Nara Shikamaru

Part One

"From fields of Aberfeldy to the shores of Loch Maree, I know that she's the only one for me."

Nara Shikamaru knew he was screwed early on in life when he met Uchiha Toshiko and instead of crying when he beat her so mercilessly at games like shogi and go she would, with wide eyes, look up at him with every win and beam.

Even back then, before he realized anything was amiss his cheeks would heat up with every smile sent his way.

"No way!" She would start off with an excited gasp and Shikamaru— every time —would prepare himself for the waterworks about to appear, only for Toshiko to continue on, "How'd you do that Shika! You're so cool! You beat me again! Wow!"

And while anyone else would consider a good tempered friend a blessing Shikamaru couldn't because for as easy going as the Uchiha Hime was, the Nara heir could not figure her out.

Even when he was cloud watching she would be on his mind; the grass would tickle his arms as the clouds moved overhead and what used to be a blank mind in the face of the sky was now occupied with thoughts of another clan's prodigy; her smile, her laugh, the way her mind worked.

And then Uchiha Shisui killed himself. Toshiko came over less and when she did, though she would smile, it wasn't the same carefree smile it had been before her cousins suicide. Suddenly the thoughts about how to work out Toshiko's mind changed to how Shikamaru could make her smile the way she used to once more.

The thought of all her smiles for the rest of eternity being small, doll-like and no longer reaching her dark eyes made an itch appear under the boy's skin.

And just as the itch was going away— Shikamaru would spend allowance on ice cream and new card games to try out with Toshiko and she would smile like she used to —the massacre happened.

It'd been the middle of the night and though Shikamaru would've loved nothing more than to be sleeping, he couldn't. It had been too hot and so Shikamaru and his father— who had just come home from an urgent meeting with the village council —had found themselves sitting together on their home's back steps only for genin, tired panting to appear before them.

"Sir!" The older girl spoke hurriedly, her arms at her sides and dipping in and out of a quick bow, "You're needed at the Uchiha district, there's been an attack."

Shikamaru sat up straighter. Toshi.

"What do you mean attack?"

"A massacre, sir. The Hokage himself sent me to get you, he said it was bad."

Shikamaru's father made a growling sound as he shut his eyes tightly for a moment before he turned to him; "Wake your mother, tell her I said all hands on deck at the hospital."

"What about me?" Shikamaru found himself asking.

"I'll have Ensui—

"—No," Shikamaru cut his father off. He already knew where his old man's mind was going; he would call Ensui to come guard him throughout the night and until either he or Shikamaru's mother could come back home. "What should I do?"

"Do?" Shikamaru watched his father smile mirthlessly. "Shikamaru you're a kid. Sit tight."

"Toshiko is my friend, if she's in trouble I have to!"

"Let me handle it son," Shikamaru's father promised, "I know how much she means to you, I'll do whatever I can for her."

"Promise?"

"I swear it." And though it didn't do much to ease Shikamaru's swirling mind, as his father and the genin dispersed and Shikamaru darted off to wake his mother, his fathers word did ease the tension in his back.

The heaviness though, in the back of his mind— Toshiko's smile, her laugh, the crinkle of her eye when she looked up at the sky to cloud watch with him and it was just a little too sunny —stayed.

And it was the next morning— when his father came home covered in dried blood that wasn't his and his mother with him in untouched scrubs, with word of the Uchiha Clan Massacre —when Shikamaru finally understood just how screwed he was.

Because for as much of a genius his clan's elders swore he was, he couldn't be, could he?

It's taken well over a year to figure out that he had fixated on one of his best friends; on one of the last two Uchiha's.

"She'll stay with us for the time being," Shikamaru's father said at the table. There was a low lying buzzing sound under everything his father was saying.

Shikamaru's mind was spinning.

He had fixated on his best friend! Who's entire clan and nearly whose family had been cut down single handedly by her eldest brother.

The itch that had seemingly lived under Shikamaru's skin for the past several months not only made sense but it came back with a vengeance.

Shikamaru had to make sure Toshiko was okay. Sure his father said she was okay— untouched, alive —and sure Shikamaru trusted his father but there was something in his chest that wouldn't believe his old man until he saw Toshi with his own two eyes.

Ensui leaned against the wall as his father spoke. Shikamaru had never seen his mother so distraught or his father so somber.

"If there comes a time when her brother wakes up he can stay here as well."

"Both children?"

"We can't separate them Yoshino," Shikamaru's father replied and his mother for all her heat and usual hurrah, simply placed a hand over the man's hand.

It was obvious that, that wasn't where she had been going.

"That's not what I meant, you know I adore the girl and I'm sure her brother is just as kind—"

"—I'm sure you would have said that about Itachi too, 'Shino," Ensui voiced. Contrary to popular belief, Ensui was his mother's cousin and though he was a decade or so younger than her, Shikamaru couldn't remember a time Ensui didn't doubt on his mother.

"We can't turn them away, Ensui," Shikamaru's mother argued and Shikamaru's blood went cold at the thought. He turned to his cousin and guard and looked at him.

"Toshi-can is a delight and Sasuke is nowhere near Itachi's level even when he was at this age, but Yoshino, they're Uchiha." He said it like a warning. Like Sasuke and Toshiko were two people they, as a clan, should be wary of.

Ensui's pupils were small; his hands were squeezing his biceps. He was hiding; scared. And perhaps that was logical— the thought of what had just happened to the Uchiha to the Nara was horrifying —but still, heat flooded Shikamaru's chest.

Shikamaru knew the village already didn't like the Uchiha people; he'd seen kids picking on Toshiko when they thought they could get away with it because they didn't see anyone around, or heard the whispers that followed Sasuke at the academy.

But he had never cared; Toshiko had always been his friend and that had always been enough. He still didn't care; it was far more than just enough now.

"I'm going to marry her," Shikamaru announced.

Sure it was poor timing and Shikamaru wasn't even a hundred percent sure that he would want to marry Toshiko in a decade or two just because he was fixated, it didn't mean he was madly in love with the younger girl and would indeed marry her in the coming years, but he wanted to watch the shock to wash over Ensui's face and for him to shut the hell up about his Toshiko.

"What?" His mother blinked once and then twice. "I'm sorry Shika, wh—"

Shikamaru cut his mother off as he leveled Ensui with a steady look, "—Who cares if they're Uchiha. Toshiko won't be forever right, that's how marriage works?"

For a moment the three adults in the room were frozen, only for Shikamaru's father to move first. Nara Shikaku, an intimidating looking man with battle scars marring his face, smiled. A laugh, despite the blood on his vest and the heavy lines in his face, tumbled out.

"Figured it out then, huh?"

Shikamaru felt his brow twitch. Of course his old man knew before him.

"When did you—?" Shikamaru trailed off.

His father shrugged; "Oh I knew that first night Choza and I had to pick you and his boy up. You should have seen the way you walked out of that house."

Shikamaru's brow twitched harder. He didn't even want to know his father knew before him. The boy pushed his seat out from the table, "I'm going to get ready to visit Toshi."

"You should go too Shikaku, I'll get the guest rooms ready," Shikamaru's mother ordered, "Ensui, can you go to the Uchiha district, see if ANBU will allow you to take anything for Toshi-can?"

"What am I looking for?" Shikamaru, as he hovered in his doorway, heard Ensui ask.

"Clothing, that bear she carries around from time to time. A picture maybe, she could probably use that."

"Let Ryu know I'll be by later to seal up the rest of the houses later."

"Ryu's there?"

"The district is empty, easy pickings for any thieves or sticky fingered shinobi on clean up," Shikamaru heard his father grumble, and while for the most part, having a father who tended to think even more in advance them him was troublesome at times, Shikamaru was smiling.

Everything would work itself out; he would be there for Toshiko. He would make things as right as he could for her.

He had to. He couldn't fail her.