Dialogue

Nara Shikamaru

You spent most of your life in Konoha, but you remembered running form the Land of Mist.  You heard the danger had passed, but you clearly remembered there was a time when families with a Kekki Genkai were hunted down like monsters, and your mother had managed to pick you up and whisk you away to Konoha as your father fought off your attackers.  You remembered your home being burned down, watching your father being overrun and speared through, and the stain of his blood on the snow.

Your mother was terrified when you entered the Academy, but it was a decision you stood by.  She let you do it, there would be no stopping you, but that didn’t make her any less scared.  She heard nightmarish stories of the Kirigakure Academy from your father, and she was elated to find out the Academy in Konohagakure was wildly different.

It was there you first met Shikamaru, and after discovering you weren’t going to click with Ino or Sakura, and Hinata was so quiet and shy she practically sprinted home after class every day, you instantly clicked with him and the other guys.

You had always thought to be a strong kunoichi, to be the best, you had to be like Anko Mitarashi, far from the gorgeous kunoichi the other girls were aiming to be.  You were focused on getting stronger, and you were convinced that meant worrying about your appearance had to take a backseat.  That was, of course, before you met your sensei, Kurenai.

She immediately connected with you, pushing you to reach your potential harder than anyone had before, but also stressed that doing what made you happy and comfortable in your own skin was just as important.  To top things off, kunoichi had a unique advantage.  There were far less of you than there were men, which made it far easier to use your appearance to get what you wanted or needed.  A few bats of the eyes, a few words, and just like that your mission was complete.

Still, with the Chunin exams, making sure you were ready and had at least partially mastered your Kekki Genkai was necessary.  With your father gone, you were left to figure most of it out yourself, but you had been using your Kekki Genkai to play with water since you were young.  It was the same principle, just on larger scales as necessary during a fight, and figuring out how to pull water out of your surroundings even when it seemed there wasn’t any.

You graduated, a feat considering only two of all applicants graduated.  It was you and Shikamaru, and you weren’t surprised the lazy bum managed to graduate by throwing a match.

The two of you didn’t have as much time to spend with each other as you liked at first, and that was likely what made your transformation from the scrappy girl with band aids on her knees to the gorgeous and intimidating kunoichi you were so…sudden to Shikamaru.  It really clicked during a mission where the two of you were gathering intel.  Shikamaru was about to suggest you spy around to get information, but you just flipped your hair and sidled up to the table the man with the intel you needed was sitting.  All reports stated he wasn’t about to just give up the information, what did you think you were-

You tilted your head and shrugged your shoulders up a little, batting your big eyes highlighted by neat eyeliner and mascara as a few strands of your thick hair fell out of the neatly styled waves and into your eyes.

“Yeah!  Sure, I know them, I deliver goods to them once a week!” he proclaimed proudly, and you played the part of the interested and flirty girl excellently, getting every scrap of intel you could before ‘promising’ to keep in touch.  You left and slid into the booth Shikamaru was waiting in, keeping an eye on the situation and irritated at just how baffled he was.  When the hell did you learn how to do that?

More importantly, did you always look like that?  Sure, he noticed you were pretty before, but he never noticed you were…

It was best not to follow that train of thought, and Shikamaru made an active effort not to.  It was such an active effort, he didn’t even notice the change in his own behaviors.  The way his gaze would linger just a second longer, the fact that he was always sitting next to you when your friends gathered and the way his arm would drape over the back of your seat because you two were just that close.

“So, what’s up with you and [Y/N],” Asuma asked during a game of shogi, having noticed the changes in his student, recognizing some of them from his tumble for Kurenai.  It was almost prophetic how his experience mirrored Shikamaru’s, not even counting the fact you were Kurenai’s best student.

“She’s my best friend.  That hasn’t changed,” Shikamaru shrugged, making his move before sitting back.  You, him, and Chouji had been best friends since the academy, poor Chouji was almost heartbroken that the three of you wouldn’t be on the same team.

“It’s clear your feelings for her have,” the Jounin countered the answer as swiftly as he did Shikamaru’s pawn, never even looking up from the board as he did so.  Still, the answer struck the student as he froze briefly before letting out an exasperated sigh and giving in.

“I won’t hassle you about this, but I will give you some quick advice.  Don’t fight it,” Asuma urged, though he was going to keep true and drop the subject after this, “It can be…hard for shinobi to find someone, our lives aren’t that simple.  If you have the luck to fall for someone that’s already your friend, go for it.”

It wasn’t easy advice to take, far from it in fact.  After seeing Kurenai’s heartbreak after Asuma’s death, the absolute last thing Shikamaru wanted to do was risk causing you that pain.  He considered distancing himself, pulling away and letting a short-term pain take place to avoid something much worse, but you wouldn’t let him.

“What the hell are you so afraid of?” you snapped, cornering him in his room with the help of his mother, who had just conveniently left the house.  Troublesome woman was just going to let her son drown, possibly literally with your abilities, because she fancied the two of you as a match.  Literally any other girl and Yoshino would have been watching closely, but the second it involved you she dashed off like you were going to give her grandchildren tomorrow.

“You.”  That wasn’t right, and he grimaced when it came out.  You were even a little taken aback by the answer, furrowing your brow and looking at him with an almost sideways glance.

“Me?”  Your tone changed, the scared little girl running from her burning home returning despite your conscious mind being well-aware of the fact Shikamaru didn’t mean it like that.

“Hurting you, losing you in…one way or another,” Shikamaru’s shoulders slumped as he turned away, pacing a few steps to the window as he rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms.  You just showed up after Hidan and Kakuzu had been taken care of, one way or another, when Shikamaru was ordered by Lady Tsunade to rest for at least a day.  He was deep asleep, content that he had at least avenged his sensei, and then you came in and slammed the goddamn door to wake him up.  He barely had time to throw on some pants over his boxers as you stepped inside and slammed the door shut behind you.

“What the fucking hell Nara?  You’ve never lied before, so you thought you’d get a freebie?  You ran after the fucking Akatsuki!”

He got that you were mad at him for lying about chasing after Hidan, but that wasn’t an excuse for you to be so…alright, maybe you had an excuse to be a troublesome pain.  Now you were there, demanding to know why he lied, why he had been distancing himself, and you weren’t about to leave without answers.

What a drag.

“Shika, just tell me what you’re thinking,” you pleaded as you took a few steps towards him, using that same nickname and that same request that had him telling you everything going on in his head since you were kids.  Now that you were older, and your exasperated tone had been replaced with a gentler one, all but one thought cleared out of normally active mind, causing him to groan and run his hands through his hair, still left down as you woke him up when you arrived that morning, before his arms just hung at his sides as he looked out the window to the forest where Hidan was buried alive.

“I love you, but when I saw what losing Asuma-sensei did to Kurenai-sensei…I can’t do that to you.”

The confession admittedly took you by…well, no.  You had a bit of a heads up.  After discovering rumors about you and Kiba, Chouji had to ask if they were true.  After your fits of giggles stopped, the idea of dating Kiba ridiculous as he was the irritating brother you never wanted, Chouji joining in for a few laughs as you exclaimed you couldn’t breathe, he let you in on the secret.  He also made you promise not to say anything.

Shikamaru was careful, calculated, and he was horrible with women.  Sure, he was your best friend, but that was because you acted more like a boy when you were young, you were just grandfathered in when puberty hit you like a Tailed Beast.  Confronting him with the information was more likely to backfire than anything else, so you let it sit, considering your options until you felt your heart stop and your blood turn to ice when you heard Team 10 had left to avenge Asuma.

Of course, right about now, Shikamaru’s mind was likely reeling as he figured out ways out of this silence, backup plan after backup plan, potential outcomes of each one, jumping ten or twenty steps ahead as he-

“You’re the dumbest smart person I’ve ever met.”  You stepped closer, close enough to place your hand on his cheek and placed just enough pressure to make him look down at you, so you could gently place your lips against his own.  He reacted instantly, hand carding through your hair to cup your neck as he pressed you as closely to himself as he could.

Hours later, the two of you were napping on his bed when Yoshino quietly peered in to make sure you hadn’t gotten into any trouble.  The loose blue cover you normally wore over your black cropped tank-top was discarded, along with your sandals, and Shikamaru had yet to throw on a t-shirt or pull his hair back, but the two of you were mostly dressed and dead asleep.

Your eyes shot open the second the door shut, waiting until Yoshino was far enough away for you to get back up and straddle Shikamaru’s waist and look down at him as he opened his own eyes.  You placed your hands on his abdomen, lightly tracing the toned muscles there as you teased, “Now, where were we?”

“Somewhere around here,” he smirked as he pulled you down, pinning you back against the bed as he attached his lips to yours once again.