endgames | 012 -- [Voice || Action]

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012 -- [Voice || Action]

Show of hands if someone tried to prank you yesterday.

[Annoyed as he sounds, he's mostly gotten over it. Simply put, Shikamaru is just too lazy to hold a grudge when it comes to most things. He's still curious, however.

...but no longer orange, thankfully.]

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[Later on, just before evening, Shikamaru can be found on his way back from the Item's Shop to CH 1, a certain book in tow. And for a book that stands at half his height and is nearly two feet thick when closed, we do mean tow. He'll be taking frequent breaks along his way back, dropping the book with a loud thud before sitting beside it on every bench he comes across.]

Damn thing weighs more than Temari's fan...

[Yeah, yeah, he's pretty weak for a ninja, he knows, but hey. The book does weigh about a hundred pounds or more. 8|

A passerby might catch him during one of those breaks, looking over it's contents in curiosity while the light is still good outside. But from there it's back to lugging it home.

The Nara Clan's medicine manual... the old man would kick my ass if I just left it lying around.]

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Right. Can't have that. [A quick smile.] So why is this book so big?

Presumably because it's filled with a lot of words.

[She gives him A Look.]

Ha, ha.

[And then the look slides into something more neutral.] But seriously, wouldn't it make more sense to use a couple of books instead of one really big one. One... really, really big one?

Depends on how you want to look at it. Far as I know, this book has only left the room it's kept in once. It doesn't need to be hauled around, and it's size makes it more difficult for someone to steal than a bunch of small books.

[She eases away from it infinitesimally, instinctively at that.]

So it's more stuff that your clan was guarding?

[Like your shadow jutsu?]

...sort of? It's not quite like our jutsus. [The scrolls containing the workings of those are better hidden on his clan's grounds.] If I had to guess, I'd say it has more to do with trade secrets. Can't know for sure until I check it out, though.

[Blink, blink.

Trade secrets? And-]

You mean you've never read it?

[He shakes his head, no.

It's not quite true, though. He read a section of it once, after a certain mission. But the section on the effects of the Akimichi Clan's pills in a mere few pages in a book of... however many the hell this one has.]

[She glances at the book and then back at him.] Why not?

Was never really interested. Dad makes a hobby out of helping maintain it, but I had other things to do.

Oh. [Hmm...

Katara's more of a fan of 'finding all you can about your culture, past and present' than this - but having your culture practically completely rubbed out can do that to a girl, and she knows that Chouji and Shikamaru kind of have been busy so... maybe he was getting to it?] So then what kind of 'trade secrets' did it hold?

[Smirk.] Aa, it's not much of a secret if I say, is it?

[Actually, it's no big deal. He's just trying to hype it up for the fun of it.]

Well, it's not like I can do your 'trade.' [But she'll conceed the point with what grumbling grace she can manage and step away from the book.]

I was just curious. [But she's not going to press because ninja stuff is weird and she's never sure what's OK to talk about and what's 'pressing in on clan secrets' and she doesn't want to add pressure to him right now.]

[Ninja stuff is weird. But this isn't specifically ninja stuff this time.]

It's not too far off from one of your specialties, actually.

Not everyone in my clan is a shinobi, you know? There's two things we're known well for. [He pats the book.] Medicine is one of them.

[And her attention zooms back in on the book.] Wow, really?

[...and a seemingly completely divergent thought.] ...how many people are in your clan anyway?

[A shrug.] Smaller than some, but enough that I haven't met them all.

[Blink. Unexpected.]

Wow, really? But they're your family. ...isn't that what 'clan' means?

[Or is this another one of those weird world word differences.]

Yes and no. A clan is bigger than just your family; it's more than immediate relations.

It sounds like it was bigger than my whole village.

[She'd have a harder time believing this was possible if it hadn't been for her time in Luceti. For a relatively small place, even with the journal system, there are still some people that she doesn't know. That eats at her a little, but she's not going to go hunting them down either.]

Might be. [He tilts his head back to look at the sky.] We're pretty average as far as that goes, though.

[And back to the matter at hand.]

So now that it's here, are you going to read it?

May as well. Got nothing else better to do.

[He's taken a few looks earlier, traced his fingers over his father's handwriting...

Nara men are lazy by nature, but this is one of the few things Nara Shikaku's worked on without compromise. 'Years of research', Tsuande-sama had said. Letting it collect dust under his bed for the rest of his stay here would be a slap to the face.]

[Her gaze flicks over him, assessing.

Must be nice to have something like this come from home. Nice... and at the same time... the fact that it's here...]

Right. Wouldn't want you to go to school or anything.

[This, lightly teasing. She knows there'd be no point for him.]

[False cheer:] Because that sounds like fun. I could use a scheduled nap time.

[It's on the tip of her tongue to defend the teachers and say that the classes are worthwhile - but just because she enjoys learning about things like world history and magic classes and literature and science... doesn't really defend the existence of algebra.

So she rolls her eyes instead.]

You'd have to be in the younger classes for that, Shikamaru. A lot of the courses are really interesting! Even if it is weird to just sit for so long.

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