She's All That

Shikamaru age 5

What a drag. Mom and dad woke me up early to drag me to the stupid opening ceremony. I didn't even want to go to the academy. Dad says I have to as clan heir, but I don't even want to be heir. Ugh, this is all too troublesome. To make it worse mom keeps poking my side to keep me from my nap, at least she can't force me to pay attention, I just want to get this over with so I can go cloud watch in my clearing. Man, why can't Hokage-sama talk faster? I only need to know who my sensei is and then we can get out of here.

"...Nara Shikamaru..." Finally, "...Umino Iruka..." Young dude with the scar on his nose, got it. Now I just need Hokage-sama to conclude his speech and dismiss us and then we can finally go. "...And that concludes the opening ceremony. We are excited to see all of you on Monday. Have a great rest of your days." Thank God.

Getting off the academy grounds was proving more difficult than I'd hoped. Mom was leading us, which meant she kept stopping to greet people, and dad stepped away to talk to some young brown haired ninja with a senbone in his mouth. To top it off there was some pink haired girl pushing her way through the crowd and people seemed to be purposely be getting in her way. How troublesome.

It was when some whispers started about someone bumping into the Uchiha head that mom finally let us go home.

"I'm very disappointed in you Shikamaru." Troublesome. "You should have paid attention and greeted my friends. Are you listening?"

"Mom, I went and I sat through the whole thing without sleeping or complaining. I really just want to cloud watch before the sun goes down and you make me stay inside. Please."

"Fine, be home by dinner."

"Thanks mom."

I walked from my home to what I deemed my clearing. It was a small opening in the center of some of the tallest trees in the Nara forest with a stream running through it. The clearing is my favorite place to nap and cloud watch. It helps that no one comes here.

I was halfway through the clearing, almost to the stream when I tripped over something. Looking behind me I saw something pink, hair. It was pink hair, attached to a little girl. She looked to be my age, although she's quite small; covered in cuts and bruises. Man, what a drag. What am I supposed to do with her? Do I get mom? No, I don't know what's wrong with her, what happened or how long she's been here. I don't know if it's a good idea to move her. Getting mom wouldn't only mean showing her my clearing but I'd have to leave this girl alone until I got back. How long has she been here? I don't think I've seen her before, pink hair is pretty unforgettable. Wait, the entrance ceremony. There was someone with pink hair struggling in the crowd. I'm sure this is her. God this is so troublesome. I might as well sit down and wait, she isn't actively bleeding and she has to wake up eventually; I'm not going to let her ruin my cloud watching.

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Eventually ended up being 1 hour 23 minutes and 37 seconds.

I heard her roll and with a soft groan. I turned my head just in time to see large green eyes open. She looked around, confusion in her eyes. When they landed on me she looked scared, her body tensed. What happened to her?

"I won't hurt you." She blinked twice. "Will you tell me what happened?" She Shook her head no. "Can you move?" She shrugged. "What's your name?"

"Haruno Sakura." She spoke so quietly I almost didn't hear, she pointed at me.

"I'm Nara Shikamaru. I found you here about an hour and a half ago. I didn't know what happened or if it was safe to move you so I just waited. Although if you would've slept for five more minutes I would have gone and got my mom. Thanks for waking up when you did. I really didn't want to show mom my secret cloud watching place." She looked confused.