Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

REVISED 5/30/2015

All posted chapters have been revised. This basically involved cleaned up typos, rewording a little dialogue, fixing a messed up name and correcting a continuity error. While there are very likely still errors because I'm not perfect, these should be a little cleaner. I have redone all that was already posted in order to get myself back in the game of writing. I know it's been getting close to a year now since I've last updated, but I am working on it. Life happened and I'm sorry but I'm back. And if it makes you feel better, my little sister is going to be badgering me to update and since I live with this person and I'll want her off my back, it is likely that you will get more frequent updates now.

No Thanks Necessary

Chapter 12

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched as Kiba shouted down the hallway before barreling down it himself, only to leap from the window at the end of the hall and into the greenery outside to tackle Naruto who had been running around outside the house.

"Ever hear of a door?" Shikamaru grumbled to himself, slinking into his room and firmly shutting the door behind him. With a thoughtful glance towards the window, he also lowered the pane so at least Kiba would have to work to bounce in through the window.

The Nara heir was on edge. He hadn't slept properly in days because the Inuzuka's practically woke with the sun and shouted through morning workouts just outside his window. He would finally fall back asleep and then Naruto would come bursting in with a question or just his bubbling energy wanting to play.

Or bizarrely asking if Shikamaru wanted to help make breakfast...

Seriously. Breakfast.

Why the hell would he want to help make breakfast? Shikamaru had to shake his head at the notion that the blonde found that an exciting prospect.

Then during the day, Kiba was always loud and brash as ever, wanting to make everything into a competition and seemingly determined to win all of them as well.

And Shikamaru hadn't played shougi even once with his father since the other kids arrived, even though his dad had promised him that they would play to work on developing his "strategic mind." His dad was so busy with work and keeping a handle on the rambunctious new sources of energy in the house that Shikaku didn't even think about the game. His mother was busy, in addition to her normal routine, with tutoring Naruto, who was forever behind, and trying to push some manners and etiquette into the blonde's brain as well.

And apparently Naruto was throwing himself into the lessons with gusto as well and Shikamaru had to hear all the time about how proud she was of him.

She hadn't nagged Shikamaru about his study habits even once since the others had arrived. He'd initially been happy for the reprieve but now…now he didn't know what to think about it.

As the children returned to school, Shikamaru very determinedly made sure that things stayed the same as they had been before. He still sat with Chouji. He still slept through his classes and half-assed the lessons where he couldn't sleep for whatever reason. And he still was no closer with Naruto and Kiba, who were sharing a table now, than he had ever been before. He did not hang out with them between classes. He did not share lunch with the pair. He did not act in any way other than his normal pattern.

So much so that he was attracting the concerned eye of their sensei which Shikamaru promptly ignored.

But dammit everything had changed so much all at once! He wanted one thing in his life to stay the same. At school only Kiba and Naruto had changed. But neither had really ever had close friends, not like Shikamaru and Chouji were, so their deciding to orbit around each other for the moment didn't affect the social order any really, not enough to call the gossip mongers down on them anyway.

Chouji knew something was going on and kept asking why Shikamaru was being so strange, but the Nara didn't know how to explain it to his longtime friend, he didn't know where to even begin. Because secretly, as much as they annoyed him with the trouble they brought into the house, Shikamaru also felt guilty. Guilty to such an extreme extent that his young mind decided that this was punishment. His penance to pay for sending Biyoku to Naruto's doorstep, even unwittingly.

So he would just sigh, mumble something about it being troublesome, and adjust his head for his next nap.

They'd had an exam at school today and the other boys were racing home. Kiba was being chased by his sister because the score had been less than stellar. Naruto ran because he had passed and he wanted to show it off to Yoshino who had helped him study. Shikamaru just slouched along behind them. It's just a test, what's the big deal?

Sure Naruto had never passed before…

And sure, he'd never had anyone to show his grades off to before…

And sure, no one would have cared to look at them anyway even if he had been top of the class…

…oh…

…he'll just shut up now.

When Shikamaru finally walked in, calling out a "Tadaima," into the once quiet house, he was not heard over the exclamations from the kitchen about how proud Yoshino was of the boy, and that they could start studying earlier next time and get an even better grade.

Sighing, Shikamaru fixed the piles of shoes by the door and sorted into some semblance of order before he padded over to the kitchen, putting his own test paper on the counter for his mother to see.

She looked at his perfectly average test and pursed her lips, but no comments about how she knew he was smarter than this passed her lips.

Shikamaru stomped off.

Did they forget which kid was actually theirs?

Things carried on that way for a while.

Later that week Shikamaru peaked into his father's home office. "Hey dad, up for a game of shougi?"

Shikaku looked up from a bit of paperwork and scratched at his chin. "Well, I promised Naruto I would help him with shuriken training in a few minutes," Shikamaru could feel his twitching eyebrow threatening to return, "but after that we can play a game." Shikamaru practically beamed. Finally!

Shikaku looked a bit guilty, "We haven't played in a while have we?"

Shikamaru attempted to nonchalantly shrug his tense shoulders, "It's fine…"

Shikaku raised an eyebrow at his son but said nothing.

Shikamaru headed off, footfalls light, happy at the notion of a good game of shougi and the idea of his father's undivided attention, because everyone knew not to interrupt Shikaku Nara when he was playing shougi, or you would find out just how much deadly skill he hid behind all of his lack-luster attitude.

Shikamaru participated in shuriken practice, internally proud that he was still better than Naruto at it, content with the knowledge that his own time with his father would begin shortly.

But that is when things went south for Shikamaru Nara's hopeful plans for the evening.

Kiba showed up to their throwing practice and tried to make it a competition. It somehow devolved into a brawl. Shikaku tried to break it up before it went any further than that but soon enough there were fists flying.

The Nara clan frowned heavily on use of their shadow technique for what would be called discipline so it never even crossed Shikaku's mind to use it to stop the two ruffians. Instead he raced after the boys on foot, pulling them apart and marveling at their flexibility as they bent in unusual, almost infeasible, ways to evade him and slip from capture.

Twenty minutes later two filthy boys were being carted in under the arms of an equally messy Shikaku, to face the stern eye of Yoshino.

Shikamaru gave his father a few minutes to clean up and when he went to the man's room to ask if they could start their shougi match. To his dismay, he found his father asleep on the bed, worn out from the romp through the fields with Naruto and Kiba after his already long day, the latest in a series of progressively long days since their company had come to stay.

Shikamaru clenched his fist and bit down on his lip. Come on!

He turned swiftly on his heal and silently made his way to the door, slipped on his shoes and calmly walked out of the house.

And when nobody noticed or took off after him, Shikamaru wasn't at all surprised.

His feet took him to the Akimichi compound, quickly being pulled into the house by his best friend's mother, loaded down with food and waved off to Chouji's bedroom to "digest" before coming back for more courses later.

"So…" Chouji started as Shikamaru plopped down in the chair for Chouji's desk, resting his head on the palm of a propped up hand. "What's wrong?"

"Everything." Shikamaru grumbled.

"Okay…"

Shikamaru could feel Chouji staring at him and peeled his eyes open to meet his best friend's gaze. "They're jerks. And I'm a jerk. And it all just comes together to make one giant…" Shikamaru swirled one hand through the air, fishing for a word or phrase and coming up empty, "jerk-fest." He finally decided on.

"Jerk-fest?"

Shikamaru nodded once, decisively, "Yup."

"You want to back up for me?" Chouji asked, settling back on his bed, shoulders leaning against the wall that his bed sidled up against.

Shikamaru took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "It's my fault."

"What is?"

"What happened to Naruto."

Chouji just stared at his friend, something like confusion and shock darting about his face. Before he could open his mouth to ask anything, Shikamaru plowed on.

"They didn't know that Kiba was at Naruto's. Nobody even knew that the two could even stand each other except me. If I didn't always watch everyone all the time…." Shikamaru trailed off. It was no use examining 'what ifs.' It wouldn't help anything right now. "So Naruto got hurt and Kiba and Hana got pulled out of their house and don't get to see their mom and it's my fault."

"It's Mr. Inuzuka's fault."

Chouji had said it rather bluntly, which surprised Shikamaru and glancing up he could see that his friend was less than impressed with the Nara at the moment, no matter that he was the Akimichi heir's best friend.

"But they would never have known…"

"They would have figured it out, Konoha isn't a huge place. You just feel so guilty because it happened to be you that Mr. Inuzuka heard."

"Exactly!"

Chouji smacked his face. "For someone so smart you are acting pretty stupid." He said through his fingers.

"I know!"

Chouji raised his head, "You know? So what's the problem then?"

Shikamaru squirmed in his seat. "Everything…" he said again, softly. "At first I thought it would be fine having them around all the time. Mom would have a girl to fuss with and Naruto and Kiba would grab their attention and I could slip under the radar."

"And what happened?"

"Exactly that."

"So, what you thought would happen, what you had been okay with happening, happened…and this is bad?"

"They're so loud! Kiba slams everything and yells and challenges everyone to some kind of race or game, Naruto plays right along with it whenever he's not being the perfect little boy for mom. In the last week he has never complained, not once. He does extra chores, asks for help with tutoring and would rather be in with my mom or dad than out playing with Kiba, which makes Kiba even louder because he wants someone to mess around with, who then tracks me down and won't leave me alone until Hana comes along and bams him one in the head and then they are yelling at each other and then my mom is yelling on top of it…" Shikamaru sighed, "And between work and Naruto and Kiba always asking for training help, my dad is too busy to play shougi or do any of the things that we usually do together…"

"You're jealous that they are taking your mom and dad away?"

"I'm their son!" Shikamaru exploded. "I know there are other kids around, and I can take care of myself, but they should still acknowledge me! But nothing. They are too busy with the others that they don't have time to think about their own kid!" Shikamaru pouted and then did something he hadn't since he was an infant, he pouted. Thrust out his lower lip and crossed his arms over his chest, face turned to the side so that he didn't have to meet his friend's eyes.

"Shikamaru, I'm sure they aren't trying to do that…"

"But they are! They may not be trying to but they are doing it…"

All of a sudden Chouji was laughing. Laughing very hard. He had his arms around his middle and he fell sideways on the bed he was sitting on, consumed by unstoppable giggles.

"What's so funny?!" Shikamaru demanded, granted he was starting to feel the urge to laugh as well.

"You sound like Ino!" Chouji gasped out, stopping Shikamaru up short.

"I…Wha…?!"

"You're whining about not being the center of attention…"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Shikamaru glowered at his friend before burying his face into his arms, crossed over the desk.

"But really! You are acting like Ino! Where is Shikamaru? Where is my best friend who would think this is all such a drag?" Chouji had calmed his laughing down but still seemed to be teasing his first ever friend, and quite enjoying it.

Shikamaru perked up his head and scrubbed at his face. "You're right," he mumbled through his hands.

Chouji smiled proudly and grabbed a bag of chips off of his bed stand, popped the bag open and pulled out the first chip, crunching it satisfactorily as though is celebration of his accomplishment.

"I sound like a selfish brat." Shikamaru grumbled, resting back and trying to see the situation from Chouji's viewpoint.

"A little bit." Chouji agreed. "But it's temporary, they won't be with you forever and then things will go back to normal."

Shikamaru furrowed his brow. He wasn't so sure about that. Lots of things were changing, very quickly. Things that were fundamental to the lives of children. He wasn't so sure that all of them could just be turned back again to the way that they were before. Like – his mom would be used to a kid voluntarily helping with chores! How was Shikamaru supposed to live with that?! And Naruto would be used to a life with people to come home to at the end of the day…

"You just feel guilty because of the thing with Mr. Inuzuka. It's not a normal feeling for you, so…maybe this is just how you deal with it?" Chouji offered up the explanation with raised eyebrows and a half shrug before plunging his hand into the bag of chips and scarfing another handful.

Shikamaru studied his friend. "So…I'm…angry about being guilty…and aiming that anger at Kiba and Naruto and Hana because I don't know where else to aim it at?"

Chouji shrugged, "Maybe?"

Shikamaru sighed, "Such a drag…"

The boys spent a few hours watching the clouds drift by and talking about anything else and for a while Shikamaru felt like everything was back to normal and the world wasn't tilted off its axis anymore. There was no desperate feeling of clinging by his fingernails, because there was no need to cling. This was his and would always be. This friendship with Chouji. Nothing would ever be able to change this.

But then it was time to go home, back to the reality of his madhouse of a home. Kiba would be yelling, Hana would be yelling, Naruto would be yelling at them to stop, his mother would be brandishing her wooden soup spoon and if his father was home he would be exhausted or trying to calm Kiba down because that would calm the rest of them in response.

"What are you gonna do?" Chouji asked as they made their way down the hill.

Shikamaru shrugged. "I still don't think I'm wrong, and I can't change how I feel. I know it's temporary, but I am their permanent kid, I shouldn't be kicked to the side. Even for just a little while."

"Why don't you talk to them about it?"

Shikamaru balked, "I'm not a girl! I'll just deal with it until it's over. Talking it out will just be a big pain and not doing anything but get everyone mad and riled up. It'll be done with soon enough…"

Chouji raised his eyebrow at Shikamaru, wondering if he should mention that with the comparison to Ino…he was being rather like a girl, a specific one in fact, but decided to let it pass. He knew it was really bugging his friend, but Shikamaru was smart – he would figure everything out.