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

Plans

Poor Shikamaru, he couldn’t catch a break.

“What are you doing?!” She shoved him away from her roughly, touching her lips in shock. “That was my first kiss, you son of a bitch!”

“You know,” he mused, “My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son of a bitch.”

Tears welled in her eyes as she glared at him. “What’s your game? Tease a girl until she wants to murder herself and then just kiss her? You’re no better than Sasuke!” she spat.

Shikamaru’s eyes darkened a few shades. “Don’t you dare compare me to that traitor.”

“Open your eyes, Shika! I’m one of the same traitors you hate so much! I left the village! I joined Orochimaru! I’m back to spy on all of you.”

“No,” he defended, “you were kidnapped form Konoha, Orochimaru forced you to join him, and you’re back because you’re scared, afraid, and unsure of what to do.”

She opened her mouth to retort, but she didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t…her fault? Shika took a step to approach her, but a hostile look and a low growl kept him in place. He held up his hands in surrender.

“Nay, I don’t know why you’re trying so hard to be bad. You can’t deceive me. I know you.”

“No, you don’t,” she sobbed, “you’re Shikamaru, honest and perfect. I’m Naomi. I don’t even have a description.”

“What are you talking about? Of course you do. You’re Naomi, beautiful and charismatic and the girl I want to be with.”

“Hold your tongue,” she snapped. “How can you tell me that now? Now after you did nothing to save me, nothing too—”

“Saving you wouldn’t have been the smart choice. I didn’t know Sasuke’s strength after all these years. Was I supposed to blindly face him without any knowledge? I had to observe first…”

“I could have died!”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“How could you know that?”

“Because you were kept alive all these years for a purpose. There’s a reason you were the one Orochimaru chose to kidnap. There’s always a reason behind everything, a motive that might not always be evident, but it’s there. If Orochimaru wanted you dead, don’t you think he would’ve done it already?”

Naomi was silent.

What he said was true, but it was just a hypothesis. There was no way of knowing its validity unless…

“I propose an experiment,” she whispered after a long silence.

Shika’s ears pricked in curiosity. He willed her to explain.

“If he really does need me…if he doesn’t want me dead…let’s see how far I can push it. Blackmail, breaking the rules, whatever it takes. I have to know I’m worth something. I want to know I mean something to someone. Even if I’m just a pawn on his chessboard, I’m still a player.”

Shika couldn’t hide the gleeful pride pouring from his eyes. There was the Naomi he knew. The Naomi who was self-conscious and anxious. The Naomi he loved. “All right. How do you propose we begin?”

“…We kidnap Sasuke…”