Chapter 74

Shogi and Sake

Shikamaru showed up early to meet with the male elder. When he knocked on the door he introduced reminded him about the visit. "Dear elder, I'm Shikamaru Nara, we have a meeting today."

"Yes yes boy, I haven't forgotten who you are." He opened the door. "Hurry up and come in," he griped.

Shikamaru came inside and looked around. He saw the table and noticed the shogi board was already set up and ready to go. The old man had a sake bottle on the table with two small cups.

The elder moved to sit down and Shikamaru followed suit.

"Would you like a drink boy?" he asked as he poured one out for himself.

"But it's 7am!?" Shikamaru gave the man a quizzical look.

"You're not drinking to get drunk, it's just one drink, but suit yourself." The old man exhaled deeply, anticipating his game of shogi.

He and Shikamaru played for a few minutes when the first game ended, and then started another. Shikamaru toyed with the elder and let the game draw on for about a half hour before he finally ended it.

"Shikamaru, you play exceptionally well," it was the first time the elder had called him by name.

Shikamaru nodded.

"From what I hear you are also quite gifted as a shinobi." He pressed for a response but Shikamaru had none to give.

"Have you ever thought about…shogi in relation to being a ninja, and what members of the village each piece represents?"

Shikamaru remembered a conversation like this long ago. "Is it too late for a cup of sake?" he asked.

The old man smiled for once and slid the cup over to Shikamaru who took a drink.

"Yeah, I have. I've thought about it a lot actually…"

"And what have you come up with so far?"

"Well, I'm a knight…" he said as he took another drink of his sake.

"Ah, I can see that." He poured himself another glass of sake to drink with Shikamaru. "And the others, what are they?"

"The Chunin, they are the bishops because of their skills, yet being so new limits their movement on the field." He furrowed his brows and he considered who the other pieces might be.

"And who would the Hokage be in all of this?" a smile played on the old mans lips as he took another sip.

"Definitely the Queen."

The elder looked taken aback; Shikamaru hadn't given him the answer he thought he might receive. "I thought you might say the King! But the Queen? You need to explain that one to me…"

"The Queen is the most versatile piece on the board and it can move in any direction. This is similar to the way that a Hokage may understand advanced juitsus that the rest of the villagers haven't used or even seen. And it's the Queen's job to protect the King, so the Hokage couldn't be the King." Shikamaru was starting to understand why the elder didn't do so well at Shogi. He thought that was self explanatory.

"Then who's the King?!" He still hadn't grasped the obvious.

"Elder, can I ask you a question?" Shikamaru asked.

"Call me Homaru." He said as he nodded yes at Shikamaru.

"What do you see as the purpose for having a village?"

The elder began to feel offended that Shikamaru would ask him this kind of question but tried not to take the question personally, reminding himself that he did start the conversation afterall. "To provide structure and protection to the people within."

Shikamaru took a drink of his sake, he could see the last question offended Homaru and he didn't want to destroy the relationship he was working hard to build with him. "Do you want to know who the King is?"

"Is it the village itself?" he questioned.

"It's the children. Children that will grow up with the Konoha will of fire and pass it on to the next generation. It's the reason any of us do what we do, to create a better future for our village, our children of Konoha."

Homaru hadn't considered things in this context, just as Shikamaru had presented it to him. If he was being honest he had to admit that he felt a little ashamed of himself for not seeing it sooner, but he also felt the freedom that came with a new piece of knowledge; hope. He hadn't had that feeling for a long time.

"Many years ago I would play shogi with a young man from this village. As he became more and more involved with his ninja training he had less time for our meetings. I understood of course," he smiled again at Shikamaru. "Later he got a squad and became a sensi. But when he died, I lost hope. I lost hope in our village, in our leadership, and in our youth."

Shikamaru listened attentively as the elder poured himself another drink. As he did the last drops splashed into his cup and Shikamaru quietly sighed in relief.

"Listening to your view has sparked something in me, and I feel hope that I haven't felt in a long time." Homaru pulled his hand up to his face and rubbed his brow and rested his hand on his head for a moment longer, reminiscing.

Just as it started to feel awkward for Shikamaru the man dropped his hand and stood up.

"We're done with your lesson for today, but come again tomorrow." It sounded more like a request than an order.

"Same time?" He asked as Homaru nodded.

He walked out the door a few paces just as the lady elder had reached Homaru's home.

"Koharu? Did you need something? I didn't think we were meeting today."

She could smell sake from where she stood and knew he wouldn't be much help for her in getting to know Shikamaru so she decided to go about it by herself. "I just came for Shikamaru, we have some things to discuss."

"He was just leaving, he's a good boy, don't bore him to death," he added before he shut his door.

The lady elder ignored Homaru as she usually did and proceded to talk to Shikamaru about her plans for the day. "I was hoping you could help me with a project I need done?" She asked him.

This caught him by surprise because he didn't expect she would need a favor from him so soon, but it was just the thing to put him into favor with her if he succeeded.

"Sure Lady Elder, whatever you need from me."

"Just call me Koharu, I like being an elder, but when people address me like that it makes me feel so old!"

Shikamaru fought back a smile, and kept his comment to himself.

"Anyways, I need some help with my yard. It's needing taken care of for the season, weeding and planting and so on. It might be a bit of a job but I can't do it by myself."

They walked around town making small talk until they reached her house. At first, he didn't realize there was a house there because it was covered up by all the tall grass and weeds. When she pointed to her place saying "here we are," he actually laughed thinking she was joking.

She glared at him and that's when he realize she was serious and there wasn't a joke.

"I thought you said 'a bit of a job'?" There was no 'bit' about this one, it would take several weeks, and what would be if he got others to help as well.

"So you won't help me?" She used a sad little old lady voice and gave Shikamaru and pathetic look.

He waited a moment before answering. "Of course I'll help you, but I think we're going to need some more people. 'a team of people is more like it!' He thought. Then a lighbulb went off. He just thought of a way to bring Temari into the scenario.

"I'll be back tomorrow after I meet with Homaru and I'll bring a few people who can help us out." He reassured her as he left.

Once he was done meeting with her he went back to the office and sent a messanger out for Temari. He had to be careful just going up to her in public like he used to, too much was on the line now. After a few minutes the messenger returned with her.

After the messanger left he walked right up to her and grabbed her hand and kissed it. "I've missed you." He whispered.

"I've missed you too," she said as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. She hadn't seen him in several days and she was glad he sent a messanger for her. She thought about paying him a visit last night but had decided against it when she saw one of the elders knocking on his door. She knew that for the time being, their evening visits were probably at an end.

"Koharu, the lady elder came to my house last night." She knew why he was telling her this.

"I know, I saw her knocking, looks like we won't be meeting for awhile…" She was disappointed, it seemed like they saw each other less and less.

"That's not entirely true," he smiled as he explained to her about Koharu's yard and the help she needed done.

"So you're saying that you want me to get together some people to help by tomorrow? Believe me Shikamaru, that's no problem, but I'm worried about something else entirely. What if she sees the way we look at each other, or word gets out from people who've seen us holding hands, or if…"

Shikamaru cut her off. "Relax Temari, that's why we have a back up plan, remember?"

She had been so busy lately she hadn't even thought about Naruto and Hinata. "Have you gotten any word from them yet?" She was curious to see if the other nations could be swayed.

"No, but they probably just got to Iwagakure, it takes a few days to get there." He reassured her.

"I suppose you're right, from Suna it's about a days journey…" He pulled her close to him and she rested her head on his chest.

"About tomorrow," he heard her breathing pick up pace, "we can act like we know each other because we do. We've been in battle before, and even on missions together. We are comrades before anything else, aren't we Temari?" He lightly rubbed her back as he spoke to her.

"Yes," she sighed "that's all true." She just wanted the wait to be over.

As they stood there the door opened and Kakashi entered his own office. He looked back and forth between them before backing out. "I'll give you a minute," he appeared to smile as he spoke and then shut the door.

"I better get going," Temari said. "It looks like we're going to have a big day tomorrow. Tell your mom I said hi." Yoshino had been very accomadating to her and her brother and even took time to visit with her and tell her stories about Shikamaru until he would come home in the evening.

He leaned in to kiss her forehead. "See you tomorrow."

As she left he just stood there and felt a little helpless as she walked away. He could feel that their distance was already taking a toll on her and he did his best to hide how it made him feel. Only the people who knew him best like his mom, Choji, and oddly enough Kakashi could see how it affected him.

Kakashi came back into the room and saw Shikamaru just standing there lost in thought.

"Shikamaru," he said to get his attention, Shikamaru looked up and couldn't believe he hadn't seen Kakashi enter the room.

"Thanks Kakashi, for giving us a second, we don't have anywhere else we can meet at the present moment." He gave a sheepish laugh and rubbed his hand on the back of his head.

"I'm sure it won't be much longer and all your plans will be coming together. Hang in there Shikamaru."

"Thanks Kakashi," he turned to leave, "I'm going to be working with the elders but I'll check in with you next week." Kakashi nodded his head as Shikamaru headed out the door.