(no subject)
Title: Tie Me Down; Chapter 5
Pairings: ShikaChou, ShikaTema. A mention of ChouOC later in the fic.
Genre: Drama, Romance.
Rating: R on the whole. PG for this chapter.
Warnings: Non-Beta-ed, Post time-jump (But you don’t need to have read it to understand, just beware of some minor spoilers), AU, Yaoi, Het, character death, OC’s (Realistic and not central). Very possible that I won’t finish.
Notes: Ah! OC's ahoy! If you don't like it, you can tell me, but I wont change it. :p
I don't think they'll get in anyone's hair.
When he had finally made his decision, almost two hours later, he carefully put his daughter back into her box-like cradle and called for a medic-nin to redo the seals helping her to strengthen. He decided to take a walk outside before talking to Tsunade.
The air was clear and there were only a few clouds in the sky, Shikamaru found himself heading towards his old cloud-watching spot, which he hadn’t made time for lately. As he sat on the stone bench he let his mind wander randomly through all the memories he had there, which were all very similar. Watching clouds after school, watching clouds during lunch, watching clouds after and before missions, watching clouds and snacking with Chouji. He sighed miserably.
He lay back and closed his eyes, the sun pounded down on him and he felt a large presence join him. It was Chouza, he knew it was Chouza but if he didn’t open his eyes he could almost imagine…
“Where did you go?” Chouza’s voice was as non-demanding and gentle as if it was any other day, any other casual inquiry.
Shikamaru shrugged and opened his eyes; he stared at Chouza’s back and thought vaguely about the Akimichi Symbol on his armor, it suddenly looked like something foreign, as if he hadn’t seen it almost every day of his life. He didn’t really want to talk to Chouza, he sort of just wanted to lie there…thinking, speculating about nothing.
He couldn’t do that.
“I went to see my daughter, in the hospital.” Shikamaru groaned as he sat up. Chouza sighed and nodded.
“I see…have you made a decision yet?”
Shikamaru smiled. “Yeah.”
“You’re going to keep her?”
Shikamaru nodded and Chouza whistled, maybe appreciatively, maybe pityingly.
“Wow, well-”
“-And don’t worry about me staying at your house,” Shikamaru interrupted. “I’ll move back into my place, I still own it, I’ve put you through enough.” Chouza looked almost offended.
“Oh, that’s nonsense. I invited you; I wanted you to stay. You can still stay.” He sounded sincere, but the invitation to continue living with him was tinged with something.
“Chouza… you’re way too busy, I know you are. You need to have somewhere to unwind after missions, you don’t want a baby in your house, crying all the time.” Chouza frowned and shook his head.
“No. I took care of a baby once, and Chouji was a very particular baby, you have no experience in infant-care. You may be a genius, but even you will need help with this.” He clapped his hands to his knees and stood up. “I insist you bring her home, for the first week, at least.” He looked determined.
Shikamaru sighed and eventually nodded. “It’s troublesome…but I suppose you won’t change your mind?” Chouza shook his head.
“No, my mind is made up.” He crossed his arms for emphasis.
Shikamaru stared at Chouza for a moment.
“…Alright then.” He spoke as he stood up. “What do we do first?”
~*~*~
Six years Later
~*~*~
The weather was warm today, better traveling weather. There was a gorgeous smell in the air; a million different flowers no body had discovered yet were all combining their separate scents into the intoxicating warmth of the air. Mixing with the recognizable, natural smells of Konoha’s forest border.
Ino Yamanaka sighed deeply, another mission had been completed, food for the next couple months was taken care of, and she’d probably even have enough money left over to get those shoes she wanted.
She took her sandals off and dipped her feet into the cool stream water. She sat her self down on the riverside and just enjoyed the feeling of being relaxed and having nothing to do.
“Mommy!” A sharp scream rung in her ear.
Oh yeah, Right.
”What?! What do you want, Inozu?” Ino’s small blonde son stomped his foot and crossed his arms.
“She’s doing it again! Make her stop, make her stop, make her stop!” He stamped his foot again and again and pouted.
Ino sighed. “What’s she doing now?” Inozu pointed to what looked like a large, brown and green growth on a rock.
“Just look at her, she’s being wiiierrd!” Ino took a second to make an amused face at her sons less-than-masculine tendencies and peered at the bump on the rock, curiously. Taking her feet out of the water, she crawled over to the bump and poked it’s stomach.
“Shikari?” The fungus that was Shikamaru’s daughter didn’t move, almost corpse-like in her stillness, Ino could tell how her son had gotten crept out. The girl’s small round face was pallid and motionless, her dark hair was out of its usually ponytail, and splayed all over the place, her clothes were soaked, as if she had drowned.
Ino checked her pulse just to make sure; she was healthy, just faking.
“Alright, come on you guys, enough playing. We have to get back home.” She picked up Shikari and threw her over her shoulder. Holding the girl in place with one arm, she grasped Her own son’s hand with the other and they headed back to town.
On the way, Inozu regaled her with tales about what he and Shikari had been doing (playing ninja) before she had decided to die. He was such a talkative little thing; Ino saw a lot of her at that age in him. She nodded at everything he said and tried to ignore the squishing sound her sandals made.
Eventually Inozu got tired of talking and started to poke Shikari in the head, she didn’t react at first but soon began moaning into Ino’s shirt.
“Mmmghh…quit it.”
“You’re so lazy, Shikari!” Inozu teased, she swatted his hand away in a zombie-like fashion.
“Don’t pester Shikari, Inozu! What do I always tell you?” Inozu pouted.
“‘Picking fights is un-gen-tle-manly’” He mumbled, over-enunciating the ‘Ungentlemanly’ part.
“And?” Ino poked her son’s cheek, he rubbed it in agitation.
“‘…And no girl will marry a boy who’s not a gen-tee-man.’ I don’t even want to marry a stupid girl! Girls are gross.” He made a face, Ino laughed.
“Ah…you’ll grow out of that.”
Maybe, she added to herself.
As they reached the Konoha main gates, Inozu ran ahead and greeted the guards, telling them all about playing ninja and how Shikari was now choosing to be dead, he did a little dance to emphasize that part. They laughed.
“Aright, Inozu, stop pestering the Gentleman.” Ino scolded; Inozu whispered “Gen-tee-man.” Mockingly and ran away into the village.
“Ino! How did the mission go” You didn’t take the kids with you, did you?” The guard, a man named Masuyo, asked. Ino shook her head.
“No, they found me, they’re like homing devices.” She rolled her eyes. “The mission went well, no major glitches, nobody even attacked us.”
She had been given body-guard duty, and had escorted a rich (but not very charming) prince back to his own country, the only real problem was that he kept hitting on her the entire time, and really, she wasn’t that sort of kuonichi.
Well, she might have been if he was at all handsome, but alas, he was more like a toad then a prince.
She hoisted Shikari over her shoulder and onto her back, the girl mumbled in protest, but tightened her hold on Ino so that she could more securely carry her. Ino said goodbye to the guards and headed off after her son, who had made some pretty good headway.
“Mom?” He asked when they had caught up.
“Yes?”
“What do you do at the academy?”
“Well, you learn about being a ninja, you make friends…”
“’Cause I don’t want to have people throw knives at me, or swim in lava, or -”
“Swim in lava?! Who’s been telling you these things?” Ino inquired.
“Mr. Doggy man.” Ino rolled her eyes.
“Figures. I don’t want you hanging out with Mr. Inuzuka, or Mr. Aburame. They’re a bad influence.”
Inozu looked scandalized “What? But they’re cool! Mr. Doggy man lets me go for rides on Akamaru and taught me how to brush him! And Mr. Bug Man taught me about beetles which was kinda creepy, but he also gave me these!” Inozu reached into his pocket and showed Ino a pair of dark, round glasses.
“See! Now me and Shiro can be twins!”
Ino was suddenly struck with the horrible mental image of her son, dressed up in Aburame gear, bugs expelling from his every pore. She shuddered.
“Well…I don’t think it’s a great idea for you to be spending so much time with Mr Doggy man, Mr. Bug man or their kids. Why don’t you make some nice, normal…more hygienic friends? Hm?” Inozu made a face.
“What does…Hy-gen-ick, mean?” He asked, Ino didn’t get a chance to answer.
“It means clean, stupid.” Shikari responded from over Ino’s shoulder. Inozu stuck his tongue out at her. Ino smiled.
“Alright, Shikari. Let’s take you home.”
~~~
Nara Shikamaru laid back on Chouza’s couch, papers in one hand, and pen in the other. He got all of one half a page planned before he decided a practical exam would be less troublesome, and less work, and threw the papers aside.
“Well, that’s one thing taken care of.” He rolled over on his side and settled in for a nap.
Just as he was falling asleep, he heard the front door open with a squeak and tiny footsteps, slowly getting closer and closer.
Suddenly he felt a small, warm breath on his face. He opened an eye.
“Shikari?”
His small daughter stared back at him, her eyes tired and slightly vacant, she glared at him and shook her head disapprovingly.
“You should have told me.” She scolded in her tiny voice.
“Told you what?” He moved further into the couch and let her climb up beside him and snuggle in.
“That Ino’s my real mother.”
“What?!” Shikamaru stared at his daughter, surprised and…vaguely perturbed.
“It makes perfect sense. ” She responded with the assured confidence of one who believes they know everything.
“It makes no sense. Ino’s not your mom.”
“Psh, it does too make sense. Ino spends a lot of time here, she’s old like you.” Shikamaru snorted. “Annnnd you told me my mom was blonde with blue eyes.”
“I also told you that her name was Sabakuno Temari and she lived in the Hidden village of sand in the wind country.” Shikari ignored this.
“Inozu’s the only problem though, he’s nothing like me, too different to be my half brother.”
“Lot’s of siblings are different…but he’s not your sibling because Ino isn’t your mother.”
Shikari shook her head. “I know she’s not dead. I can feel it.”
Shikamaru paused for a moment, thinking, and then he sat up and let Shikari crawl into his lap. He patted her back and sighed.
“Well, if your mother was alive, I can tell she’d love you very much. You’re as stubborn as she was.”
“Ino’s stubborn!”
“Go play outside, Shikari.”
He shooed her away and she slouched off, trailing her feet behind her. Shikamaru noticed his shirt and pants were soggy and that his daughter was leaving wet footprints behind her. She was soaking.
“Che, how troublesome, I’ll have to talk to Ino about this.” He tried wiping off his pants with a pillow and stood up, gathering up his papers and leaving to the study.
He put his papers on the desk and sat down, he had to come up with some sort of exam for the graduating students this year. He didn’t want a repeat of last year, everything had gone off seamlessly as he had planned, but the graduation rate was too high, the tests were too simple.
He steeped his fingers and settled into his “thinking” pose, he immediately knew the answer, he would create a half practical, half written exam to go alongside the practical technique display. The written would cover the basics and the practical would be a spontaneous, no-hold-barred competition between potential graduates, in the style of the chunnin exam. It was a small graduating class this year, so he probably would only need to have one or two other people supervising.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. After all, most of the kids at the graduating class couldn’t wait to become Genin’s, but were also already exited about the Chunnin exams, from all the stories they had heard from their parents and older siblings.
Suddenly in his mind he had a vivid image of Ino, Chouji and himself in the forest of death. Huddled in a bush with his face in the grass, his arm over Chouji, keeping him from making a sound, Ino on his other side, her breathing coming in small sharp gasps.
Where did that come from?
Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the desk. That was strange, he hadn’t reminisced about Chouji or his childhood in a long time, years at least. He was also surprised to find how little the memory of Chouji hurt; the last time he had reflected about his old friend he could barley hold back from becoming a wreck, now it was nothing but a strange, pulsing recollection, one that didn’t even hurt all that much anymore.
He took and lit a cigarette from one of his chunnin vest pockets; it was a bad habit he had picked up from Asuma in the past few years. He took a drag and blew smoke out of his nose. The doorbell rang.
“Shikari, get the door!” There was no response, he sighed and put out his cigarette in an ashtray, he stood up, made his way to the front hallway and opened the door.
Standing in the doorway was a young girl, no older than his own daughter. She was round and chubby with bushy, thick brown hair in two ponytails, her pink dress was stained and she was holding a bag of chips, the evidence of its contents in crumbs on her face.
“Hello?” He acknowledged. He didn’t remember ever seeing this girl before.
“Hi, are you my gwandpa?” She asked, her voice was small and meek, like a tiny mouse. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
“No, I’m…” He suddenly felt cold; a shadow had been cast over him.
It was caused by the figure that had appeared behind the girl, Shikamaru looked up.
It was Chouji.
~~~
End of Chapter 5.
Pairings: ShikaChou, ShikaTema. A mention of ChouOC later in the fic.
Genre: Drama, Romance.
Rating: R on the whole. PG for this chapter.
Warnings: Non-Beta-ed, Post time-jump (But you don’t need to have read it to understand, just beware of some minor spoilers), AU, Yaoi, Het, character death, OC’s (Realistic and not central). Very possible that I won’t finish.
Notes: Ah! OC's ahoy! If you don't like it, you can tell me, but I wont change it. :p
I don't think they'll get in anyone's hair.
When he had finally made his decision, almost two hours later, he carefully put his daughter back into her box-like cradle and called for a medic-nin to redo the seals helping her to strengthen. He decided to take a walk outside before talking to Tsunade.
The air was clear and there were only a few clouds in the sky, Shikamaru found himself heading towards his old cloud-watching spot, which he hadn’t made time for lately. As he sat on the stone bench he let his mind wander randomly through all the memories he had there, which were all very similar. Watching clouds after school, watching clouds during lunch, watching clouds after and before missions, watching clouds and snacking with Chouji. He sighed miserably.
He lay back and closed his eyes, the sun pounded down on him and he felt a large presence join him. It was Chouza, he knew it was Chouza but if he didn’t open his eyes he could almost imagine…
“Where did you go?” Chouza’s voice was as non-demanding and gentle as if it was any other day, any other casual inquiry.
Shikamaru shrugged and opened his eyes; he stared at Chouza’s back and thought vaguely about the Akimichi Symbol on his armor, it suddenly looked like something foreign, as if he hadn’t seen it almost every day of his life. He didn’t really want to talk to Chouza, he sort of just wanted to lie there…thinking, speculating about nothing.
He couldn’t do that.
“I went to see my daughter, in the hospital.” Shikamaru groaned as he sat up. Chouza sighed and nodded.
“I see…have you made a decision yet?”
Shikamaru smiled. “Yeah.”
“You’re going to keep her?”
Shikamaru nodded and Chouza whistled, maybe appreciatively, maybe pityingly.
“Wow, well-”
“-And don’t worry about me staying at your house,” Shikamaru interrupted. “I’ll move back into my place, I still own it, I’ve put you through enough.” Chouza looked almost offended.
“Oh, that’s nonsense. I invited you; I wanted you to stay. You can still stay.” He sounded sincere, but the invitation to continue living with him was tinged with something.
“Chouza… you’re way too busy, I know you are. You need to have somewhere to unwind after missions, you don’t want a baby in your house, crying all the time.” Chouza frowned and shook his head.
“No. I took care of a baby once, and Chouji was a very particular baby, you have no experience in infant-care. You may be a genius, but even you will need help with this.” He clapped his hands to his knees and stood up. “I insist you bring her home, for the first week, at least.” He looked determined.
Shikamaru sighed and eventually nodded. “It’s troublesome…but I suppose you won’t change your mind?” Chouza shook his head.
“No, my mind is made up.” He crossed his arms for emphasis.
Shikamaru stared at Chouza for a moment.
“…Alright then.” He spoke as he stood up. “What do we do first?”
~*~*~
Six years Later
~*~*~
The weather was warm today, better traveling weather. There was a gorgeous smell in the air; a million different flowers no body had discovered yet were all combining their separate scents into the intoxicating warmth of the air. Mixing with the recognizable, natural smells of Konoha’s forest border.
Ino Yamanaka sighed deeply, another mission had been completed, food for the next couple months was taken care of, and she’d probably even have enough money left over to get those shoes she wanted.
She took her sandals off and dipped her feet into the cool stream water. She sat her self down on the riverside and just enjoyed the feeling of being relaxed and having nothing to do.
“Mommy!” A sharp scream rung in her ear.
Oh yeah, Right.
”What?! What do you want, Inozu?” Ino’s small blonde son stomped his foot and crossed his arms.
“She’s doing it again! Make her stop, make her stop, make her stop!” He stamped his foot again and again and pouted.
Ino sighed. “What’s she doing now?” Inozu pointed to what looked like a large, brown and green growth on a rock.
“Just look at her, she’s being wiiierrd!” Ino took a second to make an amused face at her sons less-than-masculine tendencies and peered at the bump on the rock, curiously. Taking her feet out of the water, she crawled over to the bump and poked it’s stomach.
“Shikari?” The fungus that was Shikamaru’s daughter didn’t move, almost corpse-like in her stillness, Ino could tell how her son had gotten crept out. The girl’s small round face was pallid and motionless, her dark hair was out of its usually ponytail, and splayed all over the place, her clothes were soaked, as if she had drowned.
Ino checked her pulse just to make sure; she was healthy, just faking.
“Alright, come on you guys, enough playing. We have to get back home.” She picked up Shikari and threw her over her shoulder. Holding the girl in place with one arm, she grasped Her own son’s hand with the other and they headed back to town.
On the way, Inozu regaled her with tales about what he and Shikari had been doing (playing ninja) before she had decided to die. He was such a talkative little thing; Ino saw a lot of her at that age in him. She nodded at everything he said and tried to ignore the squishing sound her sandals made.
Eventually Inozu got tired of talking and started to poke Shikari in the head, she didn’t react at first but soon began moaning into Ino’s shirt.
“Mmmghh…quit it.”
“You’re so lazy, Shikari!” Inozu teased, she swatted his hand away in a zombie-like fashion.
“Don’t pester Shikari, Inozu! What do I always tell you?” Inozu pouted.
“‘Picking fights is un-gen-tle-manly’” He mumbled, over-enunciating the ‘Ungentlemanly’ part.
“And?” Ino poked her son’s cheek, he rubbed it in agitation.
“‘…And no girl will marry a boy who’s not a gen-tee-man.’ I don’t even want to marry a stupid girl! Girls are gross.” He made a face, Ino laughed.
“Ah…you’ll grow out of that.”
Maybe, she added to herself.
As they reached the Konoha main gates, Inozu ran ahead and greeted the guards, telling them all about playing ninja and how Shikari was now choosing to be dead, he did a little dance to emphasize that part. They laughed.
“Aright, Inozu, stop pestering the Gentleman.” Ino scolded; Inozu whispered “Gen-tee-man.” Mockingly and ran away into the village.
“Ino! How did the mission go” You didn’t take the kids with you, did you?” The guard, a man named Masuyo, asked. Ino shook her head.
“No, they found me, they’re like homing devices.” She rolled her eyes. “The mission went well, no major glitches, nobody even attacked us.”
She had been given body-guard duty, and had escorted a rich (but not very charming) prince back to his own country, the only real problem was that he kept hitting on her the entire time, and really, she wasn’t that sort of kuonichi.
Well, she might have been if he was at all handsome, but alas, he was more like a toad then a prince.
She hoisted Shikari over her shoulder and onto her back, the girl mumbled in protest, but tightened her hold on Ino so that she could more securely carry her. Ino said goodbye to the guards and headed off after her son, who had made some pretty good headway.
“Mom?” He asked when they had caught up.
“Yes?”
“What do you do at the academy?”
“Well, you learn about being a ninja, you make friends…”
“’Cause I don’t want to have people throw knives at me, or swim in lava, or -”
“Swim in lava?! Who’s been telling you these things?” Ino inquired.
“Mr. Doggy man.” Ino rolled her eyes.
“Figures. I don’t want you hanging out with Mr. Inuzuka, or Mr. Aburame. They’re a bad influence.”
Inozu looked scandalized “What? But they’re cool! Mr. Doggy man lets me go for rides on Akamaru and taught me how to brush him! And Mr. Bug Man taught me about beetles which was kinda creepy, but he also gave me these!” Inozu reached into his pocket and showed Ino a pair of dark, round glasses.
“See! Now me and Shiro can be twins!”
Ino was suddenly struck with the horrible mental image of her son, dressed up in Aburame gear, bugs expelling from his every pore. She shuddered.
“Well…I don’t think it’s a great idea for you to be spending so much time with Mr Doggy man, Mr. Bug man or their kids. Why don’t you make some nice, normal…more hygienic friends? Hm?” Inozu made a face.
“What does…Hy-gen-ick, mean?” He asked, Ino didn’t get a chance to answer.
“It means clean, stupid.” Shikari responded from over Ino’s shoulder. Inozu stuck his tongue out at her. Ino smiled.
“Alright, Shikari. Let’s take you home.”
~~~
Nara Shikamaru laid back on Chouza’s couch, papers in one hand, and pen in the other. He got all of one half a page planned before he decided a practical exam would be less troublesome, and less work, and threw the papers aside.
“Well, that’s one thing taken care of.” He rolled over on his side and settled in for a nap.
Just as he was falling asleep, he heard the front door open with a squeak and tiny footsteps, slowly getting closer and closer.
Suddenly he felt a small, warm breath on his face. He opened an eye.
“Shikari?”
His small daughter stared back at him, her eyes tired and slightly vacant, she glared at him and shook her head disapprovingly.
“You should have told me.” She scolded in her tiny voice.
“Told you what?” He moved further into the couch and let her climb up beside him and snuggle in.
“That Ino’s my real mother.”
“What?!” Shikamaru stared at his daughter, surprised and…vaguely perturbed.
“It makes perfect sense. ” She responded with the assured confidence of one who believes they know everything.
“It makes no sense. Ino’s not your mom.”
“Psh, it does too make sense. Ino spends a lot of time here, she’s old like you.” Shikamaru snorted. “Annnnd you told me my mom was blonde with blue eyes.”
“I also told you that her name was Sabakuno Temari and she lived in the Hidden village of sand in the wind country.” Shikari ignored this.
“Inozu’s the only problem though, he’s nothing like me, too different to be my half brother.”
“Lot’s of siblings are different…but he’s not your sibling because Ino isn’t your mother.”
Shikari shook her head. “I know she’s not dead. I can feel it.”
Shikamaru paused for a moment, thinking, and then he sat up and let Shikari crawl into his lap. He patted her back and sighed.
“Well, if your mother was alive, I can tell she’d love you very much. You’re as stubborn as she was.”
“Ino’s stubborn!”
“Go play outside, Shikari.”
He shooed her away and she slouched off, trailing her feet behind her. Shikamaru noticed his shirt and pants were soggy and that his daughter was leaving wet footprints behind her. She was soaking.
“Che, how troublesome, I’ll have to talk to Ino about this.” He tried wiping off his pants with a pillow and stood up, gathering up his papers and leaving to the study.
He put his papers on the desk and sat down, he had to come up with some sort of exam for the graduating students this year. He didn’t want a repeat of last year, everything had gone off seamlessly as he had planned, but the graduation rate was too high, the tests were too simple.
He steeped his fingers and settled into his “thinking” pose, he immediately knew the answer, he would create a half practical, half written exam to go alongside the practical technique display. The written would cover the basics and the practical would be a spontaneous, no-hold-barred competition between potential graduates, in the style of the chunnin exam. It was a small graduating class this year, so he probably would only need to have one or two other people supervising.
The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. After all, most of the kids at the graduating class couldn’t wait to become Genin’s, but were also already exited about the Chunnin exams, from all the stories they had heard from their parents and older siblings.
Suddenly in his mind he had a vivid image of Ino, Chouji and himself in the forest of death. Huddled in a bush with his face in the grass, his arm over Chouji, keeping him from making a sound, Ino on his other side, her breathing coming in small sharp gasps.
Where did that come from?
Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the desk. That was strange, he hadn’t reminisced about Chouji or his childhood in a long time, years at least. He was also surprised to find how little the memory of Chouji hurt; the last time he had reflected about his old friend he could barley hold back from becoming a wreck, now it was nothing but a strange, pulsing recollection, one that didn’t even hurt all that much anymore.
He took and lit a cigarette from one of his chunnin vest pockets; it was a bad habit he had picked up from Asuma in the past few years. He took a drag and blew smoke out of his nose. The doorbell rang.
“Shikari, get the door!” There was no response, he sighed and put out his cigarette in an ashtray, he stood up, made his way to the front hallway and opened the door.
Standing in the doorway was a young girl, no older than his own daughter. She was round and chubby with bushy, thick brown hair in two ponytails, her pink dress was stained and she was holding a bag of chips, the evidence of its contents in crumbs on her face.
“Hello?” He acknowledged. He didn’t remember ever seeing this girl before.
“Hi, are you my gwandpa?” She asked, her voice was small and meek, like a tiny mouse. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
“No, I’m…” He suddenly felt cold; a shadow had been cast over him.
It was caused by the figure that had appeared behind the girl, Shikamaru looked up.
It was Chouji.
~~~
End of Chapter 5.