Anonymous: All this Choji meta really makes me want to see anything with him. I feel like he doesn't make many appearances in DOS, but we know that he and Shikako are friends (even if he's Shikamaru's friend first and foremost). Can you write a friendship ficlet with Choji and Shikako? Any setting would ve awesome, but maybe in a Gardens AU where she's exhausted and disheartened (like the butterflies Choji saves on the regular) and Choji is a refreshing glimpse of kindness?

a random Gardens encounter! slightly contrived but oh well!

kimchi because yakiniku has hella Korean routes and obviously this was not a yakiniku restaurant but i figure it was like… adjacent? also kimchi is delicious idk i should go to bed

word count: 826

She’d been concerned to find so many of her friends’ chakra signatures missing from the village when she’d dropped by. It was irregular for all of them to be out on missions, especially just a week or two after Naruto probably left with Jiraiya, but… everything else in the village had seemed normal. Less security than back home, but Shikako has found that her Tsunade is like the superior Tsunade in that (and every other) regard.

Shikako had decided that they were probably all fine and, indeed, it seems like they are – because she’s found everyone who was missing while on her way to the Dead Wastes. An elaborate Chuunin Exam is set up in River, the festival parts set up on wide boardwalks spanning a particularly scenic river.

It would be smartest to just avoid it… but it’s been a long time since Shikako’s gotten to go to a festival. She gives in. She even changes into something a little more appropriate when she stops to sketch out a seal-anchored transformation jutsu on her arm.

Shikako finds something sweet and fried and devours it while she watches the people going along, always in groups. She tracks the chakra of people she knows and then, eventually, she feels three signatures peel off from the group. Two of them are Kurenai and Asuma. The third Chouji.

It’s probably the best chance she’ll have. Kurenai and Asuma will distract each other with their whole… thing… so they might not note her as suspicious.

They stop at a barbecue place and minutes later Shikako slides into the stool next to Chouji. Asuma and Kurenai are talking and keeping half an eye on Chouji each (more than enough for two jounin, really) and when Chouji glances at her, Shikako smiles.

Chouji brightens, because the only thing he enjoys more than good food is good company.

“Hi,” he says when he’s swallowed. “I’m Chouji.”



“Amago,” Shikako says. The birthname of the Nara clanhead who’d named herself life-or-death when she had to pick out a Shika- name. She wouldn’t mind Shikako borrowing it.



“I know it’s a barbecue place, but you should try the kimchi,” Chouji confesses. “The meat is good. The kimchi… I have cousins who’d marry the chef into the clan for the recipe.”



It’s such a perfectly Chouji thing, offering menu advice to someone who only sat down a few moments after you did. But Chouji does have a serving of kimchi in front of him and he’s never steered Shikako wrong before. Or, her version of Chouji never has – but this one feels just the same.

“Sure, thanks,” she says, and orders the kimchi as well as the grilled chicken she sat down for.

“You won’t regret it,” Chouji promises.



I know, Shikako almost says. But instead, she asks if he’s competing.

“Nah, I lost already,” Chouji says. “You must’ve seen.”



“I just got here,” Shikako says. “Sorry about your loss.”



“Nah,” says Chouji. “It was fine. They put me up against this older genin from my own village, you know, and he’s really strong. He was nice about it, though.”



Shikako had looked at the tournament roster when she arrived, of course. Chouji had fought Rock Lee today. Shikako’s never considered whether Chouji and Lee would get along before… but now that she’s thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense.

“Sounds like a friend to hang on to,” Shikako says.

“What do you mean?”



“That’s the kind of sparring partner you need to really push you,” Shikako says.



“Well, even losing to him was pretty encouraging,” Chouji says thoughtfully. “Maybe I’ll look him up for a spar when we’re done here.”

“Don’t wait that long to ask him,” Shikako advises.



Their food arrives and for a few minutes they eat in companionable silence. But then, almost idly, Shikako says, “You know… your new friend is fighting that one from Grass, Muku, right?”

Chouji nods, mouth full.

“I think he’s from the clan that runs the Blood Prison,” Shikako says. “Your friend should look out for having his chakra sealed.”



Oops, now she has Kurenai and Asuma’s attention. Shikako smiles brightly at them. “Just some friendly advice,” she assures them.

“Thank you,” Chouji says. Neither jounin-sensei looks very impressed with that, but Shikako appreciates it.



“No problem,” Shikako says. She snatches up her chicken and kimchi, which like everything else here is served in the sort of thing you can take away from the food stall in question. “Wish your friend good luck from me, Chouji, I think he’s going to do amazing.”



“I will!” Chouji promises. As she weaves away in the crowd, she hears him calling, “Bye, Amago!” before Asuma starts in on him about making friends with strange ninja.



Naruto probably would have managed to pry her entire life story out of her and maybe a cool jutsu, though, so Asuma should count himself lucky that Chouji is just regular amounts of friendly.