Shikamaru Shinden Chapter 11

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your patience! I have a few things I’d like to say before we get started!

1. Please check my FAQ

2. If you’d like to, I have a Kofi. I’m not gonna demand donations, especially not for this, but if you’d like a sketch or just to say thanks, please consider it :)

3. Please support the official release by purchasing a copy of Shikamaru Shinden from CD-Japan! If it wasn’t for all of our efforts last time, we’d have never gotten an English release for the Hiden story!

4. If you have any questions at all, please ask me in my ask box.

5. I do not and never will own any property relating to Naruto. The series is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo, and the novel is written by Takashi Yano. I repeat I own nothing!

6. Please do not repost or release this translation anywhere!

7. If there is to be an official English release, I will take this one down.

CHAPTER 11

“I need you to talk again to Ikkyu,” Shikamaru said to Naruto.

Naruto was sitting in his chair in his office, his eyes wide with curiosity.

“I but we’ve just had a meeting with him?” he asked.

“We have to go to him this time,” Shikamaru said.

Naruto put his elbows on the desk.

“Things are so weird now days…” he sighed.

“It’s gonna be fine, just get in contact with Ikkyu,” Shikamaru said.

Their eyes met, diligent and gentle expressions. Naruto slowly asked his question.

“I did talk about the matter quite thoroughly at the last meeting. Ikkyu said he would talk to the Daimyo of the Land of Earth. DO we really need a second meeting?”

“Things are different now,"Shikamaru said.

"You mean the kidnapping?” Naruto asked, his eyebrows raised, his face looking stern. “Shikamaru, did you know about the kidnapping before it happened? You knew he was going to get caught by Shojoji and ordered to let them rescue him after it happened, didn’t you?”

Shikamaru nodded. The plan was already completed, it was all over before Naruto had figured it out.

“I was the one who ordered for it to be kept a secret,” he said.

“So that Ikkyu would end up in our debt?”

Naruto was a sensible Hokage, able to recognize the bargaining Shikamaru had planned. Shikamaru had refused to dirty Naruto’s hands in this, he was the light after all.

Shikamaru shrugged and puffed out his nose.

“If you understand so far, you know what I want then,” he said.

“You don’t mean that. You’ve been acting so strange lately. Attacking the Kage, Tentou’s kidnapping…” he trailed off.

“I didn’t overlook the kidnapping, he was being closely watched. Even if Boruto wasn’t there to help him, Tentou would have been back with his father without a scratch,” Shikamaru explained.

“If there was any chance that he was killed, what would I have done!? Will you be responsible for it? Using a child for negotiations!? How could you!?” Naruto shouted.

“You always hated this kind of thing. I know, so that’s why I did it,” Shikamaru said.

“SHIKAMARU!” Naruto lurched up.

He walked around his desk and grabbed Shikamaru’s collar.

“STOP DOING THIS ALL ALONE! PLEASE TRUST ME MORE!” Naruto shouted.

His collar in his grasp, Shikamaru spoke back.

“It’s because you’re Hokage that I’m doing this! Because I can trust you! Because of you, my plans can work!”

“What would you have me ask Ikkyu when I want this debt repaid!?” Naruto asked.

“To make the Five Daimyo meet.”

“You…” Naruto let him go.

Shikamaru rubbed his neck and spoke lightly.

“If you just talked with ninja, we wouldn’t be able to move on with our negotiations. We need to talk to the Daimyo as well.”

Naruto breathed out a sigh and closed his eyes, and shook his head.

“I’m always thinking about this too, I know we can’t keep going like this. We can’t enter another war, but I don’t know how to make this stop. I want to go to the Hidden Rock and talk to Kurotsuchi one on one to see if there’s anything we could do to improve this situation,” Naruto said.

“That sounds like you alright.”

Naruto looked up at Shikamaru’s smile. He spoke to his old friend.

“If you have the mind to worry, then you’ve moved on from the impulsive guy you used to be,” Shikamaru said.

“Is that so…” Naruto murmured, staring down at his hands.

“When you become an adult, all the troublesome things in life increase. Your body gets exhausted from all the responsibilities. As I get older, I learned to keep moving my feet. You’re right, I need to think more about this,” Naruto said.

Naruto didn’t say something like that every day. He stood above the village as Hokage, leading with his positive attitude. He was a man who responsible for everyone, which had left his shoulders heavy. He could no longer do whatever he wants.

Naruto only ever shared these thoughts with Shikamaru, only he knew of Naruto’s weak side.

“Would you like to go up to the roof for a while?” Naruto asked.

Shikamaru laughed and nodded.

“I guess so,”

Naruto followed Shikamaru to the rooftop.

Shikamaru took out his cigarettes, lighting one and puffing deeply on the deep purple smoke. He blew it out into the sky. Naruto stood beside him and watched the smoke disappear.

“Becoming an adult, having a family, it’s all really troublesome. The time I had to think like that is gone,” Shikamaru announced.

“I’m at my happiest right now,” Naruto said.

“You sound like a role model, you used to be more honest with yourself when you were younger,” Shikamaru said.

“Maybe so…”

The two laughed, Shikamaru’s cigarette burnt to ash.

“Even when I’m weighed down by worry, I still think about making things like the used to be. I used to be afraid that I couldn’t change the past, I needed to think about changing our future,” Shikamaru said.

“When you say that just between us, I guess you mean it,” Naruto said.

“At least I think I mean it,” Shikamaru said.

He put the burnt out cigarette into the ashtray on the roof. The taste remained in his mouth, even after finishing it.

“Naruto, I won’t give up. No matter what happens, there won’t be a war,”

“I guess I think so too,” Naruto replied.

“Walking the right road, it’s covered in thin ice. Sometimes I get lost, I want to throw my hands up in disgust. But I won’t give up on keeping our peace. I won’t let Boruto or Shikadai end up like Asuma and Neji,” Shikamaru said.

“I know,” Naruto said, patting Shikamaru’s back. “I believe in you.”

“You really fit the Hokage role,” Shikamaru said.

He placed another cigarette in his mouth and lit it.

“You’ve been smoking a lot more often,” Naruto said, waving the smoke from his face.

“You hate me smoking after all this time?”

“No, you just smoke too much!” Naruto replied.

“Things are very troublesome right now,”

“That’s not an excuse!”

“Of course not,”

Shikamaru finished his second cigarette to the filter and began his counterattack.

“You nag me, but your ramen consumption has really gone up since you got married?” Shikamaru teased.

“Argh!”

“I have to work until midnight because it’s best for me. So don’t go and become a fat Hokage,”

“Well, if I train properly, it won’t matter how much I eat!”

“Really?”

“Yes really!”

“I don’t think so,” Shikamaru said, starting his third cigarette.

“You’re the one blowing smoke everywhere!” Naruto snapped.

“Slurping up ramen too noisily, Nanadaime?”

“That’s it! Shut up!”

“I’m just being honest,”

He chuckled and stopped joking around.

The pair looked down upon the village.

“If I go to the Fire Daimyo, will you come too?” Naruto asked.

“Of course,” Shikamaru replied.

“We gotta make the Five Daimyo meet up,” Naruto said.

“If you can’t ask the favour for saving Tentou, I’ll do it,” Shikamaru said.

“I understand your eagerness, I’ll be ready too.”

“I’m counting on you, Hokage-sama,”

“When you say it like that, you make me feel bad,”

“It’s just your brain processing it,” Shikamaru said, slapping Naruto’s back.

He tossed the cigarette into the ashtray and turned away.

“I don’t wanna go back to work…” Shikamaru sighed.

“Don’t remind me!”

Naruto’s face reminded Shikamaru of a child being told about his chores.

Sorry for the wait, life gets in the way.