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.'

-.-.-

Iruka let out a sigh of relief when he saw a familiar blonde laying on top of the Hokage Rock, to be more precise, the Fourth's Head. He was informed by Shikaku and Shikamaru that Naruto had run off and was not able to locate him. The younger Nara had informed him that Naruto is blocking him out and it is making difficult to find him. No one could blame him for running off after hearing of his heritage. To be more precise, who is his father. Iruka doesn't know the whole story but knows his student enough that if Naruto wishes to open up what he found out, then he would be there for him. "There you are, Naruto… I've been looking for you."

Naruto didn't make any sort of notion of Iruka's arrival, he kept staring up at the cloudless sky. Everything remaining the same for him as the Academy Instructor laid down next to him and stared up at the vast blue skies. Both continued with for an unknown amount of time, neither of them said or did anything to disturb the peace between them.

"Mom told me who my birth father was."

"Ah…"

Pause…

Pause.

Longer pause.

"You aren't going to say anything about it?"

"You'll say something when you're ready to say something and I'll be here to listen to you always. I do not know who this person was, but I do know that you grew to be a stupendous young man and many people are proud of you, myself included."

Naruto pulled out a folded-up picture from his person and handed it over to Iruka, who took it with curious eyes. Iruka unfolded the picture and what he saw made his jaw to go slack momentarily before he cleared his throat. He folded up the picture and handed it back to Naruto, who took it without saying a word and hid it in his person.

"Come on, let's get ramen." Iruka stood up from his spot, he looked down at Naruto to roll over and covered his face with his hands. Leaning down, Iruka started to softly shake Naruto to get the young Uzumaki to look at him. "Naruto… Naruto, look at me."

Slowly, Naruto moved his hands just enough to look up at Iruka. "Why did he pick his own son? Why did Uncle allow Shikamaru to- Shikamaru never told me anything."

Naruto hid his face again and Iruka saw his shoulders began to shake, he could hear soft sobs coming out of him. Iruka began to rub Naruto's back and began to whisper to him to calm him down. The sky began to darken as night slowly began to approach and the chill of the night finally had them looking for shelter for warmth.

-.-.-

"It was for the best of the village, it was for the best of the Clan…. No matter the consequences, we were going to live through it by that one choice. There was no turning back and there was no time to second guess anything." Shikaku kept his gaze towards his son, never once breaking with him. They were out at the stables, sitting on top of piles of hay and burlap sacks of feed. They originally planned on going after Naruto, but that was stopped when they found Iruka and the Academy Instructor said he would go find him, (Shikaku swore that the young man already has an idea where Naruto was and didn't make mention of it. This was later proved correct when Kakashi sent Pakkun to Kushina to tell her as such). This left with Shikaku having to answer every single question Shikamaru has for him, no holding back.

"You were also the Fourth's right-hand man… how close were you and mom to him?"

"We grew up together, trained together, and fought alongside each other… it's the same thing for Yoshino and Kushina. I put my complete and trust into that man, I helped him become Hokage and helped him with the position."

Shikamaru looked away from his father and stared out into the distance, he saw several of the Nara Deer watching on with curious eyes. "The attack happened midday of what used to be market day, tell me the start and end of that day."

"It was supposed to be a double date, Yoshino had finally gotten stir-crazy and demanded a day out…" Shikaku's eyes seemed to glaze over at the memory of that day. He intertwined his fingers together and continued to tell his son of his memory of the day that changed everyone's lives. "Just a day out in the market, Yoshino telling Kushina the up and downs of a natural homebirth… we ended up at the park, enjoying an early lunch when… we were suddenly under attack."

Shikaku continued retelling the sequences of events that occurred that day and well in the night. On occasion, Shikamaru would ask a question or to go further into detail about something before he continued. Going over how Yoshino helped Kushina through the birthing process, while Minato attempted to ensure the Kyubi doesn't get out, but it still happened in the end.

Shikamaru gripped his head as he continued to listen to what his father had to say about the day his life changed forever. It was one thing to hear it from Kurama but to hear it from the man himself, it is something completely different.

"The original plan was to place the Kyubi back into Kushina and allow it to die within her… but her body was too weak to allow it to happen. Naruto couldn't fully take in the Nine-Tailed Fox as a whole, which resulted with…. the Fourth needed another container to place the other half… It was either going to be going sealed within me or be taken by the masked man and still leaving the village in great danger."

"…the mask man… he's the reason why mom and auntie…?"

"Yes."

"Okay." With that, Shikamaru jumped off the bale of hay and walked off without saying another word. He needed time to think and his next course of actions. There was no time to question his father why his father allowed him to become what he is today. It was a joint decision between him and his late mother, from a view of a Shinobi, he fully understood why they both allowed it to happen. He truly does, but he couldn't help but question it in the back of his mind.

"There was a very high chance you were not even to survive through the process."

'Did you play on those chances?'

"I didn't plan on dying anytime soon."

'What were my chances of surviving without your help?'

"Very low, Naruto has a higher chance of surviving because of his background. Uzumaki's have naturally higher chakra coil's then the average human, his even more since he's the son of a now-former Jinchuriki."

'It allowed him to grow accustomed to your chakra, but only enough to seal your other half.'

"If you had gotten stuck with the other guy, you'd be dead."

'…'

"What? I'm the good half, the other half is just right down evil."

"Troublesome."

-.-.-

Iruka carried Naruto on his back, the twelve-year-old head's head had lolled on his shoulder and snoozed away. It was getting late and he needed to take the twelve-year-old back home. It took some time to coax to leave the monument and to get some ramen, but it happened by the end of it. The kid is mentally and emotionally exhausted; he just needs sleep now.

Walking through the Nara Compound, Iruka slowed down his pace when he saw the well-lit home and three individuals were waiting on the poach for the final member of their family. Walking up to them, Iruka stood in front of Shikaku, Shikamaru, and Kushina. Shikaku walked down the poach and towards Iruka, the two worked together to shift Naruto to Shikaku's own grasp. "Do you have time to talk now or tomorrow, we have some things we need to go over, along with Kushina-sama."

"Tonight."

-.-.-

Naruto woke up with a loud gasp, he sat up and saw he was in his room already dressed in his sleepwear. He looked around and saw that Shikamaru is snoozing away in his bed on the other side of the room. Taking in several deep breaths, the Uzumaki silently got off the bed and crept towards the door.

'They're talking to Iruka-sensei right now.'

Naruto paused, of course, Shikamaru never allows his mind to fully rest. Allows wide awake, even if his body states otherwise. '…'

'Do you want to talk now or in the morning?'

"Now." Naruto stated evenly as he went over to turn on the lamp that was next to his bed. He looked over to see Shikamaru getting up from his supposed slumber. "How long have you known?"

"Since the first moment, I could formulate a single thought. My earliest memory is beating Lord Fuzz Butt in shogi." Shikamaru deadpanned, he shifted in his bed so that he could reach over to turn on his own lamp. Letting out a grumble when he was momentarily blinded by the light. Looking back at the blonde to see him unable to make eye contact with him. "I didn't say anything until you were able to make contact with him."

"I found out because of some crazy lunatic! I would have preferred it if it came from someone I trust! I just wanted answers, that's it! I wanted to know what happened to us four years ago!" Naruto pulled down the collar of his dark orange sleeping shirt to show Shikamaru his scars and pointed at Shikamaru's own. "I'm terrified of that happening again…no matter how much I attempt to think it through…looking at it from every angle, I understand why my parents turned me into a Jinchuriki but you...? Why aren't you up in arms, why am I the only emotional one here!"

"The Kit is saving it when he goes up against the masked asshole."

"Who said that?" Naruto's head snapped when he heard an unfamiliar and dark voice ringing through his mind.

'If I had to guess… Yang-Kurama?'

'…You have to be shitting me…'

"Nope, he's not shitting you."

"Dumbass."

'I'll have you know, I'm top of my class!'

"Suuure, it took you how long? I've been watching y-"

'Creep.'

"Baka."

'Fuzzy Slippers.'

"Fuckhead."

'Well, I'll tell you something that should be of vital interest to you. That you, sir, are a NITWIT!'

"So says the dumbass that has little to no people skills."

'I'd slap you, but that would be animal abuse.'

"Are you always this stupid or is today a special occasion?"

Shikamaru and Yin-Kurama sweatdrop as they hear as Naruto and Yang-Kurama continued to insult one another. It got so bad that the former two broke the link temporarily to get some sort of rest. The young Nara couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as Naruto got easily distracted by the… now increasingly cursing match against the jailed Nine-Tailed Fox.

'What a drag…' Shikamaru grumbled to himself as he got himself comfortable to sleep. He was about to lose consciousness when he felt that familiar pull towards the back of his mind. Now he is sitting across of a smaller sized Yin-Kurama and in-between them is a shogi board. Without a second thought, Shikamaru slapped the game away from him and lazily glared at the now smug tailed beast.

"This means I win."

In response to the comment, Shikamaru snapped his fingers and a Go board appeared. "Not a fat chance, Lord Fuzz Butt."

-.-.-

The next morning, the entire home was tense, and nobody said a single word aloud. It was one of those rare days where everyone is at home and not in a hurry to go anywhere. The boys are excused from going to the Academy for the rest of the week, Shikaku had taken the rest of the week off and Kushina canceled her plans with her friends. It's just the four of them and everything looked to be going up in flames.

"How exactly did it escaped everyone's minds there was a huge possibility the Fourth Hokage was my father, yet everyone ignored it? Kakashi said I'm identical to him to a T." Naruto deadpanned, breaking the silence. "Mom hung out with him for the vast majority of her pregnancy, before she got pregnant, and pretty they've been stuck to the hip for who knows how long."

"The village is filled with idiots." Shikaku deadpanned, holding nothing back. This caused everyone in the room to fail at holding back smiles before they began to break into full-blown laughter. Laugher that was needed for everyone in that moment and it was much needed for all involved. The laughter slowly died off and it was replaced with light chatter, mainly going over how the preteens beat Mizuki to a complete pulp and the new jutsu's they learned from the scroll. This only caused Shikaku to grumble while Kushina laughed at his dismay. "

There was a temporary silence and Shikaku cleared his throat. "Naruto…"

"If you make my mom cry anything but tears of joy, I'll make your life hell." Naruto interrupted Shikaku before he continued eating his breakfast. "What? If you're wondering if I'm… mad at you, I'm not. Sort of…" Naruto's nose scrunched up as he didn't want to mention his birth father. He may not have come to terms to what happened on the day of his birth, but there was no reason to stew on it at this point. Shikaku and Yoshino both did that they knew what was best for the village and their family, even if it did leave a bitter taste in his mouth. However, as stated before, nothing could change the past and the only thing to do now is to move forward. "More towards the dead than towards the living…"

Naruto stared down at his food wondering how he should say the next set of words to the man who had helped raised him. "I'm just… I don't like being out of the loop when it comes to something that connects to me…"

"I promise to be open and be truthful to you here on out."

"So you have been lying about other things then!"

"…I walked into that one, didn't I?"

"Yes."

To be continued…

R/R.