The Deer Champion

It actually didn’t take Shikaku too long to catch back up with Shikamaru.  He stayed silent though as they made their way outside and into the forest.

Usually when Shikamaru was upset she would go into the Nara forest to spend time with the deer.  But they weren’t in Konoha, so this forest was the next best thing.

Shikaku didn’t quite know how to talk about the comments that were exchanged back in the dining area, so he mainly stayed silent.  Plus, it wasn’t in him to coddle Shikamaru, just be a silent pillar of support; current circumstances notwithstanding.

So, the two Nara walked deeper into the unknown forest with no true destination in mind.  To be honest, with how mad Shikamaru seemed right now, he would usually offer to spar, but they were in unknown territory and didn’t have a place to fight without being watched.

Shikamaru might take after him as a characteristically Nara, but the temper was all her mother’s, both of them.  Shikaku figured that there would be a point that they would push Shikamaru past the temper into sadistic cold Nara territory.

Not many people knew it, and it wasn’t well known outside of personal teams, but Nara’s were surprisingly ruthless.  They not only controlled the shadows but were part of the shadows, and being there didn’t really inspire warm fuzzy feelings.

It was one of the subconscious reasons of why they were lazy.  If they got worked up on every little thing, it would quickly turn into a blood bath.  A Nara’s rage was a terrifying sight, and usually the ones who saw it knew to keep quiet or were dead by the time they were done.

Shikaku wasn’t sure if he wanted to be nearby when Shikamaru was pushed into that rage.  Shikamaru was a Nara with a very strong connection to the shadows, and if she was pushed into a rage, it would be a struggle to pull her back.  And that was only if she wanted to come back, which usually occurred once whatever triggered the rage was destroyed.

Though, it was always the hardest to be pulled back from that first rage so he would want to be nearby.  Correction: he didn’t want to be the reason for Shikamaru to go into that rage nor try to stop it before it ran its’ full course.

Once deep enough, Shikamaru turned quickly and punched a tree with a chakra infused fist.  Shikaku couldn’t stop the appreciative whistle as more than half the trunk was destroyed in one hit.

That at least seemed to bleed out some of the tension as Shikaku used the shadows to lower the tree so as to not make too much noise.

Shikamaru breathed out harshly a few times before she seemed to gather herself.  Shikaku made an internal note to get her to spar him with no hold backs soon.  It was fine to sometimes bottle it, but it wasn’t to leave it bottled and this seemed to be a usual interaction.

Actually, according to Chouji this was very frequent.  Shikaku wasn’t very impressed; Inoichi spoiled Ino but this was pushing it and as one of the fathers of the three, he was putting his foot down.  Either Inoichi talks to Ino about this behavior or Shikaku will step in personally.

Even though they were adoptive parents for each other’s children, they usually left this sort of raising to the birth parents.  But if Shikaku had to, he would step in.

Shikaku had an internal revelation that Ino’s attitude might be one of the reasons he wasn’t promoted to chuunin.

Shikamaru was taking calming breaths and finally settling down but Shikaku knew she was still upset.  Asking for a place to train in secret was going to be a must in the next talk with their ‘hosts’.

In the calming silence, both of them looked up when they heard a noise.

Shikaku knew many things about the wizarding world and creatures, but this was just weird if he was being honest.

“It’s a thestral, you can see them after you see death.”  Shikamaru explained casually as she held out her hand like she would a deer.

The thestral seemed to stop and consider Shikamaru before pushing its mouth against her palm.  She gave a smile as she started to rub down the front of its muzzle.

Shikaku turned slightly to see a few more.  Following his daughter’s example, he took one of his hands out of his pockets and held it out, treating it like one of the deer.

This one seemed to consider him a bit longer than Shikamaru’s, but finally it let him pet it.  He vowed to himself to look up the creature in a book later.  They were at a magical school, might as well take advantage of the library, even if he couldn’t use magic.

There were actually subjects that Shikaku had looked more into because it seemed possible that even he could do them.  Runes, arithmancy, herbology, potions, and creatures were some of the main that he did more than just skim through the introductory book.

But the likelihood of him being able to acquire the plants needed for potions and herbology, or even see a magical creature in the Elemental Nations was so low, he just deemed it as something extra to know.

Sure, he could have sent Yoshino and even Shikamaru out to get potion ingredients, but shinobi and wizards didn’t get along to begin with, so they were trying to limit interaction.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shikaku could see Shikamaru truly relaxing now that she was surrounded by creatures.  He couldn’t help but smile slightly; this was just like at home.  Whenever she was upset, the deer seemed to just adopt her into the herd until she calmed down enough to go back.

Shikamaru took a deep breath in, holding it for a few seconds, before letting it out slowly.  She was finally calming down enough that she was slipping back into a more relaxed state of mind.

She knew it wasn’t healthy to bottle this all up, but right now she didn’t have a choice.  Though, knowing her dad, the commander was already coming up with ways for them to continue training.  She would just need a full out fight against one of the jounin, she wasn’t scared of hurting them.  Hopefully they found someplace soon because for once she was itching to fight.

Shikamaru bumped her forehead against the muzzle of the thestral before stepping back and looking over at the elder Nara.  He had stopped petting the creature at some point and was standing there with his hands in his pockets.

He did no more than quirk an eyebrow at her and she gave a decisive nod.

Neither made a move though to leave the forest for a couple of minutes longer though.  Finally, with one deep breath, Shikamaru started walking the way they came from, Shikaku easily catching up and keeping pace with her.

They were nearing the edge when they heard furious pounding of hooves.  Both Nara narrowed their eyes and Shikamaru took out a kunai while Shikaku straightened his spine.

They stopped in a clearing when a centaur appeared, surrounding them.  Centaurs were one of the more universal known creatures in the Nara clan as a whole.

Shikamaru made eye contact with Shikaku and stood at his back.  Even if she wasn’t a jounin yet, she could do some damage and that should be good enough.

They both eyed the bows and arrows that were pointed them from a few of the centaur; it seems not all of them were pointing weapons.

“Why are humans in our territory?”  One of the centaurs asked as he stepped forwards, now across from Shikaku.

“We hadn’t realized that the territory was occupied.”  Shikaku gave a lazy drawl back, keeping his posture relaxed.

Shikamaru wasn’t quite good enough to get rid of all her tension but she was doing a great effort masking it.  “Well humans aren’t welcome in our territory, surely the wizards told you that.”  The lead centaur seemed to retort with clear hostility.

“Bane stand down this instant!”  An older voice sounded as another centaur strode forward.

Instantly, all the centaur lowered their weapons as the elder stood next to the younger centaur.

The younger centaur clearly gritted his teeth but backed up a few steps.  “I was just educating them on how it was foolish to come here.”  The younger tried to reason.

“Are you a fool?  Do you not smell the deer imprint on them?  Did you not see how bright Mars was last night and this morning?  These are not simple humans.”  The elder started to reprimand the younger, not turning his back to the Nara.

“I apologize for our youth, his heart was in protecting our territory from humans.”  The elder stated at Shikaku while giving a nod of his head.

“I completely understand.  He had good instincts to protect his territory, but maybe a little too hasty in confronting?”  Shikaku lazily pointed out.

The elder lost some of his tension as Shikaku seemed to take his apology.  Now that the other centaurs weren’t following the younger, they were starting to notice all the little things that the elder was pointing out.

They immediately felt grateful they didn’t attack; these were no wizards, these were warriors.  They could and would slaughter if threatened.  The young leader actually paled a little when he registered just what it was the elder was trying to say.

“A fine leader he is becoming, yet he is still young.” The elder responded back as he seemed to lose more tension.

“We apologize for intruding on your territory.  We had just arrived last night and the wizards didn’t mention anything about this forest or the creatures in it.”  Shikaku stated while giving a little bow of his head.

“The wizards love to pretend that this isn’t out territory, so it probably slipped their mind.”  The elder tried to reason, both to Bane and Shikaku.

Bane scowled slightly but gave a nod of his head.  “We just came out here as this reminded us of home and we are very far from home currently.”  Shikaku decided to explain slightly.

“Ah, the deer imprint.  You have been judged and welcomed by an Alpha pair and the entire herd.  It has been a long time since we had seen proper imprints; at this point they are mostly just legends and stories.”  The elder helpfully explained.

Shikaku gave a nod of his head, “As I said, we are very far from home.”

They stood in comfortable silence before the elder stated, “You are welcome in our forest as long as you do not disturb the residents; though feel free to take care of any spiders you see.”

“But eld-“ Bane tried to cut in.

“No Bane.  They are not wizards or even normal humans.  With that imprint they should be allowed into any forest and we are no different.  Or do you want to ignore our own traditions?”  The elder cut him off.

Bane seemed to scowl again before trying to blank his face and saying, “I apologize.”

Shikaku gave a lazy smirk and nod.  “We thank you for your invitation.  There are more of us but we will warn them away from the forest.”

Bane gave a nod of agreement to this statement.  The centaur started to move to allow them out of the forest.

Before they could go though, the elder took a step forward and put his hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder, “You are becoming favored among the thestral.  This is not an easy feat young one.”

Shikaku hadn’t tensed with the centaur touching Shikamaru but his gaze had sharpened.  Shikamaru couldn’t help but comment, “They are beautiful and I enjoy their company, even if we just met.”

The centaur seemed to give a genuine smile at her admission and made the comment, “What a unique look, I look forward to talking to you again young fawn.”

He released her shoulder and stepped back a few steps to leave open a road out of the forest.  Both Nara dipped their head respectfully at Bane and the elder before leisurely making their way out of the forest for good this time.

This time they made it outside without further incident.  “The deer are going to be jealous of your new friends.”  Shikaku commented to Shikamaru as they were walking back to the castle.

It had to be lunch time; they must have stayed longer in there than they thought.  Though the forest was so dense it was hard to tell time.

Shikaku was immediately amused when Shikamaru couldn’t stop her face from flushing in embarrassment.

At least she was much more relaxed now than when they had entered.  Shikaku only hoped that Inoichi had stepped up and talked to Ino, or he would do it himself.  He also hoped that the Akimichi’s found the kitchens, he was starting to get hungry.

They had ration bars but those were really only for emergencies and there was food here.  They just had to have a way to look at the process of it being made or make their own food before they ate something.  He wouldn’t put it past these wizards to have things they easily added to food.  The paranoid war veteran, jounin commander didn’t appreciate not knowing where or how the food was being made.

As a shinobi there was never a thing of “too cautious”.

Harry stayed in the Great Hall hoping that one of the strangers would come back, but to his disappointment none of them did.  Though as he waited, Hermione and Ron had both joined him at the table.

Seeing Ron looking half asleep made Harry smirk as he remembered a girl actually sleeping at the table with no problem.  Harry was conflicted on if he should tell them about his early morning interaction with them or not.

Though that did remind him, “Hey Hermione, is there a spell that allows you to transfer the knowledge of a full language?”

Hermione looked up from the book she was reading, “Not that I know of.  I know of a spell that will give you the whole alphabet of the language, but everything else you have to learn.”

Harry couldn’t help but narrow his eyes; they had clearly shared the whole language this morning.  “Why?”  Hermione broke his train of thought.

Apparently, he was telling them about this morning.  “Because this morning, I saw Shikamaru give the whole English language to Ino because she didn’t want to translate.”

Harry quickly added, “Shikamaru is the only female, Ino is the young blonde, and Chouji is the last of the kids.”

Hermione’s eye brightened slightly of the thought of a new magic like that.  She just needed to sit down with Shikamaru or Ino and find out what the spell was.

“What were they like?”  Ron asked.

Harry considered how to explain, “Shikamaru was really lazy, she kept falling asleep at the actual table.  And like I said, they performed magic to give the whole English language because she didn’t want to translate anymore.  Ino is very talkative and asked every question he could think of.  Chouji was actually very sweet; he reminded me a little of Neville actually.”

Hermione looked interested in the fact that Ino asked so many questions while Ron looked quietly impressed that someone could take a nap at the table.  Now that Harry was thinking of it, he wondered if he should introduce Chouji and Neville.

“Well did you find anything out about them and how they got here?”  Hermione pressed.

Harry gave a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his head, making his hair even messier.  “Actually, I was so distracted by all of Ino’s questions that the only thing I got out of them were their names and that weird spell.”

“Where did they go?”  Ron asked after he gave Harry an amused look.

“No idea.  They were talking in their native language, I think Ino pissed Shikamaru off.  And then they just kind of all left.”  Harry explained.

“Do you think they’ll be here for lunch?”  Ron pushed.

“Actually, now that I think about it, I didn’t see them eat anything this morning.  And Chouji and the older guy were giving the food odd looks.”

“It might just be a culture difference.”  Hermione was quick to explain.

And that just nicely explained it, so the boys deemed the matter as settled.

“I’m heading to the common room, I haven’t finished my Charms or Potions essays.”  Harry finally decided as he got up.

Ron promptly looked panicked at the thought of the homework he also hadn’t finished yet.  Hermione was giving both of them disapproving looks but with a muttered, “Boys” she got up with them.

Even if they weren’t here for lunch, they should be there for dinner.  They could talk and find out more then.