Chapter 30 already. Pretty sure this is my biggest story ever!
I'm noticing a lot of new readers who have commented about binge reading the story. This pleases me.
He spotted Naruto not too far from the Akamichi compound. She was no longer running but instead walking at a brisk pace, talking to herself. Shikamaru could hear snippets as he ran closer.
"…did that on purpose… Jerk…he'll never trust me…Butt head…hate you."
Shikamaru was startled when he realised she was talking to the Nine-Tails. He wondered if it was possible for Naruto to communicate with the creature and if she truly was berating something so powerful and dark.
She stopped her muttering and walking when she spotted Choza. At this point Shikamaru was only a few meters behind her. He knew that when she finally had the sense to detect him she would run so he started planning.
"Hey, Teddy Bear, do you know where Captain Yamato is?"
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the name Naruto gave Choza as the bigger man shook his head. Before Naruto could start walking again, Shikamaru wrapped his shadow around her legs, moving up, over her waist and stopping at her stomach. The Nara's didn't make it known but they could feel the things they grabbed with their shadows, though to a lesser extent. He already felt perverted for grabbing Naruto with his shadow hands, having them on her chest would be crossing a line.
Naruto froze, even though she was capable of moving. Choza looked over at Shikamaru in surprise.
"Sorry, Uncle Choza, but Naruto and I have to talk." He walked closer to the two, stopping beside the blonde.
"Alright, I'll leave you two to it." He walked off, only looking back once.
Shikamaru waited until Choza was gone before looking at Naruto.
"You know I could get out of this, right?"
"I do," he admitted, "I also know you won't."
When Naruto just sighed Shikamaru reached over and pinched her arm, hard. She yelped, grabbing her arm.
"Did that hurt?"
"Yes!" Naruto screeched, glaring at Shikamaru.
"Good. Now I've hurt you on purpose, which is worse than by accident. You have nothing to be sorry about."
"That's not how it works!" she yelled, throwing her hands up. "You don't understand. Now let me go!"
"You're scared cause you lost control and hurt me. You're afraid that it will happen again. It won't because I know you're strong enough, and determined enough to stop it." Shikamaru looked her hard in the eye, refusing to back down.
"What if you're wrong?"
"Then it's my own fault if I get hurt. I'm the one who gets to decide if the pain is worth your company, not you!"
"It DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!" Naruto yelled. She yelped when he pinched her again, harder this time. "Ouch. Stop doing that!"
"Is it going to stop you from being my friend?"
"No."
"Then why the hell would I care about the pain you caused me?" the dark haired boy yelled. His throat was unaccustomed to the volume. "I'm hurting you on purpose and you still see me as a friend. You need to get it into your head that I care about you. There is nothing that will change that. So you need to accept it and forgive yourself."
Naruto sighed and deflated like a balloon. She nodded before Shikamaru let his shadow retract, freeing her. When Shikamaru reached out to grasp her hand she flinched once before letting him take it.
"Come on, I'm hungry." He gave her hand a tug, making her walk with him.
He led Naruto to the barbeque place. Once they were seated in front of the grill Naruto started to fidget. Figuring she wanted him to let go of her hand he did so, only for her to keep fidgeting. After raising an eyebrow at her she blushed.
"I have an itch on my back but my binds make it hard to scratch, so I'm trying to get the binds to rub it." A smile came over her face. "There, got it."
Shikamaru cleared his throat, being reminded of the other day. "About that… why do you wear them? Why hide who you are?"
The blonde looked down, her eyes clouding. "Well, people thought I was a boy when I was little. The midwife who looked after me at the orphanage liked to cut my hair short and dress me in boy's clothing. She called me a boy too. She was horrible. When I moved out boys clothing was cheaper and lasted longer, though I did get some girl's clothing from the donation bin. But then…"
"Then you were attacked," Shikamaru finished softly.
"Right, your dad would have told you." She gave him a small smile when he took her hand, giving it a squeeze. "After that the Old Man told me to dress like a boy, and cut my hair. I wasn't to correct anyone when they called me a boy either. He said he was worried about the village escalating. At the time I didn't understand how my gender could affect their violence."
"He was worried about…" Bile rose into his throat.
"The Old Man didn't actually think they would, and neither do I," Naruto quickly assured. "But he was being safe. When I started to… show as a girl I started binding my chest."
"But you aren't attacked anymore, are you? Why don't you just reveal yourself…" he blushed, "that was poor phrasing."
Naruto chuckled into her hand. "I should worry that you might be a pervert. And…" she took a breath, clearly choosing her words, before ticking the reasons off on her fingers, "I'm used to dressing this way, I'd have a lot of people not believe me and think I'm just trying to perve on girls. Sakura would probably punch me. And I." She stopped, swallowing thickly. "Part of me is scared that they'll still hurt me."
Shikamaru squeezed her hand again. "That won't happen. I'll make sure of it." He smiled back at Naruto before frowning in confusion. "Why did you answer the door in… you know?"
"A towel?" When the man blushed and looked away Naruto laughed. "I knew it was you at the door and thought that if you didn't know already I could trust you and that you… had the right to know."
Shikamaru put his elbow on the wooden strip of table, his chin resting in his palm. He smiled at Naruto, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. "I did think you were a girl but I had no way of being sure."
A look crossed Naruto's face. A mixture of amusement and confusion. "Didn't think to look for an Adam's apple?"
Shikamaru groaned, face palming. "Why didn't I think of that?"
"No, instead you had to see me in a towel to confirm it." Naruto laughed as Shikamaru turned red.
"Can we just forget it?" he whined desperately. A groan rumbled in his throat when he heard another laugh.
"You should know this isn't going away, Shika-maruuu." Naruto gave a squeal when Shikamaru's free hand shot out to cover her mouth.
He could feel her laughing against his palm still and couldn't help but join in. The moment ended quickly though, when Naruto realised that both Shikamaru's hands were on her. She flinched, making him drop his hand from her mouth. He knew it was useless arguing with her still. It would take her some time before she learnt to trust herself again but at least she allowed him to have some contact with her. And he could make her forget, even for a moment, what happened.
"You know, Naru-toe Uzumaki, the Shadow Ninja, mouthful that you are," he smiled when Naruto threw her head back with a laugh, "I had no reason to think you were a girl. I've never actually seen you dress in girl's clothing. I expected you to return to the village looking like a girl."
"I'm wearing girl's pants right now," Naruto retorted in fake disgust. She grinned, pointing a finger at the genius. "You just want to see me in a dress, you pervert!"
"I'm not a pervert," Shikamaru whispered hastily, worried that someone would overhear.
Naruto leant forward, meeting him with a challenging stare. "Satin underwear."
He could feel the heat coming off his face at the blush those two words caused. Naruto just snorted and reached into her pocket with her free hand. Pulling out a picture she handed it to the dark haired boy, looking far to amused as she did.
"Riko gave me this earlier."
Turning it over, Shikamaru recognised Riko on the left, in a baggy shirt over what looked like swimmers, Haruki in the middle in nothing but swimming trunks, and a blonde woman he recognised after a moment as Naruto. Except it was nothing like the Naruto he knew. Her body was half turned towards Haruki's side, her hand on her hip. Her hair was long, but clipped at the back of her head, her fringe framing her eyes and making the blue more vivid. She smiled at the camera easily, one of her real smiles. What threw Shikamaru at first was her clothing. He could see the back strap of her swimming bra, since her high necked dress had no back. The dress was white that burnt into a deep orange at her mid thigh and showed off her figure better than the towel had. Ninja training had given her a muscular form whilst still leaving it feminine.
"Well, you definitely look like a girl." He swallowed, handing the picture back. "I like your hair like that."
"Thanks. I cut it just before I came back."
He almost asked why. Luckily the waiter came over with the meat they had ordered, stopping him long enough for him to realise how stupid his question would have been. Naruto let go of his hand to start putting food onto the grill. Clearing his throat, he thought it would be best to change the topic before he said anything stupid.
"So what's this training Kakashi-Sensei wants you doing?"
"Not sure. It'll make me strong enough to take on Sasuke. So you know, Sai won't have to stop Sasuke from stabbing me."
"How is it going with the new teammate?" He watched her poke at a slice of meat, wondering if this topic would turn out as bad as the last. Unfortunately the only other thing he could think of was a question he didn't think he should ask.
"Alright. He's weird, but he can fight, and… he wants to be on the team, which is good. He likes to study me though. He wants to learn emotions, which means he gets about an inch away from my face and stares."
Shikamaru nodded absently, catching himself as his eyes slid down for the third time. "Okay, I have to ask, how do you hide your chest so well, even without your jacket on? The question has been bugging me."
Naruto snorted before a loud laugh passed her lips. "Next you'll be asking me what kind of underwear I'm wearing."
"Well if you're offering," he joked with a sly smile.
That got to her. She started laughing so hard she fell sideways in the bench, covering her mouth to try and muffle the sound. Finally she sat up, trying to swallow down her chuckles.
"I wear chest binds and when I'm not in my jacket I use transformation jutsu." She shrugged. "Like I said, Sakura would punch me if she found out, especially if she found out I wasn't as flat as her. Sasuke knows. He worked it out. Probably cause we've gotten into so many fights."
"I'm guessing your doctors were told to refer to you as a boy by the Third Hokage."
"Yep. Old Granny knows… she still isn't sure if I like boys or girls though. Riko has made that worse."
Shikamaru shook his head. "You like torturing that woman."
"It's our thing."
By the time the two left the restaurant Shikamaru's cheeks hurt and Naruto was groaning about having ate too much. She had one hand resting on her stomach protectively as they walked down the street.
"I swear I'm going to burst."
Unable to help himself he reached out and poked her stomach, making her hit his hand away with an annoyed groan. He laughed at the pouting glare she sent at him.
"Looks like you two are having fun."
Looking ahead the genius spotted Ino and Sakura. He tried to give his team mate a half smile in reply to her words but grimaced.
"My face hurts."
"That's what happened when you actually smile for once." Naruto poked him in the cheek in retaliation to his earlier assault. She snapped her hand back when he tried to bite her finger.
Looking back at the other two girls Shikamaru found Ino frowning at the two in confusion. He could understand, seeing as in all the years they had known each other she probably hadn't seen him act so care free and somewhat impulsive. Sakura didn't appear to notice anything odd with the behaviour of the two.
"How's Kakashi-Sensei?" Naruto asked, hitting Shikamaru's hand away from poking her stomach again, never looking away from Sakura.
"He's healing quickly, but he'll still be in the hospital for a couple more days."
"Hmm. I bet he's just trying to get out of training me for a while. I'm going to stay in his room until he can finally start my training." With that the energetic blonde ran off, being trailed by Sakura who was calling her an idiot and telling her to slow down.
"I didn't realise you two were so close," Ino commented. "I thought Naruto would get on your nerves."
"Nah, he's fun to be around. And I can't predict him so it's never boring." Shikamaru shrugged, walking off to find a good spot to watch the clouds.