Shadows and Fangs
Chapter 2
This story is also posted on AO3, my pen-name there is Hien.
As it turned out, Shikamaru's work hit a roadblock at the end of the week – they had to wait for a reply from Konoha, so were effectively stuck until it came. Temari took it in stride and simply grabbed the opportunity to go and make sure Gaara remembered to eat, so Shikamaru found himself wondering what one did in Suna with free time. A quick look towards the sky had him sighing – clear blue, not a cloud in sight! But then he looked at the time and figured he might still catch Kiba at the academy. So he told one of the chuunin in charge of the second exam where he'd be in case they needed him and headed off.
In all fairness, even if he hadn't known the Inuzuka was there, the volume that came out the academy's playground would have tipped him off. Rounding the corner, he chuckled to himself as he saw Akamaru had transformed into his master and the children were having a blast trying to figure out which one was the real one. One of the teachers walked to him to greet him and he nodded back at her.
"I haven't seen you here before. Here to pick up one of the kids?" she asked conversationally, an easy smile on her face but still being watchful as it was her duty to make sure strangers didn't walk off with her students after all.
Shikamaru smirked lazily as he turned so she'd see the Leaf protector on his arm and then gestured towards Kiba. "You could say that," he replied honestly.
She laughed openly, clearly agreeing with his assessment before turning back to look at the children who were heatedly debating which one was the dog. "We have many shinobi who take some time to play with the kids, and we're really thankful for that! They weren't on the frontlines, but they were still victims of that war – most of them don't really understand what it means, but they feel it," she commented.
"I can imagine," was his only reply. He knew that the children had a hard time coping – not to mention many of them had lost a parent, relative, or friend. "In Konoha, we're discussing the possibility of opening a section just for them at the hospital," he then added.
"Oh, yes, I've heard – it's such an excellent idea!" she replied as she crossed her arms behind her back. "We're following this project closely, in hopes of maybe having our own one day if it's conclusive," she informed him.
Shikamaru nodded absently, trusting Ino and Sakura to see the project through successfully – although up until now, he'd never really thought of how much it could benefit the other villages as well. He'd need to have a word with Ino on that, when he'd be back. He was jarred out of his thoughts when the children cheered happily, pointing at the Kiba who'd reached to pick up one of the students by the back of his shirt with his teeth.
"It's him! That's the dog!" one boy cheered, clearly part of the group who'd bet on it.
"No it's not!" another insisted.
"The real one wouldn't pick someone up with his mouth!" a girl argued as though the idea of it was stupid.
Shikamaru grinned to himself at that. Oh, they didn't know Kiba…
And indeed, Akamaru dispelled his jutsu, and the children either 'aww-ed' or 'yay-ed' as the real Kiba put the kid down and made a show of spitting out and cradling his jaw.
"Wow, you're not a lightweight!" he teased the kid, much to his classmates' amusement – although that child was a twig if he'd ever seen one.
"Eww Kiba, you grabbed him with your mouth!" a girl informed him with a frown – and a wide grin.
"I'll have you know these teeth of mine are weapons as much as anything that's made of metal!" Kiba replied seriously as he placed his hands on his hips and clicked his teeth together while leaning towards her until she giggled and swatted him away by flailing her arms. He then grinned as he leaned back against Akamaru – who was already carrying three students on his back. "But see? You all thought I wouldn't do something like that, and that's why you didn't find me out! A shinobi must always be ready to do anything necessary to the mission's success!" he declared brightly.
Shikamaru couldn't help but laugh at the children's raptured expressions and their eager nods at these words. His friend and his fan club turned to him at this, and he shrugged innocently. "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt!"
"Kiba, who's he?" asked a few kids in 'whispers' as they pulled on the Inuzuka's sleeves.
"This is my friend Shikamaru – he's from Konoha like me," Kiba said easily as he walked over to sling an arm over his shoulder and pointed to the protector on his arm – with some children automatically stepping close to have a better look, sharing excited whispers as a few brave ones dared extend a finger to trace the pattern. "He's also my captain, so don't get me in trouble!" the tracker added in a stage whisper, winking exaggeratingly.
Shikamaru could only grin as the kids 'ooh-ed', nodded and winked back in what they thought was a discreet manner. "Has Kiba been behaving?" he asked them with a frown, playing along.
As many kids replied 'of course' as 'no', and Kiba instantly pretended to be offended as he chased those who'd ratted him out, ending up with a kid under each arm and two more clinging to his back.
"Can you also smell things like Kiba?" a child asked Shikamaru eagerly.
"He can probably do it better, since he outranks him!" another corrected her friend.
"Hey! Nobody smells things better than me!" Kiba protested with a pout as the Nara tried to resist the urge to tease him further.
"He can probably tell them apart though!" one of Kiba's captives exclaimed from his spot on the Inuzuka's back. "When Akamaru transforms!" he added excitedly.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that and met Kiba's amused look. In the heat of battle, distinguishing them at a glance was near impossible, you had to wait until Kiba spoke – speech was the one thing Akamaru couldn't mimic. But here, just like this, with both purposefully staying silent? "I think that's a challenge," he drawled lazily.
Kiba's grin widened and he leaned close to Akamaru to whisper something to him before he playfully shook the kids off his back. Instructing the children to step back, he threw a small smoke bomb to the ground and they used the cover it afforded to partially transform as before.
Shikamaru grinned before he turned serious and pretended to really think about it, having a hard time resisting the urge to grin when the children held their breath every time he narrowed his eyes or 'hmm-ed'. Kiba had previously tricked the kids by having them think that the one who behaved the most doglike couldn't be the human, but he knew that kind of reverse thinking wouldn't work on him, so he wouldn't bother. In fact, neither Kiba moved much, they just stared him down – the children were close to having a shouting match to determine which was which. Both looked to be having too much fun, and were looking at the students fondly. But then Shikamaru noticed that one had a different expression when he looked at him, a softer grin. And he knew, particularly when that Kiba raised an eyebrow at him.
But before he could open his mouth, the other Kiba's head snapped to the side and he growled as a cat sauntered into the playground, tail swirling high before he stopped to hiss at the Inuzukas. Akamaru didn't need more insults to break his transformation and properly threaten the haughty feline, to the children's amusement and delight, some of them proudly exclaiming that they'd guessed right.
Shikamaru and Kiba only then looked away from each other with an amused smile and humored the children a bit more before they had to be heading home – with a few parents stopping by to chat with Kiba, Shikamaru noted interestedly. "So how did you end up having that playdate?" he asked his friend as they walked back towards the center.
"Oh, you know…one thing led to another," Kiba replied with a shrug as he crossed his arms behind his head. "One of the chuunin I've been working with has two kids at the academy, and she commented how it's been hard for them, and that a few shinobi had started showing up in the afternoons to cheer the students up. Then one day, I was there as a part of the program, to tell the kids about Konoha, and things just picked up from there…" he summarized as he turned to Akamaru with a fond look. "Besides, they really took to Akamaru!" he added proudly, the large dog barking happily at this.
Shikamaru smiled to himself as he thought they'd also visibly taken to Kiba as well.
"I even managed to drag Kankuro along once, but I guess they're just too young to grasp his humor!" the Inuzuka continued with a snort. "At least I'm sure they'll always remember the day they played tag with the Kazekage's brother's puppet!" he added with a snicker.
Shikamaru grimaced at that, because truly, being chased around by Karasu as a kid would have scarred him for life – and he really hoped it had been Karasu, the other puppets were even creepier! He then sighed as he thought about the students. Some would graduate soon, become genin, and then start going onto missions, exploring the world beyond their village. Some might fail, learn the hard way that they weren't cut out for a shinobi's life, even die, but others would thrive, rise through the ranks and strengthen Suna before eventually one day passing on their knowledge to a new generation. Being on the other side, the adult's side, was always such a strange feeling, one he wasn't fully used to yet, truth be told. "Growing up sure is troublesome, sometimes," he found himself saying. "Life was so much simpler back then!"
"Sure was!" Kiba readily agreed with a wide grin. "But finally understanding things as they really are and being in charge of yourself is nice, too," he then tempered, Akamaru yapping an agreement.
"Still, I could do with fewer responsibilities," the Nara huffed. "And less headaches," he muttered.
"Your fault for being so smart," was his friend's unsympathetic reply. "People wouldn't ask so much of you if you acted more like an idiot!" he added airily as he waved at a few shinobi they walked by.
"Oh, so that's your excuse, is it?" Shikamaru teased him lazily, the set-up being too perfect to pass.
"Hey! Play nice!" Kiba protested with a wide grin, lightly shoving his shoulder. "And here I was about to generously extend an invitation to you for food and drinks tonight!" he huffed nonchalantly.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that. "I'm listening," he prompted.
Kiba's grin widened as he turned to him. "There's this specialty – this homemade liquor – absolutely repulsive – yet strangely addictive! You can't leave Suna without having lost your stomach to it at least once!" he assured him with a shudder. "Kankuro will be there and some others from my ex-division as well, maybe a few from yours, too!"
Shikamaru smirked at that. Probably the 'bad crowd' Temari had mentioned. He had to see this. "I'm in," he replied easily.
In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have taken Kiba's warnings about the liquor so lightly, because honestly it was all he could do to keep it in.
"I'm impressed! You're still holding on!" Kankuro praised with a wide grin as he reached around Kiba to clap his back.
"Do that again and I won't," Shikamaru threatened darkly as he shot him a nasty look. "What is this thing?" he then wondered as he rubbed his eyes.
"Not knowing is part of its beauty," the puppeteer replied pragmatically as he finished his own cup, shuddering at the horrible taste. "Damn it that's bad!" he cursed as he set it down.
"At least you don't smell the thing like I do," Kiba reminded him with a shrug. "Smells even worse than it tastes!" he assured them all.
Kankuro grinned at him as he moved his hand to ruffle his hair. "You say that but you handle it like a true Sand shinobi!" he commended teasingly, trailing his fingers down to tap his knuckles on his Sand protector.
"It's all to impress you into praising me to your brother," Kiba deadpanned sweetly, sparking a round of laughter around the table and grin widening as his friend shoved him good-naturedly.
Akamaru barked and moved his head between them to ask for a treat, and Kankuro obliged by balancing a biscuit on his snout, grinning as the nin-dog waited for his signal before throwing it in the air and deftly catching it in his jaw. "Forget it Kiba, Akamaru's the one I'll tell Gaara about!" he declared as he moved to rub the dog's head. "Good boy, Akamaru!" he praised.
"You're both traitors," Kiba dismissed unemotionally as he returned to his drink. "You still alive in there?" he then asked Shikamaru as he'd remained silent for some time.
"I'll get back to you on that one," Shikamaru replied lazily, crossing his forearms on the table and resting his head on them. "We should've used that drink as a weapon during the war," he muttered tiredly.
"Too inhumane," Kiba dismissed easily. "We wouldn't have deserved to win!" he added with a fake frown before chuckling.
Shikamaru smirked slightly and didn't say more as he tried to let that liquor get through his system. From his position, he observed the people around the table and sighed contentedly at the good atmosphere – if someone had told him when he was a genin that one day he'd be in Suna trying the local firebrand with a group of Sand shinobi, he'd have been really unimpressed, and would have likely dismissed the entire idea as troublesome. How far from the truth he'd have been! Still, it was undeniable they'd come a long way – heck, the first time he'd really met shinobi from the Hidden Sand was during his chuunin exams, and they'd proceeded to invade Konoha! He liked it much better the way it was now, needless to say.
And well, correction: he was with a group of Sand shinobi and a fellow Leaf nin, he thought as his gaze stopped on Kiba – who, he had to admit, looked right at home and had visibly been able to seamlessly integrate with the locals. Not that it was surprising in itself. Shikamaru felt himself frown slightly as he watched him interact with Kankuro, surprised by their easy friendship and the puppeteer's familiarity with Akamaru. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't really remember anyone beside Kiba really playing with Akamaru like that, as if he were a normal dog – children excluded. Absently, he wondered if something in particular had happened that had gotten them close like that, because from the outside, apart from a certain level of cockiness and an unbreakable devotion to their siblings, they didn't really have much in common. Although to be honest, once you got past his loud demeanor, it was hard not to get along with Kiba; he was such a natural person that truly disliking him had to be a conscious effort. Maybe he'd ask Temari. Not that he really cared, but he was curious.
But that didn't happen because when he next saw her, she took one look at him and declared, "You've tried the liquor, haven't you?"
"Do I look that bad?" he asked back with a raised eyebrow. Admittedly, he did feel 'that bad'.
"Takes one to know one!" Temari replied with a wink, 'gently' patting his shoulder. "You're not a stranger in Suna anymore!" she then cooed teasingly with a wide grin.
"I'm thrilled the loss of my stomach amounted to something," Shikamaru deadpanned. But the corners of his lips were pulling up, and when she extended a hand to slap the back of his head he didn't bother avoiding it, knowing it wouldn't hurt (too much).
"You're having dinner at my house tonight," Temari informed him summarily a couple of days later as she practically dropped a precariously balanced stash of documents on his desk.
"I am?" Shikamaru asked back with a raised eyebrow before scowling at the added work and shooting her a dirty look. She was doing it on purpose, he just knew it. "You know, I'm here to assist with the handover, not organize the damn thing for you," he reminded her as he started going through the papers anyway.
"But I'm just a helpless woman," she insisted with a perfect whine and lost expression before ruining her own effect as she burst out laughing – yeah, right, as if! "Anyway. Dinner. Kankuro's cooking – not as dangerous as it sounds," she reassured him with a shrug at his dubious look. "Kiba'll be there too," she then threw over her shoulder before moving back to her own seat.
The shadow-nin nodded at her as he returned to work as well – besides, why would he ever turn down a dinner invitation? And a good call it was, because he'd even ended up learning a few things about the siblings he'd have never found out otherwise.
For starters, true to Temari's words, Kankuro was in fact a pretty decent cook. Then they'd also managed to pry Gaara from his work and Shikamaru discovered that the Kazekage actually smiled at his siblings – smiled, genuinely. He did feel envious watching them. Friendships were a complicated affair, and as close as you could get to someone, it was easy for the balance to change. But brothers and sisters, now there was a bond that was clearly defined – not so easily achieved, granted, as evidenced by his very hosts, but still, solid in itself.
Seeing the Kazekage and his most trusted bodyguards and assistants completely relaxed in the comfort of their own home was something not everyone was privy to, he realized that. Not many people – particularly if not from Suna – had been witness to Temari trying to bargain with Gaara to get him to eat more and work less, as Kankuro – without his face paint – grinned at them while trying to figure out new contraptions for his puppets, noncommittally grunting every time Temari dragged him into the conversation with a sweetly threatening, "Isn't that right, Kankuro?"
It almost felt like intruding, in a sense, and he was glad that Kiba was there as well.
Eventually Gaara could no longer be persuaded to be idle, so he moved to his room to continue working – with his siblings letting out a (fond) sigh at this. The four remaining shinobi ultimately ended up playing a game of cards to determine who would do the dishes – with Shikamaru and Temari winning hands-down, unsurprisingly, even though the other two had shamelessly cheated all along. The victors were happy to move to the outside garden to enjoy the cool air while Kankuro and Kiba (and Akamaru) created a battlefield out of the kitchen, with yells and barks filtering to the outside quite regularly.
"Oh, those two will pull me to an early grave – or make me get them there!" Temari muttered tiredly after a particularly loud sound echoed as she massaged her temples.
Shikamaru chuckled as he looked back towards the house, absently noting they seemed to have quieted down – in fact, there wasn't a sound coming from the kitchen anymore, so he figured they were done. "They're an odd bunch for sure," he agreed lazily.
"At least they're keeping their clothes on nowadays," the kunoichi stated matter-of-factly, ignoring the way her friend froze at her words. "Besides, while fame does have its perks, it hasn't made forming real friendships any easier!" she added with a casual grin.
Shikamaru only looked at her with a frown, as though trying to make sense of her words. "What…?"
"We're the previous Kazekage's kids," Temari needlessly reminded him. "Think we have a bunch of friends lining up? Admirers, followers, subordinates—sure, plenty! But friends? We first had to go look outside the village for those!" she added with a wink.
He wanted to reply something along the lines of 'of course we're friends', or 'I get what you're saying and I'm flattered', but all that came out was, "No, I was asking what did you mean by 'at least they're keeping their clothes on'?" he asked her seriously.
Temari's eyes narrowed knowingly as she leaned back on her hands, surveying him with her piercing gaze. "Kankuro and Kiba have this…arrangement," she eventually replied, purposefully staying ambiguous.
He knew she was doing it on purpose, but something inside of him didn't let him walk away. "What kind of arrangement?"
"Oh, you know…the kind where clothes aren't always necessary, if you catch my drift," Temari said with a shrug.
And catch her drift he did, frowning as he turned back to look in the duo's direction, although he couldn't see nor hear them. His frown deepened at that – were they…did they leave to do that? "Since when?" he heard himself ask. Inwardly, he realized that was probably why they were so comfortable around each other, and so familiar.
"A few months," was the casual reply before she stretched her arms with a sigh. "I don't know about Konoha, but here in Suna we're not so stuck up on gender," she then added seriously.
In Konoha, it wasn't really that it would be such a big issue, but it wasn't supposed to be something you talked about, or showed. Really, the only such couple he'd ever known about with certainty were Izumo and Kotetsu, but then again everyone even referred to them as 'Izumo and Kotetsu', they were such a fixture in the village that nobody blinked anymore – it was actually more troubling to see one without the other! Besides, the only indication they were more than friends (aside from the fact that they'd never denied it when asked directly) was the way they bickered like an old married couple – they'd never expressed any kind of physical affection that he'd seen.
"Why did you feel compelled to tell me that?" Shikamaru asked evenly as he raised an eyebrow at her.
Temari cocked her head to the side at this, pulling a knee close to her chest to rest her chin on it and look at him contemplatively from her perch on the edge of the terrace. "Because even if I'd been inclined to be with you that way, I doubt you'd have wanted to," she replied honestly. "I don't think I'm your type."
Shikamaru tensed at her words, but years of training allowed him to shrug it off nonchalantly. "You're reading too much into things," he countered with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not," she replied pragmatically. "But I know when someone doesn't want to talk about something, so I'll drop it. For now," she added evenly.
"Drop it for good," Shikamaru muttered as he leaned back on the bench he was on, narrowing his eyes as he tried to make out the shape of some clouds amid the moonlight.
He hated it when she was right. (Particularly as it happened way too often to his liking.)
But not as much as he hated the relief than ran through him when Kiba and Akamaru loudly made their entrance on the roof as well, closely followed by Kankuro yelling at them to calm down as he carried a tray of tea and set it in front of his sister – who simply smiled and reached to punch his arm fondly.
"What?" Kiba asked Shikamaru with a raised eyebrow as he sat down next to him and leaned back against Akamaru.
"Nothing," he replied lazily, not realizing he'd been staring. Turning his gaze back to Temari, he frowned with a huff. This was all her fault.
Much as he disliked it, Shikamaru found that now he knew about Kiba and Kankuro's so-called 'arrangement', it was all he could see. He saw them laughing and imagined it was a private joke. He saw them touching, even innocuously, and imagined it had meaning. He saw them together around the village and assumed it was a…well, not a date, but a something. He heard one mentioning the other and could've sworn there was a fondness in their voices that hadn't been there before.
Most likely, he was reading too much into it, and he realized it. Yet he couldn't stop. He noticed things, he always had, and it wasn't like there was a switch he could turn off, even when he really wanted to. Besides, it wasn't as though he really minded, per se. He was mostly surprised, because admitting to yourself that you were attracted to people of the same gender was already something by itself, but actually following through with that attraction? Well…Shikamaru likened it to bravery. He himself knew he wasn't capable of that. Realizing it had been the easy part, because how can you ignore the obvious? Accepting had been harder, and while he eventually got there, he'd also made the decision to not act on it, because he figured it would be infinitely less troublesome that way. So that was it for him, as far as he felt personally concerned.
Maybe that was why watching those two became his favorite past-time, because who didn't like a good proxy? He wondered if there were feelings involved – Temari had used the word 'arrangement', not 'relationship', but were the two really mutually exclusive? Kiba and Kankuro got along spectacularly, it was obvious that they were close, and what was more, even Akamaru was clearly partial to the Sand nin, which was a non-negligible tell. He remembered having heard Aoba talk about how hard it had been to be accepted by Hana's triplets, so obviously getting their canine partner's approval was half of winning over an Inuzuka.
Eventually though, Shikamaru started feeling irritated. Every casual touch had his eyes narrowing, every instance of laughter had him rolling his eyes, and particularly, every time Kiba mentioned the puppeteer he found himself huffing in annoyance. What he didn't let himself dwell on truthfully was whether he was envious of their relationship in general, or of one of them in particular.
And apparently, he wasn't as discreet as he'd hoped, because it wasn't long until Temari clamped a hand down on his shoulder with a sigh over dinner one evening. "Now remember: he's a pain but he's my brother and so help me I love him; that means you can't kill him," she said half-jokingly.
"Why would I want to kill Kankuro?" Shikamaru protested as he shrugged her hand off. It wasn't even worth it to play stupid and ask 'which brother' – honestly, he believed that Gaara dating would be as painfully funny to watch as Sai, perhaps even more so as he'd have two overprotective and overbearing older siblings to contend with.
Temari leaned her head on her palm at this, absently picking a deep-fried vegetable stick from her plate to munch on it. "It's just an observation based on the way you're looking at Kiba," she replied quietly. "I almost feel bad that my brother's getting in the way," she then added somewhat apologetically. "Although if it makes you feel better, I reckon it's been quite some time since Kiba last spent the night!"
Shikamaru tensed at her words, fighting the urge to slink back into his seat. "And here I thought I'd asked you to drop it for good," he replied instead straightforwardly.
"I said I'd drop it 'for now'," she reminded him cheekily. "You know, I don't think either one of them is in love. Kankuro would've claimed it loud and clear otherwise," she mused with a fond smirk, clearly not caring to take a hint when he glared at her. "Hey, unless I got this all wrong and it's Kankuro you're actually after!" she then said with fake excitement, laughing loudly at his incredulous face.
"You're the worst, woman," he declared with a shake of his head. "The most troublesome person I've ever met," he added under his breath.
Temari visibly thought that was funny enough to grin even more widely, and batted her eyelashes at him. "Oh stop, you'll make me swoon!" she mocked before reaching for her tea, scowling as she realized she'd actually already finished it. "So…I take it you've never actually followed through with an attraction?" she asked part curiously in her usual matter-of-factly tone as she caught a waitress' attention and held her empty cup up with a polite smile.
"What's it to you?" Shikamaru asked back defensively with a raised eyebrow.
"It's called 'curiosity', and it's healthy," she deadpanned with a frown. "You're the troublesome one! Getting you talking qualifies as 'interrogation', not 'conversation'!" she muttered as she put her cup to the side of the table, where she knew within a minute it would be swapped with a brand new fully filled one.
"The answer to your question's 'no'," he replied eventually without expanding any more.
"Were you even ever attracted to someone in particular before?" Temari asked back, eyes widening slightly at his shrug. "Well, if you're as picky about that as you are about work, then fat chance of it happening often, eh?" she teased with an easy grin.
"And you're as tactful as ever," was his sarcastic counter. "How's your love-life going, by the way?"
Temari snorted at his words before smiling as the waitress replaced her tea. "Hey, let's face it – you're gonna have an easier time talking to me about men than to – say – Chouji!" she pointed out as she placed a hand around the mug, enjoying the warm feeling.
"You're assuming I want to talk about men," Shikamaru pointed out lazily.
The Sand kunoichi shrugged back as she moved her hand – the cup was a bit too warm, in the end. "No, I'm assuming you don't want to want to talk about men, but you really do – want to, I mean. Which is completely normal! Even Kankuro—"
"Please don't compare me to Kankuro," Shikamaru interrupted her with a tired frown.
A smirk pulled at her lips at this. "Why? Because it annoys you that he actually had to the guts to do something about his attraction? Because he got Kiba?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because I really don't want to talk about this in the first place and repeatedly told you so," was his annoyed reply. And yeah, so maybe Kankuro wasn't his favorite person in the World right now, but like heck he'd admit it to his sister – particularly as his dislike was completely baseless.
Temari's eyes narrowed as she simply brought her tea to her lips. But that all-knowing glint in her look didn't diminish, even though she seemingly agreed to drop the subject. (Probably just 'for now' again, though…)
Shikamaru for his part felt he knew for sure how Gaara had learned to keep his absolute calm, because with siblings like his, impassibility had to be the only alternative to murder in the long run.
TBC