Not mine...sort of a crack! fic...
When Shikamaru came back from a C mission looking unusually pale, his teammates couldn't help but be worried. When he refused to talk about what made him so nervous--even to Iruka, who'd debriefed him afterwards--everyone was curious. It hadn't been a difficult mission; in fact, it was only ranked a C because it involved a few days travel to the land of the waves.
Once he'd made sure that the younger chuunin wasn't injured, and that nothing unexpected had occurred to the mission itself, Iruka took it upon himself to search the records about recent--say, in the last five years--missions to that area. The only one of interest was, strangely, the unexpected A/B class mission that team 7 had fulfilled in their first year as genin.
He found himself having to repeat that information a number of times as the younger set of ninja--read: all of those in the rookie nine (including their Jounin instructors), Gai's team, Genma, Raido, and a few random others--began interrupting his classes to bother him. Somehow, it had become known that he'd been the ninja to debrief Shikamaru, and the shadow-user wasn't talking.
That is, he refused to say anything until the day, a few weeks later, when Sakura joined Ino, Chouji, and him for lunch at the BBQ place they favored. Upon seeing the pink-haired girl enter, it was noted by his companions that he turned even paler than the day he'd returned.
"Shikamaru, what's this I hear about something weird happening on your mission?" Sakura smiled like her teacher, Tsunande. That is, it was sweet but threatened violence if one crossed her.
"N-nothing weird happened." Now his face was not only pale, but it was turning from milky, to moldy. Ino edged away, just in case he became sick. Really, it had to be something bad to get this reaction out of Konohagakure's laziest ninja.
Sakura simply continued to smile at the poor boy as she ordered. Once the waitress was gone, however, she folded her hands and leaned forward, ready to begin her interrogation.
"Really? Well, while you were there, did you happen to meet some old friends of mine? The bridge-builder Tazuna and his family." A frightening look had entered her eyes, as if she knew what it was that he was hiding.
At that, Shikamaru looked less sick and more like he wanted to escape. Unfortunately, Ino was sitting on the outside of the booth; he couldn't leave until she let him out.
"Oh, h-him. Yeah, I met him; nice guy, said to give you guys his regards."
"And wasn't his grandson just so cute!"
Was there anyway he could get away with disagreeing with that tone? That kid was as freaky as Konohamaru, only lacking the ninja skills. In fact, that kid, Inari, was a big part of the reason that Shikamaru was so traumatized by his visit. He'd followed the ninja everywhere--even to the bathroom--and continuously talked about, of all people, Naruto! Between that, and everyone else's praise of the entire team 7, Shikamaru was sweating at the thought of meeting up with any of them by the time he'd gotten back to the village.
"Uhuh." Ino's eyes widened at the nervousness in her teammate's voice.
"And wasn't the bridge very nice? Not that I know much about bridges, of course!" Sakura laughed, mostly because, even if she wasn't sure exactly why, she saw the effect she was having on the dark-haired boy. With that statement alone, he looked like he was about to make a break for the bathroom, Ino notwithstanding.
"Th-they…" Everyone leaned in closer, realizing that they were finally going to hear his reason for being so…freaked out.
"They named the bridge after Naruto."
When team 8 entered the building a few minutes later, they had to wait, bemused,for the fainted ninja to be taken care of by the nervous staff before taking their seats.