Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Naruto. I hired some government officials to steal the rights from Masashi Kishimoto, but they haven't come back yet. Fingers crossed!
About a week had passed, and nothing of consequence had happened. I met up with Ino, Kiba, Choji, or Shikamaru every day, usually just grabbing ramen at Ichiraku's. They've been helping me out a little bit with the customs and general knowledge of the Village, so I'd like to think I'm blending in a little better than I was before. Which, thankfully, means I'm one step closer to getting home.
Sasuke is still a silent asshole, but he has become an increasingly obnoxious asshole (if you could believe it) after he decided that he needed to know what I'm doing every second of every day. He hasn't given me any more money since that day, and so I've been seriously cutting back on my spending to make it last as long as possible. And I can't even train thanks to the asshole.
Needless to say, I'm bored out of my mind.
A massive sigh escaped my mouth as I lay on the hill next to Shikamaru, watching the sky. The blue still shone just as brightly, and the rhythmic moving of the clouds made me feel content. Content, but bored. I realized at that moment that I didn't want to be a cloud anymore. Their lives were so boring. They couldn't change their color or their material, and they just traveled in a semi-straight line all day, every day. I was bored enough on the ground where I could change outfits and move in whatever line shape I wanted.
"Hey, (Y/N), are you going to the gates today?"
"Huh? The gates?" I glanced over at pineapple head. "Why would I go to the gates? I'm not supposed to leave the Village." It turns out the friends I made had already heard about my predicament, since I 'was the most interesting thing that had happened since Kakashi lost his mask', according to Ino. Whatever that means.
"You aren't going to leave the Village. You don't have to be outside the gates or anything, I just thought that since you are friends with Naruto and Sakura—"
"Naruto and Sakura? Are they coming back?" I felt a little bad about cutting him off, but I needed him to get to the point—he tended to move kind of slowly. If these two are coming back…I could already feel my muscles relaxing at the thought of seeing them again. Sakura was patient with me and explained things well, and Naruto calmed my nerves when I was unsure about my predicament. I needed them to come back.
He smirked. "Yeah, their mission should have been complete a couple days ago, so given the appropriate amount of travel time and incorporating Naruto's food breaks, I'd say they should be here in an hour or so."
My heart swelled thinking about my first friends in the Leaf. "Really? That's so wonderful!" I smiled and closed my eyes, then paused. Shikamaru, you said they "should" be here in a couple of hours…
"But you don't know for sure that they're coming?"
You don't know for sure….you don't know for sure that they're alive…
Shikamaru seemed to sense where my mind was going, and immediately provided a counter-answer. "If they're not back by the end of today, Hokage-sama will send out a search team to see what's going on. It's no big deal. More trouble than it's worth, really. A lot of teams are late for arrival. They probably just ran out of food or got lost for a bit."
That didn't make me feel much better. Shikamaru must have been able to tell, because he sat up and tried a different angle on the situation.
"I mean, you lived with Naruto, right?" I nodded. "You know he's messy and unorganized." I nodded again, thinking about the rotten milk. I shuddered at the thought of the smell. "Well, then you know that Naruto will probably hold them back in terms of time. Knowing him, he'll complain about being hungry or run off to do something stupid and the team will have to accommodate him. They'll lose time."
I gulped, and it was hard to swallow. He sat back. "Don't worry so much, (Y/N). The kid has a good heart, but he's just an idiot."
I let out a quiet laugh. I had thought the same thing the night Naruto rat around town with me on his back like a maniac. Great kid, massive idiot. Seems to be the consensus.
We lay there in a comfortable silence. That was the nice thing about hanging with Shikamaru. He never felt the urge to talk. He was like a breath of fresh air compared to Ino and Sakura, and he was much nicer than Sasuke. Calmer than Naruto, too. He was shaping up to be my favorite person in Konoha.
As if he had heard my thoughts, Shikamaru leaned over. "You look exhausted. You should take a nap. I'll wake you up when they get here."
Yeah, sure. He's my favorite, but he's prone to falling asleep. Constantly.
"Really?" I eyed him. "Nara, I swear to God, if you don't wake me up in time to see Naruto and Sakura I will—."
"You'll what, (Y/N)?" He smirked at me. "Have you ever even trained before?"
My eyes narrowed. "I would love to, if the asshole didn't force me off the training field."
Nara stared at me before giving a mumbled "hn", and leaning back.
"I'll wake you up. Don't be so troublesome."
He nodded, and I closed my eyes. A cool breeze drifted over my face, and I could hear wind chimes on a house in the distance. The sounds and smells of nature were soothing to me, and soon enough I could feel my eyes closing. It was hard for me to sleep in Sasuke's house, so I hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in a long time. The whole environment was just…off. Cold. Threatening.
Out here, however, on this hill with Shikamaru, I felt at peace. I soon fell asleep.
The dreams started again.
"Are you watching me, (Y/N)? You must pay very close attention."
"Yes, Daddy!"
"Good. Now watch my hands. It is very important that you make the motions exactly as I show you, or it won't work."
"Let me try! Let me try!"
(laugh) "Okay, okay. We're going to say some animals now. Now say it with me…"
(together) "Tiger, boar, ox, dog."
"Very good, very good! Now we're going to do it with our special words, okay?"
"I want to try it with the hand stuff!"
(laughs) "Let's get the names down first, okay?"
(stomps foot, sighs, smiles) "Okay."
(together) "Tora, I, Ushi, Inu."
"Good! Are you ready for the hand motions? We'll go slowly—."
"No! Don't go slowly Daddy, I've been practicing."
"Oh? Well, in that case, we'll go at a normal pace. Alright?
(nod)
(together) "Tora, I, Ushi, Inu!"
(a small trail of smoke swirls around the two, and the girl laughs) "It worked, Daddy, it worked!"
(man smiles halfheartedly, speaks softly to himself) "No, sweetheart, it didn't."
The girl ran off to show her mother what she learned, but realized she forgot to thank her father. She turned around to run back, but all she saw was the smoke she created attacking her father, covering him in flames. The fire shot out in all directions, and she couldn't move.
"Daddy!"
She watched helplessly as it engulfed her mother first, and her brother second. She could only watch as they called out to her, burning.
(girl screams)
0
"(Y/N)! Wake up, come on! It's just a bad dream, damn it, (Y/N)! Wake up!"
I bolted upright and clutched my face in my hands. There were beads of sweat on my forehead, and my whole body began shaking as my eyes widened. I couldn't get the image of my burning family out of my head. It's my fault…it's all my fault…it wasn't just a dream…I killed my family…
I tightened my grip on my head. But…if I killed them…why don't I remember? I strained myself to remember what happened after I hid in that closet. Nothing…I can't remember anything…but I killed them. I can feel it. I killed all of them.
I was so tense and upset that I didn't even notice Shikamaru lean against the tree and pull me into him.
They're dead…because of me…
"Man, you must have had some dream. You okay?"
His voice was low and comforting, slowly pulling me away from the horrible images in my head as I began to breathe normally. I swallowed, still shaking from the realization that I can't even freaking remember a major in my life, then finally gathered the courage to pull my face away from my hands. Which, of course, led to my realization that Shikamaru was holding me.
In his lap.
My face heated up and I scrambled away, looking anywhere but his face.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to put you in such a c-comp-compromising situation! I…I just get bad dreams sometimes, a-and they take a while to l-leave my head! S-sorry!" I was shaking more, this time from embarassment, and words were difficult to say. I couldn't stop thinking about fire.
Shikamaru laughed. Laughed. I looked up.
"Man, you're so funny. Sometimes you're loudmouthed and rude like Ino, and other times you act just like Hinata."
I was about to ask who in the hell Hinata was, when he continued talking.
"So, this dream of yours. What could have been so bad that you woke up screaming and shaking?"
My face immediately paled and my mind flashed to the image of my brother: tears streaming down his face as he clutched his stuffed monkey, flames covering his entire body. He was calling out to mom, to dad, to me. But they were calling out for help too. And I couldn't do a damn thing. It was all my fault…it can't be…but it's true… Shikamaru realized I was deteriorating back into my traumatized state, and quickly moved over to put a hand on my shoulder. I looked up.
"Hey, forget I asked. You don't have to think about it, okay?" He gave his best smile—which was really a smirk—and squeezed my shoulder. I smiled gratefully as his presence washed away most thoughts of my family, but I shuddered as I tried to think about anything else. Naruto. Rotten milk. Maternity clothes. Ramen.
"I don't want you to ever feel uncomfortable around me. I swear, you're the only normal woman in this entire village." He paused, and looked off into the woods. I watched him as he concentrated on something in the distance. "Still troublesome, though."
"Hey!" I cuffed his shoulder, and he smirked.
"You call that a punch? Train with me sometime. Maybe you'll actually learn how to hit."
I started to make a snarky comeback, but my face fell. "I can't, I'm sorry. Sasuke—."
"But you have to."
That caught my full attention. Any thoughts of my dream left my head. "What do you mean, 'I have to'? I don't have to do anything!"
He put his hands up in defense. "Woah, there. I mean that unfortunately, I have direct orders from Tsunade-sama to train you in Naruto's place. I don't want to do it, but the Hokage is an intimidating woman. Besides, it's too much of a bother to be on anyone's bad side. So I agreed."
But Sasuke…
"Don't worry," he said, reading my face, "I already spoke with Sasuke. I noticed him following us a couple times on our walks around the woods, and was suspicious. He seems to be uncharacteristically interested in you."
I narrowed my eyes. "Interested? In…me?"Shikamaru nodded, crossed his arms, and continued.
"I normally hate confrontation, but I hate being trailed even more. So I interrupted his nightly sake a couple nights ago and tried to figure out what his deal was." He sighed. "I didn't figure anything out, but he found out from our conversation that I'm supposed to train you and he became enraged. I don't think even Naruto has ever made him that angry. Probably just the sake in his system, though."
My eyebrow arched. Naruto? Those two know each other?
"He finally agreed to let me train you, on the condition that he watches every session. Even the 'great Sasuke' can't go against the Hokage, and he knows it. Especially not now."
"Not now? What's so special about now?"
He cocked his head. "You're living with him and you don't know?" Shikamaru sighed, and put his head in his hands. "Why does she have to ask so many questions," he murmured to himself. He looked up. "He's technically still on probation for going against the village. Almost destroyed it, too. But I'm done explaining. You'll have to ask him about it. Besides, Naruto and Sakura should be here soon. Come on."
"Um…yeah. Hai."
He stood up to go, and I followed him. I was excited to see Naruto and Sakura again, but was still slightly concerned about the fact that I was living with a guy who could, apparently, almost level an entire village made of shinobi. I shuddered. That was not a fun fact to think about.
We stood at the gates, looking down the road. We'd been there for a few minutes, and there were no people in sight. Shikamaru had, characteristically, taken to sitting against the gate wall in the shade as opposed to standing in the sun. Which I was doing out of pure anxiety.
Why aren't they back yet?
"Baka, you're going to get a sunburn. Sit in the shade."
"I'm not going to get a sunburn. And don't call me an idiot, Mr. Lazy Pants."
He smirked. "Don't be dumb. And if you're going to call me names, at least try to make them insulting."
I turned to him. "Oh, don't worry. I can think of a whole list of names for you."
"Is that a threat?" I leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "You're not very threatening, you know. You look too soft and pale to be threatening. Maybe you shouldn't train. You can always work in that maternity store you seem to love so much."
My face heated up from frustration. If he was trying to get a rise out of me, it was working. Being called weak or 'not scary' happened to me every time I tried to put up a fight, and it was a personal pet peeve. And I would not work in a maternity store.
"Not threatening? We'll see about that." I cracked my knuckles, and he raised his eyebrows. "We can throw down right here, right now. I had a brother—I can take anyone down. Especially idiots who call me weak." Well, technically I had a six year old brother who cried when he knocked over a teddy bear, but Shikamaru didn't need to know that. I was fired up.
The pineapple boy's smirk deepened, and he stood up. "Oh, yeah?" He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over to me, coolly and calmly. I tried to feign increased anger, and stand up tall, but his collected personality was getting to me mentally. I didn't actually want to pick a fight with Shikamaru, but I needed to do something to prove my worth in this village. So far, I was that foreign girl who just took up space and ate food. I needed to better my standing.
Besides, Shikamaru is irritating. He teases you constantly. Let him have it.
Shikamaru walked up so we were inches apart, and my eyes stared straight into his chest. I had never realized how much taller the kid was than me, and this was probably the worst possible time for me to figure it out.
"Bring it, softie."
That did it. I wound my fist back, clenched my hand, and nailed Shikamaru in the abdomen as hard as I could.
Nothing.
He didn't recoil, didn't fight back, didn't even grab my hand. He just smirked at me. Per usual.
"You call that a punch? I'm pretty sure my deceased grandmother can punch better than you."
The anger was overwhelming. I'm not weak, damn it! I can't be weak!
I began hitting Shikamaru with my balled-up hands over and over again, and felt tears coming out of my eyes. I can't go home if I'm weak! I have to be strong! I have to get back home! I'm not weak!
I put all of my anger into my right hand for the final blow. I flattened my hand but bent my fingers in at the second knuckle, and tucked my thumb in at the side. I pulled back farther, and this time used my entire body weight to propel my hand into Shikamaru's stomach. This time, he fell back. Hard.
A massive smile crept up on my face. I knocked him down! I did it! I'm not weak! Then, unfortunately, the after-effects of incorrectly punching a rock-solid abdomen appeared, and I winced as I nursed my swollen knuckles.
The lazy shinobi stood up, brushed the dust off his pants, and walked back over to me. "Finally. I knew you had it in you. We can work more on hitting at your next training session."
He took my hands and began to bandage them with tape he had in his pocket. Then it hit me.
"Wait…our next training session?" I looked down at my hands. "This was a session? And why do you have bandages in your pocket? Were you…were you planning this?"
He smiled back at me. "Well, I don't necessarily love standard training methods, and knew you had zero fighting experience. Any type of normal training would take you forever." He sighed, as if explaining himself was the biggest hassle in the world. "Therefore, I figured if I riled you up and made you angry, you're enough of a hot-head that you would try to physically attack me. And I was right."
My face burned. He can read me like a book!
"Enough punches in and you were bound to figure out the most effective way to hit someone. I didn't expect you to knock me over, though. That was pretty impressive for a first go."
I couldn't speak. I was angry, embarrassed, happy, and confused, all at the same time. The biggest thing bothering me, though, was the way I hit Shikamaru at the end. It felt…well, it felt completely normal. Like it was something I already knew how to do. I thought about my nightmare—the beginning—and the hand signals my Dad had apparently taught me when I was younger. I didn't know he taught me those…
I realized at that moment that there was a lot about my younger life I didn't remember. I guess I had assumed up until this point that it was normal. That people's memories didn't mature until they were in their teens. I was wrong?
"Ne, Shikamaru! You got beat up by (Y/N)-chan?" I whipped my head to the road leading into the city, and saw Sakura, Naruto, and some guy in green rapidly approaching the gates.
Well, Naruto was rapidly approaching. The other two were walking calmly. Like normal people would.
"Bahaha! Way to go, (Y/N)-chan!" I began to backtrack as he barreled towards me. He was getting pretty close and didn't seem to have any intention of slowing down.
"N-Naruto! Slow dow—!"
I was cut off by Naruto slamming into me, spinning to absorb the impact, and picking me up under my arms. "You knocked him down so hard! That's my girl, (Y/N)-chan!" My face turned bright red as he spun me around a few more times.
"What did this lazy idiot do to make you beat him up anyways? And why is your face so red?"
That, of course, only served to deepen my blush, and Shikamaru—thank the Heavens—stepped in to answer for me. "I'm under the orders of the Hokage to train her. So I pissed her off to teach her how to punch."
Naruto laughed. "Well it worked, didn't it? You have a mean punch, (Y/)-chan!"
I couldn't meet him in the eyes. "Th-thanks." Why am I stuttering? And why is my face so red? All he did was call me his girl and tell me I punched well. That's nothing to get butterflies about!
At this point, Sakura and the other guy—with massive eyebrows—had walked up to meet us. The man in green stepped forward and bowed slightly in my direction.
"You must be (Y/N)-chan! I have heard wonderful things about you from my comrades! I am Rock Lee!"
I looked up to meet his eyes, which were also massive, and his face lit up in excitement. "Ah! The glory of love!" He ran over and took my hand in his, passion filling his face as tears streamed down his cheeks. I was in shock. "! I can see beauty pouring out of you, and it is due to the power of love! Combined with the power of youth, love can make anything is possible!"
I looked at Sakura in complete awe as she stormed up to Lee and began yelling.
"Baka!" She nailed him on the head, and he fell to the ground. "You're scaring her! You can't expect people to like you if you act like a pervert the first time they meet you!"
Damn…she's scary, I noted, as it became apparent that she was currently punching Lee though the ground. I took an unsure step backwards, only to bump into Naruto. He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me his stupid grin.
"So? Are you ready to train for real, (Y/N)?"
"Hey! I'm the one with the orders to train her, idiot." Shikamaru spit on the ground near him.
"Yeah? Well I'm helping!" The two butted heads—literally.
"Says who?"
"Says me! And I can go right up to Tsunade-bachan and she'll make you listen to me! You got a problem with that?"
Shikamaru conceded, and shoved his hands back in his pockets. "Man, what a pain." He looked at me. "Y/N), you don't really care, do you?"
I shook my head. If anything, Naruto was simply proving my theory that he was related to the Hokage. I mean, he calls her grandma.
"Fine. You can help, dumbass."
"What did you just call me?!"
Shikamaru smirked. "Dumbass."
"Shut up! I can take you on any time, any place!"
"Tch, you're not worth my time."
"I'll prove you wrong! Fight me, Shikamaru!"
I smiled. I didn't really understand the motives of anyone in this godforsaken village, but I was starting to become happy that I met everyone. Sakura was still beating up Lee for scaring me, and Shikamaru and Naruto were still butting heads. I sighed. Is this how they normally are? I laughed to myself at the thought of them all going at it in a restaurant.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the leaves of the forest move in the wind. That's right. I can't get comfortable. I need to go home.
I turned my head back to the four crazy people beside me, and bit my lip as they ignored me. Thank you guys…for everything. A bird flew overhead, past the buildings and over the carved mountain.
But I can't stay.
He watched as she followed the bird with her eyes. She doesn't want to stay here, he surmised. She wants to leave Konoha. He shook the thoughts from his head, reminding himself of the key incident.
He watched from the alleyway as Naruto, clearly frustrated by the Nara boy, stomped over to (Y/N) and threw his arm around her shoulders. The man tensed. She lives in my house. Only I can be allowed to do that. His fists clenched. Besides, why are they getting close to her? Don't they realize who she is? What she wants?
The group, finally having calmed down, walked in a cluster down the road. Probably to get ramen, he thought to himself. He began to walk back home, and replayed (Y/N)'s hit in his mind.
She's good, he thought to himself. She picked it up quickly. Unless…He stopped in the middle of the road. …unless she already knows how to fight—and to suppress her chakra—and is bringing all of us along in her charade. He began running from home. The great Sasuke Uchiha, running.
She knows, damnit! She knows about the cellar! And if she can suppress her chakra that much, she's a fucking good shinobi, too!
He cursed under his breath. That was the last straw. He would now be openly watching every training session she had. He had to know what she was feigning to learn.
Restoring the clan had always been his only goal, and he was so close that he'd be damned if he let a scrawny nobody from another village ruin his chance at redemption.
He had to be one step ahead of her. For the good of the clan.
Authors Note: Hey! I'm trying to be better about updating while I'm home, because once I get back to school I probably won't be able to post anything. Maybe a chapter or tow. Therefore, I made this one a little longer for you guys!
Anyways, I know this is a bit of a filler chapter, like the last one, but I feel like it's important for (Y/N) to build relationships with the characters (who may be a little OOC, sorry!) before anything major happens. I PROMISE, the next couple chapters will be more interesting. I mean, hello! You start training!
Lastly, I'm slowly starting to add a little more fluff in. I mean, this is a fanfiction, right? This is what we all secretly want deep down. Fluff. And I'm here to please. (Slowly.)
SPEAKING OF WHICH:
OCxNaruto - 1
OCxSasuke - 1
OCxShikamaru - 2
OCxKiba - 0
OCxChoji - 0
OCxSakura - 0
OCxNarutoxSasuke - 1
Shikamaru takes the lead, with Naruto, Sasuke, and the love triangle not far behind! Keep voting! I'll keep this poll up for a couple more chapters as OC figures it all out.
Thank you all for reading, please rate and review! Love you all!
-S (for shan4nigans. makes me seem kind of ominous, yeah?)