WARNING: This story is rated M for a reason. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here: there will be blood.
A/N: The notes at the end of chapters are usually important. They provide context and explanation canonical changes, so please skim over them if you have the time.
Best read in 1/3 or 1/2 and Contrasted.
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Chapter II
Silver and Gold
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Nara Shikamaru sighs from his place on the steps of the Senju main house, glaring impatiently up at the, regrettably cloudless, late-afternoon sky. Senju Sadashi—de facto clan heir to the once-great Senju clan, adopted granddaughter of Konohagakure no Sato's Sandaime Hokage, his only friend outside of the Nara clan—is late.
It's times like these that Shikamaru wonders why he even bothers.
Pre-Sadashi Shikamaru—because there is a difference, and no matter how much he may dislike it, it would be stupid of him not to acknowledge it—had been perfectly happy to spend his pre-academy years alone, content in the knowledge that someday, he would find friendship in the male members of his class.
There had just been no point to forming bonds outside his family prior to entering the academy; not only were they unlikely to last, but they also required an inordinate amount of effort to maintain, making them both impractical and unrewarding.
Pre-Sadashi Shikamaru, he is able to acknowledge now, was a bit of an idiot.
Mendokusē, he thinks.
"I-I'll see you later, Sadashi-chan! Don't forget your promise!"
Shikamaru straitens at the sound of an unknown voice, dark eyes shifting to the cracked front gate. A male voice, he determines easily, and if the lack of pre-pubescent crackle is anything to go by (it most certainly is), then a young one at that.
A pale hand appears in the open doorway.
"I won't! Have a nice day, Naruto-san."
A feminine voice—soft tenor, exemplary enunciation, calm familiarity—his friend's voice.
So that's why she was so late…
Still smiling at her unknown companion, Senju Sadashi steps through entrance to the Senju clan compound with a shiny new shōgi-ban tucked securely under her right arm and a crushed-velvet bag swinging carelessly from her left wrist.
Shikamaru stands.
"You're late," he calls, hands going unconsciously to his skinny hips. "I had to wait for twenty minutes."
The Senju starts, turning towards him with a bland expression on her face. Shikamaru suddenly feels a great deal of sympathy for his mother.
"Twenty minutes, you say?" She drawls questioningly, not looking the least bit contrite. "How ever did you survive, Shika-kun?"
Shikamaru continues to stare.
She sighs. "Sorry for keeping you waiting," she says finally, closing the gate behind her and moving to join him on the stone steps. "I met a blond boy on the run from a demon cat and got distracted. His name was Naruto."
The Nara heir blinks slowly. "Demon cat?" He asks, feeling uncharacteristically dumb.
"Tora-chan," Sadashi says gravely.
He nods in understanding. "Aa."
"Again, sorry for making you wait."
He shrugs. Although it had been rather troublesome for him to have to wait for such a long time, he's too lazy to pester her further.
"Maa, I didn't really have anything else to do anyway," he says, eyes drifting towards the entrance of the main house in an effort to move things along. "It wasn't that troublesome." As he knew she would, his friend picks up on his non-verbal cue.
Swiftly moving to unlock the front doors, Sadashi urges him into the main house's genkan with an impatient sweep of her hand, mindful of the new Shōgi board clutched beneath her arm.
As he steps into the luxurious room, Shikamaru takes a moment to admire the sheer size of the Senju clan's main house.
As the heir to one of Konohagakure no Sato's most important clans, Shikamaru is no stranger to traditional opulence—the main Nara house is rather ridiculous, in his opinion—but he knows that the Nara clan's wealth is nothing compared to that of the Senju.
The grounds themselves—meticulously rebuilt and maintained by the Sandaime Hokage after the Kyūbi attack six years ago—span nearly three acres, taking up a substantial thirty percent of Konoha's clan district. To this day, they are the largest uninterrupted land claim in the history of Konohagakure no Sato.
Shikamaru knows that these lands have been in Sadashi's family since before the founding of Konoha, that the genkan he was so carelessly welcomed into not moments ago has also welcomed two men whose faces now decorate the surface of the Hokage monument.
It's a weighty feeling, Shikamaru muses, being in the presence of so much history. He wonders how Sadashi can stand it.
"Thanks for waiting on me, Shikamaru-kun," Sadashi says sincerely, placing her shoes in the getabako neatly. "I really didn't think it would take me that long at the market, but Naruto-san was just too much of an oddity to pass up."
You and your 'oddities,' he thinks, glancing at her from beneath dark lashes. "I like the new board," he says, gesturing to the wooden shōgi-ban clutched in her hand. "Did you get new koma too?"
She grins triumphantly, holding up the crushed-velvet bag. "Shiny, new, and ready for my komadai! Be prepared to lose, Shika-kun."
"We'll see," he allows.
Sadashi chooses to ignore his subtle dismissal in favor of leading him through the Senju clan house.
He follows her in silence, eyes dancing over empty, low-lit rooms and scarcely-used corridors until they reach a small, comfortable side room set apart from the main living area by a pair of artistically carved shōji doors.
Sadashi pushes the pieces of art open almost carelessly, pausing to let Shikamaru enter the room first before sliding them closed behind her.
She places the new shōgi-ban on a low table in the middle of the room. "Sente or gote?" She asks, emptying the koma onto the board and moving to retrieving two large pillows from a recess shelf in the wall.
Shikamaru shrugs indifferently, taking the proffered cushion from her outstretched hand and placing it in front of his preferred side of the board. The white-haired girl mirrors him on the other side.
"Maa, it's too troublesome to choose," he sighs indolently, plopping himself down. "It's your turn to pick."
"Gote then," Sadashi nods firmly as she sits, cross-legged, atop her pillow. She slides the corresponding koma onto her section of the board with a sweep of her hand.
"You always choose white," Shikamaru accuses, moving to set up his own pieces. He lets his eyes drift unsubtly between her hair and her cream-colored obi. "I'm starting to see a theme here."
"Jealousy doesn't become you, Shikamaru-kun," Sadashi says, straitening her komadai primly. "You do 'lazy bum' much more justice."
"You're a very hurtful person," the Nara informs her casually.
Sadashi rightfully ignores him.
"Let's do this," she says once she's satisfied, treating him to a, rather dramatic, bow across the shōgi-ban.
Shikamaru rightfully ignore her.
"Ganbatte," he says formally, brown eyes suddenly intent.
"Ganbarimasu."
Click.
Gold General I4 to H5.
Click.
Pawn C3 to D3.
Click.
Pawn G2 to F2.
Click.
Rook to B5.
Click.
"So, have you decided what you're going to do about the academy?" Sadashi asks after a few moments of amicable silence, her focus on the board in front of her. "Are you still planning on running away or have you found a better option?"
The Nara heir glances at her from across the shōji-ban, eyes scanning her downturned face. There is something almost…sad behind her nonchalant expression, but for the life of him, Shikamaru can't decipher it.
"I was never really planning on running away," he says finally. Sadashi knows this, of course, but for some reason unknown to him, he feels the need to reassure her anyway.
"It'd be too troublesome to run now anyway," he continues, his attention returning to the board. "We're almost in the academy; I'd be labeled a missing-nin."
Click.
Rook to G2.
Click.
Pawn C4 to D4.
Click.
The white-haired girl laughs. "That and Shikaku-san would kill you, and that's after Yoshino-san was done with you," she grins at him.
Shikamaru shudders at the thought.
Despite her chūnin status, Nara Yoshino, formerly Matsui, was not a woman to be taken lightly.
"Cruel," he mumbles, and captures one of her pawns in retaliation. "You're a cruel woman."
"Aww," Sadashi practically pouts, eyes following her fallen piece as he places it on his komadai with a somewhat vengeful flourish. "Pawns fall too easily."
"They're useful," he says simply.
Click.
Silver General I7 to H7.
Click.
Silver General A3 to B4.
Click.
"So…?" Sadashi prompts, raising a pale brow in question. "The academy?"
"Middle of the class; not too high, not too low," says the Nara, his dark eyes narrowing toward the girl's bishop. "It doesn't really matter for me anyway; I'll be put on Ino-Shika-Chō either way."
And it's true.
No matter how much or little effort he puts into his work at the academy, Nara Shikamaru will always end up on his generation's Ino-Shika-Chō trio. Akimichi Chōji and Yamanaka Ino's births six years prior had all but guaranteed that.
If the Nara heir had any ambitions of his own, he might have felt rather trapped by that prospect.
It's probably best that he doesn't.
Click.
Pawn G5 to F5.
Click.
White bishop captures black bishop; white bishop promoted to horse.
Click.
"You?" Shikamaru asks, glaring mildly at her newly-promoted horse.
"Rookie of the Year," the white haired girl says with conviction. "There's never been a kunoichi Rookie of the Year before. I'm going to change that."
The dark-haired boy glances up at her before quickly returning his attention to the board. Sometimes, Shikamaru wonders what koma Sadashi represents.
When they first met, the Nara heir would have labeled her a lance. They are simple koma, lances. If not blocked by another piece, they can move forward any number of places without stop, but they cannot move backwards or to the side. When promoted, however, they have the same movement power as a gold general.
Nonetheless, a lance is not a forward vanguard. They cannot retreat, and are thus much more useful when left on the far side of the board, far away from the promotion zone and strategical problems that come with it.
Lances are protectors, the bodyguards of the more powerful and more important.
Senju Sadashi, Shikamaru has come to understand, is certainly not a lance.
"Sounds troublesome," is all he says.
Click.
Lance I1 to H1.
Click.
Knight A2 to C3.
Click.
"Maa, it won't be so bad," she retorts. "The hardest part will be feigning a believable interest in flower arrangements and tea ceremonies."
"They're useful skills for a woman to know," says Shikamaru, rather stupidly.
Golden eyes narrow.
"They're useless skills that should never be forced upon another human being, female or otherwise," he amends quickly.
Sadashi nods indulgently, as if congratulating a particularly slow child. "I'm glad that you're willing to lie to make it seem like you agree with me, Shikamaru-kun."
The heir to the great Nara clan grunts, shifting moodily on his pillow.
Women, the thinks in the safety of his own mind.
Click.
King to H4.
Click.
Rook to B9.
Click.
Gold general H5 to I5.
Click.
Pawn C7 to D7.
Click.
White horse captures black king; game ends.
Click.
"Mendokusē," Shikamaru groans loudly, glaring at the shōgi-ban. He feels faintly betrayed. "Only you would win using a horse. It's like you're trying to insult me."
Sadashi grins cheekily. "Don't complain, Shikamaru-kun, I could have done you in with a lance. You would've never been able to look Shikaku-san in the eyes again."
Shikamaru makes a low growling sound in the back of his throat, hoping that the animal noise will be enough to dissuade her from making any more disparaging comments.
It is not.
"Besides," she continues, heedless of the dark-eyed boy's efforts, "I couldn't let you win the first game played on my new board."
His eyes lift to the heavens. If he believed in a kami, he would ask it to give him strength.
"I feel the need to remind you," he drawls, tapping irritably at the board with a lightly-tanned finger, "that our current win-loss ratio is thirty-two to twenty-eight, which places you four substantial points below me."
Sadashi shrugs indifferently. "If you feel the need to bring up past vainglories in order to make yourself comfortable with your loss," she coos, "then I will not begrudge you, Shika-kun."
He sighs, his head falling into his cupped hands.
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Three weeks later, Nara Shikamaru finds himself standing next to Senju Sadashi and Uzumaki Naruto as they and the rest of their class are welcomed into Konohagakure no Sato's ninja academy by Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"You are the next generation of the village," the Sandaime is saying, his strong voice carrying over the small gathering of children and parents. "The leaves of the great tree of Konoha and the new bearers of the Will of Fire…"
"Blah, blah, blah!" Shikamaru hears Naruto grumble from Sadashi's left. "Can he get to the part about us becoming kickass ninja already?"
"Hush, Naruto-kun!" The white-haired girl shushes him, nudging him discreetly in the side. "It's called ceremony; you'll have to deal with it a lot if you want to become Hokage someday."
"Pfft! Like that'll ever happen! I'll just skip all this crap when I'm Hokage."
The Nara heir sighs, eyes drifting towards the morning sun.
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It's times like these that Shikamaru wonders why he even bothers.
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Fin.
Translations / Definitions:
"Mendokusē." – The correct Japanese phrase is actually mendōkusai, meaning "troublesome," but Shikamaru, being the lazy bum that he is, slurs the word to its shortest form, making it mendokusē. Shikamaru is literally too lazy to say his own catchphrase right.
"Ganbatte." – Do your best.
"Ganbarimasu." – I'll do my best.
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Shōgi-ban – A Shogi board.
Genkan – A traditional Japanese entryway for a house, apartment, or building, like a combination of a porch and a doormat; they are usually rather large in traditional style homes.
Getabako – A shoe cupboard usually situated in the genkan.
Koma – Shogi pieces (King, Rook, Lances, etc.).
Sente; Gote – Sente, black: the person with the first move; Gote, white: person with the second move.
Komadai - A wooden stand used for storing an opponent's captured koma during Shogi. Sadashi's proclamation that the koma are "Shiny, new, and ready for my komadai!" implies that all of the koma will eventually end up on her komadai, meaning she has captured all of Shikamaru's pieces.
My Japanese is rudimentary at best; if you find any mistakes (you will) please let me know and I'll be sure to correct them ASAP.
Notes:
(1) The reason Sadashi is Shikamaru's "only" friend in this chapter is because although he is aware of Chōji, he hasn't actually met him yet. He and Shikamaru will still be friends.
(2) The Shogi strategy referred to by Shikamaru in his "Sadashi could totally be a lance" monologue is called Anaguma, meaning "bear in the hole." In this strategy, the lance takes a protective position in front of the king, which then takes the lance's place in the corner of the board.
(3) Did Sadashi win against Shikamaru? Yes! Although I do think that Shikamaru is very smart, I don't like it when he's written as an infallible Shogi god that can't be beaten. I don't necessarily mean to imply that Sadashi is more intelligent than him however, and I will go into detail about the differences in their intellect in later chapters (think of it as a Spock vs Kirk, 3D Chess kinda thing).
(4) There doesn't seem to be a set age at which children enter the academy in the canon Naruto universe. Kishimoto tends to mix-up some ages along the way—Kakashi graduated at 5, and yet Itachi was only a student for a year and didn't graduated until he was 7—placing the general academy entrance age somewhere between 4 and 6.
Now, I don't know if Kishimoto has spent any time with actual five-year-olds, but I find it kind of ridiculous that he made little Kakashi graduated at such a young age. I don't care how much of a genius you are, proper motor skills take time to develop—much more than five years—and it is physically impossible to outsmart the human body's natural growth stages.
So, to make things more coherent, and more believable, I set up the academy like this: in times of peace, civilian children (with the exception of Naruto) enter the academy at age five and clan children enter at age six. Why the extra year for the non-clan kids? Because clan children have a huge advantage over non-clan children when it comes to shinobi skills. They're surrounded by ninja for the majority of their early lives and many of them (Hyūga, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Aburame, etc) have skills that cannot be taught at the academy.
A/N: The name of this chapter, Silver and Gold, is a reference to the silver and gold generals found Shogi. Also, I haven't played Shogi in like, 3 years, and when I did play it was mostly just me flopping around uselessly on the board. Please don't hate me if I got some moves wrong.
The next chapter will be much more Sadashi oriented in a much less "learning about her from other people's POVs" kinda way.
Favorite, review, tell me you hate me—just give me some feedback please!