Title; Too Troublesome.
If there was one thing Chokai couldn't stand, it was people blatantly not appreciating all the effort that went into making those crystals. The least they could do after smashing the beautiful creations right in front of him would be to clean up after themselves!
So, as Chokai swept the pieces of his most recent dissatisfied customer, he felt someone looming over him. He looked up to see a young boy standing over him, looking down.
Nara Shikamaru just so happened to be passing by at that moment and noticed an old man struggling to clean something up in front of his cart. Now, being the man he was, Shikamaru couldn't just walk by without at least offering some help.
"You need a hand?" he asked, bending over and taking the dustpan and brush Chokai had been using.
"Oh, thank you young man!" said Chokai happily as he stood up and stretched his back out. Shikamaru silently brushed up the remains of the two destroyed crystals. After he was done, he put the pan up on the counter. "Did they fall off the cart?"
"You could say that." Chokai answered.
"Well, try to be more careful." Shikamaru said. "I'll see you later."
"Wait!" said Chokai. "I have to give you something as a token of my gratitude. You may have anything in my cart."
Shikamaru gazed around at the things that the old man had. Not only did he not want to take something from him, but he didn't really want any of the stuff he had.
"That's all right." Shikamaru assured him. "Your thanks is enough."
"No, no, no!" said Chokai, grabbing another Butterfly Crystal from behind him and dropping it on Shikamaru's palm. "I insist! And if you don't take it then I will be personally insulted!"
Shikamaru sighed. His aim wasn't to insult anyone. Maybe he could give it to his mother. She'd like the little butterfly.
"All right then." Said Shikamaru. "Thanks."
"That's not just any NORMAL crystal." Said Chokai, being persistent to the point in which Shikamaru was getting annoyed. "That's the Butterfly Crystal."
"Oh is it?" Shikamaru said.
"Yes." Said the old man. "If you make a wish upon it to change one event in your past then it will come true."
"Uh…huh." Shikamaru said. "That's great. Look, I gotta go."
"Have a nice day!" said Chokai, leaning back in his chair as he watched the benevolent young man run off.
Shikamaru was on his way home anyway. He quietly opened the door, hoping his mother wouldn't hear him come in because he knew if she did then she'd demand to know every detail of his mission. And it's not like the mission had been anything special or anything, but she always wanted to know everything. And man, was that troublesome.
"SHIKAMARU!" came his mother's voice as she rounded the corner and enveloped him in a big hug. "Welcome back, my little boy! I want you to tell me all about your mission!"
"Mom…" Shikamaru moaned.
"Shikamaru, Asuma just came by and said that training starts at six AM tomorrow." His father mumbled as he walked by.
Shikamaru sighed. Why did Asuma always do that after missions?
"So, aren't you going to tell me about your mission?" his mother said, practically shoving him into a chair at the kitchen table and then sitting across from him. "What's that in your hand? Are you spending your money on frivelous things?"
"Uh no, it was a gift." Shikamaru said, putting the crystal on the table. He checked out the window quickly, because he could have sworn that he heard the sound of a bird flying by awfully close.
"From who?" his mother asked.
"An old man." Shikamaru replied. "I helped him clean things up and he gave it to me."
"Oh, that's nice!" said his mother, standing up and starting to wash some dishes behind him.
The doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" came Shikamaru's father's voice from the other room.
"Yeah, he said it would grant me one wish." Said Shikamaru in his skeptical voice, speaking to his mother about the crystal after the distraction had occured.
"What are you going to wish for?" she asked.
"It's not TRUE." Shikamaru said, turning around to look at her only to be faced with her back.
"Oh just wish for something." She insisted. "Humor me, all right?"
Shikamaru sighed and picked up the crystal. "All right." He said. "I wish… hm…"
"Shikamaru, that was Asuma." Shikamaru's father reported as he walked into the kitchen. "He wanted to say that he changed the meeting time to five."
"Training is so troublesome…" Shikamaru groaned, looking back at the crystal. He paused and turned it around, staring at the butterfly within it. "I wish… I wish I had never become a ninja."
Shikamaru put the crystal down and waited for his parents to reprimand him for making such a wish. He knew that they both expected him to become a great ninja and for him to blatantly express his displeasure for the life he was currently leading would just offend them.
He waited and waited, but no sound came from their position behind him.
Maybe they were in shock?
"Mom?" said Shikamaru as he turned around. "Dad?"
He looked around to see that there was no one standing there. After looking back and forth around the room, he spun back around and faced forward.
"Mom?" he called more loudly. "Dad?"
But he got no response.
So he decided to stand up… and he did.
And that's when he noticed something on the refrigerator. "Be back at ten! Remember to do all your chores! Love, Mom and Dad."
He took the paper off the refrigerator and turned it around, but it was blank on the other side. It certainly was strange of his parents to secretly scribble a note and run out of the house without telling him. In fact… they had never done that. Maybe they just didn't feel like talking anymore.
Chores? What chores?
Since when do I have CHORES, Shikamaru thought.
Besides, it was almost nine o'clock so that meant it was almost bedtime.
So, without letting the note or the sudden disappearance of his parents bother him anymore, Shikamaru trudged up the stairs, changed into his jammies and hopped into bed.
It was so like Shikamaru to sleep like a rock. After all, he had training early in the morning tomorrow so he had to get his sleep.
He felt himself being shaken awake early the next morning.
"Shikamaru, wake up!" came his mother's voice. Shikamaru rolled over and looked at her. "Did you forget something?"
"What?" he said, still half asleep.
"You didn't do any of your chores!" she said angrily.
"What chores?" Shikamaru asked.
"Well, you can't do them now." She said as she whipped all the blankets off him.
That made him sit up. "Mom!" he said. "What are you doing?"
"Getting you up." She said. "You're not going to be late anymore."
Shikamaru leaned over and looked at the clock to see that it said eight fifteen.
"Mom…do you realize that it's eight fifteen?" he said.
"Yes." She said. "If you have to be there at nine then I think this should give you enough time."
"Didn't I have to be there at five?" Shikamaru said.
"I don't know… did you?" she asked, looking angry.
"Did Asuma come by and change the time again?" Shikamaru said, getting out of bed.
"Asuma?" said his mother. "Who's Asuma? Get dressed and come downstairs to eat! And hurry it up!"
"Who's Asuma?" Shikamaru repeated to himself as his mother ran out of the room. But he shrugged it off as his mother just being a little psychotic that morning and got himself dressed in his usual clothes. He trudged down the stairs and rounded the corner.
"Shikamaru!" exclaimed his mother, almost dropping everything she was holding. "You can't go dressed like THAT! What are you thinking!"
"I always dress like this." Said Shikamaru with a raised eyebrow.
"March right back up those stairs, young man, and get changed!" she yelled, spinning him around and giving him a push back towards the stairs. "And hurry up!"
Okay… REALLY psychotic.
He looked around his room and wondered what his mother wanted him to wear. So he grabbed something else and put it on and, with a little more caution, came down the stairs.
"Shikamaru!" said his mother immediately. "I'm not in the mood for games this morning! Come with me!" She grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him back up the stairs. As he watched, she turned his drawers upside down and pulled out a nice shirt, a nice pair of pants and a white apron. "Now get dressed and come downstairs to eat! It's already eight thirty!"
"Um…" was all Shikamaru could get in before his mother had already disappeared down the stairs.
But he wasn't going to argue with his mother. She was definitely… EXTREMELY psychotic this morning.
So, as strange as he felt, he came down the stairs with the nice pants, the nice shirt and the apron on.
"That's more like it!" said his mother. "Okay, your father will drop you off today on his way to see the Hokage."
"I don't need him to drop me off." Shikamaru said.
"Well, since you skipped out last time, we'll have to do this until you earn our trust again." Shikamaru's father interjected.
"Um…okay…" Shikamaru said. He remembered skipping training a few times, but he never remembered his parents ever finding out about it. So he sat down at the table and started eating.
When he was finished, his mother pushed the two of them out the door and told them to hurry, hurry, hurry.
"What's up with mom this morning?" Shikamaru asked as they got further away from the house where Shikamaru could be sure she wouldn't hear him.
"She just wants what's best for you." His father sighed.
Shikamaru followed his father as they walked in the opposite direction of where training was usually held.
"All right, I want to see you go inside." His father said as he stopped in front of what Shikamaru recognized as Ino's flower shop. Shikamaru looked at the flower shop and then back at his dad.
"Why?" he said finally.
"So I know you don't skip out." He answered.
Shikamaru figured that he must have been meeting Ino here to go to training.
"Um…okay…" said Shikamaru. "Bye dad… see you later…"
"All right."
And with that, his father was gone. Shikamaru went inside and looked around just as the woman Shikamaru knew as Ino's mother came into view.
"Shikamaru, so good of you to show up!" she said, sounding flustered.
"Thanks." Said Shikamaru, not knowing how to respond.
"I don't need any wise remarks from you!" she scolded. "I have a hundred errands to run! I'll be back soon enough and you better be here when I get back!"
And then she was out the door.
"Wait, what?" Shikamaru said, but she was long gone.
He stood there dumbly for a few minutes until the door opened and Ino was standing there. But her hair was long.
"Is my mom here?" Ino said, looking around the room.
"She just left." Shikamaru answered.
"Did she say where she was going?" Ino asked.
"No." Shikamaru said. "She just said she had errands to run. Hey, what's going on with training today?"
Ino laughed. "Okay, Shikamaru." She said. "Bye."
And she left as well.
Shikamaru stared at the closed door for another minute or so.
"Wait, what?" he said once again.
He wanted to chase after Ino and demand an explanation, but her mother had specifically told him that she wanted him to be there when she got back. And there was no way Shikamaru was going to defy a woman, especially a Yamanaka woman.
A few seconds later, the door opened and an enormous woman entered. She started shuffling around the room, looking at the flowers and finally picked out some that suited her fancy. She approached Shikamaru.
"Excuse me, young man, do you work here?" she asked.
"No." Shikamaru answered. "I think the shop's closed."
"The sign says it's open." Said the woman. "And you're wearing the uniform, aren't you?"
She nodded at the apron he was wearing.
"Uh…I guess I am…" Shikamaru said hesitantly.
The door opened again.
"Morning Shikamaru!" said a girl his age that he didn't know. "I'm here for the usual so you can ring me up while I get them!"
The enormous woman looked at Shikamaru.
"Uh…" Shikamaru said. He looked behind him at the counter that had no one behind it, then back at the door. So he slipped behind the counter. "I guess I'll fill in."
"Right you will." Said the enormously rude woman as she plopped the flowers down on the counter.
Shikamaru added up the prices and entered it into the register. The woman handed over the money and left. As Shikamaru stood there behind the counter, he hoped that Ino's mother wouldn't be mad that he had stood in for her while she was out running errands or whatever she was doing.
"Am I all set?" the girl said, coming to the counter with two roses; one yellow and one white.
Shikamaru entered the prices. "All set." He said.
"All right!" she said, taking the flowers and handing over the money. "See you tomorrow morning!"
"Uh…yeah…" said Shikamaru as the girl left.
From that point on, no one else really came in. Shikamaru sat himself down on the counter by the register and waited for Ino's mother to come back. He didn't know why she wanted him to stay there until he got back or WHY his own mother had forced him to wear this outfit that morning or WHY Ino had acted as though she hardly knew him… it was some kind of female conspiracy. They were all against him.
"Why does that always happen?" Shikamaru said out loud with a sigh.
He gazed out the windows at the clouds.
The minutes dragged by into hours and pretty soon, Shikamaru checked the clock to see that it was noon. He had helped a few customers since then as if he even worked there, and was beginning to feel bad that he never showed up for training. But at least Ino knew where he was.
Speaking of Ino, she just walked in.
"Ino, hey," Shikamaru said, jumping off the counter.
"Shikamaru, you know you're not supposed to sit on the counter." Ino said in a patronizing tone.
"Uh…oh right." Shikamaru said, not knowing why he was supposed to know that sort of information. "Sorry I couldn't come to training… your mom told me to stay here."
Ino laughed that same laugh. "All right, Shikamaru." She said. "So I take it my mother didn't come back?"
"No, she didn't." Shikamaru answered. "Do you know how long I'm supposed to stay here?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure your shift is over at five… so I would guess you have to stay until then." Ino replied.
"My shift?" Shikamaru said.
Once again, Ino laughed that laugh.
"Hey, and when did your hair get so long?" Shikamaru asked again.
"Since I've been growing it out." Ino laughed again. "So what are you doing once you get out today?"
"Uh…I don't know." Shikamaru answered. "Was Asuma mad that I didn't show up?"
Ino looked preoccupied with fixing a few flowers that were out of place.
"Wait, what did you say?" she said, turning around.
"Was Asuma mad that I didn't show up?" Shikamaru repeated.
"Why would he care?" Ino said.
"He usually cares." Shikamaru pointed out.
"He doesn't even KNOW you." Ino sighed, paying more attention to the flowers than at the conversation.
Before Shikamaru could question Ino's outrageous comment, four boys that Shikamaru didn't know suddenly came running in.
"Shikamaru, we messed up real bad!" yelled one of them. "You have to do something!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, why do I have to do something?" Shikamaru said, trying to back away from them as they practically jumped on top of him.
"PLEASE!" they begged, getting down on their knees.
"I'm not bailing you out this time, Shikamaru!" Ino said, sounding angry. "So go if you have to buy my mother's going to be real mad!"
"Come on, come on!" yelled the four boys as they pulled on him. Shikamaru didn't really resist all that much since he had already spent more time in that flower shop than he wanted to that morning, and it's not like Ino was being particularly helpful that morning ANYWAY. The boys led him around the corner where no one else was around.
"So…" Shikamaru said, waiting for an explanation.
"We robbed a convenience store!" said one of the boys as the others hushed him to keep his voice down. "Look, look!" he pulled his jacket aside to reveal that he had oodles of money as well as various merchandise.
Shikamaru knew that this was not right, but he also didn't know why this information was being shared with him.
"Okay…" Shikamaru said.
"What do we do!" said another boy.
"There they are!" came a voice down the alley. Shikamaru looked up to see three ninjas standing there.
"Wait, you guys robbed one JUST NOW?" Shikamaru gaped.
"RUN!" yelled the boys as they darted away. Shikamaru watched them go as they scaled a fence and continued to run. He turned around and expected to be treated as a witness to a crime, but instead one of the ninjas grabbed him by the collar and practically lifted him up off the ground.
"Nara Shikamaru!" he yelled. "You're not getting out of it this time! We'll make sure you're punished for this!"
"For what?" Shikamaru said, trying not to yell in fear of startling the ninjas to the point in which they'd draw weapons on him. "I didn't do anything!"
"Take him to the Hokage." Said the one who had grabbed him as he let go and threw him over to another one of the ninjas. Then he turned to the other one who had just been standing idly by. "You, come with me!"
With that, the two of them took off down the alley in the direction that that four boys had run to.
Shikamaru looked up to see that the ninja standing over him was none other than Iruka!
"Iruka, what's going on?" Shikamaru said.
"Don't speak, Shikamaru, if you know what's good for you." Iruka advised.
Shikamaru was a little surprised.
"I'm not going to take you to the Hokage." Iruka said as he gave Shikamaru a little push to make him start walking. "I still think there's hope for you."
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru said. "I don't understand. What's going on?"
"I always thought you were a good student, I could just tell that you didn't lack the ambition to become a great one." Iruka explained. "I wish you had continued with school and your training. Because if you did, I can tell things would have turned out differently. You wouldn't have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd and I believe you could have used your intelligence for the good of the village."
Shikamaru thought about what Iruka said and now he was utterly confused.
"This is your last chance." Iruka said as he stopped walking. Shikamaru looked up to see that they were standing in front of his house. "Next time, I really will take you to the Hokage."
With that, he walked away, leaving Shikamaru standing there on his front lawn. Shikamaru entered the house and looked around to make sure his parents weren't at home and, once he found that they weren't, he went straight to the object of suspicion.
"The Butterfly Crystal." Shikamaru nodded, picking the crystal up off the kitchen table where he had left it that morning. "Any wish to change your past will come true. I had never expected it to work."
He put the crystal down and removed the apron.
"I wonder if there's any way to undo it." Shikamaru pondered. Though, he was not quite sure if he even wanted to undo it. Being a ninja sure was troublesome.
But then again, because he was not a ninja, apparently he had a job. At Ino's flower shop, too. In addition to that, he had a job. And, from what he gathered, no one trusted him, believed in him AND he was mixed up in the wrong crowd of kids who were stupid enough to rob a convenience store in broad daylight.
He weighed the two situations, and it didn't take long before he came to the right conclusion.
"I'll sleep on it." he decided.
He went into the other room to lie down on the couch but, on the way, he noticed a desk that had a large picture frame on it that hadn't been there before. He went over to look at it to see that it was a reasonably recent picture of him and Chouji.
"Well, at least I'm still friends with Chouji." Shikamaru decided, putting the frame down only to have a piece of paper fall off the back of it. It looked like a letter.
He picked it up and opened it. "Shikamaru—thank you so much for the kind letter you sent us. We know you and Chouji were the best of friends and we appreciate everything you ever did for him and our family. If Chouji were still here today I'm sure that—"
At that point, he stopped reading and dropped the letter.
Now it was pretty obvious which direction he was going to choose. If, Chouji were not apart of this strange alternate universe he had accidentally created then he'd never be able to forgive himself. Not only would he miss his best friend, but he would always have to live with the thought that he had been the one who killed him.
He went back to the kitchen and grabbed the crystal. Not even knowing if he would be able to reverse the effects of the wish, he went into town to find the old man with the cart who gave the crystal to him.
Chokai winced when he saw Shikamaru spot him in the crowd. And he also began to roll his eyes as Shikamaru persistently pursued him.
"Yes?" Chokai said as Shikamaru approached him. "Let me guess. You want to undo the wish?"
"Yes." Shikamaru said.
Chokai sighed. "I should have known that a kind young man like yourself did not need to change anything in his life." He said.
"So what do I do?" Shikamaru asked.
"Just smash the crystal right on the ground in front of you." Chokai replied.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "So that's what I was cleaning up yesterday?" he said.
"Maybe." Chokai said, avoiding eye contact.
Shikamaru didn't need any more explanation than that before the crystal was already smashed into a zillion tiny pieces.
"Is it undone?" Shikamaru asked immediately.
"It SHOULD be." Chokai replied.
Just then, Ino came up behind Shikamaru. "Shikamaru, I think I want to tell you something about that cart!" she said, grabbing his arm and leading him away. "Don't buy anything from that old man."
"I know that now." Shikamaru sighed.
"Oh…did you already buy something?" she asked.
"Well yeah…" Shikamaru said, double-checking to make sure that Ino's hair was short. And it was.
"Did you buy the Butterfly Crystal and make a wish on it too?" Ino grinned.
"Don't tell me you did." Shikamaru said.
"I did." Ino said. "What did you wish for? What happened? Was I there?"
"Well…I sort of accidentally wished that I had never become a ninja." Shikamaru said vaguely.
"That must have been nice for you." Ino said. "Why'd you undo it?"
"Various reasons." Shikamaru sighed.
"I wished for Sasuke to be my boyfriend." Ino confessed. "But for some reason, the crystal got all confused and made Kiba my boyfriend instead."
"I'm sure you enjoyed THAT."
Ino laughed. "Yeah right." She said. "You were there too, Shikamaru. And you were Sakura's boyfriend."
Shikamaru came very close to laughing right in Ino's face. "Sure, right." He said skeptically. "Why would that ever happen?"
"Because you're secretly in love with me and when I started going out with Kiba, your heart must have broken so the only way you could mend it was to consol in Sakura!" Ino answered.
"…" Shikamaru paused. "I didn't say that, did I?"
"No." Ino said. "I didn't ASK."
"You were in my alternate world too." Shikamaru said. "And I worked at your flower shop because I didn't have training."
"Yeah, and I'm sure you were very helpful to people who were looking for a certain kind of flower." Ino said. "You know, we should probably tell people about this Crystal business so no one else goes through it."
"For all we know, everyone else could have already gone through it." Shikamaru pointed out.
"That's true…" Ino said with a nod. "I wonder what Sakura wished for?"
"Hey, for all we know this is the alternate universe that's all part of someone else's wish, right?" Shikamaru continued.
"Stop trying to confuse me!" said Ino. "You go do whatever you were going to do with the rest of your day and I'm going to go find Sakura and ask her what she wished for."
Ino turned around and started to walk away.
Shikamaru pondered about the power of the crystal. "Hey Ino," he called.
She turned around. "Yeah?" she said.
"Was I at training this morning?" he asked.
Ino nodded. "Yup." She answered.
"Okay, thanks." Shikamaru replied.
How strange…he could be in two places at once. Two UNIVERSES at once. So time flowed in his alternate universe regularly and everything continued in this universe as if he hadn't even left. So, technically, when he was just speaking to Ino, she could have been in another universe all together.
Something about all that power seemed…WRONG.
Chokai didn't think so, however.
He'd just do anything to make a sale.
Next chapter: Hareru
