I dunno what I'm doing up at this time but I figured why not finish this chapter instead of waiting til Sunday... so here it is.
All characters belong to Kishimoto-san.
Chapter 23: Friendship on a Rainy Day
It was going to be an unpleasant day; Shikamaru didn't have to be a genius to know that. Like yesterday, ominous gray clouds blocked the sky. Except, unlike the day before, rain was already pouring down at a constant rate, forming tiny streams and puddles on the streets.
It was the loud splatter of water on the window to Chouji's bedroom that woke Shikamaru from his comfortable sleep, where he had been dreaming about clouds and shogi, and a lovely day laying on grass. And, to his dismay, when he awoke, he was greeted with the opposite weather.
Shikamaru liked clouds. But only the ones that were lazy and free. The nice, fluffy kinds, not the angry, "I'm-going-to-kill-you-by-blasting-you-with-a-lightning-bolt" kinds.
"I hope you're not leaving the house today," Chouji said from where was he was seated on his bed. "I don't think it's going to stop raining anytime soon."
Shikamaru sighed and pulled the borrowed blankets over his head. "Nope. No plans. Just sleep."
"My mother has some food ready," Chouji said. Shikamaru could hear the other boy as he got off his bed. "Just come down when you're awake."
Chouji waited for a reply, but there was none. Shrugging, Chouji softly closed the door and left.
.
A few hours later, there was an insistent knocking on Chouji's bedroom door. Shikamaru got up, glaring at the offensive wooden door. There was no way it was Chouji, since this was his room and he would open it without knocking. That left the only other person who would be crazy enough to visit him in this weather (and pinpoint his location since Chouji was too loyal a friend to tell) at this godforsaken time of the morning.
"What do you want, Ino?" Shikamaru snapped, swinging the door open, only to reveal a sheepish looking Naruto.
"Naruto?"
"Hey," Naruto said, giving Shikamaru an innocent little wave.
"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked, not as eager as Naruto.
"I did say we were going to visit Gaara today, didn't I?"
"Chouji," Shikamaru called out accusingly. "Didn't I tell you I didn't want him to find me? That's why I hid out in your room last night."
"Sorry," said Chouji, appearing behind Naruto with a bag of his favorite chips. "I thought he was Ino, and when I opened the door, he just barged right in. Besides, your mother called me just now, and told us to tell you to 'get out of bed and go be productive with Naruto.' Oh, yeah, she also threatens to disown you if you go out without bringing an umbrella."
"I don't have an umbrella," Shikamaru muttered. "Not after Ino stole mine yesterday. What did she even do with it?"
"Well, I'll just go with you since I still have mine," Chouji volunteered. "Besides, I can visit Asuma-sensei, too."
For more than once in his life, Shikamaru was grateful for a friend like Chouji. He was the gentle guy who would always stick up for him, and never initiate trouble.
"I can't believe my mother told you where I was," Shikamaru said to Naruto as he headed towards the bathroom to wash up. "Troublesome woman."
Naruto laughed. "Come on, man. It's already eleven a.m., dattebayo! You can't sleep any later than that. You'll miss lunch if you continue sleeping. And since it's almost lunch, we might as well grab some ramen before we go."
"No, thanks," Shikamaru said. Ramen first thing in the morning would probably kill him.
.
An hour later, and with their stomachs full of pasta, the three boys were finally on their way to the Leaf.
Luckily, Chouza had offered them a ride, so the boys didn't have to trek through mud for half an hour (though it mattered little to Naruto, who had run to Shikamaru's and Chouji's houses from his own apartment).
As the boys arrived, Shikamaru spotted Sasuke standing behind the glass door of the hotel, trying to fend off a couple of girls who were no doubt trying to get his number.
"Yo, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, the first to get out of the car as he sprinted to greet his friend. He hadn't bothered with an umbrella, and he arrived dripping wet, scaring off the girls in the process.
"You'd have thought they hadn't seen each other in months or something," Shikamaru remarked.
"It's Naruto," Chouji said. "He loves all his friends a lot."
"Though some more than others," Shikamaru noted, thanking Chouza for the ride as he and Chouji got out, huddling under one umbrella.
"What does Naruto even want to do?" Chouji asked, closing his umbrella once they got under the safety of a roof. He wrapped his umbrella in one the plastic bags conveniently located by the entrance.
"Something about Gaara and projects," said Shikamaru. "But honestly, I'm not too excited to see that boy again. He's scary. He could kill me with one of those looks of his."
Chouji shuddered. "I don't see what Naruto sees in him. He's the opposite of friendly. He's even more trouble than Sasuke."
"That's an understatement," Shikamaru said as the two boys followed a few paces behind Naruto and Sasuke, out of their hearing range. "Sasuke likes to pretend the rest of us don't exist. But Gaara wishes we were all dead."
Chouji nudged Shikamaru, the cue to stop talking, as the four high schoolers clambered into the elevator.
The elevator door closed, and Shikamaru sighed, anticipating the long ride up. However, before the elevator moved, the door opened again, and a disheveled Asuma walked in.
"Oh? What are you guys doing here?" Asuma asked, pressing the button for the sixth floor. "I don't think Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun are here to see me."
"No, Asuma-sensei," Naruto said. "We're here to see Gaara, dattebayo!"
"Ah," Asuma said. He cast a worried look at his pupils. Although he was neither a P.E. or fight club instructor, Asuma, like all the other teachers at Konoha High, had been informed of Gaara's actions earlier that week, and his tendencies towards violence. Asuma would be lying to say he wasn't the slightest bit concerned about his students' wellbeing's.
"And what were you doing out there in the rain, Asuma-sensei?" Chouji asked.
"Probably visiting Kurenai-sensei," Shikamaru commented.
"What? No!" Asuma quickly denied. "Why would I do that?"
Shikamaru stared at him. "Because… the two of you are in charge of festival activities for both our clubs…?"
"Oh. Right. Of course," Asuma said, hastily making his exist as the elevator finally arrived at the sixth floor. "Well, this is my stop. See you on Monday, kids."
"Did I say something wrong?" Shikamaru asked after Asuma had left. "Don't they always work together this early for the Halloween Festival?"
Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, dattebayo. You're the one who's close to him, not me."
Shikamaru sighed. There was no point wondering about things that would eventually reveal themselves.
.
"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. 'I-forgot-to-close-my-door'."
Shikamaru groaned, hiding behind Chouji. Talking to Temari on a Saturday was not on his list of things to do.
"What're you doing, Shikamaru?" Naruto asked, pulling the other boy out from his hiding spot. "It's rude to not greet people."
Shikamaru cleared his throat. "Um. Hello."
He looked around the place, trying to stall while he thought of clever things to say. "Nice place you got here."
"It looks like any other hotel," Temari stated matter-of-factly, unimpressed. "I guess Naruto wasn't kidding about dragging you by force, because I doubt you came here willingly."
Shikamaru shrugged, trying to maintain a nonchalant attitude, though it didn't seem to work too well with the slow blush creeping onto his cheeks. "My mother forced me out."
"Into the rain?" Temari asked skeptically.
"Yeah."
"Right, then. And hello, Chouji," Temari said, finally moving her attention away from Shikamaru.
"Hi," said Chouji. "I hope you don't mind me coming along without announcing myself, Temari-san."
"Just Temari," Temari said. She pointed to a room. "Gaara's in there, Naruto."
Naruto immediately detached himself from Sasuke.
"Gaara!" Naruto yelled, banging on the door. A sleep-deprived Gaara opened it.
"Naruto?" Gaara said, squinting at the sudden brightness. "You actually came?"
"Of course, I did, dattebayo!" Naruto said, pulling Gaara out of his dark room and giving the startled boy a hug. "See, I even brought Shikamaru, like I said I would! And Chouji decided to tag along, too, dattebayo!"
"While they have fun, I think we have a project to do," Temari told Sasuke, who nodded. The two of them headed for the common room.
"What's all the fuss?" an irritated voice asked. A door opened, and a paint-less Kankuro peeked his head out.
"Woah!" Naruto exclaimed. "Is that Kankuro?"
Kankuro scowled. "Who else would I be?"
"But you look so normal!" Naruto said.
"You really want to die, kid," Kankuro declared. "Did you guys come all the way here just to work on the project or something? Because that's so lame."
"It's not lame. Your sister is working on it," Naruto pointed out.
Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Those two don't really like each other, so it's best for them if they just get it over with as soon as possible. Me and Hinata-chan, though? We respect each other well enough that we don't need to waste our weekends working on a stupid project. Besides, we have plenty of time."
"Exactly my point," Shikamaru grumbled. "There's no point in Gaara and me working on it this early, either. I don't recall you talking to Sai about it, either, Naruto."
Naruto made a face. "Don't talk to me about him. He's so annoying."
"Who?" Kankuro asked.
"Sai," Shikamaru answered.
"Is he that bad?" Kankuro inquired. "I have him in my elective club class thing, and he seems alright."
"Maybe for you, but not for me," Naruto whined. "He's such a stuck-up, arrogant rich kid."
"How do you know he's rich?" Chouji asked.
"He didn't go to the same junior high's as us," Naruto said. "So obviously he went to a private school. Also, he told me he went to a private for junior high. But anyways, man, he has to act like he knows everything and always points out how I don't. He makes me sound lame, dattebayo!"
"You are lame," said Kankuro.
Naruto ignored him. "There's no way I'm going to spend extra time with that asshole, dattebayo! Anyways, Shikamaru, I just brought you along in case you wanted to work on it. You don't have to, but it's an option. I mean, you always work on projects the last few days right before its due."
Shikamaru shrugged. "Why stress about it so soon?"
Naruto shrugged in return. "I dunno. I guess we're all free to play games now, dattebayo. Would you like to join us, Kankuro?"
Kankuro shook his head. "Nah, man. There aren't that many games here, and everything else includes venturing into the rain. I'm good in my warm room, thank you very much."
"Your loss," Naruto said as Kankuro's door closed. "So, you have any games, Gaara?"
"Games?" Gaara asked, looking a bit surprised at having been called out even though it was his place they were currently at.
"Yeah, you know, games," Naruto said. "It doesn't have to be video games. We can play board games, too."
Gaara frowned. "My siblings have a pack of cards. And I think Baki-sensei has a shogi board."
Naruto looked at his friend in disbelief. "You're kidding me, right? Only shogi and cards? Don't you have any other, more interesting games? Like, we could play Monopoly or Stratego or Battleship, or something?"
Shikamaru smirked. "I don't mind playing shogi."
Naruto scowled at him. "Of course, you don't. You're an old man at heart, that's why. However, unlike you, I'm still young, dattebayo."
"Let's just play cards," Chouji interrupted.
Gaara nodded in agreement. He went over to Kankuro's door, knocking twice.
"What now?" a grumpy Kankuro asked. His expressions immediately changed to one of politeness as he saw it was his brother. "Do you need something, Gaara?"
"May we borrow the cards?" Gaara asked.
"Don't got 'em," Kankuro replied. "I left them with Temari on Thursday."
Gaara nodded his thanks and turned to Naruto. "Kankuro doesn't have them. He says Temari does."
"Great, now I have to see her again," Shikamaru sighed.
The group made their over to the common room at the end of the hall, where Temari and Sasuke sat hunched over their laptops, busily typing away.
Temari looked up as they approached. "I hope you don't plan on being noisy over here."
"No," said Gaara. "We would just like the cards, please."
"Oh. Okay." Temari got up and led the way to her room. Sasuke followed them silently.
Temari opened the door to her room, and Shikamaru couldn't help but stare in surprise. It was unlike what he had thought it would be like. Her room was plain and neat, and smelled faintly of lavender and sand and wind (Shikamaru hadn't known the latter two had smells, but he knew for sure whatever was in Temari's room had to be it).
"What?" Temari asked. "Never seen a girl's room before?"
"No," Shikamaru said.
"He means yes," Naruto corrected. "He's never seen one, unless you count Ino, but those two are basically siblings."
Shikamaru shrugged. "I just didn't expect your room to look like this."
"Like what?" Temari challenged. She found the deck of cards and tossed them to Gaara, all the while waiting for Shikamaru's answer.
"Like… an ordinary room," Shikamaru said lamely. "I mean, true, I've seen Ino's room, but hers is, like, filled with girly stuff. Plus, there's always way too much perfume in there, and yours… doesn't."
Temari rolled her eyes. "You really don't talk to girls, do you? But hey, I'll have you know all my clothes are folded away."
Shikamaru turned pink and Naruto frowned.
"Wait, why?" Naruto asked. "Why does that matter? Was he going to steal them?!"
Sasuke hit him on the head, "Shikamaru isn't a pervert like you, Naruto."
"Hey, I'm not a pervert," Naruto complained. "Even if I was raised by one, dattebayo."
"Though, you did come to school dressed up like a girl that one time," Sasuke said.
Temari raised an eyebrow as Naruto quickly defended himself. "That was a long time ago, Sasuke! Stop bringing it up, dattebayo!"
Naruto made for the door, but Temari was faster. She slammed the door shut, and turned to face her victim.
"Now, this, I gotta hear," Temari said.
Naruto swallowed nervously, pleading with his eyes for Gaara to reason with his sister. Gaara, however, was merely curious.
"You dressed like a girl?" Gaara asked.
Sasuke smirked. "It was back in elementary, when Naruto had no friends."
"I wonder why," Temari said sarcastically.
"Back then, no one paid any attention to him, especially Sakura, who he liked," Sasuke continued.
"Not to say that he still doesn't," Shikamaru said.
"But anyways, he was always causing mischief, trying to get people to notice him," Sasuke said.
"What would he do?" Gaara inquired, getting even more curious as to his new friend's past. He wondered how Naruto had acted as a child, and how it contrasted from Gaara's own past.
"He liked to vandalize things," Sasuke said. "Especially monuments. If there was ever graffiti, it was bound to be him. But that was just the mild stuff. Anyways, one time, he came to school wearing a pink dress, and pretending he was Sakura."
"Needless to say, Sakura didn't find it amusing and she made sure to punish him for it," Shikamaru said. "And this is why women are troublesome."
Temari and Gaara didn't laugh, but there was amusement in their eyes.
"I didn't know you were capable of such a thing," Temari joked. "You seem the manly type."
Gaara was nicer than his sister. "It must have been hard for you, Naruto-kun. Do you still do it?"
"What? No!" Naruto protested. "Man, it was a long time ago, okay? I was young back then, and lonely! I just wanted attention, dattebayo."
"Easy, Naruto," Shikamaru said, sensing that maybe they had taken things a bit too far. For as tough as Naruto acted, he was still a lonely kid. "We're here now, and that's all that matters."
Gaara nodded. "We are friends, right, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto nodded. "You better believe it, dattebayo!"