Nara OneShots

Grandfather's Love

"Your grandfather?" Naruto asked with a smile on his face. It was tainted with a bit of sadness, however. Shikadai didn't want to drag up old memories because it always made his grandmother sad but he was told everything by his father regarding his grandfather when he grew up and wanted to know what kind of person he was regarding love so he came to his grandmother.

"Alright, I'll go get the family album and we can talk," Naruto said with a closed-eye smile. He walked out of the room and had to wipe the sudden tears that came down his face. Over the years as Shikamaru and Shikadai got older he's seen so much of Shikaku in them. It was painful to bring up the memories but he wasn't sad anymore. He couldn't be sad, he and Shikaku would meet at the end of the road one day.

The least he could do was be happy Shikadai wanted to know more. He entered their master bedroom and went over to Shikaku's side of the bed and opened the bedside table. Inside was an old-fashioned hardcover album with every picture Naruto has ever come across during his time here.

He headed back down and Shikadai was waiting at the table for him. He was eating one of the many desserts Naruto had spread out for them. "Alright, do you know you're starting point?"

"How did you guys meet?" Shikadai immediately asked, Naruto chuckled at his enthusiasm as he flipped all the way to the front of the album. The first picture was a group one. Shikadai could recognize Inoichi and Chouza in the pictures along with Shikaku and Naruto and a couple of girls who were knelt in the front.

"We were partners in crime, I couldn't sit still for the life of me and be always up to some mediocre pranks. Your grandfather was the one to approach me and he planned out pranks to get even with some teachers who wouldn't let him sleep in class. It was ecstatic and he and I agreed that we made great partners. Coupled with Chouza's never-ending snack supply and Inoichi's sneaky way to get his hands on contraband and we were in business."

Naruto flipped the album and it showed them all getting their headbands at a young age, behind them were their guardians and parents. "Our fathers were best friends so it wasn't a shock to them that we had gotten close. I would've made the same Genin team as them but Ino-Shika-Cho was long-established so that was out of the case. But despite that, we always kept close."

The next picture was in their teens and just when Shikaku's scars were fresh. "That's another I meant to ask, how did he get his scars?"

"Mission went wrong, despite being the next Ino-Shika-Cho line, they were always slacking on training. I couldn't blame them for what happened but they burdened themselves for it. Because they didn't take training seriously and the end tail of the war back then, they all got captured and Shikaku took the brunt end of the torture as they were threatening to gut Chouza like the pig he is. Their words. My team was sent to retrieve them and I almost thought I lost him, my best friend in the whole world was dying in my hands as I carried him back."

Naruto's eyes welled with tears at the day.

"Hey, you're going to be fine!" He yelled at the nearly unconscious form of his best friend. Shikaku's eyes were half-lidded and he looked like he was going to sleep.

Permanently.

"Don't you dare sleep on me! Stop being lazy and keep your heart going!"

"I actually reflected on why I was so earnest on him surviving. I had seen several bodies of people I had gone drinking, parties, played in the park with as a kid, run-pass in the hallways of the academy and I never batted an eye. But your grandfather was special, even I acknowledged that we even made a pack that should either one fall in battle we would carry on and see it to the end."