NaruShika Chp.4
"Shikamaru…." Naruko's voice had a slight tremble in it, Shikamaru had a sad and almost regretful look in his eyes as he stood there with the blonde trapped between him and the brick wall of the alley that he had pulled her into.
"Naru…I" Shikamaru was having trouble getting out the words that she had practiced all night. He had spent the past four years wondering how they're first meeting would go and he did not plan on pulling her into an alley, but he just couldn't wait any longer. Only Naruko Uzumaki could make the laziest ninja in the whole village get so worked up, even his mother had been a little concerned last night when she saw Shikamaru pacing the way he was. It didn't take long for the older female Nara to put two and two together since the last time her son had acted like this was four years ago when a certain blonde kunoichi had left the village.
"Please, Naru give me a chance to talk. To explain myself" Shikamaru spoke quickly, he could tell the blonde was tense and ready to bolt before he had a chance to talk to her and if she got away Shikamaru didn't know if he would get another chance to see her.
Naruko didn't say anything but she did relax her muscles some so Shikamaru took that as a go-ahead from the blonde that she wouldn't run away while he was talking, but that didn't guaranty him a lot of time and he knew that if he said the wrong thing right now he might lose his chance at getting the blonde back at all
Shikamaru relaxed his stance as well and let his arms fall to his side, hoping that if the blonde didn't feel trapped there would be a smaller chance of her trying to run from him. But he didn't step away from where he was standing close to her, needing the closeness to let himself calm down knowing that she's here and real, she's back in the village and not another one of his dreams.
"Well? I don't have a lot of time; my team will start to wonder where I am" Naruko said while averting her eyes and looking to the side when Shikamaru just stood there looking at her, she leaned back into the wall to try and put some space between the two of them even though all she wanted to do was bury her face in his chest and have him hold her again. She just couldn't forget the hurt she felt that night yet no matter how much her heart missed the lazy ninja.
Taking a deep breath Shikamaru finally started to talk "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see that, I'm sorry that I didn't push the girl away faster, I'm sorry I didn't run after you that night to explain." He started lifting her chin up to look her in the eye when she kept trying to avoid his eyes.
Seeing the tears that had welled up in her eyes broke his heart again, he hated that he is the one to cause her to cry, Naruko has always been strong and didn't cry easily, she had also always felt emotions much stronger than he does
"I know that I hurt you that night, but I promise you I did not kiss that girl, she kissed me, and I tried to push her off, I wanted to chase after you but that damn girl pulled me back and by the time I pulled my hand free you were gone. I want to see you the next day, but you were gone, and I couldn't find you, I searched the whole village, but you were nowhere…..." As he spoke Shikamaru had taken a step closer to the blonde and put his hands on her hips.
Shikamaru felt like he was rambling by this point, as he had spoken his face had gotten closer to Naruko's. Their lips were inches apart and she could feel his breath on her, Shikamaru was about to close the distance between them when Naruko moved so her head ended up resting to his shoulder instead of meeting him in a kiss. Shikamaru gave a small sigh at being denied the kiss he was hoping for he wrapped his arms around her waist instead as she buried her face in the crook of his neck and her arms went around his neck.
Shikamaru held her close to him as he felt his neck getting wet, realizing that she was crying he held onto her tighter and rested his check on her golden blonde hair. He might not have gotten the kiss that it looked like he would get for a minute there, but he didn't want to push her. He could tell that she was mentally and emotionally drained and he was just as happy to be able to hold her again, something that he had missed while she was away.
He knew that it would still be hard and a lot of work to fully regain her trust, but he was willing to put in the work to be with the troublesome blonde that he love's again.
Naruko never showed up at Ichiraku so the other four decided to head back to the training field and hoped that she would be there, if not they would send Sasuke to find her and make sure that she was ok.
What surprised the group was when they got back to the field, there was a sleeping blonde curled up under one of the trees on the far side on the field. Sakura was the first one to get to her and noticed the dried tear stains on her checks.
"Oh, Naruko. What happened when you took off?" Sakura asked as she sat down and pulled the blondes head into her lap, but Naruko never woke up only curling into the pink haired girl that had started to run her fingers through the blonde hair. Kakashi, Sasuke, Sai, and Yamato stood back all concerned for the blonde and trying to figure out what could have happened while they were separated from her.
"Ok, I don't think Naru will be doing anymore fighting at the moment. Sakura you can stay over here with her and if she wakes up see if she'll tell you what's happened" Kakashi said, knowing that not much can get under the blonde's skin to make her upset enough to look like she did now. Getting a nod from Sakura, he turned to the other three males of the team.
"Sai, Sasuke you two can go ahead a do some sparing your selves" Once finished Kakashi pulled out his orange book once again before walking just out of earshot of the two kunoichis on the ground and the two boys that had made their way into the center of the field to start a halfhearted spar, neither of their minds completely in the fight.
As Sakura sat and tried to comfort Naruko as she slept she wondered about what might have happened, she guessed Shikamaru got impatient and found her when she was going to Ichiraku alone. If so then she wants to smack that boy right now, Hinata and her had a small plan to get the two together that would minimize the storm that comes from the two meeting again. Now all the pink haired kunoichi wants to know if it went ok and they are getting back together soon if not now or if it went terrible and Naruko will never trust the lazy man again, Sakura feared that with how Naruko looked it might be the second option.
==================Earlier in the alley===================
Naruko had stopped cry a few minutes ago but hasn't picked her head up from where it was tucked into Shikamaru's neck and he was starting to get worried for the blonde, he wondered if she had believed what he had said and was willing to trust him again if only a little bit or not. She could be very hard to read sometimes and was always surprising him when he tried to figure out what she was thinking.
When Naruko started to pull away, Shikamaru very reluctantly lets her go but kept his hands resting loosely on her hips not wanting to give up the contacted with her completely just yet.
"I want to believe you Shika, that cheating would be too troublesome and that what you said was true. That she came on to you and to tried to push her back" Naruko stopped for a moment to wipe at her eyes and finish collecting her thoughts, Shikamaru took it as a good sign that she was still using the nickname she gave him at least. Even though what she was saying didn't sound too good all together.
"But, I can't get the image of you and her out of my head and it hurts my heart"
Shikamaru's heart started to break again.
"And I don't want to keep hurting like this when I'm in the village, feeling like I want to leave again" She still hasn't looked at him, and he feels like he wants to cry.
He can feel the tears in his eyes, but he can see them in hers as she speaks as well.
"What can I do? What do I need to do to earn your trust back? I love you Naruko…And I don't want to lose you anymore than I already have" Shikamaru spoke in a quiet breathy tone.
Almost like he was afraid that she would run away, and he would never see her again, and at this point, she might.
His hands moved from her hips to grip her hands his forehead now resting against hers and his eyes closed.
"I don't know. I just…. I need some more time in the village to get settled before I…." Pulling her hands free Naruko moved her head so it was no longer touching Shikamaru's before looking him in the eyes for the first time willingly since she was pulled into the alleyway.
"Maybe we should just try to focus on being friends again, and maybe in time I'll feel ready to try us again" Naruko gave Shika a small almost sad smile before she moved to leave. As she was turning to leave she felt Shikamaru grab her hand and turned her head to look at him again.
"Ok, I'll try being your friend again if that's what you really want. But I just want to let you know that not going to give up on us easily, I'll show you that you can still trust me because I love you and I will always love you" Shikamaru said with a determined look in his eyes that you never find in the shadow ninja.
After Naruko had walked out of the alleyway, she didn't want to go to Ichiraku where the rest of her team would be till she had calmed down some so she made her way quickly back to their training field to think for a bit then have a nice spar with Sasuke then Kakashi to help clear her head when they got back.
But it didn't take long for the emotionally exhausted girl to fall asleep under a tree. Somewhere in the back of her mind as she slept she heard someone call her name then move her head onto something softer than the ground, but she didn't want to wake up and face the world just yet, so when those fingers started threading through her hair she settled back down and fell back into a deep sleep
====================BEAKES ARE GOOD======================
Shikamaru was slowly walking home his hands in his pockets and his hand down, but a smile on his face. While that exchange didn't go exactly how he planned, at least now he knows that he has a chance to win his women back and this time he's determined to keep her.
When Shikamaru walked into the main room of his home both his parents were almost shocked at the look on his face, when he left this morning he looked sad and nervous and regretful, But now. Now there was a look of determination on his face and a spark in his eyes that they have never seen before in the now young man.
Shikamaru didn't stop to chat with his parents, he just walked past them and out to back. It had been a long day and he felt the need to lay in the forest with the deer and just do some cloud watching.
Giving a relaxed sigh Shikamaru let all the tension and worry he had been feeling for the past few years out, he was happy with how things went he knew it wasn't going to be easy to win back the trust of the blonde. Even though Naruko seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve she had always been very cautious about who she placed her full trust in, at the time they had started dating there were very few people she truly trusted even though she had so many friends. Shikamaru knew that she was like this from the start of their relationship, and it all came from how the village treated her when she was growing up. He took a long time of starting with friendship before she was ready to move onto something more and he ended up back where he started all because of some random girl that he might have met once or twice that he didn't know nor care about.
His thoughts were cut short as he felt his female teammates chakra approaching him. Without moving from his cloud gave spot he let out a sigh and addressed the other blonde female that he was close too.
"What are you doing here Ino?" Shikamaru's voice sounded like it always did and Ino could tell that he was truly relaxed for the first time in a long time.
"You seem happy today Shikamaru," Ino said sitting cross-legged next to him, even though he sounded normal Ino knew him well enough to hear that he was happy and relaxed at the moment.
All Shikamaru did was hum.
"Did you fix things with Naru?" Ino asked, she was only of the only other people to know what happened between the two before Naruko left, after she left Ino had noticed an immediate change in the shadow nin and had gone to talk to the two kunoichis that she knew would know what was going on between the once happy couple, because only some kind of fight with Naruko could get Shikamaru acting the way he had. There was no way it was just because she was out of the village. What she had learned had her storming into the lazy nins room very early in the morning demanding to know what really happened that night because there was no way Shikamaru cheated on the girl he loved so much.
"They're not perfect yet but it on the way to getting fixed. For now, she just wants to be friends right now, it's such a drag but I don't want to push her. I'm willing to wait as long as she needs to feel ready again" Shikamaru sighed pulling his hands from under his head and resting them on his abdomen
"Well, I'm not surprised that it would end like that. Naruko's always had very strong emotions, which means it probably really hurt her to see you kissing some other girl and on your anniversary! Seriously that girl had terrible timing, when she didn't know that the girl forced herself on you" Ino said, Ino had also matured and she was no longer chasing after Sasuke, she had instead chosen to set her sights on one pale ink using ninja named Sai and had already gotten further with him in the last two years than however many years she had been following Sasuke around like a lovesick puppy. Even if they weren't officially dating just yet.
When Shikamaru didn't respond to her she gave him a reassuring smile that he didn't see since he had closed his eyes, but she knew he knew that it was there, as she stood up to leave saying one last thing before walking out of the forest.
"Don't worry about it too much Shika, she'll forgive you and you guys will be back together soon. You're made for each other! So, I know you two will work it out, it may be troublesome but we both know you would never give up on her. You can be just as stubborn as she is sometimes" the platinum blonde said adding the last part right before she walked out of earshot of Shikamaru whose lip quirked up just a bit at the stubborn comment that he just barely heard.
Kakashi had just finished sparing with Sakura after Sai and Sasuke had finished with Sasuke as the winner, normally it would be that the winner would fight Kakashi but Sasuke just turned and walked over towards the two females of their group and sat next by Sakura and pulled Naruko's head into his lap instead, when the others gave him questioning looks he just rolled his eyes at them and told Sakura to go and spar with Kakashi some.
With one last questioning glance at the dark-haired brooder she stood up and decided to just drop it, there was no point when only Naru could understand Sasuke's grunts and looks enough to tell what he means.
Kakashi knew the best out of all of them how much Sasuke actually cared about Naruko as his sister and had missed her while she was away. No one could tell but he was pissed at whoever had made her cry and wanted to break their neck, but he had no clue who to be pissed at right now and needed the blonde girl too so he could ask without letting the others know how much he cared. Even though Naruko will see right through him, she always had.
As Sakura and Sai sat down next to Naruko's feet with Kakashi and Yamato standing just in front of them.
"When will we have a new mission Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura asked as she cleaned a cut that Sai had gotten during his fight with Sasuke.
"Well, Lady Tsunade said that said that we could request one once we had a chance to do some team training sooo." Kakashi replayed with a shrug of his shoulders and a glance at the sleeping blonde on the ground, all eyes turned to the girl that had at some point curled herself into a little ball against Sasuke's side.
They were about to try and wake the girl when a shadow fell over the group and they all turned to look at the newcomer.
"Looks like someone had a long day" The voice was deep and before anyone could say anything the man had stepped over and lifted Naruko into his arms without waking her up.
"Master Jiraiya, may I ask where you might be taking her? She's needed here for training" Kakashi said, his tone was normal but with a bit of curiosity in it as the now identified sannin stood with Naruko still sound asleep in his arms her face looking more relaxed than before once she felt the white-haired sannins chakra around her.
"Sorry Kakashi, but Naruko will have to skip out on the team training today she's needed in Tsunade's office as of now," Jiraiya said with a grin on his face, adjusting his charge in his arms one last time before he started to walk away towards the Hokage tower.
"Well, I guess if she's being summoned by the Hokage then there's nothing we can do about it right now. Tell her that we'll have that spar I promised her another time" and with that Kakashi pulled out his orange book once again before telling the others that they were done training for the day and walked off, heading in the direction of the memorial stone.
Everyone else headed off in different directions as well Sakura decided to head for the hospital to see if they needed any help hoping that she could get an extra shift in for a few hours. Sasuke, a bit miffed that he didn't get the chance to fight the dobe started to head home to the Uchiha district and to the private Uchiha clan training ground. Sai walked into town hoping he would run into Ino by walking right by her family flower shop. While Yamato gave a sigh as he watched everyone walk away alone before heading to the mission's desk to see if there was anything small he could pick up to earn some money.