And When You Say My Name I'll Be A Memory
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1
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It was night and the streets of Konoha were almost completely silent. Shikamaru's steps were light and inconspicuous as he walked through the shortcuts that would lead him to the gates of the village. He knew that he was running late but he couldn't be bothered with hurrying up. In the end, ten minutes wouldn't make any significant difference to the mission he was about to go on.
"Troublesome," he muttered before yawning tiredly. He hated missions that started at night. Shikamaru could sleep at any given time of the day but especially the late hours were meant to spend crawled in a warm, comfortable bed.
Since he'd known that he wouldn't be getting any sleep, he'd taken a nap in the evening and had overslept - hence why he was late.
But eventually, he arrived at the gates where Ino, Choji and Neji were already waiting for him. Asuma-sensei wouldn't be attending. Although it was an officially B-ranked mission, Tsunade told them that they could take it on their own. He knew that she wanted them to become more independent so she could assign the missions in a more flexible way. Shikamaru had told her that this particular mission could use someone older and more experienced but she didn't listen; she rarely did.
It sucked when Asuma couldn't attend because it almost always led to him being appointed as the leader. This time was no different.
"Didn't I tell you to be on time?" Ino asked exasperatedly.
"Yeah, you did," he responded dryly. "If you're ready we can leave now."
Choji nodded. "We checked our supplies while we were waiting for you. If you did, too, we're ready to go."
Neji scoffed, visibly annoyed by his tardiness. Shikamaru asked himself whether the guy had ever been late in his life – probably not.
Before he could attempt to respond they all tensed up when they heard the steps of someone approaching.
"Asuma-sensei!" Ino exclaimed.
Shikamaru relaxed and hoped against all odds that Tsunade might have changed her mind and had sent Asuma-sensei to take part in the mission. It was rather unlikely.
"Hey guys," their teacher mumbled with his lips around another one of his cigarettes.
"Did something happen?" Neji asked. It was obvious that he was anxious to set out. He didn't like it when something didn't go according to schedule.
"No, but I heard that you had a mission in Iwagakure?"
Neji shook his head. "We're only supposed to go until the border. We're not crossing the mountains."
The man sighed. "Thank God. Be careful, you'll never know what these Iwa-nins are up to. I wish I could come with you but I've got a mission coming up first thing tomorrow morning."
"Is there anything else?" Shikamaru asked, sensing that his teacher wanted to tell them something more.
Asuma grinned guiltily and scratched the back of his head. "I wouldn't ask this if I got a mission near Iwa anytime soon but-"
"Spit it out, already!" Choji interrupted good-naturedly.
"Well, my trench knives took a real beating during the training yesterday. The blades have cracked at some places and they're completely blunt. I've got backup knives, of course, but those were my favorite."
Ino raised her brows confusedly. "Can't the blacksmiths in the village repair that? You could also always buy new ones, you know."
"Yeah, but it never takes long for the blades to blunt again. People say that there's a blacksmith who's living before the mountains at the borders to the Waterfalls- and Grass Country and makes blades that don't lose their sharpness over a long course of time."
"We'll check it out," Shikamaru confirmed and took the trench knives that the man offered him.
"You sure?"
"It's no big deal sensei. You shouldn't even have to ask!" exclaimed Choji indignantly.
Neji, who'd already been annoyed about their delayed departure, became impatient. "We are losing time. We have to be punctual. The Iwa-nins will be waiting for us, after all."
Shikamaru had to agree. "Let's get going."
Just as they were about to run off, they heard Asuma call their names for the last time. When they turned around he had lightened up another cigarette. "Stay safe."
Shikamaru nodded. He hated being the group leader.
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He hated being the group leader because it essentially meant responsibility. With responsibility came work and effort.
He couldn't just laze around like he used to because they weren't given assignments to weed gardens or walk dogs anymore. When they went out for a mission they regularly put their lives at risk and every decision that Shikamaru made influenced the well-being of his team. It was exhausting to perform under that pressure.
"When are we gonna take a break?" Choji interrupted his thoughts. His friend didn't sound tired yet but it often helped to have a clear set goal in mind and not just run for an unclear amount of time.
Shikamaru went through a calculation in his mind. They had to arrive at the meeting point in three days. If they ran the whole way through, they'd easily arrive in two. That's why he could plan a couple of breaks in. But there still had to be a buffer in case they got involved in a fight. It was about 3 am right now and they had been running for about two and a half hours.
"We'll take a rest at dawn," he decided. His team members nodded acceptingly.
He had grown comfortable to work with all of them, especially Ino and Choji. They knew each other since childhood and had fought together ever since they graduated the Academy.
At the beginning he hadn't been able to stand Neji and even that became better with time. The other boy was still too uptight and melodramatic for his taste but there was nothing that could be done about that.
He knew that Neji hadn't thought of him too highly either. But when he had discovered that Shikamaru was actually able to defend himself and a very talented strategist on top of that, he'd started to respect him.
Shikamaru knew that all three trusted him and it sucked. Oftentimes he craved to slack off and laze around but he couldn't lower his defenses when he was stuck in this position.
He went through his plan again.
The mission's goal was to deliver a scroll to some Iwa-nins that would be awaiting them on their country's borders. Tsunade wanted to establish better dialogue with the Tsuchikage. You could never have too many allies.
Officially, no fights were planned. However, relations with Iwa had never been stellar and it wouldn't be above them to stab Konoha in the back by ambushing them. That's what Neji was here for. He will use his Byakugan to look ahead and find out whether any hidden troops would be awaiting them. It wasn't unlikely since the mountains made for good hiding spots.
"You okay, Shikamaru?" Choji asked. The boy was perceptive and when it came to reading Shikamaru, he was one of the best right after his father and Asuma-sensei.
"Fine." The line between being open towards your team and bringing down their moral through your own qualms was thin. "Just hoping that we won't have to deal with any unnecessary conflict."
"Like bandits?" Ino chimed in.
"They're like bugs," Neji added with a disgusted expression on his face. "Annoying, time-consuming but no real challenge."
Shikamaru knitted his brows skeptically. One of the Hyuuga's biggest weaknesses was his haughtiness. It never was a good idea to underestimate your enemy.
"On another note," the only girl in their group began, "do we know the name of the blacksmith who we're supposed to bring Asuma-sensei's blades to?"
Choji gasped. "Damn. We forgot to ask, didn't we?"
Neji rolled his eyes and sighed. "Great."
"It's not a big problem," Shikamaru appeased them. "There can't be too many blacksmiths on the borders of the Earth-, Waterfalls- and Grass Country; that specific point is not a big area. If we don't find him, we'll just return to Konoha. We wouldn't be losing any time since we'd be passing that way anyway."
The tension in his group members melted away but no one became less alert. You never knew when problems would arise.
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After two and a half days they had almost arrived at their meeting point. The trip went over without any major complications. Some bandits had attacked but that was supposed to be expected. No one got injured and they didn't lose much time.
Although everyone was well rested, Shikamaru suggested taking another break in Kusagakure before eventually approaching the mountains at the borders of Iwa. It was either waiting here or waiting there and Shikamaru would rather spend as little time as possible near a country that was Konoha's ally only in name.
So they resorted to lazing around near a river for about one hour. He was glad that he could relax but relaxing during a mission wasn't nearly as enjoyable as when he was at home. He was always on edge, waiting for some sort of attack to happen.
But luckily the time passed without any incidents and they set off to their meeting point. They arrived punctually in the early morning, three days after their departure from Konoha.
During that whole time, Neji was searching the area with his Byakugan to make sure that Iwa didn't plan any unwanted surprises for them. Eventually, they arrived without any problems.
Five men were already waiting for them. Judging by their Iwa-headbands, they were the ones that they were supposed to meet.
Shikamaru noticed how their eyes immediately zoned in on Neji whose veins near his temples had bulged under his pale skin. Konoha citizens had gotten used to it but outside the village, the Byakugan remained notorious.
"You've got something for us?" One of them asked.
"Yes," Shikamaru answered in his calm voice. Each of them could feel the tense atmosphere surrounding them. Konoha and Iwa just seemed to clash whenever they confronted. But it was important to keep the situation steady and prevent any sort of escalation.
Slowly, he zipped his vest down and opened one side so his inner pockets were clearly visible. Feeling the other shinobis' eyes on him, he pulled a big scroll out and held it up. "That is it."
One of the men standing in front of them nodded to which Shikamaru threw the scroll into his direction. The guy caught it one-handed and put it into his own vest. "Is that all?"
"Yes."
As soon as Shikamaru had finished speaking, the Iwa-nins ran off. When they finally couldn't be seen anymore, Ino exhaled audibly. "Thank God they're gone. Barely anything happened and I thought we're gonna be in a fight any second."
Choji shook his head incredulously. "It's hard to believe that we're officially at peace with these people."
Shikamaru silently agreed and hoped that whatever dialogue that Tsunade was attempting to start would ease the relations between them.
"Let's get going and see whether we can find that blacksmith that Asuma-sensei has mentioned."
The rest of the team agreed and they set off.
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In the end, the place that their teacher had told them about wasn't hard to find. They met a few civilians along the way who showed them the directions to whom they called 'Kinzoku'. His smithy was built on the Iwa side of the border, but only barely.
While they approached the little brick-building, Shikamaru contemplated whether they should take their headbands off before entering. Problems could always emerge, especially if the guy was a little older and had experienced the previous wars.
"Take your headbands off," he decided, "We don't want to provoke anything."
After the tense encounter with the Iwa-nins, everyone wordlessly agreed and unbounded their headbands to hide them under their clothes. Neji tied a piece of fabric around his forehead to cover his seal.
When they knocked on the door, an old man wearing a traditional hakama and haori answered. Though his age seemed advanced, he didn't appear frail or sick. "Yes? How can I help you?"
"We're looking for Kinzoku," Ino answered with a polite smile on her face.
The man's eyes lightened up. "Well, that's me. How can I help you?"
"We heard that you were the best blacksmith in the whole country," the girl mentioned charmingly.
The geezer began to laugh, a noise that sounded like a roar. "You heard right! No one can work these blades as good as I can!" He shrugged and grinned mischievously. "Well, I do have an apprentice but that's besides the point. I'm the one who trained him, after all."
Shikamaru refrained from groaning. The man seemed like a troublesome jabberer so he let Ino do the talking. They had enough similarities to get along just fine.
"You're right!" she exclaimed excitedly, "and we desperately need your help."
"Well, then come in!" Kinzoku offered and stepped out of the entrance so they could get in. "So what do you need my help for?"
Shikamaru took it as a sign to take the trench knives out that Asuma-sensei had given him a couple days ago. "They belong to our teacher and they're his favorite. Problem is that it never takes long for the blades to blunt." For good measure he decided to oil the guy up a little further. "He's heard of your amazing abilities and asks whether you could do something about it."
The man laughed again, took the blades out of his hand and put on some glasses to inspect the weapons closely. "That's easily done," he asserted after a short while.
He laid the blades on a wooden table standing nearby and went towards the door that led even further into the house. Before leaving he turned around. "Sit down and make yourself home. I'll be there in a minute."
After they took a look around the room, they sat down on the wooden banks that stood next to the table. The place had been kept simple and clean. The walls and the floor were made out of gray stone; large windows let the light in.
It didn't take Kinzoku long to return but this time someone was following him.
Behind the old man stood a boy their age. Unlike Kinzoku, he wore a simple, blue yukata that made the azure of his eyes shine in an unnatural light. When Shikamaru looked into those them he felt a stab of familiarity in his gut. He knew this guy.
He couldn't pinpoint what it was but the boy just seemed familiar. Shikamaru gazed at the sun-blonde hair that flowed down his back and the fittingly bronzed skin and yet he couldn't decide where he knew him from.
The guy caught him staring and gazed back unabashedly with those deep-set blue eyes of his - those eyes that reminded Shikamaru of something.
"This is my apprentice Naruto," Kinzoku introduced them. What an unusual name.
"Hey," Naruto greeted jovially.
His boss hit him lightly on the head. "Naruto! Be more respectful to our customers."
Shikamaru sensed that the boy was on the verge of rolling his eyes but barely managed to refrain from it. "Welcome," he said formally and bowed slightly to them.
Kinzoku grinned apologetically. "I'm sorry for that. His manners are incorrigible but his talents behind the forge are unheard of."
"No harm done," Choji appeased the man with a smile on his face, ever the peacemaker.
Kinzoku grabbed the blades and showed them to his apprentice. "I'm thinking that two hours will be enough for both of them."
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it will do. I'll get to work." He grabbed the weapons and was about to leave the room when something came over Shikamaru and he asked, "Can I come with you? I've always been interested in that sort of thing."
He could feel the eyes of his teammates piercing into his back because they knew all too well that Shikamaru wasn't interested in much besides playing Shogi and watching the clouds.
Naruto shrugged. "I wouldn't mind."
"Are you sure?" Kinzoku asked. "It's stuffy, hot and dirty there."
"Yeah, I'm sure. When else would I get the opportunity to watch something like this?" he assured, knowing all too well that there were enough blacksmiths to watch in Konoha. But he was interested in this particular one.
"Well, then who am I to oppose, right?" the old man hollered and began to laugh again.
Shikamaru didn't have the time to respond since Naruto was already exiting through the door. He followed the boy down the floor into a sparsely lit room. "Kinzoku wasn't lying when he said that it's stuffy, hot and dirty here."
Naruto grinned, flashing a row of pristinely white teeth. "Still interested in this sort of thing?" he asked cheekily.
"Of course," Shikamaru answered and sat down on a chair that was standing in the corner of the room.
The boy raised his brows as his tied the long, blonde hair that reached the small of his back loosely together. A few shorter strands escaped his grasp and dangled into his face but he didn't seem to mind as he didn't pay them any further attention.
His hair color was unusual, too - an intense yellow that he had rarely, if ever, seen. Naruto didn't seem like someone you'd overlook in a crowd because he involuntarily stuck out through his appearance. But why couldn't Shikamaru remember him then? The more he watched him, the more he believed to have seen him before.
Finally, he decided to be upfront and just ask, "Have we met? I feel like I've seen you before. I'm Shikamaru by the way." He added the last statement in the hopes of ringing a bell in the boy's mind.
But Naruto only shook his head as he tied a thick apron around his waist. "Not that I recall. Never heard of your name before."
Shikamaru didn't let it go. "Maybe I've seen you elsewhere but we never got introduced to each other?"
The boy shrugged before walking towards the corner of the room and lifting a big, heavy bag full of coal up. "I don't know. Could be. I've been at many places."
"Where are you from?"
He shrugged again and avoided to look into Shikamaru's direction. "From everywhere. Like I said, I've been around."
Well, if that wasn't vague.
"I'm gonna start a fire over here so it's gonna get even hotter. You sure you wanna stay?" the blacksmith apprentice asked in an obvious attempt to get rid of him.
"Nah, I can handle the heat." He took his vest off and laid it on the back of his chair. "What're you doing?" he inquired to lighten the mood.
"Wait till the fire's hot enough to let the steel be molded," Naruto responded and put a pair of thick gloves on. "It's gonna take a little while, not too long, though. It'd have to get a lot hotter if I had to deal with katanas or something. But with these shorter blades a lower temperature is better."
"What difference does it make?" Shikamaru didn't really care but talking about this seemed to put Naruto at ease.
"The hotter the steel is, the more moldable it becomes."
The ninja sat back and watched the boy work. "So do you like being a blacksmith?"
Naruto shrugged. "Do you like being a shinobi?"
Nobody had told Naruto that they were shinobi. But although they had hidden their headbands, it was pretty obvious by their weapons and the type of clothes they wore. He chose to let it slide and answer the blacksmith's question.
"No, I hate it," he answered truthfully. "Not everything but most of the time it's pretty annoying."
Naruto laughed and grasped wide, robust pincers to grab Asuma-sensei's blades with. "Then why are you doing it?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "I was born into a ninja family. I have to do it; I've got no choice."
"Family, huh?" Naruto murmured with a sardonic smile on his face and held the blades into the blazing fire in the forge.
"So do you like being a blacksmith?" Shikamaru backtracked.
The boy blew the blonde strands out of his face and shrugged. "It's okay. Useful but a little boring. I'm waiting for Kinzoku to train his other apprentice; can't leave the geezer all alone, after all. There've been others before but they quit before they could really learn anything."
"Why?"
Naruto rolled his eyes and kept on twisting the pincers around. "It's too hot, too dirty, too hard… Always a different excuse."
Finally he pulled the pincers out of the fire and revealed Asuma-sensei's glowing blades. Then, he switched the large tool out in favor of a shorter and handier one and grabbed a heavy-looking hammer with the other hand. The metal clanked loudly when he hit the weapons with it.
"So why do you do it if it's such a bothersome job?" Shikamaru asked between the hits so he could be heard.
Naruto paused the hand that held the hammer and looked at him shortly. "I can stand a lot of heat." He shrugged. "And Kinzoku's a good boss. All these new apprentices don't value that highly enough. I've worked for some pretty bad people."
"What happened?"
"I left. I won't let myself be mistreated." He replaced his pincers with the large ones and held the blades into the fire again. "What about you?" he asked and turned around to look at Shikamaru again. "Ever thought about leaving your village?"
He scoffed. "And become a nuke-nin?" It made him remember Sasuke, the traitor, somebody he never wanted to become. "Please, I've got some morals."
Naruto opened his mouth and closed it again. He'd wanted to say something but he'd refrained from doing so. Instead, he shook his head and watched the fireplace again. "I hope the people you sacrifice yourself for are worth your loyalty."
"They are," the ninja answered with certainty.
Neither of them spoke up again until Naruto finished working the blades about one and a half hours later.
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When they left he looked at Naruto one last time while his team members kept on thanking Kinzoku for their services. The boy's yukata was dirty with coal smears, some of them even covering his sun-bronzed face.
"Thanks for the work. Will you be here the next time I need to get anything repaired?"
Naruto shrugged. "Depends on when the geezer finally manages to train the other apprentice. But hey, they say you always meet twice in life. "
Shikamaru knitted his brows and shook his head. "Today was the second time," he murmured before he said goodbye to Kinzoku and they finally set off to return to Konoha.
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A/N: This is a concept that popped into my head a few days ago and frankly, I've got no idea where I'm going with this. What I do know is that this will not be a romantic ShikaNaru fanfiction, unlike my other story that's currently still in progress. I guess this thing's future will also depend on the response that I'll get from you guys. So please leave a comment and let me know what you think.