『 Mistake 』

『 Choices 』

11.02.18

2300 words

『 Choices 』

To my luck, it seems like Shikamaru's not alone. This was bound to happen, but I wasn't really expecting the 16th generation of Ino-Shika-Chō to be gathered in the main household—and they seem to already know me as well, thanks to their parents and Shikamaru.

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, Ori-kun." The blonde smiled at me, giving a hand for me to shake, "It's nice to finally meet you."

I returned the smile and reached for her hand, "Likewise..." I nodded.

"I'm Chōji Akamichi—i-it's nice to meet you, Orion-kun." The Akamichi looked away, lifting up his packet of chips.

I was a bit surprised of his action. From what I can remember, Chōji only does that to the person he trusts—so, am I that trustable? Trustable in one glance? Seriously?

"Th-Thank you..." I nodded, "It's nice to meet you too..."

"Hm..." Ino's face popped between Chōji and I, "Tou-san is right... you do look like a girl." She then grabbed my hands, "Shiro-kun's kawaii."

'Ah, female presence. Help.' I shot Shikamaru my look, but he simply snickered and looked away before whistling like he didn't see me.

After what felt like an eternity, the blonde finally let go of me and dragged me inside Shika's house towards the backyard like she owns the place. She also filled me in along the way—filled me in about stuff, like when they met and why the three of them are here together.

She told me that their parents brought them in a meeting of some sort and basically went from there. They've been together training bit by bit since then, considering they're all heirs of their respective clans. It sounded like it was a drag, but they literally have no choice at this point.

Chōji then told me that the two of them, him and Ino, have heard about me from, like I've guessed, their parents and, mainly, from Shika. The Akamichi also told me that the Nara was thinking highly of me, and how he was worried when I wasn't showing up in training.

"Oh?" A mischievous smile ran across my lips as I looked over to Shika, "You missed me, Shika?"

He shivered and narrowed his eyes, looking away with an 'I'm-so-done' look, "What a drag..."

"Don't worry though," I poked his head, "I missed you too." No homo though.

But we kids, so we cool.

"Say," I sat back, making him perk up, "I want to see your progress while I was gone."

"A spar sounds good." He scratched the back of his head before directing a sharp gaze towards my direction, "Why don't we add a twist like we used to?"

"Hm?" I blinked.

Ah, yes. We used to spar together when both of us were still under his father's training—and Shikaku-san would often make us do the said activity while making us do something more distracting to up our mental capacity and to make us think quickly.

I'm pretty sure it's called multitasking but whatever.

Well, we'd spar while Shikaku-san would give situational questions that we both need to answer correctly through our critical thinking, to come up with the most logical answer if we don't want to be stuck playing Shōgi with him. It would be an absolute drag if we get stuck with that old man.