A/N: So this is kind of like a filler chapter - I needed time to think about where I'm going with my story and a couple of other things, so I thought I would give you guys a sneak peek into Shikamaru's head in some of the scenes between himself and Ren. You can see the difference in how they react to one another - and hopefully I changed the writing enough for it to be a change of pace. If you guys like it, I might do this every now and then throughout the story to give a different perspective. Thanks! Enjoy!
Chapter Six
'This test is going to be such a drag.' Shikamaru thought, glancing around at all of the shinobi in the room as Naruto rambled on and on. Shikamaru was standing at the front of the room right before the first exam with the rest of the rookie nine, an odd place for a reunion, no doubt. Asuma had recommended Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru to do the exam and had let them know a few days before. Shikamaru's first thought was that it the whole thing would be too troublesome, but Ino had somehow convinced the Nara it would be a good idea anyway. After a confrontation between this guy Kabuto and a Oto-nin, Shikamaru walked over to the seat that matched the number he had given. There was already someone in the seat next to him, but Shikamaru barely spared them a glance, slouching in his seat and wishing he was at his favorite spot cloud watching and napping while Choji ate his barbeque chips. Yeah, that was the life - easy, no expectations, and no worries.
"I'm Ren." A quiet voice to his left said, causing Shikamaru to turn and face the boy sitting next to him. Shikamaru didn't recognise him, but that didn't mean much - Konoha could be pretty big sometimes, it was hard to know all the faces and Shikamaru honestly didn't try very hard to remember them. The leaf genin was pretty short, sitting primly in his seat, and had his dark hair pulled up into a top knot. There was a braid with some kind of feather interwoven that was hanging beside his headband, and he had a small smile on his face and was looking at Shikamaru expectantly.
"Nara Shikamaru." Shikamaru introduced himself, his lips twisting into a tiny smirk at the shorter guy next to him. The other leaf shinobi nodded before paying attention to Ibiki giving the rules at the front and Shikamaru listened quietly. When the test began, he looked back at Ino and raised an eyebrow; when she nodded, he put his head down on the desk and took a small nap.
After about fifteen minutes, Shikamaru glanced back at Ino and smirked again when he noticed her slumped over; she had already used the mind transfer jutsu to get the answers from Sakura. Great, that meant less work for Shikamaru. Glancing around the room, the Nara saw Ren suddenly writing down the answers to three of the questions; following where Ren kept taking tiny, barely noticeable looks, he saw a girl discreetly doing an odd combination of had signs behind her back. The leaf shinobi next to him saw Shikamaru observing the exchange of answers and gave a small, self-satisfied look at Shikamaru before looking pointedly down at the Nara's test.
'If only he knew.' Shikamaru thought, lips twisting once again. It wasn't too long after that when Ino got into his head and began writing all of the answers down for him - being possessed was always a weird feeling, it was like being controlled by his shadows almost. You could see and hear what you were doing, but you had no control. That was why Shikamaru mentally face palmed when Ino called the guy sitting next to him cute - as if Shikamaru would ever really say that. Then the guy said it back, which Shikamaru honestly didn't know how to take. What a drag.
When Ino was done, he sent a glare at Ino and like the coward he was, just avoided the other ninja's looks until he could leave. It's not like they would be seeing much of each other anyway and hopefully he'd forget about the whole thing before he saw Shikamaru next.
'Sasuke Uchiha, you are such a dick.' Shikamaru thought to himself as he and Choji carted Ino away from where there battle with the Sound ninja had just taken place - they hadn't even gotten a thank you for stepping in, risking their own necks when they didn't have to and while Uchiha and Naruto were asleep. 'What a pain.'
When they had gotten far enough away, Shikamaru and Choji put Ino on the ground and the two relaxed for a moment, thinking of a new strategy and waiting for their teammate to wake up. Choji had just opened up a bag of chips to eat and Shikamaru was considering taking a nap.
"We used a lot of chakra stepping in to help them." the Nara complained to his friend, slouching a little more to get comfortable.
"Well, we just need to rest and wait for Ino to wake up." Choji said, munching on some chips thoughtfully.
"This test is such a drag." Shikamaru responded, and thinking to himself that he had known it would be more trouble than it was worth.
"We still have over two days, Shikamaru." the optimistic Akimichi sitting next to him said, looking around the area they had decided to rest in for the moment. Shikamaru had already catalogued every rock, branch, and leaf in the immediate area when they sat down. "We'll find an earth scroll and get to the tower, no problem."
"Maybe one will just fall from the sky." Shikamaru couldn't help but respond sarcastically
That was when something literally fell from the sky - or, at least, a tree. Shikamaru stood up instantly, getting into a defensive position in front of a defenseless Ino and knew Choji would be doing the same thing. When he looked at who was in front of him, Shikamaru wanted to groan in exasperation - of course it was the shinobi Ino had called cute while in HIS body. Just his luck to run into the guy while they were out in the forest.
Ren had his hands out in front of him, the universal symbol for not wanting any trouble, but they were shinobi - faking peace and then ambushing them or surprising them wasn't really an original idea. "Hey. I just want to talk."
"It's you." Shikamaru said, looking at the other genin carefully and assessing the threat he might pose. The guy looked like he had been through the ringer - his clothes were torn, he had bags under his eyes like he hadn't slept well, and there were bruises on his neck that looked distinctly like hands.
"It's me." Ren replied casually, his posture relaxed and open. "My name is Ren, if you don't remember."
"Nara Shikamaru." the Nara told him for the second time it two days, gesturing to his companion. "This is Choji. What do you want to talk about?"
"What happened to your teammate?" Ren asked instead, diverting Shikamaru's question - which made him narrow his eyes and study the genin a little more. What was he playing at?
"Chakra exhaustion." Choji replied, looking between Shikamaru and Ren curiously. "You know him Shikamaru?"
"Yeah." Shikamaru responded, not thinking about his next words carefully enough. "We sat next to each other in the first exam."
"Oh, that's the guy Ino.." Choji had started to say, but Shikamaru quickly put his hand over his friend's mouth to stop him from bringing up the embarrassing scene. Shikamaru could feel the flush on his face, proudly telling the world of his embarrassment, but he shook it off.
"So what do you want?" Shikamaru asked again, mostly to change the topic but also to get to his original point.
"I can't stop and talk to a cute guy in the middle of the woods?" was the blaise response from the other ninja, who was smirking a little. Shikamaru's eyes widened, not comprehending what he had said fully until Choji started laughing.
"How troublesome." Shikamaru sighed, looking up at the trees quickly while he rubbed the back of his neck, which he could feel was more warm than normal. He then thought of something and looked back at the other shinobi, forcibly relaxing his body to appear non-threatening.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes a little and forced himself not to get any more red than he was now - obviously, the shinobi was trying to fluster him by throwing what he thought were his own words back at him, but it wouldn't work.
"Look, I overheard you guys talking, and I think I can help." Ren said placatingly, a smile on his face. "You guys are looking for an earth scroll, right?"
Shikamaru thought about saying they needed a heaven just to throw the guy off - he might be fishing for what scroll they had before trying to take theirs but Choji beat him to it by answering his question truthfully.
"I have an extra one." Ren said casually, shifting his bag forward. "I'll let you guys have it."
"Why?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously, not believing he was doing it out of the kindness it his heart.
"Because it won't do me any good, and the more of our shinobi in the last part of the exam, all the better for our village, right?" was Ren's response and Shikamaru took a moment to consider this. They were raised with the belief that the village was the most important thing, so it kind of made sense in a warped way - it was why they stepped in for Sasuke's team, after all, but they actually knew them. This guy was a virtual stranger. "If you can answer two of my riddles correctly, it's all yours."
"That's it?" Choji asked, looking at Shikamaru in amazement.
"That's it." Ren agreed, looking at Shikamaru with raised brows. "What do you say? It's not like you have anything to lose."
"Alright." Shikamaru smirked, it must be his lucky day after all. This was exactly his wheelhouse; puzzles and games were exactly the kind of thing to capture the Nara's attention. "Let's hear the first one."
"You can see me in water, but I never get wet." Ren said cheerfully, asking the next part. "What am I?"
'That was too easy.' Shikamaru thought, almost a little disappointed.
"A reflection. Is that the best you've got?" Shikamaru asked the other leaf genin, his tone smug.
"A little cocky, aren't we?" Ren asked with a laugh, looking at Shikamaru with those dark grey orbs that reminded Shikamaru of clouds right before a storm. Shikamaru shrugged in response, careful to keep his expression neutral, but he was amused that someone could be so cheerful and willing to have a small battle of wits in the middle of somewhere called the Forest of Death, especially when they looked as exhausted as Ren did at that moment.
"You will always find me in the past, I can be created in the present, but the future cannot taint me." Ren said, letting out a chuckle as though he was sharing some inside joke. "What am I?"
'This one is harder.' Shikamaru thought, thinking over the words. When the answer wasn't immediate, Shikamaru joined his thumb and fingers and sat back on his heels, crouching for a moment and closing his eyes as he mouthed the words to himself. After he repeated it the third time, Shikamaru had to fight not to grin - of course, it was so obvious.
"History." Shikamaru said, confidant in his answer. He opened his eyes and caught the earth scroll Ren plucked out of his bag and tossed over to Shikamaru.
"Nicely done." Ren praised me, smiling while his eyes drifted over me. "Looks like I underestimated you."
"I still don't understand why you are doing this." Shikamaru said, holding the scroll under one arm and evaluating the puzzle that was in the shape of the leaf genin in front of him. "But thanks anyway, you made this part of the test a lot less troublesome."
"Glad I could help." Ren replied, winking at Shikamaru and then ducking his head a little as his cheeks flushed red. "See you guys at the tower, I need to get back to my own teammates."
"See you there." Shikamaru said, nodding.
"Thanks again, Ren!" Choji said cheerfully, waving at the guy as he jumped back into the tree's and made his way back to wherever his teammates were.
"Well, that was unexpected." Shikamaru said, shaking his head a little at the unbelievable luck.
"Was he flirting with you?" Choji asked, putting a few more chips in his mouth as he chewed thoughtfully.
"Aw, come on Choji." Shikamaru complained, rubbing his neck. "Gimme a break."
"I don't know, Shikamaru." Choji said doubtfully, a frown on his face. That was when Ino started to wake up and the two forgot about the conversation for now. They couldn't wait to see Ino's face when she wakes up and finds out they got an earth scroll - let alone when they tell her how. Shikamaru couldn't help but think about Ren though and the way he was acting before.
'Was he trying to flirt with me?' Shikamaru thought curiously, before clearing his head and focusing on the task at hand. 'How troublesome.'
A/N: Please review!