Chapter 9 Team Prepares – Konoha's Lazy Genius

Shikamaru found that he had most of the items he needed on his person already from the meeting. He already had his Chuunin vest on, all his kunai holsters were full, he had his special equipment which included explosive notes, and flare bombs which was used to help his shadow techniques if necessary. Shikamaru also had a folded up map of the fire country that he kept in his weapons pouch at all times.

When he got home and smoothly dodged his troublesome mother, he began packing three changes of outfitting in total, only variation being the colour of each outfit changed from black, to dark blue, then forest green. Colours that Shikamaru found were perfect for blending in with the natural environment that was around most of the fire country. However his mother, and to an extent, Ino scolded him every time when he wore complete green, as his vest was green as well, and made him look like some sort of walking bush, or worse a wannabe Gai or Lee. Since ignoring them was becoming too troublesome, Shikamaru, against his free will, had to order a custom chuunin vest that was black, which he only wore when he combined it with any form of green dressing.

'As long as it keeps those troublesome women off my back, so be it.' Since carrying around an extra vest was a little…unpractical, he had to purchase a sealing scroll, which to his further dismay, was worth a C rank missions entire pay to purchase the single scroll. The sealing master assured him that he could fit up to ten items in the scroll, as long as their physical size was no bigger than 5 feet in height and width. The scroll however could not seal living objects, that model was worth an A ranks pay.

Shikamaru did admit though, that the scroll did have its uses for long term missions, and was even willing to go as far as seal his entire backpack within it, and simply clip the one and a half foot tall scroll to his belt.

'Actually…screw It.'

He sealed his backpack into the scroll. Using his shadow jutsu, Shikamaru slid his shadow downstairs and opened the fridge door, and grabbing some fruits, his water canteen, and a plastic sealed meal of remaining chicken from dinner last night. Once he successfully brought the foods back to his room, he too sealed them into the scroll, leaving two slots remaining.

"I see you are now unlocking the full potential of the Shadow techniques now, Shikamaru." Said a sarcastic, yet familiar voice that belonged to the one and only, Nara Shikaku.

"Indeed, maybe with extra training I can use it to wash the dishes as well while I sleep or am watching the clouds outside." Shikamaru added, feigning being proud for his extra use of his talents.

"Yes...and I suppose this legendary S ranked jutsu is titled Kage zatsueki no jutsu?"

Shikamaru couldn't hold back the chuckle to that. "Shadow chore technique...I like it, good work dad."

Shikaku decided to end their little game there, "Your sensei is waiting outside for you."

Shikamaru turned and blinked a few times in confusion at his father, "Why didn't you invite Asuma-sensei in then?!" Shikamaru grumbled.

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Sarutobi Asuma waited outside the Nara household, Asuma simply wanted to wish Shikamaru good luck on his mission, like he did for all of his former students before they left. When Asuma noticed the front door was starting to open, and naturally assumed it was Shikamaru, seeing as he asked his father to flush the lazy genius out of hiding.

"About time Shika...maru..."

Asuma looked dumbfounded when he found nothing standing in the now fully opened front door.

It wasn't until he noticed a dark shape appearing to form right by the door, did his eyes narrow. "Don't tell me...he has gotten THIS lazy." He said to no one in particular. When the shape formed into a hand and gave the gesture to come in Asuma could not believe his eyes at all.

Asuma did as he was 'instructed' and came in shaking his head and muttering something about 'lazy ass brat' although the constant shaking of his entire body from his laughter betrayed what he was saying.

"Nice trick don't you think Asuma-sensei?" said Shikamaru, who was sitting comfortably at the kitchen table, looking at his map.

"I must admit it is quite clever, though it does go to show how lazy you are really becoming." Asuma said, still lightly chuckling. S

hikamaru smirked "Remind me to try it out on people more often, your initial reaction was priceless."

At this Asuma was at a loss, and he turned his head in the general direction of the front door to check if his memory was serving him right. When he confirmed his suspicions were correct he turned back to his former student.

"Shikamaru...how did you see me from here? I don't see a window that has a decent view of the front door."

Shikamaru gave off a lazy and partly drowsy sigh and then responded "My father has been teaching me how to use my shadow to give me foresight. While I cannot see both normally and through my shadow at the same time, I can temporarily see objects and movement in my shadow. It is not the same as normal sight however, to be honest it's more like a surrounding darkness, and motion of any kind draws a kind if bright light."

Asuma's eyes were wide and his mouth agape enough that his cigarette dropped out of his mouth.

"By the way Asuma-sensei, I've told you many times that my mother doesn't allow smoking in our house."

"Its......not.......lit." Asuma staggered, as he struggled to pick up his cigarette, still clearly in shock.

Shikamaru snickered. "Is it honestly that hard to imagine me doing training of any kind?"

Asuma was slowly recovering but managed to say, "Do you really want me to answer that question, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sighed again and muttered his usual 'how troublesome'.

By now Asuma had recovered, "That must have taken a long time to learn, the shadow techniques of the Nara clan are indeed amazing."

Shikamaru by now started placing markers on his map but continued the conversation. "It's a technique Dad has been trying to teach me ever since I got promoted to chuunin, at first I honestly thought it was too troublesome and showed no interest in it."

Shikamaru briefly paused, showing some signs of hesitation, but continued anyway.

"After the incident with trying to bring back Sasuke, it no longer became so troublesome."

Asuma knew how his student was mentally when he found out about his other teammate, not to mention his best friends condition, when the mission was reported as a failure.

"Shikamaru..."

Asuma started but was silenced by a dismissive wave from the shadow user, "Bringing back the past is too troublesome, I've moved on Asuma-sensei."

Shikamaru stated giving his sensei a convincing smirk, which Asuma obliged to with his own smirk

Shikamaru continued "The Jutsu is classed as A ranked, and surprisingly doesn't require large amounts of chakra to keep active. The main problem I have found though is that my so called 'eyes' can only be in one part of the shadow at one time, so it's not as if I can see everything that my shadow stretches to all at once. It is called ankoku metsuki or darkness eyes, it is only useable by wielders of the dark and light chakra, which is the required elements for a shadow to form after all."

Asuma nodded, while taking a seat opposite of his former student "So basically, its exclusive to the Nara clan...like all your jutsu's are." Shikamaru shrugged, "More or less."

Shikamaru had a quick glance outside at the sun to determine the time, since getting up to look at the clock in the other room was too troublesome.

"Forgive me Asuma sensei, but I will have to go and meet up with the team soon."

Asuma nodded again in understanding, "May I have a quick rundown of your mission then?"

Shikamaru enjoyed giving brief rundowns of his missions. He found it less troublesome and seemingly was an expert at shortening a potential hour story, into a couple of sentences.

"Protection mission in Wave country, the threat, an evil organisation that bullies their way to earn their livings, B ranked, but can be potentially a higher or lower rank depending on possible shinobi presence. Team members consist of Me, Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto."

Asuma's interest spiked at mention of a certain blonde haired shinobi. Shikamaru answered Asuma's question before he could ask.

"Naruto will be meeting us at wave, Jiraiya-sama has some sort of important task to do, and doesn't want Naruto around for it, so he requested Hokage-sama add him as a mandatory team member for the mission."

Asuma lipped out a voiceless 'oh', then spoke again while scratching his short beard. "It seems to me this mission could either be a walk in the park, or potentially bad."

Shikamaru gave his acknowledgement with a yawn before speaking.

"The team originally was without Sakura, but I persuaded Tsunade-sama to add her, this mission has too many variables to risk the exclusion of a medic-nin."

Asuma grunted in agreement, "I hear Lee got promoted to chuunin, at least that is what Gai is 'singing' while adding statements about the boy's youth."

Shikamaru nodded, rolling his eyes at the part about Lees arguably crazy sensei, and Asuma continued.

"I saw his match at the last chuunin exam, the boy indeed has come a long way. it is amazing that he has come so far with only taijutsu."

Shikamaru couldn't help but sigh, "You know, at first I thought he was exactly a copy of his sensei, but while waiting for a so called ten minutes for Hokage-sama to get Sakura, I got to know him a little. He seems slightly calmer in comparison to Gai-sensei, and he seems to think quick and logically when he wants to...but then sometimes he basically acts like something akin to Naruto's and Gai-sensei's attitudes."

Asuma watched and listened to his students 'analyses, trying his hardest to suppress a grin at his former student's antics.

"My main problem with this mission Asuma-sensei is, excluding a single mission with Sakura to treat sick villagers, I am not familiar with any of my team member's abilities what so ever. While that one mission accounts for Sakura's vast knowledge in medicine and medical jutsu, I don't have any real knowledge at all of her fighting style, other than rumours of what a few people refer to as 'monstrous strength' similar to Hokage-sama."

Asuma gulped and then replied, "Maybe if you visited training ground 7 after her spars with Kakashi or training with Tsunade-sama, you would see what this 'monstrous strength' is capable of." Shikamaru brushed it off with muttering his typical 'too troublesome' and moved on to his next team member.

"Lee I never have seen him fight after the battle with Gaara almost 3 years ago, and I was away on a mission to Suna during the last chuunin exam and didn't get to see his fight. Assuming what you have said about him earlier though is true, he must have improved even more from that battle. Yet I don't know any jutsu's he can perform, considering he cannot form seals and has to mould chakra through taijutsu, I assume his abilities are as unique as mine in some way."

Taking a brief pause to accumulate his thoughts, Shikamaru finally began on the last team member of his group.

"Naruto by far is the most mysterious one out of all of them. I don't know if his personality has changed, if he has become more 'tactful', if he still wears that bullseye orange jumpsuit, and what his jutsu's are at all. I stopped trying to think with logic and Naruto in the same sentence the moment I saw him perform Kage Bunshin. Just when I thought I had the guy worked out, his second jutsu was a technique only two people in the world could and still can perform." Shikamaru released a sigh.

"You know Shikamaru, your team members are in the same boat as you are about yourself as well as the other members" Asuma stated dryly. Shikamaru blinked a few times before muttering 'Troublesome' then looking at his former sensei.

"Your right Asuma sensei, I guess before we get the mission officially underway, I am going to have our team spar one another in some way. Coordination is vital in teamwork, and it is next to impossible to achieve that if we don't know each other's capabilities or limits." Asuma nodded, proud at his former students proposed solution.

Asuma looked out at the sun, "You better get going Shikamaru, you haven't even packed yet and you're...going.......to.....be...."

Asuma stopped speaking and narrowed his eyes at a summoning scroll that Shikamaru pointed to that was attached to his belt. Asuma spoke in a monotone voice.

"Don't tell me you just sealed all your equipment in that!"