Her Mask (Shikamaru x Oc)

Chapter Sixty

He sat all alone in the empty house waiting for some fool to stumble through the door so he could destroy them for entering his home.

He holds onto memories and trinkets from the past. He glared at the door a moment before standing up and walking out the door.

The same way he’d walk every day with Shingami and their mother it was something the three of them enjoyed doing together every day, then it was just something he and shingami would do together but that didn’t last long and soon enough it was has just him just as it had been for years at this point.

He walked quietly with one hand in his pocket while he held another idem in his other hand. He just kept walking in the same circle for a few hours lost in thought until he felt like someone was watching him making him look up to see and man and a woman in matching cloaks looking down at him from the tree they were standing in’s level, causing a smirk to form on his face.

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Shikamaru couldn’t help but stare at Shingami’s maskless face as she read her book with a straight face blinking every couple of seconds and turning the page after a little bit of time. Lady Tsunade and Shizune had gone to sleep before them again and decided that they would all leave tomorrow. The mizukage and Raikage had already left. Onoki wanted to leave as well but he couldn’t so he was going to wait until tomorrow also. Gaara was going to stay until mid-day tomorrow and talk with Mifune about some things. 

Shingami’s eyes shifted upon noticing Shikamaru’s eyes trained on her. She smiled at him slightly before closing the book, just to look into his dark eyes. 

“Have something on your mind?”

“Just thinking.”

She laid down, facing him just as they had done the night before, putting her book back into its usual spot.

“Anything I can do to help?”

“No, it’s nothing important. But thank you for offering.”

She nodded and the two of them just stared at each other not saying anything until Shikamaru broke the silence.

“Can I ask you something?”

Shingami watched him for a couple of seconds before answering. 

“Sure.”

“A while back you mentioned something and it’s been stuck in my head.” he paused for a second before continuing. “You said you had a brother.”

“Yeah.”

“What happened between you and him that made you two separate?”

Shingami’s eyes shifted to look at Tsunade and Shizune but both of their backs were facing her so she couldn’t tell if they were awake or not so she kept her voice down.

“It could’ve been a lot of things, Shikamaru.”

“Like?”

“...”

“Shingami?”

“You need to understand, -my father killed my mother. He beat her to death- she suffocated in her own blood after he broke all her ribs and crushed her throat.” Shikamaru’s eyes widened but Shingami didn’t stop there. “I was there for the whole thing, my brother was there too. He didn’t see all of it but he was there at the very end.” She shook her head. “We killed him, Shikamaru. We killed that bastard for what he did her, for what he did to us. There no better way to say it, and I regret nothing. I’m glad he’s dead, and I’m glad I got the final strike in.”

Shingami suddenly got up and left out the door while Shikamaru just laid there in shock. After about a minute of him processing what the silver-haired girl had just told him, he stood up and looked out the window to see her standing in the courtyard looking up as the snow fell onto her face.

He made his way to the door closing it behind him and made his way to shingami.

Tsunade’s eyes opened and she gripped her pillow tighter blinking quickly trying to understand the girl who she thought she finally started to understand.

Shikamaru held his arms close to his body as he shivered quietly but he ignored it and walked right up to Shingami who was now sitting in the snow but she didn’t shiver, she didn’t feel anything. He inwardly groaned but sat down right next to her feeling the cold of the melting snow soaking into his pants and looked at the sky just like Shingami was. Only speaking a few moments later. 

“I’m sorry.”

“You have no need to be sorry. I should be the one to apologize. I kind of just dumped all that on you.” she said not looking away from the light grey sky.

“I wasn’t expecting it, but it does explain somethings.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah,” he agreed he reached over and grabbed Shingami’s hand despite making his hand even colder.

She smiled slightly and leaned into him making him smile too.

“Thank you, Shikamaru.” She held his hand even closer to her. “For everything.”