Nara OneShots

Fixation

"Shikamaru he's going to be fine," Tsunade reassured the young Chunin who was quite literally ready to tear his hair out. They had succeeded in retrieving Sasuke but Naruto had paid a hefty price. A price that shouldn't have been on the table in the first place. A price that shouldn't have been drafted for thought.

His life.

Naruto died during that fight, if only for the briefest of moments before Kurama kick-started his heart that the Uchiha grazed with his Chidori. Shikamaru was livid, his entire team had fallen one after the other and Naruto was just the worst out of all of them. "I hope you keep that fucking murderer in prison strapped down in a mental ward!"

Tsunade stepped back in shock, she'd never seen Shikamaru lose his collected demeanor since she met him that day she became Hokage. There was more here, more she was not aware of and she had a feeling it had to do with Shikamaru's father standing at the end of the hall with that knowing look on his face. "Sasuke Uchiha will be punished accordingly, especially since his actions would have set the Kyuubi free-"

"Kurama's not going to hurt anyone unless his host is alive and right now I bet he's banging against his cage for wanting to end the Uchiha bloodline since they have that god-awful track record of murdering his hosts," Shikamaru snapped finally pulling his hair free as he felt the darkness encroaching him. 'Not now, I've kept everyone from finding out and this won't be the time I reveal the truth. Come on Shikamaru, you've kept that darkness away since the first time the bond formed. He's going to be fine- who the fuck am I kidding, I'll kill that Uchiha myself.'

Shikamaru didn't know his shadows were rising around him and he didn't sense his father approaching or Tsunade's obvious fear for the look in his eyes. All his attention was directed towards one beating heart, the one heart he never wanted to feel stop again. This was his fixation. Naruto was his fixation and the blonde didn't even know. For years since he first saw and talked to the blonde back in the academy days, his shadows took a liking and tethered themselves to him.

How you tether yourself to your fixation is quite simple. Invisible tendrils of shadows enter your fixations body and curl around the heart. On most days when he was cloud watching Naruto's heart was quite literally beating in his ear and it calmed him. Now one would tell the other that the Nara was tethered to them but Shikamaru didn't want to burden him. He couldn't stop Naruto from being reckless because it was the recklessness that made him tether himself to the blonde in the first place.

"Shikamaru calm down." His father's voice entered his ears and weathered hands from shinobi duty wrapped around his shoulders. "He's going to be fine, I wouldn't be here if he wasn't going to be fine."

Shikamaru broke down in the hall, he had cried for his friends now it was time to cry for his fixation.

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

"Kura is this true," Naruto asked as tears formed in his eyes. He couldn't move an inch on his body, but he was conscious and listening to the breakdown Shikaku's father was giving to Tsunade over his body as he lay in the hospital bed. "Shikamaru's losing control because of what Teme did?"

"Technically yes but the Nara fixation is a bit more complicated than that," Kurama said laying on his paws. "I can see why the boy didn't tell you."

"That's not fair I deserve to know, especially because it's my reckless thinking that has him being tortured by his goddamn shadows because they're bloodthirsty for whatever troubles me." Naruto protested walking back and forth in the mindscape.

"Essentially this fixation is like a way to keep them from drifting too deeply into their minds. Naruto what I'm saying is if Shikamaru loses you any other way than natural death he's going to go mad, turn rogue against everyone he knew, and hunt down whoever and whatever caused your death before ending his life at the end."