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He's been on sitting alone on the clifftop for all of three and a half minutes when Naruto hauls himself up the ledge to join him on watch. Shikamaru sighs at his appearance. He knew he had been too hopeful to think Naruto would rest after the days completed mission. He had thought the high adrenaline day would have made him crash, but alas, it appears it's one of the nights where their jinchūriki's wound up too tight to do anything remotely resembling keeping still.
"Seriously," Shikamaru murmurs under the drone of cicada's and humming of crickets.
"Not my fault that dumb fight made me wired," Naruto whines, settling himself next to Shikamaru on the cliff. On the ridge below them, secure inside a crevasse, Sakura and Tenten are surely already falling asleep.
"If you were going to follow me anyway you could have just taken first watch yourself," Shikamaru points out.
Since his eyes have long since adapted to the pervasive darkness he catches Naruto's devious little grin. "Where's the fun in that? Then I'd just be jumpy and bored."
"Don't know how you expect me to keep you entertained," he grumbles back.
"Nah," Naruto chuckles, flopping backwards onto the grass to stare up at the expansive sky. "You've just always been good at settling me down."
Shikamaru raises his brow at his words. He supposes it's true, Naruto's always been better at sitting still and taking rests when Shikamaru's around, but he's never considered that Naruto's been aware of it and that he might sometimes purposefully seek that out.
"Think we'll see any shooting stars?" Naruto wonders, pondering the twinkling skies.
Shikamaru tilts his head back to look for himself.
"Dunno," Shikamaru yawns. "I've never cared much about them if I"m honest."
"Really?" Naruto asks, seeming surprised. "You've never made a wish on a star before?"
He shrugs and admits, "I don't really believe in wishes."
"What! Why?" Naruto exclaims. "I've made tons of wishes before!"
"I just don't think you should be counting on stars to make things come true."
"Well, I only ever had one wish come true, and I've made plenty— like countless, really— but that still doesn't stop me," Naruto admits.
"If I want something to come true so badly, I may as well just do the work myself and make it happen on my own instead of taking a chance on having the world maybe do it for me, you know?" Shikamaru explains.
"You would say that, wouldn't you," Naruto considers. "You've never known what it's like to be powerless."
He doesn't say it as an insult, just a simple and easy fact, but it still makes Shikamaru heart twist painfully. Naruto's right, he's never not had the ability to get what he wants. He's never been a child stuck in hopeless situations beyond his control. Maybe if he had been, he would believe a little more in the power of a wish.
"Well, if ya could wish for anything right this exact moment, what would it be?" Naruto asks.
"Were you not listening to a word I just said?" Shikamaru sighs.
"Yeah, yeah, you might not believe in them, but even you have to want something that you don't think is possible to have, right?" Naruto says to the sky, waving a hand to gesture at the expanse of stars, "That's the real point of wishes, if ya ask me. To hope and dream for something impossible to come true."
Shikamaru ponders his point. He buries his hands a little deeper into his vest's pockets so he doesn't act on his desire to reach out for something more. Instead he deflects the question away from himself to avoid it a little longer.
"You said one of your wishes came true. What was it, if it was supposedly so impossible?"
"Ehh," Naruto gets a bashful look, and waves his hands around some more with a nervous chuckle, "I guess it wasn't all that impossible, just that at that time it felt like it was."
He pops up to return to sitting and promptly starts kicking his legs into the open air away from the cliff-face. "It was back when we were still really little, ya know— like not even genin yet. I was alone all the time, and I knew everyone hated me, so I wished that someone would be my friend. That I was important to someone, and someone would care for me."
Shikamaru's chest constricts painfully. He watches Naruto, tucked and hidden in the late night shadows, his form mostly concealed in the darkness, but honesty often comes easier in the safety the dead of night provides.
"That wish really was the furthest thing from impossible," Shikamaru scoffs past the tightness in his throat.
"Whatever!" Naruto defensively yelps, "I was just a dumb kid anyway."
"You still are a dumb kid," Shikamaru deadpans.
"Don't be so mean, Shika!" Naruto demands with pout and playfully punches him in the arm. Shikamaru thinks he purposefully puts more force in the jab than necessary, but he also just might be too oblivious to know what a normal amount of force someone who isn't wildly overflowing with chakra can handle.
"I'm heaps smarter and more mature now," he declares.
"Sorry," Shikamaru grumbles, ignoring Naruto's words so they don't devolve into childish bickering and rubs at his tender arm that is definitely soon to be bruised. "It's just that you're any easy person to love, Naruto. You were never going to be lonely forever, even if you felt like it at the time."
Naruto stills for the first time since climbing up to sit with him. He finds himself being stared down by the other boy intently enough that it actually makes his heart rate ratchet upwards.
"Everyone always says I'm a pain—" Naruto admits.
"—you are a pain—" Shikamaru mutters under his breath only to receive another hit to his bicep. Apparently, his bruise would be growing.
"—do you really think I'm easy to love?"
Shikamaru blows out a breath and wonders why it feels like he's walking into a trap of his own making tonight.
"I didn't always think that," Shikamaru explains, choosing his words carefully lest he let too much slip and admit to something he hasn't prepared to face tonight. "but I was just a dumb kid too back then—"
"— still are—" Naruto mumbles with a pout. Shikamaru should have seen that one coming. He flicks Naruto's ear in a silent chastisement, and continues his thought with a dark glare in Naruto's direction. As expected, Naruto childishly ignores his look.
"—and I thought I knew everything about how the world worked, when in all actuality, I knew next to nothing. So yeah, I've come to realize that you are an easy person to love, even if you are so troublesome."
Naruto is silent as he mulls over Shikamaru's words.
"Thank you," he eventually replies.
Shikamaru twitches in surprise.
"For what?"
Naruto cocks his head and lifts his chin to stare back out at the galaxy above them.
"For everything, I guess. I just don't think I thank you enough for everything you do for me."
Shikamaru wrinkles his nose. "Well stop it," he says, "I don't do it for gratitude and you're making it weird."
Naruto sputters and gawks, "I'm making it weird? You just admitted you love me!"
"I did not," Shikamaru childishly denies.
"Maybe not directly!"
Shikamaru hates it when Naruto decides to be actually insightful.
"We're not having this conversation," Shikamaru bluntly states.
"Fine!" Naruto relents, "Then you can answer my original question! What would you wish for Shikamaru? And don't dodge it this time, stupid."
His eye twitches and he refuses to unclench his jaw. The idiot always picks the worst times to use his brain.
"What?" Naruto crosses his arms and squints at him intently. "Does it have to do with you loving me?"
"Damn it, Naruto," he growls.
"It does! Doesn't it!"
Suddenly his personal space is filled with the other. Naruto squishes both of Shikamaru's cheeks in his hands and pulls him so they're face to face. Shikamaru's about to tell him off for joking about his feelings, but Naruto continues before Shikamaru can gather his fraying thoughts.
"Tell me, Shikamaru. Maybe I can make your wish come true."
Shikamaru's pretty sure his heart skips a beat. Naruto's eyes sparkle in the dark, full of joy and mischief, and absolutely begging for Shikamaru to give him permission.
"It only ever feels impossible, remember?" Naruto murmurs to him.
Shikamaru thinks about that little boy, wishing on so many stars he lost count, and then he considers the fierce, brilliant young man in front of him now, such a far cry from that scared, tiny, lonely boy.
Shikamaru had said that if he ever wished for something that it was always better to take matters into his own hands. Aparently, it's time to put his words to the test.
"I wish you would love me back," Shikamaru whispers to him.
And Naruto grins. The kind of smile that never fails to make Shikamaru's heart swoop with excitement.
"That's the easiest wish in the world to make come true," Naruto breathlessly laughs, "because I already do."
"Oh," Shikamaru responds before his brain catches up and after a moment gazing into his shining eyes, he kisses Naruto without any further thought. Naruto's smile makes it difficult, but his joy is too precious to Shikamaru for him to care about the inconvenience. He swallows all of Naruto's helpless giggles greedily, and to him, the awkward, clumsy kiss is nothing short of perfect.
"Two," Naruto pants with a pleased grin when their lips finally part from each other. "I've now had two wishes come true."
"Anything else you've wished for I should know about?" Shikamaru huffs a laugh, warm all over despite the chilly night's breeze.
Naruto gets a familiar mischievous glint in his eye. "I wish you would kiss me again."
And who is Shikamaru to refuse the man such a simple request.
