partner project / you're nothing to me (shikamaru x reader)

chapter twelve

After a hard day of training, it was nice to finally sit down and have a meal. I was grateful that Yamato had made food, but I didn't understand why he was still being nice to me even after I was being distant with him. I still questioned why he took me since he only dated my sister for a little bit and known me for a month and he had no connection to me, yet he took me in when I was younger and now once again. He even lead a separate team now, Team 7 with the pale-guy as the replacement. But yet he still let me stay at his place like I was family.

"So are you competing in the Chunin exams, Y/n?" Yamato asked, serving me a bowl of udon noodles with a clear-broth soup. I looked down at the bowl before me. "That's correct." Yamato smiled a bit, before bowing his head and mumbling a few words. "Thanks for the food." Then he looked back up and grabbed his spoon. I did the same, but in my head.

"With your old three-man cell, I supposed?" I nodded. I brought the spoon to my mouth and tasted it. It reminded me of Yoshino's cooking. Memories flooded in my head and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying my best to ignore them.

"Something wrong, Y/n?" Yamato asked. I shook my head. "It's nothing." We continued to eat, but the rest of the meal was finished in silence. My head kept wandering back to the memories of my only month here in Konoha, I had graduated despite only being in the Academy for barely two weeks alongside Shikamaru. He was my first friend I made here, and my best friend at that. I missed him a lot.

I looked down at my wrist. On it was the silver charm bracelet, the matching one Shikamaru had.

My heart ached as I missed to see him so much, how much I wanted to be by his side for the past four years. I couldn't just forget what had happened with me and him.

But I had to lose the feelings of missing him. I had to let go.

I sighed. I rinsed my bowl and dried it, putting it back away.

"I'm going to train." I announced to Yamato, putting my jacket back on. He looked up at me from the wooden table on the floor. "Again?" He pondered. "Again." I repeated. I turned away and toward the door. I needed something to clear my mind.

As I felt a cool breeze against my face, I was suddenly glad that I had brought my jacket. I looked forward. Despite it being a bit late, people were still out. I looked past them and made my way to the training grounds not too far off.  The night was still young, so maybe there would still be light by the training grounds, if not I'd use a fire-style jutsu to light a fire so I could see. I desperately needed to practice my teleportation jutsu, because it would be useful if I could teleport not just myself but one other person, although it could be highly dangerous if I fail because it could fail and only carry half of the weight of the other person or less, meaning I'd take only half of their body. Highly dangerous, but something that I need to train to achieve.

I finally made it to the training grounds. It was cold, so in the end I did light a fire.

I closed my eyes and pressed my hands together, palms together and made my right hand index and middle finger fall a little short of my left fingers. Unlike Minato's Flying Rajin that was quick in an instant, I have to weave a sign to teleport. It wasn't the most efficient, but it was very handy at times.

I looked across the field, and closed my eyes, picturing the spot in my head. I applied chakra to my whole body and infused it with the image in my head. As soon as I opened my eyes, I was right in the spot my mind pictured. Good, now I'm warmed up. Now let's see how far I can go.

I pictured the spot in my mind, close to my house, by the Hokage mountain. I spread the chakra all over my body, I weaved the sign, and suddenly a new image popped in my head.