"Pack up."

Genma looked up from his book in surprise at the terse order. Shikamaru was already moving past his doorway, heading towards his own room.

"Who's the target?" He called, already moving to obey. No 'where are we going'. Not anymore. The tokujou opened the adjoining door between the rooms, then strode over to his closet.

"No one." Shikamaru grunted from where he was folding shirts. Genma blinked at that one, then shrugged it of and continued hunting for his pack. His master knew what he was doing- IQ of 200 and all that.

Shikamaru glanced up to check on his subordinate. "You won't need that." He said, startling the tokujou out of glaring at his bag, which was stuck in the closet. A look from the amber eyes made him explain himself a bit more before Genma brought out a kunai. Being all but glued to each other for more than a year cut down on the need for unnecessary words.

"Don't take a full pack- you won't need it."

"What then?" Genma asked, shoving the bulky frame aside and rooting through the closet for something else.

"Bring a rucksack." Shikamaru suggested. "The kind without a frame, and a good strap. Big enough to fit at least a weeks worth of clothes and some other things."

The jounin started placing his neatly folded clothes into his own bag.

"Where are we going?" Shikamaru barely glanced up from taking stock of his medical supplies.

"Konohagakure." The poison specialist stopped at that. Konoha. His mouth quirked.

"Konoha. . . . huh."

The darker shinobi stood silently debating over whether to pack an extra packet of soldier pills or a package of blood pills. He looked up at Genma's tone of voice.

"Problem?" he asked, measured voice surprisingly gentle. The older assassin thought it over quietly.

The rustle of cloth and the crinkling of sterile paper was all that could be heard for a moment.

Eventually, he shook his head in the negative.

"Nah, no problem here Master."

Shikamaru looked over his roommate with a piercing gaze. Dark amber eyes met his scrutiny evenly. Nodding ever so slightly, the Nara returned to his supplies.

"Done?" Genma raised his head, hastily stuffing the last of his rat bars in a pocket.

"Done." He affirmed, flushing slightly at the somewhat amused glance his fellow shinobi sent at him.

Shikamaru tactfully chose not to comment.

"Check- weeks worth, rats, med, storage, weapons, cash, various others including toiletries, extra bandages and a sewing kit?" the jounin rattled off a list of items that should have been packed

"Check."

"We're good to go."

Nodding to each other, the duo hoisted their packs onto their backs and leapt out the window.

Genma's curiosity was aroused when as they were signing out of the gates, the Gate Guards seemed to be exuding a mixture of amusement and fear.

When the two nuke-nin were well on their way to their destination, Genma cracked.

"Spill." He said, not quite succeeding in hiding the grin that had snuck onto his face.

Shikamaru flushed slightly, and attempted to avoid the subject. "Where?"

"Uh huh." Genma grinned, not at all put off. "Why were the Gate Guards so amused?"

"No idea what you're talking about."

They bantered for a while, until Shikamaru's shoulders slumped and he asked resignedly, "You're not going to stop pestering me about this, are you?"

"Nope!" came the cheerful reply. The young genius sighed.

Deep breath. In. Out. In. Out. Ready. Set. Go.

"There was a genin examination that I didn't know about, and I was assigned a team that I didn't know about and their test was to attack me or draw blood andIaccidentallykilledthem and now I'm ."

A pause.

"Well, shit."

---

"So." Genma stated.

His companion didn't bother to open his eyes from where he was resting on the bed in the small hotel room that they were sharing.

"So?"

"Why Konoha?"

Shikamaru stayed silent for a while. The older assassin waited patiently.

"It's the next team's test." Wasn't expecting that. . . .

"Next team?" He let the slightest hint of surprise color his voice, knowing the other would pick up on it.

Shikamaru hummed noncommittally, snuggling into the comforting warmth of the blankets.

"Right. Jounin secrecy and all that. You think that you could let me know if I should expect to get jumped anytime soon? I'd like to be able to not kill the brats." Genma said wryly.

The genius ignored the tokujou's teasing loftily. Sleep was more pressing at the moment.

The elder assassin watched his master sleep with soft golden eyes.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Shiranui Genma sat back and kept watch.

He was drifting off when his roommate stirred. Blinking bleary eyes at the younger man, he said the first thing on his mind: "You look adorable when you're asleep."

Shikamaru stopped mid-yawn. Paused and thought about that. Decided that he was too tired to make a big deal out it. Continued to yawn.

Genma simply went along with it, and stretched, before uncoiling from his position and slinking over to the bed.

Without voicing a word of complaint, the Nara drew a cup of tea and started watch. It was too late to travel, anyway.

---

Author's Note:

Not very happy about this chapter, because it turned out shorted than I wanted it to be. Oh, well. Besides that, I think it turned out OK. I'm also pretty sure that I got most of my mistakes, but if you spot any, please tell me!

Thanks to all of the people who've read this story, it really makes my day when I get a review, or even if I check my stats, and there are more hits than when I left.

This story is also going to become a bit lighter as it moves on- I don't want them to be cracked forever, people, but they'll never be sane again- and this chapter was meant to be filler/show you that they mesh well. Let me know how I did?

This chapter is dedicated to Gleam, an awesome author who writes really good horror (beware, it's creepy) and who will probably never read this story. Meh.

Cheers,

QuietInsomniac