Stolen

It was moving day in the lives of Shikamaru and his mother.

They had lived in Umagakure his whole sixteen years of life, excluding that first year, and it was time for a scenery change.

Or so his mother said. Personally, Shikamaru was very happy living in Uma, and wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to it. However, his mother decided that Konohagakure was the place for them after seeing Konoha shinobi fighting their way through a group of bandits seemingly effortlessly. She said that she wanted him to receive the best possible training there was, and apparently that wasn’t here.

So off they were, most of their furniture sold to the other villagers and bringing only the most sentimental or useful of personal items. Mama had said that it was going to be a four-day journey, so he settled into a comfortable pace and prepared for a long trip with Mama’s constant chatter and randomness. At least he could protect them and their belongings if they ran into any bandits.

.........

It was a rather peaceful journey actually, and Shikamaru was just relaxing when five bandits dressed all in black jumped down from the trees.

“And we were so close, too,” Shikamaru sighed.

He quickly dropped his load and stood in front of his mother, prepared to protect her, much to her dismay.

“Shika! Come on, I can sort of . . . kind of . . . maybe fight. . .. Maybe you should do the fighting, while I, um, protect the bags! Yeah, leave it to me, Shika!”

“That sounds like a brilliant plan, Mama,” he muttered, somewhat sarcastically.

“Thank you, Shika! Glad you think so,” she proudly exclaimed from her new position in front of the bags.

He was tense, analysing his opponents and searching for their weaknesses, when three more people dropped down.

These ones, however, were dressed differently. The first one had blonde hair and was wearing an outrageously orange outfit with black shoulders. The second one was a pink haired girl that looked rather terrifying with a fist held in the other hand. The last one was very strange, with skin that looked like it had never seen the sun, pitch black hair and a very blank expression. In his hands was. . . was that a notebook?

Yes, yes it was. Huh.

Moving on, each one had a head protector on, with the Konohagakure symbol carved into the metal.

“Hey, look like we arrived right on time, Sakura!” the blonde one shouted.

“Shut up, idiot! I have eyes you know!” the now named Sakura shouted back, slamming her fist onto the blonde’s head. Shikamaru winced in sympathy.

“Yes, Dickless, it seems that we have arrived on time,” the blank one said.

Just what had that poor boy done to deserve that terrible nickname?

“SAI! I told you to stop calling me that! My name is Naruto. Na – ru – to. NARUTO!! Get it right!” Blon- Naruto bellowed.

Meanwhile, the bandits, Asahi and Shikamaru were looking at each other rather incredulously, momentarily forgetting that one party had come to attack the other.

Hesitantly, Asahi spoke up, “Um, what are you doing here?”

As one, three heads snapped toward her. Then Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well, we’re here to save you. Obviously.”

Shikamaru sighed. Again. “Right, well, get to it then.”

Suddenly one of the bandits stepped forward.

“Uh, yeah. We’ve decided to, um, not to, you know, attack you. For safety purposes, you know.”

With that, the bandits jumped back into the trees and disappeared from sight.

“Maa, I think you three scared ‘em off. Good job,” a silver haired man stepped out from the shadows.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Sakura and Naruto yelled.

“Yes?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing sensei,” they muttered.

Eyes crinkling, he turned toward the two strangers.

“And who might you two be?”

“Howdy! I’m Asahi and this is my adorable son, Shikamaru.” At his name, the so-called Kakashi-sensei narrowed his eyes suspiciously. However, Asahi didn’t notice and continued speaking. “And we’re here because I wanted to have a change in scenery and my son doesn’t have a choice because I’m his mother, you know? So he has to be my slave for eternity and love me forever and never ever leave me and-”

Shikamaru cut his mother off with a sigh, “And she wanted me to train to be a better ninja. So we’re moving to Konoha. End of story. Forgive my mother. She’s an idiot.”

“HEY!! I’m your mother! I gave – well, I didn’t really give you life, but I can still take it away! Respect me!”

“Yes, Lady Mama. Whatever you say, Lady Mama,” he bowed his head mockingly.

“That’s more like it, baby,” she nodded, satisfied. He rolled his eyes.

Three of the four watching smiled, and Naruto laughed. When he opened his mouth to say to something though, Kakashi-sensei cut in.

“Allow us to be your escorts then. Free of charge.”

“Aww, really? You’re so nice!” Asahi squealed. She grabbed Shikamaru’s hands and pulled him along in her run.

“Mama, wait! You’re forgetting our bags!” he reminded her.

She screeched to a stop, making him slam into her back and sending them to the ground.

“Oh yeah. Whoops!” she laughed, jumping back up almost immediately. Running back, she saw the four ninjas carrying them, gave them a big smile, and ran back to her son, telling him it was taken care of.

When they finally reached the Konoha gates, she shouted in excitement and sped over to the guards, leaving Shikamaru to stroll over with the others.
Reaching the small group, he saw his mama talking animatedly with the guards.

When she saw him, she pulled him by the hands and announced proudly, “This is my son, Shikamaru.” The guards stared at him in shock. “He’s going to be a great Konoha ninja and protect me and the village and carry my groceries and give me foot rubs and you’re all going to be in awe of his awesome skills and wish you were him and oh! I can hardly wait! Come on, what are we waiting for? I want to go~!” she finished off with a great yell that startled the guards, who were still staring at him with wide eyes.

“Um, yes. Here you are. Go straight to the Hokage tower, you can’t miss it. Then you ask the secretary for the Hokage and tell them that you’re applying for citizenship. Have a great day.”

Before he had even finished his sentence, Mama had already run toward the tower, with Shikamaru and the four ninjas trailing behind.

She rushed in and demanded to see the Hokage. After telling the secretary her reasons, she dragged him up to the Hokage’s office. She barged in and exclaimed, “Hokage! I am here for citizenship with my son! Sign us up!”

The Hokage stared at her in shock.

“I see. And what are your names?” he asked after composing himself, pulling out some ink and paper.

“I’m Asahi and this is my awesome son Shikamaru who is going to rock this village’s world with his amazing shinobi skills and foot rubbing!”

The Hokage straightened and narrowed his eyes at Asahi.

“What did you say your son’s name was?”

“Shikamaru. Why?” she asked.

“I think that you should tell me about yourself. And your son.”

His mama sat down in one of the available chairs, pulling him down next to her.

“Well, my name is Asahi and I’m twenty-nine years old. I love my son and chocolate and grass and sweaters and awesomeness and my son and Shikamaru and trees. And food, can’t forget food. I dislike bullies and death and tournaments,” she shuddered, “and people who think they’re superior to others and I especially don’t like those who try to hurt my son. My dream is to have Shikamaru by my side forever and ever and meet someone nice and maybe have some more kids and become famous! For what, I don’t know. And this is my son, Shikamaru who is sixteen years old. He loves me and saying troublesome and being lazy and cloud-watching and ice cream and cookies. He dislikes doing things and hurting people and me being hurt. His dream is to become a great ninja and find a wife who will give me grandbabies or so help me Merlin, I will castrate him. So that’s us. Nice to meet you,” she finished off with a smile, leaving everybody in the room sweat dropping.

The Hokage cleared his throat, “Nice to meet you too. Now, while I have someone fill out these forms, I need to find a certain person. Excuse me.”
With that, he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

.......

It was another day at the Nara compound. Birds were singing, the deer were grazing and Shikaku and Yoshino were searching through reports tiredly. It had been fifteen years since their baby boy was kidnapped, and they still had not found him. Though it pained them to admit it, they were steadily losing hope. Everyday at least one of them would get the shinobi mission reports and search through them for any sign of their son. But there was none at all for fifteen years.

Shikaku sighed as he placed the report he was reading on the table, rubbing his nose.

“None. I think. . . I think it’s time to-”

Yoshino slammed her hands down. “NO! I will not accept that this is the end. He has to be out there! He has to be. He has to be . . .”

Shikaku put his arms around her comfortingly as she descended into heartbreaking sobs. They really couldn’t take any more of this. The not knowing, day in and day out, if their son had survived, if he was hurting horribly, or if his tiny little bones were rotting in a ditch somewhere, anywhere.

Opening his mouth to offer some meaningless words of comfort, he was interrupted by a swirl of leaves in his loungeroom. When the leaves settled, they revealed the Hokage.

Shikaku stood up, Yoshino still in his arms. He nodded to the old man, wondering what he was doing here.

The Hokage took in the tear-streaked face of Yoshino and his embrace before speaking.

“I'm sorry if I have come at a bad time, but I have some rather urgent news to share with both of you regarding,” he hesitated before continuing, “regarding Shikamaru.”

Their faces snapped up in shock. Yoshino gasped and asked, “What about my baby? Have you found him? Is he okay? Is he . . ..”

The Hokage seemed to know what she was asking. “No! Good heavens above, no, he’s not dead. But yes. We have found him. Or rather, he has found us.” He took in their eager faces. “No, he does not remember us, it appears. But his . . . guardian desired a scene change and chose Konoha.”

Yoshino gasped in outrage. “Guardian?! GUARDIAN?! Where is this so-called guardian? How do we know that they were not the one to take him away? You should have arrested them the second they showed up!”

The Hokage frowned. “Do not tell me how to do my job, Yoshino.” She bowed her head. “But you are correct, we do not know whether or not she was the one to take him away as a baby. However, they seem to be very close, so it will be hard to discover. For the moment, though, they are requesting citizenship, so I am asking you to act as investigators. But be subtle, the boy seems to be very intelligent. And lazy.”

The two broken hearted parents smiled proudly. They quickly refreshed themselves and shushined away.