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“We should do something crazy,” Boruto announced one day out of the blue, drawing Shikadai out of his nap.
The young Nara yawned. “What?”
“Think about it,” Boruto lowered his hand-held game. “We haven’t done anything really wild in ages. Think about what our parents got up to.”
“My dad took naps between classes, so I’ll do that. That’s crazy enough for me.” Shikadai closed his eyes again.
“Like, my dad got in trouble all the time – so we’ll just not get caught – and we should do something cool together. Like . . . like blowing up a window or setting something on fire.”
“Sounds like a drag, and I have better things to do than get yelled at by my mom.”
“Speaking of,” Boruto’s tone turned quizzical. “Did your mom do anything crazy when she was younger?”
“I dunno.”
“Wait, I have it,” Boruto slapped Shikadai’s shoulder. “We should smoke something! That’s a normal crazy thing to do.”
Shikadai declined to answer.
“You can get cigarettes, can’t you? Your dad smokes.”
“He also counts how many he has and knows how long a box lasts, so he’ll know if I take some.”
“Why don’t you just ask him?”
“. . . Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Come on, your dad is cool. He’s a chill guy. He won’t mind.”
“Ugh, what a drag,” Shikadai muttered. “Okay, fine, I’ll ask.”
“Awesome. This is going to be easy.”
“Dad, can I have a cigarette?”
“No.”
Well, that didn’t go according to plan.
Shikadai pouted. “Wait, why not?”
“They’re bad for you,” Shikamaru shrugged.
“You smoke.”
“I do a lot of things that are bad for me.”
“Like what?” Shikadai asked.
Shikamaru muttered something under his breath that sounded like ‘your mother’ but Shikadai was pretty sure he misheard that. “You’re not smoking, simple as that.”
“Then why do you do it?”
“Because I have unhealthy coping mechanisms,” Shikamaru answered, in a surprising display of honesty.
Shikadai rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever.”
He decided on a more direct approach.
Temari was relaxing on the bed, paging through a book, when Shikadai strolled in and asked, as casually as he could, “Hey, Mom, where does Dad keep his cigarettes?”
He made a leisurely path towards Shikamaru’s bedside table.
“Put a cigarette anywhere near your mouth and I will snap the fingers off your hand,” Temari didn’t look up. She turned a page.
Shikadai made the wise decision to leave.
“I can’t get any,” he shrugged.
“Aw, why not?” Boruto asked. “How hard can it be?”
“My parents said no.”
Boruto rolled his eyes. “Wow, since when do you do what your parents say?”
Shikadai shrugged again. “Since it’s a drag to argue with them. We can find something else to do.”
“But this is so easy, and it’s not like it’s even that bad,” Boruto huffed. “It’s not going to kill us, and it’s not even going to affect anyone else. Come on, my other ideas are, like, to plant a smoke bomb in Iruka-sensei’s office or something, ya know? This is the best option. We can work our way up to other things.”
“I believe that’s called a pattern of escalation,” Shikadai frowned.
“Fine, I’ll get the cigarettes, since you’re suddenly too good for it. Don’t start turning into a baby on me.”
“I’m not being a baby,” Shikadai rolled his eyes. “I know it’s not a big deal, but my parents said no. I didn’t say I was chickening out, just that we needed to think of something else.”
“Well, we can’t buy any,” Boruto mused. “No one would sell to us. Know any other adults who smoke, who would be chill with letting us try as well?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll keeping thinking. You bring a lighter, okay?”
“The more people you ask, the more likely we are to get caught. I know my dad probably won’t care, but I feel like my mom would go on and on like I’d killed someone.”
“Yeah, mine too,” Boruto said flippantly. “So I just have to be careful who I ask. It’s like a covert ninja mission.”
That appealed to Shikadai. He mused over that for a while. “Okay. That does make it sound more interesting.”
“Great. We can meet here tomorrow after classes again.”
“Can you get stuff by then?”
“Just bring a lighter,” Boruto rolled his eyes. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Okay, okay. You’re such a drag.” Shikadai sighed. “It’d probably be easier to get drunk or something.”
“We’ll call that plan B,” Boruto decided.
Shikadai snorted. “You’re insane. I’ll bring a lighter. Just don’t get us into trouble. You’re not good at keeping your mouth shut.”
“I won’t get us into trouble,” Boruto muttered. “Have a little faith in me.”
“You’re always getting yourself into trouble, and dragging me down with you,” Shikadai pointed out. “So don’t make me regret this.”
Boruto flashed him a winning grin. “I won’t.”
Boruto greeted him the next morning with a wink, which Shikadai assumed meant he had fulfilled his allotted covert task.
Sure enough, once classes were over for the day they met up behind the Academy, and Boruto bounced on his toes, unable to contain his enthusiasm.
“Look what I got!” Boruto announced triumphantly. He opened his hand to reveal a few little white, rolled up sticks of paper. They did not have the neat, manufactured look of Shikamaru’s cigarettes.
“Where did you get this?” Shikadai asked suspiciously.
“Iwabe knows a guy who has a friend of a friend, and he gave it to me.”
“These do not look like my dad’s ones,” Shikadai said, picking one up and turning it around in his hand. “Are you sure you know what these are?”
“Smoking is smoking, right?” Boruto shrugged.
“No. It’s not. You don’t know what the hell this is.” Shikadai shook his head. “I agreed to regular cigarettes, not to getting high off god knows what.”
“We won’t get high,” Boruto scoffed. “Are you really chickening out?”
Shikadai considered his options. Smoking couldn’t be that bad, right? No one ever complained about his father doing it. Well, except his mother, but she hadn’t ever made him stop, so it couldn’t be such a bad habit, then. Temari wouldn’t allow anything dangerous.
And Shikadai was curious. He wondered what it was about these little innocuous white sticks that appealed to his father. Because they didn’t smell very good, but there had to be some reason to keep coming back to them. There had to be some sort of upside to them.
“Okay,” he said eventually, sitting down. “We can try one each.”
“Awesome,” Boruto grinned, plopping down beside him.
Shikadai took the lighter from his pocket. “Do you even know what we’re meant to do?”
“How hard can it be? It’s like breathing, right?” Boruto shrugged.
“I guess.” Shikadai settled more comfortably, then sparked the lighter up once or twice, to check it was working. Boruto peered closer, nose uncomfortably close to the flame, as Shikadai held the end of the cigarette over the fire.
“Ahem.” A shadow fell over them.
Shikadai and Boruto exchanged looks, before cautiously looking upwards.
Shino stood over them, arms crossed, mouth set in a dour line. “What do you two think you are doing?”
“Unbelievable,” Shino muttered, gripping each boy firmly by the back of the shirt and marching them through the village. “And on school property?”
“Well,” Boruto tried to smooth things over. “We were learning?”
Shikadai almost choked on a laugh.
“This is not a laughing matter,” Shino growled. “I could expel the two of you right now, if I wanted.”
Shikadai felt his chest tighten. That was not an outcome he had predicted. “. . . What?”
“You two are underage. You’re on Academy property. And you failed to abide by the rules of the establishment. Which was no illegal activity.”
“Cigarettes aren’t illegal,” Boruto replied indignantly.
“Drugs are,” Shino replied waspishly.
Shikadai stared at the ground as Shino pushed them along. Oh, he had not considered expulsion. He hadn’t factored getting caught at all. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal; it was just something people did.
Boruto’s protests increased in volume when he noticed where they were. Shino was busily dragging/shoving them to the Hokage building. “Wait, why are we here? Isn’t this a school issue? Shouldn’t you, like, call our moms?”
Shikadai blanched. He’d rather face off against the entire Academy staff than his mother’s rage.
“We are here,” Shino said crisply, continuing to usher both boys through the building. “Because it is the one time and place where I have both your fathers.”
For some reason, that made Shikadai tense. His mother was predictable; she’d get angry at him and he’d be in for the lecture of his life, but he wasn’t sure how his father would react. It hadn’t bothered him before, but now he was wondering if this whole smoking thing had been a bad idea, and he should have shut it down.
“You’re overreacting,” Boruto continued, apparently still armed with a litany of excuses. “It’s not like anything happened. And adults do it all the time, so, you know, we’re just looking to our role models.”
Shino cleared his throat at that, and Boruto wisely snapped his jaw shut and remained silent.
Shino said nothing until they were at the Hokage’s office, and by then he let go of Shikadai – figuring him to be less of a flight risk – to knock tersely on the door, before pushing it open.
Naruto sat up a bit straighter. “Shino? What’s wrong?”
“These two.” Shino pushed the boys forward. “Were caught on school property in possession of illegal drugs.”
“What?” Shikamaru’s voice was sharp, and Shikadai flinched.
“It wasn’t anything bad,” Boruto said instantly. “We were just gonna smoke something; it’s not like it’s even real drugs. And everyone does it, so if you’re going to get mad at us, you have to get mad at the whole village!”
Not his strongest logic, but Shikadai had to admit he had a point.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your workday, but bringing them to you seemed easier than asking you to come to me,” Shino explained. “The Academy will discuss how to move forwards this afternoon. I’ll speak to them both again tomorrow morning before classes start.”
“Thanks,” Naruto said, slumping in his chair. “We’ll talk to them.”
Shikadai kept his eyes down, cheeks burning.
The second Shino left, Boruto whipped his head up, “Okay, before you get mad-“
“We’re already passed ‘before’,” Naruto replied. “I can’t believe you’d want to try something like that. At school, as well.” Naruto sounded weary, but not as angry as Shikadai had been expecting.
“What were you two thinking?” Naruto asked, behind a heavy sigh.
Shikamaru remained silent, and Shikadai had yet to summon the courage to look at him. He heard Boruto argue back, but he wasn’t listening.
“You could be kicked out of school, or get a criminal record, or any number of things you probably didn’t think about,” Naruto continued. “Not to mention it’s just a stupid thing to do, in general.”
Boruto sent Shikamaru a pointed look. “Yeah, but he does it.”
Shikamaru shrugged. “I’ve also fought in a war; doesn’t mean you should try that, too.”
Naruto scrubbed a hand wearily across his face. “I expect better of you both.”
That made Shikadai glance up guilty, warily meeting Shikamaru’s eyes.
Shikamaru looked back at him, face blank. “I’ll talk to the Academy tomorrow and see what Shino wants to do.”
Naruto looked defeated, sitting down in a disappointed slouch. “Okay. Thanks. I’ll . . . Boruto, please go home and just stay there for the rest of the day.”
Boruto and Shikadai exchanged glances, with Boruto finally looking remorseful. “Yes, Dad.”
“Shikamaru,” Naruto looked at him. “You wanna sort Shikadai out?”
“Yes.” Shikamaru swept his gaze to his son again, and Shikadai shrank back a bit. It was an unfamiliar feeling, having Shikamaru mad at him. Usually, his father was so relaxed about the small indiscretions that children made on the quest towards adolescence.
Shikadai stared at the floor, wondering why he had ever thought going along with Boruto’s idea was a good plan. He should have known better. He should have thought it through.
Some genius I’m meant to be, he thought bitterly.
“See you tomorrow,” Shikamaru said to Naruto, steering Shikadai out the office with a firm hand on his shoulder.
They walked home together in silence. That wasn’t unusual, but it felt different to the normal silence. Shikadai didn’t have the courage to break it, and for once had no idea what Shikamaru was thinking. Once home, Shikadai tried to sneak away, but before he was even halfway to his room his father called softly, “Shikadai.”
He bit his lip, turning and wandering to the kitchen to find Shikamaru. “Um, yeah?”
“Come here for a minute, please.”
And Shikamaru sounded calm, and didn’t sound angry, but it made Shikadai nervous. When his mother was calm, that was the real time to get scared. If she sounded angry, then you were safe. When she sounded calm, all hell was about to break loose.
Guiltily, Shikadai edged into the kitchen.
Shikamaru said nothing further. He checked there was water in the kettle for when Temari came home, made a cursory glance in the fridge for clues about dinner, grabbed a beer while he was looking, then wandered out to the porch to sit in the afternoon sunlight.
Shikadai felt the need to follow him.
He paused in the doorway, hesitating.
Shikamaru sat on the edge of the porch, doing his usual check of the forest. Satisfied that nothing looked amiss, he opened his beer and set it down next to him, before picking a cigarette from his pocket.
Shikadai came very slowly across the wooden boards and sat down contritely next to his father.
The silence continued.
“Are you mad at me?” Shikadai mumbled eventually, looking down.
“No.”
“Really?” He snapped his head up. “I thought you would be.”
Shikamaru shook his head with a soft chuckle. “You’re just being a kid. Kids try things they know they shouldn’t try. They rebel against rules. Push boundaries. You’re not doing anything dangerous.”
He glanced at Shikadai. “Why did you do it?”
“Boruto thought we should do something crazy. ‘Cause, you know, everything’s so calm. And he likes acting out for attention.”
“That’s all? Wow, Naruto would have suggested something like blowing up a building, and god knows what your mom did for attention when she was younger.”
Shikadai stared at his knees.
“You won’t like smoking.”
He looked up at his father in surprise.
“Here,” Shikamaru held his hand out.
Shikadai took the cigarette. He regarded it for a moment, then tried an experimental drag.
He coughed and spluttered, eyes watering. “Okay, ew, why?”
Shikamaru chuckled, taking it back. “I told you that you wouldn’t like it.”
“Blergh,” Shikadai made a face. “That’s gross.”
“Don’t tell your mom I let you do that.”
Shikadai wiped at his eyes, still coughing. “Ugh. Why do you smoke? It’s disgusting.”
“Eh,” Shikamaru shrugged. “Told you, unhealthy coping mechanism. Never quite kicked the habit.”
Shikadai let out a long breath, finally feeling like he could get fresh air into his lungs. He glanced at Shikamaru. “Can I have a sip of your beer?”
“You’re not going to like that either,” Shikamaru warned, but he handed it over.
Shikadai took a small sip, and grimaced. “Yeah, you’re right. Don’t like it.”
“Good. Don’t drink, don’t smoke. That’s my parenting for the week.”
“It’s Wednesday.”
“Then don’t do anything stupid until Monday, or else I’m leaving your mom to do all the rest of the parenting.” He put his arm around Shikadai’s shoulders, pulling him close. “I hope you’re ready, by the way.”
“For what?”
“When she hears about what you did. She’s gonna yell so much.”
“Can we tell her it was all Boruto’s fault?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Sorry if I disappointed you,” Shikadai murmured.
Shikamaru gave him an affectionate squeeze. “You didn’t. You never have.”
Shikadai heaved a sigh.
“Shikadai?”
“Yeah, Dad?”
“You know you can tell me things like that, right?”
Shikadai sat up a bit straighter, looking curiously at his father.
Shikamaru watched the forest. “You don’t need to hide things from me. I’d rather know about it, and make sure you’re safe, even if I disagree with it. And if you just tell me what you’re thinking, we can talk it through and find the best solution.”
“Sorry,” Shikadai murmured.
“Did you feel like you couldn’t talk to me about what you were thinking? And that’s why you and Boruto were hiding?”
“I dunno,” Shikadai shrugged. “Like, maybe? It didn’t really occur to me to just explain what we were planning to you. Guess I figured you’d say no. Which you did.”
“Even if I say no to things,” Shikamaru glanced at Shikadai. “You can still ask. You can talk to me about anything. That’s why I’m here.”
“Anything?”
“Anything,” Shikamaru confirmed. “If it’s on your mind, it’s fair game.”
“And you won’t tell anyone? Not even Mom?”
“If you want something to stay between us, then it does. I promise.” Shikamaru smiled at his son. “If you don’t want your mom to know something, then she won’t. And she’ll understand, too, and you can talk to her about anything as well.”
“Okay.” Shikadai stared at his knees again. “. . . Do you really think I’ll get kicked out of school?”
“I’m pretty sure Shino will let it go, if you apologize properly and promise not to do anything like that again.” Shikamaru was actually more than sure – he was one hundred per cent certain Shino was making it sound like a bigger deal than it was to scare Boruto into behaving. In terms of transgressions, honestly, Shikadai and Boruto had done nothing wild. Still, the fear of expulsion was a good threat, and Shikamaru wasn’t going to detract from a teachable moment by assuaging Shikadai’s nerves.
“Okay.” Shikadai checked the forest as well. “Do you have secrets from Mom?”
“One or two, yes. And I know she has some from me.”
“What sort of things?”
“Just things we don’t want the other to worry about. With her, there’s a few things from her childhood she won’t talk about. I keep a few problems to myself. And we both know highly sensitive government information from our home villages that we don’t tell anyone about.”
“Why not? You guys can both keep a secret.”
“It’s things like security codes and political information that could be used against the village. The fewer people who know about it, the better. So, yes, we have secrets.” Shikamaru sent Shikadai a sideways look. “But I assume at this stage, all your secrets are probably things you can talk to me about.”
Shikadai shrugged. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“It’s a part of growing up.” Shikamaru said reassuringly. “A mistake or two is okay. And if you think your friends are suggesting something you shouldn’t do, you’re allowed to say no to them as well.”
“I know. I didn’t think there was any harm in this, though. It’s not like Boruto made me do it. It’s all on me.”
Shikamaru smiled then, pleased at Shikadai taking responsibility for his own actions. “You’re doing fine, kid. Don’t worry.”
They sat in silence for a while, with Shikadai mulling over the day. After a while, he heard the front door opening, and flinched in place. Shikamaru gave him a sympathetic look. “You want to tell her, or should I?”
“Guess I better,” Shikadai muttered. “That’s what being a man is all about, isn’t it?”
“There, see?” Shikamaru smiled. “This has been a good learning experience for you.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Shikadai got up, taking in a deep breath before turning towards the house. He called out somewhat uncertainly, “Hey, Mom? I need to talk to you.”
Shikamaru stayed where he was, watching the deer moving through the trees. Good experience, he thought absently, for Shikadai to push boundaries and take the fall for it, and not even attempt to deflect the blame.
When he was Shikadai’s age, he would have shamelessly thrown Naruto under the bus. He was chalking this up to superior parenting techniques. Clearly, he was raising his child better than his parents had raised him. He made a note to mention it to Temari later.
We made a pretty good kid, he thought, getting up and stretching leisurely, in no hurry to go inside. He’ll be an asset to the village someday.
Shikamaru glanced at the house as Temari’s voice ripped through the silence, “You did what?”
Well, he reflected. If he survives that long.