Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto Drabbles ❯ 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Pairing: Kakashi/Shikamaru

Prompt: Games

For: Annamaemacleod

“Why are you here?”

“I was hoping for a game.”

“Troublesome.”

“Will you get the board or shall I?”

That's how this had started. Every Sunday afternoon the jounin arrived with that familiar book in front of his face, the usual “Yo” and a solitary salute of greeting before settling down onto the porch to wait. Every time the pair would sit until the younger grew tired of it and would go to gather the board and the pieces for the game.

It didn't matter where he was on Sunday afternoons, even if he was out in the forest or on a secluded hill watching the clouds Kakashi always found him and waited silently until he got up to walk slowly home, hands firmly entrenched in the pockets of his own jounin trousers.

Shikamaru never had figured out what it was that Kakashi wanted from him but as the weeks past he grew to expect the Copy-nin's presence here on his porch. He had even begun to make a point of being home through Sunday afternoon's so they could play. Shikamaru puzzled constantly over the repeated occurrences and though they talked the other man never gave a clue to his presence and he had never asked the normally reticent man directly.

But as fate would have it three months after that initial visit Kakashi didn't come. It was then that Shikamaru really understood just what those small weekly interactions had meant. He found himself frustrated as he waited well into the night. But when the copy-nin never arrived Shikamaru had vanished into the darkness searching at his home, he found him instead broken and bloody at the memorial stone. He had no idea what had driven him to look there but... something Kakashi had said drove him there that night after years of not being able to face seeing that dark stone.

Shikamaru had scooped him up and taken him to the hospital, waiting to receive news from the Hokage herself. When he was told that he could go he found himself instead sneaking past the nurses and ducking inside the dark room. He hadn't expected the other man to be awake but he was almost pleased. He couldn't prevent himself from leaning in to speak quietly to the older man, “Troublesome.”

He got that familiar eye crease of a smile before he leaned away once more. They sat there in silence for a while before Shikamaru asked the injured jounin the question that had been boiling in his mind from the very first game, “Why”

His retort, “Why not?”

“Troublesome - for once try to make sense. No more games Kakashi-sensei.” He looked unwaveringly at the other shinobi, watching the quiet man look out the window before that sole grey orb turned back to him

“No more games.” He received an almost pleading look from Kakashi.

Shikamaru shook his head in response before repeating Kakashi's words, “No more games.”

He watched as the jounin let out a soft sigh before his voice grew quiet almost indistinct, “For an old friend at first.”

“Who?” He got a look for that, uncertain whether it was a, don't interrupt or just a surprised reaction to his query.

“Minato-sensei and Asuma-sensei. They reminded me of each other and you... you remind me of me. You have grown apart from the others, distancing yourself after... Perhaps I see something that I can do to change someone else's fate as I couldn't my own.”

Shikamaru sat silent through those words, shocked by the information he hadn't understood before. How could he have missed something so fundamentally simple? His head jerked up at Kakashi's next words, “Because it's about you.” He raised a questioning eyebrow but just got a shake of the head in response. He sat staring at the now silent Kakashi and thought through just what was going on.

It seemed that the older nin was trying for the sake of people past to stop Shikamaru from following the same path he had, but he didn't think that was quite right. More that Kakashi had seen something in him that was reflected in himself and he was in his own way trying to change it. Shikamaru got up then, shifting round the room to stand looking down at the older man, “Will you keep on playing? It would be troublesome to find a replacement.”

Kakashi smiled at the younger man, eye creasing in that familiar way and he nodded, “Yes I suppose it would. Very troublesome indeed.” Shikamaru watched the other man, reading what he could of those hidden features and he wondered once more if there was more to this than Kakashi had said.

But he decided that he would keep that question for another game.