Behind the Mask

Chapter 8

Kuroko groaned as he woke up. Again—it was the third time. He'd had trouble sleeping, because every time he would move, the discomfort of his achy muscles would wake him up.

Like the Akimichi had warned him, the warnings and side effects were labeled clearly on the container, the medicine had made his muscles stiff when he woke up. Kuroko didn't really think that it would be that bad, but oh how he was wrong. He was up earlier than Shikamaru would ever willingly wake up at without an incentive and was at a loss of what to do. The sun was just coming up over the horizon—the sky was actually clear for the first time in a while—and shining brightly off of the snow.

Kuroko put on his clothes—not without some difficulty that is—and almost toppled over in his struggle, which in turn would have startled the sleeping Shikamaru. He didn't want to wake him up without a reason to since Shika could be grouchy when woken up. He stiffly walked to the stairs and frowned. There was no way around it.

He gulped, carefully taking steps down when, "Ack!"

There were a series of thumps as he tumbled down the stairs. Kuroko groaned quietly in pain before he got up and shuffled his way to the kitchen where he could hear Yoshino's humming.

"You're an early riser Kuroko-kun." She didn't even look away from her task at hand, cooking breakfast, to greet Kuroko, "Good morning."

"O-ohayo Yoshino-san."

She turned around and placed a pan on the counter, "I heard quite the commotion, are you alright?"

"I, uh, fell down the stairs... B-but I'm alright!" Kuroko reassured her before she went all mother hen, "I-Is Shikaku-san around?"

"Hmm... If you say so," she sounded unsure. "He should be in the living room."

"T-thank you." Kuroko would have bowed, but his body rejected any unnecessary movement. He shuffled awkwardly to the living room, stepping over the seam of the sliding door, and approached Shikaku who was reading the Konoha daily paper.

Shikaku flipped the paper to the next page, "Kuroko-kun," he yawned, "good morning."

"G-good morning Shikaku-san... Uh... I was wondering if you would be a-able to help me with something?"

"What is this, something?"

"The side effects of my medication is making me really stiff... I was, uh, hoping that you might be able to help me stretch?"

"Lactic acid," Shikaku determined immediately. "Try jogging around the yard for ten minutes. Afterwards, do simple stretches."

"A-ah, hai!"

The jogging was a different kind of pain that he wasn't used to, the tension in his muscles was almost unbearable. He never had any problems with his flexibility before, but with these side effects, he couldn't even raise his arms past his shoulders.

A few minutes into his jog, he could feel himself start loosening up, it still hurt, but he was actually able to run instead of hobbling around the yard. The snow didn't help either, but it was pretty to look at, at least. When he was done, he sat on the outdoor hallway and took off his boots, banging them together to get the snow off.

Returning indoors for the warmth, he sat down on the floor and started stretching.

He heard a door slide open and looked up from his position.

Shikamaru blinked. Could Kuroko get any weirder? Kuroko had his legs bent up so they both rested on his shoulders.

Kuroko raised a hand to wave hello, "Uh, g-good mor—" and with a fwump, he fell sideways, losing his balance when one of his supporting arms were removed from the pose.