THE BOYS
The three boys' heads swivelled to the door, frozen where they were.
"Speak of the devil, and she will appear," Shikamaru murmured to himself.
"Oh my god, Shikamaru! It might be her!" Naruto slapped Shikamaru on the back out of giddy, causing him to lurch forward.
The knock came again, louder.
"Someone needs to answer the door," Choji stated.
Shikamaru stared at Naruto in spite. Naruto nodded at him, his face beaming. There was a pause as only the sound of Naruto's kettle could be heard in the background.
"You idiot, it's your dorm - you have to answer it!"
"Oh, right," Naruto realised. He opened the door and the three boys looked at the dark haired boy standing there.
"Oh, hey Konohamaru," Naruto greeted in a cheerless tone. "Sorry Shikamaru, it's not her."
"Big bro Naruto! You're not even dressed for our training," the brunette scolded, his expression twisted into a frown. He walked in, then paused at the sight of Shikamaru's disappointed face, "And what's wrong with you?" he asked.
"Nothing," Shikamaru muttered grumpily. "Hi, Konohamaru!" Choji waved. "And hi, Sai!"
"Hello, Choji," Sai greeted. "How was your tournament?"
"Still undefeated," he replied happily. "How's soccer training?" He asked, slurping the last of Naruto's stolen ramen cup.
"It's great! At this rate I'll be better than him when I enroll here," Konohamaru exclaimed happily to Choji, "It'd be even better if Naruto could get ready on time. He's been so distracted lately - spending all that time in the library... "
Naruto rubbed his nose as he chuckled sheepishly.
"I was unaware that you could read, Naruto," Sai commented in his usual dry tone. Naruto looked at him angrily.
"What you are even studying for? Term just started for you guys," Konohamaru questioned.
"Give him a break, Konohamaru - the Fall Festival is coming up. He's got all kinds of stuff on his mind," Choji added.
The room looked to Naruto for some confirmation.
"Oh… Oh! Yeah. The Fall Festival," he coughed. "It's really hectic, isn't it Shikamaru?" He looked towards Shikamaru for some assistance.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Naruto could remember every play in his soccer meet-ups but couldn't stay awake through one student council meeting. Closing his eyes, Shikamaru recited from memory, "It's all on its way. There's just an issue with the staged performances. I think Ino is still looking for a student band. If we can't find one within the week, we'll just hire an external one - which might be cutting close on the budget. But luckily I've prepared a buffer amount that should see us through to the end of this year's social calendar."
He opened his eyes to see the room staring at him in admiration.
"Have I ever told you how grateful I am to have you?" Naruto told him, his eyes about to tear up.
"No," Shikamaru said coldly.
"Well, I am, Shikamaru. Working alongside my best friend has really made my senior year the best! I really love you, man," Naruto enveloped him in a hug.
Shikamaru's face twisted, not wanting to show how touched he felt, so he mumbled, "yeah.. Me too…."
"Say it louder, Shikamaru. Remember what we said about speaking our feelings?" Choji stood up with a frown on his face.
"I- I love you too, Naruto," Shikamaru coughed out in a panic.
Choji cracked his knuckles, still wearing a frown on his face.
"I love you and you're my best friend too, Naruto," Shikamaru finally admitted.
"That's really sweet," Choji said, moving towards them, "I love you guys." He pulled them into a group hug. Shikamaru felt the air leave his body as Choji squished them together and lift them off the ground.
As annoying as they were, Choji and Naruto were his childhood best friends. Choji was the undefeated inter-college wrestling champion and a phenomenal cook. Naruto was the lead striker of the college's soccer team in addition to being the Student Council President.
"So Shikamaru, how was your night then?," Konohamaru asked, with a cheeky smile on his face.
Shikamaru didn't like his tone. And he barely even liked this kid. Konohamaru was a high school senior and friend-slash-little-brother-slash-mentee of Naruto. The kid was alright most of the time, but he liked to run his mouth. Shikamaru didn't enjoy playing games with children the same way Naruto did, especially when the child was the bratty heir of the family that founded Konoha College.
"That's none of your business kid," he spoke curtly, wishing he could drink away the embarrassment of last night if he wasn't already so hungover.
"None of my business?" Konohamaru accused him. "That's rich coming from a guy who was just doing it in public last night."
He scrunched his eyebrows together. "I wasn't doing anything in public last… night… wait, kid, what do you know?"
Konohamaru simply held a phone up to Shikamaru's face. Right on the screen was a far-away clip two people rubbing their faces against each other against the side of the campus convenience store. It was dark, but luckily for him the convenience store lights were bright enough to catch their silhouettes.
"It's so dark - you don't know that it's me," Shikamaru tried to argue.
"Yeah - that's why I zoomed in, hold on." Shikamaru felt his soul leave his body as he watched the camera zoom in, now able to catch his likeliness on screen. He watched in disbelief and horror as he saw himself get bitten on the neck.
"People are saying she's a vampire or something - like she runs fast and devours the energy of men," Konohamaru said.
"That would make her a succubus," Sai confirmed looking over Shikamaru's shoulder. By now, Chouji and Naruto had also raced to the back of Shikamaru to take a peek at the video.
"Naruto, look that's us!" Two figured appeared on the screen and were talking to Temari, who seemed to be propping up a limp-bodied Shikamaru.
"Gosh they're right when they say the camera adds 10 pounds…" Choji lamented, grabbing onto his gut.
"You're gonna be famous, Shikamaru!" Konohamaru said proudly. "I sent it in last night and it's already got a bunch of views - look! Everyone reads this blog." His eyes were focused on his phone so he didn't see Shikamaru frown. Naruto and Chouji looked between each other and wisely stepped aside.
Shikamaru didn't say a word as he tackled Konohamaru, pinning him to the ground. Shikamaru started slapping his face. Naruto tried to intervene, pulling Shikamaru off of Konohamaru, "Be gentle Shikamaru, he's just a dumb kid!" the blonde shouted.
Konohamaru stuck out his tongue and shouted back, "I'm smarter than you, Naruto!"
"Why you little -" Naruto said before joining in to pummel Konohamaru into the floor alongside Shikamaru.
At this point, Choji picked the phone from the floor. "They're calling you a 'bottom' in the comments, Shikamaru," he said with a low chuckle, before taking a selfie of himself and the other boys fighting behind him.
"I don't even want to know what that means," Shikamaru grunted, picking himself up from the floor, leaving Konohamaru to Naruto's mercy.
"I am too hungover for this. I'm heading home," he told the guys before grabbing his stuff to leave.