CLOUD ENVY - S. Nara

Dinner With The Nara's

Deep breaths. Deep breaths, you've got this...
Knock knock
"Shikamaru answer the door would you!" I hear faintly from inside the larger then average house.
I decided to keep it simple and wear what I always do, and thankfully shika answered the door wearing what he always does because if he wasn't I probably would have had an internal mental breakdown.
"Hey" his usual raspy and tired voice rang out into the cool night air.
"Hi" I mumble awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck.
"Uh come in I guess" he says stepping out of the way. But I freeze before stepping foot in the house.
"Wait, you guy allow dogs in your house right?" I say nervously chuckling looking down at kenshin, who seem as though he honestly couldn't care less where he was or what we were doing just waddling at my side.
"Of course we do" I hear a deep voice from behind me, of course I jump next to shikamaru and swing around only to find shikaku standing casually with his hands shoved in his pockets.
"Dad did you really have to scare her like that" Shikamaru groaned running his hand down the side of his face. I laugh and look up at the scary looking man and hold out my hand.
"Um it's good seeing you again thank you for having me" I say politely as he firmly shakes my hand.
We step in the house and they lead me to the kitchen. Of course kenshin didn't care about anything until he smelled the food, then he dropped the 'im a senior citizen don't bother be' act and high stepped into the kitchen.
I rolled my eyes at him but he didn't seem to notice as he was laying at Mrs. Nara's feet trying to look extra cute.
She notices and crouches down to pet him.
"Now who might this be,"
"His name is kenshin, he's usually not a bother but he gets annoying when foods involved" I joke. But she was so preoccupied smothering him I don't think she noticed, I smiled as kenshin seemed to be enjoying he company.
"Well I find him charming" she says standing and patting down her apron, she gave me a warm smile.
"I'm glad you came" she says walking over to be and putting be in a bear hug.
Though she was squeezing the life force out of my body I awkwardly patted her on the back and smiled, I don't get hugs very often so it was a weird sensation.
"Mom I think your killing her" I hear Shikamaru say.
"Oh I'm sorry dear" she lets me go and turns around and begins cooking, while I take in oxygen that I had been deprived of playing it off like it was nothing. Shika laughed at me slightly while I sent him a glare.
She told us dinner was about ready and we all sat down at the table.
We talked as we ate and everything was going fine till Mrs. Nara popped the question I'd been dreading to hear.
"So Amaya, where did you live before you came to the leaf" she inquires.
Shikamaru looked towards me in interest. Despite all the time we hung out I never told him about my past. Nothing.
Yeah I felt bad but I just can't do it.
But of course had mastered the skill of lying over the years so it was quite easy.
"Oh well I lived in the land of tea, and trained with a women who taught be just about everything I know and I guess one thing led to another bringing here" crappy excuse I know but I played it off well, cool as a cucumber.
"Hm interesting" shikaku pipes in, this guy is the real deal he can probably see right through my act.
After that tense moment we changed the subject to something and we moved on.
Thankfully the rest of the meal consisted of laid back conversation, held mostly by yoshino. While shikaku and shikamaru occasionally slid some food under the table for Kenshin.
It seemed they had mastered the skill of getting rid of Mrs. Nara's cooking seemingly undetected, they didn't seem to fully enjoy the meal but I did, in my opinion any hot meal is a blessing.
After we ate I profusely thanked Mrs. Nara before she ordered shikamaru to show me around.
We walked around and talked as he brought me around their house, until we reached a specific room.
As he opened the door I noticed a glimmer of excitement in his eyes.
Upon entering the room I noticed it was spacious. Cabinets lining the walls and in the middle was a table, with only a shogi board on it.
He made a B line towards it and plopped down letting out a tired sigh as usual.
"What was all that walking to much for you shikamaru?" I tease.  He rolls his eyes
"Troublesome woman" he mumbles as he sets up the board with not a care to even ask me if I wanted to play first.
"You know how to play right?"
"Mhm, someone taught me a long time ago" I say vaguely as I watch his hands meticulously place the wooden pieces, hearing them click on contact with the board.
After he finished he looked at me expectedly, wanting me to make the first move. 
He was obviously playing at something and totally thought he was gonna win, he's in for one hell of a ride I don't think he realized he signed up for.
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