43Shikamaru woke up slowly with an annoying pain ringing through his head as the light in his room filled his eyes. He didn't recall going to bed last night…no. He had something he wanted to do the other night…something he had been working on for close to a year now. Shikamaru grabbed his head and growled with closed eyes.
He still couldn't put the pieces together.
What did he do the other night?
He opened his black eyes slowly to see something that shocked him. This wasn't his room. Shikamaru looked around frantically as he tried to unravel the mystery of the other night. He knew he didn't have too much to drink. He didn't want to drink that night because of…
Shikamaru punched the side of his head in anger.
'Because of what? BECAUSE OF WHAT?'
Shikamaru was cut off by the sound of the brown wooden bedroom door being opened. Shikamaru readied himself to lunge out of the foreign bed to attack the intruder, only to stop abruptly. A little girl with big blue eye, brown pig tails and a pink dress stood at the door with eyes of wonder.
'W-What the?'
The little girl walked into the bed room quietly with her mouth slightly agape at the sight of the new guest in her house. She stopped at the side of the bed, a smile appearing on her small lips.
"Hi," she smiled widely, waving to the shadow user. "My name's Elicia." She pointed a small finger to Shikamaru. "What's yours?"
Shikamaru would have answered happily, but somewhat lazily, replied to the child's question…
If he could've understood her, that is. Shikamaru frowned at the child and tried to talk to her, only getting a giggle from her.
"You talk funny!" she giggled, a hand placed over her mouth.
Shikamaru's eye twitched. This was getting him nowhere. Just as Shikamaru was about to ask the child another question, someone enter the room. She had short tan hair that went to her shoulders, blackish eyes and a green dress with a white apron over it. She was carrying clothing under her arms as she walked into the room.
"Elicia," the mother of the child said a stern look in her eyes. "What did I say about coming in here?" Elicia glanced at her black shoes, her bottom lip hanging out.
"But he was awake…"
The mother sighed, "Yes he is, dear. But I didn't want you to come in this room." The child shook her head as the mother walked over to Shikamaru. "These are for you." She hand the clothing to Shikamaru, who finally noticed that he only had boxers on. "Put those on and come to the kitchen." She smiled softly, "I'll make tea."
As the two walked out of the room to let Shikamaru dress, he recalled what he had done the other night before he got to their world. He turned his eyes to the black t-shirt and strange blue uniform like pants the woman and the child named 'Elicia' had given him. Shikamaru's blood boiled as his mind raced and his veins filled with disbelief and resentment, making him throw the clothing to the wooden flooring in rage.
'What did I do wrong?' he questioned himself. 'The amount of iron was correct, the DNA from his son was in the transmutation circle, and everything was accounted for in the ingredients! Why didn't teacher come back to life? And where hell am I?'
More and more questions fogged his mind as he paced around the butter yellow bedroom in his white boxers.
"None of this makes any sense! I read over the notes over and over!" he shouted out in his language that the mother and daughter didn't speak a lick of. He flinched in pain and grabbed his side feeling a shot of pain run through.
"K- kuso (D-damn.)" Shikamaru glanced to the ground to see the clothing still in the spot he left them. He bent down, grabbed them from the flooring and inspected them once more. "Kimyōna fuku... (Strange clothing…)" he mumbled to himself.
He slid the shirt over his head, feeling the pain as he raised his arms, his pineapple ponytail appearing out of the shirt first. Shikamaru then slid the blue pants on and zipped up the fly and buttoned his pants. He walked over to the mirror.
'These clothes are large for me…I thought they looked big enough to fit me-' Shikamaru thought process stopped, his face paled at what he saw, stumbling backwards in disbelief. 'N-No way!'In the mirror was his reflection, but not the reflection he was expecting to see.
" I-I-" Shikamaru placed his fingers on his face, looking at the mirror in terror. "Watashi wa 15 yo... Īe watashi wa 18 atte wa naranai! (I'm 15... NO I SHOULD BE 18!)"
He slammed his fist on the dresser repeatedly to the point his knuckles began to bleed. This wasn't right. What went wrong to make this happen? The door squeaked open stopping Shikamaru in his tracks. Shikamaru turned around with a start thinking the mother was coming to check on him. His eyes softened. The light brown pig tailed girl peaked through the crack of the door with her deep blue eye and one small hand on the door, fear written over her face.
Shikamaru glanced at his hand to see the wound mostly on his knuckles with the ruby red blood dripping to the wooden flooring like a leaky faucet. He sighed with closed eyes. The girl was too young to see something like this; he had to maintain his anger. Shikamaru forced a small soft smiled, giving the impression to the child that everything was fine and getting her to walk into the room towards him with her eyes locked onto his fist.
"Why did you do that, mister?" Elicia asked with a puzzled look you would see on a child her age as she pointed at his hand. "Are you angry?"
Shikamaru didn't understand what Elicia said. He didn't understand any of it. "Dono yōna? (What?)"
She giggled happily with closed eyes. "You talk funny! Why do you do that?" Shikamaru shook his head still not understanding. "I'll take you to mommy and she can help!" Elicia grabbed the shadow user by the tip of his fingers and dragged him out of the room.
"Koko de, anata wa watashi o totte iru? (Where are you taking me?)" Shikamaru felt the pain in his side coming back as he walked bent over. "Ā, kuso! Ow! Ow! Ow! (Ah, Shit! Ow! Ow! Ow!)"
The little girl giggled as she walked into the kitchen where her mother was making tea over the stove. Her attention turned to her daughter seeing her walk into the room with the boy she found near the store with little to no clothing on. When she first saw him, she thought that her husband would have dragged the boy into their house seeing this. He was always to kind for his own good.
"What are you doing honey?" the mother asked smiling softly.
Shikamaru had stopped and let Elicia's hand drop from his fingertips. He looked at the mother's blackish brown eyes seeing something he seen when he gave the news to Asuma's lover that he had died on their mission.
Sorrow.
"Well, they're a tad too big," she smiled, "but they will have to do. It's the only clothing of a man in the house we have left."
Shikamaru didn't understand yet again what the mother had said.
"Gomen, anata no gengo no izure ka o hanasu koto wa arimasen yo, (I'm sorry, I don't speak any of your language,)" Shikamaru replied still looking at the mother with grief in her eyes.
The mother put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my." She walked over to Shikamaru with her blue high heels clicking against the yellow and white tiled flooring. "You not from our country, are you?" She investigated Shikamaru's face to see if that would help figure it out. "You're not from here, that's for sure…you must be from one of the countries farther away from here..."
"Dono yōna? (What?)" He said with a puzzled look on his face.
The tea pot screamed from behind the mother, catching her attention.
"Oh, the tea's done." She ran over to the stove and turned off the stove. Shikamaru walked over to the round table and sat on the white wooden chairs. This was getting him nowhere. He wanted to know where he was at, what he did wrong to get here, and what the hell they were saying. A cup of tea appeared in front of him in nice china. Shikamaru thanked her and took a sip of the tea.
She tapped her fingers on the white round table as her daughter sat next to Shikamaru. Elicia glanced at Shikamaru's ponytail, seeing the way it resembled a pineapple. She giggled at this as her mother came back with a map of the world from her husband's office. It was fairly old, but it would do. Gracia placed the map on the table.
"Now," Shikamaru glanced at the map.
That's it! He was in a different village! That had to be the reason. Shikamaru froze seeing the map. There was no Kohona on the map!
"Point on the map to tell me where you're from."
Shikamaru shook his head with fear in his heart more than at that point then when he first woke up in that world. 'This has to be a dream.' Shikamaru grabbed his head. 'There's no way this is really happening to me.'
Shikamaru took all the words he heard and tried to say what he wanted to in their language. "N-No, from-"He circled around the map with his finger.
Gracia was confused. She didn't understand what the shadow user was trying to say. Was he saying the map wasn't updated enough for him to point out where he's from? Shikamaru bit his lip trying to think.
'Maybe I should tell her I live somewhere in this place so she doesn't think I'm insane.' He looked at the map once more. 'Somewhere far away from here.'Shikamaru pointed to a country on the other side of the map. Gracia looked at the map to see where he had pointed to.
"Xing." She looked astonished by the answer he had given her. "How did you ever get here when the train tracks are covered with sand?" Shikamaru tilted his head not understanding was she had said to him. She sighed. "I guess that doesn't matter for now because you can understand me…"
Elicia pointed to the map. "Xi-Xi-" Her face began to get red and her cheeks puffed out. "How do you say that, Mommy?" It was then when Gracia got her best idea to teach the so called 'Xing immigrate' their language.
ሥሥሥሥሥ
Elicia held a 'How to Read' book in her hands in her toy filled room with Shikamaru at her side looking at the book with her. They both looked at the word with a picture of a carrot and the word carrot in a bright orange color. Both looked at the word then tried to read it.
"Ca-Ca" Elicia sounded out with Shikamaru. They both glanced at each other.
'I shouldn't be reading a child's book like I'm Naruto,' he huffed, crossing his arms. 'Troublesome notes. Troublesome DNA. Troublesome transmutation circle."
Elicia pulled on Shikamaru's black t-shirt. He looked down at the blue eyed child with a lazy expression. "What does that say, big brother?"
Shikamaru stared at her. He didn't have any idea what she said, but he had a hunch that it had to do with the word in the book. He stared at the book for some time.
"Kamehameha?" he answered more like a question than an answer.
"No!" she said laughing. "Mommy wants me to help you! That," she pointed at the picture with her small finger, "is a carrot."
Shikamaru repeated the word, "Carrot."
Elicia clapped her hands at Shikamaru for saying the word right.
'I feel like a jackass…' Eilcia rubbed her eye as she yawned. 'I have to get home or I'm never going to be able to protect teacher's son like he wanted me to.' Shikamaru felt something warm lay against him, knocking him out of his train of thought. He looked over to his side to see Elicia sleeping against him quietly with the book falling out of her hands. He sighed and laid his head against the wall.
'Troublesome.'
Shikamaru wanted to learn their language badly. But the way this was going was getting him nowhere. If there was someone that had learned the language before him, then it would've been easier for him to learn. But a little girl? Shikamaru closed his eyes with a frustrated sigh.
'It's going to take me forever to get home.' He opened his eyes to look at the ceiling. 'Might as well try to make the best of it…'
ሥሥሥሥሥ
"Faster big brother faster!" Elicia cheered.
It had been three weeks since the events that took place and for the past hour and a half Shikamaru was working out and trying find out if his ribs were still injured by giving Elicia a piggy back ride. But luckily the signs pointed to that they were healed seeing as how he hadn't recoiled in pain when Elica hopped on his back. The only thing he had yet to train with that day was his Shadow Possession jutus because there so many people that populated the town that could blow his cover and he didn't want to draw attention to himself.
Elicia grabbed his black like pineapple ponytail in her small hands with glee running through her, and yanked.
Hard.
Very hard.
"Ah!" Shikamaru shouted in pain. "Hair go! Hair go!" Shiakamru had learned some of country's language from the three weeks, but in broken English. Elicia understood what Shikamaru was trying to say, and let go of his hair.
"Sorry."
Shikamaru still wore the clothing Gracia had given him, but he knew that every time Gracia looked at him her eyes filled with grief and sorrow. He didn't fully understand the meaning of why she would do this until he found out that someone in the family was gone one day when he found a picture with the two that he first met, then a man. It was a man with black, somewhat spiked, hair and glasses that cover the black eyes.
Where this man was, he didn't know.
Shikamaru stopped in the middle of the street and put Elicia down by a thing with four wheels and two doors that moved on its own. It amazed Shikamaru how advanced this world was. The clothing were different. The inventions were different. The people were different. Everything was different! The metal box with a man it honked loudly startling the two.
"MOVE OUT OF THE ROAD MORON!" the man yelled going past them. Shikamaru growled in anger as he rolled his eyes. That was one thing that didn't change. The attitude of people.
Elicia looked up at Shikamaru with wondering eyes. "What's a moron, big brother?" Shikamaru wiped the sweat from his face.
"Him," he answered. Shikamaru grabbed her hand and walked to the side walk with Elicia near his side. "Where now?" he asked.
She opened her mouth only to have a voice cut in. "Elicia!"
She turned with Shikamaru to see a girl with long blond hair that was in a ponytail. She wore a black short skirt, black boots that went over her ankles, and a white shirt with a black jacket that went over it. She eye color was dark blue, and her smile was kind. She was skinny but not too skinny and her height was almost as tall as Shikamaru. Shikamaru's eyes widened seeing the teen walk over to them, his breathing hitched.
Shikamaru couldn't believe it.
"I-Ino?" he whispered in disbelief.
Elicia let go of Shikamaru's hand and ran over to the woman as the so called, Ino, bent to her knees to embrace a hug from the little girl.
'T-That can't be!' He watched the two talk to one another with happiness in their voice. 'How did Ino get here too?'
The supposed 'Ino' turned her attention towards Shikamaru seeing him stare at her with a pale face. Elicia, still smiling, introduced Shikamaru. "That's big brother!" 'Ino' frowned at this as she stood.
"Big brother?" She walked over to Shikamaru with a frown on her face. "Um, hi… I'm Winry."
Shikamaru didn't understand everything. The only thing he understood was the name.
Winry.
He sighed and closed his eyes in relief that the hot headed Ino wasn't in front of him.
"Shikamaru."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Shikamaru," He repeated with a little more force. She still didn't understand. "Shik-a-mar-ru," He sounded out.
"Shika?" She had a puzzled look on her face. "That sounds like a Xing name…Are you from Xing?"
Shikamaru knew what she said a little, but the word Xing stuck out most to him. He shook his head and repeated the word, "Xing, Hai. (Yes.)"
Elicia giggled. "He talks funny!"
Winry smiled. "What are you two doing out here?"
Elicia answered for Shikamaru knowing he spoke differently. "We were playing! He gave me a piggy back ride!"
Winry laughed at her enthusiasm. "That sounds fun."
"It was!" She jumped up and down. "He was running and jumping around everywhere!" She threw her hands up in the air, "It as all, whoosh." Winry giggled seeing the little girl run around the two of them. She looked back up at Shikamaru again; he watched the little girl to ensure she wouldn't hurt herself in some way. That was the last thing he needed to deal with.
It was starting to get to two hours since the two had left the house and walked through the town.
It was time to go.
"Time go." he said to Elica. Elicia sighed sadly knowing what he was saying.
"But I don't want to go!" she whined to the shadow user. "I want stay with Winry!"
Winry chimed in before Shikamaru told Elicia that he had no idea what she said. "Well, I was heading to your house anyway to see you, your mother and father." Elicia's eyes brighten at Winry saying her father.
"Papa's home?"
Shikamaru frowned at her high pitched voice. "You got papa?" He blinked at this, "Where papa?"
Winry looked at Shikamaru and saw something she didn't see the first time. He was wearing Elicia's father's clothing. "Why are you wearing Mr. Hughes's military clothing?"
Shikamaru tried to repeat the word, "M-Mili-uh?"
"Military clothing," she sighed. "This would be easier if Ling were here to talk to you…"
"Walk home?" Shikamaru asked to her.
"Hm? Oh! Yeah, I'm coming." The three walked home with Elicia taking about how her father has been gone for some time and she wanted to play with him again. The sun was setting as the three got to the Hughes's home. Before they even got to the house, Shikamaru could see Gracia setting by the window waiting for the two to get home. Shikamaru had a sinking feeling in his gut, knowing that she was going to yell at him as soon as he got into the house.
"Yakkaina… (Troublesome…)" he mumbled opening the door, thinking the mother was going to tell the father to kick him out of the house. The mother walked from the window to the three, then smiled.
"Winry, I didn't know you were in town." Gracia stuck a tissue in her jacket pocket to hide out of sight of the visitor. "How are you?" Winry answered the mother's questions, but Shikamaru was stuck on the mother's eyes the most knowing what she did when the two were gone for the two hours.
Cry.
Shikamaru knew this because he had seen this plenty of time from the other people back in his world, and he hated it. Elicia was running around the house looking in every room for her father. Shikamaru walked to Elicia seeing her sit on the floor with tears in her eyes.
"What?" Shikamaru sat next to Elicia as she cried loudly.
"I-I can't find Papa." She got up off the floor and walked around the room. "P-Papa! Papa, I don't wanna play anymore! Come out!" Shikamaru waited for the father to pop out and pick up the daughter in his arms and rub his black beard on her face, making her giggle with glee. The more he waited for the father to appear, the more it started to set in his brain.
The mother's crying; the sorrow in her eyes when she looked at Shikamaru in the father's military clothing.
He was dead.
The mother walked over to the crying child as Winry looked at the two of them not understanding what was wrong. Shikamaru watched the two with understanding and turned away and walked to the door. Before he walked out the door, he told Winry in a low voice while not looking at her, "Father deceased."
Winry's eyes widened finally understanding it all. To Shikamaru, telling a person that someone of importance to family or friend that they died was like a second hat to him. He still hated doing it though. Winry's eyes watered as Shikamaru walked out of the house, closing the door behind him seeing the stars in the night sky.
'Where do I go now?' He licked his lips, looking around the street. 'I could walk around until they're done crying.' He set out walking down the street with all the time in the world, seeing as they weren't going to stop crying anytime soon. The darker it got the more Shikamaru walked farther away from the house and more into the night life.
He glanced around the street seeing no one around him. He smiled at this and hopped on top a roof with little effort. It was so easy now to see everything and everywhere he wanted to go. And the town! It was huge! Lights guiding a path down every street. But his eyes set on one thing. A building that took up most of the town, and green flag that had a design of a strange creature. It took up most of the front building. The building reminded Shikamaru of a castle that it was so big.
"Sore wa nanidesu ka (What is that)?" he gawked. Shikamaru stopped talking, hearing something move behind him. A shuffle of feet was heard coming closer towards him. Before it could get any closer to him, Shikamaru did some hand signs and mumbled, "Kage shoji-jutsu. (Shadow possession jutsu.)."
Shikamaru didn't turn around as his shadow crept towards the starker behind him. He froze feeling something press against his throat.
"So," the small child like voice said from behind him. "You're the new presents father was talking about." Shikamaru had sweat collecting on the side of his face as he glanced down to see a black sharp object near his neck.
"Who you?" Shikamaru asked, not dropping his jutsu. He turned slightly only to have another sharp black object cut him on the cheek, stopping him in his tracks. Shikamaru's heartbeat fastened in pace at the sudden attack that had been landed on him.
'Who the hell is this guy?'
"I don't know where you're from… but I know you don't belong here." The voice stopped. To Shikamaru's surprise, the cold daggers like objects pulled away from him.
"No seikō, (Success,)" he mumbled quietly, moving his hands away from one another. Shikamaru smirked slightly to himself and turned slowly to face his attacker.
When Shikamaru turned to see who it was, all he was met with was darkness. "Eh?"
Before getting the chance to utter another word a sharp black knife like object dashed towards his face in amazing speed as his eyes widened in shock. He didn't have the time to register out his plan to escape and the sharp object stabbed him in the face and through his head.
The one behind the gruesome demise only stared at the body that hung from the cold black spike limply with little emotion what so ever.
"So weak-" A poof was heard from the end of the sharp object, stopping the sentence from finishing. The smoke cleared and the child like voice was shocked at what he saw.
"What?" the child like voice asked in pure shock at the event but soon turned to anger seeing what was missing on the other end of the spike. Making him growl in rage. The shadow user was gone. No body. No blood, nothing. "Apparently, we cannot take this human lightly…."
ሥሥሥሥሥ
Shikamaru was panting as he hid on the side of a brick building in an alleyway. The blood ran down his cheek slowly, his black eyes wide in fear at the event that had just taken place not too long ago.
'It was good that I used a substitution jutsu in time.' He closed his eyes and slid down against the brick building, landing on the cold ground to easy his still pounding heart. 'Who the hell was that? And that jutsu he was using was just like mine!'
A bright light blinded him from the corner of his eyes, making him shield his eyes with his hand and squint.
"Hey! I found someone!" A man in the shadows walked over to Shikamaru with a lantern in his hand. Shikamaru noticed something about the man. The man before him was wearing the same clothing as him, but had a jacket and hat with it. "Kid, you okay?"
"Watashi wa anata ga itte iru no ka rikai shite inaiga, kono otoko wa watashi o korosou to sono tatemono no ue ni sokoda! (I don't understand what you're saying, but there's a guy up there on that building that tried to kill me!)" The man frowned at this hearing Shikamaru gibberish.
"Are you an illegal alien?" he asked.
"Eh?"
The military man grabbed Shikamaru with another man helping him. As they dragged him away down the alley, Shikamaru silently growled, "Dono yōna doraggu. (What a drag.)"
/
Hey guys, I'm back! Thanks to my awsome beta the story should be easier to read for you all. I'm not really sure when the next time I'll update this story will be, so don't get your hopes up that I'll update soon. Sorry! But when you all were waiting for me to upate, I was going on with writing the story. So no worries about me stopping.
So 'til next time!