endgames | 022 -- [Action || Voice]

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022 -- [Action || Voice]

[Filtered to Konoha Shinobi and Temari || 100% Unhackable]

Meeting tonight, at sundown. [What about goes without saying - most of them should know already.] Fourth floor's kitchen. Try not to pull a Kakashi.

[And thus starts off the long to-do-list of Shikamaru's day. The filter goes up in the morning, giving - hopefully - everyone time to see it.

He's decided he needs to talk to Naruto before then. On his way out the building he'll stop by his apartment, or send another filter off to him if he's not around. With everything going on he would be surprised. After he's tracked him down, it's off to the other side of the village to find Tony Stark at his casa, to hand over a project he's been working on for the last several nights. Playing delivery boy again, ugh. No notice this time, though. He's acting like a functional human being again, but he's not up for the sarcastic banter. Once he's done there, it's over to the school to find Katara in the thirty minute window he has after classes let out. Apologies are an order.

Specific things attended to... wow, without Masaomi around this week, he has a lot of time on his hands, huh. Well okay. He goes off to the forest with a bag of coconuts of all things and lines them up at head level when he finds a good spot to sit them for tanto practice - or more precisely: strength training. He's never used his short sword much. The one time he did, he wasn't strong enough with it to do as he intended, so he should work on that now.

And okay, surely by then the sun will be going down... or okay, nope. With a few hours to kill, somehow he winds up at the Seventh Heaven restaurant. In part because he figures it could be a good place to drop off some of the coconuts, and also because he realizes on the way over he hasn't actually eaten yet. Or done much of anything this past week, besides getting Asuma up to speed about Luceti, or working on various projects.

Sooo. Might be nodding off there at the restaurant. Might be napping after he eats, if he doesn't get kicked out for it. SITTING DOWN WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA. Fine, he'll pose a random pointless question to the masses, maybe that'll keep him occupied.]

[Voice]

Wonder why they call this place Luceti. Seems like a dumb name. Does it even mean anything?

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[Dammit, this is definitely not what Naruto gambled for. Well, maybe he did. He knows Shikamaru isn't one for trying to see the light in Sasuke's actions like Naruto tries to all the time.

But Naruto also knows that he's the only one who has a chance with Sasuke in the first place. He'd like to think so.] ... Yeah, it was.

But he hasn't done anything close to that since! We've even worked side by side! [More excuses. Or rather, he's trying to reason with what he thinks Shikamaru is thinking right now.]

[Just... shaking his head here. It's more excuses, and he doesn't want to hear them. He begins pacing the width of the room, his hands remaining in his pockets. They've become fists, white-knuckled; he's afraid to take them out.

Even after that, how can he defend him? How can he just that go?]

[Naruto throws his legs over the edge of his bed, ready to stand up at any moment. His expression still showed that typical determination he always had.]

I know you're pissed off. But what are you gonna do about this? [It already happened years ago. Nothing's come of it yet.]

[There's a snort. A few ideas come to mind. It's not like this is the first time he's considered having to fight Sasuke in Luceti before, even if he could never win.

Weren't they here to talk about Madara? Shikamaru doesn't even care anymore. His voice remains falsely level; he's trying here, okay.]

You can't just let it go.

[Sorry, Shikamaru. He's not going to acknowledge that for a moment.]

I asked you something.

[He continues on as if he didn't hear.] We can't.

[That's... kind of an answer actually, so maybe he did.]

I need a better answer than that, Shikamaru! Come on! [Naruto is completely serious about this. If Shikamaru goes vigilante on Sasuke's ass after hearing this, there's a chance that Sasuke won't hesitate to harm him.

Or kill him.]

What do you think I should do? Let's start with that!

[Still pacing, his shoulders are starting to hunch up, as if starting to gear up for something and he immediately regrets his response. That's not the way to handle this. What is it dad says? 'Cool head, agile mind'... Handle this like an adult.]

[Look who just stood up.]

Calm down and not do anything about it for a start!

[What the hell does he think he's been trying to do? Shikamaru stops in his tracks, squared to face him. His hands come out of his pockets, one fist up by his mouth and elbow balanced in the closed palm of the other, arm crossed over his chest.]

[Naruto looks him square in the eye, his unwavering determination fueling his next statement. There's no way in hell he's just going to spit this whole thing out to Shikamaru and let him plot out something to do about it.]

You can't do anything about it right now. It's been forever since it happened, and doin' anything now would be damn pointless.

[Logic works better than excuses, even if accepting it is almost physically painful.]

Why didn't you do anything about it?

What do you think I could've done? Try killin' him back?

[A beat.]

Two wrongs don't make a right. Would've done nothing but made things worse.

It doesn't make it okay, either.

What if it had been someone other than you, huh? What if it had been Sakura? Or Ino, or some other friend?

[Can you see where he's coming from?]

[He knows how he would feel about that. He would incredibly angry, but he feels like he can't go back on his word.]

I made my decision on how to handle Sasuke.

[And Shikamaru usually bows to that. Sasuke has always been Team 7's business, and he's never wanted to get in the way of that.]

Your decision lets him get away with murder. Literally. [Right now, he doesn't care how long ago it was either.]

I'm not gonna let him get away with anything. I've got my way of dealin' with him, and I'll do it when I get my chance.

[And here comes a bit of surprising foresight coming from Naruto.] My chance isn't gonna be here, in Luceti.

[It's kind of creepy how he does that; how he knows. Unfortunately, that still leaves his resolution in Luceti in the dark.]

So what. Nothing he does here matters, is what you're saying? Because if that's the case, let me handle it.

No. [His resolution in Luceti may be in the dark, mostly because Naruto is still unsure to a degree of how to handle Sasuke here when he can barely keep tabs on him, but...]

I'm not gonna let you or anyone else do somethin' stupid that's gonna get you hurt.

Why not? It's what we let you do!

And I'll make it work! I know we all have to deal with him in some way, but this is my problem we're talkin' about! I just need to figure out how to handle it without messin' everything up!

[Maybe he can try to do what he wants to do back home here, to see if it'll work. If it works then... it'll all be okay, right? Right?]

[Just. Face in hands over here, man. When it comes to Naruto, there's a lot of things that Shikamaru will bow to just out of blind faith. More than any of their other friends.

But there are lines you just don't cross with him, and they've cleared this one good.

These two things are conflicting hard now. If it were anyone but Naruto, it wouldn't even be a discussion. But it is, and it's getting to him.]

[Naruto just watches Shikamaru, reading his gesture and posture as somewhat of an answer to his previous statement. Or more like him agonizing that he even had to discuss this out with Naruto. That's the same as a retort.]

You understand where I'm comin' from?

I do.

[He doesn't like it, though.]

Then... just lemme handle it when the time comes.

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