Summary: really no clue where this is really going, but it will either have some naruto/shikamaru yaoi or if not than a very close friendship =)

Disclaimer: No, i do NOT own Naruto or any of the characters, i'm just having fun lol.

=Prologue=

/Shinobi Academy, graduation year.

Scratching the back of his head in confusion, Naruto stared at the Chunin. Iruka-sensei kept droning on and on about some lame history stuff and the blond kid mentally kicked himself for willingly signing up for this torture.

A couple rows away one very lazy Nara studied said blond through almost closed eyes. He could not understand the troublesome kid. The very first day of the year, when Naruto joined their class, he very enthusiastically shouted that he wanted to be the Hokage... and now all he ever did was play pranks or sit through lessons looking incredibly bored or so confused that Shikamaru thought his mind was close to breaking. If there was one word to describe this classmate of his, it would have to be 'weird'. Uzumaki Naruto was the kid's name, he was their age but apparently failed to graduate twice in a row, which meant he was clever or talented enough to be admitted 2 years before his age group. And so why on earth was he such a goof. The Nara considered the possibility of Naruto just pretending to be a clown, but then again, the boy seemed completely unable of deception on such a scale.

"So troublesome..." - grumble the Nara heir and buried his head in his hands, tuning out Iruka-sensei.

…

…

…

*whack*

The Nara looked up at Iruka-sensei. The Chunin glared at him. Shikamaru stared back blankly. This went on for a couple of minutes until Naruto used Iruka's distraction to drop a paint-bomb on their teacher and make a mad-dash through the window.

For a few moments it was completely quiet in the classroom. And then the entire class started laughing. Even though most of Naruto's pranks were pretty easy, they never failed to amuse people. Shikamaru found himself chuckling slightly as well. This was the part of Naruto's personality that was easy to understand. Being an orphan made the boy crave attention. And when he failed at getting it in normal ways, he started pranking people. Even though it made everyone think of him as a clown, they were still forced to think about it. The Nara had no idea why the adults seemed to almost hate the blond boy, his attempt to ask his father was certainly not successful, but whatever it was, his old man was aware of it. Just unlike most everyone else in the village, it didn't make the man hate his classmate. For that Shikamaru was grateful.

"Class dismissed." - barked the paint covered Chunin - "Next time we'll have a small test on the history we covered so far." With those words he hurried outside.\

Once he was outside, his students groaned. The boy with triangular marks on his cheeks kicked his desk and winced:

"Why does that moron always DO that?"

"You found his prank funny, Kiba." - pointed out the Aburame next to him - "Why is that? Because you laughed."

The kid scowled and the puppy sitting on his head tried growling, but with how young the dog was it didn't sound intimidating at all:

"You stay out of it, bug boy. No one asked you."

"Don't be so rude, you idiot!" - Ino stood from where she was sitting behind Kiba and swiftly bonked him on the head.

"Oi!" - the brown-haired brat whined, rubbing the back of his head - "The hell was that for?"

"FOR BEING RUDE!"

Shikamaru groaned mentally. This was the part that was not so great about Naruto's pranks. They almost always backfired. True, the blond a few laughs and smiles during the prank... but then the whole class was punished and of course the Uzumaki would be blamed for it.

"So troublesome..." - groaned the Nara heir again, as he listened to the botching going on all around him. He wasn't going to stop them... not unless they decided to be particularly nasty. He never stopped them from bitching about their frustration, but when they started getting out of hand he was sure to cut in and defuse the conflict before any real harm was done. Shika didn't know why he always stood up for the blond in these situations, but he knew he wasn't about to stop.

/with Naruto. Somewhere in the village.

The blond ran. It was something he was good at. It didn't hurt that he felt free when he ran at the top of his speed. And he was FAST. It was one thing being chased by people helped him with. While he was running he could just enjoy the wind in his face and worry about anything except staying faster than others. If he was honest with himself, he could admit that pranking others was not exactly the best way to get them to acknowledge him. All it gave him was a momentary win... and then things got even worse. And try as he might, he had no clue why that was. His pranks were funny. People laughed at them. So why did everything become worse for him soon after? Humans sure were confusing.

Author's Note: yeah yeah, it's short. But it's a start. It was just something running circles in my mind and so i had to get it out lol. R&R lol