Kit or Fawn?

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D/C: I own nothing.

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"Yin-Kurama Speaking."

"Yang-Kurama Speaking."

'Naruto and Shikamaru's mental link to each other and to their respective Kurama's. Or to emphasize something.'

-.-.-

The soft pitter-patter of the rain hitting could be heard all throughout the now seemingly empty home. The smell of house cleaner seems to be forever be ingrained into their minds, and both boys kept their gaze on the spot where they last saw Yoshino Nara's bloody corpse…

Naruto grabbed hold of Shikamaru's shoulders and began to push him through the home to go to their shared room. It was decided that they are going to move in next door were Kushina and Naruto were originally planned to move in, but now the move is now going to be implanted with having Shikamaru move in with them. There was no way Kushina was going to allow the young Nara to stay in the home where he saw his mother be murdered.

Shikaku slowly walked through the front door, taking off his sandals, remembering all the times Yoshino would remind him to do so before stepping foot onto her clean floor. Walking into the living room, he saw on the couch, not caring for the fact it had a tarp over it. He had to replace the furniture in the home after the majority was destroyed or had blood splatter on it and T&I currently have them to see if they contain any DNA on the man that killed his wife. Either way, he doesn't want it back. It reminded him too much of Yoshino…

Everything in the home reminded him of her. He had built the home and gave it to Yoshino as a wedding gift. They had planned to have more kids, but that never came to be as the world seemed to be against them from the very start.

"Dad…"

Shikaku looked up from his spot to see Shikamaru is dragging along a large backpack which he assumed to contain clothing and random board games. "Little Fawn… You have everything?"

Silence.

"…I miss mommy…"

"I miss her too, Fawn…I miss her too."

-.-.-

At the other side of the village, chaos only seemed to continue showing no sign it was going to stop anytime soon. Elders that were part of the Coup d'état were either found dead in their homes or were quickly taken to T&I by the Anbu who arrived to help Itachi deal with the supposed enemy. Supposed due to the fact it appears those that were behind the Coup, have no recollection of last couple months or even years. It appears that a certain few were under a gen-jutsu and creating plans to possibly take over the village. The huge red flag here is that the ones that were under control, are or were the ones that did not care for the continuous distrust coming from the village. If anything, they took it in stride and continued like nothing. It was in recent years, those individuals' views shifted, and all looked planned. The shifts were slow to ensure no one was alarmed. It didn't help that those that showed massive distrust towards the village welcomed them in and didn't once question it.

'I was right…' Itachi repeatedly dug his nails into his knees, drawing up blood there. The pain is helping him repent for his actions, but deep within him, he knew it had to be done. The information he knows now, he didn't know back and then who knows how everything would have ended if the Coup went on or if that dangerous mask man never came to supposedly help him.

"Dango?"

Itachi stopped digging his nails into his knees and started to pull down on the sleeves of his shorts to hide the marks. He looked up to see three sticks of dango waving in front of his face, looking further up to see Izumi, who kept her gaze out towards the lake that was within the Uchiha Compound. After some hesitancy, Itachi accepted the dango and motioned for Izumi to sit next to him. Unlike him, Izumi did not show any sort of hesitancy before she sat next to him.

Silence fell before them; the only noise is them munching on their sweets. It wasn't exactly a comfortable silence, there were things that needed to be said but they couldn't get the words out. They couldn't find the right words to say.

With a heavy sigh, Izumi leaned her head over and laid it on Itachi's shoulder. She intertwined her arm around Itachi's own and started to nudge his legs so that they could swing their legs in sync. "Is this why you've been distant?"

"…I… I'm…I…"

"You didn't want me to get in the way? That's why you put me in a gen-jutsu?" Izumi lifted her head to see Itachi kept his gaze down to his lap and his free arm fell limp on his side. "That was my first kiss you know~"

"Is this your attempt to make me feel better?"

"Itachi, you saved the Uchiha Clan. You did what was necessary not only to protect the clan but also the village. Even if it did cut into our training…"

"…again… is this your attempt to make me feel better?"

"Come on, let's go look for Sasuke." At the mention of his younger brother, Itachi tensed by Izumi didn't pay any mind to it. "You've been avoiding him. You need to at tell him what he needs to know to move on, even if it's not the entire truth."

"HEY ITACHI! OH? HI ITACHI'S GIRLFRIEND!"

Itachi took in a deep breath through his nose before he turned his head to glare at his older cousin who is running towards them. Shisui Uchiha, someone whom his parents, elders, and even that Old War Hawk had sent to watch over him. The older Uchiha has bandages covering one of his eyes and that seemed to cause Itachi gulp at Shisui's reason for covering that eye. "Shisui… you already know Izumi."

"Oh, I know, I just wanted to see if you were going to deny the fact, I called her your girlfriend."

"You haven't told him, Itachi?"

"Wait… are you two… actually… THING!"

"No… I haven't told him yet."

-.-.-

Sasuke sat at the back porch of his home, he ignored his mother's call for him from within the home. He was lost in his mind, replaying that night where he lost so many people knew once knew. His father, aunts, uncles, and people who he once knew in his short life… were all taken away for what?

He may still have his mother and brother, but they seem so distant. Sasuke hasn't seen Itachi since they were both left the hospital and their mother just seems… she's there but she's not. Completely out of it and has been cleaning the home relentlessly. Mainly the master bedroom, and she doesn't even sleep there anymore.

Why… why did his father have to die… WHY! Sasuke gripped his head, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth as he mentally went over that night, time after time again. He felt so weak, he couldn't do anything about it, h-

"Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up to see Naruto and Shikamaru standing over him, both of them looked to be in worse shape than himself. Far worse shape, he could see that Shikamaru has half his face covered in bandages while Naruto has it around his ear and it goes down his neck, but he's wearing a turtleneck blue shirt that hid the rest of it. Neither boys looked like they've slept in days too. "What happened with you guys?"

Naruto and Shikamaru looked at each other and then back at Sasuke. Where to start? The two heard and were told what happened to their friend. They had asked their respective parent to visit Sasuke, to check on him and to see how he's taking everything in. Naruto nudged Shikamaru to sit next to Sasuke while he went back inside to look for snacks for them.

It was quiet for a while, it felt as if Naruto is purposely taking his time to make sure they talked.

"The monster that killed your dad, killed my mom."

There. It's out in the air. No mincing words, beating around the bush or anything to prolong the silence.

"Woooooow… Way to put it out there, kit."

'What do you want me to say? You said if we don't fix it now, there's a high chance it'll cause him to do something stupid later on in life. Life making revenge your main priority in life.'

"Isn't that what you have in your mind right now."

'Oh, it is, but right now I'm an eight-year-old that has no power. What could I do to him?'

"Bate your time then?"

'But of course. I wouldn't be my namesake if I didn't do so. Oh, I win again.'

"Shikamaru…?"

"Yes?"

"Did it happ… How did…" Sasuke motioned at Shikamaru's face.

"Troublesome."

-.-.-

"Public story? The masked intruder has been putting high ranking members under a strong gen-jutsu and had the rest of the elders or stronger Uchiha member of the clan to create a Coup against the village." Shisui started to go over the cover story of the almost Annihilation of the Nara and Uchiha Clans. Well, people are still trying to figure out names to call the event that had occurred the other night but at this time, people are still trying to figure out what happened. "The head, Lord Fugaku caught wind of this and played the part of a loyal Uchiha but has been informing you to tell the Hokage of their plans… Yeah, we could play with this plan!"

"That… sort of what happened…" Itachi muttered to himself, he closed a scroll he was reading and resisted the urge puke out his lunch. "It's a horrible cover-up story."

"Oh, like you have a better one! Everyone believes you just so happen to catch the masked man roaming into the homes and killing people for the hell of it!"

"Isn't that what happened?"

"The problem we have has to do with the fact we currently have several members of our clan in T&I. All are waiting for their own personal date with Ibiki."

"Only a certain few know that piece of information." Itachi rose up from his spot and put away the scroll he was reading. "For all we know… that masked man started to kill off high ranking members of the Uchiha Clan and made an attempt to kidnap or kill the Jinchuriki's. Could it be he wanted to make sure no one had the power to control the tailed beast? Or were the Uchiha's protected their fellow villagers and were killed in doing so? We do not know the reason for it… "

"Itachi…"

"Shisui… remember, Satoshi?"

"Yes… he's one of the few that were captured."

"He was found dead in his cell this morning. Suicide. Along with several others." Itachi looked away from his cousin and up towards the waterfall. "Many were ashamed of their actions and decided to atone for their actions by killing themselves to ensure the Uchiha's name would not be tarnished…"

"That… actually makes a whole lot more sense… This could play along with what happened to the Nara's… but we still have another problem"

"Danzo?"

"Danzo."

-.-.-

Knock. Knock.

"Come in." Itachi called out from his desk from within his room. He didn't need to turn around to know who was knocking on his door. "Sasuke, you should be asleep."

"Could I sleep here with you?" Sasuke asked in a small voice.

Pause. "Let me get ready."

Itachi continued with his work, he heard Sasuke quickly enter the room and shutting the door behind himself. His brother shuffled over to the bed and plopped himself on top of it. The only sound that could be heard is the older brother's pencil strokes against paper and the start of the younger Uchiha's sniffles.

Taking in a deep breath, Itachi placed the pencil down and stood up, then he walked over to his bed to sit next to Sasuke. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Pause.

"No."

"Okay." Itachi pulled the at the blanket so that it covered them both. He ran his hand through Sasuke's hair to calm him. It only took a short while for the younger Uchiha to turn around and clung onto his brother to muffle out his cries.

-.-.-

Two years and so much has changed… This was extremely evident for Iruka Umino, who has seen the change from an outside point of view. Out of the three of them, Naruto changed the most out of him, Sasuke and Shikamaru. He became calm, collected and only spoke when he feels like it serves a purpose, mature and serious along with a sharper wit. It unnerved Iruka to no end considered how Naruto used to be, childish and filled with cheerfulness. Sasuke is no longer that happy child, eager to please and be worthy of his family's name. Someone that enjoyed life to the fullest and always happy to make friends. There was a short time he became withdrawn and cold towards everyone, but as time went by and became a bit more open but never to how he was in the past. Shikamaru, you must know the kid to see the difference. Before that event occurred, he was always doing his work on time and with full marks, never taking naps and things that are not typical of any Nara. Now, he's falling behind his work, low test scores, and constantly taking naps mid-lectures. With this case, this would be normal behavior for someone from the Nara Clan, this is completely out of character for Shikamaru.

Iruka hopes the boys know they could come to him if they ever need to talk to someone. Which reminds him… he must invite the boys out for ramen or dango tonight. It's adult night and he would normally take the boys out for dinner or lunch then take them home until someone comes by to pick them up. It's something he's been doing for the last two years, mainly to get the boys out of the home by the request of their respective parents.

"Class, you're excused." Iruka dismissed his class for the day and watched them quickly leave the class. The only ones that stayed in place were the three boys who are putting away their supplies, or in Shikamaru's case, still snoozing away. "Boys, could one of you wake Shikamaru up? We have a long day ahead of us."

Naruto pulled a pencil from his dark orange pencil case and chucked it over Shikamaru's direction. It landed on its target, Shikamaru slowly lifted his head and looked around to see the class is now over. The only ones left are him, Naruto, Sasuke, and Iruka-sensei. Great… another useless day. Everything felt so useless nowadays, he's slipping in his schoolwork, he hasn't been in the same room as his father longer than an hour before the man went off to work and it got to the point where all he wants to do is nap but that seems to be easier said than done. Kurama isn't making it easy for him so he just laid down his head and pretended to sleep his day away.

"Let's go, Shikamaru. We're getting dango today."

"Tch… what a drag."

-.-.-

"You need to talk to your son, Shikaku! You may still be suffering from what happened that night, but so has he! You didn't see what happened to Yoshino, we did! He did!"

"Don't you think I don't know that?" Shikaku raised his voice, he buried his face into the palm his hands. He rubbed his face as he thought over his actions towards his son in the last four years. "I know…"

"Shikaku…" Kushina motioned for Shikaku to come closer to her spot on the couch. "Come here at…. Shikaku… come here now."

After some hesitation, Shikaku slowly walked over towards her and sat next to her. Kushina could easily see how much losing his wife had changed him both physically and emotionally. On top of the fact, he has been avoiding Shikamaru seemed to add on to the stress, the Nara doesn't know how to approach his son after everything that happened to both that night. Guilt just consumed him of that night, as Shikaku felt guilty for not being there for his son and wife.

"You need to spend more time with him and stop this self-loathing."

"You're troublesome, I hope you know that."

"I know."

The sound of the front door being opened and two distinct footsteps could be heard. The two adults turned around from their spots on the couch to see Naruto and Shikamaru walking into the home quietly.

"Mom… Uncle…"

"Father… Auntie…"

Naruto and Shikamaru quietly headed towards their room and shut the door behind them. This only caused Kushina to start glaring at Shikaku. "Go talk to him! Take him out to do something, anything!"

"Then you try to do something with Naruto. I don't even remember when was the last time I saw him smile…"

"FINE!"

"What a drag…"

"Oh, don't you start with that, mister!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

To be continued…

R/R.