Legacy [ Naruto Reader-Insert ]

Deer Boy

You wake up, throat dry and scratchy. Dry like the sandy dunes of Suna. You don't know why you keep making comparisons about Suna, but the large dunes, wide expanse of space just honestly makes you feel like you could be free. Brother had told you stories about the other villages that he visited and he made Suna sound so amazing. Hot, Wild and Free. You honestly would love Suna to use that as a slogan. It's time for you to write a letter to the Kazekage. Brother would probably smack the top of your head and huff for a couple of seconds before bursting out in laughter.

You vision is spotty and runny and all you see are swirls of blue, grays and black. You must be delirious because you don't see the moon above the sky. There are no trees; no greens or browns. Wait. The softness of the surface of the thing you're lying down on. It's really familiar and there's only one person who has a bed that feels this soft.

You jolt awake. Your waist hurts. Your back hurts. Your neck hurts. You sucked in air through your teeth, pressing on the sore spots to check if you had any broken bones. You run your fingers cautiously under your chest, pressing and prodding in the gentlest way you could. Ouch. You definitely had a couple according to the pain that blossomed under your skin as you press down.

The bandage on your eye rolled off during the fight, you think? You couldn't really remember when it disappeared from your face, your memory from the fight before is really hazy. You could only remember bits and pieces of the fight.

Your vision clears and you find yourself in Shikamaru's room. The 'wake up sleepyhead' sheets (they're literally just printed under multiple bad doodles of Shikamaru himself, courtesy of your questionable drawing skills) you'd given him from last year is put to good use- it had already seemed faded and worn. You laugh softly to yourself, he'd probably just used It out of sheer irony. You know, since he refuses to wake up. Also you purposefully ordered the softest and the smoothest linen to make it more ironic.

Wait, if you're on his bed, where is he sleeping?

You peer over the corner on his bed and there he is, huddled under a blanket and in a lumpy futon- You can see the top of his forehead from under his sheets. It's just a habit of his, to sleep with the blankets wrapped around him comfortable cocoon which you soon enough adopt after you found out. It's cozy. Also it makes him look like a gigantic cloud with a pineapple top.

"Shika." You half whisper, using the tips of your toes to nudge him- gently, as gently as you could, moving you mean. Everything hurts. And it was the only limb you could move without racking your body with pain. "Shika!" You repeat the motion again, but harder this time.

Shika groans audibly, burying himself deeper in his sheets with a faint, garbled, "D'wanna -ake up. 'emme s'eep."

"Shika!" You whisper-shout, poking his butt with your toes as hard you could without hurting yourself (which wasn't that hard honestly).

"W-wha-!" Shikamaru rolls out of his futon into an upright position- one knee on the ground and a kunai in his hand, squinting and blinking, "Tch, you're awake." He says, half awake in his 'I-just-got-out-of-bed-voice'. It's a little deeper and slower than his normal one. He yawns and rubs his eyes with his other free hand.

"Water," You say, it hurts when you swallow. "Water, I need water." You repeat, gesturing like you're drinking from an invisible glass. Shikamaru squints at you from the corner. It's dark, but his ears should work right? You start throwing your hands up, weaving them quickly in signs. WATER. W. A. T. E. R. You slow your arms down to spell out your word at a snail's pace. W. A. T. E. R.