Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Note: This story seems to have been the favorite of what I have written so far and I left so much out when I edited the story last time that I decided to come back and visit them again and trying and fit something of that information in. That said, I hope you enjoy.

Also…no…I did not fall off the face of the earth…I have however developed a pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder region that has caused a lot of pain. Also…been triggering to multitudes of migraines over the last month so progress on this story has been in small spurts and occasional paragraphs. I have a regime now for the pain and possible solution with my doctors that we are working on hopefully without having to resort to surgery (….I just really don't want to be cut open…). The reason it has taken this long to get resolved is because living in the boondocks of Korea as a foreigner, getting medical attention when your Korean is remedial at best and no one speaks English is an exercise in futility. But finally we are getting somewhere and I'm running on a full 48 hours now of not an iota of pain…it's an addicting feeling!

Alright…you guys are done listening to me prattle, on with the show!

School's Out – Part 2

(4 years later)

Shikamaru Nara stretched beneath the blankets before snaking out one hand to slam into the alarm that has disrupted his wondrous sleep. Groaning lightly, he rolled towards the other side of the bed and was surprised to be met by cool sheets.

Surfacing his head from beneath the duvet, confused eyes squinted through locks of long dark hair as he realized that he was alone in the bed.

"Naruto?" he called out to what he quickly realized was an empty apartment.

He pushed himself out of bed, grabbing a discarded hair tie off of the bedside table and making quick work of getting his hair out of his face as he wandered out of their bedroom into the rest of the apartment.

He scratched idly at his side as he entered the kitchen and noted that a coffee cup and a plate with the remnant of crumbs on it were sitting in the sink. He darted his eyes to the fridge as saw a note held up with the beer mug magnet from their spur of the moment trip last winter up to Sapporo when Shikamaru had finished his finals and was determined to avoid his mother after one of them came back with a passing but low grade. Shaking his head again at the stupidity of visiting the northern island in the middle of winter, he pulled the note free.

Shiks,

Sorry I had to leave early!

Yamato had a bunch of guys get food poisoning and they need to get the project done by the deadline. I told him that I can only work until noon so don't you dare try to ditch out on Graduation! I'll be there!

Make sure you get to the School on time or your mom is gonna call me and nag about what a horrible influence I am on her boy. Please save me the agony!

Hey, did you ever call you dad back? I know you think it's troublesome, but he's still your dad!

See you tonight!

Love,

Naruto

Shikamaru sighed and set the note on the counter before setting about getting a bowl of cereal for himself.

Their industrial tech teacher Asuma Sarutobi had pulled a few strings with some people he knew and helped Naruto get a spot on a construction crew after they graduated from high school. While it was a lot of hard work, Naruto was the kind of person who needed to be doing something anyway. Manual labor wasn't a bad thing for him and honestly, sticking with it could earn him decent money and Shikamaru wasn't complaining about the effect that it was having on Naruto's body.

In fact, Naruto had been tossing the idea of specializing in, of all things, plumbing and getting an apprenticeship.

"Everyone has toilets," Naruto had pointed out with a shrug when their old teacher Iruka Umino had asked over lunch one day and the older man had to agree that the blonde had a point. Naruto had impressed the man by even talking about opening his own plumbing business one day. He had some decent plans for it too.

They had actually seen a lot of their old homeroom teacher in the years following their graduation from high school. Naruto had been kicked out of the group home that he lived in a week after graduation as he was now an adult and finished with school and was no longer a ward of the state. They had to make room for something other poor kid.

At first he had spent a couple of nights in a shelter, not wanting to take advantage of his relationship with Shikamaru to guilt the Naras into giving him a space. He had figured that he would spend a few weeks at the shelter before his paychecks started coming in and he could find himself a livable apartment. He'd had a real serious fight about it with Shikamaru who didn't like the idea of Naruto in shelters when he himself slept in a house full of rooms with unused beds covered with sheets that had never cradled a body. But Naruto knew that Shikaku simply didn't understand the relationship between the pair and Yoshino flat out did not like it or approve of them, constantly surprising Shikamaru with so-and-so-from-the-office's daughter and wasn't she so pretty? She would never stand for the blonde living in her home.

He had worked it out with Shikamaru that they would see each other once a day, and Naruto would take the cell phone that Shikamaru had been trying to get him to accept for years, "in case of emergencies." Shikamaru had Naruto's important things boxed in his room, safe in the Nara household, so that Naruto didn't have to risk losing his things if he was going to insist on doing this this way. Shikamaru still didn't like it though.

But Naruto had figured that he had his situation all worked out.

He had figured.

What he hadn't figured on was Iruka Umino calling Shikamaru a few weeks after graduation with the simple intention of checking in on the pair of students that he had grown quite attached to.

Shikamaru knew that Iruka wouldn't be able to stomach Naruto sleeping in shelters every night either. He hoped that maybe the blonde might listen to their teacher as Naruto had respected him so much.

So one night, Naruto was strolling up the street, dirty from working on a site covered in splatters and smears of dirt and sawdust and caulking and every other weird kind of compound that was used on a construction site. He had the same beat up backpack he used to cart around to high school tossed over one shoulder, the strap for the other long having since worn through. He had looked tired, but kind of happy as he rounded the corner.

Then he saw, right in front of the shelter, the form of Shikamaru leaning against the building, arms crossed over his chest, and the stiff postured form of an angry Iruka Umino that he remembered well from school and had learned to rightly fear, but not shirk from.

He had sighed in resignation as he approached the pair, head down, chin to his chest as he prepared himself for the scolding.

Shikamaru had felt unbelievably guilty as Naruto continence had quickly assumed that of a kicked puppy. He had told Iruka that Naruto was staying in this shelter. The tick that had appeared over Iruka's eyebrow when he had caught sight of the Nara's boyfriend had jolted him with the ingrained reaction that had been trained into them at the sight of it during school last year. Iruka-sensei was a nice guy…until you pissed him off…and boy did it ever seem like that was where this was heading.

"Naruto." The man had pushed through gritted teeth.

Naruto fired off a mild glare in Shikamaru's direction before giving their teacher an embattled grin. "Hey sensei! Long time no see!" He topped it all off with a jerky wave of his right hand, while his left clenched a little tighter around the strap of his backpack.

Iruka had his hands planted firmly on his hips as his eyes darted about, taking Naruto in and analyzing everything that he could see to make sure that his former student was okay. "Naruto! What do you think that you are doing?!"

The blonde jumped back at the sheer volume of the exclamation and Shikamaru found himself wondering, yet again, if he had been doing the right thing to get their teacher involved.

"Um…walking?" Naruto tried with a grim, somehow managing to shrug while simultaneously ducking his head into his shoulders as though to protect his ears from the sound.

Iruka's hands were at his hips and one foot tapped out a rapid march. "You know what I mean!"

"But sensei…I'm just walking up the street!" Naruto pouted.

Shikamaru almost smirked, because it looked so freaking adorable to see that childish pout on the face of someone who by all the rules of their society was now a functioning adult, returning after a day working the grind.

"But where were you walking to Naruto?"

Naruto scratched at the back of his head. "Um…home?"

Iruka sighed then, closing his eyes and stilling for a moment. To Shikamaru it seemed like the man was trying to gather energy from the world around him. To pull in strength. When the educator opened his eyes, Shikamaru choked on his breath.

There was a sadness there so deep that it scared the shit out of Shikamaru. The dark eyes of their sensei seemed like bottomless pits that were reaching out, desperately trying to grab a hold of you and pull you in.

Scarier yet, he had seen it before.

Naruto's eyes used to look like that quite a bit, before Shikamaru had become his friend, back when he faced the world alone.

He had almost forgotten that haunted look.

"It's not your home Naruto."

It was whispered, in a tone that spoke of heartbroken understanding and Shikamaru gulped. Why had he blabbed? This was going to be such a drag…

Shikamaru watched as the blonde's jaw muscles tightened while he aimed narrowed eyes at the sidewalk. He heard the sudden rush of air as Naruto seemed to push every last molecule of oxygen in his lungs out forcefully through his nose. This was getting real and fast, right on the streets in the middle of the city.

"Well, I wouldn't know what that is." Naruto said, harsher than he would normally speak and it was apparent that he was trying valiantly to reign in his temper. "This place is as good as any. Fine, I'll say what I said last year to the Uchiha bastard – I'm going back! Happy now?" He swung his arm wide to incorporate the building behind them, but stiffly and Shikamaru knew Naruto was gearing up to blow. This was his last ditch attempt to reign himself in, though once he reached this point, he was rarely able to hold back.

Shikamaru stepped forward, one hand outreached, ready to grab hold of Naruto, to hold him tight so that the blonde wouldn't do something that he would regret immensely later.

But Iruka got their first.

Their long-limbed sensei wrapped his gangly arms around the teen and held tight.

Naruto's countenance changed from enraged to terrified confusion in the blink of an eye. "Wha…?"

"Naruto…home isn't a place you assign arbitrarily." Iruka pulled back enough to be able to see Naruto's face, but his hands remained firmly planted on the boy's shoulders. "It is far more than a place that you happen to stay in. Home is a feeling, a sense of contentment and safety and warmth. It is a place that entrenches itself into the very core of your being. This is not it."

Naruto's throat quivered. "I don't…" he gaped unsure of where he was even intending to go with that sentence.

"Naruto, come with Shikamaru and I. We need to talk about all of this."

Naruto nodded dumbly and allowed himself to be led to Iruka's car, Shikamaru silently crawling into the back and resting his hand calmly on Naruto's shoulder over the seat in front of him, a silent showing of support.

Naruto's dusty hand reached up and wrapped around those fingers, and Shikamaru swallowed thickly at the slight tremble in Naruto's fingers.

Shikamaru liked to think that he knew all the ins and outs of Naruto, that there was no one on the planet who knew the quirky man as well as he did. But it would seem that in this instance, he didn't know the man at all. Because he couldn't fathom what was running through his head right now.

After a greasy meal in a diner, filled with lots of stubborn declarations, hissed out expletives and finally quite a few tears, Iruka had talked Naruto around to the idea that he could take advantage of other options than a shelter.

"But I can't stay with you and your parents!" Naruto reiterated, not sounding nearly as combative as he had at the beginning of the conversation, but still unable to move past that point in his mind. "Your mom…"

Shikamaru had Naruto's hand in his under the table, running his thumb across scraped up knuckles, he momentarily rested his forehead against Naruto's sturdy shoulder. "I know…" he said softly.

Shikamaru would have made the offer to move out and find their own place…if his mother didn't control the purse strings in their family. His father he could argue around to helping him get an apartment, his mother would see through all his pretty words of bullshit and know exactly why he was looking for one.

Iruka chuckled. "Shikamaru isn't the only one who cares about you…" When the pair of teens focused on their old teacher, they saw him slowly shaking his head from side to side while smiling, rolling his eyes when he saw that he had their attention. "Naruto, come stay with me."

"Sensei…" Naruto whispered, "You don't have to do that…"

"Naruto, I want to…which is better than 'having to' anyway…" Iruka waved his hand in a swatting gesture as though he was physically able to bat away any argument that the blonde might come up with.

"But…"

Iruka's eyes hardened into something reminiscent of his teaching mode when someone had acted up in class. "Naruto, you deserve a home."

Shikamaru felt the blonde's hand tremble slightly within his grasp, heard the loud swallowing of spit after Naruto gaped about for an answer before coming up with nothing.

"You are an amazing kid Naruto. We're alike in a lot of ways…" And that was how the pair found out about Iruka's own past as a child of the system. How he used to act out for attention, being the class clown. How he had been lucky enough to find a home within the system. "You have a chance to go so far, let me help you. You can have a safe place to stay, guaranteed every night, a place that is yours where you can leave things and not have to carry them around all day with you or store them with someone else where you don't get the chance to see them. You will have someone around who cares about you and wants to talk with you, and even though I'm only one person, it's better than being all alone within a crowd or the risk of the shelter filling up before you can arrive one night."

At some point Naruto's eyes had slipped down to his lap, where Shikamaru's hand clasping his own was visible. The Nara tilted his head, intently watching Naruto not watch Iruka. The Uzumaki's eyes slowly shifted up and down, following Shikamaru's thumb's journey along the raised bumps of tightly pulled knuckles, but they were glazed over, following the motions without conscious thought.

"I can help pay rent…" Naruto croaked and Shikamaru had to wonder just how hard it was to push those words through his throat. Then he saw it. Shikamaru saw the twitch, a falter in the perpetual grin that had been yanked tight across Naruto's face. A muscle spasm just at the corner of his mouth that was gone in the blind of an eye.

Naruto was afraid.

No wait, it was worse.

Naruto was terrified.

Shikamaru's mind whirled. And suddenly he knew why the blonde had been so adamant. Naruto knew nothing of what it meant to have like a home, to have a place to return to, a place that would always be there for him, without someone there to welcome him home again. And to offer him exactly that, with an adult who cared about the boy, and had proven it, to dangle that carrot in front of him was scarier than anything else.

Because it would be something that would kill him to lose after – and Naruto was used to losing the good things in his life. Just about the only good thing to stick around was Shikamaru. And the Nara knew that there was a part of Naruto that was always waiting for Shikamaru to walk away, deciding that the Uzumaki was "too troublesome." Shikamaru had made it his life's mission to prove to Naruto that the exact opposite was true.

Iruka must have understood because his voice as he continued was gentler than anything the young man could ever remember having heard out of the man. "Keep your money Naruto. Save it up and use it to start your life later. I don't care if you save up just to get your first apartment or a car or a vacation or whatever you want, but while you are with me I will have you covered. You are welcome with me for as long as you need or want it."

Naruto's head was bowed and his grip on Shikamaru's hand was painful. The Nara was losing feeling in his fingers but rather than shake the grip off he instead placed his other hand atop Naruto's and held all the tighter to those trembling fingers.

"Just until I get a paycheck…" Naruto whispered, still unable to look at their teacher, but Shikamaru smiled even though for some reason he felt like crying.

Naruto would be safe and secure, and maybe he'd learn something about family along the way. One that belonged to him and that he didn't have to share vicariously as the family of his friends, or boyfriend.

And if anyone deserved to know what family was, it was Naruto. Parents would have been proud of him as a son, someone who stood up for what was right, even if no one else was at his back. Someone who tried and put forth effort even if his brain capacity wasn't quite that of his classmates, namely Shikamaru and others like him. And Naruto would have been a brilliant older brother, ready to help his siblings pull pranks and skirt the edges of the rules, but right there as the protector and eternal confidant. It was a cruel joke of the universe that all of that had been denied him.

And a mere quirk of fate that he had turned out as wonderfully as he had despite it all.

They drove to the Nara house and grabbed the couple of boxes of Naruto's things from the corner of Shikamaru's closet, moving under the scrutinizing eye of Yoshino Nara.

Iruka looked a little sad at how everything Naruto owned didn't even fill the trunk of the small compact car, but closed the trunk without comment and drove them off to his unassuming apartment, in an unassuming building, in an unassuming part of town where Naruto was given a plain unassuming spare room.

But it wouldn't remain that way for long.

Naruto's first paycheck came and Iruka helped his student open up a bank account to put it in. When Naruto got hurt working on a site, Iruka picked him up from the hospital and took care of him. When he had to file taxes for the first time, Iruka helped him through all of the paperwork…with some mild razzing about the terror on Naruto's face when confronted with the necessary math. When Naruto's birthday rolled around, he awoke to balloons in his room and a cake on the table.

But what Naruto liked the most, the thing that had him breaking the promise that he made to himself that he would leave the educator's house behind as soon as possible, were simple things.

The light on when he got home.

The subtle sounds of someone else moving around.

A voice and a cheery smile calling out a, "Welcome Home, Naruto," when he would walk in the door.

Naruto had promised himself a month, maybe two.

It had taken three years and Shikamaru's proposal that they should live together, before Naruto tearfully hugged the man who had become his own family, his brother, and waved goodbye after Iruka had helped them move into their new apartment together, being paid for with all of the saved up paychecks that Naruto had accumulated over the years.

Iruka had taken a ridiculous amount of pride in how much Naruto now had to his name, that it took more than a trio of men one trip to move it all.

And Naruto seemed to be excited that he was the one paying for the apartment. That he was able to provide for Shikamaru, who had never wanted for anything in his entire life. Him, Naruto who had wanted for most of his life.

"I've got the first year." He had said, a grin tugged from ear to ear. "You finish university and we'll figure out what happens after when you start pulling in the 'big bucks.'" He finished with air quotes and rolled eyes.

Shikamaru had been worried about what would happen when Shikamaru did start working, because he was guaranteed a position at his father's company after he finished his Business Degree, and while he was starting out at an entry-level position (his father wanted his son in the company, but he wasn't stupid enough to put him in position to cause mischief if it turned out that he didn't know what he was doing) he was still going to be making more, and far consistently, than Naruto with his construction work that came in and ebbed like a tide with demand.

He wondered if there would be a sense of inferiority that would slip over the blonde.

After too many beers one night watching a baseball game on TV, that worry has slipped out and Naruto had rolled his eyes at the time, tugged the Nara's unusual hair-style, and called him, "my favorite idiot."

Shikamaru must have looked confused because the blonde explained further. "I know that I'm never going to make lots of money. But look," he gestured around to their apartment, not a 'pad' like most college kids lived in, but a legitimate home, lower edge of middle class probably, fully furnished and cared for, "look at this place. This place that I pay for. I can do it, not as nicely as when you have a paycheck to add to mine, but I can do it." His smile was gentle now, "Making a big deal about what your salary will be when I know this…talk about troublesome."

Shikamaru laughed heartily as Naruto winked. And drunk as he was, Shikamaru realized what an idiot he was. Because this was Naruto. He didn't care how much money Shikamaru would make. He didn't care that Shikamaru would be a white-collar office worker, while the Uzumaki himself was a blue-collar laborer. Why should he? He has a job he likes. And as much as Shikamaru bitched about having to work in the family business, he knew himself that he would be bored with something more mundane than the tricky world of business. It was knowledge and experience and psychology and sociology and science and education and everything all mixed up together and he would have to learn what portions of which would have to be combined together in various scenarios. As long as Shikamaru didn't loathe his job, Naruto would be fine.

Why did he worry so damn much all the time?

It was troublesome as all hell.

Shikamaru shook his head, why the hell was he reminiscing all this-is-your-life-style this morning?!

He took a quick shower and donned the suit that his mother had sent over for him last week, tossing the tie she chose to go with it and instead grabbing a gag tie that Naruto had bought on their trip to the city of Nara. He smirked at the deer that danced around the deep green fabric. Naruto had bought him the tie after they had walked through Nara Park and the Nara had been swarmed by deer. Naruto had laughed his ass off at Shikamaru surrounded by at least a dozen deer, glaring at Naruto like he was a traitor because they hadn't liked him for no foreseeable reason.

He grabbed his robe and cap and tucked them over his arm before jogging down the stair to hail a cab. Naruto better be there, because there was no way he was sitting through the celebratory dinner afterwards alone.

Shikamaru kept checking his phone right up until they were to proceed into the hall, everyone in dark green caps and gowns, looks of exhausted happiness on their faces, while he just worried with his phone's antenna, waiting for the drum beats the signified the beginning of Naruto's personal ringtone.

But no call ever came in. Instead he had to silence the phone under the glaring eyes of the Business School Dean, whom Shikamaru was very grateful that he would soon never have to see again.

Grouchy old coot.

His eyes darted about but it was difficult to find specific people in the swath of humanity taking up seats in the bleachers to watch their pride and joys walk across a stage, have their name butchered, shaking hands with some old dude, grab an empty display folder (diploma to be delivered through the mail at a later date), shake some other old dude's hand, walk off the stage, have their picture taken with the empty folder and return to their seat.

Fifteen seconds tops.

All the pomp and circumstance (ha – ironic) for fifteen measly seconds didn't seem worth it to Shikamaru. He was sitting through an hour of speeches that someone thought would be inspiring but really wouldn't be remembered by the end of the ceremony, let alone for the rest of their lives, when he would much rather be curled up in bed, preferably with the warmth of Naruto at his side.

Such a drag.

Shikamaru bounced his leg in a bored fashion. How much longer did he have to be here? He clapped absentmindedly as another speaker concluded their exercise in futility and sat down.

The President of the University stood up and Shikamaru mentally cheered – time for the walk! It was almost over!

He plodded along behind a student whose name he did not know as they proceeded in some convoluted fashion to get everyone to the front in the correct order.

It was at this moment that he remember that he was at a top tier school. A wealthy school. Because the people in the audience were…behaved. He could not think of a more stereotypically Japanese reaction to your child graduating from one of the best schools in the country with honors then to remain silent as per the directions given before the ceremony began. There was no cheering, no sound makers, not even a golf clap.

It was bizarre.

He walked up a ramp, following behind a kid he'd shared at least one class with every semester but had never bothered to learn his name. He thought maybe it was Kenji or Renji or something like that…or he could be completely off the mark. Frankly he didn't really care.

Then that kid was walking across the stage to no applause and the sole accompaniment of the school orchestra playing "Pomp and Circumstance" on loop. A member of the faculty stood on the platform at the top of the ramp smiling blandly at the room. She did take the time to hiss out of the corner of her mouth for him to "straighten up."

Shikamaru smirked and slumped his shoulders even more, getting a weird pleasure out of how narrow he could make this unnamed woman's eyes narrow.

This was ridiculous. He hadn't even wanted to go to Graduation, whatever his mother's threats were. But Naruto had talked him into going, freaking Naruto could talk him into anything, even when logic was on the Nara's side.

He would work on that…but it was too much trouble. Besides, Naruto gave good incentives.

"Shikamaru Nara."

Shikamaru sighed and straightened just enough to walk comfortably and meandered onto the stage.

And there was a shout. Just one, from the far corner of the room and his dark eyes narrowed in where he saw a flash of blonde in a blue suit with an orange tie. Just one solitary whoop that had drawn the attention of the entire crowd and Shikamaru straightened and a smile tugged across his face and a light chuckle escaped him.

It was a startlingly apt metaphor for his life he thought idly, shaking the hand of the University President who laughter in his own eyes, and grabbing his leather bound folder. He existed in this world of luxury, provided by parents who expected him to follow in their footsteps and following along their little path. A series of rules and edicts that he was to follow and pay attention to. And he was doing it. Following their little plan, even if it was because he didn't have one of his own. And then there was Naruto. The introduction of brightness and chaos into the dullness of conformity. Naruto made humdrum bearable, because when Shikamaru looked up from paperwork, there would be that Cheshire grin, an outstretched hand, and a plan for reasonable mischief.

Naruto simply made him happy. With the blonde, Shikamaru clicked into place. Reasons weren't needed. Words weren't needed. Because things fell into place on their own. And Shikamaru liked it, because he didn't have to think most of the time. They just worked, in their weird, quirky, impossible-to-understand-if-you're-not-living-it way.

He bounded down the stairs and had a real smile put on for his picture, a sight seen by only a few and almost never photographed, and quickly glanced at Naruto who flashed him a thumbs up while studiously ignoring the glare from Shikamaru's mother who was separated from the blonde only by Shikaku who had a strange little smile on his face. Knowing that Shikamaru was watching, the man tilted his head slightly in Naruto's direction before nodding once.

Alright.

Shikaku Nara didn't get it, and it would be a while before he ever did, but he had just given his blessing on a relationship between his son and Naruto Uzumaki. Shikamaru's eye's widened and he numbly sat down in his chair, zoning out the rest of the ceremony.

Shikamaru greatly admired his father. The man wasn't as demonstrative as some, but he was kind in his own way and very similar in temperament to his child. Any time Shikamaru had questions or wanted a conversation, the man would put aside his paperwork and devote his full attention to the boy. He taught Shikamaru the rules of shougi and the young man was proud that it had been years since his father had held back while they played.

While Shikaku Nara was fond of his son, he was also a little set in his ways. His mind would quickly work out the path to the best ideal outcome. And none of those calculations accounted for a gay son. Japanese society did not really approve. Yoshino Nara did not approve (and to be honest, that was probably the biggest concern in his mind…because Yoshino was scary). And it would just generally make Shikamaru's life more difficult, and no parent wanted to see that for their child.

But now he was looking down at his child as the boy become man was graduation from university, knowing that his son's presence at the ceremony had nothing to do with the alternating pleads and threats of the woman to his left, but everything to do with the jumpy blonde to his right. And the smile on his son's face, that free and easy grin with the bright eyes that only came out when Shikamaru was truly engrossed in something, something that the man usually only saw over a shougi board, but also – whenever his son was around Naruto.

Shikamaru was relaxed and happy and alert (surprisingly enough) when he was around Uzumaki. And after all of these years, they didn't show any signs of breaking apart or fraying at the edges.

So Shikaku, using his immense intellect and predictive prowess, decided that the best thing for Shikamaru was to accept that Naruto was a part of his life and would remain so. And that meant accepting Naruto as more than Shikamaru's friend or Shikamaru's roommate. It meant accepting Naruto as Shikamaru's boyfriend, lover, partner, and companion.

And with one nod Shikamaru knew that somehow it was going to be alright. His father would eventually talk his mother around, little by little, like he always could.

The ceremony ended and Shikamaru shocked classmates by bolting through the assembled mass, mortar board clutched in his hand so that it didn't going flying off his head, darting around people with an agility that didn't seem to fit the lethargic classmate that they had all come to know. He barreled towards a flash of blonde and practically leapt at him, caught and braced by arms strengthened from working on the site, the smell of sawdust and the slight musk of sweat filling his nose as he buried his face into the tanned neck.

He was laughing like a maniac, letting go of the tension that he had held within himself, clutching even tighter when his father's warm hand clapped him on the back.

He pulled back and turned, keeping one arm around Naruto's shoulders but allowing himself to face his parents. His father looked amused, and his mother had a smile that was fighting valiantly against the grouchy scowl that was trying to take hold.

"Congratulations son," Shikaku offered with a small amused shake of his head.

"Yes, we're proud of you." Yoshino said, a bit stiffly but still warm.

"You kicked ass Shikamaru," Naruto said softly, Shikamaru catching it but just outside of his parents' range.

Shikamaru chuckled and reined himself back in. He knew this moment would be remembered forever. Not because it was his graduation day, in fact he thought it odd that he would actually remember this day at all considering that he had not even wanted to attend, but because it was the day that things settled, that reality clued in to what Shikamaru and Naruto already knew.

They were a weird pair. Dark and light. Lethargic and energetic. Sly and Sincere.

On paper they would never work.

But they didn't care what anyone said, not really. Because the point was having each other. And that would continue for the rest of their lives.

Feeling suddenly daring and mischievous, a little of Naruto bleeding over to him, he twisted on his feet and brought his lips against Naruto's dry warmth mouth.

It was only a few seconds, nothing more than their lips together, but it was his declaration to the world of what his heart knew to be true.

Naruto's blue eyes met his in silent question when Shikamaru pulled back. The man just smiled and shook his head slightly.

No words spoken, none needed. Naruto just let a lazy smile drift across his face and he tugged his lover in for another hug.

Love you.

So, there it is! I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed revisiting the couple.

Side note: I have received quite a few PMs and reviews about possibly doing a Shikamaru/fem!Naruto story. My favorite was a recent review saying, "Their kids would be made of awesome." Now I've never written anything like that, and I've only read a small handful of the stories. I don't tend to read stories where the genders have been switched, but there is not any particular reason behind why I don't…

So what do you think? Would it be worth a shot? Would you guys give it a chance? Let me know…I'm kind of curious if this is a thing that I should pursue. It would be an interesting writing challenge…

Anyway, please leave a review to let me know what you think. I do think that it is fair to call this story officially complete now. Don't go expecting continuations on any of the others I've written either, this one I always had more material than I had originally included so it was something I had been considering from the beginning.