A week's time

To the academy

Shikamaru blushed a little as he helped her with the zip and all before walking out with a slightly red face, he really didn't see anything..much. He wasn't taking advantage of the situation, he was simply helping out. Yes, helping out...

"How troublesome..." Ever since he found out Naruto was a Naru, a female species with a disability, things had gotten troublesome for him. He was getting more ideas and he was getting chummy. He totally blamed it on puberty and raging hormones of a teen in puberty.

Shikamaru left Naru to change completely out of her clothes while he tied up his hair, before slumping against the wall outside his room waiting for Naru to come out.

It felt like he had more work to do now Naru has came into his life... he should have known what troubles he would be stuck with the moment her brought her back.

Naru wore his clothes like a over sized shirt, she folded the sleeves so that it wouldn't cover her elbows and she tucked in his shirt in a pants that was in her size. His mother had passed Naru a comb yesterday and Naru stared at it like a foreign object, it was probably a reason why her hair spiked up, after combing, her wild hair had deflated of some sorts and in its place was flat hair that went down to her ears.

In her hands was a spare shuriken and kunai holster that he had passed to her. He sighed for the ninth time this week and took it from her hands, kneeling down to help her fasten it on her right thigh which would be easily accessible for her.

She gave him a sweet as honey smile in return that left his heart in a mess, his heart was beating erratically when she beamed at him. He groaned internally and stood up, hunching his back as he went to the living room for breakfast.

The two kids sat down on the table as they munched on onigiris that Yoshino had made, Naru took a bite of it and stared at the triangle shaped rice with sour plum bits in it with wonder. She had never tasted anything this good not including dinner yesterday and her all time favorite ramen.

Her expression of amazement must have shown on her face as Yoshino started giggling happily, "Do you want some more Naru chan?" She said as she place another onigiri on her plate.

"Thank you Yoshino san!" She exclaimed happily as her grubby hands each had a onigiri in it while her mouth was stuffed with another onigiri. Shikamaru stayed silent as he chewed on his onigiri, staring at the happy aura enveloping Naru and his mother.

His mother always wanted a daughter, they were sweeter than sons she said.

Shikamaru sat at the doorstep wearing his ninja shoes as prepared for the academy, while Naru had difficulty putting her shoe on. After struggling for a few minutes, Yoshino gave him the stink eye and he grumbled as he knelt in front of her and dutifully put on her sandals for her, making sure the strap was tight.

"Am I the household servant now?" Shikamaru grumbled underneath his breath, but he still took her hand in his as they left the Nara compound.

"Take care of Naruto son!" Shikaku called out while Yoshino said, "If I see a slightest scratch on Naru chan, I'll make sure there's no dinner for you!"

"Tch I'm starting to question who they gave birth to. " He grumbled underneath his breath and Naru giggled and pulled him along. The warmth in her heart was overflowing, it felt like it was going to overflow and she had no more containers to keep the warmth. She had totally left the bad memories somewhere in her brain, it was like her memories were sealed by this warmth.

'Don't think about the past, face the present and dream the future.' Kurama who just awoke, spoke sagely as he place his huge paw on her small head in their mind space.