The Deer Champion

The day had started off well enough. Inoichi didn't really get a lot of sleep but he doubted that any of the older team got any real sleep. Then they went to breakfast and managed to have a more in-depth discussion with Snape about what was expected. In the end, they would have to sit down again with Dumbledore as Snape didn’t have the authority for some things but it was a start.

Then, Inoichi was very violently shown that he might have spoiled Ino too much. He loved his son and knew that he let Ino get away with things, but he hadn't had realized how bad it truly was.

During the breakfast the older team kept an ear out to listen to the youngers' conversation while talking with Snape. Sure, Ino had harped on Shikamaru before, but this was the first time they all truly saw just how bad it would get. Inoichi was honestly slightly horrified and was only thankful that all of Ino's comments were in their native language.

And then they had mentioned going to the kitchens, after Severus had given them directions. And Ino physically pulled and man handled Shikamaru up, without giving her even time to get up herself.

It was slightly out of character for Shikamaru to act so negatively and then storm off. But Chouji's comment of how this was a usual and even a tame occurrence put things more into perspective.

So now, Inoichi had to, for the first time, truly confront the fact that he had spoiled Ino too much and let Ino get away with things he never should have. Inoichi knew that if he didn't set his son straight, Shikaku definitely would. And honestly? Inoichi wouldn't blame him.

So now Inoichi and Ino were in the room that Ino was provided, just sitting there. Inoichi did not look forward to this conversation but he refused to let these bad habits become worse.

Fortifying his thoughts and plan, Inoichi turned towards his son and began talking.

On the other end, the Nara found the Akimichi quite easily. The pro of being the only people with chakra was it was easy to find each other. Shikaku had personally looked further and was content that the Yamanaka were in their quarters. Shikaku had faith in his brother, but also knew that Ino was Inoichi's blind spot. He vowed to see if they could get some alcohol; well, when the kids were gone at any rate.

The Nara quickly found the Akimichi standing outside of a painting of a fruit bowl, their arms laden with raw ingredients. "I take it you found the kitchens?" Shikaku couldn't help but comment as he was amused at the sheer amount of food they were carrying.

Chouza just gave him a victorious smirk. Well at least they could now eat, though they would have to figure out a way to actually cook things. "The...house elves, I believe they're called, were very helpful. Not only were we given food but they mentioned a magic room that provides for all your needs. Though apparently, they usually clean the castle as a whole and were slightly distraught when I asked them to stay completely out of our area. We were just about to start heading to the magic room."  Chouza basically reported.

Shikaku gave a nod in thanks and acceptance. It was great that they were told about the room and even better that Chouza had made sure the house elves stayed out of their area. If the shinobi kept leaving and coming back to things moved and cleaned, they would have gotten very paranoid and twitchy. And a twitchy shinobi was usually a stab happy shinobi.

Shikamaru had brightened a little at the mention of food and the room though. Seems like Shikaku wasn't the only one hungry.

She honestly didn't look like she wanted to help carry the food but would have felt bad if she didn't help Chouji. Then she brightened slightly and turned to Chouji to ask, "How did you get inside?"

With his arms full, Chouji had to verbally explain tickling the pear. Shikaku couldn't help but look incredulous when it seemed to work; wizards were so weird.

She darted inside and the door closed behind her. Before they could even be concerned by this, she reappeared with a bag and a slight smirk. "They provided a limitless bag to carry food in. Only charms on it are the extension, food preservation, and organization." She explained a little as she opened the bag and started to take the food from Chouji and put it in the bag.

Despite how fast Shikamaru went through her magical education, apparently, she remembered quite a bit. Actually, Chouza didn't know why he was even surprised, both the Nara with him were geniuses.

Soon Chouji took the bag from Shikamaru and started to load the food in himself before helping his father. Shikaku had an amused look in his eye at the silent smugness coming from Shikamaru as she leaned against the wall with her hands in her pockets.

Soon though, all the food was packed and Chouza was leading the way to the magic room. Internally all of the shinobi were taking this time to make a mental map of the castle, though they weren't impressed when they saw a staircase move. This map was going to be more complicated than they thought

Finally, they made it to the 7th floor. Or at least what they hoped was the 7th floor. Though even Shikamaru looked slightly incredulous when they found the area to be a blank hall. Chouza quickly explained what the house elves told him and started pacing back and forth in front of the wall.

The shinobi, even Shikamaru who was a wizard by birth, had to suspend their feeling of disbelief when after the 3rd walk a door appeared.

Shikaku though couldn't help but feel wary about a random room appearing. He exchanged a look with Chouza and pulled a kunai out and held it in one hand as he approached the door.

He silently opened the door with his other hand and slowly looked and surveyed the room to make sure there were no magic surprises.

He stuck his hand out the door and gave a thumbs up though after a solid minute of going around. The others slowly entered and Chouji couldn't help but smile in delight at seeing the Akimichi kitchens.

While the 2 Akimichi were going around and inspecting the kitchen more, there was a sliding door in the back. Shikaku made eye contact with his daughter and gestured to the door.

She raised an eyebrow at him, intrigued before making her way over and opening the door.

To her shock and yet utter delight, it was the Nara training grounds. The specific ones where a Nara could go full out without worrying about damages.

Shikamaru couldn't help the feral grin that spread across her face. She was just thinking of wanting a fight earlier and apparently, she was going to get one. She knew her dad would absolutely have her beat, but this was more for training and to mainly get rid of her pent-up emotions.

Shikamaru glanced behind her as she started making her way to one end of the field. Shikaku had closed the door after yelling back in the kitchens and was lazily making his own way to the other end.

"No hold backs?" Shikamaru asked, just to clarify.

Shikaku's lazy smirk gained a feral edge and Shikamarh returned it. She started to gather all her negative emotions; the frustration of how she was treated by everyone and especially Ino. The anger at her treatment in general along with anger at being forced in this stupid tournament. The rage at how someone was clearly trying to manipulate her or treating her like an invalid. The desperation at wanting to finally prove herself to others that gender didn't matter and she was going to be one of the best shinobi ever (even if training sucked).

Shikamaru gathered it all to the forefront of her mind, let everything fade away, and launched the first attack.

By the time both Nara were satisfied and Shikamaru was no longer on edge, both of them were extremely hungry. They both took a minute to catch their breath, more Shikamaru than Shikaku, before getting up to go back to the kitchen.

Shikamaru though scowled internally as she realized she had just showed her dad how much she improved which means he was going to train her even harder. Sure, she wanted the training and to be a great shinobi, didn’t mean she liked it.

She definitely deserved a cloud watching nap after this.

Before they went through the door, Shikaku dropped his hand on her head and gave her a small proud smile. Then he quickly went through the door.

Nara weren't really good at emotions, feeling and understanding. And they were no different. Besides this morning, when for the first time in a long time she let herself be protected, they didn't really seek each other out. Sure, they made sure to play a game of shogi every day, either in silence or small chatter. And sure, they interacted with each other. But usually, Shikaku was just a silent pillar of strength that she occasionally leaned on; less so now that she was a chuunin.

Mainly it was Yoshino who tried to push for more emotional things and bonding. And seeing as Shikamaru wasn't interested in anything truly feminine, their interactions were stilted on some levels. Didn't stop Yoshino from trying though. She had been ecstatic the day Shikamaru actually sought her out to rant about how they treated female shinobi differently. That had been the first time Shikamaru had ever sought Yoshino's company like this, so Yoshino would take the win.

Shikamaru took a few more seconds to let all remaining tension fade away before following her dad.

She purposely didn't tense when she saw that Inoichi and Ino were in the room. Shikamaru knew from experience that the way she acted this morning was going to be commented on and then picked apart on how embarrassing and how much of a failure she was acting. She was never called a failure by Ino, but all the comments put together basically labeled her as one.

She also knew that Ino would make the small comments now, sometimes get her dads to reprimand her on certain things (how she wasn't taking training seriously, even though she was putting in extra hours, how she was avoiding them, when really Ino had commented how weird it was to do missions with a chuunin, and other things) but then save the big explosion until they were alone.

Even having Chouji there didn't really deter her though he did try when she went too far. But Chouji was a gentle soul and would get steam rolled over by Ino. Which pissed Shikamaru off more than anything because Chouji had never done anything wrong and he didn't deserve treatment like that. Usually when Ino started steam rolling Chouji is when Shikamaru had enough and just got up and left.

Sometimes she was lucky and could walk away, other times Ino would follow still loudly commenting.

And it burned when Ino made the comments loud enough for others to hear. But it was too troublesome to go up against Ino for something that he would just do again and again. There was no point.

Shikamaru sighed wearily internally and got ready for the usual dinner of Ino's subtle barbs that then prompted the dads. She fortified her mental defenses because as much as she knew it was coming, she had just gotten rid of all those negative emotions.

To Shikamaru's shock but also made her extremely wary was Ino talked like normal, but none of them were barbs against Shikamaru. Maybe the dads finally told Ino to knock it off so she was behaving in front of them.

There was no doubt in Shikamaru's mind though that as soon as they were alone, Ino would unleash the flood.

At least Shikamaru could enjoy lunch-dinner right now which was nice

Shikamaru didn't really comment as conversation flowed around her and she was internally grateful she wasn't being forced to socialize. Though she did have to mutter "troublesome" after the thought of her interacting with her half-brother was brought up.

Shikamaru already had too many males in her life, she didn't really need another that she probably wouldn't talk to after this trip was over.

To Shikamaru's slight surprise again, they actually left the choice up to her.

To be honest, Shikamaru was now very wary and on edge by all of these things. This used to be normal, but as they started to grow up, this became so rare that Shikamaru was suspicious to see it occur again.

On the other side, the dads were having a slightly horrified mental conversation as they watched how them giving her choices and Ino not nagging her just made their daughter tense and wary. They hadn't realized it had deteriorated so badly.

Sure, they were still family and nothing really changed there, but it seemed like their daughter was being shoved into a corner and even though she hated it she pretended it was all ok.

Chouji was just internally happy to be seeing this interaction again. He wasn't very outspoken but he had noticed the strain and tried in little ways to fix it. But every time he thought he fixed it, something would happen to break it even further.

Ino was divided internally. On one hand he was pissed about what his dad had told him. And that he was now in trouble. On the other side, the one that listened to what his dad had said, he felt slightly guilty at Shikamaru's relieved but suspicious look when Ino didn't get on her.

The collective thoughts of the males of the group were ‘Maybe this trip will benefit us more than we thought’

Even though they had eaten, apparently, they were required to be in the Great Hall for 2 meals a day even if they didn't eat. That was the compromise that they came to with the knowledge that the shinobi could find and make their own food. 

The kids were cheerfully informed that after dinner the dads were going up to discuss more with the Headmaster while they were free to do whatever as long as they came back to the rooms before it was too late. Shikamaru was going to take this and either explore more because her map was confusing or just go take a nap. Actually, maybe she could look for the ideal napping place as she explored. She could even take Chouji!

Here Shikamaru hesitated. In the past she wouldn't have thought twice about inviting Ino but with the recent years it just wasn't worth it. But if their actual dinner was a real indication of something, maybe Shikamaru could get her friend back. She decided to sit on the idea.

They entered the Great Hall when it was more than halfway full. To the younger disgruntlement they were having to move at civilian speeds because apparently their real movement startled the wizards.

Most of the Hall stopped to stare at the shinobi in the doorway and it honestly put them on edge, though the elder hid it better.

Finally, Ino spotted Harry again, made a comment and dragged Shikamarh and Chouji behind him towards Harry.

Very reminiscent of this morning, Shikamaru was in the middle of the two of them, the Nara had snorted, the Akimichi was chuckling while the Yamanaka was looking slightly at the ceiling as if praying for patience.

The elder Yamanaka looked like he wanted to restate his comment from the morning but decided against it and just started making his way up to the staff table. Actually, there were three chairs on the end, next to Professor Snape that seemed to be open for them.

Ino gave Harry such a happy smile that he was instantly wary. Shikamaru snorted softly while Chouji just gave a fondly amused look.

"I thought the idea was to not scar the general populace Ino." Shikamaru couldn't help but point out as she rested her elbow on the table to support her head.

Ino gave an offended look but something seemed to flicker in his eyes, make Shikamaru narrow hers, before Ino just turned to Harry. "So, who are your friends?" Ino prompted

Harry was again slightly startled at how much attention Ino seemed to grab in that he almost forgot he was next to Ron and Hermione. And even then, Ron had just been bugging him for a game of chess.

Harry flushed slightly in embarrassment which prompted Ino to make a comment in his native language which made Shikamaru blush slightly and glare at the blonde.

"Ah sorry. To my right is Ron Weasley, my best mate and to my left is Hermione Granger, brightest witch of our age." Harry introduced his two best friends.

Ino, and a little from Shikamaru, looked interested at the comment about Hermione and Harry wondered what he had accidentally gotten her into. Ron gave a smile while Hermione also blushed a little before also giving a smile.

"Shikamaru." the sole female lazily spoke up as her eyes became half lidded as if she was going to take a nap.

"Chouji." the boy that reminded Harry strongly of Neville said with a warm smile and he was struck again but the idea of making the two meet.

"Ino." Ino chirped out brightly.

"So, what were you guys talking about?" Ino prompted again before any silence could develop.

"I was trying to get Harry to play chess with me but he's being a prat."  Ron was quick to throw in.

"I'm not being a prat, I’m just tired of getting slaughtered every time we play." Harry couldn't help but counter comment.

"What is chess?" Chouji asked softly.

For a second there was an awkward silence as the culture difference became noticeable.

"It’s a board game in which you have 7 different pieces that can do different moves depending on the piece. The winner is whoever gets the opponents King." Hermione tried to explain simply.

"Like shogi?" Shikamaru asked starting to look a little more awake.

"Almost" Hermione helpfully supplied.

She only vaguely knew of shogi but it was similar-ish to chess.

For the first time since Harry had met Shikamaru, she actually started to look more awake and sat up a little. She looked, dare Harry think it, excited.

"If you teach me I'll play against you" Shikamaru freely offered.

For Harry who just met her that seemed uncharacteristic of the lazy girl, but both Ino and Chouji just looked amused and shared fond looks.

"Uh. Sure. Let me go back to grab my Chess board." Ron stated a little uncertain as he got up and left to go grab the chess board.

"3 mission's pay says that it takes Shika only 2 games to understand."

"That’s a sucker bet. It’s more of, how long will it take for Shikamaru to win."

"Well, it’s a whole different game so she'll have to learn whole new mechanics so that eliminates at least one game."

"You say that as if the rules won't be explained and Shikamaru won’t just understand right away."

"You know what, good point. Same bet but it takes only one loss for Shika to learn and win."

"I'm not making a bet with you because you know Shikamaru too well and you probably already know the outcome."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely. I'm not losing 3 missions pay for a sucker’s bet."

Hermione and Harry couldn't help but watched stunned and amused as Chouji and Ino started debating amongst themselves. Shikamaru had instantly laid down her head as if to take a nap to wait for Ron.

"Uh well, Ron is the best chess player I've ever known" Harry had to point out.

Because with the way they were talking they were certain that Shikamaru was going to win almost instantly and that kind of incensed him because Ron was an amazing player and they were already so sure that she was going to win.

"Yeah but it's Shikamaru Nara. The only person she loses to anymore is her dad." Ino pointed out as if that meant something.

And maybe it meant something back home, but here it was just kind of rude. "We don't mean anything by it. It's just Shikamaru is the best shogi player in the whole village and literally only loses to her dad." Chouji tried to smooth over.

Hermione looked like she understood a little of why that made a different but Harry was still slightly insulted. But he chalked it up as a culture thing and left it at that; he too would defend Ron fiercely if the roles were reversed.

Shikamaru actually raised her head right before Ron walked through the door with his chess set. Harry briefly wondered how she knew but he couldn't help but think this is the most awake he's ever seen her.

Ron then sat down across from the sole foreign female and started explaining each piece as he set them on the board.

Harry was a little unnerved with how awake and attentive Shikamaru was. From what he saw, she would rather laze around and nap. Harry only felt a little better that Chouji and Ino didn't look concerned.

Though he did notice Ino looking at the elder blonde, making eye contact, and the elder looked immensely amused. The blonde had told something to the others and the Nara looked just as amused while the Akimichi actually barked out a laugh.

Harry wondered if that was a special magic that they were doing to communicate. He'll have to ask Hermione later if it was possible.

As they had predicted, it took one game for Shikamaru to understand the game and make Ron actually think.

To be honest, Ron was overjoyed at having real competition after so long. Most people just gave up or barely paid attention when they played against him because they knew he would win.

This was the most intense and thoughtful that Hermione and Harry had ever seen Ron while playing chess. Maybe the others had a point about Shikamaru being the best at shogi.

Ron and Shikamaru didn't even seem to show they were cognizant of people around them as they focused on the game. And they were getting a crowd at the Gryffindor table because everyone knew how good Ron was.

Ron had lost the 2nd game because he had gone easy on her but she had quickly beat him. But this 3rd game was taking a while. It was at the point that some people were leaving the Great Hall because it was getting so late.

Finally, Ron managed to take Shikamaru's King but he had a massive grin on his face. "That was the best chess game I've ever played." Ron had to tell his opponent as she blinked to disconnect from the game.

"Would you be willing to play again?" Ron almost excitedly asked.

The crowd jumped a little and some shrieked as a chuckle sounded behind Shikamaru and the elder trio appeared behind the younger. "Having fun?" The elder Nara asked lazily but looking amused.

Shikamaru looked over her shoulder at him and made a comment, "I'll play with you whenever. Just don't teach my dad"

The others snorted at Shikamaru's comment while the elder Nara (her dad?) looked offended on some level. "Fawn that's rude."

"No, it’s the truth. You don't need another game against me." Shikamaru instantly shot back.

The word though "fawn" kept echoing in Harry's head. Fawns were the young of deer and his parents were known to be deer related, especially his dad. Did this mean Shikamaru was the one related to him?

Before he could gather his thoughts though to even think to ask, they were getting up. He on autopilot wished them a goodnight as they left and he just stared at the doorway.

He jumped a little when Hermione nudged him with concern written on her face. "I think Shikamaru might be the other Evans." Harry voiced his thoughts out loud.

Saying it out loud seemed to make it just that more real. Hermione quickly understood and gave Harry a supporting smile. Ron was still putting away his chess set, ecstatic at having such a good game.

Harry vowed to ask tomorrow.