Chapter 21: Personal Raccoon companion

Shikamaru woke up to the Irritatingly rhythmical beeping of the hospital's machinery and his head felt like it was splitting in half as he recalled the things that happened last night.

He remembered that the fight was going normally until the very end where he might have overreacted a bit, but it was his first time fighting an opponent that was giving off so much killing intent and it eventually made him a bit irrational as he got lost in the battle.

He really should have realized that it was most likely Kakashi or the man attacking him yesterday who he had identified as Itachi testing him, luckily no one got hurt too much and it was a valuable experience for him in case he had to fight someone who was truly trying to kill him.

After about ten minutes of recalling his fight, his headache finally started to ease down and he could now actually open his eyes without it feeling like his head was going to explode, it was then that he finally noticed that the very person he had been fighting was sitting next to his bed.

Itachi had now also noticed that Shikamaru had woken up "It is good to see that you are up, I would like to apologize for knocking you out."

Shikamaru only now seemed to catch up with what Itachi was saying and replied "Don't worry about it, I don't really know what happened last night, and I would also like to apologize for reacting like that, I can only assume that you were trying to test me not kill me."

Itachi's reaction was unseen by Shikamaru as both of them still had their masks on, they weren't allowed to take their masks off in public no matter what happened. Unless the Hokage himself ordered them to take off their masks.

"You are a very interesting person if you want I could teach you a few things," Itachi said.

Shikamaru wasn't very surprised by this. While it was unexpected he gladly agreed to have Itachi as his teacher as it would only benefit him.

With that, he and Itachi agreed to meet at the training ground where they had previously fought.

Two hours after Itachi had left Kakashi had decided to show up.

"So, I heard you discovered some special ability of yours, The Hokage and your Family were informed but you won't be allowed to see your family since your training isn't over yet." Kakashi informed him

Shikamaru looked a bit sad as he had been missing his parents and the rest of the clan quite a bit, after spending two whole years with them he had grown very fond of his clans antics and he had come to love his family even without the original Shikamaru's memories, those memories were now irrelevant to Shikamaru since a new person was born after the merging of the two memories, the only thing that truly remained of the old Shikamaru was his intellect and photographic memory which was why he could learn as fast as he did, nevertheless he had been missing his family and was sad to learn that he still couldn't see them.

Kakashi also noticed Shikamaru's downtrotted mood and smiled fondly at him, not that Shikamaru saw that "But there is some good news." Kakashi happily informed

Shikamaru looked at Kakashi expectantly and asked "Which is?"

"The commander has decided to give you a week off from training which you can spend doing whatever it is you want, still no meeting your family though."

After this Kakashi had left and Shikamaru was once again left alone.

Shikamaru decided to take a day off from training and decided to spend some time with the Raccoon Clan again since he hadn't seen them in a couple of months and Elder Shiroi refused to let him with the boss of the Raccoon Clan for some reason, and the only raccoon that he could summon was Elder Shiroi which saddened him a bit since he wanted to have his own personal raccoon summon.

So after getting discharged from the hospital he went back to his room in the Anbu dorms, once he was there he summoned Elder Shiroi.

"Heh. You finally decided to summon little old me? I thought you had forgotten about us." Elder Shiroi said as soon as she got summoned.

Shikamaru embarrassedly looked at the ceiling refusing to make eye contact with Elder Shiroi "Well I didn't really have any time to meet with you and the leader since I was training very hard!"

Elder Shiroi simply smiled mysteriously as if she was expecting this answer from him "You know, you really do resemble your ancestor a lot. He would often forget to summon us and always used the excuse of him needing to training or needing to make new techniques for us to forgive him, nevertheless, I believe it is time for you to find yourself a personal summon."

Shikamaru was elated when he heard this which showed in his expression which was of childish joy, Elder Shiroi smiled at this and quickly reverse summoned herself together with Shikamaru.

They arrived in the same giant and colorful forest where Shikamaru had first met Elder Shiroi.

Elder Shiroi explained to him how he would be able to find his own personal summon "To find your own summon you need to stop looking with your eyes and look with your mind, you need to stop thinking with your mind and follow your instincts, they will guide you to the raccoon who is most suited for you."

Shikamaru then did as instructed and searched for his instintcs that were inside him, he always felt that he had a special connection to the realm of the raccoon's but until now he always felt as if something was holding him back as if something was locked in his mind, but after his fight with Itachi he felt as if his mind was clearer than ever and his connection to the raccoon realm now resonated within him, guiding him to where he would find his companion.

Elder Shiroi was very impressed by Shikamaru as she knew the power that resided within him, his ancestor also had the same ability as him and it was unlocked by undergoing a near death experience, the reason she hadn't allowed him to meet any other raccoon was because he hadn't unlocked his ability and she didn't expect him to unlock it anytime soon either, so when he summoned her and she felt the presence of his ability she was very surprised but nonetheless happy for him.

And there were good things to this as well, now he could officially train under the raccoon clan and even get his own personal summon, which he looked very happy about, Elder Shiroi also felt a grandmotherly joy when she saw Shikamaru's happiness.

Shikamaru then slowly started walking to the mountain he was most attracted to, and Elder Shiroi followed.

They walked for two entire hours and ended up in front of a giant mountain that dwarfed all the others, this mountain was where every single raccoon was born. Even the raccoon leader was born on this very mountain which is why it was called The Mountain of Beginnings.

They started ascending the stairs and walked past countless little houses were many little baby raccoons could be seen, nearing the bottom of the mountain is where all the Messenger Raccoons were born, they specialized in getting messages from one place to the other. After that came the Spy Raccoons, they were the ones tasked with gathering information for the Raccoon Clan, these two type of raccoons were the only ones born separately from all the other raccoon types, after these two sections of the mountain you could find any kind of raccoon, there was only one more place where special kind of raccoons were born which was at the very top of the mountain, which is also where Shikamaru and Elder Shiroi were headed.

~~~~

I'm really tempted to write my own shitty cultivation novel.