"Shikamaru!" A blue eyed blonde shouted as she saw her friend get cut by Asuma's clone. Shikamaru ducks days he missed a kick aimed at his throat. Flipping backwards twice he growled. It would be a hell of a lot easier if he could see but his father worried he was getting dull and spoke with his sensei about upping his training. It didn't help that his father's raccoon summons oversaw his training. It was so troublesome being the heir. Plus Shikamaru was distracked, his scorpions overheard whispers of arranged marriage contracts and what's best for his clan. He teleported underground to give himself a minute to get his head straight.

In the comfort of the darkness and safety of the earth shikamaru tried to rid his worries. He had a funny feeling that the reason only Ino trained with him and Asuma was because their parents negotiated it. But he thought of a wife it wasn't blue eyes that he pictured. Suddenly he was yanked by his hair above the ground. Finding himself above ground, the sun in his face, Kunai at his throat, Shikamaru sighed and muttered "troublesome."

When shikamaru was younger he would try to bribe the raccoons with keeping quiet about his mistakes during his training and some he had managed to convince with some rare berries he found in the Nara forest but judging by the silver patch on the mammal babysitter he knew it was hopeless Master Juju was his father's oldest and most loyal summon. He knew tonight his father's punishment was going to be severe.

He decided not to stick around for Ino's training and ignored the flash of hurt in her eyes as he left the training grounds to watch the sunset before going home.