Just for your piece of mind I do plan to see this story to the end. Thought I should let you all know. Also for the comments on the pacing, I have selected this pacing based on Shikamaru's and Naruto's characterisations as well as how long I've estimated this story to be.
The Hokage was always seen as calm and collected, always in charge and in control. Apparently that did not apply when around Naruto. Shikamaru had seen Naruto use her Sexy jutsu on the Third Hokage whose nose would leak blood and who would become flustered and forget what he was saying. Looking at the flushed and embarrassed Fifth Hokage Shikamaru was starting to believe it was a natural talent for Naruto to leave authority figures shaken. Admittedly it was amusing to see the affect the blonde had on their superiors.
Lady Tsunade looked grateful when Shikamaru opened the door allowing her to flee through the exit. For answers the Nara boy looked at Naruto who was sniggering into her fist. He shook his head, walking over to Naruto's bed and sitting down. Naruto's knee brushed against Shikamaru's outer thigh. Heat seeped through his limb and his heart beat shook his body. Looking at the blonde's hands, resting in her lap, Shikamaru remembered kissing them. His fingers twitched but he forced them to keep a hold of the box of treats.
"What did you do to the Hokage this time?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Did you make a male version of your sexy jutsu or something?"
"No, but that's a good idea." Naruto laughed at Shikamaru's groan. "No, Pervy-Sage told her to give me 'the talk' not realising Iruka-Sensei explained all that to me a couple of years ago. She was really uncomfortable. It was made worse by the fact that I wouldn't tell her if I liked boys or girls. She kept switching between the two and turning redder each time."
Shikamaru smiled, moving closer to Naruto so his leg rested against Naruto's. "And you didn't think to tell her you only liked boys?"
"Nah." Naruto rested back into her pillows, her hands going behind her head. She winced but moved passed the pain. "It was more fun not telling her. Besides when I tell adults they tend to ask the same type of question."
"What question is that?" Shikamaru couldn't fathom what it was. The question he wanted to ask was if Naruto liked any boy in particular.
"'Are you sure?'" Naruto rolled her eyes. "They don't always ask it like that but you can tell that that is what they mean. Iruka-Sensei asked if I had ever actually had a crush on a boy. I don't think they mean anything by it. My guess is that I just look like the type to go for girls. It's just kind of annoying. I guess if I acted like Ino and Sakura people wouldn't question me. Pervy-Sage asked me if I was sure I couldn't appreciate the magnificence that is woman… or something like that. I told him guys were better looking."
Shikamaru shook his head, smiling. "So did you ever answer Iruka-Sensei?"
He had said it as a joke but when Naruto diverted her eyes he found himself waiting anxiously for her answer. Naruto being attracted to his gender did not mean Shikamaru was her type. The thought of Naruto never returning his feelings left him sick.
"Was it me?" he joked, chuckling when Naruto's wide eyes turned back to his face.
"Are you sick again?"
"Well I am dying." When Naruto frowned he elaborated. "By aging, but dying nevertheless."
"Oh, and my love life is the key to immortality?"
"Yep. It would be selfish of you to keep it to yourself."
"You first, Shika-maruuu." Naruto laughed as the boy groaned.
"Fine. Back in the academy I had a crush on someone. I only realised after noticing that I would get jealous at times, and my heart rate would increase, and they made me smile." He looked up from where he was picking at the bedding, meeting Naruto's eyes. Choosing his wording carefully, he went on. "The crush ended around the Chunin Exams." He failed to mention what its ending meant for his feelings.
"Mine was before the academy and ended pretty quickly after I started school. He had been sweet, kind, and caring, or at least I had thought so. I guess I kind of grabbed onto the fact that he showed me kindness when no one else did. But he ended up being just like everyone else. At least now I'm careful about… feelings."
Shikamaru put his hand on Naruto's leg, just above her knee, and gave a light squeeze. "That guy is an idiot." When Naruto gave him a small smile he put the box of deserts on Naruto's lap. "My mum made these for you."
"She made it for me?" Naruto asked, looking apprehensive as she lifted the lid. She lifted the box to her nose and sniffed curiously.
Shikamaru tried not to analyse Naruto as she poked at the treats. He knew what was wrong. His mother had shown Naruto hostility over the Nine-Tails like many others in the village. Only Naruto knew how much they had shown their hostility and in what methods. Based on her behaviour towards the gift some of their violence must have come out through food. Without a comment Shikamaru picked up a piece of cake, taking a bit, all the while being watched by a pair of blue eyes. The chewy texture was perfect as always.
As he swallowed the bite he pretended to only just notice the attention Naruto was giving him. He held out the remained of his piece of cake, a taunting smirk on his face.
"I'm sorry, was this yours?"
"No, you can have it. It's the bad piece anyway, I can tell."
She stuck her tongue out of him only to clamp her mouth shut with something that sounded suspiciously like a squeal. Shikamaru had taken advantage of her open mouth to force feed her the other half of his piece of cake. Naruto gave him a murderous look as she chewed. In reply Shikamaru just smiled innocently as he wiped his fingers on his pants, removing the saliva.
"If I wasn't injured I'd kill you," she threatened.
"Yeah, I know you would." Shikamaru put on a meek expression, one that made Naruto snort. "But at least we both ate the bad piece. We can suffer together."
"Are you sure you're not sick again?" the girl laughed, moving forward quickly and putting her hand to his forehead. The contact lasted for only a second before Naruto gave a yelp, cringing into herself.
Shikamaru's hand went to the blonde's ribs, were the pain appeared to be. He rested his hand softly on her body, using his other hand to push her shoulder gently, making Naruto rest back. He could feel her racing heartbeat banging against her ribs. Her flesh felt tender but that may have been the bandages. Even so he could feel a modest dip between ribs and stomach, and could feel muscles shift with each shaky breath Naruto took.
"Idiot, I'm not the one who's sick. Calm your breathing." He noticed how Naruto's hand rested on her stomach, on the opposite side to Shikamaru's hand. "It's not your ribs, is it?"
"No," came the strangled reply. Naruto closed her eyes, her heartbeat still pounding under Shikamaru's fingers. "The chidori did some damage to internal organs. I'm healing. It just hurts. It's mainly muscle spasms."
"You need to calm your heartbeat." The hand sitting on Naruto's shoulder moved up to her jaw line. "Hey, are you listening. You need to relax otherwise the pain will stay for longer."
Naruto peeked her eyes open before nodding her head. Her face scrunched in pain, her muscles tightening under Shikamaru's hand. Shikamaru moved closer, his hand moving to the back of the girl's head. She fell forward, her head resting on his shoulder. Her hand fell to his hip, gripping tightly as pain racked her body. Taking deep, shaky breaths that rattled her body, Naruto was able to slowly take control of her heartbeat, letting it slow to a calming rhythm matching the dark haired boy's.
"Remind me to break every bone in Sasuke's body when I drag him back here," she muttered into Shikamaru's vest.
Forcing a laugh Shikamaru nodded, even though Naruto couldn't see. Her hand was coming into sharp focus compared to everything else. He was losing brain function and yet again he realised what control Naruto had over him. "Will do."
Sitting back Naruto took a steady breath. Once she was comfortable she picked up one of the buns Shikamaru had given her, sniffing it. "What is this?"
"It's daifuku." At Naruto's blank look he elaborated. "It's filled with red bean paste."
"What does that taste like?"
"Bite it and see!" Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "If you don't like it I'll eat it, and the others."
"Stay away from that cake though, it's nice." Naruto bit into the bun, looking thoughtful as she chewed it. Once she swallowed her face lit up. "This is delicious." She took another, larger bite, making Shikamaru chuckle at the paste that smeared her lips.
As Naruto finished her bun Shikamaru noticed the flowers on her bedside table. They were a bunch of orange roses. They were probably the flowers Hinata said she had brought Naruto. Shikamaru spotted a large pile of manga on the floor as Naruto started licking her lips, trying to get rid of the deep red smears. Leaning over Naruto's legs, the boy picked up the top manga, waving it in Naruto's face.
"How long are you planning to stay in the hospital? You have enough mangas to last you at least a month." He threw the paperback down onto the bed nest to Naruto.
"I'm only going to be here for a week at most. Iruka-Sensei gave me all of them for my trip." Naruto put the lid back on the box full of deserts and put the box next to her flowers.
"Right, Hinata said you were going on a trip with Lord Jiraiya. So it's for a month or so then?" He kept his voice steady, leaning on one of his hands.
"No, it's for about two years." Naruto picked up the manga, flicking through its pages.
"Two years," Shikamaru yelped. "What kind of mission is he taking you on?"
Naruto looked up with wide eyes. When she moved further into her pillows Shikamaru realised his voice had taken on an uncharacteristically sharp tone. His features softened, his hand slowly reaching out to rest atop Naruto's.
"Sorry, it's just neither of us are ready for a two year mission and you're still healing." He watched Naruto calm down. "Please tell me it's just long and not dangerous."
"It's a training mission. Pervy-Sage and I are going to travel and he is going to train me." A dark look came over her face for a moment before she thrust the manga into Shikamaru's arms. "Read to me."
"What?"
"Come on, I saved your life, the least you can do is read to me."
He frowned, an amused smile on his face. "How did you save my life?"
"I saved you from old age by giving you immortality." Naruto grinned. "Now read."
"Not happening." Shikamaru crossed his arms only for Naruto to nudge his leg with her foot.
"I saved your life and this is how you repay me?" She tried to poke him in the stomach with her toe.
Shikamaru grabbed her ankle, pinning it to the bed. He was quick to grab her other ankle, before she could kick him with that foot. Naruto scrunched up her face, giving him a mock-challenging look. With a smirk he gave her legs a tug, making sure not to hurt her. When she was pulled into a lying position he loomed over her, grabbing her wrists in one of his hands and pinning her legs with his knee. Her wrists were much narrower than his, making him focus on not holding them too tightly. He was worried her bones would crumble under his grip if he wasn't careful. Lowering his face so it hovered over the blonde's he smiled victoriously.
"Still expect me to read to you?" His heart rang in his ears when the feminine scent Naruto gave off filled his nose. He lowered himself a little further, his nose brushing hers.
"I regret giving you immortality," Naruto pouted before laughing.
"Should I come back?"
Shikamaru looked over at the door sharply, the muscles in his neck cringing in pain. Standing in the doorway, hand on the door as though ready to retreat, was his boy crazy teammate, Ino. She looked at them with confusion before looking at her feet, her eyes darting back up to the two on the bed.
"Hey, Ino," Naruto greeted cheerfully. "How's it going?"
Shikamaru looked back down at the girl he had pinned to the bed. It entered his mind how it must look to Ino and jumped back, barely catching himself before he fell off the bed. He tried not to fidget and appear guilty in any way, though the way he threw himself away from Naruto probably didn't help.
"Um, I just thought I would see Naruto whilst I was visiting Choji," Ino explained, still hovering at the door.
"That's good. With you here Naruto might stop trying to kick me." Shikamaru made sure he was not touching Naruto as Ino walked deeper into the room.
"Maybe if you weren't so ungrateful. I'm getting a lot of visitors today," said Naruto happily.
"Oh, so Sakura has already been here. Did she give you the flowers?" Ino sat down in the visitor's chair, crossing her legs daintily.
"No, Sakura hasn't visited me. Hinata brought the flowers and Iruka-Sensei gave me the manga. How is Choji?" Naruto slowly sat up, moving back to rest against the pillows.
"He and Neji are recovering," Shikamaru spoke with a heavy sigh. "By the sounds of it they will be out in about a week or so. Ironically you are healing quicker than they are."
"Choji is still chipper as always though," Ino added, looking at Naruto. "He wanted to come visit you too but he's not allowed out of bed."
"Well if I don't get to see him and the others before I leave say 'goodbye' for me," Naruto pointed at Shikamaru, "and 'Kiba sucks'."
The boy expelled air through his nose, a small smile on his face. "Will do."
"Where are you going?"
At Ino's question Naruto explained about the training mission which led Ino to ask what types of techniques and jutsus Naruto was hoping to learn. Shikamaru was surprised to hear that Naruto had actually put thought into what she would like to learn. Apparently the one at the top of her list was an understanding of genjutsu. The girl was rather pathetic when it came to that area and didn't even appear to have a grasp of its very concept, let alone how to overcome a genjutsu.
/ / / / / /
He would have liked to visit Naruto and the others again but missions kept streaming in. His missions were fairly easy, especially given the failed rescue mission, but were time consuming. By the time he had finished, showered, and eaten something it was too late to visit the hospital. Every time he went to bed he was filled with a sense of dread that he would finally find time to go see his friends only to discover it was too late. He knew they were in no danger of dying but Naruto was going to leave for her training mission shortly after she was released from the hospital.
It had been four days since he had last visited his friends and instead of going to see how they were recovering he found himself walking up the steps of the Hokage Tower to receive another mission. He knew Kiba was out and on low ranking missions but Neji, Choji and Naruto were a mystery to him. Knocking on the door to the Hokage office he was given permission to enter. The Hokage sat behind her desk, Shizune standing behind her, smiling at him.
"Shikamaru, we need you to obtain supply lists off the armouries and from the farmers." Tsunade handed him paperwork that had a list of supplies on one side and boxes on the other side for him to write in the numbers. "They should have documentation on hand so you just need to fill out the official report."
"Okay, Lady Tsunade." Shikamaru gave a bow.
"Oh, you might be interested in knowing," Lady Tsunade started, looking bored as she picked up another piece of paperwork, "your teammate, Choji, as well as Neji were released earlier this morning. They are on light duties for now. Naruto was released late last night and is spending most of today packing. Though knowing him he's probably just sleeping."
Trying to sound uncaring, Shikamaru asked, "do you know what time Naruto is leaving?"
"No, but Jiraiya is 'researching' at the moment so probably in the afternoon." Lady Tsunade waved off the boy.
Shikamaru walked out of the office at a steady pace before rushing to the first armoury. He had to finish his mission before he could do anything else. Lucky for him all three armouries the village had were well organised, even though the third was in its last stage of repairs. They were busy though so it had taken him time to get their attention. It made sense that those who ran the armouries kept everything in order. The farmers were not the same. There was an office near the farms that was meant to keep track of how much produce grew from each farm. Shikamaru couldn't help but think that those in the office should be fired.
"What do you mean you don't know how much cabbage was harvested this month?" Shikamaru found himself growling. He never thought he would feel so much anger over cabbage.
The man digging through his files stopped, looking flustered. "The file should be right here."
Shikamaru's hand slammed down onto the desk, a bang resinating through the wooden room. It was passed noon, he was hungry and an annoying ticking noise sounded in the back of his head. Taking short breaths he glared at the man, watching as he dabbed sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief.
"I'm sorry, sir." The man ducked his head and returned to digging through the files frantically.
It had surprised him the first time civilians started to call him 'sir', especially when said civilian was as old as his parents. At that moment though he was enjoying outranking the man before him.
"It is your job, you specifically, to keep track of these things so that when the Hokage wants the records whoever she sends will not have to stand here waiting for you to find the report. I have a very important task to get to so you will find all the information I need in the next five minutes or I will be informing Lady Tsunade of your incompetence."
"You're in a bad mood."
Turning to glare at the person behind him he found Kiba, Akamaru resting on his head. Upon seeing who it was he rolled his eyes, turning back to the man in front of him.
"What do you want, Kiba?"
"I'm doing supply runs today." He walked up to stand beside Shikamaru. "Don't worry, I'll let you finish whatever you were doing first. Weren't you yelling at this guy?"
Shikamaru just glared at the grinning idiot before changing the subject. "Do you know Naruto is leaving today? He told me to tell you, if he didn't get the chance, 'goodbye and you suck'."
Kiba scoffed. "Well he hasn't left yet." At the raised eyebrow he received he elaborated, "I caught a whiff of his scent when I was coming here."
Trying not to show his surprise, Shikamaru retreated slightly into his mind. He hadn't thought about the fact that Kiba could smell their scents. But if he could why didn't he question Naruto's gender like Shikamaru did when he first smelt it? Studying the boy out of the corner of his eye he realised why. Kiba was an idiot!
"Here you go, sir, I found the reports." The man put the reports on the desk for Shikamaru to look at before flattening his brown hair nervously.
As Kiba spoke with the man in a calmer voice than Shikamaru had used the black haired ninja quickly wrote down the numbers he needed. When he was finished he rolled up his scroll and headed back to the Hokage tower to submit his report. The Genin who accepted the report appeared as stressed as Shikamaru was.
When he left the Hokage Tower, Shikamaru debated between going to get a late lunch and visiting Naruto first. He was starting to feel tired but he doubted he would be able to sit still long enough to eat. He was still at the top of the stairs when he spotted Naruto and Jiraiya talking with Lady Tsunade and Shizune. He watched Lady Tsunade rustle Naruto's hair before Shizune hugged her. Even from this distance he could see that Naruto received the hug stiffly, not even raising her arms to return the hug. When Naruto and Jiraiya started walking towards the gate Shikamaru ran. He jumped onto rooftops so that he wouldn't have to dodge people as he ran. He finally caught up to Naruto one street away from the gate. Before he jumped off the roof Naruto stopped.
"You go ahead, Pervy-Sage, I'll catch up." She let her sensei walk off before she looked up, waving at him.
With a small smile he jumped down, his hands instantly going to his pockets once he landed.
"How did you know I was there?" He walked closer, noticing that their street was empty.
"I sensed your chakra. I'm getting better at it." Naruto grinned. "Did you come to say goodbye?"
"Yeah, I did," Shikamaru admitted. "Make sure you actually train."
"You're one to talk. Don't get yourself beat up while I am gone, and know I will come back stronger than you. Believe it." Naruto pointed a finger at Shikamaru.
Shikamaru gave a chuckle before taking a more serious tone, his heart racing. Jiraiya's words rang through his mind before he stepped forward. Both his hands went to either side of Naruto's jaw before he lunged, not giving himself time to think. Naruto's lips were fuller and softer than he expected. That was the only truly coherent thought he could manage as Naruto's hands sat on Shikamaru's hips. He was clumsy and stiff, and he couldn't actually tell if Naruto was responding, but he didn't care. He finally pulled away once he realised he forgot how to breath, his hands sliding off of Naruto's jaw line.
Naruto's mouth sat agape and when her eyes opened they were wide. She appeared incapable of speaking, which Shikamaru saw as an accomplishment on his part.
"Wha… I…"
"Naruto, I-"
"NARUTO, HURRY UP!" Jiraiya's voice boomed towards them, presumably from the gate.
"I have to go." Naruto's face looked like a mix of crestfallen and shocked. "I won't be back for two years."
"I know," Shikamaru assured her, licking his lips.
A pained look crossed Naruto's face for only a second before her eyes closed and she smiled. Something about her expression filled him with dread. He had done what Jiraiya suggested, and Naruto hadn't pushed him away so why did he feel this way.
"I'll see you in two years than." Waving over her shoulder she took off for the gate. "Bye, Shikamaru."
Cupping is hands around his mouth, he replied, "See ya when you get back, Naruto."