Chapter 27: Further Contemplation

(Alternatively, On Past and Present)

(Shikamaru's POV)

Shikamaru has gained a second shadow... The older male has apparently made it his life's mission to watch over Shikamaru ever since the day he'd been found by Hyūga Neji. He keeps showing up whenever Shikamaru is outside of his Clan's ground's and normally the Nara would be freaked out by the fact that he seems to have a stalker, but... it's nice... Weird, but nice to know that someone cares enough to want to watch over him. Which is even weirder for him because Shikamaru is an extremely private person.

But Hyūga Neji doesn't hover, he doesn't fuss, he's... just there. His presence is solidly and silently there at his back(so much like Vincent who watched over AVALANCHE from afar when it wasn't necessary for him to be close by) and it's soothing to have someone there after so long. Shikamaru can relax his guard for the first time in years with someone other than his family or friends. While he trusts Asuma more than he used to, Asuma is someone who likes to pry. Oh he's certainly careful about it and he doesn't push hard. If Shikamaru avoids a line of questioning entirely, Asuma will eventually drop it.

Neji, on the other hand, hasn't attempted to pry, just like the other male had promised. Shikamaru has found himself either training, cloud watching, or napping in the Hyūga's presence without the other making even a single comment towards the two days that he'd been so out of it for. Neji sometimes sits with the Nara, quietly pointing out shapes in the clouds or brings a game board for shōgi or Go so they can play against one another. He's more than a decent player too and Shikamaru has to work for his wins just like when he plays against his father. Other days, Neji chooses to train or meditate while Shikamaru chooses to do whatever it is that he feels like doing.

Which, of course, eventually gets him an amused look and a comment of him being very cat-like. Especially after Neji finds him sprawled over a large branch, lounging much like the predator he'd formerly been named for with his eyes half-mast and sleepy. The Hyūga seems to like teasing him about his cat-like ways and actively looks for opportunities to call him out on them. It's... amusing and odd, but somehow their strange partnership? works well for the two of them. But it also comes with it's more unfortunate moments.

Like Neji's team. To be more specific these unfortunate moments include Rock Lee and Maito Gai... They are...loud...and very eccentric and the Nara is unsure how to deal with them beyond hiding up a tree as high as he , on the other hand, is a whole different story. She does have her moments, though, when Shikamaru has to rank her right up there with the two 'Beasts of the Leaf'. It doesn't taken TenTen long to learn that the Nara is a swordsman and that is when he learns that she can be just as bad as the other two.

The Kunoichi had actually squealed when she saw Shikamaru practicing with his practice sword and had promptly unsealed plethora of weapons, a great deal of them extremely sharp. TenTen had pushed sword after sword at him until the Nara finally had a katana that felt comfortable in his hands. She'd then proceeded to demand that he spar with her and hadn't let up until he agreed. In the end, though, Shikamaru can honestly say that he'd had fun pitting himself against the Weapon's Mistress. She isn't quite up to his level of skill yet, but Shikamaru knows that it is only because she doesn't devote herself to one weapon main, rather she learns as much as she can about a weapon before picking up another.

TenTen is almost the complete opposite of Shikamaru who chooses to focus on his swordsmanship and a small assortment of bladed weapons. Bladed weapons that consist of one hunting knife, an small arsenal of throwing knives, one dagger, kunai, shuriken, and ninja wire. He'd carried the former as Hyo and now the latter has been added to his list of weapons that he is more than just passingly familiar with. On top of his bladed weapons, Shikamaru carries a truly frightening amount of explosive tags. He's a firm believer of the overkill method.

Then again, if a person had to deal with seemingly undying opponents, they'd believe in overkill as well. Shikamaru sighs as he leans back against the trunk of the tree that he's recently taken shelter under, his eyes flicking over to where Ino and Chōji are sparring. Asuma is supervising the two other Genin for now, but it looks as if they're almost finished. The Nara hums thoughtfully as he realizes that he's spent the majority of his training period musing over the mystery that is Team Nine's Weapons Mistress and their Hyūga, Neji. It's not unusual for him to spend large quantities of time thinking though.

(As Hyo, he's almost exclusively stuck in his own head. Being unable to speak without extreme difficulties and pain had been impossible. And with Hyo traveling alone so much, finding someone who knew how to communicate in sigh language had been nigh impossible. Then again, Hyo had preferred to not communicate with people he didn't know unless he had no other choice. But back then... back then, Hyo had been hurting and paranoid to the point of avoiding people as much as possible.

It wasn't fair to a great deal of people(he knows that now) but Hyo had had such a hard time determining which people were truly good and who he should steer clear of at all costs. So Hyo had given wide berth to most people up until things had started to go wrong, first with the Stigma, then with the Omega Incident, and finally - years later - when the end had been closing in on him, his family, and the people whom they were protecting. Between those times, Hyo had hunted monsters, explored places he'd never seen before, and helped the occasional traveler who was down on his or her luck. Eventually, he'd settled in the abandoned and ruined shell of Banora, a place where no one came anymore with the sole exception of Zack Fair and the rest of AVALANCHE. Hyo had turned it into his home when he wasn't at Seventh Heaven or traveling.

He'd created a garden there and had turned a small plot of land into farmland. Hyo had raised black Chocobo and his niece and nephews visited as often as they were allowed to due since they had to go to school. The rest of his family visited often when he wasn't traveling to meet them himself. It had been a good life in between the hard time, Shikamaru muses now with a sad smile.)

Asuma's voice breaks him out of his thoughts and Shikamaru stands up to go to his team, leaving his thoughts on the past behind as he walks away...

(Neji's POV)

Nara Shikamaru is an enigma, Neji decides. On one hand, the Nara acts much the same as he used to. On the other hand, the younger male is so very different in ways that Neji can't properly describe. The one thing that he does know is that someone had severely hurt the Nara. And Neji can't help but wonder if that haunted smile he'd seen that day had been the result of Nara Shikamaru's disappearance.

What also makes him label the Nara as an enigma is how cat-like the younger male is and how he reacts to the Hyūga's team. He'd never seen the Nara rest in a tree that way before he'd gone missing. And by 'that way' Neji means seeing the Nara draped over a branch, flat on his stomach, head lying on a forearm, the other arm out stretched along the branch, one ankle locked around the branch for stability, and the other leg hanging down. To Neji, Shikamaru had looked like nothing more than a lounging black jungle cat sleepily watching the world around him with deceptive lassitude. It's very different to the way he used to see the Nara –sprawled on his back, eyes to the sky, and uncaring of the world around him.

The other reason is the way Shikamaru reacts to his team. The old Nara Shikamaru would avoided working with his team for training like they were plague carriers. This new Nara Shikamaru doesn't. Well, Shikamaru doesn't avoid him or TenTen at least. Gai-sensei and Lee are a different story. In fact, the first time Shikamaru met the two of them had been entirely by accident.

Neji had been with the Nara the first time his team had come looking for him and it had been like watching a skittish cat being confronted by two large and overly friendly dogs. The extraordinarily loud 'Beasts of the Leaf' had startled Shikamaru into going straight up the biggest tree in the clearing and he'd glared down from the highest branch that the Nara could perch on without it breaking under his weight. A very good plan, Neji had determined, to go to the one few places where neither Gai-sensei or Lee could go with their weights. It was one of the most amusing things Neji had ever seen. TenTen had thought so too.

Shikamaru had taken to TenTen much easier then he did to Gai or Lee. Though, the Nara had cringed away from the weapon wielding Kunoichi when she'd learned that he was a swordsman. Her squeal of happiness had been positively eardrum rupturing that day... She had been over the moon when she realized that Shikamaru was just as good with a real blade as he was with his practice sword. It had been like watching two people dance as they had sparred and it was evident that Shikamaru had years of training.

Later, he had spoken to the woman about it and TenTen had told him in all seriousness, "That isn't the skill of a kid who's put in years of training. That's years of training and experience from fighting, Neji. If Shikamaru were just different because of the timeline is a little changed, he wouldn't have experience with the katana. Not real life experience at least. Shikamaru fights like he's battled for his life before, on more than just a few occasions, no less."

And...that fits... It fits the haunted looking smile, the too dark eyes, the pessimistic outlook the Nara has towards people, his confusion towards genuine kindness from strangers, his PTSD induced flashbacks, and his too high pain tolerance. It fits the way Shikamaru trains until his hands bleed, the way he never seems to fail in watching his surroundings(that time with Gai-sensei and Lee excluded), the way he feels like a predator that just isn't interested enough in going after prey despite watching it for hours. It fits with his too mature attitude, his wary and skittish nature, his overprotective ways. It just fits and Neji suddenly finds himself very sad about how well it does.

How much pain would Shikamaru have had to endure to become this way? How bad did things have to be where he was for him to be so very different now? How many times had Shikamaru fought for his life? How many injuries did he have to receive before they just stopped registering as painful? Just how mistreated had the Nara been to no longer trust in the kindness of people?

Neji is sure that the answers to those questions will leave him feeling murderous, especially since he can already guess some of the answers just by watching Shikamaru. And if he's honest with himself, he thinks that the answers are probably worse than he can ever know...

Endnotes: Sorry this is so late. I've been distracted as heck. But here it is now. There isn't much talking, but definitely plenty of thoughts from Shikamaru and Neji about each other!

Let me know what you think!