Chapter 111: Growing Up

Shikamaru waved his thoughts aside and slowly walked between the gravestones, moving on to the nearby silhouette in front.

The girl's golden hair fluttered slightly in the wind, but she continued to stand motionless between the two tombstones with her head down and her eyes closed.

Shikamaru slowly walked up to her and silently began to examine the familiar tombstones. He had already seen them last year when he found Avie here, so this time she is here. At the grave of their parents ... They died shortly before the fox attack, and so she was left alone. Her parents were in Anbu, so it is not surprising that the girl wants to join the elite squad. Not so long ago, she became a Jonin and she had very little left to achieve her goal.

Shikamaru didn't talk much, he just wanted to support her at least with his presence. She was his friend, that's all he could do. Some things sometimes don't need words. Moreover, he did not know what to say to her, for him even being here seemed too unnatural. Maybe a year ago he would not have noticed the oddities in himself, but now his feelings have changed. It was as if he began to understand something that was eluding him all this time ... His personality.

Avie continued to stand at the graves of her parents, completely oblivious to Shikamaru. Only the edges of her lips rose imperceptibly, and then the old sadness crawled over her face.

After a few minutes, Avie finally smiled warmly, opened her eyes and bowed whispered:

- Dad, mom, I was glad to see you ...

Turning around, the girl looked at Shikamaru and quietly asked:

- Why did you come?

- I passed by, I see you ... - Shikamaru looked away and sighed: - There is silence as usual.

Avie stared at the guy, then grinned wryly.

- This is a cemetery, - turning around and throwing a fleeting glance at a couple of gravestones, Avie smiled a little: - I'll go.

Shikamaru nodded and fell silent. After walking a few meters, Avie stopped and gathered her thoughts whispered:

- Thank you...

- For what? The guy asked without turning around.

The girl smiled a little:

"It doesn't matter ..." After saying that, she leisurely left the cemetery, leaving Shikamaru alone with her thoughts.

With a sigh, the guy examined the two tombstones:

"True ... I was not like this before, new life, new connections, but still the same character. I am trying to be what I am not ... And I do not feel any special attachments. Friendship? Maybe only to Chоji, yet I grew up with him. He's probably the only one I can call a true friend. Then why am I here ... Also a question. "With a sigh, Shikamaru shook his head.

- How difficult it is to find your way and understand everything, I have never worried about such issues before, I always had a goal ... But now is the time to understand. I hope the mission will help at least in something, yet even now, I still have not decided who I am ...

Returning home, Shikamaru, as usual, had dinner with his parents, and then returned to his room to do the inking of seals. Yoshino, as always, was loving, and Shikaku was unusually brooding, so he had become a long time ago ... Shikamaru could only breathe at that. He was not his son, but he was not able to talk about it either.

Everything in Shikamaru's room turned out to be the same, but now only a candle was burning and the only sound in the room was the quiet chirping of crickets and the barely audible grinding of a pen on paper.

After an hour of work, Shikamaru took off his shirt, stretched and yawned.

- Difficult ... If I can't get the correct placement of the elemental markers, then the five-element alignment seal and the reveal key won't be able to align. If everything works out, I can come up with a good printing technique. But I'm still missing something, I'm sure it won't work completely. Mito used something completely incomprehensible, this seal on her scroll is not tied to the genealogy, but to some incomprehensible sequence of special seals. Some of them I could find in a pile of scrolls, but the rest are not there for some reason. It's strange, after all, Mito left the scroll there, so there must be a method of printing. If I can combine these two techniques, then I can open one seal, there will be only three. Maybe this was the calculation ... To create the most necessary Jutsu, as an option. In the worst case, you have to find a bunch of chakra and just break through with force. Maybe Naruto will do ... "Shikamaru shook his head with a grin." Now I'm almost sitting on a bomb, one wrong action and my father will do something. Even his shogi games turned into brooding glances. He realizes that I understand his actions, but he waits. He probably lacks the determination to test me. Yet I am his son, even if it seems strange to myself. He saw how I was growing, so he would definitely not act so sharply. Yes, and Hiruzen is not idle, - having massaged his temples, Shikamaru got up from his chair.

Moonlight fell on the boy's relief back, completely unlike a nursery, when he turned around, moonlight enveloped his chest and abs. Over the years of training, only the face of the child's body remained, otherwise it was almost a man. Even the height of Shikamaru far surpassed his peers, in appearance he was already almost a teenager, and the muscle mass even of many experienced Chūnin did not match his own. Yet his body had pedigree advantages and this helped in growth and development. But in his heart, he had long forgotten how old he was after all. Having reached this age, now he was experiencing a strange mental turn ...

After extinguishing the candle, Shikamaru lay down on the blood and closed his eyes, said:

- Two months ... Let's take a look ...

Saying this, the guy fell into a long sleep.

Time flew by unnoticed. Sometimes Shikamaru did not even believe that he had already lived so much in this shinobi world, and now, he was already ten ... Ten years old! In the past, at this age, he was just starting his way in a small criminal gang of street thieves. There were already fewer difficulties with food and housing, but years of hard work and survival still lay ahead of the carefree days ... Not only here, surrounded by family and friends, but also luck in the form of a system and knowledge ... It was all like a fairy tale, but this made him more and more doubtful and on the watch, and memories from the past made themselves felt more and more. A child's mind with an adult soul was changing. Shikamaru became more and more aware of himself, before he was subjected to the limitations of the child's body, and now they slowly dissipated and even thoughts became clearer. That was growing up.

Birthday, a holiday with family and friends, Shikamaru received congratulations and gifts. The day was pleasant, but it was different from the previous birthdays, Shikamaru himself changed, he became more and more himself ...

Then a quiet evening, filled with a fresh autumn breeze ... This is how Shikamaru reached the face of the First Hokage and sat on his head, carved out of stone. Sipping sake, the guy finally relaxed after a hard day.