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delirious-donna · 2 years

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Who's your King? [Shikamaru Nara]

an: the lovely @uchihabbynic asked for a Shiki story with some fluff or angst, I decided to give you both!

pairing: Shikamaru Nara x female reader s/o

warnings: SFW, angst, lil hurt/comfort, grieving, dark emotions but with a happy ending, I promise

Masterlist

It was that time of year once again.

You didn’t need a calendar to know which date was fast approaching. It was easy to tell from the flip of a switch attitude change from your man.

Shikamaru went from cool as a cucumber, ‘let me rest in peace, you pest of a female’ to moody, withdrawn and downright rude.

You understood – you really did – but it was still hard not to take his vicious comments to heart. He had always been a sharp-tongued devil, his words were chosen with expert care and he rarely said anything he didn’t mean, but this was different.

This was not Shika teasing you about your tastes in movies, rolling his eyes at being coerced into watching yet another ‘bullshit’ animated story meant for children, as he so callously said. Nor was it him biting back at your attempts to embarrass him in front of his friends. He had an amazing knack for turning the cute fluffy stories you told of him into debauched snippets of you melting at his feet because of said fluffiness.

You could practically envisage the snide smirk as he takes a drag on his cigarette. His dark eyes alight with humour as you wish for a hole to open in the floor to swallow you up. The shared laughter of Ino and Choji is enough to make you groan and slap a palm to your face.

Shikamaru was always doing this to you, making you squirm in embarrassment until he was reaching an arm around the small of your back. Tugging you into his side where you could hide your flushed face in the crook of his neck. The familiar smell of his tobacco along with the spicy body wash he used settled the worst of your shyness but turned it into something else entirely – something warm and fluttering.

He knew what he was doing, Shika wasn’t known as the lazy genius of Konohagakure for nothing. He was already calculating at least fifty moves ahead of you. Likely determining exactly how he was going to make you scream his name when you both crashed through the door to your shared apartment later that night.

But, it wasn’t like that, not this time.

Crash!

The sound of many things smashing into the wall of Shikamaru’s closed office made you jolt upright. The tell-tale clatter of shogi pieces clattered to the floor along with a strained curse from the raw throat of the man hiding himself away. His way of trying to protect you from his wrath.

He would never hurt you, not physically. The raven-haired male was deathly afraid of saying something he would later regret. Priding himself on never acting rashly, at this time of year, he couldn’t count on his mental fortitudes to stop himself from letting loose the bladed words from his lips.

It wouldn’t be for the first time that he found himself begging for your forgiveness. The mere sight of him on his knees, hands grasping at your waist, his anguished face pressed into the softness of your stomach and the way his voice tried not to break as he spoke, it was not something you liked to remind yourself of.

Shikamaru was the strongest man you knew, he trembled before no foe but he had cowered at the thought of you leaving him. It reinforced why you had fallen in love with him in the first place. He was the sweetest, most caring person in your life but to outsiders, it was hidden beneath the thin veil of his indifference.

A veil that served to protect him.

Within Shika beat a tender heart, one that valued actions over mere words alone and left him vulnerable to those who might act to hurt him. Only those closest knew the true Shikamaru Nara, the man that would go to extreme lengths to ensure the welfare and happiness of his dearest and nearest.

You were lucky enough to have been granted access behind the mask, and now you sat squarely in the centre of his heart. He told you that you sat atop a gilded throne, untouchable on your mighty pedestal and you melted at the sincerity of his words. They were infrequent, those soft words, as he chose to demonstrate his affection through his actions instead but you remembered them well – they were branded into your memory for all of time.

Knocking softly at the door, you waited but no answer came. Your hand lingered on the handle before pressing down and finding no resistance. You took the fact that it was not locked as an invitation to step inside.

The room was dark despite it being the middle of the afternoon, the heavy drapes pulled haphazardly across the windows behind the desk that you knew rather intimately. You stepped gingerly around the littered shogi pieces, yet your eyes never truly left the frame of Shika seated in his chair.

He looked a mess.

His head lifted from staring into the depths of his desk and you almost gasped at the haggard condition he was in. Darkness crowded under his rich chocolate eyes, evidence of how little sleep he had managed these past few days. His ebony hair, normally held tight in his trademark ponytail was loose around his shoulders, it was lank and clearly hadn’t been combed in a while. Tightness stretched the skin across his bones, highlighting his cheekbones and making him look gaunt and haunted.

It all clenched at your heart. Shikamaru was suffering and he refused every offer of help.

“Leave me alone,” he said, voice hardly above a low whisper and refusing to meet your eye.

Anger prickled at your flesh, the sensation springing to life seemingly out of nowhere to take root deep within your soul, spreading with hastened steps to your extremities.

A torrent of fire burned in your veins and stung your muscles. The pit of your stomach was a writhing mass of angry snakes, each with their own desire to lash out and bite at the person you claimed to love above all others.

Your face twisted into a scowl, absolutely furious that he would bat away the comfort you longed to gift him with. There was no need for him to suffer alone – he wasn’t the only one suffering – this was selfish and you had had enough.

“How do you think he’d react if he saw you like this?” you shouted, not caring for the shrillness of your voice nor the volume.

“You look like hell Shikamaru and I am sick of this bullshit. This whole ‘I am alone, no one else is hurting as much as I am’ shtick. It’s pathetic! You were not the only person to lose him. What about Choji and Ino? Kurenai? What about me? I teach Murai for fuck sake, I look into the face of Asuma every damn day and I miss him too.”

The pained expression on his face spoke volumes; your words had found their mark and sliced into that precious tender heart without thought for how he would react. All that worry over him hurting you and instead, you had practically stabbed him in the gut, each word twisting with intent to cause maximum damage.

A hand flew to your mouth as you recoiled from your own words.

Eyes that were glazed with tears watched you take the two faltering backward steps to reach the door. He swallowed loudly, mouth set into a grim line as if desperately trying to hold himself together and his fist tightened around the familiar silver lighter held in his hand.

You ran.

Darkness crept over the neatly maintained grass, the colours of the sunset shone upon the memorial stone that you couldn’t properly look at. Too ashamed to face him, even though you should. You should be apologising to the man that had lost his life before his time.

You missed him.

It was impossible not to, even though you had not been as close as Shika had been. Asuma held a burning presence, you always knew when he had entered a room and he had always been kind to you.

Now here you were sobbing in front of his grave at having made his most talented student look at you with such torture in their eyes. You were meant to protect him from that, not cause it.

How were you ever going to look at him again? Would he end things knowing now that you were nothing but a heartless shrew?

So much pain, so much heartache and what bothered you most was that the majority of your thoughts were about you, not about the memory of Asuma. It wasn’t right, and you had had the nerve to call Shika selfish.

A throat being cleared shook you from your miserable reverie. Glancing over your shoulder, Shikamaru stood, watching you with an undefinable expression.

His hands were deep in his pockets as he looked down on you. You swallowed past the sudden lump in your throat.

He had cleaned up, showered and shaved away the dark stubble that had lined his cheeks and chin only hours prior. The downy soft strands of his hair were secured within his ponytail once more, and he wore a clean outfit - grey denim jeans, a white t-shirt and a black hooded zip-up sweatshirt.

“Thought I might find you here,” he drawled.

Shika braced a hand on the ground before lowering himself to sit near you, not touching as would have been normal but close enough that his hand could reach out if he so wished.

You said nothing, not knowing what you could even offer at this point.

The familiar sound of the silver lighter being flicked open repeatedly filled the silence.

“You were…” he hesitated for a second, “not wrong.”

He held up a finger, putting an immediate halt to the words of denial that were on the tip of your tongue.

“I was acting selfishly. I know that I’m not the only one who misses Asuma.”

Shika’s hooded gaze strayed to the memorial behind you, he tipped his head as if bowing in reverence to his departed sensei.

Cool fingers brushed against your wrist, rubbing where your pulse beat erratically. He was sitting directly in front of your face before you could blink.

He regarded you with a soft smile, a thumb reaching out to wipe away the tears you hadn’t realised had resumed falling from your puffy eyes.

“Decided to visit Ino and Choji,” he looked away with a slight grumble, “they agreed with the little speech you gave me. In fact, Ino was probably even more ruthless than you were.”

“Shika, please,” you groaned in shame.

“Went by Kurenai’s house too, we’ve been invited to dinner so you best stop your tears soon. I’d like my pretty, happy girl back, please.”

You hiccuped at the plea, at the slight tug on your wrist. His chest was warm as he enveloped you, the spicy scent of his skin tickling your nose in such a soothing way.

You didn’t deserve this, he should be mad instead of comforting you.

“I’m sorry,” he said with his lips against your temple.

Cutting across his words, you stammered out, “It should be me apologising, I said some horrible things.”

He laughed, a dry chuckle that was likely accompanied by a roll of his eyes, except you couldn’t see them as he held your head to his chest.

“Will you ever let me finish when I’m talking? You’re such a troublesome woman.”

You smacked at his arm, the lightest of taps and yet he still dared to let out a feigned ‘ouch’, making you giggle.

“Mm, least I can still make you laugh,” he murmured into your hair.

It was nice sitting here with him, back in the place you had longed to be for days. Content in his arms until he offered you Asuma’s lighter to hold.

“You remember what I told you Asuma-sensei said to me before he died, about how important it was to find out who your King was and to defend it at all costs?”

You nodded, letting your fingers curl around his bicep as he spoke. The feel of the heavy cotton grounded you, along with his heat and scent.

“Well, for Asuma it was the children, especially Mirai and I vowed to protect him in Asuma’s stead. But, I’ve been thinking in these past few days.”

He paused for a moment, clearly collecting his thoughts as he watched you turn over the silver lighter in your hand.

“I agreed with him, children are the future and should be protected so they can flourish into a strong and healthy next generation. Yet, I think I have my own King now, someone that means more to me than anything else.”

Shika’s finger tucked under your chin, lifting your face so you were looking at him. His lips were inches from your own, minty breath washed across your face and your lids fluttered slowly at his closeness.

The kiss was bittersweet, a reunion that was tinged by sadness given your location and the reasons that brought you to this moment.

“You are my King, and I will never lock you out again. I promise,” he whispered.

The light was mostly gone by the time you had composed yourself.

More sweet kisses were shared and happier memories of Asuma were told. You both offered your respect to his memorial, lighting a last stick of incense before you tucked your tired body into the side of Shikamaru.

Your fingers interlinked as he guided you back into the heart of the village, heading towards Kurenai and Mirai’s house.

“I assume you still plan to watch over the children and Mirai?”

He scoffed, “with your help, of course.”

“Hmm, smartass,” you cooed, lifting to your tiptoes to press a kiss to his nose.

“You got that right.”

#delirious writes #shikamaru nara #shikamaru #shikamaru fanfiction #shikamaru fluff #shikamaru angst #shikamaru x reader #shikamaru x you #naruto fanfiction

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head-empty-just-shikamaru · 2 years

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What If Shikamaru had a yandere s/o?

tw: SLIGHT nsfw, yandere themes ofc, manipulation, toxic relationship, unhealthy obsession (duh)

a/n: hey guys, I feel awful about taking forever for the second part of "Walls of Steel" so I decided to post a lil something for y'all while you guys wait.

Imagine being the "Misa" to Shikamaru's "Light Yagami"......

Shikamaru has kind of a god complex, and you're really not helping in this scenario.

He loooves having a yandere s/o, it means you'll do anything to please him. Your worst fear is not being by his side, and you'll do anything to keep him with you. Normally this would scare any other person, because that usually means the yandere is in control of the relationship (and you) to make sure things go their way. But Maru is different. You see, for a yandere to be any real danger to the object of their desires, they must have the upper hand to maintain control. You however, do not have this vital advantage because Shikamaru is far stronger and smarter than you. Instead he uses your obsession to have you at his beck and call. He rewards you for meeting his expectations in a multitude of ways, depending on what you've done for him. The more difficult the task, the better the reward. It can be anything from cuddling and praise to mindblowing sex. However, this also means on the flip side of things that every time you disappoint him, he agonizes you by simply not giving you any attention. It's the worst kind of torture for a love-sick yandere like you.

At most he sees you like a cute little toy. He does grow attached to you, but he will abandon you when he no longer thinks the relationship is benefitting him, or if you're becoming a liability to him. Remember, he has the upper hand in intelligence, strength, and resources, so he has no fear of retaliation if he does leave. He's prepared for it.

It might sound like he's the asshole in this situation but remember...

YOU'RE the one who abandoned your moral compass for the chance to stay by his side. And let's be honest, you would've taken control if you could without any regrets. You're no victim, you're just as bad as he is, if not worse. Had you been gifted with a better brain and stronger body, you would've resorted to violence or force if need be in the off-chance that he rejected you.

And of course, your boyfriend never fails to remind you of this. Is it really manipulation if you're already so desperate and pathetic for him without any coercion? Of course not. You're sick in the head, sweetheart (Not that you'd ever admit to it). Is he really so awful for making the best of his situation? Of course not.

Good pet.

#shikamaru x reader #shikamaru nara x reader #shikamaru nara #Shikamaru smut #shikamaru imagines #naruto #naruto fic #naruto angst #shikamaru angst #naruto fanfiction

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bakapandy · 2 years

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A pseudo-continuation of this

#shikatema #shikamaru #temari #boruto #nara shikamaru #shikamaru nara #temari nara #nara temari #naruto #boruto naruto next generations #pandy draws #it’s ShikaTema angst hour

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majesty-madness · 1 year

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Hi! Can I request a Naruto Shippuden x Fem!reader where the reader met them all and was this cheerful little girl who loved flowers but as they got older she left or to them she just more likely disappeared but when she came back she was this whole different person now.

Now she's a pretty quiet and calm girl with a powerful aura around her, and if you find a black rose then that means that she was in that place, so what I mean is since she sued to like flowers but not a black rose is kinda her sign now, so the black rose represents her.

Lets say for example she fights with someone and disappears, then there's a black rose on the ground, which means that she was there in that place.

Also she's known as the ~Black Rose~ Since she always leaves a black rose as a sign

Note: She was childhood friends with, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura also knew her along with Ino but then when she came back they told the others about her (or you can do it in your way, I'll leave the rest to you)

Feel free to ignore this for whatever reason if you want <3

"Black Rose" - Naruto Shippuden x reader (sfw)

Word Count: 8000+

Warnings: angst, battles, violence, blood, injuries, hospital, mentions of serious injuries, flashbacks, worried friends, light arguing, crying, good ending, references to the Hidden Waterfall Village (don’t know if anyone knows about that episode)

a/n: I want to say that this is the first request I have ever done, and I usually don’t take requests; I just write whatever I want to. However, I thought that this could be a chance to experience something new and depending on how this goes, I might do more requests in the future. But I need some time to figure out if this is a good thing to start or if I should keep doing what I’ve been doing. So for anyone it may concern, I’m trying to figure this whole “request” thing because it’s new to me. Thank you for understanding! Hope you enjoy!

Also not proofread.

Main Masterlist

“Do you know which flower this one is, Sakura?” The little girl asked her pink and blonde haired friends.

The pink haired girl shook her head but the blonde nodded.

“That is a Gladiolus!”

“That’s right, Ino! They come in red, pink, white, yellow and orange. But the most important thing is that they have medical properties, so the medic ninja use them all the time for healing.”

Sakura expressed her astonishment. “Wow, that’s so cool! You and Y/N sure know a lot about flowers.”

“Well what do you expect? My family does run a flower shop.” Ino grinned at Sakura with a little giggle following.

Then Y/N chirped in, “And I’ve been studying at the library. If you want Sakura, I’d be happy to teach you about flowers.”

Sakura gasped. “Would you really? Oh that sounds like so much fun!”

Y/N laughed happily, clapping her hands together at the same time. “Yeah! We’re gonna have lots of fun!”

With no effort, her eyes sprang open; staring tiredly at the wooden ceiling above.

She laid there a few more seconds before she forced her head to turn over to the right. On just the other wall, there was a small window with the light of the sun shining through; it was time to get up.

______

At the same time, many people of the village were getting up and ready, especially the Leaf ninja, prepared to be sent on missions.

Ino, after slipping into her uniform, walked out into the street to head straight to the Hokage’s office.

Despite the early hour, the village was already bustling with life. Many people were out shopping, organizing food stalls, and the like.

By this point in her life, Ino was really all that surprised anymore by the efficiency of the Leaf village. Everyone was always quick to start the day, even the regular citizens. It made being a ninja all the more worth it in her opinion; she could protect the prosperity of her home while doing what she’d always wanted to do.

As Ino was making her way down the dirt road, a familiar voice called out to her.

“Hey, Ino!”

Her violet eyes darted off the right, several feet in front of her there stood Sakura.

Ino smiled and waved at her. “Hey Sakura!”

The pink haired ninja suddenly came running over to her side, and then they both continued to walk together down the road. “Good morning.”

“Good morning. What are you doing up so early? I thought you had the day off today.” Ino asked curiously.

“I did, but Lady Tsunade suddenly summoned me. She said she had an important mission for me.” Sakura answered politely.

Ino made a noise, like a hum at the news. “Does it have anything to do with the hidden Waterfall village?”

“Yeah actually, it does.”

Ino looked over at her friend as they walked side by side. “It could be a serious mission then. Do you think she’ll combine our teams?”

“I’m not sure, it’s entirely possible.” Sakura said, moving her gaze back to the dirt path in front of her. “Guess we won’t know until we get there.”

“Yeah, guess so.” Ino agreed, not saying anything else for a couple of minutes. They continued down the path in silence for several more minutes when something just popped into Ino’s head.

“You know, it’s been three years.”

Sakura, knowing exactly what she was talking about, nodded (more to herself). “Since Y/N disappeared.”

Ino hummed again. “I can’t believe how much time has passed. So much has happened.”

“I know. The hardest part is not knowing if she’s okay or not, or if she’s even alive. It reminds me too much of when…” Sakura began to say, but paused as she felt her throat tighten up. “When Sasuke left.” Ino stopped in her tracks, resting her hand on Sakura’s shoulder and forcing her to stop as well. Her green eyes whipped up to meet Ino’s, seeing a look of sympathy on her face.

If anyone understood that feeling of hopelessness (besides Naruto), it would be Ino.

“Don’t worry too much about it, okay? Y/N is nothing like Sasuke; she’ll come back one day. I have faith.” The blonde ninja ressaured.

This made Sakura smile, and her body language indicated that she felt a bit better. “Thank you, Ino.”

Ino patted her shoulder a few times. “No problem. Now let’s hurry to Lady Tsunade’s office, or kill us for being late.”

Sakura laughed in response before heading towards the Hokage building, near the back of the village.

It took only a little while, but eventually Ino and Sakura made their way to the Hokage mansion, and stepped inside Tsunade’s office. Once they did, they saw Shikamaru, Choji, Naruto, and Sai already inside.

“Oh I’m sorry, M’Lady. Are we late?” Sakura apologized, a tad bit nervous that they’d get chewed out.

“No, in fact, I was just about to explain the mission.” Tsunade assured, then leading into the details. “As you may already be aware you all are going to be heading to the Hidden Waterfall village.”

Naruto perked up. “The Hidden Waterfall village?”

Tsunade nodded. “That’s right. I know that three years ago you escorted Lord Shibuki to his homeland safely, and now I’m asking you to return.”

“Please tell me that this doesn’t have anything to do with escorting his son to become the next leader, who’s just as cowardly as he was.” Naruto sighed, clearly annoyed.

“No, there have been reports of the Akatsuki sighted patrolling the village.”

Shikamaru chirped in. “So that’s why you’re assembling such a big team.”

“That’s correct. I don’t want to be taken by surprise, so that’s why I’m assigning all six of you to go and see if there is any truth to these reports. And with that, I’m also assigning you as squad leader, Shikamaru.” Tsunade explained, hands propped up on the desk, fingers intertwined. “You have half an hour to get ready and head to the Hidden Waterfall village, understood?”

“Understood!” Everyone in the room agreed at once and quickly headed out of the office.

Meanwhile, Y/N stalked a rogue shinobi from up in the massive forest, surrounding the Land of Fire.

He had no idea she was there, no inkling at all which made her one of the most efficient ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village.

And the fact that he was distracted with a meeting in the middle of the woods kept him occupied. He was speaking with five other people, exchanging stolen information about the Leaf with them. Though the other individuals were handing him back scrolls of what she assumed was information on other villages as well.

At least after she took down these ninja, she could find out what information was being sold off.

After about ten minutes, the five other shinobi shook hands with the rogue ninja and quickly scattered.

She watched the rogue one sit down onto the ground, taking out a water canister and unscrewing the top.

Being confident that he wasn’t going, Y/N made a hand sign and produced five clones. All of them (including the real Y/N)looked at each other and nodded.

The clones disappeared while Y/N remained inside the thick foliage of the tree leaves.

Her eyes centered on the rogue ninja, relaxing against the tree she was currently hiding in and then abruptly jumped down, colliding elegantly with the solid ground.

The man jumped back clearly startled by her appearance. “What the hell?!”

From her crouching position, Y/N’s sharp eyes, black masked face whip up to make direct, face to face contact with him. She hears the man gasp and try to reach into his bag for a weapon.

Before his hand can even make contact with the pouch, Y/N throws long, precision needles into the man’s arm; pinning him to the dirt.

The man lets out a shout of pain and his arm is pinned at a 90o angle, and stuck behind his back. “What do you want?!” Y/N approaches the man, completely unphased by his screams. Her domineering stance and quiet nature makes the man visibly sweat, and he finds it hard to make any kind of rational thought.

This woman, this woman right here was unlike anything he’d ever seen.

Completely silent in her approach, beautiful figure, graceful in the way she moved with deadly precision, dark eyes locked on him, and an aura that reeked power; unadulterated power.

Never in his life had he ever met a woman that was able to combine beauty with danger; it was a combination he believed didn’t exist and yet here it was.

Should he be scared or impressed? He wasn’t sure.

He tried to reach for another weapon with his other hand, but another, foreign hand had wrapped around his wrist and pinned it there.

When he turned his head to look, he saw that it was a clone of Y/N, a flurry of black rose petals appearing as quickly as the clone had. It piqued his curiosity.

“Don’t try that again.” Y/N finally said, voice low and smooth.

“I asked you what you wanted.” The man grunted out, trying now not to move around too much.

Y/N walked forward, slipped her hand into the side pocket of his uniform and pulled out a seal scroll with the information he traded for earlier. “I want this.”

He watched Y/N neatly put away the scroll into her back pouch before speaking. “You looking for information on other villages too?”

“Actually, I’m looking for those documents you stole from the Leaf, but if I happen to gain a bit of an advantage over another village then so be it,” She softly explains, tone never fluctuating.

Without warning, the man burst out laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry! I’m afraid that those pretty little documents are already on their way out of the Land of Fire.”

Finally, Y/N’s voice changed when she hummed in amusement. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

As soon as she finished, four clones then appeared at Y/N’s side. She raised her hand up just a bit and snapped her fingers; like that each of them, including the clone pinning the man’s arm, revealed the stolen documents he had just sold off to other rogue ninja.

More black petals floated down from the air as each one of her clones suddenly appeared before them.

His eyes widened in complete shock, air getting stuck in his throat almost preventing him from taking a proper breath.

They kept the documents out only for a couple of seconds then slid them back into their packs.

“Looks like this is the end of the line for you.”

“Wait!” The man screamed out, making Y/N pause for a moment to see what he wanted. When a couple of seconds passed, the man spoke again.

“There were rumors, started a couple of years ago. They were about a rogue assassin, killing other ninja left and right.” The man explained, the cold sweat rolling down his temples.

Y/N said nothing, it made him swallow nervously. “No one could find their bodies; all that was left were pools of blood and a single black rose.”

Then Y/N squinted at him, eyes narrow and fierce. “They called this assassin: Black Rose. I thought it was just rumors but…”

“You’ve changed your mind?” Y/N asked condescendingly.

“Well I’ve never seen anyone leave black petals lying around when they use clones or teleport said clones.”

There was a pregnant pause as both parties stared at each other, one’s heart racing and the other’s heart steady as drum.

Y/N clicked her tongue. “You should’ve believed the rumors, maybe you could’ve lived longer. Your complacency is what led you here.”

She saw the man tense up. “I believe them now so maybe we could make a deal.”

He tried to sound tough or unaffected by the aura surrounding this woman, but inside the terror was speeding over her nerves, up his spine, nearing choking him.

“I don’t make deals with rogues. I’m afraid that this is the end for you.”

“No!” The man screamed out, the panic now controlling him.

No please, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ve got resources, information; just tell me what you want.” The man pleaded.

Y/N took a step back, raising both hands to form a single hand sign. “I want you to disappear.” Then in a barrage of hand signs, too fast to keep, Y/N weaved her fingers together before landing on the final sign. “Ninja art: Black Flower Decay.”

A whirlwind of black flower petals swirled around them as if the wind was guiding their movements, eching their way closer and closer.

The man watched the petals coming his way and one single petal landed on his cheek; it was hot, burned even. But it was one petal, and for a split second he thought maybe he could take it, however that thought quickly left his mind when more petals started to collect on his skin.

Now the burning sensation grows in intensity until eventually the pain became overwhelming. The man again screamed out but this time it was more gutural; more real.

In a final blow, the wind directs the flower petals on every square inch of the man’s body. Then the petals began to completely break down the man’s body til nothing was left.

The man’s body was gone, the clones disappeared, the petals vanished, and the only thing left was a single black rose placed on the ground.

In seconds, Y/N was already miles away from the location of the rogue she’d just eliminated. Not to mention the other shinobi that she also killed when they took off with information that could’ve easily led to the destruction of the Leaf.

And no matter what she was not going to let that happen, not when she loved ones waiting for her.

Three years had passed since she was assigned on this mission, and not a single day went by that she didn’t think about her friends back home.

She wondered if any of them had made Chunin or Jounin, or if Lee had made a complete recovery from his surgery, or even wondered if Hinata had confessed her feelings for Naruto.

These were the types of things that wandered through her head, the things that kept her sane. Though after all this time, she wondered if they thought about her.

Maybe the first couple of months, sure since it was only a couple of months after Sasuke abandoned them all that she was sent away, but they were ninja; they had to focus on training, completing missions, trying not to die.

Truth be told, they most likely didn’t have the time to even wonder about her well being. Who would after three years? For someone who didn’t even say goodbye?

Oh well…

She was assigned a mission and had to complete it no matter what. That’s why Lady Tsunade entrusted this mission to her and only her.

Y/N was ripped out of her thoughts by a sudden and powerful burst of lightning right for her.

In a split second, she managed to dodge the attack in mid air and jumped to the nearest tree branch. From behind the sound of the lighting making contact with another tree causing the wood to splitter and blow apart.

The attack kicked up a bunch of dust to which nothing was visible for a couple of minutes.

Y/N waved her hand through the air to try to clear the area, watching as the dust only moved away from her general vicinity but nowhere else.

Her eyes darted around trying to fight the source of the attack, but before she could come to a conclusion she heard a voice from a somewhat short distance.

“I’m surprised you were able to dodge that so easily.”

That voice, that voice sounded familiar.

No, it couldn’t be.

As quickly as it appeared, a gust of wind swept away the debris, wiping the area completely clean of any signs of attack.

Her eyes widened, staring directly at the figure that stood on the solid ground twenty feet away. It was-

“Sasuke?”

“Most people would have been killed by an attack like that.” The Uchiha stated coldly.

Shaking the surprise, Y/N pulled herself back into espionage mode. “What are you doing here, Sasuke? Finally have a guilty conscience and decide to get over your superiority complex?”

Sasuke didn’t react. He didn’t smirk, or laugh sarcastically, he simply stood there with a cool expression. “You’ve caused Orochimaru some trouble; eliminating his line of resources and so he’s asked me to deal with you.”

“He’s still alive then. I’m surprised, I figured by now you would have killed him and taken control over his lackeys.” Y/N continued to retort back while on the inside she was getting nervous.

He hadn’t demonstrated his full power, however she’s always known he was strong. He was a Uchiha afterall.

“That will come eventually. Unfortunately, there is still something I need from him so until then I will do what I have to do.”

Y/N didn’t have anything else to say instead she stood there quietly, her right hand subtly reaching behind her into her tool bag.

Just as she had the kunai out of the pouch, she watched Sasuke vanish and his overwhelming presence was suddenly behind her.

She whipped her head around, eyes meeting a pair of crimson ones.

________

“This is so stupid!” Naruto complained very loudly for all to hear.

“Oh shut up, Naruto! You haven't stopped complaining since we left the Hidden Waterfall Village.” Sakura yelled back at him.

All Naruto did was huff as the entire team dashed across the treetops.

“It’s just if there are going to be rumors about the Akatsuki hanging around, they could at least do me the favor of actually being there.” Naruto added with a pout.

“Are you serious?” Choji chirped in from the back of the formation.

Then Shikamaru cut in. “Think about it; if the Akatsuki were actually there, we would’ve had our hands full even with the six of us.”

“Besides, you should know by now that rumors are not always true. So stop pouting.” Ino interjected as well, her own annoyance palpable in her tone.

Naruto grumbled in response, whatever words he was spouting to himself not audible to anyone else.

He remained mumbling for a while, even sprinting ahead of everyone without thinking about it.

“Stupid Akatsuki, stupid mission, stupid Shikamaru, stupid…” His vision caught an unusual color in the corner of his eye.

It wasn’t far so he immediately went to go take a closer look, oblivious to his team members flying right by only to stop once they noticed he was going in a different direction.

“Where do you think he’s going?” Sai asked, not expecting anyone to know that answer.

“Naruto! What are you doing?” Sakura from up on a tree branch as she saw Naruto jump down to the dirt floor.

He did not turn around to reply, but kept walking through the grass and bushes of the forest. “There’s something weird over here.”

Sai, Sakura, Ino, Shikamru, and Choji all exchanged looks of confusion before Sakura followed after him first and hopped down off the tree.

Naruto had a few feet on them as he stepped into a small clearing, seeing blood painting the ground.

He gawked at the sight for a second then focused on the next unusual thing, more unusual than blood in the middle of the woods.

In the middle of the pools of blood sat a single black rose.

Throwing caution to the wind, Naruto reached forward to grab ahold of the rose. His fingers had barely skimmed the surface of the dark petals when Sakura’s voice called out to him.

“What are you doing?! It could set off a trap.”

Naruto was too wrapped up in his own thoughts that his brain didn’t register anything his teammate was saying as he turned around to face them with the rose in the palm of his hand.

“Guys, what’s a rose doing out in the middle of nowhere like this and around all this blood?”

Once the gang’s eyes rested on the rose in Naruto’s hand most of them remained confused, but Shikamaru’s expression changed to one of knowing anxiety.

“Black Rose.” Was all Shikamaru uttered and everyone looked over at him now.

“What?” Choji questioned first.

“There’s been a lot of disappearances within the Land of Fire lately, all kinds of ninja gone in the blink of an eye with only their blood and a single black rose left behind.” Shikamaru explained, taking a moment to observe the battle field they were standinding before continuing.

“While there’s not a lot of tangible proof, the ninja that’s been doing this has been credited with over a hundred assassinations over the last three years factoring in they are even assassinations; but given the amount of blood I would say so.”

Ino couldn’t help but perk up at the mention of three years. She subconsciously mouthed them to herself, and her mind immediately jumped to the realization that her best friend had been gone that exact amount of time.

Is it possible-

There was a thud and a rustling within a tree off to the team’s right, about six feet away.

It took only a moment for each member to get into a defensive formation as they eyed the direction in which the rustling came from.

The tree leaves moved around a bit some more and then a figure fell out from the tree landing at the team’s feet causing all of them to jump back.

Even Sakura and Ino had gasped when this mysterious fell out of thin air.

From what they could see, it was a female; about their age, probably about average height with what looked to be a long scarf hanging around her neck and covering part of her face.

It was easy to tell that she was very unconscious even with her face covered. And she was injured.

“She’s bleeding!” Naruto pointed out as soon as he realized that fact.

He rushed over to her side while assessing her wounds, then reached to pull her mask off. His back blocked the others' view of the female and they waited for any kind of signal from Naruto.

“Uh guys?” He said, voice laced with shock and a slight tremble of anxiousness.

“What is it, Naruto?” Shikamaru calmly asked.

Without another word, Naruto took a couple of steps to the side revealing the woman to them.

There was lull in all sound, even the breeze that rushed against their ears suddenly went quiet. Everything that had once made sound now only sounded like the white noise coming from a tv, growing louder by each passing second.

It was almost too much.

“Y/N?” Ino’s voice broke them out of their trance right before she took a hesitant step forward.

Her mind seemed to catch up as she lunged forward, her best friend’s name leaving her mouth one more time. “Y/N!”

She bent down next to Naruto, violet eyes darting across Y/N’s body to see if they were more serious injuries. In her search, she saw a large laceration across Y/N’s back. The blood from the wound had soaked into the fabric of her uniform causing a clot to form there.

“She has a severe wound on her back, it’s big; probably eight inches in length.” Ino started to describe, weaving a quick hand sign then holding her hand over Y/N’s back, her hands glowing green as she began to heal the opening.

Sakura rushed over, appearing on the other side of Y/N. “Has it begun to clot?”

“A bit.” Ino answered curtly. “It looks like the tissue itself wasn’t. The blood soaked into the shirt, it’s acting as a sort of gauze.”

The others stepped closer to nervously observe Ino and Sakura’s movements.

Sakura then reached into her back pouch to pull out a black-brownish jar with a rigid lid. “Sai! Come over here.”

Sai reacted swiftly, making it to Sakura’s side in no time as she opened the jar in her hands.

“Now Sai, I want you to very slowly and very carefully peel back the fabric of her shirt; as you do I’m going to apply this paste to keep the wound from bleeding. It’ll act as a temporary bandage. You got it?”

“Got it!”

And just as Sakura had said Sai followed her instructions to the letter and as she mentioned as well, every inch of skin that was revealed under the uniform shirt, she applied a nearly transparent gel onto the surface of the wound to keep it from free flowing.

The moment that was finished, Sakura put the jar away and directed her gaze to Ino. “We have to go, it’s another couple of hours to the village at least. If she’s gonna make it, we have to go now.”

Ino nodded, stopping her healing and taking a hold of one of Y/N’s arms; the one closest to her. “Let’s get her up.” Sai then assisted with the other arm, and they both wrapped each arm around their shoulders.

“If we really push it, we can make it back to the village in less time.” Shikamaru suggested, his expression now back to normal with a subtle hint of concern.

“Well let's hurry then.” Choji added.

Naruto quickly stood up from his position, bringing a fist slamming into his other palm with a look of determination on his face. “Yeah the only chance Y/N’s got is if we stop talking and get on with it.”

All six ninja exchanged brief glances at each other then took off in the direction of the village with Y/N coming in and out of consciousness.

It felt like a lifetime but eventually they made it and as Shikamaru had said, they really pushed it and got there in only thirty minutes.

It was definitely a rough half hour, although it was a small price to pay for getting their friend the treatment that she desperately needed.

They all barged into the hospital, shouting several things all at once that it was hard for the front desk nurse to understand what they were saying. The point got across after Lady Tsunade showed up.

She’d heard that Y/N had returned to the village or rather had been dragged back because she had a serious injury to the back.

Sakura requested that she assist Tsunade in the surgery, but she denied it saying that Shizune would assist which left Sakura feeling helpless.

Tsunade understood that she wanted to help her teammate and friend, someone who had disappeared much like her love Sasuke, but even from a glance she could easily discern that Y/N’s injuries were serious.

Even though Sakura was a skilled medic ninja, she lacked the experience of delicate surgeries and Y/N’s condition required delicacy.

Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Shikamaru, Ino, and Choi waited with what could barely be considered patience, out in the waiting room.

Everyone sat down in an uncomfortable chair except for Naruto; he opted to pace.

Of course it set everyone on edge, but he has always been a fidgety person so add a bit of stress to that and he couldn’t sit still.

Though, Sakura did yell at him for not sitting like a normal person (her words). Normally Naruto wouldn’t have argued with the matter because she would’ve beaten him to a pulp for not heeding her word, but not this time.

He exclaimed that there was no way he could sit down since one of his friends was in surgery. Sakura remained quiet after that.

The silence permeated the very air they were breathing as they kept waiting for some sort of news on Y/N’s condition.

Until finally, Tsunade came out to meet them.

“She’s going to be just fine.” That was the first thing she said to them with a confident smile.

All the young shinobi had sighed in relief, the stress dripping off their shoulders to disappear forever.

“However,” Tsunade prefaced, “She’s in a medically induced coma so she won’t wake up for a while. The best thing she needs right now is sleep; this is also to keep her from moving around with that back injury so it’ll heal.”

Once more the young ninja exchanged looks of relief, happy to know that their friend was going to make it.

________

Nearly a week passed before Y/N woke up from her coma.

Her eyes felt the glare from the sunlight seeping in from the outside, and a warm sensation encasing her wrist.

When her gaze shifted to the presence of the warmth, she saw Lady Tsunade standing at her bedside while checking her pulse.

Honestly, at first, she didn’t recognize Tsunade for a few seconds until she spoke up.

“Well hello there, sleepy head. Finally decided to wake up.”

Y/N blinked a few times. “Lady Tsunade?”

The Hokage gently set Y/N’s hand back down to her side before crossing her arms and smiling down at the young woman. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“How-” She looked around the hospital room confused. “How did I get here?”

“I had sent several of your friends out on a mission to investigate rumors of the Akatsuki near the Hidden Waterfall village and on they’re way back, they found you lying in the middle of the forest.” Tsunade wasted no time explaining, her smile falling to a more casual expression.

Y/N’s eyes darted away to the hospital ceiling again, mouth gaped open subconsciously as her mind flashed back to that last thing she remembered.

“I vaguely remember somebody picking me up from the ground, but it’s all kind of hazy after that.” Y/N admitted.

Tsunade took a deep breath before speaking. “That’s not shocking, you were critically injured. It’s a miracle you were still alive when they brought you in.”

Both paused to gather their thoughts, the room becoming silent.

“What happened to you out there?” Tsunade asked with a startling seriousness.

She took some time to think through it, going back to every second stuck in her struggle against an old classmate. A classmate she actually used to know fairly well, and now he was nothing more than a stranger that she crossed unfortunate paths with.

“It was Sasuke.”

Tsunade didn’t even look surprised or shocked, it seemed as though she was already aware of who had almost killed her. After a minute or two, Tsunade nodded (more to herself).

“I see.”

“You don’t look surprised.” Y/N mentioned quickly.

The older blonde woman shook her head. “When I was performing your surgery, it was easy to make out the lightning pattern on your back. And not only that, upon taking a closer look I could see that the lightning had managed to barely sear the bone of your spine.”

She watched Y/N’s eyes widened at the revelation. Tsunade continued, “The attack was so precise that it scarred the bone, there’s one person I can think of that could use lightning like that.”

Y/N listened in horror, while trying to keep her mind from exploding with all the information coming in at once. “I am going to be okay?”

“Yes, luckily the scarring on your spine was superficial and there was no permanent damage that will affect your ability to walk or anything of the sort. The real problem was trying to close off the laceration, but that’s been taken care of too.”

“Oh thank goodness…” Y/N breathed a sigh of relief, holding her hand up to her chest.

Tsunade stepped forward, arms resting back at her sides. “However, you will need to rest as much as you can and you’ll need to start physical therapy.”

Y/N grumbled something under her breath; she would’ve rolled her eyes but her head hurt too much.

“Don’t get an attitude with me. It’s important to get your body back up to speed, that surgery took a lot out of you.” Tsunade scolded, her own brows pinching together in a frown.

“Yeah, yeah I know.” The younger ninja waved her off, choosing to now stare at the wall ahead of her as she sat up against her pillows.

She tried to suppress a deep rooted groan, unfortunately it proved useless, as the shock of pain in her back caught her off guard.

Her mouth let out a gasp before her teeth came clamping down on each other to soften any other noises that would try to escape.

“Try to move around slowly. Even if you were asleep for a week, you need to give yourself some time to heal.”

Y/N’s nearly popped out of her skull when those words processed in her brain. “A week? I’ve been here a whole week?”

Lady Tsunade opened her mouth to say something only to be interrupted when the hospital room door came slamming open.

“I can’t take it anymore!”

A familiar bright blonde haired male came bursting into the room with no regard for what anyone else was saying (Tsunade). He ran over to Y/N’s bedside, a now bright grin on his face.

“Hey Y/N, how ya doing?” He asked casually. It soon earned him a hard whack to the back of the head, a pink haired girl moving in.

“Naruto, you idiot! I told you to WAIT!” Sakura shouted quite angrily. Then she yanked Naruto back by the collar of his orange and black jacket.

Slowly, but surely several other people began to filter into the room, each other with their own unique uniform design.

And she knew every single one of them! Her face didn’t show it but she was glad to see them, it had been too long since the last time she saw them and now here they were.

Every one of them was taller than she remembered; particularly Shikamaru. Back then, she used to think that Shikamaru was kind of small but not so much now; he was fuller, broader.

He had grown up quite a bit.

Sakura had still been yelling at Naruto when Y/N shook herself out of her head, and focused on what was happening right now.

“Come on, Sakura…Cut me some slack okay? It’s been forever since I saw her last.”

“Ugh…” Sakura sighed as she placed a couple of fingers to her temple to dampen the oncoming headache. She switched gears in a few seconds as she faced Y/N, a small replacing the scowl.

“It’s been too long though, what have you been up to?” She nicely asked.

Y/N paused for a second as she thought of what to say; suddenly her throat felt unusable and her mind blanked. All the time she spent thinking of her friends, she never thought about what she’d say once she saw them again.

“O-oh…you know, finishing up a mission” She plainly answered, trying to sound like she used to.

What did she used to sound like?

There echoed a collective noise of surprise coming from her friends, their faces matching that.

“A mission? You mean the past three years, you’ve been on a mission?” Ino cut in, stepping forward to now be standing close by Y/N’s left side.

Y/N’s eyes danced over the faces of the people she once knew, to realize that they were different. It made her throat feel snapped shut.

She swallowed, noticing the soreness of it. “Yeah…”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Choji asked, his voice taking on obvious sadness.

Y/N went to answer but Tsunade cut her off. “It was a stealth mission of the highest order. It needed to be kept secret. No one was allowed to even be aware of why or when she was leaving the village.”

“So that’s why you left without saying goodbye.” Ino voiced as she held her hand against her chest as if she were trying to keep herself focused on the now instead of thinking on what happened back then. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but when she learned that Y/N was gone and no one knew why, she feared that she had succumbed to the same darkness that corrupted Sasuke.

Y/N was her best friend, they told each other everything especially the dumbest of stuff. They always said “Hi” or Good morning, always trading a goodbye before departing on a mission. In some weird way, they felt secure in that. To them it felt like a guarantee that even though they said goodbye it would never be the last.

So when Y/N suddenly wasn’t there anymore, it left Ino afraid that she had been unable to stop her from following a path with no way to return.

Y/N hung her head in shame, now having a difficult time looking them in the eyes. All she saw was the lingering disappointment swimming in their eyes.

“You’re different than before.” Naruto added in the middle of the silence.

She knew all too well.

“Back then, whenever you were around us you were always smiling, always laughing with us. And even when we’d end up in the hospital after a mission, you were always there to cheer us up.” Naruto continued, his usual boisterous personality on the back burner as he spoke softly and sincerely.

“But now, you’ve got this blank look on your face like you don’t know what smiling is.”

He wasn’t wrong. Not at all.

Three years spent on a mission tucking away her feelings, forgetting how much she missed being home and being with friends, and forgetting what made her who she is would make anyone feel as if they didn’t belong in the very place they called home.

It wasn’t a revelation she was prepared for.

The moment she tied that headband to her head she thought the it would be in the middle of the battlefield that she’d feel the most on edge, never did she think that moment would fall on her when she was surrounded by those she loved.

“Don’t be so insensitive, Naruto.” Sakura scolded him again, though this time she spoke less angrily and more concerned for Y/N’s reaction.

“Look, what I’m saying is that you’re not the same as before. What happened out there?”

Finally, Y/N looked up. “A lot of things happened out there. And-”

“Okay, that’s enough for one day.” Shikamaru advised after several minutes of not speaking.

“But Shikamaru-” Naruto began but Shikamaru spoke over him.

“Remember she’s suffered a critical injury; she still needs time to heal and us bringing up details of a delicate mission isn’t helping.”

At that, Naruto’s blue eyes drifted to the tiled floor in a silent agreement.

“Shikamaru is right, the best thing you all can do for her is to let her rest. Her bandages need replaced anyway, so clear out.” Tsunade ordered gently while crossing her arms over her chest.

Silently, each member made their way out of the room, glancing back to Y/N a few times (collectively) before they were out the door. Y/N and Tsunade waited until they could no longer hear their footsteps to say anything else.

“He’s right.” Y/N uttered, staring down at her palms.

“That’s his other gift…” Tsunade said thoughtfully, walking around Y/N’s bed to face the window. “He senses changes in people, no matter how subtle. It’s easy to forget when he acts like a moron.”

Y/N felt her mouth quirk up into a sentimental smile. “It's because of that ability that makes him such a force to be reckoned with.”

“I agree.” Tsunade stood by the window for a few more moments then looked over her shoulder at Y/N. “Alright, how about we get those bandages changed?”

________

Time passed, at what felt like, a blink.

Another week passed before Y/N was cleared to go home, but it felt like time rushed by her. Even when her friends would visit her, the hours they’d spend trying to fill Y/N on what she missed, seemed like mere minutes; gone without a chance to turn around.

Maybe that was better.

Since that first visit, Y/N hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of guilt hanging over her. Every time any one of her old friends came to see her, she saw the sadness in their eyes.

She attempted to act like how she used to, happily-go-lucky, but it was all forced and definitely difficult to keep that up so she quickly decided to let it naturally come back to her.

Whenever that would happen.

It was hard; knowing that her friends expected her to revert back to the old days, and be who she was. And she wanted to be that for them, she truly did, it’s just being on a mission that negated any sort of humanly interaction or connection made it seem like it was all a dream to begin with.

And when she couldn’t deliver, the disappointment always returned.

Now she was a walking blank canvas; splashed with a coat of white to hide any unique colors and patterns.

It almost scared her how much she didn’t react or feel.

Would she ever be the same?

The thought lingered at the forefront of her mind while Y/N sat criss cross on her own bed.

Her back was slouching a bit which caused her to grunt in pain when she straightened herself out again.

Lady Tsunade ordered her to sit as straight as she possibly could to help the healing process, but she was a creature of habit so she’d start out with correct posture then slip back into a slouch then would quickly correct herself again.

It was causing a lot of unnecessary pain.

Y/N huffed as she forced her shoulders to lie straight and back up, being as perpendicular as she could. While she did so, she kept her eyes on the blue sky filled with an abundance of white, fluffy clouds.

Cloud watching was a hobby of her’s, particularly when there wasn’t a lot going on during her mission.

Any time she felt nervous or anxious or bored, she’d tilt her head back and watch them float.

There was something very relaxing about that process.

But she didn’t enjoy it for long when a knock came at her door. Y/N perked up, head whipping to the other side of her room.

“Who is it?” She asked aloud.

“It’s me, Ino.” The muffled voice said on the other side of the door.

Bracing herself, Y/N carefully lifted her aching body up from the bed to make her way to the front door.

She opened the door to find an anxious Ino, twiddling her thumbs. “Hi.”

“Hey, can you come with me somewhere?” Ino abruptly asked.

Y/N raised a brow at her. “I guess, but where are we going?”

Her answer visibly made Ino relax. She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “It’s a surprise.”

Then she turned on her heel, making her way down the apartment building hallway and in no time, Y/N followed close behind her.

For some reason, Ino chose not to make conversation on the way to wherever it was they were going.

Instead she quietly led the way, leaving the village houses behind with each passing step and ventured through some trees.

Something about the path they were taking looked familiar, so much so that it caused a warmth to center in Y/N’s gut spreading over her nerves like a warm blanket.

When it came to forests, three years isn’t enough time for it to change, and it looked exactly as it did back then.

Ino eventually stepped through the set of trees, and made it into a sunbathed clearing, completely lavished with a mass of flowers.

Y/N eyes grew wide at the sight; she couldn’t remember the last time she had been here even before she left.

Once she graduated from the academy there was never time to come back here, to relax and enjoy the simple colors of the flowers and their comforting smells wafting through the air.

It still looked like the small piece of heaven she loved so dearly.

“I can tell you remember this place.” Ino finally said, turning around to fully face Y/N; a soft smile on her face. “I know how much you used to love it here.”

“Why are we here?” Y/N asked, her own gaze observing every flower grazing her legs.

Ino stepped up to Y/N, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Because we loved this place when we were kids, so let’s enjoy it.”

Then Ino lightly nudged Y/N to follow her again and this time they didn’t walk that much further when they met a slight slope slanting downwards from where they were.

Ino took a spot on the small slope, then again nudged for Y/N to sit down with her. She did.

As soon as Y/N seated herself onto a patch of grass, Ino reached out and pulled out a white flower with a yellow center. “Do you remember what kind of flower this is?”

Y/N let out a quick airy laugh, caught slightly off guard by the question. “Uh..a jasmine.”

Ino nodded with a smile. Still holding the jasmine, she plucked out another one. This flower was drenched in a bright pink, petals resembling lace. “This one?”

“A carnation.”

She picked another one; it had a long green stem with a bushel of tiny purple petals at the top. “This one?”

Y/N nodded. “Lavender.”

Reaching for one more, Ino pulled up a flower with a somewhat stringy inside, center white and the petals gradually from that bright white to a light pink.

“How about this one?”

To Y/N’s shock, she didn’t recognize it. It definitely looked familiar, but there were several other flowers popping in her head that matched the look of it.

Staring at the flower, Y/N cautiously shook her head as if she were afraid she would disappoint Ino.

Ino held the flower up to her nose to smell the fragrance, closing her eyes a second to relish it before opening them again. “It’s a gladiolus.”

Y/N sadly decided not to respond to that.

“It was your favorite one back then. When we were still in the academy, you told Sakura and I that they could be all sorts of colors like pink..” she gestured to the pink one in her hand. “Or yellow or white. And you also said that they had healing properties used by our medic ninja. It was easy to tell how excited you were to tell us about it; how much you knew about flowers.”

“What’s going on, Ino? Why are we out here?” Y/N finally confronted the strange behavior of her friend.

Ino rested her hands in her lap, the flowers she’d plucked nearly falling from her limp hands. “I thought that if I could remind you of what you used to do, what we used to do together when we were kids, maybe it’d bring back the part of you that’s been hiding.”

“And you were the only one who wasn’t disappointed in me to try, huh?” Y/N laughed humorlessly.

Quickly, Ino faced her friend. “None of us were disappointed in you. We were all worried because you weren’t yourself anymore, and we could see how upset that made you.”

“Then why are you the only one who’s said anything? Why are you the only one out here?” Y/N began to feel the hopelessness grow in her chest like an infection.

Somewhere in the past week, she had rationalized that she had lost her friends because she couldn’t be there the same way as she could three years ago.

“I’m the only one out here because I asked everyone if I could be the first to help you remember. After this, Sakura and Naruto got their own thing planned for you.”

“What do you mean?” Y/N questioned, utterly confused by that statement.

“Well…” Ino began then recounted what happened only a few hours ago.

It was the middle of the afternoon when Sakura, Ino, and Naruto strolled down the street. Originally, Sakura and Ino were walking together but then Naruto saw them and caught up to them to talk as well.

There was some simple chatter going on between them when Naruto began to complain. “Don’t you guys think it’s weird that Y/N isn’t acting like herself anymore?”

Sakura and Ino stopped in their tracks, standing beside each other as Naruto took a few steps ahead before stopping himself, arms coming down to his sides after being held up in a casual posture.

“It’s not weird.” Ino answered somberly.

Sakura frowned. “It isn’t unusual for people to change when they’ve been alone on a mission for that long, especially if it was high priority.”

Naruto gritted his teeth. “I know, but it’s still weird to me. She used to be so happy back then, it was never boring when she was around, she had so much energy and now it’s like that person is gone. Like someone is impersonating her.”

“She’s not gone.” Ino was quick to add. “I can still see the cheerful girl we used to know, I think she’s just got lost along the way.”

Sakura nodded. “I think you’re right.”

There was a brief inter pause when Ino gasped, startling both Sakura and Naruto. “I have an idea!”

The other two ninja waited patiently for Ino to tell them what her idea was.

“We’ve been trying to fill her in on all that she’s missed the past three years right? Well if we instead we show her things of our past together, from when we were kids?”

Sakura’s eyes lit up. “Like when we played in the river together?”

“Or when we read comic books and played games together?!” Naurot chided, his voice grew louder than it was seconds ago.

Ino snapped her fingers and grinned. “Exactly! If we re-experience places we went, things we liked to do then maybe we could remind her of who she is.”

“It’s worth a shot at least.” Sakura smiled, looking between Ino and Naruto.

Naruto threw his fist up in the air. “Are you kidding me? That idea is awesome!”

“Alright, then from now on, each of us will try to remind Y/N of our precious memories together. Ready?” Ino closed her hand, and stuck a fist out to her friends.

Sakura and Naruto both bumped Ino’s fist, earning an excited cheer from all three at the same time.

“You see? That’s all we want, is for you to remember not who you used to be but who you are.” Ino explained, leaning over to a bundle of gladiolus flowers and extending them toward Y/N.

Her violet gaze could see the beginnings of tears gathering in Y/N’s eyes. “Like these gladiolus, maybe we could begin to heal you. If that’s okay?”

They fell, the tears that had been clouding her vision rolled down her cheeks, leaving a warm sensation in their wake.

For the first time in a long time, Y/N let out a relieved sob, taking the bundle of flowers from Ino’s grasp. Her head dipped down to stare at the colorful bouquet, watching her tears fall onto the petals and pool there.

The shame and guilt that hung off her injured back, finally disappeared, giving her the chance to breathe again, to actually breathe. Each inhale of air felt cold going down her throat but left her refreshed.

It was overwhelming.

Ino gave her space, letting her friend cry, to push out everything that she’d kept buried under a lock and key.

It wasn’t until Y/N had pulled her head back up and extended her arms out, that she hugged Y/N tightly to her and she reciprocated. Ino could feel her own tears begin to build.

Y/N cried a little while longer, then allowed herself to speak through the sobs. “Thank you; for not giving up on me.”

Ino pulled back, hands then resting softly on Y/N’s shoulders again. “That’s what friends are for.”

That caused Y/N to let out a tearful laugh and Ino mimicked that.

It was good to be home.

a/n: this was a long one, and I probably wrote more than I really needed to but honestly I do that more than people think. Regardless, if you're reading this thank you for making it all the way through this; it was a lot.

#naruto #naruto shippuden #naruto uzumaki #sakura haruno #sai #ino yamanaka #choji akimichi #shikamaru nara #sasuke uchiha #tsunade #naruto shippuden x reader #naruto imagines #naruto oneshot #naruto angst #naruto fluff #request

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sentinelpri · 1 year

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Memento Mori

May 9th, Day 1: Victory/Defeat @sandsibweek

The moment Temari hears from Gaara that Asuma has been killed in a battle against two Akatsuki members, she rushes to Konohagakure on foot and makes her way to the Nara compound with some half-baked directions from local villagers. She’s exhausted, sweaty, and in desperate need of food and a shower by the time she gets there, but she knows now isn’t the time to relax, so she doesn’t. Instead, she knocks on Shikamaru’s door and tries to keep a straight face when he answers.

“Temari, what are you doing here?” Shikamaru questions like he normally would, but upon taking a closer look at him, Temari can tell he’s defeated.

Shikamaru has bags under his eyes unlike any Temari has seen before. His face is pale and ashy but simultaneously covered in tear streaks. While Shikamaru’s hair is tied up, it’s matted and Temari can just tell it hasn’t been brushed in days. To top it all off, instead of being in his standard uniform, Shikamaru is in nothing but pajama pants.

“I came as soon as I heard,” Temari explains.

“Heard about w-?” Shikamaru starts, but then he stops. A morbid look of realization washes over his face. As he sighs, Temari notices that he reeks of cigarette smoke. “Oh, you mean Asuma. Why do you care?”

It’s an awkward question to answer. Temari cares because she cares about Shikamaru. The ravenette was much closer to his sensei than Temari ever was to hers, she could tell by hearing how Shikamaru talked about Asuma or by how the two would interact when she was in town for work. Asuma’s death must be crushing him, but Temari has never had to comfort Shikamaru like this. Though they’re friends, they’re mostly comrades, only together because of their jobs. Now, Temari is here of her own free will and unsure of how to express that she’s only here because of her love for the man in front of her.

“I… Well, I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

“Again, why do you care? It has nothing to do with you.”

“I know you’re hurting,” Temari sighs. She’s tempted to yell at him for talking to her so rudely when she came all the way from Suna to comfort him, but he’s grieving right now. Temari has grieved many more times than Shikamaru has, and she knows it turns people into the nastiest versions of themselves. Yelling won’t work, nor will sarcasm or violence or anything else that she would normally use to communicate with Shikamaru. So, she forces herself to calm down, crosses her arms, and finishes her sentence. They don’t meet each other’s eyes. “But don’t pretend we aren’t friends.”

“Look, you have more important things to worry about and I already have plenty of people mother-henning me since Asuma was killed. I don’t need another, so just go home,” Shikamaru hisses and moves to close the front door, but before he can, Temari unsheathes her fan to stick it between the wooden door and its frame.

“I’m not leaving,” Temari insists despite the glare that Shikamaru shoots in her direction. “Even if I didn’t come here for you, Gaara sent me personally to pay respects to your sensei on behalf of Sunagakure. Asuma was a fine Jonin who did a lot of work that benefited both of our villages, so it’s only appropriate.”

“I guess it’s non-negotiable, then. Come on inside,” Shikamaru huffs and opens the door. Temari looks past him and into the house; it’s nice, large with dark wooden floors and rustic decor that her own parents would’ve enjoyed back when they were alive. Taking the open door as an invitation, Temari puts her fan away and walks into the Nara compound. Shikamaru shuts the door behind her. “Since the village is in disarray right now, you should probably stay here. We have an extra room. Hell, my mom’s making ramen right now, you interested? She always has extra for a friend.”

“Oh… Sure, I guess. Why not?” Temari nods, a little unsure.

She hasn’t had a dinner with a family, let alone her own, since before Gaara was born. Even back then, it was rare because of her father’s work. The memories are so blurry now that she’s not even sure they’re real. Part of her is jealous that Shikamaru gets to have this nice compound in the middle of nature with his normal, loving parents, but part of her is happy for him too. It’s good that he has the support during this trying time that she never got to.

Moments later, a man who she assumes to be Shikamaru’s dad (based on the identical hair, eyes, and face shape) walks from the kitchen to the living room, which is connected to the entryway that she and Shikamaru are currently standing in. He’s wearing a coat made of deerskin and gloves, and his face is covered in scars.

“Shikamaru, who’s this?” The tall, lanky Nara asks. “I didn’t know we were having a guest today, I would’ve cleaned up a bit.”

Temari looks around. The house is already fucking spotless.

“Dad, this is Temari, and Temari, this is my dad; Shikaku Nara,” Shikamaru introduces them.

“Shikamaru, is this that sand village girl you’ve been talking about?” Temari hears a woman’s voice, followed by said woman popping out of the kitchen much like Shikaku did moments before. Shikamaru’s mom is on the smaller side with long black hair and eyes that are the same color but a different shape than Shikamaru’s. “I’m so glad you finally brought her home, and to think I was getting scared you’d never bring a girl to meet us!”

Temari blushes, to which Shikamaru sighs.

“And that’s my mom, Yoshino Nara.”

“Dinner will be ready soon, why don’t you two go hang out for a bit while we finish cooking in here?” Yoshino offers.

“Okay, just let us know when dinner’s ready,” Shikamaru says, and then, he’s turning and walking down one of the few hallways connected to the living room.

Temari follows. They pass what looks like Shikamaru’s room with a shogi board set out in the middle. The board’s pieces are scattered about like Shikamaru was playing a game with someone that got interrupted.

“Shikamaru, how about a game of shogi?” Temari offers, knowing that it’s one of Shikamaru’s most enjoyed hobbies aside from watching clouds and spending time with his teammates. “It could help clear your mind.”

“No, I… That set up, it’s from the last game Asuma and I played. He had lunch with my family and I, and after that, we started this game but got called to a mission in the middle of it. I hadn’t had the time to reset it, but now… I can’t bring myself to. It’s one of the only things that I have left of him,” Shikamaru confesses. Temari’s stomach drops. Sure, she had no way of knowing, but now she feels bad for even asking about it… Not that Shikamaru wasn’t already thinking about Asuma, anyway. The two walk into the room, and Temari can’t help but stare down at the dusty shogi board. She thinks about how, just weeks before, Asuma and Shikamaru were casually playing, unaware of the fate that awaited them. When Shikamaru eventually cleans up the board and moves the pieces to their starting positions, Asuma’s dust-set fingerprints will be gone forever. “Proof that he was alive.”

“Shikamaru… It’s collecting dust.”

“I know, it was from a while ago,” Shikamaru stares down at the board just as Temari was moments before. There’s longing in his eyes, yearning for the world they lived in where Asuma was still alive. Such a short time ago. “I don’t know why I even told you that.”

Temari doesn’t know what to say, so for a few seconds, she doesn’t say anything. The two of them stare at the shogi board together as the sounds of Shikaku and Yoshino happily chatting and cooking together echo in the house.

“Hey,” Temari finally speaks after what feels like eternity. She places a hand on Shikamaru’s bare shoulder and flinches when she feels just how cold it is. But, when he looks at her, she offers a smile, because she doesn’t know how else to reassure him. “It’ll be okay.”

And in a heartbeat, Shikamaru places a hand on top of hers and lets out the shaky breath he was holding.

“I know.”

Dinner that night is awkward, to say the least. Shikaku is silent for the most part, clearly able to pick up on Shikamaru’s solemn mood. Yoshino, on the other hand, is either oblivious or just really bad at handling grieving people, because she spends the entire meal excitedly asking Temari questions and trying to make smalltalk with Shikamaru when the ravenette’s clearly in a different headspace than the rest of them.

The food is good, and Shikamaru’s parents are nice if not a little weird. Then again, most ninjas are weird. At least they’re better than Temari’s father was, and at least they’re alive. Temari retreats to her guest bedroom partway through the dinner with the excuse of being exhausted from her travels, which is only half-false. Exhaustion is nothing new to her and she could handle it if she really wanted to, but hearing Shikamaru’s parents casually talk about the funeral that’s supposed to happen for Asuma tomorrow had Temari uncomfortable beyond belief.

After catching a shower and gathering her thoughts, Temari listens for noise. It seems like the Naras have finished cleaning up their dinner and gone to bed for the night, so she creeps out of her guest room and goes to knock on Shikamaru’s door. Only, the door is already open and her knock pushes it further back to reveal that no one is in the room.

Where the hell could Shikamaru be at this late at night? There’s no way Lady Tsunade gave him a mission with Asuma’s funeral being tomorrow, so he must’ve gone out on his own… But why?

Temari puts on her shoes and a raincoat before looking out into the front yard through the living room window. Shikamaru is nowhere to be seen, but his shoes are by the door. Next, she looks to the backyard, which is where she finds him; pajamas soaked through by the falling rain, hair down, sat on the grass with a doe laying by his side and her fawn curled up in his lap.

Sighing, the blonde storms out through the back door and goes to Shikamaru, who doesn’t even react to her presence. He has a limp cigarette in his mouth that’s obviously been made unusable by the rain, but regardless of that, he keeps trying to light it back to life with the silver lighter in his hand.

“Shikamaru, why are you out here?” Temari demands. “You idiot, you’re going to get sick!”

“Have you ever thought about dying?”

Shikamaru doesn’t even look at her.

“...What?”

“I said, have you ever thought about dying, Temari?”

“Well, yes. Of course I have; you’d be a fool not to in our line of work,” Temari answers, taken aback by the question. She sits next to Shikamaru on the grass even though it’s wet and uncomfortable. Thunder booms in the background. “We could die any day. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. Even before Asuma died, there have been these times… I’ll be lying on the grass, staring at the clouds or with my team enjoying a meal. We’ll laugh and smile and tell stories together, and I’ll find myself stopping to think ‘if I die, will I lose this forever? Is there an afterlife? If so, is it good and do I still get to enjoy the things and the people that I love so much in this life? If not, what’s the point?’. There are even moments where our hands brush and I get that spark of electricity that jolts through my skin, and I wonder if after death it’s just this empty void where I’ll never get to feel that for you again.”

Hesitantly, Shikamaru reaches out. Temari holds his hand and intertwines their fingers. The ravenette’s skin is wet and clammy. But, just as he described, the electricity is there- just as it always has been.

“No one can answer that. It’s like you’ve said to me, why would you waste brain power on things you can’t figure out? Morality isn’t a problem for you to solve, it’s a part of life,” Temari says. “I’m sorry you’ve been put in this position.”

“Why are you here?”

“What?”

“You said your brother sent you to pay respects to Asuma on behalf of your village, right? You didn’t have to see me to do any of that. You could’ve just stayed in a hotel, talked to the Hokage, gone to the funeral, and gone home, but instead… You rushed to my side. Why?”

Temari debates on how to answer. She wants to lie, to stay guarded like she’s used to doing, but she knows that to get Shikamaru to open up, she has to open up a little too. So, she tells the truth.

“When my mother died, no one supported me. She was my best friend and she died, but I was stuck picking up the pieces for Kankuro and Gaara while my father worried about his duties as Kazekage,” Temari explains. She thinks to back then, to how she suddenly went from having a loving mother and a great relationship with Kankuro to feeling so alone and terrified. Even years after that, she spent most of her days worrying about whether or not Gaara would finally decide to snap and kill her up until he fought Naruto. “Then when my father died, we were all too busy putting the village back together and realigning with Konoha that I didn’t stop to think about it. Even though this is different, you deserve as many people to support you through this as you can possibly get, and… I get it. So, I rushed here. I didn’t even think about it.”

“I can’t get this cigarette to light,” Shikamaru complains, his voice cracking. Temari looks closer to see that he’s crying. There’s tears streaming down his cheeks and snot running from his nostrils. His eyes are puffy, and the sobs that come from between his chapped lips are loud and heart wrenching, but Temari can’t judge him. “No matter how many times I get the end to flicker back, the rain just keeps putting it out! I…”

“Shikamaru, that’s enough,” Temari firmly says and takes both the lighter and the cigarette from Shikamaru. The two deer get up and trot away to the forest at the back of the Nara compound as Temari pulls Shikamaru up off the ground. “Let’s get you inside.”

Temari walks Shikamaru inside, trying her best to ignore the trail of water they leave all over the nice hardwood floors. She hopes it dries well enough overnight for Shikamaru’s parents not to notice. After taking the ravenette to the bathroom, Temari goes to his room to grab him a change of clothes and a towel before joining him in the bathroom.

“I didn’t think you’d be the type of woman to take care of someone like this,” Shikamaru says as he undresses and dries himself off.

“I’m not, but you’re not just ‘someone’ to me,” Temari sighs and leans against the bathroom wall.

“This is embarrassing.”

Admittedly, the last thing Temari wants to do right now is stare at Shikamaru’s body. She’s always been curious about what his lanky form would look like underneath her much fuller one, how his delicate muscles would shift in reaction to her touches, but she’s seen him partially nude on joint missions enough times to be desensitized to it in a context like this. Plus, now that she’s running her emerald eyes over him, she thinks he’s lost weight from the stress. His collarbones are much more prominent than before, his chest appears somewhat sunken in, and she can see his top two ribs when he turns a certain way.

“Honestly, I’ve seen worse, and… You’re not bad looking.”

“Even though I’ve been bawling my eyes out for half an hour?” Shikamaru laughs as he changes into the clothes that Temari brought him, a t-shirt and loose boxers.

“Yeah, your face is only a little puffy. It’s not too bad, though you’d probably look a lot better if you slept. You’re getting bags under your eyes, and that is unsightly.”

“I know, I know, but I haven’t been able to sleep since…”

“Nightmares?”

“Nightmares.”

“Then you can sleep with me tonight,” Temari offers and grabs Shikamaru by the hand despite how his face turns strawberry red.

“But-!”

“I don’t care what it looks like or if it’s embarrassing or whatever. If you’re too prideful to reach out for help, Shikamaru, I’ll shove my way in and help you anyway,” Temari insists as they enter Shikamaru’s bedroom. They close the door and stumble through the dark to Shikamaru’s bed. While Shikamaru lies on the mattress on his back, Temari ditches her shoes, coat, and pants. “You clearly need to get some rest, and if having someone by your side will help, I really don’t care what the implication of sleeping with you is, you hear me?”

“...Yeah, I hear you.”

With that, Temari crawls in bed next to Shikamaru, who quickly turns to lay on his side and wraps his arms around Temari. She’s taken aback by the sudden touch, but she doesn’t complain as he buries his face in her chest and sighs. His whole body seems to relax.

Hesitantly, Temari wraps her arms around Shikamaru in return and asks-

“Are you okay?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you need anything?”

“No, thanks.”

“I’ll be here,” Temari says, because it’s the only way she’s figured out how to communicate her love to the man in front of her.

But, somehow, it seems like he’s already three steps ahead of her, because he responds-

“I love you, too.”

-and falls asleep.

#SandSibWeek #sand siblings #temari #shikamaru nara #shikatema #naruto #naruto shippuden #naruto shippuden fanfiction #tw death #tw death mention #fluff and angst #fanfiction #oneshot #oneshots #drabble #drabbles

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mrs-barnes-library · 1 year

Text

That's Right I Win Or I Thought I Would || Naruto characters x fem!Light!reader

Including : Kakashi Hatake, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki

A/n : Okay now this is really interesting, I'm affraid it'll turn angst but I love angst so tha'ts cool ahah. Also dear and everyine please if you have request I prefer to receive them on @moumouton4 which is my main account where I post my fics whereas @mrs-barnes-library is just a library where I gather fics of hundreds of amazing writers. That being said thank you and let's go

A/n 2 : Also dear @pinkienoobie I'm sorry I wrote a LOT but I got inspired I hope you'll like it

A/n 3 : The quote from Light should have been in red but Tumblr didn’t let me post it this way I’m sorry for this

Warnings : Death Note graphic scenes of death, angst, betrayal, extreme sadness, mistrust, god complex, reader is a brain, mention of loss and grief, death of reader only in one, spoiler for a character death in Naruto Shippuden season 4 for Shikamaru's part, chronology not respected for Kakashi and Naruto's part, Shikamaru and Naruto are the same age as in Shippuden S12

Masterlist ⚜

I don’t give permission to repost my work, if you want to share it just reblogue it

Words count : 4086

Kakashi Hatake :

You were very close to the Uchiha clan and you were devastated by the events of that famous night which had deprived you forever of your two best friends Shisui and Itachi.

It seemed to be a twist of fate when you stumbled upon a strange black notebook that you had found in the forest under a bramble bush - ouch

Once you got to know the God of Death, whom you discovered was called Ryuk, you decided to use the extraodinary power of this find to avenge the death of your friends and the Uchiha clan

The first person you used it on was of course Danzo Shimura, the one who caused the situation to go wrong

Of course you didn't do this in the normal way, you could have just written his name down and made him die of a heart attack but you made a show of it, you made him go to the public square, explain his crimes, show the eye he had stolen from Shisui and the eyes he had grafted in his right arm, after that you made him tear out his eye and cut off his arm before cutting off his tongue, the tongue that had caused so much harm before he stuck the kunai in his lung and let him die of asphyxiation

Of course everyone - or almost everyone - had witnessed the scene and was almost more shocked at what he had done while he was alive than at the violence of his death

Kakashi had noticed that day that the atmosphere in the village had changed, a climate of fear reigned

All thought it was made by a Genjutsu but Sasuke had disappeared, only Kakashi remained, who of course knew that he had done nothing. However he noticed that you didn't seem to be really upset, dare he even say that you seemed happy about it. After all it was legitimate but still

So he decided not to worry but to keep an eye on you, not because he suspected you but in case the author of this act tried to come after you

But if only he knew

After that you started to go on missions for the Hokage, without telling him, you always took missions that would allow you to be in the same area as the enemies that you wanted to get ride of with your Death Note and thanks to the power of the Shinigami eyes

No one ever made the connection between your missions and his unexpected deaths

Well, nobody except Kakashi, who noticed that the deaths were taking place during the same periods as your absences, he just didn't know where you were going or where the enemies you were killing were

He had also noticed a strange change in your aura, a kind of melancholy associated with eagerness but what he didn't know. It also seemed that on the rare occasions when you were in Konoha and he came to spend time with you, you refused to go out all the time and even did everything to get him out of your house as soon as possible, as if you had better things to do

He would have advised you to sleep, because of the dark circles under your eyes that showed your lack of sleep

But EVERYTHING went wrong one evening, when he was walking in the forest to clear his head, he stumbled upon a familiar figure lying on her stomach on the ground behind a bush, writing frantically and laughing psychotically

His eyes widened and he stepped on a branch that cracked making you stop moving before whipping your head towards him

"Y/n what are you doing here ?" he asked his voice shaking as if it knew something more than he did. He held his hand out to you to help you up, but it didn't have the desired effect at all

"Don't touch it ! Stay back !" you yelled clutching the Death Note against your chest, he took another step in your direction, resuming in you throwing a kunai at his feet made him stop his advance

"Y/n what the hell are you doing ?" he asked surprised in his voice clear and noticeably out of breath

Another noise was heard and Anbus ninjas, which obviously took you in tailing for a while already, unfortunately your measures did not allow you to escape

"L/n Y/n you are under arrest" one of them shouted at you but you didn't listen to anything

You quickly wrote their names while avoiding their attacks, they all started to fight again one another and the last one fell down dead of a heart attack in the next 30 seconds under the frightened eyes of Kakashi

"I'm ridding the world of evil and creating a utopia. No matter how much time I have, it won't be enough. I have no time to loose on you"

He couldn't believe his eyes, his legs were shaking slightly and his breathing was shallow "Oh no not again" he thought, he felt like the day he had seen Obito again after all those years thinking he was dead

Your wild eyes locked on his, and he took a step backwards for fear that you would decide to attack him if you felt rushed by his proximity

"Please Y/n put that down we'll settle-"

"No ! I did this for all of us ! I have avenged the village and I will continue to purify the world as a vengeful and protective deity-"

"Protective deity ? Can you hear yourself talk ?!?" his brain was working at full speed, how should he handle the situation, should he arrest you or let you execute criminals at all, should he go as far as killing you- no no it's impossible, he already lost everything, he can't afford to lose the person he cares about the most to die, not by his hand, not again ( I'm not saying that he loved Rin only that he killed her with his hand )

"Don't you find life in the village better now that I have blessed it with my power ! Don't you feel the serenity of the place ?

"Y/n..." he said sadly, his voice low, "You are rambling. You are not in your right mind. Let me help you-" he took another step slowly towards you

"Not one more move or I'll have to clean the village of your presence as well !" your trembling hand holding your pen, holding it perpendicular to the page of the notebook, your voice echoed in the moonlit forest in a frightening manner

Kakashi couldn't believe his eyes you were going to coldly kill him, but he couldn't let you do that, however he couldn't bring himself to kill you either, but little by little he realized that it was either you or him, and who knows what you would be capable of doing after killing the man you had shared your life with for all those years

Suddenly you saw him put his hand in the pocket of his bag and you rushed to write his name on the notebook

"Kakashi Hata-"

Too late, an erasure coming down from your "A" scratched the bottom of the page as your hand jerked uncontrollably as the pen - your weapon - slipped from your hand, as the kunai in your throat made you choke, so that you spat blood on the open page of the notebook and dropped it to the ground

Kakashi had acted without thinking, out of survival, he didn't think either when he set fire to the damned book he thought was cursed

He took you in his trembling arms, tears forming in his eyes, he uttered apologies expressing all the regret that consumed him secondes after what he did, but nothing reached your ears which could only hear a white and continuous sound, like a whistle

You continued to flail frantically in his arms as you watched your Death Note burn, until exhaustion forced you to close your eyes

You wondered if it was the kunai that would take your life first or if it was the burning notebook that would have the upper hand, but wasn't it you who started it all ?

"It was the right thing to do... you'll be more useful to them than me" you coughed blood on his chest leaning over you, as if the old you wanted to speak one last time

"Don't wear yourself out, I-I'll take you back to the village, you'll be fine, I-I love you please stay with me" he was talking so fast, but yet he was slowly realizing what was happening and that maybe you wouldn't make it

You closed your eyes in exhaustion, feeling his love surround you, it almost didn't hurt anymore with his warmth against you

He panicked as he felt your body relax in his arms, he repeated your name over and over frantically like a mantra, tears flowing from his eyes like streams

And just like that it was over, after a lifetime together with each other, you were going separate ways for the first time

Kakashi would continue to curse himself for the rest of his life for not knowing how to handle the situation in a better way and for not realizing it before

However what was done was done and he would have to live with it, he just hoped that once everything was over he would be able to find you, in heaven or in hell

During his next battle he will be informed that his pupil has changed, thanks to you he developed the Mangekyō Sharingan

Shikamaru Nara :

Let's say that if you found the Death Note and got the Shinigami eyes 5 months ago, well he was suspecting it since the first month

Actually you knew each other since your first year at the Ninja school and you were dating for almost 3 years now

His intelligence helped him a lot but contrary to what we can think it's not a change of your behavior that made him have this intuition

In fact, your intelligence was neck and neck with his, so you always pretended to be less intelligent than you were, so that those who thought were manipulating you would be caught in their own trap

However in this case you got caught in your own trap, at first you only used your eyes to know the names of the people you had to kill for the sake of the Ninja World - you were convinced of that, after all who could have done it if you didn't

But it only lasted a month and soon you turned to bigger and bigger criminals, which of course attracted the attention of Konoha's intelligence services

It was Shikaku, Shikamaru's father, who realized that the killer had to be from Konoha, because the deaths happened just after the said criminal had harmed Konoha in any way

Of course to complete your mission you had to infiltrate the Intelligence Service to keep up to date with everything that was going on and so you know about their progress on the investigation

Shikamaru noticed the dark circles under your eyes, or the twitch of your eyes the moments when someone made you angry, you could really look mad in those moments but being the relaxed boy he is he didn't pay more attention to it but he smtill kept it in a corner of his mind... just in case

The moment you got caught was the moment you let your feelings show the most

Indeed, Azuma sensei had been killed by Hidan's hand with the assistance of Kakuzu his Akatsuki companion. Shikamaru, Ino and Shoji were devastated

Shikamaru's eyes were full of sadness and hatred, which made you do what would start the process that would end your reign

Just two days after this tragic event you returned to your room and retrieved your Death Note which you had cleverly hidden in a wall in your room. You had been on the said mission which had ended with the death of your boyfriend's sensei, so you had thanks to your Shinigami eyes been able to see the first and last names of Hidan and Kakazu, and it was a piece of cake for you to remember them

You began to smile unhealthily as you wrote down the little story you had prepared for their grand finale

You made sure to manipulate Naruto ( sorry bro but I had to ) so that he asked the 3 ex-team members of Team 10 to go near the Konoha village gate

As you expected, Hidan and Kakazu arrived, all your friends who attended the scene mouth agape for some and jaw clenched for Shikamaru, he tried to use the Shadow Possession Jutsu to stop them but nothing happened for the good and simple reason that the power of the Death Note was greater

The two men continued to walk with ease, in an almost robotic way until they reached the group. Once they were at a decent distance, they bent down to 90 % and in a monotonous voice apologized for what they had done. Kakazu gave a kunai to Hidan, everyone jumped backwards but Hidan turned the weapon towards Kakuzu and pierced all his hearts and he died in a pool of blood. Then Hidan ( I'm so sorry baby T.T ) took the kunai and after apologizing one last time he stuck it in the throat, under the astonished eyes of everyone

Of course you knew that because that's what you had written, for obvious reasons you couldn't risk going to blow your cover on the field

Of course this was hidden from the other members of the village and the Intelligence Service started to do the necessary research to find the origin of what had just happened

After this eventful night, Shikamaru went to the Intelligence Office reluctantly, he went to get the information about the serial deaths. Of course it didn't take him long before he was caught by a colleague of his father and was thrown into his office. His father half-heartedly made it clear to him that you were the prime suspect and Shikamaru reluctantly explained what he had seen change in you over the past 4 months

And so in the same way that L found out that Kira was living in Tokyo, it was broadcast on your television that Shikamaru had died, killed by the same cold hand that had perpetrated all these murders, and you had run to his house, losing all notion of your plan, forgetting that it could only be a crazy scheme, and you had screamed that you it wasn't possible, taht something else must have killed him and that the killer was going to pay from your hand

But as you were about to go home to think, you felt that you had lost control of your body and you were completely frozen in place

"Shadow Possession Jutsu now complete"

When you recognized him you burst into tears, not only out of relief but also because you realized that you had they must have found out

"No I-I-I did everything for the good of the village y-YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME ! NOT AFTER ALL I'VE DONE !" as you started to scream your voice had changed in a frightening way and you started to shout to - it seemed to someone that nobody else could see - to do something

Shikamaru was frightened and disconcerted by the situation, he grabbed you in his arms as if he suspected that it might be the last time he could hold you like this, he understood why you did it but he couldn't validate your way of doing it

"Ryuk you FUKCING PIECE OF SHIT I'M YOUR MASTER YOU MUST OBEY-"

"Shhhhhh Y/n please don't make it anymore difficult" Shikamaru's voice slightly broke which made you look up at him, your crazy eyes staring into his, a pang in your heart was felt when you saw the tears rolling down his cheeks

You tried to bring your hands to his cheeks but you couldn't move any more "I did it for you Shikamaru, for us, for the village" as you spoke you thought of everything, maybe you could give up the Death Note and get the Shinigami eyes back until the division of your life expectancy would be not enough to keep you alive but unfortunately it was impossible the Death Note was still in your house

You were thrown into the dungeon, of course they tried to make you talk, but nothing happened as they expected, it seemed that you had found a way to get a piece of a page of the Death Note with which you proceeded to assassinate Ibiki, his screams were almost hidden by bursts of voice as you stood over him "I am righteous ! I'm the Hero who's liberating people from fear. I'm the Savior who's going to be like a Goddess of this perfect new world !"

Then everyone agreed on the fact that you were a threat to Konoha and they chose to end your life as quickly as possible

Of course back in those days no one knew what had happened to you and Shikamaru didn't learn this until years later when he was hired as the Hokage's right hand man.

The news took him back to that very dark part of your childhood and he was once again devastated

But did he know that you managed to escape just in time ? How could he ? Konoha had been so ashamed that they preferred not to mention anywhere this important information In any case you were still there preparing your return. Oh yes, it was going to be a blast "That's right. I win !"

Naruto Uzumaki :

Naruto is a smart boy but in this case it's not him who will realize it, not by himself, maybe Shikamaru will tell him or he will realize that Tsunade is hiding something from him, if for example she would ask him to keep an eye on you for your safety, when he is already doing it, or if she would ask Yamato or Sai to follow you

You used the Death Note to get rid of the Akatsuki members who were stealing their lives ( except Itachi because he deserves the world )

Of course nobody understood and everybody was chocked when they learned the news of the death of the powerful nunkenins who formed the Akatsuki

Your behavior had also changed a lot, dark circles had appeared under your eyes, you fidgeted a lot, but most of the time you managed to keep the act of the happy girl you used to be, wonderfully foolinganyone who crossed your path

Finally the only problem was that you didn't think that Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit that Naruto had just befriended, would have the ability to see the God of Death that had been with you since you had found the Death Note. And of course he had told his host

Naruto couldn't believe his ears, how could he believe that you, his sweet and compassionate girl, would be able to kill in such an arbitrary way

"They say that love makes you blind Naruto, not stupid" Kurama had warned him and his words were still echoing in the head of the blond after 3 good days

Naruto being Naruto he didn't bother to think about it and just confronted you

Of course he didn't lose sight of your objective and refuted everything he said with a big smile painted on your lips

Of course convinced that you would never do any harm in this way he left your house reassured and serene

While you quickly went back to your room to add some names in your Death Note

But if you thought you were alone now that Naruto was gone, you didn't count on a ninja sent by Tsunade who had totally disappeared his presence to spy on you

Of course you were caught, and taken by force to the office of the Hokage, your Death Note forgotten on your desk, too bad Tsunade should have taken an Anbu rather than a vulgar jönin

Of course your screams had alerted many people and Naruto had found himself in less time than it takes to say it in the 5th Hokage's office

"Grandma Tsunade ! Where is Y/n ?!? Why did you take her ?!?"

"That's none of your business Naruto !!" she roared at him

He immediately understood that if she didn't want to tell him it was because you were in a bad situation

He rushed into the dungeons, once in front of it he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard your screams, he panicked thinking that you were being tortured, he moved forward discreetly to be able to hit from behind whoever was hurting you but when he arrived in front of your cell he only saw you and he could hear clearly what you were saying, and it was as if his world had just collapsed

"I order you to let me out of here you subhuman. I've never been so humiliated in my entire life"

"Y-Y/n ?"

"Naruto ?!? Please come and help me ! I'm the only one who can save the village !"

He didn't understand what you had to save the village from and obviously his lack of action made you snap at him

"Naruto write her name in my notebook ! Don't listen to anyone and write her name ! Don't let her keep us apart like this !"

He shook his head as he took a few steps towards you "Y/n what are you talking about-"

"I'll tell you how to do it ! Just get me out of this cell !"

"Sorry I can't-" you didn't listen to the rest of his excuse and invoked your Death Note ready to manipulate anyone - even him - to get you out of that damn cell

"Hey no ! Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu !" a clone of Naruto caught you in his arms and kicked the notebook out of the cell

Held in his arms you were fussing around like a wild animal "Don't you dare touch me I'm your Goddess !

"Dattebayo Y/n calm down ! What's wrong with you !"

You started to shake and suffocate in his arms, he was going to ruin everything you've been doing all this time just like that with a stupid clone when you had the power of a God of Death on your side

"Y/n ! Oh fuck ! Dattebayo breathe !" he prayed as he ran his hand reassuringly over your back "It's okay we'll get through this together ! All is not lost !"

And finally by dint of talking you were forced to listen to him and breathe calmly, his words gave you hope, but not like he would have wanted

If you were thinking well the Death Note was not the only way to come to your ends. There were great ninjas out there who had left the village to try to become more powerful - cough cough Orochimaru - that you could try to find and try to be the student of

You looked up and met Naruto's eyes, he had succeeded in making peace with Kyubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit so why couldn't you succeed in leaving the village and following the teachings of these great ninjas

You couldn't give up on the Death Note though because if you did you would forget the fight you had now decided to lead

"Fine" you let your body clamor in the arms of his clone as he brushed your hair with his fingers, far from thinking that now and with half of the life you had left you were going to do everything to reach this divine power in another way than with the help of Ryuk

Whether you like it or not, you will get out of this cell, you will leave this village and you will become powerful and you will purify the world of the filth that poisons it

And they would fear the wrath of a Goddess, they would fear you

Cut to Naruto following you all around the country like he did with Sasuke

A/n : I hope you liked the angst 😏 Again my requests are open 😘

Taglist : @foxxymunson, @cl0vr, @ilovemanypeople, @glossy1pearl, @jane57sstuff

#naruto #naruto imagine #naruto shippuden #naruto shi^^uden imagine #kakashi hatake #kakashi hatake x reader #kakashi hatake imagine #shikamaru nara #shikamaru nara x reader #shikamaru nara imagine #naruto uzumaki #naruto uzumaki x reader #naruto uzumaki imagine #death note #death note imagine #light yagami #angst #miri-writes #naruto shippuden imagine

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hyuganejiswife · 1 year

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Ouch | Shikamaru Nara X GNReader

Masterlist

| REQUESTED, reader gets hurt during a mission, shika drops everything to help them, blood, mention of death, stabbing

Word Count: 598

You’d been teamed up with Shikamaru and his teammates, along with yours, on a mission that required as many available ninjas as possible. While it wasn’t the most dangerous, it certainly required numbers if it were to be successful.

Another kunai knife whizzes past your head and when you go to return the favor, another strikes you in the shoulder. The second one to hit you imbeds itself in between your ribs, almost as if the one behind it was taunting you, making your death a slow one.

A third finds its home in your abdomen and in seconds you’re on your knees, two more coming your way, until they’re not. Bothe blades are stopped in mid air, Shikamaru rushes towards you, having caught onto their shadows nearly too late. The last two would have surely finished you off but he had turned just in time.

He hated being on missions with you. Not because he didn’t trust that you could do your job, of course he did. He even believed that you were nearly as smart as he was.

But no, as he approaches you, he’s reminded of why he hates it so. Because if you die, he has to watch the love of his life take their last breath. He nearly slides on the ground as he gets closer to you, bringing his hand up to your face.

“Can you stand?” Shikamaru asks. You nod your head, albeit, a bit shaky as you make an attempt to climb to your feet.

Just as soon as you manage to get upright, your knees buckle. Your vision goes blurry as you collapse to your knees again, attempting to grab at a tree, the man, or anything…

Shikamaru catches you, helping you to sit back down, blood beginning to pull on the ground beneath you. “Sorry…” You whisper, your eyes fluttering, “I-”

“It’s okay.” Shikamaru slips a hand under your legs, his other arm going around your back as he hoists you up rather easily, carrying you into the thick of the trees and away from the fight. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re okay. You’re gonna be okay…”

He sets you down once he’s sure that you’re far enough away from the fighting, quickly getting to work in pulling an abundance of pouches from both your pouch and his. He makes quick work of the kunai in your shoulder, believing that would be the quickest wound to treat while the two of you waited for your teams.

“Ouch.”

“I know…” Silence. Your eyes flutter shut and Shikamaru freezes, panicking when he sees that you appear to have lost consciousness. “Y/N. Wake up.”

“I’m awake. I’m just… tired.”

“Then open your damn eyes. Keep them on me. Keep talking. But do not close your eyes. Not yet. Not here.”

“I’m okay, Shika,” you smile weakly, your face pale as you shiver, growing cold as you continue to lose more blood. “I’m okay.”

“Yeah. Well, it’d be a real drag if you died right now… I’m not ready for that, so just do what I say and talk to me.”

“Okay. I can do that… I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”

“Stop being sappy,” he mumbles, tightening the bandage a bit in an attempt to distract you from the conversation of possibly losing you. You cry out in pain, clenching your fist as you try not to hit him. “Sorry.” One look at the small smirk on his face and you roll your eyes as you try to take calming breaths.

“I hate you.”

“I love you too.”

#bleu.writes #naruto x reader #naruto #naruto drabble #naruto fluff #naruto angst #shikamaru fluff #shikamaru imagines #shikamaru nara #shikamaru x reader #shikamaru nara x reader #shikamaru nara imagine

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moumouton4 · 1 year

Text

Fluff : 🌺 Smut : 🔥 Angst : 😭 None : 🌲 Incorrect Quotes : 💫

Shikamaru Nara ♟ :

What Reboots His System Right Away 🌺

Their Reactions When You Return From A ( Long ) Mission 🌺

Their Reactions To You Going "What The Fuck ?!?" 🌺

How He Reacts To You On His Lap, Making Out And You Start Rocking Your Hips Against His 🔥

Random NSFW Headcanons That Aren't Always Canon 🔥

First Time 🔥

Their Reactions To You Offering Them Flowers 🔥

Sending Them A Text After You Broke Up 🔥

Fantasy 🔥

Clothes Stay On ( 2 ) 🔥

That's Right I Win Or I Thought I Would 😭

→ back to Fandom Masterlist ⚜

Characters I write for 👀

⚠ I don’t give permission to repost my work, if you want to share it just reblogue it ⚠

#naruto imagine #naruto shippuden imagine #shikamaru nara #shikamaru nara x reader #shikamaru nara imagine #miri-writes #shikamaru nara x reader smut #shikamaru nara smut #shikamaru nara angst #shikamaru x reader

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sunstaar · 2 years

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Third Time's the Charm

Shikamaru x gn!reader

Hiiii :)

So I just wanted to tell you I've been reading your blog for the past 7 hours haha it's almost 4 am here in Mexico were I'm from and your writing is SOOOOO good I'm obsessed, I love how you write Kakashi 🥰🥰🥰

And well so I just wanted to ask you, if it's not too much trouble, if you could write something with Shikamaru since I am sucker for him, something like the reader and him get on each other's nerves all the time, like they are so similar and there's this rivalry, Kakashi is fully aware that they have feelings for each other lol, reader and Shika go on a mission and you get injured and he takes care of your wound and he's so gentle about it that it makes reader question everything now. I know it's kind of specific, and honestly you don't have to do it, just something with Shika would be amazing, anything, that was just a thought

And seriously thank you for the amazing content 💓💓

Thank you so much for your request! I'm glad you enjoyed my writing, I really appreciate it! This took a bit longer than expected to write, but I do hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Also, I should note that along the way of me writing this, it became more and more dramatic... and the wound kind of escalated at one point? I did attempt to steer this into a more gentle way and I do hope it worked, at least somewhat...

Word Count: 5,3k

Warning: mentions of death, violence

tags: @smelllikeme , Ao3

Summary: They say third time's the charm, and Shikamaru hopes it is enough to save you.

Shikamaru could still vividly remember the day his sensei Asuma had died in his arms. As though the memory was burned into his brain, it came to haunt him in his sleep time and time again, nourishing his doubts and regrets, harvesting his heartbreak. Each time the dream came to haunt him, it appeared more vivid than the last time, so much so that Shikamaru could feel the blood of his sensei on his hand again and the way the older man’s body shivered in his last moments. The sombré tone of Asuma was etched into the memory, accompanied by the gruff undertone the dark-haired man always spoke with. His last words most importantly, Shikamaru felt as though they were in his heart, something he would never forget, and take with him to his grave.

The future head of the Nara clan could also remember how his father had died during the Fourth Shinobi War. The way Ino beside him cried out at the loss of her own father shook his mind to the core and had his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach, bile beginning to crawl up his throat. His mind was in shambles, but he was required to get right back to work and push away all of his sorrow and his grief so they could win the war. Only at the grave of his father, his sobbing mother standing beside him did Shikamaru get a moment to allow his grief to swallow him, almost drowning in it to the point he couldn’t breathe.

The sensation of death surrounding his entire being was something Shikamaru never wanted to feel again. It was a feeling he despised with all his being.

Following the death of two of the most important people in his life, two men to whom he had looked up since childhood, and whom he had set as an example for himself, Shikamaru vowed that under no circumstance, he would ever let someone important to him die again. At all cost, even when it meant he would endanger his own health, he would make sure that those dear to him would make it to see the light of another day, live to wake up in Konoha, and get back onto their feet.

To his dismay, death, however, was a treacherous thing, one that did not listen to the prayers and vows of the people. It did not matter to death what Shikamaru promised, neither did it matter what the dark-haired man intended to do. As a mere man, Shikamaru did not stand above danger and near-death situations, a lesson he soon learned during a mission alongside you.

When he strode into the Hokage’s office one morning, the smell of cigarettes lingering around his body, and his hands buried deep into the pockets of his pants, Shikamaru had not expected the man to hand him a mission instead of paperwork.

The Hokage had always been a walking enigma, mystery shrouded around him. So, Shikamaru shouldn’t have expected anything else but a surprise awaiting him.

His first clue to something being different had been the sight of you in the Hokage’s office, sitting on one of the two chairs placed in front of the desk. Despite only being able to see your back as he entered, that little piece of information was enough to identify you. Maybe it was the way you slouched in your chair that gave Shikamaru the necessary clue, or the exact shade of your (h/c) that he could never forget even if he wanted to. Either way, his expression morphed into one of recognition as soon as he saw you sitting there.

Without saying anything, Shikamaru made his way over to the chair beside yours and sat down, ignoring how you scrunched up your nose in response. There was a curious gleam in the Hokage’s eyes, but neither Shikamaru nor you could tell what exactly it indicated. His gaze flickered between the two of you, his charcoal eyes settling last on the piece of paper laying on his desk to skim over it quickly before talking to the two of you.

With a smirk playing on his lips, not visible to either of you, Kakashi leaned back in his seat. “Do either of you know why I asked you to come?”

You were the first to narrow your eyes. “To go on a mission, I presume?” Once you glanced over at the raven-haired man sitting beside you, the smell of cigarettes still lingering on his vest. Then, you forced yourself to focus on the Hokage again, trying to keep yourself from frowning visibly. “Together, most likely.”

Merely from how you strained the first word, the Hokage could tell your lack of enthusiasm when it came to the mission. That was no surprise to him, he already had expected such a reaction from both you and Shikamaru, so he paid it no mind. He was following his very own mission, after all, and not even the two of you disagreeing would keep him from continuing on with it.

“I chose the two of you to complete this mission because it is of importance,” Kakashi began, sitting a little straighter in his seat now. He really could have chosen anyone besides you and Shikamaru, but neither of you needed to know that fact and potentially mess with his meddling. “And I trust you to complete it. Together.”

Both of you had to swallow down the groans of annoyance you were about to let out. It had to be a joke, didn’t it? An unnecessary joke from the Hokage himself, in that case.

“Don’t you two look at me like that,” Kakashi felt like he was reprimanding two children, not two of the most capable and intelligent Shinobi. He shot both of them a warning look before he slid the information slip across the table for them to take, deciding that briefing them now would cause him more of a headache. “The mission begins tomorrow. I expect the two of you to get a good night’s sleep and head off early in the morning.”

Kakashi did not even need to dismiss the two of you, as you both willingly left the Hokage’s office without a word to him or each other. The first to go had been Shikamaru, who stood up as soon as he had skimmed over the paper, pushing his chair back with a loud screech, before he pushed the door to Kakashi’s office open and left. You quickly followed suit, with a few seconds of difference so you wouldn’t run into the dark-haired male when outside of the office. The silence remaining was loud, to say the least, and left the room colder than it was before.

(That did not have the Hokage doubt his meddling, not even in the slightest as Shizune could see as soon as she entered the room with a cup of tea in her hand.)

The raven-haired woman let out a sigh, placing her hands on her hips as soon as she sat down the tea on his desk. “What did you do now?” From the gleam in his charcoal eyes alone she could see he was up to something.

Kakashi leaned back against his chair, stretching out his legs and arms, listening to his joints cracking in the process. His playful gaze settled on Shizune, a twinkle in his eyes. “Oh, you know, nothing.”

Shizune knew that he was lying, and couldn’t help but worry about what the man was brewing up.

You could still remember when you first met Shikamaru back in the academy when the two of you had still been young children starting their way of being a Shinobi. To you, it was like the memory was burned into your brain, something you knew you’d never forget due to the significance of that day to you.

Your first crush you would never forget, anyway.

Already within the first few months of starting the academy, you had begun to develop a crush on the raven-haired boy from your class. You weren’t sure what it had been that had pulled you to the Nara, whether it had been his unmatchable intelligence, or his lazy attempts at humor, which often came out dry, you didn’t know. At his witty jokes, you often were the first and only student to laugh, the only one to understand it immediately and also find it funny. Your attention was always drawn to him, your eyes always finding a way to settle on his slouched figure. Your chin would rest on your hand as you daydream of some kind of future together, wistful sighs pushing past your lips.

Something just drew you to him. You couldn’t exactly explain when your crush on him blossomed to become something fully fletched, you could only build your tower of hopes and dreams, and continue to stare at him during class with your lovesick gaze.

Little you had thought of Shikamaru as cute and adorable. Just as many of your other classmates did, like Sakura and Ino, you attempted different combinations of your name with his, meshing them together, writing your first name in combination with his last name, or even hyphenating both of your names. Little hearts quickly joined your messy ideas, little love notes adding to your expression of feelings, or in that case, lack of open and honest expression of feelings.

(To say the least, you had been head over heels for the genius boy since early childhood).

At one point, everything had begun to change, however. You would pinpoint the time of change to around the Chuunin exams, specifically the first round of the one-versus-one fights. It was the round in which you lost in a one versus one against Shikamaru, shame coursing through you as embarrassment had your cheeks feeling warm, your head cast downward as you accepted your defeat.

It wasn’t even that you were a bad Shinobi or one below average, because that wasn’t the case, not at all. Rather, you couldn’t match Shikamaru’s wit and intelligence, the two qualities you had so dearly admired, which had become your downfall on your way to becoming a Chuunin. They became the qualities you too, wished to possess, qualities you were becoming jealous of, and you thought of as necessary to be a Chuunin.

With the help of your understanding and supporting sensei, you were determined to become better than the boy who, unbeknownst to him, crushed your heart during the exams. It had taken some time without a doubt, but every second you spend gaining knowledge was worth it when you finally caught up with the raven-haired later and became a Chuunin without even losing one round.

The climb was hard, there was no doubt there, but the result was a better version of you, one determined not to allow their heart to be broken again, one that wished to be better than the boy who did so.

All of your hard feelings toward Shikamaru, mixed with the jealousy you felt toward his abilities brought you to this point: a mission with him. This happening would’ve been little you’s dream, and yet, for obvious reasons, you couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the prospect of having to go on a mission with Shikamaru.

What if you embarrassed yourself again, or something worse happened? You couldn’t cope with that, you would most likely sink into the ground from all the embarrassment. So, you were yet again determined, determined to be better than him.

During the mission, you couldn’t slack up, you knew that which was why you chose not to engage in any witty banter stemming from Shikamaru. On your way to the mission’s location, you ignored the few words leaving the raven-haired’s mouth, but listened nonetheless, little you rather excited to learn more about the Nara.

Halfway to your destination, the silence between the two of you had become unbearable. You were basically itching to say something, anything really, to break the silence and to have it stop. But you kept tight-lipped.

The green trees around the two of you became shades darker the further you were walking into the thick forest surrounding Konoha, leaving your home further behind you with every step you took. Walking under the large shades of the trees felt somewhat peaceful to both you and Shikamaru, the harsh sunlight of the summer sun no longer blinding either of you or burning your skin. The longer the two of you walked, however, the path seemed to grow smaller and smaller, the trees growing closer to what was supposed to be the path. It was like the forest was pushing you together, or so you thought as your shoulders accidentally bumped.

“Sorry!” You squeaked out immediately, your cheeks feeling warmer upon contact. Why did you have to be that clumsy, again? “Didn’t mean to.”

And here you were embarrassing yourself of all things, making the mission more uncomfortable than it already was.

Shikamaru cleared his throat, his eyes flittering to look over at you, before looking away again. “It’s fine.” He said, his hands twitching in his pockets, as though he was itching to do something. You noticed, though didn’t say anything.

You were walking shoulder by shoulder by now, the close proximity of the trees forcing you to do so, not knowing that neither of you would get to say something else to the other before everything went to shit.

Neither of you had seen the attack coming, as both of you were lost in your own bubble of thought concerning one another. It wasn’t professional to do of either of you, since both of your attention should have been dedicated to protecting yourself and your partner on your way to the destination instead, and yet, here both of you were, about to be ambushed because of your own lack of attention.

The first indication that you aren’t alone in the forest came from one of the trees, a small rustling of the leaves that sounded too big to be of a bird. Shikamaru stopped you in your step, his hand grasping your upper arms to keep you from moving forward. Both of you were now alert when it came to your surroundings, the hairs on your arms standing up from the chill running down your spine.

It didn’t take long for the intruders to reveal themselves, sly smirks tugging at their lips, the upper part of their faces covered with masks, holes cut within them to leave their eyes uncovered. While the men and women looked ridiculous, it was no time to laugh as they pulled out their knives and got ready to perform Jutsu.

“If you want to enter, you’ll have to go through us first.” spoke the leader of the group, his tone deep and intended to sound threatening.

The woman beside him twirled a knife in her hand, adding, “We don’t let people pass without a price being paid first, that goes without saying.”

You weren’t nervous at all about the impending confrontation, not at all, really. You not only trusted yourself and your capabilities but also the ones of Shikamaru. Regardless of that, your hand moved to where your own knife lay against your hip. “And what would be said price?”

For a mere moment, shock crossed the features of the woman, but she was quick to revert her facial expression back to one of nonchalance. “You’re Konoha Shinobi, eh?” It was a question that required no answer from either of you. “You must have a lot of money to give to us, then.”

That statement couldn’t be more wrong if it tried to be. Following the Fourth Shinobi War, the financial situation was dire for everyone, even including yourself and the future Nara clan head.

From the peripheral of your vision, you could see Shikamaru hatch out a plan. Due to the location of the ambush, it was obvious who of the two of you was at an advantage. There were more shadows than necessary surrounding all of you, meaning Shikamaru could perfectly use his clan’s Hiden Jutsu. He only needed to not be caught.

To give him more time to act, you chose to act a bit less rational than you would’ve preferred to. Instead of having your hand simply remain near the knife on your hip, you chose to draw it and point it at the woman opposite you, the blade of it gleaming in the few bits of sunlight managing to protrude through the many treetops.

The woman took a step back but did not deter from her mission.

“Don’t trick us, Shinobi!” growled one of the other men of the ambush, his knife now drawn toward you. You refused to flinch and stood your ground. “Drop the knife! Now! Or you’ll get it!”

Admittedly, you were beginning to feel a little nervous with one more knife pointed at you, but you fully trusted Shikamaru to perfectly execute the plan. While it would be rather difficult for him to catch all four of the intruders all at once, you were sure that he would be able to do so, if you were only able to buy him more time.

You refused to drop your knife and instead spoke in a calm voice, “We don’t have that kind of money.” It was true, neither of you had barely any money with you.

“I’m sure we’ll find a solution then,” spoke the leader, his voice deep enough to send a shiver down your spine. “You,” He pointed over at you, “will stay here, with us, while you,” Now he pointed at Shikamaru, “will get us the money we ask for, alright?”

You shot a glance at Shikamaru, the worry gleaming in your eyes saying more than a thousand words. It would be best to strike now, the raven-haired decided before any of the four intruders dared to try anything dangerous.

As fast as he could, Shikamaru allowed his shadow to spread out all across the ground of the forest and to connect with the shadows of your opponents, to trap them in a certain position. As soon as he heard the first gasp coming from the man with the knife, Shikamaru knew that he had been successful. The man was quick to drop his knife onto the ground, barely missing his foot. The woman, the leader, and another man, who so far has made no comment, were quick to follow suit, stuck in the position as Shikamaru wanted them to.

Shikamaru shot the four of them a smirk, unaware of what would be coming next.

From high above in the trees, came a silver glint toward the two of you, specifically toward Shikamaru. Your eyes immediately picked up on the glint coming toward you, meant to knock out Shikamaru and free the four intruders. If you were the knock the Nara out of the way, you knew that his Shadow Jutsu would break the moment you made contact with him, allowing the four to not only attack you but also rob you and then flee. Would you take the hit, however, none of that would happen and if you were fortunate enough, you could still knock those four out later.

Maybe it was the little you had buried deep inside you long ago thinking and acting, or maybe you never lost your feelings for Shikamaru, but you moved in front of him without much more thought. His eyes widened as he saw the glint coming toward you now and hit you in the chest, a gasp pushing past your lips as you hunched over, attempting to breathe.

Shikamaru’s shadow immediately climbed up the tree and also managed to interweave with the shadow of the last man standing, also trapping him in his Jutsu.

You, meanwhile, had more and more trouble breathing, the cackles of the five intruders sounding distant, almost blurry to you. Anger and frustration were both coursing through your body as you formed the finger sings necessary for the Wind Jutsu you were about to perform. Breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, so as you breathed in to gather enough air for your Jutsu, it felt as though your lungs were on fire. You ignored the pain you were feeling and finished your Jutsu, knocking over all four of them with a wall of wind, sending them flying against trees and knocking them out in the process.

You yourself could barely hold your own weight up, so as soon as you made sure that Shikamaru was save without needing your aid, your knees buckled underneath your voice and you fell to the forest ground, desperately gasping for air to fill your lungs.

Shikamaru yelled out your name, but you could barely hear him in all the panic you were feeling. Blood was rushing to your ears, making Shikamaru’s voice almost inaudible as you with your back against the ground, your eyes staring up at the trees as your vision blurred with tears.

“Breathe,” Shikamaru told you, placing his hand on your shoulder to rub it in circles to get you to calm down. “You need to breathe, (Name). Calm down.” His gaze traveled over to your wound, and while the wound itself was not life-threatening, the knife appeared to have been poisoned. No wonder you were reacting like that.

Ever since his sensei and father died, Shikamaru never was the greatest at calming people down in a difficult situation, especially when they were hyperventilating as you were. “Somewhere in the bag is an antidote, (Name), but until I prepared it, you need to breathe, okay?” He could see the tears rolling down your cheeks and the panic so clear in your eyes, and yet, he couldn’t help you in any way.

As quickly as he could, Shikamaru began rummaging through the bag in search of an antidote, specifically the two vials of antidotes given to him by Konoha’s very own poison specialist before the mission began. As soon as he found it, he was confronted with another problem: Which was the right vial to give to you?

From merely seeing the knife, he couldn’t tell what kind of poison was coating it. On the other hand, he couldn’t pull it out either in fear of you bleeding to death as soon as he did so. His heartbeat began increasing, anxiety pumping through his blood as he considered his options.

You felt like your whole body was on fire by now. Pained screeches pushed past your lips, tears falling from your eyes as your body spasmed on the floor, you crying out in pain. Your gaze was set on an unsure Shikamaru, the raven-haired man in a situation he had never been confronted with before, and in spite of his undeniable wit, he found finding a solution rather difficult.

“Help… me…” You could barely speak, your throat scratchy and voice coming out in a mere pained whisper. Your breaths came out erratic and without a pattern, as though you were clawing for air to enter your lungs.

You couldn’t die like this! Not only was this a mortifying way to go, in front of the now man you’ve crushed on as a child, but also rather pathetic. You wanted to die a happy death, after managing to confess your feelings to someone you would consider to be the love of your life. You didn’t want to pass on with so many regrets, things you wished you had done sooner.

Maybe back then you just should have taken the leap of faith and confessed to Shikamaru, told him that you liked him.

By now, you also couldn’t tell anymore what was going on. Your vision was completely blurred from all of the tears streaming down your face. You could only hear Shikamaru scrambling around you, moving constantly and muttering inaudible words under his breath. You only regained somewhat of a sense of orientation as soon as a needle penetrated your skin, making you hiss loudly.

“It’s going to be alright.” Shikamaru told you, another attempt to calm you down.

You nodded, unable to speak a word of confirmation. Wholeheartedly, you believed in the genius as your body began to calm down a little. It felt like you could breathe again, air entering your lungs. That was, at least, until everything went to shit again.

Out of nowhere, you began crying again, your body feeling as though it had been set on fire another time. You convulsed, screeched, and let out noises of pain, returning to a state worse than the one before.

“Shit,” Shikamaru cursed, taking in a panicked breath. “Why isn’t this working?” He wiped the layer of sweat forming on his forehead with the back of his hand, attempting to clear his mind to think.

He could distantly remember what the poison specialist had once taught him during the war, the words somewhat saved in his brain, words he never recalled before. “These antidotes work best if the poisonous object is removed from the body. Some poisons flare up when in contact with the antidote, so remove the object if the first dose doesn’t work. Just be careful while doing so.” And while it was dangerous to do so, it appeared to be the only way to save you.

“Pull… out… knife,” You told him as though you had been able to read his thoughts, gasping for air after each word. “Trust… you.” You were well aware of the fact that there was a chance that his Jutsu would not work, that you would bleed out here, poisoned on the floor of the forest, but something told you to trust him.

The last time his mind had been this close to falling apart into shambles had been when hearing his father speak to him, death coming closer to the man. His heartbeat had increased drastically and blood rushed in his ears, he could barely focus on anything but his father. The same could be said for when Asuma died, Shikamaru’s heart feeling as though at any moment it may break apart.

At that moment, Shikamaru knew that as soon as he managed to bring you out of the life-threatening situation, he would confess his feelings to you one day. He couldn’t lose a loved one again, it would hurt too much. He refused to give up on you.

They say third time's the charm, so he should be able to save you. If the saying held any truth to it, you shouldn’t be the one to die in his arms or continue to suffocate as by now your hands were beginning to desperately claw at your throat.

Your only hope would be now the bits of medical ninjutsu Ino had taught him in case of an emergency. He was regretting not having listened to his blonde teammate more intentively than he should have.

Shikamaru carefully wrapped his hand around the handle of the knife so he could pull out it. You hissed as he did so, a noise that made his wince. “I’m going to pull it out now, alright?” He attempted to create eye contact between the two of you, but your eyes were filled with too many tears to even get a hint of your surroundings. “One… Two.. Three.” In one pull, Shikamaru pulled the knife out and threw it beside you.

There was only one antidote left that he could give to you, but first, he had to close the wound with medical ninjutsu. His hands were shaking more than he wanted them to, your crimson blood splattered across them. Shikamaru set his growing panic aside and hovered his hand above the wound, using each and every technique Ino ever taught him. His hands were beginning to glow a mint tone after he pushed his chakra into them, his body feeling weaker during the process. His technique may have been the ideal one to use, but Shikamaru knew that what mattered most was that it worked. As soon as he saw your wound close up, however, he knew that every side effect would be worth it.

A sigh of relief escaped both of you as soon as the wound was closed, no more crimson blood escaping it.

“Next time, you really should wear your vest.” Shikamaru joked, barely able to catch his breath. His skilled fingers were already working on putting the other antidote together to use it.

You let out a pained laugh, coughing afterward. While every limb in your body was still burning, the combination of the knife being removed and Shikamaru’s medical ninjutsu did wonders and had you feeling like you could breathe again.

Seeing this side of Shikamaru was… new and quite frankly, also exciting. If it weren’t for the fact that you had almost stood at heaven’s door just now, you would most likely be swooning.

“Now breathe, I’m going to inject the antidote,” Shikamaru said, carefully positioning the needle above your skin. His other hand rested near the wound to keep you still. “It’s all going to be over soon.”

You squeezed your eyes shut and nodded, doing your best to not only keep still but also to ignore the uncomfortable sensation stemming from the injection. Both proved themselves to be difficult to do, your breathing still labored as the antidote made contact with your bloodstream.

The relief you felt was instant. Finally, you could breathe normally again, your body no longer feeling as thought it had been set aflame. Your chest rose up and down as you breathed in even breaths, given the opportunity to calm down from your high emotions. Curios, with your fingertip you dared to explore the wounded skin of your throat, but as soon as you touched it, you let out a pained hiss.

Shikamaru’s hand immediately came to envelop your own, keeping it away from the wound. “Let me see,” He said in an unusually calm and kind tone. “I’ll put some ointment on it, so it will heal.”

With remaining tears in your eyes, you agreed wordlessly.

Shikamaru worked the ointment onto your skin in silence, not a single word coming from him, and neither from you. With each breath you took in, his gaze would flicker upward to meet your eyes, checking if you were still alright. Only after a nod of confirmation, he would continue, his fingers shaking noticeably as he rubbed the ointment onto the wound.

“Thank you, Shikamaru.” You were able to croak out, your throat still feeling raw from all the screaming you did.

Shikamaru shot you a smile, one that instantly had your heart beating faster against your chest, heat rising to your cheeks. “Thank you for trusting me, (Name),” He allowed his body to fall onto the forest floor right beside you, sprawling out all of his limbs as his body calmed down from the emotional high he experienced. “And for not dying on me.”

A small smile tugged at your lips. “I would never. I’d feel too bad,” Your gaze flitted over to Shikamaru, taking in his exhausted form. “Plus, who else would have annoyed you then?”

The raven-haired brushed over your last comment. “I should have protected you better. As your teammate-”

You raised your hand to interrupt him, but not without letting out a cough. “It wasn’t your fault, I jumped in front of that knife. I’m sorry, Shikamaru.”

He let out a relieved chuckle, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand. “At least neither of us dying anymore,” He turned his head to look over at you, smiling. “What a mission.”

“Yeah, what a mission,” You echoed back, lost in the mesmerizing sight that was his eyes. For all these years, you had thought of Shikamaru wrong, and now you were mourning the wasted time. “Friends?”

Shikamaru blinked, for a moment not comprehending what you meant. But then, he nodded. “Friends.”

It was only small progress, but the third time after Shikamaru left such an impact on you, you knew, it would change your life for sure.

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