Anthology

***********************

Shikamaru had never been much of a religious person growing up, in fact he rather believed that some people used it as an excuse. This belief continued for a while, until he met a certain blonde. His name was Naruto Uzumaki, and he transferred into his class in the third grade.

"hey dad, can I ask you something?" The young Shikamaru asked one evening as his family ate dinner. "Why does everyone either avoid Naruto like the plague, or treat him bad?" His mom went still for a moment before she got up at the electric trilling sound of her Ancillary, a delicate metal necklace hanging from her throat. It was an alarm set for a conference call she had to take. She silently left the dining table. "Did he do something wrong?" Shikamaru continued, ignore the usual silent departure of his mother. 

"Shikamaru. How do you feel about that boy?" His father asked, and the small boy frowned.

"I... never thought about it." He replied slowly, thinking. "He's kinda stupid but he's funny. I don't know why people want to avoid him. I don't want to avoid him."

"I see." His father said slowly, with a smile. "Then you should do what you feel best." He finished, taking another bite of his food and effectively dropping the conversation. Shikamaru simply nodded. It wasn't until he formally enrolled in his Sectors' school that he learned it had to due with Naruto's rank. 

When children turn three, the Sovereignty collect the children and assign them a rank: Jonin, Chunin, Genin, Jinchuriki and then given a child locked Ancillary, a simple metal bracelet. Almost all children are sorted into the Genin group. Though some, like Shikamaru, were sorted into Chunin. Jinchuriki was a rare classification, but the children who received were outcast, shamed and look down on. 

Naruto was, unfortunately, a Jinchuriki. 

Needless to say, he was the target of many ruthless acts and jokes. For the most part, Shikamaru ignored him and everyone else. It seemed pointless, and a pain to mess with. He would much rather be watching the clouds go by.  However, he wasn't always able to escape completely. School or class events where the young students were again sorted by the rank only further heightened the distance, drawing more attention to the blonde. Each instance drew more and more of Shikamaru's attention. Suddenly it wasn't watching the clouds he wanted to do, it was watching Naruto. 

*****************

The summer of fourth grade year, had the normally calm and reserved boy running around after the blonde in the trees of the Sectors Woodland region. The planned lines of the streets and bland buildings were forgotten, as Shikamaru laughed. It wasn't for very long though, both his parents taking him to Central Command since they had some work to do before school started back up. Still, that week with Naruto had Shikamaru's heart racing more than it had for a long time.

His mother, often helped the soul matching department and that Summer Shikamaru sat and watched countless thirteen year olds squirming around in their seats, as they had their shots, a blue ink slowly blooming either on the back of their neck or the insides of their wrists. It would be the name of their soulmate, once it finished forming overnight. Then the child lock on the Ancillary would be removed and they get a receiver for it. Some of the kids would ask to change their Ancillary style, choosing Rings, Necklaces or Earrings instead. The receivers though, were all the same. All of them looking like clear twenty first century contact lenses. Shikamaru personally, didn't care one way or the other about the Ancillary. No, his attention was on that Spiralling blue ink. Soulmates. That little word nagged at the back of his mind. 

That night, Shikamaru ate his dinner alone. His mother still working in the Soulmate department and his father doing..... whatever. Shikamaru wasn't really sure what his dad was doing. His father was always skilled at kept secrets from him. Instead the boy thought about Naruto and who his soulmate might be. This lead to a new idea blossoming inside his skull. 

"What if I was Naruto's Soulmate?" He murmured to himself, going still as the idea took hold of him, body and soul. Now that he had thought of it, the idea refused to go away, and he pushed away his dinner plate suddenly unable to stomach the food. He hopped off the chair and walked to the back of the apartment. "Maybe sleep will help." He said aloud, and for once the loudness of his own voice bothered him. It was like the world itself was too quiet. 

I'm sitting on the metal slab, and my mom is standing over me. A long needle in her hand as she smiles and injects me with the metallic silver liquid. Shikamaru blinks and the cool sterile department blurs into his bedroom. There was that vague dream awareness that somehow, it was morning now. That his soulmates name was complete. Anticipation was building and he turned his wrist over and saw—

Shikamaru woke up with a shout. The hair on the back of his neck was slick with sweat and he was gasping for air. He sat up and with a jolt and stared at the inside of his wrist, the skin there empty and barren. He flopped back down with a huff, staring at the dark ceiling. A soft knocked echoed on his door,

"Shikamaru, honey are you okay?" His mom asked softly and the boy sighed. 

"fine." He answered, still staring his ceiling. "Nightmare." 

"Alright. You can come get me if you need to." She offered, before the sound of retreating footsteps echoed. Shikamaru didn't fall back assleep that night. 

******************

When Shikamaru returned back to his sector and school started back up again, his curiosity got the better of him. 

"Naruto." He said from where he was laying on the roof. The blonde had taken to hiding up there with him during lunch that way others wouldn't bother with him.

"What?" The blonde snapped with a frown. "It better not be about clouds. I'm still mad you left for the entire summer. Some friend."

"I already apologized." Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes.

"Well What then?"

"I saw the Soulmate Department. It was a drag." 

"Soulmates." Naruto said with clear disdain, and Shikamaru blinked. "Of course it was a drag. There's no such thing as soulmates."

"You don't believe in soulmates?" 

"No." Naruto said with a shake of his head. "We choose who we love, and destiny or soulmates is a load is bullcrap. People make their own lives." 

"No soulmate has ever been matched poorly." Shikamaru stated. "Soulmates always work." Naruto huffs. 

"Soulmates is bull crap. I will never have a soulmate!" The blonde proclaimed. Shikamaru frowned and sat up to look at him. "I'm serious!" Naruto said loudly. "Soulmates are just a ploy by the sovereignty to keep people happy. It's not real." Shikamaru fell silent, and didn't say anything more about it for the rest of the week. 

So fourth grade passed with him silently brooding over Naruto and soulmates. Still, despite his own beliefs on the matter Shikamaru stubbornly stuck to Naruto's side. He lingered nearby, drawing teachers attention away from the blonde or cleverly devising ways to get rid of his attackers. 

Naruto seldom noticed, which was just as well. Shikamaru was aware of how proud the blonde could be. 

********************

The summer after sixth grade, the entire class loaded up onto the bus and were taken to The Central Command and led to to Soul Matching Department. It was like his old dream, only it wasn't his mother who injected him. It was a smiling employee with her face hidden behind a white plastic mask. The needle stung, and there was a tingling burning sensation under his skin. 

"Would you like to change your receiver? You can do it just this once while we unlock it." She said, talking down to him. 

"Earring." He sighed out, already tired of this entire thing. He wanted to leave and watch the clouds, preferably with Naruto. She raised her brow but otherwise said nothing. When he got home, he climbed up into the roof and out from under his parents watchful eyes. As the clouds drifted by he could feel his heart racing and was torn between anticipation and dread. 'What if i dont get Narutos name?' He thought feeling a shiver of horror. 'What if I do?'

Because wasn't that the thing? If he did get Narutos name, what does he do? Naruto hates soulmates, hates everything they represents. The whole destiny and your one true love is already picked out was against everything he stood for. Regardless, Shikamaru found himself repeating, "please let it be Naruto" over and over again. Shikamaru didn't go to sleep that night. He stayed up watching the blue ink on his wrist slowly take the shape of:

Naruto.

*********************

It was the eve of Naruto's seventeenth birthday and Shikamaru was already dreading whatever plan he was going to come up with to quote— reveal the Sovereignty's evil plan. Since the sixth grade Naruto kept his wrist tightly hidden, and the one time Shikamaru dared to ask about it— Naruto stated that he didn't know whose name was there and that he didn't want to know. Shikamaru kept his wrist hidden as well, at least until he could find a way to deal with the troublesome blonde. 

"Shikamaru! Up here!" Naruto called loudly from where he sitting on the rooftop of his house. The teen genius ducked around the back and carefully avoided the eyes of the B.N that was staring sightless into nothing. Shikamaru shivered. 

He always disliked coming to Narutos home, out in the edges of the sector. It was where all of the B.N lingered, starving and begging until they died. Unable to steal from the carefully designed shops of the sovereignty, and unable to get out to wildness to find food. The simply fell dead in the streets. They were the unwanted of society, cursed for unforgivable crimes unless someone was willing to sacrifice everything to try and care for them. 

Few did. 

Shikamaru crawled through the window and let out a sigh as he collapsed on Naruto's floor. The blonde just laughed at him. 

"What took you so long?" He asked.

"Troublesome parents." He murmured. "here. Happy birthday." Shikamaru said pulling out a limited edition box of ramen packages. 

"Sweet!" Naruto said happily, "oh but my birthday shouldn't just be about me." He argued quickly, "I came up with a new plan." Shikamaru nodded silently, only half listening to the blonde ramble on about... whatever. 

"—so  we can get there then everyone can be free!! We all lose the soulmate marks. We can love whoever we want!" Naruto said gesturing wildly and Shikamaru was half startled back into paying attention.

"You found a way to remove people's soulmates marks?" 

"Yep!!" Naruto said with a grin. "Isnt it awesome?! Think about it, everyone can be free to love anyone."

"I... don't think that's a good idea." Shikamaru said slowly, thinking of all of the happy people. People who just wanted their happiness. 

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed loudly. "But they're tricking everyone! People have the right to chose!" 

It escalated into a full on heated argument, and Shikamaru finally left. He wasn't sure how else to handle it. Naruto had always been a hot head. The kinda stupid guy that would punch a guy for punching someone else. He was stupid, and confusing and never thought things through and— And he was absolutely breathtaking. Naruto could take a room of people who didn't get along at all and somehow find a thing they all agreed on. He had a knack for bringing people together and finding hope. Shikamaru couldn't let him throw that all away. 

"If he gets caught, the sovereignty might B.N him." He said to himself, thinking. Of course there was always a shot that they would just put him on probation. Shikamaru groaned and ran his hands down his face. "Naruto's going to do it regardless of if I'm there." After taking a calming breath Shikamaru walked back to Naruto's house.

"What?" Naruto snapped. "Back to tell what an idiot I am?"

"No. I'm here to help." 

"Oh Really?"

"Yeah." He replied with a nod. "Your going to do it regardless of my help. The least I can do is make sure you don't get into too much trouble." 

*****************

At three in the morning, Naruto and Shikamaru took off for Central Command, wiggling in through AC ducts to get closer to the mainframe. Naruto was mouthing the facility blueprints like his life depended on it, which in a way it did. 

They found the data center for the building, and dropped down into the room when it was empty. While Naruto fumbled and played around with the keypad, Shikamaru eyed the door, feeling his heart race. Something kept screaming at him that someone knew. That they were going to come. 

They didn't, and Naruto finished fiddling around with whatever, and together they crawled back up into the vent. That's what Shikamaru would have liked to have happened anyway. 

Actually though, they did find them. Shikamaru grabbed the blonde shoving him into the vent, and crawling in behind him. Angry shouts and cursing could be heard below as whoever found them called for the guards. In front of him, Naruto was bleeding. His wrist had been sliced when Shikamaru had pushed him in, but it didn't seem to be anything life threatening. The sound of anger seemed to fade and Naruto started laughing thinking that they had won, 

Shikamaru could only feel dread. It was too quiet. The bad feeling came true as the metal of the vents started heating up around slowly around them, becoming suffocating in intensity. When Naruto yelped because it actually burned their palms, Shikamaru knew it couldn't last. As they approached another vent opening, he saw his chance.

"Naruto."

"What? Don't complain we're almost there! We can do this!" Naruto insisted. 

"No." 

"What? What do you mean no?" He exclaimed softly. 

"I mean, we can't do it. You can do this Naruto. I? I can't." The blonde had barely enough time to process that before Shikamaru, pushed him forward. "Keep going, I'll find my own way." Naruto opened his mouth to protest but Shikamaru shook his head. "Naruto, trust me. I promise, I'll come back." 

"Fine. I'm holding you to it." Naruto mumbled before continuing. Shikamaru turned and kicked open the vent covering he had spotted earlier and dropped down. Raising his hands in surrender, he let himself be caught. 

"Stop heating the vents! We caught the intruder!" One of the guards shouted, and Shikamaru had to fight to kept the bitter smile off of his face. 

*******************

Shikamaru was shoved into a white empty room. The intensely bright light bulb was buzzing from a short in the connection, but it was okay. A simple toilet sat in the corner. After the second day the light seemed to get blurry and he could feel himself sweating and getting dizzy. Finally he sat down on the cold floor trying to ground himself. It wasn't until he did that he realized they had been releasing a clear gas in the room with him. Unsteadily he rose to his feet, before promptly collapsing to the ground. 

When he next awoke his arms where chained together behind him, and he stood gagged in a hard plastic cage surrounded by the leaders of The Sovereignty. 

"Ungag him." One of members commanded. "You, Shikamaru Nara, are charged with Treason and Acts against your fellow man. What have you to say in defense of yourself?"

"You lost. The program is already in your system." Shikamaru said bravely. Apparently Naruto was rubbing off on him, he was acting every bit the fool the blonde did. 

"Ah yes. The program to destroy soulmates and crush support for us, yes?" One of them said briefly, glancing at a sheet of paper in front of him.

 "How about you worry about yourself and your own soulmate hmm?" Another responsed and Shikamaru's gut dropped. "Naruto is seventeen, not usually old enough to be charged fully but that doesn't matter." 

"What are you talking about? I worked alone." 

"Please don't lie so poorly. It's not befitting your rank. Now then, Naruto developed this plot against the state and you assisted him."

"If you think that why are you asking me?" Shikamaru said slowly.

"We need you to remove the program virus." 

"No."

"Think carefully Mr.Nara. If you refuse us we will declare your Soulmate a lost cause. He will become a B.N and left to die on the streets. Staring through windows at food but unable to get it and we will have him remove it anyway— after a long and painful re-education in the basements of course." 

"Or," another leader chimes in saying, "you can remove it and we will announce that you worked alone and manipulated Naruto to do you bidding. Your soulmate lives free." He smiled. "Of course, naturally we will increase the dosage going through his Ancillary. Naruto will fall more in love with you than ever." 

"You— What?" Shikamaru said blinking. Despite everything Naruto would rant about the Sovereignty, he had never actually believed half of it. The conspiracy about soulmates and drugs. The lies that made the world go 'round.

"You wanted Naruto to be your soulmate didn't you?" The leader asked. "We obliged. Of course naturally some pairs are... resistant but after a while these obstacles are dealt with, everyone is happy. Come now, you're a genius aren't you? You didn't honestly believe in this whole destiny soulmate crap hmm?"

Naruto was right. Soulmates didn't exist. Shikamaru has been taken in by the sweetest lie he had ever wanted.

**********************

Naruto was pacing back and forth in his small bedroom, fuming.

"Damnit Shika Why?!" He said aloud. It had been a full week since everything went down in Central Command. Since Shikamaru has stayed behind to let him escape. Even worse, there was no sign of anything happening. "Did I mess up?" He wondered. "Was it all in vain? Did we risk it all— for nothing?" He used his Ancillary to pull open the blueprints again, scouring for what happened— for what alerted the guards. All of the routes and plans said that they should have had plenty of time but it went wrong. It was like they were watching— like they knew they were coming. 

It made no sense. 

He felt a familiar headache coming on, the one that meant he went too long without his receiver contacts. The time he could without them was getting shorter and shorter, but that's what happens as people get older. The sound of a rock hitting his window drew his attention and he quickly slipped his receiver in before looking down to see Shikamaru standing them looking up at him. 

"There you are." Shikamaru said with a sad smile as he climbed up.

"You made it." Naruto breathed, and was struck with a new and sudden realization of how extraordinary Shikamaru was. 

"Of course. I'm promised." 

"Not that it mattered in the end." The blonde mumbled. "Nothing happened.  Oh well, we'll try again." 

"Naruto no." Shikamaru said, putting his hand on the his shoulder. "I— don't. Please." 

"Shika, what's wrong?" Naruto asked and that's when he noticed. He was missing his Ancillary. Real horror, and guilt filled the blonde now. "You... your a...."

"Yeah. I'm a B.N." Shikamaru said painfully, shoving hands into his pockets and looking down. 

"But— Why? It wasn't even your idea! It was my fault!" Naruto argued and the blondes eye caught sight of blue ink. Shikamaru had always been careful to keep his Soulmates name covered but it was bare and open to the world. 

Naruto

That was when Naruto started crying, because Shikamaru had given everything up for him. Given his life up, for him. Naruto recalled the one time he asked Shikamaru who his soulmate was. Shikamaru said he didn't know, that he kept it covered. 

It was true. It was all true. Soulmates... they really existed, and in his push for truth he cost his soulmate nearly everything. 

"I'm sorry." Naruto said, reaching out and pulling him into a hug. "I promise, I'll take care of you." That was when Naruto realized he was in love with Shikamaru, and when he started falling even more in love with him. "How could I have been so blind?" The blonde wondered. 

B.N's. They are the unwanted members of society, cursed for unforgivable crimes unless someone was willing to sacrifice everything to care for you. Naruto did. He gave up on his pointless fight with the Sovereignty and lived happily ever after with his soulmate. Shikamaru, lived the rest of his life in a state of of mixed sadness. 

Because Naruto was right. 

Soulmates don't actually exist. 

~The End~