To Feel Alive
Asuma Sarutobi looked up from his novel as Shikamaru walked in.
"Ah, Shikamaru, how are we feeling today?"
"Fine."
"Ready for your first day of work?"
Shikamaru nodded.
"I'll run you through what you have to do then. Nothing too complicated."
Asuma showed Shikamaru how to add a member to the club and gave him a tour of the office section of the house.
"That's about it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them, most of the regulars know how to sign in every day, we're not too busy around this time anyways.
"There isn't training on Sundays, that's when we balance the accounts from the week, again, there isn't anything too hard about it."
"Okay, grand."
He sank down into a black plastic swivel chair behind the computer and gazed out the window.
What a dreary Saturday.
"Hey!"
He spun to face the source of the voice.
It was a club member, not one he recognised.
"I was asking for the key?"
Shikamaru felt himself tense up at the person's arrogant tone, but pushed his exasperation aside.
"For the locker-room?"
"Well duh!". The girl had red hair and her hand was stuck to her hip, making Shikamaru think of an aggravated teapot.
He reached into one of the desk drawers and took out a key with a Rubik cube chain attached to it. He was about to hand it to the girl when it slipped from his grasp and fell to the table.
He swore and reached for it again.
"Shaky." The girl commented. He glared at her and snatched up the key, instantly regretting the action as a sharp pain shot up his arm.
He shoved the key into her hands before he lost his grip again.
When the girl left, he looked at his hand which had started spasming. He held it tight with his other hand and winced in pain as he felt his wrist cramp.
The twitching subsided after a minute or so and he turned to face the door just in time for another person to walk in.
It was a girl again, and he recognised her as the one who was always ahead of the rest of the group.
She walked up to his desk and crossed her arms as she lay them on the smooth mahogany surface, leaning over to reach it.
"You're new." She commented, inspecting him with careful teal eyes.
"I've noticed."
"Not one for conversation?"
"Nope."
"Fair enough." She stood up and tightened one of her pigtails. (Who needs four pigtails?!)
"Can I have the locker-room key then?"
"Someone's already gone ahead with it."
"Cool,"
And she was gone without another word.
A steady flow of people arrived and by two o'clock the entire group was ready, bar a few people who hadn't bothered showing up for training.
"Right," the coach called as he walked into the room, hardly even glancing in Shikamaru's direction.
"Any newbies?"
No one spoke.
"Good."
The coach ran through their training program for the day using a small handheld whiteboard.
"Temari will lead the warm ups and Tayuya will be in charge of the cool downs. We're going to do circuit one sprints, that's one hundred metres, and then we'll go for the park run. after that we'll do either high jump or long jump. Any preferences?"
A few mumbles resonated around the group but only a couple stood out.
"I'm hearing high jump. High jump it is."
He turned to Shikamaru.
"You're the new guy?"
Shikamaru nodded.
"Asuma talked you through your duties?"
"Only for the admin."
The coach nodded.
"I'm Iruka, I'll explain what you have to do during training sessions."
He turned back to the group which consisted of sixteen people.
"Sign yourselves in and I'll see you all outside in five. "
Shikamaru took out a sign in sheet from one of the cabinets and wrote the date at the top of it before placing it on the desk.
The runners came forward and wrote their names on the sheet along with the time.
They headed outside and Shikamaru went with them, locking the clubhouse door behind him.
"So, our new helper..."
"Shikamaru,"
"Right, our new helper Shikamaru is replacing Daimaru, lets give him a proper Ath Club welcome!"
A few greetings were mumbled around the group, though most people just rolled their eyes or continued the conversation they were having with the person beside them.
Iruka cleared his throat and continued.
"Um, can someone volunteer to give him a tour and run him through his duties?"
No one raised a hand so Iruka sighed and chose himself.
"Temari, you know this place better than I do. Give him the tour."
The blonde girl with the four pigtails looked offended.
"I can't do that, I'm doing warm ups."
"Someone else will do those."
Deciding not to argue, she walked over to Shikamaru and unceremoniously introduced herself.
"I'm Temari, welcome to hell."
She pointed to the clubhouse.
"That's the Den. We sign in there and that's where the changing rooms are. The grassy area is just called the Field. We do our warm ups there and our sprints and jumps are done behind the Den. We have tracks and shit there.
"Equipment is kept in the Den. Your job is admin and time keeping, you are also expected to organise coaches and lodgings for us if we have competitions. The rest of your admin work has probably been explained already."
He nodded.
"Iruka coaches us on Wednesdays and Saturdays, Gai coaches us on the other days. That's about it. If you have any questions, ask them now."
He had no questions.
O
The day wasn't tiring.
He timed the members as they sprinted with a bulky plastic stopwatch, and that was about it.
As they went for their long distance run through the park, he stayed at the Den and filed away the paperwork from the people who had signed in earlier on.
The job wasn't as troublesome as he had originally anticipated.
After the group returned from their park run, he helped Iruka to set up the vaults for the high jump and was sent back into the Den to get the large gym mat.
He found it easily enough, but the moment he laid his eyes on it, he knew he wasn't going to be able to bring it out.
Deciding against asking for help, he held a corner of it and began pulling it outside with much difficulty.
"Need some help, kid?"
He spun around to see an amused Temari smirking at him.
"Nah, I'm good."
"Looks like you're struggling."
"A man can't let a woman do his job."
Temari looked stunned for a moment, but her expression quickly turned to one of pure rage.
She stormed over to him, and for a second he thought she was going to hit him, but instead she grabbed the corner of the mat from his hand and hauled the entire thing over her head, storming out of the Den as though it were light as a feather.
She had to angle it slightly as she passed the doorway where she turned to him and glared.
"Don't call yourself a man when you can't even lift a ten kilo mattress, dick."
And with that she left him alone in the den with an aching shoulder and a bruised ego.
O
When the group finished the high jumps- which Temari excelled in- everyone helped with bringing the equipment in.
They then took to the showers and changing rooms, joking and chattering about their day of training.
Shikamaru stayed at the desk, leaning his head in his hands and listening to the sounds of laughter and running water and felt that aching again.
Not the physical pain he was regularly subjected to, but an aching sense of longing.
He longed to be like them.
Laughing, joking. Running.
"How was your first day?"
He noticed Iruka was standing before him.
"Good."
"Asuma was glad to find someone to admin part time, he gets sick of not doing much very easily. I'm glad you took the job. You did well."
He paused for a moment.
"Er, I heard about your condition, if I'd known earlier I wouldn't have made you gather the equipment or-"
"It's fine, there were no difficulties," Shikamaru cut him off.
Iruka nodded, but Shikamaru could tell he didn't believe him.
"I'll see you next week then, Shikamaru. Have fun with Gai."
Shikamaru headed home and only had to pause twice to calm the pains in his shoulder and ankle.
He felt alive.
A/N: Alrighty, I we have a winner! A guest who goes by a01 hath guesséd correctly :) (sorry, I sometimes speak in Shakespeare) hehe. Thank you for reading mate, well done on making the link. :p I'll consider ayingChan a close second for some good guesses.
Don't worry if you're completely lost, I honestly wrote this in the middle of the night. The only reason I've kept this going is because this is fairly important to me (Ugh, sappy) and I've already finished writing it. I'm only editing it now, I don't think this will be much more than ten chapters long, plus the chapters are fairly short.
Quality not quantity, amirite?
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