Chapter 13: Party
"I would be honored to attend Mr. Nara, only if Shikamaru and Choji are comfortable with me being there of course"
Shikaku turned to look at Shikamaru, who started nodding and honorable said
"Yeah, that would be nice. I definitely think he should come, Mom always loves having guests over after all."
"Yeah, Mr. Nara. I wouldn't mind at all either"
Shikaku looked at the two kids trying their best to convince him to allow Aizen to come, gave a short dry laugh, and said
"Alright Alright. I'm the one who invited him in the first place, so what are you kids trying to convince me for? Sosuke, it would seem that both of them have agreed. It would be a pleasure if you could come over. Do you have to inform your parents?"
It seemed that no one knew of my situation. It made sense, after all, I hadn't made any waves big enough to warrant a background check yet.
I smiled at the man's attempts to respect boundaries, after all, knowing I was a civilian, he could have well ignored the wishes of my parents and simply sent someone to inform them later, or even forget about the matter totally. The man was the clan head after all, and Jonin Commander, he had plenty of more important matters to keep in mind.
"No, Mr. Nara, that isn't necessary. After all, I am an orphan"
I could see Shikamaru change his expression a bit, Choji taking a more sympathetic look, while Shikaku adopted a slightly apologetic smile,
"I'm sorry Sosuke. I wasn't in the knowledge that your parents are not with you. I hope I didn't stir up anything?"
"Not at all, Mr. Nara. I have accepted this fact long ago, and there is no use dwelling on such matters anymore."
He nodded and addressed all of us
"Well, it's about time we get moving now, Yoshino will bring out the pan if we take any longer"
At that statement, both Shikamaru and Shikaku adopted a helpless and terrified look, and Choji and I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. We started walking towards the Nara manor, the sound of the howling wind around us. The three kids were chatting, while Shikaku silently watched from behind us.
Getting curious about the celebration, I started asking Shikamaru about it.
"Sighh, it's a drag. Ino-Shika-Cho consists of the Yamanaka clan, Nara clan, and Akimishi clans respectively. Before the creation of the Konoha Village, these three clans were a team and worked together to survive the Warring Era. After joining the village, we kept our close bonds since all our powers synergized together well. This is just another troublesome thing we do to keep the ties between members of the clan close, every year we get together and celebrate the new kids who enrolled in the Academy that year."
I looked back to see Shikaku smirking, probably satisfied that Shikamaru was listening to the clan's history.
After a couple more minutes of walking, a large green manor lit up with candles and lights appeared in my view. We made our way over, and I could see a black-haired woman wearing a red dress at the entrance of the manor. She was holding a big black pan, fumes shooting out of her ears, hair sticking up like a demon, gazing furiously upon Shikamaru.
"Shikamaru! Didn't I remind you that we had a celebration today?! I told you to come home right after school, do you know what time it is right now?!"
As if a switch had been flipped, and before she could continue on her rant, her eyes glazed over me, and probably realized that it was a new and unfamiliar face. Her hair, previously sticking up, came down in an instant, making me doubt whether it was in a different style in the first place. She come over and greeted me,
"Hello Sosuke, I've heard so much about you! Thank you for being friends with Shikamaru, I knew he can be a handful, I hope he hasn't been influencing you to be lazy like him"
It was such a quick switch that I couldn't react in time. I was left speechless.
"It's no problem, Mrs. Nara. Your son is a great friend to have after all"
"Tsk, how troublesome. Don't embarrass me mom"
At that point, she started gripping Shikamaru's head, who seemed to be on the verge of death. She kept gripping harder, and he swiftly stopped talking after that. It was overall a funny scene, seeing Shikamaru, someone who's usually so lazy and indifferent, being disciplined and basically squeezed to death by his mom.
After she was satisfied with the damage she inflicted, she turned back to us and said
"All right, well I won't hold you up any longer. Please enjoy the party and treat it as your home."
I knew that she was directing that statemtent at me, so I smiled and nodded at her
We made our way in, and I was surprised by the number of people present. Considering it was a party involving three of the biggest Clans present in the Leaf Village though, it doesn't seem to be as shocking.
Choji's dad, Choza Akimichi, started walking toward us when he noticed Shikamaru and Choji. Choza was a person of big stature, with dark red hair flowing down all the way to his waist. He had a white bandana wrapped on his forehead, and two thin purple streaks going along his cheeks. He made his way to us and spoke to Choji,
"Choji, didn't I remind you in the morning of the celebration? You know it is an important matter"
"Yes dad, I'm sorry it just slipped my mind"
"It's all right Choji. You're here now. We will congratulate you guys later, so you guys can go enjoy yourselves for a bit beforehand"
Choza began chatting with Shikaku, and we made our way to greet other people. I can hear Shikamaru whisper what a drag under his breath, but I found the party quite interesting. So many more people and generations are present, ones that were not even acknowledged in the anime. It made sense, after all, how deep could an anime go into characters deemed useless without losing the interest of the viewers? But now I could fully glimpse the profundity of the world, people living and breathing with their own set of experiences. While they might not move the plot along, in a real-world there is no set plot present. Even with me attending this party, befriending Shikamaru and Choji, and inevitably participating in future events, the course of the world itself will change.
It was certainly an interesting night for me. Not long after Shikamaru, Choji, and I started walking around the estate, a person with a pineapple hair style and black hair approached us. He began talking with us, or Shikamaru in particular, but eventually started questioning me as well
"I'm sorry, I don't think I have seen you around any of the estates, may I know who you are?"
"Yes, I don't think you would have either. My name is Aizen Sosuke, and as I'm sure you can infer I am not part of any clan. I was invited to attend by Mr. Shikaku a short while ago"
His lips curved down to a frown and he said
"Oh? I wasn't aware that any outsiders would be allowed in on the celebration. But since you claim to have been invited by the clan head, then I naturally have nothing to complain about"
Shikamaru spoke up for me from the side, saying
"My father did invite him, Ensui, and he is here as my friend as well."
"Yes, since both the clan head and clan heir have both spoken up for Sosuke, then I have nothing to add on. If you would please excuse me, I have some other matters to attend."
Ensui left quickly afterward. Shikamaru sighed and casually stated
"What a drag. Ensui is the son of one of the elders of the family. Even though the Nara clan is pretty united, there are still some who reject my father being the clan head, and so will reject me becoming so as well. They are pretty much in the minority, so it's no big deal, it's just troublesome to deal with them."
"There's no need to worry Shikamaru, I'm just surprised that there are those who still oppose your father becoming the leader of the clan"
"Yeah it's a drag, but there's nothing to be really done about it"
It was a pretty surprising detail for me. I never knew about the inner workings of the Nara clan, or most of the other clans. The only ones that I knew of were the Hyuga and Uchiha since those were the ones the anime went into detail for. The other Clans were mostly left out, and only their respective heirs and heiresses were focused on. It seems that coming was the right decision after all, since I get to glean a bit more into the Clans and their politics.
The matter was quickly forgotten though, and we returned to enjoying the party. The atmosphere was mostly jubilant, and people were very happy for the next generation to be starting the academy, especially all three of the heirs. At one point, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were put on the spot and cheered. It was a fun place to be in, and it was the first party I've been to in this world.
By the end, I had met a lot of new people, and my horizons were slightly widened. Many of the people here were genin or chunin, with a somewhat substantial number being jonin. It's not a big surprise, I'm sure that if you show the necessary talent, any of the clans would be able to provide plentiful resources, excellent teachings, and guidance in their secret techniques. This is why a civilian becoming more powerful than a clan member of the same rank was so surprising, since they just had too much of advantage both in heritage and foundation. People like Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Minato were the exceptions since they had the necessary talent and teachings, all of them taught by a Hokage.
The party finished and people started heading back home. Shikamaru and his parents found me, and his mom offered for me to sleep over. I respectfully denied the offer, saying that I had already intruded too much, and Shikaku gave a nudge for his wife to drop the matter. Shikamaru walked me out, and he gratefully said
"Thank you for coming today."
"It's no problem Shikamaru, I had quite a fun time today, so I have to be thanking you instead for inviting me."
"No worries, you are my friend after all"
I gave him a grin and said,
"Yeah. Well I have to go now, so I'll see you tomorrow"
"Yeah, see you tomorrow Aizen"
I started heading home in the bright white moonlight. The Village had gone to sleep now, only the crickets around were awake by now. The world around me was getting more interesting as time passed by. From just thinking about my future paths and the benefits with each one, I was enjoying the sights around me much more now. The previously disappointingly quaint village seemed much more welcoming now, and I could tell that the Leaf Village had become my home now. Not to mention I was already making friends, just seeing the bustling environment that was usually around me was already a reason for me to stay here.
After all, even if I left the Village, what was for me out there? Konoha was the best village for a reason, the people and laws were really lax, even if the number of undercurrents and political strife was the most out of all the villages. All the major villages had their own attractions, but for now, Konoha was my home.
I made it to my house and got ready for bed. I sat on my mat and started my meditations, reflecting on the day and how I should move about in the future. Changing the plot was not a big problem, but changing it beyond recognition was. That was one of the few advantages I had after all, and losing it would be a blow to one of my strengths. Though I decided not to worry about that too much, since everyone around me had to move without knowing the future either, so I could as well. I decided to just interact with the characters and fulfill my duty, anything else was not a problem for me to solve.
I headed to bed soon after, excited about the life I was developing in the Naruto world.
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Bob_Kizmet_5542 Sorry for missing a couple of days, I was pretty swamped with schoolwork for a while. I'm pretty free this weekend though, so I will write up a couple of chapters. As always, please
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