First Mission

A slight breeze caused a chill to run down his spine. He looked up at the clouds which seemed almost perfect today. He didn't want to move as he laid on the side of the hill. It would have been a perfect day if not for the foreboding sense of danger and excitement he felt running through his body. Something was coming.

"Shikamaru" he heard a soft voice call his name.

He turned his head in the direction the voice came from, but he could not find the source. He shrugged it off as he returned to his beloved clouds, but the ominous feeling still remained.

"Shikamaru" he heard the soft whisper again.

This time, he sat up and turned to face the direction that he now heard the voice coming from. Again, he found nothing. This was beginning to trouble Shikamaru a little bit. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned the hillside for the hidden source of the troubling voice and grew frustrated by the fact that there didn't seem to be anything stirring.

"Shikamaru" he heard again, but this time it was close and right behind him.

He spun around quickly, supporting his weight with his hands as to keep from falling off balance. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped at the image he saw.

It was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and she was standing there in front of him, stark naked. Her distinct features were distorted a little due to the fact that the sun was directly behind her casting her shadow down onto his face, but he could make out her soft curves and her linear structure through her silhouette. It was a stunning sight to behold.

Shikamaru swallowed hard as he felt the heat that was beginning to swell up in his abdomin. Without a train of thought, in the blink of an eye, he was standing face to face with the beautiful woman. He must have turned to face south because the sun was now illuminating the right side of her face showing her strong yet distinctly feminine bone structure. He looked into her eyes and became completely mesmerized by her stare. He wanted to move. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but he body would not respond. He swallowed hard once again and tried to will his eyes to avert from hers, but found that an impossibility as well.

"Shikamaru" she whispered again which allowed him to momentarily tear his gaze from her eyes to her soft, supple lips.

However, his eyes soon snapped back to hers. He got lost somewhere in those eyes. Their color, he could not think of a suitable word in his language to accurately describe them. He only felt that somehow these eyes had taken him over as if it was a very strong illusion.

He felt an overwhelming desire to do something. What? He was not quite sure. His body was telling him to make a move, but he could not find a suitable move in his mind. He wanted to...

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Shikamaru gasped for air as his eyes shot open. He sat up quickly and breathing slowed as he felt the heat in his core beginning to wane. When he had finally calmed himself down, he glanced over at the clock on his night stand.

"Shit" he whispered. 'I slept through my alarm' he thought.

He felt something on his covers as his hands rested in his lap. He through the covers off to reveal a wet stain on his boxers.

"Troublesome" He muttered as he shook his head. 'I haven't wet the bead since I was two. What the hell is wrong with me?" he questioned himself at the lack of control over his body functions.

He shuffled over to his dresser and pulled out a fresh pair of boxers. He took off the old ones and gave them a quick inspection which only caused him to shake his head once again before he through them into the waste basket by the door. He quickly dressed himself and rushed out the door missing the question his mom threw at him as he passed by.

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It was the day of their first mission. They were official ninja, doing official work for the village of Konoha. The four of them stood in front of the Hokage and a few others who were counting money or shuffling through paperwork.

Shikamaru on the other hand, was distracted by the 'incident' this morning. 'That's the last time I eat curry before going to bed.' He rationalized to himself looking for an explanation. The curry had caused the 'interesting' dream and his bodies physical reaction to the dream was caused by improper gestation. This rationalization seemed to ease his mind a little, he would just have to see if his theory would prove itself out.

"Mmmm" the Sandaime Hokage muttered as his lips were busy holding his pipe so his hands could be free to ramble through scrolls and papers. "Team ten, as your first mission, You will be assigned to..." he paused to narrow his eyes on a particular scroll in his left hand. ",,,ah, yes, assigned to babysit Yojyu-sama, the Daimyo's nephew."

"Ugh" Chouji murmured

Shikamaru's attention snapped at the word 'babysit'. Sigh.

"Babysit! What happened to real ninja work?" Ino's volume and pitch raised as she completed the question.

Asuma rubbed the back of his head as he bit down hard on the cigarette in between his teeth.

The Hokage sighed as he rubbed his temples with his free hand. He then set down the scroll and removed his pipe from his mouth. He was about speak when Asuma interjected.

"We will accept the mission, Sandaime-sama." Asuma said politely not wanting get in another quarrel with his father.

"Very well, you will meet him at his residence before noon. His parents will return around six. You are to ensure his well-being and make sure he is properly...entertained." The Hokage coughed to cover a laugh at the end of the sentence.

"Arigatogozaimasu" Asuma stated, bowed and then began ushering the young genin towards the door.

Once outside the room, Asuma let out a sigh of relief.

"Babysitting?" Ino asked once again.

Asuma shook his head. "You know you could try to be a little less troublesome."

Shikamaru smirked at the adjective. "It won't be that bad, at least we didn't get harvesting potatoes."

"But babysitting?" Chouji added.

"Actually, picking potatoes would probably be easier." Asuma interjected.

All three genin looked at him quizzically.

Asuma shrugged. "Have you met Yujyu-sama?"

They all shook their heads in a collective, no.

"Well you'll find out later." Asuma said. "Let's get going."

"I wonder if you can harvest potato chips." Chouji thought aloud as the walked away.

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When they arrived at the house, they were greeted by a servant who ushered them into the forier and told them to wait there. The servant then headed upstairs and disappeared down a long hallway. The four members of team ten stood there waiting and Ino's patience began to wear thin. She started tapping her foot and the repetitions increased exponentially until she finally couldn't remain silent anymore.

"What's taking them so long?" She said aggravated.

"Be patient." Asuma scoldeder her but in a light tone.

Ino huffed and began to fidget a little as her patients was all ready gone.

"Well, we he gets here, I'm gonna take the lead since I'm the girl and I know how to handle children." Ino said as she turned to face the boys.

"Fine" the three men sighed. They didn't want to be here. They didn't want to do this mission, but it had to be done. If Ino wanted to show some initiative in this mission, far be it for them to stop her. Shikamaru just hoped that he would make it out alive if it came down to it. Gods knows what could happen.

They heard a squeal from somewhere in the house that echoed down the corridors followed by a roar of hurried footsteps. They looked to the balcony and saw a little boy come running around the corner and bounding down the stairs at full speed. When he neared the bottom. he missed the last step and tripped over his feet crashing into a slide that ended up at feet of the shinobi. He raised his head to look at them.

"You ninja?" the brown haired boy said with a gap-toothed smile.

Ino gasped as she looked down at the little boy. "Yes…we are ninja." She gave a false laugh.

"Awesome" the little boy yelled as he stood up. "Let's play ninja games!"

Ino frowned. Chouji chuckled. Shikamaru smirked. Asuma groaned as he rubbed the back of his head. Asuma has faced many dangerous foes and killed people stronger than himself. He's looked fear in the eye and he didn't blink. He's been in the company kings and lords and held his own. He was a man of many glorious accomplishments and enormous clout, but what scared him the most, what shook him at his core, what was the only challenge that he would back down from stood right in front of him. All three foot nine inches of pure, unimaginable terror smiled up at him with a mischievous grin.

"We're not going to play ninja games. We're here to make sure of your of well being, Yujyu-sama." Ino said in a sweet, but somewhat condescending tone as she squatted down to meet the young noble at eye level.

"Well, you're my babysitter and you have to do what I say." The little boy crossed his arms and pouted. "And I say that we're going to play ninja games!" he shouted loud enough to make Asuma and Shikamaru each plug an ear respectively.

Ino stood back up and huffed in disgust. She turned back to Asuma who seemed to be keeping a good distance from the little ball of fire. Her eyes bulged and her head shook with anger as she gave him a look that said 'What the Fuck, Sensei.'

Asuma stroked the facial hair along his jaw line with his left index finger. He looked towards the ceiling as if deep in thought, but in reality, he was searching for a way to make his own escape.

"Well…we were told to keep him…entertained." Asuma shrugged. "If that means playing ninja then so be it."

The three young shinobi looked at him puzzled.

"That's an order." Asuma said a little sternly trying to show a sign of a backbone.

They jumped to attention at the apparent harshness of his voice.

"Good, if you need me I'll be outside." Asuma said as he popped a cigarette out of the pack and made his way towards the door.

"Yatta!" the little boy screamed and the three young shinobi turned to face him. Each one had a scowl on their face that grew deeper as they could see the wheels turning in the boys mind behind his dark eyes.

"Ninja games…NINJA GAMES." The boy mulled over the idea with an evil tone. He looked across the faces of the three shinobi and stopped when his eyes landed on Shikamaru. Shikamaru quirked an eye-brow at the child's stare.

"OK, you're the leader of the evil ninja because I don't like the look of your stupid face."

Shikamaru's mouth dropped a little at the statement not because the statement offended him, but the attitude the little boy was showing. "Troublesome…"

Chouji coughed loud enough so that the end of his statement couldn't be heard by the boy. Ino turned around to glare at Shikamaru, but the boy spoke up again.

"And you're on the evil ninja team, too." He said pointing at Chouji who paused holding a potato chip that he was about to eat. "cause you're a fatty."

The bag of chips hit the floor. Chouji blinked a couple of times and the anger that was boiling inside of him became evident in the flush on his skin.

"What did you say?" Chouji asked through his teeth.

"What…did the fat clog your ears, too!" the boy taunted reveling in the thought that he could get a rise out of the shinobi.

"Why you little piece of…"

"Chouji!" Shikamaru said as he stepped in front of his friend. "We're not supposed to kill the client."

"Yeah, but can't I hurt him" Chouji pleaded "just a little."

"No" this time Ino spoke in a firm tone. "Plus, losing a few pounds wouldn't hurt either."

Shikamaru watched as the expression on his friends face go from anger to hurt. He turned to glare daggers at Ino.

"What" she said. "It's true." She turned around to face the little boy.

"So which team am I going to be on?" She asked sweetly. Damn. How do women change their attitude so quickly? Yet another item on the list of troublesome things about women, Shikamaru thought.

"Well, the only ones allowed on my team are pretty girls, so you're on my team."

"Awe, that's so sweet. You're such a nice young man." Ino answered his complement with a complement of her own.

"The last thing we need is those two padding each others' egos. ' Shikamaru whispered to his friend who grunted his displeasure with the situation.

"Yoshi" the little boy yelled to get their attention. Shikamaru was getting tired of the yelling. "Evil ninja are it first. Come on, pretty girl. Let's go hide." The boy said taking Ino by the hand.

Shikamaru and Chouji watched as the boy lead Ino down one of the big corridors. The boy stopped and turned to look at them.

"You're supposed to be counting to one hundred." The boy screamed back.

Chouji began counting. "Ichi…Ni…San….Yon….Go…"

Upon hearing the count, the boy took off with Ino in tow.

"What a pain." Shikamaru interrupted his friends count. "I'm going outside."

Chouji blinked a couple of times at his friend's blunt disregard for the game. He watched as his friend walked over to the door and did exactly what he said he would do. After a moment of indecision, looking back and forth between the door his friend just walked out of and the corridor that the little boy and Ino walked down, Chouji decided to join his friend outside.

Outside Shikamaru walked over to a large oak tree that was in the front yard. He sat down facing north so he could watch the clouds coming down with the northern front. He found that the clouds the cold fronts brought had some of the most interesting shapes. He was distracted momentarily when a shadow blocked the sun. He looked over to find the source of the shadow, and smiled.

"What are we going to do when the find out we're not looking for them?" Chouji asked.

"Tch, its troublesome, but that house is so big it will take them at least an hour to figure out we can't find them. Then at least another twenty minutes to realize we're not in the house and when they do look for us outside, if we keep a low profile, that will buy us another ten. So, we're looking at around an hour and a half of peace before they try to drag us into something else."

Chouji nodded.

"Are you sure about that?" a recognizable voice called from above them.

The two boys looked up.

"Asuma-sensei" Chouji spoke.

Shikamaru smirked. Seems like Asuma had the same idea.

"Ino IS a ninja, you know." Asuma questioned his assessment.

"Yeah, I took that fact into consideration, but she's being dragged around by Yujyu-sama who will slow her down a little bit. If it was just the boy I'd give us about three hours." Shikamaru said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but this is the boys home turf and he knows the area." Asuma questioned once again.

"Yes, that does give him an advantage, but as long as he doesn't know our exact location, we have the upper hand."

Asuma seemed satisfied with the analysis. He was just a little surprised by who it came from. He saw Shikamaru's record. He knew he was at the bottom of his class. Something didn't add up. Complex analysis of a situation with multiple variables was not something they taught in the academy. There was something about this boy, Asuma concluded.

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Sure enough, an hour and a half later, they were still sitting outside in relative peace and quiet. They didn't have much conversation for all Shikamaru knew because he had fallen asleep. He opened and eye when he sensed some movement. He scanned the area quickly, but saw no sign of danger. He glance up into the tree and saw that Asuma had recently vacated his branch. Then he felt it. Danger.

"Chouji…"

"Hn" his friend at this point realized that he was awake.

"Run"

"What is it?" Chouji asked in a worried tone.

Shikamaru sat up straight now with both eyes open. "Killer Intent!"

Chouji began to stir. Shikamaru was not quite sure if Chouji had felt it yet but it was growing more intense with each passing second. Chouji seemed to be collecting empty wrappers and shoving them into the bag in which he carried his food stuffs. Shikamaru could sense the danger getting closer and quickly shoved his friend into a nearby bush to conceal his presence. Shikamaru jumped in after him, but he spotted a candy wrapper that had been left on the ground where they were just a few seconds ago. In a split second, He made the decision to go for the wrapper. It would be a dead giveaway to their location.

Shikamaru jumped out of the bush and balled the wrapper up in his left hand. As he turned to retreat to the safety of the bush he heard a cry.

"Shikamaru!" Ino screeching voice caused small animals to cower in fear.

Shikamaru shoved his hands into his pockets, mainly to conceal the candy wrapper that he held in his hand, and turned to face the angered konoichi. She marched right up to him and glared at him menacingly.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She screamed.

"Did you even try to look for us." Her voice was louder than necessary.

Shikamaru shrugged. "I think Chouji looked for you guys." Shikamaru was saving Chouji's ass. He would owe him one.

"What did you do?" Ino demanded.

Shikamaru looked her straight in the eyes. "I took a nap."

"You took a nap?!" the anger began to boil inside Ino. "You left me with that…" She pointed back to the house as she lowered her voice.. "that brat" her voice rising again. "to handle all by myself."

He looked at her for a moment. "It was too much of a pain."

"Baka!" She shouted. Shikamaru could see the rage burning behind her blue eyes.

He wondered why she was so angry…

Black.

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Shikamaru touched the sensitive skin under his left eye with his finger tips as he made his way home. His eye would be black in the morning. She just had to punch him. He groaned in pain as he had touched a swollen nerve in his face. Troublesome woman.

When he got home he saw his father sitting on the front porch looking like he was waiting for someone. Shikamaru nodded to his father as he reached for the door.

"Shikamaru, yo." Shikaku called out to his son.

"What is it, oyaji?"

"Come sit with me."Shikaku murmured as if too tired to speak clearly.

Shikamaru took a seat next to his father on the porch. The two men sat in silence for a few minutes staring out at the horizon as if observing the sunset.

Shikaku broke the silence. "Son…" He seemed to be searching for the right thing to say.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow to his father who was stroking his chin whiskers as if deep in thought. When Shikaku saw his some was waiting to hear what he had to say, Shikaku rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about…something." Shikaku seemed to be avoiding the topic.

Shikamaru looked at his father curiously.

"Have you ever heard of…the birds and the bees?"

Of course Shikamaru knew what birds and bees were, but the hidden meaning behind what his father was trying to say. He looked at him questioningly.

"You see…when a man….loves a woman….uh…"Shikaku was beginning to blush.

"Umm…do you know what they mean by 'making love'?" Shikaku asked chuckling at the euphemism.

Shikamaru didn't know what his father was talking about, but the awkwardness was killing him. He nodded and gave his dad a reassuring smile.

Shikaku smiled back at his son. "Well…when the time comes, you'll figure it out. It's just…when it comes to women…" Shikaku seemed to be searching for the right words. "All I'm saying is….just be careful."

"Sure thing, oyaji." Shikamaru smiled at his father's embarrassment rather than in understanding.

"You're a good boy, don't let anyone tell you any different." Shikaku gave his son a re-assuring pat on the back. Then he sat up straight in realization.

Shikamaru watched his dad in curiosity.

"We'd better hurry up and get inside, or you mom is going to scold us."

Shikamaru smirked.


A/N: I was drunk when I wrote this.