Feathers drifted slowly through the air, swaying in the wind's caress. Such graceful delicacies of slumber... Upon seeing them the whole audience drifted into unconsciousness, save a few shinobi, the Hokage, Orochimaru, Sakura, Sasuke, Gaara, Kakashi, Kankuro and Temari.
"They've begun the attack! We need to get Gaara out of here, Temari!" Kankuro yelled. "Temari?" He spun around and gaped at the spot where Temari had just been standing. "Temari?" he called desperately. Where the hell did she go?
Crouched behind a group of sleeping spectators Temari held her breath as Kankuro scanned the stadium. Slowly she crawled toward two boys laying beside each other, each fully dosed by the jutsu's spell. One wore a thick mound of yellow hair and the other a sleek, black ponytail. Naruto and Shikamaru. Temari crept towards Shikamaru and waited till Kankauro had discarded her disappearance. He couldn't wait for her much longer, Gaara needed to be contained.
Kankuro jumped into the fighting ring and rushed to Gaara's side. Sasuke's chidori not only left a malignant gash through Gaara's arm, but also an unbearable dose of pain. This pain was the only thing that retained Gaara's demonic being from overtaking him. Kankuro wasted no time in attaching strings of chakara to Gaara's limbs. He drew his anguished form upright and made way for the exit, trying not to loose control of Gaara's footsteps.
Sasuke, shocked by the sudden attack, noticed Kankuro long after he rescued his opponent. So, the sand want a war? I'll show them never to prey on us again! Sasuke swiftly followed them.
Kakashi watched as his student bolted out of the stadium. Dammit, he's in way over his head. He glanced around, looking for reinforcements to aid him. Sakura was the only genin conscious. "Sakura, go find Naruto and Shikamaru and help Sasuke, I'll have one my dogs lead you the way."
"Yes sensei!" she nodded and searched the crowd. Soon she came upon Naruto who lay askew on the stone floor with drool dripping from his mouth. She went over and offered violent awakening to his rest. "Geez, Naruto you look like a drunk! We've gotta save Sasuke!" As he recovered Sakura abruptly remembered the person who was with him before the jutsu was cast: Shikamaru.
Temari hefted her shadow bending luggage onto her shoulder. Though, she preferred not to not to think of him as a burden, no... a catalyst would better describe him now. My dream is finally going to come true, as long as I can get out of Kohana intact. Skillfully, she surveyed her surroundings. She had just barely eluded Sakura's gaze, taken Shikamaru through the exit, and climbed to a rooftop not far from the stadium. From there she could see Orochimaru cornering the Hokage. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Naruto, Sakura, and Shino head into the forest. A closer look revealed they were lead by a small dog. Throughout the rest of the town, ninjas and Orochimaru's serpents were in a frenzy. Temari coiled her legs. Good, everyone's distracted. She tightened her grip on Shikamaru and fled from the roof towards a section of woods left untouched by the war that broiled around them.
A sand village ninja sat on one of Kohana's watch towers. Inside the tower three leaf ninja lay dead. His whole body, save his eyes, was covered by thin red cloth and a rapier was tied to his waist. He patiently waited until he saw what he was looking for. The war was the least of his worries, he could care less if the leaf was shriveled and torn, he never seemed to find people there who favored his business. Today, the meeting with his client had to be timed perfectly, or else the sand would be on his tail. A shinobi abandoning his mission is an act of great shame...Temari... Are you willing to throw your world aside for this life of death? Finally, the red ninja spotted her and a boy under her arm. Hmm, she brought a friend along he thought as he followed them to their meeting place.
Shikamaru lifted his lead eyelids to see a swirled image of a girl crouched beside him. His sense of time and place and been distorted. Then he remembered: he had been put to sleep by a jutsu. Was this the girl who did it? Was she standing right beside him? Why does she want me? Who is she? Blonde tufts of hair sprouted from her head... and her body seemed familiar. He heard slurred words from the girl, soon after a new voice answered. That revealed she's not alone. How many others are there?
Slowly his eyesight began to rejuvenate itself. After blinking away the shrouds of blurs the girl's image finally became clear. ...Temari! Does she want revenge? No... she wouldn't attack the whole audience. She... the sand must've attacked Kohana!
"Hello, Shikamaru Nara. I'm glad you didn't decide to keep on sleeping for the rest of your life." Temari greeted him. She placed a hand on his cheek and wiped his eyes with the other hand. "I apologize for this hard floor, but a hidden cave is a great place to avoid a war in. And... I'm also sorry to have taken you without notice, but I had to escape the sand village."
We escaped from a war and the sand is searching for Temari? Damn, this sounds like I'm in deep shit no matter what I do. "Temari... tell me... if my village is in danger and..." he tilted his head to find the ninja dressed in red. "... and who that guy is."
Temari sighed and looked away from the boy. "Yes, your village was attacked by my people, and Orochimaru managed to murder the Kazekage and trap the leaf's Hokage too. Your campions Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and the insect master chased after Kankuro and Gaara. They... most likely will die." She paused and looked at Shikamaru again. His face was painted with shock and... what looked something like fear. "And, this man is to help us escape. He is also going to strengthen our skills as nin. His name is Xetta."
Shikamaru sat up not knowing what to think. But one question had to be asked. No matter how shocked he was, nothing could prevent it from surfacing. "...Why...am I here?"
"You are here because I need you." Temari answered plainly, "I need you to help me create my dream, my dream of being...an assassin. One who works on his own accord and bathes in the exhilaration of death. One who cleanses this world of those he hates alongside those he admires." Her eyes locked with Shikamaru's, eyes with an inane look stirring within them. "You, Shikamaru, are the one who will spill blood with me."
The boy's head pounded with confusion. Fear seemed to strengthen the gravity tugging on his body. His mind raced for a way to escape but there no use: the rest of his body was to bemused to listen.
"I know it may sound crazy to you, but death forged by human beings is what makes this world... interesting, complex...and...alive." She sighed in ecstasy. "In order to change this world on your own accord, you must do so by forging death. If we destroy those who control us we will be free, if we rid of those who dampen us with sorrow we will be happy, and if we kill those who are worth a price, we will receive the bounty. Don't you understand, Shikamaru? Your life will be suspended in a useless town where life will always be the same as the others around you!"
Shikamaru's lips quivered with stupor. He tried to fling himself away from Temari, towards the back of te cave, but couldn't. Suddenly he realized he couldn't move any part of his body. Every limb hung sans motion. Only his head could react. He looked at Xetta once again and found his hands in the shape of a seal. "Wha...dammit...dammit...DAMMIT!" Tears flowed from his eyelids. "Temari you demon let me go! I don't want any of this! Why the hell would you think I would kill people like that! I'm scared, Temari... I want to help my city, my friends... you bitch... why did you do this to me!"
Temari received the blow of Shikamaru's words with a pang of sadness, but she was prepared for this reaction. She knelt next to his bound body and grasped his waist. She brought him close to her, pressing her breasts into his chest. "Shika, please, understand what I'm saying to you. We're not killing innocent people, just ones we can do without. Your village will be fine, your friends have immense power, I've seen them in battle. I choose you out of all of them because of your intellect and your shadow technique. Together they are superior in the cover of night." She reached her hand under his shirt and felt his stomach. Shikamaru released a gasp of air. "I'll let you stay in Kohana to witness the end of the war, which is concluding as we speak. But I will stay by your side the whole time." Shikamaru felt his pants being unzipped, the fabric sliding down his legs, and the heat of Temari's hand above his crotch. Spheres of sweat formed on his forehead and his veins enlarged across his body as his astatic heart pound furiously. "C'mon Shika, leave your life of boredom behind and come with me."
At that moment, because of Temari and his own will, the boy changed his life and accepted the fate of a killer. Though he was under a jutsu and Temari's spell, he thought of how his life was agonizingly boring in his hometown: he truly mattered no more than any other person in Kohana and was treated as such. He thought of how people like his mother tried to control him, what he ate, where he went, how he was taught... and concluded... that what he wanted to do was to escape that. Temari was the antidote to his restraints and the key to exemption.
"I'll do it." Shikamaru whispered.
Temari froze. "What?"
"I'll do it. I want to be free."
Temari smiled. She gently laid him on the ground again. "You see, Xetta, he agreed."
The man in red shattered the jutsu and let his hands rest. "I didn't think you'd go that far, Temari. You must see a lot in him." He turned and walk out of the cave while saying, "Do what you will with him for a while. I'll be waiting outside the sand village."
As soon as he left Temari stood up. "I'll do as promised, Shika, lets go and see the end of this war." She held a hand out to him.
Shikamaru grasped it. "I... don't know what to feel... I'm going to be killing people... for money and for satisfaction... Can it be considered a fruitful cause?"
Temari pulled him to his feet. "You'll see." She looked down at his waist and smirked. "But before you do you better pull your pants up."
The two sprung from tree to tree in the evening calm. Temari had not taken Shikamaru far, he could see the faint city glow from their position. At one point they crossed a savagely mauled gap in the woods. Temari informed him that this could've been the result of Gaara's transformation. Soon they were perched on the top of a familiar cliff, directly above the sculpting of the Fourth Hokage.
Shikamaru gazed down into the village. Silence enveloped it like a thick fog, filled with sadness and sorrow. It looked as if the sand had left and the village was reclaimed. The dead were being carted away and prepared for burial. A friend could be one of them, lying in the streets waiting until his blood streaked eyes would close and never open again. He could've searched for them, brought them to safety, he could have at least left a note for them...for his family. But he stood still. The eagerness to be of service to his home had passed. Now, he could only think of avoiding what he looked at, including all of the people who sulked within it. From above, the buildings and households looked like nothing but huts stacked on top of each other. The people... they were only little figures scrambling uselessly over their wreckage...like insects. It all looked... humiliating. It mortified him to think he was once one of them.
With this thought in mind Shikamaru unexpectedly threw himself onto Temari and kissed her. Temari, startled but pleased, grasped his back. Shikamaru pulled away and grinned, almost wickedly.
"What exactly was that for?" Temari inquired with a cocked head.
"By seeing Kohana again, I fully comprehend why I agreed to go with you." Shikamaru stood up. "Life there just seems so pointless now, and you have to go through a lot of crap to actually make yourself happy." He slid his hands into his pockets and shifted his weight onto his right leg. "So, to the desert?"
"You don't want to go down there?"
"Nah. I've had enough."
"Hmm, you're one strange boy." she beckoned him to follow her and together they began to cross to the opposite side of the world.