After finally letting out his feelings since his sensei died, Shikamaru laid on the cold wooden floor and simply stared at the ceiling. His eyes were puffy and his cheeks were stained from crying so much. The boy was tired, upset, angry and vengeful all at the same time. He couldn't take knowing that the person that killed a man that felt like a second father to him was still alive. He wouldn't and-

In the midst of his thought he heard a noise outside the door. "Ouff!" Someone said. Sounding like they had fallen onto the ground with a crunch. Mostly likely into the bushes. It was late and if the intruder didn't have ill intentions they would have used the front door. Well, if they were a ninja they weren't very good at sneaking about.

The Nara narrowed his eyes at a silhouette looming in front of his room. Shikamaru crouched down as he spoke. "Who's there?"

"It's me." Said the voice. Shikamaru blinked as he went through the voices that matched with the one he'd just heard. He could only think of one.

"Ippan." His tone didn't betray the disbelief he was feeling. What was she doing at his house? Was she sent by the Hokage? And if that was the case why hadn't his father or mother come to get him?

"Can I come in?" She asked. At first he said nothing and Ippan spoke once again."Please say yes."

"And if I say no?"

"Well, at this point I'd just open the door. Considering all the effort I took to get here." He couldn't see her face but her tone gave a matter of fact tone.

He would have just said yes at this point, but he was curious as to how she got here. "Did my dad let you in?"

"No."

Shikamaru opened his mouth to speak before sighing in defeat. "Fine, come in." He was met with a girl with leaves scattered over her slightly wild hair that shine violet in the light. She shook them off of her head and stepped inside.

"Hi." Ippan said after a few moments of silence. His dark eyes only stared her down with raised eyebrow.

"You do realize what time it is, don't you?"

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to see how you were doing. I didn't see you at the funeral." She said taking a seat on the floor in front of him.

"And you didn't think to come by in the morning or something? Like a normal person?" He asked feeling a bit more agitated.

"Well if I was normal we probably wouldn't be friends." Shikamaru didn't have a response to that. She smiled at him hoping that he would crack one himself, but that didn't happen.

"So you broke into my house?"

"Well, no one answered the door and I wasn't going to come all this way for nothing." Ippan said as if this was the most logical response to his question. Which it wasn't.

"So that's a yes." He sounded exhausted. "This could be classified as inappropriate you know. Two teenagers of the opposite gender in one room late at night."

Ippan waved him off. "No way, Naruto used to come over like this all the time. Of course this was like three years ago...so maybe."

Shikamaru's eye twitched. "That's really not helping your case. Why don't you just tell me why you're here?"

"I told you. I wanted to know how you're doing." She stated firmly before glancing over to the shogi board that looked to have been thrown across the room. Along with the game pieces scattered here and there. "Not that great I'm guessing."

"Oh really that was just a guess?" He asked sarcastically with a bitter undertone. "How could you tell?"

Ippan wouldn't take that to heart considering everything the boy had just gone through. His sensei was just killed by a member of the Akatsuki and that wasn't something a person could just get over. Ippan hasn't had anyone she cared about die, much less in front of her.

"Listen, since Naruto left you were probably the closest friend I had. I mean it probably wasn't that way for you, but you were pretty cool." She said with a shrug feeling a bit embarrassed. "Naruto told me that Sasuke left because he was angry and he wanted revenge."

"What does that have to do with me?" He asked though he seemed to know where she was going with her little speech.

"My dad told me that revenge can take people over so much that they lose sight of what's important. As soon as I heard this I had to come over here and talk to you. Whether you wanted me to or not."

"I can see that." Shikamaru said with an unsaid expression.

"You're my friend and husband number five so of course I gotta look out for you." The girl said with her chest puffed out.

He took this moment to look her over before speaking. "You still have a leaf in your hair."

"Oh." She said pulling it out. "Guess you could say it was a hidden leaf. You get it cause we're the hidden leaf village."

"No I understood. It was just terrible." She frowned causing him to smirk. "Ippan if you came here to check if I'm gonna go rogue like Sasuke then your mistaken." She seemed relieved to here this. "But I am going back to fight."

"I thought as much." She said as he stood up. "What are you doing?" He didn't answer at first as he walked over to the shogi board and placed on the floor. Then proceeding to pick up the pieces.

"Making a plan." He said putting the tiles onto the wooden surface. Shikamaru seemed to be focusing now and Ippan wasn't sure if she should still be here. All she wanted to know is if he was doing okay and now he was driven to fight she couldn't argue with that. Though he might run into some trouble with Tsunade if she found out they were going on a unauthorized mission, but she wouldn't try to stop him. It wasn't her place to do that. Ippan doubted that stopping him was even a possibility.

"Well, I'll see you." She stood up and walked towards the door.

"Hey," Ippan turned around to look at the boy. "even though you talk a lot, ask to many questions and apparently don't know the meaning of personal boundaries... I think you're a good friend."

"Aw, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." The girl smiled as she walked back over to the fence.

"Yeah, yeah." He said. "Hey, use the front door this time."

"Kay." She said walking past him and making her way towards the exit. She blinked when she was met face to face with Shikamaru's father, Shikaku. "Where were you earlier? I had to climb your fence because no one answered the door."

"You what?"