The Deer Champion

It took exactly one class to finally figure out what the older Nara had meant the night before.

It had started relatively simple enough, they had met up at the Gryffindor table in the morning before class.  Seeing as the foreigners had the same schedule as Harry, they decided that they would just show them to class though apparently the foreigners had chosen different electives.

Not for the first time, Harry regretted taking Divination.  All three of the foreigners were taking Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy, but Shikamaru was also taking Runes on top of the 2 other electives.

Harry didn’t think Shikamaru would ever sign up for an extra class like this but apparently, she had to take the class to take the tests at the end of the year.  Well, that’s what Harry understood from her mumbled reply.

None of the foreigners had changed their general outfit, which Harry was a little envious of because robes could be annoying.

Still, it took exactly 10 minutes into Herbology to realize that Shikamaru was basically taking a nap sitting up.  Chouji and Ino didn’t look phased at all about this and just worked around the girl.  Professor Sprout didn’t quite know what to do with Shikamaru, as no one had ever even tried to sleep in her class because it was mostly practical work.

Professor Sprout tried her best to get Shikamaru to stay awake but as soon as the professor left, Shikamaru closed her eyes again.

And the professor couldn’t take any points off of Shikamaru, but it didn’t feel severe enough to warrant a detention to the Hufflepuff head.  Professor Sprout vowed to talk to the older foreigners, one which was her father, about this behavior.

Just like Chouji had promised, since Shikamaru was just sleeping away, he had cheerfully paired up with Neville.  Gryffindor knew that Neville loved Herbology and was the best in the year, but he seemed to be even happier pairing with the other.

Ino and Hermione had paired up and the two had been discussing almost the whole time about just random things. 

This behavior didn’t get better, as when they were in Care of Magical Creatures, Shikamaru found a nice sunny spot on the grass against a tree and immediately laid down to take a nap.

Gryffindor couldn’t help but be in awe at the sheer steel nerves she had to have to sleep through classes like this.  The Slytherin had almost automatically tried to pick a fight with the girl or even the other foreigners, but she just kept sleeping and Ino and Chouji looked more amused than anything else.

Hagrid didn’t quite know how to deal with a sleeping student either, but once they started doing practical work with creatures, Shikamaru had woken up and was lazily participating.

Halfway through the lesson though, Shikamaru seemed to be bumped by something invisible.  The girl turned her head slightly and gave a soft smile as she started to stroke thin air.

The rest of the students were wary, even Chouji and Ino.  Though it seemed like Chouji and Ino could see something rather than thin air.  Hagrid looked absolutely delighted.

“I’ve never seen a thestral come out of the forest like this before.”  He couldn’t help but comment as he made his way over smiling widely.

“They seem to like me.” Shikamaru lazily drawled as she seemed to keep petting thin air.

Hermione raised her hand and waited until Hagrid called on her to ask, “What’s a thestral?”

“Ah, they’re creatures you can only see after you’ve seen and understood death.  Beautiful misunderstood creatures, we have a herd in the forest.”  Hagrid explained eagerly.

Harry was slightly startled at this and wondered why he couldn’t see them even though he saw his mom die in front of him.  But the foreigners could easily see them, hell even Shikamaru was interacting with them.  “Go on, your mother is probably worried.”  Shikamaru told the creature and started to shoo it away.

Chouji and Ino didn’t look as alarmed now that they knew what they were looking at, but they did look amused at Shikamaru’s interaction.  “The Nara deer are going to be jealous.”  Ino called out in a cheerful tone.

To the amazement of others, Shikamaru’s face flushed slightly at the comment.  Chouji just grinned at the two of them as Shikamaru got her emotions back under control after sending a small glare to Ino.  Ino just smiled cheerfully back.

And then class was back on track though the Hogwarts students kept glancing at the foreigners, even more curious now.  Harry wondered what Ino meant by the Nara deer and vowed to ask later.

During lunch though, the foreigners disappeared into where ever they were staying but showed up at the end of lunch.  Harry figured it was a culture thing, because he’s never really seen them at lunch in the Great Hall before.

Harry didn’t have class with the foreigners, but from the whispered gossip around him, he knew that Shikamaru basically slept throughout both Arithmancy and Runes.  The most vexing thing though was that when Shikamaru was awake and asked a question, she answered correctly before dozing back off.

During dinner, Harry couldn’t help but notice some teachers whispering furiously to each other while glancing at Shikamaru specifically.  Once again, Ino and Chouji weren’t even phased at this behavior.

The week passed much like before.  The only class Shikamaru really participated in was Potions and even then, as soon as she was done, she would lay down her head.

To the general populace of Hogwarts surprise, Snape never got on her for sleeping.  He just seemed to ignore her entire existence.  The weirder thing was he wasn’t picking on Gryffindor as much as he used to in that class.

The populace figured it was because the foreigners were in that class as he was still the same for everyone else.

Finally, at the usual teacher meeting at the end of the week, Shikaku and his team mates were asked to come.

Shikaku already knew what this was about, but he was amused at how the wizards were trying to coral his child.  Inoichi and Chouji were quietly taking bets in their native language on how many professors were going to complain.

The shinobi had sat quietly as the normal meeting had commenced.  But then it was at the end and the professors seemed to hesitate.  The shinobi all shared quick amused glances between each other.  Dumbledore had sat back and let his professors deal with the problem; he had been told in the beginning that the professors would be lucky if she even just physically showed up to class.

Dumbledore would never admit it, but he was also amused at how much his professors were floundering when met with a child that slept through all the lessons.  They could deal with unruly children and even pranks, but they’ve never had to deal with a child that just did nothing.

Severus was just the slightest bit amused as well, not that anyone would know that.  Severus knew the Nara quite well and knew that Shikamaru’s laziness was just basically genetics at this point.  Shikaku Nara might be the Jounin Commander and a highly competent man, but he also will laze around when he could get away with it.

Severus also knew how deceiving this was.  His war honed instincts are what really told him that the Nara might appear to be lazy, but they were still highly skilled warriors.  They weren’t to be messed with, and that wasn’t even including the teammates.

Shikaku glanced around the room to see how many teachers were agitated but made a note who wasn’t.  Severus and Flitwick were really the only ones not irritated, though Minerva only looked half irritated, as if she knew it was inevitable.

Inoichi knew if he let it keep going, Shikaku would make the wizards squirm for hours and as amusing as it was to watch, he didn’t want to spend his whole evening in here.  “Is something the matter?”  Inoichi finally asked politely.

“Ino and Chouji are delights, it’s just…Shikamaru is…” One of the professors started.

“Unmotivated.” Another professor finished

Inoichi’s smile turned a bit amused as he commented, “We are aware.”

“Well, we were hoping that one of you could talk to her.”  Professor Sprout finally stated.

“What for?” Chouza now entered the conversation.

“Well, she’s just sleeping in class, and it doesn’t look like she plans to do any work.” A professor added.

“This isn’t anything new to us.”  Shikaku finally drawled.

Ok, so maybe the shinobi were having a bit too much fun at riling the wizards up.  Especially because a majority of the wizards didn’t know they were shinobi and thus skilled warriors.

Flitwick was starting to look amused though and he exchanged a glance with Severus.  Flitwick, as a duelist champion, knew all about shinobi, so he knew better than his colleagues who exactly was in the castle.  But he also knew that they weren’t just mindless killers.

Flitwick had the experience to duel against a shinobi before.  It had been exhilarating, and the fight had actually ended in a tie.

Normal wizards against shinobi wouldn’t stand a chance against them with their heightened speed and strength.  But for a duelist, and one who already knew of the shinobi’s advantages, they could fight for much longer.

Shinobi might be faster and stronger, but magic was much more versatile, so it balanced each other out.  Though it would have to take someone highly skilled to take down a trained shinobi, and they would have to know about the shinobi beforehand, or the shinobi were just too fast to even defend against.

Though looking at the shinobi in front of him, Flitwick had to admit that he didn’t know if he could fully go up against one of these men.  He might be able to fight and probably win against the children, though he had a feeling the female Nara was hiding her skills, but not against these men.

If Dumbledore was younger, he probably could have taken on one of these men and give an honest fight.  He was still powerful enough to do so, but his old age was starting to catch up to him and even though he would still live for much longer, he wouldn’t have the reflexes to go against these shinobi.

In a warrior sense, shinobi seemed to be at a distinct advantage.  But what magic couldn’t make up in straight one on one fighting, it made up in versatility.

With magic you could set wards and traps, transfigure and summon objects, and much more.  Sure, shinobi had some seals that could be barriers and traps, but they would never have the complexity that magic could offer.  Plus, magic could easily layer on top of itself, and while shinobi jutsus could layer, it was much more difficult.

So, in the end, each side specialized better than the other in some subjects but it balanced out in a way.  What was truly terrifying, was going against someone who could do both.  And from what Flitwick understood, young Shikamaru Nara could easily do both.

Flitwick tuned back in to the conversation and was amused to note the flustered wizards trying to nicely tell Shikaku to make his daughter do work.

“Listen Mr. Nara, you need to make your daughter do the work.”  One of the professors finally got fed up and commented.

“I’m going to be honest with you all; we are lucky she is even physically going to classes and even that was a battle.”  Shikaku drawled while Inoichi and Chouza solemnly nodded their head.

“But if she sleeps all the time and doesn’t do the work, how will she ever learn?”  Another professor finally asked.

Shikaku snorted softly before answering, “I wouldn’t worry about what she will and won’t learn, she’ll be fine.  She’s taking your…NEWTs I think it is at the end of the year.”

Now all the teachers looked alarmed and Flitwick was slightly alarmed as well.  But all the shinobi looked quietly confident, so Flitwick figured they probably had a plan.

Flitwick briefly wondered what a shinobi fighting a shinobi looked like.  Maybe he could ask, though he would have to do it a specific way because shinobi were very secretive about their training.

“She’s only 13!  And she’s not even paying attention now!”  One of the professors burst out.

“I’m telling you, she’ll be fine.  If you don’t believe me, test her.”  Shikaku drawled, still looking amused.

The professors now looked indignant.  Dumbledore’s eyes were twinkling in mirth, he was told that she already knew all the subjects, she just needed to take the tests; and he fully believed that.

Ah youth, intelligent beyond belief but causing headaches for others.  Dumbledore briefly wondered if they had talked to his friend Ollivander.  Well, there was the weighing of the wands and Dumbledore had a feeling that Ollivander will be intentionally causing headaches.  Ah, the things old wizards do for fun.

Minerva looked resigned to her fate, Severus’ face was carefully blank but there was a spark of amusement in his eyes, and Flitwick was just slightly grinning at the disaster that was happening around him.

Minerva finally took pity on her colleagues and asked, “What were your requirements for her while here?”

Shikaku gave the woman a lazy smirk, finally someone was asking the right questions.  “That she physically went to class and took the tests at the end of the year.”

Minerva followed up with, “And you won’t make her do anything else?”

Shikaku’s smirk turned into a grin that was aimed at the woman.

She heaved a great sigh before stating, “Well if it’s just going to be like that, we’ll have to get used to a sleeping student in the class.”

The other professors started to talk in uproar but Minerva was final.

Dumbledore was amused to note the shinobi exchanging money between themselves.  Shikaku glanced at the headmaster before getting up and walking right out.

Inoichi and Chouza weren’t that far behind and it took a matter of seconds before Severus also exited the room.  Minerva looked very resigned as she weathered the furious professors.  Flitwick shared a glance with Dumbledore as he too got up to leave.  Sadly, for Dumbledore, as the headmaster he couldn’t leave until the very end.

He searched his pockets and was delighted to find a small bag of lemon drops in his pocket with the symbol that was etched on their forehead protectors on the bag.  The shinobi must have slipped it to him earlier, how nice.

He popped one in his mouth and silently offered one to Minerva who took one to his silent delight.  Shinobi might be much more violent, but they seemed to know how to have fun at least.

“So, what took you guys so long?”  Ino asked immediately as the elder shinobi entered the magic room.

They had planned on doing training but the meeting had run long for the adults.  “Ah, just the wizards complaining about Shikamaru sleeping in class.”  Chouza cheerfully explained.

Ino and Chouji snorted while Shikamaru glanced over from her cloud watching position; did Shikamaru mention she loved magic and how the magic room gave her the perfect day to cloud watch?

“I don’t know what they were expecting, even Iruka-sensei couldn’t get Shika to do something she didn’t want to.”  Chouji commented back as he started to stretch.

“But the wizards don’t know that fact.”  Ino pointed out to his teammate.

“Well, it’s pretty obvious now.”  Chouji stated.

Shikaku glanced around before he settled next to his daughter to cloud watch for a bit before training.  Inoichi snorted and commented, “I don’t know why they expected anything different from Shikaku concerning this.”

“So how much money did you lose?”  Shikamaru called out.

“Eh, not too much, we didn’t bet too much this time.  But there are at least 3 teachers that look like they understand it’s a lost cause.”  Chouza replied.

“Well, that’s nice at least.”  Shikamaru mumbled as she went back to cloud watching.

“Hey, is there something weird about the defense professor Moody?”  Ino finally asked as he too was stretching.

The adults exchanged a look, they had noticed it was weird but didn’t really think about it.  “We’ll look into it,” Inoichi finally declared.

Inoichi would just skim the surface thoughts of Moody, which was discrete enough that the man wouldn’t notice.  That would give him an idea of what was going on before they fully investigated.

“How long until do you think the other teachers will give up?” Ino asked, now just standing ready to separate from the group to train.

“If they’re smart enough, hopefully within the next week, or they are about to have a horrible time.”  Inoichi replied while gesturing for his son to follow him as they waved goodbye.

The Akimichi also wandered off as the Nara just laid there and relaxed.

“I better not be in trouble, me doing the work wasn’t part of our deal.” Shikamaru finally commented after a few minutes of silence.

Shikaku snorted before replying, “No, you are doing what we had agreed on, everything else is up to the wizards.”

Shikamaru let a sharp smirk appear on her face.

“Come on fawn, time to train.”  Shikaku finally said after another few minutes of silence.

The man got up easily, but was still slouched while standing.

Shikamaru gave a loud groan but with a muttered, “troublesome,” she also got up.

“As long as you prove to do well on the tests at the end, and live through this tournament, I could care less what the wizards think.”  Shikaku commented off hand as they started to walk to where the room provided the Nara training grounds.

This time, when Shikamaru had a sharp smirk, she flashed it at her dad.

Now if it was Yoshino with them, her mom would have probably gotten on her about doing the work and staying awake in class.  But Shikaku understood his daughter well and thus wasn’t harping on her to do what the wizards were demanding.

To be fair, if she had continued to be this lackluster in training, he would have stepped in, but seeing as she was taking training seriously and was even chuunin now, Shikaku could care less about other things.

Shikaku just wanted his daughter to be competent, alive, and well.  Yoshino wasn’t a true Nara at birth and thus didn’t really understand their laziness, though she tried.

But she was just so used to people constantly doing and trying their best that she would get frustrated when it seemed like Shikamaru was just lazing around.  There were a couple of times that Shikaku had to step in when Yoshino was getting on Shikamaru because he loved his wife and could tolerate some of her harping, it was only because it was from a place of love. 

But there was only so far, she could push concerning his fawn before he stepped in; this was his daughter, his heir, and she didn’t get to dictate what that meant.

In the beginning, he had just let Yoshino harp as much as she wanted, but after finding Shikamaru outside surrounded by the deer, upset, one too many times, he stepped in.  The fact that she looked outside of the house for comfort had been the last straw, and from what the deer had told him, Shikamaru was spending more and more time with them.

So, while Shikamaru was away at academy, he laid down the law with his wife.  She could try to get Shikamaru to do more things and give more effort, but there was a line and she was not allowed to cross it under any circumstance.  Also, how she treated Shikamaru had to change slightly, because it was just causing a negative influence between the two women.

From that moment forward, relations remained strained between mother and daughter, but Shikamaru started turning to her father again for when she got upset instead of going to hide in the forest immediately.

The biggest stepping stone for the two women was when Shikamaru willingly sought out Yoshino to complain about how women were treated differently from men and how it was completely illogical.

Oh, Shikamaru hated anything feminine, but she was now more willing to humor her mother when asked now.

There were moments that Shikamaru was thankful that her dad had noticed the strain between mother and daughter, because it could have turned out much worse than it already was.  For a long time there, Shikamaru was being shoved into a box and she hated every second of it but it seemed like she had no allies.  So, she could do nothing more than pull away and sought comfort from the deer.

It was one of the reasons why she was so favored by the deer actually.  By spending so much time in the forest and getting comfort from the deer, it had created a deep bond.

What Shikamaru hadn’t really told her dad, and she didn’t think he knew, was that the first time she had gone into the forest upset, she was so upset she went too deep and her shadow was threatening to engulf her for protection.

Just before the shadow could overpower her though, it quieted down and Shikamaru had felt something against her head.  She had looked up, still crying, to stare into the eyes of the alpha doe.  Only really the clan head could communicate so clearly with the deer, especially the alpha pair, but they could send vague messages.

The doe had stared at her for a bit before laying down behind Shikamaru against a tree.  Shikamaru had then leaned into the doe’s side as she spilled out her heart to the deer.  She knew they were intelligent enough to understand, and at that moment, they were the solid support she needed.

It was when it was getting dark that the doe had pushed Shikamaru up.  Shikamaru had gotten up reluctantly, but was very surprised when she was picked up by the scruff of her shirt.

Making sure to stay completely still, she was surprised when she was set back down on a deer back.  Glancing up proved that it wasn’t just any deer back, it was the alpha stag.

Shikamaru had never heard any stories like this before, but didn’t quite care in this moment.  She had whispered a thank you and leaned down to hug the stag around the neck.

She had been lulled to sleep briefly as the stag had walked with the doe back towards the edge of the forest.  Once they were close enough, the doe had nosed Shikamaru awake.

Shikamaru had reluctantly gotten off the stag, and almost fell over because of how far the drop was, but the stag’s head was there for support.

She hesitated for a second before putting a kiss to the stag’s muzzle in thanks and nuzzled under its chin like she would her dad.  The stag let out a huff of air but simply stood back up.  The doe leaned its head down and Shikamaru repeated the two actions.

Soon, both the alpha pair gently pushed her closer to the edge where she could hear her frantic dad calling out for her.  She started walking away, but not before sending the pair a small but heartfelt smile.

She never really saw the alpha pair again, but out of the corner of her eye, she swore she caught a glimpse whenever she went in the forest upset.  But she never forgot that time when the alpha pair had been her whole support with what seemed to be against the world.

Shikamaru never told her dad that she met the alpha pair, because technically you weren’t really supposed to be able to see, let alone interact with them.  But she never forgot.

Still, Shikamaru stretched her body as she considered sparring against her dad.  As troublesome as it was to be competent and then pushed to be better, she was getting better and that was what she wanted.  Even though training sucked.

It was one of the reasons why she was so good with animals in general.  Spending so much time with the deer really gave her an insight to animals and their interactions.  It’s why she wasn’t so surprised when the thestral came to say hello to her.

It’s also why she wasn’t surprised that Shikakage adopted her off on the street (though, if it had been a normal cat, she wouldn’t have gotten it because of the danger of a shinobi village, but Shikakage was part kneazle so it evened itself out a little bit).

Plus, as part kneazle, Shikakage could take care of herself easily.  That wasn’t even getting into the fact that kneazles were magical creatures and Shikakage was very magical.  Her dad had just looked amused when they discovered that Shikakage was connected to the shadows specifically.

Ino was still harping Shikamaru a little on trying to pay attention in class, but it was never in English, and the comments weren’t as biting.  Shikamaru was very wary of this development but internally hoped that this meant that Team 10’s relationship was being fixed.

Chouji seemed to be thriving off of Neville as a friend and Neville seemed to be thriving back which was really nice.

The Slytherin had tried to sow chaos concerning Shikamaru and her team, but she lazily rebutted any of their jabs with logic.  The Hufflepuff at first were a little angry that Shikamaru might have been chosen as a Hogwarts champion, but after the girl had calmly pointed out that she didn’t even go to this school, they had settled down easily enough.

Ravenclaw admired her for her logic and intelligence though were generally insulted by her lack of drive.  Gryffindor was just in awe at her steel nerves to be able to sleep through so many magic classes without fear of retribution.  There was talk about the Weasley Twins considering cornering her and figuring out her secret which was frankly terrifying to the wizarding populace.

In other news, Shikaku was expecting a reply from the village any day now.

Harry was also being shoved into a crash course of what it was like to have a sibling.  Ron had given his best mate a commiserating glance, mostly because if Harry even thought of trying to protect Shikamaru, she immediately knew and would glare him down.  Ron knew what it was like to have a spitfire of a younger sister and thus could relate.

Hermione and Ino seemed to be bonding over information in general which was also slightly terrifying.  Though whenever Ino was stumped on something, to the surprise of others, he would turn straight to Shikamaru to ask and Shikamaru always provided the correct answer.  Chouji was the same way, if he didn’t understand something, he wouldn’t hesitate in bugging Shikamaru to explain.

Sure, the lone female would complain about them disturbing her nap and how troublesome it was that they couldn’t bug someone else, but she always took the time to answer and explain if needed.

To Ron’s joy, Shikamaru had agreed to play chess against him every Sunday night.  Though she had mentioned something about showing him how to play shogi but apparently that was for later.

Shikamaru had already told her dad that she was planning on going out to the forest on Saturdays.  He had replied that he might join her sporadically but it was her time in the forest. 

Though sadly, they couldn’t have done this very Saturday as there was the meeting with the teachers and they had training planned.  Next Saturday though, Shikamaru vowed to go back into the forest, she was unsure if she would talk to the centaurs again, but she wanted to visit the thestrals.

Chouji and Ino were doing the homework that they actually could do but Shikamaru didn’t even try.  This wasn’t her school, her grades didn’t matter, only the test results at the end of the year mattered so she wasn’t doing the extra work.

So far, going to Hogwarts wasn’t so bad and was only a little troublesome.