☁️ Clouds ☁️ (Shikamaru X OC)

Chapter 17 - New Mystery

*Years later*

Shikamaru's Point of View

I closed my eyes, mindlessly walking to the Hokage's office. I hoped that I would finally have one day of no working, but Naruto is hopeless. Shikadai seems to really hate school. Shino told me that he was failing his tests, but this seems really familiar.

I enter the office, immediately noticing that Naruto is sleeping at his desk, with various, empty cups of ramen around his face. Sometimes I think that he only eats ramen. I don't want to wake him up, so I carefully pull out the morning schedule that Naruto wrote for me yesterday night.

'Get reports of the Academy from Shino - 6:00 AM

Get recent Intel from Anbu - 7:00 AM

Lunch Break - 8:00 AM'

Clean old files - 9:00 AM

I sigh with laziness and began to walk over to the Academy for those reports.

...

It's 7:47 AM which means that I finished earlier than usual. I was already at my house, with Temari already inside. I let myself in while disposing a cigarette to the ground.

"Hey," I introduce casually, "How was your mor-"

She was already in front of me, crossing her arms, not looking pleased, "I saw that,"

"Saw what?" I nervously inquire, slighting shivering.

"I told you not to smoke," She sighed, turning around, "But, whatever. Naruto is making you work so much recently."

"What can you do?" I shrug, moving closer to the kitchen, "What are we having?"

"Curry rice with pork," She responded sitting down, "What are you doing after lunch?"

"Just cleaning out old files. Like, rogue ninjas, the deceased and other cases," I answer, beginning to eat, "Is Shikadai improving at all?"

"Nope, not at all. But you would know how that feels, right?" Temari slyly smirks, "Your laziness and intelligence is tainting my family's blood."

"Your stubbornness and impatience is tainting my family's blood," I whisper to myself with little thought.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" She exclaims, pulling my ear across the table.

Women...

The rest of the lunch is just small talk, ending with me leaving the house. I walk out the door, ready for being actually productive and started my boring chore.

I walked to the basement of the Hokage's Office and turned on the lights, that barely worked. I began to sort through the cabinets, looking for any inconsistent data or any deceased citizens. So far, everything seems boring, yesterday morning, I think I threw out all the old files, but I double-check. I start to yawn and I was just about to finish the 'U' section.

'Uzumaki' I said out loud and read the members, 'Boruto, Himawari, Naruto, Emiko,'

I skip over, but realize what I just saw, 'Emiko?!'