The Desert Wind and the Shadow of the Leaves

A/N: While this is my first fanfic, please be realistic in any reviews you may be nice enough to give, with constructive criticism being preferred, and flaming being drenched with an appropriate level water-jutsu.

But seriously, if you see any grammatical mistakes, or perhaps screw ups with character names, backgrounds, etc., let me know, so I can try to fix it. Thanks.

SPOILER WARNING

The following fanfic will try to draw as much from the manga and the anime (especially from chapter 342 back, as this starts in Shippuden after the manga arc containing Hidan and Kakuzu) as I can. Therefore, parts of the plot of the manga and anime will be revealed. If you don't constantly keep up with the English-translated Japanese manga and anime (not the stuff you buy in stores or watch on American tv.) and you dislike spoilers, you may want to read something else. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own or produce the Naruto manga or anime. I also receive no payment in any way from this story, as it's just for fun. My views about the characters do not reflect Masashi Kishimoto's views (as far as I know, anyway).

So without further ado…

Chapter 1: A New Dawn and New Orders

A new day was dawning over the village of Konohagakure; the first dawn that would not shine for two members of the notorious Akatsuki, Kakuzu and Hidan, who had both been defeated by a group of highly skilled Konoha shinobi. The scythe-wielding Hidan had even been defeated single-handedly by a chuunin by the name of Shikamaru Nara, who was able to trap the immortal so that he would never be able to escape the confines of his rocky pit as long as the Nara clan watched over that forest. He had avenged his sensei, the late Asuma Sarutobi, who was killed in combat by Hidan's curse.

However, the death of his teacher had affected Shikamaru, although he was trying not to show it to anyone. Similar to the aftermath of the Sasuke retrieval mission, he was left wondering that if he had perhaps been stronger, perhaps Asuma-sensei might still be alive. His dreams were also troubled of late, with Shikamaru revisiting the scene of Asuma's death night after night. However, this night's dreams were different; the normal Asuma death scene replaced with a vision of his former sensei urging Shikamaru to move on with his life and stop dwelling on the pains of the past, shifting to scenes of himself, Choji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka enjoying their (okay maybe just Choji's) favorite Barbeque restaurant. Then his dream took another twist, showing his last meeting with the oldest of the Sand Siblings, Temari. She had told him that he needed to hurry up and become a Jounin; that he could quickly do it if he would stop complaining and take his missions seriously. Tsk, how troublesome, being told how to act by someone even more fearsome and dominating than his mother. All of this was enough to wake up the lazy genius from his uneasy slumber.

"Hmmm…? What type of dream was that supposed to be?" remarked a sleepy Shikamaru, "Troublesome things…waking me up at…what time is it anyway?" Shikamaru glanced at his alarm clock, which revealed that it was much earlier than the shadow-wielder normally choose to wake. "What a pain! I'll never get back to sleep now, not with the morning sunlight pouring into my room." With that, Shikamaru climbed out of bed, took a relaxing shower, and then dressed up in his normal clothing and headed off to his favorite spot, to see what cloud watching opportunities would be presented for the day.

Unfortunately for the young ninja, the Godaime Hokage, Lady Tsunade, had other ideas for his day. After her aid, Shizune, discovered that Shikamaru was not at his parent's home, Tsunade had Choji brought to her, and gave him the task of finding the slacker-nin. Choji, having been friends with Shikamaru for a long time, immediately checked their rooftop cloud watching spot where they became friends when they were kids. Choji was dead on the first time, finding Shikamaru lying face-up, starring at the sky.

"Hey, Shikamaru!" yelled Choji.

"Choji, how are you?" replied Shikamaru.

"Great, although I'm afraid I'm going to have to ruin your day. Hokage-sama has been wanting to see you, as soon as possible, it seems." remarked Choji, nervously running his hand through his spiky hair.

"Oh great! Man, this is such a drag," complained Konoha's number one lazy ninja, "Might as well get going then. It'd be too troublesome to make Lady Hokage angry by forcing her to wait any longer." With that being said, Shikamaru ran off, leaping across rooftops in the direction of the Hokage's office.

Tsunade was on the verge of becoming highly annoyed when Shikamaru swung in through the side window, landing on his feet in front of the Hokage's desk.

"Shikamaru Nara reporting as ordered, Hokage-sama!" announced Shikamaru, slightly out of breath after the speed he used to make it to the Hokage's building so quickly.

"There IS a door you know," replied Tsunade, who cocked an eyebrow in amusement at the slacker's unusually energetic entrance.

"Choji implied that this was important, ma'am." remarked Shikamaru.

"Well, he was right. I have several matters to go over with you. Please, have a seat." said Tsunade, causing Shikamaru to grab the closest chair to him and sit down. "First off, I congratulate you on your remarkable accomplishment in single-handedly finishing off a member of Akatsuki. Even the strongest of our shinobi have problems fighting these criminals, and for a chuunin to defeat one by himself is a remarkable accomplishment. Therefore, for services to Konoha and outstanding excellence in the line of duty, I hereby promote you, Shikamaru Nara, to the rank of Jounin, effective immediately."

"W..w..wow….er t…thank you Hokage-sama," stuttered a bewildered Shikamaru, who was thinking, 'This can't be right. The original mission was an absolute disaster. I couldn't prevent Asuma-sensei from being…killed, or capture either Akatsuki member. The mission for revenge wasn't perfect either, as Kakashi-sensei got pretty beat up, and Naruto's right arm is in a cast and probably will be for a week or two. Why am I being rewarded?'

Tsunade sensed his confusion and doubt, but nonetheless continued, "Second, with the Chuunin Exams fast approaching, we need a representative to go to Sunagakure to finalize everything required, and then escort the Sand Ambassador back here, to oversee the set-up for the exams. That representative will be you, Shikamaru, and there is no talking your way out of this, no matter how 'troublesome' you believe it to be . You leave tomorrow, so I suggest resting up, and foregoing any Jounin celebrations until your return."

"Understood, Hokage-sama." dully replied Shikamaru, who had a sneaking suspicion that the Suna Ambassador would be the quad-pony tailed blonde he had dreamed about much earlier in the day.

"Finally, I want you to stop blaming yourself for Asuma's death." This took Shikamaru by complete surprise, although Tsunade ignored this and continued, "Given the details of what happened, I doubt if even myself or Jiraiya would have been able to save him after Hidan's curse had been made. You did what you could, and even though you couldn't save him, you brought his murders to justice, which could bring no greater peace to Asuma and his memory. He entrusted his will of fire to you, Shikamaru, so don't waste in by wallowing in grief and regret. That's all I have to say. Dismissed."

Shikamaru was grateful for this show of support by the Hokage, and while he didn't quite believe all she had said, he still responded, "Yes Hokage-sama, and, arigato." He turned and exited her office, remembering to go through the door this time.

Tsunade smiled as the slacker left, but was soon disturbed by her "Jiraiya-is-'researching'-around-the-women's-hot-springs" sense, and thus went off, once again, to beat the ever-loving daylights out of the pervy sage.

Around this time, over in Sunagakure, the eldest Sand Sibling was being informed by the Godaime Kazekage, who happened to be the youngest Sand Sibling, that a Jounin from Konohagakure would be on his way to Suna to deliver some information on the Chuunin Exams that had to be finalized, and that she would meet him on the border of the Land of Wind. He also informed her, that she would be accompanying this Jounin back to Konoha to oversee the setup for the exams.

Therefore, Temari packed up her fan and other ninja tools, and headed out, dressed in her formal black kimono she was now wearing regularly, and headed off to the border. On the way, she wondered who this Jounin was, and why she couldn't just be the one who went between villages this time, which gave her the extra benefit of talking to her lazy guide again, who, although lazy, was a nice person to talk to when they weren't busy going over the procedures and requirements for this next round of Chuunin exams. She contemplated if he actually made Jounin like she told him to, but then dismissed the notion as silly, as she knew him well enough to realize he probably considered her directions as 'too troublesome' and went around with his normally lazy way of life. Oh well, her questions would be answered in a few days time.

Chapter End

Shikamaru – Man, what a drag! Why are you writing this troublesome thing anyway?

Chaos Drummer – Because it's fun and eliminates boredom?

Shikamaru – That's what cloud watching is for….

Chaos Drummer – Stop arguing, otherwise I'm make all the clouds disappear in my next fic. That goes for Shougi too!

Shikamaru – You wouldn't dare…

Chaos Drummer – I've got the keyboard! Mwuahahahahahaha!

Shikamaru – How troublesome…

A/N: Chapter 1 is done. Yay! I can't believe how many errors I found checking, and rechecking it. I hope I caught them all but I doubt it. Anyways, please review if you'd like. I'll try to put up Chapter 2 as soon as I can.

EDIT: I knew I didn't catch all the errors. Found an open sentence in the last paragraph and finished it up. And it seems I picked one ways spelling for Jounin (or Jonin as I've also seen it spelled) and then the other ways spelling Chuunin (Chunin being the alternative. So I changed all the chunins to chuunins to be consistent, and because chuunin and jounin seemed to be used a lot more.