Prologue
"What's wrong?"
His blond teammate's question broke the silence they had been running in for the first time since they departed from Konoha two hours ago, startling him. It seemed Inoichi had got fed up of his attitude already.
"Who says there's anything wrong?" he asked without changing the pace.
"We've been together since before we entered the Academy. I know that look in your face and it usually means something is wrong. Come on, spill."
Silence enveloped them again, so they pressed.
"Is it Shikamaru? Is he well?" asked Chōza, genuine worry in his voice.
The Nara sighed, a muttered 'troublesome' escaping him as he realised there was no way his teammates would drop the subject without receiving a satisfactory answer.
"Shikamaru's fine. So is Yoshino."
"Harī, then." Sighed Inoichi.
Shikaku tensed up slightly, but soon forced his body to relax again. He didn't say anything, but his silence was confirmation enough for the other two thirds of the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho trio.
"If you want to talk about it…"
Once more, silence was their answer.
Inoichi sighed, staring at the back of the head of their unofficial leader. Their friend may be a genius, but he was also a lazy ass Nara and that meant he avoided any unnecessary effort if he could get away with it, which included speaking about what was bothering him, apparently.
"It's been a few weeks since I've seen him," tried again Inoichi. "but he seemed-"
"He's pulling away." Cut him off Shikaku.
Inoichi blinked, then frowned. He wished he could see the Nara's face at the moment, but the man had taken point as usual as they run.
"Pulling away? In what sense?"
Silence fell over them again, but it was a different kind of silence. It was not the stubborn one that meant their teammate was refusing to deign them with an answer, but the one that meant he was turning the question over in his mind, dissecting it and finding the best answer to it.
"He visits less, avoids me half the time and when he does meet me he gets… distant."
Concise and to the point in true Nara fashion.
"Can you blame him?" asked Chōza quietly after a few seconds digesting his words.
The question hung in the air between them, heavier in that they all knew the unvoiced answer.
"Yoshino has not been making things easy on him. Or on you, for that matter."
Shikaku's hands clenched into fists at his wife's mention. No, Yoshino hadn't made things easy at all. A fact that she seemed to derive a certain amount of pleasure from, even if the inactive kunoichi hid it almost perfectly. He wasn't fooled.
"No." he admitted softly. "She hasn't."
"Maybe he just needs some time away from, well, from…"
"…us?" finished the Leaf ninja with a self-deprecating shrug.
"…That's not what I meant. It came out wrong…" sighed Inoichi.
"Are you sure?"
"Shikaku…"
"Forget it, Inoichi." He muttered, shaking his head slightly. "Let's just focus on carrying out the mission for now."
The Yamanaka and Akimichi exchanged a worried glance, unseen by the Nara.