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The shinobi tend to hide their soul marks.
It's for safety, both theirs and their soulmates.
Konoha doesn't outright ban their shinobi from showcasing their marks, not in the way that other villages do, but they don't encourage them either.
The Nara's have always worn mesh armor shirts around the village. They understood the necessity of protecting their soul mate, but they found the unspoken rule of hiding their marks to be bothersome. If they hid them then when would they ever find their other half?
Instead, they found a clever way of concealing their soul marks by inking the skin around them into intricate patterns that blended in with the original design. They believed that their soulmate would be clever enough to find the hidden mark. It became a tradition, even amongst the Nara that were born without enough chakra to become shinobi. It was the reason that most of them tended to find their soulmates younger than others.
Shikamaru doesn't put much thought into the black ink on his left pectoral. He doesn't ignore it completely. At times, when he's particularly tired, he finds himself tracing the mark. There's a certain comfort he finds from knowing that someone out there is his perfect match. He had been taken to the tattoo artists of the Nara clan when he'd been old enough to attend the academy and be seen outside the compound with a mesh shirt. The artwork around his soul mark was chakra infused, meant to grow alongside him, so that it would look natural on his skin. Still, he's been at the academy for three years and hasn't been approached by a single person proclaiming to be his soulmate.
There's always a chance that his soulmate is civilian. But he's been paraded enough around the markets and playgrounds by his mom to know that the chance is low. They could be from another village, which would greatly complicate the entire ordeal. It always did. It wasn't unheard of that one would meet their other half across the battlefield.
Shikamaru really hoped that he didn't have to kill his soulmate. It would be a drag.
The sky is a nice amount of cloudy, enough that there were some interesting cloud formations but not enough for him to be concerned about it raining anytime soon. He settles himself against the grass in training ground 23, making sure that he's under the leaves shades while still being able to see the clouds. Grounds 20-25 were rarely used because of how far away they were from the village. Maintenance teams didn't like making the trek to repair them, so they tended to be less well-maintained as well. They were perfect for cloud-watching when he didn't want to be surrounded by his clan.
Shikamaru had started to doze off when he heard the sound of fists hitting wood and random grunts of effort. He opened an eye to look around, spotting the bright orange jacket a couple dozen feet away. The color bright enough for him to easily find it in the forest of greens and browns. Naruto's familiar spiky golden hair shines under the attention of the sun. He watches his classmate practice for a moment before closing his eye again.
Naruto is surprisingly quiet when he trains, a stark contrast to how he is in the classroom. He wishes that his classmate could excise the same amount of noise level when in the academy.
He dozes off to the sound of Naruto training.
Shikamaru wakes up to the warm stickiness of sweat making itself known on his skin. He looks up at the sky, blinking away the sleep from his eyes. The clouds he'd been admiring earlier seem to have disappeared. He frowns at the revelation. It was no longer a good day to cloud watch, or at least, not in the area he was currently at. He'd have to move to another location to do so. He considers the idea but quickly dismisses it out of laziness. Despite the sweat, he was rather comfortable in his current spot. The shade from the leaves kept him protected from the harsher sun rays.
The sound of wood splintering shakes him from his sleepy thoughts and he turns his head to look at where Naruto was still training. His orange jacket is thrown on the floor a couple feet away from him and his tan skin is shining with sweat. He's scrawny, in an unhealthy way, and Shikamaru has to force himself not to frown at the discovery. He watches as his classmate pulls his slightly bloody fist out of the wood he'd broken into, unfazed as he kicked the wooden dummy to the ground and pulls another one up to place in its spot. His movements are well-practiced as he clasps the wood in and goes back to training.
He doesn't notice he's been staring until he sees Naruto perk up and start looking around. The boy zeroes in on him quickly, the blank look on his face switching quickly into a large smile. Shikamaru clicks his tongue and closes his eyes, unwilling to meet the overwhelming energy his classmate is exuding.
"Shika!" he hears Naruto shout as he runs over to where he's laying down. Shikamaru keeps his eyes closed as a darker shadow passes over him. He smells sweat, dirt, and the distinct scent that always clings to the boy above him, blood and energy.
"Whatcha doin' 'er! I didn't see 'ya!" he yells right above him. Shikamaru tries to ignore him, keeping his breathe steady as he clings onto the remnants of his earlier nap. Maybe if he ignored him for long enough, he'd leave him alone and Shikamaru could sneak away while he's distracted.
He hears a loud thump and feels Naruto situate himself to his right side. Shikamaru discards the idea of escape as quickly as it came. Naruto radiates warmth, the cloying heat of the sun nothing compared to the boy next to him. Shikamaru could shuffle himself away, create some space between them so that the sparse wind could hit him instead, but he's comfortable and it would require too much effort.
Naruto is quiet beside him, but he can hear him fidgeting. He pries open an eye to look over at his classmate only to find Naruto already staring at him. His orange jacket was thrown back on unzipped, Shikamaru could see the edges of the soulmark over his heart, curiosity awoke him further but he looked back up at Naruto's face as to not be too obvious.
"Was 'yer clan grounds too noisy?" he asks him. Shikamaru didn't respond, eyes glued onto the whiskers painting his cheeks, ignoring the way Naruto's face began to redden from the attention. He traced his eyes over the noisy freckles that doted his nose and cheeks, brought to the surface by his long time training in the sun. His eyes were bright, but the bags under them spoke of difficult sleep.
"Yeah," Shikamaru replies after a moment.
"The town was too noisy, bunch of old' geezers kept yellin' at me so I left. I train here often! Do you? Nah, you have those fancy clan training grounds dontcha, that's how all 'ya guys train I'm sure of it," Naruto pouts, kicking up the dirt with his sandals, "All I've got're these ol' grounds."
Shikamaru keeps quiet while hearing of Naruto's distaste for clan's. It wasn't surprising to him, Naruto wasn't well liked anywhere in the village but the clan's kept themselves even farther away from him than the villagers. At least the villagers interacted with him, the clan's and certain shinobi ignored his existence entirely unless it was to whisper warnings into their children's ears to keep away. Shikamaru's dad hadn't given him that talk, letting him form his own opinions on Naruto, but Choji and Ino had once mentioned their parents warnings.
Naruto looked up at the cloudless sky, "This ain't the type of sky 'ya like lookin' at Shika, was there more clouds earlier?"
"Yeah," Shikamaru sighed looking back up at the empty sky taunting him. The nap had felt good, but he was regretting not staying awake longer to watch the clouds.
"I'vn't seen many cloudy skies lately. The sun's been burnin' me up when I train so I've been havin' to take more breaks," Naruto complained. That explained to Shikamaru how tanned Naruto had gotten over the past couple weeks. He couldn't typically see his freckles this clearly. Not that he cared about Naruto's freckles or noticed them often.
"It's been a drag finding good days to cloud gaze," Shikamaru added into the conversation to distract himself from thoughts of freckles, "Mom's been getting better about finding my cloud gazing spots too, so I haven't been able to relax as much anymore." He'd been gone long enough that his mom was probably wondering where he was, but as long as he was home for dinner he didn't think she'd mind... much. A good scolding never stopped him before, it wasn't about to stop him now.
"I've gotta good spot in the forest if 'ya wanna see," Naruto offered cautiously. Shikamaru looks over at him again, but Naruto was firmly looking up at the sky. He seemed tense as he waited for Shikamaru's response. It wasn't surprising that he seemed to be waiting for a negative response, Shikamaru had seen how cruel their classmates often were to Naruto. He'd heard them invite Naruto to play before just to run away from him the entire time, screaming about how a monster was chasing them. He hadn't ever given it much thought before, it wasn't his business and dealing with bullies was a drag. It wasn't like their opinions would matter when they were older. He was stronger, and it was likely that most of them wouldn't make it past genin.
Still, seeing the hard set of Naruto's shoulder's made something in him prickle. Perhaps yelling out how pathetic they were wouldn't be that much of a drag the next time he saw them bothering Naruto.
"Is it far? We shouldn't be out in the forest late," Shikamaru responds, pushing himself up from the ground and stretching. He looks down in time to see the flicker of surprise slip under the blinding smile Naruto sends his way.
"Nah, just a half hour or so from here!" Naruto pulls himself off the ground and zips up his jacket. Shikamaru follows the blinding orange jacket as they make their way through the forest, Naruto chattering his ear off. He tells him about the ramen stand he likes visiting, Ichiraku, and the drama that had unfolded a week ago when a genin had tried flirting with the owner's daughter, Ayame, and how funny it had been to watch her ignore his advances. Shikamaru kept an ear on Naruto and another on their surroundings, listening out for any danger. They were still inside the borders of Konoha, but his dad had taught him better than to trust that it would keep out all enemy Shinobi. Naruto had perked up considerably during their walk, hands flailing around animatedly as he recounted yet another story. This time about a prank he'd pulled a couple weeks ago on some chunin that had been rude to him. Shikamaru hummed along to his recounting lazily.
The trees surrounding them slowly thinned until a large field of flowers replaced it. Shikamaru came to a slow stop as he stared at the beautiful blue and yellow flowers that littered the field, a stream cutting across it, twinkling under the sun rays. He sees small splashes of fish moving around in it and approaches it curiously, dipping his fingers in the refreshing cold water. Shikamaru looks over at Naruto, who's looking at his reaction expectantly.
"This place is cool," Shikamaru says, watching the way Naruto's face lights up, "Wanna play in the water?"
"Hell yeah!!" Naruto cheers, quickly unzipping his sweater and throwing it off.
Shikamaru freezes, eyes glued on the soulmark inked over Naruto's heart. His soulmark. His fingers twitch in the water as he remembers tracing the same mark over his heart earlier that morning when he'd woken up. The swirling sun with the antlers around the sides.
Naruto doesn't notice, rushing into the water in his boxers with an excited yell.
Shikamaru watches Naruto dive under the water to grab a fish and scream out profanities when it escapes his grasp and smacks into his face.
"Oh fuck," Shikamaru swears slowly placing his face into his hands.
His soulmate was fighting a fish and losing.
His soulmate was the village outcast. The one person everyone seemed to avoid interacting with if they can. Shikamaru remembers playing with him in the sandbox at school when they were six and watching parents drag away their kids when they realized who they were playing with. He remembers the harsh way academy teachers spoke to Naruto, the impatience they held when he asked questions or came into class late. He remembers his lack of care, because it wasn't his problem or his business, except it was. His soulmate was his classmate and he hadn't even noticed.
"What're 'ya doin' Shika? You were the one talkin' 'bout gettin' in the water, why're you just sittin' there?" Naruto asks, approaching Shikamaru with a pout.
"You're my soulmate," Shikamaru stated in mild shock.
"What?!" Naruto shouted in surprise, backpedaling away from Shikamaru quickly, hands up in defense, "What're you sayin' Shikamaru!? Soulmates?!"
Shikamaru stepped forward into the stream, quickly shrugging off his vest, the tattoo dominating the left side of his chest and arm exposed under the mesh armor. Naruto stared at the ink in confusion until Shikamaru took off the mesh armor as well and pointed at his own swirling sun and antlers. Naruto's jaw dropped as he scrambled to get closer to Shikamaru's soulmark, trembling hands hovering over the skin.
"'Ya weren't jokin'," Naruto whispered. His eyes flickered back up to Shikamaru, face full of wonder, "We're soulmates." A giggle pearled through Naruto's smiling lips as he stepped closer, "Can I touch it?"
Shikamaru's face flamed at their proximity, he could feel Naruto's breath brush against his face. He nods and asks "Can I?"
Naruto took Shikamaru's hand from his side and pressed it up to soulmark just as he pressed his fingers over Shikamaru's. The skin felt smooth under Shikamaru's fingers as he traced the familiar pattern on tanned skin. They were identical, with the exception of the ink that surrounded his own. He pulled his gaze up to Naruto's face, watching the still present wonder on his face.
Naruto was his soulmate. The fact felt unreal to him, yet his mind was already coming up with plans for their future. He was going to have to ask his dad about why people avoided Naruto again, and make sure that this time he'd give him a straight answer. He needed to bring Naruto around his clan grounds to get his clan members used to seeing him. After all, Naruto was his future spouse, and the person he would be leading with in the future. Shikamaru could faintly remember that Naruto had mentioned living alone before. He would have to see where he was living and asses whether it was a suitable place for his soulmate to be residing.
A furrow makes itself known on Naruto's brow and he begins to frown.
"What?" Shikamaru asks quickly, panicking at the displeased expression on Naruto's face, "Is something wrong?"
"Well," Naruto kept his eyes on Shikamaru's soulmark, "'Ya aren't mad that I'm you're soulmate?"
"I'm not mad, why would I be mad?" Shikamaru asks earnestly.
"Cause Imma monster," Naruto whispers harshly, "A demon that's no good and only brings 'ya bad luck. Don't'cha 'ear what the adults say? They don't like me, yer' mom and pops probably won't like me either. Are 'ya sure 'ya aren't mad?"
"I'm not and you aren't. The adults are wrong, you're not a demon or a monster," Shikamaru scowls, "And even if you were, you're still my soulmate. I wouldn't care about that. I would learn how to adapt and accept you as you are. My parent's won't care either, I'll prove it to you right now." Shikamaru slipped out of the water, grabbing his shirts off the field and throwing them back on.
"What're 'ya doin'?" Naruto asks, scrambling out of the stream after him. Shikamaru grabbed Naruto's pants and sweater from the field too before handing them to Naruto.
"I'm bringing you to my clan grounds. We're meeting my parents and I'm going to announce to them that I found my soulmate," Shikamaru explains calmly to an immobile Naruto, "You should put on your clothes."
"What?!" Naruto exclaims, "Right now?!"
"Yes," Shikamaru nods, "It should be late enough for dinner by the time we get to my clan grounds, so you'll get some food out of it too." He eyed the hollowness of Naruto's stomach and stringiness of his muscles. Naruto would have to be fed more often. Shikamaru typically skipped breakfast to avoid his moms chattiness. He wasn't a morning person and typically didn't have the patience for so much conversation so early in the day. But he wouldn't mind bearing through it if it meant getting some food to take to Naruto in the morning. It would be a convenient excuse to see Naruto and feed him. It was clear to him that he needed it.
Shikamaru waited until Naruto was fully dressed before walking back from where they had come from, keeping a lazy pace for Naruto to catch up to him. Once Naruto was beside him he offered up his hand with a blush.
"Are 'ya sure 'ya won't regret this?" Naruto asks, eyeing the hand with cautious hope.
"I know I won't," Shikamaru replies.
Naruto slips his hand into Shikamaru's with a barely restrained smile.
"Alright then! 'Ya can't say I didn't warn 'ya!"
Shikamaru pulled them both forwards with a tight grip on Naruto, the promise of dinner and acceptance awaiting him.