Sorry it's taken so long to update but I had a wedding and honeymoon that was more important. Not only that but the chemist ran out of the lovely medication that stops my migraines from, you know, killing me, slowly and painfully. So that was fun. About a month (give or take a week) without it. I really didn't miss not having the medication.
CutesyRitska- *takes motivational cake*
To the reviewer (D) who tried to predict the ending of this story, indicating that they thought it was obvious and pretty cliché. Dude, you are so off the mark. But it was fun reading your try. I got a good chuckle out of knowing how much my plan deviates from your guess. I rarely finish a story with the declaration. I think I have one one-shot and one chaptered story (which started out as a series of drabbles) that ended that way.
. - My husband calls me the Queen of Chaos, lol. And I see you have joined my little band of followers, welcome.
As he and Choji walked towards the village's main gate he spotted the distinct blonde hair of Naruto. She was standing next to the giant form of Haruki. Shikamaru tried not to scoff. He knew they weren't together but he still wasn't fond of Haruki. When they drew closer they noticed Riko's tiny little form standing with the other two. The small girl was bouncing around and repeatedly hugging Naruto or grabbing onto her arm.
The two gate guards were watching on with fascination. Shikamaru was aware that a large amount of gossip moved around the village because of those two men. With this knowledge in hand he made sure to watch his behaviour with Naruto around the men. The last thing he needed was for the entire village to know of his feelings for Naruto before the blonde herself knew. Though with how dense she could be that may just happen.
"Hey, it's your lunch friends," Riko exclaimed, pointing at the two. "Hi, Lunch Friends."
"You don't remember their names, do you?" Naruto asked in a deadpanned voice.
"I remember the hot one's name," Riko screeched. "That's the important thing."
"Please tell me you're not saying Kiba is better looking than us," Shikamaru joked making Naruto chuckle.
"No, Hinata," Riko sighed. "Girl after my own heart. She's almost as hot as you, Naruto, but I've seen you naked."
Naruto rolled her eyes. "You stay away from Hinata. Pretty sure she's only interested in boys anyway."
"For her I'd convert."
"Gender isn't religion," Haruki snorted. "We've got to get going. It's been good seeing you again, Naruto. Nice meeting you… Lunch Friends."
"You both suck." Naruto shook her head, only to yelp as Haruki grabbed her and slam his lips onto hers. She gave a muffled yelp as Shikamaru tried to hold in a growl. Haruki held her arms, making it impossible to push him away. The moment he let her go she punched him in the arm.
"Why did you do that? I sensed you earlier!"
"For fun. At least my breath doesn't stink." Haruki laughed.
"Am I that easy to surprise kiss?" Naruto yelled.
"Yes." Shikamaru replied instantly, only to realise what he had said. "I mean, based on what we've seen."
He tried not to groan. If unlucky the gate guards would spread it around the village within the day. Something flickered through Naruto's eyes before a tight smile appeared.
"That's not helpful, Shikamaru. Now get out of here," she waved away her two friends. "I have better things to do than stand here saying goodbye to you two."
Riko gave Naruto another hug before they said goodbye and walked out of the village.
"You know, I don't actually have anything to do today." Naruto threw her head back with a groan. "Not until Kakashi-Sensei gets out of the hospital. He says he has new training for me but won't tell me what it is."
"Well, after we pick up the gate reports we were planning to train. Did you want to join us?" Choji asked, smiling down at the girl.
Naruto shrugged. "Sure."
Shikamaru and Choji took Naruto to the training grounds their team commonly used on the Akamichi property. It was a large, dirt field with a large tree stump off to the side with blood soaked padding for punching. Off to one side was a mass of trees Shikamaru used for shadows. He knew that the open space wasn't the most ideal for Naruto's fighting style, seeing as she appeared to favour studying her opponent before creating a surprised attack. He had been impressed by the way Naruto utilised her shadow clones. She had certainly become a master of them. At the rate she was going she was going to make a name for herself through them, such as 'Naruto: the Shadow Ninja', which actually sounded pretty cool when Shikamaru thought about it. He was distracted for a moment wondering if he should start the title for her. She would probably love it.
"What did you want to practise today, Choji?" Shikamaru asked, his hands in his pockets and his elbow brushing Naruto's arm repeatedly.
"How about you try and grab me with your shadow while I'm in human boulder. It'll help you with your speed and me with my manoeuvring. Naruto, you can try and catch me like you caught Kakashi-Sensei."
Naruto laughed, startling Shikamaru. The laugh she used was one she used with very few, and Choji was not one of them. It was the laugh that was careless, girly, and relaxed. Hearing it made him look between the two, dread trickling into his belly with each pound of his heart.
"I don't think I'd be able to catch you with it or keep up with Shikamaru. That technique is only used for helping teammates like with Sakura or buying me a second or two by catching my opponent by surprise. It takes too much chakra to hold someone in motion when they will fight against it. There is something I've wanted to test out though. Haruki suggested it, since I have more chakra than what I know what to do with."
"Why didn't you try it out when Haruki was here?" Choji asked, moving towards the tree line for Shikamaru.
"It's too hard to learn the technique with chakra I'm unfamiliar with. I know Haruki's chakra but unless I am looking for it specifically I can't pick it out of the crowd. It's not easy to do it. If I flooded this area with chakra I'd be able to tell you how many people were within range but not who they were. I know our friends' chakras to some extent though. I'd be able to tell you if it was one of them and who." Naruto scratched the back of her head and gave a small smile at their surprised looks.
"So you want to use this technique, whatever it is, on Choji?" Shikamaru asked, his throat tightening and his stomach swirling in a sickening way.
"No," Naruto shook her head, "I don't know his chakra well enough. I want to use it on you."
"I'll be fighting Choji, you're meant to be on my side."
"I will be. This technique will help if I join a team when the members are nearly spent." Naruto rolled her eyes. "I promise it won't hurt. But I want to see if you can tell I'm using it."
Shikamaru shrugged, figuring there was no harm. It actually might make him feel better. He positioned himself in the shadow of the tree line, facing the open field. The shadows were fairly deep which meant he would have longer reach but he knew Choji would stay within his range. To allow Choji to know his limits Shikamaru stretched out his shadow as far as it would go, watching as his friend marked the ground with a kunai. As he withdrew his shadow Naruto walked over to stand behind him. He could feel her body heat as she stepped closer to him and put her hands on his shoulders.
She paused. "Can you take off your vest? It's in the way and I need to touch you or I'll probably screw up."
"Okay." Shikamaru threw his vest on the ground and tried not to shudder when Naruto put her hands on his back. He could feel the chakra coating her hands. It prickled like pins and needles without the pain.
"Alright, you guys ready?" Choji yelled from where he had stabbed his kunai in the ground.
Shikamaru looked over his shoulder, seeing Naruto nod. "Yeah, go for it."
"Let me know if it's too much."
"If what's too much?" Shikamaru asked Naruto as Choji turned into a giant boulder and he stretched out his shadow to try and manoeuvre his friend into a trap. Choji moved much faster than Shikamaru could control his shadow, which made things difficult.
Naruto laughed, leaning forward to talk in his ear over the sound of dirt and clay getting torn up by Choji. "You'll know if I get it working."
Shikamaru almost looked over his shoulder at the blonde but he caught himself, remembering that he was trying to catch Choji. His friend was smart, and knew Shikamaru's jutsu well. Whenever he was at risk of being caught he went to the edge of the boundary, knowing that the genius' shadow would be at its weakest, enabling him to break it with sheer force. So continued the frustrating game of cat and mouse. To make matters worse, as the sun slowly moved through the sky the shadow Shikamaru stood in became smaller and smaller. He still wasn't sure what Naruto was doing but he was noticing that although he had became used to the prickling feel of her chakra pressing into his skin it had spread throughout his body.
"How's your chakra, Shikamaru?" Choji asked as he stopped to take a breath.
"I'm still good." He could understand the surprised frown on Choji's face. In team Ino-Shika-Cho Shikamaru had the least amount of chakra. Luckily for him he was good at using his brain to compensate. However, today he felt good, strong, as though he hadn't used any chakra at all. He shot a look at Naruto, seeing sweat beading on her face. She smiled and nodded though. He still wasn't sure what she was doing. "We can keep going."
He went back to planning ways to catch Choji. Every time he succeeded he let his friend go. After one particular catch Choji stopped to breath before jumping into boulder form. He pelted across the ground, hitting a trench his form had dug. The dark haired boy felt a surge of energy. Shikamaru's shadow was after him and the moment he landed he grabbed Choji again, his shadow wounding around his large, ball form and holding him still. Once he was sure that Choji wasn't going to lose control again he let his friend go, allowing Choji to unravel.
Choij breathed deeply and looked over at Shikamaru and Naruto only to frown. He stood and pointed at something on the ground. "Shikamaru, did I move that by accident?"
Shikamaru looked at where his friend pointed, only to see the kunai meters in front of Choji. He tilted his head. There was no way he would have been able to grab Choji passed that point, especially with the shadow he was in lowering. He didn't have nearly enough chakra. He focused on his shadow, which he still had extended on the ground. It was thicker than he would usually have it and peaks kept breaking out then retreating… It was wild, almost uncontrollable, but still somewhat lazy at the same time. His chakra was still manifesting the shadow, but not controlling its shape. Turning his head, he looked at the blonde behind him who had a look of concentration on her face.
"Are you doing this?" he asked as Choji jogged up to them, making sure to avoid Shikamaru's shadow that was sputtering uncontrollably.
"Yeah, but I'm trying to get it so my chakra goes into you, instead of kinda taking over. I had it before but having to give you extra chakra is harder than I thought."
"You want it to filter into Shikamaru's system and become his? That can't be easy but I have heard of those skilled at sensory can do so." Choji scratched his chin. "Though all the ones I've heard of, the person getting the chakra had to pull it from the person's body. My dad knew someone when he was a kid who had to be bit. But they healed the person too."
"That would be hard to control how much. If Shikamaru was greedy he could take too much, and it means he would have to stop fighting as I gave him chakra." Naruto screwed up her face as Shikamaru looked back at his shadow. "This one way should allow him to fight."
It was still taking wild shapes and he couldn't get it to move in a straight line. When he concentrated he could feel Naruto's chakra moving through his system but it wasn't becoming his own when it was channelled into his jutsu. He could feel the intensity of the chakra altering, moving in a thinner stream, and then it suddenly became thicker. His chest clenched, his body heated, and he doubled over as needles stabbed into his torso. A scream passed his lips. The chakra entering his body was not Naruto's. When she used her chakra on him she was always gentle. This was far from gentle. It was violent, angry, and more than wild. It was pure chaos.
It lasted only a moment before Naruto jumped away from him. Looking up through tearful eyes Shikamaru could have sworn that the girl's blue eyes were tinted red. After she blinked it was gone. She backed away from Shikamaru as Choji stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. After taking deep breaths he was able to straighten, the pain slowly leaving him.
"I… I'm sorry," Naruto choked, still backing away. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Naruto," Shikamaru coughed, stepping towards her. He tried not to flinch when she backed away, looking terrified. "It's okay."
"No, it's not. You don't understand." Naruto turned away from them. "I should go." She ran off before they could stop her.
"What was that all about?" Choji asked. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
He was more worried about Naruto. It only took him a moment to realise whose chakra it was he felt. Part of him was impressed that Naruto could contain so much negative chakra within her body and another part of him was mortified. The Nine-Tails had taken advantage of Naruto to hurt him. She was not liable to forget that soon. He had no idea how she would react over time but he could tell he would not be allowed to touch her anytime soon.
Disgust filled his stomach. He had had contact with the beast that made Naruto a monster in the eyes of the village. The beast that had made Naruto's life so difficult had just attacked him. Bile rose in his throat. Even someone who wasn't a genius could work out that the Nine-Tails had done it not to hurt Shikamaru himself, but to hurt Naruto. To take away one of the most precious things to her: a friend. He wasn't going to play into whatever game the Nine-Tails was starting with Naruto. With a goodbye to Choji he ran off to find the allusive blonde.