「⦶」 YOU ARE NOT ATLAS.

        ‘ hey, ramen isn’t garbage ! it’s the food of the gods ! ’ naruto snaps back, insulted in the way he can only get when ramen is trashed on. he thinks shikamaru is only saying that in order to get a rise out of him, but still. ramen ! 

        when dropped, he lands lightly on his feet ( he’s a ninja, after all ), not minding the weight of shikamaru on his own shoulders. grinning back at shikamaru ( glad to see the other so happy after everything ), naruto boasts, ‘ well, i guess i got’a teach you how to really appreciate ramen since you’d be paying for it ! to ichiraku ! ’

                  The male BARKED A LAUGH in response to his friend’s claims, the jest coming swift and easy to him. They walked in stride, now just as they always had. The air was light and the sun beginning to dip below the walls of the city and all was well with them both ( even if just for the night ). 

                  Any onlooker would have assumed the pair  d r u n k  ——— and perhaps they were SLIGHTLY INTOXICATED these days, even without the booze. Shikamaru felt as though he were knocking his head back with shot after shot of these nights spent on the training field or in front of the shōgi board. The moon was often met with either reward or punishment for his CHALLENGES as the male would spend his nights out with Sakura, Naruto, or whatever other fool entertained his games. 

                  They shuffle into the city and are met with the familiar lights and sounds they had GROWN UP on. Shika sobering up long enough to nod at the POSTED NIN outside the gates, he pushes his weight off of the redhead’s shoulders and stuffs his palms along the lining of his pockets. ❝ Ichiraku ? ❞ Nara’s nose wrinkles and he stares ahead thoughtfully,  ❝ I know I said my treat but are you sure that’s your meal of choice ? ❞

「⦶」 ( @medicfist )

                          A groan of pain MUTTERED, sound hardly filtering between COBWEB CRACKED LIPS. She doesn’t wait for a response, lost within the LABYRINTH of her own mind. All attention pulled from lecturing him, and back to this broken body that lay before her. He wasn’t sure she knew he was conscious with how wild and rough her hands were being with his wounds. That, or she was furious enough with his recklessness that she didn’t care.

                         Shikamaru glances to her and his heart is DROWNING, captive in chains to THE WORLD ON HIS SHOULDERS that takes and pushes down on him until the weight cracks his ribs from the strain of it all. Weight that threatens to SHATTER THE BONE there and send him gasping for air, like this battleground has already done to him. golden gaze shifts, each part of his attention torn in uneven parts between the TATTERED NINJA that stood around them both. Each of them demand LESS OF HIM than he has demanded of himself. And yet, despite this pain that seeps from every pore, mixed with sweat and blood, he’d run into hell after any one of them.

                      should have been faster. should have been stronger. should have been better. Thoughts flow through his mind, washing over him being with POISONOUS venom.

                           Shika’s mouth is layered in the taste of smoke, not of cigarette but bomb and ruin. Despite his broken body, his fingers twitch in longing to reach for his pack but his stomach curls in siding with this taste on his tongue. He catches sight of OLYMPUS SKY EYES and offers a half hearted smile, recoiling as busted lip begins it’s steady flow of blood once more. ❝ ——— Yeah but you’d never let me die without finishing our match, right? ❞ He’d be damned if she wasn’t the only sight worth seeing right now. He almost reaches up, almost makes the movement to stroke a cherry blossom lock of hair from her heated eyes. It takes casts and bandages to stop him. ❝ He needed me, ❞ the ninja mutters nonchalantly ( as if he hadn’t charged in there and left his life as risk )❝ You can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same. Where is Naruto? ❞

if team 10 isn’t important to you then you’re missing out

               “  Care to explain to me all over again as to why  WE’RE the ones who have to clean up the mess that they left behind?  “  

@kagemanefist  liked for a starter !!

       atlas wasn’t meant to carry the weight of the world && neither were we.

          ❝ Then you  smell  RANCID, ❞     she  tells  him  with  a  sharp  bark  of  laughter,  kicking  her  legs  up  into  the  chair  and  sending  herself  whirling  around  to  face  him.   Knees  tucked  to  her chest  and  chin  resting  on  them,  Sakura  drops  her  latest  file — lung  cancer,  how  fitting,  she’s  been  demanding  he  quit  for  so  long — onto  her  ever-growing  pile  with  lazy  fingers,  tilting  her  head  and  wincing  at  the  way  it  pops  with  her  movement.   ( Maybe  she’s  been  sitting  here  too long… )     ❝ Testy  is  smelling  cigarette  smoke  in  a  hospital             y’know,  when  everything  smells  like  chemicals  and sickness  all  day,  a  SMOKER  walking  in  is  like  being  punched in  the  mouth  by  shishō. ❞

          ❝ Mm,  I  wasn’t  expecting  you  today.  What’s  up? ❞     She  tilts  her  head  to  the  other  side  as  she  speaks,  WINCING  again  as  her  spine  pops  with  such  loud,  rapid  succession  that  she’s  sure  Kakashi-sensei  would  have  thrown  her  right  out  the  window  in  protest.  She  hugs  her  legs  just  a  little  tighter  as  she  zeroes  her  gaze  back  in  on  him,  peach  lips  quirking  up  in  a  fond  smile  as  warmth  settles  in  the  depths  of  her  eyes.  She  knows  EVERYONE  ELSE  may  react  like  Shikamaru  turning  up  without  a  mission  scroll  or  a  message  is  some  grand  event,  but  she  also  knows  that  he  seems  to  amble  out  of  his  way  to  see  her.  Or  to  play  shōgi.  It’s  one  or  the…  sonofabitch.  

          ❝ The  board’s  in  the  left-hand  cabinet,  second  shelf  from  the  top.  Same  as  always.  Are  we  feeling  RAMBUNCTIOUS  today,  Shika? ❞

                    ❝ If I smell RANCID, then you look like shit, ❞ he grins. His counter to her statement was ignorant, admittedly childish. She didn’t look that way and both of them knew it. She did look tired though, overworked            and still as RADIANT as ever. Although he would never mean his words ( it was all in the banter between them ) he delivers a WELL MEANING WINK to cover the play like a lose bandage.  

                    ❝ You’re starting to sound like Ino again, ya’know. ❞ He mutters, eyes watching, as her delicate fingers glide over the files ( sandman’s dust left over the pages from all the time she’s stayed too late in this room ).  ❝ And it’s getting BORING. ❞ A chuckle rises in his throat, falling soft between cracked lips. With a lazy shrug, Shika digs his heal onto the flawless tile floor, turning himself toward his destination that she SO CLEVERLY knew what he was here for. Heaving himself up from his seat he lazily strode across the room to root around in the cabinet she directed him to, carefully pushing anything that looked even semi-important aside.