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.
