In the Hokage's Office | NaruSasu

10. Continue

Naruto's guilt was eating at him after yesterday's events. He partially felt angry at himself and guilty. For giving into his innate desires and sleeping with Sasuke. There was no denying the fact that Naruto always felt that type of way toward Sasuke. Even before Hinata's feelings were revealed to him, and definitely way before they had even gotten married. Naruto always wanted Sasuke there was just no way around it. It was always going to happen one way or another. Especially since Sasuke wanted Naruto too, and Sasuke would not stop until he got what he wanted. Naruto could not fully regret last nights events and a small part in the back of his mind wanted to do it again. In his heart Naruto didn't want it to be just once. He wanted more from Sasuke. Even more. He wanted to be with him. To hold him forever and let no one else hold him.

Naruto's mood became a topic discussed around the office. Practically everyone noticed his abrupt descent into a depression. The mood in the room shifted from his usually bright 'ready to work' mentality to a factory worker drained every second of every day. Constantly being torn between thoughts of, I'm a horrible human being to I can't wait to see him again.

Shikamaru noticed this of course. He had his suspicions. The top one of course being Sasuke. Sasuke was always a reason for Naruto to act the way he did. Shikamaru found it to be quite a coincidence that Sasuke still lived in the village but didn't come around the office once in more than 3 days. This was only weird since Sasuke made it a point to visit Naruto everyday since he announced his return but then suddenly stopped coming? Something is going on.  He wanted to find out, but thinking about someone else's problems was such a drag. Especially when he had a wife and kid to deal with he didn't need to be meddling in the Hokage's issues too. Whatever was going on Naruto could figure out himself.

But...if Naruto was going to keep acting like this and get less work done than before that would end up being more work for him in the long run. So he weighed the benefits of helping Naruto work on his issues. He decided to help since maybe improving his mood would also get him motivated to actually doing his damn job.

Shikamaru decided he would speak to the man himself. Sasuke Uchiha. But how would he go about it. He didn't really want to just show up at Sasuke's house unannounced. That would probably lead to him being invited inside where he would have to stay for some long discussion with Sasuke's talkative wife. Shikamaru was not going to let that happen and drain his time and energy. He just wanted a casual short talk with Sasuke to confirm if his suspicions were correct that Naruto's mood did in fact have something to do with the Uchiha, so finding him in public would be a good option.

Luckily, he got word that Sasuke was nearby the bookstore. He didn't have a job or anything so he spent time outside of his house often. Shikamaru went there very fast being a ninja and all. He wouldn't go full speed in other occasions but he went all out because he didn't want to miss his chance to speak with him today.

"Hello Sasuke." Shikamaru spoke. The Uchiha looked up from a book he was perusing and closed it laying it back on the stand. He looked at Shikamaru confused.

"Shikamaru...?" Sasuke questioned. Shikamaru hardly ever spoke to him, and he only ever saw Shikamaru at the Hokage's office.

"Sasuke I wanted to talk to you about Naruto. Did something happen between you two?" He went straight to the point. He had a lot of circumstantial evidence that this had something to do with Sasuke.

In an instant Shikamaru could deduce kind of what was going on without Sasuke having said a word. Sasuke had looked shocked at Shikamaru's question. It wasn't what he was expecting. Sasuke's eyes looked to the side and his hands twitched almost flinching at the mention of Naruto. There was something going on must deeper than a simple argument. It can't be... His brain was processing all the visual information and his assumptions and his theories collided. Although Sasuke tried to say something to deter Shikamaru's questions it only confirmed what Shikamaru was already thinking.