Lightening in the Shadows

Chapter Two

Pretty Harmless

The sound of collision emanated from nearby, as a generation's worth of Genins tensed themselves for combat.

Iruka's voice was quick and encouraging, as he barred their excited way momentarily. "The top floors are broken. The only way out is through the ground level. Take it in teams and rescue anyone you find on your way. Be careful…" His final words were meant to resonate, but they'd barely even been registered above the sudden baying of the crowd. Iruka stepped aside while they still had momentum. "Go! Remember your training." They surged forwards as though one entity, splintering outwards as each found their own notion of the best possible route available. "God, please. Remember your training…" Iruka was surprised to encounter Shikamaru's bored gaze as he turned around. A single deer that hadn't sprung with the eager herd. "Shikamaru?" He said, unprepared for the lack of enthusiasm. "They've gone. Go."

Shikamaru's voice pled with tiredness, "But…it's just a drill."

Iruka's face sank at the only student whose energy was worth more than his grades. "Shikamaru…one day all of this will be real." Iruka didn't glance up as Kakashi stole in beside them. "So you need the experience…What is this?"

Shikamaru turned his plea on Kakashi for a moment, then realized how little argument he had to pose. He relinquished with exasperation in his tone. "Troublesome."

"We'll see." Iruka allowed, nudging the boy as he struck off after the others. He passed his attention to Kakashi's arrival. "Kakashi?"

"Just…came to watch." The Jonin reckoned with a shrug. "How're their odds?"

"Based on their skills, actually. It only gets dangerous after you clear the thinking field. So Naruto and Kiba are pretty much safe, it's kind of for Neji and Sasuke…"

"And Shikamaru."

Iruka paused, leaving Kakashi to wonder if he'd said something odd in the silence. Finally, he nodded. "Well, yeah, him too."

The commotion of kunais being flung avidly across the room was dizzying. Sasuke sidestepped every weapon the opposition had to offer him at an acceleration Iruka had to allocate two Jonins to slow down. Neji outsmarted them, passing Iruka's efforts without a backwards glance. Naruto fought wildly against the initial onslaught of kunais meant only to distract the players for a moment's passing, not the duration of the drill.

"Naruto! Move on!" Iruka suddenly noticed the signboard that read 'innocent', an object students got points for collecting, as though they'd saved a civilian. It wasn't worth the time he was wasting. "Naruto, you won't get it! Just move on!"

Naruto threw himself over and around the kunais being relentlessly fired from a machine out of sight. He regarded nobody's advice until he'd skipped backwards into an area that allowed him to retrieve the mock civilian, throwing up the triumphant words. "You're alive! Dattebayo!" Before racing to close the berth with the others.

Although everyone's movements were fluid in respect to their style of fighting, Kakashi's eyes had wandered backwards to the start of the obstacles, where Shikamaru was still meandering up the steep pile of fallen debris. How easily he anticipated any oncoming threat, how uninterested he was as he evaded it. Kakashi broke a smile. It didn't look much more than troublesome, for sure.

Shikamaru weaved through hordes of enemies and maneuvered around dozens of obstacles. His view of the goal line went unobstructed by the sudden rearing wall of puzzles amounted at the front of the entrance; that led out into the more hazardous sector of the exercise. Sasuke's eyes flicked up darkly as Shikamaru, last to arrive, was the first to successfully complete the puzzle section and spring clear into the next combat area.

Neji followed closely after, assisted by Lee and TenTen, while Sasuke struggled on alone regardless of Sakura's willingness to share the challenge.

Iruka shook his head dismally, striking something down onto his clipboard under Sasuke's name.

Kakashi couldn't keep the smile off his face as Shikamaru dodged the surprise attack launched upon entering the next room as if it wasn't really that surprising.

Everything was being coordinated effectively as the drill proceeded into the final stage. Naruto and Kiba were, as expected, intercepted by the demands of the puzzle challenge. Within a moment's notice, Iruka's predictions were unfolding.

Sasuke caught up with Neji and Shikamaru in lengthened strides, falling into the line of fire. It appeared noticeably redundant to Shikamaru, who'd passed the last onslaught effortlessly. His guard was down in his own overconfidence. He missed something, reserved for the guards as adamant as the Uchiha and the Hyugua. He missed a kunai launched at dangerous speed from behind him.

The impact thudded dully as the bloodied kunai whistled into the wooden floorboards.

Iruka stood open mouthed, unable to convey his relief in the short seconds that passed between his gaze moving from the kunai to the bloodstain on Shikamaru's shirt. Kakashi had flashed out of nowhere to intercept the attack from being direct. Shikamaru had been spared by his watchfulness.

"Thank God, you're Kakashi." Iruka said breathlessly. He called for the test to halt immediately as Shikamaru's blood trail quickened.

Kakashi still held the boy tentatively, from the way he'd caught him trying to veer them off course of the kunai. Shikamaru's eyes wavered, unintentionally alert all of a sudden. He flashed them up at Kakashi. "Ow." He muttered, words still drowsy.

"You're okay. It just scraped." Kakashi told him placidly. He looked back over to Iruka, who wasn't being received well for the request to suddenly cease the test. He helpfully decided against it. "Iruka, it'll be fine. I'll take Shikamaru to first aid."

"It's not that bad…" Shikamaru found reason to protest, holding his stomach gingerly.

Iruka nodded quickly, eager to return his attention to the other students in harm's way. "Alright Kakashi. Do that. Meet you back there after."

Shikamaru had his mouth open on the verge of an argument before Kakashi's departure bounced it closed again. He held onto Kakashi's arm as the nauseating rush of movement guided them to the medical room.

"That was stupid." Shikamaru murmured as Kakashi placed him down on an open bed. "I…ow."

Kakashi glanced back at the complaint, pitying the Genin while he rummaged through the medic drawers for bandages.

"I forgot the training." Shikamaru admitted, a little ruefully. "It seemed sorta easy."

Kakashi located the bandage drawer, making short work of allocating a piece to suite Shikamaru's need while he listened. He laid it down on the bed beside the student, replying fondly, "It wasn't stupid. It was careless."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at that. "No. I'm pretty sure my teacher would call it stupid."

Kakashi shook his head lightly, eyes tracing Shikamaru's expression right up from his pouting lips to his glossy eyes. He freed a smile, comparing them both again as he spoke. "Well geniuses can be that too sometimes." He lifted his hand towards Shikamaru's shirt, blotched in blood on one corner. "May I?"

"Ah-hm." Shikamaru bid him, turning his gaze away. "I don't really want to see it, so you should probably do it."

Kakashi pulled his shirt off, a delicate process that resulted in Shikamaru snatching his breath in at the pain. The shirt peeled away from the open injury with the slight motivation of Kakashi's hands.

"There, it's over." Kakashi found some words he'd heard Iruka say before, naturally incapable of mommy-talk.

Shikamaru assessed the damage warily, then darted his eyes back up at Kakashi. "I'm not a kid, you know."

Kakashi laughed politely, ruffling his silver hair to busy his hands. "Um, sure. I meant that." He was surprised for no real reason to find the shirt still locked between his fingers. He noticed the Konoha headband had been stitched there now. A permanent gesture. He hastily placed it on the bed as though it might mean something it shouldn't if he held it for too long. "We should bandage it anyway."

Shikamaru averted gaze again, averse to unnecessary pain. "Be careful."

"Since you weren't," Kakashi said jeeringly, grabbing the bandage he'd prepared from beside the boy.

While Shikamaru's eyes were off him, he surveyed every aspect of the Genin. From his warm but quiet eyes to his likable tail of cinnamon hair. To his evenly dipping chest as it accepted the air he raked in. His slight frame and naked flesh. His little vulnerable patch of broken skin, from where the kunai had slit in narrow passing. Kakashi distractedly realized he was taking long enough to arouse suspicion. He smacked the bandage on a little hurriedly.

"Ow," Shikamaru yelped, wincing. "Not so fast."

Kakashi laughed embarrassedly, regaining his gentleness in dealing with the injury as consciousness returned. "Sorry." He applied the necessary treatment before trapping the wound closed in white thread. Shikamaru made considerable effort to resist his usual fussing.

When Shikamaru rose, it was on hurried steps. He'd underestimated his injury, and had to land on his feet to acknowledge its tenderness. A disorientated sound fell from his mouth before he gripped Kakashi's shirt for steadying. The Jonin had just scooped up Shikamaru's shirt to give back to him at the same instant. They stood for a moment, holding the other's shirt a little dazedly.

Shikamaru detached first. "Sorry. Sensitive." He excused himself quickly, outstretching one hand for his shirt to be returned while he grasped his wounded side with the other. "Thanks."

Kakashi saw through the haze in time to extend his hand that held the Genin's shirt. "Right, here."

It was back on its owner's figure in no time. Kakashi held his breath in the silence that rung after.

A bird was projecting its symphony into the clean evening air, calling in sweet broken choruses. Kakashi refrained from staring after Shikamaru, but he'd noticed the boy's eyes cross for the window. The sound penetrated the stillness until there was nothing left of it, steady and determined. Consuming.

Shikamaru returned his young gaze to his elder beside him. "It's pretty."

"It's a mating call," Kakashi said on a breath of laughter, pausing as though he'd said something inappropriate. "Um, yeah. Kind of a different way to find love. But still…"

Shikamaru shrugged, unfazed as he mentioned, "Still pretty."

There was definitely something Kakashi would have liked to say in the moment that landed after the statement. If Iruka hadn't burst through the doors, throwing his sight around the room until it found what it wanted. "Okay. Shikamaru. We gotta talk."

Shikamaru peered back at Kakashi questionably, probably aware that he was on the brink of trouble. He had, after all, ignored the fundamental rule of Iruka's training.

And that was to remember the training.

"Coming." He surrendered in exasperation. Kakashi watched for an offbeat moment as Iruka led Shikamaru out through the doors. Then with nothing better to do for himself, he followed.

Which was aberrant behavior for someone who didn't care about anybody.