The Deer Champion

Shikaku was enjoying the early morning light.  Normally he would be trying to sleep in more, but in a foreign and hostile environment, his war honed skills weren’t allowing for him to laze around.

To be fair, Shikaku was also enjoying cuddling his daughter.  She used to do it when she was younger but the older she got, especially when she became chuunin, she stopped.  So, this was a rare treat, even if Shikaku wished the circumstances were better.

The older Ino-Shika-Cho had sent the younger generation to bed and stayed in the communal room, going over plans and tactics.  They were in a foreign hostile land, and they needed a plan as well as a way to contact Konoha to let the Hokage, and their families know that they were alright, just displaced currently.

Luckily for the shinobis’ patience, Severus had immediately offered his special owl that was used to taking letters to the Elemental Nations.  So Shikaku sat down and wrote a short but informative missive for his Hokage to pass on to the families.  He made sure to point out that none of them were coming home with the threat of his daughter losing her life because she didn’t participate in a magical tournament.

Though, in the very early hours of the day, the older trio were now discussing other specifics when they heard a grumble.  They had looked up to see a half-asleep Shikamaru standing in the walkway with a blanket over her shoulders.

She blinked sleepily before narrowing her eyes at the group.  With a huff, she disregarded everyone and moved to sit down to Shikaku.

He had immediately moved because he had a vague idea what she was doing, and once he was laid down with himself somewhat propped on the arm of the couch Shikamaru fell into his lap.  Wasting no time, she nuzzled his chest like when she was just a little fawn and went straight back to sleep.

Shikaku couldn’t stop the fond smile on his face as he kissed the top of her head.  If they were anywhere else or with anyone else, he wouldn’t have let this sort of intimacy show but because of who was with him, he let his walls come down.

Inoichi and Chouza both looked like they wanted to laugh at Shikaku who was now confined to the couch by his own daughter.  But they instead gave him conspiring grins, which Shikaku knew will come back to bite him, managed to put a pillow behind his back so he was more comfortable and went to their beds.

Shikaku might have gotten an hour or two of sleep, but he didn’t dare move.  It had been so many years since Shikamaru let herself act like the child she was.  Ever since she had entered the academy, she had been pulling away and when she graduated, she tried to act as mature as possible.

Shikaku had finished the last war so his child didn’t have to mature so fast and yet she still was and it broke his heart a little bit.  As a Jounin Commander he was proud of her progress and how even if she complained, she was taking training more seriously.  But as a father, it made his heart ache to see her growing so fast.

Shikaku could remember vividly the first time he held her.  She was so tiny and besides the initial crying, she had gone straight back to sleep.  Yoshino had jokingly stated how she was already showing Nara laziness.  As the birth mother, Lily was literally the first one to hold her, but after welcoming her to the world, she had passed the baby to the commander.

As soon as they were cleared, they had gone home.  In the safety of the clan walls, Yoshino got to finally blood adopt Shikamaru, making her equally her daughter as well.

When they had shown their daughter to the clan, the clan basically loved her on first sight.  Nara treasured their young above all else so it wasn’t really a surprise.  Each Nara might raise their child a certain way, but it was always with the help of the whole Nara clan.

It was almost pure luck that their children were born the same year, especially on the Nara side.  They didn’t really plan nor did they tell anyone until after Shikamaru was born.  Even Inoichi and Chouza only had the vaguest idea that Yoshino and Shikaku were meeting with Yoshino’s cousin Lily.

Later, Shikaku admitted how they didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up if it didn’t work, nor did they want to put a target on Lily’s back.  His teammates understood completely, but they didn’t stop them from harassing him to spend time with his daughter.

Shikaku was initially amused that his wife was correct in that Shikamaru did have the Nara verified laziness.  He worried a little bit about Shikamaru’s lack of drive though to be a shinobi, but decided to leave it alone.

When Shikamaru was put on Team 10, she started to take training more seriously, especially as people were starting to realize that no matter how tomboyish Shikamaru was, she was a girl.

This was probably the first time that Shikamaru and Yoshino had bonded as mother and daughter specifically over how people treated them for being women.  They bonded occasionally, but Shikamaru was not interested in anything girly at all.

As soon as she had figured out that she was being treated differently for her gender, she almost went into a rage.  At this point, she started taking training more seriously, though when it came to D-Ranks, Shikamaru still tried to do the least amount of work.

Just because she was a better ninja didn’t mean she was going to give things more effort when her minimum was good enough.

Then, the IQ test from Asuma had happened, and it was then that everyone realized just how smart Shikamaru was.  Shikaku was so proud of his fawn at that point, and it shocked Yoshino a little because she used to get on her daughter for not trying in school.  Yoshino had never considered that Shikamaru wasn’t trying because she was bored out of her skull (though still along with being lazy).

Nara were usually smarter on average, but Shikamaru was on a different level and no one had realized.  Well, Shikaku had, but he had no idea how to deal with that outside of teaching her strategy and shogi.

But as a chuunin, she was now able to get more lessons from a wider variety of ninja which was doing wonders for her boredom levels.

Didn’t mean she liked putting in the work, just that she understood she needed to if she wanted to achieve anything.

Still, Shikaku was fiercely proud of his daughter, so were Inoichi and Chouza but that was a given.  Actually, in general, they were all proud of their children though Inoichi tended to spoil Ino a little too much.

Looking down at her sleeping peacefully on his chest made him smile gently.  She was getting older; she had turned 13 not too long ago actually.  But she was started to grow into a beautiful woman and even though he knew it was part of growing up, he wasn’t quite ready to give up his fawn just yet.

He and the other boys always made sure to beat off anyone who even gave her a second look, but she was getting to an age where they might have to let some look.  It wasn’t like Shikamaru couldn’t take care of herself, it’s just, they didn’t want another boy near her like that.

Didn’t mean he had to be happy about her growing into a dating age.  Luckily for Shikaku, Shikamaru wasn’t interested in boys or even dating at all.

Also, luckily for Shikaku, the guys in Konoha knew much better than to play with his daughter, even if some of them had forgotten just how terrifying the elder Ino-Shika-Cho was.  It wasn’t really wise to go against the Jounin Commander, not even speaking of the Head of Intelligence (Inoichi) and Lead Trainer (Chouza).

Shikaku scowled briefly as he thought of all the kids in this school.  They would absolutely be fine, but he wouldn’t appreciate being around so many hormonal teens.

The previous day, Shikaku had grilled all the faculty about the facts and information of the school and the tournament, trying to find a way out of this.  He had confidence in his daughter, didn’t mean he was willing to let her be part of an unknown magical tournament.  Sadly, the contract was binding, even if the slip that came out was very vague.

Shikaku had also requested that the Hokage send some storage scrolls with essentials.  Sure, all of them had their mission storage scrolls for emergencies, but it seemed like this was going to be a long trip.  Tsunade would probably be pissed that she lost 3 of her heads but she would also understand that this wasn’t negotiable.

Ino-Shika-Cho might be loyal to the village and love their village, but family always came first regardless of a mission.  And all 3 clans considered the other to be family, though there were tighter bonds within the clans.

Right now, one of their own, the sole daughter to be specific, was being threatened.  There was no way in hell they were leaving.  If it had just been her sent, Shikaku probably would have worked with the Hokage to set up to leave long term.  But since he was already here, he wasn’t leaving.

Shikaku continued to stare at his daughter; she really was becoming beautiful.

He also listened to the other residence start to wake up.  He was going to have to move eventually and wake her up.

Dropping another kiss on top of her head, he started to maneuver her off of him onto the couch so he could get up and get started.  But she just tightened her grip on his vest and nuzzled under his chin.

Well, that means he’s going to have to wake her up and he had no idea how she would react to finding out they cuddled all night.  Hopefully she wouldn’t hate it and push him away.

“Shika.” Shikaku murmured to her as he started to shake her awake.

“Come on fawn, I have to get up.” Shikaku said a bit louder as she started to blink her eyes open, looking indignant at being woken up so early.

Shikaku couldn’t stop the warmth that filled his heart and smile when she scrunched up her nose like one of the deer and was blinking her eyes rapidly to wake up.

Shikaku felt it when she was finally awake enough to understand what was happening.  “You know I don’t mind.”  He quickly told her, before she could push him away.

This seemed to stop her in her train of thought and she peaked up through her lashes to look at him.  “But I’m a chuunin now.”  She pointed out logically.

Shikaku shrugged as he started to sit up and commented, “To me you’ll always be my fawn.”

Shikamaru stared at him, seeming to search his gaze for something.  A small smile twitched at the corner of her mouth as she started to separate from him willingly.

To Shikaku’s shock though, before she fully separated, she ducked her head to nuzzle under his chin and then fully pulled away.

With how close the Nara were to the deer, it was logical that they picked up some instincts.  Nuzzling like that was just one of the instincts that the Nara adopted from the deer.

Before he could even comment, she was up and slowly walking back to her room with her blanket around her shoulders again.  He didn’t smile but his eyes softened as he watched her walk away.

He stood up fluidly and stretched before heading to the only room that wasn’t claimed the night before.  Time to get the day started; he had to find Severus and get more specifics about food and classes because there was no way a shinobi was eating food that just appeared on a table.

When Harry had woken up, it took him a solid second to remember the night before.  But when he did, he almost jumped out of bed.  He might be wary of the strangers, but there also might be family with them and at this point he was hoping for any family outside his aunt and uncle.

He quickly got dressed and stood in the common room as he realized he didn’t even know if they stayed in the castle.  It was luckily the weekend so there were no classes to navigate, but Harry didn’t even know if they were coming to the Great Hall for breakfast.

He scowled briefly before deciding that if he was at the Gryffindor table for the entire morning, he might catch a glimpse of them.

He hurriedly got to the Great Hall and sat at the table, not surprised at the very few students up at this hour, especially after last night and on a weekend.  He wasn’t even surprised to see Snape and Professor McGonagall already at the table.

He had contemplated where to sit just in case the strangers came to breakfast, but decided that if he sat near the door he was more likely to see them.

Harry knew he shouldn’t be having such high hopes for a relative, especially with the flimsy words “the youngest Evans”.  But his only family was Sirius really (not including his friends) and as a child he had always yearned for a family.  So, if one of these strangers was honestly related to him, he would take the first chance to get to know someone related to him.

Harry couldn’t quite get himself to eat with his nerves as he kept glancing at the door just in case they came in.

And then suddenly, on one of his glances they were right there.  It startled Harry harshly and he almost fell out of his seat; he didn’t even hear them coming.

Now that he was near the door and they weren’t as defensive, he could get a better look at them.

His earlier assumption that at least one child and one adult were related was pretty sound.  The one that stood out the most was a man that made Harry think of Hagrid but he had some armor on.  He was also the one with long red hair and was talking to a much younger and smaller version of himself.

Next were the two blondes, both with extremely long hair in high ponytails.  The younger of the two was seemingly talking non-stop the elder as the elder seemed to be casually glancing around.  It got uncomfortable for Harry for a moment when the elder blonde locked eyes with him and he realized they didn’t have pupils.

The elder blonde gave a disarming smile before responding back to the younger blonde and continued to look around.

The last pair almost caused his eyes to slide right over them if he wasn’t being vigilant.

Lazy posture, relaxed air, and just all around seemed to be someone to easily dismiss.  Usually, Harry was better at people watching but even he struggled for a little bit to focus on them as their companions were much livelier and drew your attention.

The elder was the man who had spoken the day before.  The younger though appeared to be the only girl of the group and looked almost as if she could sleep standing up.  The elder was making small comments and she was responding back, but they were said so softly Harry didn’t even know if they were in English or not.

Actually, they all seemed to be speaking the language from last night; he had listened to Hermione and she had said it sounded Japanese.  But he knew for a fact at least one of them, the dark haired elder with facial scars, spoke English.

And how jarring was it to see someone else with prevalent facial scars; they were even larger and more eye catching than his own lightning bolt.  Harry had the morbid curiosity though of how the man got them before he scolded himself; he hated it when people asked him about his scar, the man probably felt the same way.

The elder said something over his shoulder as the group stopped in the very middle of the Great Hall and continued forward towards Snape.  That’s right, Snape was able to speak whatever language they had been speaking the night before.

The man gave a light smirk at the dour professor, and for the first time since Harry has really known Snape, he didn’t glare or scowl at the man.  His face was entirely blank and professional which was a little unnerving honestly.

The man got close to the table and started to speak to Snape in a lazy drawl, though the language wasn’t English.  Snape twitched as he answered but he remained completely professional with this man.

And how weird was it to see Snape not even attempting to intimidate someone.  Whoever these people were, they knew Snape and probably even scared him.

Harry almost grinned; anyone who terrifies Snape is ok in his books.

The two adults spoke for a long while before Snape gave a bow of his head to the man.  The man gave a sharp nod and started walking back to the group.

He told them something and the people that reminded him of Hagrid scowled slightly.  He made another comment which relaxed the younger but the elder was still upset.  The man put an arm around the bigger man and told him something which finally made the elder relax.

“Choose somewhere to sit and eat, we’ll discuss later.”

That was the first sentence they had said in English the whole morning.  The elder clearly looked at the younger to make a decision as they genuinely didn’t care.  The blonde started babbling excited, back in their native language, while the female seemed to slouch even further which really shouldn’t be possible.

Harry had butterflies in his stomach as he considered them sitting next to him.  His mouth was dry as he watched them discuss, but he couldn’t bring himself to even indicate to them to sit with him.

Then the younger blonde caught his attention before a smirk started to spread across their face.  Someone seeing him and smirking like that just rang all the alarm bells in his head.

The blonde exclaimed something, grabbed both of the younger people and dragged them over to where Harry was sitting while yelling over his shoulder.

The dark haired elder snorted and muttered something to the blonde who looked exasperated while the red head looked entertained, even if he was still glancing at the food suspiciously.

“Don’t scar the general populace Ino.” The elder blonde finally called out in English as they stopped right across the table from Harry.

Harry didn’t see what the younger blonde’s, Ino, facial expression was when he turned back to the adults but it just made the dark-haired man snort again and the red hair started to chuckle.  The blonde gave his (probably) relative a look.

Still, Ino basically pushed the other two into the bench across from Harry with the sole female in the middle.  Though clearly a boy, Harry had to admit that Ino was pretty enough to be a girl.

The female immediately laid her head down and closed her eyes as if to nap.  The blonde didn’t appreciate this though and started to rant about something to her before she opened her eyes and glared.  The bigger boy seemed to just smile fondly at the two of them.

The female said something sharply to the blonde and Ino tried to put the most innocent look on his face.  The female looked unimpressed, grumbled something, and then sat up with a sigh.

She glanced at him lazily before opening her mouth, “As I’m the only one fluent in English, Ino wants me to translate, even if it’s such a drag.”

Harry’s lips twitched at the fond annoyance at the end of the sentence.  “I am Shikamaru Nara, to my right is Chouji Akimichi and to my left Ino Yamanaka.” She finally introduced and stared at him through half lidded eyes.

Honestly, she could probably give a Ron a run for his money on pure laziness right here.

“It’s nice to meet you, I am Harry Potter.”  Harry introduced himself and offered his hand to shake.

Shikamaru translated and then made a comment before giving his hand a strong shake.  The other two followed behind him and then they were sitting in comfortable silence.  Actually, Shikamaru looked like she was asleep sitting straight up, which was pretty impressive.

Ino elbowed his friend before giving her a scowl and saying something sharply.  Shikamaru groaned before her face lit up with unholy glee.

That immediately made Ino and Chouji wary and Harry was even wary now.  Shikamaru basically chirped something out while offering her hand to Ino.

Ino looked incredulous before glancing at the head table where the adults had sat.  He seemed to make eye contact with the elder blonde before responding and grabbing Shikamaru’s hand.  Ino and Shikamaru then started an intense staring contest.

A minute later, both of them blinked and it seemed whatever connection they had was broken.  Shikamaru gave a smirk before laying her head on the table and seemed to immediately go to sleep.

Chouji laughed before taking Ino’s hand and then they had an intense staring contest.   Again, after a minute, both of them blinked.

Finally, Ino turned to Harry with a smile and stated in English with an accent, “Sorry, the lazy ass didn’t want to translate.”

Harry was slightly startled.  He didn’t know there was magic that could help you instantly learn a language like that.  If so, that would be really useful and he would love to learn.

Shikamaru gave a grunt from her position on the table but didn’t otherwise acknowledge Ino’s comment.  Chouji gave Harry a kind smile before saying in English, with a slightly heavier accent, “Don’t take it personally from Shikamaru, she’s always like this.”

Harry hadn’t even considered that Shikamaru was doing it specifically to him, it just seemed in her nature to sleep anywhere.  But Harry gave Chouji a tentative smile back and responded, “I figured.”

Ino snorted before making a scathing comment at Shikamaru in their native language before the female waved him away.

Chouji gave Ino a disapproving look and Harry felt like he was intruding a little on whatever was occurring. 

Before he could get fully uncomfortable though, Ino seemed to bounce back and started asking him countless questions in English about the food and school and just anything he could think of.

This was worse than Hermione, and Harry resolved to never let the two meet.

Shikamaru continued to nap through what basically felt like an interrogation while Chouji would butt in when Ino got to be too much for poor Harry.

It took a while, but soon the rest of the Hogwarts populace was waking up and entering the Great Hall.  Everyone couldn’t help but look at the younger strangers with Harry and the older strangers with Snape in interest.  They might have known about the two schools visiting, but they weren’t expecting these people.

While some looked curious, a good portion were giving the strangers looks for what they were wearing.  Harry had gotten used to so many weird things in the wizarding world that it didn’t even register how odd their outfits were.

But before he could even attempt to steer the conversation in that direction, the elder strangers were behind the younger.

Harry almost fell out of his seat, and some others actually did at the suddenness of their appearance.  No one even saw them move and then they were just there!

The dark-haired male, probably a Nara going by Shikamaru’s last name, gave a lazy drawl with a smirk.  Shikamaru groaned from her position again before lifting her head to glare at the man.

The blonde, probably a Yamanaka (seeing as all of them were related to a younger in some way it was safe to assume the same family, plus the look was distinctive) chirped out something which cause Chouji to perk up and Shikamaru scowl.

Ino didn’t waste any time in getting up, dragging Shikamaru up with him.  Chouji easily got up on his own.

Shikamaru said something sharply to Ino and wrenched her arm out of the blonde’s grip and started walking away after sending a wave over her shoulder to Harry.

Ino looked incensed and looked like he wanted to go after Shikamaru before the elder blonder put a hand on his shoulder and making a comment with a reprimand in his voice.

Chouji made a small comment before the other Akimichi and Nara looked at him with narrowed eyes.  Chouji seemed to shuffle a little bit in place at their looks but didn’t back down.

The Nara made a comment and started off towards where his family member was going.  The elder Yamanaka then turned to Harry and gave him a polite smile, “Please excuse us, we must get going.”

Harry could do nothing more than nod silently, everything in him was screaming to not draw this man’s ire.  They started walking out with a slower pace but Chouji turned around before they fully left and yelled in English, “It was nice to meet you Harry!”

Harry didn’t even get a chance to respond before they were gone.

The hall wasn’t even half full.