A/N: I wrote this scene a week or so ago, and although I love it I couldn't think of a place to put it. So I'm posting it as a stand alone, even though it really is too short. Sorry :)

3 AM

"Shikamaru?"

Kakashi blinked in surprise at the boy standing in his doorway, like some kind of frightened animal, hunched over with his hands bunched in his pockets and his hair flopping messily over his eyes.

"I'm sorry." Shikamaru said quickly, almost more to himself, not looking Kakashi in the eye, even as the man took a step closer. Shikamaru backed a step away, and Kakashi noticed the bloody bandages twisting his throat, his wrists, clinging to his pale face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have- I should leave."

"No, no, you can stay." Kakashi said quickly, opening his door wider. He'd never seen the boy so lost, even when Asuma had died, Shikamaru had only withdrawn into himself.

"I- no I can't. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come. It was stupid." Shikamaru repeated, he looked left and right up and down the hallways as if checking for escape routes.

"You sure?" Kakashi asked carefully, it had been one of team ten's first A-rank missions, and he was no stranger to the horrors they held, even if most of the time he wouldn't talk about them. Shikamaru was still barely seventeen. Kakashi had made it through fine on his own in the end, but he wasn't about ready to let others down his path without at least an offer.

"Yes, yes, yes, I shouldn't have- I'm sorry Kakashi I'm sorry." Shikamaru shook his head a last time, before giving Kakashi a broken look, a small grimace that looked as if he was trying to smile.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," was all Kakashi got out before the black-haired boy bolted and disappeared down the dark hall and into the night.

It was only at ten the next morning, when he got the somber phone call from Tsunade, that he was told of Chouji's death.