He opened his eyes abruptly, fully alert. It took him barely a few milliseconds to realize what had dragged him into consciousness.
I'm ok, in Scotland. On my way.
Suddenly, he felt as if a wave of relief and euphoria washed over him. He wanted to wake Naruto to share the news, but instead he stayed lying on his temporary bed, grinning like an idiot at the ceiling. Sometimes the simplest solution was the best one. He had nearly bitten his nails to the quick thinking about whether to wait or not, but he had made the right decision.
I love u.
He didn't even have to wait a minute.
I love u 2.
Shikamaru spent the following hours on edge. Judging by Naruto's calm chakra, he was still asleep, so he lay back on the bed staring at the ceiling but this time, he wasn't consumed by worry, but filled with relief, impatience, and happiness. He got up, unable to help himself, needing to stretch his legs, and took a shower. By the time he came out, dressed again like any ordinary civilian in jeans and a plain black shirt, Naruto appeared yawning. The moment he saw his smile, he perked up instantly.
"She replied," his friend stated, as if it were set in stone. He nodded. "I knew it! I told you!"
"I gave her the coordinates of this… hotel. Now we just have to wait."
But the wait felt unbearably long. They passed the time eating at nearby restaurants, browsing clothing stores, and visiting multiple bookstores whose catalogue of novels blew his mind. It was at that exact moment that he felt her approaching, and she appeared just as he turned around, still holding a random book, to see his girlfriend's face.
"Harika…" he whispered, almost unable to believe it.
Harika didn't say a word as she threw herself into his arms, her eyes shining with tears that hadn't fallen yet. At least, not yet. He, on the other hand, had to force down a lump in his throat, one he had rarely felt in his life. He held her too tightly, unable to restrain himself.
"Maybe we should leave."
The unfamiliar female voice made him lift his gaze slightly, blinking away tears, to see who could only be Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, and beyond them, Naruto. He didn't know how, but he let himself be led away from the bookstore until they reached a fairly large, nearly abandoned stream, where they sat down. He settled on the grass, pulling Harika with him, unable to let go of her, and only then did they finally look at each other properly.
The kiss was unexpected, chaotic, desperate… he found himself gripping her hair between his fingers, holding her against his torso with his free arm. When their tongues met again, it felt like coming home. He would have kept kissing her for hours, but a throat cleared, and they pulled apart, at least a little. Shikamaru held her on his lap, feeling how tightly Harika clung to him, as if afraid he might disappear.
"Are you okay?" he finally asked, cradling her face so he could see her. She nodded, unable to speak. "I almost had a heart attack when I found out that-"
"I confirm!"
"I'm sure it was Temari."
"So am I," he said, grinding his teeth at the thought for the first time in days.
"Ron, Hermione," Harika said, suddenly remembering them. "This is Shikamaru and Naruto."
"Nice to meet you. It's good to finally put a face to a name."
Hermione extended her hand, and he shook it. Then he did the same with Ron. Only a few days had passed for Harika, but for him it had been almost a week; a week worrying about whether his girlfriend was alive, whether she had truly been sent back to her dimension, or whether his theory had been completely wrong… He felt as if the weight he had been carrying all those days suddenly vanished, leaving him exhausted. He heard Naruto talking with Harika's friends, probably to give them some time, but Shikamaru didn't know what to say. His eyes traced her features, as if a small part of him still needed to make sure she was really there.
"What happens now?" Ron asked, crossing his arms and being blunt. "That woman… Temari, she seems to have it out for Harika, and for you. What happens when she finds out Harika came back with you?"
"If we can even go back just like that."
"We can return without a problem. We've already located the portal back."
"..."
"So, will you be going back soon?"
At the red-haired boy's question, a solemn silence fell. Shikamaru opened his mouth when Naruto looked at him, but Hermione beat him to it with a sigh, not looking particularly surprised.
"That's exactly what I wanted to discuss… I've been talking at length with Harika about the… dimension you come from. She told me about the issue with the coins and everything else. As Hari correctly assumed, it's impossible to use a portkey between dimensions because coordinates don't account for that kind of jump," Hermione explained. Naruto opened his mouth, confused, but she kept going. "If I used a portkey in your dimension and tried to reach the coordinates of, say, this place in Tokyo, I wouldn't land here, but in the location in your dimension with those same coordinates. Portkeys, for now, are useless."
"And yet, portals must use some different method that connects both dimensions through identical coordinates on both sides."
"Huh… that makes more sense than ending up in some 'random' place," his girlfriend blinked, still leaning against his chest.
"But I thought something like that required a lot of energy."
"It does, Naruto. What are you thinking, Hermione?"
His question lingered in the air as Hermione and he exchanged a look, each considering different possibilities. The truth was, he had already thought about how he might connect both dimensions using chakra, if that was even possible, but he didn't know where to start. Probably fuinjutsu, but he wasn't exactly a master of it. Hermione, on the other hand, was a witch like Harika and used to instantaneous travel. If anyone could connect both dimensions, it would be them.
"Time passes much more slowly here than in your dimension, so I've been considering several solutions since Harika called us, but I'll need your help, a private place to study, and a bit more time."
"Great. Then let's go to a hotel. That way we can rest and have somewhere to lay out the books."
Shikamaru let himself be led along, too distracted by staring at his girlfriend without blinking. He heard Ron snort with laughter, but didn't bother looking at him. He was too busy holding back everything he wanted to say and do. As soon as they paid for three rooms, he went inside his new one, created a shadow clone to help Hermione, and once there were no more distractions, he found himself being tackled by his girlfriend.
Only then did he feel her tears against his skin, and although he didn't cry, he inhaled shakily, as if finally processing everything that had happened in just a few days.
"I can't believe I almost-… almost lost you," she whispered.
"But it's over now."
Harika nodded, speechless, as he stroked her black hair. They stayed like that for a long time, holding each other, touching, making sure they were really there, together, sitting on the bed. Slowly, they relaxed, both of them, as it became clear that the ground wasn't going to open up and swallow one of them. He found himself lying on the bed, staring at her as if he still couldn't believe it. His eyes traced her high cheekbones, pale face, and those green eyes framed by damp lashes.
"I love you."
"I love you, Shikamaru."
Unable to help it, he fell asleep as the accumulated exhaustion and stress finally drained from his bones.
Hours later, when they woke from their exhausting nap, they barely managed to separate by a few inches to go see their friends.
"Do you think it will work?" he heard Ron ask as they entered.
Shikamaru didn't let go of his girlfriend's hand. In fact, he sat down in an armchair newly conjured by Harika, with her on his lap, her waist within his arms. After what had happened, he doubted he'd be able to let her out of his sight for a few weeks. Harika, however, seemed perfectly content to lean against his chest.
"What have you found out?"
"After several hypotheses and theorems, I think the fastest approach would be to create something similar to a Floo connection. Based on my calculations, and what I saw in the temple Naruto showed us, I don't think it will be difficult to connect both dimensions. The… ninja dimension, so to speak, is like a pocket dimension within ours. In fact, everything points to it having been created by us- by someone originating from our dimension, I mean," Hermione explained.
"Especially since the temple they used to come here seemed to be under a Fidelius Charm."
Hermione, seeing Harika's raised eyebrow, and his as well, waved a hand dismissively. Naruto, who already seemed to have heard all this before, was eating while leaning against the window frame, occasionally glancing outside.
"Until Naruto showed me the scroll you stole, we weren't able to see the temple."
"But then how did I see the first temple, the one I used accidentally?"
"I have two theories: either the secret broke with the death of its Keeper, or during your travels you unknowingly saw the scroll or something similar. Maybe in that alley in Tokyo."
"I don't remember seeing anything like that."
"It's a hypothesis," Harika's best friend shrugged. "We also went to the coordinates you gave me for that temple, but since we went after seeing the scroll Naruto gave us… we don't know if it was actually enchanted. Either way, with the time we have right now, creating a portal like that isn't feasible. It requires too much energy. It would take us a few weeks to charge it."
"Does that mean Harika could, theoretically, charge a portal from my dimension to travel here?"
"...Theoretically, yes, but as I said, it would take weeks. Harika is powerful—much more than Ron and me—but even so, it's not easy. We're not talking about a small pocket dimension like the ones found in some enchanted bags, but a dimension with continents: the larger and more complex something is, the more energy it takes to interact with it."
Shikamaru nodded, but inside he felt euphoric. If what Hermione was saying was true, it meant it didn't matter how long it took Harika to activate those portals, the point was that she could. She could visit her family, even if it was only a couple of times a year. That meant that even now, Harika was no longer cut off from her original dimension. In fact, something was occurring to him, something he would have to test, but that he believed would work. After all, he had already experimented successfully with the residual magic contained in the golden galleon his girlfriend had given him.
"So, what now?"
"Now we need to return to Scotland, to Harika's house. She owns it, so it'll be the perfect place to establish a connection but we need the exact coordinates of another point in your dimension."
"My house," he said without hesitation. "I live alone. It belongs to me now, unless I move to a larger family home in the future."
Hermione and Harika exchanged looks and nodded. Ron flicked his wand, packing everything up in seconds, while Naruto brushed crumbs off his clothes absentmindedly. Shikamaru stood, kissing Harika's hair before letting her go, a gesture that, ironically, caused him pain.
"We'll have to request new portkeys from the Japanese Ministry of Magic," Harika frowned. "I didn't know Naruto would be here."
"And more portkeys to come back here to activate the portal."
"Nah," Naruto cut in, stretching. "Now that we're here, I can leave one of my summons near the temple. When we need it, I can just reverse-summon us."
Hermione stared at him as if he were an idiot. Ron looked confused, while Harika seemed to be holding back laughter, perhaps because someone else was the target of that sharp, uncomfortable stare. In any case- Oh. Ah. Shikamaru groaned in exasperation, rubbing his temple as he understood a moment later.
"Are you telling me you had a way to come back here… and it never occurred to you to mention it!?"
"Eh!? How was I supposed to know!?"
"Naruto!"
Shikamaru buried his face in his girlfriend's hair, hiding a laugh as he saw the exasperation on Hermione's face. It was the same expression Sakura or Tsunade-sama wore all the time. Naruto must have noticed too, because he raised his hands in surrender as if expecting to be punched, but Hermione only sighed, restraining her obvious agitation, and sat back down.
"Explain that summoning of yours. And don't leave anything out!"
And that was when Shikamaru realized how stupid they had all been. Of course, he had been half out of his mind these past few days waiting for news of his girlfriend, but he felt just as foolish as Naruto. Wow. It was the first time he truly understood what Naruto felt whenever he received one of those irritated looks.
He watched Hermione's hand fly over what looked like a notebook filled with notes, calculations, and diagrams. Even before she spoke, he knew what she was thinking. If Naruto could summon his toads… that meant they could return to their dimension without any problem. Without using portals. Which meant summoning must use a far more dynamic, but equally effective, method to move between dimensions. A method that relied on chakra, not magic. That meant that if Shikamaru could replicate something similar, he could take Harika home whenever she wanted. He just needed to figure out how, but now more than ever, he knew it was possible. It was only a matter of time.
…
Harika's house was as large as his parents' house, not the clan's main residence, but one they had chosen to raise him in. The view of the lake and mountains, however, was something new. Out of the corner of his eye, Shikamaru saw Naruto and Ron talking while sitting at a picnic table in the backyard, while Harika and Hermione were doing something magical with the living room fireplace. Shikamaru looked over Hermione's notes, written in English. He had started learning his girlfriend's language, but he was still a beginner, having only had a few hours to begin. Even so, the calculations were another matter entirely. Hermione Granger was truly a genius.
"And this here," Hermione said, pulling him out of his thoughts. Harika nodded. "I'll leave you a copy of my notes with annotations. It'll be very easy. Besides, if something fails, we can communicate through Naruto's summons, at least until we solve any issues that come up."
"And what about the portal? With this, Harika will be able to talk to us, but she won't be able to return unless she leaves Konoha, and puts herself in danger."
Ronald Weasley's question made Shikamaru's eyebrow twitch as he remembered how Harika had already been kidnapped in his dimension the moment she arrived. He didn't want his girlfriend to have to leave Konoha and search for another temple, but right now it was the most available option.
"There's a temple very close to Konoha on the map," she said, looking at him. Shikamaru nodded. "If I could activate that portal whenever I wanted to return… I wouldn't need to go far."
"And the foundations are already there…"
"Mmm… That's true. I need to think more."
"Actually, I have a theory," he cut in, abruptly closing the endless-page notebook that still gave him headaches. "While Harika gathers what she needs for our return, I'd like to talk to you about something I thought of earlier."
Shikamaru accepted a soft kiss on the lips, smiling without meaning to, and let Harika go upstairs, feeling a hint of anxiety at not seeing her. Naruto touched his shoulder when he noticed his tense back, then followed his girlfriend loudly calling her name, ignoring Ron's snort of laughter.
"What did you come up with?" Hermione asked, ignoring his anxiety without hesitation. "We'd better hurry… we don't want too much time to pass before you have to return."
"No. That's not my intention. The more time passes, the harder it'll be to explain what happened…"
"Then there's no time to lose."
They spent the entire afternoon—or morning, considering they had traveled to Scotland—modifying Hermione's models with the idea he had come up with earlier. Naruto helped as much as he could, but he wasn't an expert in fuinjutsu either, despite Jiraiya having been his last master. Either way, Hermione's experiments answered his question about whether he could interact with magic and use his chakra to… energize an enchantment. Just as he had thought, he was able to use the magic from another magical object, as long as he converted his chakra into shizen or sen chakra.
"Look, Shikamaru, I'm doing magic!" Naruto exclaimed when he was used as subject number two in Hermione's experiment.
"Whatever you say, Naruto," he rolled his eyes as he watched him flying on a broom with the grin of a little kid.
"You're such a grump."
"I'm busy with these calculations."
"Forget them. Smart people don't know how to have fun," Ron replied, perched on another broom and holding a fairly large ball. "A game?"
Harika shook her head with a smile, while Hermione shot her boyfriend a deadly glare. Shikamaru was slightly irritated because he felt like something was missing… they had a temporary plan, yes, but they needed something more. They couldn't spend days—at this point, no longer weeks, fortunately—charging those portals. They had lives to live; they couldn't be guarding those temples for that long every time they wanted to use a portal. But worst of all, there were people… including Temari, he thought bitterly… who knew they existed. What if she decided to destroy them? What if she trapped Harika in her dimension without a way back to Konoha? If conflict arose, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a way to send Harika, and their possible future children, somewhere safe.
"This is the most we can do," Hermione sighed, her hair messy and her expression tired. "The fireplace connection seems like the safest and most feasible option, but the portal… still needs to be charged for at least three days by Harika and someone with sen chakra."
"This is great, Hermione. At least this way we can talk several times a week, even if we need to recharge the fireplace. Once we figure it out properly, it'll be a piece of cake."
"I think so. It's not that it's difficult, but it's complex, and we need time to set everything up safely."
"So… are you leaving already?" Ron asked after an exhausted silence.
Shikamaru looked at Harika and then at Naruto. He didn't want to pressure his girlfriend, but logically they should rest once they returned to their dimension. Harika seemed to understand, because she stood up without a word and hugged Hermione, then Ron. Hermione said nothing, just hugged her tightly, likely because she had already figured out what was going to happen. Ron, on the other hand, seemed to have been holding onto the hope that his best friend would stay at least one more night. Still, he said nothing as he hugged her and then extended his hand to him.
"I've got everything we need. We can go."
He watched as she closed up her property again, reinforcing its protections even further, and as Hermione and Ron disappeared in the blink of an eye. Naruto yawned but said nothing as he reverse-summoned them back to Tokyo. They would use the portal since they knew where it was and that it was active. Next time they would try using summons to return to Konoha; it would require preparation, but it might be an easier option than portals, for now, at least, until they had a plan B. He didn't want to depend on Naruto and his summons for the rest of his life.
Aomori was calm, and completely dark. The temple was still there, in the same place. It would have been incredible if it had disappeared, but at this point, Shikamaru expected anything. Harika's hand tightened around his with something he couldn't quite place; impatience? nerves? relief? Shikamaru wanted to go home, to breathe under his combined protections, to process everything that had happened. He still couldn't let his guard down, couldn't collapse, couldn't disconnect, even though he wanted to.
He wanted to hold Harika properly, kiss her, touch her, make sure she was okay. Their reunion had been quick, rushed and he knew why. Not only did he not feel safe enough to lower his guard, but time was running. The longer they stayed here, the more time would pass for his parents, for the village, for his team. They didn't have time. At least not until they stepped through that portal.
Harika seemed to be thinking the same thing because she looked at the bottomless pit and then at him. She raised her arms just as Shikamaru pulled her against his torso and, with his free hand, grabbed Naruto's shoulder.
…
This time, he didn't pass out. The journey was impossible to perceive, but he didn't lose consciousness. Maybe because in less than a day he had used several transportation methods that left much to be desired, like Harika's apparition or that portkey from the Ministry of Magic. Harika, however, swayed in his arms for a moment. He didn't even flinch. He wasn't going to let her fall or let go of her, so he simply let her lean against him. Naruto shook his head with a smile he was too slow to hide.
"So, what do we do now?"
"We need to go home and find out how much time has passed. With any luck, no one will have noticed we were gone."
"And with bad luck?"
"...Right now, I don't want to think about it," he sighed, admitting it. Harika said nothing; it was as if everything that had happened was suddenly catching up to her, because she buried her face in his neck and leaned her full weight against him. "Hey. We'll get through this, okay?"
Harika nodded as he stroked her hair. He ignored Naruto, who had turned his back to give them some privacy, and lifted Harika's face. The moment he saw the unshed tears, he kissed her eyelids without thinking. He forgot about Naruto, about Temari, about the village… He had finally come back to her. She was okay, she was alive. His heart relaxed a little more when his lips brushed hers and Harika's hand clenched his sweater, pulling him closer. The kiss was simple, light, chaste. Not the kiss he wanted to give her, but he settled for staring into her eyes, silently promising things he wouldn't say out loud. Too many things, perhaps.
He was looking forward to having her in his bed, under the protection of his clan. He wanted to introduce her to his parents, to put her things in the half of his closet he had left for her. He wanted his house to feel like her apartment: intimate, comforting, lived-in.
He picked her up in his arms. "Come on, the sooner we get there, the better."
Harika's fingers brushed the skin of his neck, sending a shiver down his spine. He would have to control himself, because he doubted that once they returned to Konoha he'd have the chance to make love to her as much as he wanted. The memory of his girlfriend's green eyes, now shining with something else, stayed with him as he ran through the forest. He urged her to sleep while he ran, feeling more possessive than ever, holding her close against him. He wondered if he should be afraid of what he was feeling, but it was hard to be afraid when he could see the same darkness in Harika's eyes.