How Troublesome

Chapter 5: A Maddening Mission

Shikamaru sighed and slouched down the wall until he was sitting on the ground.

The sun was just beginning to rise over the trees, illuminating their leaves and tinting the light faintly green. He was in the shadow of the wall, eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. He was early, but it wasn't by choice. Choji and Ino had come over to his apartment the night before, and, somehow, one of them had managed to sneak off and set his alarm clock for an hour earlier. He seriously suspected Ino had done it when Choji had started cooking, and before she had started bugging him about the details of his mission with Naruto and the Uchiha. He had no idea how she had even found out, although he supposed it was the power of gossip. Never underestimate it.

So now, here he was, early. He placed his fingers together and went over the facts of the mission. The objective of the mission? Protect and gather information. They had to protect Kotone Shimizu, daughter of the Kage of the Yugakure, Takeshi Shimizu. She was seventeen, turning eighteen, a brunette, and female. That was about the extent of the information they had on her. Pitiful, and bothersome. Even if the Yugakure was a minor village that they didn't have much interest in, or contact with, they should know everything they could about them, just in case a situation like they were in now occurred. Now, they were at a disadvantage, and his intelligence couldn't gleam strategies from nonexistent facts. There was one more thing that he had learned in the folder that the Hokage had given him. He was going to act as Naruto's boyfriend for the duration of the mission. What was he supposed to do?

A faint rustling in front of him disturbed his chain of thought, and he opened his eyes, only to stare into a pair of wide, brilliant, sky blue eyes that were looking curiously at him. When had Naruto arrived? How had she managed to sneak up on him? And when had she gotten so good?

She was wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing the day before, and a black and orange bag with a red spiral was slung over her shoulder. The sun was just coming over the wall and highlighting her golden hair.

Naruto smiled at him widely, "Morning, Shika! I'm glad you're here before Sasuke."

"Good morning, Naruto," Shikamaru said, and then took in what she had actually said. "Why are you glad I'm here before the Uchiha?"

"Because, I have something for you, and I don't want Sasuke to see."

That was not the response he had been expecting. She had something for him? His mind ranged over the possibilities, from the reasonable to the absurd to the questionably perverse. Aloud, he asked, "What is it?"

She dug through one of her pockets for a second and then held out her hand. "This!" she said with a flourish.

In the middle of her palm, was a small, black, studded earring.

He picked it up between his index and thumb, and looked at it closely. It was a small half-sphere, shiny and black, and it seemed to have scratched all over its surface. Frowning, he channeled a small amount chakra to his eyes. They weren't scratches, or rather, they were, but they were purposeful. Characters and patterns on a micro level were scratched, silver lines showing through the black, creating a seal. "What is it?" he asked again, though with a different meaning.

Naruto bounced impatiently. "Put it on! Then you'll see," she said.

He didn't make a move to do to. "What is it going to do, Naruto?" He wasn't going to put on an earring, when he didn't know what it would do, until he was sure that it wouldn't fry his brain, or something equally troublesome.

With an annoyed outlet of breath, Naruto snatched the earring from his palm, and settled down onto her knees in front of him. "It's not going to hurt you. Jeez, who do you think you're talking to?" she grumbled. Then, she grabbed his chin softly and tilted his head to the side. He could feel her fingers, slightly calloused, but gentle against his skin, taking out one of his earrings, and putting the one she had given him in.