Prompt Fill: Hidden In Shadow

It's almost the end of March but it doesn't feel like it. Mostly because of the weather. It's supposed to be spring but it's cold... which is just ridiculous. Go away, cold.

Anyway, this is another leftover prompt from Advent. From ronri: Can I offer a prompt too? Your Nara rock and I'd like something to do with Harry and Shikamaru having to get married ;) Or else something to do with Harry's patronus marking him as some sort of god/saint or something to the Nara and hijinks taking off from there. Or just more Harry interacting with the Nara in general! Especially from Shikaku's point of view. I really enjoyed The Shikaku POV extra you already posted.

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“One of the fawn has gone missing.”

Shikaku frowned as he looked up from the shuddering deer he'd been examining. “Missing?”

The dim light of their forest lanterns highlighted Shikamaru's dark circles. “Naruto came by.”

“He does have a soft spot for animals,” Shikaku said with an understanding sigh.

“And he can sneak around better than most people in the village,” Shikamaru reminded him.

Shikaku looked down at the prone deer he'd been caring for since the previous night. “Better get the fawn back before he sees it succumb to this... sleep.”

A sliver of fear and unhappiness slid over Shikamaru's face before it smoothed out into a precarious apathy. He nodded and disappeared from sight.

Alone with his thoughts once more, Shikaku brushed the unconscious but trembling deer's coat, hating the herd's silent affliction now more than when he had last encountered it as a teenager. Even though it had been years since the last outbreak, they still hadn't found the cause or a cure to help the herd.

Even working with the Inuzuka vets hadn't yielded any results.

All they knew for certain was that the deer who had separated from the herd and fell into this disturbed sleep would die. At last count, over a third of the herd had been afflicted and scattered across the Nara property.

“Dad!” Shikamaru yelled, the strange emotion in his voice dragging Shikaku back into reality. Shikamaru led Naruto and Harii towards him with urgent steps. “Dad, the fawn!”

Shikaku stood, expecting the worse. Moving the fawn out of the Nara property must have hastened it's painful death.

Flitting alongside the boys, a healthy fawn warbled out a greeting without any trace of the lethargic illness that should have killed it.

“What?” Shikaku said. He glanced at his son, wordlessly asking if the fawn had actually been a victim of the sleeping sickness.

Shikamaru nodded, equally confused. “When I got there, she was already healed.”

While Naruto couldn't hide his delight at the words, his cousin exuded uneasiness.

The fawn stopped beside the deer at Shikaku's feet and nudged at it with a plaintive cry. Though the illness wasn't contagious in the traditional sense, Shikaku pulled the fawn away.

“See, nii-san,” Naruto said. “The deer are all ill.”

“That's just one deer.”

“I saw the others. I only brought the fawn because it was small and uh,” Naruto stopped as though just remembering where he was and who was hearing his words.

“No one has ever tried to steal one of our herd,” Shikaku said, to make the blond sweat a bit.

“I had to, old man Shikaku,” Naruto said, any fear and guilt overshadowed by a conviction.

Shikaku twitched at the epithet. He was not an old man.

“And it was a good thing I did,” Naruto continued. “She was all cold when I brought her into the apartment but then nii-san... well, she's all right again!”

“You healed her?” Shikaku asked Harii.

Harii shook his head. “I'm not a healer.”

“But you did something,” Shikaku said.

“She could have gotten better by herself,” Harii protested with a half-hearted tone, watching the wheezing deer at Shikaku's feet. “What's going on, exactly?”

Not many people outside of the Nara clan knew about this illness that afflicted their deer. The few that did were acclaimed medical experts who had never been able to do much about it. “An illness. We call it the Sleeping Curse.”

Harii startled, his worry shifting into caution. “Curse?”

“It's just a name. We've never been able to find the cause of it. And worse, we've never been able to cure it. Once the deer become like this,” Shikaku motioned at the deer, “they never wake. It felt fitting to call it a curse.”

“All your deer?”

“Just a large portion of them,” Shikaku said with a tired sigh, tightening his grip on the restless fawn in his arms.

“And this happens often?” Harii asked, narrowed eyes turning back to the deer.

“Every generation. This is first time since I became the clan head,” Shikaku said with a shake of his head. “If you can do something about this, something that had plagued us for generations, then we, the whole clan would be in your debt forever.” When that cautious offer didn't inspire any reaction, Shikaku asked, “Can you retry whatever you did for the fawn on this deer?”

Harii hesitated.

“Or I could try it instead,” Shikaku said. “Just tell me what to do.”

“You can't use it,” Harii said. “Not like I can.”

A clan technique of some sort then. Shikaku couldn't ask for something like that. Especially when it was probably something that a non-Uzumaki couldn't use.

“Nii-san,” Naruto called from beside Shikamaru and the prone deer that was breathing with laboured breaths.

Harii stared between his cousin and the deer, and his hesitation crumbled.

“Even if it doesn't work, I won't share any details of your technique,” Shikaku promised.

Harii sighed but closed his eyes. His eyes twitched behind his lids for a long moment before his raised his right hand and moved in a circle.

Blinding silver light flared out in front of his hand and a solid shape emerged as though summoned.

A large translucent stag, crafted out of pure light and moving with a sentience that didn't belong to a mere technique, looked around the forest in protective caution before zeroing in on the prone deer.

Unlike Shikamaru's wide eyes, the delight on Naruto's face showed a fond familiarity with the being.

As the stag lowered it's head to the deer, Shikaku knew that no Nara would be able to replicate this.

No one in the world could summon this stag.

“What is it?” Shikaku asked, unable to hide the wonder from his voice as the deer calmed and woke under it's light touch.

“A guardian.” The conviction in Harii's soft voice hinted at a story. “Made of positive force like happy memories. Does this give you any ideas for a cure?”

“Light and happiness,” Shikaku said as the stag shifted it's focus from the recovered deer to Naruto and then to the forest around them. “That can't be manipulated into something so... real, especially not by any Nara.”

“My father,” Harii paused, the emotion in those two words hard to miss. After a deep breath, he tried again. “My father might have been able to help you better with this.”

“He had veterinary skills?”

“Let's just say, he understood deer on a level that other people couldn't.” Harii said, his lips twitching at some private joke.

“The Nara would have been glad to meet him,” Shikaku said.

“Were you ever fond of Naruto's pranks?”

Shikaku allowed the abrupt change in conversation, knowing how painful it was to talk about family, especially deceased family. “They were an amusing distraction at times. But I'm glad he grew out of that phase.”

“I'm not sure if my father ever completely grew out of his prankster phase.”

Surprised at the personal information, it took a moment for Shikaku to reply.“The Nara would put up with a lot for the sake of our deer,” Shikaku said. “And I'm sure your mother would have prevented your father from being too outrageous. That's what wives do.”

“She would have,” Harii agreed with a soft voice. “And she might have been more helpful than him. Everyone said she was really smart.”

Everyone said had to be the saddest way to talk about your parents.

The silver stag disappeared, plunging them back into dim darkness.

Naruto's disappointed sigh reminded Shikaku that it was even sadder to not having anyone talk about your parents. Especially when there was so much to say.

Kushina was strong, had always been strong. And Minato was smart enough to give any Nara a run for their money.

But Naruto didn't know any of that.

“Nara-san,” Harii's urgent hiss broke into Shikaku's thoughts. “Are those your shadows?”

Shikaku followed the boy's line of sight and squinted, spreading out his shadow to search on reflex. “Which shadows?”

“The one that is moving,” Harii paused and straightened, his green eyes narrowing with realization. “That is not a shadow,” he whispered, his hands twitching. Another stag emerged, brighter and even more solid than before.

The stag flew forward with it's head lowered and sank the sharp points of it's antlers into a patch of darkness.

The antlers ripped through the darkness, unleashing a deafening wail.

More than the chill that raced across his skin and made his shadow shudder, it was Shikamaru's gasp that worried Shikaku. “What was that?”

“Nara-san, I think, no, I'm sure,” Harii said, as the stag glowed in front of them, “You've got an actual curse you need to deal with.”

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Lucky for you, Nara, Harry is really good at dealing with curses.

 

Polar