Yes, the 'village surrounded by walls that knows nothing of the outside world' fic! O_O I had to do it. It was too much fun not to.

Disclaimer: I only sort of own this story. I didn't come up with the characters, or with the original world it is based off of. I am not a middle-aged Japanese guy. ^3^ Rock on, Kishimoto.

Fandom: Naruto

Characters: Everybody. But Shikamaru will probably end up being the most major, because he's smart.

Warnings: There will be bits of language, mentions of violence, and other nasty thangs. Hmm... also, this doesn't have a set plot so there may be long breaks where I try to get a grip on what I'm going to do next, but other than that things should go pretty smoothly.

Other: Beta'd by the awesome AnotherGestapo, whose name is gotten by few. I sent her this and she'd already drawn the characters. O.o It's like being psychic or something. Always nice to have someone go through your crap and tell you what to change. XD And now... the story.


Outside of the walls, there was nothing.

Well, technically that wasn't true. Anyone who'd ever stood on the wall and looked in any direction could tell you that outside the compound there was an endless forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. Inside that forest were savages and beasts-insects ten or fifteen feet long and tigers that towered over the buildings of the Leaf. No one went outside except for the legendary ANBU, and they were nothing but gossip.

On the other hand, gossip was something to take seriously. Rumors were the one thing there was always plenty of, no matter what else was in short supply. Rumors that there were other communities out there. Rumors that people who went out and got captured were taken away by fiends in the shape of humans. Rumors that a huge plume of smoke and fire had gone up in the distance years ago, and since then people had been knocking at the gates of the compound and had been turned away.

...Not that it mattered. There was no civilization outside the compound, so anyone-or anything-that came from the outside wasn't welcome anyway. Unless they could show their Allegiance tattoo and show that they were from the Leaf compound, there was no way they were coming inside.

Until It happened.

Team 8 was on guard when It happened, and it was one in the morning. Kiba was on top of the parapet, legs dangling over the side, sixteen and fearless as he laughed at Hinata's concern. Shino was leaning against the side of one of the enormous trees that formed the wall's corners, his obsidian-coated eye-patch and single glasses-lens glinting as he watched his team and gave Kiba's giant dog warning looks. Hinata was standing next to Kiba, holding onto his arm with nervous hands as he laughed and knocked his heels against the wall. Akamaru was whining a bit as well and pressing his nose into the small of his master's back, nipping at his clothes.

"Hey!" Kiba stopped rocking all of a sudden, almost toppling forwards and making Hinata shriek in sudden fear. "Hey, Hinata, Shino! Look! There's someone down there, coming towards the gate."

Shino's face didn't show much emotion, but what did show looked a lot like suspicion. "Kiba, if you're lying again..."

"I'm not! Look! Four of them, right down there."

Hinata leaned over carefully, looking down where Kiba had pointed, then bit her lip and pressed her eyes tightly shut. When she opened them again, her eyes were a luminescent shade of silvery lavender and tiny, floating circles of light hovered a millimeter in front of her pupils like lenses.

"Oh! Shino, he's telling the truth! I think it's... three boys and a man? Or three teenage boys and their father? One of them is badly injured!"

"Do they have Allegiance?" Shino took a few steps forward and looked down, frowning enigmatically. "Can you see, Hinata?"

Hinata squinted, the light in front of her brightening for a second, then shook she her head. "No, I'm sorry. They seem to be wearing these odd... I don't know, some kind of tight clothing that cover almost their entire bodies, I can't see anything. Kiba?"

Kiba took a deep breath, leaning into the wind. "I smell blood. Infection. Something weird, like chemicals, and a lot of dirt..." He twitched a lip like a snarling dog, baring sharp canines at the alien scents. "Rocks. Sand. But barely, like they haven't been... wherever... in a long time. That's all I can get, from this far away."

Hinata gasped. "The man who was injured just collapsed! We have to get down there!"

"Hinata-!"

She was already gone. Shino cursed very, very quietly. Kiba cursed very, very loudly, and ran after his friend, Akamaru bounding at his heels as he took the steps two at a time. By the time he caught up with her, Hinata was standing next to the gate and arguing with Izumo and Kotetsu, the guards who always say on either side. The door, not opened since the destruction of the war sixteen years ago, looked strangely small against the enormity of the wall and the trees that formed its pillars. Distantly, as though heard through water, someone was pounding at the thick wood.

"Listen, there is someone out there, and I'm s-sorry, but if you just leave those boys to die I'm going to report you to the Hokage myself!"

Izumo started to respond, but before he could finish Kiba ran past him, kicked a stepladder up with one foot, and heaved the bar off of the door.

"Hey! Kid, you can't-!"

The gate swung open.

A man in a filthy, tattered shirt looked up at Kiba, half his face scarlet and black and white with infection, brilliant blood-red tattoos of spirals starting on his jaw and spinning up around his eye.
"Help... them..." he rasped, and then his eye rolled up in his head and he collapsed onto his knees. Two of his three companions, starving-thin but supporting him anyway, bent double to hold his weight-a third, red-haired and shadow-eyed, stood in front of the door with his arms still raised to pound on it.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Kiba started, and then Kotetsu pulled him back roughly, standing between the second-degrees and the boys outside the door.

"Get back, Kiba. Some of the things outside the gates can look human, but for all you know these are about to pull off their skins and eat your face off! I said get back!"

"They're human!" Hinata insisted, with unusual force behind her normally refined voice. "Please, let them inside!"

"You don't know-"

"I do!" Hinata flashed her pale, glowing look at the guards, and they both stepped back a little.

"You're-?"

"Hinata. Hyuuga Hinata," said Shino, and stepped forward, taking a firm hold on the shoulder of the taller boy on the left of the collapsed man. The boy gave him a long, uncomprehending look with fogged, unfocused eyes, then the fingertips of the Aburame's other hand touched his forehead and he crumpled forwards silently, eyes rolling up in his head. The other boy-a blond, fine boned and blue-eyed under a coating of muck and blood-whipped around as his companion fell, eyes opening wide, but he didn't cry out either. Even as he turned to look back at his opponents, ragged cloak spinning in the air behind him, the palm of Hinata's hand hit him in the ribs with a gentle whud. He fell without even a breath, leaving the redhead standing alone, hands still raised, a look of horror on his face.

The red-head backed away a step, then looked down at his three companions and took a faltering step forwards again, obviously torn between the urge to run and loyalty. He looked up at the Leaf shinobi, eyes wide, skeletal shoulders heaving, then reached up very slowly towards the back of his neck with trembling hands-

Kiba slammed the hilt of a kunai into his forehead.

"Kiba!"

"Sorry Hinata, but he might have been going for a weapon! They're from outside the wall, human or not!"

"Exactly," said Kotetsu. "Now, we have to take these four to the Intel division. You can come if you like, but don't say anything. Morino Ibiki makes the decisions in there, and he doesn't like it very much when people question his decisions."


"Morino, what the hell are these four doing in my basement?"

Morino Ibiki glared down at his younger colleague, eyes ominously shadowed by his black bandanna. "I would think that was obvious. They are here to be questioned."
The boy yawned, deep and long, and opened one lazy black eye to look up at the towering figure of Leaf's greatest interrogation expert.

"I don't question, man. I thought that was a deal. Anyway, you said I was an incompetent."

"These prisoners wouldn't survive if I were to question them," said Ibiki in his deep, dangerous voice. "You have... gentler sensibilities than I when it comes to these cases."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying: Shikamaru, you're too much of a woman to handle torturing people so baby these guys until I can torture them myself. Got it, loud and clear boss."

"You are an incorrigible brat, Nara."

"Thank you, troublesome boss. I try."

This little exchange was in Nara Shikamaru's basement, two hours after It happened. Shikamaru worked part-time under his sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, and part-time under Morino Ibiki, who paid more.

...And then, suddenly, there were four people locked up in his basement.

Granted, if he didn't want people locked up in his basement, he shouldn't have cells with one-way mirrors for windows built down there, but the fact that they were just put in there without his permission was still getting on his nerves. Anyway, those were built in there when he took the job of Ibiki's assistant, so it wasn't like he'd asked for them, exactly. They were just... a downside of the job.

Ibiki was gone. Just like that. It was annoying-not to mention slightly creepy-the way that man just came and went without saying anything or being seen at all. It was almost disturbing how quietly he could move, especially since he was more than six feet tall and wearing boots that were as heavy as lead. Rather than think about his boss, Shikamaru pitched himself forwards off of his couch, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands as he threw himself onto his feet with an effort. It was time to get himself acquainted with his new house guests.

The door opened behind him and Shikamaru swore quietly as the sound of Inuzuka Kiba's voice echoed sudden and loud around his peaceful basement, making the space behind his eyes fill with an agonizing, white-hot ringing noise and making his temples throb.

"-sayin', Hinata, that you're not supposed to get attached to people from the outside! That's trouble for everyone!"

"Kiba, they're sick, injured human beings, not animals! Th-they're just people who got lost in the woods, probably, and they should be treated well. Right..? I m-mean, if you had been frightened..." Hinata's voice, already low, softened even more. "If you had been lost and frightened and injured and turned away... wouldn't you want help?"

"Very poetic of you," said Shikamaru without turning around, and heard Hinata gasp and Kiba swear. Probably they hadn't even noticed him; people always told him he was good at blending in with the shadows-not being seen. "But Kiba is right. These people are not your concern, Miss Hyuuga. As much of a drag as it is, I'm supposed to be taking care of them until we can question them, and you're not allowed in."

"O-oh." Hinata looked downcast when he turned to look at her, and he suddenly realized how much like his boss he sounded. Crap. This whole 'law enforcement' thing is really getting to my brain, huh? Snapping at girls like Ma told me not to...

"Listen, Hinata," he started again, and pinched the bridge of his nose as a sudden headache hit him. "I... can let you stay. And watch. But you're probably not going to talk to them again."

"She never talked to them before." Kiba said, a little testily. "They didn't say anything, except for the old guy."

"They didn't have a chance to." Hinata murmured. "We knocked them out fairly quickly, and they were barely conscious."

"Whatever."

"You have to help though, if you're staying here." Shikamaru pointed a thumb over his shoulder at a heavy cabinet with a missing door. "Get some food out-instant ramen or something-and Kiba can get some fresh water from upstairs. You know where everything is?"

"Are you just using us to avoid working or what?" Kiba eyed the other boy suspiciously, and Shikamaru gave him a long, steady, irked glare in return.

"I have to go and wake them up, possibly under risk of my own injury or death. Go get the ramen, Inuzuka. Then we can lug my old stove out and make some dinner."

"Ramen..." Hinata murmured.

"Eh?"

"You... um... you may have other visitors soon," said Hinata hurriedly, as though afraid to say the words. "Um... maybe quite a few."

Shikamaru gave a heartfelt groan and paused with his hand on the first doorknob. "Visitors like who?" A horrible thought struck him. "This wasn't inspired by the mention of ramen, by any chance?"
Hinata nodded, shame-faced. Shikamaru groaned again, slapping a hand to his forehead. "God, Hinata... Did you have to tell him? The world's loudest still-a-first-level and he's going to cram himself in my basement and mess with my work..." Another thought. "Quite a few friends? He's going to bring the entire village, isn't he?"

"Probably." Kiba drawled, and pressed his fingertips to the glass, looking in on the still-unconscious figures in Shikamaru's holding cells. "Hey, what's those things they're wearing? Look like aliens, don't they?"

The strangers did indeed look odd. All four were barefoot, and three of the four wearing ragged, filthy shirts with elbow-length sleeves and long, dark pants. The smallest of the lot-the redhead, lying very still indeed and pale in the fluorescent light-was shirtless, but his torso and arms were encased in a strange, skin-tight suit of some kind. Despite the grime the rest of their bodies had obviously been dragged through, the material of the long-sleeved skinsuit thing was perfectly clean and white, with two long red stripes down each arm. On the boy's left shoulder was a single small patch of darkness—some kind of three-digit code, but too small to read.

The whiteness of the fabric should have made the boy look pale in comparison. It didn't. He looked practically the same color, his closed eyes a pool of black where the deep shadow around them blended together.

"Shikamaru! Are you down there?"

"Shika, we're here to help!"

Shikamaru instinctively flicked a switch, turning the glass opaque, then saw who it was and relaxed. "Guys, you're supposed to use the front door. Otherwise I don't know you're coming. Ino, stop calling me that."

His best friend grinned apologetically, pocketing his copy of Shikamaru's key as he walked over to the comfortable couch and sat down. Yamanaka Ino pouted theatrically, then grinned and looked around, taking in the blacked-out windows and Shikamaru's hand on the doorknob. "I knew Mr. Morino would bring them to you! Kiba just came bursting into the training grounds and told us all they'd let someone in from the Outside, and that they'd handed them over to the questioners and here they are!" She reached past Shikamaru before he could object and flicked the switch again.

"Ino…"

"What? Oh yeah, confidential stuff, right? Sorry. Well, can't hurt now, right? Choji, come and see this!"

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, but didn't bother objecting further. Four years since their graduation from the academy, and even at sixteen Ino still hadn't learned to take a hint.

"They look very… harmless." Choji squinted through the glass, his wide, kind face twisted up in concern. "Are you taking care of them? I can make some food." He looked closer and his brow furrowed. "What are they wearing?"

"Dunno." Shikamaru yawned again and checked his clock. 3:30 in the morning. Way too early for everyone to have been in the training grounds together. Hopefully everyone in the village wasn't going to show up, this wouldn't be too bad, and he could get through with minimal security breaches. "Breakfast would be great. For all of us?"

Choji smiled—Shikamaru knew for a fact that his friend loved to cook for big groups even more than he loved to cook for himself—and bustled off to take the cheap microwave ramen professionally out of Kiba's unresisting hands.

"Can we go in?" Ino asked, and tapped on the glass with a fingernail.

"No."

"Awww… Come on, Shika… Please?"

"No is no, Ino."

"Tch. You're no fun now that you work for Mr. Morino. I could help, you know. I'm a nurse. And I have… other talents that could be useful."

Shikamaru opened his mouth to say 'no' again, more loudly this time, then hesitated. Ino's talents were some of the strongest in the compound and her mind-reading stall was making her wealthy at a startling rate; maybe there was actually some benefit to letting her in.

"Fine. But I'm going in first, and you're going to not touch anything."

"Okay, okay. I know... they're dangerous face-ripping shape-shifters from the outside. Let the big, brave ninja protect you, little kunoichi…"

Shikamaru pressed his thumb to the door handle, feeding chakra into it until it clicked open quietly. "Oh stop, troublesome girl. I'm qualified and you aren't. Be glad I'm even letting you in with me."

The door clicked shut behind them, cutting off the sound from outside like the world beyond the door didn't exist. Ino took in the room with wide, curious eyes, running a finger over the edge of the sink bowl and looking around at the blank, white walls.

"It's not a very nice place to wake up," she said finally, and picked up the rag draped over the edge of the sink. "He's filthy, isn't he?"

Shikamaru didn't object as Ino wet the rag, or as she walked forwards. But when she reached out to wipe the red-head's forehead, his hand whipped out in a blur and caught her by the wrist.

"No touching, Ino! I know we're the same rank, and you're a friend and everything, but I'm in charge here. And Ibiki will have my hide if you wake him up and he sucks your soul out or something."

"Okay then," said Ino, "You do it. I can't examine him if he's covered in mud and blood, especially if I don't know whether it's his blood or not. Somebody has to clean him up."

Shikamaru hesitated for a moment, his gaze flickering from the unconscious boy on the bed to his friend, then he rolled his eyes and let go. "Fine. But the second he wakes up, step back."

Ino saluted. "You got it, Mr. Nara!"

"Oh shut up."

The boy didn't wake or stir for a long half-minute after the wet rag first touched his face. Then, as Ino wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, a slit of white appeared in the dark, sunken skin around his eyes. Instantly, Shikamaru pulled Ino behind him and flicked a knife out of its holster on his hip, watching the prisoner with sharp, hooded black eyes.

"Show your Allegiance, stranger," Shikamaru said, in the cold, emotionless drawl that always made Ino shiver. "Tell me you're human, or I'm going to assume that you aren't."

The boy looked around, then touched his cheek where Ino had scrubbed off the worst of the grime and looked up at the two, question in his eyes. But still he didn't speak.

"Allegiance?" Shikamaru repeated, and pulled down the cloth wrapped around his bicep, showing the leaf tattoo imprinted darkly on his skin. The boy's face showed confusion, then understanding, then he reached down and scrabbled at the front of the white, long-sleeved shirt.

There was a sharp ripping as the red-head's nails caught on the cloth, and he tugged weakly at the tiny tear, then looked up at the pair of them with big, pleading blue-green eyes.

"Put your hands on your head," said Shikamaru, and the boy did as he was told immediately, watching with apprehension as Shikamaru bent down and wormed the knife under the skin-tight, waxy cloth.

"There's something under there all right," said Ino, excitement in her voice, and she bent down next to Shikamaru, smiling reassuringly at the skinny red-head. "Can you see what it is?"

The cloth gave way, exposing a pale, bony chest and a single, dark red symbol impressed into the skin like a brand.

The corner of the boy's mouth twitched upwards into something that might almost have been a smile of relief. He reached out a hand slowly and pointed to Shikamaru's arm, then pulled aside the scraps of fabric and traced the symbol with a fingertip.

"Shikamaru, I think that's… his Allegiance." Ino whispered. "But it's not like ours; it's… what is that? An hourglass?"

Shikamaru nodded absentmindedly, looking more awake than his teammate had seen him in years. "That's not Leaf. I think… I think…"

The boy clapped his hands once—a quiet, polite, 'I don't want to disturb you' kind of clap, then lifted a cupped hand to his mouth and tipped it back, then pointed to the sink. Ino held up a finger and mouthed one second, then turned back to Shikamaru.

"He doesn't look dangerous. Can't we let him walk around a bit, or at least get a drink?"

"Sure," Shikamaru muttered. "We're leaving procedure in pieces anyway; I can't get any more in trouble than I'll be in already."

"Sure, go get a drink," said Ino kindly, and the boy gave a polite little nod and slid his feet off the low bed he'd been placed on, joints cracking audibly as he rolled his head and flexed his fingers. He sat still for a second, breathing deeply, then pushed himself up with a visible effort, staggering forwards on trembling legs until he hit the wall palms-first.

"We're bringing in some food soon," said Ino, and lunged forwards, catching the boy's arm as he started to fall forwards.

It was as though her hands were red-hot. The boy jerked away from her so fast and hard that he fell on his back, barely catching himself on one elbow before his head could slam into the hard floor. Ino shrieked in surprise and Shikamaru made a few lightning-quick gestures with his hands—

Silence fell.

"Shadow Bind successful." Shikamaru lowered his hands and got up off his knees, pulling the outsider boy up with him as though the two were connected by invisible threads. "What is wrong with you?"

The boy shook his head and made a flurry of fast, desperate gestures, then shook his head and ran his hands over his close-cropped red hair in a gesture of complete frustration.

Someone knocked on the door, in a rhythm that Shikamaru had been hearing since his first day in the academy.

"Choji is here with the food," Ino said, more for the boy's benefit than Shikamaru's. "We should go and make sure that your friends—your brothers, right? We should make sure they're awake to eat."

The boy's nonexistent brows wrinkled, but Shikamaru was already leaving as he raised a hand to get the other boy's attention.

The second outsider was already awake when they came in, but only for a certain level of 'awake'. One of his eyes was open, but it was empty and unfocused, staring at the opposite wall. The other hooded to a thin slit and the eyeball itself was bloodshot, it's iris a blind whitish-grey. He didn't look around when the door opened, and Shikamaru waved his hand in front of him without even a twitch of response.

The junior interrogator frowned, then turned around and stuck his head out the door. "Hey, Inuzuka, Hyuuga, Aburame. Who knocked out the one with brown hair?"

Shino nodded deeply, and Shikamaru made a sharp gesture for him to come in. "I need you to un-sting him. That's what you did, right? Drugged him?"

Shino stalked in and straight past Ino, pressing a hand flat against the boy's forehead with practiced ease.

"He will wake up within five minutes." He turned on his heel and headed back towards the door, coat whipping behind him, then paused halfway through. "I notice you said my name last, master Nara."

Shikamaru rubbed his temples again. "Yes, I did. Sorry, okay? Someone's name had to come last."

Shino didn't deign to answer, just clicked the door shut behind him.

"The Aburame family is always like that," said Ino comfortingly, "he'll get over it eventually. Maybe."

"That makes my headache so much better," muttered Shikamaru. "Any other pieces of joy to share?"

"Well, this one probably won't be mute like the last one," chirped Ino. "Come on, let's go!"

She walked around the bed in the middle of the room, looking the boy up and down quizzically.

"He's gotta be older than us, right? Older than the other kid, too. And he's a mess."

"Honestly, I don't care. Clean him up," Shikamaru ran a finger over the white fabric on the boy's shoulder, scratching a fingernail over the waxy, soft cloth. "Look at this. '002'. Why the numbers?"

"Who knows?" Ino rubbed a hand over the thin fuzz of hair still left on the boy's head, then hesitated and glanced at Shikamaru. "I can… take a look inside. If you'd like. When he wakes up, he might not want to talk to us."

"Ino."

"What?" Ino turned, grinning, "I love feeling hair this short, it's—"

"Ino. Stop talking."

"So I should look at-?"

The outsider smacked her hand away from his head and scrambled up to crouch on the bed as far from the two Leaf ninja as possible. His good eye darted around the room, from the mirror on the wall to the sink in the corner, and then settled on Shikamaru and Ino, standing by the foot of his bed.

"Hi?" said Ino cautiously, and turned slightly pink at the look he gave her—a look that very clearly said 'what the hell was that?' "Sorry. You… uh… you have nice… hair?"

He stared at her for another long second, faintly incredulous, then turned to look Shikamaru warily up and down.

Shikamaru looked back at him, waiting for the inevitable questions. None were forthcoming, and after almost thirty seconds of that one-eyed glare he rolled his eyes and quietly stowed the kunai he'd been holding back in its pouch.

"Let me guess. You can't talk either? Jeez, you guys are the most troublesome prisoners I've ever seen."

The outsider made a rude hand gesture. Behind Shikamaru Ino sniggered audibly.

"So you can't talk?" the blond asked, after Shikamaru finally stopped glaring at her and she finally stopped laughing. "Like that guy in the other room? Is he your brother?"

The boy frowned, opened his mouth, then closed it again. His frown deepened and then he turned away, his face tight and upset.

"I don't think he's going to do anything," whispered Ino, and tugged on Shikamaru's sleeve. "Let's go."

"One sec." Shikamaru pulled off the cloth on his arm again and grabbed the outsider by the shoulder. "Hey. I need to see your Allegiance."

The boy looked at Shikamaru, then at the tattoo on his arm, then nodded, turned his back again and tapped the nape of his neck. Shikamaru held up the kunai and started forwards, but the outsider jerked back around and shook his head violently.

"What, we're just supposed to trust you?" Shikamaru met the boy's mismatched gaze and rolled his eyes. "Fine… but this isn't done. There'll be food in here in a few minutes."

Choji was coming out of the first cell as Ino and Shikamaru came out of the second, a tray of steaming plates on his arm.

"He's eating like there's no tomorrow," smiled Choji, "They really are starving. I wonder how long they were out there."

"I'd ask them if I could," Shikamaru said, and glanced at the clock. 3:52. Naruto was sitting on his couch, mercifully distracted from the cell doors by Lee and Sakura on either side of him, and the smell of cooking food had filled Shikamaru's slightly musty-smelling basement.

"Why can't you ask them?"

"Because two out of four so far are mute," said Shikamaru, and looked at the third door reluctantly. "Who's in this one?"

"The blonde one." A girl walked up behind Choji, another tray on her arms, flipping her bangs out of her eyes. "Hello, Shikamaru."

"Tenten," the boy acknowledged. "I just hope he's not as taciturn as his brothers. The one in the middle is the troublesome one. Don't try to talk to him."

Ino pulled at Shikamaru's arm. "Come on, before he wakes up!"

"Yeah, yeah. Stop tugging on me, woman! It's too early in the morning for this…"

Shikamaru clicked the door open, caught a split-second glimpse of the room beyond and, on instinct, ducked. A fist hit the door above his head with a dull clang and a blur of short, blond hair and wide, dark blue-green eyes. Then Ino dived past him and both she and Shikamaru's assailant hit the ground with a heavy thud.

"Ino!"

"I'm okay!" Ino yelled, and wrestled an arm across the blond outsider's throat, using the other to form a few hurried signs in the air in front of her. There was a jolt through the air like a silent shockwave, and then, with startling suddenness, both bodies went completely and utterly still.

"Ino? Hey! Did it work?"

"Still okay," muttered a voice, but it didn't come from Ino's body.

Shikamaru crouched down next to the invader boy and rolled his friend's limp body carefully away, laying it on its back nearby before leaning down and offering the outsider body a hand.

"Hear anything?"

Ino took the proffered hand and pulled herself up with difficulty, stretching the unfamiliar muscles and wincing as her back cracked and popped. Then she looked down at herself and, to Shikamaru's annoyance, started to laugh again.

"What's wrong now, Ino?"

"This isn't a boy," Ino giggled, and reached down, stripping off her mud-encrusted, overlarge shirt to reveal the bodysuit underneath. "Shika, did you even bother to look? She's a girl! I would think you would know the difference by now!"

Shikamaru scowled automatically, then absorbed what the psychic said and did a double take. "she… what?"

Ino laughed in delight, flexing her white-clothed arms and feeling her protruding ribs. "Jeez, she could beat you up! She's so skinny, but look at her arms—"

"I barely saw her, and she has really short hair." Shikamaru snapped, ignoring the flush that was spreading over his face. "Just tell her we're not going to hurt her so she doesn't try to kill me or anything. Tell her we're bringing food."

The girl's face went blank as Ino turned her mind inwards. Her mouth moved silently, and then, finally, she raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "She's talking… kind of… in her head, anyway. She's very… um… loud.""—done with my brothers you son of—""Sorry. I guess she can talk.""—get out of my head and I'll talk on my—"

"If you'll sit down and stay calm, Ino can get out of your head," said Shikamaru loudly, cutting over the schizophrenic chatter, "Deal?"

Ino shook her head sharply as though to clear an annoying noise out of her ears, then nodded hesitantly. "She says sure, but you have to tell her where the boys she came with are."

"Deal."

On the floor, Ino's real body stirred heavily and groaned. A second later, the blond-haired girl sat straight up and unleashed a stream of profanity so fast and loud it might as well have been one long word.

"—son of a bitch!" She finished, and then took a deep breath and met Shikamaru's gaze with her own as though challenging him to yell back. "Well? Where are they?"

Shikamaru blinked once or twice.

"…In the next rooms over," he said finally, and then: "You sound like a man."

Ino winced, but it was too late to take the words back. Even after all his time living with Mrs. Nara and his amazing I.Q., Shikamaru still didn't seem to realize what he could and couldn't say to girls. Pity he'd never dated anyone—getting slapped a few times might really help.

"I 'sound like a man' because I haven't talked," said the girl, cold and low, her voice carefully controlled. "—for almost a month. My little brother can barely walk since we escaped, my other brother almost starved to death keeping him alive, my father is missing half his face, and if you don't show me where they are God help me I will tear you limb from limb!"

Shikamaru was leaning away from her by now, hands raised in readiness to form a hand seal as she advanced on him, voice rising in volume as she came. "Listen, troublesome screaming woman! All we've done to your brothers is clean them up a bit and give them food. There's a doctor in for your old man, the best one in the compound. Honestly, can you stop yelling at me?"

"Why are we locked up?" The girl demanded, and gestured violently at the mirrored window. "How many people are watching us right now? You guys going to use us like they—"

Ino cut her off sharply, eyes wide. "Where are you from? We're not going to do anything with you! We just need to know about what happened to you—where you're from!"

"After I talk to my brothers," said the girl sharply. "I need to talk to them."

"You can't talk to them," Shikamaru snapped back, equally sharp and acidic. "In case you didn't notice, they can't talk. Or were they holding out on us? They have to stay in custody until I know I have the truth."

"My brothers can't talk."

"Can't? Or won't?"

"Let's put it this way," said the girl, and Shikamaru tensed slightly at the sudden, forced calmness of her voice. "While we were out in the forest, a snake the size of a tree hit me so hard I was unconscious for almost three weeks and when I woke up, my little brother almost cried for the first time in five years; he was sure I'd died. But neither of them said a word. Don't waste your time, troublesome little boy. They can't talk to me. And even if they could, they wouldn't talk to you."

Shikamaru stared at her for a second, neutral and expressionless, and then he turned his back without a word and walked to the door. Ino rushed after him, throwing glances over her shoulder, then pulled herself out on his heels, already whispering.

"Shikamaru, we have to let—"

"What the crap was that?"

"Shikamaru, what happened?"

"Sh-shikamaru, what happened in there? Miss Ino—"

"I told you, Hinata, they're outsiders! You shouldn't have let them in!"

"Master Nara is fine. I would worry more about whether or not miss Yamanaka has overused her abilities."

"Na, na, Shikamaru! What the crap was—"

"Shut up!"

The crowd of people around the genius pulled back in unison, leaving him to stand alone in a wide circle of shocked faces. It was extremely unusual to see Shikamaru worked up at all, and almost nobody in the entire village had ever heard him yell. Choji, standing at the front of the line, gave Shikamaru a concerned look and jerked his head towards the door, raising his eyebrows. Shikamaru gave a tiny nod, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes and taking a deep breath. "What time is it? Please tell me it's before five so I don't have to go to work. And that I have breakfast ready. Please."

"Breakfast has been arranged," said Shino coolly, "and I have a message from Master Morino,"

"Go," muttered Shikamaru, and gratefully accepted a bowl from his best friend, gesturing with a thumb over his shoulder. "Don't talk to her. She'll scream at you, but don't talk to her anyway." Choji nodded and opened the door, slipping inside with unusual grace for his size.

"Master Morino wishes to inform you that you are not needed at work today," Shino said, slightly louder than was necessary. "He says that you are granted as much leave as is necessary to rehabilitate the prisoners and find out their place of origin. If they have talents, they must be recorded."

Behind Shino, Uzumaki Naruto had his face pressed to the glass and was watching the scene inside the cell with avid interest. Kiba shouldered him aside to watch as well, and a loud and violent scuffle broke out as Shikamaru pulled himself over to his couch. Tenten scooted over as the genius slumped down into the worn cushions and Lee ceased his one-armed pushups in order to move out of the way, smiling his million-watt smile.

"How long have you been up, Shikamaru?" asked Hinata in her smooth, gentle voice, and a soft glow flickered over her eyes for a split second as she looked at him. "Your chakra flow is erratic, are you… are you okay? The girl in the third room—"

"Fine," Shikamaru mumbled, and took a big slurp of ramen to avoid answering any other questions. Hinata dipped her head immediately, embarrassed, and glanced at the windows across the basement.

"The man… the tattooed man… do you need to go and talk to him? Or is that not…"

Shikamaru gulped hard to get his ramen down and almost choked. "He's with the doctor," he said, and coughed, hard. "He's going to have some nasty scars though. Half his face is almost gone."

Hinata's hand crept up in front of her face in horror and shock—an old habit from her years of crippling shyness. "O-oh."

"He'll heal."

"I wonder where they came from," Lee declared, switching arms, "231." He didn't even sound out of breath. "They seem very angry, especially that young woman. Perhaps we should ask teacher Gai to come in and speak to them! He would certainly make them—"

"Mute and deaf?" Shikamaru cut in, a little acerbically, and tugged his blanket out from behind Tenten. "Is it too much for me to ask if I ask you all to clear out of my basement? I woke up at two in the morning to deal with this crap."

"Shika, you're being hurtful," Ino complained teasingly, and threw herself down on the Nara's knees with a toss of her luxurious blond hair, ignoring his grunt of pain. "Oh, don't complain."

"Bothersome wench."

"Lazy stick-in-the-mud."

"Well, I would certainly be willing to head home," said Tenten, and pulled herself to her feet, letting Ino spill off of Shikamaru's shins and onto the newly vacated cushions. "I've been up almost as long as you have for Sensei's early morning training OF YOUTH." She grimaced a little, then reached down and tugged at Lee's shoulder. "Come on, Lee. You can crash at my place until dawn if you'd like. Then we can go out and find Sensei. Okay?"

"One moment please! 498, 499, 500! Alright, let us go!" Then what Tenten had said seemed to register and Lee turned slightly pink. "But Tenten, I could not stay at your house! We would be alone, and that would be improper! Far better that I devote the hours of dawn to training instead, and then meet with you at the training grounds."

Tenten sighed as though this was a long-fought battle and the two of them headed off towards the door, arguing good-naturedly about the morals of teammates sharing an empty penthouse. Shikamaru watched them go, then turned his mind to strategy, looking over the remaining intruders in his basement. Hm…

"Hinata," he said, "Shouldn't Kiba be getting more sleep as well? He's always taking double-shifts, after all. Guy can't be getting much more sleep than I do."

He saw Hinata's eyes widen in concern, and inwardly rejoiced. Jackpot…

"He is? I thought we were scheduled together because we worked under the same sensei…"

"I have access to records and schedules," Shikamaru explained, forcing a touch of unnatural, genuine-sounding concern into his voice. "He was scheduled for the morning shift, but volunteered to work night shifts as well so he could work with his team. I thought you knew."

Hinata gave a jerky little bow of thanks and stood, hurrying over to where Kiba was scuffling on the floor with Akamaru and Naruto. Shikamaru saw words exchanged, and then Kiba nodded, a little shamefaced, scratching the nape of his neck uncomfortably. Hinata smiled and shook her head, then made a timid suggestion and pointed towards the door. Shino falling in behind them, team 8 headed up the stairs and out of sight, leaving… Naruto. Ino. And Choji, but Choji was quiet.

There were some times when subtle strategy was just not going to work. Shikamaru stood up, walked over to Naruto, and said "Uzumaki, get out of my basement."

Naruto looked slightly affronted. "Hey, I—"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and dug in his pocket for the fail-safe 'Naruto removal' gear he'd learned to keep with him at all times.

"Listen," he said, and held up the little square of paper. "Three days of free all-you-can-eat ramen at the Ichiraku, okay? Just get out so I can sleep."

"Sweet!"

Naruto bounded up the stairs two at a time, practically singing under his breath, the coupon vanishing into some secret pocket of his bright orange jacket. Shikamaru allowed himself a smirk and slunk over to the couch where Ino was watching the proceedings with a smile on her face.

"That was fast."

"I know some tricks for most of them," Shikamaru admitted, and threw himself down next to his friend, grabbing his pillow off the ground where Lee had accidentally thrown it with one of his huge, sweeping gestures. "Sucks though."

"What?"

"Didn't want to use up that thing about Kiba's double shifts." The genius grimaced, checking his roll of Ichiraku coupons and shoving them back into his pocket. "Just wanted them out quickly, I guess. I'll have to dig up some new stuff on team 8 tomorrow…"

"If you have time," Ino pointed out. Across the room Choji came out of the last door with the sound of a loud, hoarse voice trailing behind him, then closed it quickly and breathed a silent sigh of relief. He didn't seem surprised to see the empty room at all; he just padded over to settle in the middle of the couch between his friends.

"You have to take care of them, don't you? Or else you'll lose your job, you know you will. Mr. Morino has a very low tolerance for 'too troublesome, get someone else to do it.'" Ino rolled her eyes. "I should know."

"You got fired because you couldn't use your mind-transfer fast enough," Shikamaru muttered, and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow. "You could re-apply now."

"I don't want to," Ino sniffed, and smiled mischievously. "I'll just sit here and watch you stew over your 12-hour workday and bad pay."

"You should let them share a room," Choji said, very quietly. Shikamaru rolled over just enough to fix his friend with a single hooded, black eye, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"That's against the rules."

"They can't even stand properly," Choji pointed out. "This basement is the most secure room in the village, isn't that what you said?"

"A whole crowd of people just got in." Ino looked dubiously across the room at the still-open door. "How secure can this place possibly be?"

"It wasn't locked down," Shikamaru said slowly and propped himself up on his elbows, eyes darting around the room, analyzing and considering. "When I set it up right, this place is on a par with the Hokage palace."

Ino glared at the two of them. "How is it that I'm the only one who doesn't know this?"

Choji smiled at her, his eyes crinkling up with amusement at her exasperated expression. "Shikamaru talks a lot when he's tired and full."

"I would have nowhere to get away from the screaming woman," Shikamaru said thoughtfully, "—but she might not scream as much."

"You would have to stay locked up in your basement, though!" Ino looked around at the musty basement, dimly lit by a few old, second-hand lamps, then shook her head. "What would you do all day?"

"Sleep." Shikamaru smirked at her. "Believe me, Ino, life is way too much trouble for me, and responsibility is a drag. Staying locked up down here for pay is like a dream come true."

"I'll bring you down food."

"Choji, I can't believe you're going along with this! Your best friend is about to lock himself in a basement with four people who might be homicidal maniacs!"

"Shikamaru's smart." Choji took a bowl of his ramen, completely unconcerned. "He was the first one to graduate, remember? He'll be fine."

"Well, I'm going to get out of here then," Ino snapped. "I certainly don't want to get shut up down here."

Shikamaru gave a half-hearted little wave from his couch, then flinched as Ino's last words echoed down the stairs.

"If you die, I'm going to kill you!"

Silence fell. Choji ate ramen. Shikamaru dozed.

"Shikamaru?"

"Ngh."

"Thanks."

"Ghf."

"You need to get up and do stuff, you know."

Shikamaru hauled himself up just far enough to turn on his side, then, wordlessly, stuck a hand out. Choji grinned and stood, pulling his thinner, lighter friend up with no discernible effort.

"I'll go, okay? And I'll tell Mrs. Nara where you are."

Shikamaru sighed and gave a jerky nod, sidling over to a circuit-board on the wall next to the door and flipping it open to stare at the switches inside. By the time the creaking of Choji's footsteps vanished a quiet hum of power had started in the still air, draining the old light bulbs and making them flicker. Then there was a heavy thud and a series of metallic clicks from the stairs beyond the door, and the whir stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

Shikamaru turned like a man facing his execution and stared at the doors, considering each one in turn. After a long second, he nodded decisively and headed towards the first door.

The red-head was standing shakily in front of the sink when he came in, his hands and face dripping with water. He flinched at the sound of the door opening, the rag dropping from his trembling hand into a sink that would almost certainly be stained a murky reddish-brown when he was done with it.

"I've been thinking about it," Shikamaru said, slowly, with very convincing slight uncertainty in his voice that was overlaid with genuine fake hesitancy, "and I don't really see the point in keeping you separated. I'm planning on letting your brother and sister out, and-"

The boy's face didn't exactly 'light up', but the eyes widened ever-so-slightly in pleased surprise, and the thin, chapped lips curved at the corners. He nodded once with suppressed eagerness, and hobbled a step towards the door. Shikamaru cleared his throat loudly.

"But... I have to warn you, if you attempt to leave the premises, I'll have to treat you as enemies. And that would suck, because it's too early for that. So don't do anything troublesome, okay?"

The boy nodded, then bowed with a politeness that might or might not have been fake and gestured courteously towards the door. The genius gave him one more long, skeptical look, and then he turned the handle and led the way into the warm darkness of the room beyond.


I got an email after my beta read the first part I sent them, and it said: "Hey, is Temari male in this canon?" I thought it would be interesting if they didn't notice her gender first thing, because I read that people who have been starving for a long time often don't show signs of puberty or physical maturity-and they've been starving for a long time. :( Next chapter, we may get some backstory for the mysterious outsiders (fighting the urge to capitalize that word all the way through. If I accidentally did, please let me know XD) and I'm sure Ino will make sure the news gets to everybody in the rookies that didn't hear it already. Reviews, especially if you have a cool new way to adapt a character-this world seems much closer to magic than I thought-would be lovely!

See you next time, Space Cowboy.