Wise Man, Wise Fool

The girls are picking flowers again. Learning to adapt as being a Kunoichi demands.

The boys learn to trap. Acquiring skills that benefit a ninja.

He however does not, and finds himself watching someone else who also is not joining in the activities.

He sits, inside a cavity the earth has formed into a mountain, shrouded in darkness. That is why the girl can not see him; she is sitting too, against a boulder that stands a few feet from his cave. Hiding from her companions - or perhaps seeking solitude? - he does not know. Shade falls across her form too, from the height of the anticline.

Pink hair covers her forehead, tears stream down her cheeks, flowers come apart at her hands.

She is supposed to be arranging them. He thinks then that she will not make it as a Kunoichi.

"A Kunoichi is only supposed to cry when the situation calls for it, you cry out of weakness" he says softly, not intending for her to hear.

She hears.

He watches as surprise fleets across her features. She blinks at the cave where he sits. Then his words have effect on her.

"I have nothing else to do," she says, looking intently at the mouth of the cave.

"Then find something if being here only makes you unhappy," he drawls out, a bit annoyed by her response.

Her eyes widen. He thinks that perhaps she did not expect to hear him again.

She is silent.

The at last she speaks.

"I suppose," she says, then lowers her eyes back to the mutilated flowers in her hands and lap.

"Troublesome girl," he says in lax exasperation.

She says nothing else, and he as well speaks not a word.

'But at least she stopped crying…'

The day goes on until their instructors call out that it's time to leave.

She stands and goes. He waits until she's out of sight; for some reason he does not really want her to know who was in the cave.

He goes too and thinks of how that girl didn't even turn back; the mediation is fleeting as he becomes aware of the clouds in the sky.

---

He sits inside the mouth of the mountain again, waiting for the sun to go out, for the night to come in.

She is there too, again a little bit away from him.

He should be in the academy, learning to throw Shuriken.

The same goes for her.

She's crying again; the same as a few years ago.

Still silent tears.

Papers fall to her lap in shreds. He thinks back to those flowers.

"No matter what, it will never stop," she says. He wonders is she is speaking in soliloquy.

"I can try as hard as I want, but the only things people will see are those that do not matter." She looks up. "Will you listen, Wise Man?" she asks in half-sob.

Wise man? He thinks that she's crazy. But sees her tear streaked cheeks, rose-rimmed eyes, hopeful expression.

"I'll listen," he agrees.

She smiles, but he can see surprise I her eyes. "Why did you call to me if you didn't really think I would be here?" he questions.

She looks away. "I suppose I thought I merely imagined that voice a while back."

"Start speaking then, I don't have all afternoon."

She is silent.

"I don't know what to say," she confesses.

"What do people see in you that you wish they would overlook?" he asks sighing.

She speaks not again.

"Trivial things," she says after a while.

"Like?"

"My forehead. It's too big."

"That's it?"

"No…my hair…it's a weird color."

"Do you think you would hate those things, if people didn't look at you for them?"

She doesn't say anything for a few minutes.

"That's impossible," she breathes.

They fall into quiet, the sun is replaced by the moon, she stands and goes, he stays and comes out to see the sky.

He steps and hears the sound of crinkled paper under his sandal.

He crouches down and picks them up, one by one opening them from their balled up prisons.

"A+ A+ A+ A+ A+ A+ A+," he reads to himself. The bright red marker that tells him of her accomplishments is easily read in the moonlight.

'I can try as hard as I want, but the only things people will see are those that do not matter…'

---

"Are you there Wise Man?" she calls a few steps away from the mouth of his cave.

He lifts himself on his elbows, having been on his back trying to sleep.

"Wise Man?" she calls again, and he can hear soft footsteps come towards his dwelling. 'She's never approached before,' he thinks, then realizes that if she comes closer still, then his identity will be revealed to her.

"I'm here," he calls, "Stay where you are."

She stops, and sits, waiting for him to speak again.

Back when he first saw her he also had not wanted her to know who he was, simply because he didn't want to meet someone he thought he would never see again, 'she will not make it as a Kunoichi,' had been his thoughts.

The second time they spoke, when she sought his advice, he could not reveal himself because he had told her to give up.

That year was the one when they finally had a class together. Two years to go and they would take the final exams to be considered Shinobi.

She had made it in her own ways. Top of class when it came to book smarts and tactics. Fair skills when it came to battle and weapon training.

However …

"Haruno - your forehead is gigantic…how do you get through the door?"

She'd look away.

"Do you dye your hair…Geez, you have no sense of style…It's natural?!…are you some sort of demon?…creepy …'

She grew her bangs.

'You think you're so smart, huh? Well, I'll have you know that Nara Shikamaru is smarter than you…he's just too lazy to prove it…

She asked the wise man for counsel…

…and finally cried again.

He and Haruno Sakura never spoke in class. She never looked at him. She never acknowledged him.

He did the same.

How could you face someone who you had told to give up? Especially when they had tried so hard to stand.

'You think you're so smart, huh?"

And you were what stood in the way.

'Nara Shikamaru is smarter than you…'

Now?…what could she possibly have to say to the wise man who told her to fall the first time…who could not help her on the second?

"What is it this time?" he finally says.

She looks up at him, and he thinks for a second that she might be able to see him.

She drops her eyes to her lap.

"Do you think I should take the Chuunin exam?" she asks.

What can he say to that?

"I'm not sure if I should. What if I fail my team? I'm so useless when I'm next to them…"

"You aren't," he whispers.

"I'm not?"

He is surprised again. "I whispered that, how did you hear?"

"I'm a Shinobi," she deadpans, "I'm supposed to be able to hear you…"

He is silent, she waits.

"Then take the exam. Try your best, and see what you can accomplish…Shinobi"

She smiles after a while, then stands, and walks off to the village.

"Thank you Wise Man!" she calls out.

---

"I'm sorry for your loss," she says, sitting a handful of paces distance form his person.

"Are you?"

"Yes."

"How long have you known?" he asks.

"Long," she answers.

"You never said anything," he comments.

"You never came out, I just thought you might have liked to keep your secrecy," she explains.

They fall into that silence that is common in their memories of each other.

He speaks. "Why Wise Man?"

She smiles as she sees the silhouette at the mouth of the cave slowly stand. "It's what you are, isn't it?"

He comes out, bored expression firmly attached. "Hardly."

"No?"

"I told you to give up, then I failed in giving you any advice…how does that make me a wise man?"

He holds his hand out to her, she takes it, and he pulls her easily to her feet. "When you told me to give up, it was like a wake-up call. It was 'Sakura, stop crying! Either act like a proper Kunoichi and stem the tears…or give up.'"

He doesn't let go of her hand. "And the second?" he inquires, not eagerly, but she can see that he would ask in such a way if it was in his character.

"The things that people saw…I blamed my misery on those. But - you asked me 'Do you think you would hate those things, if people didn't look at you for them?' - and I - I realized that they were only my appearance…and that if I learned to pay no mind to it, then it would not get in my way."

"I don't think I ever though I helped you," he confesses.

She smiles, her hand tightening as she realizes he hasn't let go. "The third…you told me to do my best…because I was a Shinobi, and acknowledged myself as one…that was true wise man advice. I never thanked you for it."

"You don't have to," he says. "You took my advice, that's all that mattered then, and matters now."

Quiet falls again, hand in hand they make their way, in his lead, to the memorial stone to visit the memory of an important person.

They sit in front of it, in silence, pray holding on to each other.

"Hey Nara Shikamaru?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe you disguised yourself…but I always knew your voice."

"…Is that how you knew it was me?"

"Yes."

"But I never spoke to you in class…"

"That doesn't mean that I had never heard you before, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot…in fact you yourself have dubbed me as wise man, how can a wise man be an idiot?"

"You got me there…maybe I should change your name? Wise Fool sound good to you…?"

"Don't push it…forehead."

"Shut up, Wise Fool."

"…That second time…I can't believe you got all A+'s on the written finals…must have been the forehead…"

"It never fails," she says, laughing.

They fall silent again, and he hears her humming after a while. She's taken one of the white flowers that grow in the grass, she's arranging it with others into a crown.

I know I promised ShinoSaku...but I just had to finish this one. I became inspired by a fic at the ShikaSaku livejournal com. and I couldn't help it.

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