Later on the day of the Chuunin Exams

Shikamaru and Tetsuo walked home through the darkening streets of Konoha. Shafts of light speared between the buildings so that sometimes it seemed they wandered through a hall of pillars. As they walked they discussed the fights of the day; what worked, what didn't and what they would do differently. They noted useful techniques worth trying to learn, and spitballed new strategies based on working those techniques into their current arsenals. Finally, they turned to other subjects.

"Tetsuo? You made sure Sakura-san came to watch today. Why?" asked the young genius as he walked. "I know you don't like spending time with her, yet you loudly talked about going with Sasuke-san when you knew she was within earshot, then tried to tell her not to come. You are well aware she'd do the opposite of what you said just to spite you, even if her beloved Sasuke-kun wasn't going."

"Oh did I?" replied Tetsuo blandly. Behind his mask, thoughts raced. It was actually a happy accident that she overheard me, but let's see how much credit you'll give me, Shika. "Well, why do you think I would do that?" he continued misleadingly, carefully not stating one way or the other if he had actually done it on purpose.

"You didn't exactly make it hard to figure out," replied Shikamaru dryly, "you hardly do anything without a reason." A fond smile appeared, "I still remember the first day we met, when you just happened to have a shogi board and just happened to talk to the only person likely to take you up on a game out of all the kids in the school. Even your pranks are probably trap and stealth training."

Shikamaru didn't seem offended, so Tetsuo just chuckled at the irony of Shikaramu being right about everything else but wrong about his overriding point. His dry chuckles echoed through the empty streets. "Can't slip anything by you, can I? You're a scary kid sometimes, Shika."

"Says the guy who was playing Yamanaka tricks on his first day at the academy, without ever having met any Yamanaka." Shikamaru retorted, "anyway, I know what you were hoping to achieve, I saw her face just as well as you did." He turned serious, "that is one kunoichi who will try her hardest in taijutsu class from now on. What I don't get is why you did it for her in particular. There's a half dozen girls at her combat level that don't hate you like she does, quite the opposite in fact." He snickered.

Tetsuo groaned, slumped his shoulders. "Don't remind me. I was hoping the rumour about me and Sasuke would keep them away, but it just seems to encourage them. If they're not going to stay away I might use them to simulate stealth training or something instead."

"It's your fault for replying the way you do, and you know it. 'I refuse to confirm or deny that our private training time is both sweaty and fiery'. You knew exactly what you were doing. Now don't change the subject," shot back Shikaramu, stifling his laughter.

"Well, Sakura… It just hurts a bit to see a girl with potential like that waste it just knowing the answers to the questions she's asked. She could do so much more than just memorise information," answered Tetsuo both truthfully and entirely misleadingly. "And the teachers praise her as if book knowledge will make up for mediocre practical skills in the field." He shot a quick look towards Shikamaru. "It helps, we both know it helps, but it's nowhere near enough." Tetsuo sighed. "You ever see her trying the leaf sticking exercise the first time, or the leaf hovering exercise?"

"Not that I remember," replied Shikamaru, wondering what his friend had seen that he hadn't.

"First time. She got them first time. Just bam, and done." Tetsuo smacked his hand into his palm with a resounding crack and started to grin. "It took me days to manage that. Substitution took her two weeks, clones longer but now she doesn't even make smoke when she does it unless she wants to." The grin vanished. "And the teachers just stopped there. Three jutsu, down pat quicker than anyone else who didn't start early and they don't bother teaching her more. Who do you know that can match that? Because I don't know anybody. I got all mine through Hard Work!" Shikamaru laughed at his burning embarrassment; he knew where that phrase came from, and exactly what it meant that Tetsuo had let it slip. Tetsuo rallied and continued speaking. "If she were a clan kid they'd be teaching her every jutsu under the sun and crowing over their new genius. Maybe she hasn't got the reserves to be a full jutsu specialist but her potential is still up here," he gestured with his hand, "while the reality is down here."

"Huh. You really care about this, huh Tetsuo." Commented Shikamaru, taken aback by the unexpected rant. His voice became knowing, "are you sure you're not…?" he trailed off grinning, leaving his meaning obvious.

"Sweet merciful Kami, no! I like redheads, not pinkettes and she's way too young." Sputtered Tetsuo, then froze. Fuck, I'm not supposed to be saying this to Shikamaru, he's way too smart to be giving hints. Fortunately, Shikamaru did not immediately assume that his friend was a prophetic cross-dimensional reincarnate. Funny that. He was still quite confused however.

"Too young?" exclaimed the Nara, shocked, "what's that supposed to mean? You're only a few months older than her."

"And how old does she act, huh? Like us?" retorted Tetsuo, desperately trying to salvage the situation. Distract him, distract him, distract him, "you can't tell me you'd want to go out with someone who can't keep up. I don't see you asking Ino out!"

"Not happening!" replied Shikamaru with a shudder. "Have you seen her with Inoichi? She's got him wrapper round her little finger. She'd do the same to me!" They were both quiet for a time as they contemplated that horror. They silently decided to move to cheerier topics. "So, that match," opened Shikamaru.

Tetsuo winced at the memory. "Match four, Deidaras' first match. That was messy. Maybe one day she'll be able to pick things up with chakra threads, but that's a maybe. The chakra system in her hands will be completely ruined, the tendons as well."

"No clean death, no kockout, instead she gets maimed for life. Just like that, career over," continued Shikamaru sombrely. Death was understandable, even accepted among ninja, but the idea of being left useless and unable to work? That would eat at them. As lazy as Shikamaru acted, he was still a clan shinobi through and through. He would spend his life fighting because that was what his clan required, even though it might not have been what he wanted. The idea of being useless to his clan was galling to him - to say nothing of the other things fingers were useful for.

"No second chances in our career, Shika." Finished Tetsuo, then he paused and considered, making a decision. "Hey Shikamaru, come join our training. Sasuke and me. I want to start work on my second element while my mind's still young. You could learn fire at the same time, give you something to redirect your shadows off."

"You're starting a second element?" asked Shikamaru, surprised. "Troublesome. You don't even have one down properly yet."

"Well the Hokage has five, and the sooner I start the sooner I finish." Replied Tetsuo, slightly defensively as Shikamaru snorted.Naruto started on nature transformations after 9 years of shaping chakra. He reasoned. I've had 9 years of shaping chakra. Can hardly blame me for starting early under the circumstances. "Anyway, what do you say?" his tone turned heartfelt, "I'm serious about this Shika. I want you to live long enough to retire and spend all day cloud watching and playing shogi with old gimmers." They both smirked. "Come give it a try. Nature transformations are easy, you don't even have to move when doing them. Then you can lay on your back and tell your mum that you're working."

Shikamaru shot Tetsuo a dirty look that spoke a thousand words about how he knew exactly how long Tetsuo had been working up to this and could see every deliberate step he'd made along the way. The argument was still convincing, even when he could see the manipulation at work. He'd been shaken today, he wouldn't admit it but he had. He could also see the intent behind the manipulation, and it was hard to be upset with someone who just wanted you to live. "All right, I'll come along. But I reserve the right to be a layabout!"

"Thanks. I mean that." said Tetsuo, his tone heartfelt. They continued walking for a while until they were nearly at the Nara clan gate.

"Hey Shika, you know what this means?" asked Tetsuo, grinning inanely with too-sharp teeth. In a flash of insight, the young genius understood his entire thought process.

"No you don't. Don't you dare! My clan will kill me." replied Shikamaru, though he also sported a grin.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that Shikamaru's addition to our private training sessions has made things at least 50% hotter." Tetsuo crowed as he bounded away cackling.

"Tetsuo!" Shouted Shikamaru at his retreating back, then turned towards his home. His friend could be troublesome sometimes.

Softly, at the edge of his hearing so that he couldn't be sure he hadn't imagined it, a response drifted back on the wind.

"Kaneda!"

ooo

A/N The characters are finally old enough for me to write proper character interaction into this thing. My god, do you know how hard it is to make 6 year olds say interesting things? I am so very glad that we are past that now, aren't you? Anyway, now that this version has caught up to the updates on SV and SB we'll be returning to the more normal and sane ~1 update a day.