I really never cared

Chapter 12

Sasuke groaned as he sat up, his trained reflexes flaring up as he sprung up onto his feet oddly energetic. Before he could question his surrounding "Oi!", he heard a voice calling out to him.

"Shikamaru?" He asked, gears turning in his head, "Where are we? This definitely isn't the war".

"Yeah, no shit, look I've got just as much question as you right now, maybe even more, this whole willy wonka theme going on has got me caught up in a whiplash, but there's literally nothing I can do about it, as you can see, we're in a strange land with no battle gear, dressed in robes, you are no longer impaled and I found out my father and friend is a god so forgive my crankiness but I don't believe I'm in the right state of mind at this moment". Shikamaru literally preached.

"You really could have kept it twenty words or less". Sasuke's remark got him a death glear, he gulped down his saliva.

Sasuke finally took a generous glance around him and in the expanse laid a meadow, with a soft wind blowing through the vegetation, the grass folded as though laying a bed. He could see the trees in the distance dancing in the wind, hear the cries of the animals. Everything blended together in an oddly satisfying symphony. He felt his body go lax, his nerves turn calm. This place was truly scary because it felt like...

"Wired right?" He heard Shikamaru's question "I can literally feel my worries washing away, as though..."

"...we're no part of the world". Sasken finished the sentence for him with Shikamaru nodding in confirmation to the statement.

Sasuke sat, staring at the shifting horizons while Shikamaru laid beside him, hands beneath his head as he stared at the moving clouds, "This seems familiar". Shikamaru commented.

"More for you than for me". He stated.

"Lies", Shikamaru declared, "You always sat like this at that river bank, as though waiting for somebody to emerge from the water".

"Yeah, you just laid up there on the hill side sleeping the day away".

Automatically, Sasuke turned to look over his shoulder and Shikamaru turned his head low to look forward as though they were expecting the blond Uzumaki to walk by waving and growling ad he passes by, all the while his shoulders were sagged.

Sasuke sighed, "Then Naruto walks by, hands in his pocket and a solemn look on his face".

"Yeah". A sigh escaped the Nara's lips too.

"I've always wondered Shikamaru, what was going on in your mind at that time, I'm not foolish enough to believe you were always sleeping".

"Do you know what it means for your mind to be empty and at the same time be filled with bothersome thoughts?" Shikamaru rhetorically asked. "Honestly, I was always thinking of you and Naruto, Sasuke".

"Wow... I'm surprised, really, literally... but why?" The Uchiha was actually surprised, of all things this was the thing he expected the least and definitely not from the lazy Nara.

"I was genuinely curious, you both were in similar perplexing situations, but seemed to stand on opposite sides of the field. One was an orphan who was hated by entire village but seemed to love the entire village while the other one was an orphan who was loved by entire village but seemed to hate the entire village". Shikamaru's eyes were closed as though reminiscing back to those days.

"It was scary, you know", He continued, "It also could have happened to me, overnight I could have lost my entire clan, my entire family to a trusted individual. You lost everything, only a person who had such could even try to understand, but Naruto's case was different, he had nothing from the beginning, not a family, not a clan, he did not even have a village to call his own, all he had was a demon fox locked up inside him since birth, who could ever fucking understand how that felt, his smile unnerved me time and again, how could he smile in such situations".