It's Not Forever *Shikamaru/OC/Gaara* (Book 1) COMPLETE

Chapter 7

A/N: Dun Dun Dun!!! What will happen?? 

    While I prepare the cups, my mind runs back and forth between yelling at myself for caving and congratulating myself for finally deciding to do it. I bite my lip and groan in frustration. This could potentially ruin everything I'd worked so hard on. But not telling could eventually lead to ruining everything. It's a coin toss really. I pour the hot liquids into the travel cups before heading through the silent tower toward the training hall. My eyes pass over the status board on my way and find more teams marked as deceased, disqualified, or passed. Only a few teams are left unmarked. I push open the doors to find Shikamaru laying down in the center, staring up at the skylight. He looks up when I walk in and sits up, taking a coffee from me. I settle down cross legged across from him and take a sip of coffee. He looks at me expectantly, but doesn't say anything. I take a deep breath and sigh before opening my mouth.
"I don't know what you will think of this, but I've hidden this all long enough and I trust you with my life, so I trust you enough to tell you what I'm about to. I understand if you choose to not have anything to do with me afterward." I say, not meeting his gaze and fiddling with the cup.
"You're entirely troublesome and annoy me, but I don't foresee any reason to abandon you at any point." He replies quietly. "So what is this about?"
"My past... All of it, including something I'd been hiding as well." I look up at him finally to notice his still blank expression though his eyes show his interest. "I want to start with revealing my secret. After that, I can explain the origin of it."
I hold up a hand and perform the signs to release my concealment jutsu. All at once my skin changes and scars appear over my body. I hear his breath catch and I wince. My gaze drifts down to the palms of my hands where two large scarred slits are centered in them.
"What happened?" He finally asks.
"There's more..." I reach up and carefully take off my mask, revealing a jagged scar running from the right corner of my lip to my ear lobe and several small scars surrounding it.
I sit in silence for a moment so he can absorb what he'd seen.
"As you know, I'm not from Konoha. I'm not sure where I was born, and I don't know who my true parents are. My first family told me that I was abandoned at the base of the compound by a man and they took me in. I grew up being heavily abused and tortured. It'd been like that since I could remember. When I was four, I'd tripped on the rug in the living room and Mother threw a vase at me as punishment. It shattered and cut my face, causing the smaller scars. I didn't have a name until I left there, until then I was just called "warugaki' (Bad child). When I turned for I tried to run away. Mother caught me at the gate, pulled my arm out of socket and dragged me to a tree where she drove kunai through my hands to hold me in place so she could beat me." I motion to the scars on my hands. "After I passed out, she dragged me to the training center in the compound where she chained me to a table on my stomach and the whole clan tortured me, hoping I'd die. I'm honestly not sure how I didn't. Later that day she screamed at me for being an ungrateful demon child and that I was a curse and no one would ever want or love me. When I cried, she beat me and cut my face to 'give me something to cry about'. A few days later I tried to run away and she tied me to the chair and told me that if I wanted to leave, I could, but on her terms. She took a knife and slit my arms all the way up, then dragged my body to the woods a little ways away from the compound and left me to die..." I break off, forcing back the memories by sipping the coffee.
I unzip my jacket and remove it to expose the scars on my arms, then lift the back of my shirt. I can't see them, but I know there's a network of deep lash lines covering my back. I turn back and put my jacket back on.
"I was found unconscious underneath a tree by two rogue ninja. They patched up my arms and when I woke up they agreed to let me stay with them instead of returning me to the compound. Zabuza and Haku became my second family and I travelled with them until Zabuza went into a village one day, I realized later on that it was this one, leaving the two of us in the woods. When he returned, he apologized to me before grabbing Haku and they disappeared. The ninja that were chasing him found me and brought me to the village. Once deemed safe, the Hokage allowed me to stay. I stayed with a family until I turned six and went on my own... I starved for a while, but someone started leaving baskets of food where I stayed. I got a job at eight and well, you know the rest."
I exhale quietly, feeling the weight off my shoulders but a crippling fear remains in my chest. I fiddle with the cup for an eternity, waiting to see what would happen. The only sounds in the room are our heartbeats and our breathing. I swallow the growing lump in my throat and lift my fingers to put the jutsu back in place. Before my fingers can move, a hand covers my own and stops me. I look up to find Shikamaru staring at me with an expression I can't place. I hope it's not sympathy or pity, because that is something I never want from him.
"Shika-?"
"You shouldn't hide who you are Kaida. Scars or not, you're still beautiful. Your past would never change what I think of you."
My mouth falls open at his words. I search his dark eyes for the truth and find his eyes convey what he'd said.
"I- you called me beautiful?" I stutter out, feeling a blush cross my cheeks. "No one's ever said that to me before..."
"Well they should."
We hear the door open behind me and it snaps us back to focus. I slide the mask back over my face and he helps me to my feet. I feel the gaze of the Sound Village team trained on my back as we walk out. I shrug off the unease and let Shikamaru lead me through the tower. We end up in front of our room and I quickly put the concealment back on. He opens the door and we find the room empty. Ino must've woken up and gone to eat or went off with Temari. The two seemed to have gotten close, bonding over boys and gossip.
Shikamaru shuts the door behind us before pulling me into a hug. My face involuntarily starts to burn at the contact. It's the first hug that he's initiated. He'll let me hug him but he's never hugged me until now. I wrap my arms around him and rest my head on his shoulder. I feel one of his hands run through my hair and I feel my body start to relax.
"Thank you Shika-kun."
"For what?" He asks.
"For everything. Not hating me, calling me beautiful, and hugging me for the first time ever. One thing surprised me though, you spoke feelings besides 'Hmph, I'm Shika-kun and you're troublesome and I'm tired and ugh life is such a drag, bleh bleh bleh'."
He chuckles lightly. "I'm fairly sure I've never called myself Shika-kun and I've never said 'bleh bleh bleh'."
"If you say so." I respond with a small smile before lifting my head to look at him.
He looks down at me with his typical blank expression, but I note a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. I stand up on tiptoes and lean in to peck him on the cheek. As my lips make contact, the door swings open and the sound of screeching girls reaches my ears. I pull away from him and turn to find Ino and Temari squealing and clapping excitedly. We sigh at the same time and mutter under our breaths about the annoyances. The girls grin at us talking in unison before forcibly dragging me out of the room to try to learn the gossip.

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