Naruto's mouth opened and closed repeatedly as she silently willed the apparition away. But of course the imposing figure of Sasuke Uchiha didn't disappear and he continued to stare them down with suspicions.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow when both of them failed to answer, "Is anyone going to answer me?"
Naruto's mouth opened again but her voice refused to cooperate as the only thing that came out was a, "Hm..."
Luckily Shikamaru didn't seem to have the same problem, "Nothing is going on, I just came to give Naruto a message from the Hokage."
Sasuke turned narrowed eyes at him, "Then you won't mind telling me what Naruto meant about you being her "dirty little secret"?" He sneered the words.
To his credit Shikamaru didn't even flinch, Naruto had to give it to him. He seemed so calm with his unreadable face. Sasuke's hostility didn't seem to bother him one bit, whereas she was ready to run from all the killing intent she could feel coming from her best friend.
She wondered how much had Sasuke heard, probably not enough seeing as Shikamaru wasn't dead yet, not that Naruto thought if the boys were to fight Shikamaru would lose easily, on the contrary he could probably outsmart Sasuke at any given day but Sasuke's raw strength was nothing to sniff at either. Actually, Sasuke was a powerhouse only rivaled by her own, if a fight were to break out there was no way Shikamaru would survive. She could just imagine the disaster on her apartment complex, the landlady would surely throw her out this time.
Wait why was she thinking of this now? She should be finding an excuse to keep Sasuke from doing anything stupid.
Focus, Naruto, she scolded herself silently.
Okay, Naruto think, Sasuke is smart so any lie they might come up with will have to be good if she wanted him off their backs (hers mostly). Naruto glanced at Shikamaru's profile, his expression was just as unreadable as Sasuke's but Naruto could see a pulses on his jaw twitch , he was probably as nervous as she was but he was doing a good job of hiding it. But surely he would think up of a good excuse to tell her teammate to keep him from suspecting anything right?
Oh, who was she kidding? Sasuke probably knew already, but a girl could hope.
But Shikamaru just shoved his hands in his pockets expression set in a bored manner and to Naruto's horror he answered, "I don't think that's any of your business, Uchiha."
Sasuke's face became murderous and Naruto knew she had to intervene before blood would spill so she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "It's a prank!"
Both boys turned to look at her and Naruto blushed stumbling over her words, "I-I asked S-Shikamaru to help me, uh, make a prank."
Shikamaru looked at her incredulously, even Sasuke was looking at her like she'd lost her mind. Naruto too didn't know what came over her, not even an academy student would believe that excuse. But the lie was already out, now she just had to improvise hopefully Shikamaru will play along.
"Is that the best you could come up with?" Sasuke asked, expression still disbelieving, "A prank?"
"It's true!" Naruto lied, "I'm working on this really awesome prank and I needed help with something so I asked him, right Shikamaru?"
Sasuke looked at the pineapple haired boy for confirmation, but Shikamaru just kept staring at her like he couldn't believe they were actually involved together.
Naruto laughed nervously, giving him a quick hard nudge on his side, "Right, Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru grimaced, but finally inclined his head shoving his hands in pockets of Sasuke's jacket. "Right."
Sasuke looked between the two of them contemplatively, Naruto tried not to react when Sasuke's eyes seemed to freeze her on the spot she forced herself to keep eye contact, before he let out a sigh shaking his head. He looked at Shikamaru with a raised eyebrow, "And you're going with her idiotic plans because...?"
Shikamaru shrugged, "Blackmail."
"Of course," Sasuke said dryly, "Why am I not surprised?"
"Hey!" She cried, relieved despite herself that Sasuke seemed more relaxed, it meant he was buying their story. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that nobody in their right mind would go along with any of your ideas, dobe, you're just too pathetic." He smirked as she bristled at the insult.
"Teme!" She growled and Sasuke's smirk grew.
"Is that the best insult you could come up with? You're really such a moron."
Naruto's face was getting redder but before she could jump on him Shikamaru decided to interrupt, because it seemed like they were starting to forget about him, and he didn't feel like watching the two idiots go at it, he didn't understand these two's relationship but it has always been more trouble than it was worth.
He cleared his throat catching both of their attention, Sasuke's smile disappeared and his mouth was set in a straight line and his eyes regarded him coldly.
Interesting.
Naruto's expression was more open though, as she looked at him with obvious concern, "Are you alright, Shikamaru? Are you still cold?"
Shikamaru shook his head as he decided to ignore the Uchiha, "No, I'm fine but I should be going now."
"Right, uh, thanks for your...Help." She stumbled over her words, blushing a little.
Shikamaru decided to keep his amusement to himself instead he just nodded as he turned around to go not even greeting the Uchiha good-bye.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he watched the Nara go. He turned his glare to Naruto who was still watching the Nara, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Naruto laughed nervously scratching the back of her head, "W-what do you mean?"
She knew it was too much to hope that Sasuke would believe her stupid excuse.
Sasuke's glare intensified, "Don't play dumb with me, you know damn well what I'm talking about." He growled.
Naruto looked away, "I, uh, already t-told you, Shika w-was just helping me with a p-prank, you know."
Sasuke crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow cooly, "Do you take me for a fool? Clearly you don't think I believed your stupid excuse."
"Clearly not," Naruto grumbled under her breath before sighing shoulders slumped in defeat, she then raised her chin in a stubborn manner. "Whatever you want to say, I don't want to hear it."
"Have you lost your mind? Shagging the Nara, really?" Sasuke said in disgust ignoring her words.
Naruto flushed in embarrassment, "Don't put it like that! Plus I don't see how it's any of your business what I do with anyone."
"I assume the girlfriend is not aware of this, is she?" At her silence his dark eyes narrowed, lips pulled in disgust, "You're helping him cheat?!"
Naruto flinched, "They broke up, this is just temporary, okay, I know what I'm doing." she huffed crossing her arms petulantly feeling quite like a small child who was being scolded for being naughty which she kinda was. She scowled when she saw him looking at her like she'd just spouted two heads. "What?"
"Surely you didn't just admit to being a replacement of some girl until her boyfriend decides to take her back," When Naruto didn't reply he uncrossed his arms and turned around, "That's it." He said walking towards the stairs.
Naruto blinked at his back, "What is it? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to have a word with him," Was the response before he disappeared down the stairs.
It took her full minute to register what that meant and panic set in. She quickly jumped off her balcony where Sasuke was just walking by and landed on him, pinning him on the ground to keep him from going any further.
A few startled villagers stopped to watch in curiosity, one look from the Uchiha made them scurry along back to their business.
Sasuke grunted turning to glare up at her, "Naruto," he growled squirming under her, "Get off me now before I decide to hurt you."
"No ways!" Naruto said keeping his arms locked behind him for good measure, "I'm not letting you ruin this for me."
"Ruin what, idiot? Can't you see he's using you?" With that he tried to gain a little momentum to throw her off his back, but Naruto held strong by pulling his arms further backwards earning a grunt of pain from the raven-heared.
"No, he's not, you bastard," Naruto said through gritted teeth, "I already told you this is my business. So. Don't. Fucking. Interfere." Each word was enunciated with a pull of the arms.
"Okay, okay, fine!" Sasuke said quickly, "Fuck!"
Naruto paused looking at him in suspicion, "Okay?"
"Yes," He said through gritted teeth sending her a murderous glare, "Now release me before I put you in a coma with my Sharigan."
Naruto stuck out her tongue at him, "Okay!" She jumped off him, making sure to stand at least seven feet from him in case he made good on his promise of hurting her.
She watched him stand up and dust himself off all the while glaring daggers at her, Naruto just gave him a pleased smile before she remembered something. "And you're not allowed to tell anyone!" She said pointing at him.
Naruto watched in fascination as several expression played on her best friend's face, no doubt they were all the things he wanted to tell her but refrained, until a mixture of annoyance and exasperation finally won.
"Whatever," He grumbled, "Who would I tell anyways?"
Naruto was about to say Sakura but then remembered the bastard was an antisocial prick so it was very unluckily. So instead she asked, "So why did you come to my place?"
Sasuke studied her silently for a moment before shrugging lightly, his expression had gone back to his cold indifference. "I came because of Kakashi."
Naruto's brow raised, "Really? But I don't think we have training together today, unless I forgot," She said thoughtfully with her hands on her chin.
"He came to interrupt me during my training two days ago," He replied with a slight frown, apparently still annoyed at the interruption, "Started asking me strange questions about you and the last time I'd seen you, apparently the pervert thought you and I were involved,"At this, his lips curled in disgust, "I told him to get lost and he surprisingly did but not before telling me to check up on you which I did as soon as time would let me, and imagine my surprise seeing the Nara come out of your apartment."
Naruto coughed avoiding his eyes, she cleared her throat, "You want to eat something?" She quickly changed the subject, not letting on the fact that she was inwardly cursing their porn-reading teacher to his grave. Maybe she should follow up on her promise of burning all his books. That would keep him from crossing her next time.
"Getting violent, are we?"
She ignored the annoying voice in her head. She was still mad at him for his comment earlier. Instead she waited on Sasuke's reply as he thought about the offer before shrugging.
"Sure," He said putting his hands in his pocket, "As long as it's not ramen."
Naruto scowled but didn't argue, she figured that it was a small price to pay for him not giving her a hard time about Shikamaru. "Fine, just let me grab my stuff then we'll go."
Five minutes later she returned, making sure she had everything in her pouch before grinning at him. "We're good to go."
They were a few blocks from her apartment when Sasuke stopped.
Naruto looked at him in question stopping a few feet away, he had a thoughtful expression which slowly turned to annoyance as he seemed to remember something.
"Dobe, was that my jacket he was wearing?"
Naruto paled, "I, uh, I'll just go on ahead, bye!"
Sasuke's thunderous expression was the last thing she saw before disappearing in a poof of smoke.
…
"Soo, you're really not going to tell anyone?" Naruto said leaning forward, hands propped on the table.
Sasuke seemed to think about it while he chewed slowly on his rice. At long last he nodded sighing, "I don't like this, but like you said it's none of my business so I won't tell anyone." He shrugged going back to his rice with vegetables and fish.
Naruto kept staring at him until he was fed up and scowled at her.
"What?"
Naruto shook her head eyes narrowed in suspicions, "I don't buy it, there's no ways you will just let it slide like that. Normally you'll make a scene or something, what's wrong with you?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Instead of being thankful you're complaining about me not making it a big scene, if there's something wrong with someone it's clearly you."
At his mocking tone Naruto actually relaxed, She grabbed her chopsticks and dug into her noodles, "I am thankful, it's just a little weird."
"Hn." Was Sasuke's reply.
They ate silently for a minute until Naruto decided to break the silence again.
"So as I said before this thing with Shikamaru is really just temporary," She tried to explain, "We're just testing the waters, almost like an experiment, you know?"
Sasuke stopped eating and gave her an odd look.
"What? It's the truth." Naruto defended, "We're just trying to see how long the attractions between us will last."
"That is not really something I'd like to discuss right now." Sasuke said sounding a little sick.
Naruto blinked, "I just thought I'd explain myself before you get the wrong idea."
Sasuke stared at her wondering whether she was joking or not. After studying her face he realized that no, in fact Naruto was being totally serious. His self-proclaimed best friend was just that dumb.
Resisting the urge to face palm he said as calmly as he could, "Naruto, if you don't shut up right now I'm going to stand up and leave." Naruto was about to open her mouth and argue so he added, "Without paying the bill."
Naruto immediately closed her mouth, because no matter what she just couldn't afford to spend anymore money this month. After that shopping spree with Sakura money had become a little tight, and with the hokage not giving her any missions she was still wondering how she would pay for the rent.
"Fine," She grumbled before shoving a mouthful of rice in her mouth.
Sasuke nodded in satisfaction before he too resumed eating while ignoring the glare aimed at him.
It was after they were done eating and preparing to leave that Naruto remembered that she'd also been looking for Sasuke to ask him something.
"Say Sasuke are you in trouble or something?"
Sasuke looked at her like she'd lost a few screws in the brain.
Naruto ignored it and continued, "Yesterday while I was helping baa-chan sort through her files I saw your evaluation file," Naruto failed to notice Sasuke tense up at that sentence as she opened the door of the restaurant and stepped out, "I tried asking the hag about it but she was being really evasive, that's so weird right? So I thought I should just come and ask you but then I couldn't find you anywhere, where have you been by the way?" She finally glanced at Sasuke would been walking beside her with a thoughtful face on.
"Sasuke? Is everything alright with you?" She asked worried that there really was something wrong going on with him, "You didn't elapsed, did you? Are you still having nightmares about your brother's death? You know you can talk to me, right?"
She fussed around him until he grabbed her face with his hand and pushed her off his personal space.
"Relax it's nothing like that," He finally said sighing.
Naruto removed his hand from her face, "Then what is it? And don't you dare give me the same crap baa-chan gave about you needing another evaluation just for safekeeping." She quickly added when he opened his mouth to speak causing him to shut it immediately. "Something is going on I can feel it, and you're all hiding it from me."
Sasuke stopped walking to look at her, studying her face at long last he just shook his head. "Nothing is wrong with me, you don't need to worry about it." With that he turned to walk away.
Naruto grabbed his arm before he could take a step. She looked at him, her eyes searching his. For some reason his eyes seemed more blank than usual, as if he was trying hard to her from reading him. "But there is something going on right?"
Sasuke didn't say anything but for a moment his eyes softened, "It's nothing for you to worry about, now I'd like to get home." With that, he shrugged her hand off his arm and walked away.
"But-"
"By the way," He stopped a few feet away turning slightly to look at her, "Just be careful with the Nara, I'd really hate to have to bail you out of trouble." With that he got swallowed among the villagers filling the street.
Naruto watched him go in bewilderment.
"What the hell is going on?" She asked to no one in particular and no one answered her.
/../
Sasuke had lied when he told Naruto that he was going home, Instead he weaved his way towards a conspicuous building not far from the hokage tower. This building was known as Konoha headquarters but also known as the place where Anbu resides in.
He slowly made his way to the front office where he identified himself, Anbu uniform was immediately provided for him.
After getting dressed in one of the Anbu chambers he wasted no time in heading over to the training ground where he met the one that would be his Anbu captain for next few months. Neji Hyuga.
"Uchiha." He nodded in greeting.
"Hyuuga." Sasuke responded.
"Ready for your official Anbu training?" His tone was arrogant as he looked down on the Uchiha.
Sasuke gritted his teeth but only nodded in response as he took a fighting stance. He didn't need the training but for formality sake he had to do it.
Let's just hope he doesn't give into the urge to kill the arrogant prick. With that he started on his training to become Anbu and soon he will work his way up to become Captain.
Naruto better appreciate this.
"Atchooo!"
Shikamaru sniffed as he slid the door of his childhood home open and entered making sure to close it behind.
"Shikamaru is that you?" his mother called from the kitchen as he removed his shoes and placed it on the corner. He could hear shuffling footsteps in there.
"Yeah,"was all he managed before another sneeze broke out followed by coughing.
Great, he thought, he probably have a cold now, all because of his stupid hormones. He wondered what it was about Naruto that made him throw all reason out the window, was he that sexually deprived? He hoped not, because that would just be really sad.
He found his mother making something over the oven, her eyes lit up when she spotted him.
"Hi, honey!" She chirped turning her head to the side so he could kiss her cheek.
"Hi, mom, how are you?"
"I'm fine, but it seems that you're not." She put her hands on his forehead a second later her brow furrow in concern. "You're heating up. I'm going to make you some soup." She said in a tone that Brooke no arguments.
Shikamaru secretly rolled his eyes in exasperation, even if he wanted to argue he knew how useless it would be to argue against his mother, so instead he took a seat at the table and waited while he mother alternated between cooking breakfast and making his soup. "Do you need some help?" He asked in an unenthusiastic manner.
Yoshino waved her hands dismissively standing on her tiptoes to search for something in the cupboard. "This is not the first time I do multitasking. Anyways," she sent him an amused glance, "I doubt you really want to help at all it's way too troublesome for you."
He only shrugged in response, she was right. So instead he turned his thoughts on what happened earlier at Naruto's. Once again, they'd been careless. Now Sasuke no doubts knew about them, because there was no way Sasuke had bought into Naruto's lame excuse (he still wondered about her inability to tell a lie despite her career of choice), the guy was too smart for that. He must at least suspect something was going on if he didn't already know.
He sighed, this was just great, on top of everything that was going now he had the Uchiha on his trail. Probably, who knew what that guy would do in this situation.
He could feel a headache coming on, he rubbed his temple with another soft sigh.
"What's wrong, honey?" Yoshino asked coming up with a bowl containing soup and putting it in front of him with a spoon. "Do you need any tablets?"
"Nothing, no, I was just thinking." He mumbled before clasping his hands in front of him in thanks. "Itadakimasu."
Yoshino looked at him with concerned eyes, "That's the same look you had when you came the last time, are you sure everything is alright with you?"
"Yeah, I'm just going through some stuff but I'm sure everything will work out." Hopefully.
"Hm," his mother said coming over with food consisting of bacons, eggs and bread. "I'm sure you're right."
He took the bread watching her as she made turns between the table and the stove, she looked thoughtful and he had a feeling he knew why. "What?"
She looked at him then sighed, she sat down across from him. "I didn't want to bring it up but… I heard about your break up."
"Who told you?" He could probably guess a number of people that his mother could have found out about it from but only one person he really knew would've told her.
His mother smiled, "I'm sure you already know."
Shikamaru sighed, "Of course." Who else could it be except Ino, it's almost like she was born just to torment me, he thought in annoyance. As if reading his thoughts his mother put her hands on top of his rubbing it soothingly. He looked at her with a raised brow, "I'm surprised you're not angry, I kind of expected you to blame me for it."
She just smiled softly, "You're my son, and I know you had a good reason for refusing the proposal and I trust your judgement. Frankly, I also agree you're both too young to get married and I told Ino-chan the same thing."
Shikamaru immediately relaxed after that, he hadn't known it until then but he'd been so tense, worried that his mother too would blame him for the break up or even worse believe the rumours. He didn't know why he was surprised though, despite her nagging his mother had always trusted his decisions; she'd always been on his side no matter what. It wasn't strange that she'd do so with this.
He quirked his lips up, "Thanks, mom."
Yoshino smiled before straightening up, her expression stern. "That doesn't mean I'm not worried about Temari-chan, that poor girl, couldn't you have been nicer to her? I was appalled when Ino told me about what happened and the way you treated Temari-chan. What have I told you about treating girls?"
Then again, maybe he spoke too soon. Here we go again, he thought inwardly rolling his eyes as he half listened to his mother rant about how precious a girl's heart was and how it should be protected, while they both ate they breakfast.
Several minutes later, he was just taking his last sip and his mother was still talking.
"Temari-chan is a sweet girl who deserves to be treated better, I'm sure if you just gave her a chance I'm sure she'll-"
"Mom, don't forget she's the one that broke up with me and not the other way around." He interrupted her, he sighed rubbing his temples. His headache seem to have intensified and he felt a little dizzy.
His mother didn't seem to notice his discomfort, "Yes, I know and I'm not saying she was right either but you shouldn't have let her go in that state of mind, don't you know there's people out there that takes advantage of vulnerable women?"
Shikamaru mentally rolled his eyes, again. He refrained from pointing out to his mother that nobody would dare take advantage of the Kazekage's sister especially here in Konoha and if anybody tried to, Temari would just blow them five ways to Kumo with that fan of hers, only because that would give his mother another reason to rant.
The other reason being that his mother was not totally wrong in her displeasure, he could have treated Temari a little better like making sure she got to Suna safe or something. He sighed, it was too late though and thinking about it was only adding to his already piling things to feel guilty about.
He promptly stood up cutting his mother in mid-sentence, she looked at him in surprise and he grimaced suddenly feeling like a shitty son.
"I'm going to lie down." He mumbled, and without waiting for a response he made his way to his old room.
He found it exactly the way he'd left it the last time he was here, but that's not surprising, his mother never came in here unless it was to clean and dust it so that it was always ready whenever he decided to stay over. He quickly removed his clothes folded them then placed them on the chair (unlike Naruto he liked having his things neat and in easy access) and changed into his sweatpants he decided to leave the shirt as he was suddenly feeling really hot. He fell on his bed, burying his face in his familiar scented pillow.
Just when he was about to close his eyes and sleep, he heard a soft knock before the door open. There was a pause but Shikamaru was way too tired (and his headache seemed to be getting worse) to see what had his mother hesitate. But then he felt fingers running through his hair followed by a dip in the bed indicating her sitting on it. He sighed shifting so that his body was facing the ceiling, he turned his head to look at her with half lidded eyes.
She smiled softly at him her dark eyes warm brushing the hair off his forehead. "You're running a fever." She said softly.
He wanted to nod but his head felt heavy and it was not because his mother's hand was still on his head. "I may have gotten a cold. Troublesome."
His mother chuckled and he found himself smiling at the pleasant warm sound.
"Well you're lucky I brought something that will relieve your fever." She said brandishing the small basin containing water she'd put on the floor and took a cloth from it, pressed the water out and laid it on his forehead.
He let out a sigh feeling his body relax at the warmth seeping through the cloth. He hadn't realized that he'd closed his eyes until he heard his mother's soft voice.
"I'm sorry."
He blinked his eyes open to look at her his brow furrowing slightly, "For what?"
"For ranting on you about Temari, I shouldn't have." She sighed, "I know I could be overbearing sometimes."
"No," Shikamaru cut in before she could go on, "You were right actually, I should have treated Temari better. It's my fault that everything happened the way it did."
She squeezed his shoulder lightly, "Don't blame yourself too much, honey, I'm sure things will work out just fine. Temari is a good girl, she will come around."
Shikamaru hummed softly before closing his eyes once more, he felt so tired. With a last pat on the head and a brief kiss on his forehead he felt his mother stand up.
There was a moment of hesitation in which he sensed his mother watching him, confused he opened his eyes slightly to peer up at her. He caught a brief look of worry in her expression before she masked it with a smile.
"Get some sleep," She said before picking up the basin, "I will come check up on you after I'm done cleaning the kitchen." With that she disappeared out the door.
He blinked at her odd behavior before deciding he was way too sick to analyze it, he closed his eyes finally determine to get some rest. He hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before because of a certain blue eyed blonde with humongous stamina.
He didn't realize that his lips had pulled into a smile and let himself be pulled into a peaceful slumber.
…
"Atchoo!" Sniff, sniff.
"Ew! That sounds nasty." Ino shrieked from beside him inching away from him.
He ignored her in favor of blowing his noise a little too loudly than was necessary, as expected Ino threw him a dirty look.
He rolled his eyes at her, "You act like you've never been sick before."
"Yeah, but I don't go around blowing my nose in public." She sniffed.
"What else would you have me do? You were the one that called me out here in case you've forgotten." He said sighing, he nodded at two passing villagers pretending he didn't notice their flirty looks. He'd been getting a lot of those since the rumours, apparently apparently the reason behind the break up didn't matter as long as he was "on the market again". As one of Konoha's elite ninja, the heir of the Nara estate and Konoha's only tactician to boot who wouldn't want to claim him as theirs now that he's single again? Most guys would be thrilled to be on the receiving end to such attention from girls. As for Shikamaru, there's nothing more troublesome he could think of than that.
"That's because you were avoiding me!" Ino exclaimed loudly earning herself a few odd looks.
"For the last time I'm telling you I wasn't avoiding you, Ino." He said in exasperation inwardly wondering what he'd done to deserve Ino this early morning especially since he wasn't recovered yet from his cold the more time he spent walking with her the more he could feel himself getting worse. "I was just busy that's all."
Ino snorted in disbelief shaking her head, "Yeah right, you're Shikamaru, the laziest man I know, you're neverbusy. I'm surprised you even know the word, it totally doesn't belong in your vocabulary."
Shikamaru sent her an annoyed look, "I do get missions on occasions, you know." He defended only to be ignored as a girl with a dark hair came up to his female teammate to greet her.
"Oh hi, Mei," The blonde greeted cheerfully, "How are you?"
The girl, Mei, smiled and gave him a slight bow in greeting to which he nodded before turning back to Ino. "I'm quite fine, thank you, what about you?"
"Oh you know," She waved her hand, "Same old. What about your mom? I heard she was sick."
"She's okay now, I took her to the hospital and they said she just needed rest and she should stop exerting herself." The girl replied shyly, she reminded Shikamaru a little of Hinata.
"Hm," Ino said thoughtfully, "I'm glad she's better, I heard she took over your late father's farm, how is that going?"
Shikamaru looked at his overly nosy teammate incredulously and then in annoyance. "Seriously?"
She blinked at him as if surprised to find him next to her. She turned to her friend with an apologetic smile, "Oh, uh, I'm sorry Mei you will have to tell me about your mom another day."
"Oh that's okay."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes deciding to walk on ahead (and hoping to lose her in the process), his teammate has got to be the most self centered girl he'd ever known in his short nineteen years of life which says a lot since you meet all sorts of people as a ninja.
Hopefully, he thought a little meanly, she doesn't decide to reproduce for a very long time. One of her is enough to last him a life time as it is.
"So, where was I?" Ino asked bounding up to him like nothing happened, "Oh yes, so do you mean to tell me that you were too busy to come pop by the shop and say hi?"
He could recognise a trick question from a mile away, and that definitely was one; this time it was experience that taught him and not his IQ.
At his silence she sighed stopping in the middle of the slowly filling street, "I know I probably haven't been the most supportive friend since your break up, but how can I when you don't even talk to me!" Her voice was slowly rising by the end of the sentence frustration coloring her tone.
Shikamaru too stopped, groaning, "Do we have to do this now?"
"Doesn't matter where we are, it's not like you're going to tell me, you never tell me anything even though I'm your best friend too!"
Not this again, Shikamaru thought inwardly rolling his eyes, he already knew where this was going having had this conversation many times before about Ino's insecurities over their friendship. She felt left out between him and Chouji and she often complained that they never included her in important stuff, which was bullshit in Shikamaru's opinion because Ino always made sure she was included in everything so there was no way she was never not included into stuff.
Normally he would have let her rant it out until exhaustion as he usually did when she got like that. But between his blotting nose and a blossoming headache, he really wasn't in the mood for his female teammate's dramat.
Sighing he shoved his hands in his pocket his expression set in a bored manner. "Cut the crap, Ino, this has nothing to do with that and you know it."
Ino blinked in shock a flash of hurt passing over her expression before masking it with anger. "What the fuck is your problem? All I want to know is what's going on in my best friend's life, yet you keep treating me like I'm not even worth your time, don't you trust me anymore?"
Shikamaru looked at her blankly, "This has nothing to do with trust, your inability to keep things to yourself is the problem." He shook his head when she was about to deny it or maybe defend herself. "Look if we're not going anywhere then I'd rather go home, maybe if you'd taken the time to look beyond yourself then you would notice that I'm still a little sick."
With that he turned and left, leaving a slightly gaping Ino behind.
…
Instead of heading to his home as he'd said he would, he changed course in search of a spot where he could watch the clouds and think a little, since the sky was clear he decided that there was no need to waste a perfect day, besides going home he'd have to go to the Nara estate and put up with his mother's fussing (she was probably having a fit right now because he sneaked out). He was just walking past the academy when he caught a flash of blonde in the corner his eye.
He turned and saw Naruto sitting on their old swing, her head was bent and she seemed to be scribbling furiously in the book on her lap her brow knit together her pink tongue peeking out of slightly full lips, long lashes brushing her cheekbones as her eyes was lowered intently on the whatever she was doing. Whatever she was working on must be frustrating her because at one point she blew her bangs out of her eyes as if annoyed before muttering something under her breath which he guessed to be a curse.
He should probably stop watching her before anyone came and accused him of being a stalker. But he couldn't take his eyes away, despite the oversized shirt and the faded knee length shorts she was wearing, not to mention her hair was a mess; somehow she still looked beautiful. He was sure a lot of guys would kill to be with her; he'd probably be one of them if he didn't have Tema-oh wait, he didn't have Temari, well, not anymore at least. So what was stopping him from just asking Naruto on an official date? She deserved better than what he was giving her right now? He wasn't even giving her hope to hold on to. He sighed, maybe it was for the best that he wasn't giving her anything to hold on to, that way she will be less hurt when the thing between them ended. He grimaced at the thought, damn he was an ass. He didn't even know where the bullshit he kept thinking came from. Despite Naruto's reassurance that she would not get attached, when it came down to it she will be the worst off.
He let out a soft groan lifting his head to the sky. What was wrong with him? What's with the self loathing and self disgust he was feeling?
Ino could be insufferable sometimes but he usually just let it pass because he knew Ino was only being Ino. What he'd said to Ino was uncalled for, especially since he knew she was just worried about him, it wasn't her fault that she needed to go find things out by others, it was his fault for not being straight with her, for having a secret affair with one of their close friends when he should have been heart broken, drinking his heart out and eating ice cream.
Wait-scratch the last part out, that's girls way of dealing with break ups. Either way, he should have been miserable.
What the hell was wrong with him? Was he born to hurt all the blondes in his life?
"Shikamaru? Are you okay?"
He blinked at the large beautiful blue eyes that was peering up at him in concern. He hadn't noticed her approaching. How could he though? When he was busy hating himself. Maybe it was a phase, one that he hadn't experienced in his pubity that finally decided to show it's ugly head.
"Shikamaru? Hey," he felt a hand brush his cheek lightly before it was removed. He refocus his eyes on her whisker covered face.
Naruto's frowned had deepened. "What's wrong? I saw you standing here and I tried calling you but you weren't responding so I came to check up on you. Are you okay?"
Typical Naruto, always worried about others instead of herself. She was even more beautiful up close, and he realised that it's been two days since they'd seen each other, touched each other and he could feel the familiar craving of her taste that he always got in her presence. All of it was strangely comforting.
He closed his eyes before opening it, he smiled faintly at her. "Nothing, just having a bad morning, that's all."
Naruto studied him for a moment her expression uncharacteristically serious he felt a strangely exposed under the gaze but the moment quickly disappeared and Naruto smiled. "At least I can relate, you wouldn't believe what happened to me."
There was a moment of pause in which Shikamaru belatedly realised that she was waiting for him to respond, Naruto's smile had distracted him for a second. "What?"
Naruto seemed satisfied turning to walk back towards the swings, she talked with exaggerated hands movement as he followed behind her. "My alarm rang at five this morning, five! And you know the weirdest part? The weirdest part is that I haven't set my alarm in awhile, you know, because I haven't had to go on a mission for ages (which I'm still upset about by the way) this stinks of Sai, he always has a weird sense of humour like that, oh when I get my hands on him."
They arrived by the swings and she sat herself motioning for him to sit on the swing next to her he hesitated before sitting but Naruto didn't even notice because she was still talking about the horrific things she'd do to Sai once she saw him, poor Sai, I hope you know that Naruto has a duplicate of your apartment keys because she's coming for your underwears, he chuckled under his breath at Naruto's ideas on how she would prank her teammate.
Naruto blinked in surprised at the sound before returning it with a grin and she carried on with her stories with renewed vigor.
Twenty minutes they were both laughing, Shikamaru's side even hurt from the effort of keeping his laugh to a bare minimum so as not to disturb the teachers and students in the classes, Naruto didn't seem to be that considerate because she was laughing a lot louder than it was necessary. She had a very funny laugh he noticed; it was a little contagious too, he spent most of the time laughing at her laugh than the story she was telling.
Her laugh was a cross between snickers and snorts with a little honking in between, it sounded like a pig was being slaughtered while the donkey laughed. Weirdly enough, he liked it because it made him laugh and laughing eased his mind.
"Wow," he said after his laughter had subsided a little, "and here I thought my morning was bad, but yours takes the cake."
"I know!" Naruto exclaimed leaning back from the swing and kicking her feet in the air, "I'm such a trouble magnet sometimes I wonder how I get into these kind of situations."
"And all of that happened to you this morning?" At Naruto's nod he whistled in amazement. Apparently Sai's little prank wasn't the least of her troubles. Somehow she managed to officially break her geyser trying to "fix" it despite the fact that she knew shit about electrical devices, she then sent one of the actors that had come in Konoha for a shooting to a hospital thinking that the guy was really beating his girlfriend whereas they were just acting. Naruto promptly beat the guy to a pulp without questions which of course earned herself a good beating from the Hokage for the hospital bill she'd need to pay the visitors. That wasn't all, apparently she also managed to get chased down by a mob of mothers at the park after accidently breaking one of their children's toys. Hence why she was here at the academy, she was hiding from "raging humanised female bulls" (her words not his).
Shikamaru shook his head, "Maybe I shouldn't hang out with you anymore in case your idiocy is contagious."
Naruto's eyes twinkled in mischief, "Well if it is contagious then it's probably too late for you."
Shikamaru's eyes darkened at the innuendo, he quickly cleared his throat deciding to change the subject. "So what were you busy with when I saw you?" He pointed towards the forgotten book on the ground.
"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed jumping from the swing to retrieve the item, "I can't believe I totally forgot! Shikamaru you're such a bad influence." She accused jokingly elbowing his side as she regain her place next to him.
He rolled his eyes. "You're one to talk."
Naruto just grinned proudly at him before showing him what she was working on. "It's Kakashi-sensei's homework, I was trying to finish it since I'm free today, here you can have a look if you want."
"So what are you working on?" He asked taking the book from her and flipping through it. The calligraphy was surprisingly neat and he could hardly see any mistakes not that he knew how to read seals or anything but he'd been around them long enough to tell the difference. "You're good."
"Oh mostly time seals, I'm trying to create a freeze tag but I've been struggling with the range, see this," she leaned over him to point at a pattern which looked like any other patterns to him, somehow all he could think of was how good she smelled despite the fact that she apparently spent most of her morning running, "I'm struggling with this, I need to be able to activate it before I activate this one," she showed him another unrecognisable pattern, "But so far, all I'm doing is activate it simultaneously which could be dangerous for me if I used it during combat."
"So, what's your goal with the seal?" He asked interest totally peaked, it was unusual to see Naturo being so knowledgeable about something that he was completely clueless about.
"Well," Naruto said leaning back on the swing and swaying slowly, "Originally, that was Ero-sensei's seal but it only covers up to three meters of the field, so kaka-sensei asked me to maximise the range to at least six meters and maybe try to develop it if I can, so the idea is to freeze your opponent on the spot using ice and we all know that ice is made out of water and wind. My main affinity is wind and I know a few water jutsu. The two patterns I showed you represent each of the jutsu. Activating them simultaneously causes the seal to be unstable, but if I make a mistake in my drawing I can cause the seal to backfire on me." She let out a sigh pouting a little, "So right now I'm kinda stuck."
There was a moment of silence in which Shikamaru gave her an impressed look, once again his respect for the blonde as gone up. He knew that Naruto had taken interest in sealing and he probably shouldn't be surprised by her talent in the art considering her heritage but he was still surprised and amazed. Despite the fact that it was someone else's half finished work it took a considerable amount of talent to try and develop it into your own style. As far as he knew, he'd never heard of someone trying to combine two jutsu into a seal to make one element not to mention to hold opponents with that element for a period of time while still being a beginner.
That was just… "Wow," He breathed when Naruto looked at him questioningly he shook his head, "You're just full of surprises aren't you?"
Naruto blushed looking down shyly; she tucked her hair behind her ear, "Not really, I had to read some of the old pervert's notes and I had help from Kakashi-sensei plus, I'm not done yet so..."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her, "Quit trying to be modest it doesn't suit you."
Naruto mock glared at him, "Well, I just didn't want to take all the credit that's all."
"I'm not saying you should, I'm just saying you should be proud of yourself," Shikamaru said a little exasperatedly, "Not many people would do what you're trying to do with only some pointers."
Naruto opened her mouth to argue but then closed it, "I guess you're right," she said thoughtfully, "I am pretty amazing."
He let out a snort and she grinned.
He was about to say something when he got interrupted by the bell. Shikamaru checked the sun's position and deducted that it must've been recess. Not long after that, they saw children floating in the playground one after another.
Naruto decided it was time to go before one of the children spotted her and forced her to show them one of her "ninja tricks".
Dragging a reluctant Shikamaru behind they quickly left the academy, soon they were weaving their way through the throngs of people in the market with Naruto talking all the way nonstop.
They spent most of their morning walking around the village talking with apparently no destination in mind.
They were just passing the Ichiraku ramen stand when Naruto's stomach growled.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the good timing.
Naruto shrugged turning towards the stand; flipping the curtains of the stand and going in, "What can I say? My body is pretty much tuned to this place."
Shikamaru shook his head before following after her. "Why am I not surprised." He mumbled to himself.
"Hey, old man!" Naruto greeted cheerfully taking a seat by the counter.
The old man behind the counter smiled widely upon seeing his favourite customer, "Hey, Naruto, how are you?"
"Hungry like a horse," Naruto said rubbing her flat stomach, her lips formed a little pout, "Please feed me."
The old man laughed, "Of course, the usual I presume?"
"You know it!"
Only after that did Ichiraku-san notice him sitting next to Naruto, his eyes widen and he bowed in apology, "I'm sorry Nara-san, what would you like to have?"
Shikamaru shook his head at the apology understanding the fact that Naruto's presence tends to keep people's attention on her, "One bowl of miso please."
"Two miso coming right up."
Naruto looked at him with a smirk, "So you're also a miso person, uh?"
He shrugged, "I didn't really know what else to order. I don't usually come here to eat."
Naruto shook her head and gave him a pitying look, "What a sad life you're living."
Shikamaru gave her a You're-so-funny-that-I forgot-to-laugh look and Naturo chuckled.
Just then a sneeze broke out of Shikamaru causing Naruto to look at him sharply.
"You're sick?"
He sniffed once before replying, "Ah not really, just a little cold." With that he took out a tissue and blew his nose after he was done he met Naruto's skeptical gaze with a shrugged, "At least I'm way better than I was two days ago."
"Two days ago?" Naruto's brow furrowed before realization dawned on her, "Was that after we took that-" She quickly cut herself off and looked around the shop, there was no one in hearing range, except for a couple sitting at the corner of the stall and the old man who was busy cooking. Other than them there was no other people in the stand still Naruto bent her head down to whisper, "Was that after the shower incident at my place?"
"Incident?" Shikamaru chuckled, "Is that what you're calling what we've been doing these days?"
Naruto blushed glaring him, "You know what I mean," She grumbled.
Shikamaru smiled, "Yes, but like I said it's not really bad today. My mom made sure of it."
Naruto looked unconvinced but didn't get the chance to say anything more because their food arrived.
"Itadakimatsu!" Naruto said loudly before digging into her ramen with gusto.
Shikamaru didn't even blink when a few minutes later she was done and a second bowl was immediately replaced by the cook. Having been friends with her for years, he already knew about her huge appetite and he also knew that wasn't her last bowl, there were many more to come before that stomach of hers would be satisfied. Speaking of which, he faintly wondered whether it was fine being seen here with her in public but then dismissed the thought away. He and Naruto were friends so it wasn't that weird for them to be out eating together like this, plus this wasn't the first time Naruto had dragged one of her friends to eat ramen. Even Neji who's usually stand offish had been a victim more than once.
Still, now that they were sleeping together, should he consider this as a date? Was Naruto considering this as a date? He turned to glance at the blonde sitting beside him who had her face scrunched up in happiness as she slurped her ramen. She looked more like she was having a date with her food than him.
He couldn't help but chuckle at that causing her to look up from her ramen in confusion.
He shook his head, Naruto looked at him for a couple second more before shrugging and going back to finishing her ramen and asking for more.
Shikamaru too turned back to his cooling food. Either way, he just hoped he brought enough money today, he predicted that she might end up consuming six bowls today.
"Hahh," Naruto sighed in satisfaction rubbing her bulging stomach, in front of her were eight empty bowls.
Shikamaru's prediction ended up being wrong. Oh well, he thought, nobody was perfect. With that, he took out his wallet checking that the money was enough for both their portion, then dropped it on the table.
Naruto blinked in surprise, "You're paying?" At his casual shrugged she grinned, "Sweet, maybe I should bring you with me more often." She joked elbowing him on the side while wiggling her eyebrows.
Shikamaru snorted as he stood up,"Please don't, I also have rent to pay." He thanked the cook before stepping outside.
"Thanks, old man!" Naruto bowed.
The stand owner smiled widely, "You're welcome, and please come again!"
"I will," Naruto waved before stepping outside to join Shikamaru.
"So where do you want to drag me of to next?" He asked her, he was just joking but Naruto was actually considering the question seriously.
As if making up her mind, she nodded.
"Come with me while I tell you about some of my best prank." She said; before he could say anything she grabbed his hand and started dragging him in the direction of the market.
Shikamaru sighed deciding to let himself be dragged for now. Troublesome.
After having to apologize to the fifth person for bumping them, Shikamaru decided to intervene. "Not that I'm not enjoying your story, but could you tell me where we're going? And why are you still dragging me?"
"Don't worry we're almost there," Naruto said answering his first question, she glanced at their clasped hands before shrugging, "I don't want to lose you with all these people here."
Shikamaru wanted to point out that he wasn't a kid but decided it wasn't worth the effort, plus he kind of liked the way Naruto's small hand fit in his larger one. And it was so warm.
He quickly shook himself from his thoughts when Naruto turned towards an alley, she stopped them in front of a yellow two-story house. No, actually this was the back of the house.
Before he could ask anything she climbed on the trash can closest to the house and pulled down a ladder that he hadn't noticed up until now.
He raised an eyebrow when she looked at him expectantly. "Is this legal?"
Naruto rolled her eyes, "Would I be doing this if it wasn't?"
Silence.
"Well," Naruto relented slightly, "would I be dragging you with me if it wasn't?"
Another silence.
Naruto threw her arms in the air in defeat, "Agh, fine, but who need legal when you're a fucking ninja?"
"Actually," Shikamaru said looking at the ladder, "Who needs a ladder when you're a ninja?"
"Oh," Naruto scratched her head sheepishly, "The owner only let me climb here in the conditions I don't mess up her walls."
"Ah," Was all he said more than a little relieved he wouldn't need to sign any paperwork in case the owner or one of the neighbours filed a report of trespassing. That would have been quite troublesome, not to mention the explanation he'd have to give.
He tried not to stare at Naruto's butt as he climbed after her. He was not a pervert. They reached the top of the roof a short moment later.
Shikamaru had to fight the urge to gape at what he saw.
"Cool, right?" Naruto said grinning next to him.
There in front of him was the most beautiful garden he'd ever seen, and he wasn't exaggerating. The roof was filled with different types of flowers making the place bright and lively, there was even a makeshift bed on the floor decorated with flowers. He looked up at the sky and was delighted to find clouds.
"Are you coming?"
He turned to find Naruto already lying on the makeshift bed. Her hands propped up to support her weight, she patted the space beside her, "Don't worry, there's enough space for the both of us."
It only took him a second of hesitation before joining her. He hadn't watched the clouds for days, there was no way he'd let this opportunity pass him.
Naruto shifted beside him as he made himself comfortable. He let out a contented sigh as he watched the first cloud drift by.
Naruto chuckled watching him from her propped position, he felt the sound traveling through his arms straight to his groin. He glanced at her to confirm that yes, she indeed had her breast pressed up against his arm. Ugh.
"So, I gather that this is your all work?" Shikamaru decided to quickly distract his mind, unless he wanted the owner of the place (whoever that may be) to come and find him taking advantage of Naruto in their garden.
Naruto hummed, copying his position and lying with her arms supporting her head, "Not really, Ino and Kokyo-obaasan did most of the job I just helped a bit. But the idea was mine though."
"Ino, uh," The name was enough to dampened his mood. He admited he might have been a little hard on her but that didn't mean he wasn't still annoyed. She didn't understand the term "privacy", she was constantly meddling in his life. Although, he appreciated her concerns but all he wanted was to be left alone.
"Did something happen with Ino?" Naruto's hair tickled his face as she leaned in his face blocking his view of the sky.
He rolled his eyes, here was another one that didn't know of the term "privacy" or in this case "personal space", he thought pushing her face away and back to where she'd been lying. "Just an argument."
Naruto fidgeted nervously, "Hm, you didn't tell her about us, did you?"
"Of course not," He looked at her lack of eye contact in suspicion, "Did you tell anyone?"
Naruto's eyes widened, "Of course not." She said quickly shaking her head.
He narrowed his eyes at that unconvincing lie. "Who did you tell?"
"I didn't tell anyone! I mean, not really," She relented looking down at her hands in guilt.
Shikamaru sat straight up, panic gripping him in the chest for a moment. "What do you mean "not really"?"
Naruto sighed rubbing her face and sitting up to face him. "The reason Sasuke came to my apartment was because of Kakashi-sensei, he tipped Sasuke off."
"You told Kakashi?!" He couldn't believe it out of all the people the copy-nin was the last person he'd want on his case, he'd rather have five version of Ino nagging him to stop smoking… Okay maybe five was a lot, two at least. The matter of the fact was, that Kakashi was not one to cross. Who knew what kind of line he was crossing by sleeping with one of his students?
Naruto paused at his panicked tone, her eyes widening further but this time in surprise. "Don't worry, sensei doesn't really know it's you, he just told Sasuke because he thought he was the guy I was sleeping with."
He shook his head, "Uchiha knows about us, it's possible that he went and report back."
It was Naruto's turn to shake her head, "Sasuke wouldn't do that, he promised." Realizing how child-like that sounded she blushed, "I mean, he doesn't care what I get up to anyways."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed in thought, "Uchiha said that?" At Naruto's quick nod he hummed in a noncommittal matter, getting back to the subject at hand, "How sure are you that Kakashi doesn't know?"
"I figure you would've already gotten a visit from him if he knew."
Or maybe he's just bidding his time, he thought but didn't voice it, he let out a sigh instead lying back down to watch the clouds.
"I'm sorry, Shikamaru, I didn't think he was going to go see Sasuke about it, I mean it was the day after… you know, our first night, sensei noticed something was amiss because I may have been a little out of it, I was a little confused so I asked him for advice but I guess he got a little curious, which I should've known of course especially considering that pervert-" Naruto's babbling was interrupted by Shikamaru's hand on her thigh.
He looked at her smiling a little, "It's okay, Naruto, you don't have to explain yourself to me."
With that he went back to staring at the sky.
He could feel Naruto's gaze on him but he refused to look, knowing he would find guilt in those beautiful blue eyes which in turn made him feel guilty because she shouldn't have to be sorry about anything, he should be the one apologizing on his knees to her. For making her lie, for sleeping with her even though they're not together, for making her keep it a secret even though he knew she was dying to tell someone (for some reason sex was a big deal to girls). Maybe…
Maybe he should end this thing between them. She will probably be mad at him, or even hate him for awhile which could mess their friendship but, maybe it would be for the best. She deserved better.
Next to him Naruto stood up.
He turned to tell her exactly what he'd been thinking only for his mind to go blank at what he saw. "Naruto, What are you doing?"
Naruto's determine face didn't change as she removed her shirt leaving the bandages strapped around her chest, next she slipped off her shorts so that she was left with her panty. "I'm going to make it up to you," With that she kneel down in front of him to kiss him.
Shikamaru stopped her an inch away eyes a little wide, "Are you crazy? What if the owner of this place come and find us?" He also wanted to point out that she wouldn't be making it up to him if they ended up being caught having sex at a civilians roof but Naruto distracted him by kissing his neck before lightly biting it.
"Don't worry, she's busy visiting family members, she won't be back for at least two days." She said her breath giving him goose bumps and her hand trailing down to his pants.
Damn, when did she get good at this? He groaned before shaking his head to focus. "What about the patrols, they could pass here and see us, I mean we're in the open!"
Naruto chuckled the sound was enough to relax his body only to tense again when her hand reached his already bulging groin. "You worry too much Shikamaru, I know who's on duty and it's a Nara and we all know how lazy you people are."
Shikamaru groaned when Naruto rubbed his sensitive member. "Naruto, I'm serious, stop."
Naruto sighed leaning back to looked at him, "I know you are, that's why I can't let you do it."
Shikamaru blinked at her through the haze of pleasure. "What?"
Naruto sighed again, impatiently this time. "I recognize the look, and I'm not letting you do this."
"The look?" He asked in confusion.
"Yeah," Naruto said huffing, "That look you get when you're thinking too hard about all the million reason why this is wrong and then you wonder whether you should end it out of a misplaced guilt. But guess what? I refuse." She said firmly.
Shikamaru's eyes widened in surprise, it was baffling how perceptive Naruto could be sometimes; then of course she would go and ruin it with something idiotic. He rolled his eyes, "firstly, my guilt is not misplaced, you really do deserve better than what I'm giving you and secondly, what the fuck do you mean you refuse?"
"Exactly what I said, I'm not letting you be a coward and end this."
Shikamaru sighed sitting up causing Naruto to slide off him blinking at him in surprise. "This is not about cowardice or anything, this… thing between us can turn ugly and I just know you will come out the worst of it."
Naruto looked at him uncomprehending. "What are you saying, Shikamaru?" She asked hesitantly.
He avoided her eyes, "I think it would be best if we stopped seeing each other."
Naruto caught her breath, shaking her head in denial, "You don't mean that, you can't mean that." When he still wouldn't meet her eyes she grabbed his face with both hands forcing him to look at her angry face, "What the fuck, Shikamaru?"
"I just think it's the best solution." He mumbled.
"Best for who? You?" She removed her hands her eyes softening a little, "Look, if this is about Kakashi-sensei then don't worry about it, I will make sure he doesn't suspect a thing, I promise." She gently brushed his cheek with the back of her hand.
He pulled his head away sighing, "You don't understand, I don't want you to get hurt, like I said you deserve better."
Naruto's face went from disbelief to anger in half a second; before he knew it her fist met his nose with a crack, the proximity making the impact much more powerful.
"Fuck! Ow!" He removed his hands from his nose and saw blood. "You fucking broke it!" He exclaimed in half annoyance and incredulity.
Naruto stood up with her hands on her hips, "You fucking deserved it, you… you asshole!"
Shikamaru groaned in pain holding his nose with both hands, "Fuck!"
Naruto stood there watching him for a second more before guilt kicked in and she jumped into action, "Shit, hold on," She quickly walked over to her clothes laying on the floor and grabbed her shirt.
"Pressed your fingers above you nose and lift your chin up," She directed as she did her best to wipe the blood still flowing from his nose.
"Shit, it won't stop bleeding, I think we need to go to the hospital." Naruto said holding the now bloodied shirt against his nose signalling for him to hold it. She stood up and slipped on her pants.
Shikamaru's eyes widened, "What? No way!" he said his voice slightly muffled.
"Yes you're going, your nose is broken you need a medic to put it back in place or else it will heal badly. I'm totally useless at this healing shit." Naruto said fixing on her pouch and making sure everything was inside. She motioned for him to stand.
"No wayz yo goin' like dat." He stated pointing at her lack of top and the bandages wrapped around her.
Naruto huffed, "Not like I have a choice, unless you have another suggestion."
Shikamaru shook his head wincing as he felt a slight pain, he removed the clothing and glanced at the blood coating it, he grimaced before looking at her. "You should go home, I can get myself to the hospital just fine."
"What? No ways, I'm coming and that's final." She said walking pass him to the ladder.
"Wait," He grabbed her arm to stop her letting out a sigh, troublesome woman, must everything end up in an argument with her? "At least go home and change first, you can join me at the hospital afterwards."
"Didn't you hear what I just said? I'm coming with-"
"Fuck, Naruto!" He suddenly exploded making the blonde jump slightly her eyes widening. "Would you just listen to me? What the fuck would you tell them about your top? Or why the hell you deemed it fit to break my nose?"
Naruto flinched her mouth opening and closing repeatedly.
Shikamaru sighed tiredly walking over to the edge of the roof, "Just go home, Naruto, I will see you later." With that he jumped off the next roof hurrying towards the hospital, hopefully it wasn't so busy so he could leave as quick as possible and go home to sleep for the rest of the day. Clearly today wasn't his day.
/…/
As luck would have it, the hospital was packed and Shikamaru had to wait for a whole two hours before anyone could see him. He'd been tempted occasionally to just walk out and let his nose heal crookedly, but then he remembered who his mother was and decided against it.
At least his doctor didn't make a fuss over it, accepting his lame excuse about his nose being broken while sparing, a few minutes later his nose was set and healed. He still needed to drink some pain tablet in case the pain returned and have some rest.
He thanked the doctor and left, only stopping at the reception to sign his release. It was when he was passing the waiting room to go outside that he caught the figure dozing off on one of the chairs her head propped at an odd angle.
He hesitated, looking around and saw only a handful of people in the room. He sighed in resignation, "Troublesome woman." He mumbled under his breath before heading over to said woman.
He hesitated once more before shaking her gently, "Naruto, wake up."
"Uh, what?" Naruto blinked disoriented for a couple of second looking around before her eyes focused on him, and he would not lie that the relieved smile she gave him didn't make him feel warm. "You're okay."
Shikamaru smiled in amusement, "You expected me to die from a broken nose?"
"Shut up," Naruto grumbled her cheeks reddening a little, "Knowing you, that's probably the kind of death you'd prefer."
Shikamaru shrugged, not denying the claim. "Shall we go?"
Naruto nodded standing up and stretching herself inadvertently showing her stomach as her shirt rode up.
He noticed she'd completely changed her clothes into a more relaxed outfit. She wore an orange top with a drawing of a bowl of ramen on; it looked a size too small for her as it was hugging certain part of her body with grey sweatpants, she didn't have her headband on. Her hair was tied in a low ponytail with her bangs framing her face.
"You took so long that I almost left you." Naruto said walking beside him, she gave him a sidelong smirk, "Good thing I'm a very patient person."
Shikamaru grunted as they stepped out of the hospital, the sky was just darkening. "I don't know why you bothered coming, I told you to go home."
"No, you told me to go home and change," Naruto pointed out, "Which is what I did."
"Well, you should have stayed home." He said not looking at her.
Naruto stopped but he carried on walking.
"I was worried about you, you Jack-ass!" Naruto shouted drawing some people's attention.
Shikamaru stopped with a sigh, he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to look back at her with a raised brow. "In case you've forgotten you were the one that broke my nose in the first place."
"That's because you were being a jerk!" Naruto said through clenched teeth her hands balling into fists.
He looked at her incredulously, "I was trying to protect you!"
"You… you… you liar!" Naruto exclaimed, realizing they were drawing more attention she stomped over to him.
Shikamaru watched her warily tensing just in case he'd need to block another punch directed at his nose. There was no ways he'd want to step into the hospital twice in the day for the same injury. Fortunately, Naruto stopped two feet away and didn't attack him.
Leaning forward she whispered furiously, "This has nothing to do with me and you know it!"
Shikamaru jerked backwards in surprise, "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you," Naruto said poking him on his chest, "You come around acting like you're all selfless even though we both know you're a selfish fuck who thinks everything is about him."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her, "I still don't get you. How is ending things between us me being selfish?"
"That's just it!" Naruto said throwing her hands in the air in exasperation, "You want to end this because you don't want to get caught and because you think I "deserve better" which is complete bullshit."
"So what? It would have been better if you were the one ending it?" Shikamaru asked crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Naruto shook her head, "You don't get it," She said a little softly, "This has nothing to do with who's ending it but about why. You say that it's because I deserve better, but who are you to tell me what I deserve and don't deserve? This is my life, Shika, I choose what I think I deserve and I don't deserve to be left like some useless toy after you're done having your fuck."
Shikamaru uncrossed his arms shaking his head, "I wasn't… You know I'm not."
Naruto lifted her chin up, "Do I?"
"Damn it, Naruto," Shikamaru groaned tired of this whole day, he should have just listened to his mother and stayed in bed. "We agreed that when the time came we'd part without any issues."
"Yeah, but we never agreed to unfair dismissal," Before he could refute the term she cut him off with a hand, "Whatever, this is ridiculous, have it your way. I'm going home."
Before he could say anything she disappeared with a poof of smoke.
Shikamaru cursed under his breath, he rubbed his head tiredly before turning around to head home.
Passing by the academy, he paused to look at the swing where he and Naruto laughed at the blonde's crazy exploits earlier this morning. Hard to believe that was just today, he thought resuming his walk.
How did one go from laughing so hard with a gorgeous funny woman to fighting with them and promptly ending whatever relationship they had together in one day?
What if Naruto never wanted to be his friend again? That will definitely suck, but he wouldn't blame her.
It was as he neared his clan compound that he noticed a figure standing in front of the gates.
Upon recognigzing the figure he silently groaned. What was today? Let's-all-give-Shikamaru-a-tough-time day?
The figure must have seen him coming because he approached Shikamaru.
They both stopped a few feet from each other.
"Nara, we need to talk." Sasuke said crossing his arms in front of his chest.
Shikamaru sighed in resignation, his life totally sucked.
I don't know what I just wrote, but for some reason the story wanted to go in that direction so I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you for all your feedbacks and support, sorry for not being able to reply to your reviews individually but I hope you know that I appreciate you all for taking your time into reading my story.
I also apologise for the mistakes that can be found in there, I don't have a beta anymore and I'm feeling lazy to look for one since they all keep bailing on me.
Until next time.