Hello! Yes, I decided to submit a story. It's a work in progress at the moment as I am still in school and have many, many papers to write which I should be doing now. Well, enjoy the first chapter at least and hopefully I'll update it soon. I truly hope I will. Thanks for reading! Oh, and p.s., I do not own them.
Chapter One: The Search
Shikamaru was angry, something that didn't often happen. Well, more accurately, he was tired of being 'sexiled' by his two former genin teammates as they had their troublesome alone time in his mind.
For the past three months almost every weekend, and soon to be every other night, Ino would come by the apartment that Shikamaru and Chouji shared to spend time with her lovable plump boyfriend. Shikamaru didn't mind their relationship; he actually thought it was good for both of them. What he did mind was that he was kicked out with no where to go and had to find refuge in one of the former rookies' houses.
If he was any sort of person with ambition or even purpose he would have told Ino to 'get the hell out of his apartment or just move in all ready!' as he would have liked to. However, she would never listen to him and leave and if she moved in then he would have to move out. No way in hell would he be listening to that through the walls every night. That and it was too troublesome to raise a complaint about the entire situation in the first place.
So this is why Shikamaru finds himself exiled from his home yet again on this Friday morning while his two former team members do kami knows what and Shika truly doesn't want to know.
He started walking in the direction of Naruto's house figuring that the blonde, though loud yet still reliable, will take him in as he has done several times in the past. 'At least Sasuke has his own place which he actually LIVES in unlike some people…,' he thought.
Shikamaru came to the loudmouth's apartment just as said blonde was exiting, in his uniform and with Sasuke, also in uniform, and berating him.
"Hey Shikamaru, what's up?" asked Naruto in happy go lucky tone.
"Ehh..I've gotten kicked out again and was wondering if you could put me up for the night?" he said grudgingly. 'The third time this week. Why? Why me?'
"You wanted to stay with the dobe again? I'd let you do it and knock some sense about cleanliness into him but we're off on a mission to Suna." Sasuke replied.
"Cleanliness?" Shika asked.
"Yeah, well…" Naruto started and scratched his head before Sasuke smacked him.
Said boyfriend stated, "The dobe has ants."
Shikamaru just raised an eyebrow. "Huh."
"It's not my fault! They just came in hordes without my knowledge! What am I supposed to do?"
"Clean up your damned messes! You're the filthiest person I know! All those dirty dishes and laundry and food left EVERYWHERE. Why am I dating you?" asked Sasuke incredulously.
"Uhh…because everyone else thinks you're an ice cold prick?" Naruto smiled sheepishly.
Smack.
"Teme. Shut it or no post-mission fun. We have to get going anyway. You may be a slob like Kakashi-sensei but you're not going to be late like him." And with that Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm and dragged him off toward to the Hokage's tower.
Shikamaru could have sworn he heard, "Sasuke, you're starting to sound like Sakura-chan" followed by a very audible smack sound.
Shikamaru just closed his eyes, let out a breath and headed off in the other direction. He didn't even get a chance to ask Sasuke about crashing in his place, but knowing the Uchiha, he wouldn't agree to it anyway, even if his moods had warmed up a bit since he and Naruto became inseparable. No way was he going to piss him off.
Shika headed down the road, thinking of his quickly deteriorating list of housing options for the weekend.
Shikamaru passed by the only apartment building in this part of Konoha to allow pets, knowing that Kiba and Shino lived here somewhere.
He kept on walking.
First of all, Shikamaru didn't want to take the chance of obtaining fleas from either one of them nor did he like being particularly covered in fur. With those two things in mind and the fact that he didn't want to hear the two's 'activities' from the other room for it would remind him of getting exiled in the first place. It sucked that he couldn't find someone decent, and it would hurt even more if he had to hear the enjoyment of other couples.
This was the only reason that Shika didn't entirely mind being kicked out of his shared apartment. That way, he didn't have to witness, in any sense, the happy couple.
Now, thinking about his own lack of prospects but being too lazy to do anything about it, he continued walking.
Shika passed a house entirely in green. Stopped and stared. The sign read: "Lee Residence."
He blinked once and rounded the corner before he could even hear Rock Lee's proclamation of friendship that echoed down the street upon seeing his friend and colleague.
'That was close,' he thought. Lee was the absolute last possibility. Ever. Shika didn't want to end up clad in green spandex or have surgery to thicken his eyebrows. Don't take him wrong, he thought Rock Lee was a very capable fighter and an excellent shinobi, he just didn't want to become a pet project to be turned into the next mini Gai clone. He would avoid that by all means possible. Hence, Shika kept on walking.
The girls were most definitely out. Why? They were freakin' scary, that's why.
Sakura, Ten-Ten, and even Hinata were an absolute no.
They were too troublesome. Much too similar to his mother and that was something he didn't want to deal with. Besides, Ten-ten and Temari in the same house was too much estrogen and too many weapons to deal with while Sakura was busy at the hospital and inner Sakura had a tendency to come out a lot more often nowadays. Hinata…well, she may be small and quiet but over the few years she had grown up into a fighter and Shikamaru didn't want to go there. She also still lived at the main house and that was just territory best left uncharted…
'Ugh. This is getting troublesome. Why isn't anyone home?' he thought to himself warily. If he ended up at his parents' house he would go insane, even if it was just for three days. Much too long. He shuddered at the thought, memories of his mother being overly motherly and very, very scary coming to the surface.
"No, just no," he said out loud to those thoughts. 'Sigh. What now?'
There was one more person he could try, aside from any of the other chuunin or jounin and he wasn't going there. Too weird, teachers and all.
The last person he would try to find refuge with and the only one who would refuse his request without a moment's hesitation leaving him little to no hope anyway. Oh well, it was either this formidable foe or his mother.
Hyuuga Neji it was.