HEY GUYS AND GIRLS, I AM BACK WITH ANOTHER STUPID CHAPTER. I HOPE YOU GUYS DON'T HATE ME FOR THE LONG WAIT OR FOR THE OTHER STUPID CHAPTERS BEFORE THIS ONE BUT I AM HERE SO THAT HAS TO COUNT FOR SOME RIGHT? ANYWAY, THANKS FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND FOR THE REVIEWS. I HOPE THAT YOU GUYS ARE STILL FOLLOWING THE STORY AND KIND OF GET WHAT HAPPENED.

HAPPY READING

"Are you sure that you don't need anything Shikamaru?" Naruto's irritating voice asked him as he sat on a couch in his lounge and fed Mirai in his arms.

"Why can't you just leave me alone Naruto?" Shikamaru shot back. He kept his eyes fixed on the child in his arms who was nursing the bottle he held for her.

"Because you're my friend and you need help Shikamaru." There's the problem, he hardly considered the blonde ninja a 'friend' anymore. He appreciated Naruto's effort to rebuild their friendship but all he wanted him to do was to leave him alone. He didn't need Naruto's help. Hell, he didn't even want to accept Choji's help most of the time.

"He's just being stubborn Naruto. Thank you for your help today." Kurenai stated as she sat on the couch adjacent to his. She was reading a book but he could see that she was also keeping an eye on him while he fed her child. He didn't blame her for being worried though. He hardly had his strength back in his body and was still subjected to a wheelchair at times so she had a reason to be worried.

"No problem Kurenai-sensei." Naruto happily replied as he gave the older kunoichi a smile. "I have to go but call me anytime if you need my help."

"I will." Kurenai clearly had more patience for the energetic ninja than Shikamaru had. Now that he thought about it, how did he manage to put up with the Uzamaki all these years? Most of the time they hung out with their other friends then they ended up getting into trouble and or he was made to do something that he really didn't want to do. Naruto had just been a pain in his ass really so why the hell did he keep him around?
"You should forgive him." Kurenai suddenly snapped him out of his thoughts and back to reality. He looked around and saw that Naruto had left so it was only the three of them left in the lounge.

"He doesn't deserve it." Shikamaru was always blunt and emotionless when it came to talking about Naruto, Sasuke or Sakura ever since his last mission but he still couldn't forgive them for what they did. He understood why Sasuke did it and had no problem doing it. He didn't forgive Sasuke but he did understand. Sasuke had left the village a couple of weeks after Shikamaru addressed them so he didn't know where the Uchiha was or what he was doing but he honestly didn't care. Naruto and Sakura had begun repairing their relationships with the rest of their friends and recently he heard that they had become even bigger stars in the village by helping out around the villages when they had time. He didn't care about that either but Naruto had taken it upon himself to force his friendship onto Shikamaru who stubbornly pushed it away. He hadn't seen Sakura since the day in Kakashi's office and he appreciated that she was respecting his wish of staying out of his life. Why couldn't Naruto be more like Sakura?

"He's literally been helping everyone around the village and he has been repairing his relationships with everyone in the village and other shinobi outside the village. I'm pretty sure that they're ready to name him as the Hokage. The only problem standing in his way is you." Kurenai clearly wasn't holding back her judgement there but he would be a hypocrite if he had to stop her since he was judging Naruto and Sakura the same.

"Divine justice then. The one person they should've trusted to help them is standing in their way."

"They started this cycle and look how you ended up. Even your stubborn brain has to see that you're the only person that can stop this cycle before someone else ends up like you." Her words left him speechless. He had been thinking about the exact same thing lately. They say that violence only breeds more violence and so too does hatred, fighting, lies, secrets and all the other negative aspects of being human and right now he was part of that. If he continued this cycle then someone else was going to end up resenting him and not asking him for help which could land them in hot water and he didn't want to be blamed for that. He didn't want to be the cause of someone else's downfall.

"You should probably burp her, I'm not fully capable yet." Shikamaru turned their attention to the baby in his arms. Kurenai closed her book then gently grabbed her child and began the burping process.

"You're starting your physical therapy tomorrow. Shizune and Lady Tsunade did their best to heal you so don't let their work be for nothing."

"I didn't go through 7 weeks of hell to stop here." Shikamaru was confided to the hospital for 7 weeks after he woke up. Lady Tsunade or Shizune came in every single day like clockwork to repair his nerve and muscle damage and it hurt like hell but he was able to endure it and come out on the other side. The bright side was that he didn't have to stay in the hospital anymore so he moved back home a couple of months ago but his mother didn't allow him to climb the stairs yet so he couldn't get to his room. He was stuck in the room opposite the one Kurenai and Mirai were staying in until Ino was finished getting the Sarutobi Compound ready to house them. He was pretty sure that Konohamaru was regretting his decision to let Ino give the compound a whole makeover but he was glad that Ino was taking this whole thing seriously and putting a lot of thought into this.

"At least you have control of all your limbs so it's just your functioning and endurance that you have to work on."

"I just want to be able to walk without a cane again. That's my first goal."

"You can hardly walk with a cane right now."

"That's why I have to work on it."

"Guys, lunch is ready." Yoshino informed them as she entered the room. Shikamaru grabbed the sturdy but elegant wooden cane then slowly stood up. He didn't know what being old felt like but he was sure that this was pretty much how it was going to be.
"Come on old man, we don't have all day." His mother teased him as he approached the table. Kurenai was already seated with Mirai in her arms. Yoshino took her seat opposite the Kunoichi with the child in her arms so the head of the table was reserved for Shikamaru. That was his seat ever since he came home from the hospital so he guessed that this was his mother's way of finally accepting and approving his role as the leader of the clan. He had been rather hands on with clan business while he was in the hospital so it was only natural.

"With all that grey hair peeking through, I am definitely the only old person here." Shikamaru shot back as he sat down.

"It's wisdom, something you're sorely lacking." He found himself smiling at that. He was beginning to love this challenging side of his mother but he knew that she still had her demonic side so he didn't dare cross the line.

"I don't think that's what I'm lacking." He replied.

"Intelligence and wisdom are two different things. You have the intelligence part but definitely not the wisdom." He had to admit, he agreed with his mother there but he didn't think that he lacked it that much. He just wasn't as experienced as the 2 kunoichi sitting around the table.

"Sounds like a drag. I'd rather eat." He replied as he began dishing some food onto his plate then began eating.

"It's been a while since I've heard you say something is a drag. Seems like someone is growing up." Kurenai commented.

"Now that you mention it, he hasn't called us troublesome either." His mother added. This is one part he hated about Kurenai and his mother living under one roof, when they teamed up then they were unstoppable.

"Do you guys miss it?" He asked them.

"No, this is much more peaceful. Now we just have to get rid of your laziness." Kurenai answered him.

"I actually have a valid reason to lay around and do nothing right now." He pointed out.

"True but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't exercise especially now when you're going to begin your physical therapy." Yoshino stated.

"Like I told Kurenai earlier, I just want to be able to walk without a cane."

"That's a pretty low bar, even for you."

"It's realistic. Once I reach that goal then I can move onto the next one."

"Which is?"

"Running I guess."

"You running?" Kurenai nearly burst into laughter as she said that. He had to forgive her for that. He wasn't called 'Lazy Ass' for nothing.

"Hey, I ran to the hospital to inform Shizune about the situation the night you fell." He pointed out.

"I just made you do that so that you can get out of mine and Sakura's way." Yoshino informed her son.

"So you sent me on a fool's errand." He wasn't exactly hurt by that but it couldn't hurt playing the victim especially when his mother and Kurenai were teaming up.

"From what Sakura and your mother told me about that night, you were basically useless." Kurenai clearly didn't care if he was the victim or not.

"More like a petrified zombie." And neither did his mother care for that matter. There was just no winning with the two of them.

"I was just worried about Kurenai and Mirai, nothing wrong with that." He defended himself.

"You were so out of it that I wanted to check your pulse to make sure that you were still alive at one point." His mother was probably exaggerating that but he knew that it probably wasn't far from the truth. He felt like time was just an illusion and that someone put him in a genjutsu because there was no way time could drag like that.

"Like I said, I was just worried." All he wanted right now was for this to end. He was nearly finished with his food as well so he only had to endure this for a couple of more minutes. Suddenly a knock on the door grabbed their attention. Maybe he didn't have to endure this for a couple of more minutes depending on who was at the door.
"I'll get it." He quickly offered as he cleaned his hands then grabbed his cane.

"You can hardly walk so sit down and eat your food, I'll get it." Yoshino stopped him as she stood up.

"You offering to get the door? You certainly did change." Kurenai stated as they heard his mother have a conversation with whoever was by the door.

"Have to get back on my feet in order to be lazy again." He replied.

"And as usual, your logic can only be understood by you." Suddenly his mother made her way back to the table followed by their guest, Shiho. She was actually the last person he expected to see today. What could the cryptanalyst want with him right now? Maybe she wasn't even here for him.

"You have a visitor Shikamaru." His mother cleared that up for him.

"H-hi Shikamaru." Shiho nervously greeted him. She was like Hinata when she was still pining after Naruto and it was clear that Shiho was very fond of the Nara as well so that explained her behavior but it still irritated him.

"Good afternoon Shiho, what can I do for you?" Shikamaru asked the girl. He noticed that she didn't have anything in her hands so he was definitely interested in the reason for her visit.

"I n-need your help." This sounded promising.

"Deciphering another code to find a message?"

"Yeah." He hadn't had a challenge like that in a while and if Shiho needed his help then it was definitely something he could sink his teeth into.

"Where is it?" The sudden question made her nervous for some reason. What was she hiding?

"Um… could we go somewhere?" She shyly asked him.

"Go with her already Shikamaru. Don't just leave her standing there." Kurenai's reply definitely made him want to leave. It was either leave with Shiho or continue to endure lunch with two of the most troublesome women in his life so it was an easy decision for him.

"Fine." Shikamaru slowly pushed himself up off his chair then grabbed his cane and made his way around the table to Shiho.
"I'll be back later." Shikamaru lazily told them then turned around and began hobbling out of his house with Shiho following shortly behind him. They made their way into the surprisingly calm street but he knew why there weren't many people outside; the weather was considerably cold.
"Where are we headed to Shiho?" He turned to the blonde beside him as she readjusted her glasses.

"I don't know. Somewhere we can talk and won't be disturbed." A few places immediately crossed his mind but there was one in particular that he actually wanted to go to right now.

"There's a coffee shop close to here that we can go to. Not many ninja go there so it's not likely that we will be disturbed and they have great dango." He suggested.

"Okay." She agreed. She had a faint blush across her cheeks but he ignored it. He did see a problem though. The coffee shop was a good distance away for the state his body was in right now and he didn't want to strain himself. There was only one troublesome solution that was sure to cause more harm than good if anyone saw them.

"Shiho, do you mind helping walk?" He was a little nervous as he asked that question.

"H-how?" She was clearly just as nervous.

"Hook your arm around my free one for support." She silently did as she was instructed and hooked her arm around his. She was the perfect height for it. She reached just above his shoulders so she wasn't exactly tall or short.

"Like this?"

"Perfect." They began walking to their destination with Shikamaru directing them. He had to admit, he missed having an afternoon stroll like this. He had been cooped up in the hospital for over a month so he definitely appreciated this.
"How have you been?" He suddenly asked her before their silence could become unbearable. He could feel her tense up a bit so he definitely caught her off guard but she quickly gathered herself.

"I'm good." She answered. "How are you doing?"

"I've been better." His reply left a smile on her face so he was glad that he could lighten the mood for them.

"I heard that you were out of the hospital so what is the next step?"

"Going to start the rehabilitation process. Hopefully it isn't as painful as the healing because I felt like Lady Tsunade and Shizune were killing me."

"They saved you though and you are back on your feet."

"Barely." He released a bit of a laugh there and he could see that she still had a smile plastered on her face.

"Are you going to become a shinobi again?"

"I don't know. I first want to get my body back to its normal functionality. After that we'll see. If not then I can always ask you for a job. We work well together I suppose." Her blush definitely became a darker shade now.

"Y-yes." She stuttered. They continue on their journey and made it to the coffee shop close to the edge of the village. They looked around the nearly empty shop but didn't see any of their friends or anyone they knew so they made their way to a booth close to a window that looked out at the vast array of trees inside the village. They gave their order to the waitress then turned their attention back to each other.

"So, what's the code you need help with?" Shikamaru became a little focused and waited for her to explain the situation. Suddenly she took out a scroll and rolled it out in front of her. She did a few hand signs then activated the scroll and a small pile of papers immediately appeared on the desk along with a couple of pens and a notebook.

"I found these encrypted messages in one of the archived Third Shinobi War folders. I wanted to decode them and figure out who was sending these and see if there was something about that war that we might have missed." Shiho handed a couple of pages to Shikamaru then grabbed a pen.
"I've been trying to decipher them for weeks but I've never seen anything like this." He analyzed the pages and understood why Shiho couldn't understand it. It looked like a lot of nonsense on the pages but he saw something that stood out to him and actually looked familiar.

"It's a Hand Print, well that's what we called it." He informed her but he could see the confusion on her face.

"What is a 'Hand Print'?" He tried to think of a way to explain but he couldn't think of anyway to explain that will leave her left without any questions.

"It's better if I show you. May I?" He motioned to her things lying on the table and she nodded her head in agreement. He grabbed the notebook and a pen and immediately began scribbling in a secret message that looked like the same nonsense that was written on the pages she had given him. He gave her book back to her once he was finished so that she could analyze it.
"Can you understand it?"

"No." She casually replied.

"That's because you need the key. Unlike other encrypted messages, a Hand Print only uses 10 or less letters to send a message. You pick your 10 letters and that's the only ones you'll use."

"How do you know which letters are used then?"

"Give me your left hand." He instructed her. She hesitantly offered her hand across the table so he connected his right hand to hers and intertwined her soft fingers with his more rough ones.

"What are you doing?" She suddenly asked him as he used his left hand and began writing on her fingers just above her nails. He saw the sudden flash of nervousness on her face before she became shy again. She definitely was a strange character but he enjoyed her company.

"Just relax. I'm nearly finished." Suddenly their waiter appeared and placed their tea on the table in front of them and a plate of dango between them. The dango smelled heavenly and definitely made him want some.
"Do you mind giving me some?" He politely asked her as he motioned to the dango on the table. Her face immediately looked nervous and as red as a tomato. He could see her hand shaking as she picked up the chopsticks but he ignored her and continued what he was doing. Her reaction was just a little too troublesome for him to deal with.
Eventually, she managed to pick up a piece of piece and present it to him. He stopped what he was doing and immediately open his mouth to receive the delicious treat. It tasted just as amazing as it smelled but suddenly a knock on the window grabbed their attention. He saw the last person he expected to see standing outside the small tea shop with her arms folded across her chest and an intrigued look on her face; Ino. She walked away from the window but he could see that she was making her way to the entrance to come talk to them. Somehow he knew that this was just bound to turn into something major that it wasn't intended to be.

"So how long has this been going on and why am I only finding out about this now?" Ino asked them as she down next to Shiho.

"Nothing is going on Ino, go away." He loved his blonde teammate but damn, she was annoying at times. Actually, she was annoying most of the time.

"So this isn't a date?" Ino asked them but turned to look at Shiho for an answer. Shiho was to scared to speak so she quickly shook her head.

"You're scaring her, go away." Shikamaru replied again.

"Okay. You two can continue your date but you're not off the hook yet Shikamaru." Yep, this definitely meant more irritating work for him. Ino stood up and happily hummed as she walked away and out of the shop.

"Sorry about that, she's nosy and probably going to start gossiping about us now." He didn't know why he was apologizing but he just felt like he had to.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." Why was Shiho still so nervous? It was irritating him. He finished writing on their fingers while she ate a piece of dango. Ino's presence definitely ruined his appetite for the sweet treat.

"I've written the key on our fingers. Each letter on our fingers relates to a letter written down. Because there are 10 letters, usually the first 10 letters written in the encrypted message will relate to a letter on the key. I made it easy for you so I wrote the key letter at the bottom and the letter it relates to in the message on top. Now you just have to figure out what the message is." He handed her pen back to her as she worked through all the information she just received.

"Okay, I think I got it." It took a couple of minutes but she easily deciphered the messaged. "This is how its made." She read out the message.

"Exactly. Now you know how it works." He triumphantly told her then released her hand.

"This is actually pretty cool. I've never heard of this though. It's not in any of the books I've read."

"I didn't think it would be in any of your coding books. I read about it in a story book when I was younger so that how I found out about it. It's not exactly a practical way to send encrypted messages but if it's used properly then it can be extremely difficult like the one you're struggling with." Her attention immediately turned to the encrypted pages she handed me earlier and looked like she was trying to find the key. It was honestly a lot of pages and words where the key could be hidden in so he didn't really expect her to find it especially if however sent it was highly skilled.

"I can't find the key." She sounded defeated and disappointed so she handed it to Shikamaru to figure out again. He looked over the first page to try and figure it out and immediately saw a pattern. He checked through the rest of the pages to confirm it.

"They used the first letter of every line. It's 10 different letters each time then it repeats itself over and over." He handed it back over to her so that she could see. Her face immediately lit up as she confirmed it.

"I see it now Shikamaru. Thank you so much for your help." Shiho was sincere as she gathered her pages. Was she seriously planning on leaving right now?

"Glad I could help. Gave me a reason to get out of the house as well." Suddenly her things got sucked back into the scroll before she rolled it up again.

"I have to go figure this out." Shiho said as she stood up.

"What about your tea? Don't you at least want to finish it?" She didn't even take a sip of her tea yet.

"Next time. Goodbye Shikamaru." She made her way towards the exit so he sighed and decided to look out of the window.

"Girls are such a drag." He muttered to himself as he watched the trees wrestling with the slight breeze in the air.

"Hi Sakura." He heard Shiho outside the tea shop. He hoped that Sakura didn't come in. He hoped that she was just walking past or that Shiho had greeted a different Sakura. There was sure to be more than one girl named Sakura in the village right? It wasn't impossible.

"Hey Shikamaru." And yet there was only one Sakura whose voice he could never forget.

SO THAT WAS A BORING BUT INTERESTING CHAPTER. I AM GOING TO BE HONEST WITH YOU GUYS AND GIRLS; I DO NOT KNOW WHERE I AM GOING WITH THIS STORY ANYMORE. ONE OF MY FRIENDS IS TELLING ME TO MAKE SHIKASAKU BURN TO THE GROUND AND THE OTHER IS TELLING ME TO JUST LET THEM BE HAPPY. I AM CONFLICTED SO IF YOU GUYS WANT TO HAVE A SAY THEN YOU'RE WELCOME TO SEND ME A MESSAGE OR PUT IT IN A REVIEW. OTHER THAN THAT, I'LL BE BACK SOON SO SEE YA…