(A/N) For the few people of you who actually reviewed the last chapter; thank you. For those of you reading this chapter; Happy new year! For those of you who asked; no, I doubt I'll ever make Shikamaru and Tayuya have sex. Even if I did, I doubt I'd write anything explicit seeing as lemons aren't exactly my thing.
I forgot to mention this in the last chapter but there might be some remote manga-spoilers in this story regarding characters and the like. You have now officially been warned.
Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto are all property of Kishimoto-sensei, I own nothing.
Issues
Chapter II
"So, you're saying your name is Tayuya-san?" Ino asked, smiling politely at the girl sitting across from her.
"Yup…" Tayuya more or less answered, nursing a throbbing headache due to last night's alcohol-intake.
"And…" Ino continued, still smiling pleasantly at her, "…you're going to live here with Shikamaru for an undecided amount of time?"
"That's right…" Tayuya gave a small nod in response, wincing as her brain was almost flipped over like a fried egg by the slight movement. At least that's what it felt like.
"And you'll also be expecting him to provide you with food as well?" Ino cocked her head to the side, her eyes crinkling up happily in accordance to her smile.
"Uh-uh."
"And you'll continue to do so until he finishes this 'job' that you've asked him to do…" Ino continued, resting her chin in her hands as she leaned forward over the low table in Shikamaru's living room. "A job that you won't even give me, his secretary, a single detail about, not about what he has to do or anything at all that would be expected to be put in a contract?"
"Damn straight." Tayuya answered with a small smirk, resting an elbow on the table.
Ino just continued to smile like an angel, "I see!" She said with a slight giggle, prompting a nervous chuckle from Chouji who was seated on the tatami floor next to her. Suddenly, the blonde's fist came down and slammed into the table loudly, sending the small ashtray sitting peacefully on it flying into the air as her polite demeanor disappeared completely, "Like HELL am I gonna approve of something as utterly ridiculous as that!"
Tayuya grimaced as the loud sounds of both the fist impacting with the table as well as the voice of the blonde girl caused her head to act like the inside of speaker box. She was feeling all the physical and mental drawbacks of drinking known to man, causing her to silently ask herself why she had felt so inclined to drink the night before. Obviously, living on the street brought about its fair share of troubles and the most irritating one was depression. Tayuya had always viewed alcohol to be good for three things only; confidence, manipulation and of course her current favorite; drowning your sorrows. It was so awfully cliché that she almost felt like punching herself for indulging in even the mildest and most private of self-pity and she no doubt would have gone through with that feeling had it not been for the fact that she felt like her head would split in half if she did. Sitting up a little straighter, she leaned over the table to meet Ino's fierce glare with one of her own as she pulled up the sleeves of her large T-shirt up to her shoulders, "Listen up bitch! Just 'cause I've got a hangover the size of your big ass doesn't mean I can't beat the crap out of you!"
Ino sputtered indignantly, her face gaining a furious red color. She had to stubbornly resist the urge to bend her body sideways so that she could inspect her rear. Gods forbid that that her butt was big considering all the dieting she insisted on doing, "Wha-What the hell!? Y-You flat-chested bitch!"
Tayuya stiffened, her face heating up as her anger rose even further, "Flat-!? Why you…!" Planting her hands firmly on the table, she leaned so close to the other girl that their noses were practically touching, sparks flying.
Chouji looked on helplessly as the two women glared daggers at each other, growling like a pair of lionesses fighting for dominance over the other. He cast a glance over at Shikamaru who was sitting off to the side, next to Tayuya, silently begging him to step between them before somebody got hurt. He nearly fell over in shock as he saw his friend sitting there with his head in his arms, snoring quietly. He should have expected it though, from what he had heard, Shikamaru had been wide awake all night, terrified of falling asleep lest he move in his sleep and rouse the wrath of the drunk girl who had appointed him as her own personal cot.
The plump young man gave a sigh that sounded awfully close to a whine as he rose up a little and held his hands up. He forced a smile to his face as he set in motion his plan of calming the two alpha females down, "N-Now, now…calm down you too…"
The response was immediate. Both women turned on him, each brandishing a loud answer of their own. While Tayuya's "Shut up, fatass!" would no doubt have sent him off into an angry frenzy of his own, he was currently too scared to be temperamental.
"This bitch is too much!" Ino declared loudly at the same time, pointing in a quite rude manner at Tayuya…or, to be more precise, at her chest, Tayuya in turn glaring down at the offending finger, "There's no way I'm just going to calm down and say 'oh, it's quite alright, please, by all means, take up residence here with one of my best friends and elope with him like there's no tomorrow'!"
Tayuya blushed vividly, both out of anger and out of embarrassment, "What the hell!? Who the hell would wanna 'elope' with this guy!?" She pointed to her side at Shikamaru's pointy ponytail, which was currently sticking straight up like some sort of black cactus.
"You were practically all over him, you slut!" Ino said accusingly, stabbing her finger through the air in the other girl's direction.
Tayuya slammed both her fists down on the table, causing Shikamaru to stir slightly in his sleep but he didn't wake up, "I was drunk off my ass and just fucking fell asleep on him! Big fucking deal!" She sat back and crossed her arms, stubbornly looking away from the blonde girl, "Besides, if we were gonna elope, we'd have to run away for it to actually be fucking 'elopement'. Learn what the damn words mean before you use them, stupid."
"Hey! I'm perfectly fluent in my own language, thank you very much!" Ino in turn, crossed her own arms and looked away as well, turning her nose up for good measure, "I'm pretty confident that 'eloping' means having intercourse."
Tayuya gave a mocking snort, turning to look at Ino with a nasty smirk, "That's 'ero', you dumb blonde."
"What was that!?"
"You want some of this!?"
Chouji sighed, hanging his head. He didn't have the heart to tell Ino that Tayuya was right. This had escalated far enough already, "Uhm…can we get back on topic again?"
The two women turned on him once more, blinking in confusion as if they'd forgotten why they were arguing in the first place. Ino was the first to recover, "Ah. That's right." She cleared her throat and placed her hands in her lap in an effort to appear professional. Her posture didn't stop her from turning her glare with full force on Tayuya though, "Anyways, you living here is completely unacceptable."
Tayuya propped her elbow up on the table and rested her cheek against her knuckles, leveling Ino with a bored look that was surprisingly Shikamaru-ish, "Uh-huh, and why's that?"
"That's obvious, isn't it!?" Ino yelled, fighting to keep what little composure she'd managed to gather together, "A man and a woman, unrelated, unmarried, living together. Someone like Shikamaru has a reputation to live up to, you know."
Tayuya merely closed her eyes and gave a sigh of irritation, "Then I'll just fucking marry him, problem solved. I'll divorce him as soon as he's done with the job, that way I can get a little extra cash from when we split his money." She smirked. Chouji had just opened a bag of snacks, the situation apparently making him hungry. He choked on a mouthful of chips as he heard Tayuya's solution.
Ino looked absolutely horrified, not to mention scandalized, at Tayuya's words, "D-Don't joke around!" She slammed her hands down on the table and glared furiously at the redheaded girl. Tayuya was somewhat surprised that the table was still standing on all four legs despite all the abuse it had endured during the last few minutes. "You can't just go around marrying someone you don't even love like that and then divorce him just to get his money, you damn gold-digger!"
Tayuya merely raised an eyebrow at the girl, finding her reaction sort of amusing. Her proposal was merely a joke, of course, but that didn't mean she couldn't fuel the fire just a little more, "Why not? It's not like I'm doing it to get his money, that's just a bonus." She gave a shrug, smirking cheekily at Ino, "Besides, people marry complete strangers all the time." She gave a wave of her hand, turning her head away with a smug look on her face, "Well, I suppose it's only natural for an uneducated brat like you to have never heard of an omiai before."
Ino gritted her teeth. It was true that omiai and arranged marriages were quite normal in Japan even in that day and age. Strictly speaking though, an omiai was merely a meeting between families to see if the two 'candidates' were suitable for marrying each other, "That's still out of the question! You still can't marry someone and then just divorce them!"
Tayuya was nonchalantly digging some ear wax out of her ear, not even looking at Ino as she answered, "People divorce all the time too, you know."
Ino growled in frustration, curling her hands into fists in her lap, trying really hard to suppress the urge to slam them down into the table again, "That's not the issue here! Marriage is a sacred thing!"
Tayuya made a sound of annoyance. Her headache had finally toned down a little but that didn't mean she wasn't irritated by it, "Ahhh, you're so fucking annoying…" She raised an eyebrow in apparent curiosity at Ino, tilting her head to the side, "Why the hell are you getting your panties twisted about this? It's not like his life is any of your business, you know."
Chouji wincing as the word 'touché' ran through his mind. Ino sat there, mouth drawn into an angry pout as she struggled to come up with a viable reason to be involved in this mess, "I'm…I'm his secretary! It's my job to…to…" She tried desperately to find the right words. Somehow, she didn't think that 'it's my job to get involved with his personal life' would sound too professional.
"To suck his dick?" Tayuya finished for her with a smirk, causing the blonde's face to heat up indignantly. Chouji promptly choked on his chips again.
Still, Ino managed to avoid rising to the redhead's bait as she finished, "To take care of him." Using the same words she had told Chouji earlier that day, she kept her face as passive as she could manage, even though her brows furrowed together in irritation, "Shikamaru got out of a relationship not too long ago. To have you here will only be a bother to him." There, she had managed to save face and act mature while doing so.
Tayuya closed her eyes in disinterest, "Good for him, the sooner he learns that relationships are for fucking idiots, the better."
Chouji had to restrain Ino as she tried to literally pounce on the girl over the table, "Why you-!" There were three things that the blonde girl held close to heart; family, friends and the concept of love. She held things like romance and relationships in high esteem and Tayuya had thus far been treating love and marriage as something that was far, far below Ino's ideals.
Needless to say, this resulted in yet another shouting match between the two women, Chouji trying desperately to hold his friend back while Tayuya kept throwing insults at her. For some reason unexplainable to Chouji, the redhead looked almost happy as she spouted obscenities.
Even though she was shouting in the angriest tone possible, a small grin was tugging at Tayuya's lips. Last night, she had nearly shouted her throat dry at Shikamaru but the lazy sod never rose to the bait. All she received in return for her insults where looks of annoyance and irritation, never did he show any obvious anger. It both annoyed and intrigued Tayuya. No matter what kind of person you are, if someone keeps giving you a verbal beating you will inevitably snap sooner or later. Shikamaru, however, had not snapped. Tayuya digressed. She always finished what she started and even though she had at first been out for an apology, she soon made it her personal mission to cause the lazy man to show anger. In an almost desperate move, she took the chance when he left the door open and made herself at home in his apartment. She had watched gleefully as his irritation escalated, feeling that she was close to winning this little thing she had affectionately dubbed a 'battle'. However, as soon as she heard of his profession, all thoughts of simply making him snap for her enjoyment left her. She had met him out of pure coincidence and yet there she was, in the home of a private investigator. She simply couldn't let the chance slip from her fingers and so she held onto it for dear life. The fact that she still managed to make Shikamaru start bashing his own head in was a bonus of course.
"Ah! I-Ino! We're gonna miss the train!" Chouji shouted suddenly, actually managing to make himself heard over the two women's loud voices. He was holding Ino by the waist to keep her from scratching the living daylights of Tayuya when he had happened to glance at his wristwatch.
Ino's head snapped up to look at a clock hanging on the wall, something she had personally bought for Shikamaru as a present when he first started his little business. Her eyes went wide as saucers when she realized just how soon their train would depart, "Shit! Chouji, grab the presents will you?!" She said frantically, getting to her feet. Nodding quickly, the chubby young man hurriedly got up and went to collect the shopping bags containing all the gifts Shikamaru had bought, "And you!" Ino said loudly, stalking around the table to get to Tayuya, "You're leaving, now!"
Tayuya nearly winced at the look in the blonde's eyes. She really meant business and she certainly managed to get quite the grip on her arm, pulling at her forcefully, "Ow! Lemme go you crazy skank!"
Ino, no longer in any mood to play any games, only grabbed onto Tayuya's arm with both her hands and pulled hard, leaning back as she tried to make the redhead budge, "Get up!"
"Suck a cock!" Was Tayuya's response as she grabbed onto the couch with her free hand, holding onto it like a tick. She planted her butt firmly on the tatami mats, trying desperately to use her legs to keep herself in place.
Suddenly, Ino lost her grip and stumbled backwards, landing hard on her rear with a yelp. Tayuya scrambled to get a hold of the couch with both her arms, moving her legs to latch onto it completely as she glared menacingly at Ino. The effect was ruined however, by the rather childish pout she had on her lips.
Ino quickly got back on her feet, rubbing her head with a frustrated growl, "Oh, for the love of-!"
Ino!" Chouji called out hurriedly, already waiting by the door, his arms full of bags and presents.
Ino made a catlike sound in the back of her throat and shot Tayuya a look that clearly said 'this is far from over' before she hurried over to Shikamaru, "Get up, you lazy bum!" She pulled him to his feet with surprising ease, the young man only half awake when she forced him to put his jacket on before pulling him towards the door, "Go, go, go, go!" She ordered frantically.
Tayuya frowned unhappily, she had hoped to 'discuss' the details of her job with Shikamaru as soon as his two little friends left but she hadn't counted on the fact that they would take him with them. Thinking about it now, she should have expected it. Why would he have a bunch of Christmas presents lying about if he wasn't planning on visiting his family? Still, he should be able to go by himself, dammit!
Thinking quickly, she got up and ran after them, grabbing onto Shikamaru's arm, prompting an angry 'hey!' from Ino when she leaned in and whispered in his ear, "You better get back quickly, fucktard." As Ino moved to grab her, probably hoping to pull her out of the apartment, she quickly let go of Shikamaru and scurried off into the kitchen. Ino growled and, at Chouji's prompting, pulled her friend along, closing the door with a loud slam behind them.
Tayuya peeked out of the kitchen as if making sure that they'd really left. With a sly grin, she held up the keys she had nicked from Shikamaru's pocket, waving them about slightly, silently mocking the blonde girl who couldn't see her anymore.
Shikamaru grumbled quietly to himself as he walked up the road towards his parents' home, his two best and oldest friends flanking him on either side as he struggled to keep a yawn from escaping his lips.
He didn't succeed.
To say that he was tired would be quite the understatement. Normally, Shikamaru was the kind of person who preferred to get at least fifteen hours of sleep every night. He had tried to squeeze in a quick nap on the train but Ino's constant chattering had kept him awake. Some might say that spending so much time asleep is not only bad for your health but also a big waste of life. 'Why spend your time sleeping too much when you could use the time for better things like living and having fun?' someone had once asked him. He had been very close to answering with 'Living is too troublesome' but that would most likely have earned him a number of hours with a counselor.
"You better throw that girl out as soon as you get home. You hear that, Shikamaru?" Ino told him, looking more than a little peeved. Most of the train ride had consisted of the blonde girl badmouthing Tayuya, pointing out every little thing she felt was wrong with her, starting with her foul language and continuing all the way to how she kept her hair and how she dressed.
Shikamaru heaved a sigh, "Right…" Chouji patted him on the back sympathetically, offering a weak smile. Whether the gesture was for his situation with the homeless girl or for Ino's constant nagging, he didn't know.
Of course, he was in no way inclined to let the girl stay and he was even less inclined to take her on as a client. No matter how hard he tried though, no matter how many plans he laid out in his head, he could not for the life of him figure out a way to make the woman leave. Bluntly telling her to get out had proven to be fruitless. Blackmail might have been a good idea if he had anything to use against her, which he obviously didn't.
Giving a mental sigh, Shikamaru realized that he only had two options at this point; either he'd just pick up his phone and call the police or he used force to throw her out. Somehow, he had a feeling that neither of the options would bear much success.
Shifting the bags in his hands, the lazy man gave another sigh as his childhood home came into view. It was a normal-looking two-story building in the outskirts of Tokyo, standing there alone and away from the bustling sounds of the city. For a stranger, it would probably look like nothing but a normal Japanese family home, which was true to a certain degree. Had it not been for the small herd of deer that the Nara family had been raising for about three generations now, Shikamaru himself excluded, then it would have been nothing but a normal family home. He had always wondered how much of a pun a single family could be. For the love of everything not troublesome, he, his father and his grandfather all had 'deer' in their names!
"Ah, finally here!" Chouji exclaimed with a grin, prompting a small giggle as well as a roll of her eyes from Ino.
A thought struck Shikamaru as they neared the front door and he turned to face is blonde friend with a serious expression, "Ino, do me a favor and don't mention anything about that woman to my mom…" He set his bags down in front of the bag and moved to massage his sore neck, "She's still nagging at me about Temari, and I don't want her to get any weird ideas."
Ino huffed as she knocked on the door, not looking at Shikamaru, "Don't worry, I don't wanna talk about that…thing anyway."
'You seemed fine with talking about her only five minutes ago', Shikamaru thought wryly.
He felt a slight twitching sensation going through his jaw, a clear sign that he was about to yawn again. Naturally, Shikamaru gave into the feeling without a fuss. If he had known what would happen next, he would have firmly kept his mouth closed.
The door opened so quickly that Ino and Chouji actually stumbled back in surprise, leaving Shikamaru standing there in front of a middle-aged woman with his mouth wide open in mid-yawn.
"Shikamaru!" Nara Yoshino said in a loud, scolding voice, staring at her only son in disdain, "Why can't you at least try to look a little more awake? Are social gatherings really that boring to you?"
Shikamaru sighed as soon as he'd closed his mouth, causing his mother to narrow her eyes at him. He winced, resisting the urge to sigh again at the look she gave him. "Troublesome…"
The word left his mouth, barely louder than a whisper but Yoshino still heard it as loud and clear as if it had been uttered through a stereo with the volume on max, "What was that?" Her voice was dangerous, carrying a promise that she was going to show him just how 'troublesome' she could be if his answer was not to her satisfaction.
Eyebrow twitching, Shikamaru felt almost like he was fifteen again as he answered, "Nothing." Chouji smiled sympathetically again behind his friend while Ino struggled to hide a giggle.
His mother suddenly broke out into a wide smile, all animosity hiding behind a mask of happiness, "Good!" She turned to his two friends, holding up a hand in apology, "I'm sorry for asking you to take care of my son, he can be such a lazy boy sometimes."
'Understatement of the year' was the thought that ran through both Ino's and Chouji's heads as they both gave the Nara matriarch wide smiles in return, Ino hurrying to say, "Oh, it's no trouble at all!"
Shikamaru grumbled quietly and gently pushed his way into the house, earning a disapproving glance from his mother as he took off his shoes. Leave it to Ino to sweet-talk his mother, she had always been good at that. Of course, the fact that both their families had not so secretly been conspiring to make the two of them start dating played a big role in Yoshino's affection to Ino. Despite all the hints Shikamaru dropped on the matter that he was in no way romantically interested in the girl, finding their relationship to be strictly platonic, their parents either ignored it or were completely oblivious to it. Their efforts had toned down greatly when Shikamaru had reluctantly brought his last girlfriend, Temari, over for dinner though. She had insisted on meeting his parents while he, on the other hand, would have liked nothing better than to keep their relationship a secret from his overbearing mother a little longer. Say, forever.
Still, Temari's constant urging soon overcame his common sense and he had complied with her wishes.
Even though the look of utter surprise on both of his parents' faces had been a rather priceless one, he still regretted it even to this day. Why? Because after the two had broken up, Shikamaru had been subjected to every single torture a caring mother could provide her son with. Apparently, she had thought him to be heartbroken but instead of letting him heal in peace, she had called him nearly every single day for an entire week, asking him if he was alright, if he needed anything, if he was contemplating suicide and constantly dropping not so subtle hints that he should come home so that they could 'talk' about it. She had even gone back to her old ways, suggesting that he should ask Ino out for dinner and let her 'help' him.
He hadn't had time to be heartbroken what will all the fuss. Not that the break-up had really shaken him that badly. He wasn't as cold as to shrug the whole relationship off as if it had been nothing, but he knew all too well why Temari left him so he just accepted the situation for what it was.
"Yo, Shikamaru." His father, Nara Shikaku greeted him with a lazy grin from his place in a big arm-chair in the living room. Practically everyone was there. Well, everyone as in Ino's as well as Chouji's parents and a few friends to the families. It was the same thing every year; the Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka families would all gather together and exchange presents, stories and fun. They had always been a close knit group and it wasn't about to change as far as Shikamaru could tell.
"Yo…" He greeted, equally as lazy, sans the grin. He set his bags down by the door and stretched out his back, wincing as he heard and felt a few audible pops of his joints.
"Is your mom giving you a hard time?" Inoichi, Ino's father, asked with a teasing smile, sweat trickling down his face as he was struggling in his attempt to beat Akimichi Chouza in arm wrestling. For as long as Shikamaru had known the man, he had always tried his best to act 'manly', due to the fact that he had a tendency to like cute things. A way to compensate, Shikamaru figured.
"Not nearly as bad as your daughter." Shikamaru answered with a straight face as he removed his jacket and hung it on a nearby chair, prompting fits of laughter from everyone present as well as an indignant 'Hey' from Inoichi.
Chouza was barely breaking a sweat but he still seemed to decide that it was better to settle the contest quickly and so he took advantage of Inoichi's break of concentration, driving the back of his hand down hard on the surface of the table even as he turned to toss a grin at Shikamaru, "Well, I'm pretty sure she'd be a little easier on you if you just got off your ass and treated her to dinner." The large man's statement was followed by several sounds of agreement from the people listening, as well as a pained nod from Inoichi as he nursed his violated hand, his wife coming over to teasingly 'kiss it better'.
Shikamaru rubbed his temples in annoyance, thanking whatever deity that might be watching over him that Ino and his mother were too busy chatting out in the hall to overhear Chouza's words. How hard could it be for people to understand that he saw Ino as more of a sister rather than an object of attraction?
"Well, seeing as everyone's here already," Shikaku started, giving a grin as he opened a bottle of expensive sake, "Let's drink! We might as well add a few toasts for the marriage that's sure to come, sooner or later." He added, giving his son a sly smirk that coaxed cheers and snickers from those present.
Shikamaru in turn, sighed dejectedly. It was going to be a long evening.
The festivities soon became a little too much for Shikamaru to enjoy peacefully. It didn't take long for his father to engage in a drinking contest against Inoichi who seemed to be determined to regain his honor after his rather meek defeat, literally, at Chouza's hand. As soon as Ino decided to get involved in the contest, Shikamaru fled to the solitude of the backyard. It was rather cold and he hadn't bothered to get his jacket but he could easily manage. Anything to get away from the ruckus inside the house.
Sitting on the wooden, porch-like ledge with the sliding door mere feet behind him, he stared out over the small field behind his family's house where the deer were allowed to roam freely. Well, as freely as the fences would allow them, that is.
Trying to tune out the sounds of the party still going on in the background, he thought about his current situation. To say that it was normal would be a big mistake. He'd never heard of anyone else being pestered by a woman who claimed that she was going to live with them until she got what she wanted. Well, he might have read a manga about a similar situation but that had been a love comedy so it didn't really help him any. Not that it would have been of any help even if the genre was different. There was always a strict line between reality and fiction that Shikamaru tended to avoid crossing.
All he ever wanted was a perfectly normal life. He had already made plans for how his ideal life as an adult would be even before he entered high school. Back then, he had no idea what he wanted to do for a living; anything would do as long as it was enough for him to marry an average woman who would give him a daughter and a son. He would go by his life like any everyday ordinary man until he died of old age, before his wife, of course.
That had pretty much been his dream until a series of unfortunate events led him into his current profession.
Shikamaru gave a sigh that would have reminded people of an already old man if they had been watching. He dug into his pocket and fished out a pack of cigarettes and a worn-looking Zippo. Tracing the engraved symbol that looked so much like a leaf on the side of the lighter, he felt a wave of nostalgia hit him.
He suddenly felt a light weight gently slamming into his back as a pair of tiny arms found their way around his neck. It seemed like he'd been hit by something other than nostalgia. "Uncle Shika!"
Shikamaru couldn't help but give a grin as he recognized the young voice. Looking over his shoulder he confirmed his suspicions that there was a little girl clinging to his back with a cheery smile on her face. The girl didn't look to be any older than four or five years old. Reaching back to ruffle her dark hair, he spoke in a tone that was very different from the usual gruff he normally used, "Hey, kiddo, merry Christmas."
The girl giggled and seemed to be trying to climb up onto his shoulders, prompting a slight laugh from the young man. He hadn't even noticed how the sliding door had opened to give way for the little girl, having been too absorbed in his thoughts. However, the girl was not the only one who had decided to visit him in his solitude, "It's been a while, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru stared up into the crimson eyes of another female he knew well. Her pale face was framed by locks of dark hair that, had it been straighter, would have given her the appearance of a beautiful Japanese doll. He smiled at her, playfully tickling the girl who was currently playing with his ponytail, "Yeah, it's been a while, Kurenai-sensei."
Yuuhi Kurenai gave him a smile in return as she leaned down to get the girl untangled from Shikamaru's hair, "Ayumi-chan, why don't you go back inside and see if you can find some of your presents?"
The little girl named Ayumi immediately lit up like a Christmas tree, excitedly hopping from foot to foot, "Can I?"
Shikamaru chuckled as Kurenai nodded to the girl and he turned to give her a conspiring grin, "There should be a pretty big box in there somewhere with your name on it." His words caused the girl to let out a 'yay' in glee as she gave him a quick hug before she hurried off inside in search of presents.
As Shikamaru turned his gaze back to field in front of him, his hands idly playing with his lighter, Kurenai seemed to take the silence as an invitation to sit down next to him. They sat there for several minutes with the only sound being that coming from the party in the background. It was a comfortable silence, Shikamaru thought, until Kurenai finally spoke up in a quiet voice, "You don't come over as often as you used to."
Shikamaru scratched his head, a nervous habit he had yet to rid himself of, "I've been busy…"
Kurenai glanced at him, her crimson eyes easily distinguishable even in the dim light, "Ayumi misses you, you know." Shikamaru rather liked Kurenai, she was one of the few women that he could manage being around without thinking her bossy or troublesome. Even so, she had a strange air about her and had a tendency to make him nervous when he was around her. Of course, that might just have been because she used to be a high school teacher of his.
Giving a slight sigh, he pulled a cigarette from the crumpled up pack and lit it up, prompting an almost scolding look from Kurenai but she didn't say anything, waiting instead for Shikamaru to answer to her earlier statement, "I'm not really that good with kids…"
Kurenai had expected his response to be something like that and she decided to refrain from pointing out that if he wasn't good with kids then her daughter wouldn't have taken such a liking to him. Instead, she turned her head to gaze out over the field and changed the subject, "Those things are going to get you killed someday."
Shikamaru gave a small smirk, seeing the irony in that statement as he took a quick drag of his cancer stick, "Asuma used to complain on how you always nagged at him about smoking." He turned to give the dark-haired woman a smile, "He didn't seem to mind it though, and he was always grinning when he talked about you. It used to kill my concentration when he went on and on about you while we were playing shougi."
Kurenai gave a somewhat sad smile in return as she glanced at the lighter still in Shikamaru's hand, "How long are you gonna keep holding onto that old thing?"
Shikamaru blinked, looking down at the Zippo. It had several scratches in the metal, the green color that was supposed to fill the leaf symbol had long since faded and there were several black marks on its surface. He clenched his fingers around it before pocketing it once again, "Until I find the bastard who killed your husband." He hadn't meant for his words to be so blunt. Normally he would weigh his words carefully in an effort to avoid misunderstandings and the like but the words just rolled out of his mouth like an automated answer.
Kurenai didn't seem to take any offense to his wording though. In fact, she looked a little exasperated if anything, "It's already been four years, Shikamaru." Her eyes softened considerably as she gave him a sympathetic look that Shikamaru knew all too well. It was the same look nearly everyone around him had given him as soon as the news about his late sensei got out, "Don't you think it's time to move on? I've already left that incident behind, for Ayumi's sake."
Leaning back to rest on his elbows, Shikamaru looked up at the sky, cigarette still placed firmly between his lips, "If you'd really moved on and you're thinking about what's best for Ayumi, you'd have remarried a long time ago. She could use a father figure." His tone was soft and almost casual but his words carried a painful truth. He knew, of course, why Kurenai didn't want to remarry. She didn't want anyone to take Asuma's place as the father of her daughter. Ayumi barely remembered Asuma but Kurenai still didn't want her to start thinking of someone else as her father.
Instead of berating the young man for his words however, Kurenai merely gave him a sly, teasing smirk, "Oh, but you've already claimed the role of the father figure pretty nicely, Shikamaru-kun."
Shikamaru coughed up a small cloud of smoke, Kurenai's words having struck him just as he was taking another drag of his cigarette and prompting him to sit up straight. "You-!" He gave another loud cough, clutching his throat with one hand as Kurenai, chuckling in satisfaction, thumped him on his back. He was starting to reconsider his opinion regarding Kurenai, currently finding her just a little troublesome.
Suddenly, the sliding door behind them was pushed open violently, "Shikamaru!" Said the aggravated and slightly slurred voice that could only belong to Ino. Before he knew it, Shikamaru found himself in an embrace so tight he found it hard to breathe. Ino had assaulted him from behind and was currently squeezing the living daylights out of him, her cheeks reddened by her drunken stupor. The fact that this was the third time an individual of the female species had jumped his back in the span of twenty four hours left him a little irritated, "What're you doin' out 'ere, huh?"
Shikamaru grimaced as he saw Kurenai's amused smile out of the corner of his eye and could easily guess that the people inside the house behind him were watching them with equally as annoying expressions. "Ino, get-"
For some reason, drunken girls seemed to have a knack for interrupting him in the middle of a sentence, "Ah! Are ya smokin' again?" The girl slurred, resting her chin on his shoulder to give him a disappointed pout, plucking his cigarette right out of his mouth and chucking it away in distaste, making the grumpy young man sigh in exasperation, "Ah!" The blonde suddenly seemed to take notice of Kurenai, having somehow missed her when she first came stumbling out of the door. She pulled Shikamaru a little closer to her as she glared at the woman through half-lidded eyes, "Don't tell me you're hitting on Kurenai-sensei now?" Her question caused Kurenai to burst into giggles and Shikamaru could clearly hear the people behind him struggling to contain their laughter. Before he could even deny Ino's question with a simple 'no', she continued loudly, "What's with you nowadays, ehhh?" She started swaying from side to side, pulling Shikamaru along with her. He made a mental note to never let Ino drink in his presence again.
"First ya get dumped by Temari…" Ino continued to grumble loudly, now absently pulling at his ponytail, "And then you bring home some unknown girl who doesn't seem to know any other words than cusswords…" Shikamaru twitched, feeling the hairs on his neck stand on end. If the look of surprise on Kurenai's face was any indication, then everyone else who was listening to Ino's ramblings probably had a look of shock on their faces. He grimaced as he heard something break. Somebody must have dropped their drink in surprise.
Ino started to shake him back and forth like a rag doll, looking far from happy with her friend's apparent playboy nature, "And now you're trying to come onto Kurenai-sensei? Shameful!" She let out a long breath and Shikamaru had another strange sense of déjà vu, "I mean, at least get rid of that annoying redhead fiiirrrssst…" Her words trailed off and soon enough, Shikamaru heard the tell-tale snoring indicating that Ino had fallen asleep against his back. He chanced a thought and wondered just why the hell drunken people seemed to enjoy falling asleep on him.
"What's this I hear about a 'strange girl'?" Shikamaru's back went rigid as he heard the sinister voice of his mother and as he slowly, jerkily, turned his head to find her standing just behind him he could see that dangerous grin that was playing on her lips as well as the angry vein that was throbbing on her forehead, "Eh? Shikamaru?"
The young man opened and closed his mouth several times, for once being at a loss for words. He could faintly make out Chouji standing somewhere behind his mother, giving him a look of sympathy one would give a man facing the gallows. With a tired sigh, he hung his head and said the only thing that came to mind, "I've got issues."
(A/N) Reviews are an authors treasure. Give.