Can't Help Myself 2.0

.7

It's been a few days after that, Naruto had made a fast recovery with Shikamaru stopping by to help with it. There small contract had ended now that Tsunade deemed him as perfect health but the two continued to stick together, even more than usual.

The two would try their best to make time to spend with each other, always greeting one another when passing by or full on hanging out.

Today, Naruto was out training by himself. It would be a few more days before he can officially join back his team to do missions so he's trying to get back into shape quickly. He needed to get stronger to prove to everyone that he's a capable person!

Naruto threw one last kunai onto the dummy, breathing out as he wiped the sweat off of his face.

"Look who's working hard over here."

Naruto turned around and smiled brightly.

"Shikamaru! Yo!"

Shikamaru waved, walking past him to help gather the kunai that had been thrown. He picked up most of them, with Naruto following along, and gave them back to the blond boy.

"Thanks!" Naruto said, organizing them in a neat stack before placing them inside his poach. "What brings you here? I thought you had to do a whole stack of paper work today."

"I finished it early, didn't want to stay there any longer," Shikamaru answered as he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

He then awkwardly rub the back of his neck, trying to keep an eye contact with Naruto. "I also wanted to check up on you."

Naruto felt his heart warm up at the concern, smile now wavering as he gripped the ends of his jacket.

"Oh I'm all good! No need to worry anymore, I'm ready to get back to work and kick some butts," he cheerfully said, letting one hand go to raise a fist in the air.

Shikamaru nodded, moving his hand to rest on Naruto's head and fondly ruffling his hair around.

"Do you wanna go on a walk with me? I have a place in mind that I think you'll like to see."

"Ooo what place? I wanna know!"

The two then started walking together, Naruto on the outer side while Shikamaru walked in the inner. The two walked in silence, both for some odd reason felt nervous being together. It's been like this without the two even realizing what the reasoning is.

Naruto was trying so hard to stop himself from getting jittery, it was to the point where he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.

Just him and Shikamaru, being together, doing normal stuff. Bro things.

That was until he felt Shikamaru's hand grabbed onto his waist and pulled him to the side closer towards him. His whole face and body was practically smooshed onto Shikamaru's body.

A short breeze past them as the sound of bells faded into the distance.

"Watch where you're biking!" Shikamaru shouted behind them, glaring at the cyclist who just ignored the two. He then turned his attention to Naruto, eyes scanning his face before bringing up his unoccupied hand to flick his forehead gently.

"-and you need to pay attention while you're walking silly."

How could he pay attention when Shikamaru's doing things like this?!

Naruto felt a little dizzy at the close proximity, eyes losing a bit of focus as he tried to scoot his head back. "Y-yeah, I will now... sorry!"

A few seconds later and they're still in this position, Naruto couldn't handle sharing body heat anymore and bashfully looked away.

"You don't needa hold me anymore, I'm paying attention now.."

Shikamaru blinked, looking as if he was snapped out of a daze and removed his hand at the speed of light. He held back a sigh, patting his own cheek before continuing his walk.

"My bad, I was dazing out a bit there," he mumbled.

Naruto also patted his cheek a few times, shaking his head and ran to catch up to Shikamaru's side. Once he finally caught up, Shikamaru paused his step and scooted behind him. He then went to Naruto's other side, gently pushing Naruto to scoot him over to the inner part as he now walked the outer.

Naruto didn't really understand the reasoning for this and didn't bother questioning his antics. He was already too busy thinking about something else that came into mind.

The two walked in silence then, Shikamaru trying desperately to think of a topic to talk about to help ease up after dealing with the thing from earlier.

"Isn't the word queue just the letter Q followed by four silent letters?"

Shikamaru blankly stared at Naruto, who actually looking genuinely curious about his own question.

"Naruto..."

"No wait hear me out first-"

Shikamaru, did in fact, listen to what he had to say about this subject. He was strangely serious about his question and drawing out details that Shikamaru found a little unbelievable but kept it to himself for the most part. What went from one subject turned into four others as Naruto's continued to talk about the most randomest things ever.

"-And that's why I believe Ichiraku Ramen is one of the greatest and most delicious restaurant out here!"

"Hm, I also think their food is alright. The broth is good," Shikamaru agreed with him.

They were getting closer to the location, now reaching a small hill. Shikamaru climbing up first and taking Naruto's hand to help pull him up. He made sure Naruto was fully on his toes before letting go of his hand and walked over to the other side of the edge.

Naruto followed, gasping out loudly seeing the sky shift in soft, warm colors.

"Woah~ this place his beautiful!" he said as he watched the clouds move slowly. He stood next to Shikamaru, who was also watching the clouds.

"Glad you like it, keep it a secret though okay? It can be our little hangout spot," Shikamaru said, placing a finger in front of his mouth and made a shushing action. Naruto nodded and then pointed a finger at one of the puffs of cloud.

"LOOK! Look! That one looks like Iruka-sensei! Oh! This one looks like a bowl of ramen!"

"Oh wow, I see it too."

Shikamaru did not see the resemblances whatsoever but continued to agree with whatever Naruto was saying. There was no specific reason.. he just likes seeing the glint of happiness in the blond's eyes. No specific reason at all.

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