Sometimes When People Smile at You, It Isn't Out of Politeness

After carefully examining this character from the anime, whose IQ was said to exceed 200, Naruto sat atop a rock and looked down at him with a half-smile. "Is that all?"

"Do you know who I am?"

Shikamaru nodded slightly. "Lord Hokage said you might be a little dangerous."

Naruto stared at Shikamaru and replied calmly, "No, you're wrong."

"Let me give you a hint."

"I'm not dangerous."

"I am danger itself."

Shikamaru did not answer immediately. Feeling Naruto's gaze settle on him, he instinctively recalled the photographs of Naruto he had seen before. When he looked up, his eyes involuntarily met those azure blue eyes.

All he saw was a pair of deep, unfathomable eyes, cold to the bone.

After thinking quietly for several seconds, Shikamaru said seriously, "No! There were other arrangements. Besides having me come make friends with you, Lord Hokage also asked me to learn as much about you as possible and report back to him. This mission started several months ago!"

"You're smart," Naruto praised expressionlessly. Then, without the slightest emotion in his voice, he continued, "But for Lord Hokage to specially arrange a potential friend for me despite being so busy, he really has worked hard."

"You told me the contents of your mission yourself. How are you supposed to make friends with me now? And how will you explain things to Lord Hokage? Your mission has failed."

A complicated expression flashed across Shikamaru's face. "I don't know. Before I came, I remembered something someone once told me: friends should be companions who trust each other most."

"Putting aside whether the mission succeeds or fails, if I made friends strictly according to the mission's requirements, then to the friends around me, I fundamentally wouldn't be someone worth trusting. Nor would I be able to trust anyone else."

"Besides, I knew from the start that I couldn't complete this mission. I never promised Lord Hokage that I definitely would."

After saying those words, Shikamaru felt as if he had thrown off some heavy burden. He could not help thinking of the unfinished game of Shogi with his father that morning, countless killing moves constantly surfacing in his mind.

Naruto fell silent atop the rock. He had been watching Shikamaru's expression the whole time, but he did not care whether Shikamaru's words were true or false.

Because he understood Shikamaru, but Shikamaru did not understand him.

The question now was how he should handle this situation.

Naruto was certain that the Third Hokage was currently using the Crystal Ball and the Scrying Jutsu to observe what was happening here. He had sensed that ever since Shikamaru left the Hokage's Office, the Third Hokage had not moved from his position.

There was a fatal flaw in Shikamaru's seemingly candid words.

Since he had just said he had accepted this mission months ago, he must have known that the Third Hokage could use the Crystal Ball to monitor him.

Yet he had not mentioned it at all!

At that thought, Naruto's eyes suddenly turned razor-sharp. This was a test!

Shikamaru was testing whether he knew about the Third Hokage monitoring him.

Or perhaps he was testing how much Naruto knew about the Third Hokage's surveillance.

He had said the mission began months ago, which meant he must have learned all of Naruto's information in detail from the Third Hokage.

But Shikamaru had not played by the rules. Right from the start, he had exposed the mission completely and laid everything bare.

While betraying the Third Hokage, he wanted to hide himself perfectly, just like a...

Naruto's thoughts stirred. This whole selling-out-your-teammate scenario felt familiar. In the Original Work anime, Shikamaru seemed to have used this trick once when Tsunade assigned him to lead a squad on the mission to retrieve Sasuke.

Back then, when he led Naruto and the others and they were trapped by one of Orochimaru's subordinates, Jirobo, using an Earth Style Ninjutsu, he had played this same game.

He must have noticed something from the intelligence gathered during Naruto's years of surveillance, so he wanted to use this method to confirm certain suspicions.

Naruto had always presented himself in the village as an eccentric, solitary loner who did not fit in. Even if he ignored Shikamaru and caused the mission to fail, the Hokage could not blame Shikamaru.

And the moment they met, Shikamaru had revealed that everything was arranged by the Third Hokage, making it clear that he was helpless too.

If Naruto played along, Shikamaru would confirm his suspicions while both completing the task assigned by the Third Hokage and staying true to his original intention of making friends.

If Naruto did not cooperate, Shikamaru could use the same tactic on the Third Hokage again and sell him out one more time. Of course, how he told the story would be entirely up to him.

For example, he would definitely first say that he had tried to communicate with Naruto sincerely and become friends, but Naruto had refused. Then he would use tactful phrasing to say that, because he had been too eager to complete the mission, he accidentally revealed the Third Hokage's arrangements, before blaming himself and admitting fault.

Either way, he would place all responsibility for the lack of cooperation on Naruto, the eccentric Jinchuriki.

Would the Third Hokage make things difficult for a five-year-old child? Shikamaru was not a Jinchuriki like Naruto.

So for someone as intelligent as Shikamaru, whether or not he became friends with Naruto was no longer the important part.

Having figured it out, Naruto jumped directly down from the rock and took two steps until he stood before Shikamaru. Just as he was about to speak, he heard a familiar notification in his mind.

His expression shifted slightly, and Naruto looked brightly at Shikamaru. "It seems the people in the village were right. The Nara Clan really does have exceptionally high intelligence."

Seeing Naruto suddenly say that after walking up to him, Shikamaru appropriately showed a slightly embarrassed expression.

"You're smart!" Naruto extended a hand toward Shikamaru, his eyes gleaming. "I like making friends with smart people! You seem like someone worth trusting! Uzumaki Naruto is my name. You know that."

Delight appeared on Shikamaru's face. He raised one hand and naturally clasped Naruto's outstretched hand. "Yeah, I'm Shikamaru Nara. From now on, we're friends who can trust each other."

'Collecting data.'

'Update complete. Current data completeness: 7%. Please complete the data as soon as possible!'

"Mm." Once the voice in his mind stopped, Naruto calmly released Shikamaru's hand before suddenly adding, "By the way, Shikamaru, when you first mentioned the word trust just now, I wanted to ask whether you'd ever heard a saying."

Shikamaru's expression remained unchanged. He immediately adopted an attentive posture and asked cooperatively, "What saying?"

A trace of mockery flashed through Naruto's eyes before vanishing. Then he smiled at Shikamaru. "Trust is a rather ridiculous form of affection. I seek it, yet cannot obtain it."

Inside the Hokage's Office, the Third Hokage was also smiling as he watched the Crystal Ball with Shikaku Nara.

"Heh heh, Shikaku, I knew Shikamaru would be able to do it. See? It was quite simple. It seems Naruto does not actually reject forming connections with others."

"Yes, Lord Hokage. Although we couldn't hear what they said, judging from their expressions, they seemed to get along quite well."

The Third Hokage nodded almost imperceptibly, then removed the image from the Crystal Ball. "Then have Shikamaru put more effort into what comes next. That child is exceptionally talented. He will surely become an outstanding ninja in the future."

Shikaku Nara nodded solemnly, though a hint of pride still flashed across his face.

Night fell. Shikaku Nara had just returned home and entered the living room when he saw that his son, Shikamaru, was already back. Alone, Shikamaru was frowning tightly at the unfinished Shogi game from that morning.

Shikaku sat opposite Shikamaru and fiddled with the pieces as he asked, "What are you thinking about? Why do you look so serious?"

Shikamaru said gravely, "My mission failed."

"What?" Shikaku froze, then asked with an odd expression, "Didn't you two shake hands and become friends?"

Shikamaru lowered his head. "Before meeting Naruto, I had actually already made another decision. If I had followed that decision, perhaps we really could have become friends. But influenced by those two photographs, I tried to be clever."

"On top of that, I had studied Naruto's surveillance records for a long time, so when I met him, I developed a bit of curiosity I shouldn't have had."

Still puzzled, Shikaku asked, "But the Third Hokage and I both saw Naruto smile at you before he left, didn't we?"

Shikamaru's gaze swept over the board, and he rose with a solemn expression.

"Father, do you know? Many times, people smiling at you is not a sign of politeness or goodwill."

"Naruto's smile was more like a warning."