When Sasuke Met Naruto (SasuNaru)

- Chapter 8 -

Lying on his apartment's sofa, Shikamaru Nara stared up at the ceiling, a particularly strong wave of laziness rushing over him. He had crashed on the couch as soon as he got home from school, with the intent of watching some television and putting off his homework for as long as possible. Unfortunately, as soon as he made himself comfortable, the Nara had realized that the remote control was sitting on top of the TV across the room, a fact which he found quite "troublesome." Of course, he knew that it would require too much energy to get up and retrieve the distant remote, and so instead of watching whatever garbage basic cable had to offer at 4:00 in the afternoon, he decided to count the number of little pimples on the ceiling. This he had done several times, checking and rechecking his math for well over an hour as rain began to pour outside.

Thirteen thousand two hundred and ninety-seven... that's a prime number...

It was now too tedious to count them all again, and Shikamaru was struggling to find another activity to forestall his looming assignments. As if to answer his prayers, it was shortly after coming to this conclusion that the Nara heard a distinct rapping at his door. He ignored it the first time, feeling that it was still too inconvenient to get out of his nook on the sofa, but the knocking continued, this time accompanied by a rather weak cursing.

"Dammit, Shikamaru... I know you're there..."

Hearing this, Shikamaru knew that it was useless to ignore the knocking anymore and rolled off the couch, hitting the ground with a thud. He lay there for a moment, struggling to muster enough energy to actually pick himself off the floor, before the pounding resumed with a vengeance.

"All right, all right, I'm coming..." the lazy genius muttered as he stumbled towards the door. Upon throwing it open, he was genuinely surprised to find a certain blond standing in the pouring rain.

"Naruto?"

"H-hey, Shikamaru... can I come in?" Naruto asked with a forced smile.

"Yeah, sure... make yourself at home," the Nara replied, stepping to the side.

Naruto gratefully entered the apartment, his shoes squeaking on the vinyl entryway. As he removed his soaked footwear, the dripping from the blond's clothes formed a small puddle at his feet, until Shikamaru's own feet were damp.

"So, I take it you and Kiba had another fight?" Shikamaru asked, eyeing his friend curiously.

"Yeah, you could say that," Naruto admitted with a chuckle, "I just have to get away from him for a little bit."

"Well, you're free to stay if you want. I don't want you getting the apartment all wet though; just another thing to clean up," the Nara said, glancing down at the wet floor. "Why don't you take a shower and warm up, and I'll find you some dry clothes to wear, all right?"

"Oh, okay," the blond responded with a quick nod, before proceeding to strip on the spot.

Whatever... it's not worth the energy to stop him...

In a flash, Naruto was down to just his drenched boxers, at which point he gathered up his soaked articles. "So, where do you want these?"

"Just give 'em to me; you go hop in the shower before you catch a cold," Shikamaru stated, shaking his head in mild amusement as he took the blond's clothes.

As Naruto disappeared around the corner, the lazy genius looked down at the damp bundle in his hands, realizing for the first time that they were drenching his own clothes. Knowing that it was too late to change anything, however, Shikamaru simply sighed and started for the kitchen, where he dumped the blond's clothes into the sink.