9

Naruto and Shikamaru were laying in Shikamaru's bed, the Pineapple comforting his Sun. Shikamaru was worried about his Sun. The blond was taking short, rasping breaths, and they didn't sound right.

Pineapple finally shook the blond, trying to wake him up. "Naru? Wake up. I need to know you're ok. Please talk to me."

Naruto was turning his head side to side, as if he were having a horrible nightmare.

Shikamaru began shaking him, worried that Naruto would hurt himself. "Naru, wake up. It's a nightmare. I'm right here!"

Naruto sat up shaking, not quite fully awake. "Shika, no! Don't leave! Please!"

Naruto's dream

Naruto was running toward shikamaru, looking forward to spending another day with his crush. However, the second the Pineapple saw him, there was a look of hatred on his face. It was a look that Naruto didn't recognize on his crush's face.

"Hey, Shika!" Naruto wasn't sure why his crush looked so angry.

"Don't use that friendly name with me, you freak," Shikamaru said back, his tone disgusted.

Naruto was shocked. He couldn't understand why his crush was talking to him in a cruel way. "Shi..ka...?"

"Stay away from me! I don't want to be around you anymore! You're just a monster!"

Shikamaru started walking away, Naruto reaching out his hand and trying to chase after him. "Shika, no! Don't leave! Please!"

"Naru, I'm not leaving. I'm not going anywhere. I'm right here with you. Wherever you go, I'll be there, right by your side. I-I love you..."

That sentence snapped Naruto out of his horrible nightmare. He snapped back to reality, and looked at the Pineapple next to him, holding him so close. His eyes glossed over with tears and he clung to Shikamaru.

"Shika! Please don't leave me! Even if you learn my secret, please don't leave me! I couldn't live if you did!" Naruto sobbed into the Pineapple's shoulder.

Shikamaru wrapped his arms around the blond and rubbed his back. He whispered in the boy's ear, "If it's the secret I think it is, I already know it, and obviously I haven't gone anywhere. I love you too much to do something like that to you. Trust me."

Naru looked up at Shikamaru. He stared into the Pineapple's dark eyes, and saw the truth. The boy knew his secret already, and obviously didn't care.

"You know about my secret?" Naruto whispered back. He wasn't sure if he believed him or not.

"The truth about your birth and the night of the Kyūbi attack? Yes, I know that. And I think I'm a fair judge of character when I say that, you, and he are not the same being. You may share a body, so to speak, but there is a difference. You simply keep him within yourself, but you are in charge. There is a difference between the kunai, and the scroll it's sealed inside. That doesn't change the fact that I love you the way you are."

Naruto's tears spilled over. Shikamaru liked him for himself, and didn't care about the power trapped within him.

Then he realized the words that Shikamaru had admitted twice. "Sh-Shika, did... did you mean it? What you said?"

"Did I mean what?" Shikamaru knew exactly what Naruto was asking, but he wanted to make Naruto say it, because he needed to find out if Naruto felt the same way.

"Did you mean it wh-when you said y-you l-loved me...?"

"I did, Naru. I do love you. I really do. I'm not sure if you'll ever believe me, but—."

Naruto shut him up with a kiss. "For being a genius, you can be really stupid, dattebayo." Naruto giggled. "Does that tell you whether I believe you or not?"

Shikamaru couldn't speak, he simply stared at Naruto, and nodded his head, before he leaned in and gave the blond a kiss as well.

"Also, I love you too, Shika. I have for a while now. And the fact that you already know my deepest secret, somehow, makes its easier to believe that you won't go anywhere. So thank you." Naruto gave him a soft smile and lay his head on Shikamaru's shoulder.

"Never. I'll always be here for you. In fact, I knew your secret the day we graduated from the academy. When that traitor Mizuki was blabbing about it, I was there. I wanted to make sure you were alright. You know?"

Naruto nodded. "I'm glad that you were there. At least you won't underestimate me when the Chūnin exams come up, right?"

Pineapple shook his head. "No way. You took out that guy with a single move. There's no way I'd be able to win against you. Plus, with you having that bizarre medical ninjutsu since the academy, it just adds to your abilities. Speaking of which, you never did explain how you knew that."

Naruto had the nerve to look sheepish about it. He scratched the back of his head and tried to come up with a believable excuse. "Well, you see..."

"Naruto, it was orange, not green. Obviously it has some of the Kyūbi's chakra infused into it, right? Did he teach you some of it?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, he taught me to do some. Since the villagers beat me so often and the medics at the hospital refuse to treat me, he figured it'd be better if I learn to heal myself, than always rely on him to heal me. Despite the fact that he'll always be there, he had said there may come a time when my injuries are just too great for him to heal on his own, and I'd need to know how to heal myself at least a little to make it faster. Obviously, I was in such a situation, but I was also injured so bad I couldn't even heal myself, let alone rely on him to do it." The last part was muttered so Shikamaru couldn't hear.

Pineapple didn't deny it made sense. However, obviously someone had taught him more than just how to heal, though. Otherwise, he wouldn't have done so well at dodging the targets, because that was the only way he could explain Naru purposely missing them during the graduation exam.

"Did he or anyone else teach you more than that?" Naruto appeared taken aback by the question. He looked at Shikamaru with an odd expression of forced confusion. "You can't tell me that nobody helped you train before the academy, or even during it. Your skills at the exam were too great to suggest plain dumb luck."

"Skills?" Naruto asked, honestly perplexed. Mentally, of course, he was thinking 'I missed the target almost every time at the exam, so how can he call those skills? I don't get it.'

"Yes, skills. You don't honestly believe I wouldn't notice you dodging the target, do you?"

Flashback no Jutsu

After the exam, Shikamaru was able to escape from his family. He couldn't comfort Naruto because the boy had already left with Mizuki, so he instead went to the training area behind the school, because Naruto's throwing ability was incredible. He had to see where they hit, before Iruka took them down. he was sure they had hit something, judging from the thunk sounds each made.

Thankfully, when he reached the targets, he saw the man already collecting the missed weapons. He had gotten the ones that were on the ground around the target, and was trying to find the ones that Naruto had thrown behind it, when he froze, eyes wide.

Shikamaru walked over to Iruka to see why he had frozen. Upon seeing Naruto's Shuriken and kunai, even Pineapple was amazed. Somehow, Naruto hadn't just missed the target. He'd hit the tree 30 meters behind it, with every single "missed" weapon, and made his own mini target with them.

"Holy shit," Shikamaru muttered. He figured Naruto had some skill, purposely missing the target as if it were his special kind of exam. But this, this was something completely different.

"Don't mention this to anyone, Shikamaru-San, and I won't bring it up, either. Naruto was supposed to hit the target. Despite this, he still missed the real target."

Shikamaru could only nod his head.

That's when an ANBU appeared and informed Iruka about Naruto stealing the Forbidden Scroll.

Flashback no Jutsu-Kai!

"Do you get it now? Even Iruka-Sensei couldn't wrap his mind around it."

Naruto was in awe. He hadn't realized that, in his effort to avoid hitting the target, he had accomplished something even more impressive.

"That's why I wanted to know who trained you. You're incredible."

Naruto muttered something under his breath, but Shikamaru didn't quite hear him. He leaned closer in order for Naruto to say it in his ear. The second he did, his eyes widened.

"That would explain the target skills. Do you have any more surprises I should know about as your boyfriend?"

Naruto smiled at the word boyfriend. "You'll just have to see for yourself. I'm not going to give anything away."

(ᵔᴥᵔ)

A/N: Heyo! Hope everyone is doing well! I figured I should start putting in a few more things about Naruto's abilities. I hope this starts getting into the meat of everything, now that we've explained a bit. Sorry there wasn't much real action in this chapter though. It was more filler I guess. See you all next time! じゃね！(((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))♡