Maladaptive

I. Awakening.

"Wake up!"

Shikamaru hitched a ride on a box car that was carrying hay along the tattered plains of the fire country. he had snugged himself in a corner, resting his small bag on his lap and the hood of his worn, grey sweatshirt over his dirty, sweat stained hair.

"Damn it, wake up! No free rides you freeloading piece of shit!"

One of the engineers of the box cars grabbed the medium sized male from his slumber and pulled him upright, his hands took a firm grasp upon his dirty sweatshirt that reeked of sweat and the smell of grease from his fingers when he ate. The side door of the cart was already open and the caretaker held Shikamaru's body leaning out of the cart. Shikamaru hadn't known what to do as he was still in a somewhat subconscious state, and had not snapped back to reality quick enough to fight back against the male or even comprehend what was happening.

"This will teach you vermin to stay off of my train. Go back and tell your Lynx buddies to Fuck off!"

The engineer shoved Shikamaru from the train, for a few moments the world fell into slow motion, the dust from the engineer fingers occupied the increasing space between the men, the rugged and worn face of the engineer was something from a nightmare, his long and rugged beard and moustache that covered the lower section of his face and hung to mid chest level. It had strands of grey and silver. His whiskey stained breath stung Shikamaru's nostrils and before he knew it, he landed on his back and began to roll backward down the soft, mud covered earth below him, silent grunts and gusts of winds escaped his chest. a few astray rocks bashed against the back of his now exposed skull, various shrapnel and dead vegetation stained his tattered clothing before he rolled into a shallow creek. The impure spring water drenched his hoodie, pants and crept into his boots. Shikamaru's hair was previously in a high pony tail and was now down lingering over his shoulders, and dripped with sediment littered water that returned to the creek below. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet and struggled back up the muddy hill that allowed no grip to any surface that came in contact with it.

"W-Wait! My bag! Slow down!!"

He yelled as he struggled up the hill on all fours and soon took a firm hold of the train tracks. He pulled himself up and began a mad dash down the train tracks, his body covered in the brown substance that stained the earth around him and on top of that it made him feel ten pounds heavier. His feet dragged a bit as he felt a few Earthworms had snuck into his boots and were all going at war with one another, giving him an odd, slimy sensation under his toes. His skin tone over his cheeks darkened from the algae and dead plant matter covering his cheeks and miniscule sized forehead. His eyes were bloodshot from irritation and the bitter taste of creek water and slow arising defeat stained his mouth. The train sped on and Shikamaru knew he could not catch up at the pace he was going. His pace began to slow from fatigue and soon he stopped, yelling.

"Kami, Damn It!"

His heart felt as if it were going to burst from its skeletal cage. He kicked his foot forward in frustration sending a bit of muck and gravel from the tracks beneath him into the air, they soon took a subtle halt a few feet away from him and rested, out of place on the Earth. Shikamaru sighed, his eyes scanned over the darkened sky above him. The clouds almost mimicked his mood, mocking him, they laughed at the puny male, they were above him, they dictated the course of the day, and they dictated what the powerless humans would experience during the day and night. These thoughts ran through his skull and his eyes slowly shut, he had wished he could go back to the times before when he was protected by his family. When life was simple and they lived on a small ranch.

His mother would usually be in the Kitchen cooking Shikamaru and his father lunch, while his father sat on the porch, the smell of a burning cigar always masked the porch while he sipping an ice cold beer that had condensation visible on the glass surface during the hot summer days. While he would stare out onto the plains, observing the loud neighbors that lived a quarter of a mile down the open fields and the constant conflict that hovered in their household. Yet even at a young age, Shikamaru could tell there was something... off about the outside world, how his parents constantly would set boundaries on how far he could travel from their home, the constant "Booms" he would hear and his parents would excuse them as thunder, which was unlikely it would be sun scorching weather with no clouds or They would say a tree fell from the forest that resided two miles from our home, yet it seemed odd how frequently trees fell. This had puzzled Shikamaru since he was young, how he had sometimes even disproved his own mother's claims since he was six years old. Yet his father was a different, he could never get past or into his father's head, when he came home from work as a steel worker, exhausted from all the heavy lifting and constant mental harassment from his boss upon his workers. He still managed to have enough brain power to solve a jigsaw puzzle, blindfolded, behind his back and upside down, literally. Even when the man was intoxicated, he seemed to know ever possibility and could easily see through any lies. Then the day came that all of his suspicions were realized, It was like any other morning, Shikamaru was awoke by the neighbors husband cursing at his wife and their dog, but suddenly, there was a loud boom, and there was a sudden hush but the sound of wind creeping through his window. Followed by the shriek of a middle aged woman and the bark of a German Shepard on the edge of insanity. When the young Shikamaru rose to his window, he saw many people he had never seen before, while one of them held the old, angry, drunken man's lifeless who wore crimson stained clothes, and lunged him onto a truck. While a few of his comrades were marching toward Shikamaru's home and his father, who stood guard on his porch, revealed a concealed .44 Magnum and fired upon the men.