And then, out of all of the subjects Shikamaru didn't want to discuss, Fox had to choose the worst. He flinched slightly at the mention. Why did people have to die all the time, anyway? It was a childish question and he knew it, but that didn't stop him from considering it for the second it took to quarantine it in some lesser-used portion of his mind. The life of a ninja is inherently violent, blah blah, insert all the crap he'd been told throughout his life that didn't make any of it easier. Who else was dead? Kakashi? Sakura? Anyone from his future could very well be gone.

"Yeah, I figured that out," he said, though he'd done less figuring than glaring at Sakura. He wasn't very close to Jiraiya, who'd always kept to himself and Naruto, but any death was unpleasant...not to mention that if a ninja as strong and skilled as Jiraiya had been killed, Konoha was probably in danger. And he was stuck being useless in some stupid mental hospital.

Pointless to dwell on, though. If they had to talk about death, the best he could do was focus the conversation on Fox rather than himself. The man wouldn't have brought up the subject out of the blue, so there had to be something on his mind. "Did someone you know show up?"