Author's Note: There will be slash pairings in this, so if you don't support such pairings, don't read it. Also, this is told in the eyes of my all time favorite lazy genius ninja, Nara Shikamaru. I will have my own personal characters here and there. I do not own any of the Naruto characters and terms, the owner of them is the great Kishimoto Masashi.

Chapter One: Don't Lose Touch

He sat there and smiled, staring dazedly up at the clouds above him, it was rare lately that he'd have the time to lay back and do what he enjoyed most with all the missions he'd been on as of late. He took in a deep breath and then heaved out a relaxed sigh and returned to gaze at the beautiful sky above. He loved moments like this most, when the sky was a lovely blue against the white clouds and it would almost appear that they were animals or objects in his mind. It was something he loved to do with Chouji, sometimes even Temari, but both were currently on missions and it was just him and the skies above. A frown crept across his lips as the wonderful silence and grace of the moment was broken by an obnoxious ninja and a quiet, but bothered ninja.

"Sasuke-kun, why do you always have to do that!" Naruto yelled, in that cute but frustrated manner that Sasuke adored.

"Because, usuratonkachi, I get reactions like this," Sasuke stated in a low, pleased tone.

The two were closing in on the roof of the building, and he sighed, knowing that he'd be dragged into something quite troublesome. Whether it be an argument or a friendly banter, either way it was not in his favor on the one and rare day off that he finally had. He took in a breath and waited for the slaughter of his day off to come, all he could think of at the moment is how it would be so troublesome to get into any discussion that required any sort of thought at the moment. He watched as their heads surfaced from the stairs to roof, it would not be long before he was seen, so he simply sighed and prepared himself for any sort of discussion that might be brought to him.

"Oi, Shikamaru, no missions? I thought you were on one with Kiba-kun..." Naruto blinked at the lazy genius as he caught sight of him.

"Not today, Naruto... It's a rarity for any of us lately, but I got a day off..." Shikamaru shrugged lightly, continuing to stare up at the clouds.

"Lucky, Naruto and I have a mission in a bit, we were just going to come up here... And err... discuss it," Sasuke spoke with a slight nervousness, it was clear that he was revealing the true intentions of coming up here with his stance.

"Shall I leave you two... alone then, Sasuke?" He asked, with a to-the-point tone and his face stayed nearly emotionless.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other quizzically for a few moments, figuring out whether it was truly worth it before the mission to do such a thing. All Shikamaru could think of was how troublesome the wait for their reply was, even though it'd been only a few minutes. It was almost 5 years since he had become a Jounin level ninja, he'd become a Chuunin before any of the other rookies and had stayed at level for a decent amount of time, Neji had reached Jounin before him and was almost to Special Jounin level. At the moment, yes he could easily go up for that level, but he was far too lazy to put that much effort into anything of that sort, he hardly wanted to be Jounin but Temari insisted that he go for it. He looked at the two before him, sitting up and crossing his arms over his chest, he was still waiting for some sort of reply to his question, but still nothing seemed to come out of them.

"Well, you don't need to worry about it, Shikamaru, our mission is too close coming... We should be off to pack up anyway! Sayonara!" Naruto smiled at the lazy genius, waved and trotted off with Sasuke, most likely to their apartment in the center of Konoha.

Shikamaru sighed in relief, he could stay here and stare at the clouds in peace for the rest of the day, or up until Temari came back from her mission. He hated to admit it, because worrying in itself was a troublesome task, but he always worried about her when she was away on missions and he didn't know who was with. He assumed it was one or the other of his, well he hated this too sometimes, brother-in-laws. Both of which he found to be slightly creepy, more-so Kankurou than Gaara, simply or mainly rather because of those puppets he had. He had no problems with either of them, or their girlfriends either, all of them were perfectly wonderful people. Kankurou had been involved with a girl from the famed Nakamura clan here in Konoha, her name is Misa, she was a bit hyper and somewhat clingy, but one of the best kunoichi he'd met. She'd been on Team 14 during his Genin days, with Hateru Makuniri and Kira Kurosaki, they were one of the rookie teams that followed Gai's example and waited a year before proceeding onto Chuunin. Their sensei was Kyoko Masuda, she is and was much like a weird combination of Kakashi and Asuma, he hadn't talked to her much originally. She was also one of the youngest Jounins to have a Genin squad and also one of the few to have a medical ninja on it, he was part of the Makuniri clan, a clan famed for their medical abilities. She was also one the few Jounins to get ahold of 3 shinobi from clans, Asuma seemed to be one of the only other ones to get ahold of shinobi with famed clan names singularly.

Thinking back to the old days was a bit fun for the moment, he hadn't seen any of those three in awhile now, he sort of missed them. He figured he should pay them a visit or something sometime soon, as they were from the same village as he was, it would not be hard to find any of them. Both the Kurosaki and the Nakamura clans are fair with weaponry, though the Nakamure are able to master any weapon almost instantly, the Kurosaki are masters of Elemental techniques. Naruto constantly tried to beat Misa, but never could because everytime he was in hand-to-hand range, she would be able to take him down almost instantaneously, it was thoroughly amusing at the time. He smiled again, staring into the abyssal sky of clouds, which was now starting to become an elegant red and orange mess from the night creeping in. He stood up and hopped from the roof to another, and so on, till he was close to his apartment and he hopped to the ground, nearly taking someone out, falling onto them really.

He stood up, offering a hand, he smiled and dusted himself off, he hardly paid attention for a moment, so the person's face did not quite register at first. The girl before him had her hair up in a ponytail, but it still reached to her midback and it was a deep reddish brown. Her eyes were an interesting tone, a strange hue of blue, dull but not steely and her skin was fair. She did look familiar, but he was not great with names of people he hadn't seen in awhile, but it was clear by her smile she knew who he was almost immediately.

"Shikamaru!" She hugged him tightly, then pressed him away and smiled, "You remember me, right?"

"Errr... Not exactly..." He scratched the back of his head lightly and made a face, he felt kind of bad having knocked over someone who knew him and then when they hug him and such, he doesn't even recall their name.

"It's me, Misa... And Kira is with me, we just got back from our joint mission with a member of Sunagakure!" Misa winked, hinting that Temari would be here in Konoha soon.

"I'm not surprised that he didn't recognize us, Misa-sama... You know how he can be..." A girl who was clearly a bit taller than Misa, who had long black hair about to the small of her back and skin with a bit of color to it. She wore an interesting outfit, similar to regular Jounin garb, but it was altered to support a few styles of blades that were in a curious holster on her back.

"True, you have a point, Kira-sama... He is a bit clueless..." Misa grinned and laughed.

"I was just thinking about you two, well Hateru as well, but how have you guys been?" Now he felt worse, they were some of the coolest kunoichi he knew, and he could hardly recognize them.

"Hateru-kun is most likely off swooning over Kiba or something..." Kira said bluntly and it sounded like it bothered her just a bit,"He was always like that when Team 14 was on any mission, he'd ask why Kiba or Sasuke, or even you for that matter wasn't with us."

"Hee-hee, that is most likely what he is up to... Though isn't he with Neji-kun now?" Misa blinked at Kira.

"I wouldn't be surprised, they met after Neji's first Chuunin exam and they've been quite close since." Kira shrugged,"Can we just clean up and get to Ichiraku? Gaara-sama and Kitty will be here pretty soon and I don't want to be late cause of you, Misa-sama! No offense, Shikamaru, but we promised them some ramen from Ichiraku awhile ago."

"Kira-sama, he hates it when you call him Kitty..." Misa frowned at Kira.

Shikamaru smiled and hugged the two,"It's perfectly fine, I'm supposed to meet Temari soon anyways and if I'm late, you know the drill..." He smiled again and waved, as exciting as reunions were, getting reemed out by Temari for being late was far too troublesome. He did not want it to occur, ever again, as it was not fun and it normally meant a few days without her, and not because of missions of any sort. He sighed and slipped his hands into his pockets and continued onward towards the entrance gate to Konoha, where he normally met Temari after anyone of his or her mission, when he got there he leaned against the wall of the gate and waited.