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Chapter Text

"Come on, Shikamaru!" Naruto called out to his friend as he walked ahead of him and Kiba. "What's the hold up?!"

Shikamaru let out an exasperated sigh as he looked up at the clouds rolling in over the darkening sky. To beat spending another night at his new home alone he had, for whatever reason, decided to let Naruto talk him into buying him and Kiba ramen at Ichiraku's Ramen shop. 'What a drag…' He thought to himself.

Kiba shook his head. "That kid never runs out of energy, does he?"

"No, not as long as I've known him anyway." Shikamaru replied flatly.

Naruto was the first one in Ichiraku's, already ordering a bowl of his favorite ramen. Shikamaru took a seat beside him with Kiba on his right. Shikamaru propped an elbow on the counter as Ichiraku handed out their dinner. It wasn't long before Naruto had scarfed up five bowls and was doubled over with his forehead on the counter.

"Oh man….I don't feel so good…" Naruto groaned, gripping his stomach.

"Well I guess so eating as much as you did." Kiba said with a sweat drop. "Hey, thanks for the dinner Shikamaru, but I've gotta head out. Me and Akamaru have some high intensity training planned for tomorrow morning."

"Can't say I'm not bummed out you're leaving so soon, but good luck to you and Akamaru."

"Alright, see you." Kiba left with a small wave, Akamaru following in tow.

Shikamaru's lips formed a line as he stared at the ceiling for a bit. For as much fun as this outing was, he just assume stay home for free.

"How 'bout you Naruto, bailing on me early too?" Shikamaru asked, turning his attention to Naruto to find he'd passed out on the counter, grumbling something about Sakura.

Shikamaru planted the side of his face in his hand again and glared at Naruto. He stirred the left over noodles in his bowl and watched Ichikaru start to clean up for the night. He still had a good two hours or so left for the shop being open, but not many people came in around this hour.

He looked over to the girl a seat down from him who stirred her ramen with her head down. Ever so slightly she looked at him from the corner of her eye, a small smile just barely visible on her lips before she returned to eating. He couldn't deny that she was pretty. Auburn hair fell around her shoulders in wisps, complementing her small figure. Almost too skinny for his taste, he liked a girl to be healthy, but judging from how she sat in her chair he could tell she wasn't very tall. What did he have to lose?

"This seat taken?" He asked, jerking his head at the chair beside her.

She looked up at him with a smile, playful almost. "Does it look it?"

Shikamaru scooted over beside her with a smirk, liking her already. "No, I guess not."

She continued nibbling her ramen in silence. Shikamaru clasped his hands on front of his face, elbows resting on the counter top. He watched her with a slight tilt of his head.

"So what brings you here so late? Not the best idea for a woman as small as you."

The girl set her chopsticks down and tilted her head to look at Shikamaru, ignoring his last statement. "I heard they had good ramen here. Apparently your friend thinks so too." She nodded towards Naruto's sleeping figure.

Shikamara gave a small laugh. "That's Naruto for you. I'm Shikamaru, by the way." He offered his hand and she shook it.

"Jezebel, pleased to meet you."

"Same to you."

"You're a Leaf Ninja?" Jezebel asked, nodding at the head band on his arm.

"Yea."

"I have some medical ninja training, myself."

"Really? Haven't seen you around here before."

"I'm from the Root Village. I work in the hospital now."

Shikamaru nodded. "I assume you quit?"

Jezebel gave a small smile. "What makes you assume?"

"Am I right?"

"You are." Finishing up her ramen she turned her body towards him, brushing her knee against his. He made no effort to move his leg away from hers.

"Any reason? If it's not rude to ask."

"Circumstances beyond my control is all. I like the hospital though."

"What is it you do there?"

"Nursing work mostly, I run errands for the chief surgeon as well. That's what I'm here the night for."

"Sounds like a major downgrade from medical ninja training, if you ask me." Shikamaru said rather bluntly. Jezebel only shrugged, un-phased by his tone.

"It's rewarding in itself."She said, resting her head on her hand. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What brings you here so late?"

"Well, to be honest I just wanted to get out and have a good time. Kind of a drag when I found Naruto ate himself into coma." He said with an irritated expression. "Talked me into paying for it and everything."

"I'm sorry to hear that." She said, brushing her leg back against his. Shikamaru tried to push it out of his mind; it wasn't like him to be all flirty-flirty with some stranger he just met, but he couldn't help being intrigued by her. He fell quiet for a few moments, thinking about the situation and how to respond to it. She pulled her leg away from his when he didn't continue speaking. She stared out into the back of the kitchen with a vague expression, watching Ichiraku's daughter clean. Judging from her reaction, Shikamaru assumed she took his silence wrong.

"Want something to drink?" He asked in a half-assed attempt to bring the conversation back.

"Sure." She said, her smile coming back.

"Sake okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine." She said, turning back to him a bit but not all together. He figured she was cautious to not bother him.

Shikamaru asked for a bottle of Sake and split it between the two. Their conversation continued casually but he enjoyed himself. He found out she was seventeen, the same age he was now and she worked full time at the hospital. She was a single child and didn't see much of her father, her mother was deceased.

She was confident at times in their conversation, but tended to grow quiet after some time. She seemed to withdraw and think often, but it was something he was fine with, he liked to do the same. Her favorite color was purple and she played Shoji often as he did, but she didn't think she was amazing. He challenged her to a game sometime and she accepted, though this was supposedly her last night in the village. She told him about the Root Village and he told her about his teammates; about how Choji ate too much but was a good guy and had a kind heart, and how Ino didn't eat enough but was still a pretty okay person once you got past her troublesome personality.

She asked a bit about his family but didn't pry when he didn't have much to say, he returned the favor to her. Sometimes she seemed like an open book, willing to tell you anything, then other times it was like she was someplace else, lost in her thoughts. She was witty, and a bit devious in her talk sometimes, but the more he read into her, he knew she had a kind heart. He liked that. He noted that her eyes were a dark brown, pretty, but not too pretty.

He eventually brushed his knee back against hers and she turned her eyes down and smiled when he did. She didn't pull away. The last two hours at the ramen shop passed without much notice to them, he probably would have stayed there all night had Ichiraku not woken Naruto up and told him the shop was closing for the night.

Naruto left with a big yawn, thanking Shikamaru over his shoulder and not taking much notice of Jezebel.

Shikamaru and Jezebel stood outside the closed Ichiraku's and looked up at the night sky in silence, neither of them really wanted to go home though it was about 10:00 PM now.

Jezebel turned her eyes from the stars to look at him expectantly, waiting for his lead if he would go home or walk her back to the Inn she stayed at. It wasn't something she expected but she felt like the sake had the potential of clouding her judgement.

Shikamaru studied her for a few moments, hands stationed in his pockets. "I'll walk you back to your place if you care for it, no bodies expecting me back anytime soon anyway."

Jezebel nodded with a smile. "I'd like that."

They walked in silence for a bit. She looked up at him and watched him study the sky. She had a good time tonight. She was glad she was able to spend her rare night of freedom with him. She had gone out so late in hope to savor her freedom away from Dr. Shiro and flirt with somebody, but the connection she found was better. It pained her to think of leaving in the morning but this was her life, you have to play the cards you're dealt.

Her fingers clutched onto her bag tightly and studied his features. He had a slim face with black hair that was tied back into a ponytail. His eyes were narrow and brown; he didn't show all that much expression but for an occasional smirk, over all he seemed to be pretty laid back. She liked that about him. He talked, but not too much. He asked questions, but he wasn't pushy. She thought he was attractive, and tried to pull her mind back from the conclusion without much success, though the personality he appeared to have was what really added to his attraction to her.

"You stare at people like that often?" Shikamaru smirked a bit, not looking at her. He'd been aware of her studying him for some time. He wondered what was going through her mind; she seemed pretty content to spend the walk just observing him. "Some people might find it kind of rude."

Jezebel's eyes widened a bit and she looked away with a reddened face. "Not often."

"Really? What makes you stare now?"

Jezebel's lips curled up at the corners. She kept her gaze fixed on the ground for a few moments before looking up at him, her smile growing. Her expression telling him everything he needed to know.

They came to a stop outside of the Inn and Shikamaru looked around with a flat expression. The tenants were rowdy people, two or three men were drinking just outside the door. The entire place looked like a dump, completely run down if you asked Shikamaru.

"You really want to stay here by yourself?" He asked, aware it made him sound like he was asking to stay the night, though not entirely opposed to the idea he wasn't the type of guy to push it. "Not trying to invite myself in though, this place is just a dump."

Jezebel gave a slight frown, looking at the men only a few yards from her. "Dr. Shiro's placed me at this inn, it wasn't my choice."

"Sounds like a jerk to me, if he can't even get his staff a decent place to stay."

One of the men slurred a cat call to Jezebel and she turned her face away from him giving a small sigh, rather it was from stress or annoyance he wasn't sure. Shikamaru sent a glare at the man, causing him to stumble back and sit against the building.

"Let me at least walk you to your room with these guys around."

Jezebel nodded and ducked her head down as she went through the doors of the inn. The man shrunk back from his attempt to tug at Jezebel's skirt when Shikamaru sent another glare down at him.

Shikamaru sighed. "Having guys like that here in the village is such a pain..."

Jezebel brought him down the hall to her room on the ground floor, one of the cheapest rooms they had. Shikamaru couldn't help but note that for Dr. Shiro being a pretty wealthy guy heading the hospital of the Root Village he was cheap, leaving a woman alone in a dump like this.

They stopped outside her door and she shifted her weight a bit, looking at a picture of a cheap landscape on the wall. Shikamaru followed her gaze and studied the picture with her, his hands still in his pockets. Inside the inn it was fairly quiet except for the elevator style music they had playing over head.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around another time then. It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you too."

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck with one hand stepping back to the side, a bit reluctant to leave. Jezebel lifted her eyes and opened her mouth a bit to speak but closed it on second thought. Shikamaru stepped back to face her. He observed her as she stepped forward cautiously. Tilting her chin up she kissed him softly, touching her hand to his chin and she met his gaze for moment then kissed him again. He moved his hands to her hips slowly and kissed her back. A grin spread across her face and she pushed him back against her door dragging a hand down his chest and hooking her fingers around the rim of his pants. She gave a tug with a playful grin and he smirked back.

Chapter Text

Shikamaru opened his eyes to the bright early morning light streaming through the cracks in the blinds of the inn. He reached his hand over to place it on Jezebel's hip only to find she was gone. He sat up with a pang of disappointment in his chest. He didn't expect her to spend much longer with him before going back to her village, but he certainly didn't expect her to just up and leave without a word.

He groaned a bit and placed his feet on the floor.

'What a drag…' he thought, pulling his pants back on. He still had the day to face as much as he wanted to just lay around. He was supposed to meet with Tsunade this morning along with Naruto and Ino to get their next mission.

He'd really liked Jezebel, but he couldn't help question what her character was like if she was the type of person to just leave like that. Regardless, he wished she'd stayed long enough for him to see her off. He rubbed the back of his neck, standing up to look himself in the mirror. He looked at the bruise on his neck with an annoyed expression, wondering how he was going to explain that to people. Knowing Naruto, he'd probably point it out first time he noticed it. Ino was likely to just be a pain in her jealousy, but he doubted she liked him for any other reason than Lady Tsunade held him up so highly as a team leader in many cases.

He slipped his green jacket back on and brushed his fingers over his bruise. He considered letting his hair down to try to hide it but he figured it wasn't worth the effort, they would notice the change in his hair style anyway. He stretched his arm up over his head to try to get the kink out his back from the cheap bed the inn offered and figured it was best to just get the day over with.

Shikamaru, Ino and Naruto stood in attendance to Tsunade as she took a seat in her chair; late as usual when it comes to early morning meetings.

"Well, I'm glad to see all of you all up bright and early."

"Yeah, well it sure would be great if you didn't leave us all waiting all the time." Naruto put his fist on his hips and glowered at her. "Why not just make your meetings later in the day if you can't wake up for them."

Shikamaru and Ino groaned. There goes Naruto, always opening his big mouth to something.

Tsunade gave Naruto the stink-eye."Oh hush! If I want to make you wait I'll make you wait! The client isn't even here yet!"

The door cracked open and everybody turned their attention to the petite figure stepping inside.

Shikamaru and Jezebel locked eyes freezing stiffly at the sight of each other. Of course it didn't even occur to Jezebel that Shikamaru being a ninja might be the one escorting her back to her village. Jezebel's face flushed red as she awkwardly stepped in line with the others, keeping her eyes down. Shikamaru turned back to face Tsunade with a dreading look on his face. He held his arms behind his back and turned his dreaded gaze up to the ceiling. Naruto leaned forward to look at Jezebel on the other side of Ino with Shikamaru in the middle.

"Oh, there you are. You know it's not very nice to leave us hanging like that." Naruto paused and cocked his head to the side with arms folded. "Huh? Are you okay? You look a little sick…Your face is all red and stuff."

Jezebel opened her mouth to speak but shut it again, her face turning redder than before. "I'm sorry, I had trouble finding your office, Lady Tsunade." She stiffly avoided eye contact with her.

Tsunade gave Jezebel and Shikamaru a moment's observation, giving it some thought. She propped her elbows up on the table and rested her chin on the back of her hands. Late last night she had seen Shikamaru and Jezebel leaving Ichiraku's ramen together, but she hadn't thought much of it at the time. Though judging by their expressions now and the hickey on his neck he was obviously too lazy to hide, she had a pretty good idea of what had happened. Tsunade looked back to Shikamaru with a knowing, smug smirk and a cocked eyebrow. Shikamaru stiffened, meeting her gaze.

'Oh man, she knows something's up. I'll never hear the end of it if she mentions it in front of these two.'

"Well, there isn't much to this mission. You simply need to return Ms. Jezebel and her medical documents back to the Root Village safely. These are incredibly important, we're on a medical breakthrough and there is no telling what somebody would be willing to do to get their hands on it." Tsunade said, leaning back in her chair and steepled her fingers. "You're dismissed."

Shikamaru and the others started heading out the door. "You two have fun now." Tsunade chimed with a chuckle. Ino cocked an eyebrow and she and Naruto looked back at her.

"Huh? But, Lady Tsunade, there's four of us."

"Oh, I know." Tsunade said, keeping her eyes fixed on the back of Shikamaru's head. Shikamaru gritted his teeth, her gaze burrowing into him.

Naruto shook his head as he walked out. "Geez, Lady Tsunade's really started to lose her mind in her old age, isn't she?" Ino followed behind the others and glowered at the back of Shikamaru's head as Lady Tsunade had done. What was she getting at? Shikamaru had been acting kind of strange, though she couldn't say much about Jezebel being she hadn't seen her up until today.

"Hgn…" Ino furrowed her brows, feeling frustrated. She didn't like the silence that was only broken by Naruto's irritating voice. That's when she spotted it: the bruise blatantly on Shikamaru's neck. It hadn't been there the day before. She bristled at the very idea.

"So Jezebel, how has your stay here been?" Ino asked, stepping up beside her with a forced smile.

"Good." Jezebel said awkwardly.

"Oh? Did you make any friends?"

Jezebel ducked her head down a bit, averting her eyes.

"No, not really."

"Not really? So you mean you've at least had some kind of pleasant encounter with somebody?"

Jezebel lifted her head and met Ino's eyes with a bit of a challenging look. She didn't like Ino's tone and she wasn't sure she was starting to like Ino very much.

"Well, the Leaf Village does have friendly people."

Ino gritted her teeth and laughed awkwardly at the flatness in Jezebel's voice. Shikamaru watched the two from the corner of his eye and groaned inwardly. That's when it happened. Naruto's gaze fell on the spot on Shikamaru's neck.

"Hey Shikamaru, what's that on your…" Naruto leaned in closer and Shikamaru leaned away, putting a hand up to Naruto's face.

"Give a guy his space will you."

A grin grew on his face in realization.

"What were you doing last night, Shikamaru? Huh? Huh?" He nudged his shoulder. "Come on' we're buddies aren't we? Was it that girl you were talking too? I didn't see her face. Was she pretty? Come oonn tell meee." He nudged him again.

"Huh? What girl?" This caught Ino's attention. Damn it, Naruto.

"Oh nothing." Naruto said lightly. "Just the girl that gave Shikamaru and hickey." Ino's jaw set.

"Girl? Hickey?"

"No. No girl. Naruto, why don't you mind your own business?" Shikamaru grumbled, sheepishly putting a hand over his neck so Ino couldn't see, but he doubted she would let this go anytime soon. Jezebel hugged the documents tightly to her chest and held her shoulders tensely up, listening to the conversation between them. Shikamaru caught sight of her distraught expression. He sighed and turned his eyes to stare ahead of him. This was going to be a long trip.

Out on the open road was no better. Ino continued to probe Jezebel with questions and she answered them shortly. Naruto eventually dropped his prying and started talking about other things. Other than that Shikamaru and Jezebel didn't speak once. Even when they were left on their own to Ino and Naruto arguing, no body broke the silence for a while.

Jezebel could tell she'd hurt Shikamaru by leaving without a word, but in all honesty it was very unlikely at the time that she would run into him again. She hung her head in shame. She knew that didn't at all justify what she'd done; she should have told him something. Thanked him for the drinks at least. It wasn't like she could just up and explain her situation to him. A relationship just wasn't something she could have now and it was probably something she could never have. She found herself glowering at the ground in bitterness. Maybe he didn't even want a relationship, what makes her think he did? A good connection? Maybe that was only on her end. She doubted he walked her back to her inn for any other reason than to get laid.

She started to frown, she didn't believe herself. Shikamaru watched her from the corner of his eye. He wondered what she was thinking exactly, judging by her facial expressions changing as quickly and openly as they were, he figured she must have been deep in thought. Shikamaru glanced behind himself to see Naruto and Ino had fallen a few steps behind. He decided he might as well use the opportunity to try to smooth things over with Jezebel even though it wasn't at all his fault they stood where they did. It wasn't like they had any kind of history between them; it was just something he wanted to do.

"Seem like you have a lot on your mind."

She lifted her head a bit and bit her lip in thought, only looking at him briefly. "There's always a lot on my mind."

Should she apologize? She should apologize. She opened her mouth. Ino popped her head in between the two. She didn't apologize. She cast a weary, sad look towards Shikamaru as Ino started asking him about her last mission. The corner of Shikamaru's lip twitched and he seemed to understand she wanted to say more. Shikamaru let out long sigh and Ino put her hands on her hips angrily.

"What? Don't tell me I'm boring you."

"Don't worry Ino, it's not just him, it's all of us." Naruto grumbled from behind.

Ino growled and shook her fist at him slowing down to walk behind all of them.

"I'm sorry about this morning. I-"

Shikamaru raised a hand to cut her off. "Don't worry about it, really." He said with a head jerk towards Ino and Naruto. Last thing he wanted was for Naruto or Ino to connect the hickey from last night to her apologizing for this morning. Naruto was stupid, but not that stupid. Jezebel only gave a slight nod in return and looked away. Was he really okay with it? She shook her head slightly trying to clear it. What did any of this matter anyway? In less than a day she would never see him again.

Jezebel settled in between Shikamaru and Naruto while Ino kept watch outside for the night. A bit after her attempted apology the four had grown quiet for the rest of the night and she was thankful to be going to sleep. Naruto got up for the bathroom and she turned over on her stomach, watching Shikamaru stare up at the ceiling with hands behind his head.

"Kind of ironic isn't it?" This made Jezebel abandon her solemn thoughts for the time being. "Sleeping together again. Only, you know, actually sleeping this time."

Jezebel laughed quietly and agreed. "Please though…don't tell your friends about it?" In all honestly she really couldn't risk it getting back to Dr. Shiro.

"I've got to say, doesn't make a guy feel real good about himself when you say it that way after walking out on me." The comment bit at Jezebel's feelings. "But, you don't have to worry about it. If Ino found out it would be such a pain, and then Naruto's big mouth. Besides, I'm not really that kind of guy."

"That kind of guy?" She turned on her side and looked at him quizzically. He finally turned to look at her.

"Kind of a douche bag move to get laid and go brag about, if you ask me. If you were involved, it should stay between us."

Jezebel laughed. "Well, I hope I was involved, otherwise you were just having a crazy dream."

Shikamaru smirked. "One crazy good dream then."

Jezebel bit her lip with a giddy smile as they held eye contact for a moment only broken when Naruto slipped back in the tent and plopped down on the other side of Jezebel. She closed her eyes, burying her smile in her pillow.

They rose bright and early the next morning to get a head start on their journey. Shikamaru predicted they would be there at least by noon.

"So hey, Shikamaru, I was thinking. Jezebel's pretty hot, isn't she?" Naruto started as he threw a kunai at a fish in the water for breakfast.

"Yeah, so what. What about it?" Shikamaru asked over his shoulder, nabbing a fish.

"Well, being we'll be getting to the Root Village around lunch time I was kind of thinking of asking her to grab a bite to eat with me, even though it's probably the last time I'll ever see her again, I thought: Why not? I was kind of wondering what you thought. I mean, she'd go for me, right?"

The corner of Shikamaru's mouth twitched with irritation and he threw his kunai at the next fish a bit harder than he had anticipated.

"Doesn't really seem like she would, it's like you said, it'll probably be the last time you see her." He tried to detour him.

Naruto folded his arms in thought. "Yeah, but isn't it at least worth a shot? I mean she might really end up liking me and she doesn't live all that far from us! It's only like a day and a half's walk. I bet I could get there even faster if I used the trees."

"Don't know Naruto, not really her type." He shrugged.

"Oh really! What do you mean by that? Not her type! I'll bet I'm plenty her type!"

Shikamaru thought it out in his head retrieving the fish he'd killed. "I don't exactly mean it in a rude way; you're just loud and impulsive. In my opinion she's reserved and quiet. Not really a great mix if you ask me."

"Loud and impulsive?!" Naruto shouted before really thinking about it, shaking a fist at him. "I'm not- Hey, wait a minute. How do you know what she's like anyway?" Naruto put a finger to his lips. "You couldn't really know what she's like aside from yesterday and you didn't really say a word to her the whole trip.

Shikamaru tilted his chin up to look at the clouds passing over head with an annoyed expression on his face. 'Aw man…here we go…'

Naruto got a huge grin and leaned in to Shikamaru like he did yesterday. "Hey Shikamaru…Don't tell me…." He chortled and leaned in even closer. "You're jealous, are you?"

Shikamaru leaned away from him with an exasperated expression and pushed Naruto back out of his personal space. "Come on Naruto…"
"Yeah, Yeah. Tell me you're not jealous all you want, but I got my eeeyyyeee on youuuu." Naruto sniggered again picking up the fish he'd killed he started walking back towards camp leaving Shikamaru to follow behind annoyed.

"So, Jezebel." Ino started as they packed up their camp stuff. "What ya think of Shikamaru?"

Jezebel's eyes snapped up to Ino, this caught her attention. "Oh, uhm, he's nice, I guess. I don't really know him." She spoke the truth, she didn't really know him.

"Oh, Really?" Ino scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "You don't think he's cute or anything?"

"Oh…Uhm, no. Why? Do you?" She asked, trying to turn this around.

Ino jumped up a bit from her spot. "Oh yeah! Haha! I'd definitely tap that!" She laughed awkwardly and made Jezebel feel….well…awkward. "Wouldn't you?"

Jezebel's cheeks turned red and she cursed herself for it. "No. I don't think so." She said quickly and turned back to her chore of starting a fire.

"Oh." Ino said, feeling completely shot down, which she had been. Her mind worked for her next plot, she knew she was lying. She had over heard them talking in the tent last night. She glowered at the back of Jezebel's head so intensely it sent chills up Jezebel's spine. "Well, what about you? Have any love interests and/or boyfriends back home? You're a pretty girl after all, I bet all the boys must be all over you."

Jezebel stood up and slung her backpack over her shoulders. "No, my work is too demanding. Most of my time is spent attending to Dr. Shiro, more than just nursing. I run many of his errands and file things for him. I'm too busy for such things." Though she wished she wasn't. She felt bitter.

Ino sweat dropped a bit from Jezebel's seemingly harsh reply. "Not even Dr. Shiro?"

There was a tense pause and Ino wondered if she had honestly crossed over the line by the way Jezebel froze with her back facing Ino.

"No. I only work for him." She said quietly.

"Oh." Ino said, taking this as her que to shut up, Shikamaru and Naruto were walking up with breakfast anyway. "There they are…What took you two so long?" She snapped as they set the fish to cook.

Naruto sniggered some more. "Oh you know just a little guy to guy talk." He said with his hands cupped behind his head. Jezebel cast Shikamaru a nervous look, had he mentioned anything to Naruto about their night together? Relief that made her legs weak flooded her at the slight shake of his head. Ino eyed them suspiciously; she didn't like how they seemed to talk so much to each other without actually talking this morning.

"Well, we haven't got all day you know. The sooner we get Jezebel back the sooner we can go home." She said folding her arms. "Hurry up."

"So bossy…" Shikamaru shook his head, propping himself against a tree a bit away from them.

"Well gee, what's the big rush Ino? It's not like you have anything going on at home anyway, your life's pretty boring isn't it?" Naruto said.

Ino shot him a death glare and he seemed confused. "Huh? What I say?" Aaand the arguments start again.

Jezebel walked over to Shikamaru and took a seat beside him. Shikamaru slid down to sit with her and placed his arms behind him. "Man…now we're going to have to listen to that the rest of the trip…God help me."

Jezebel winced at Naruto getting punched. "Are they always like this?"

"Most of the time, yeah. They're both so loud half the time; it gives me a head ache. I don't honestly know what Tsunade was thinking putting them together on a mission again."

Jezebel got up to retrieve a fish that seemed done and offered it to Shikamaru. "It's giving me one too."

Shikamaru shook his head at her offer. "You eat first; I'm not all that hungry anyway." Being team leader and all he figured he better let everyone else eat before him, it didn't look like they had really caught enough for everybody. He'd never admit the urge he felt to make sure she was taken care of first. Naruto came back to the fish rubbing his head and they all ate in silence. It wasn't long before they were on their way again. All in all it didn't look like they would be getting attacked at all. Whatever these medical documents were, it didn't seem like they were really wanted all that bad. Shikamaru watched the clouds lazily. Then again, it was best not to assume there wasn't going to be any attack, even as close to her village as they were. But for now, he let his guard down some. They only had a few more hours left to go.

What could go wrong?

Chapter Text

Shikamaru groaned opening his eyes to the bright light of the early morning as Jezebel drew back the curtains to his hospital room. He raised his hand to block the light out. It had been exactly three weeks since he had gotten here, a weeks of which he had spent in a coma from the charka destroying virus he had been infected with. Everything had been going smoothly, they had thought that at that point in their journey surely somebody wouldn't attack them so close to the village what with the other ninja expecting them. They hadn't let their guard down, but they had let their guard down enough.

"Well, look who's awake." Jezebel said with a smile, going over to help him sit up.

He was just getting to the point he could walk again now. Naruto and Ino visited him daily; he looked at the several vases of flowers Ino had brought in with another groan, this time out of annoyance. She placed a steadying hand on his back as he leaned forward.

"You don't have to do that anymore, you know. I'm pretty able to sit up by myself now." Shikamaru said pulling his legs over the edge of the bed.

"Old habits die hard, I suppose." She gave a shrug and sat on the edge of the bed with him. "They're having a shoji competition in the patient lobby later if you want me to help you down there. You could probably win every game." She said with a smile. "Interested?"

Though he'd only been a wake for two week now it was becoming apparent they had developed a closer relationship. Ino verged on jealousy anytime Jezebel was around, and Naruto teased the hell out of him, though to Shikamaru it wasn't really such a big deal. They'd become friendly, that's all. He still had five more weeks to go before they would let him out. Apparently the virus was something they'd never really seen before and they wanted to observe him till they knew it wouldn't spread and cause an outright disaster.

Shikamaru gave a shrug. "I guess so, not like I have much else to do but kill time here. I like the down time, just wish I was spending it in a better place."

"Like home?" She asked, getting up to retrieve a plate of food for him from the cafeteria.

"Exactly like home."

Shikamaru eyed the back of her leg just visible under her nurse's dress. A bruise the size of his fist was plainly visible and he could see fading bruises here and there on both legs. He wondered how she'd gotten them; maybe it was why she normally wore stockings with her uniform. He didn't see every nurse wearing them so he knew it wasn't required.

"No stockings today?" He asked as she opened the door to leave. She paused and looked back with a smile he found different from the others. It was weak at first but then suddenly almost too strong.

"Oh, no. They were all dirty." She said, glancing away from him. "No time for laundry."

Shikamaru watched her for a moment longer before she left the room. It appeared as if she knew he was indirectly bringing up the bruises. He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes. He'd only known her for a couple weeks; it wasn't exactly his place to start asking about bruises. He'd seen them before; on her wrists, like fingers wrapped around them too tightly and small scratches on her cheek. Band-Aids here and there, but she'd never mentioned anything.

He leaned forward and perched himself up by resting his elbow on his knee. The other hand rubbed the back of his neck and he tilted his head far to the side in an attempt to get the tension out. It was none of his business. He moved his hand down to rub his bare shoulder when Jezebel came back with a bowl of Natto Gohan, something they regularly served for breakfast. Jezebel set the bowl on the table beside his bed and poured him a glass of water.

"I'm going make my rounds, if I'm not back in time to help you to Shoji just press the button near the bed." She said with a smile and he watched her leave with a grim expression. He rolled his eyes back and watched a fly crawl over the light panels in the room lazily; reminding himself again it was none of his business.

Jezebel tread down the hall holding a clip board to her chest tightly, one might almost think protectively she clutched it so tight. She smiled at the nurse in the room of the patient she walked in to but the nurse only averted her eyes and ducked her head. A frown tugged down at the corner of her lip but she was determined to not let this get to her.

"Good morning!" She chimed to the elderly man as she took his vitals.

He smiled back at her squinting to see her so hard she couldn't make out his eyes. "Ah Jezebel! So good to see a friendly, familiar face. How are you my dear?"

"Oh good, Mr. Fuji. How are you? Back so soon?" She frowned at him, furrowing her eyebrows in concern.

"Oh you know the wife, always worried about something my dear. It's just a bad cold that I-" He broke into a coughing fit and Jezebel patted him on the back lightly. " -that I can't seem to break." He said, clearing his throat and smiling up at her again. "Don't you worry your precious little heart."

"I'm glad to hear it Mr. Fuji! I hope you continue to get well." She said with a small wave out the door, checking Mr. Fuji off the list.

This was what she loved most about her job, though she wasn't even paid for it, the people- or I should say patients- are what made it worth her while. They were like a family to her, the elderly patients that came in for routine checkups straight down to the medical orphans who lived in the children's wing. Though it was always a tough thing to watch when one of the orphans was adopted, it completely broke her heart to watch an elderly friend die. But, the good times made up for everything.

The friendly conversations and smiles, the occasional check-ins, the jokes and hugs from the people she'd grown close to, even if she wasn't able to get so close that they might know what went on behind closed doors. She'd go as far to say she loved them. They were her support and they weren't even aware of it.

The other staff in the hospital was another story though; you might have thought that they would be the ones closest to Jezebel, being that she spent so much of her time with all of them. That wasn't so, though they weren't cruel to her, they avoided her and she could always hear the whispers lurking in the distance from her. How many of them must have judged her.

She shook her head to clear it, setting her clip board down at her station and inputting the patient vitals into the computer. Her mind began to wander as she fell into a routine of typing. Shikamaru had commented on her lack of stockings today, though she knew his real reason behind it was he had seen the bruises. She hadn't expected him to have paid so much attention, but at the same time she knew it wasn't as if they weren't entirely unnoticeable. She bit her lip in thought and prayed Shikamaru would never out rightly inquire about it.

They had started to grow close these past couple of week, closer than she had hoped. Mostly they had kept things professional, even though she had found his gaze lingering on her more than once…and admittedly he found hers on him. She admired that he hadn't held a grudge against her although she knew he couldn't possibly understand why she had left, he seemed quite alright to let her handle her own business.

She rolled her shoulders back and winced. She had been rammed into the wall late last night and she was pretty sure her shoulder had taken most of the blow. She pushed some hair behind her ear and glanced out of the corner of her eye to see one of the new nurses watching her. When she caught sight of Jezebel she snapped back to attention and started to fumble with some papers Jezebel knew for a fact wasn't at all her job, simply because she was the one that had put the papers there.

'I guess she's already heard…' She thought with a sigh. 'Gossip sure does travel fast around here. No wonder mom always complained about the women at work.' She shook her head with a dull expression. Glancing down at her watch she pulled back from the desk, deciding it would be best to head back to get Shikamaru in case he had extra trouble walking today. He seemed to be doing well enough though.

She blushed thinking about the night they had spent together over three weeks ago and bit her lip. She wanted him like that again…though she knew it would be a terrible idea. She wrung her hands together; finding a giddy smile crawling up on her face she wiped it away. It would be a terrible idea. Completely terrible. Beyond terrible. What if one of the nurses said something? What if people started to talk? She furrowed her brows and glared down at the floor. They were all too scared of Dr. Shiro at this point to just walk up to him and say something, but… they didn't really have a great habit of keeping their whispers quiet.

Jezebel took a deep breath as she opened the door to Shikamaru's room. He sat back in bed flipping through the channels on TV with a bored expression on his face. Ino sat in the visitors chair off to the side sending Shikamaru an icy expression. Jezebel assumed Shikamaru hadn't acted too enthusiastic about her presence, but of course, Shikamaru was never too enthusiastic about anything.

"Hey, Shikamaru," She waved timidly at Ino. "Ms. Yamanaka."

Ino nodded at her in acknowledgement bitterly.

Shikamaru turned off the TV at the sight of Jezebel. "Hey, Jez." He said, sitting up and pulling his legs over the edge of the bed. He was still shirtless. Jezebel's eyes trailed over his shoulders down his chest and swallowed hard, snapping her eyes back up to Shikamaru's. He met her gaze with a smug smirk and she couldn't help the smirk that pulled back at her lips.

"Yeah, yeah! Knock it off you two, you're making me sick," Ino said tossing Shikamaru's shirt at his head before waving her hand over her should as she walked out. "Might as well get a room."

Jezebel turned red and ducked her head, averting her eyes as Shikamaru pulled the long sleeved black shirt over his head.

"Ignore her," Shikamaru said catching her embarrassed expression. "she's always been like that."

"She seems unpleasant…" Jezebel said, putting Shikamaru's arm around her shoulder and helping him up.

Shikamaru winced in pain. "She can be…but she's there for her team. I'll hand her that."

"Are you okay?" Jezebel asked, seeing his discomfort.

"I'll be fine. Everything still aches is all."

"I see. That should go away soon…" She reassured him as they made their way down the hall but when he put more of his weight on her shoulder she's the one that winced. He straightened himself up a bit.

"Sorry, too heavy for you?"

"No, I just...ran into a wall last night…Clumsy me." She said with a shake of her head. Shikamaru observed her averted gaze and determined it was more than that but he didn't push her for answers.

Jezebel sat him down at a table that wasn't part of the competition; he'd said he wanted some time to play alone though he did prefer to play with people sometimes. He used the time to watch her read to the children across the room. They'd all crowded around her first chance they got, tugging on her arm and dress. He chuckled lightly at the way the kids behaved, it was nice to see. He turned to look at a couple of nurses watching Jezebel with crossed arms. One of them shook their head and walked away, as if she didn't approve of Jezebel being with the kids. He watched her with an annoyed expression.

"Geez, girls are so catty." He grumbled aloud, moving his pieces around the board, playing and replaying the game till Jezebel came back to the table. The other nurse ushering the rowdy kids back towards their room.

Jezebel took a seat with him, smoothing her dress over her knees.

"Your co-workers always give you such nasty looks?"

Jezebel turned her attention out the window in avoidance. "Not always."

"Why do those? If you're okay with me asking, anyway." He jerked his head towards where the other women had been standing.

Jezebel only shrugged. "Rumors get started and passed around."

"So troublesome,"

"Hey!" She chimed cheerfully, looking to change the subject. "You did promise me to that game of Shoji." She said with a smile. "I can take a little time off; it's slow this time of day."

Shikamaru smirked and leaned on the hand he had on his knee. "You sure you're willing to take on a master?"

"I guess I am, if you consider yourself a master."

"Never lost a game,"

"Yeah well…" She said acting brave, and getting a mock determined look. "I'll probably lose."

"You seem pretty determined on that."

"You better bet I am!"

Shikamaru laughed. "Well, we'll just see."

They played a quick game and eventually she won. She had the feeling Shikamaru had let her win though and she even picked at him for it when she'd helped back to his room. She felt cheerful, hoping they would play again soon, though she knew it was best to avoid spending time with him publicly, on the off chance people started talking. She sat back at her nurse's station again typing away at the computer faster than before in her happiness. He let her win and...in a weird kind of way, it had made her feel taken care of.

Her face dropped at the sight of Dr. Shiro and she focused intently on the work in front of her but he stopped by her desk anyway.

"What were you smiling about…?" He asked her suspiciously, hands stuffed in his white lab coat.

"Oh, I, uh, I was just…thinking of a joke one…of the patients said today."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're not here to think of jokes, Jezebel. Focus on your work."

Jezebel bowed her head. "Yes, sir."

She took a deep breath and felt her body go tense as she stared unblinkingly at the computer screen. God only knows how long it would be before he left again. It had been a fairly uneventful week and she really hoped it would stay that way.

Chapter Text

Jezebel poked her head into Shikamaru's room. He laid back in bed watching TV. It wasn't her shift for at least another hour so she quietly locked the closed door behind her. Shikamaru smiled at her, his arm behind his head. He looked tired. Jezebel knew it was taking a toll on his body fighting the virus. Even though the medicine they had given him had severely cut down on the virus's power, it was still a hard battle.

"Hey, Bell." He said tiredly and she pulled herself up onto his bed and sat beside him. She placed a cool hand on his cheek to get a feel of his temperature.

"Bell? That's new."

"Figured it suited you better than Jez." He leaned into her touch. "You're here early; normally don't get here for another hour."

Jezebel shrugged and shivered a bit, the room was cold. She kicked her shoes off and rubbed her hands up and down the white stockings that hid her legs today. "I figured I would come spend some time with my favorite patient. Got a problem with that?" She asked, with an eyebrow raised playfully.

Shikamaru put his hands up in mock defense. "No complaints," He caught sight of her shiver. "If you're cold get under the covers. Not like we haven't been there before."

Jezebel blushed a bit and pulled the covers back, slipping into the warmth beside him. "Thank you." She chimed gratefully, not looking forward to working the night shift in such cold temperatures.

Shikamaru put an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder affectionately, trying to warm her up. They had just eventually gotten like this over the last couple of days. He refused to admit it was anything other than their history and having grown increasingly comfortable with each other because of it. He had been awake two and a half weeks now and Jezebel found herself constantly drawn to him. He had a calm nature and she liked that. His warmth…She thought of it, resisting the urge to cuddle into it without much success.

He rested his head back into the pillow to watch the TV, some Shoji competition was on. Jezebel found it humorous, only Shikamaru and the old men in the hospital seemed to be the ones interested in watching such things.

Shikamaru thought back to a conversation between him and Ino the other day. She had reprehended him for spending so much time with Jezebel, but quite frankly he found it was none of her business. He liked Jezebel's company, and depending on how things went…yeah, he kind of did hope they could continue their relationship…Eventually…maybe she could even move in with him one day down the road once he'd gotten to know her better, since he had his own place now, wasn't like he hadn't considered it. Big deal.

Jezebel watched his expression turn to an annoyed one and she tilted her head a bit. "Problem?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Sorry, no. Just thinking."

"What about?"

Shikamaru turned to look at her…he wasn't quite ready to suggest anything about it to her. "Nosy, aren't you?" He asked, leaning in he gave her a kiss in hopes of distracting her. She smiled, brightening up at him in return; he hadn't kissed her since their first night together. She kissed him back quickly and bit her lip.

"I have an hour before work," She said playfully.

"It almost sounds like you're suggesting something," Shikamaru smirked.

"Maybe I am?" She put a finger on Shikamaru's chest and slid it down to his stomach.

"Whatever happened to keeping things professional?" He leaned down and kissed her again. She snapped her jaws at him playfully, getting thrown into a fit of giggles when he rolled over to sit on her and tickled her sides, careful not to put all his weight on her.

"I never—" She squirmed in laughter. "agreed to that!"

He pinned her to the bed and she looked up at him with her heart pounding furiously. "I thought you liked me on top," She teased.

He leaned in by her ear. "I feel like being in control today." He said coolly, kissing her neck.

The kiss sent shivers down Jezebel's body and she curled her toes in pleasure. She found his strength sexy with her wrist pinned by his grip. Having sex with a ninja seriously had its benefits: The strength, the flexibility, the seemingly endless stamina. She found herself grinning like a school girl. Not to mention the well-build body. She snapped back to reality when a knock sounded at the door.

"Hey! Shikamaru?" Ino's all too familiar voice sounded from behind the door, attempting to open it. "Why is the door locked? I need to talk to you."

Shikamaru stopped and hung his head with a sigh. "What a drag…" He sat back up on Jezebel with a sulky look on his face. "Visiting hours are over, Ino!" Shikamaru called to her.

"No, they're not! Visiting hours don't end till ten tonight! It's only seven!" Ino looked down at her watch from behind the door.

Shikamaru wasn't about to get up and let her in, not with Jezebel there. The trick was trying to get her to go away.

"I'm busy!"

"Doing what?!"

"About to shower," He said shortly. "So if you don't want to see my naked ass I don't suggest you come in."

Ino paused for a moment, a dirty smile creeping on her face in thought. "Yeah, whatever!" She snapped, rolling her eyes and walking away. For god's sake he was probably in there with Jezebel; she sent a scowl at one of the nurses scary enough that she ducked behind her desk.

She would just go find where Naruto went and she figured she'd eat dinner with him. They were staying at an Inn down the road from the hospital, there wasn't much else she knew to do, she mainly stayed in her room even though Naruto always tried convincing her to go train with him. Hmp, why didn't she just do it then? It wasn't like Shikamaru was really too thrilled to have her around all the time, not when he had Jezebel there.

Ino came to the little sushi shop Naruto had found not far from them. She poked her head in to see Naruto sitting at the counter. He looked back at her with a wave and a grin.

"Hey, Ino! Just in time. I was about to order."

She took a seat beside him and ducked her head with a sigh. "Hey, Naruto."

"Huh? You look down in the dumps. Why so sad?"

"I went by to see Shikamaru but he wouldn't let me in the room." She folded her arms and glared down at the menu. "Stupid Jezebel." She retorted.

"You can't tell me you're still obsessing over him, whatever happened to not being into guys like him?"

"He's just so smart! And I can't say he hasn't gotten better looking over the last couple of years." Ino raked her fingers through her pony tail the pushing her bangs back from her face.

Naruto shrugged and put an arm around Ino. "Look on the bright side, Ino! You'll never have to deal with how lazy he is! He'd probably never help you around the house anyway."

Ino shrugged his arm off but laughed anyway. "Yeah, I guess you're right, just sucks. What're you getting?"

"I asked around and some old lady outside told me the Chirashi was pretty good, so I think I'll get that."

Ino's eye's scanned the menu. "Right…That's a lot of food…I think I'll just have a seaweed salad with tuna."

"You and your diets, I don't know how you don't starve to death."

"I manage," She said flatly.

She sipped on her water as she waited for her food with boredom. She let her mind wander here and there, only brought to attention when she overheard Jezebel's name being spoken at the table behind her. She glanced back to see three nurses who had obviously just gotten off their shift sitting behind them. She leaned back a bit; Naruto looked at her awkward sitting position but just shook his head.

"Girls are so weird…" He muttered.

Ino glanced at him angrily for a moment, but her attention was otherwise occupied.

"Tsk. I know. I heard Jezebel was sleeping with him, not just living with him." The woman rolled her eyes, stabbing at her salad viciously. "And to think when I and whatshisface went out we were told relationships between staff members were strictly prohibited." She growled while her friend nodded sympathetically.

"I don't know what's going on between them, but quite frankly I think she's stupid, just look at all those brui-"

Ino sat up right in her chair, a light bulb going off in her head, she'd heard just what she wanted to hear. So, Jezebel –did- have a boyfriend? And to think she had told Ino otherwise, that made her a liar –and- a cheater.

"That's it!" Ino said, hitting her fist on the counter.

Naruto flinched. "What? What's it?"

"You didn't just hear those nurses behind us?!" Ino jerked her thumb back at them with an evil grin, trying to keep her voice down at the same time.

"No? Why? What'd they say?" He asked with a clueless expression.

Ino leaned in with a shadow being cast over her eyes. "Jezebel has a boyfriend,"

"Shikamaru? But I thought they weren't official."

"No! You knucklehead, Somebody that –works- with her!"

"Are you sure about that, Ino? Jezebel doesn't seem like that kind of girl, I mean; she's always been really nice to me. She brings me a bowl of pudding every time I go there."Naruto crossed his arms, not buying it.

"Pudding doesn't mean anything Naruto, I heard it with my own ears." Ino frowned, looking back at the nurses to see them just finishing up their meal to leave. "Shikamaru is going to be crushed!"

"You're really going to tell him? You don't even know if it's true."

"How could I not? What kind of friend would I be?"

Naruto snorted. "Friend, yeah."

Ino glowered at him, deciding it best to just eat her meal in peace.

It was nine-thirty by time Ino knocked on Shikamaru's door again, finding it unlocked this time she looked in. Shikamaru laid back with the Sudoku puzzle book she'd given him yesterday in his hand, most the book done already. He looked up with a bored expression, something he commonly wore.

"Hey, Ino. Sorry if I came off rude earlier," He smirked, there was a mischievous gleam in his eye she didn't like. "I was kind of in the middle of something."

"I'm sure you were," Ino said passively, coming in and leaning back against the wall.

"What did you need to talk to me about earlier?" He asked looking down at Sudoku again.

Ino shook her head. "That's not important…Listen…I found out something about Jezebel you might need to know,"

Shikamaru set his book down, listening. "What about her?"

"I was at this restaurant with Naruto—" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "-No! Not like that." She glared. "I overheard these nurses talking, and well, they were talking about Jezebel and her boyfriend."

Shikamaru felt himself glare back at her. Ino raised her hands defensively. "Hear me out!"

"I am," He said flatly, if this was some attempt to…He snorted. He didn't even want to go there. There was a possibility she was right, maybe it would explain the damage he always saw on her.

"They said she wasn't just living with some guy she worked with, she was sleeping with him too." Ino said, crossing her arms in front of her chest, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "The girl was angry because she dated someone in the hospital too and she got called out on it."

Shikamaru's jaw set. He'd never asked Jezebel about where she lived before, though it had crossed his mind before. You don't just get hurt all the time living on your own, he doubted she was that clumsy. He stared at Ino fixedly in thought, mentally challenging what she said.

Ino pushed herself up from the wall. "I'm not telling you to break things off with her, I know you like her, but you don't even know her."

"Things are just casual, Ino, give me a break." Anger tinted his voice.

Ino shook her head. "That's what you say, but is it really?" She said over her shoulder, closing the door on her way out.

Shikamaru's mouth formed a straight line and he turned his eyes up to the ceiling in thought. 'Was it really?' Her words repeated themselves in his mind. He shook his head; time would solve that puzzle, but for now he had a different puzzle to solve.

Chapter Text

Shikamaru's fingers drummed uneasily on the table he sat at in the patient lobby. Squeals from the children across the room mingled with the low mutters of the other patients and the pattering of rain on the window beside him. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair letting an arm hang over the back of it.

He stared out the window, watching the grey clouds gather over head, an unfinished game of Shoji in front of him. The last few days had left him uncertain about a lot, as much as he wanted to say that what Ino had told him didn't click in his mind, he couldn't. He found himself quiet around Jezebel and he knew she noticed, he wasn't one to speak much but she knew how much he did speak, you don't spend every day with someone for over two weeks and not learn it.

The danger he sensed she was in concerned him more than the fact people might be able to call her a cheater. There was entirely the possibility she was being forced to stay with this man, it happened a lot. Women get trapped in an abusive relationship of the sorts and…Well…it's not easy to get out, not from men like that.

No, the betrayal he did feel was that she hadn't let him in on something like that. It wasn't like it was just nothing if she was being abused, it was big. He glared at the clouds. He'd told her about more than one painful mission, about losing friends, watching people he loved die in front of him. He'd opened up to her, but she hadn't to him. His jaw set.

This morning he'd asked her about where she lived, and if she lived with anyone. She'd just smiled that sweet, dodging smile she always did when she avoided a topic. She told him she lived out on the East side of her village, near the river that cut its way through. It was the same one they'd had put a miniature wall up the length of it to keep children from falling in, though the water was more than rough enough to tug a grown man under to his death.

She'd acted busy, and said she lived with one of her friends and added that she was going make her rounds for the day. They normally only took a couple hours at most but he'd watched most of the day tick by on the clock and knew she was avoiding him.

He pushed himself up from the table with a sharp movement, his chair scraping against the floor. A few people fell silent, turning their eyes to watch him walk out of the room with hands pushed into his pockets. If she wasn't going to tell him, he was going to see about finding out for himself. He briefly wondered if it was even worth his time. It would be so much easier to just sit around with a game of Shoji and forget any of this happened, but he couldn't.

He had gained most of his motor function back in the month that he had been there. Sometimes things slipped out of his hands or a leg would freeze up while walking, but over all everything was coming back. He was supposed to meet again with the doctor soon to get a full evaluation. Two weeks left to go. The day was going by slow, boring, though not something he minded.

Shikamaru walked through the cafeteria, pausing at the man he'd seen Jezebel stop to talk to more than once. Mr. Fuji, was it? He'd been momentarily introduced to the man, but he'd never spoken more than a couple of words to him. He stayed in his room for the most part.

Shikamaru raised a hand as he approached the man.

"Mr. Fuji," He greeted.

"Ah, My boy! Mr. Nara Shikamaru, it is, if my mind serves me well this morning?" The old man smiled up at him with his squinty eyes.

"You got it,"

"What brings you here?" Mr. Fuji cut into what appeared to be some soggy Tonkatsu. Shikamaru thought the soggy, fried pork was the last thing this man needed. "Here for the Tonkatsu are you? Delicious, delicious dish. Couldn't ask for better hospital food."

Shikamaru grimaced slightly. "No, I think I'll pass- Listen, have you seen Jezebel around here lately? She left for her rounds a couple hours ago and hasn't been back since." He knew he was one of the patients she regularly checked on.

Mr. Fuji raised his eyebrows. "Jezebel? Bless your young hearts. Met Mrs. Fuji when I was seventeen myself." He got a dreamily smile, getting side tracked. "Got married after a couple years, not a regret in my soul."

Shikamaru's lips formed a line as Mr. Fuji started to drone on about his wife. "Oh! Right! Jezebel, eeerrmmm, no. By god,I haven't seen her all day." He shook his head slightly, rubbing his forehead. "Or well…maybe…I think I recall her at the front desk." He pushed his shoulders up in a shrug. "Beats me. Would you like to have a seat?"

Shikamaru paused in thought for a moment, he'd seen Jezebel get pretty friendly with this guy before, he had to know something.

"I- uh…sure," Shikamaru said, pulling the chair back he eased himself down, the pain in his legs from standing so long finally appearing.

Mr. Fuji ate his dinner in silence for a few moments, observing Shikamaru's zoned expression looking out the cafeteria window. He had a feeling Shikamaru wasn't just sitting here with him to chat.

"Welp, my boy, I know you're not just sittin' with an ol' coot like me just to chat," Mr. Fuji wiped his mouth with his napkin, a friendly smile tugged up at the corners of his mouth. "What's on your mind?"

"You got the wrong idea about me. I tend to keep around old geezers like yourself more than you think," Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and hung one of his arms over the back. "But, if you could answer some questions for me, that'd be great."

"Go ahead, make my old, boring life more interesting."

"It's about Jezebel,"

Mr. Fuji nodded his head, taking another bite of his meal. "Continue."

"..." Shikamaru thought. How would he begin? Where would he begin? He'd have to make sure Mr. Fuji wouldn't go off telling Jezebel he was snooping in the first place, that would be such a pain…Who knows with this old guy, he loved to talk. "First, I need your word you won't go telling Jezebel I'm asking about her, alright?"

"Hm, by the sound of it, you're snooping around for something,"

"I just got some questions. Do I have your word? Man to man?" Shikamaru leaned forward on the table and propped his elbows up.

Mr. Fuji placed his napkin in his lap and looked at Shikamaru with a thoughtful gaze. "Man to man?"

"You got it,"

"Alright, you've got my word."

That was enough for Shikamaru, though there was always the possibility Mr. Fuji would talk by the look in his eyes Shikamaru trusted him, but not enough to tell him everything.

"Do you know where Jezebel lives?"

"Hmp, now don't go stalkin' the girl, if she don't want you."

"Hey, I'm not that kind a guy, alright? Don't get the wrong idea." Shikamaru said a bit pained by the accusation. "I just want to know she's alright. She live with anyone or anything?"

Mr. Fuji took a long sip of his drink. If he wanted to know if she was alright, he wondered what more there was to Shikamaru's questions.

"Well, judging by that question son, I'd assume you don't know."

"Don't know what?" Shikamaru asked. "Just get to the point, old man."

"She lives with Dr. Shiro. Has for a long time now, not that the patients are supposed to know much about the personal lives of the staff here, but eh, when you're here as much as I am, you hear things."

Shikamaru's eyebrows furrowed together and he glared through the old man, clasping his hands together in front of his mouth. He didn't say anything; thinking.

"…" Mr. Fuji waited a bit before he spoke. "Obviously this comes as a surprise to you. I can assure you though, Jezebel has a good heart, I'm sure whatever her reasons for keeping this from you are well meant."

Shikamaru closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath. If Jezebel was living with the head doctor here, it could mean a few things. One, she was romantically involved with him. Two- "Ahg," He pressed his fingers to his temples. He couldn't get the first conclusion out of his mind. It didn't make sense though. Jezebel's character, the bruises, the living arrangement, the catty nurses.

"Haven't you asked her about her living situation before?"

"I have. She skirts around it every time I bring up anything about it, it's almost like she's..." He put a hand to his forehead. "afraid of something…"

"Well, maybe she is."

"Shit." Shikamaru sat up and looked back out the window, getting a grip of his emotions. "You ever notice the bruises?"

Mr. Fuji raised his eyebrows, "Hm?"

Shikamaru shook his head and stood up. He didn't want to risk putting worry on Mr. Fuji and increase the chances of him going looking for answers for himself. "No, nevermind. Thanks man."

"No problem son, talk to me when you need and good luck, with whatever it is you're figuring out."

Shikamaru nodded. "Thank you."

Shikamaru huffed, leaning against the wall in the hospital corridor; the pain in his legs was building and starting to cause his right leg to lock up. He rubbed it in an attempt to fix the problem. He had to be back across the hospital and to his room in at least ten or twenty minutes, judging by the position of the sun outside the window, but with his leg like this he knew it wouldn't be an easy task.

So, Jezebel lived with someone after all. A male someone, who he suspected was the cause of all her "accidents". He gritted his teeth together and inched himself along the wall. Part of him wished he would have just stayed in his room and minded his own business, if he had, he wouldn't have had so much to worry about and his leg wouldn't be causing him hell like this. Part of him worried he'd missed Jezebel coming back to his room too, but he doubted that'd happened.

By time Shikamaru got to his bed he was worn out, but he'd made it in time for the nurse's rounds. His heart pounded furiously and he was out of breath with pain throbbing in random places around his body. The nurse took his vitals in silence, avoiding eye contact. None of the nurses talked to him as much as compared to when he'd first gotten here, there were maybe a handful of them that still did. He wondered if it had to do with anything of his relationship with Jezebel.

"Where's the normal girl?" He asked, referring to Jezebel but not wanting it to seem like they were terribly close.

"She went home for the day, Dr. Shiro's orders."

Worried hit him in the chest. "Why would he order something like that?" His voice sounded strange to himself.

"I'm afraid I can't disclose that information to patients."

There was something bitter about her words that made him uneasy. "Of course, didn't mean to pry."

She didn't say anything else to him.

silence.

Shikamaru watched the window as she opened the door to leave.

"Mr. Nara?"

Shikamaru looked up.

"Please keep your distance from Ms. Fukushima. I don't know your relationship with her, but she doesn't need to be distracted from work."

"Not really any of your business." Shikamaru said harshly.

"I'm just repeating what I was told to say." She said, turning her nose up and walking out.

Shikamaru's stomach sunk. What did she mean by that? Told by who?

Shikamaru sat uneasily in his room for the next two days as Jezebel missed work. He kept hoping she would stop by and see him to confirm that she was okay, but that never happened. Ino and Naruto had been off training and for once in his life, he wished he wasn't left alone with his thoughts. They ate at him, keeping him up at night. Was she alright? And if she wasn't, was it his fault?

Chapter Text

Jezebel sat back on her heels with a dirty, old tooth brush in hand trying to clean the dust from the corners of the room like Shiro had wanted. Sleep deprivation tugged at her eyes making them puffy and dark and her dirty hair hung limply out of her bun. She'd stayed up late that night cleaning and the night before, only getting sleep from passing out. Bruises littered her body colorfully from Shiro's anger, kissing her cheeks and wrapping their arms around her; the occasional cuts and scratches serving themselves as accessories

"Shiro…" She spoke softly, the name making her go numb. What was she doing here? Abiding to her father's debt? Standing in the same place her mother once stood?

She thought of Shikamaru and wondered if he was worried about her. Surely Shiro would no longer have her in that wing of the hospital. She felt tears well up in her eyes at losing friends she had made in the patients and at losing Shikamaru. Did she ever really even have him to begin with? Soon he would leave and go back to his own home and forget all about her.

She shook her head and clenched her teeth, scrubbing the corners harder than ever, angry at nobody but herself. Though regardless of everything she still felt loyal to her father, did she? But should she stay loyal to his debt? He should be paying this. Not her. Not her!

This was her punishment. Shiro was angry. She wasn't allowed to have anyone other than him but he was allowed to have anyone. Of course word from the nurse's gossip had eventually gotten out. She felt so stupid, how could she not of seen this coming? She wiped the tears off her bruised cheek. She had seen this coming. She had heard the nurse's gossip and had seen the suspicious looks from her co-workers.

What was she but a rat? A dog kicked around for a child's amusement. She was less than a servant, kept like a slave. If she were to die right now who would it affect but for Shiro's loss of a maid? The pain hit her, gripping her lungs so tightly even the deepest breath she took felt ineffective. A weakling, not the confident women she pretended to be with Shikamaru. To him she was a lie; a sheet over a pile of trash.

Her thoughts thrashed about in different directions and her emotions tangled themselves up in confusion. Things were better this way. What other way could there be? She could be dead. Maybe that would be better. Maybe it wouldn't. What happens after you die? Fear consumed her, digging its nails into her neck and shoulders. What if it's more terrible than here? What if there is no escape? What good was any of this? She should never think. Never think. Never think and let it be.

Snap.

She stared at the broken tooth brush; pathetic, just like her.

She picked up the bucket of water beside her and the broken tooth brush and shoved its contents deep into the trashcan, careful to make sure it was hidden. Her mind slipped back to the previous day when Shiro had first sent her home. He hadn't even told her why she was going home. He'd simply called her into his office and told her that he would deal with her when he got back but she knew why she was going home, she just knew. He didn't send her home unless there was something he was terribly angry about. His cool and collected nature terrified her in comparison to his anger, it meant much worse things.

She looked around the spotless house, and touched the tear in her lip lightly. It was almost time for her to leave for work. Shiro had her on a night shift where there would be less people to question her. She moved her aching body to the bathroom and stepped into the warm water of the shower after shedding her dirty clothes.

She tried hard not to think. It would be so easy tonight…to just leave her wing and see Shikamaru but she knew that would be her stupidest idea yet to be seen around that side of the hospital at all in fact. It was over, her little fantasy game she played with some stranger from the Leaf village.

She took a deep breath in front of the mirror and looked herself in the eyes. This was it, she told herself, no more games. No more Shikamaru. She would be strong and take care of herself the best she could because she knew that there was no body that could take care of her in her place in the world but for herself.

The day felt like it dragged on forever and now that night had fallen Shikamaru felt like he'd lost any hope of seeing Jezebel again. He thought to just leave the hospital himself and go find her to make sure she was okay but if things were really going how they were he wondered if it was a good idea to bring any more attention to their relationship than what was already there.

He rubbed the tension out of his neck as he made his way to the tiny vending machine room down the hall. It was a simple place with two vending machines, a TV off to the corner with coffee beside it, and chairs and tiny tables crammed together. The nurses normally came here for break opposed to the cafeteria since most of the hospital visitors didn't know about it.

There were only two other nurses there at this time of night. One kicked his feet up on the table with a cup of coffee in hand and the other leaned over a book to study. When Shikamaru entered he got wary looks from both of them. He avoided eye contact, stuffing his hands into his pockets and he made his way to the vending machine on the opposite side of the room.

"That's the guy Jezebel was with." Came the low voice of one of the nurses.

"Did you see her tonight in the West wing?"

"Yeah, got the hell beat out of her."
Shikamaru went rigid and stared intently at the vending machine in front of him.

"Geez, what you think happened?"

"No idea."

"You don't think…"

"Nah.."

Jezebel walked down to a patient's room holding a bundle of clean blankets with her exhaustion wearing her thin and the wary looks from the other staff gave her the sad look in her eyes that she had seen her mother wear so often. She felt as if she might just lay down in the middle of the hall and sleep forever but she knew that wasn't possible for her.

She stuffed the blankets in the closet of the sleeping patient and made her way out quietly. Over all the night was pretty peaceful, mostly everyone slept. The West wing was a generally quiet place for the elderly who wanted to be away from the ruckus of the younger people.

She stopped outside of the patient's room and closed the door quietly behind her. It was the wailing cry of a woman that broke her momentary peace. She looked down the hall and could barely make out the appearance of Mr. Fuji's held back from a body bag being carried out.

Jezebel's heart sank, breaking and she just watched, unable to move. The pair had always been there for her, maybe not as close as she'd like, but they'd been around this hospital for as long as she could remember. In and out throughout the years mainly for Mr. Fuji, he always did have health problems.

The wailing continued but it sounded farther from her ears the louder it got. She found her feet moving her forward numbly towards her job of restocking the storage room and the hand that turned the door knob didn't feel like hers at all. Every sound she heard as her body opened the boxes to restock distorted and echoed in her mind.

It was the reflection of light on the sterile scalpels wrapped in plastic that caught her eye. She took one and slid down to the floor and unwrapped it slowly, slipping her thumb against the sharp edge numbly. There was nothing stopping her. No happiness, no pain. No worry or regret. Just the sharp ringing that shut out the world.

She pressed it to her wrist; her body swaying slightly with the beat of her pulse. The bright lights of the storage room appeared entirely too dim as she watch the edge of the blade sink in and it not been for the sudden appearance of a shadow cast in front of her she would have never dropped the scalpel in the startlement that brought her back to reality.

Shikamaru leaned against the door frame in exhaustion, sweating slightly from the pain that emanated from various parts of his body. He gazed at her steadily and she turned her eyes down away from him. Panting slightly he closed the door behind him and made his way in front of her. Kneeling down he picked up the scalpel and then…very simply…he just looked at her.

He took her in. Her bruised face, the eye swollen shut, the split lip, and the bruised limbs. He reached out and very gently took her chin in his hand. Turning her face from one side to the other he took in the damage and sighed heavily when she refused to meet his eyes. His lips formed a thin line of disappointment.

'What a drag…' He thought with a pang of remorse. '…to care about somebody.'

"What am I going to do with you?" He asked but she remained quiet. "Jezebel…What's going on?"

She shook her head slightly. "My father owes a debt…"

"Yeah, so? What's that got to do with you?"

"I'm paying it." She said. "I have been since I was little and before that was my mother."
He furrowed his brows in a sad look. "What kind of father does that?"

She didn't respond just continued to avoid his gaze.

He reached over and took her hand quietly and she looked up at him with hesitation.

"Well, are you going to tell me about it or not?"

Her eyes welled up with tears and she began to do something she'd never done nor thought to do before: She told him. They seemed to have stayed there, in that little storage room space for what felt like ages. She told him about everything. Her father's debt, her mothers work, and Shiro's unforgiving hand.

She told him about the abuse in every area: the emotional, mental, and physical; the confusion, the hopelessness, and the imprisonment. She told him about her loyalty to her father and his abandonment of her to gambling and how she once felt proud to help her father in a sense of duty to her family but now she only felt trapped and clung to the lie of loyalty to ease the pain. She spoke till there was nothing left to fill the silence and they just sat there, together.

"I'm trapped," She said quietly and laid her head against his shoulder in exhaustion after everything was
said and done. He put am arm around her, kissing her head.

"Not if I can help it,"

And for once in her life, she felt like she finally found a place to rest.

Chapter Text

"We're taking Jezebel back with us." Shikamaru stated matter-of-factly, leaning against the window sill with Naruto sitting cross-legged on the bed and Ino leaning against the wall by the bathroom with crossed arms.

Ino's eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

"What?! You can't be serious."

"Yeah Shikamaru, I don't think kidnapping her in the answer." Naruto said.

Shikamaru rubbed his forehead with an annoyed expression. "We're not kidnapping her you moron, we're getting her out of her. List, Shiro isn't the nice guy we think he is."

"He paid for our inn and everything though, what'd you mean man?" Naruto tilted his head a bit.

"He's been keeping Jezebel against her will. He's a pretty shameful excuse for a guy if you ask me." He met Ino's stare with a challenging glare. "Ino you were wrong, Jezebel isn't cheating on anybody. She lives with Shiro because her father owes a gambling debt to the man and he's been making her pay it."

Ino furrowed her brows, taken back with guilt. "What..? That doesn't make any sense though, if her father owes Shiro the debt, why is Jezebel paying it?"

"Beats me. All I know is he's a sorry excuse of a man; his wife was in Jezebel's place before she was."

"How much does she even owe?"

"She doesn't even know, Shiro won't tell her. As far as Jezebel knows she paid off the debt a long time ago. Her father left not long after her mother died and she took her place. Hasn't seen him for a few years now. Shiro's been scaring her into staying; you ever notice the bruises on her?"

The room fell silent for a few moments as they processed this.

"Not really," Ino blew her bangs up out of her eyes. "But then again, I guess we didn't get to have a look quite as close as you have." Ino said bitterly.

Shikamaru glared at her steadily and Ino looked off to the side with a pissy look.

"Look, if you don't want to help with this and be a decent person, you don't have to." Shikamaru stood up straight and made his way to the door. He pulled it open. "But if you're not going to help, don't waste my time."

Ino pushed herself off the wall, taken back.

"Shikamaru-"

"Just think if this was your friend or whatever. What if this was Sakura, you'd want to just leave her in the hands of some douche bag like that?"

Ino rubbed her arms self-consciously and looked at the floor.

"I'll help."

Shikamaru shut the door and walked back to his spot against the window sill.

"What about you, Naruto?"

"Huh? Come on man! Don't even bother asking me with something like that, I'm not going to leave anyone in that position!"

"Good, my plan works out then." Shikamaru paused and looked at his teammates. "We're going to fake her suicide. There is a river that runs near Shiro's house, there's been more than one suicide committed there and the bodies normally don't turn up after getting dragged under."

"Oh yeah, I've heard of that, they put up a wall recently so people wouldn't fall in." Ino said.

Shikamaru nodded. "Ino, Jezebel is going to write a suicide note with the place and time in it, we'll need you to drop the letter off at the nurses' station just as they're changing shifts. It's important that people don't associate us with Jezebel's suicide; otherwise Shiro might believe we're just trying to kidnap his maid. Got it?"

"Yeah well, what happens if Shiro does end up suspecting us?" Naruto asked with folded arms, squinting at him.

"The only possible thing we can do is deny any association with it. But if Shiro by any chance goes looking for her himself, or sends someone else after her, this is where you come in Naruto."

"Huh?"

"The current in the river will be too strong for Jezebel; it'll likely pull her under as soon as she's in. I need you waiting under water to grab hold of her as soon as she's under so she doesn't drown. This is risky, but I have a lot of faith in you, Naruto."

Naruto grinned and gave Shikamaru thumbs up. "No problem man! I totally got this!"
"Good. Ino,"

Ino looked up. "What is it?"

"Because the river is walled up you need to be farther down the way with a rope that Naruto will be able to grab onto in order to pull her out. Because we need a witness to see Jezebel jump you need to be far enough down the way that nobody will see you but close enough that they don't drown. The wall isn't mega high or anything, so you should be able to find a good place to hide in."

"I don't get it, you didn't tell me what happens if Shiro suspects us."

"I'm getting to it!" Shikamaru sighed, a bored look on his face. "If Shiro starts to suspects us and ends up trying to find Jezebel, there isn't much we can do but try to get her out of the village as low-key and fast as possible."

"Hmp." Ino didn't look too pleased. "And when exactly are we supposed to do all of this?"

"Wednesday."

"But it's Monday! That's only a few days away."

"Yeah, and if we wait till my last day here to do it Shiro may suspect we're behind it, plus I won't be able to stay back and make sure everyone really believes she's gone. That extra time is valuable to us."

"What are we supposed to do with Jezebel in the mean time?" Naruto asked, "That leaves us two extra days of doing nothing."

"Set up a camp outside of the village, deep enough in the woods that you'll be hard to find. On the last day, I want both of you to meet me here at the hospital since Shiro will be here to see me off. He may find it suspicious if my teammates aren't with me."

"Is it really okay to leave Jezebel alone like that, though?" Ino chimed in this time, despite her jealousy she apparently did have a bit of humanity in her.

"No idea." Shikamaru's lips formed a thin line in uncertainty. "You'll be with me an hour at the most, if anything we can have her hide somewhere."

"What about her suicide note, isn't it a little strange for her to put the time and date she'll do it? Wouldn't she want to….you know…idunno not do it?" Naruto asked, tilting his head to the side.

"The suicide note will be a confession to Shiro's abuse; I want that out in the open, even if people believe it's only a rumor. It'll likely, if not ruin his career, put a huge dent in it. But the reason for the date and time being in it is so if anybody cares enough to save her, then they'll be able to do it. That'll also be written in the note."

Naruto nodded. "Got it."

Shikamaru looked over to Ino. "Sound good?"

"Yeah…" Ino said with a roll of her eyes and went stand by the door to leave.

"Cool." Shikamaru looked to Naruto. "No questions?"

"Nope!"

"Alright, I'll see you guys later then. Keep to yourselves as much as possible, if you see Jezebel, don't even look at her. Got it?"

"Got it." Naruto and Ino replied in unison.

Jezebel looked in the mirror in one of the hospital bathrooms that weren't often used due to being in an odd location. She touched her split lip, the tear starting to heal. She could just about see out of her eye as the swelling at gone down.

She had, against hospital rules, stolen some pain medication out of a cabinet that was also supposed to help with the pain. She would never admit though, that it eased more than her physical pain.

She would be lying if she said she wasn't scared- you don't live with a maniac for so many years and not develop a predisposition to being afraid- but she was also hopeful. She knew jumping into that river would be terrifying in itself, she knew faking her own death was risky and just as terrifying, what if she were to be found out?

But really, what she found to be the most terrifying was leaving this town and all the people and memories she had become so familiar with. After all, leaving here in the way she was about to, it meant that she couldn't come back. Ever. She would never see the friendly faces of her friend patients and she would never again pass by her family's home and she would never again walk the halls of the hospital that she'd grown up in. But, she would never again face Shiro under his unforgiving hand.

She was leaving this village and that was terrifying, but she had tasted freedom with Shikamaru and she clung to the hope of it. It was this hope that got her through each long, unbearable day. It got her through the looks she received and the sharp words she heard because she knew that she would never have to deal with these people again. She could have a life that was her own.

Jezebel smoothed down her nursing uniform over her white stockings and she had to hold back a smile to keep her lip from re-tearing.

"One day soon, you won't have to wear these stockings to cover up your bruises." She told herself with a held back, triumphed look on her face. "And you'll be able to have friends who really know you and you'll be able to go places when you want and you won't have to worry…" Her smile faded and her voice trailed off and she looked at herself sadly.

'You won't have to worry if someone will hurt you or not…' She thought to herself placing her delicately bruised hands on the bathroom counter. She dared not say it because she knew it wasn't entirely true. Even if she got away from Shiro….If Shikamaru….

She shook her head. No. She wasn't going to go there, Shikamaru wasn't like that. Though doubt grew like a forest in her stomach because she knew she hadn't known him for more than a few weeks. What if…What if he wanted to do worse things to her than Shiro? What if…no. This was her one chance for change and if it didn't work out then she would allow herself to die, but she knew that if she did stay here, she would already be dead.

She found herself clutching her fists so tightly her knuckles were turning white. She took a deep breath and tried to let go of her fears. It was one way or the other, but she wasn't going to stay here.

It wasn't just that though, it was what would happen after she got to the Leaf Village. There was a chance Lady Tsunade would send her away, not wanting to get mixed in with another village's business at all. There was a chance that, even if Jezebel did stay in the Leaf Village…what If her and Shikamaru didn't work out?

"It's only been a few weeks…" She told herself sadly leaving the bathroom to check up on an elderly patient. She wondered how Ms. Fuji was…she regretted that she wouldn't be able to attend Mr. Fuji's funeral on Wednesday…She felt a pang of guilt in her chest at realizing Ms. Fuji would be losing Mr. Fuji as well as her… even though they weren't totally close, she knew the old woman would be torn apart.

Tears welled up in Jezebel's eyes. She had to tell Ms. Fuji she was leaving, she had to. She couldn't just leave her hanging. Ms. Fuji had always been so nice to her, she'd brought her baked goods on holidays and just because and she had even knitted her a scarf once. She made a quick mental note that she would have to take the scarf with her; it was something she slept with every night, like a child with their favorite toy or blanket.

Tuesday night.

Jezebel knocked on Shikamaru's door gently and pointed her head through.

"Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sat up in alarm.

"What are you doing?! You shouldn't be here, you could risk the whole thing."

Jezebel put a finger up to her lips and closed the door very quietly behind her.

"The nurse on watch is sleeping at her desk…" Jezebel ran up to Shikamaru's bed side and kissed him quickly. She left the scarf on Shikamaru's lap. "I just…I had to bring this! Ms. Fuji knitted it for me a long time ago and it means a lot to me…" She looked down sadly, hands gripping on to his blanket. "Please, can you pack it in your bag?"

Shikamaru sighed wearily and took the scarf in his hand.

"You girls are so troublesome…Yes, I'll pack it. Now go, before somebody catches you in here."

Jezebel's face lit up brightly and she jumped back to give a quick bow.

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Shikamaru smiled slightly.

"You're such a drag sometimes, now give me a kiss and get out." He leaned towards her slightly and she bumped into his face trying to kiss him.

"Sorry!" She covered her mouth and kissed him correctly before speedily bouncing towards the door and heading out.

Shikamaru sighed again, this time heavier, but he couldn't help keeping his smile. He placed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, letting his mind drift off into thought. As risky as this plan was, he had a good feeling about it.

Chapter Text

Jezebel stood at the end of the river bank and glanced down at her watch. It was 5:30pm; the nurses should have switched shifts by now. She bit her lip nervously. Just a little bit down the river she saw Naruto's head break above the water as he gasped for air clinging onto a thick shrub that had broken its way through the wall. Naruto watched her from behind his shrub though she could still make out his yellow blond hair; he caught his breath before taking another gulp of air and diving back under.

Nervousness picked at Jezebel's skin and she shivered. Shikamaru had told her that if the nurse didn't get the note in time to jump when anybody saw her, but so far this area was a ghost town. She took a deep breath to calm herself and scanned the area for anyone before turning her eyes back down to the rushing water below. Today she found the water calmer than most days though it still rushed furiously she found it welcoming. Welcoming of a new life or welcoming of death.

It was Shiro's figure walking over the bridge and his eye contact with her that caused her heart to sink and knees go weak. First he looked confused: Why was she here? Then he looked angry: Why wasn't she at work?

"Jezebel!" He barked and she flinched back, mouth gaping and limbs frozen. He grabbed her arm fiercely. "Why aren't you at work?!"

"No..." She said quietly trying to pull back. He caught her other arm and got dangerously close to her face.

"Go back to work now." He growled

"NO!" She cried out at the pain when he twisted her arm. Naruto came back to the surface at her scream.

'Oh man…this isn't good.' He thought; ready to jump to action if it was called for. 'This guy is really starting to piss me off.'

"No?" He gripped her arm tighter and yanked her closer to him again. "Did you just tell me no?" He asked furiously with nails digging into her skin.

Jezebel shook her head with tears spilling down her cheeks. She took a step backwards towards the water. She yanked her arm back from him in a desperate attempt to free herself from her.

"Leave me alone!" She cried. "Let me die! I'd rather die!"

A woman and her friend slowed down in concern as they got closer to the fighting pair.

"You're making a scene." Shiro said lowly, through furiously clenched teeth with embarrassment rising to his cheeks. He attempted to straighten himself up and fixed his glasses but still kept one hand tightly wrapped around her arm. "Do you want to keep that pretty face of yours?"

"Let me die!" She shouted again, looking at the women standing at a distance. "Please-"

"Isn't that that doctor from the hospital…?"

Shiro yanked her back to him and cupped a hand over her mouth and nose.

"I'm sorry ladies, nothing to worry about. My nurse is just going through a hard time here." He cooed calmly as she struggled against his hold. "I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

The women looked at Jezebel's battered body uncertainly, refusing to move on.

"Miss…Do you need help?" The woman asked hesitantly.

"Damn it, Jezebel." He hissed at her. He tried to get a good enough grip on her to bring her away but she thrashed about, tugging her body this way then that.

"Jezebel! Behave!" He snapped at her, grabbing onto her arms with both hands again.

She took a step back and with all of the adrenaline built force she could manage she threw her body back and into the water with Shiro's grip on her still firm, pulling him with. The force of the water dragging her under knocked her unconscious almost immediately and threw Shiro's body from her.

Naruto dove and was at her side in a matter of seconds while Shiro's body was pulled swiftly away from them. Naruto's head broke above water under the bridge, looking down towards the bush Ino was supposedly waiting for them in. The two women frantically looked into the water where they had fallen in before running for help knowing it wouldn't be long before the water drowned them both.

Naruto took a deep breath with one arm holding Jezebel's limp body held against his and the other using chakra to bound him to the wall. He knew he would have to get down to Ino soon but he was hesitant, unsure of how well Jezebel would hold up underwater unconscious. He knew her body would hold its breath on reflex but it worried him.

Swimming upstream was possible for him but not an easy task and using chakra to climb up the wall by the bridge wasn't a good idea in case any passersby's saw him hauling Jezebel out. He bit his cheek and looked up stream, he could stay here till night fall but he didn't particularly like the idea of spending the next few hours latched onto a wall becoming water logged.

"Naruto!" Came Ino's hushed voice from overhead. "There are already people trying to search for them downstream. I don't know why, I doubt they'll ever find Shiro's body after this."

"If everyone's downstream my best bet is to bring her upstream but she's unconscious."

"There's no one looking up here, Naruto. You can keep both of your heads above water."

"Are you kidding me? Swimming this current with my head out of water would be impossible."

"If it's impossible you need to train more," Ino hissed.

"Oh come on, like you're one to speak!"

"Shut up! No one is around, grab onto the rope," Ino said, letting down the rope beside the bridge.

"But-"

"No buts! Just do it! It's fine!"

"Augh, Shikamaru's right, you know that? You are bossy," Naruto inched himself along the wall before grabbing onto the rope tightly.

"Hmp," Ino puffed her cheeks out, pulling Naruto up quickly. "Quick, get her away from here."

"Aye, aye captain." He said tossing Jezebel over his shoulder. Jumping up to the nearest roof top he made a quick getaway to the back of the village.

Ino sat on the window sill of Shikamaru's room recounting the details of the mission to him. He leaned back in bed lazily and stared up at a fly that kept bumping into the light fixture.

"Man, this isn't good,"

"What isn't? We saved Jezebel, didn't we? That's what you wanted."

"Yeah, but if the village finds out we had anything to do with Shiro's death it could seriously become a pain."

"Well, it was an accident and Shiro was a pretty messed up guy anyway."

"They won't look at it like that, that's their main doctor. Regardless if the Root Village is practically a part of the Leaf Village or not, they'd still be angry."

Ino folded her arms. "It was an accident, and that's what it looked like. Do you even think Tsunade will let Jezebel into the village? She won't be able to register there or anything if she really wants her existence to stay unnoticed."

Shikamaru's lips formed a thin line as he watched the fly in thought.

"No idea," He said with a shrug and sat up.

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

Shikamaru shrugged again. "No way to know honestly,"

Ino pinched between her eyes. "Really? So, what happens if Tsunade is angry?"

"She will be, it'll be a huge drag," He said lazily and yawned, "But I'd like to believe Tsunade has more heart than that, even if she doesn't act like it."

Ino shook her head and made her way towards the door. "Whatever, I'm going get something to drink."

"Wait,"

Ino looked back in question and Shikamaru pushed himself out of bed.

"I'm coming."

"Why?"

"Want to see if anyone's talking yet," He said walking past her.

Ino sighed and closed the door behind her, following after Shikamaru with crossed arms to the cafeteria. He took a seat beside a table of nurses while Ino went get a drink but they weren't saying anything interesting. Ino came back and sat down with her drink. She offered Shikamaru a sip of green tea but he watched the nurses and didn't seem to hear her. He planted his cheek in his hand and pushed at a packet of sugar with his finger. He straightened up for a moment to rub the tension out of his neck.

"Don't stress yourself out," Ino said in a hushed voice. "I'm sure you'll hear something soon."

Shikamaru put his elbows on the table. "I'd rather not talk about it here,"

"If you say so." Ino said with a sigh, blowing him off and sucking on her straw.

Naruto set the unconscious Jezebel on the grass in the forest a couple of miles out of the village. Over head the sky churned grey with the threat of rain and Naruto set up a tarp against a tree for them to sit under while waiting for Ino.

He crouched in front of Jezebel to watch her head roll forward. He pushed a finger against her forehead to push her head back up.

"Hey, Jezebel," He said, an awkward look on his face uncertain of what to do now. "Jezebeeelllll? Are you there? Come on, Buddy! I don't want to have to carry you the whole way back." Naruto groaned, watching her head roll forward again, mouth hanging open. The rain started to fall heavily and he took a seat beside her to watch the rain.

They still had a couple of days to go before Shikamaru was released from the hospital. He at least hoped the rain would let up soon. He was partly concerned about Jezebel but knew he'd been knocked unconscious more than his fair share of times, she would probably be okay.

The rain fell in a thick sheet in front of them and it wasn't long before the ground under them became soaked. He hooked his arms under her shoulders and pulled her up onto one of the large roots of the tree. That was something about this place, all the trees in this part of the woods had huge roots. He assumed that's where they got the village's name from.

He sniffed, wiping his face on his sleeve, the humidity clinging to his skin uncomfortably. He looked at Jezebel and pulled her head against his shoulder, slightly worried she would slide off the root in the position she was in.

This whole mission had gone pretty easy. I mean aside from Shikamaru getting hit with that funky bug and Dr. Shiro turning out to be a huge ass jerk, of course. Faking Jezebel's suicide had gone particularly well, even if Shiro did die in the process.

He had a feeling though, that it was for the better. If Shiro lived, who knew who he would torment next? A shudder passed through Naruto as the cold air hit him. He threw an arm around Jezebel's shoulders to keep her warm; the last thing they needed was for her to get sick on them. In all honesty though, he just really hoped this all wouldn't turn around to bite them in the butt later.

Chapter Text

Six months later

Beep Beep Beep.  The timer on the stove went off and Jezebel scurried across the wooden floors, stirring up dust in the patch of morning light that streamed in from the window. She set the biscuits down just in time to see Shikamaru walking in jerking on his jacket. A brief frown tugged down at her lips but she forced them up into an awkward smile. She avoided his eyes.

"Do you have to leave so soon?" She asked, inwardly cringing at the tinge of desperation that surfaced from her cheery tone, though in reality her mind had only amplified the sound.

“Afraid so. I have to be there on time even if Tsunade never is, it's such a drag.” Shikamaru took a biscuit from the tray and kissed her quickly. Jezebel caught his arm and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her lips pressed onto his roughly, full of want. A sly smirk crawled onto his face when she pulled back and he ran a hand down to the small of her back. He leaned his head back down to hers and brushed his lips against hers softly. “I’ll miss that while I’m gone,”

She felt her chest swell with happiness and a smile spread across her lips, but just as quickly as she had him, with another quick kiss he was leaving again. She stood in the door way to their home watching as Temari, a ninja of the sand village and Gaara’s older sister, met him and they began their walk towards the Hokage’s office.

Jezebel watched them till they disappeared into the crowd before she retreated back into the quiet confines of their home. Six months it had been since she’d first come to the leaf village. I guess you could say it had been a mixture of the happiest time of Jezebel’s life as well as the saddest, or well, most recently the saddest. That's not to say her time in the Root village hadn't been terribly sad, it had just...been a different sad. This sad was new to her and she wasn't quite sure how to handle it. She took a deep breath, the smile sliding off her face as she sat on the edge of their sofa.

Over all their relationship had been a success, a month after she’d been living with him they’d made things official and decided to just give it a go, it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to live anytime soon. Tsunade hadn’t even approved her to get a job yet, but the situation was tricky; they didn’t want someone from the Root village to discover Jezebel was alive and stir up suspicion with her and Shiro’s death.

Jezebel looked around the meticulously cleaned living room, the corner of her mouth pulled back in nothing resembling a smile. He always said she worked too hard, cleaning, cooking, running errands. She had the feeling he would have liked it more had she just sat around with him more often, if he was ever around to ever sit with anymore that is.

Shikamaru was smart, very smart and Tsunade took advantage of that continuously, though that was to be expected. Mission, after mission, after mission. Shikamaru complained about it to no end, but then again, he complained about everything. Even if he woke up a minute before the clock went off he would sit in bed with a deadpan expression listening to the alarm beep and she could tell he was just dreading the fact he had to even move to press it off. She gave a small laugh at the thought before getting up to put away their breakfast biscuits; she didn’t feel hungry right now.

He’ll only be gone a week this time, Jezebel told herself, not a month like last time. Though she knew she couldn’t exactly trust that; a day mission sometimes turned into a week just as well as a week sometimes turned into a month. It wasn’t like she didn’t know this is what it would be like if they got together. He was a ninja for god’s sake, he had a village to take care of and that was his job.

She supposed she had a job as well though, to build a life for herself away from him, make friends, get hobbies, learn to be normal. But normal wasn’t easy, not for her.

Ting-a-ling. The bell went off as she walked into the flower shop Ino and her parents owned. Ino looked up to Jezebel as she walked in and smiled.

“Hey Jezebel, what brings you here so early?” Ino asked. Over the last couple of weeks they’d actually come to develop a sort of friendship, though Jezebel sort of suspected it was because Shikamaru started complaining so much about her being a drag with it.

“Oh not too much,” Jezebel’s eyes averted her eyes nervously, taking in the flowers around her before looking back up. “Shikamaru left with Temari on a mission today.”

“Oh really? Lady Tsunade’s been sending them out together a lot lately, hasn’t she?” Ino blew her bangs back out of her face, leaning onto the counter. Jezebel’s mouth set awkwardly and she turned her face to the flowers again. She knew the blond didn’t mean anything by it, just friendly conversation.

“She really has,” Jezebel replied, trying to keep the glum tone from her voice. She tried to change the subject. “Are you doing anything today?” She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “If you weren’t working all day I was wondering if you wanted to come back to the house?”

Ino pouted a bit. “I’m sorry Jezebel, mom’s got me working all day. It sucks.” She replied, though truthfully she didn’t want to spend her free time toting around with Shikamaru’s girlfriend.

“Oh it’s okay,” Jezebel smiled, feeling the petal of one of the flowers. “Maybe next time,”

Ino laughed slightly. “Of course! That’d be cool,”

Jezebel bit her lip and clasped her hands in front of her, feeling her heart pick up in embarrassment, of course this had been a bad idea. “See you around,”

“Hey wait, when is Shikamaru supposed to get back, do you know?”

Jezebel gave a small shrug. “Maybe a week.”

Ino smiled back. “Okay! I’ll see you around,”

Jezebel sat down on a bench outside of a little lunch shop with her bento of Curry and a small side salad with ginger dressing. She ate in silence, watching the clouds pass over head, it’d been a trait of Shikamaru’s that just sort of rubbed off on her over time. He spent so much of his time watching the clouds she almost felt like it was required she do it herself, if even just a bit, though most of the time she watched the clouds she found herself wondering why he did it so much. Was he thinking? Or was he trying not to think? Both were very plausible answers.

She looked down at her curry, making a mental note to try to make it at home later, that would be a good meal for them.

“Jezebel!” Lee’s cheery voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Good afternoon! You are enjoying your lunch, I hope?” He grinned widely at her. 

Jezebel smiled up at Lee, he was always so cheery. “I am! Are you about to get some lunch too?”

He nodded his head. “I love the curry here, of course, nothing can compare to the Curry at the Curry of Life shop by Katabami Kinzan village. Ms. Sansho is a curry goddess!”

“Is that so?” Jezebel laughed a bit, she really had no idea what he was talking about. Katabami Kinzan Village? Of course that was no surprise, she only really knew about villages immediately in contact with them thanks to Shiro. She never got out much. “I’ll have to try it one day, would you like to eat lunch with me? I can wait till you have your food.”

“Aw, I am sorry Jezebel, I’m supposed to bring Gai-Sensei his lunch.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Maybe next time!”

Jezebel gave a weak smile. “Yeah, maybe next time.”

The hot water rushed over her and steam clouded the bathroom as she washed Shikamaru’s shampoo from her hair. She cupped her soapy hands over her nose and breathed in his scent to find comfort in it.

She found relief from the noise of the shower, the silence of the house overwhelmed her. At home in the Root Village she had welcomed a silent house, a silent house meant Shiro wasn’t there to torment her, but the silence of the house she stayed in now made her uneasy.

Stepping out the shower she pulled a towel around her waist and climbed up onto the counter to wipe the fog from the mirror. For Shikamaru it was the perfect height, for her…not so much.

Her mind was pulled back to what Ino had said earlier. It was true, Lady Tsunade had been sending Shikamaru out with Temari a lot, she didn’t have the slightest idea why for the simple fact whatever group of missions he’d been sent on lately had been confidential. The coarse haired woman made her uneasy. She was superior to Jezebel in more ways than one; she was smart and pretty and as laid back as he was, not to mention a ninja like him.

Jezebel let out a deep breath as if she were trying to exhale her insecurities. She brushed out her wet hair and wondered if her mother hadn’t of passed away so early on, leaving Jezebel to fill her shoes, if she would have gone to the ninja academy in Konoha. She snorted a laugh, wrapping her hair up in her towel and pulling on her night clothes. They never would have been able to afford it, even if she had been able to go. She thought about it bitterly as she turned the light off and made her wait to their quiet bed room.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot in the door way, staring into the room with hesitation. Maybe if she could get a dog or—or a cat, yes, a cat would suit her better. Dim light from the street lamp outside spilled into their bed room. She walked over to close the blinds and made a mental note to buy thicker curtains later.

She crawled under the billowy comforter and rested her head. How different her life could have been. She turned over and pulled Shikamaru’s pillow to her chest. She remembered telling Shikamaru she had some med-ninja training under her belt, she wondered if he remembered that. Truthfully, it was more her mother who had med-ninja training, she’d only taught Jezebel a few basic things. Jezebel wasn’t even sure she could do any of them. Her mother had tried teaching her a lot of the things she’d learned in her academy days, but Jezebel had never been very good at them.

She wondered if her mother had taught her those things in hope that if it ever came to needing to defend herself from Shiro she would be able to.

“What a waste…” Jezebel whispered to herself and clutched his pillow tighter. She thought back to all the times she could have used that information her mom tried to teach her. “If only I’d listened closer…paid more attention.” She closed her eyes, her mind filling up with memories.

He yelled at her from the top of his lungs but she couldn’t hear what he said, her ears still rang from when he rammed her head into the wall. With a fist full of hair he tossed her to the ground where she curled up tightly and covered her face with her arms to protect herself. He was over her now, tossing punches at her body unevenly, his breath reeking of scotch. Tears flooded her eyes; she could hardly see. He yanked her arms back from her face.

“Pathetic, pathetic.” He spit at her face. “Just like your mother, she could never do anything right.”

Jezebel shook tensely. Her eyes squeezed shut in anticipation for what came next. She tried to keep silent, to choke back the sobs building in her throat. She wanted to scream at him to stop, but she couldn’t, fear gripped her voice too tightly. He yanked her up by her arms only to shove her back down again. Holding her down he kissed her forcibly. She struggled against him but—

Jezebel snapped up right in bed. Her heart beat pounded against her chest so hard she leaned forward as if that might help it. She breathed short, ragged breaths and pressed her hands to either side of her head. The room around her felt too big, the world felt too big. She felt too small, and it terrified her.

She threw the comforter back from her and placed shaking feet on the floor as if it would help steady her. Nothing helped though, not when this happened. Her throat felt tight, too tight to swallow and she choked. She yanked the small trash can by her nightstand to her and threw up.

He’ll only be gone a week this time, Jezebel told herself, curling herself forward till her face was in her lap. Not a month like last time.

Warm light spilled in through the kitchen’s open window as Jezebel hummed softly to herself, sautéing some ginger with garlic and onions. A small bowl of pork and vegetables sat beside the stove ready to be added to the pan. Jezebel looked up at the knock on the front door.

“Coming,” She called, wiping her hands on a towel to answer the door. She pulled it open to Lee’s grinning face, a bag of something in his hand. “Oh hi Lee, how are you?”

“I am good! I heard Shikamaru was coming back soon so I wanted to bring him the new kunai knives I promised him.” In all honesty however, Shikamaru had asked him to stop by and check on her before he left for his mission if Lee didn’t end up on a mission himself. Lee paused for a moment, catching a whiff of whatever Jezebel was cooking. “Oh wow, that smells wonderful! Is that curry you are cooking?”

Jezebel nodded her head, pulling her auburn hair into a bun. “It is! Would you like some? It’s almost ready.”

“Would I?! I would love some! How kind of you!”

Jezebel smiled, she had expected him to turn her down like most people seemed to do. “Come on in,” She left the door open for him and made her way back to the kitchen. She dumped the bowl of pork and vegetables into the pan and moved the contents around in the strong seasonings.

Lee walked over to the stove and peered into the pan. He breathed in deeply. “Are you by any chance following a recipe?” He looked around for a cookbook to be perched open somewhere.

“Oh, no.” She glanced up at him briefly with a smile. “Just my imagination,”

“That’s too bad, I was going to ask you for the recipe if you had it.”

“I can write down what I did, if you like?”

“Wonderful! I’d like that.” Lee watched her move to get a pen and paper. She seemed to be doing okay enough. Shikamaru had gone to him a few days before he left to talk to him about Jezebel, she’d been doing poorly at night and despite having been in the village for the last six months she hadn’t made many friends. He felt sorry for the girl, such terrible things must have happened to her, the very thought that men like that still existed in the world infuriated him.

“Thank you very much,” He said as she handed him the paper. She pulled a bowl from the cabinet and put some rice in the bowl, putting a couple scoops of curry over the rice then fixed a bowl for herself. “How has your week been?” He asked as he took a seat across from her. Jezebel seemed to hesitate; her mind flickered over the events of the week so far. Uneventful, lonely.

“Good,” She said, nodding her head and taking a bite of the curry. The sharp spices bit her taste buds and her eyes watered; too spicy. She grimaced a bit and looked up at Lee about to apologize for it, but he scarfed it down. A small smile pulled up the corners of her lips. “How about yourself?”

“Oh, it was wonderful! I went and sought out the biggest boulder I could find and held it for as long as I could. I told myself that if I were to drop it then I would do 800 push-ups! And If I couldn’t finish them then I would do 900 pull-ups! Then I focused my aim on breaking the boulder with nothing but mediocre kicks!” He pushed at the air as he talked and Jezebel gave a small giggle. She was glad he stopped by, she was thankful for the company and that he seemed to enjoy the curry. She knew Shikamaru would eat it being she cooked it, but she wasn’t sure if he would be thrilled with the amount of spice in it. She took another bite of curry, her mind wandering off into what Lee had to say.

Chapter Text

Shikamaru crouched down just outside the entrance of the village of sand, staring up at the bleak sky, grimly waiting for Temari. Beside him Choji chowed down on a bowl of chicken dumplings he’d taken to go. Choji paused in his eating with a full mouth to look down at his friend. He swallowed.

“Hey Shikamaru, you doin’ all right?” He asked, “You’ve been kind of out of it the whole trip.”

“Huh?” Shikamaru looked at Choji briefly before looking back at the clouds. “Yea man, I’m fine.”

“Hn…” Choji furrowed his eyebrows; he seemed unconvinced. He placed another dumpling in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. They hadn’t talked much about Jezebel at all this trip, mainly because they had other things to focus on, settling some matters with the sand village, but also because he hadn’t had much time to themselves with Temari around.

“Come on man, I know you better than that.” Choji frowned a bit. “You’ve been my best friend for forever! It’s about Jezebel, isn’t it?”

Shikamaru’s lips formed a thin line as he watched the clouds. He took a deep breath. It was becoming obvious they would be gone longer than a week.  No way they would make it back on time now.

“Can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

“Nope, no you can’t.” Choji shook his head and scarfed up the rest of his dumplings quickly. “What’s the problem? You asked Lee to check on her this time, didn’t you?” He asked, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

“Yea, he’s the only other guy I know of that wouldn’t freak her out. I know Kiba or Shino would do it without second thought though otherwise. And most the girls I knew were out on missions or busy.” He rubbed the tension out of his shoulder, tilting his head to stretch it out. Sometimes his body still hurt from his battle with the virus, but overall he figured he was doing pretty good. “When she found out I was leaving, she started acting weird again, always does.” He groaned to himself, he hated seeing her like that. The night terrors, the anxiety attacks, avoiding people, the cautious look she gave his friends. “It’s such a drag…”

“Hm? What is?” Temari asked coming out of the gates, hands on her hips. The two men looked to her.

“Nothing,” Shikamaru closed the subject, pushing himself up wearily. Temari glared a bit at him but shrugged it off; it wasn’t her business. “Ready to go?”

She nodded.

Jezebel shifted wearily from foot to foot as she stared out their upstairs bedroom window. Where was he? A frown tugged down at her lips and sadness squeezed her heart. He was supposed to be back a day ago. She bit her lip hard, a bitter expression in her eyes. She plopped herself down on the bed with a heavy sigh. Of course.

She lifted her eyes to look at the cloud outside and tried to think the best of it. He was busy. He had a job to do. It couldn’t be helped. With a heavy sigh she pushed herself up and walked down to the kitchen where a pot sat on the stove heating up some curry. Over the last two days she’d actually taken a liking to the heavy spice. This was the last bit of it.

She stirred the curry with sad eyes. Ino was away on a mission, Sakura was busy at the hospital, Lee was out training. She really needed to make some friends that weren’t ninjas. She scooped her curry up into a bowl and sat at her table forlornly. Maybe he would come back today.

She cringed inwardly at her neediness. She knew it was wrong, that she needed to be stronger, but she just wasn’t quite sure how. This was all new to her but it was becoming old fast. She suspected she should just be thankful that she was saved from Shiro but it didn’t sooth her loneliness any more than eating curry alone for the eighth time this week did.

Jezebel neared the gates of the village with a container wrapped up in hand for Lee. She figured he would enjoy the rest of the overly zesty spice than she would after eating it so much. Eating it for breakfast this morning had just been the last stand. However her eyes lit up at the sight she saw instead. Shikamaru standing at the front gates….talking to Temari. Laughing about something. Temari placed a hand on his shoulder and seemed to leave it there for a moment too long.

Jezebel took a deep breath and stayed planted to her spot. If she walked up now she risked the chance of looking jealous with the awkward expression she knew she would have. Temari might not notice it, but Shikamaru knew her too well not to. However, if she continued to stay here and Shikamaru looked over, he would wonder why she didn’t just walk over. She found herself shifting her weight from foot to foot again, trying to choose the better option.

She briefly thought about turning and just walking back home, but Shikamaru caught sight of her. He turned his gaze full on her and raised his chin at her; something he did when he wanted her to come over but didn’t feel motivated enough to call her over himself. A small frown tugged at her lips for the second time today and she glanced at Temari before she started walking towards them. The blond ninja’s gaze fell on her, warm and friendly.

Jezebel partially wished Shikamaru would come meet her instead, you know, out of happiness and stuff, but she dismissed the thought. It was ridiculous , besides, Shikamaru was too laid back for that. She walked up to the two ninja, each much taller than she was.

Shikamaru wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulled her close to his chest and kissed her forehead affectionately. Whatever sadness had been boiling in her chest melted away and a slight blush spread across her cheeks.  She wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him hard but restrained herself in fear of what Temari would think of her. But at the same time she thought that maybe she should so Temari would think of her, but that thought was also irrational and ridiculous. She even found herself blushing deeper at her own stupidity.

“Alright Shikamaru, I’ll see you in a few weeks.” Temari waved as she started to head towards the hokage’s office. “It was good seeing you.”

“Good seein’ you too,” Shikamaru waved back and Jezebel wondered why he wasn’t going to the hokage’s office with her. “Later.”

That was when he turned and pulled her into a full hug, knowing how much it would make her happy. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and buried his face in her hair, breathing in the smell of his shampoo. A slight smile turned up on his lips. She always used his shampoo when she missed him.

“Miss me?” He asked quietly and Jezebel hugged him tighter. She buried her face in his chest and breathed in the familiar smell of sweat and forest that was uniquely his.

“Yeeessss…” She whined it, slightly muffled by his clothes. She whined it guilty almost; ashamed at how poorly she did without him.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Kiba’s loud voice bellowed as he got close to them, hands shoved into his pockets with a very large Akamaru in tow. “No PDA!”

Shikamaru got a mischievous smile on his face and slid his hand farther down Jezebel’s back and held her closer. “Says who?”

“Begs every person in the village.” He replied.

Shikamaru let Jezebel go as Kiba greeted him with a handshake that all the close ninja guys seemed to share. Jezebel eyed Kiba and gave a small, frustrated sigh to herself as she stepped back to let the two talk. Why couldn’t he just go away? Why did he have to turn up now of all times? Jezebel scuffed the dirt with her foot and studied her now dusty shoe. Konoha was so dry this time of year.

Jezebel looked up as Kiba invited Shikamaru out with the guys tomorrow night. Much to her relief he turned him down.

“I told dad I’d share a drink with him,”

Jezebel lifted her head and stared up at Shikamaru. He hadn’t told her anything about that. Maybe they discussed it after he left home. Jezebel turned her gaze down the road, a man laid back in his rocking chair in the hot sun, yawning lazily.

She wished Shikamaru would just stay home for a few days, why did he have to go see his father so soon? Her lip pulled back and she reminded herself it wasn’t like he didn’t want to stay home. Besides, she couldn’t keep him from his father. She suspected that since the death of Asuma (Who died long before she came into the picture) that Shikamaru had been trying to build a closer relationship with his father.

She wasn’t sure if he’d ever admit it or if he even realized it, but she thought he needed a man like that, a father figure. She rolled her eyes at herself, of course his father wouldn’t be a father figure, he would actually be his father. She snorted at her stupidity, thankful no one could read her thoughts.

“Aight man, maybe next time, see you.” Kiba raised a hand at Jezebel and smile. “Later Bell,”

Jezebel smiled; Shikamaru referred to her as Bell so much that now a few others had picked up on her nickname. She liked that fact, even if Shikamaru was the only one that could make it special.

Shikamaru stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at the container she was carrying; why was she all the way on this side of the village anyway?

“Lunch?” He raised an eyebrow and she sweatdropped, there was no way she could have known he would be coming in at this time.

“No, actually. To be honest I made some curry that’s too spicy, I was going to dump it off on Lee before you had to suffer through it.”

Shikamaru stifled a quiet laugh. “That’s kind of you,”

Jezebel pursed her lips together and cocked her head to the side at his sarcastic tone. “Hey, you’re free to suffer through it all you like.”

Shikamaru raised his hands up to his chest in mock defense. “No, torture Lee all you want, I’ve got no problem with it.”

“Good.” Jezebel said matter-of-factly and turned to start walking into the village, knowing Shikamaru would follow.

“Troublesome women,” He muttered just loud enough for her to hear, stuffing his hands back into his pockets.

She looked over her shoulder at him with a smile and a fake glare and he smirked playfully back at her.

Being that there wasn’t enough curry left to share between the two and she had been so determined on giving the lot to Lee, and of course, the fact Shikamaru trusted her whole-heartedly when she said he wouldn’t like something…they ended up at a small restaurant in town for lunch. 

The Ninja Noodle Room, it was called. They came by here every so often. On one of their first few “normal” dates, Shikamaru had managed to make a perverted reference at the name (A side of him Jezebel didn’t often see) and ever since then it’d become an inside joke between the two.

The room was hazy with smoke from cigarettes and Shikamaru took the chance to light up, sitting across from Jezebel in silence. She poked at the pepper shaker on the table, moving it around with her finger tip. She glanced up at Shikamaru’s cigarette disapprovingly but didn’t say anything.

“How was your mission?” Jezebel broke the silence.

“A pain…” He inhaled deeply, leaned back with his arm over the back of her chair. “I guess you figure I went to the sand village being Temari’s been around and all…” He tapped the end of his cigarette into the ash tray on the table. “It’s so damn hot out there…”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jezebel said with sympathy though a small smile was still on her lips.

Shikamaru glanced up from the ash tray to study her for a moment. She looked out into the dimly lit room where a waitress brought out someone’s lunch.

“You do okay?” He asked. The seriousness in his tone made her look up briefly.

“Yeah,” She said dismissively, turning her eyes back to the waitress. “I did good,” She didn’t want him to worry.

“No, I mean really.” He said, a steady gaze trained on her. “How’d you do this week?”

Jezebel watched the waitress walk back behind closed doors before she replied. She shifted uneasily in her seat. He knew she was lying. “I did okay…” She avoided his gaze, her elbows rested up on the table and her cheek rested against her hands.

“...But?” He watched her small smile waver.

“A few anxiety attacks…nothing major,” She said quietly, looking down at the white paper that covered the table. “Lee stopped by though, it was helpful.”

A tiny wave of relief fell over Shikamaru and he put his cigarette out in the ashtray, glad to hear his plan worked.

“Yeah,” He said, “Lee’s a real helpful guy.”

Jezebel looked up at him for the first time since he brought it up, a smile already climbing back onto her lips.

“Yeah, he is.”

Later that night.  

Shikamaru stood watching himself brush his teeth in the mirror in their tiny bathroom that was too high for Jezebel. He glanced down at her as she made her way into the room and watched her climb onto the counter to brush her teeth in the mirror beside him. He made a mental note to get a mirror they could both see in before she fell off the counter and got amnesia or something. He spit into the sink and she did the same. Amnesia was the last thing she needed right now.

Jezebel wiped her mouth on her sleeve and frowned at the new battle wound on his stomach just above his hip. It was scabbed over, nothing too deep, but it worried Jezebel none the less.

“I thought you said this mission would be an easy one…” She reached out and touched the cut softly. Shikamaru ran his fingers through wet hair, his pony tail out from the shower. He scooped her up off the counter and set her back down on her feet, hair tie in his mouth.

“It was easy,” He said, taking the hair tie in his hand and tying his hair back up. “Barely even got me.”

Jezebel ran her fingers over the cut again, avoiding his gaze with a sad look. She still felt somewhat lied too. Shikamaru yawned and stretched his arm out behind him.

“Come on,” He said starting to head for bed. “Don’t be such a drag…I’m alive, aren’t I?”

“Yeah…” Jezebel watched him walk away. She knew he wasn’t trying to be mean or anything, he was maybe even trying to be reassuring, but the words stung regardless.

She climbed into bed beside him, his lamp already out, and reached out to turn her lamp off. She laid down and listened to the silence for a moment with her skin tingling before she sat up and turned the light back on again.

“Shikamaru?” She asked, putting a hand on his shoulder, back turned towards her.

“Hm?” He asked, eyes closed.

“Do you want to…you know?”

He opened an eye and looked back at her. He smirked a bit, she was adorable sometimes.

“No I don’t know, what?”

Jezebel glared at him slightly. “You know what.”

Shikamaru chuckled lightly, closing his eyes again. “In the morning, alright?”

“Oh okay,” Jezebel bit her lip and turned her light back out before she laid back down dejectedly. She let out a small breath and stared at the shadow of the window cast on the wall from the streetlight outside. Sometimes he was even too lazy for sex, and that my friends, is the laziest man you’ll ever meet.

2:00 AM

Jezebel woke with a start and sat up in bed quickly. Her heart pounded furiously and her breath came in short gasps. She placed a hand over her mouth and looked around the room wildly with an overwhelming sense of terror. She pushed herself out of bed as carefully as she could and rushed to the bathroom as to not wake Shikamaru.

She turned closed the bathroom door and slid down into a corner of the bathroom. Clutching her knees to her chest tightly tears streamed down from her wide eyes, she just wanted it to stop. The ceiling felt like it was closing in on her and she buried her face into her knees and swallowed hard, choking on the tightness of her throat. She took a shaky breath, jumped at the knock on the door.

“Bell?” Came Shikamaru’s voice from the other side of the door.

She didn’t respond.

He placed his hand on the doorknob with a dreary expression. He’d woken up when he first heard her close the bathroom door; she didn’t even close it hard, it was just that it was straight across from their room. He let out a heavy sigh and pushed his way in.

She refused to meet his gaze and he wondered if that was just an attempt to keep calm, maybe the added pressure of him there was too much even if it did eventually help her in the long run.

He slid down beside her and pulled her into his lap like a child. Resting his chin on her head, he rubbed her arm affectionately. She clutched onto his shirt tightly with shallow breaths.

“Hey,” He pulled her closer to him protectively, trying to get her attention on him and not the terror that haunted her. “It’s okay, listen to me. Take a deep breath.”

She shook violently but tried to do what he said regardless. Choking out a sob she cried into his shoulder, tears staining his shirt.

“You got this, Jezebel,” He said quietly, “you can beat this.”

Shikamaru’s father, Shikaku, sat beside Shikamaru at the bar with a glass of rum in his hand. He had a small smirk on his face and glanced over towards Shikamaru. They’d sat there in silence for a good thirty minutes, not that it bothered him much; he just knew his son didn’t just invite him out for no reason.

“Somethin’ been on your mind?”

Shikamaru’s gaze stayed fixed on the spot in front of him steadily, cigarette in his mouth. Aside from Choji and Lee his dad was the only one that knew about Jezebel’s issues and then Choji was the only one that really knew everything. Lee and his dad only knew a rock’s skip about it, not the whole ten yards. He wasn’t really sure what brought him to this, deciding to talk to his dad, but here he was anyway.

Shikamaru flicked his lighter open as he dad pulled out a cigarette and he lighted it for him.

“Wanted some advice,”

“On?”

“Jezebel,”

His dad cocked an eyebrow at him and Shikamaru glowered back. He just knew what his dad was thinking. Shikaku knew his son thought he was whipped and was terrible with women, even if he never said it out loud.

“Don’t give me that look,” Shikamaru grumbled and glared away from him. “It’s such a drag…”

His dad snorted and gave a small shake of his head, looking away with his smirk still on his face.

“What about her?”

Shikamaru tipped his glass up to his lips before staring at the ice in silence. His dad seemed to understand the silence given to him because he went on talking after a moment.

“No one said women were easy,”

“Yea, no one said they’d be this hard either.” Shikamaru’s lips pulled back grimly and his dad studied the look he gave his drink.

“If she’s worth it, you’ll figure it out.” Shikaku said simply, looking into his glass. “And,” He gave a small shrug. “If she’s not, then you’ll figure that out too.”

Shikamaru looked at his dad with a slightly irritated expression, not liking how coolly he approached the subject, like he was so much wiser than Shikamaru when he fearfully couldn’t even look his mother in the eyes sometimes.

Another few moments of silence passed between the two while Shikamaru analyzed what his father said. He figured he shouldn’t of expected any profound piece of advice from him.

“When you going to take her by?”

“Huh?” Shikamaru looked up, pulled out of his thoughts.

“Your mom’s been chewing my ear off about it. She almost trudged down to your house herself this week to meet her.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that though, gone as much as you are.” His dad looked back at him with a smirk.

“What can I say?” Shikamaru grumbled a reply, “Tsunade loves me.”

“I think it would do her some good,” Shikaku said and Shikamaru looked at him quizzically, thinking he meant Tsunade for a moment. “Jezebel that is, to get to know your mother. You said she doesn’t have many friends and Yoshino always wanted a girl.”

“I think they’d clash,” Shikamaru sniffed, glancing at the clock. 8:00 PM, he told Jezebel he’d be back by nine. “You know how mom is. The idea is to make her less terrified, not more.”

His dad only shrugged. “Never know, they might end up best friends.”

Shikamaru let out a tired sigh. “That’s an even scarier thought than the first one.”

His dad laughed and pulled out his wallet to pay for both of them. Yoshino expected him back by nine much like Jezebel did Shikamaru, but he’d learned over the years it was always best to arrive sooner than she expected.

“Think about it, okay?”

“Right,” Shikamaru said dismissively, “I hear you.”

His dad paused for a moment, studying his son in the dim light of the bar, his smirk growing into a soft smile.

“You’re doing good,” His dad said, putting a hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder as he passed by. “Asuma would be proud.”

“Thanks…” Shikamaru felt a tinge of sadness at the mention of his old sensei and he stared at the counter. “I mean it.”

Chapter Text

Jezebel laid back on the sofa watching the minutes tick by on the wall clock wearily. With a heavy sigh she pushed herself up and stood up to fix the flowers in the coffee table vase restlessly. Shikamaru was at a meeting. Again.

It seemed as if he weren’t on a mission, he was just in another meeting. She pressed her lips together and tilted her head to the side to observe the flowers carefully. Would the blue flower look better next to the purple flower or the pink flower?

She looked at the bag of things Shikamaru had left on the floor this morning and wondered if it might be too early to take them to the training ground. Psh, she rolled her eyes. Was there even such a thing as too early for Lee? Shikamaru had asked her earlier if she could take them by.

Picking the bag up, she pushed the door open and started heading towards the training fields. Who knew when he would be home? One day it was after an hour, another it was after twelve. She paused while she waited for a carriage to pass by, carrying a couple closed barrels. Across the street a man stared at her fixedly and she shifted uncomfortably under his steady gaze. Her pulse quickened when he stood up and started towards her slowly. Turning away she tried to walk causally but found herself running.

Looking back as she got down the road she stumbled, falling over Sakura.

“Wh-hey!” Sakura rubbed her head and winced. “What’s the rush, Jezebel?”

Jezebel put a hand over her chest, trying to catch her breath. She looked back over her shoulder, no body; it was all in her mind. Tears threatened to well up, was she going crazy now? Sakura looked at her with concern.

“Hey, I’m sorry.” Sakura said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Jezebel shook her head and rubbed her eye with a weak smile. “No, I thought someone was chasing me.”

“They weren’t, were they? Because I’ll show them a thing or two if I need to.” Sakura furrowed her eyebrows with a serious look. “People are terrible these days, you can never be too careful.”

“No,” Jezebel pushed herself up  with a smile, and offered a hand to Sakura. “It was nothing, I’m certain of it, thank you for your concern though. Are you okay?”

Sakura smiled back at Jezebel, taking her hand and picking her bag up. “Yeah, I’m alright. What’s in the bag? If I’m not being too nosy.”

Jezebel looked at Shikamaru’s bag and blinked. “I’m not sure, actually. It’s something’s for Lee, Shikamaru wanted me to take it by.”

“Well, I’ve got some free time. I’ll walk with you if you’d like?” Sakura asked, hoping to help Jezebel feel more at ease. She did look a bit scared. Jezebel lit up at her offer.

“Sure!” She said cheerfully. She really liked Sakura, it was too bad she worked so much. “What’ve you been up to?”

“Oh you know, same old same old. A lot going on at the hospital without a lot actually going on, you know?” Sakura replied, smiling at her with arms folded behind her back.

Jezebel thought back to her own days at the hospital, it was probably one of the reasons she liked Sakura so much. She felt like maybe she would be able to relate to her better than any of the other women she had met so far.

“I do. The hospital was always like that for me; so many things to do but nothing ever there to really do.” She replied. Biting her lip she turned her eyes up to the sky; she really hoped that made sense. She decided to change the subject. “Have you seen Naruto recently?”

“Oh yeah, the other day actually. We’re all going to Yakiniku for barbeque later tonight. Naruto said he was going to ask Shikamaru and you to go too. You guys should come; it would be nice since we never get a chance to hang out.”

Jezebel looked to Sakura brightly, the promise of friendship lighting her up. “I’d love to! Shikamaru loves that place too, so I’m sure he’ll be up for it. Who all is going?”

Sakura turned her eyes up to think about it as they neared the training grounds. “Uhm…Well, me, Naruto, and Choji for sure, I’m not sure who else.” She paused to think about it again. Ino would probably go if Shikamaru was but she didn’t want to tell that to her. “Oh, I think he said something about Kiba too.”

“Sakura! Jezebel!” Lee shouted with a big wave when he spotted them from across the training grounds. He rushed over to meet them, clearly out of breath from training, leaning forward with hands on his knees.

“Are you okay, Lee? Not training too hard I hope,” Sakura asked.

Lee snapped up right with a hand on his hip, giving Sakura a bit thumbs up with his rosy cheeks and winking.

“Nonsense! There is never such a thing as training too hard!”

Sakura laughed awkwardly and sweat dropped. He’s always so damn perky. She grumbled the thought in her mind with a forced grin.

Jezebel held out the bag to Lee. “Here you are! I believe this belongs to you?”

“Oh wonderful! I did not expect him to return this so soon!”

 “What’re you working on, Lee?” Sakura asked.

“Basic run through of physical training! I was just about to practice my kunai aim though.”

Sakura blinked. “Why go through all that trouble though, don’t you already have all that committed to muscle memory? That’s all elementary stuff.”

Jezebel looked up. Elementary stuff? Would that maybe mean it was something easy to learn? A smile crawled on her face.

“I do! But the extra practice could only improve my skill, isn’t that right?” He chuckled.

“Hey, you said its basic stuff, right?” She shifted her weight hesitantly and they looked at her curiously. “Could you show me some things?”

“Sure! I do not see why not! Why not start with kunai throwing?” Lee asked with fists still on his hips and Jezebel nodded eagerly.

“Shikamaru never taught you anything?” Sakura asked with a tilt of her head while Lee pulled out some Kunai.

“He did, a little bit.” Jezebel replied with a smile. “Not much, but he does want me to know some things just in case.”

“I see! That makes sense. Even the Leaf village isn’t always a safe place for a woman.” Sakura nodded her head and lifted her hand in a small wave. “I’d better be going now though, my shift starts in an hour. I’ll see you guys later!”

“Bye Sakura! I hope you have the most wonderful time at work and if you need help with anything please don’t hesitate to ask!” Lee waved to Sakura brightly. Jezebel couldn’t help notice the way he was with her, like the sun shined out of her ears. It was becoming more and more obvious how he felt for her and he found herself wondering why Sakura didn’t seem to want to give him the time of day, he didn’t seem like a bad guy to her.

“Right! Your first lesson in Kunai throwing is this!” He positioned himself to throw one at the large targeted stump in front of him. “No matter what, you must always throw with caution and focus. You need to have a delicate but firm grip always, no matter which way you adapt to gripping it!”

“Next, you’ll want to observe what distance you are at. We are at a long range distance so you’ll want to keep your wrist unbent and assume the proper stance. Observe how I am standing.” He said, standing with legs apart and bent slightly, arm pulled back. “Aim for the target…then swing, but not too hard, the weight of the kunai will mostly build its own momentum.”

Jezebel listened closely, nodding her head every so often. She watched the blade slide from his hand swiftly and hit the center of the target effortlessly.

“The reason it is important to keep your wrist unbent for a long range throw is because it keeps the blade from turning in the air, which could potentially throw off your aim, and when you’re in battle that is just not something you can risk.” He explained as she took the kunai he offered to her and then helped her grip it. “Try getting a feel for the weight a few times before you throw it.” He suggested, guiding her arm out in front of her slowly, fixing her wrist anytime it started to bend.

“Very good!” He said encouragingly, “Now, I think you’re ready to give it a try!”

She sent the kunai flying and it soared well past the massive stump, into the forest. A group of birds flew out from a tree in alarm and they both stared off with a sweat drop. Lee put a reassuring hand on her shoulder though and laughed.

“That was a good try! Do not worry! It is always difficult to get on the first try.”

Jezebel’s shoulders slumped forward.  But I didn’t even hit the stump.

Shikamaru sat in the stuffy meeting room just down the hall from the office of the Hokage, rolling his pencil back and forth over the papers in front of him. He knew he should have probably been sitting up and giving Tsunade’s presentation his full attention but he also knew this particular meeting didn’t really apply to him at all, not to mention it was boring his ears off. Why couldn’t he just have stayed home? Maybe have a nice cup of tea…spend some time with Jezebel…play a little Shoji…maybe watch some clouds.

He stifled a yawn, turning a glazed look at the board Tsunade kept slapping a pointer at. The guys new to Tsunade’s meetings kept jumping every time the pointer hit the board, but he’d gotten used to it. It was too bad he couldn’t at least find some amusement from it, but he’d just seen it too often this past week. To be honest, It’d been a real drag at first, a hugely annoying habit she had, but now he could hardly hear it.

Temari sat across from him, equally as bored but paying more attention to Tsunade than he was, that was for sure. She furrowed her eyebrows, she couldn’t believe him. He could at least act interested. She kicked his shin from under the table and he snapped upright.

“Ow!” He reaching down to rub his shin and glared at her from across the table.

“What?” Tsunade snapped at him and his head snapped towards her.

“Oh uh, nothing.” He looked away; desperately hoping pink didn’t tint his cheeks. He turned his glare back to Temari and she smirked. “Muscle spasm.”

Tsunade just glared before she went on with her part of the meeting. She wasn’t going to beat him up about that since the virus had in fact, left him with muscle spasms every now and then.

Shikamaru waited till Temari was paying attention to the presentation again before he drew his foot back and kicked her back in the shin. She jumped with surprise, her mouth falling open then glowered at him for a moment before she smirked and raised an eyebrow as if to say I thought you didn’t hit girls.

He leaned forward to fold his arms on the table and smirked back at her. Had her thoughts been vocalized he probably would have responded with something of the nature of: Is that implying you are a girl?

She pursed her lips with a slightly irritated look, their unspoken conversation broken by Tsunade’s loud voice.

“ARE YOU TWO EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!” She shouted, slamming her hand down on the table and scaring them both back into reality. She paused for a moment, looking between the two while they recollected themselves. “Now, you both will leave in a few days’ time as opposed to what was first decided upon. The sooner we wrap this up the better.”

Shikamaru’s eyes widened a bit but then he sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right, the sooner this was wrapped up the sooner he could just lay back and not have so much to worry about. He pinched the spot between his eyes as a headache came on. Jezebel would be so upset though, she’d had her heart set on going to the upcoming festival with him…This was such a drag…

Temari walked home with Shikamaru discussing the mission at hand and agreed on a place to meet. He would meet her outside the village in the morning two days from now and travel back to the sand village with her.

As they came to stand outside of his door and Temari looked down at her shin.

“Well, thanks for the bruise.”

“Don’t mention it,” He said with a smirk, “I guess I should say thanks for mine too. You know, I really hate to use physical force on a woman, but I guess I could just say it was self-defense.”

“Self-defense?” She put her hands on her hips with a snort. “Defense for what? Your ego? You kick like a girl,” She was about to continue when she saw Jezebel hurried towards them with bright eyes and a wide smile. “Well, there’s the lady of the house. I’ll see you later Shikamaru.” She waved a hello to Jezebel as they passed each other.

Jezebel came to stop in front of Shikamaru with hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

“Shikamaru!” She said, jumping up. Her face fell when she saw the look he had. “What’s wrong?”

“Lady Tsunade’s moved up the mission date. We’re leaving Friday morning now instead of a couple weeks from now.”  He watched her softly, feeling heavy when her expression drop farther. Her mouth fell open like she were going to say something, but then she shut it again, looking off into the crowd quietly. He wondered what was going through her mind right now and wished she would just tell him, but then again, he’d come to know that she didn’t do that in moments like this.

She pressed her lips together slightly and he breathed in heavily, putting a hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek.

“I’m sorry Bell, I’ll make it up to you another time, alright?”

She nodded her head and gave him a small smile.

“Of course, it’s okay.” She said and put her arms around him, trying to cover the pain that was building in her chest.

“Naruto invited us out for barbeque to night.” He said, kissing her head and squeezing her tightly before pushing the door open to the house. “Sakura and Ino will be there, I think it’ll be good for you to get out and get to know them better.”

Jezebel nodded her head tightly and walked through the door of the house straight into the kitchen to make sure all the dishes were cleaned. They were. She scrubbed at a clean plate in the sink regardless.

“That sounds nice. Sakura told me about it earlier today,” Jezebel said from the kitchen, “She went with me to drop that bag off to Lee today and he taught me to throw a kunai.” She walked back into the living room to curl up beside him on the sofa and nuzzled into his chest. She was thankful for the time she did have with him at least.

“Really?” He smirked, thinking back to the time he’d tried to teach her the same thing. “How’d that go?”

 “I’ll have you know I hit the target.” Jezebel raised her nose defiantly to his tone.

 “Really? How many times you hit it?” Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and watched her hold back a sheepish smile. He knew her too well.

“Once,” She said matter-of-factly. “At the end.”

“Great, you’ll be able to compete with the academy students in no time.” He smirked with a chuckle and she gave him a small punch in the arm.

“Hey! Shikamaru!” Ino waved happily from the door of Yakiniku where she stood beside Sakura. “Oh, hi Jezebel.” She grinned forcibly, just noticing her.

The corner of Jezebel’s mouth twitched into a forced smile, not missing that. “Hi. Ino.”

Oh geez. Shikamaru rolled his eyes with hands stuffed into his pockets as he approached her.

“Ow!” Ino snapped when Sakura elbowed her in the side.

“Have you guys seen Naruto?” Sakura asked, glancing down at the watch on her wrist. “He was supposed to meet us fifteen minutes ago.”

Shikamaru shrugged. “You know Naruto.” He smiled slightly seeing Choji and Kiba approach.

“Hey guys!  Whatsup?” Kiba asked.

Akamaru barked his hello and Choji waved with his mouth full from the chips he was stuffing into his mouth. Choji looked around with confusion and swallowed.

“Where’s Naruto? I’m starving.”

“Late as always.” Ino grumbled and sent a miffed look at Sakura for elbowing her.

Jezebel stood beside Shikamaru and shifted awkwardly, looking from person to person when they spoke.

Maybe this was a bad idea; maybe she should have just stayed home. There were a lot of people here. This is what she wanted though, right? When she was still held back at Shiro’s , isn’t this what she always dreamed of? Getting out with a big group of friends and just having a good time? Having freedom? She bit her lip and looked into the window of the restaurant uncertainly.

Sakura spotted her nervous expression and moved to stand beside her with a smile while the others spoke. As far as she knew, Jezebel was just a quiet girl, which Sakura didn’t find surprising for Shikamaru. She always figured if he didn’t let his passiveness land him a loud-mouth he’d always end up with a quiet girl. Though she had to admit Jezebel seemed more than just quiet sometimes but in all honestly not much different than Hinata. They would probably be good friends, she thought.

“Hey Jezebel, how did the kunai thing go?”

Jezebel seemed to snap back to reality, a smile jumping on her face. “Good! I’m picking up on it!”

“That’s great, I’m glad to hear it.” She looked up at Naruto running towards them followed at a distance by Temari.

“Hey guys!” He shouted, coming to a halt beside them, Temari approaching more slowly. She locked eyes with Jezebel and smiled; Jezebel’s stomach sank slightly. “Sorry we’re late! I wanted to invite Temari too, you know, while she was still in town.”

“DON’T YOU KNOW IT’S RUDE TO KEEP PEOPLE WAITING, NARUTO?!” Sakura snapped at Naruto with a clutched first then smiled at Temari. “I’m glad you could make it though, it’s nice to see you!”

“Thank you, I’m glad I could make it.” She replied politely.

The night went by slowly but happily with Choji eating more than his body weight in barbeque and him and Kiba wrestling over pieces of meat before he ate it all.

“Hey! Save some for me, man!”

“But I’m so hungry!” Choji protested, trying to reach over Kiba’s arm with his chopsticks. “I’ve hardly eaten anything all day!”

“You ate a five course meal at lunch today!” Kiba retorted, pushing Choji back and trying to grab some meat for himself. “I was there!”

Sai ended up coming too. Naruto had invited him but hadn’t expected him to show up. Jezebel watched him, amused when he called Ino beautiful and Sakura raged. Shikamaru debated with Naruto over some sort of intricate ninja thing she didn’t quite understand and she blew on a piece of freshly cooked spicy pork before trying to take a bite. She made a sound incredibly similar to a squeal, putting it down quickly when she burned her tongue and sucking on her drink.

Shikamaru stopped in the middle of his debate to look to Jezebel and see that she were okay before he started talking again. Ino jumped into the debate, soon followed by Temari, who seemed to agree with Shikamaru on whatever he was defending.

Jezebel looked between the debaters quietly, chewing her now cooled pork slowly with envy pricking at her skin. She suppressed a sigh and set another piece of meat over the hot charcoals to cook. It would have been nice to have some sort of clue what they were talking about but she pushed the thought away, brushing her knee against Shikamaru, feeling him next to her always comforted him.

Sai chuckled, a cheery smile on his face when he looked to Naruto.

“You’re quite loud, aren’t you?”

“HEY BUDDY WATCH WHAT YOU—” Naruto was cut short by Sakura hitting him.

“GRRR BE QUIET NARUTO YOU’RE DISTURBING THE OTHER PEOPLE!” She shouted back.

Jezebel couldn’t help thinking that Sai was terribly bad at catching on.

A waitress came by to pick up the remaining dishes and take their order on drinks. As the night went on Sai and Ino left and the rest of them eventually ended up in the bar side of the restaurant with Kiba and Naruto playing darts while Sakura and Jezebel waited their turn.

Shikamaru moved the ice around in his drink while Choji and Temari chatted beside him at the bar, his eyes fixed on Jezebel. She finally seemed to be enjoying herself, not clinging to him so much. He took a sip of his drink and pulled a cigarette out to light. It wasn’t that he particularly cared that she clung to him as much as she did, he just wanted more for her than that.

Of course, bouncing back wasn’t easy for her considering she had nothing to bounce back from; it was completely redesigning herself from what she’d always known. He hoped that Sakura would continue to befriend her; she seemed to see what Jezebel needed.

“I’ve got to say, Shikamaru,” He was pulled out of his thoughts by Temari. “I’ve always imagined you with a bossier woman.”

Shikamaru snorted, “I don’t know why people keep saying that, I really don’t think I could survive another woman like my mother.”

“They always say men marry their mothers,” Her lips curled up humorously. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

He only grunted a reply, lighting his cigarette.

“She’s not very talkative, is she?” She nodded in Jezebel’s direction.

“I guess…but she’s getting there,” He said a bit absent-mindedly, furrowing his brows when Kiba—who’d had a drink too many—slung an arm around Jezebel’s shoulders and laughed loudly at something Naruto was picking at her for. He watched her face turn a few shades redder and almost went over there before he saw Sakura punch Naruto for the fifth time tonight.

Temari stirred her cranberry cocktail with the little straw that came with it and thought about what he said. Getting there? She popped the straw into her mouth thoughtfully and turned her eyes up to the TV in the corner of the bar.

“What do you mean by getting there?” She asked, though she probably wouldn’t have asked if she hadn’t been on her third drink.

The corner of Shikamaru’s mouth pulled back and his lips formed a thin line. “What do you think I mean? It sounds pretty obvious to me. She’s becoming more talkative, she just needs to relax a little bit, make some friends, that’s all.” He shrugged and leaned back in his chair with an arm over the back, watching the TV.

“So she lacks friends, then?” Temari raised an eyebrow. “Must be tough on her with you gone so much.”

He sighed heavily. “Must you ask so many questions? It’s such a drag…”

She giggled, “Well, sorrr-y. Drinking always has made me a bit loose lipped.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell.”