be nara shikamaru, 8 yrs old->
get woken up from a delightful little nap at the edge of the nara forest by the oldest and wisest of the deer in the forest, the leader of the herd who he's pretty sure is some kind of spirit if not a minor kami cause normal deer dont have flowering vines blooming from their antlers that can be processed into the most powerful medicines and elixirs in fire county->
be led deep into the forest (sus)->
find a boy collapsed at the edge of your family’s forest. uzumaki naruto to be exact. be incredibly unamused at the entirety of this troublesome situation->
pick a flower at the Elder Deer’s insistence, even though he’s the only deer who will get anywhere near naruto (why do all the animals hate him shikamaru doesnt even see any squirrels and those things fear nothing), and feed it to naruto->
panic because thats a head wound and its bleeding copiously. Stop panicking because he ate the flower and its healing and hes waking up so its fine->
start noticing naruto a lot more (troublesome). realize theres a lot more to him than a mischievous, beaming prankster who laughs too loud and yells about being hokage->
invite him to get ramen at ichirakus with choji. (hes quieter than shikamaru’s ever seen him in class, but he jabbers at the ramen-maker, teuchi, looking happier than shikamaru’s ever seen him, too)->
invite him to get ramen again, this time with choji AND kiba. (hes more combative, but also calmer? Someone to fight with relaxes him? The noise draws a lot of dirty looks though. What a drag)->
invite him to get ramen with choji and kiba, AND go to a different ramen place this time. (when he realizes shikamaru’s not leading them to ichiraku’s, he gets uncomfortable and stops engaging with kiba as much. Comes up with an excuse to get out of eating with them and runs off. What could make naruto turn down ramen?)
try again with just choji. (this goes even worse. Naruto bails earlier than when he was semi-engaged with kiba. Despite the lack of noise, people are still glaring)
try inviting him to get barbeque with choji and kiba. (he doesnt even consider it, turning him down right away with a laugh about a new prank hes planning)
why? (why why why) Change tactics->
observation. cant stalk him. okay walk him home. (eyes on the sky and look only with peripheral vision because people are more honest when they think they arent being watched. why do people keep glaring at them? yeah narutos loud but so’s kiba. And kiba doesnt get glared at like this for walking home. why does naruto know how to keep to the shadows almost as carefully as a nara?)->
Ask him to spar (such a drag). Correct some of his forms here and there cause theyre kinda terrible->
Ask to escape to his place for a nap cause kaa-san has been ornery lately and keeps making him do even more clan-specific training than usual after school (its true but its also a fortuitously convenient excuse)->
Dont fall asleep (fall asleep). Snoop when naruto ends up snoozing beside him (dont think about how nice it feels to have his warmth on the futon). Just a little bit.->
Dont get mad at how much of a dump narutos tiny apartment is (get furious). Theres not enough food in the fridge, and the only thing in the cupboards is rice, some seaweed, and a frankly disturbing amount of cup ramen. Theres mold in the bathroom. The waters cold. The only piece of furniture is a kotatsu->
Dont get mad (since when does he care this much. Being angry is a drag, remember?)
Go about your days. Think->
Get dinner with ino and choji (troublesome, but necessary. The ino-shika-cho formation has been forcibly paired for ‘bonding activities’ at least once a month since they were toddlers). Get interrogated by ino about why hes been paying so much attention to and hanging around naruto. (dont get mad) get mad. Snap at her. Watch her leave in a huff. Be prompted by choji because why IS he spending so much time around naruto lately? What does he want? Choji knows him better than anyone except his parents, almost like a brother. So when he asks, there has to be an answer.
What is the answer? (why IS he doing this? Why is he interested in naruto? Why does he care? Hes a mystery. But what KIND of mystery? A riddle? A puzzle? What kind of answer is shikamaru even looking for?)
He doesnt know. (he found naruto covered in his own blood, passed out in a forest. Nobody helped him. Nobody came. If it hadnt been for the deer, for SHIKAMARU, he would be dead. Why? Why why why)
(he cant get it out of his head. Narutos annoying and loud and too troublesome by half, always getting into some kind of mischief. But he doesnt deserve that. He didnt when they were six and first starting at the academy and he doesnt now)
(what does shikamaru WANT)
Go to shikaku for a game of shogi. It always helps him think. So he asks ‘What do you do if you have a question and you cant figure out the answer?’
And his father answers ‘keep looking into it until you find one, i guess’
And he replies ‘but what if youve already tried that? What if you keep looking and looking and- what if theres not an answer? What if it just… stays a question?’
To which his father hums and goes ‘a question without an answer? That sounds more like an experience to me. And something like that can last a lifetime’
Does he want it to? Spending a lifetime on uzumaki naruto? (why is he even considering this? It would be a DRAG. so so troublesome. Hed never have a day of quiet again. Except thats not quite true is it? Except naruto can be quiet, can be still. As long as he knows someones looking at him.)
(shikamaru wants to look at him)
(shikamaru wants him to look BACK)
Well. a lifetime, huh? Maybe he’ll start with lunch tomorrow. (a lifetime can follow after)
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