Shikamaru slept soundly, wrapping his arms around his wife, Temari. They had an average day. Shikamaru went to work while Temari did both work, and care for their child, Shikadai, who had just entered the academy. Something, however, startled him awake. He got up, and looked around him. Nothing. Though he was unable to let go of the feeling that something was wrong so he got out of bed.
"What are you doing?" Temari asked, awakened by Shikamaru's actions.
"I sensed something inside our home that shouldn't be here," Temari instantly shot up and was out of the bed, "I don't think it's anything to important, but I'm going to check it out," Shikamaru said.
"I'll stand guard by Shikadai's room," Temari said, and left the room, along with Shikamaru. He grabbed his kunai and walked out into the living room/kitchen, ready to attack at a moments notice. Just as he got to the couch, someone attacked from behind. Shikamaru instantly turned around and dodged the attack and threw a punch. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to do his shadow stitching in the completely dark room unless he either took this fight outside, or turned on the lights. He decided to do the latter.
Fighting what turned out to now be five enemy ninja, Shikamaru tried to find his way to the light switch. He had at least one advantage and that was that he knew the layout of his home extremely well. Eventually, he did find the light switch after dodging attacks and throwing many punched. He was surprised at what he saw when he did turn on the lights.
In front of him were five ANBU ninja from the hidden rain. Shikamaru was completely at loss for what they would want with him. He went to punch one of the ninja when they grabbed his arm, stabbed him with a kunai and threw him onto the table, making him scream at both the impact and stab wound. He tried to get up as fast as he could, only to be pinned back down. Damn these guys are good, Shikamaru thought. Shikamaru then heard Temari yell something and some clashes of furnature being thrown around. The next thing he heard was the most frightening thing for him. His son was crying. With the new found strength Shikamaru tried even harder to get free of the grip on him, but failed once again, since now there were two other ninja holding him down.
He heard Temari fighting for a few minutes then there was silence. Shit, her fan isn't anywhere near her, Shikamaru thought in distress. Four more men came in, one dragging a knocked out Temari and the other holding a clearly distressed Shikadai.
"Calm down son, we're going to get out of this," Shikamaru tried to reassure him. However, seeing his father pinned down like that made him freak out even more.
"Shut up," The enemy ninja said, punching him in the stomach. If it weren't for the fact that Shikamaru was restrained, he would have curled up as a reflex.
"I think some introductions are to be made," One man said, who Shikamaru guessed was the leader, "My name is Ryo. We already know who you are, Shikamaru, however, it seems that we need to be aquainted with a few others,"
"Go to hell," Shikamaru said, and recieved another punch. Ryo walked over to Shikamaru and looked at him.
"Now that wasn't very nice. From what you said earlier, this little one is your son, is he not?" Ryo asked. Shikamaru glared at him.
"What do you want?" Shikamaru asked.
"Oh I think you very well know what I want. There is something hidden within that forest that our village wants," Ryo said. Shikamaru stared in horror. No, they couldn't mean him. Not Hidan.
"Well you may as well give up because I'm not letting you have anything," Shikamaru spat.
"You won't? Hm, looks like I'll have to do something else to get you to do what I want," Ryo said. He walked over to the frightened Shikadai, who was now starting to cry.
"No!" Shikamaru yelled, "Not him. Leave him out of this. Don't hurt him," Ryo looked at Shikamaru with an evil grin. He held out a kunai and placed it against Shikadai's throat.
"Now little one, What's your name?" Ryo asked. Shikadai, was so scared he barely let out a whisper, "What was that? I didn't quite catch your name," Ryo said.
"Shikadai. My name's Shikadai," He said in a soft, but louder voice than before.
"Shikadai? That's a nice name. Similar to your father's," Ryo said. He then looked at Shikamaru with a piercing glare, "If you don't tell me what I want to know, then you'll have to watch your little one get hurt," Shikamaru was lost. He couldn't tell them where Hidan was kept, but at the same time he didn't want Shikadai to get hurt. He took a deep breath and looked at Ryo.
"I can't tell you anything," He then looked to Shikadai and said, "Forgive me son," Shikadai looked at Shikamaru and nodded. Even though he was in his first year at the academy, he knew that his father couldn't give away this dangerous information. So this meant that some sacrafices had to be made. He could tell that his father was really distressed and that he didn't want to do this, and that calmed him down a bit. Ryo was about to deliever the first cut of the kunai when the man was thrown across the room. Shikamaru was momentarily stunned, but used this as an opportunity to fight back. Shikadai was thrown against the wall and curled up into a ball, now in shock from what happened.
While he was fighting, he noticed that the people who came in were Ino, Choji, Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi. The fight was a long one, but it eventually ended. As soon as it was over Shikamaru ran over to Shikadai.
"Shikadai, are you hurt? Are you okay?" He asked, touching his shoulders trying to get Shikadai to look at him. Slowly Shikadai lifted up his head. His face was tear stained and the look of fear still lingered.
"I'm not hurt. Dad, I was so scared," He whimpered.
"I'm so sorry," Shikamaru said, and embraced his son. After he released the hug, he helped Shikadai get up and sit on the couch and he sat next to him. There were now ANBU from the leaf village gathered around to secure the ones from the rain. Shikamaru had his arm around Shikadai, still trying to comfort him.
"Your hurt," Sakura said as she went over to Shikamaru to heal the wound. Shikadai's eyes widened a bit more when he saw the kunai wound. Noticing this, Shikamaru quickly told his son that he was okay and that he didn't need to worry. At this moment was when Temari started to wake up. When she looked around and saw what was happening, she immediately became concerned. Once she saw Shikadai in the state that he was in, she rushed over to his other side, comforting him as well.
"What happened?" Temari asked.
"I think that's something we all want to know," Kakashi said, bringing up a chair to sit on, motioning for the others to join as well. Shikamaru waited a second to gather up his thoughts and then spoke.
"Nine ANBU from the hidden rain village attacked me. They pinned me down on the table after we faught a little so that I couldn't move. I heard Temari fighting some of the men, and they then brought out Shikadai and an unconscious Temari. The man introduced himself as Ryo and he wanted to know where Hidan was being kept in the forest. I wouldn't tell him so he moved on to Shikadai. If you guys had arrived a moment later, Shikadai would have been seriously hurt," Shikamaru concluded.
Kakashi was contemplating about the new information that was given.
"Why would they want Hidan though?" Naruto asked, clearly confused.
"My guess is that they would have used him as a weapon against their enemies," Kakashi answered. Sakura, who was now done bandaging up Shikamaru went to go sit down.
"It's a good thing that they didn't get him, otherwise it would have been hell all over again," Sakura said. Shikamaru looked over to Shikadai to see that he had calmed down a bit.
"How did you guys know to come?" Shikamaru asked. This time, it was Temari who answered.
"I sent a letter to Kakashi, informing him of what was happening just in case something bad happened,"
"Since this is over, I'll have watch be doubled from now on. It still surprises me that nine enemy ninja were able to come in without being detected," Kakashi said, "Come on guys, let's go," The others left the Nara's to themselves.
"Do you want to sleep with us tonight?" Temari asked Shikadai, noticing that he was still scared, and probably too scared to sleep alone in his room. He nodded his head and the three of them went to their room. Before they entered the bedroom, Shikamaru knelt down in front of his son.
"I'm so sorry that you almost got hurt. I promise that I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again," Shikamaru said. His mind was going crazy at the thought that he could have lost another person in his life. First Asuma then his father, there was no way he could manage the grief if his son were killed.
"Dad, I understand why you couldn't let them get Hidan. He was probably a really bad person and would have been extremely dangerous," Shikadai said.
"I know. I just don't know what I would have done if you got hurt," Shikamaru said.
"Don't worry about me dad, I'm fine. And being a ninja in training, I'm bound to get hurt every once and a while," He said smiling a bit.
"I guess you're right about that one," Shikamaru said, ruffling his son's hair. They both walked over to the bed, the three of them being together again. Shikamaru made a vow to himself that he would never let anybody touch his son or wife. Ever.
