Chapter 2

Beams of warm sunlight fell across the room, bathing the bed in the center in light. The pile of pillows and blankets wobbled as two olive toned arms pushed out of the pile and stretched. With a groan the arms flopped back onto the bed, and their owner pushed themselves upright. Shikamaru sat there just soaking in the warmth from the sun, last night's confrontation playing on her mind. Honestly, she was surprised her dad hadn't followed after her, and spoken to her about how she spoke to her mum. However, it was nice to put *that* particular conversation off for a while. She was getting a bit bored of the "you're a disappointment" speech.

With a sigh, Shikamaru pushed herself out of the bed and got herself ready for the day. It was her first day at the academy as a teacher today. After the disaster of the chunin exams, and the rebuilding, Shikamaru had put in for a permanent job at the academy. It paid a decent and consistent wage, she didn't have to train particularly hard for it, and she could sleep in her own bed each night. It was common practise for chunin to take a more permanent job in the village, between missions. It would be strange being at the academy in a teaching role, but she'd survive. Luckily Iruka-sensei was her mentor for this year, she'd have someone to support her. Though, he seemed amused when she appeared to talk to him after applying, and a little proud (she could hardly believe it. Someone was proud of her!) of her quick promotion to chunin. 12 years old and she's a chunin. Not the most impressive age, but certainly one of the quickest promotions in the village for a few decades. Iruka-sensei also made sure to check how she was doing after the mission to rescue Sasuke. It was a success, this time, she thought darkly, but it wouldn't surprise her if Sasuke abandoned the village later on anyway. Either way, he would do well to avoid Shikamaru, she hadn't forgiven him for putting her friends in hospital with life threatening injuries.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, as a tap on her bedroom door rang out.

"Shikamaru, I've made you breakfast. Get up, you're going to be late!" Screeched her mother through the rice paper sliding door. Apparently her mother was ignoring her commands from last night. Oh well, Shika didn't want to deal with this mess this morning. So as her mother continued screeching at her, she slipped out the window, muttering under her breath.

"What a drag."

She jumped down, landing with a catlike grace, before slipping off into the shadows of the trees, not noticing her father standing on the porch, watching with a frown.

Shikaku watched in silence as his daughter slipped into the clan forest, going out of her way to avoid both parents. His frown deepened as he considered the deteriorating relationship he had with his child, and heir. In the 3 months since she was promoted, their relationship seemed to have crumbled to nothing. Normally, he'd sit back and wait for Shikamaru to come to him, but he was certain she wouldn't this time. This time, he may need to force the issue. Especially after last nights little scene. Out of character for his lazy, laidback girl. She would rather agree to something, if it meant avoiding confrontation. Instead, last night, she snapped back, and then directly disobeyed. Whilst he did need to correct her over that, if Shikaku was honest with himself, he just wanted his laidback, and happy, child back. Shikaku turned as his wife joined him on the porch.

"She's gone." Yoshino said, her voice trembling slightly. "She must be mad at me. Shikaku, she's my daughter, I love her. I didn't mean to upset her last night. I've been so worried since she got promoted. What if she doesn't come home next time, and it's because she's not been eating properly, or training enough?"

Shikamaru sighed, and turned to hug his wife. It pained him to see the normally abrasive and domineering woman so shaken. He understood her worries, they had been speaking about how to deal with the issues for a few weeks now. Still, turns out his wife had hit her limit on patience last night, and succeeded in pushing their girl away.

"She'll be fine, dear. She's with Iruka today, he'll make sure she's looked after. We'll try talking to her again tonight. Together this time."

Shikaku hugged his wife close as he looked across to were his daughter had vanished into, for once drawing up blanks on what to do next.

"... just make sure you keep calm and address the problematic behavior straight away. You won't be on your own this year, just co-teaching with me, so don't worry about trying to remember everything straight away. Oh, and Shikamaru, its okay to make mistakes, just try to fix them as you go okay?" Iruka-sensei smiled at one of his favourite students, as he did her introductory session. If he was honest with himself, the quiet intelligence in her eyes had won him over. Along with how … alone… she always seemed. In a roomful of students, she always seemed on the outskirts. When he had first noticed, Iruka had sort advice on how to integrate the little girl into friendship groups. His mentor had said to leave her be. That Naras mature quicker than their peers. That the best course of action was to leave her alone; her clan would provide her with enough companionship. As would their long time allies, the Yamanaka clan, and the Akimichi clan. So Iruka had left her be, though he had kept an eye on her. He tried to encourage her to join in or to come and talk to him, but she had dismissed the idea, and normally gone back to sleep. His worry eased when one day she had appeared with Choji Akimichi, and they had been inseparable from then on. Sighing, Iruka smiled at the girl in front of him, shaking the thoughts from his head.

"Any questions so far Shikamaru-chan?" He asked, knowing she wouldn't.

"None that I can think off Iruka-sensei." Shikamaru replied, already glancing over his shoulder to stare into the distance. Her mind processing the information from the last 6 hours. There was a lot more to teaching than she had thought.

"You can drop the -sensei part now, Shikamaru-chan. You're the same rank as me now." Smiled Iruka proudly, his hand resting on her head. "I want you to know, even though I'm not your teacher anymore, I am so proud of you and your promotion!" Iruka frowned in worry, as at his words the girl's eyes filled with tears. She didn't cry, but he could tell she was struggling to hold them back.

"Aah, Shikamaru-chan, would you like to join me and a few others for some training this evening? We normally train for a few hours after work each day, and then get dinner every few days. You're more than welcome to come, and dinner's on me tonight. As congratulations on your promotion."

Shikamaru hesitated. She knew she should go home and face her parents, but, here was someone who told her he was proud of her, and then offered to help her train. She would need new training partners, as well as mission partners, thanks to Ino refusing to have Shikamaru near. Also, if she was honest with herself, it was nice to be invited by someone she respected; to spend time with them and soak in some of the pride they had for her.

"Yes please sensei, I'd love too!" She answered, the eager tone in her normally bored voice, making her cringe. Great, she thought, the first person to say they are proud of me apparently makes me lose control of my emotions.

"Great! Let's head over now shall we? We can warm up before the others arrive. " Iruka beamed and headed for the door, excited for training, and introducing his ex-student to his training friends. 'Zumo, Ko', Gen', and Rai' are going to adore the little brunette he was bringing with him. He just knew it! Maybe then she could have a larger friendship group, after all if Naras matured quicker, she should be able to fit in with people older than her! Iruka grinned wider and ruffled Shikamaru's hair, he was finally fixing a problem he had had for years. He was going to get Shikamaru friends who had a chance of keeping up with her intellect.

The pair walked in silence through the busy market square, as they headed over to the training grounds. Each lost in their thoughts, the 30 minute walk passed quickly, Iruka guiding them to training ground 51.

"Ah, we're here!" He said. Glancing down at the girl with him. "It's our favourite training ground, so we meet here most days, unless it's already being used. So what do you think?"

Shikamaru looked around the grounds. It's boundaries were woody, and it had a stream running into a lake on one side. The rest of it was open grass and rock. Though she noticed someone had edged the lake with sand.

"Its varied. It contains most elements for people with elemental jutsus to pull from. It looks like a good way to keep and even battlefield for spars." She glanced up at Iruka as she finished her assessment. "Ah, Sensei, it's a drag, and very troublesome, but I don't have a large range of techniques. Nor do I have the chakra to actually give you a decent fight."

Hearing her words, Iruka frowned and looked down at her, his eyes noticing he embarrassed blushing sweeping up her neck and across the bridge of her nose.

"Nee, Shika-chan, do you think I was at the level I am now, as soon as I was promoted?" He questioned gently. She shook her head, her eyes making contact with his.

"Do you think leaf shinobi only care about themselves? Again, she shook her head.

"Our goal is to make each other strong. I've invited you, so you can get stronger, faster, better, by sparring and training with people currently better than you. That's how we improve. We train with those stronger, and we push ourselves and them each fight." Iruka smiled at Shikamaru, and flicked her on the tip of her nose.

"So lets get to warming up, it's nearly time for the others to arrive."

"Hai sensei!"

Whilst Shikamaru was out training with her newly met companions, her old teammates were sat in the BBQ restaurant talking with their team captain, about their missing member.

"Asuma-sensei, do you think I was too harsh on Shika, when I told her to leave us alone? I think she took it to mean leave us completely. We haven't seen her at all since then. I mean, its nice not having to see her as a chunin, especially since she doesn't deserve the promotion. Sasuke-kun definitely would have been a better choice." An arrogant voice rang out. Its owner sat facing her teacher, playing with her long blonde hair as she waited on her food to arrive.

Asuma sighed, and exhaled a slow breath of smoke. He put his cigarette down and folded his hands together, before looking at his student.

"I don't think, Ino, I know you were. You're holding a grudge against Shika for being promoted when you weren't, when quite frankly you embarrassed yourself. I think you need to find her, and get her to come back before you break the Ino-Shika-Cho bond completely. Frankly your synergy as a team is unmatched, but only if all three of you are here." Asuma fixed his student with a stern look. "Fix the issue Ino."

The third ninja at their table looked up from his cooking meat and sighed.

"The question is, will Shika want to come back?"

Silence fell on the table, as the missing presence of their final member made itself known.