"Tou-san, why are you always sleeping?" Shikamaru asked his father, Shikaku, curiously as he flopped down on the grass beside him.
This made the Nara open one eye and look at his strange son curiously. After all, which Nara was not lazy?
"Don't you find it troublesome to do anything at all?"
"Why would I? Kaa-san doesn't like it," Shikamaru could only scrunch his eyebrows in confusion.
"I don't know, kid. I don't know," Shikaku sighed, looking up at the sky.
This was when Shikamaru was three.
Shikamaru did not laze around like the other children of his clan. He studied every book he managed to get his hands on. He observed as the older ones trained, recreating the clan techniques and mastering them without help from his elders. However, despite all of his success, he could not help but feel as though he was messing up. He always felt like he was not good enough.
As such, Shikamaru started acting just as lazy as the other members of his clan. This made Shikaku stop giving him weird looks, it made Yoshino stop looking confused whenever he was already up whenever she went up to wake him. This was because he never did do anything for him to garner them. He always acted lazy, pretending to watch the clouds when in actuality, he was going over information in his head. He acted like he was sleeping during the lessons his mother had signed him up for when he was really reading advanced material under the table. He learnt the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu so that a solid clone could act lazy in his stead while he was hiding himself away in the clan library or the hidden training grounds in the compound that only his father knew of. With his father so lazy, there was no possibility of him ever being walked in on.
That began when he turned five.
"Shikamaru. Let's play shogi," Shikamaru opened one eye when his father walked up to where he was laying on the porch half-asleep from staying up the previous night to work on a jutsu.
"Shogi?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn, rubbing his eye with a finger.
He knew it as the game that older members of the Nara clan enjoyed while lazing about.
"Yes, shogi. The rules are like so..." Shikaku began to explain, telling Shikamaru of the rules and the roles of the different pieces.
"A strategy game?" Shikamaru asked with a raised brow when his father finally ended his explanation.
Shikaku merely nodded, looking mildly bored. Despite his calm appearance, he was wondering how his son had guessed. His explanation did not hint that there was strategy involved. If he had asked that after they started, it would have not been strange as the Nara clan was well known for their skills of analysis and deduction. However, the boy had guessed by the explanation alone.
Shikaku set up the shogi board, showing Shikamaru his pieces before they started. He let Shikamaru begin as he was only a beginner. Shikamaru shifted a piece, seemingly at random. Then it was Shikaku's turn. He moved a piece.
This continued for a few turns until Shikamaru had his turn again. He moved a piece.
"I win," Shikamaru told his father in a dull tone that did not fall behind his father's in blandness.
Shikaku was surprised. He did not notice what his son was doing at all. His strategy was brilliant. Using a piece as a distraction, yet moving it as though it was his plan all along, another seemingly supporting that one. The other had appeared so insignificant, a mere supporting role that he had supposedly cornered along with the piece he thought was the main role. It happened before he knew it. The "cornered" supporting piece suddenly conquered his, winning easily. There was a possibility that it was due to sheer beginner's luck, although the strategy was certainly not mere coincidence.
"Beginner's luck," Shikaku said with an unnoticeable frown.
"Whatever, I wanna sleep," Shikamaru grumbled, laying back down and falling asleep.
Shikaku could only shake his head at his son's antics.
'Why does he act so much like a Nara sometimes, but sometimes not at all? I need to make him do an IQ test,' Shikaku pondered to himself as he recalled how his son won over him despite his young age.
A true Nara indeed.
It was his first-ever loss. To think it was to his son, who was only just six, was incomprehensible. It should not have been possible for a child to be so intelligent, even as a Nara.
The next day, Shikaku approached Shikamaru, who seemed to be cloud watching. He walked up to where his son lazed on a small hill under the shade of a tree, observing the clouds as they rolled past. He stayed there for a while before Shikamaru's clone reacted, slightly irritated -- the only role it played every time it was summoned and the task was so monotonous that any entertainment was welcome. It did not understand why Shikaku kept stalling and never spoke up.
"What is it, tou-san?" the clone asked.
"Would you mind doing this IQ test for me?" Shikaku asked his son, not noticing that it was merely a clone as he was too preoccupied with thoughts of how his son may very well exceed the Naras before him.
Shikamaru's clone shrugged and took the sheet of paper handed to it, Shikaku passing him a pen after. The clone let its eyes skim through the questions, quirking an eyebrow at its creator's father.
"Isn't this a test for only the most advanced of Nara?" the clone asked, mildly amused by the fact that Shikaku would think that his son would be able to do it.
"It doesn't matter. Just do it," Shikaku ordered.
The clone only picked up the pen from where he had set it down when he asked Shikaku the question, starting to do the questions. To Shikaku's surprise, his son, who was not even in the academy yet, was easily answering the questions. He never seemed to falter at the questions, answering with ease. The boy also had much neater handwriting than he had expected, though it was a lazy scrawl that resembled cursive. At least it was still easily legible. The boy went through the questions smoothly, even those that Shikaku would be left stumped on for at least an extra minute.
Shikaku could only gape as the clone returned the sheet not even twenty minutes later, neatly filled up with Shikamaru's answers, not even a single question blank. He gave a barely perceptible nod as he staggered out of the field, going back into the house to evaluate his son's answers to tell what his IQ is.
The clone watched him go before returning to its job. Cloud watching.
It sighed. This job was boring.
The boy, who was about five and a half, carefully sneaked out of his clan compound. Shikamaru checked once again to see whether his clone was still intact. When he saw the clone resting on the hill, head turned to the clouds, he nodded to himself. The clone was doing its job.
Shikamaru kept to the shadows, using a bit of shadow manipulation to wrap the shadows around himself, cloaking him in darkness. He kept his footsteps as light as possible, using a minuscule amount of chakra to silence his footsteps. He took a side entrance, checking before to see if any of his clan members were there. Being lazy, all the others were either sleeping or being forced to do something they did not want to do by those married into the clan.
Shikamaru carefully traipsed around a pair that had passed out from overdosing on alcohol. He was careful not to brush against them as he passed. Once clear, he used a jutsu he had created on his own under the basis of his clan speciality. He had expected someone else to have already created it, seeing as it was so practical that anyone could have thought of it. However, considering the laziness inherent in those of the Nara clan, it was to be expected.
Anyway, the technique enabled the user to practically melt into shadows. In other words, if used in a fight, it can enable the user to make their body intangible. This can allow the person to fully escape damage. However, Shikamaru did not have faith in himself to use it during a fight due to the possibility of the user dissipating if their control to keep their chakra together in the form of shadows is insufficient. It also means that it could cause the user to lose their physical form. Shikamaru only used this technique as a travelling technique. It works almost as well as teleportation, allowing him to enter the uninhabited shadow realm and exit from any shadow in the world. He could also reach through shadows to collect things from another location or simply leave items in the shadow realm. However, he had lost his items on five occasions out of the ten times he had attempted this. As such, he did not try to do it again as he did not trust that he would be able to retrieve his belongings.
He called his technique Kage no Ryokō.
Shikamaru travelled straight to the Akimichi compound, leaving through a shadow of a nearby tree. He knocked on the gate using the brass knocker. He did so carefully, making sure that he kept to the pattern that he always knocked with. It was practically his form of identification, allowing him past the guards and into the main house.
The Nara was allowed into the compound, instantly on his way to the porch where he often saw his best friend, Chōji, eating chips. When he arrived, he saw that the other boy was doing just as he had predicted. He was eating chips.
Chōji looked up at Shikamaru, asking in a voice muffled by the chips in his mouth, "Want some?"
Shikamaru graciously accepted the handful of chips, smiling slightly, "Thank you."
"Your welcome," Chōji replied after swallowing the mouthful.
Although it would have been appalling to see Chōji offering his food to any other person, it was unsurprising for Shikamaru to receive some snacks every time they met. The scene of the two boys eating chips and basking in silence was the one that Chōji's mother walked in on. She was not surprised, considering how often the other boy enjoyed visiting their compound.
"Boys, would you like some sandwiches?" the lady called out kindly, chuckling as Chōji darted in front of her despite his mass.
Chōji raised his chubby arm, yelling, "Me! Me!"
Shikamaru smiled at this, muttering, "How troublesome..."
It had become more of a habit at this point. Shikamaru just enjoyed the way the word rolled off his tongue, although he had never meant it whenever he used the phrase. It had become his magical answer. The one he could use to answer all questions without fail. No one questioned it, always thinking that it was natural simply because it was one of the more common Nara traits.
Shikamaru stood up from his spot, dusting his pants off. He walked over to the kindly lady, taking a sandwich off the tray and thanking her quietly. He ate the sandwich in silence, watching fondly as his friend practically inhaled his sandwiches, leaving only one.
"You want more, Shikamaru?" Chōji asked while holding out the final sandwich.
Shikamaru shook his head at the proffered sandwich, gently pushing it back to his friend, "I'm fine. You can have it. I know you like them."
Chōji nodded quickly and shoved the sandwich into his mouth. He barely chewed before he swallowed it too.
"Chōji! You cannot eat so quickly! What if you choke?" his mother chided.
"Gomenasai, kaa-san," Chōji said, looking only slightly guilty.
Once his mother left, he turned back to Shikamaru. A wide grin spread across his face as he noticed his friend lose his lazy demeanour.
"Let's train!" both boys said simultaneously.
>•<
Shikamaru was walking around Konoha, very bored as his mother had chased him out of the house to do some chores. Yoshino had told him explicitly to not return until he had completed the chores. Although he had finished them a while ago with the help of his shadow clones, he did not wish to have his mother suspicious of him once more.
That was what lead to him walking around the village aimlessly, bored out of his mind. He had been doing that for about an hour, making three rounds around the village. Just as he was considering just going back and damning the consequences, a blonde streak collided into him.
With all the physical training he had done, that did not frazzle him. He noticed the icy blue eyes and the platinum blonde hair under the dirt. Ino.
He removed his hands from their pockets and placed them on her shoulders to steady her.
"Ino? What happened to you?" Shikamaru asked in his usual drawl, taking in her battered appearance.
She seemed to attempt to speak, but the words would not leave her lips.
Shikamaru sighed, muttering out of habit, "How troublesome."
Although he was rather worried for his friend, he did not show it.
Ino started to bunch up his shirt as she began to tremble, "Shi-Shikamaru?"
Her voice was shaky, unsure as her legs began to shake from the long-distance she had run to escape her parents.
"That's me," Shikamaru replied, the worry he felt starting to seep into his tone.
Shikamaru noticed it when Ino relaxed and fainted, her grip on his shirt slackening. She started to fall backwards, toward the floor. Shikamaru reacted quickly and caught the girl by the waist. He began to panic, quickly scanning her body and noticing the damaged clothing and numerous bruises scattered on her fair skin.
"Ino? Ino!" Shikamaru cried out in alarm, shaking the girl slightly in an effort to wake her.
When it did not work, Shikamaru scooped the limp body of his childhood friend up in his arms gingerly. This made her hair fall from her face, revealing what the shadows made by her hair had hidden before. Her cheeks were swollen, one sporting a dark bruise blooming on her cheekbone. Her luxurious platinum blonde hair was messy and matted with blood, a few locks seeming to have been ripped out of her scalp. Ino wore no shoes, almost as though she had run out of her house in a rush or dropped them somewhere but had no time to retrieve them.
Shikamaru was quite willing to bet that it had been the former.
Dozens of thoughts zoomed through his head as he ran into the nearby shadows, ending up inside the Akimichi compound. He barely gave a nod to the one on guard duty as he walked as quickly as possible toward the main house. He had quickly concluded that her parents had been the ones to abuse her, though he did not understand why. The Yamanaka main family adored their beloved daughter! They would never have hurt their little princess!
Shikamaru shook away his thoughts as he kicked at the door with as much force as possible without damaging the door. He looked down once again, only to see the girl more skinny than he seemed to remember her being. She seemed to not have eaten for at least two days.
The door was quickly answered by Chōji's mother, her normally kindly face marred by slight annoyance. It was understandable considering that someone had just kicked her door, though. Then she noticed Shikamaru carrying Ino, causing her expression to soften as her eyes shone with worry at the state of the girl. She ushered him into the room he usually stayed at whenever he just needed to escape the confines of his home, always using the excuse that his mother was too troublesome to deal with. Everyone believed his words, seeing as he was a Nara with a strict mother with a no-nonsense attitude.
Shikamaru gently laid Ino on the bed, careful not to jostle any of her injuries. He straightened, stretching his stiff muscles. They had already gone stiff because of the way he had to hunch over to hide most of Ino from view while making his way to the Akimichi compound.
Chōji's mother had already started bustling about, grabbing a first-aid kit along with a wet towel as she returned to the girl's side. She shooed Shikamaru away from his spot beside the bed. She began peeling off the ragged clothing from Ino's clammy skin. Shikamaru quickly turned around such that he was facing the wall, trying his best not to intrude on the young maiden's privacy.
Shikamaru heard a sharp intake of breath from the woman behind him. He sighed softly as he guessed that there probably were way more bruises than he had been able to see from her arms and legs. He heard the sounds of a wet towel gliding down Ino's flesh as Chōji's mother cleaned her thoroughly. He then heard the sloshing of water in a basin as Chōji's mother gently rinsed Ino's hair to remove the blood and grime. He heard the opening of a cap before Chōji's mother winced at the sight of the bruises, applying an ointment carefully. He noticed a moment of silence and was about to turn around when he heard the rustle of clothing and a flash of white sheets from the corner of his eye.
Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly, relieved that he had not turned around yet.
"How did this happen to Ino-chan?" Chōji's mother asked in confusion, turning to Shikamaru.
"I think that her parents did that to her..." Shikamaru admitted after a short pause.
"Why would they do that? Don't they love their daughter a lot?" she questioned with a frown.
"Precisely. It's that I cannot understand. How troublesome..." Shikamaru muttered.
It was just then that Ino woke up with a soft groan, muttering under her breath, "I thought so too. It seems like it was all a lie."
She tried to sit up, failing miserably due to her numerous bruises. She noted to herself that she had been changed into a simple yukata, one that she had left behind so that she had clothes to change whenever she stayed over. She settled for rubbing her eyes, letting her friend's mother help her up into a sitting position.
"What happened, dear?" Chōji's mother asked in a motherly tone, sounding worried for her son's friend.
"I made a decision that my supposed kaa-san and tou-san didn't like. They told me to change my mind. I refused. I was slapped by tou-san. I was then sent to bed without supper. Kaa-san woke me up in the morning, asking me whether I changed my mind. I said she did not deserve to call herself my mother. She kicked down the door and grabbed me by the hair. She dragged me down the stairs like that, purposely making my whole body slam into every step. She threw me at a wall, yelled at me. She slapped me. I ran away. I ran into Shikamaru," Ino explained vaguely, annoying Shikamaru as they did not answer most of his questions.
"Oh, dear!"
"What was the decision? I understand that it is probably very personal, but it has to have been important for them to suddenly act like that," Shikamaru pressed.
"Not really. My parents are just homophobic, or so it seems," Ino replies with a small shrug, wincing at the soreness.
"Homophobic? And they just had to go that far?" Shikamaru asked incredulously with a raised eyebrow.
"I think they were trying to beat it out of me," Ino told the Nara.
"Isn't your father supposed to know the human mind in and out? How does he not know that that method will never work?" Shikamaru shook his head in disappointment as he wondered how rage blinded a person that much.
Ino just shrugged her shoulders slightly, ignoring the pain. That made Chōji's mother click her tongue disapprovingly.
"Just pretend to like someone. It will be much better for your health. We can't be having you show up at our doorstep half-dead all the time!" Chōji's mother chided.
Shikamaru turned his head as he heard footsteps down the corridor, just in time to see Chōji stop at the door and peek into the room.
"Kaa-chan? What's all the commotion about?" Chōji asked his mother, sounding puzzled as he walked into the room.
"Shikamaru? Ino-chan? What did I miss?" Chōji questioned upon noticing his friends.
"Ino's parents turned out to be homophobic and have been trying to beat it out of her. She ran away and ended up here," Shikamaru summarised quickly to inform his friend of the situation.
"Oh. Then pretend to be straight. Just act like you have a crush on a guy you know will never fall for you and go with it," Chōji said as though it was the most simple thing in the world.
"Eh? But I don't want to make her sad..." Ino told them.
"It's okay if you stay as friends for now, no?" Chōji's mother asked gently.
Ino nodded, "I'll be happy as long as I will see her and can talk to her."
"Then stick with that. Tell your parents that you were just confused and had found out that you like some guy," Shikamaru suggested when he noticed the girl's hesitation.
"Uh... I'll go with Uchiha Sasuke. He seems utterly infatuated with his older brother and will probably never fall for anyone," Ino concluded reluctantly.
"That's a good choice. Many of the girls have been eyeing him so it would not be suspicious if you suddenly found him attractive," Shikamaru said with a nod of approval.
"But what if-" Ino started in a panicky voice before she was cut off.
"You will cross that bridge when you come to it," Chōji's mother told her sternly.
"Okay, now I should get back..." Ino murmured, trying to get up.
"No! You will stay until tomorrow morning. That's final," Chōji's mother scolded, pushing her back down gently.
"Fine," Ino mumbled, yawning before quickly falling asleep.
The other three people in the room snuck out as quietly as possible, trying not to disrupt the sleep of the girl in the bed. They found themselves in the living room, sitting on the comfy sofa.
"I'll help Ino-chan by telling her parents that we managed to convince her that she did not like a girl if they come to ask," Chōji's mother volunteered when she noticed the awkward tension.
"I'll help her out if she stumbles through her act at school!" Chōji said excitedly, his packet of chips nowhere to be seen.
"How troublesome... I guess I will do the same," Shikamaru stated with a sigh.
The three nodded, before Shikamaru muttered, "Gotta run."
He melted into the shadows soundlessly, leaving the two other inhabitants of the room alone. All three were determined to help Ino out. She did not deserve to be ostracised simply just for who she is. No one deserved such a fate. Especially not someone like Ino.
Shikamaru arrived in the shadows of a wall near the porch where his clone was dozing, swapping places with it soundlessly with a simple Kawarimi and dispelling it quietly.
It was just in time, too.
Not even a minute later, Yoshino stomped up to him and pulled him up to his feet by the ear, yelling, "Did you not hear me? I said that it was time for dinner!"
Shikamaru winced internally as his ears began to ring, opening an eye and rubbing his ear as he trudged toward the dining room behind his mother. He almost lost his balance and stumbled into things several times but always pulled himself back up, trying to fight the dizziness brought by the incessant ringing in his ears that he swore were bleeding slightly.
Shikaku winced in sympathy at the sight of his son despite rejoicing to himself that it was not him who had suffered his wife's wrath. There were times he wondered why he married the troublesome woman in the first place.
"Troublesome woman," Shikamaru muttered under his breath, voicing out his father's thought.
Shikaku's eyes widened slightly. 'The kid had some nerve,' he thought in amusement, "A shame my son's going to die in this manner.'
Shikamaru's blunt words made Yoshino's eyebrow twitch as she asked in a sweet tone, "Did you say something? Shikamaru-kun?"
The way she dragged out his name made Shikamaru shiver as he gulped and shook his head violently.
"I knew it," Yoshino cooed, ruffling Shikamaru's hair a bit harder than normal.
The force was enough to push Shikamaru into the chair. Shikaku could only sweat-drop at his wife's antics. Yoshino turned to Shikaku, "Do you have something to say? Oh, the brilliant Nara who turned my wonderful hardworking son into a lazy-ass?"
Shikaku shook his head frantically as he shrunk under her gaze, stuttering out, "I did not intend to cause that to happen, I swear!"
"Hm? Though I do suppose it would have been strange for a Nara to have been capable of not being lazy on a normal basis..." Yoshino mused to herself.
Just as Shikaku was starting to sigh in relief, thinking that he was off the hook, Yoshino continued, "However, you are still a horrible influence on our son!"
Shikaku gulped as Yoshino began stalking toward him intimidatingly with a menacing aura. Shikamaru sighed at how much family drama he had to face at every family dinner they had, which was practically every night. He cleared his throat, only to get no response.
He drawled out in his usual lazy tone, "Kaa-san, tou-san. The food's getting cold."
He made sure that his voice was bored and neutral instead of annoyed and snappish like he felt. Obviously, some small bit of his annoyance did shine through. However, it was not significant enough to have been unnatural.
His parents sighed and stopped their banter, beginning to eat their dinner in silence.
>•<
At school, Shikamaru did not reveal his true abilities. He had a suspicion that the rest of the clan heirs were hiding something too, along with Naruto who did not feel as though he was what he seemed to be. However, he did not try to find out more. After all, if he did not want the others to find out about his case, he had no right poking his nose about in theirs.
With that in mind, Shikamaru never brought up the matter even when he spoke to the other students during the rare occasions where he was not reading an advanced book under the table while pretending to be asleep. Even then, he never started conversations despite replying when he was spoken to. He also kept his marks low on his tests and exams despite them being almost painfully easy.
No one else seemed to notice, except Naruto. He always seemed to not be trying, even when he appeared to be putting all his effort into doing something. It was only a feeling, based on no facts of any sort. Shikamaru did not dare confront the other boy.
It just felt as though doing so may lead to his downfall.
That was on some days. On others, Naruto felt hollow. It felt as though he was not really there.
The feeling was bizarre.
Even weirder was how Naruto winked at him a few times while he was being scolded by their teacher for pulling a prank, failing a test or even being late for class. One time, Naruto whispered into his ear on his way back into his seat.
Instead of scratchy, raspy and high pitched, his voice became melodious and silky. It sounded as though Naruto was singing a soft melody. His tone was neutral but with an edge to it, his words pronounced clearly with none of his usual mispronunciations or the verbal tic that he never seemed to be able to get rid of.
"I shall trust that my secret shall remain safe with you, Nara Shikamaru," Naruto whispered, the movement imperceptible to any onlookers.
Shikamaru could not help it as a shiver ran up his spine. He gulped subconsciously, only to find his throat dry. Although the selection of words was not threatening in any way, the way Naruto said it scared him despite not being menacing. It felt as though he was in the face of a predator. One that would not hesitate to kill him where he stood.
It was a strange feeling.
Which was why he avoided the boy, Naruto, unless he had no choice.
Almost everyone avoided him. The rest made fun of him.
In Shikamaru's opinion, those few that made fun of Naruto had death wishes.
Each and every last one of them.