Slowly I slipped down from the hair until gravity was too much and I ended up on the floor. The darkness was nice, the sharp pain drilling into my temples seemed to relieve slightly. I curled up, resting my arms on my knees, my head following. I'd only been in the library for an hour. After a long day of school, I suppose it wasn't abnormal. A long boring day of school where I had been dragged in a foolish game of 'ninja'. Okay… I admit I had a little fun making my classmates run around in circles trying to find me.

It was nice to think about, better to focus on than all the medical jargon I had tried wading through. There were a lot of sealing scrolls, just about everyone used it, but there were some more specific for the hospital. Scrolls that helped keep medicine from going bad or equipment from breaking. There were a few barrier seals that caught my eye, but.. Its ended up just as one of those times when I repeated read the same page over and over without figuring out what I was reading.

"Shikamasa?"

The voice was familiar, light and feminine, but I couldn't put a name to it. Not until I peeked out back towards the seat I had abandoned. Sakura was leaning down, green eyes full of concern and curiosity. She held up a book.

"Are you done with this?"

"Yeah, I don't need it." I said and I wanted to groan as my headache came back in full force.

Sakura gave me one of those soft smiles, and instead of going back to her own business she knelt down. She kept a hand on the table top, probably to keep her head from smacking the edge.

"Do you need some help? Are you looking for something?"

"I'm going to learn fuuinjutsu like Kako, but… I think I need to put it aside for now. It's too complex." I only came to the conclusion as I said the words. I puffed out my cheeks and looked at her.

"Oh, okay." She fought down a laugh.

"Its really hard," I protested turning to face her "I'm not giving up though."

"I know," She said, an amused light dancing in her eyes. "Hey, you know I have an hour of free time. Do you want to go grab some dango? Maybe go play?"

"I have to clean up first," I said, there was no way I was going to turn down free dango. At least I hoped it was free. I crawled out from under the table, and was really glad that she actually helped me file away the books. She picked out a few to add to her growing collection.

Conversation was a little dull, probably because I had never actually hung out with Sakura. At most it was more of passing along a message or something to Shikako while she hung out with Sakura and Ino. For the most part Sakura always ended up talking about her studies and things at the hospital. It was a little amusing whenever she remember who she was talking to. Then she tried to work at other topics, but it never lasted very long.

I was glad when we got to the dango stand, she had started spouting out words that my brain couldn't even connect to proper words.

"Do you still want to be a ninja?" I interrupted her as she tried to name all the symptoms to chakra exhaustion (how she got to the topic was beyond me). Her hand paused as she accepted her change.

"Yeah, of course." She said determination burning in her eyes, "I want to be a battle medic."

The thought of dealing with severed limbs and the aftermath of a fight between two shinobi. Personally I haven't witnessed it, but I can't imagine anything pretty. Which always made me travel a gloomy train of thought. Can I really become a ninja? Can I become a weapon and fight, possibly, kill others?

I struggled to kill rabbits when we were out for survival training. Fish… fish were easy. We cooked with fish at home, but we didn't skin rabbits and disembowel them in our kitchen. I suppose that was the difference. Of course I could still kill a rabbit and all that, but…but it was something I hesitated over. Maybe I could do it without hesitating later, but was that a good thing?

"Thank you!" I said forcing myself to refocus on the sweet delicious confection Sakura handed off to me. A nice proper distraction. Dango wasn't my favorite treat, but it was definitely a top ten. My favorite were the ones that Choji's mom made. They were truly the best.

"Hey Shikamasa," Keiji called out running down the street. He was a cousin, a year older. I actually was pretty sure he was a distant cousin, just barely related and was about the same level as I when it came to the clan jutsu, perhaps behind now that I had actually managed to connect. His dark eyes met mine then he noticed Sakura.

"What's up?" I asked glancing behind him, but for whatever reason he was running I couldn't see it.

"I playing with some friends… wanna help out? I only have to find Hotaka and uh you remember Katsu, right?"

"Yeah…" I glanced to Sakura she shrugged and waved me off. I rolled my eyes. Katsu was a Yamanaka, Hotaka was another distant cousin -though closely related to Keiji-. I let out a sigh and shrugged, "Any boundaries? Where did find everyone else?"

"Cool," Keiji grinnted and snatched me by the arm and started pulling me, "I was hot on Hotaka's trail, he must've gone this way."

"Bye Sakura-nee, thanks for the dango!" I made sure to call out as I was dragged away to play. I suppose it was better than having to pretend to listen to Sakura ramble off again… which she probably was missing her friends. Namely Shikako and Ino that she would settle to spending a few minutes with me.

"Who was that, she was really pretty," Keiji asked sending a look over his shoulder but Sakura was no longer in sight.

"Shikako's friend, they went to the academy together." I shrugged lightly then paused, "Hotaka's right there, on the roof."

"I was right to drag you along!" Keiji laughed and with some chakra bounced up the roof. As he was a year older, their class was more or less allowed to do that without supervision.

I could probably do it, but… I didn't want to risk having to undergo one of Iruka's lectures. So I went the long way around, just worked perfectly because it cut off Hotaka's escape.

"No fair! When did Masa join in?" Hotaka exclaimed turning on Keiji.

"He looked bored out of his mind, so I saved him." Keiji replied, looking so very triumphant. I almost smiled but then I realized what he had just said. That was… well I was bored and zoning out. I guess he wasn't wrong.

I huffed out and crossed my arms, "Don't be a sore loser Hotaka."

Playing should not end up like training where my arms and legs being sore. I flopped down on the couch and belatedly realized that I had just landed in someone's lap. No not just anyone's, my dad's lap.

Shikaku laughed and tugged on my hair. I groaned and wiggled back up into a sitting position. Shikako and Shikamaru were both starting a match of shogi. Mom was in the kitchen, I was more or less surprised that she didn't have any help with making dinner.

"I was supposed to tell you that there is survival training coming up," I shrugged as I realized that I had been putting it off. Though it wasn't like it really mattered, I had no doubt that they already knew.

Dad smiled and pinched my nose, "Your mom will want to go over your pack."

I swatted his hand, "Can't you do it, though?" I tried my best pleading smile, "Mom has to go over every little bit, and then I have to pack it all over again."

"Excuse me young man," Mom stepped out, "It's for your own good. So get used it!"

The sound of complain was completely involuntary. It wasn't making anything better for myself. Of course I couldn't get any sympathy from my siblings, more or less because they had gone through all of the same things.

"Come and wash up, Masa, it's your turn to help." Mom called as she turned back to the kitchen. Slowly I got up from the couch and stretched out.

Today… was a good day.

Or at least I would like to think so. Sure there were a lot ups and downs, but that was life. It was easy to have good days when the family spent evenings together. It was like things could be normal, even if it was just for a couple of nights.

"Why do I have to be in a group with him?" Konohamaru demanded pointing an accusing finger at me. As if I were the problem here. He was just in a pissy mood because he hadn't been grouped together with his friends. Yet… even that hardly explained why I was the one he was complaining about.

"Konohamaru," Iruka said with a exasperated sigh, "We've been over this already."

This was irritating, and we'd only just got to the training ground. Better to walk away before I snapped. So I went over to Hanabi, she was talking with some of her friends, but for the next few days she was in a group with Konohamaru and I.

I knew what the school was doing, other than testing our survival skills, they were trying to decide which kids worked best together. Or maybe they were trying to get us all to be more united. I don't know I could probably figure it out through with a little more thought.

"We should tie him up in a tree," I muttered then because I was going to have to deal with that shouting, "Upside down and bait him for a bear or something."

Hanabi hummed in thought, "There aren't any bears around Konoha."

"Alright everyone," Iruka raised his voice, giving Konohamaru a look of warning. Well at least even the Sarutobi boy knew better than to contend with that look. "Group up and we'll hand out our assignments."

"Bears are attracted to honey… do you think Chiyako will be able to find some bees around?" I asked trailing behind reluctantly to stand with Konohamaru.

Hanabi rolled her eyes before I earned a smile. A mischievous kind of smile that vanished just as quickly as it appeared. Well maybe it wouldn't be completely horrible. Not that sleeping outside was all that fun.

Then… the pranks started. Stupid little pranks that were more irritating than harmful. I avoided about half of them. And for the other half Konohamaru had to suffer more than just Iruka's lectures on safety and getting along with others. Which was nice when Iruka had him doing useless tasks as punishment, because it meant he wasn't getting in the way.

"Want to spar?" Hanabi asked since we had some down time.

"Yeah," I said popping up from my seat.

There were other kids who were just deciding on games to play, but there were some groups trying to catch up on a handful of tasks that they had originally been slacking on. Yet things sort of changed when others noticed them sparring. A strange sort of competition started up.

It quickly turned into chaos when no one was actually keeping track of things. It was still fun in that sense of training disguised as play. For the sake of my dignity I won't delve into how many times Hanabi sent me back on my ass.

We all headed to our bedrolls exhausted. Which… probably was a bad combination because there were a few academy students around more than willing to dump water on anyone too slow to jump out of the way.

Yet when I woke an hour later it wasn't Iruka who was crouching over me. My hair pulled but was free instantly as I jumped up. My hair fell around my face and I gaped at the snickering boy.

"You are so dead," I snarled and was mildly pleased to see his eyes widened in fear. In the night I was short my clan jutsu, but it didn't matter. I couldn't do it long enough to count for anything.

I chased him around, and tackled him to the ground just our chunin sensei were starting to realize something was up. Konohamaru and I grappled before I had him eating the dirt. It was Iruka and Machiko-sensei that pulled us apart.

"What are you two doing?" Iruka demanded though he probably already had it figured out. I glared daggers at Konohamaru's shadowed figure. I more or less only picked him out with that chakra sense, just as I could pick out the two sensei, but everyone else was a clustered jumble.

"We were just practicing stealth, Sensei," I said voice sweet as sugar, "Konohamaru failed."

"Don't lie Shikamasa," Machiko's voice was flat, her grip on the back of my shirt tight. This woman was a no nonsense type, that was the nice way to say it. I for one felt only sympathy for the students in her class.

If I knew any earth jutsu then I would've buried Konohamaru up to his nose. But roasting him would've been so much more satisfying.

"Go on Konohamaru, tell them," I bit off because I was going to plan something far worse than any punishment adults could dreg up. He was going to regret messing with me, and it didn't even matter why he was irritated with me. I didn't care for his stupid reasons, he was taking it too far.

Did I care how short my hair was? Not really, but it wasn't his decision. His petty pranks, I could've ignored.

Game on. I could drop that low, and traps were part of being a ninja so it was a sort of training. More so if I could manage without getting caught. That would prove a nice challenge.

Maybe someone could talk me out of it… maybe I'd get over it the morning.

Right now though, I was planning sabotage.

AN: This chapter started off as just something fun idea i wanted to write and then it sort of evolved from there and became a real thing. And i feel like i need to say that its entirely probably that Shikako knows but this story is written in first person. The only point of view you'll be seeing is Masa's... which to be honest first person is far from my forte. in fact its one of my first stories in a looong time that is in first person. but really thats an excuse...

anyway this prank war that has begun is actually part of the plot, though i hadn't planned on putting it in until later but then i didn't want to forget this scene so here it is! Enjoy~