A rushed writing. Rushed, because I wanted to get this out of my head so I could sleep. Its ANBU!Shikamaru because, well, I said so. Thus concludes my rambling.
Title: Game Set
Rating: Pg/pg-13
Why?: ...creepiness? o.o;
Genre: Minor tragedy, insanity, result of being overtired.
Summary: Shikamaru doesn't see them as targets, because targets have a name and face and life.
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Shikamaru had heard stories about how hard ANBU was but he thought it was very simple, actually, like a game of chess.
He often found himself ordering his men to move in on the king and not the targets. No, never the targets because targets had faces and names and a life. It was much easier to attack the rook and knight and, well, I do believe I won this match.
Tsunade stares down at the paper he hands her, full of game talk and strategy and she watches him too lost in thought to realize that his ANBU mask is slipping off. He slips in and out of sanity--friends have names and lives and worth, so they're his safe zone, and he'll lay with them for hours when he's got the time.
But there is no time because these games are more complicated in that sense. The bishop has to move a certain way at a certain time and if she doesn't then he might lose one of his pieces. The pieces are precious. They have a name and face and life under the mask and weapon, like Chouji and Ino and Hokage and Shikamaru.
But there is almost always a sacrifice in these games, and Shikamaru knows that a pawn is always expendable, though not useless. He advances, taking out one but set straight in the path for another.
His pawn is never useless, sacrificed and tossed to the side of the board, and his king is always safe.
Game decided.