[Dropped] Too Smart For My Own Good (Shikamaru Love Story)

Unexpected Guests

Her kitten raised its head to glare at her like a deriding mother before returning back to her food, but she’d gotten the message across. The look she’d clearly given her Master was ‘at least try to be the slightest bit creative.’

Chuckling, Naomi sighed in exasperation, “Okay, okay, fine.” Her expression scrunched adorably as she thought of another name. “How about Neko? It means cat in Japanese. That’s your name. Neko.”

Neko gave a disgruntled huff as she licked her lips in satisfaction before prancing over to the balcony and jumping off. Of course, even though they were on the third floor, Neko managed to land gracefully and silently on all fours.

Naomi did nothing to stop her. She was an outside cat, after all. But she did sigh dreamily after Neko left.

“If only I could always land on my feet like that. That would make things so much easier.”

She set to washing the dishes. The minutes ticked by slowly, almost too slowly for Naomi. After what seemed like forever, she decided that there was no harm in arriving at the training grounds a little early to get a head start.

She grabbed her Leaf headband on the way out and wrapped it around her slim waist like usual.

Screw forehead protectors, the waist was more vulnerable. It was easier to pierce through than skull.

As she stood before the empty training grounds silently, her eyes fixed on one particular spot: one specific tree that she always trained with. Naomi turned her back towards it, twirling a shuriken skillfully in her right hand.

After a deep breath, she swung around and released the weapon, watching as it landed dead on her mark; straight on the X she’d carved into it many years ago.

Instead of smiling in victory, she frowned and tilted her head. “Why aren’t I good enough?” she muttered before pulling her shuriken out of the bark and replacing it in her pouch. “Why aren’t I strong enough?”

Shikamaru’s shuriken would’ve inflicted much more damage if he’d hit. She knew it. She’d seen what he could do. So why couldn’t she?

A silver flash whisked out of her hand as a kunai hit the mark. Smirking, Naomi flung more and more weapons at the mark, each time picturing Shikamaru’s head right where the target was. By the time she’d run out of weapons, she was sweaty and panting from exhaustion. But she was happy.

“Naomi! What are you doing out here so early?”

“Asuma-sensei!” she gasped in surprise. “I—I was just getting some practice in before we started training.” She flushed sheepishly and toyed with the end of her shirt. He chuckled at her, ruffling the top of her hair parentally.

“Yes, but now you’ve worn yourself out. We still have another hour ‘til training starts. Why don’t you go home and rest? I’ll let you skip warm-up. It seems you’ve got that part down already.” He glanced nervously at the beaten down tree. “Just be back in two hours so you don’t miss the main part.”