A few weeks later, as Ren is visiting Shikamaru for lunch, Sakura visits and concedes defeat. She hands Ren a vial of purple liquid, says, "This is the closest thing to an antidote I could come up with. But even with this, the infected has to keep taking it for the rest of his life to slow the cell division your poison causes."
Ren takes the vial, rolling it between her index finger and thumb. She says, "Did you ask Godaime for help like I said you could?"
At this, Sakura blushes, turning a shade of red that clashes with her hair. "Yeah," she admits begrudgingly. "But…even Godaime—"
Shikamaru, impressed, turns to congratulate Ren on her success, but she seems unaffected by the fact that she has beaten out the two of the most talented medical shinobi of their time. She waves Sakura off, says, "That's fine. The antidote is in the Nara family medical encyclopedia, if you want to take a look at it."
Both Sakura and Shikamaru pause, stunned. Sakura starts to proclaim her wonder, but Shikamaru speaks over her, says, "What do you mean the antidote is in the encyclopedia?"
Ren blinks at him, taken aback by the decibel of his voice. "I mean," she says, picking a piece of the fish from his lunchbox and popping it into her mouth, "I wrote it in a few weeks ago. With permission from your mother, of course. I would have asked you for your approval, considering you're technically at the head now, but I didn't think you would mind."
"You wrote it in," he repeats.
"Yeah," she says, frowning at him. "You're struggling a little today, aren't you, Shikamaru? Did you get enough sleep last night?"
"I'm fine," he says, waving off her mock concern. "But—why would you write that in the encyclopedia?"
She furrows her brow, says, "The poison contains deer antler. I may be wrong, but I thought that was relevant to your family's specialty. So when I wrote in the lab report for the poison, I figured I may as well include the antidote too, just in case. Besides, of everyone," she says, finishing the last of her lunch, "you were the one who helped me the most. I figured you'd like to have it."
Ren glances at the door, does a double take. "Where did Sakura go?" she asks, but—no offense to her—Shikamaru couldn't care less where Sakura went. He is still preoccupied by the idea that Ren has written in the encyclopedia. Truly, he doesn't mind that she has written in it, but the only people to have recorded medical information in the book this far have been family.
And he can imagine his mother's reaction as Ren approached her to ask for permission to write in the book. "You're just as well family anyway, Ren," she would have said. And Shikamaru is sure his father would have said the same if he were alive.
Shikamaru sits back in his seat, watching as Ren trades food between their lunches as she is prone to do. She is saying something about how troublesome it is to get a passport and a work visa, how she wishes Gaara would just waive everything for her since she is a personal friend of the Kazekage.
"Are you ready to leave for Suna, then?" he asks, and she looks up from their lunches.
Ren smiles, a soft, genuine smile that makes him mirror it. "Yeah," she says, finishing the last of her lunch. "I am. But without even having left yet, I'm ready to come back. Mostly though," she says with a smirk of satisfaction, "I'm happy to visit Chiyo-sama and tell her we've finally beat the Slug Princess."
