Ah, The Theater. Chapter 2.
Title: Ah, the Theater.
Written by: Gothic_lovely
Rating: PG-13 overall. PG for this chapter.
Genre: General, Romance, Comedy.
Warnings: AU, ShikaCentric, Slash, Het, Swearing, Doesn’tKnowOrLikeChouji!Ino (Just for starters, she gets better. :)), Very probable I wont finish, Hairdresser!Gaara.
Pairings: Second chapter; InoShika, one-sided LeeSaku, Implied GaiLee, very slight KibaShino.
To come, hopefully(including but not limited to); TemaShika, ZabuHaku, ItaKisa, KibaShino, ShikaChou.
One-sided; JiraTsuna, OroSasu, InoSasu, HinaNaru.
(Please note that the placements of the names above in their respective pairings do not necessarily mean anything, I’m not really into the SemeUke thing. Except for InoShika and TemaShika, those girls OWN him. Seriously)
Summary: AU. In modern day, busy, over-populated Konoha City. Unmotivated, jobless Shikamaru Nara, pushed by his girlfriend Ino, joins a theater production as a lighting director. This play however, is going to get no-where with its chaotic mix of directors, writers, actors, agents and stage hands. Some people just aren’t supposed to get along.
The air was thick with pollution and pestilence and the smell of the city hung around him like some sort of toxic, hovering soup. Almost no one was outside today; the board of health had issued a severe smog warning and had implored people to stay inside unless absolutely necessary.
His reason for being outdoors was probably not that necessary, but he didn’t really worry.
He had a job to do.
Pulling his jacket tighter around his face, Shino Aburame continued down the street at a slightly faster pace than normal, stopping only for a moment to drop a sacagawea dollar and some dimes in a coughing homeless woman’s paper cup, before heading down a flight of stairs in the sidewalk and into the depths of Konoha public transit.
He got his way through the system easily, when he reached the stop for his subway he leaned against a balustrade and examined the transit map on another opposite him, he didn’t know this city very well any more, and if he had a chance of finding his way to where he needed to be, he should do some research.
It was a big city, much larger than he was accustomed too, he was used to small villages or even jungles, this was a jungle of a whole different kind, and he hadn’t been here or in any metropolis of this size since he was a teenager. He coughed and covered up further.
The train arrived and he stepped on, there were lots of seats available but he chose to stand, gripping onto a railing with a gloved hand and clutching his jacket securely with another as it slowly started and sped up, he was reminded just how much he hated subways, the noise, the smell and the chaos. Speaking of chaos… he patted his jacket, making sure nothing had fallen out of place in his travels, reassured in his passengers’ safety he looked around the compartment, observing his surroundings.
There were very few people on the train with him, a bald man in a business suit mumbling angrily to what appeared to be thin air, but what was actually a wireless phone. A supposedly homeless boy asleep on a seat, a tired looking middle aged woman, the seats beside her full of grocery bags…and a young, wild looking man with a small dog in his lap… the man was strangely familiar.
Shino furrowed his eyebrows; he knew this man, but from where? He took the other in; tangled, unruly brown hair, shaggy gray vest and inappropriate mesh undershirt, numerous tattoos including ones on his face that looked like upside-down triangles…Well, that was it then. He didn’t know anyone with tattoos, save of course for certain indigenes peoples of Borneo and Africa who used them as a right of passage, Shino spied a naked woman with an obscenely large pair of breasts splayed on a tanned bicep, he had certainly never seen tattoos like these on any tribes-men before.
Counting it as a mistake on his part Shino turned away and stared at the speeding bricks of the subway underground, flying past the car at a sickening rate. Finally, the train made it to his stop and he exited, followed soon after by the wild man and his dog.
As Shino continued his trek trough the underground and out into the smog filled morning, he soon began to count the number of seconds the Wild man followed him. He followed him down one street and across an intersection, he followed him onto a bus then got off at the same stop and he followed him down two quiet streets where their two pairs of footsteps were almost the only sound. When he got to 1,110 seconds he stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his stalker, intent on deterring a potential threat to himself or at least insuring some piece of mind, but the man only glanced at him impassively, then walked right past.
Shino stood there for a moment and sighed, the city was making him paranoid. He headed onwards. Coincidently following in the wild man’s tracks. And as soon as the theater neared into sight Shino knew what had happened, the wild man had a job here too. How unlikely. Though stranger things have happened, Shino supposed.
He caught up with the man just as he was opening the door, after his dog strolled obediently inside the wild man stared at Shino, grinned slightly, and opened the door for him, gesturing for him to go in. Shino made a little bow of cautious thanks and entered.
He reached the next set of double doors on the inside and was intent on opening them for the man, to return the favor, when he felt a hand grip his shoulder.
“Good to know I wasn’t some sort of stalking creep, huh Shino?” the man spoke huskily into Shino’s ear; he squeezed his shoulder and headed past Shino and through the doors, disappearing from sight. Shino might have shuddered if he were a lesser man; he brushed the shoulder of his coat where the familiar yet unfamiliar man, who somehow knew who he was, had touched him.
Good to know.
~*~
Sakura paced back and forth on the stage, her eyes wide with excitement and pride, Shikamaru yawned quietly and resisted the urge to lean against Chouji and fall asleep, he had stayed away all night learning the ways of the Moya 300 with Kakashi and his good manners were wearing thin as Sakura had not taken a breath in an hour.
“And then, when you least expect it, Moriko is rescued by the handsome and daring Isaac as he busts in, a henchman’s unconscious from draped over his shoulder. Then comes the final fight scene…”
She stopped for what she obviously thought to be a tense, pregnant pause before continuing her full detail walkthrough of the play she so loved to boast about. Shikamaru couldn’t see how she’d gotten through writing school with such a sappily romantic, unoriginal mind.
“-that final scene is where I really need a hundred and ten percent from everyone, especially the cast, sound and lighting. The mood has to be just right, so I was thinking-”
A loud boom echoed throughout the theater, Chouji jumped slightly and turned around backwards in his chair. Shikamaru swiveled around in his seat a little, only somewhat interested in seeing what had caused the noise.
The hall fell quiet as a young, buff, tanned man who looked like the poster boy for rebellious youth clomped loudly down the red carpet pathway and plopped down in the leftmost most seat of the front row, right next to Ino, who moved a seat over in disgust. A small white dog that had followed him down the hall, jumped into his lap eagerly. He petted it and grinned cheerfully at everyone in the hall.
“Sorry we’re a bit late, but hey, nothing special’s happened yet, just talking. We could hear from outside” He nudged Ino “Let’s get some action going. Am I right or what? I’m Kiba.” He stuck out his hand.
“Ugh, no.” She stood up again and moved to sit beside Shikamaru, snuggling into him as if to say ”I’m his, he’s mine, you won’t ever have me.” but the rebel had already lent his attention elsewhere. A tall man with dark glasses, dark hair and a dark jacket that covered most of his face had slunk in like a shadow, unnoticed, behind Kiba, and had settled himself several rows back, a few seats down from the sound technicians who didn’t seem to notice he was there. It was likely no-one would have noticed he was there had Kiba not made this newcomers entrance a public spectacle.
“Hey there, bug freak, quiet down! We were just getting ready to listen to a story and you had to come in and stir everything up.” He laughed mockingly but the man didn’t respond in any way. Kiba turned to face Sakura, chin on fist. “Please, continue.”
Sakura looked pretty annoyed but continued none-the-less.
“Well, I was thinking that the lights could go all dark except for one focused on Isaac and the emperor, and things could get really silent for a while…then suddenly, red light break through as the Emperor takes the first swing!” She mimed a sword swing “-Special effects go crazy! Lighting,” She flung a hand into the air “-drama,” She flung the other one “-swordplay! CHAOS!” Sakura practically screamed, then caught her breath as Kiba let out a ‘WOO, YEAH!’ and whistled obnoxiously.
When things quieted down Sakura cleared her throat and went back to business.
“By now I’ve talked to almost all of you and you know what I’d like from you, if you haven’t talked to Mr. Hatake,” She pointed him out and he raised a hand to show where he was in the audience “the director Ms. Tsunade or myself.” She touched a hand to her chest and smiled. “Please do so immediately after the conference.”
Someone called out “Where is the director? We haven’t seen her once yet.” A few agreeing noises rose from the crowd of stagehands, technicians, actors and miscellaneous theater workers. Shikamaru himself had never yet seen the elusive, yet much talked about director. Sakura sighed as if she was speaking to a crowd of unruly school children.
“Ms. Tsunade will be present in her office backstage on Mondays and Thursdays of this month from 2 until 4:30 except for Monday after next and on Saturdays she’ll be here from either 1 to 2 or 10:30 PM until midnight depending on the weather and…other influencing factors.” The audience didn’t like the sound of that.
“What Influencing factors?”
“That’s insane! She’s the director she should be here now!”
“Does she even exist?!”
Disgruntled cries came from all over, Sakura rubbed her temples and Lee (who had seemingly been waiting for his cue) ran onstage to hand her a cup of tea, which she accepted thanklessly. He turned to the crowd of angry partisans.
“But she is here everyone, don’t you see? Ms. Tsunade’s spirit of love for the theater burns within all of us! She’s always here…in our passion for the arts!” He stared getting choked up and was simultaneously booed by the audience and shoved by Sakura off the stage.
“Look everyone! She’ll be here tomorrow for the first script read through along with hopefully…” She glanced angrily at the two out of 8-odd actors who should have been present. “...the rest of our cast, permitted the bad weather doesn’t ‘negatively effect their chi.’” She air quoted with one hand and rolled her eyes. “You can talk to her then. In the meantime Mr. Umino would like to get everyone clocked in and put to work, only a few months before opening people!” Sakura took a sip of tea and left the stage, a fatherly looking man with brown hair and a scar on his nose took her place. He was carrying a checklist and pen.
“Alright, if you could all file up near the stairs in front of me please, on by one, and I’ll check you in and let you know where you should be, it should only take ten minutes or so.” As the first to respond clamored over seats and got onto the stage one way or the other, Shikamaru settled back in his chair and closed his eyes, intent on sleeping for the next ‘ten minutes or so’, but no such luck.
“Shika! Come on, it’s your first real day of work, don’t embarrass me by making a bad impression.” Ino hauled him out of his chair by the arm and practically lead him to the stage, by then there were fifteen or so people in front of them, Shikamaru could see a few he recognized, Kiba was the second in line, and he and his dog both seemed to be sniffing the person in front of him, a large and dangerous looking man with short black hair. He turned and glared at Kiba before leaving to wherever it was Mr. Umino had instructed him to be. As the line got shorter and the hallway nosier, Ino grew more exited, Shikamaru could tell this by the way she kept bouncing up and down and tightening her death hold on Shikamaru’s arm. It seemed from her expression as if it was a roller coaster on it’s way up instead of a boring old line line.
“It’s you next, Shika.” She whispered. “Your first day of work, you have a job now! My boyfriend is a workingman! Ooh!” She bit her lip and kissed him on the cheek, he winced and resisted the urge to wipe it off.
“Name, please.” Mr. Umino spoke and smiled at him in a stressed, fatherly way that was noticeably comfortable for him, despite them being perfect strangers. Shikamaru pried Ino off of him and stepped forward.
“Nara, Shikamaru.”
Mr. Umino looked through his list and checked Shikamaru’s name off, smiling all the while.
“Ah, yes. Lighting director. Head to the sound booth, everyone should be there in a minute.” Shikamaru nodded and strolled away in the general direction of the staircase, hands in pocket.
“Name, pl-”
“INA YAMANIKO!”
~*~
Only two people were in the sound booth when Shikamaru arrived, Kakashi and the strange, dark man dubbed “Bug Freak” by Kiba.
Kakashi was squatted on the ground, reading a novel and ignoring the world, the dark man was leaning against a wall, unmoving, like a statue. Shikamaru stood for a while, waiting to see if anything would happen, when it didn’t he decided to take advantage of the situation and get some sleep, he had just settled down on a piece of floor when he was once against awakened unceremoniously.
Clutching his side he looked up to see Kakashi standing over him, he had been kicked.
“What was that for?” He grumbled.
“Don’t sleep.” Replied Kakashi, with a grin in his voice. “Just be patient and wait, grab a chair. This is your job, you know.” Kakashi pulled up two chairs and sat in one, crossing his arms. Shikamaru groaned and joined him in the other. They were all silent for a while before the dark man coughed and Shikamaru could hear him moving around behind them, there was a rustling of fabric and a tinkling of glass. He turned around.
The man had pulled out two jars from his jacket and had placed them carefully, far back on a box, the sound booth was so crowded with dusty boxes there was no shortage of counter space. Upon closer inspection, Shikamaru saw the jars had leaves, sticks and… bugs in them, one bug each. The smaller one had a spider of some kind and the bigger one an extremely large beetle. The dark man had pulled out a note pad and was jotting things down, staring at the bugs and moving the jars around.
“Might as well introduce you two, It looks like the sound crew won’t be here for a while. Shikamaru, Mr. Shino Aburame here is our “Technical supervisor”.” Shino stopped moving for a second. “…And an Entomologist.” Kakashi continued. “Shino, this is Shikamaru Nara, he’s our lighting director.”
Neither Shikamaru nor Shino said anything but both nodded to each other; Shino seemed all right, even if he was a little creepy; at least Shikamaru knew that he wouldn’t be working with an annoying chatterbox.
“Hello my fellow sound booth technicians! How is everyone on this most beautiful of days?” Shikamaru turned around and was almost blinded by an inhumanly shiny grin. It was Lee.
“Beautiful, eh? Have you even been outside today, Lee?” Kakashi chuckled.
“The weather is wonderful because it has given me added motive to give 300% effort into making this play an unrivaled success!” He punched the air, fire in his eyes. Was this guy for real?
“Well, in that case I’m surprised you weren’t up here before anyone else.”
“I was first in line and had the full intention of getting here first and making this place look more like home for the rest of you, but my dear Sakura was in need of assistance! She has been working so hard, I offered to give her one of my infamous back massages, but she refused, it is unfortunate, I have been told I give the best massages in all of Konoha City.” He beamed pride fully. Told by who? Shikamaru wondered.
“Told by whom? Mr. Maito?” Kakashi asked; the question drenched in false innocence. Shikamaru didn’t know who they were talking about, but it obviously affected Lee, who blushed and coughed.
“Well…where is everyone? Don’t they know that this is the first day of what will be the most amazing months of their life?” He moved to stare out of the window overlooking the audience and stage.
“Excuse me,” Everyone turned to look at Shino, it was the first time he had spoken, and his voice was as dark and mysterious as he was.
“I am sorry to interject, but how many people will ultimately be operating in here?” Kakashi leaned back in his chair.
“This is it except for the sound technicians, there are three of them so… seven, ‘ultimately’, though I won’t be here all the time.” He replied. Shino’s eyebrows furrowed.
“That is quite an amount of people for this small of a space.”
“It’ll seem bigger when we move the chairs and boxes out.”
“Are you sure this place is up to code? I think it might be a potential host to termites.”
“No, I’m not sure, but it’ll support all of us easily, I’ve made sure of that… and surely you don’t have a problem with insects?” You could almost hear Kakashi’s smirk. Lee snorted.
Shino shifted, noticeably discomfited. “No, but... Termites multiply quickly and can destroy -”
“There’s no reason to worry, Mr. Aburame, just relax. You’re not here to be our exterminator.”
Shino didn’t say anything else, but he pushed his glassed up his nose and turned back to his insects, making notes again.
In due time the sound technicians arrived, Kakashi introduced them as Dosu Kinuta; a hunched, frightening looking man wearing a large fur coat, Zaku Abumi; a cocky young man who was missing both arms at the elbows (Shikamaru didn’t know how he was going to work the controls, and didn’t really want to know) and Kin Tsushi; A pretty girl with long black hair, who was to be the only female in the booth. Shikamaru’s first impression of all of them was that they were extremely arrogant, but at least they seemed professional, despite being late. They jumped right into work mode immediately after being introduced.
Kakashi gave everyone a job; Zaku and Kin were to test out every speaker and sound system to make sure everything was working, Shikamaru was to do the same but with every light. Everyone else worked on moving boxes out of the sound booth and carrying everything downstairs to backstage, where stagehands would sort it.
As Shikamaru worked, he did his job systematically and wrote down every light that wasn’t working, and then tried to figure out if there was something wrong with that actual light or the wiring. He managed to fix all but two, of which he suspected the bulbs had burnt out. All of this took about an hour. By the time he was done the room was empty but for seven chairs packed one on top of another, Kakashi was right, it now seemed twice as big as before. He pulled a chair out and stared down at the stage. He could see the two actors who showed up sitting together, drinking coffee and running over their lines. He also spotted Chouji, who walked from one end of the stage to the other, carrying boxes. He looked stressed but Shikamaru knew he loved the work.
Shikamaru reflected on the fact that he was surprised with himself, he hadn’t tried to skive off of work or not complete any jobs given to him. He usually would rather sit in one place, doing nothing for a whole week rather than work in any way. He had actually worked relatively consistently since being hired. He shrugged; better not think on it too hard.
As he whipped his brow and stood up, he noticed Zaku was also close finishing his task. Shikamaru watched him with some minor interest operate switches, levers and buttons with as much dexterity using only his elbows as anyone would with both hands. Kin was down on the stage, testing a few headsets.
Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, Zaku finished up and joined him by pulling up a chair of his own. Pretty soon almost everyone was back in the room except for Kakashi and Shino. Lee was trying to engage Kin in conversation but she was ignoring him. Zaku and Dosu were muttering to each other. Shikamaru put his head in his hands, bending over, he was tired and bored.
“AAAAAAAARG! SOMEONE HELP ME!!! MY HAIR IS ON FIRE!” Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and they all watched as- Wait, was that Ino?
Shikamaru stood up. Ino was running across the stage, hair obviously on fire, several stagehands running after her trying to douse the flames with their water bottles. He sighed and left the sound booth, went quickly down the stairs and onto the stage and headed backstage to se if she was all right. Ino may have been be a bossy cow, but he still didn’t want to see her get hurt.
He found her quickly enough, sprawled in a chair, breathing in short little gasps, as stage hands fanned her with bits of paper and watched over he concernedly, her long hair was burned at the ends and visibly shorter but he wasn’t about to tell her that, she also smelled awful, understandably. About ten feet behind her he could see a few people staring and snickering.
“Ino…what the hell happened?” and asked, exasperated. Ino closed her mouth tight and a psychotic look came into her eyes.
“Your idiot of a friend SET MY HAIR ON FIRE!” She screamed, Shikamaru found it hard not to laugh at how ridiculous she looked.
“Chouji?”
“YES CHOUJI!”
“Chouji set your hair on fire?” He asked disbelievingly.
“Not on purpose.” Came a growing voice from behind him, He turned around and looked into he large friend’s eyes, barley concealing a grin.
“You…accidentally…set Ino’s hair on fire?” Chouji shrugged.
“She asked me to light candles for ambiance, and can’t help it if her hair got in the way.”
Ino was livid. “Yes, but you couldhelp it that your FAT ASS bumped me into the candle!” She spat.
Uh-Oh.
“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!” Chouji charged past Shikamaru, Ino stood up and knocked the chair over, soon they were nose to nose, glaring at each other with such hatred Shikamaru knew that no good could come of it, he plugged his ears and watched the screaming match unfold.
That’s it, I’m quitting this stupid job.
~*~
Shino was hiding.
He wouldn’t call it hiding if he was asked, of course, he would say it was observing.
He stared at Kiba, searching his brain for any possible way he knew the man. He went though his life, he didn’t know him from Africa or Iceland or the rainforests, he didn’t know him from college or University, he didn’t know him from High-.
Suddenly it came back to him, memories from years he’d tried to forget, of a boy with wild hair and carefree grin, who rolled around with dogs and played sports and climbed walls and howled when he was exited. A boy who hadn’t cared that Shino was a freak.
“Yo, bug freak! What’s up?”
“God, I don’t know how you do it, science is totally impossible.”
“You alright? You wanna talk about anything?”
“I think you’d like skateboarding, there’s a lot of physics involved.”
“Damn dude, you’re like a robot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh and you’re never gonna score chicks like that. Loosen up!”
“Bug Freak, I’m your friend, stop being so damn secretive!”
Yes, he knew Kiba. He was shocked that he’d ever forgotten him.
Shino took a deep breath and stared at the man who had once been his best friend.
Kiba was talking with a young, pretty woman as they sat backstage and sipped coffee, he knew he should speak to the man, but what do you say to someone you haven’t seen for eight years, someone who used to be so important? Shino coughed and stepped up to the table. Kiba noticed him and grinned.
“Hey, bug freak. Something on your mind.”
Shino paused, when he didn’t say anything immediately Kiba shook his head and sighed.
“Haven’t changed a bit, have you Shino? Well, the jacket is new.” Shino cleared his throat and paused again.
“…I know who you are.”
“About time, my feelings were starting to get hurt.” He mock pouted than grinned. He turned to the woman he was talking to.
“I’m afraid I’ve got some catching up to do, see you later Haku.” The woman nodded and left the table. Kiba gestured for Shino to take her place. Which he did.
“So…How you been?” Kiba asked.
Shino adjusted his glasses “I apologize for not recognizing you earlier, you look different.”
“Really?” Kiba glanced down at himself. “I guess I didn’t have the tat’s in high school.”
“Yes…but you’re also…broader, somewhat.” Shino Added, Kiba made a strange, silly expression.
“Are you calling me fat?”
“No. You look…” Shino searched for the right wording, he wasn’t used to talking with people, in English at least. “…Stronger. You look strong.” Kiba raised an eyebrow.
“So now you’re hitting on me? I’m not sure if that’s better or worse then you calling me fat.”
Shino paused, not sure what to do, then he saw Kiba was holding back laughter and sighed.
“Actually…you, my friend, have not changed at all.”
~~~
Hope you liked it. :)
Written by: Gothic_lovely
Rating: PG-13 overall. PG for this chapter.
Genre: General, Romance, Comedy.
Warnings: AU, ShikaCentric, Slash, Het, Swearing, Doesn’tKnowOrLikeChouji!Ino (Just for starters, she gets better. :)), Very probable I wont finish, Hairdresser!Gaara.
Pairings: Second chapter; InoShika, one-sided LeeSaku, Implied GaiLee, very slight KibaShino.
To come, hopefully(including but not limited to); TemaShika, ZabuHaku, ItaKisa, KibaShino, ShikaChou.
One-sided; JiraTsuna, OroSasu, InoSasu, HinaNaru.
(Please note that the placements of the names above in their respective pairings do not necessarily mean anything, I’m not really into the SemeUke thing. Except for InoShika and TemaShika, those girls OWN him. Seriously)
Summary: AU. In modern day, busy, over-populated Konoha City. Unmotivated, jobless Shikamaru Nara, pushed by his girlfriend Ino, joins a theater production as a lighting director. This play however, is going to get no-where with its chaotic mix of directors, writers, actors, agents and stage hands. Some people just aren’t supposed to get along.
The air was thick with pollution and pestilence and the smell of the city hung around him like some sort of toxic, hovering soup. Almost no one was outside today; the board of health had issued a severe smog warning and had implored people to stay inside unless absolutely necessary.
His reason for being outdoors was probably not that necessary, but he didn’t really worry.
He had a job to do.
Pulling his jacket tighter around his face, Shino Aburame continued down the street at a slightly faster pace than normal, stopping only for a moment to drop a sacagawea dollar and some dimes in a coughing homeless woman’s paper cup, before heading down a flight of stairs in the sidewalk and into the depths of Konoha public transit.
He got his way through the system easily, when he reached the stop for his subway he leaned against a balustrade and examined the transit map on another opposite him, he didn’t know this city very well any more, and if he had a chance of finding his way to where he needed to be, he should do some research.
It was a big city, much larger than he was accustomed too, he was used to small villages or even jungles, this was a jungle of a whole different kind, and he hadn’t been here or in any metropolis of this size since he was a teenager. He coughed and covered up further.
The train arrived and he stepped on, there were lots of seats available but he chose to stand, gripping onto a railing with a gloved hand and clutching his jacket securely with another as it slowly started and sped up, he was reminded just how much he hated subways, the noise, the smell and the chaos. Speaking of chaos… he patted his jacket, making sure nothing had fallen out of place in his travels, reassured in his passengers’ safety he looked around the compartment, observing his surroundings.
There were very few people on the train with him, a bald man in a business suit mumbling angrily to what appeared to be thin air, but what was actually a wireless phone. A supposedly homeless boy asleep on a seat, a tired looking middle aged woman, the seats beside her full of grocery bags…and a young, wild looking man with a small dog in his lap… the man was strangely familiar.
Shino furrowed his eyebrows; he knew this man, but from where? He took the other in; tangled, unruly brown hair, shaggy gray vest and inappropriate mesh undershirt, numerous tattoos including ones on his face that looked like upside-down triangles…Well, that was it then. He didn’t know anyone with tattoos, save of course for certain indigenes peoples of Borneo and Africa who used them as a right of passage, Shino spied a naked woman with an obscenely large pair of breasts splayed on a tanned bicep, he had certainly never seen tattoos like these on any tribes-men before.
Counting it as a mistake on his part Shino turned away and stared at the speeding bricks of the subway underground, flying past the car at a sickening rate. Finally, the train made it to his stop and he exited, followed soon after by the wild man and his dog.
As Shino continued his trek trough the underground and out into the smog filled morning, he soon began to count the number of seconds the Wild man followed him. He followed him down one street and across an intersection, he followed him onto a bus then got off at the same stop and he followed him down two quiet streets where their two pairs of footsteps were almost the only sound. When he got to 1,110 seconds he stopped in his tracks and turned around to face his stalker, intent on deterring a potential threat to himself or at least insuring some piece of mind, but the man only glanced at him impassively, then walked right past.
Shino stood there for a moment and sighed, the city was making him paranoid. He headed onwards. Coincidently following in the wild man’s tracks. And as soon as the theater neared into sight Shino knew what had happened, the wild man had a job here too. How unlikely. Though stranger things have happened, Shino supposed.
He caught up with the man just as he was opening the door, after his dog strolled obediently inside the wild man stared at Shino, grinned slightly, and opened the door for him, gesturing for him to go in. Shino made a little bow of cautious thanks and entered.
He reached the next set of double doors on the inside and was intent on opening them for the man, to return the favor, when he felt a hand grip his shoulder.
“Good to know I wasn’t some sort of stalking creep, huh Shino?” the man spoke huskily into Shino’s ear; he squeezed his shoulder and headed past Shino and through the doors, disappearing from sight. Shino might have shuddered if he were a lesser man; he brushed the shoulder of his coat where the familiar yet unfamiliar man, who somehow knew who he was, had touched him.
Good to know.
~*~
Sakura paced back and forth on the stage, her eyes wide with excitement and pride, Shikamaru yawned quietly and resisted the urge to lean against Chouji and fall asleep, he had stayed away all night learning the ways of the Moya 300 with Kakashi and his good manners were wearing thin as Sakura had not taken a breath in an hour.
“And then, when you least expect it, Moriko is rescued by the handsome and daring Isaac as he busts in, a henchman’s unconscious from draped over his shoulder. Then comes the final fight scene…”
She stopped for what she obviously thought to be a tense, pregnant pause before continuing her full detail walkthrough of the play she so loved to boast about. Shikamaru couldn’t see how she’d gotten through writing school with such a sappily romantic, unoriginal mind.
“-that final scene is where I really need a hundred and ten percent from everyone, especially the cast, sound and lighting. The mood has to be just right, so I was thinking-”
A loud boom echoed throughout the theater, Chouji jumped slightly and turned around backwards in his chair. Shikamaru swiveled around in his seat a little, only somewhat interested in seeing what had caused the noise.
The hall fell quiet as a young, buff, tanned man who looked like the poster boy for rebellious youth clomped loudly down the red carpet pathway and plopped down in the leftmost most seat of the front row, right next to Ino, who moved a seat over in disgust. A small white dog that had followed him down the hall, jumped into his lap eagerly. He petted it and grinned cheerfully at everyone in the hall.
“Sorry we’re a bit late, but hey, nothing special’s happened yet, just talking. We could hear from outside” He nudged Ino “Let’s get some action going. Am I right or what? I’m Kiba.” He stuck out his hand.
“Ugh, no.” She stood up again and moved to sit beside Shikamaru, snuggling into him as if to say ”I’m his, he’s mine, you won’t ever have me.” but the rebel had already lent his attention elsewhere. A tall man with dark glasses, dark hair and a dark jacket that covered most of his face had slunk in like a shadow, unnoticed, behind Kiba, and had settled himself several rows back, a few seats down from the sound technicians who didn’t seem to notice he was there. It was likely no-one would have noticed he was there had Kiba not made this newcomers entrance a public spectacle.
“Hey there, bug freak, quiet down! We were just getting ready to listen to a story and you had to come in and stir everything up.” He laughed mockingly but the man didn’t respond in any way. Kiba turned to face Sakura, chin on fist. “Please, continue.”
Sakura looked pretty annoyed but continued none-the-less.
“Well, I was thinking that the lights could go all dark except for one focused on Isaac and the emperor, and things could get really silent for a while…then suddenly, red light break through as the Emperor takes the first swing!” She mimed a sword swing “-Special effects go crazy! Lighting,” She flung a hand into the air “-drama,” She flung the other one “-swordplay! CHAOS!” Sakura practically screamed, then caught her breath as Kiba let out a ‘WOO, YEAH!’ and whistled obnoxiously.
When things quieted down Sakura cleared her throat and went back to business.
“By now I’ve talked to almost all of you and you know what I’d like from you, if you haven’t talked to Mr. Hatake,” She pointed him out and he raised a hand to show where he was in the audience “the director Ms. Tsunade or myself.” She touched a hand to her chest and smiled. “Please do so immediately after the conference.”
Someone called out “Where is the director? We haven’t seen her once yet.” A few agreeing noises rose from the crowd of stagehands, technicians, actors and miscellaneous theater workers. Shikamaru himself had never yet seen the elusive, yet much talked about director. Sakura sighed as if she was speaking to a crowd of unruly school children.
“Ms. Tsunade will be present in her office backstage on Mondays and Thursdays of this month from 2 until 4:30 except for Monday after next and on Saturdays she’ll be here from either 1 to 2 or 10:30 PM until midnight depending on the weather and…other influencing factors.” The audience didn’t like the sound of that.
“What Influencing factors?”
“That’s insane! She’s the director she should be here now!”
“Does she even exist?!”
Disgruntled cries came from all over, Sakura rubbed her temples and Lee (who had seemingly been waiting for his cue) ran onstage to hand her a cup of tea, which she accepted thanklessly. He turned to the crowd of angry partisans.
“But she is here everyone, don’t you see? Ms. Tsunade’s spirit of love for the theater burns within all of us! She’s always here…in our passion for the arts!” He stared getting choked up and was simultaneously booed by the audience and shoved by Sakura off the stage.
“Look everyone! She’ll be here tomorrow for the first script read through along with hopefully…” She glanced angrily at the two out of 8-odd actors who should have been present. “...the rest of our cast, permitted the bad weather doesn’t ‘negatively effect their chi.’” She air quoted with one hand and rolled her eyes. “You can talk to her then. In the meantime Mr. Umino would like to get everyone clocked in and put to work, only a few months before opening people!” Sakura took a sip of tea and left the stage, a fatherly looking man with brown hair and a scar on his nose took her place. He was carrying a checklist and pen.
“Alright, if you could all file up near the stairs in front of me please, on by one, and I’ll check you in and let you know where you should be, it should only take ten minutes or so.” As the first to respond clamored over seats and got onto the stage one way or the other, Shikamaru settled back in his chair and closed his eyes, intent on sleeping for the next ‘ten minutes or so’, but no such luck.
“Shika! Come on, it’s your first real day of work, don’t embarrass me by making a bad impression.” Ino hauled him out of his chair by the arm and practically lead him to the stage, by then there were fifteen or so people in front of them, Shikamaru could see a few he recognized, Kiba was the second in line, and he and his dog both seemed to be sniffing the person in front of him, a large and dangerous looking man with short black hair. He turned and glared at Kiba before leaving to wherever it was Mr. Umino had instructed him to be. As the line got shorter and the hallway nosier, Ino grew more exited, Shikamaru could tell this by the way she kept bouncing up and down and tightening her death hold on Shikamaru’s arm. It seemed from her expression as if it was a roller coaster on it’s way up instead of a boring old line line.
“It’s you next, Shika.” She whispered. “Your first day of work, you have a job now! My boyfriend is a workingman! Ooh!” She bit her lip and kissed him on the cheek, he winced and resisted the urge to wipe it off.
“Name, please.” Mr. Umino spoke and smiled at him in a stressed, fatherly way that was noticeably comfortable for him, despite them being perfect strangers. Shikamaru pried Ino off of him and stepped forward.
“Nara, Shikamaru.”
Mr. Umino looked through his list and checked Shikamaru’s name off, smiling all the while.
“Ah, yes. Lighting director. Head to the sound booth, everyone should be there in a minute.” Shikamaru nodded and strolled away in the general direction of the staircase, hands in pocket.
“Name, pl-”
“INA YAMANIKO!”
~*~
Only two people were in the sound booth when Shikamaru arrived, Kakashi and the strange, dark man dubbed “Bug Freak” by Kiba.
Kakashi was squatted on the ground, reading a novel and ignoring the world, the dark man was leaning against a wall, unmoving, like a statue. Shikamaru stood for a while, waiting to see if anything would happen, when it didn’t he decided to take advantage of the situation and get some sleep, he had just settled down on a piece of floor when he was once against awakened unceremoniously.
Clutching his side he looked up to see Kakashi standing over him, he had been kicked.
“What was that for?” He grumbled.
“Don’t sleep.” Replied Kakashi, with a grin in his voice. “Just be patient and wait, grab a chair. This is your job, you know.” Kakashi pulled up two chairs and sat in one, crossing his arms. Shikamaru groaned and joined him in the other. They were all silent for a while before the dark man coughed and Shikamaru could hear him moving around behind them, there was a rustling of fabric and a tinkling of glass. He turned around.
The man had pulled out two jars from his jacket and had placed them carefully, far back on a box, the sound booth was so crowded with dusty boxes there was no shortage of counter space. Upon closer inspection, Shikamaru saw the jars had leaves, sticks and… bugs in them, one bug each. The smaller one had a spider of some kind and the bigger one an extremely large beetle. The dark man had pulled out a note pad and was jotting things down, staring at the bugs and moving the jars around.
“Might as well introduce you two, It looks like the sound crew won’t be here for a while. Shikamaru, Mr. Shino Aburame here is our “Technical supervisor”.” Shino stopped moving for a second. “…And an Entomologist.” Kakashi continued. “Shino, this is Shikamaru Nara, he’s our lighting director.”
Neither Shikamaru nor Shino said anything but both nodded to each other; Shino seemed all right, even if he was a little creepy; at least Shikamaru knew that he wouldn’t be working with an annoying chatterbox.
“Hello my fellow sound booth technicians! How is everyone on this most beautiful of days?” Shikamaru turned around and was almost blinded by an inhumanly shiny grin. It was Lee.
“Beautiful, eh? Have you even been outside today, Lee?” Kakashi chuckled.
“The weather is wonderful because it has given me added motive to give 300% effort into making this play an unrivaled success!” He punched the air, fire in his eyes. Was this guy for real?
“Well, in that case I’m surprised you weren’t up here before anyone else.”
“I was first in line and had the full intention of getting here first and making this place look more like home for the rest of you, but my dear Sakura was in need of assistance! She has been working so hard, I offered to give her one of my infamous back massages, but she refused, it is unfortunate, I have been told I give the best massages in all of Konoha City.” He beamed pride fully. Told by who? Shikamaru wondered.
“Told by whom? Mr. Maito?” Kakashi asked; the question drenched in false innocence. Shikamaru didn’t know who they were talking about, but it obviously affected Lee, who blushed and coughed.
“Well…where is everyone? Don’t they know that this is the first day of what will be the most amazing months of their life?” He moved to stare out of the window overlooking the audience and stage.
“Excuse me,” Everyone turned to look at Shino, it was the first time he had spoken, and his voice was as dark and mysterious as he was.
“I am sorry to interject, but how many people will ultimately be operating in here?” Kakashi leaned back in his chair.
“This is it except for the sound technicians, there are three of them so… seven, ‘ultimately’, though I won’t be here all the time.” He replied. Shino’s eyebrows furrowed.
“That is quite an amount of people for this small of a space.”
“It’ll seem bigger when we move the chairs and boxes out.”
“Are you sure this place is up to code? I think it might be a potential host to termites.”
“No, I’m not sure, but it’ll support all of us easily, I’ve made sure of that… and surely you don’t have a problem with insects?” You could almost hear Kakashi’s smirk. Lee snorted.
Shino shifted, noticeably discomfited. “No, but... Termites multiply quickly and can destroy -”
“There’s no reason to worry, Mr. Aburame, just relax. You’re not here to be our exterminator.”
Shino didn’t say anything else, but he pushed his glassed up his nose and turned back to his insects, making notes again.
In due time the sound technicians arrived, Kakashi introduced them as Dosu Kinuta; a hunched, frightening looking man wearing a large fur coat, Zaku Abumi; a cocky young man who was missing both arms at the elbows (Shikamaru didn’t know how he was going to work the controls, and didn’t really want to know) and Kin Tsushi; A pretty girl with long black hair, who was to be the only female in the booth. Shikamaru’s first impression of all of them was that they were extremely arrogant, but at least they seemed professional, despite being late. They jumped right into work mode immediately after being introduced.
Kakashi gave everyone a job; Zaku and Kin were to test out every speaker and sound system to make sure everything was working, Shikamaru was to do the same but with every light. Everyone else worked on moving boxes out of the sound booth and carrying everything downstairs to backstage, where stagehands would sort it.
As Shikamaru worked, he did his job systematically and wrote down every light that wasn’t working, and then tried to figure out if there was something wrong with that actual light or the wiring. He managed to fix all but two, of which he suspected the bulbs had burnt out. All of this took about an hour. By the time he was done the room was empty but for seven chairs packed one on top of another, Kakashi was right, it now seemed twice as big as before. He pulled a chair out and stared down at the stage. He could see the two actors who showed up sitting together, drinking coffee and running over their lines. He also spotted Chouji, who walked from one end of the stage to the other, carrying boxes. He looked stressed but Shikamaru knew he loved the work.
Shikamaru reflected on the fact that he was surprised with himself, he hadn’t tried to skive off of work or not complete any jobs given to him. He usually would rather sit in one place, doing nothing for a whole week rather than work in any way. He had actually worked relatively consistently since being hired. He shrugged; better not think on it too hard.
As he whipped his brow and stood up, he noticed Zaku was also close finishing his task. Shikamaru watched him with some minor interest operate switches, levers and buttons with as much dexterity using only his elbows as anyone would with both hands. Kin was down on the stage, testing a few headsets.
Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, Zaku finished up and joined him by pulling up a chair of his own. Pretty soon almost everyone was back in the room except for Kakashi and Shino. Lee was trying to engage Kin in conversation but she was ignoring him. Zaku and Dosu were muttering to each other. Shikamaru put his head in his hands, bending over, he was tired and bored.
“AAAAAAAARG! SOMEONE HELP ME!!! MY HAIR IS ON FIRE!” Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and they all watched as- Wait, was that Ino?
Shikamaru stood up. Ino was running across the stage, hair obviously on fire, several stagehands running after her trying to douse the flames with their water bottles. He sighed and left the sound booth, went quickly down the stairs and onto the stage and headed backstage to se if she was all right. Ino may have been be a bossy cow, but he still didn’t want to see her get hurt.
He found her quickly enough, sprawled in a chair, breathing in short little gasps, as stage hands fanned her with bits of paper and watched over he concernedly, her long hair was burned at the ends and visibly shorter but he wasn’t about to tell her that, she also smelled awful, understandably. About ten feet behind her he could see a few people staring and snickering.
“Ino…what the hell happened?” and asked, exasperated. Ino closed her mouth tight and a psychotic look came into her eyes.
“Your idiot of a friend SET MY HAIR ON FIRE!” She screamed, Shikamaru found it hard not to laugh at how ridiculous she looked.
“Chouji?”
“YES CHOUJI!”
“Chouji set your hair on fire?” He asked disbelievingly.
“Not on purpose.” Came a growing voice from behind him, He turned around and looked into he large friend’s eyes, barley concealing a grin.
“You…accidentally…set Ino’s hair on fire?” Chouji shrugged.
“She asked me to light candles for ambiance, and can’t help it if her hair got in the way.”
Ino was livid. “Yes, but you couldhelp it that your FAT ASS bumped me into the candle!” She spat.
Uh-Oh.
“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!” Chouji charged past Shikamaru, Ino stood up and knocked the chair over, soon they were nose to nose, glaring at each other with such hatred Shikamaru knew that no good could come of it, he plugged his ears and watched the screaming match unfold.
That’s it, I’m quitting this stupid job.
~*~
Shino was hiding.
He wouldn’t call it hiding if he was asked, of course, he would say it was observing.
He stared at Kiba, searching his brain for any possible way he knew the man. He went though his life, he didn’t know him from Africa or Iceland or the rainforests, he didn’t know him from college or University, he didn’t know him from High-.
Suddenly it came back to him, memories from years he’d tried to forget, of a boy with wild hair and carefree grin, who rolled around with dogs and played sports and climbed walls and howled when he was exited. A boy who hadn’t cared that Shino was a freak.
“Yo, bug freak! What’s up?”
“God, I don’t know how you do it, science is totally impossible.”
“You alright? You wanna talk about anything?”
“I think you’d like skateboarding, there’s a lot of physics involved.”
“Damn dude, you’re like a robot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh and you’re never gonna score chicks like that. Loosen up!”
“Bug Freak, I’m your friend, stop being so damn secretive!”
Yes, he knew Kiba. He was shocked that he’d ever forgotten him.
Shino took a deep breath and stared at the man who had once been his best friend.
Kiba was talking with a young, pretty woman as they sat backstage and sipped coffee, he knew he should speak to the man, but what do you say to someone you haven’t seen for eight years, someone who used to be so important? Shino coughed and stepped up to the table. Kiba noticed him and grinned.
“Hey, bug freak. Something on your mind.”
Shino paused, when he didn’t say anything immediately Kiba shook his head and sighed.
“Haven’t changed a bit, have you Shino? Well, the jacket is new.” Shino cleared his throat and paused again.
“…I know who you are.”
“About time, my feelings were starting to get hurt.” He mock pouted than grinned. He turned to the woman he was talking to.
“I’m afraid I’ve got some catching up to do, see you later Haku.” The woman nodded and left the table. Kiba gestured for Shino to take her place. Which he did.
“So…How you been?” Kiba asked.
Shino adjusted his glasses “I apologize for not recognizing you earlier, you look different.”
“Really?” Kiba glanced down at himself. “I guess I didn’t have the tat’s in high school.”
“Yes…but you’re also…broader, somewhat.” Shino Added, Kiba made a strange, silly expression.
“Are you calling me fat?”
“No. You look…” Shino searched for the right wording, he wasn’t used to talking with people, in English at least. “…Stronger. You look strong.” Kiba raised an eyebrow.
“So now you’re hitting on me? I’m not sure if that’s better or worse then you calling me fat.”
Shino paused, not sure what to do, then he saw Kiba was holding back laughter and sighed.
“Actually…you, my friend, have not changed at all.”
~~~
Hope you liked it. :)