I'm so sorry I've dragged this on for 3 years.
Maybe he was being paranoid, but Shikamaru had a bad feeling. He'd taken a day to wind down after filing his mission report at the missions office, but cloud watching—even with this unusual break of good weather—seemed more boring than usual (and not in a good way).
He'd expected Naruto to have sought him out by now, but his hopes were dashed when he'd woken up to day 2 of being back—and no Naruto bowling him over.
What a drag. I'll just find him myself. He wouldn't admit it (unless under threat of Naruto's puppy eyes), but he missed the dork.
So he threw on one of his heavier jackets and headed into the forest. As had become his routine, he searched the barren bushes and branches for near-imperceptible disruptions, eager to begin the usual game. But there was nothing unnatural about his surroundings besides the lingering cold of winter night.
Odd. Maybe Ino had done a bigger number on him than he'd thought.
The hairs on the back of his neck raised and he became aware of how dark the forest had become. Even in the colder months, one could hear the occasional bird's chirps or the snuffling of animals active in the weak light, but it was silent now.
The silence was stifling and made his shinobi senses go on high alert while he struggled to make sense of the foreboding that hung heavy in his chest.
. . .It didn't feel like anyone was watching him but he was hesitant to discard his gut instincts (chuunin he may be but a fool he was not). He picked up the pace to a run that he refused to think of as frantic.
The trees, dormant and dull as they were, blurred past in a wall of monochrome. He first traveled to Naruto's den (a place he was woefully unfamiliar with).
The tree was larger than he remembered, the nest of its branches sparsely adorned with stubborn, faded leaves and thick roots that cradled the dug-out entrance to the den. He was sure that if the blond had been there, he'd already have been out—expectant—but the entrance was just as empty as the forest.
Just to be safe, Shikamaru ducked into the home, too panicked to feel like a trespasser. Nothing. Only the dry furs and forlorn knickknacks were present here.
He tore out of the dwelling, briefly slowing when he passed the abandoned glade that usually served as the herd's favored resting place, then speeding toward the river. If Naruto wasn't there either, he didn't have a clue where else to look (and wasn't that just depressing).
He would have looked for clues to the path Naruto took from his den, but he was in too much of a hurry to do so (nevermind that he wasn't quite thinking clearly).
The ground felt harder beneath his feet now. He was getting closer.
The shade of the trees allowed parts of snow to remain through the morning and the ground had frosted over. Soon enough, he emerged to see the river, flowing sedately around the lingering chunks of ice, no animals in sight. No Naruto. No King. Nothing.
He almost choked on his breath when his heart skipped a beat. His legs grew weak. He didn't know what to think. Should he be jumping to the worst conclusions right now? He shook his head, hoping to clear his thoughts of the messy hysteria, focusing on a scattering of pinecones resting upon an otherwise blank canvas.
Slowly, his heart rate slowed and he could breathe—could think—again. His scope of vision widened as he willed his body into submission, and his attention caught on a pile of something much darker than the snow and dried pine needles. Something that glinted in a different way than the sparkling white.
He stepped closer, wondering if he was just grasping at straws and hoping a pile of sticks would magically lead him to his missing friend. But closer inspection yielded him an unusual sight: twin ropes of twined grasses, frosted over with the spray of stray water—presumably from the river. Tied at their ends were standard shuriken with the smallest hints of blood flaked on their edges.
It seemed that his paranoia paid off.
He hadn't thought that Naruto knew how to make weapons and properly fight before, but the fact that he had to indicated a fight having taken place there last night.
Looking around the site, he could hardly find any traces of the battle he was attempting to piece together. The ground was frozen (no tracks.) The ground wasn't torn up, nor were any of the trees charred (an enemy of Konoha who sought discretion; probably fought on the water. Kiri? No, maybe Kumo?). Whoever'd been here was no amateur, and that made things difficult.
Crouching before the makeshift scorpion tails, the Nara closed his eyes to focus on sensing the chakra residue (he wasn't a natural like Naruto, so it took a few tense seconds).
Lo and behold, there were maybe six chakra signatures—two more upon closer inspection, (three of which he was unfamiliar with).
Did that mean there were three adversaries involved in this encounter? Probably. Two of the chakra residues were extremely dense and hung thick in some areas. The last was a decent amount thinner, hardly any traces hanging around. (That one had the best chakra control, that's for sure.)
Whoever had infiltrated Konoha was probably long gone now (not that he had a chance of surviving a confrontation with them). He shifted his focus back to Naruto's familiar signature.
It seemed to mix with one of the more bloodthirsty chakras, being strongest by the weapons. (He was taken, then.)
Asuma and Might Guy had taken Naruto to Konoha, which meant the worst had probably happened. (He'd had a feeling it was inevitable, but how irritating it was that all his work went to waste in a single night.) Kakashi Hatake had been injured in some way and was taken back to the village with Kurenai.
Hatake would probably know about the situation and was presumably too weak to escape from the hospital. Perfect.
He chose to circumvent the hospital's lobby by walking up the side of the building and honing in on the jounin's steady chakra signature. Thus, Shikamaru found himself on the second floor in front of room 283, a nurse hurriedly exiting the room.
The brunet rapped on the cheap wooden door thrice for courtesy's sake before letting himself in.
The room looked just as plain and impersonal as almost every other hospital room he'd seen and Kakashi looked surprised to see him (in the same over-exaggerated way he expressed most emotions these days). Swathed in thin white sheets, the masked man schooled his features back to boredom and looked down to his worn copy of Icha-Icha, feigning disinterest while the Nara closed the door behind him.
The air was filled with a tense and awkward silence and Shikamaru sighed through his nose. He was being stupid. The man wouldn't talk if he didn't ask anything and he was wasting daylight here.
Might as well be direct. "You and the other jounin-sensei found Naruto sometime last night or this morning. I need to know where you took him."
"Naruto?" he echoed, tilting his head in a show of false confusion. "Never heard of him." Damn him for being unnecessarily difficult.
"The blond boy you all dragged to Konoha. His name is Naruto." He said as evenly as possible (though a bit of a growl had come out despite his best efforts).
"Oh, him," the man said, rubbing at the nape of his neck and looking away. "I don't know; Kurenai and I had left for Konoha shortly after he'd appeared." The book was set aside as he said this before he made deliberate eye contact.
Looking at the man's hands, mostly shielded by the tented book and the blankets, Shikamaru saw that the jounin was forming rapid signs.
He continued the conversation, intently reading his hands. "That's too bad, then. I guess I'll have to find Asuma. . . Sorry to bother you." He ended the exchange with a short bow, turning on his heel and exiting the room.
'Somewhere in the hospital,' he'd signed. Maybe Kakashi wasn't such a bad guy after all.
He'd debated the pros and cons of asking after Naruto's room at the front desk. Pro: it would (in theory) take little to no time to successfully locate the other. Con: it would give away his motive and he may not even get a straight answer.
. . .Fuck it.
His mind was strained already from stress and continuous chakra sensing. He'd rather at least check off the easier option before falling back to plan B. Led by countless visits' experience, he quickly traversed the barren halls to get to the front desk, nodding to a few of the nurses who looked his way.
"Hi. I think my boyfriend was admitted fairly recently by a pair of jounin-sensei? Can you tell me where he's staying?" He had to stave off a blush as the lie left his mouth.
The woman at the desk had no such compunctions, though, and blushed through her light makeup.
"U-uh, he was, um, he was put in room 461," she said, not quite looking at his eyes. "Though I'm not sure if visitors are allowed. . ."
"Thanks," he said, hurrying off in the direction of the stairs (a place he knew would be unoccupied.) He charged chakra into his legs and hopped to the top of the stairs. In short moments, he'd jumped all four flights of stairs, conserving what little stamina he possessed.
Pushing open the heavy door leading into the main floor, Shikamaru made a bee-line for Naruto's room, twisting through so many corridors he'd have gotten lost had he not been a Nara. He could feel Naruto nearby, his chakra tinged with another's and somehow different.
449. . .456. . .461. . . ?
There were two ANBU stationed directly in front of room 461. Realistically speaking, Shikamaru knew his chances of getting into that room had now gone into the negatives.
He wasn't strong enough to go up against them—nor the other two that completed the squad. He also wasn't stealthy enough to get in there with two ANBU in the room. The only option was to confront them, just as he'd done at the front desk. (Since when had he started thinking of his fellow shinobi as enemies?)
Preparing to repeat the same explanation that'd gotten him this far, he stopped in front of them. "Can I enter? My boyfriend's in there."
There was no response for a long moment, the pair probably silently communicating or deliberating to themselves. One of them, bearing a cat mask, eventually shifted to a more relaxed stance, betraying awkwardness that he could relate to.
"Well. . . so long as he stays in the room. That should be fine, right?" He couldn't tell if the ANBU was talking to himself or to his partner (who seemed disapproving but didn't speak against Cat's hesitant decision). Shikamaru felt eternally grateful for the human sense of compassion in this moment.
"Thank you," he said, bowing in gratitude then moving to enter. He assumed the other ANBU had overheard their exchange, as he wasn't attacked and the pair was nowhere to be seen. (They were probably watching from the ceiling, now that he thought about it.)
His eyes gravitated to the bed at the corner of the room, not overly surprised to see a barricade of thorns obscuring his view of Naruto. Though the sudden blooming of flowers and the tackle did.
He hadn't even gotten a greeting or reprimand out of his mouth before he had his hands full of a blond sniffing at his shirt.
Any thoughts of irritation were quickly replaced with those of a renewed worry. Last time something like this had happened, he'd had a panic attack at the compound.
His thoughts completely fled when he heard Naruto start babbling in-between hiccups, burying his face deeper in his chest.
"Sh-Shika! There was-there was a woman, a-and she! She s-said something about, about—"
Shikamaru gently shushed him, rubbing at his friend's shivering back. "It's okay. Take a deep breath and calm down, then talk." He sat them down, rocking the other who seemed so small, curled up in his arms as he was.
He wiped away the tears falling down pink cheeks and let the other's hair down to run a soothing hand through loose blond locks.
The process of calming him was slow going, but he had all the patience in the world. He hated that the village he loved always seemed to bring this boy so much pain. He just wanted him to be happy again.
Slowly, the sobs subsided and Naruto was taking in big breaths of air.
"Want to tell me what happened?" The blond looked up then looked away, cheeks still pink.
"I woke yesterday's night and went to the river. There was a. . . fight? Well, I accidentally joined in to get them out of the forest and I don't know, I was so angry and got them to go away but then—then I was so tired that I fell asleep again." Shikamaru hummed, not wanting to discourage the other from talking it out.
"I woke here. And there were two strong People here— they said something about being Konoha's and a nine-tailed beast or something and that I'd never see you or Father again!" He seemed on the verge of falling back into hysterics, so Shikamaru distracted him by lightly tugging on the hair framing the blond's face.
"Hey, we'll fix this. I promise: we'll fix this; somehow."
"This can't be fixed!"
"You don't know if you don't try." The Nara honestly couldn't believe he was being the optimist right now, but he supposed that a lot about him has changed recently.
"But haven't you already tried?!" He had a point.
"If one way doesn't work, there's bound to be another way. Don't give up." He was going to regret saying this, he knew this was going to be super embarrassing. "Never give up on finding your happiness. No matter how difficult a situation is, never stop fighting to get back home."
". . . but I don't know where 'home' is anymore." He didn't doubt the other's words. Naruto's world's been completely ripped out from under him and he somehow knew that King wouldn't be coming back.
Naruto's support is completely gone and the only thing keeping him tethered was Shikamaru and The Forest.
"Home can be with me for now." He wasn't going to tell Naruto about the saying 'Home is where the heart is,' didn't know if throwing a question or assumption of feelings into the mix was a good idea.
In all this chaos, he knew where he stood, and that was fine by him. It didn't matter how he felt as long as Naruto was safe.
Lol. Figurative language was abundant in this chap because we started the poetry unit in English.
I think I might put my other works on hiatus so I can focus on finishing this. What say you? (If no one responds, then we'll stick to getting an update every 2 months or so.)
