Chapter 2: How Troublesome! Me, a Jounin?
It was noon-time, the busiest time of day for all. People out in the food market sold fish, meat, and vegetables like no tomorrow, and the customers attempted to bargain like they have no money. Genins would start another mission, and chuunins were left with a short break period between classes to chat among themselves. Jounins would either be training or on a mission along with the genins they are assigned to supervise.
Meanwhile, at the park, Shikamaru and Chouji intensely battled it out. But just as it started, it quickly ended.
"Checkmate," Shikamaru said with a yawn.
Chouji frowned and sighed. "Ugh, not another loss..."
"You're getting better though, Chouji. Soon you can last to when I at least make my fifth move," he joked.
Chouji laughed a little before he noticed Asuma, Kurenai, and Shikamaru's dad approach his best friend from behind.
Asuma walked up and patted his former student on the shoulder. The lazy chuunin turned around and noticed the three adults.
"What's wrong?" Shikamaru questioned suspiciously.
Asuma took a puff from his cigarette and stared to the ground, as his dad stared at the sky, both trying to avoid having to tell Shikamaru some new information regarding him. Kurenai looked at both men in annoyance as she decided to already come out with the news.
"Shikamaru, you are officially a jounin now. Congratulations!"
Shikamaru just stared at her dully for a while. He then shook it off and faced back to Chouji, whose face was showing shock beyond infinity, to start another game of Shogi.
As he set up the pieces, he replied "Hah, very funny. If it was true, Hokage-sama would've told me about it. Everybody knows she is in charge of promotions and such." Shikamaru let off a half-assed laugh as he took a sip of his tea.
Then a letter was tossed onto the Shogi board from behind. It basically said what Kurenai just said with Tsunade's signature on the bottom. "It's the truth, son. Hokage-sama didn't want to deal with your whining, face-to-face," his dad finally said.
"Yep," Asuma added in.
Shikamaru's face just froze in complete shock. But as soon as every feature on him stood still, his body soon reacted to the fact that he was still in mid-process of drinking his tea.
The boy started to cough like mad. Chouji quickly stood up and pat him on the back.
Shikaku (Shikamaru's dad's name) look at his only son in embarrassment as his son choked. "Suck it up. Just take your new responsibilities and do the job."
Shikamaru turned around and stood up. "But..., but..., I never took a qualifying test or anything...," he hesitated.
"We all know you are more than qualified for the rank, Shikamaru," Asuma stated.
"Yeah that, and the fact that we need a new guy to take that position at the moment," Kurenai added.
"And you couldn't pick anybody else?"
"Well, you were always the obvious choice to promote year after year since you became a chuunin. You always provide other ninjas, including ANBU at times, excellent strategy. That's a huge plus we consider right there. You also have steadily improved in your genjutsu and ninjutsu so that's another plus. There is no doubt you are an excellent leader," said Asuma.
"The fact you never taken any jounin qualification exam is a big minus in you getting promoted, but this situation allows us to make that into an exception," stated his father.
Shikamaru just gave in and sighed. Continuing a losing battle any longer was too troublesome.
"Fine, but if I were to accept this new position, I don't want to deal with any more kids!" Although Shikamaru was fine with being a teacher to the students at the academy, out in the field with them would lessen his lifespan ten-folds.
"Yeah, about that...," Kurenai began. "Since Misuchi Hanaka was seriously injured on a mission several days ago, we need you to take her place to guide the team she was going to receive." Kurenai let out a smile to cheer him up, but Shikamaru just stared up at the clouds.
"The clouds..., they are so fortunate. All they have to do is be there. No problems, no worries, no responsibilities, no anything but nothing. How troublesome it is to be human," he spoke to himself.
He stared back to the others. Then he turned to Chouji, where his best friend gave a reassuring smile. Shikamaru sat back down to continue the game of Shogi. The three adults looked on to wait for his reply.
"Hai, hai..."