How Troublesome

Chapter 2: Irksome Explanations

Shikamaru opened his eyes when he felt a small amount of killer intent and his cigarette being plucked from his lips, and looked straight into the face of a pissed off and very male Naruto. This was the Naruto he knew, short blonde hair, masculine features, blindingly orange clothes.

"Don't smoke! Especially not in my house. Don't you know that these things can kill you?" Naruto said, incinerating the cigarette in a ball of scarlet flame conjured in his hand.

Shikamaru's eyebrows raised minutely; He hadn't known Naruto could do that.

"Naruto," he said slowly, looking up at the man, woman... he didn't know quite what to label Naruto at this point, "Is it really the smartest thing to do to steal the cigarette of, and yell at, the person who knows your secret?"

Naruto looked shocked, and then the shock faded away into panic. "Oh, crap! I'm sorry Shikamaru! I wasn't thinking."

Shikamaru sighed again. Figures, he thought, he forgot about that, and instead tried to save him from smoking himself to death. He – she, really was an idiot, but at least an idiot with a good heart. Okay, now it was just getting annoying. He needed to figure out what Naruto was. "Could you please drop the henge?" he asked. It was getting unnerving, and, quite frankly, female Naruto was easier on the eyes.

With a faint poof and a cloud of white smoke, Naruto turned back into a girl, curves still evident through the baggy jumpsuit.

They sat in silence for a little, Naruto fidgeting in the chair across from Shikamaru, and Shikamaru staring at Naruto.

Finally, Naruto burst out, "What are you going to do? Are you going to tell anyone?" She looked desperate.

Shikarmaru reached down to grab another cigarette, but stilled his hand. He was pretty sure that Naruto would just burn this one up, too, and that was... troublesome. He leaned forward and put his fingers together. "Naruto... why don't you tell me what this is all about."

Naruto looked at him, and then suddenly all of the tension went out of her shoulders and she slumped forward. "It's all Kyuu-chan's fault," she muttered.

Shikarmaru nodded. He understood she was talking about the Kyuubi, but how exactly was it... Wait, Kyuu-chan? As far as he knew, chan was a prefix that denoted that you were friendly with the person, and that that person was a female, that is, unless he was losing his mind and this was simply a hallucination, which seemed to be getting more probable by the moment. "Kyuu-chan?" he didn't realize he said it until the words were past his lips.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, Kyuu-chan. She wanted me to call her Kyuu-hime, but I am not doing that. You know that the Kyuubi is sealed in me, but you might not know that Kyuubi is a woman, well, a female at least. I'm not entirely sure what female demons are called..." her voice trailed off.

"Naruto, get back on topic."

"Oh, right! Umm... I was a boy, but – " Naruto said, but then stopped at the expression on the Nara's face. It was a once a year occurrence. Instead of there being indifference, annoyance, irritation, sleepiness, laziness, or just general lack of emotion, Shikamaru looked slightly startled.

In fact, Shikamaru was. He stared at Naruto. What does he mean he was a boy? The whole thing was just getting weirder and weirder with each passing moment, but he waved for Naruto to continue.

"Right, well, as I was saying, I was a boy, but things kind of changed when I hit puberty. You see, like I said, I was a boy; that part is true, but Kyuu-chan is a female, and a little after I turned thirteen, when I hit puberty, I kind of... merged on a deeper level with Kyuu-chan. I could talk to her in my mindscape at will, and use her power, and, in return, she can experience everything I do. She didn't tell me that I would turn into a girl overnight, though," she finished on a grumpy note.