3
Once morning came, Shikamaru talked his parents into letting him skip school in order to help with Naruto. And so the family got to work.
First things first: a shower. The boy have not had access to any proper ways of showering and it very much was noticeable. It seemed like a safe option to run a bath with bubbles with strong supervision to get Naruto used to the idea of being in the water. And with the grace of a raccoon, Naruto got clean.
The issue was getting him out.
The boy was enjoying himself and would hiss at the tries to get him out, but leaving him was not an option. Yet, a promise of food did wonders and dressed in some clean old pajamas the next question arose.
Naruto’s hair was a mess to put it lightly. It was long and uneven, full of dead-ends and completely matted. But the regained colour and the softness of finally being washed fascinated the redhead. This time food did not do its job, therefore it had to be left for later.
The whole the thing felt both completely right and completely wrong to Shikamaru. How could someone -apparently- his age end up so much closer to an animal rather than human? The new addition to the house could barely stand upright, let alone speak. And what was even more confusing to the Nara was why he cared so much?, it all took a lot of time and patience and many tries to get the smaller boy to get things right, and Shikamaru never thought he’d ever care about anything as much as he started caring for the whiskered boy. Even so much as letting him sleep in his bed, before any showers or anything, right after the name fiasco.
All that was illogical to the kid. All his thoughts were around the confusing puzzle, even as he was searching the old cupboards for some books from his early childhood. Naruto couldn’t speak well, which meant that it’s better to start with the easiest stuff such as books for babies. Shikamaru’s mind was split on finding and planning things for Naruto, and getting over his own feelings.
As more and more stuff piled on, the dark haired boy started writing everything down.
—Teach: reading, speaking, walking, using utensils, sanitary-everything.
—Get: more books, clothes, toothbrush, bedding, toys.
But Shikamaru got interrupted by his mother yelling at him to come down for lunch.
Naruto was already seated at the kitchen table, playing around with anything he could reach with Shikaku’s supervision, while Yoshino set the final dish down. Shikamaru sat next to Naruto and started observing the other boy, who started staring back unblinkingly, only looking away when Yoshino placed a plate full of food that should be easy for the child’s stomach to digest.
Completely disregarding the utensils, Naruto dug in. The enjoyment on his face shined so brightly Shikamaru had to turn away, but not before taking note of the hair falling in front of Naruto’s face. Dubbing it troublesome to deal with, Shikamaru took his hair tie and stood up to tie the red hair up. At first Naruto froze, but when he realized that his hair was still there, just not in the way, he visibly relaxed.
It was a nice moment to see for both of the grownups. The fact that their lazy, unmotivated, and seemingly uncaring to anything troublesome son was actually doing more than the bare minimum was practically a case worth celebrating.
After eating Shikamaru started complaining to Naruto how his hair was a mess, while trying to untangle it, and Naruto was sitting with a satisfied smile at all the good attention he was receiving for once in his life. He wasn’t relaxed, couldn’t hide the fact that he wasn’t, but he was clinging to the comfort, desperate for anything that didn’t hurt.
Surprisingly, after three hours of work not only did Shikamaru not quit, but he also succeeded in untangling all of the strands of red hair.
By this time everyone in the clan was already wide awake and noticed the newcomer. Some had their suspicions, but all waited for any announcements before doing anything. If the new child was of any importance, the clan leader will let everybody know, before that it will be none of their businesses.
Three days passed before a word finally let out. The unknown child is the jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed beast, and he will now live at the compound. No one argued, and after learning the circumstances behind the stay of the redhead most were glad that Naruto no longer had to live that way.
Shikamaru started getting Naruto out of his house to meet at least a couple of folks, and before sleep the two would read simple books, Naruto even got better at walking properly, even if for only short periods of time and distance, years of being low to the ground did a number on his back’s development.
-—————————~•••~—————————-
A week passed and Shikamaru had to go back to attending school. He didn’t want to leave Naru alone, but a few talks with his mom forced the young Nara to accept his fate.
Arriving to class was a bother, and answering questions on where he’d been were even more of a chore the boy didn’t want to do. Especially with Ino being as loud as she was.
“You are hiding something”
Accusations. Not good already. And Chouji was interested too. More people involved meant nothing good.
“None of your business, I was just sick”
“As if I’d believe that. You’ve been acting strange the past month or so”
Ino, while not being a huge fan of the fact, was still pretty close to Shikamaru and Chouji considering the closeness of their clans, and she was not stupid. Something changed and she will find out what it is.
Before Shikamaru could come up with more excuses, Iruka came in announcing the beginning of class.
Thought, even with this Shikamaru couldn’t be spared from being questioned as a piece of paper slid over from his right, with Chouji sending him glances. The paper had a simple ‘Are you sure everything’s OK?’ written on it.
Sighing, Shikamaru just wrote ‘Yes. We just had a bit of a change happen’.
That didn’t explain much, but lying to his best friend would’ve been wrong. Chouji was a great friend, and hopefully Shikamaru will soon be able to set up a meeting for him and Naruto, they’d probably get along, at least over food.
So much thinking just made Shikamaru tired.
-—————————~•••~—————————-
At lunch, Ino was back to the questioning.
“You seem both more troubled and excited, I don’t like it”
At that, Shikamaru was forced to wake up from his nap, just to see Ino standing over him.
“Get lost”, Shikamaru flipped to his side, hiding his face in his arms.
“Not until you tell me the truth of what’s up with you”
Chouji intervened, hoping to save his friend at least for a bit.
“He said it’s OK, why does that bother you so much?”
“BeCause, that never happened before. Don’t you see? He’s hiding something.”
“I am not hiding anything.”
“Says while hiding your face. Get up”
It took all of Ino’s willpower to not stomp her leg trying to get her point across. Those two will be the end of her someday.
“If I give you a hint, will you get off of me?”
“Depends”
“A newcomer”
“A, newcomer?”
“I gave you an answer, not get lost”
“That is not an answer”
“I gave you want you asked for, therefore it is an answer”
Lunchtime was slowly getting less and less, so Ino decided to go with what she got for now, but that was not an end.
Shikamaru on the other hand was already regretting giving the information out.
-—————————~•••~—————————-
Once the school day was finally over, Shikamaru could almost say he was excited to go home and see Naruto. Could they be considered brothers now? He was still questioning his relationship to the new family member.
The walk home was straightforward and fast, just to see that Naruto was surrounded by two neighborhood grandmas, teaching Naru to sew. His hair was braided, and his hands were surprisingly steady at the craft. He was so focused he did not notice Shikamaru sitting down in front of him.
“How long have you been teaching him?”
“He picked it up quite quickly, such a sweet boy”
It was nice knowing the clan accepted Naruto, and Shikamaru was relieved to know that everyone will take good care of him.
Shikamaru decided to take a nap.