3

3

“And that concludes our meeting. Does anyone have any questions?” the host of the session asked, his tone disinterested.

Shikamaru listened with closed eyes. The bespectacled chairman was a shinobi from Kirigakure named Chojuro, and Shikamaru remembered that he had guarded the Mizukage during the Great Ninja War.

“It seems that no one does. So, Shikamaru?” Chojuro prompted from one side of him.

Opening just his right eye to look at Chojuro, Shikamaru nodded slightly before opening the other eye. Ten ninja sat at the round table, men and women, mostly somewhere near his own age.

The Allied Shinobi headquarters in the Land of Iron.

There were no ninja in the Land of Iron, where the power of the samurai dominated. Before the last Great War, the hidden ninja of the five great villages had held their meetings in this shinobi-free land, meetings which later became the alliance of the five great nations before morphing into the current Allied Shinobi Forces. Given that the Land of Iron was the birthplace of this continental alliance, they had decided to build its headquarters there, and ninja from each village, with a focus on the five great nations, came together in this building, working day and night to develop the world of ninja.

The ten people gathered there with Shikamaru were the rising stars of their villages, including candidates for the next kage ninja. The meeting was a place where those responsible for the next generation could discuss the future of the shinobi world. In addition to Shikamaru and the others, chairman Chojuro, Temari from Sunagakure, and Omoi from Kumogakure were in attendance. Shikamaru had been given the job of leading the gathering. It wasn’t something he had volunteered for; he had simply been nominated by everyone else in the room.

“Shikamaru?” Chojuro said, worried about the still-silent Shikamaru.

He cleared his throat and looked around at the assembled group before opening a heavy mouth. “Doesn’t look like we have anything new to put on the agenda. I really hope our meetings will continue to be as relaxed as this one,” he said, standing up. “All right, everyone, I’ll see you again in a month.” He collected the papers spread out over the round table, tucked them under his arm, and turned his back to the others. Baffled by their leader’s curt attitude, the attendees began to trickle out of the room.

He walked matter-of-factly down the long hallway, cold white walls extending ahead and behind. Many ninja were busily hurrying along, but their footfalls made absolutely no sound. They were ninja. An audible footstep was an absurdity. This level of movement control was the first of the most baby of steps at the academy.

“Oi!” A voice called to Shikamaru from behind.

He clicked his tongue imperceptibly. The voice belonged to the person he least wanted to speak with at that moment. Ignoring it, he kept moving forward.

“Shikamaru, hold up!” The voice beat at his back, threatening to send him flying.

“What?” He turned just his head to look at the woman over his shoulder.

Temari from Sunagakure. Her hair was shorter now than it had been two years ago, and she had pulled it back into two bundles on either side of her head. Her eyes were gentler now than they had been, set in a fairly adult-looking face. But given that she was older than Shikamaru, her face didn’t just look grown-up; she was actually already a very fine adult.

“What’s going on with you?” She stared at Shikamaru with eyes that drooped somewhat more than they used to.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been weird lately.” Temari’s slender hand reached out to Shikamaru’s shoulder and pulled him around to face her.

What a drag… The words made it all the way to his throat before he managed to desperately swallow them back down.

“I mean your attitude at the meeting there. You just sit there with your mouth shut. Everyone gets nervous; the whole place tenses up, you know.”

“It does?”

“You didn’t notice it?” Temari’s eyes grew wide. “What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s something you can’t talk to me about?” Temari’s hard gaze hurt.

In the two years since the Great War ended, Temari had been a good and understanding partner in their work on the alliance. She shared his desire to keep the shinobi from fracturing into factions once more after they had finally come together in the face of a powerful enemy. She had rallied the Allied Forces with him. The strong bond between Naruto, seen as a candidate for the next Hokage of Konoha, and Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, also played a part; the relationship between the two villages was extremely good, even among the five great nations. With these kinds of outside factors also at work, Shikamaru and Temari each recognized the other as their greatest ally in the alliance.

“Something’s happening in Konoha.” She had fairly good insight.

However, her shot was a little off. Nothing was happening in Konoha, although it was true that they were trying to take care of the situation with only the shinobi of Konoha. So Temari was half-right, half-wrong.

The basic policy of the alliance was that matters relating to the life or death of shinobi themselves exceeded the framework of the villages and should be shared with the entire group. What Shikamaru and Kakashi were attempting to do was in very clear violation of this policy. Even so, he couldn’t say anything. Getting the alliance involved now and stirring up trouble with the Land of Silence was not a good plan.

I’ll handle it… His resolve hardened.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“There’s not.”

Temari dropped her eyes at Shikamaru’s curt reply. “Okay,” she muttered, lifelessly. In the next instant, the brief look of sadness on her face changed to anger.

It was all he could do to take a breath. He had no room to dodge; before he knew it, Shikamaru was flying. He tumbled down the hall a few times before ending up on his backside in a seated position. The right side of his face swelled up, bright red. Stroking his hot cheek, Shikamaru looked up at an indignant Temari glaring down at him.

“I never actually thought I could’ve misjudged you so badly!” Her angry yell turned into a powerful wind, pushing up against his face.

“I-I’m sorry…” The words were unconscious. He unthinkingly took on the persona of his father stumbling home in the morning, only to get yelled at by his mother in the entryway.

Taking long strides, Temari passed by Shikamaru and disappeared, her eyes slightly damp.

∞

“You haven’t even touched your food,” Choji said, sitting in front of him and puffing out both cheeks like a chipmunk.

They were at a yakiniku place. Ino was sitting beside Shikamaru. Both of his friends had become serious adults over the last two years. Choji was as chubby as ever, but his eyes were fearless now, and he had grown a beard of all things. Ino let her hair grow ever longer and wore it unbound, which made her look a fair bit older than her years.

“Did you eat before you came?” Choji’s cheeks sank in, his throat moved up and down, and the meat fell to the bottom of his stomach.

“Shikamaru and I both had our growth spurts a long time ago, so we don’t need to shovel food into our faces like you do!”

“No way!” Choji’s eyes grew round.

Unthinkingly, Shikamaru laughed out loud. A gentle wind blew through his heart. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time. “Why would I eat something when I know I’m coming to have dinner with you guys?” he said, reaching out to the grill with his chopsticks and grabbing a piece of meat on the verge of burning.

“I was cooking that!” came Choji’s angry yell.

“Woh-kay.”

They had danced this particular dance who knew how many times before. In a familiar gesture, Shikamaru put the piece of meat back and turned his chopsticks to the beef rib next to it. He glanced at Ino out of the corner of his eye. She nodded, and so he took the rib and set it on his small plate.

“It’s been a long time since you asked us out,” she remarked.

“True. And lately, you guys only hang out with me when I ask you out, so.”

“You’re super busy, Shikamaru, with alliance work, supporting Lord Hokage. We can’t take up all your time or anything.”

Eyes slightly cast downward, Choji puffed his cheeks out. “Yeah, but still…”

On the one hand, he was honestly glad they were concerned about him, but he was also sad there was this distance between them. Now that he was grown-up, he couldn’t do whatever he wanted like he had when he was a kid. Things were different now. The days when he would meet his friends after the academy lessons and play until it got dark were over.

In the same way that he had responsibilities with the alliance and in Konohagakure, Ino and Choji were also quite valued as capable chunin who had made it through the Great War. They could talk all they wanted about how busy Shikamaru was, but the fact was they weren’t in any position to take time whenever they wanted to either. Still, when he said he wanted to see them, they just came and hung out without another word.

They were the best friends.

“What’s wrong?” Ino asked Shikamaru, tilting her beer mug back in a masculine fashion.

“Nah, it’s nothing. I just wanted to talk with you guys is all.” Shikamaru brought the meat on his plate up to his mouth.

“Oh, that all?” Ino didn’t ask him anything else.

Choji kept shoving bits of cooked meat into his mouth, the smile never leaving his face.

The back and forth of easy conversation.

The way Choji ate.

Ino’s love stories.

And memories of Asuma…

His distance from the two of them shrank.

He almost went back in time to the self he had been when they first came to this restaurant with Asuma. Back then, every other thing he said had been “what a drag.”

Looking at Choji and Ino all grown up, Shikamaru whispered in his heart that they could never go back to those days.

∞

He walked home alone. In the end, he hadn’t been able to tell them.

If he was going to go to the Land of Silence, he had thought it would be with them, which was why he’d invited them for yakiniku. But when he looked at their smiling faces, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

The road he was about to step onto was dark. To save Konoha, the alliance, and all ninja, he was going to kill a man. He wouldn’t be fighting tall and proud and winning. He would be killing in secret. Assassination. Which was not all that remarkable for a shinobi. Once you grew up, you understood that this sort of thing too was necessary in the world.

But…

The fewer people who got their hands dirty, the better. He couldn’t bring himself to drag Choji and Ino into the darkness.

“Guess it’s the Anbu, after all.” There wasn’t a single star in the night sky to which he raised his face.