#choji replies

temari lifts her head from her hands, disappointment filling the surfaces of her face to find that it’s chouji in front of her and not the man she really wants to see. she had known that it wasn’t shikamaru from the sound of his footsteps, the pattern of his breathing, the way the other had hesitated slightly before asking the question, but she’s still upset. she stares at chouji, feeling somewhat DESOLATE and void of the emotional space required to discuss her emotions. shikamaru usually didn’t require words from her, and she’s at a loss trying to force some out to give to chouji, to let him know what happened.

suddenly, temari realizes something significant: maybe shikamaru had sent chouji to talk to her. for whatever reason, her boyfriend feels like he is not capable of discussing this with her anymore.

him not sharing his feelings openly is what had landed them in this mess in the first place, if you asked temari. she felt forced to coax his emotions out of him, and when that hadn’t worked too well, she had yanked them out. it’s understandable that he hadn’t liked it, but it was not understandable to temari that he had kept them from her in the first place, lied to her about them, and tried to insist that it didn’t even bother him that she didn’t want to move here.

“did he tell you?” temari croaks. her voice lacks strength and clarity, causing her to almost sound like someone else. “did he tell you that i said no?”

she COULDN’T DO IT. she can’t leave behind everything that she has ever known, abandoning her village, desecrating her family line, leaving her brothers to fend for themselves because she fell in love. she can’t subject shikamaru to a lifetime of stares, muttering about how the nara clan has CHANGED, how they never would have allowed this just a few years ago. she can’t cause irreparable damage to both his reputation and her own; she can’t move here not being able to run missions, having to sit in that house all day and pretend it isn’t eating her away inside, hide from her husband how miserable she is.

it has NOTHING to do with not loving him. she wasn’t previously aware of how much love she had to GIVE until she fell for shikamaru. it has nothing to do with her not wanting to; if it were just about her, if she, the person, was the only factor, she would have said yes in half a heartbeat. but the issue, if you asked temari, wasn’t even that she had said NO, it was that shikamaru insisted he understood. he insisted that it didn’t bother him, that they could go on like this, that they could get de facto married or whatever, the most official thing that didn’t involve any changing of citizenship.

you’re lying to me. temari had accused him. it bothers you. i know it does.

it rockets through her memory with the same ferocity that everything has been for the last forty-five minutes. it hurts, maybe from the strength of shikamaru’s denial or from the potency of her own words, asking him to leave her alone so she could think. definitely–not maybe–the look on his face when he had agreed and left her alone. there’s a storm coming in, and it isn’t even helping. the torment in the sky offers no soothing balm for the torment in temari’s heart.

she’s staring at chouji, the way she has been since he got onto the roof, and she wants, more than anything, for him to get it. “if it were just about me, i would marry him tomorrow.” she needs chouji to believe that, as shikamaru’s best friend. “but he can’t see the damage it would do to have me here. i can’t ruin his life like that.”

the wind picks up, almost violent, and thunder claps in the distance, far from them, but approaching. maybe chouji will invite her over; she doesn’t think she can go home.

“please.” she asks. “tell me i’m not wrong.”

“He didn’t tell me directly.  But it’s Taiyaki Tuesday ’nd he didn’t show up. I kinda figured out the rest just from knowin’ how Shikamaru is.”  And Temari had just confirmed his hypothesis.

Despite the windy weather looking as if it could sour at any minute, Chouji plops himself down next to Temari after hearing all she has to say.  The Akimichi is silent for awhile, digesting all the things Temari said both verbally and through body language.  Holding silence was something Chouji was good at; A silence that wasn’t judgemental or tense, but a silence that gave a chance to just be. 

Though all she said was that she didn’t want to ruin Shikamaru’s life, Chouji wonders if there was more to the story.  No, there had to be.  He digs into his pocket to retrieve the wrapper of a protein bar.  He fidgets with it while he thinks.  It had to be more than about what changes she’d bring for his best buddy.  It had to also be the potential changes for her.  Leaving her two younger siblings behind, the village she was so proud of.  The love and respect she’d gained from Suna’s civillians. It was a lot.  In the last few years, he’d gained a lot of love and respect from Konoha.  The idea of leaving that behind tugs at his heart strings.   

But he knows Shikamaru saw things differenly. Shikamaru acted with his mind rather than his heart. 

“Shikamaru sees everything like a puzzle, yanno?” Of course she knows.  He continues on.  He realizes he’s avoided her question, but he wasn’t sure if she wanted an actual answer.  “Somethin’ to be solved.  He uses his head instead of his heart.  When things aren’t goin’ the way his brain’s calculated, especially when it comes t’feelings ‘nd wants n’desires, he doesn’t use his heart t’figure things out.  He uses his brain.  It’s frustrating sometimes.” 

There’s a sigh. “Rather than thinking about how he should talk to you about this, he’s probably trying to calculate how likely it’d be that you’d change yer mind with how your interactions have gone thus far.  Or tryin’ to determine what his mistake was.”  He turns his attention to her, giving her a weak smile.  “Unfortunately, it’s something we gotta call him out on sometimes.”  We.  Of course Chouji sees Temari as important and someone that will be in his life for a long time.  “Not everything’s a puzzle— ‘Specially people.” 

The Hyuuga frowned, staring down the Akimichi with all the confidence of someone who was not staring down a person twice his size. "Come, we're going to the bar." No Chouza had not asked Neji to help his son meet some eligible ladies. The invitation was entirely normal and spontaneous. ..From @breakthecage​‘s Neji to Chouji!

Chouji slowly repeats the words back to Neji, clearly dumbfounded.  “The..bar?”  Chouji tilts his head to the side slightly.  “W-With you? What for?”

Indeed-- what for?  For one, he and Neji were not close—Had they ever had a one-on-one conversation before?  And two, Chouji was not one to drink often.  Mainly because once he started, it was hard to stop. It made him feel extra warm and merry and talking to people was much easier.  In the moment, he wouldn’t want to stop drinking out of fear that his social anxiety would return.

The sound caught his attention; Sasuke’s head jerking up in attention as he looked over towards the direction. After spending most of the morning training off by himself, he was originally walking back from his ‘secret’ grounds back to his compound; feeling his muscles pleasantly ache from the energy he had exerted. Well… that was originally his plan until he heard that pained grunt, brows softly furrowing in confusion and faint curiosity before he turned himself to walk closer towards it.

“Chouji…” He barely ever spoke to his former classmate - although granted, he barely spoke to anyone back in their academy days - but a part of him still felt that small connection; if only from having graduated in the same batch of genin. The Uchiha moved closer, dark brows furrowing in mild concern on handsome features, tilting his head slightly as he stood a few feet from him.

“— Are you hurt?” If it was something that could be fixed with a quick first aid, he was capable of providing it. Otherwise, Sasuke was already resigning himself to the fact that he would most likely have to assist him back into the village for assistance.

           “Sa-Sasuke?” Chouji feebly called, weakly raising his head.

      Being approached by Sasuke Uchiha didn’t really help is nerves. Not that he didn’t appreciate the help— Chouji was so relieved that someone was coming to his aid— But because he found Sasuke intimidating.  Mainly because the two never really spoke during their academy days, leading the Akimichi to believe that the Uchiha hated him ( despite the fact that Sasuke had rarely spoken to anyone those days ).  But Sasuke coming to his aid must mean that he didn’t hate him, right? At least, that’s what Chouji would tell himself in hopes of calming his nerves.  It helped.  A little.

      But the ache from eating food he knew would give him a stomach ache still lingered— A painful stomach cramp his body, causing him to quiver.  Cue another groan of pain.  

             “I’m not doing so good. .” He mumbles the obvious, answering Sasuke’s question in a way.  “There’s certain foods I know I shouldn’t eat because they hurt my stomach.  And, well. . “ Need he say more? Surely Sasuke could put two and two together and figure out Chouji had done something dumb.  

𝙴𝚈𝙴𝚂      𝙼𝙰𝙳𝙴      𝙾𝙵      𝙼𝙾𝙾𝙽𝙻𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃    went  wide  at  his  statement,  feeling  her  cheeks  heat  up  at  the  kindness  of  his  gesture.  ❛                Chouji-kun!  Y-you  didn’t  have  to…                    ❜    she  exclaimed  softly,  trying  not  to  wake  the  sleeping  toddler  in  her  arms  ━━━━━━  Mirai  had  been  quite  fussy  that  day,  and  not  having  Kurenai  at  home  had  made  the  young  girl  even  more  irritable,  though  Hinata  and  Chouji  slowly  managed  to  calm  her  down  enough  for  the  toddler  to  take  a  well  deserved  nap.  Gently,  the  Heiress  maneuvered  the  child  so  she  could  take  the  tea  her  friend  had  so  graciously  made  for  her  ━━━━━━━━  Hinata  wondered  how  Chouji  still  found  time  to  come  and  help  Kurenai  with  Mirai,  after  all  from  what  she  had  heard,  the  Akamichi  restaurants  were  becoming  more  and  more  popular  these  days.  ❛                Thank  you,  Chouji-kun.                    ❜    she  smiled  up  at  him,  that  same  soft  and  angelic  smile  she  gave  everyone  she  held  dear.

The  Hyuuga  Heiress  refused  to  admit  how  tired  she  was,  the  preparations  for  her  to  assume  the  mantle  of  Head  of  Clan  were  gruesome,  but  her  father  was  ready  to  step  down  ━━━━━━  concept  that  terrified  her,  for  deep  down  Hinata  still  felt  like  that  frightened  little  girl  she  used  to  be.  But  she  didn’t  feel  it  was  right  for  her  to  complain,  not  when  her  friends  seemed  to  be  doing  and  acomplishing  so  much  more  than  her.  ❛                How  are  the  restaurants?  Hanabi-chan  tells  me  they  are  even  more  popular  nowadays.                    ❜    one  of  the  downsides  of  preparing  to  become  Head  of  The  Hyuuga  was  the  fact  that  Hinata  hardly  had  time  to  go  outside  and  to  learn  what  went  on  in  the  village  ━━━━━━  thankfully,  she  had  Hanabi  to  keep  her  informed.  ❛                I  hope  you  aren’t  working  yourself  to  the  bone,  Chouji-kun.                    ❜

              “You’re welcome,” Chouji responds in a hushed tone, not wishing to wake Mirai.  He mirrors the Hyuuga’s warm, gracious smile.  “I figured you could use it— Ermm, Mirai’s been extra cranky today.”

        That, and the tiredness the Hyuuga displayed did not go unnoticed by the Akimichi.  While he did not really keep up with clan politics— much to his father’s dismay— He did know that Hinata would soon take over as the head of the Hyuuga clan.  Wow!  Chouji did not envy her sudden gain in power; Running a clan was not an easy task.  But he did worry for Hinata; That was so much responsibility placed on one young person’s shoulders! If it was tough for his father, a seasoned leader, he couldn’t imagine what challenges laid ahead for Hinata— For someone considered so soft and kind. .

         . . Kind of like he was.  They were people with a lot of heart to give. Yes, he did worry for her, but he also greatly admired her.  She was going to be soft and kind— Things great leaders were not known for.  But Hinata would be well-known; Chouji was sure of it. And that—

The last person he expected to approach him was Sasuke Uchiha.  Eyes as wide as full moons, Chouji hastily rubs his tears away with the back of his arm, sniffling loudly in an attempt to dry himself up.  “Ermm, umm, nothin’!”

What a weak response. This is accented by the longing look over his shoulder at the group of children playing Shinobi War in the distance. In that moment, the Akimichi wonders why Sasuke wasn’t playing with them.  Surely he’d be the best one at the game— It’d be an insta-win for him.  Slowly, Chouji turns his attention back to the prodigy of his class.  

Chouji snaps his head up upon hearing the familiar voice of his best friend, Shikamaru. The small tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes slipped free but he doesn’t really notice, for now his mind is occupied by the thought of this cool dead tree, and his heart is occupied with the excitement of spending time with Shikamaru.  A small smile makes its way onto the round boy’s face.

“O-Okay. Thanks, Shikamaru.” He stammers shyly, scooting off of the bench. “We could turn it into our own clubhouse or somethin. That’d be fun, huh?”

❝     gaara nervously asks chouji if they're friends. yes, we're doing this. and they're finally reaching the stage of established friendship. gaara is probably the only person on earth who cannot tell that he and chouji are definitely friends, but here we are. @ajisaai​    ❞

“Are we friends? Heheh, o’course we are!” Chouji beams at Gaara, a little amused by the question.  Wasn’t it obvious?

They spent a lot of time together— Outside of work.  They discussed their interests and affairs.  Gardened. Took strolls. Ate a lot of different foods ( Chouji still wanted to try all of the cuisine Suna had to offer as he worked on the village’s food pantry ).  Gaara even assisted Chouji when they became overheated from the desert sun— That was definitely a friend-thing to do! But that apparently wasn’t clicking for Gaara.  Chouji wouldn’t tease him for it, though.  

“I think we are.” Chouji continues, their voice softening as they place their giant hand on Gaara’s back.  “‘Cuz we spend a lot of time together and care about each other, right? That’s what bein’ a friend means to me.  Caring for each other and hangin’ out!”  The question was asked for a reason: They wanted to know what friendship meant to Gaara.