two teens was a woman who was tall, had her long brown hair tied back with a few bangs loose, and dark eyes. She wore a white apron over a pink shirt and a long, brown skirt with boots. Shizuka assumed his was her team mate's mother.
"Who's this?" she asked, sharply. Shizuka was a little put off. She would have appricated it if Shikamaru's mom had asked her the question instead of her son.
"This is Shizuka Kobayashi," Shikamaru said. "She's staying with our team until she gets put into one of her own, being from the Getsugakure and all." Yoshino blew a stray bang from her forhead.
"Well, it's about time you started hanging around with girls," she commented. "Seriously, you're thirteen now!" Shizuka's face turned red.
"Mom-"
"Well, go off now and do whatever it is teenagers do!" With that, Yoshino disappeared, leaving the two team mates in an akward silence. Shikamaru sighed.
"Don't mind my mom," he said. "She's always like that."
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but HOW CAN YOU STAND IT?" Shizuka asked him. Shikamaru sighed.
"That's the thing- I can't," he said. Shizuka followed Shikamaru down the hall and up to his bed room door. Shikamaru pushed it open and walked into the room, Shizuka following. Her team mate's room was pretty plain with just a bed, a bureau, and a closet.
Kinda boring... Shizuka said, yawning.
"Okay, I'm not much of a teacher," said Shikamaru, striding over to his closet. "However, I'm a pretty good game player." He opened his closet and pulled out a square board consisting of eighty-one squares and a small plastic baggy of wodden wedge shaped game pieces. "Have you ever played shogi?"
Shizuka nodded, but she knew she wasn't very good at it. Nine out of ten times it was her king that would be captured in the end. Once she was beaten by her ten year old cousin, who still bugged her about it two years later.
"Have you ever won?" Shikamaru continued. Shizuka made a face that said, "Not really" and shook her head. She felt embarrassed. She wasn't a stupid girl, and she knew it too, but by the way the chips were falling in place (the dressing up as a boy thing, the incident with Natto, her constant defeats in shogi), she assumed she was starting to make an impression.
"So, you're not good at it?" Shizuka shook her head. Shikamaru set the game board down on the floor and started setting up the pieces.
"Well, let's play this game- It requires a lot of thinking and logical reasoning," Shikamaru sighed and looked out the window. "Of course, if it were up to me I'd be outside watching the clouds, but I promised Asuma I'd help you, so let's get this over with." Shizuka frowned at him and crossed her arms. Was complaining all this kid did? Seriously, if it was so hard for him to help her why didn't he just say no?
Snapping out of her catty thoughts, Shizuka turned her attention back to the game. Shikamaru had set up the pieces so that he was white and Shizuka was black. Black always went first, so, unsure of how to start, Shizuka moved her pawn forward one space and waited for her team mate to move his piece.
After a while of thinking, Shikamaru moved one pawn one space up.
Shizuka pushed her rook up behind her pawn, hoping to catch Shikamaru's her next turn. She waited for the boy to move.
The only thing Shikamaru did was move his pawn one square foreward.
Shizuka put her rook right infront of Shikamaru's pawn.
Shikamaru moved another pawn next to his other one a single space forward.
Gotcha! Shizuka pushed her rook forward and took Shikamaru's pawn. However, after she did that she realized she had fallen prey to her team mate's bishop and watched helplessly as he captured her rook.
My rook for a pawn? Use your head, Shizuka! she scolded herself.
"Upset?" Shizuka looked up at Shikamaru. He was looking curiously at her. Shizuka noddded and pointed to her rook which had now become his.
"What?" Shizuka took her roook in her hands and held it up, then held up his pawn.
"Oh, you're upset that you sacrificed your rook for a pawn?" Shizuka nodded and handed Shikamaru back his piece. He sighed.
"You've gotta really watch it in this game. Think logically and don't make any quick desicions," he instructed. Shizuka heeded Shikamaru's words and they continued their game.
Shizuka tried to think logically and she ended up capturing quite a few of Shikamaru's pieces, but she was no match for him. He got even more of her pieces, and, like in all shogi games, was able to use them against her. Eventually the game came to an end, and it was Shizuka's king that got captured. She gave a light, disheartened sigh. Compared to Shikamaru Nara, she was a complete idiot.
"Hey, don't sound so upset," Shikamaru said to her. "For an amateur you're doing pretty well." Shizuka looked up and smiled a 'thank you' to him.
For the rest of the time she was there, Shizuka played some more shogi games with Shikamaru, who ended up wining all the time. When three o' clock rolled around, the two teenagers decided to call it a day, and put the board game away.
"Thanks for helping me," Shizuka wrote. "It was really fun. We should do this again some time."
"We're gonna have to," Shikamaru said. "One afternoon of playing shogi's not going to make much of a difference."
"Then when will we play again?" Shizuka asked. Shikamaru shrugged.
"We'll figure it out next time."
"Oh, okay," Shizuka nodded. "Well, I have to go now. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, bye," Shikamaru said. Shizuka left his room and the house, keeping a fast pace.
Well, that was nice, she thought, sarcastically. He was too lazy to even get up to see me to the door!
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Weeeee! I updated! Sorry for the delay, but Im afraid the updates will be coming a little slower from now on. But, never fear, THEY WILL COME! Lol, thanks for reading.
