Tales of the Shinobi War 2
By: creyzi4zb12
Fanfic from: Naruto
Setting: During the Shinobi World War 4
Fanfiction Spotlight: Shikamaru, Kurenai
Dictionary: Hand Seal = Hand symbols done to create a jutsu (e.g. in Naruto's Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu his hand forms into a cross, hence the hand hand seal)
Hand Cant = A series of hand symbols for communicating silently
Nara Ninja = A ninja clan where Shikamaru belongs to, usually in charge of intelligence and experiments in Konoha
Fourth Division = A battalion formed by the Allied Shinobi Forces/Joint Shinobi Alliance during the Fourth Shinobi World War in which Shikamaru is a member of. It is being led by Gaara of the Sand.
ESR = Evacuation Shinobi Reserve; the Shinobi forces assigned to safeguard and protect the civilians evacuating in certain hidden villages. These shinobis are mostly composed of Konoha ninjas who were too inexperienced, young or old to fight in the front lines during the Shinobi World War 4.
Body Flicker Jutsu = More like a teleportation jutsu, in which the shinobi casting the jutsu disappears in a puff of smoke and appears in a distance in another puff of smoke.
Supporting Characters: Akumu = A big fat jounin in the Fourth Division
Matsuo San = A red haired female jounin in the Fourth Division
Gin San = A sadistic looking jounin in the Fourth Division
Nakoruru = Rogue Shinobi woman
Saizo = Rogue Shinobi second hand of the Blue Ninja
What are you doing Kurenai?
Shikamaru had already decided that he would further delay himself in joining Fourth Division. Generally speaking: His rally point was supposed to be the opposite direction to where he was headed off right now. But he did not have any regrets when he put first priority the woman whom his mentor and friend considered to be the most special person to in the world.
After arriving to a conclusion that Kurenai Yuhi would appear most certainly in problems occurring with the evacuation, Shikamaru worked hard asking shinobi authorities of problems occurring in the march. The difficulty with his scenario was that the village evacuations were protected by a handful of inexperienced shinobis. Most of the members in the ESR (Evacuation Shinobi Reserve) were genins and chuunins who were either too young or too old. There were a few jounins here and there, and it was them that Shikamaru went to. He'd known some good jounin's in Konoha joining the evacuees in the march, particularly Iruka-sensei. It was Iruka whom Shikamaru would've first gone to for help. Unfortunately for today, Iruka-sensei was away on scouting duties for the ESR.
Shikamaru had feigned to try and be useful in solving evacuation problems. He marched himself to one of the ESR tents and introduced himself as a Nara ninja, sent by the Hokage to assist them in their evacuation. A female jounin gave him a paper which documented the problems in the ESR march. Shikamaru thanked her for it, and began reading its pages while walking along with the civilians.
The contents of the paper mostly included stuff about diarrhea, hunger problems, skin problems from too much exposure to the sun and from too much marching. The clients usually comprised of elders and women. There were some unusual problems here and there that he encountered; like this one issue where a mother and son beat a genin half to death for scolding them for not being in line. He had to find something that had relevant value about Kurenai. He thought fast of instances where a skilled shinobi like Kurenai would be needed, but there were just too many problems here for him to make a conclusion.
" If Kurenai were to take action in helping the march, where would it be?" Shikamaru mumbled and turned the papers to the front-most part which detailed the most up-to-date issues there was in the evacuation. It says in the page a community diagnosis, something about rogue-ninjas attacking/raiding the march every night. That's it! This could be a problem big enough for Kurenai to appear at. The shinobi in charge of the evacuations defense must have had a hard time fending off rogue-nins; After all, they were very inexperienced, too young and too old to do battle that they were actually regarded as a reserve by the Joint Shinobi Alliance.
For Shikamaru to join the events occurring in the evacuation defense he would have to wait it out until night time, but his teammates in the Fourth Division was waiting for him to rendezvous. Maybe they would go ahead and join the rally point, leaving Shikamaru by himself to travel towards the front-lines.
He could picture out Choji's disappointed look in trusting him that he would not be late in the muster. Or maybe that Gin fellow, who was most hesitant for him being nominated as head tactician would try and take his place and role in the Fourth division. Or worse, Gaara the Supreme Commander of the Fourth Division would deny his membership and dismiss him to more petty jobs away from the front. Not that he did not want that to happen, he would be glad being shifted to a safer assignment, but the responsibility and Will of Konoha was embedded into his heart, and Shikamaru would gladly sacrifice his life in exchange for a victory against their enemies.
But Kurenai, he needed to make sure that she was safe. Why was she doing battle anyway? She has just given birth 2 months ago, and was still weak from all those months of confinement. He needed to help her in this issue, needed to scold her into looking out for herself first and not for the civilians, for her baby, for Asuma-san, for himself. Why himself? What could he gain from stopping Kurenai's intentions anyway? Then he shrugged the thought away and rationalized that her baby and Asuma were reasons enough for him to take action.
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Beneath the shades of the tall blue trees of Hizan, a forest not far away from where the evacuation was stood a ninja who wore nothing but blue. His entire face has been obscured, and only his eyes were visible from the slit in the middle of his blue mask. He wore loose ninja clothing, which showed triangular netting below the neck (think of Hinata's outfit which shows a net on the neck). The only thing which made him look different to the ninja army he commanded were two huge black shoulder pads made of leather.
He stood on a rock overbearing the ground, crossing his arms, and his back looking at the ninja army that he commanded. He doesn't need to talk to communicate, to them. The only thing that he does to deliver a message is raise his hands, put on a few hand-cants, and by deciphering the cant, his followers would know what his orders are. Only a few have seen his face and have heard his voice. He is a secretive ninja master, the self-proclaimed Kage of the South-east, Amano.
To the highest bidder, we are tasked to take back that artifact which the evacuation ninjas at Konoha have taken from us. They are, right now, travelling towards "Ka-ru-ra" town, body-guards expected, ninjas from the great Hidden Leaf. We go, full force tonight, and get the job done as quickly as possible. But remain silent, kill and remain anonymous. Planning is given responsibility to Nakoruru and Saizo. I will assist from the shadows, when the woman with the baby comes tell me at once, I will take care of her, go with speed and silence.
And in a puff of smoke, the blue kage disappears in the rock that he is standing at. His disciples begin chatting to one another, and continue on with the plan.
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Shikamaru was lying on a log (on top of an ox), a piece of long grass protruded from his mouth as he chewed on it lazily. He looked at the horizon to wait for the rogue-ninjas to attack. He had hoped that they would attack tonight, he needed to see Kurenai badly, and waiting for night-time seemed like an eternity. He couldn't help but feel the trickle of sweat down his cheeks from the tension.
To Shikamaru it felt as if time moved too slow today, there were so many things in his mind that he had to adapt his thoughts for these issues. There was the Fourth Division; more than a few members of the team must have gone ahead of him. He remembered his word to Choji, his long friend, before he went out to look for Kurenai. Choji must be very disappointed in him for breaking his word. Would he look for him? Would the other members of the Fourth Division look for him? After all, he was their head tactician (despite Gaara being the Commander). Maybe the battle won't start too soon, and he would have enough time to save Kurenai and get into the debriefing area after.
And there was also Kurenai. Things had gotten out of hand already about her, from trying to find out how she fared, to actually interfering with her actions. When he was relaxing on top of a tree, it dawned on him why he hadn't thought of Kurenai faring on her own. She was an adept enough ninja. Maybe she could actually do this after all. But he shook his head, and cursed himself for being too selfish. He had sworn to protect her, had sworn it on Asuma's grave, had sworn it to himself, and he was not taking any chances.
He closed his eyes, some part of him was able to picture out Kurenai, of how she would have been very happy showing Asuma his offspring. Maybe Asuma would hold the baby up in the air, and speak something encouraging that the baby wouldn't understand, and then the baby would pee on his father's face in a funny fashion. Shikamaru had to chuckle a little bit for the imaginary joke he made about his mentor. They would soon bless the baby, and let Shikamaru hold it during the blessing. They could even get married, and Shikamaru would be the best man in the wedding. An imaginary Shikamaru is soon seen in a corner inside a crowded church, dressed in formal attire to Asuma and Kurenai's wedding.
Shikamaru opened his eyes, waiting for something to happen in the civilian march, nothing yet. He closed them and pictured out Kurenai once again. This time it was a woman in despair that was painted on his thoughts. He saw a pregnant Kurenai lying down on the floor, crying heartedly due to the death of the father of her child. Instead of Asuma holding the baby, it was only Kurenai cradling it on her own, putting it to a crib, then looking outside the window, to the horizon, thinking of what could have been. Instead of the church being crowded, Kurenai is seen slowly walking alone to the pedestal. Shikamaru is still at the corner, no longer in formal attire, but in his shinobi-uniform.
Shikamaru opened his eyes again, looking at the march. It was already dark, dark enough for an ambush to occur, and dark enough for an ambush to be perfect. He scans the march once again, there were too many civilians here, too much of a burden to protect, too many to protect, too hard to protect; hard enough for Kurenai to fail, to die. Shikamaru shook his head, he wouldn't let that happen.
He would protect Kurenai, make sure she would never have to go again to the despair of losing a loved one. He closed his eyes and tried to picture Kurenai one more time. He pictures himself playing with her baby, lifting it in the air and mumbling something about the will of fire. He sees himself visiting her from time to time, teaching her son plenty of stuff, of shadow-style jutsus, of shogi, of his father's will. He sees Kurenai in the corner, her hands clutching at her breasts and smiling wholeheartedly to them. And when Kurenai walks alone in the church he sees himself running towards her at the back and hugging her tightly. No, maybe that's a bit too much he says to himself, rather surprised by his thoughts. He would just grab her by the arm and tell her that it's all going to be okay, that he would protect her and her child no matter what it takes. He sees her turning around to look at him, and it dawned on him, Kurenai was very beautiful.
His thoughts about Kurenai was broken when he scans in the horizon figures coming towards them (the ESR). Shinobis, the enemy?
"Get ready!" He shouts to one of the chuunins eating a fishball in the road.
Shikamaru tells the chuunin to alert the rest of the Evacuation Shinobi reserve, shinobis were coming from the west, and they were coming in fast. Shikamaru does a few hand seals, and casts a body flicker jutsu, he disappears in a puff of smoke and appears on top of a flag pole, a distance away from where he was in a matter of seconds. He counts the figures coming in towards them, about twenty to thirty, no, forty ninjas coming from the west. He looks to the east, and figures come out as well, this time about forty to fifty as well judging from his count. There's too many of them, and a two pronged attack would make the civilian march cluster. He had to think up of a plan, he jumps from the flag pole and jumps/hurries to the command tent. He had to think of a plan, and had to do it fast.
Kurenai stands on top of a tree invisible from any eye, making a look out for that band of renegade ninjas to appear once again. Another attack was coming to them, more rogue-ninjas being sent to battle. This time it was a two-pronged attack, somebody must be leading them to be so coordinated and well timed. She picks up a Kunai in one of her pockets, makes it spin on her pointing finger and gets ready for a fight.
She was glad that she had whipped herself into shape after giving birth or she could never have survived the many hardships that they encountered in the evacuation. The struggle for food, medicine and for shelter was hard. Supplies and proper personnel were already running low. Some civilians were dying of hunger, raids and disease in the march. With a baby to feed, Kurenai being helpless would never have survived long. She was no longer wearing her maternity dress, right now she was dressed in her usual uniform as a jounin. Her body before her pregnancy had returned fast from the interventions she had made for herself, her baby, and the people in the march.
Stealing food and medicine from the ESR did not shake her conscience as a jounin. The ESR were too incompetent, and made inappropriate decisions for the civilians every once in a while. They were not likely to give food or medicine for a large majority for fear of running low on supplies, so Kurenai had to make the move on her own. She was after all, from the civilians' area. She knew what the people of Konoha were suffering from in this march. What did the ESR know? Did they ever listen to the pleas of the civilians? If they did, it would only be to their superiors. These genins and jounins had little experience in battle and administration, so the march to the people was hard.
She had calculated the supplies and food distribution properly for her people and her baby. Yes her baby, always her baby first. When the first raid came to their march, Kurenai had joined the fight while leaving the child in the hands of civilian friends she had known in the march.
In the middle of the fight it dawned in on her that something might have happened to the child. Maybe the attackers had somehow gotten inside their camp. She was so worried of her child that she thought she might go mad. She had to finish the fight and rush back to her baby in a hurry. When she found out that the child was okay, she cried in front of her friends (the civilians holding the baby for her.) Many raids after that and her worries although still there, lessened.
This time, the battle was big, the biggest the march had ever encountered, and she would use every jutsu she knew to protect her people…..and her baby.