This is one long-as-shit day. Like, 5k-7k words when you include chapters 21-25 XD
It needed to be done O.O
When Shikamaru had come to the Hokage's residence, he'd expected to be turned away and resigned to begging forgiveness from Naruto for at least a week. Never would he have expected his feelings being reciprocated, nor the horde of kisses he'd gotten to experience in just an hour (though he treasured each and every one of them).
Once again, human spontaneity surprised him—but for once, he was happy with the outcome.
And after both of them had been assured, he remembered why he'd come in the first place.
"I almost forgot, but I brought you something," he said, gently disentangling himself from Naruto's clinging limbs. He was looking forward to the blond's reaction. He carefully navigated the room, not wanting to step on any of the many flowers Naruto had bloomed. The afternoon sun was bright compared to the dimly lit room and he turned the light on before he even grabbed the forlorn pile of Naruto's belongings.
It was a chore bringing the bulk of it inside and attempting to dance around stray vines and branches, but damn it, he tried.
And with a satisfied smile, he let it all drop on the space Naruto didn't occupy on the bed. There was a pregnant pause that fed the anxiety that maybe he'd overstepped his boundaries, but any thoughts of that nature were wiped from his mind when he was tackled by the small blond. Crocadile tears filled blue eyes that he recognized were shining with delight, and he received yet another kiss.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He laughed at the bouncing blond, settling a small kiss to the other's forehead.
"You're welcome. I take it you were bored?"
"Unbelievably!"
"Well, I brought all of your belongings from your den. And—" he grew a little self-conscious and awkwardly motioned to the second part of his present, "I know it's not your tree, but I picked up some bonzai trees from my friend's flower shop. I thought, I don't know, that they could be your friends?" It sounded so silly when he said it out loud, but he didn't think Naruto would make fun of him. The blond was always so honest and Shikamaru wanted to do the same.
"...thank you." Those words sounded alarmingly watery and Shikamaru wouldn't have it.
"Ah, no more! No more crying! Not today, at least. Alright?" Naruto nodded and inhaled a comically deep breath. With a ramrod straight posture, a wobbly lip being pinned in place by a sharp canine and balled fists, Naruto looked adorably stubborn.
A fond smile overtook his face and he wondered how shocked Ino would be if she ever saw him like this. "Don't be so troublesome. Why don't you put your den together?" That prompted the sunny grin he loved and had hoped to see.
In a whirlwind of activity, every item suddenly found a home somewhere or another in a show of orderly chaos. The closet filled with unworn clothes, the tags still attached, along with the smaller furs Naruto wore.
The bed was treated to the same treatment. First, a plush layer of moss was grown from the strips he'd brought, then the larger furs were thrown overtop. And when the dresser ran out of space, Naruto just grew natural shelving units (probably from the house's support beams, now that he thought about it). The last things to find homes were the plants he'd bought.
In one of the most casual displays of power he'd ever seen, Naruto made a motion with his hands and then the tiny potted trees weren't so tiny anymore. Shikamaru could only watch as this all happened, then settled on the bed when it was made to Naruto's standard. (He had to admit: the moss was a definite upgrade.)
Now presumably satisfied, Naruto joined him by flopping full-bodied onto the bed, making the both of them bounce and setting off a storm of giggles from the blond. It felt like a dream to the brunet, like his all his depressing thoughts—his weak breakdown—were all just a bad dream. He just felt so happy and he felt a little ridiculous and lightheaded even, but he had to acknowledge that it felt good to be happy again.
God, he hadn't been this happy even in his genin days, before he'd been hit by this clusterfuck of politics.
"Shika," his blond sang, "whatcha thinkin' about?"
"Hmm, just that right now's perfect."
"Don't say that!"
"Why not?"
"'Cause something will happen now've you said something, dattebayo!"
"Ah, maybe I did just jinx it. But don't you think knowing of both possibilities will negate it? Or, at least, eliminate the surprise factor and make it less of a negative event because it's now an expected outcome?"
"...what?"
"...nevermind."
"Don't say stupid things!" he laughed, and Shikamaru didn't mind being called stupid for the first time in his life.
"As long as I have you, nothing can go so terribly wrong that I can't be happy again after everything's said and done."
"Again with that!"
"Do you disagree?"
"...no." Shikamaru laughed at the cute pout the other showed, obviously worried but unable to refute this fact Shikamaru had just stumbled upon.
"Well, that's good to hear. Would it ease your worries to know about the Village and how you fit into it?"
"There's nothing to more to know. That lady said I can't leave and I'll have to fight for her. That's it."
"If it makes you feel better, I can't leave either—though my situation isn't quite as troublesome as yours."
"Are you a jinchu-something too?" He snorted. It was cute that despite him having improved by leaps and bounds in human language, he still struggled with long words like this.
"Ah, no. I'm the heir to a prestigious shinobi clan, but you're the host of the nine-tailed fox, the Kyuubi no Kitsune—or 'Kyuubi' for short. A jinchuuriki is what we call the host."
"Is it really that special?" In a way, he was thankful that he didn't know of the various rampages of the bijuu that'd been marked in history, but it was important to impart the direness of his situation. He'd failed to do that when he'd first seen Naruto's talents for Mokuton, and look where that'd gotten them.
"Very. A tailed-beast is an amortal being made purely of chakra. Even if you defeat one, it'll reappear a few years later, only meaner than before. There are a total of nine tailed-beasts in all of the elemental nations and each one 'belongs' to one of the five major shinobi nations."
"But what if they don't want to belong to any People?"
"They aren't given a choice. See, if a bijuu's loose, even if it's the weakest, it's determined to be a threat, so People attack it. Once it's sealed in a host, it can't come out unless the host dies or the seal's too weak. Most of the time, it's safely transferred to another host before the original host dies."
"But that's not fair, 'ttebayo! They're attacked and taken even if they weren't doing anything?!"
"There's never really been a situation where a bijuu's been passive, so that's how it's been done," he shrugged. "Bijuu are really powerful, so they're feared. Even the weakest of the tailed beasts took over a dozen high-class shinobi to defeat when it broke free and possessed its host. Fear of that untamed power turns to hatred and that negativity breeds until there's no reasoning to be done."
"But there are plenty of powerful People and they're allowed to do as they please." Shikamaru nodded, having already thought of the moral dilemma that was the jinchuuriki.
"People that powerful are also feared and shackled to a nation, but that's why there's restrictions in place—along with the assurance that they won't be coming back once they're dead. But even when those strong people aren't doing anything, there's plenty of people that would want them dead as well."
"Troublesome."
"Hah, you got that right."
"Can't someone else be a host instead? I never asked to be a host..." he whined.
"If it was that easy, I'd have already done that for you. But unfortunately, putting the Kyuubi in someone else would require your death and I won't allow that to happen." Thankfully, Naruto seemed less keen of that idea as well, so he considered this lesson as a success.
"That sucks, 'ttebayo! Who decided I had to be a host?!"
"The fourth Hokage did, because the Kyuubi had broken free of its seal. I'm pretty sure he was your father, too."
"The only father I know is King."
The unsympathetic 'understandable, have a nice day' slipped out before he could think up a proper response.
"What?"
"I mean, he was your birth father but you don't know him so he might as well not exist. Safe to say, he was a better leader than he was a father." The same could be said for his own father, but at least he didn't have to deal with being obligated to serve as Konoha's first defense. "Your situation's shitty and maybe he didn't have to seal it in you, but the Kyuubi wasn't just sitting around minding its own business.
"Hundreds were killed in one day and we wouldn't have a village to call home had he not done what he did." Perhaps it'd been the man's own fault for not resealing it beforehand or maybe something had gone wrong, but he could understand the man's reasoning as a Hokage.
"I wish you'd let me hate him."
"I wish I'd let me hate him, too. But sometimes there's no winning in a situation no matter what you decide to do. You know that just as well as I do, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Good. Now, enough about boring politics; let's go out and eat." As if on cue, Naruto's stomach rumbled, breaking the somewhat dark atmosphere he'd unintentionally created. "Do you know what you want to eat?" He asked only because he doubted the blond would know any of the dishes he'd propose.
Against his expectation, Naruto happily crowed, "ramen!" He didn't know when or how he'd experienced raman, but who was he to say no? Naruto had been very patient and invested in his mini-lesson, and thus deserved a reward.
"Lead the way." That was all he had to say before they tore out of the Hokage's house and he was dragged through the village, his surroundings becoming a blur as Naruto took to the rooftops.
I feel like I could've done this better, but I had to get this out of the way.
And I just realized: fuck, I have to plan the other books. Because I'm trying to make a giant clusterfuck of crossovers read as an actual, cohesive series/universe. I really hope I can do this XD
Even worse: I have to update this shit like I've never done before *faints*