The Demon They Once Feared. {BOOK 2}

|26|Troublesome

"It's always the same," Shikamaru interrupted, having heard the rants before from his father, "She never listens, does things on her own accord, with no thought to the consequences and gets herself in troublesome situations." He rambled, trying to sound as if he didn't really care, but there was a sharpness in his voice that contradicted his uncaring attitude.

There was a stunned silence for a moment, Shikaku not expecting it to actually be girl problems. It slightly panicked him. How was he supposed to deal with this? His wife always took care of things like these. 

"Sometimes the things that take the most work and effort have the best reward?" Shikaku finally answered, moving a piece on the Shoji board. Shikamaru hummed in response and silence passed over them. It wasn't until the chunin asked why he suddenly showed up that he remembered why he was here. "Lady Tsunade has requested you," He said peering at the boy, but Shikamaru only sighed and got up. 

The brown-haired teen didn't need to say anything to his father, because when they met eyes, no words could have told what they were thinking.

~*~

When he was younger, Shikamaru had a simple routine, and it was one that he liked. On weekdays, he would go to school and then hang out with Choji afterwards, where they would cloud watch on his favourite rooftop or play some games at one of their houses before he would go back home for dinner and they play a game or two of a strategy-based game with his dad. It was simple and it was what he liked. Weekends were chill, lay in then go for a stroll or pick up groceries for his mum, but he would usually spend some time on the rooftop by himself. Quiet, perfect.

So when she turned up and threw his schedule away it was troublesome.

At first, it was a one-time thing. The late afternoon of a Saturday led Shikamaru to his rooftop so he could get away from his parents and watch the clouds as the sunset. But when he got there, he instantly noticed the small figure in the corner of the rooftop. The child didn't realise he had arrived, so with a sigh, he lied down on the bench, just out of the suns blaze, but in perfect view of the clouds.

Hours passed with them both sitting there, unknowingly basking in the presence of each other. But truth be told, he was starting to get a little annoyed at her constant shuffling, choosing to keep quiet and ignore the red-haired girl, until it got to a point where it was unbearable.

"Hey," Shikamaru sighed, turning his head lazily at the girl in the corner. "Could you please keep it down?" 

The girl lifted her head up in shock at his voice, blue eyes winding at the sudden realisation that he was there. The girl didn't say anything for a while and stared at him. Violet in her eyes?

An emotion flashed through her eyes, shock, then recognition, and for a moment, just a short moment, and if he wasn't paying close attention to her, he would have missed the blank emptiness that rose to the surface. She blinked and curiosity shone through her beautiful eyes, creasing at the edges as a smile appeared on her face. A smile he could only describe as cheeky.

It wasn't the first time they had spoken before, but it was the first time they were alone.

"Pineapple!" She exclaimed and shot up from her position, hopping over to where he sat. Shikamaru held back a groan of annoyance when she started blabbering about how he should know her from the ninja academy. "Hey hey hey," she said quickly and poked him a couple of times, he peered at her through half-lidded eyes and encouraged her to continue, but honestly, he couldn't care less of what she was going to say. "Can we be friends?"

The question was so of a topic, it caught him off guard. Though it wasn't like he was listening in the first place. No one has ever asked to be friends, it just happened. And with the soft, insecure way she was asking, he almost felt bad that he just didn't want to be friends. How do I respond to that?