A/N: I don't want to reveal anything now but just be aware that this is rated M because of violence and other adult themes in later chapters. Like always I wish you fun reading. Just don't forget to review so I'll know, if I should continue with this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. (And that's okay because Shikamaru and Temari did end up together. Yay!)

I'm the Avenger, Shadow

Chapter 1: At the Corner

… I'll wait.

Rushing through the cold breeze of the night he appeared behind one of those men. The men he seeks to kill.

That one turned himself around too late, shocked about the sudden feeling of wind blowing into his neck. Grabbing his head the attacker cut his throat fast before the man was able to react. Choking the man's repressed yell by cutting the throat the dark suited attacker let his body slide to the ground.

He had waited. He had waited just a split second to see fear crawling up the mans face. Letting this expression mark his face.

He was like a shadow. He was the night. No one knew of his existence at day.

No sound. Unvisable. And when he came to you, you were done for.

Again they found another victim, the throat cut and no traces left.

This time the scene of crime was set behind a factory producing artificial snow. The victims were always people working in the drug scene. Not the small dealers. It were the guards, contact men, spies and other people working for the big fishes. He disconnected slowly the structures to the real big ones. He usually stole the purse and other contents of the victims pockets, Nobody had ever saw him. At least no one that still lives.

The media gave him the name: Shadow.

Nara Shikamaru, Inspector at the Konohagakure Police Department, the KGPD, looked at the corpse spread on the asphalt wearing a scared expression. Surrounded by puddles the man was soaked wet. The urine he spilled at the moment dying was washed away already. He had died a few hours ago laying since then in the pouring rain.

Shikamaru pitied him somehow but he was slowly getting wet too. He didn't bother to take a umbrella with him. Instead he wiped the water from his forehead and bowed down to the corpse. His long black coat was grazing a puddle. While the forensic unit collected already evidence by shooting photos Shikamaru wondered how many traces the rain had already washed away.

Next to him appeared Yamanaka Ino telling him the dates of the dead man on the ground. "Ryūdoin Agira. 39 years old. Had three sons, Rokkaku, Jakō and Genshō. Worked in a bank as a higher up. He was fired due to suspected defalcation three months ago."

Shikamaru tilted his head. "Perhaps he was in debt to someone. Check his financial status for something suspicious." He stood up stemming his weight by a push on his thighs. The weight of the soaked coat was pushing on his shoulders. "Maybe this case will lead us to a further connection."

Ino nodded, motivated to give her best. Shikamaru on the other hand didn't care. He just wanted to sleep. He lit a cigarette shielding the lighter with one hand against the wind.

The only reason he became a policeman was his mentor and foster father, Sarutobi Asuma. Who died three years ago.

The official report said it was an accident but Shikamaru knew it wasn't.

Before he could drift to far into unwanted memories and melancholic thoughts he was interrupted by an officer holding a mobile phone towards him. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. The officer mouthed the name of the Chief of Department, Tsunade. Shikamaru sighed. 'What could she want this time. Troublesome women.' Taking the mobile phone he held the earpiece at his ear. He was prepared to hear whatever harangue would wait for him. "Yes, madam?"

"It is him again, isn't it?" Tsunade's voice sounded anxious. So Shikamaru wasn't in for a harangue. Tsunade knew how serious this case was.

He looked at the corpse on the ground. "Yes."

He heard Tsunade sigh on the other end. "No traces left again?"

Shikamaru clicked his tongue. "Even if there would be this time, the rain complicated the thing." He rubbed his neck feeling his muscles tense.

Tsunade cleared her throat. Her voice showing her stealth. "Listen, not only media breathes down onto our neck. It seems they will sent someone from SBI."

Shikamaru listened more closely to what she told him. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But this is my case."

Not giving him a pause to argue Tsunade continued. "You will work together with that person starting tomorrow."

"But Chief-"

"I'm sorry Shikamaru. I couldn't stall them any longer."

He imagined her shaking her head on the other end. She sounded like she was honestly sorry so he let the argument go. Shikamaru sighed. He stuck the cigarette between his lips to pull a hand into his pocket. "That's troublesome."

"I will see you in my office at 8 am." With that she hung up.

'Great. Now I have some pompous ass looking over my shoulder starting tomorrow.' He didn't like the idea.

He returned the mobile phone to the officer that gave it to him. Meanwhile Ackimichi Choji had walked towards him. He had been searching the area for other corpses. The police department had to make sure that there weren't any other victims left in the range of this crime. Sometimes Shadow killed two birds with one stone. Shaking his head Choji made clear that this time they were lucky just having one more person on their list.

Shikamaru scratched the bridge of his nose. "Well okay then. I would like you to control the factory. We need to know who owns it and I need a team to search the factory for traces of drugs. For all I care call for Kakashi's team."

Choji nodded before walking away.

Shikamaru inhaled the smoke slowly before stubbing out his cigarette in his mobile ashtray. 'Artificial snow. As if.' Shikamaru was tired. He just wanted to go home and take a good night of sleep. He thought about the moment he would be free to leave. He would head home, take a shower and lay himself to rest for a far to short night.

Since Shadow appeared for the first time Shikamaru's nights had become troublesomely short.

Shadow only acted on night.

So Shikamaru had often to stand up in the middle of the night just to add another person on the list of Shadow's victims. Afterward he would get only a few hours of sleep until he had to stand up again and go to work.

Life was very cruel but this was path he had chosen for himself.

This night won't be any different. The worst was that starting tomorrow a Special Agent from SBI would stick his nose into Shikamaru's case. He didn't like the thought. The Suna Bureau of Investigation wasn't known to be nice as well as their agents were feared to work with. The agent would try to take the whole control. He would boss Shikamaru around and demand all the facts he knew so far. Problem was, he was far away from solving the case. There were no traces left every time.

Shikamaru sighed. The wind was slapping the rain into his face. His usually upturned ponytail was hanging downwards already soaked wet. 'This is going to be troublesome.'

After the crime scene was secured and the corpse brought to the postmortem examination hours later, Shikamaru headed home. A few more details were now known. For instance the factory was possessed by a man named Deidara. Besides artificial snow and the illegal production of drugs, the factory had a small part were blasting explosives were fabricated.

The artificial snow looked the same as cocain in plastic bags but Shikamaru wondered why they would produce explosives. He rubbed his eyes. This didn't make any sense. However, the police would sent someone from the drug department to arrest Deidara tomorrow.

It wouldn't work, again. Deidara would have by now escaped like they always did. The police was always to slow. The officers hadn't got any fault. It was the rules they had to stick to that were guilty. They had to wait for the writ of attachment and by the time they received it, it was too late. It was always the same.

Shikamaru didn't like the idea that they would escape no matter what.

Arriving at his house Shikamaru parked his car in front of the porch. Closing the doors of his blue Volvo via remote he walked to his frontdoor.

As he entered he thought about how he wasn't here this much. Most of the time he came home to sleep a few hours and took off the next morning for work. One could see that at his imbruted garden which he didn't like to take care of even at lazy days. He did not see the sense in that.

Back then when he was a little child he would love to play in the garden. He spent most of his time in the tree house he and Asuma built together. Having built fantasies in his head and sworn to keep secrets to his friends in this place where he believed no one could intrude. He had had a happy childhood after...

At first, Shikamaru remembered now, he didn't want to built the tree house. He had been to depressed because of his parent's sudden death that wasn't long ago. Nevertheless his godfather had sheered him up somehow.

Now the tree house was rotten.

Hanging his coat besides the frontdoor he walked into the kitchen to see if something was in the fridge. He knocked of his shoes letting them be scattered in the living room. As if he had suspected the fridge was empty except for one moldy piece of cheese he hadn't liked in the first place. While wondering if he should employ a housekeeper like Ino advised him to, he stretched his arms. Since the death of Asuma he lived here alone. He hadn't liked the house since then or rather liked living here less.

He poured himself a glass Scotch wanting to take it with him upstairs. Yawning he went to the second floor to head for a warm shower. Stripping of his black shirt and blue jeans he turned to the mirror.

The suit he wore consisted of black latex.

He could take the hood off that hid his face so that he wouldn't have to change at home before appearing at the crime as Inspector Nara Shikamaru. It enabled him to leave the dead body going off to were he parked his car. There he would put on some clothes – practically those he wore the same day at work- and bind his hair in his usual style. The drug scene made it possible for him to park his car unnoticed because they preferred their factories to be far from the center were the night wasn't as busy as the day. After he finished somebody off he would often go to an open diner to eat something and wait for the moment the beeper would go off telling him that Shadow striked again.

At first he had thought it to troublesome to put that latex suit on and strip it of besides the fact that it looked ridiculous. But it had its benefits. The most important was that he took care of not leaving any of his bodily fluids at the crime scene. So he wouldn't leave any traces.

There were no traces left every time. Because he had always made sure himself.

For at night he was Shadow.

A/N: The idea to this story came to me years ago when my ex-boyfriend played a new Batman game. So if there are similarities it's no wonder. ;) Please, tell me what you think about the story.