Chapter Two

Observing

Shikadai paused from his game with Boruto, realizing his mother was not in the room with them nor was she in the kitchen finishing up the rest of chores. He set his controller down on his lap looking around the room. He began to feel uneasy with his mother not in the same room doing paperwork or other chores around him. His eyes wandered around the living room. Still no sign of his mother. He couldn't sense either of his parents' chakra making him grow concerned. He set the controller down deciding to go look for her. He peeked outside to the back porch. No Temari. He stopped to look around more in the house thinking where she could be. His brain immediately went to his father's office. He went upstairs to go check. Sure enough he saw a light peeking out of the door. Silently he went to open the door handle when he heard his mother huff in annoyance.

"Five days, Tem," he heard his father's lazy baritone voice sigh.

"Seriously?" Temari's voice began to rise. "A five day mission - is he stupid? Are you kidding me Shikamaru? He wants to take you on a perilous journey for that long and you may run into a dead end."

"Troublesome woman," Shikamaru droned. "We both don't want to go, but if we can find

"Naruto takes you for hours to work on paperwork that he himself should do," his mother's voice snapped.

"I'm his advisor, it's my job to help get through stuff."

"Has he seen his kids in person?"

"Actually yes. If he doesn't he's worried that Boruto may do something bad."

"And what about Shikadai?"

Shikadai heard his father sigh heavily muttering 'what a drag woman' before responding. "Shikadai can take care of himself. He isn't as troublesome as Boruto and if he's anything like his old man, he'll just laze around probably and just be chill about things."

Shikadai heard his mother snort and walk towards the door. His pulse rose as he ran as quickly as he could down to Boruto who looked at him with concern. Deciding best to ignore Boruto, he picked up his console trying to look interested in his game not caring if Boruto beat him.

He watched as his mother walked into the living room. She seemed much moodier lately than she usually was. Was it because his father wasn't coming home much? In some ways he could understand why Boruto acted the way he did. Shikadai was beginning to feel left out. His father had to cancel practice with him and his mother was feeling rather sick a few days ago and could not work with him; leaving him stuck with training with Inojin and Chocho. Not that he was complaining about training with his friends, but they weren't really doing much. Aunt Ino had tried training him some basics of the shadow jutsu, but she couldn't really help him with his shadow sewing technique. She had said that there were only three people who really knew how to cleanly do the technique and it was beyond her ability to explain to Shikadai. This left a feeling of disappointment inside Shikadai. His mother tried helping him as much as she could, but he spent most of his training with her one close battle tactics and wind release jutsus. She had also just straight up told him that he would learn better from his father with those techniques. She would help build up his stamina and train him to further his abilities once he's mastered his jutsu's with his father.

Shikadai sighed setting his controller down again onto his lap. His mother noticed his dramatic sigh, her brows furrowing down into a scowl at him. Boruto was becoming bored with his game. Shikadai's lack of attention to the game with him was growing dull, as he was winning one too many games. He leaned back in his chair and watched Shikadai walk over to his mother.

"Are you alright mom?" he asked with his arms behind his head.

"I'm fine kid," she said softly. "I have something important to tell you tomorrow." She eyed Boruto telling Shikadai that it was family business and Boruto didn't really need to be involved. Shikadai nodded once. She left him alone with Boruto as she went outside saying she needed to tend to some deer.

"Do your parents argue much?" Boruto cut the silence.

Shikadai turned to face his yellow haired friend shrugging. "I'd rather not discuss that."

"Come on Shikadai," Boruto whined, "anyone could tell your parents just had a disagreement."

Shikadai's eyes hardened. "So?"

"I'm just observing," Boruto put his hands up in surrender. "I mean you made it obvious you were doing the same thing, since you weren't taking the game seriously."

"Do you have a point Boruto?"

Boruto shook his head. "I think I'm going to go home. I don't really want to experience your dad's wrath. He didn't look to happy with me when he came home."

Shikadai agreed and waved Boruto good bye. Shikadai began to dread what was to happen tomorrow. He wasn't sure if it was good news or bad news. By the sound of his mother's voice earlier, she wasn't very happy with his father.