Exceptional Genin

Exceptional genin. That was the team composition Shikamaru had been reduced to, and on his first mission as a Chūnin nonetheless. This was such a drag. The fact that it wasn't even an ordinary mission made it worse. This was a mission to retrieve a rogue Sasuke Uchiha who most likely had help from Orochimaru's lackeys. Brilliant…

He realized that asking for a group of four comprised of Jounins and/or Chūnins might've been a bit much, but he wished that Tsunade had at least given him another Chūnin. Instead, she had sent him on his way telling him to gather "Exceptional Genin", and then requested that his first pick be Naruto of all people. Shikamaru realized Naruto had talent, but he personally wouldn't have picked the hothead, especially since he was so close to the concerned party. Unfortunately, Tsunade was the one calling the shots, so he just had to roll with it.

As he arrived at Naruto's apartment, he remarked that the lights were still off inside. It was so early in the morning that it was still dark out, which meant the idiot was probably still asleep. He twisted his pinky around in his ear then knocked against the brown wooden door three times. Waking people up was such a drag, especially since he didn't like it when people did it to him, but sometimes, duty called.

After waiting for an answer and hearing no movement inside, he knocked once more – louder this time. He had actually heard stories of Naruto being a surprisingly light sleeper, so he expected a rather quick answer. Unfortunately, it seemed like the opposite was true.

He heaved a heavy sigh then pounded on the door once more and reached down, shaking the doorknob in frustration. Much to his surprise, the door was unlocked and with the slightest push of his fingers, it creaked open. Light from an outside lantern crept into the small slit of the open door before he turned on the light cautiously. This was strange. The place was…clean. So clean that there wasn't even the usual roach running away in panic. It didn't smell like instant ramen was cooked into the walls either…Odd. He was used to Naruto's place being a dump by now so finding a clean apartment was an unexpected, albeit welcome, surprise. The clean apartment was a bit suspicious though so he decided it would be best to just scope out the inside first. Arming himself with a kunai in hand, he did a quick sweep of the apartment. No one in any of the other rooms, just a clean apartment. Maybe Naruto had gone out for some reason. But why would he go out this late at night? Or this early in the morning since it was technically a new day? Whichever way you looked at it, it didn't make sense.

Shikamaru scanned the room once more looking for any clue as to where he may have gone. As his eyes moved from the bedroom to the kitchen, they were drawn to the kitchen table. It was immaculately clean except for a yellow pencil and a little notebook with a faded blue cover that rested on one corner of the table. They were out of place. He squinted at the oddly placed objects then walked over to them. The pencil was old, and its worn-out sides left small chips of yellow residue on his fingers. The notebook hadn't fared any better against the corroding powers of time. The bindings were bent, the pages had aged, and the once vibrant blue cover was now pale against the dim light. He examined it with a bit of intrigue before opening it and starting to flip through the discolored yellow pages.

The first few pages contained some of Naruto's work from the Academy along with a few random doodles. It was old and smeared but Shikamaru could recognize those scratchy scribbles from a mile away. The doodles were mainly of fanciful things like fire-breathing dragons and overgrown foxes, but every now and then, there would be some more down to earth things like clouds or trees. People seemed to be a subject of Naruto's doodles as well, especially teachers, and it was obvious which ones Naruto found boring. Their mouths were always drawn in a comical fashion and their bodies were no different. Some of them looked like they could swallow a watermelon whole and others looked like they were having a hernia. Shikamaru thought they were pretty funny doodles, to be honest, and a small part of him hoped that Naruto had drawn some of their classmates – just to see what they'd look like. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case, well, except for a few doodles of a certain pink-haired kunoichi. The doodles of her weren't as funny as the other ones though. She never had any distortions. Go figure... Shikamaru couldn't help but give a small smirk at the sight. If only they could go back to those innocent days at the academy. Those days before Orochimaru's assault and Sasuke's desertion and life-threatening missions…

With a sigh, he returned to flipping through the notebook pages and searching for clues. Most of the pages he came across were blank, but he kept flipping through them all the same. No stone left unturned. It was fortunate that he did, for it wasn't long before a flash of letters flew by. Pausing briefly, he used two fingers to delicately flip backward until he reached the page that had been passed. This page had writing on it and it was fresh, maybe even as recent as today.

...

To my friends,

Hey everyone! I didn't feel like it would be right for me to just leave without saying anything, so I decided to write this kinda on the spot before I left. It's gonna be kinda short since I'm low on time, but at least it's something, yeah?

I know a lot of you are probably going to be shocked to hear that I left. To be honest, I think that's my fault. I always go around wearing this bright smile but after reading this letter, I'm sure you all can tell it wasn't real, at least not most of the time. I grew up as a loner so smiling just came naturally. It didn't matter if I was having a bad day or anything, I just wanted people to know I could take care of myself, so I smiled and hoped they would believe that everything was ok. I think it worked for the most part.

I hope you all don't blame yourselves for this. I had my problems long before I became friends with any of you. The truth is that I've thought about this before. Leaving I mean. Maybe for a few days, weeks, months, years. Maybe never coming back at all. I think that now I just finally worked up the courage to do it. Now that I think back, I think I always liked the thought of being a runaway. To be able to go somewhere where nobody knew me and live a different life. A life where I wasn't the class clown or the noisy prankster you know. I hope I can come back one day, but until then, please don't come after me. It would only make things worse than they already are. There's something I'm trying to do, and this is how I've chosen to do it. Please respect that. I wish I could make this sound better, but I can't. So…I guess this is goodbye, at least for now.

- Naruto Uzumaki

...

It took Shikamaru less than five seconds to realize what he was reading, and when he did, he felt a very unsettling chill come over his body; a chill so disturbing it eventually seeped into his bones. Gray eyes narrowed against the discolored paper and chapped lips parted halfway. Suddenly, he could feel his heart beating, each thump more erratic than the one before. Impossible. His thin eyebrows furrowed as he concentrated and read through every single word written on the paper he was holding. He read it again. One more time to be sure it was real. Another chill ran through his body as he realized it was. Naruto left? The words echoed off the recesses of his mind as he stood in the middle of the kitchen, paralyzed by disbelief. The concept still felt foreign to him. How could the energetic hothead, who sometimes seemed like he could take anything and bounce back twenty times stronger, desert the village? What the hell was going on? First Sasuke and now Naruto. What was next? Sakura? Maybe Kakashi for good measure?

One hand reached up to massage his forehead as the other steadied him against the table. He let his eyelids fall shut as he desperately tried to recollect himself. Slow deep breaths. What was the next rational step? What would a Chunin do? He didn't have to think very long to realize there was only one course of action to take – he had to tell Tsunade. She'd have to make the next call. He tightened his grip on the blue notebook and bolted out the door, slamming it behind him. This situation was getting more troublesome by the second.


Shikamaru burst through the double doors of the Hokage office with his chest quickly rising and falling due to his full-blown run back to the office. You would think such a dramatic entrance would grab the attention of everyone in the room, but not so. His arrival went completely unacknowledged as Tsunade was having a not so friendly discussion with a man whose face was half-covered in bandages. Shikamaru had never seen him before, but he could tell that he was getting under her skin. If the furrowed eyebrows weren't an indicator, the way she was leaning over her desk was. She only leaned over it that way when she was super annoyed…like now.

"Sasuke Uchiha cannot be allowed to reach Orochimaru." the man stated, pounding his cane into the ground as he spoke.

"I know that," Tsunade responded through gritted teeth. "I told you, I've already got a team on it."

"And I told you that a group of genin hardly qualifies as a team."

"Well, the village is low on resources since Orochimaru's attack," Tsunade stated matter-of-factly. "So we're just gonna have to do with what we've got."

"That's not good enough."

"Well, if you ever become Hokage, maybe you can do better."

The man's one visible eye narrowed as he gripped his cane tighter. "Perhaps you need a lesson in better handling your resources."

"Perhaps you need to shut up."

After those words left Tsunade's mouth, a disturbing silence fell over the room and it wasn't long before the two adults were staring each other to pieces. Poor Shikamaru had to stand in the background watching even though he so badly wanted to turn around and leave. The way they were staring at each other was unsettling and the air was charged with enough electricity to rival Kakashi's Chidori. Talk about a clash of titans. What the hell had he walked in on? Scratch that, he probably didn't want to know.

Not wanting to risk another explosion, he cleared his throat and took the lull of silence as an opportunity to cut into the charged atmosphere. "Um, sorry to interrupt," he said, walking into the room as if on eggshells. When he reached Tsunade's desk, he gave a short bow and straightened up as he waited to be acknowledged.

Tsunade finally managed to tear her eyes away from the man she was arguing with and said, "It's fine. What's the problem?"

"Uh, this," he said, handing her the open notebook with a frown.

Tsunade took the notebook from him and held it a few inches from her face to read it. He could see her bring it closer to her face as she read more – a mirror image of his reaction. It took her less than 30 seconds to speed through the letter, but he could tell it was taking her a lot longer to register that it was real. Furrowed eyebrows. Deep breaths. Sharper exhales. She was trying to understand, much like he did when he first found the letter, but he could tell that her logic was failing her. She couldn't understand it, no matter how she tried. His lips formed a grim line as he looked away. No amount of Sake was fixing this.

Suddenly, Tsunade's posture straightened as she tucked a strand of stray hair behind her ear. He could swear that same hand wiped away a tear too. "Get your team ready to go after Sasuke," she said.

"But what about Naruto?"

"Naruto?" the man questioned, his head turning ever so slightly as he looked to Tsunade.

Tsunade gave Shikamaru one glare and he knew he was not to say anything more. "Do as I say," she said through gritted teeth. "I'll take care of Naruto personally…" The only thing Shikamaru saw after that were her green coattails flying out of the room.

Shikamaru sighed and dropped his head. So troublesome. He turned to leave the office, but before he could get past the door, he felt the impact of an outstretched hand meeting his chest. He looked up to see the bandaged man looking down at him, the single visible eye narrowing dangerously.


Author's Note

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