And here is another weekly update! Enjoy!
After the heated discussion that he had with Ino and Sakura at the party, Shikamaru ran directly home, thinking that he would find Sora there. He felt the urge of trying to explain everything to her. When he arrived and realize that she wasn't there, he decided to wait in his room until she would come back. While waiting for her, he tried to build up his courage so he could finally tell her how he really felt about her. However, about an hour before Sora came home, the boy fell asleep, exhausted from the night's events.
When the girl came back to Shikamaru's house, she was filled with a new determination of becoming stronger. Concentrating her effort on becoming a better ninja simply made her think about something else than her heartache. She was determined to make this work and determination eventually led to an excitement that kept her up all night. When the sun came up, she started moving around her room quickly, packing her things up.
Walking out of the room, she noticed that both Shikamaru's parents were already up. Shikaku seemed very surprised when he saw the girl walking out with all her things packed.
"Leaving us?" he asked with a smile.
She bowed in front of the two that were sitting at the table.
"Yes and I am eternally grateful for your hospitality."
"Dear, if you ever need to come back for another few days then do certainly feel free to do so!" said the woman.
"Thank you, I will keep that in mind," the girl replied with a smile.
"Do you want me to wake up Shikamaru so he can walk you back to your place?" asked Shikaku.
The girl felt a spark of panic inside her.
"Oh no, no! I will be fine! I'm extremely sure that Daichi will keep his distances!" she urgently explained.
The two adults looked at each other and then, somewhat satisfied, they nodded in the girl's direction who bowed once more gratefully. Walking quickly outside, as if afraid that Shikamaru would end up waking up before she left, she tightened her grip on her bags and dashed toward her house. Not too long after, the girl was already at her house. She walked in a bit hesitantly. This was the first time since the incident that she was back and she couldn't help but go check out her living room. Surprisingly, someone had taken the time to clean everything up so there was no sign anymore of what happened. With a little relieved sigh, Sora brought her things to her room. It's only while waiting for Reena to come pick her up that she realized that she was supposed to meet her team for training today.
Quickly looking at the time, she decided that she still had enough time to swing by her sensei's place before Reena arrived. She ran out of her house and to Asuma's house. Once she reached the front door, she quickly knocked on the door, hoping that he was still there. A wave of relief washed over her when the man opened the door.
"Sora?" he said surprised.
"Good morning, Asuma-sensei!" she chimed happily.
"Good morning to you too. Did you want to come in?"
"No, no! I'm actually in a hurry. I just wanted permission to not come to today's training."
The man looked worried. "Did something happen?"
With a huge smile, she reassured him. "No, it's just that without thinking, I made some training plans which just coincide with our team training today."
"Oh…" the man said unsure. "Well, I guess that since you usually don't miss any our trainings it won't matter for today."
"Great! Thank you! Also, I want to work on my weakest abilities. Did you have any suggestion?"
The man lit himself a cigarette while thinking for a bit.
"I can only think of your taijutsu. If someone manages to get around your ninjutsus, you might be in a bind. But that's why you have a team right?" he said with a smile.
She had then a determined look. "I want to become even stronger to help the others. I don't want them to always have to look after me!" she said.
The man laughed. "Okay, okay! I love your determination! Take as long as you need, a few days even, unless we have a mission, of course. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to come and see me kiddo, okay?"
"Yes! Thank you!" she answered gleefully.
And just as quickly as she had arrived, she was gone. She was growing even more excited. It's only when she got closer to her house did her head travel back to the events of last night. She slowed down her steps to a walk, suddenly depressed. Sora still awfully hated herself for losing him like that. It just seemed like things were going fine so she did not feel the urge to try to push things any further.
Seeing in the distance that her friend was waiting in front of her house, she painted a smile on her face. Tired of always feeling like an emotional burden to others, she wanted to be happy for her best friend.
Shikamaru woke up slowly. His body was really stiffed from the awkward position he had fallen asleep in. Rubbing his eyes with one hand, he walked out of his room and headed to the dining room. It was when he reached downstairs that he felt like something was off. He turned around and looked behind him as if he would find someone. Not understanding why he felt like this, he decided to go sit at the dining table with his dad regardless.
"Good morning, sunshine."
Shikamaru simply mumbled something that sounded like 'good morning'. Usually, his son's morning grumpiness would have made laughed but not today. He actually stayed serious. He waited till the boy seemed a tad more awake before stating:
"Sora left this morning."
That fully caught Shikamaru's attention. Sitting up straight, he was now fully awake.
"She did? When?"
"Very early this morning, just a bit after your mother and I got up. Would you know why she would have left here prematurely like this?" Shikaku asked strictly.
The kiss he shared with Temari, the heated discussion with Ino… everything came back to the boy. Feeling awfully guilty, he covered his face while murmuring:
"Shit."
After rubbing vigorously his face for a few seconds, he looked up at the time. He just had enough time to get dressed and meet up with his team. He would see Sora and wouldn't have had any time to talk to her beforehand. His stomach clenched at the thought. Without anything more to say to his dad, he got up discouraged and got ready to go out. After grabbing quickly something to eat, he headed out.
He tried to take all his time to get there. He didn't know what to do for Sora. Although he took his sweet time to reach the training ground, he still somehow got there first. For the first time in, well, ever, he was nervous sitting there. However, at his biggest surprise, when Choji arrived last, Asuma declared:
"Alright, we're all here. Let's start!"
"Hey, Sora isn't coming?" asked Choji.
"No, she had other business to attend to," answer their sensei.
Ino gave an angry look at Shikamaru which made him look up at the sky, exasperated. Now he felt like it was his fault for her absence. His team's reaction caught Asuma's attention. Curious, he tried to reflect on his conversation with the black hair girl this morning. She didn't seem upset or anything. She really was just determined to change for the best. So what was going on?
Walking in the forest behind her house, which belonged to her family, the girls were talking out what they should go over about genjutsu. Through all the talking, Reena suddenly stopped. With a sly smile, she looked at Sora in front of her and said with a light laugh:
"Geez Sora, I'm really wondering why you need my help with genjutsus. You're already darn good at it!"
Sora turned around with a confused look.
"What do you mean?"
Reena closed her eyes and when she reopened them, the pupil was a long slit.
"Oh, you know what I mean."
The black hair girl had now a smirk on her face. "I will gladly take the compliment then!"
And just like that, the girl gradually turned into a thousand dragonflies that flew all around her best friend. Reena turned around to face her friend who was really standing behind her.
"So?" she asked proudly.
"Yeah, for making genjutsus, you won't need any help. You're already darn good at it."
"But…?" asked Sora knowing that the tone that her best friend used meant that there was more.
"But you're going to need to practice recognizing a genjutsu, withstanding it, and break it," explained calmly the white hair girl.
"How can I practice those?"
"Well, isn't that what I'm here for?" Reena asked with a sly smile.
"Uh oh," said Sora, fully knowing that her friend was up to something.
As she saw her surrounding gradually change into darkness and her best friend turn into an extremely terrifying wolf demon, Sora realized that she had been caught in her friend's genjutsu without realizing it. That afternoon of training turned out to be a very long and exhausting one.
Reena walked up to her friend who was resting on her back. Looking down at her, she reflected on how Sora had made huge progressed in just one afternoon. Genjutsus are obviously not the girl's weakest point and the white hair girl was taking note of that. Taijutsu was what she needed to practice the most and unfortunately, it wasn't something that she could teach her properly.
"Let's go again," mumbled Sora exhausted.
"Oh no princess, we are not. You're beyond exhausted mentally and I really don't want to see you shatter down into pieces. You need to sleep and trust me; you'll sleep it off until, at least, tomorrow!"
"But...more…" tried to argue the black hair girl but it was obvious that her best friend was right.
With a sigh, Reena carefully picked up her friend and headed toward the house. On the way there, as expected, Sora fell asleep. So when they reached her friend's home, the white hair girl was, for once, relieved that she had forgotten yet again to lock her door. She laid her down and her bed and made sure to leave a glass of water on the nightstand just in case. After making sure that the girl would be fine on her own, she walked out of the house and, with a spare key hidden around the corner of the house - a little secret that only she knew, she locked the door to make sure that Sora would be safe.
Just as she was about to leave, she noticed someone in the distance walking toward the house. From the looks of it, the person was really nervous. When he got closer, Reena smiled kindly at the boy.
"I'm sorry Shikamaru, but she's out cold. I don't think you'll be able to talk to her today,"
"Is she okay?" he asked, clearly worried.
"She is. Just exhausted!" she said, trying to cheer him up. "How about we walk back to Konoha together?"
The boy shook his shoulder. "Yeah, why not."
They walked in silence for a few minutes. However, surprisingly, Shikamaru broke the silence.
"You know, I somehow figured that you'd be angry with me or something…"
Reena looked at the boy with an amused expression.
"Should I be?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure Sora told you about what happened last night and I know now that she had feelings for me," he explained, rubbing the back of his head uncomfortably. This was still a touchy subject for him.
"Actually, I heard it from…" She hesitated to mention Naruto, not wanting to get him in trouble for this kind of thing, although it would teach him a lesson. "...someone else. And I know the whole story. Every juicy detail, if you know what I mean," she then added with a smile.
"Ino told you?"
"She didn't have to, you're becoming quite obvious."
The boy looked up at the sky thoughtful.
"So you told Sora then?"
"Nope. Only told her that you rejected Temari because you liked someone else. Didn't specify who, though, since it didn't feel fair for you."
Shikamaru looked at the girl in surprise. Sora and Reena always told each other everything. Being friends ever since the academy, as they had no parents, they grew quite close. So the fact that one of them would purposely hide something from the other was quite surprising.
"I need to talk to her tomorrow. I… think it's time for me to admit my feelings for her. I just don't know how to…" the boy said now looking down.
The girl stopped and motioned for him to stop by putting her hand on his shoulder.
"Shikamaru, listen. It can't go wrong, I just know it. Sora had had a growing affection for you ever since you became teammates and that eventually evolved into love. She never had any parents to rely on and, trust me, it's not easy. That's why she only lets so little people get close to her like this. I know this is going to sound stupid and cheesy to you, hell it does to me but, just go with your heart."
Shikamaru stared at Reena for a bit, letting his head process what she had just said. She was right. Although it was nerve racking to let Sora know about his feelings, he also could feel that they were meant to be together. He just hated himself because of how long it took him to realize that. The girl then snapped him out of his thoughts by starting to walk again. Quickly, he went up to her side.
"Also, tomorrow is a no go, sorry," she added.
"Hn? Why's that?" he asked.
"Tomorrow she's going to be busy and exhausted."
"Wait… what have you guys been doing?"
"Intense training, you could say!" she said with a gleeful laugh.
"Ah hell, she really is going crazy about how good of a ninja she is, isn't she?"
"Oh yes she is."
"So, if she's going to be that busy tomorrow, what are you planning?"
With a sly smile, Reena just said mysteriously:
"Let's just say that she's going to get her wish and work on what she's lacking. But she'll be exhausted for quite a few days after that! Also, I have to go now. I need to track down Lee. Remember what I told you, okay?"
When he nodded, she left quite fast, leaving Shikamaru lost in his thoughts.
This is it! I'll post the next chapter hopefully next monday.
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