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Shikamaru became acquainted with pain at a young age. Not because of some form of mistreatment from his family or friends, but because of his soulmate. Whoever it was must never eat, he thought. The stabbing pain in his stomach never left completely; it lessened a bit in the morning and afternoon, but never left.
As a baby, he tried to compensate by eating as much as he could until he threw it back up. That solution only lasted for a week once he realized eating didn’t ease the hunger pains. With his soulmate’s harsh hunger always clawing at his stomach, he could almost never feel his own. He skipped meals almost constantly, and when he did eat it was very little. Of course, Shikamaru wasn’t aware that the hunger in his belly wasn’t his own until he was four.
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Shikaku sat down with his son in front of him. He was worried; Shikamaru barely ate, but always held his stomach as if he was hungry. When he was first born he acted like any other newborn, but only a few weeks later he began to cry constantly and suck down as much food as they would give him. Then, his behavior changed again after only a few days. In a complete 180, he stopped eating more than a small amount of food.
For a while Shikaku thought he might have connected food to the times he was throwing up and decided to eat less thinking that would fix the problem, but when he still wasn’t eating a normal amount a few weeks later he started to worry. His friends brushed him off as a first-time father that worried constantly like all the others, and even the doctor refused to look at his son at first.
After a year, they finally found a doctor that would look at their son. She did a few tests, but couldn’t find anything wrong. She advised that he put as many nutrients in his son’s food as possible when he did eat, but couldn’t do anything other than that.
Shikamaru was now sitting in front of him, four years old and still not eating correctly.
“Hey, Bud. Do you want to eat something?” He questioned, using the only nickname that he and his wife could agree on.
His son looked up at him before shaking his head. “No, Papa.”
Shikaku furrowed his brow a bit. “Aren’t you hungry?” he asked. He usually tried not to talk to his son as if he was dumb (even if he was only four years old), and that included rephrasing questions just to get the answer he wanted, but he was desperate.
“Yes.”
Shikaku was now very confused. His son was hungry but didn’t want to eat. He couldn't figure out why that could be.
“Why don’t you want to eat if you’re hungry?”
“It doesn’t work,” Shikamaru replied.
“If I eat, I will still feel hungry,” he continued.
Suddenly, a thought hit Shikaku. He remembered the week that he ate as much as possible, and that right after that was when he began ignoring food and meals. He must have still felt hungry even after he ate then too. If he wasn’t getting more hungry when he wasn’t eating, then could it be possible that he wasn’t feeling his own hunger?
“Get your shoes, Bud. We have to go visit a friend.”
With that, Shikaku left the room to grab a few things. Soon, he and his son were out the door.
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When Inochi opened the door and saw Shikaku with his son in his arms he was a bit shocked. Usually his friend was good at giving notice when he came over. He was about to greet and question his friend, but before he could, Shikaku started speaking.
“Can you feel hunger through soul bonds?” He asked a bit frantically. There was a look in his eye that Inochi couldn’t quite place, but it was reminiscent of the one he got when he knew something rather devastating.
Inochi, hearing the worry in his voice, decided to answer before asking why his friend would need that information. “Not usually, but if the soulmate were having hunger pains then it would be possible.”
“Why is it that you need to know this?” Inochi questions.
“I think I finally found out why Shikamaru doesn’t eat.” his friend rushed out.
He finally set Shikamaru down and took a seat in one of the plush chairs Inochi kept in his home. He explained what had been going on even though Inochi was already informed of what was happening back when it first started. Shikaku would be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit upset over being brushed off by his friends, but he could deal with it.
When he finished explaining, Inochi looked towards Shikamaru who was sitting by his fathers feet. “Shikamaru, do you ever feel hurt even though nothing happened to you?”
Inochi expected Shikamaru to need a moment to think, but was surprised when he got an answer quickly.
“Yes.” Shikamaru answered.
“What kind of pain?” Shikaku inquired.
“Hmm.. like a slap to the face and sometimes cuts but the pain for those goes away nearly as fast as it comes.” he admitted.
“How often do you feel these things?” Inochi chimed in.
“At least once a day.” Shikamaru responded, a bit frustrated with the questioning though it could also be the hunger.
Shikaku, realizing his son’s frustration and that they had strayed a bit from the topic, spoke “Have you ever heard of soulmates, Shikamaru?”
The boy still looked a bit frustrated and gave a short response. “No.”
Inochi, after a prompting gaze from his friend, continued. “Soulmates are people that we are destined to be around. They are like really close friends who know us better than ourselves. You know that someone else is your soulmate because you can feel each other’s pain. So all those times that you feel hurt but haven’t been hit or touched by anything is you experiencing your soulmate’s pain. Your soulmate can also feel yours whenever you get a scrape or get hit by something. We think that the reason you are always hungry is because your soulmate is very hungry and you can feel that.”
Shikamaru had perked up at the information. He was no longer frustrated with the questions and was excited to learn more. Inochi had purposely left out the part about soulmates usually being romantic because Shikamaru was so young, but that wasn’t what the boy was curious about.
“How am I supposed to find my soulmate if all I know is that they are hungry?” His friend’s son questioned.
“Well, when you first touch your soulmate, a mark will appear on their skin where you touched them. The same applies to you as well. You will get a mark when they touch you as well.” Inochi added.
Shikaku smiled down at his son who was enthralled at the idea of soulmates. He let him ramble on for a bit about how he wanted to meet his soulmate before gathering the few things he brought with him and bidding farewell to his friend. On the walk home, Shikamaru looked very focused on something, but looked lighter than Shikaku had seen him in a long time.
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In the next week, Shikamaru began to think of his soulmate more and more. He made plans to feed his soulmate as much food as possible when they met, but before any of them could develop too much, something happened that put a stopper on his planning.
It was the middle of the day, only four days after he found out that he had a soulmate, and Shikamaru was sitting out on the engawa counting the panels while his father and another of his friends played shogi. Shikamaru briefly forgot about the panels when he caught sight of his fathers friend. He had a whole bunch of scars on his head and Shikamaru was about to start counting them when a sudden jolt of pain caused him to cry out.
Shikamaru was used to the sudden bouts of pain that he got seemingly at random (though now he knew it was his soulmate!), but this time the pain didn’t fade very quickly. Generally the pain leaves as fast as it comes, but this time it felt like he was getting slapped a lot more. Maybe the pain was still fading, and it was just being replaced as fast as it was healing?
Before he could think about it more, another sharp stab of pain hit him, this time on his back. He coughed a bit; the wind was knocked out of him. It seemed like the next second when he was being hit in multiple places at once.
There were slaps to his cheeks and head, harder hits to his back and stomach, and a stinging in his hands. He may have been able to decide that the stinging was just a few scrapes if he wasn’t so overwhelmed, but as it was he could barely yelp with pain.
Shikaku had heard his son’s cough earlier and was now running up to see what was wrong. He watched Shikamaru double over and curl up as if to protect himself. He frantically asked what was happening while checking his son for injury.
At this point his friend had joined him. He looked around for any sign of a threat, but found nothing amiss other than the boy that was writhing on the floor. He ran inside to get Shikaku’s wife and when they got back Shikamaru was still on the floor.
Yoshino bent down to pick him up, but Shikamaru flinched back hard and whimpered. They all sat down trying to ask what was wrong in gentle coxing voices. It took nearly four minutes for there to be any change in Shikamaru’s behavior, but it wasn’t any calmer.
Shikamaru’s eyes snapped open and he screamed while clutching his gut. Only half a minute later he was out cold on the floor of the engawa.
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Shikaku finally got out of panicky father mode and into elite ninja mode, grabbing his son and rushing to the hospital. Ibiki and Yoshino followed behind him, though his wife wasn’t as fast having only made chunin rank before getting pregnant and deciding to stay in the village.
When they arrived at the Nara clan hospital, Shikaku rushed in and asked for his son to be looked at. The Nurses, seeing their clan head’s reckless worry, got him into a room quickly before asking what happened.
“He was sitting outside, and I heard him cough and start breathing a bit faster. When I got to him he was doubled over wincing and whimpering; he wouldn’t let us get near him, but then he screamed and passed out clutching his stomach.” The clan head rushed out trying to sound more collected than he was.
The nurse, one of his distant cousins from his aunt’s side if he remembered correctly, called for help and began doing a look over his son. He turned to him after a minute and said “Shikaku-sama, we are going to need to do a few tests. I will need you to step into the waiting room.”
Knowing better than to argue, he left the room.
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It was nearly three hours later that the nurse came back out and spoke to Shikaku.
“We haven’t found anything wrong with your son. We have reason to suspect that the pain he feels is from his soulmate.”
“Thank you, is he awake?” Shikaku questioned.
“Not yet, but we believe he will be soon.” He responded.
Just then, another nurse came out of the room. “Actually, he just woke up. We are getting him some water now, but feel free to go in, Shikaku-sama.”
The clan head didn’t respond, but walked over to the hall that he knew his son was being kept in. When he got to the room, his eyes locked onto his Shikamaru.
His son was awake now, and didn’t seem to be in too much pain. He was staring at his stomach, fascinated but not upset in any way.
“Shikamaru, how do you feel?” The older man questioned.
“Fine, nothing hurts anymore.” his son responded.
Shikaku was a bit surprised; he knew his son was in as much pain, but for it to be completely gone only three hours after he was writhing on the floor? He decided not to question it for now, and took his son to the lobby to be checked out. They left without much fuss, and Shikaku allowed his son to rest for the day.
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Shikamaru sat in his room, thinking of his soulmate. He had no clue who it was, but he wanted to be with them so he could keep them safe. They got hit a lot, and were always hungry. When he meets them, he is going to feed them a huge meal!
Suddenly a thought hit him. He couldn’t cook; he would have to ask his mom to make the food! Something about this idea didn’t sit right with Shikamaru. He wanted to be the only one that got to cook for his soulmate. This just wouldn’t do. He would have to learn to cook.
With a new determination, he walked to the kitchen to speak with his mom.
“Mama, I want to learn to cook!” he exclaimed.
Yoshino looked toward her son, shocked. Cooking was already a strange thing for a four year old to take interest in, but it was even more weird for a Nara child to ask to learn something. Despite being young children, Naras often still displayed the same laziness during childhood that they did in adulthood. Shikamaru had been one of the worst cases in several generations, being too lazy to do things like playing.
Safe to say, Yoshino jumped at the sight of her son showing interest in something other than ninja training and didn’t ask too many questions.
“Of course, but you will have to start off by reading a few books. I won’t be letting you really cook until I know you have a basic understanding of the subject.”
Shikamaru, expecting something like this, just nodded. A few moments later, he was walking back to his room with two books in his hand. One was about basic cooking techniques and the other was an encyclopedia of ingredients and their uses.
It’s safe to say that when Shikaku comes home a few months later after a long mission, he is surprised to see his son standing on a stool and helping to fry rice for dinner. He was dutifully focused on stirring in the vegetables, occasionally glancing at Yoshino to see what she was doing as well.
“You’re helping your mother cook?” Shikaku inquires.
“Yes, Papa.” Shikamaru responds simply, not really interested in explaining more.
Shikaku decides to leave the topic for now, seeing how his son would rather focus on developing his new skill in the kitchen.
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By the time Shikamaru’s seventh birthday rolls around, he has become proficient in many basic dishes. He often makes snacks or sides for meals. He even makes his own recipes when he is at his friend’s house. Choji’s family always welcomes him into their kitchen, and his mother even helps him sometimes.
One reason he especially liked cooking at Choji’s house was the fact that his mother wasn’t there to nag him about being careful with kitchen tools as if he wasn’t training to be a ninja that throws kunai around daily. The other reason was Choji’s presence. Choji’s family took food very seriously, so whenever Shikamaru made something, he could always trust Choji to tell him if it was good or not.
Shikamaru hasn’t ever told anyone why he is so set on being a good cook. He is sure that his father has probably managed to guess by now, and that his father likely mentioned it to his mother, but other than that, he was pretty sure everyone just thought it was some weird Nara obsession.
It wasn’t a bad guess. There may even be some partial truth to it. The Nara clan is well known for several reasons. One of the more unique of these is that the most powerful of the Nara clan often find some sort of obsession that nearly takes over their free time. This may seem odd given the family’s laziness, but it is still an accurate observation.
The only reason Shikaku hasn’t put the label on his son’s interest yet is because he is relatively sure Shikamaru learns to cook for the sake of his soulmate. A key feature of the Nara Obsession is that the individual does the task or hobby simply for the sake of doing it. Regardless, Shikaku is rather proud of his son’s ability.
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Shikamaru is on his way home from Choji’s house when he sees it. An orange blur quickly followed by what he thinks is a chunin. Usually, he would say it was too much of a drag to follow along or observe more, but for some reason, he instinctively takes a step towards the commotion.
It takes Shikamaru a minute or two to find the orange blur and the ninja, but right after feeling a sharp pain from his soulmate in his ankle and on his clave, he finds the alley that the ninja and the blur are in. He peeks down the alleyway and sees that the blur is actually a boy. The chunin has the boy cornered in the alley with a kunai in his hand. The boy has bright blonde hair and whisker-like marks on his cheeks. He doesn’t look any older than Shikamaru himself. The chunin takes a bag that the blonde boy had been clutching to his chest. It looks like the bag has a loaf of bread and a few other simple foods inside.
The chunin leaps to the rooftops to leave with the bag, leaving only the boy in the alley. Upon further inspection, Shikamaru sees that the boy has a cut on his clave, right where Shikamaru was currently feeling phantom pain from his soulmate. The boy also seems to have a twisted ankle of some kind. Despite this, the boy meets Shikamaru’s eyes and almost immediately stands to dash off.
Shikamaru hasn’t even fully finished processing the conclusion his own mind has come to before his hand snaps out and grasps the boy’s wrist. The boy jerks back and stares at him. A moment later, both of them glance down at the point where Shikamaru is grabbing him, and they see a black mark forming on the skin.
That is the last push Shikamaru needs to catch up with his mind and body.
“You are my soulmate.” he says bluntly.
The boy just goes wide-eyed. Shikamaru can’t help but notice that his eyes are a very bright color of blue.
“Soulmate?” the boy questions.
Shikamaru speaks again after a long moment. “Yeah… soulmate. My name is Shikamaru.” He introduces while slowly pulling his hand back to fully reveal the black mark that takes the same shape as his hand around the boy’s wrist.
The boy stares down for a moment longer before replying. “My name is Naruto”
That is all Shikamaru needs to hear before glancing down at the cut and sprain on the boy and the way he is heavily relying on his right leg over his left and deciding he needs to do something.
“Get on.” He says while bending down so Naruto can climb on his back. Naruto seems confused, so he continues. “You’re hurt. I can bring you to my home.”
Naruto hesitates, but eventually wraps his arms around Shikamaru’s neck so he can be lifted and carried. Shikamaru can only think about all the food he wants to make for Naruto, especially after feeling the boy's ribs press into his back.
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Shikaku has noticed that Shikamaru is a bit late coming home from Choji’s house. He doesn’t think much of it at first, but after nearly twenty minutes have gone by, he starts to think something may have gone wrong. Just as he is about to get ready to go looking for his son, Shikamaru walks through the door.
He opens his mouth to ask about the delay, but the words get stuck in his throat when he realizes his son is carrying another boy on his back. Not just another boy, but the Uzumaki boy. A moment later, he sees the black markings where the boy has his arms around Shikamaru’s neck and the matching black hand print mark on the boy’s wrist. Everything seems to tilt on its axis for a moment as he considers the implications of the marks and what they will mean for his son in the future.
When Shikamaru sees the faintest flash of something less than acceptance in his father’s eyes, his own narrow into a harsh glare. It catches Shikaku off guard. He hasn’t ever seen much anger behind his son’s eyes. Anger doesn’t quite describe it. It is more like Shikamaru is daring him to say something bad about Naruto.
Regardless, it makes Shikaku take a step back and re-evaluate.
“Shikamaru,” he starts. “You brought home a friend,” he decides on saying.
“He is my soulmate.” Shikamaru corrects simply. “He is hurt. I am going to take care of him and make him a snack”
Shikaku only stares for a moment before giving in and giving his son a nod of acknowledgment. “Very well. We will talk tomorrow.”
Shikamaru nods and heads upstairs with the boy still on his back, who is now giving him a nervous look.
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Naruto, in his seven years of living, can’t ever recall being taken care of the way Shikamaru is doing for him now. Shikamaru looked at his injury even after he insisted it was totally healed now and that he heals super quickly. He gave Naruto an onigiri that he made all by himself, and even set up a futon on the floor of his room whenever Naruto mentioned not necessarily needing to go home tonight.
Overall, Naruto had decided his soulmate was very nice, especially after he gave his dad such a scary look when he walked in. Shikamaru also didn’t mind that Naruto talked a lot, which the blonde appreciated. Either way, as Naruto laid down on the futon next to Shikamaru’s bed for the night, he found that he wasn’t worrying about the villagers, what food he would have to steal next, or even what Shikamaru’s parents thought of him. He was just happy he had a friend now.
Shikamaru was just happy he finally had his soulmate nearby. Now, he would never feel the empty but full feeling in his stomach again because he would be able to keep his new friend fed all the time. He fell asleep while thinking of all of the lists he made of things he could do to protect and take care of his soulmate.
They may only be seven years old now… but soon the two boys would grow into a fearsome dynamic duo with a reputation that surpassed even the InoShikaCho trio, each one having the other to make up for their weaknesses and support them during the many trials they faced. Konoha would see exactly what talent they had hidden in the midst of the new generation.