Title: Game of Chess

Summary: Despite sleepy eyes and a lazy attitude, Shikamaru perceives more about the Rookie Nine than he lets on. No pairings. Oneshot.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

He rarely hangs out with anyone, except for maybe Chouji when he gets invited for dinner, or Asuma-sensei when he or his father gets the urge to play shogi. His academy days are filled with daytime naps, lectures from Iruka-sensei, and abysmal grades on his exams (mostly from falling asleep in the middle).

The rest of the class knows him as the guy who would rather stare at the clouds during recess, and so they leave him alone.

He thinks talking to any of his classmates would be troublesome, so he is grateful for their silence (towards him.)

It gives him a chance to think.

Despite sleepy eyes and a lazy attitude, Shikamaru perceives more about the Rookie Nine than he lets on.

His body may not wish to do any physical activity, and his eyes may struggle to stay awake during the boring lessons in class, but his mind—his mind is still wide awake at all times. He thinks at hundreds of words per minute, theories made and conclusions drawn during recess. He watches through half-closed eyes at his classmates on the playground, running and jumping and shouting, seemingly creating a picture-perfect generation of new, innocent shinobi at such a young age.

But he knows better.

Chouji is never present during recess—he uses the time to finish up the lunch his mother packs inside.

He spies Shino by himself sitting on a tree branch, content from playing with the bugs on his body, most of the class avoiding him because of said bugs.

Kiba is always nearby, sometimes trying to teach his dog Akamaru new tricks, but is usually the only one pestering Shino. Once in a while, Shino lets a few fleas loose on Akamaru, and the bickering ends with an obvious winner.

He finds Ino bossing around other girls in the class, chasing and pestering Sasuke across the field.

Sasuke attempts to conceal himself in the forest bordering the playground in hopes of getting training time in during recess. He rarely succeeds.

Shikamaru spots Sakura and Hinata playing in the sandbox, often times with both getting bullied by the older students—Sakura for her wide forehead, and Hinata for her lack of a response. He wants to go up and stop them while they are in the act, but he knows his physical abilities. He would only get beat up as well, and that was too troublesome. He settles with telling Iruka-sensei at the end of recess, when the older students are out-of-earshot and he has a little bit of anonymity.

And then he wonders why.

Why is Naruto sitting on the swing by himself?

Naruto was just another boy. Of course, his father had told him vague horrors of the nine-tailed fox, but he dismissed those after a couple hours of pondering. His clan was known for being exceptionally intelligent when it came to practical thinking and strategizing. Having a demon sealed inside the body didn't make Naruto any less of a boy—of a person—than him. It didn't make Naruto unable to build sandcastles or throw shuriken. He still had an obvious favorite food (ramen), favorite color (orange), and favorite hobby (pranks). Naruto may not have been the brightest classmate, but he was definitely the loudest.

And didn't every class have a loud, quiet, smart, pretty, and annoying classmate anyway?

Shikamaru didn't understand why others didn't (couldn't) see it his way.

He has a theory that everyone refuses to accept something so different… but aren't most shinobi born different than the rest?

The Aburame clan with their bugs crawling all over their bodies.

The Inuzuka clan with their smelly dogs.

The Yamanaka clan with their supernatural mind-control techniques.

The Uchiha and Hyuuga clans with their simultaneously respected and feared eyes.

His own clan, with the ability to control bodies from the shadows.

Even Sakura, the only one from a civilian family, had pink hair.

If they weren't unique, then Shikamaru didn't understand what was.

What made Naruto so different?

"Checkmate," he muttered. That made three (out of three) matches in his victory.

As Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei were finishing up their last game of shogi, his sensei made a comment that struck a chord with him.

"You know, just because you've beaten me doesn't mean you're better." His sensei joked while picking up his king piece. "After a game is over, there's no difference between a king and a pawn."

His sensei's last sentence made him think—those words were true for more than just shogi games, and he knew it. He also knew that his sensei was giving him a subtle lesson to consider.

A chuunin messenger arrived at the door for him while he was pondering and absentmindedly putting his pieces away.

"Busy day?" Asuma-sensei asked, laughing when he saw his student's troublesome look.

Shikamaru did indeed have a busy day ahead of him. The only pleasure he got from waking up early was the opportunity to play a couple games of shogi with his sensei before reporting in as Head Strategist to the Hokage.

Today was busier than usual. He had received notice a few hours ago that an ANBU team had come in injured with an unidentified poison coursing through their system. One of their members was still missing. The Hokage had just ordered two trackers—Shino and Kiba—along with reinforcements—Sasuke and Naruto—to find the attackers and bring back the remaining member, dead or alive. Meanwhile, Sakura was busy in the hospital diagnosing the patients and formulating an antidote on the spot, and was testing an initial formula she produced a few minutes ago. He was needed to form a strategic plan about where to look and how to go about tracking the culprits—all the while informing the father-daughter Yamanaka interrogators about a few possible incoming nin.

He was going to have to decline the last-minute dinner Chouji's family had invited him to.

Troublesome, but such was shinobi life.

It was funny how nearly ten years ago, all of the Rookie Nine had problems to deal with and were not the seemingly joyful, picture-perfect shinobi they appeared. Now, although they still weren't picture-perfect, all were fairly respected shinobi in their village.

Everyone had found a way to overcome bullies, crushes, loneliness, and even prejudices over the years.

Naruto had found a group of friends, and he had found the respect and love he always craved for along the way.

"Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box." —Italian proverb

At the end of the day, despite their differences, they were all respected shinobi, citizens of the Leaf, and friends and family to others.

Putting his shogi pieces away, Shikamaru left the room to put on his uniform and report for duty.

Inspiration: The quote as written above. I'm not entirely sure if it's actually an Italian proverb. I downloaded an Android app called eQuotes, and it has provided me with prompts and inspiration to write in the form of various quotes.

A/N: It's my first time writing a no pairings fic. I know they're not popular, as fanfiction is practically made for crazy pairings of all sorts, but I really like Shikamaru. Trying to stick romance into this fic would have been hard, anyway.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it (even with the lack of romance)!