Chapter Text
Shikamaru thinks there is something wrong with him. People may think that it’s okey to have a great amount of interest in somethings. But not for him. He isn’t particularly interested in anything, really. He mildly liked some things, mildly disliked others. He knew he loved his parents, Choji and his clan. But he never had anything he was truly interested in.
It’s been a month since the alleyway incident and he found himself thinking about Naruto more and more. Observing him from afar anytime he was in his field of view.
After hours and hours of daily watching, he concluded that the blonde was a contradiction. He was simultaneously loud and extremely quiet. Simultaneously looked happy but weighed down with sadness. Sadness that he was carrying with him everywhere.
Naruto was alone.
Nobody drop him off at school. Nobody comes to get him.
Nobody actually talks to him, nor listen to what he has to say. He guessed that’s why he was loud. Because if he wasn’t, nobody would see him.
The adults were openly scorning him, so the children excluded him, especially civilians. And Naruto was scared and hyperaware of everything. The blond was tense. If you do not look closely you would think him relaxed but no. He’s just constantly tense and anxious. Really anxious. He pondered if it was because of his scrutinizing or if Naruto has always been that way. Time has made him lean on the latter.
The whiskered scratched his body incessantly. It could be his right thigh or his left palm. He was persuaded there was a dent on his belly with how much he’d put both of his hands in his t-shirt after dealing with a stressful situation.
Another thing that he remarked, was that Naruto was hyperactive. Alarmingly so. He used to think he was croaking like raven for the attention of people. But he seemed to jitter still, without people paying attention to him, like he needed it. To move his body, to feel himself there. Nothing could get his attention for more than fifteen minutes before he moved onto something else.
How did the teachers never see Naruto’s obvious trouble of attention?
Or did they? But never cared. And this was another thing on his list of things about Naruto. Nobody cared about him. Wether he was sad, loud, angry, silent or hungry, nobody cared. At least not enough. Well, Iruka sensei seemed to try but the man evidently didn’t know how to abord the subject with the blonde.
Even more now with how elusive Naruto became. He didn’t linger after school like he used to. Since he wasn’t much of a troublemaker anymore. Don’t be mistaken, the whiskered was still loudmouthed but he rarely found himself in prickly situations. He tried to listen in class, and if not he was sleeping. Which to Naruto’s standards was not detention worthy in Iruka sensei course. The course his classmate specifically picked to sleep in once in a while.
If you take your eyes off Naruto, the next time you’ll see him, is when he will want you to. So Shikamaru never took his eyes off him. He watched him, all the time.
Shikamaru woke this morning feeling good. His father snickered when he started whistling after picking a flower from the sidewalk. Since he was not dragging his feet for once, they were early. Choji wasn’t there yet. He entered the classroom and saw Naruto scraping his desk while some children where laughing in the back. He frowned slightly.
"Naruto what’s happening ?" he said before being able to control himself. He abstained from talking with Naruto since the blonde seemed to shy away from him. Maybe he felt awkward because of what happened in the alley. Shikamaru didn’t mind. He didn’t feel like they needed to talk. He just knew in the way, Naruto shyly smiled at him sometimes, that they were cool.
He approached his classmate and his pleasant mood vanished in a matter of milliseconds. Naruto was wiping off insults from his desk. And despite his efforts, Shikamaru could read the outrageous «die freak».
His calmness has never been more challenged. It’s like he could hear every cell in his body trying to gnaw out of him in rage. He was already finding ten different way to make this day the worst nightmare of every laughing idiots in this room when he felt something tugging on his jacket.
And he saw again this shy smile. Antithesis of what Naruto embody in the daily. And he knew the blonde didn’t want him to do anything.
But why?
Why should he silently accept this treatment? The hatred, the mockery, the second handed and instinctual rejection. His blonde deserved so much more.
"Naruto" he started before being stopped by the one he called.
"It’s okay"
"No." He looked Naruto in his eyes.
"Come sit with me" he continued louder. For everybody to hear.
Since nobody wanted to take care of Naruto. He would.
It has been hours since the incident of this morning, and people still appear shocked to see Naruto sitting next to him and Choji. Like people… move on, really.
Thankfully Ino was absent today for some reason, he didn’t want to have his ears pierced by her yapping. It was already troublesome to have to glare at the pink fan girl when she started to yell at Naruto because he broke the tacit order of the classroom with his behavior, before daring to try hitting Naruto.
And the blonde did not evade it. He just waited for the blow. Like it’s a normal everyday occurrence for him.
Well it was’nt for Shikamaru so he made it expeditiously known. The whiskered looked at him with puzzlement and wonder. He wanted to shake Naruto screaming that it is not normal when his classmate told him that it didn’t hurt.
While his mind was running like a hamster in a wheel, the object of approximately seventy percent of his thoughts was sleeping peacefully next to him, drooling on the table.
Iruka sensei had eyed them with suspicion when he entered the classroom and didn’t see Naruto on his «tacitly» appointed sit, then dropped it with a long sigh.
Now that it was pause time, Naruto, Choji and him were sitting under a tree far from the noisy playground.
"Do you want to share my bento?" He asked when he saw Naruto take out a sandwich from his little bag.
"No I’m okay" the blonde answered softly before taking a bite.
Shikamaru watched him eat calmly. Analyzing every move, pondering about what they could mean about his classmate.
Because of his stare the blonde turned a bit red and Choji cleared his throat loudly. He looked at his friend who looked back at him with questioning eyes.
He turned back to Naruto who stood up and said "Well… I’ll go ask something to Iruka sensei".
"You made him run away" he told Choji, mildly annoyed.
"It was not my intention. It’s just that I’ve been wondering why you were so… concentrated on him?"
"What a drag… I don’t know, I’m just intrigued, it’ll probably pass. Maybe." At least he hoped so.
"So you want him to hang out with us more?"
"Yes, do you mind ?"he inquired hesitantly.
"No. I like Naruto, I think he’s funny and he never laughed at me, he’s a great guy, a bit noisy but nice. And it’s not like he’s louder than before, he’s calmer now. Is that why you’re fixated?"
"I’m not. Fixated. I’m just curious. He changed. In a lot of ways, I just wondered why. That’s all."
They returned to class. Naruto was back in his original sit. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the blonde. He heard Choji snicker behind him before going to his sit and wishing him good luck.
Out of spite, he sat next to Naruto. "Shouldn’t y-" the whiskered started.
"No."he cut. His classmate seemed to resign from talking.
At the end of school, Choji invited him and Naruto to eat dangos at his cousin stand. Naruto accepted readily. On their way there, he couldn’t help but stand protectively in front of the blonde.
Choji sent him a couple of alarmed looks at the villagers blatant hostility.
I’ll explain to you later." He mouthed him.
He could feel the rage of this morning stir again under his skin when his comrade curled up more and more on himself as they walked.
"Troublesome" he said before taking the blonde hand and putting it in his pocket with his, some shinobi nearby physically jerking up at the action.
Curious or not, Naruto will never have to go through all of this alone again.