Disclaimer: one could only wish.

Revised version (Aug 5 2012)

I

His nap was interrupted by a single feather falling right on the tip of his nose.

It was too much hassle to get himself off the meadow and up to the hokage tower, but Shikamaru reckoned that if he refused to answer the summons, the Godaime might actually send his genin students to harass him. That, he was not looking forward to.

So it was with considerable effort that Shikamaru got up, dusted his clothes, and made his way to the hokage tower. On foot, since he didn't feel like using chakra only to please the already-cranky hokage. Whatever it was, if she used the bird to summon him, it probably was important albeit not an emergency.

But then, there had been a lot of these summonses lately, mostly for missions—some with his genin team when the mission was D or C-rank, but at times he got his own share of B-rank missions, even A-rank on this one particular time. It was as if the village was running out of shinobi to send that they had to resort to genin instructors. This, and the fact that there had been barely any correspondence with Suna—never mind a courtesy call from Temari or any of ambassador for that matter, he was not even sure that the Hokage received any eagles from the desert village—somewhat tipped him off that Konohagakure was not faring so well lately.

Not a pleasant train of thought, but luckily he got to tuck it at the back of his mind for now, as he finally reached the top of the hokage tower.

The two chuunin guarding the door to the Godaime's office nodded to Shikamaru and opened the door for him. It's ridiculous—he could open the door himself, of course, as he would have done four years ago, but apparently he was now a "war hero" worthy of respect. No one listened to him when he said that the leader of the fourth division was technically Gaara. Gone was the times he hoped he were average; average shinobi did not get decorated for his "valiant acts" and "stellar leadership" during the shinobi world war. Then again, he probably had ruined "average" ever since he nearly singlehandedly decapitated a member of the Akatsuki. After that, everything had been going downhill to him.

"Oh, there you are. Catch," said Tsunade as soon as Shikamaru entered the circular office, tossing a mission scroll.

Shikamaru effortlessly caught the scroll and unrolled it. Upon encountering a large S on top, he frowned. "S-class?" Average shinobi did not go to S-class missions, he wanted to say, but he knew the Godaime would have none of that. Clearly she, along with everyone else, did not think of him as average or else she wouldn't have promoted him to jounin.

Tsunade made an impatient noise and a gesture, and Shikamaru unrolled the scroll further. "What…"

"Exactly as it is written there. Nara Shikamaru, you are to lead an S-class mission to Suna. Assassinate the daimyo of Kaze no Kuni. Leave no trace, as usual. You may pick your team members, but leave in two days."

Shikamaru did not answer and instead fixed his gaze on the mission scroll. Konoha would not issue such a mission unless there were great stakes. The only reason it would risk a war was because the village was already in war, or about to plunge into one anyway. And the only reason Suna would go to war with Konoha—

An old memory of a rumor fluttered in his mind.

"Gaara is dying," said Shikamaru, looking at the Godaime, "isn't he?" And now his power is slipping and the daimyo, the war-mongering dictator, wants to war Konoha and what could a weak Kazekage do? Exceptional shinobi as he is—was, before his rough childhood and bijuu-hosting took their toll on him—Gaara no longer had the invaluable bargaining chip that was the Ichibi.

The woman simply sighed, if a little sadly. Now that Shikamaru paid attention, he could see that Tsunade had begun to unravel. Where there used to be the immaculate complexion of a twenty-year old, small crinkles and signs of aging had etched themselves in. She had not had proper sleep for weeks, and as such, her stamina and chakra were slowly degenerating. Naruto most probably hadn't heard of this, or he would have rushed to Suna and no one would have been able to stop him. He was inwardly grateful for this. Naruto was never fit to treat sensitive situations.

It was logical, Shikamaru supposed, to assassinate the current Wind daimyo. All those royalties next in line would fight each other and try to claw their way into power, and while they were all distracted, Gaara or someone close to him—his siblings, maybe, or the jounin Baki—would be able to gain more control over Sunagakure's movements, and as such, prevent a petty and unreasonable war.

Shikamaru scratched his head and lifted the unraveled mission scroll, gesturing. "It says there's a contact in Suna." And yet, there was no name there, only how to reach the contact: a rendezvous at a dango shop in a small civilian village in the outskirts of Kaze no Hi.

This contact might very well be the key between success and devastation. If the informant betrayed them—fed them false information, lead them into a trap—and the assassination was linked to Konoha, they might as well had started the war themselves. Instead of fighting each other as was the mission's objective, the royalties would unite under the banner of national threat and initiate the war directly.

On the other hand, this mission was delicate enough that its completion required a bit of some inside job from Suna's side. The risk had to be taken.

A thin malicious smile played on the lips of the Hokage. "I figured you'd want to meet her again."

Shikamaru froze. Well, that is just not fair.

"The instruction on how to contact her is there. Anything else you want to ask?"

Shikamaru scanned the scroll again. There were many things he would like to ask, but he doubted the Godaime would be able to answer any. He shook his head and excused himself.

"You're supposed to escort me to the gate."

Shikamaru sat up and turned. With her hands on her hips, standing like the queen of the hill, was Temari. She was smirking. Of course. She didn't need an escort—she hadn't needed any, for the past two years—she was just there to nag him on. Typical.

"You know, you really don't need an escort anymore. You can find your way around Konoha just fine, can't you?" Nevertheless, he stood up, dusted his pants, and walked her towards the general direction of the gate.

She snickered. "You're just pissed I found another one of your hideout."

"Yeah, how do you do that?" asked Shikamaru, half-curious. If he knew of her method for tracking him down—every single visit to Konoha lately, it seemed—maybe he could make a better effort to hide from the village. Or maybe not, since they would eventually find him anyway. Why make extra effort if the end was the same anyway?

"Oh, you wish you knew." Her eyes glinted.

"Not really," he shrugged nonchalantly.

The rest of the way they spent bickering on whether or not he really want to know how she found him every time. He eventually agreed, just because he knew she was dying to tell him and if he kept denying it she would thwack his head with her iron fan.

"I'm a ninja—I can find you anywhere," she declared proudly.

He rolled his eyes.

"Anywhere, Nara."

He was almost tempted to point out how that is completely illogical, no one could find something—someone—anywhere, but then he saved himself from another banter.

As they passed a dango shop near the gate, he made a gesture to it. "You know, they make good dango there."

Temari regarded him with a curious look, all smugness erased on her face for a second before returning in what seemed to be tenfold the usual. "Asking me on a date, Crybaby? Do I look like a cradle-robber to you?"

"I wasn't. I was just saying, they make good dango there."

"Unfortunately for the good dango of Konoha, I am on my way back to my village. Maybe you could remind me again next time." And with that she exited the east gate, leaving Shikamaru without any word of goodbye—just a promise of next time.

Of course, nobody told him that the next time would be them plotting the demise of her country's dictator in a completely different dango shop. But that was just how life worked out sometimes.

The day before the mission he spent with the relentless pestering from his genin team. They all demanded to be taken to the mission, since it was S-class and all. The bravado of the little ones used to be endearing a long time ago, but now they were just being plain annoying. By the looks of it, they were as annoyed as Shikamaru was, though, since he absolutely refused to even say what the mission was. He was not a blumbering idiot like Naruto, and even Naruto would not leak anywhere that Konoha was planning to assassinate the single dictator of the Wind Country.

He could only get to talk to Sakura after promptly slamming the door in front of the genin's face, much to their protestations.

Sakura raised her head from the cadaver she had been examining, elbow-deep in intestines, a slight annoyance twitching at her pink eyebrows. "Can't this wait, Shikamaru?"

"S-class mission. We leave tomorrow at dawn. Tsunade said I could bring anyone."

"Ino's a medic," Sakura pointed out. "And she was in your team originally."

Shikamaru could read what came next that was unspoken. And Ino would bitch incessantly if Sakura was brought along and she wasn't. Lucky for him, he wasn't planning on leaving Ino behind either. "I'm bringing Ino too. But not as a medic. Between us, and I mean it—keep it just between us or I'm dead—you're the better medic. I have another plan for her."

Looking a bit mollified by the compliment, Sakura finally nodded an agreement before shooing him out of the morgue.

"I don't want you two bitching in the team during the mission," Shikamaru warned just before he exited the room. He heard a snort and something along the line of "I'll be nice if she does". He'd ignore it for now. He just hoped the three days journey to Suna would not be as torturous as he imagined. Shizune would have been his first choice, but he decided that superhuman strength would draw less attention to Konoha rather than the poisons Shizune used which, if analyzed, had Konoha written all over the herbal ingredients.

It took a considerably longer time to convince Ino to hop in the team, more because she played coy than anything else. As expected, she was not pleased that Shikamaru chose another kunoichi as the team's medic-nin. Not to mention that the kunoichi he chose was the one Ino had always had a complex history with. Nevertheless, Shikamaru knew she would show up the next morning anyway despite the ambiguous ending (if throwing a bag of fertilizer to his face could be called such) of their conversation. Sakura might be the reason Ino objected so much, but she would also be the reason Ino would never miss the mission for the world. There was no way Ino would let Sakura take the entire spotlight in an S-class mission.

Hair smelling like fertilizer, he quickly informed Ino that the debriefing would be done at the gate first thing in the morning. Then he escaped the Yamanaka flower shop before Ino could lob something else to his general direction.

After trying to persuade Ino and Sakura, asking Neji to join his team was like a walk in the park. He immediately agreed, although he asked Shikamaru why he smelled like manure. Shikamaru tried his best to ignore the question and made an excuse to prevent further humiliation.

The little genin students begged and begged and nagged him to no end. Apparently an S-rank mission sounded glorious and exciting to them. He was almost considering not telling the kids how S-rank missions were the most dangerous, if not the most dirty, and there certainly were no glory in them.

Almost.

The children sulked for a while, but they ended up giving him an omamori and made him promise he wouldn't die.

After one day of travel, the team stopped at a hot spring inn in a civilian village.

"We're staying here for the night," said Shikamaru. Ino and Sakura looked visibly pleased. Neji just kept a straight face like he usually did.

The inn was called Kingyo, appropriately named with a goldfish engraved on top of the door frame, the golden paint dull and peeling. It was quite big and lavishly furnished, but there were spider webs near the ceiling and everything seemed lackluster. Even the front desk looked like it had not been polished for months.

The receptionist, a middle-aged man with a beer belly and a thin mustache, bowed to them as if they were godsend.

"Used to be a lot of travelers between Suna and Konoha, but lately we're lucky if we have five taken rooms in a night. Is there really gonna be another war?"

Shikamaru grimaced. That explained the shabby interior—the strain between Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni had started to take its toll on civilian business. "Not if we can help it."

The man gave them a wry smile. "How many rooms?"

"Two."

"With a view to the garden?" he asked hopefully, his lower lip wobbling under the thin mustache. Shikamaru was fleetingly reminded of a walrus.

Shikamaru opened his mouth, ready to decline, but Ino and Sakura cut him off before he could say anything and accepted the offer. The receptionist smiled even wider—if that was even possible—and opened the guestbook so they could sign on it.

A servant girl soon escorted them to their rooms. Neji leaned to Sakura and said quietly, in a slightly accusing manner, "Rooms with view are more expensive."

"We have a bigger allowance for S-rank missions, so relax a bit. Why not help the poor man with his business?" Sakura retorted back. Beside her Ino was nodding in agreement.

Shikamaru only hoped this friendliness continued. Annoying as it were, female solidarity was preferable to the continuous bickering the duo usually had.

The two rooms were side-by-side, and as it turned out, connected by a screen door. There were two futon in every room, and spare blankets in the closet. The servant gave them directions to the hot spring and asked them if they would have dinner in the room. Ino ordered generous portions to be delivered to the room after their bath.

"You know, Ino, we're not exactly with Chouji right now," said Shikamaru. Ino pretended not to hear this, and instead of reducing the orders, she dismissed the servant girl.

"Well, that was that," she said brightly. "Meet you all after the bath?"

"Don't fall asleep in the bath."

"Shut up, Shikamaru. Come on, forehead!"

Sakura shot Ino a dark look, but left the room nonetheless.

"Right," said Shikamaru, a little awkwardly, "maybe we should also clean ourselves up."

Neji looked at him, seemingly in thought. Shikamaru did his best not to cringe. After years knowing the Hyuuga clan, the eyes still had not ceased to freak him out a bit. "You go ahead," said Neji. "I don't like public baths."

Shikamaru was only too glad to comply. He really could not imagine going to the hot spring bath with the Hyuuga. People were supposed to make small talks in the hot spring. How one would go about making small talk with Hyuuga Neji is so far still a mystery to Shikamaru.

So there he was in the empty hot spring pool, thinking alone. This was almost as good as cloud watching, if not for the nakedness or the potential to pass out should he stay too long in the pool. Faintly, he could hear Ino and Sakura chattering from the other side of the tall bamboo fence. About him. And their contact in Sunagakure.

Well, he thought articulately, fuck. This was definitely far worse than cloud watching.

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