Habits

Standard disclaimer: Don’t own Naruto. Obviously.

Major spoilers for 328, as in, the chapter of the manga that JUST got released. Don’t know/want
to know what happened, don’t read.

Later chapters will likely be lemony...

Habits

She hadn’t told him she was coming back into town again so soon. She wanted to surprise him,
and Temari could only hope that Godaime hadn’t warned anyone of her impending presence.

Shikamaru was usually her guide, though, so there was certainly the risk he’d been told.
Knowing that, she’d booked it to Konoha at top speed, sleeping less than she normally did to
shorten the three day journey. Even if he knew she was coming, she could still surprise him by
showing up a few hours early. She loved to surprise him; loved the irritated pout that would
creep across his lips whenever something went out of order and against his plans. She knew by
now that it was the only way to get ahead of him, for even a brief moment, and it gave her a rush
to know she could outwit Konoha’s genius chuunin.

But it seemed today, she was the one in for a surprise. She had arrived at the end of his street just
a couple hours after dawn, only to find him outside his house, leaning against the wall. That in
itself didn’t shock her as much as it could have, since she knew by now that he was perfectly
capable of getting up before noon if given a decent reason.

No, the surprise was something that she had to look at three times before she was certain of what
she was seeing.

Nara Shikamaru had a cigarette perched between his lips. A lit one, complete with trail of smoke
weaving into the air above him. He was smoking.

She wasn’t sure why this stunned her as much as it did. For quite some time, Temari had known
that his teacher - what was his name again, Asuma wasn’t it? - was a smoker, and so it shouldn’t
have been odd for him to pick up the habit from the man he so admired. And it wasn’t that the
habit didn’t suit him. There was, in fact, something oddly natural about seeing the lazy teenager
taking a slow drag then watching as the smoke escaped his mouth and drifted into the air.
Everything about the act was slow and deliberate, just the way he liked his life to go.

It was probably just that he seemed too smart to pick up something so unhealthy. When she
stopped to think about it though, she guessed that it would just be too troublesome for him to
care about cancer or any of the other possible side effects. He was, after all, a ninja, and they
were faced with death on a near-daily basis...

Satisfied that she’d worked out an answer on her own, Temari cracked her knuckles and
continued on down the street, approaching him quickly. If he’d noticed her or her pause, he
hadn’t given any indication - there was no hello, nor did he duck back inside the house as he did
on occasion. He just continued staring off into the sky, watching the clouds and the smoke drift
off.

“Oi, Shikamaru,” she called once she got close. He continued his vacant stare for a moment, then
slowly glanced her way, no hint of emotion on his face, as usual. She continued towards him,
reaching out to flick at his cigarette with a snapping motion. “This is new,” she chided, earning a
slight eye roll. “It’s in my way,” she continued, “I can’t exactly kiss you with that thing in your
mouth.”

He muttered something, and seemed to give in as he took one final drag and dropped the butt to
the ground. Shifting his weight to halfheartedly crush it under his foot, he turned his head and
released the smoke away from her face - a relatively courteous gesture coming from him. A grin
crossed her face as she glanced around, verifying that the coast was, in fact, clear, then leaned in
to kiss him.

She was stopped by invisible restraints a few inches away, her eyes going wide in confusion. It
took a moment for her to recognize his kagemane jutsu, but the position his hands slowly slipped
out of coupled with the almost annoyed look on his face let her know that that was exactly what
had happened.

“I don’t have time for this sort of troublesome thing today,” he explained with a sigh. “I’ve got
something important to do.” With that, he released the binds and - more out of habit than
affection - brushed his lips across her cheek before turning away to walk down the road. She
watched him retreat for a moment before her eyes dropped to the crushed butt at her feet. It took
a second to fully grasp what had been different about him this morning, aside from the air of sulk
in his demeanor.

His attire, rather than his usual black pants and chuunin vest, had been solid black from head to
toe. His hair was done more neatly than normal, as though it’d actually been washed and brushed
that morning instead of pulled out of his way haphazardly.

The words, “who died?” popped into her mind and threatened to escape her lips quite loudly, but
she surpressed the urge. Without even pausing to consider whether he wanted her company, she
dashed after him, falling in step beside him.

“I’m already dressed in black... Can I come along?” she asked, leaning forward to get a better
look at his face. She tried smiling at him, but even then he didn’t look her way. “Well, I can’t
have you moping like this, so I’m coming,” she informed him, straightening again.

She remembered how he’d been when Chouji had nearly died. She remembered watching him
cry, remembered feeling powerless to help the boy for whom her emotions had only started to
grow. She wanted to comfort him now, because she could, because she didn’t want him to wind
up like that again, but somehow she knew everything coming out of her mouth was too
obnoxious for her intentions.

There was a rustle as Shikamaru pulled his hand from his pocket, extending it wordlessly to take
hold of hers. And then she knew - he was well aware that behind her brash words, she was just
trying to be thoughtful.