Peer Counseling is Too Troublesome

Chapter 3

A/N: I didn't write the scene where Shikamaru and Chouji become friends exactly like the actual series, but oh well! Hope you enjoy!

P.S. I'd also greatly appreciate it if you could comment and/or vote on Peer Counseling is Too Troublesome. Thanks again!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

Shikamaru had never dreaded anything more than going to peer counseling. Well, except maybe going home to an angry Yoshino. Which he was going to encounter if he didn't continue with peer counseling. He let out a depressed sigh. Why did he have to live with such a troublesome mom?

He pushed open the heavy library doors to see Ino and Sakura bickering. Again. Those two had spammed the Remind group chat with their useless and ridiculous name-calling until 4:30, and they still had the energy to continue it even now?! Shikamaru got a headache just from looking at them fight. Today was supposed to be their first day of counseling too. He wouldn't be surprised if he ended up jumping off a bridge by the end of the day.

When Asuma-sensei entered the library, Shikamaru almost screamed hallelujah. Everyone shut up, even Ino and Sakura.

"Welcome to the first actual day of Konoha High's Peer Counseling Program," Asuma-sensei drawled. "I'll start passing out the counseling forms to work on with your partner." Ino and Sakura, somewhat surprisingly, immediately latched onto each other's arms. "I will be assigning your partners, but if any of you have a problem with that," he said, giving the two girls a look as they dejectedly split apart, "you can give me a list of at least 30 valid reasons and I'll think about it. Unless the reasons are very serious and need to be addressed, I probably won't even look past Reason #5. Otherwise, you're stuck with that partner until the end of the semester. I'll start assigning your partners now."

Shikamaru silently prayed that he wouldn't get a troublesomem partner. Getting someone who likes to help others and is actually good at giving advice would be nice. But with his luck, he'd probably just get an aggravating idiot.

"Nara Shikamaru..." His ears perked up at this. He suddenly felt his heart begin to race a little as he listened for the next words that would come out of Asuma-sensei's mouth. "... and Yamanaka Ino."

"WHAT??!!!" Ino screeched. Why did it have to be her? Shikamaru inwardly groaned. With her as his partner, the poor student they'd be counseling would probably end up being depressed(if they weren't already).

As she shot him a snotty look, she stood up to go retrieve the counseling form from Asuma-sensei. But as she read it walking back towards Shikamaru, the snotty, disgusted look on her face disappeared and was replaced with an amused smile. "Hey Shikamaru, guess who we're helping out!" She handed the form to him and his eyes immediately gravitated towards the top of the form where the student's name was written. His eyes widened, and he read it over and over again to make sure he hadn't read wrong.

It said Akimichi Chouji.

While Chouji had been an old family friend of his along with Ino, they had actually been friends from before too...

10 years ago

"Let's play Ninja!" a boy wearing a hat yelled. Being the biggest, he had automatically assumed the role of the leader of the band of boys that had been playing at the park. The others cheered in agreement as some of the boys went to gather toy shuriken for the game.

A shy chubby boy approached them nervously from behind. After gathering his courage, he timidly asked, "Can I play too?"

"Hah?" One of the boys turned around to see the chubby boy chewing his lip, waiting for their approval. "You wanna play Ninja?"

The chubby boy nodded excitedly. But his face fell as the others laughed. The boy who had asked him the question gave him a look of contempt before saying, "You can't play Ninja with us! Whatever team you're on is gonna lose cause you're so slow! Go away, fatty!" The boys howled with laughter and started chanting, "FATTY, FATTY, FATTY, FATTY!" The chubby boy could feel tears threatening to trickle down as the words seemed to grow louder with each second.

"Hey, knock it off!" He looked up in surprise as he saw that one of the boys had yelled out at the rest of the gang. It was a boy with a ponytail and a lazy look on his face, calmly putting his hands in his pockets. "Games with odd numbers aren't any fun. Even games like shogi are only fun when played with equal numbers of pieces." The chubby boy stared in awe at this new, cool boy who had stood up for him, in a way, and he turned excitedly towards the leader in hopes that he would reconsider.

However, the words that came out of the leader's mouth were words of scorn. "Well, having useless pieces is the same as not having any pieces at all!" The rest of the boys chattered away like monkeys as the chubby boy walked dejectedly away. As he walked away, he didn't notice the boy with the ponytail walking away from the group of boys as well.\

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"Hey, you!" a voice exclaimed on his side. Chouji turned to see who had spoken. It was the boy with the ponytail who had stood up for him earlier!

"You're that..."

"I'm Nara Shikamaru. Oh, and you're in my spot."

"Your... spot?"

"Yep. This is where I lay down to watch the clouds."

"You came here to watch the clouds? But I thought... the Ninja game..."

"Heh, I ditched them cause I got tired of them. What's your name?"

Chouji felt happiness surge through him as he exclaimed, "Chouji! Akimichi Chouji!"

Present

Shikamaru had always known that Chouji was often made fun of for his large size, but if he was applying for peer counseling, just how bad had the bullying gotten?