Title: Waiting at the Milestone
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Nor do I own the song lyrics in italics, those belong to Liz Phair from the song "Lazy Dreamer".
Author Notes: I don't ship ShikaIno, personally I'm a ShikaTema, myself, and maybe a little ShikaSaku, but there's no pairings in here, and I'm doing them by teams so… Yeah. Shikamaru's chapter sounded a lot better in my head… But then I kind of forgot some parts and now all I've got is this… I can't believe I used two Liz Phair songs in a row. Creepy.

Chapter: Shikamaru: The Deer

Lazy dreamer
You never want to rise

Shikamaru had been sitting in the back of his home, out looking the forest and the pen where the deer were kept when Ino came rushing at him screeching that "Sasuke-kun" was back. He'd hardly moved except the slight shrug of his shoulders. Ino had glared at him, and then informed him that he was a lazy bum before sauntering off.

Shikamaru had hardly given her glance. However, after a brief double take he realized that Ino was carrying a hideous bouquet so unlike her usual ones, so imperfect and ugly that it was somehow beautiful. He then sighed and shook his head, deciding he was over thinking the whole thing and they were probably just for Sasuke anyway.

In all honesty, he did not want to see Sasuke. He didn't want to be reminded of his failure. He'd said before that he didn't particularly care for Sasuke and he didn't. He wasn't friends with him, he wasn't his teammate, in fact, he had hardly ever spoken with the closemouthed Uchiha. The Uchiha was considered a genius, but Shikamaru never put this title to the test against his own intelligence, it was too much trouble and he didn't particularly care if Sasuke stole the spotlight.

In all, he had no intention of going to visit the Uchiha in his prison cell or hospital bed. Shikamaru had no idea where the prodigy might end up. He knew they'd have a trial. After all, Sakura and Naruto had spent six months chasing their teammate through different countries. He deduced that it was hardly so he could be brought to justice with death. However, that seemed the most fitting. Uchiha survivor or not, Konoha wasn't going to welcome him back with a big hug. Although, Ino sure seemed like she was.

To the people who know you best, they say that you never seem to change. You just develop qualities they already saw in you. Well, Shikamaru was no close friend of Sasuke or Sakura or Naruto, but he couldn't see very many changes. Sakura had always been a bit headstrong, he knew, even if she was passive around Sasuke. Naruto hardly ever seemed to change and he was always grinning, grinning, grinning, that there was nothing to notice. He hadn't seen Sasuke, yet, but he would be the same, he knew. Cold, distant, and constantly disgruntled.

Shikamaru realized that he didn't see the changes because he didn't remember what they were like before.

Shikamaru knew that his team was not particularly gifted. Not like Team 7. Each had broken off to their own Sannin, each had their specialties and amazing abilties. It was like history was a never-ending circle of the greats. But that left him wondering, where did that leave him? Where did that leave him and Ino and Chouji? What were they in this great circle? Were they just among those who died with nothing to add to their names? No "Yellow Flash" no "White Fang" no "Sharingan Warrior." Their names would not be known through other countries, and probably not even through their own country. They'd be expendable.

It reminded him of the deer, which were nibbling the grass before him. They were penned by a wooden fence. Every once in a while one would escape. Sometimes he wondered if his father let one of them go. It was rather stupid, they'd been living in captivity, and they'd die out in the wild. Some of them were eaten right out of the pen, he knew.

Shikamaru didn't know why they even kept the deer. They didn't summon them, they didn't fight with them, they didn't have some affiliation with them like the Inuzuka clan or the Aburame clan. They just raised them and kept them penned up in the backyard. Just short of the forest and just short of the Nara home.

He could kill them all now. They were so trusting, they knew he came to feed and pet them sometimes. They knew he'd just sit there and watch them. He could let his shadow creep up and grab one. He could let it wrap around their tiny little necks and squeeze until there was a satisfying crack… But it was too much trouble and Shikamaru wasn't that kind of person. He was the kind to let nature run its course, even if it went too quickly for his liking.

He remembers a long time ago when he'd named them all. There was one that had been named Crooked because its leg was crooked. Of course, Shikamaru had not known at the time, but it had broken its leg and it had healed incorrectly, because of this it could not run or walk well. But when you're a child silly, nasty, mean things like that seem almost like second nature and forgivable. He'd named one Lopsided, because one of its ears couldn't stand up straight. He'd named another Doey, because she'd been the perfect gentle little doe, but one night she'd been dragged away by wolves, like a perfect damsel in distress. Though the stag of the small group was probably the oddest. Shikamaru hadn't bothered naming him because he was the only stag, aside from the fawns.

He didn't remember the others.

Every year Shikamaru watched as the stag lose his antlers and grows them back again. It seemed silly to him. Why would he lose them in the first place if they were just going to come back?

Now, ripened with age and experience, but not enough to be hardened by it, he knew they came back stronger each year. There were more tines on his antlers, they were stronger and stiffer until he grew old and they dwindled away. But by then another of the young fawns had grown strong and ruled the herd. Shikamaru realized that the title of Sannin was like those antlers, stronger each time as Tsunade was replaced with Sakura, Jiraiya was replaced with Naruto, and Orochimaru was replaced with Sasuke.

Shikamaru himself, of course, was one of those does among the herd, nothing interesting. Maybe, if he was lucky, he'd be one with a crooked leg or a floppy ear or maybe even a lazy eye. Just so he'd stand out a little.