Painfully Aware with So Much to Learn

Chapter Ten: Misunderstandings

In a flash of blonde and his poor 'passenger' were in front of the BBQ place. A decently sized shop with a warm atmosphere that the Ino-Shika-Cho trio visited often after missions. It was kinda refreshing for the Nara to see the place again, before Shikamaru's two week long funk Ino and Choji were quite preoccupied and so it had been almost two months since the Nara had eaten the familiar meat.

An overexcited blonde dragged an overtired raven into the restaurant, getting a window booth across from a party of about six girls around the same age, maybe slightly younger. The Nara was a bit off put by a total of four of the girls at said booth subtly glancing at Naruto with intrigued eyes. Shikamaru could tell why too once he turned back to see that Naruto had taken off the top half of his jumpsuit when he got in the booth to reveal the mesh shirt that most shinobi owned. The genius caught myself drooling the same way the girls were. The blonde had an impressive build for someone his age, but he was still lean.

'I dont know if I'm envious or gay' Shikamaru pondered as he continued ogling, Naruto hadn't noticed and was staring out the window. The sun hit his face at just the right angle, making his hair look like a halo to shape his tan face. 'Yup, gay, definitely gay.' Shikamaru thought to himself while subtly trying to hide the nose bleed.

Suddenly one of the girls tried hitting on Naruto.

"Hey cutie, wanna ditch these guys and go to ichiraku's?" A pretty girl with wavy black hair asked.

'Oh no' Shikamaru thought, 'there's no way Naruto would pass up a hot supper and a hot date, it ramen for sages sake'. And so he tried to strategize how to rip her throat out without giving away anything of his feelings.

But he was snapped out of his daze by I sentence that made him want to squeal like a fangirl.

"O-Oh, sorry, I'm kinda with Shikamaru right now a-and girls aren't really my type…" Naruto said, chuckling awkwardly.

The girls looked from Naruto. To Shikamaru. To Naruto. And back to Shikamaru before all of their eyes went wide and their noses started bleeding, Shikamaru knew they misunderstood the oblivious blonde, but he didn't have any desire to correct them. 

Other than that the day was uneventful, just Naruto talking about anything and everything and Shikamaru listening to the blonde's voice and glaring at the villagers being mean to his Naru.

The next day...

I woke up to a familiar gray ceiling, smelling the familiar smell of stale ramen and mildew. I don't really mind the smells, it being the red light district there are much worse things. I went and took a two minute shower before putting on my normal clothes, they're a bit tacky but Jiji got them for me because liking orange is one of the only things he really knew about me. It's not a bad thing, I don't think, I like the gestures Jiji made. It's also nice because he treated me like a grandson so by extension, Konohamaru is like family.

I suddenly heard a banging on the door.

"NARUTO NII-CHAN!!!" I heard a high voice yell through the door.

"Come in, it's unlocked!!" I yelled right back, focusing more on drying my hair. Speak of the devil.

A tiny brunette in a royal blue scarf and teal goggles skipped into my apartment before stopping in front of me.

"Wow~ Nii-chan, I still can't believe you live on your own! As to be expected of my ri--" He cut himself of as his eyes wandered downward.

I quickly saw what caught his eye and zipped up my jacket, only to see the honored grandson looking at me with stars in his eyes.

'Oh great' I thought.

''Naruto-nii, did you get all those cool muscles on super cool missions?!'' He asked with all the child-like wonder in the world.

''Eh, some, yeah.'' I said shortly, not liking where the conversation was going.

''Wow! You're so cool Nii-chan! Do you think I can get muscles like that too one day?'' Konohamaru begged more than asked.

I ruffled his hair with a genuine smile. ''Of coarse, Kono', just don't be in a rush to get hurt, ne?''

''Nh! I'll get super strong, and then I'll be hokage like gramps!'' He said excitedly, I was pretty glad Konohamaru wasn't grieving anymore, Jiji meant the world to little Kono.

''So is there a reason you came to my apartment?'' I asked, putting my towel down on the kitchen table.

''Well I heard the news!''

''What news?''

''About Shikamaru! I really wanna meet him as your rival/puple.'' Konohamaru stated matter-of-factly.

''Okay..?'' I said, unsure but also unwilling to admit I had no idea what 'the news' is.

So I went to the Nara compound, honoured grandson in tow. When I remembered something, leading to an evil grin.

''Ne, Kono, wanna see something cool?'' I asked, looking behind me to the tiny brunette.

''Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!'' Konohamaru cheered.

Before he could blink I had sweaped him up into my arms and dashing to the compound within the second. I picked him up because I didn't wanna hurt his tiny legs, he's two thirds my size.

He was shaking with excitement once he comprehended what just happened. And I knew exactly what was to come next.

''NII-CHAN WILL YOU TEACH ME THAT!!?!!'' He yelled in my sensitive ears.

''When your older, I broke my leg the first time I did that, and it was because I was your size.'' Kono now looked nervous, but still excited.

I walked in the gates, Nara's had a photographic memory so the guards recognized me and Konohamaru as children of Konoha and didn't stop us, one of them giving me a slight nod. 

That was when I realised, I've never been in this compound before. Kami was on my side though, because I ran into Shika.

"Naruto? What are you doing here, I thought we would meet at ichiraku's?"

"Well I was gonna head over there later to say hi to Teuchi-oji-san but then Konohamaru knocked on my door."

"Oh, you're Asuma's nephew, right?" Shika asked the brunette standing next to me.

"Nh! I just wanted to meet you, as Naruto's best friend/rival." Konohamaru declared.

Shikamaru blushed a little, I think he understood more of the situation, why would Kono wanna meet Shikamaru???

Shika POV 

'Oh no' I thought. 'Those girls probably told everyone they knew about us, didn't they...'

'And now Konohamaru thinks Naruto and I are dating, and Naruto's obliviousness continues to stun me.'

"Okay! Since you're both here I promised Moegi I'd bring the happy couple to the training grounds."

'Shit'