Shikamaru Shinden Chapter 13

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PART THREE: HARD FIGHTS

CHAPTER 13





Shikamaru had just finished eating dinner at home with his family for the first time in a while. There was time to relax, even have a bath. Temari had settled down after the forgotten wedding anniversary incident. He was taking it easy for now, because he knew he had busy days ahead.

Temari was washing the dishes after their meal, Shikamaru was sat at the table between the kitchen and the porch, watching his family over his shoulder.

Should he have told them about the Land of Earth affair?

No. He wouldn’t burden them with his problems, he wouldn’t even know how to bring it up. He just didn’t know what to do.

He thought about the time he’d gone shopping for flowers, which he’d totally forgotten about. The flowers were part of his apology to Temari, which Ino knew about.

He’d forgotten to buy them at all. He was kicking himself over the thought of bringing them home for her. He knew he’d have to go back to the store at some point.

While brooding on his mistakes, Shikamaru looked over at the person who was sitting on the porch facing the yard, enjoying the days dying warmth. Shikadai was playing a game on one of those consoles, Shikamaru didn’t know which one. Shikadai had bought it himself. It was his waste of time, a mischievous thing to do when Temari wasn’t looking. She’d scolded him when she learned that he’d bought it.

Shikadai was Shikadai, Shikamaru thought.

Temari muttered something from the kitchen. Shikamaru got up lightly and sat behind his son.

He looked at the game screen, there was a figure in some strange armor fighting even stranger things. The chiptune stung at his ears. Shikadai’s fingers moved silently on the console, and each time the guy on the screen would use his sword.

“Is that fun?” Shikamaru asked.

“Mm-Wait!”

Shikadai spewed out a reply that was neither positive or negative. Shikamaru could tell that his son couldn’t take his eyes off his game.

He had no time to even answer the question. They both silently watched the screen for a while. Every time the character moved, Shikadai let out an ‘Oops’ or a 'Yes!’. Shikamaru wondered what was going on in his son’s mind.

When Shikamaru played Shogi, he had to imagine his battlefield. All of his senses would focus on the next move. You could only see the pieces on the board.

There were times where you can’t even see what your enemy was doing. Sometimes he would focus so hard on his game that he couldn’t even hear anything around him. His opponent would have to snap him out of it.

It must run in the blood…

“Argh!”

When the guy in the armor died, Shikadai groaned and threw up his arms. Shikamaru also put up his arms because Shikadai had once thrown his game into the garden.

“Damn it! I was going so well, but the booster pack wasn’t over there! Now I have to go back to the start! What a drag!” Shikadai groaned.

Shikamaru watched his sons shoulders droop and spoke to him.

“So is this fun then?” he asked.

Finally, Shikadai replied to his father.

“Well, all my friends are level grinding this game right now.”

“So you do it because your friends do it?” Shikamaru asked.

“It’s not like that…” Shikadai replied, puffing out his cheeks.

He put the console down between them and readjusted his seating.

“But what?” Shikamaru asked.

“If you asked me from the bottom of my heart, it doesn’t mean that much. But this hobby is…”

The adult in him was trying to give a grown-up speech, despite him being a child. As a shinobi, he’d be judged as an adult rather than a child.

“So this hobby is fun?” Shikamaru asked.

Nodding, Shikadai answered.

“This is an endless game,”

“No ending?” Shikamaru asked.

“You get a different que every time you play,” Shikadai said.

“Wait what’s a que?” Shikamaru interrupted.

“A quest,” Shikadai explained.

Shikadai answered all the questions despite feeling embarrassed. He did seem to enjoy all the questions.

“Depending on your equipment and stats, the difficulty changes, you can’t just grind to win. It makes sense in the game at least,”

You couldn’t beat the game? Shikamaru doubted his teacher, scratching his neck.

“If you can’t beat it, why would you play it?” Shikamaru asked.

“I like playing it with my friends, unlike other games where you play alone, you can prepare to play co op in this game.”

“Co op?”

“Playing with other people.”

Shikamaru bowed his head to apologize for interrupting, Shikadai continued.

“The feeling when you win against a co op boss in single player is amazing!”

“So that’s the fun part then?” Shikamaru said.

“Well…” Shikadai smiled.

After giving his dad a lecture on the game for a while on the game for a while, the two fell quiet. The garden was dyed in the sunset, they both stared out at it.

Shikamaru prepared to interrupt the silence.

“About the S rank mission…” Shikadai murmured.

Shikamaru thought back to the night a few weeks ago. Warmed up by their chat, Shikamaru spoke bravely.

“I heard about what happened. I guess I inconvenienced you.”

Shikadai stayed silent.

“I’m sorry,” Shikamaru said.

“Dad!? Why are you apologizing?” Shikadai blurted out.

This was the reason Shikamaru had been talking to Shikadai for, trying to get closer to him. He wanted to see how he was enjoying his childhood. It was Shikamaru’s dream for Shikadai to be happy.

“As a kid, I was horrible,” Shikamaru said, looking down at his son with a smile.

“It was so troublesome to do anything and everything. Mediocracy was enough for me. I only wanted to live and die a reasonable life. I didn’t feel special and I never thought of my career. I was desperate to live without troublesome things, even if someone praised me, I’d brush it off with a quick 'troublesome’,” Shikamaru said softly.

“Is that true?” Shikadai asked.

“I’m your dad, you’re like this because of me, think of it that way. You can believe my story, can’t you?”

It was a strange logic, but it made sense. Shikadai nodded.

“Well…” Shikadai sighed.

The sun sunk into dusk as Shikamaru told his son about the events of Sasuke’s failed retrieval mission.

“The troubles I wanted to avoid changed me, and I couldn’t look away from them. Every time I got past my problems, I felt stronger about this. No matter how annoying it was, I had to keep looking forward. By doing that, I felt more like a real person.” Shikamaru said.

“Wait, you didn’t feel like a real person?” Shikadai asked.

“Sometimes I thought that I knew what kind of life I was going to live, but now I know I’m being my true self.”

Shikadai was silent, his mouth in a firm line. He seemed to be desperately thinking something.

Shikamaru gently touched his back.

“Even now, you wanna say 'troublesome’, don’t you?”

Shikadai nodded,

“But as I said just now, this 'troublesome’ is different from that 'troublesome’. I used to say it without thinking, but know it means something different.” Shikamaru said.

“What’s the difference?” Shikadai asked.

“'Troublesome’, I can say it without feeling weary of my life. You shouldn’t use it as a way to complain about things, otherwise, you’ll just be using it to avoid things.”

“A word that can be said without feeling world-weary…” Shikadai pondered.

“That’s right,” Shikamaru said.

Shikadai took a deep breath, grinned and stood up. Looking down at his sitting father, he let out a chuckle.

“Next time, can you show me how to play Shogi again?” he asked.

“So troublesome,”

His father answered with a smile, Shikadai looked at him like he was a tricky man.

“I’m gonna go take a bath.” Shikadai said.

“Yeah,”

Shikadai left for his room.

Shikamaru looked back into the living room.

“Oh!”

Temari was sitting in front of the table and seemed to have heard their conversation.

“Troublesome… huh?” she murmured.

She looked at him with cold eyes. He froze under her gaze and waited for her to talk.

“Do you remember those words you said when you asked me out all those years ago?” she asked.

That was in the Land of Silence. When he’d asked Temari out on a date.

“Do you remember my answer at that time?”

“How troublesome…”

For the first time in a while, Temari smiled at Shikamaru.

“It’s got many uses, but it’s still a good word,” she said.

Shikamaru was flattered and appeased, he even laughed a little. He looked up at his wife again.

“Troublesome,” he said.

They both laughed.