!*!*! PAY ATTENTION... OBRATITE PAZNJU... POZOR !*!*!
Disclaimer: I did not create Naruto or any of its facets. If I did, Kakashi and Jiraiya would have become partners in business. You know what sort of business I'm talking about. Long live Icha-Icha and its like!
Shikamaru sighed and slouched down the wall until he was sitting on the ground.
The sun was just beginning to rise over the trees, illuminating their leaves and tinting the light faintly green. He was in the shadow of the wall, eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. He was early, but it wasn't by choice. Choji and Ino had come over to his apartment the night before, and, somehow, one of them had managed to sneak off and set his alarm clock for an hour earlier. He seriously suspected Ino had done it when Choji had started cooking, and before she had started bugging him about the details of his mission with Naruto and the Uchiha. He had no idea how she had even found out, although he supposed it was the power of gossip. Never underestimate it.
So now, here he was, early. He placed his fingers together and went over the facts of the mission. The objective of the mission? Protect and gather information. They had to protect Kotone Shimizu, daughter of the Kage of the Yugakure, Takeshi Shimizu. She was seventeen, turning eighteen, a brunette, and female. That was about the extent of the information they had on her. Pitiful, and bothersome. Even if the Yugakure was a minor village that they didn't have much interest in, or contact with, they should know everything they could about them, just in case a situation like they were in now occurred. Now, they were at a disadvantage, and his intelligence couldn't gleam strategies from nonexistent facts. There was one more thing that he had learned in the folder that the Hokage had given him. He was going to act as Naruto's boyfriend for the duration of the mission. What was he supposed to do?
A faint rustling in front of him disturbed his chain of thought, and he opened his eyes, only to stare into a pair of wide, brilliant, sky blue eyes that were looking curiously at him. When had Naruto arrived? How had she managed to sneak up on him? And when had she gotten so good?
She was wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing the day before, and a black and orange bag with a red spiral was slung over her shoulder. The sun was just coming over the wall and highlighting her golden hair.
Naruto smiled at him widely, "Morning, Shika! I'm glad you're here before Sasuke."
"Good morning, Naruto," Shikamaru said, and then took in what she had actually said. "Why are you glad I'm here before the Uchiha?"
"Because, I have something for you, and I don't want Sasuke to see."
That was not the response he had been expecting. She had something for him? His mind ranged over the possibilities, from the reasonable to the absurd to the questionably perverse. Aloud, he asked, "What is it?"
She dug through one of her pockets for a second and then held out her hand. "This!" she said with a flourish.
In the middle of her palm, was a small, black, studded earring.
He picked it up between his index and thumb, and looked at it closely. It was a small half-sphere, shiny and black, and it seemed to have scratched all over its surface. Frowning, he channeled a small amount chakra to his eyes. They weren't scratches, or rather, they were, but they were purposeful. Characters and patterns on a micro level were scratched, silver lines showing through the black, creating a seal. "What is it?" he asked again, though with a different meaning.
Naruto bounced impatiently. "Put it on! Then you'll see," she said.
He didn't make a move to do to. "What is it going to do, Naruto?" He wasn't going to put on an earring, when he didn't know what it would do, until he was sure that it wouldn't fry his brain, or something equally troublesome.
With an annoyed outlet of breath, Naruto snatched the earring from his palm, and settled down onto her knees in front of him. "It's not going to hurt you. Jeez, who do you think you're talking to?" she grumbled. Then, she grabbed his chin softly and tilted his head to the side. He could feel her fingers, slightly calloused, but gentle against his skin, taking out one of his earrings, and putting the one she had given him in.
He shivered. Mind over matter, mind over matter, he chanted in his mind. Somehow, he had the idea that the person who came up with that hadn't been a teenaged boy with hormones who had just found out that one of his friends was really a girl. A hot girl. Mind over matter didn't exactly cover the situation.
Naruto leaned back and grinned at him. Then, there was a faint, almost unnoticeable buzzing in his ear. Great, maybe the thing really was going to blow his head off.
"Isn't it cool, Shika?" Naruto asked, but her lips didn't move at all, and it sounded like she was in his head almost.
He jerked his head around. What was happening? He didn't have a clue.
"Don't freak out! Jeez, have a little faith in your future hokage. This is just something that I made. Focus on the earring." Once again, the words were spoken in his head as Naruto's lips were clamped firmly shut.
Shikamaru did as she said, closing his eyes and focusing on the earring. There it was. There was a minuscule thread of chakra connecting it to Naruto. It didn't even seem to be tangible, but it was there.
"See? Cool, isn't it?" Naruto's voice came through again, and the thread vibrated rapidly in his minds eyes. "Try talking to me yourself. It's pretty easy. Just focus on the frequency."
"Like this?" he projected his thought.
"Yep, just like that!"
He opened his eyes. This was amazing. They were having a telepathic conversation. "How?" was the only question that seemed right to ask.
"Well," Naruto said, out loud this time, "I made it. I had gotten back from a mission, and Baa-chan wouldn't give me another one, insisting that I needed to rest, so I was really bored, and I had been watching T.V, and I got an idea. What if I could connect two people? I mean really connect them, so I started to experiment. It took a bunch of tries, but I finally got it to work! It works like a radio! The seals on the stud ground and gather the chakra, and transforms the chakra frequency from my stud, into a voice in your head. Cool, huh? It's pretty easy to use after a little bit of practice."
Shikamaru stared at her. It was amazing. The small stud had so much potential, if what Naruto was saying was true. And, judging from the fact that he had her voice in his head, it seemed true. As cliché as it sounded, the possibilities were endless. A squad would be able to each other without alerting the enemy from miles away, transmit information, and, well, anything. The amount of chakra used was so small that he doubted that Tsunade would notice it unless he told her what to look for. This could, no, definitely would, give Konoha a major advantage over the other villages.
"Naruto… This is brilliant," he said finally.
Naruto cocked her head to the side cutely and looked at him blankly, "Huh? What are you talking about? I was just bored and messing around."
She had no idea the impact this invention could have, did she? "You really are an idiot-savant."
She looked at him suspiciously, "That doesn't sound good."
He shrugged and smiled a little. "It's not a bad thing. Now, about this earring –" He was cut off abruptly by Naruto's hand over his mouth.
"Not now. Sasuke is coming," she said, taking her hand off his mouth.
He glared at her. "You could have just told me."
She scratched her head nervously, and said, grinning, "Oh, right. Sorry." She straightened up and held out her hand to him.
He shook his head and let her haul him up off the ground. It figured. She acted first and thought later, the opposite from him.
A few seconds later, Sasuke appeared, and eyed them. Only then did Shikamaru realize that Naruto was still holding his hands from pulling him up. Now that was interesting. Why exactly was the Uchiha glaring at him? It was something to think about.
"Are we ready to go?" Sasuke asked coldly, walking towards the gate without waiting for an answer.
"Oi! Teme! Wait up!" Naruto hollered after him, swinging her bag.
Shikamaru followed them, engrossed in his thoughts. Naruto simply didn't realize what she had created. It was so small, and looked like a regular piece of jewelry, so no enemy ninja would think about removing it when they captured another ninja. They were out of the village before he was out of his thoughts, and the village doors closed after them.
Sasuke let out a breath of relief. "Let's go," he grunted.
"What's with you?" Shikamaru asked, not caring as so much wondering why the Uchiha would be relieved to leave the village.
"Sakura," came the grunted reply.
Shikamaru nodded. That made sense, wanting to leave the village before Sakura came and said good-bye, the goodbye consisting of clinging to his arm and squealing, "Sasuke!" at ear shattering decibels. Suddenly, a small hand gripped his own, and he looked down to see Naruto smiling at him. Why was she holding his hand?
"I'm supposed to be your girlfriend. Kyuubi-chan told me that I should act like it," Naruto explained.
That made sense, and he suddenly felt a wave of amiability towards the demon.
There was a sudden flair of killer intent directed at him. Now, that didn't make sense. What was pissing the Uchiha off? He and Naruto holding hands? Well, whatever it was, he was fine with pissing him off.
Naruto's voice came through his mind, "Sorry if the hand holding makes you uncomfortable. Just try and pretend I'm Ino or someone."
He was feeling uncomfortably warm at the act of holding Naruto's hand, but it wasn't unpleasant, and he sure as hell didn't want to pretend she was Ino. That would just be disturbing. "It's fine, Naruto. I do have a few more questions about the earring, though. First, why did you give it to me instead of the Uchiha? And can you tell me more about it?" It was bugging him, just a little. Why him. The whole experience of talking, and being able to hear her clearly, and knowing that no one else could, was a little odd, too.
"Well, "Naruto said, and he could hear the grin in her voice, "A few reasons I guess. You have pierced ears, and Sasuke doesn't; and I thought you would appreciate it more. Oh, Sasuke will think something's up since I can't really stay quiet, but he won't be able to figure it out. It'll annoy him to death!" She sounded ludicrously cheerful, and she was right.
Sasuke glanced back at the pair, an irritated frown on his face.
Shikamaru smiled. It was working already. Over the next few hours, he learned that the chakra thread between the two studs couldn't be disrupted, or at least not easily, by large bursts of chakra, that Naruto had inscribed the seals on the stud with a pin, since she had been bored to tears, and was working on a ramen recipe book, which didn't surprise him at all.
The travel to the Yugakure would take two full days of walking, if they pushed on all day, and they would arrive at the city walls on the morning of the third day. Now, sun was just beginning to set, and he was tired. They had walked all day, and, even though they had only covered a fraction of the distance they could have using their ninja skills, it was still tiring. He was tired, Naruto's stomach was growling loudly enough to scare off small game, and Sasuke was developing a twitch in his right eye and a permanent scowl from wondering why Naruto was so quiet.
A small clearing appeared to the side of them, and Naruto stopped, making Shikamaru stop, too, and making him realize that they were holding hands again. He quickly let go, and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Sasuke! Come on, I'm tired. Let's stop for the day," Naruto whined.
Sasuke stopped and glared at her. "We can go a little farther. There's still a bit of day light left," he said flatly.
Shikamaru sat down and leaned again a tree on the side of the clearing. He knew how this was going to end.
Naruto crossed her arms under her chest, unknowingly giving her breasts a upward thrust, and pouted. Intelligence or no, Shikamaru knew that he wouldn't be able to refuse whatever Naruto asked if he was Sasuke. "No! Teme, we've been walking all day! I'm not a ninja, or have you forgotten? I'm tired and hungry! Now, you can go on by yourself, or you can carry both me and Shika! Look at him! He's already almost asleep already! He's also incredibly lazy. He's probably put in more effort today than he puts in in a week! It might fry his big brain."
Shikamaru wasn't quite sure that he liked her logic, or how she thought of him, but if it got the Uchiha to stop, it was fine with him.
Sasuke glared down at her, looking as if part of his sanity had crumbled. "Fine," he growled, stomping off to the clearing.
Naruto grinned and gave Shikamaru an huge thumbs up.
He smiled lazily, and the two of them watched as Sasuke took out a scroll and summoned two sleeping bags, and pouches of food. His stomach growled in hunger, but it didn't cloud his mind. Two sleeping bags? Why were there only two of them? There were three people, and that called for three different sleeping bags. Unless the Uchiha was planning on staying up and keeping watch all night.
He wasn't the only one who saw the problem.
"Hey, Sasuke, what's up? Why are there only two bags?" Naruto asked, walking up to him.
Sasuke looked up from the fire he was starting. "You always forget everything, so I brought yours, Dobe."
"And you brought one for Shika, too?"
Sasuke shot Shikamaru a dismissive glance, "No, I did not. The other one is for me. He can sleep on the ground."
After several more minutes of arguing on Naruto's part, and "Hns" on Sasukes, Shikamaru finally stood up. He was flattered that Naruto was sticking up for him, and it was fun watching her yell at the Uchiha, but it wasn't working.
"Naruto, just give up. I can sleep on the ground. If you stop yelling at him, then he can get on with cooking the food," he said, placing a hand on Naruto's tense shoulder.
Naruto shot one last glare at the Uchiha and stuck out her tongue at him, "You are the worst ninja protector ever, Sasuke-teme."
After a very odd meal, in which even Naruto didn't ask for second helpings, and in which Shikamaru learned that cooking was not one of Sasuke's skills, the sun was gone, and, after taking a look around with his Sharingan, Sasuke had retired to his sleeping bag. The smug bastard.
Shikamaru leaned against the tree and closed his eyes. He was used to sleeping, well, practically everywhere he could, so sleeping like this was no problem, even if it was a touch cold and a bit bothersome. Like earlier in the day, he was alerted to Naruto's presence by a soft rustle.
The stars still gave off enough light to see faintly.
She dragged her sleeping bag next to him under the tree, unzipped it, and hopped in without a word. A few seconds later, she said, "Well, are you getting in?"
His brain stopped working and rebooted in .06 seconds. Had she just invited him into her sleeping bag? Yes, yes she had. Him, and her, in the same sleeping bag. Unbidden, explicit, Ich-Icha worthy images began to form in his mind.
"What are you talking about, Naruto?" he asked, happy that he managed to sound normal.
Her voice came out of the dark, "Even if you're super lazy, you're pretty nice, and you don't deserve to sleep on the hard ground. Anyway, we're both guys. Well, sort of. Not really anymore, but… Never mind! I'm tired; just get in."
Shikamaru waffled back and forth over the prospect for a moment, and then slid into the sleeping bag next to her. "Thanks."
"No problem."
He laid rigid and unmoving, until he felt Naruto's arm fall over his chest, and her body wriggled against his own before stilling.
His eyes widened. Now what was she doing? She wasn't… getting fresh with him, was she? Then he realized. Her breathing was deep and even. She was asleep. He relaxed slowly. What had he been thinking? Ah, well. Naruto's warm breath ghosted across his neck. He flushed, and then groaned quietly. He wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. How troublesome.
Okay, here's the next chapter! Sorry that not much happens, but it's necessary to set things up for later. On another note, I found out that I'm on the favorites list of twenty and the alert list of forty one! Awesome! It's really cool to know so many people are reading my story. My chapters keep getting longer, too!
Ja ne,
Rumer
Ice Cold Steel: I will make your cheeks hurt more! Oh, wait, that sounds kind of odd... and improper or sadistic. What I mean is that I will try to make you smile when you read my story. Yep, that's what I meant. Okay moving on. Glad you like my description of her clothing. It's just enough to give you an idea. And, as for the little act that Naruto put on in the Hokage's office with Kakashi, you'll find out in the next chapter how she knows how to act like that. Promise. I think, at this point, even though she can act perverted and seduce Kakashi with her... Yeah... I think Naruto is still a little too innocent and oblivious to realize if she has those types of feelings for Shikamaru yet, and she's calling him Shika because of a mixture of the fact that Shikamaru is a mouthful, and she's grateful. Sorry if not much happens in this chapter, but I needed it to set things up for a few of the chapters down the road. Keep reading.
Ranma-Sama: Nice name. I love the ShikaFemNaru stories, too. Feel free to obsess over this story. Sorry it took me so long to update, but I hope you like it.
Naarano: Glad you like it, and thanks for paying attention to the grammar. It's important! I mean, not as important as the plot, but it still matters a lot to a story. Without proper grammar, you can't really get the full feeling of the story and the feel of it. Anyway, thank you for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
KC: Okay, thanks for reviewing on my story, and it's great that you like it. The mission is going to play a major part in this story, and no, Sasuke will, hopefully, not mess it up too much. His little emo-bastardness routine will mess things up for Naruto, at this point at least. He may make things a little difficult later, but I'm sure that Shikamaru's intelligence and Naruto's exuberant awesomeness will triumph. Keep reading!