Age Regression
by: Lady Hallen

It was exactly like babysitting, Shikamaru told himself.

Sasuke's face was set on a permanent frown and it was like he'd forgotten how to smile, or change his expressions into something more pleasant. Shikamaru wouldn't really say that Sasuke was a friend, but he was Shikako's and these days, he couldn't visit his sister's apartment without tripping over him or Naruto.

He had walked in on the three of them in various stages of the awkward and the hilarious – one memorable moment had Naruto with black hair and Sasuke with blonde, Shikako on the floor between them, howling with laughter. It was impossible to take the three of them seriously after that.

But watching over this Sasuke was like watching over the evil twin.

They looked exactly alike but the way this one moved, how he didn't look at anyone with respect, grated on Shikamaru's nerves.

Thus, they were in the training grounds and he'd recruited Naruto for babysitting duties, just so that he could step away from the temptation of pummeling the asshole to the ground. Until he stopped wearing their Sasuke's face like that. It wasn't exactly a feasible solution, given that it was only a spiritual exchange, according to Jiraiya.

"Just one Kage Bunshin, Naruto," Shikamaru called out. "He's just a genin."

Naruto pouted at him but complied. "No chakra either?" he clarified, eyes skimming the black seals that crawled up and over pale skin.

Shikamaru nodded and there were two Naruto's side by side in a puff of chakra smoke. He shook his head wryly. Naruto had done that with no hand seals. Most surprising ninja indeed.

Sasuke attacked first, clearly looking to let out steam. That was alright, Naruto could take it.

He watched everything closely. How Sasuke moved three fractions slower than usual, how his moves were sharp and punctuated with temper. How his teeth were bared in anger and frustration. How his eyes were pinched with pain, probably unconsciously channeling chakra to his eyes and paying for it when the seals reacted.

"Stop," he said and they did, Naruto quickly and Sasuke with a grunt of irritation. "You need to stop trying to use chakra. You tried to activate your Sharingan, didn't you?"

Sasuke didn't meet his eyes and Shikamaru sighed.

"So no sparring," Naruto said, voicing out what Shikamaru was thinking. Everything was instinctive for this Sasuke. He had no control at all. Genin.

"No sparring," he agreed. "Shogi?"

Naruto obliged and produced the required clones. Sasuke's frustration was even more evident as they played.

"Do you know the rules?" he had to ask at one point and Sasuke answered yes, along with a look that added, you idiot.

"Why are we playing this?" Sasuke bit out between clenched teeth.

Shikamaru wanted to groan. His sister had such troublesome friends. "What do you see, as the game goes on then?"

"The dead last keeps losing to you?" Sasuke mutters. "Nothing new there. He's always been an idiot. I wonder who bothered to teach him this game."

By the look on Naruto's face, he wasn't the only one struggling to keep his temper. No, scratch that. He really was the only one. Naruto started yelling and Shikamaru tried to tune it out, lest he give in to the urge and strangle the brat with Shadow Stitching Jutsu.

"Why don't you play against him then?" Shikamaru said loudly, interrupting Naruto's rant. "If you're so confident. It doesn't need your chakra."

Sasuke's scowl deepened at that suggestion and only grew worse as the game progressed. As it should. Naruto might not have been a genius, but he had been playing with Shikako for four years now and some of her tactics had rubbed off on him.

Shikamaru could see it in the way Naruto targeted weak spots and directed his pieces. Sasuke lost in six moves and he didn't even know it.

"You've lost," he told him. "Can you see it?"

There was a muscle jumping in Sasuke's jaw. "Where?" he said. "What …" he trailed off and Shikamaru knew he'd seen it. "How did that happen?"

So Shikamaru settled down and his second most favorite thing to do right next to cloud watching and shogi - analyzing shogi games.

"You started off aggressive and that's the wrong thing to do with a player like Naruto," he explained patiently. He did this before, with one of the kunoichi in his sisters group. One of her many side projects.

(He ached a little, thinking of Shikako. Busy Shikako who had too many things going on but still had time for him.)

"A ninja's greatest tool is his mind," Shikamaru reiterated the lesson firmly. "Shogi is a game of tactics and strategy. How many applications can you think about?"

Sasuke scowled again and Shikamaru gave in to the urge and poked his cheek, making him startle.

"Don't keep frowning," he muttered. "Watch me fight Naruto and learn from it."

He didn't know that volunteering to babysit an alternate dimension's Sasuke included teaching. He just knew Hokage-sama was watching and would get ideas.

Their fight was short and to the point. Without chakra, it ended quickly, most of his techniques needed chakra anyway. He didn't try to drag out the fight. Naruto had insane endurance and stamina. He'd often heard Shikako mutter about it under her breath. He used simple tricks to push the blonde to the tree, where he'd seen a trap left from a genin practicing earlier.

With a startled yell, Naruto flew up and dangled.

"One step ahead of everything," he told Sasuke. "Do you understand now?"

Sasuke's eyes were wide. It glimmered with the light of understanding. Shikamaru resisted the urge to sigh in relief. Finally.

"Neh, Shikamaru!" Naruto whined.

An annoyed look had the blonde cutting himself loose, a sheepish look on his face. "Alright, alright. But we can have ramen for lunch, right? I mean, your mom's bento's are awesome, but ramen…"

With another sigh, Shikamaru allowed Naruto to drag him and Sasuke to Ichiraku's. The seals glimmered again in sunk deep into skin, leaving no sign of it anywhere. Shikako's work was beautiful and deadly efficient. Sasuke's scowl was back again, and Shikamaru wanted to groan.

So, I asked Mercy of Baal for an AN...

She said: Post it now and crush everyone's soul by making them think it's a DOS update.

...

You can sorta see where the inspiration of this thing comes from, with encouragement like that.

Please Review! (My b-day passed without an update for Switch - coz I was busy updating for the other fics, so a review for a b-day gift would be awesome.)

~Hallen