EDIT: I've added some to the beginning of this chapter because I really needed to get a move on with the Genma-Ino story, and this is part of what's been holding me up in posting. Sorry it took me so long to figure out how to fix the problem.

Hopefully I've kept all my timelines right, but if you do find a plothole, let me know and I'll see what I can do to fix it.

Disclaimer reminders: I own nothing, and I do not condone or support human rights violations! This fic is rated M for a reason; expect adult topics like rape, murder, torture, foul language, and sexual explicitness. I do not claim to be an expert on any of these; I'm just writing a story about them.

And so, without further ado, Enjoy!


"I. Hate. That. Man!" Ino slammed a hot-lunch box down on the picnic table overlooking the training grounds and plopped into the bench. Shikamaru barely blinked, but continued to idly poke the sandwich his mother had insisted on packing for him.

"It's not like it would kill him to lighten up. Are you listening to me? Shikamaru!"

He finally tore his eyes away from the unappealing sandwich. "I'm listening."

Ino narrowed her eyes at him and picked up her chopsticks. "Right. Well, you sure have some bad taste in friends."

Shikamaru fought the urge to smile. "Who do you hate today?"

"That examiner from the chuunin exams. You should've hit him harder in that training session you two had." She started attacking the rice in front of her.

"What, Genma?"

"What, Genma?" she mocked. "Yes, Genma! Who else do you know that's so condescending and chauvinistic?"

That's probably a rhetorical question. "Oh."

"Don't 'oh' at me!" She glared at him until he lifted the edge of the top slice of bread, wondering if it might look any more appetizing on the inside. Ino had crossed her legs, and her foot was beginning to bounce impatiently. "Aren't you going to ask what he did?"

He dropped the bread back into place and pushed it away with a sigh. "If I know Genma, he probably hit on you. And if I know you, he probably had to leave before you did, and you took it personally."

Ino's glare intensified. "Glad you have so much faith in my maturity level," she ground out.

"What did he do?"

She force a sweet smile that came out more like 'i'm-gonna-rip-his-head-off'. "He seduced me," -Shikamaru almost laughed, but his sense of self preservation prevented it- "and now he won't talk to me. Like he was just proving something, and since I'm more interested in fun than he is, I'm soooo immature and below him! That takes so much nerve! Gah!" She slammed her chopsticks down on the table and crossed her arms violently over her chest, fuming again.

Shikamaru's eyebrows rose. "You actually slept with him?"

"Kami, Shikamaru, you don't have to make it sound so slutty! For your information, every woman that knows him wants him."

"…and you had him…?" Shikamaru racked his brain for a reason other than a bruised ego that Ino should be angry, but try as he might, even his genius brain was no match for female emotions.

Ino glared at him like he'd just personally insulted her. As the silence dragged out, he got more and more confused. When it started to get uncomfortable, she huffed out a breath and refocused her anger toward her food.

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "He turned you down, didn't he?"

"No, he definitely fucked me," she muttered, jabbing at something on her plate.

Then what the hell…?

"Do I dare ask what happened?" Shikamaru asked resignedly. He didn't exactly want to know, but somehow it seemed like something he was obligated to ask.

"He seduced me, just to humiliate me!"

Ino blushed a bit as one of her favorite moments from the previous night flashed through her head. She had just convinced him to trade the removal of shirt for panties, and after he'd shrugged out of his shirt, he'd pinned her so that she had to maneuver to untangle her underwear from her feet while lying under him. When she'd succeeded, she'd proudly held them up for him to see, and then-Phut!-if Ino hadn't already been flat on her back, she might have collapsed. Just when she didn't think he could get any sexier, he had shot the toothpick out of his mouth at an incredible velocity and pinned her underwear to the wall with it, never moving his hands from either side of her head.

She brushed the memory aside and resumed her rant at Shikamaru. "He was more interested in every little tiny 'good ninja' suggestion than the sexy woman in his bed! And all for the sake of his damn card game!"

Shikamaru stared at her. "…Card game?"

"I know, right?" The pieces were beginning to fall into place for Shikamaru.

"So…what, you were supposed to find out what a certain card was?"

"Hardly. I was supposed to not tell him, and then I had to tell him. What the hell kind of logic is that?" she ranted.

Shikamaru couldn't come up with a safe answer, so he kept quiet. Ino seemed to have run out of things to shout, because she was now just picking dejectedly at her lunch.

I…she's..wow. She's actually…upset. It's not rare for her to be angry, but she usually doesn't dwell on it after she's gotten it off her chest.

"Are you…okay?" Shikamaru ventured.

"He fucked me and then lectured me on why I shouldn't have let him!"

Shikamaru's mind stalled. That was more than he'd wanted to hear, but Ino continued anyway.

"We were flirting and whatever, like normal, and he kept talking about how I wouldn't last a minute against someone sexy who wanted information, and I totally would! So I took the damn challenge, and then in the heat of the moment, he brings up the stupid game again. As soon as we finished, the bastard started lecturing me about how I can't go changing objectives in the middle of things, or let my own 'little whims' compromise my goals." She was glaring off at the indistinct treeline, gradually becoming more thoughtful. "Why couldn't he just let sex be sex?" she muttered, still wearing her indignant frown.

So he really did beat her at her own game, Shikamaru thought. And it's not just her sexual ego that's bruised. He showed her her weakness as a kunoichi, and she's having trouble accepting it.

"So he's a little over-vigilant."

"Try obsessive! Seriously, no mentally stable person should be that obsessed with security. "

Another flashback surfaced in her mind: Ino was using every trick she knew to get Genma to go over the edge before her so that she could have her bragging rights, and accordingly, she had asked very nicely (and with as much heat as she knew how) if he would let her take her dress off.

However, he hadn't moved to let her raise up. Instead, Genma had supported himself with one hand beside her, and the other he used to slip the loosened straps down off her shoulders. He had resumed his tantalizingly casual pace, teasing her as he had been all evening.

For the first time since his shirt had come off, she had torn her eyes from his face and torso and let them wander down his (nicely tanned and sculpted) arms. What caught her eye, though, was the collection of senbon strapped to his forearms. She'd narrowly avoided a long lecture at that point for not having any weapons hidden on her person.

Shikamaru studied Ino while she was lost in thought. No stable person should be so obsessed with security, she says...but she may be forgetting that no good shinobi should ignore their weaknesses. He really is just trying to make her a better ninja, Shikamaru realized. Though maybe he could have found a less insulting way to do it…but none of those would have gotten through to Ino.

"Have you talked to him?" Shikamaru's voice appeared to startle Ino back into her present surroundings.

"No," she growled. "I convinced him to drop it for the night and he was gone in the morning."

Ino seemed to have lost her steam where Genma was concerned, and now she was just picking at her food again. Shikamaru glanced down at his own untouched sandwich, then around at the training grounds below them. In the distance, he could see some pretty big jutsus being executed. He was too far from that particular training ground to see who was setting them off, but he had a pretty good hunch.

"When did you run into Genma today?"

"I didn't run into him. He was leaving the Tea Shop as I was going in. I kept my distance," she pouted.

"Didn't Chouji go with you?"

"He wanted a bigger lunch than the Tea Shop had. He's going to come as soon as they get his order finished."

"Hn. I think I'm going to go take care of some chores and get them out of the way." Ino raised a skeptical eyebrow at him, but he didn't give her time to comment. "Tell Chouji he can have my sandwich," he muttered as he stood up.

"I hope his manners don't rub off on you, Shikamaru!" she shouted angrily after him.


"Dammit, senpai, that doesn't count!" Genma shouted at Kakashi as he ducked behind a tree branch just in time to feel the breeze from the handful of kunai that would have landed squarely in his back.

"Yes it does. He didn't break you; you gave up."

Shikamaru was watching the sparring match that had been arranged between Genma and Kakashi at the very beginning of the first interrogation simulation. The two jonin were down on Training Ground 6.

"He tricked me! That's legit!" Genma jumped to a different tree to avoid a nin-dog's snapping jaws at his legs.

"And you gave up the answer so you could go get laid. That's giving up."

Kakashi was standing in the open, looking as nonchalant as ever as he fired weapon after weapon at Genma. There were several holes in the ground that looked like they'd been burned, and a few wet spots. Kakashi's dogs –all 9 of them- were chasing Genma, apparently trying to corner him.

At least Ino would be happy, Shikamaru thought wryly. Genma looked a little worse for the wear, but occasionally he was managing to throw something back at Kakashi. Not that anything ever made its way through the Copy Nin's defense, but at least it was something. Shikamaru sat down on the grass to watch a little more intently.

Genma sprinted across the small pond in the middle of Training Ground 6 with the big bulldog on his heels, only to be intercepted by one of the other dogs. He skidded to a stop, looking panicky, then suddenly plunged below the surface of the water. As soon as the top of his blue bandana was no longer visible, Kakashi was standing on the water and forming a series of seals. When he reached the last seal, Shikamaru watched a large sphere of water rise into the air. Genma was inside it, apparently paralyzed by the jutsu.

The two stared at each other for several moments. Kakashi crossed his arms stiffly, looking amused, and Genma glared through his water prison. After a minute or two, a look of discomfort replaced the frustration on Genma's face, and his eyes started to lose their focus. He was losing consciousness, Shikamaru realized with a sense of shock, and only then did Kakashi move the water prison to hover over dry land and release it.

Genma landed on the ground face down, and then started coughing. Still dripping wet, he pushed himself up on all fours and sat back, glare back in place. Kakashi's eye was creased up in his signature grin, and he turned and gestured for Shikamaru to come down and join them.

Guess they're done. Shikamaru stood up and headed down the hill. By the time he got there, Kakashi had joined the drowned rat sitting on the ground. Genma looked up at him.

"Did you tell him?"

Huh? "Tell him what?"

Kakashi shook his head and offered Genma a senbon, probably one that he'd caught and held onto from early on in their match. "No, he didn't tell me. Did you think I was that dense?"

Genma accepted the senbon and stuck it in his mouth. "I said I had a date with a pretty blonde, not that I was going to get laid."

Shikamaru wasn't quite following, so he spoke up as he lowered himself down onto the ground. "Uh, what didn't I tell?"

Genma's scowl lightened and his eyes relaxed into something resembling amusement. "About your teammate in that first simulation."

Oh. THAT. "Oh. No, I haven't said anything. I guess you're just predictable when it comes to women." Shikamaru watched Genma closely for a reaction, but the jonin just studied him for a brief moment.

"I'm guessing you've heard…?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "I'm staying out of it. Women are troublesome; you of all people should have figured that out," he teased.

Genma smirked at that, and Kakashi actually laughed. "I told you he picks up on things fast."

"Well…shit." The senbon twitched, and Genma seemed to be relaxing out of his frustration. He turned to look at Kakashi again. "But I didn't just give up easy, either, you know."

"I know," Kakashi answered lightly. Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, and Genma rolled his eyes.

"Then why did you feel the need to set the dogs on me?" Shikamaru glanced around at the ninken in question, who were all sitting in sort of a circle around the three of them, panting and looking pleased with themselves.

"Because you didn't hold out as long as you could have, and because they haven't had a good spar in a long time."

Shikamaru tried not to smile.

"Bastard. Tomorrow's gonna suck! You know you wouldn'ta kicked my butt that bad without 'em."

"I still would've kicked your butt."

Genma scowled playfully and laid back on the grass, favoring his left shoulder a little in the process. "That's not the point," he muttered.

"Quit whining. You got in a few solid hits before I brought them in. I might actually be a little sore tomorrow."

"You know Shikamaru, sometimes when he actually fights fair, I can beat him."

"But is it really 'fair' if I can't use everything I've got and you can?"

Shikamaru listened to Kakashi and Genma banter back and forth for a couple more minutes, then finally Genma turned his head toward the chunin.

"So where are you off to on this beautiful, painful day?"

Shikamaru smiled and shrugged. "Not too sure. I trained this morning with Ino and Chouji. Thought maybe I'd go check in on Kurenai."

He saw Kakashi and Genma exchange a brief glance, but neither said anything.

The truth was, since the genjutsu simulation the night before yesterday, he'd already checked in on her twice. He couldn't seem to quit worrying about her and the baby when she was out of his sight, and she'd told him she was going grocery shopping this afternoon. He was planning to go help her carry the bags.

"You guys are done training this early?" Genma glanced up at the sunny blue sky. "It's not even noon yet."

Shikamaru's mouth twitched upward at the corners. "Chouji and his appetite were demanding lunch, and I worked them pretty hard yesterday and today."

Pakkun, who had been just chilling with the other dogs, had wandered over to Kakashi. The little pug spoke up. "Why didn't you go to lunch with them? I know I never pass up a good meal."

Shikamaru only missed a couple of beats, and when he spoke, his tone was a little heavier than it had been a moment ago. "I haven't been hungry."

"You should still eat," Kakashi said.

"Easier said than done. And my mom's sandwiches aren't exactly mouthwatering."

Silence reigned for a few minutes, until Pakkun broke it. "Hey, Kakashi. Can we go now? The others want to find some shade, and lunch sounds like a pretty good idea."

Kakashi scratched behind the pug's ears and nodded, and then the dogs all disappeared in a series of poofs.

Almost as soon as the last puff of smoke dissipated, Sakura came running up from the direction of the Hokage tower.

Nice timing, Sakura.

All three turned to watch her approach, and she trotted up and stood over them for a moment to catch her breath. She nodded hello to Genma and Shikamaru, then tossed a scroll to Kakashi. He opened it as she spoke.

"You were supposed to be in the Hokage's office three and a half hours ago, Sensei."

"Was I? Oops."

"I've been running all over Konoha looking for you for an hour and a half."

"Good for you. Desk work all the time will get you out of shape."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched a little, but she went on. "We have a mission this afternoon, and we were supposed to depart from the East Gate an hour ago."

All three of the seated shinobi raised their eyebrows. Genma looked amused, and Shikamaru was a little bit surprised. How does he get away with that?

Kakashi looked up from skimming the mission scroll. "Where's the package?"

"I have it."

"Where are Naruto and Sai?"

"Sai put Naruto in the infirmary this morning when Naruto picked a fight, and now Sai's off Kami-knows-where training with Yamato-taicho."

"Hn."

"Tsunade-shishou said for you to pick the rest of a team and that we should 'get our asses on the road' before she starts drinking."

Genma laughed, and Kakashi looked like he might be smirking under the mask. Only Sakura did not look amused, and Kakashi addressed Shikamaru before she could say anything else.

"Your team free this afternoon and tomorrow?"

Shikamaru pouted on the inside. So much for his afternoon off. "As far as I know."

Sakura spoke up. "Ino's on the graveyard shift tonight at the hospital."

Kakashi nodded. "Shikamaru, track down Chouji and meet us at the East Gate as soon as you're both packed."

Shikamaru nodded and hauled himself reluctantly to his feet, and Kakashi formed a seal and disappeared.

Once the Copy Nin was gone, Sakura relaxed.

"How long does he really have, Sakura?" Genma asked.

"We're scheduled to leave in an hour."

Shikamaru chuckled as realization set in. "You always lie to your commander?"

"Only when it's Kakashi-sensei," she answered with a sweet smile. "It's a trick I picked up from Shizune-san. Tell them they're already late and act mad, and then they'll be almost on time. You and Chouji should pack for mixed weather. This mission is a B-rank, just making a delivery."

An hour. That's time to get back to Chouji, pack, and see Kurenai before heading out. If I hurry. Damn.

He hauled himself up to his feet and started off, hearing Sakura turn on Genma in the background. "And I have a bone to pick with you, heartbreaker." So Ino's talked to Sakura too. Good; means I'm off the hook.

. . .

That night, Kakashi, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Chouji had set up camp about three hours' run from their destination, which was one of the high-ranking officials of Fire Country. The package they were delivering wasn't big or heavy, and there were no specific threats regarding it. The particular official that had requested the mission was simply paranoid, so he had specifically requested a full team of at least chunin rank. Thus, it was a B mission.

They had built a fire, and Chouji and Sakura were already asleep for the night. Kakashi was taking first watch, but Shikamaru was still having trouble sleeping. He was scheduled for second, and planned to just stay up until it was his turn.

He was lying on his back staring up at the trees, and Kakashi was reading his little green book.

Every time he shut his eyes, Shikamaru could see the inside of the office-turned-interrogation-room from Kakashi's genjustsu. Sometimes, he saw the interrogator's scarred and tattooed face sneering joyfully at him, getting ready to hurt him with Asuma's blades. Sometimes, he saw Kurenai's throat being slit. Sometimes, he saw Shino evaporating into thin air. Sometimes he saw the relief on Hinata's bloodstreaked face when the interrogator had finally let her slip into unconsciousness and bleed to death. Sometimes, he saw the agony and humiliation on her face as the interrogator had raped her, forcing Shikamaru to watch.

Regardless of which particular image he saw or what sensation he remembered –the churning of his stomach, the taste of blood mixed with vomit, the extreme pain of the torture tags- the one that always made him feel sickest was picturing Asuma's face if he knew what Shikamaru had done. That he'd failed miserably and taken so many people down with him.

Shikamaru reached for his hip pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in order to keep himself from thinking about anything too intently. He shook one out of the pack and returned the rest to his pouch. He was just lighting it when Kakashi closed his book with a quiet snap.

"Shikamaru."

Shikamaru took his first long drag of smoke, then slowly blew it out his nose before acknowledging Kakashi.

"Hm." He didn't move his eyes from the leaves overhead.

"I know you've got to have some questions from the other night."

I guess it's time. I've got nothing better to do, and putting this off won't help anything.

"A few."

For a moment, the only sound was the rustling of leaves.

"Have you told your team?" Kakashi asked quietly.

Shikamaru shook his head and took a puff. "No. They know basically what I'm working on, but they don't know details." He gave a sort of dark half chuckle. "They know you're in on it, and they know I beat the hell out of Genma the other day for it."

"How'd they take it?"

"Ino was pissed. And worried. Chouji…I'm not sure. I don't know if it's really sunk in yet for him, but he's accepting it so far."

"That's good."

"Hn. Why didn't you use them instead of Hinata and Shino?"

Kakashi nodded slowly, and Shikamaru kept staring at the trees. "A couple of reasons. You want the honest truth?"

Shikamaru let out the smoke he'd just inhaled and finally turned his head to look at the jonin. Haven't I come too far already to not want the truth?

Kakashi seemed to read his thoughts. "I know it's a hard thing to talk about. Torture in general, and especially what I put you through the other night. I can give you the easy, half-true answers or the real answers you won't want to hear."

"Oh." Do I want the whole truth? Not really. Can I handle it? Maybe. But will it do any good to hear sugar-coated answers? After a moment, he answered around his cigarette. "I want the truth."

"I didn't use Ino and Chouji because that would have fucked you over a lot worse than…well, worse than it was."

"I thought that was the goal," Shikamaru said flatly.

"The goal was to find your breaking point. I had a pretty good idea what it might be. Using Chouji and Ino might have worked, or it might not have, but you never stood a chance with the storyline I used. There was no reason to make it any harder on you just for the sake of a maybe."

"Do you think I would have cracked for Ino?"

Kakashi shrugged. "It's hard to say. You might have, but I doubt it. She's a kunoichi, prepared to give up her life just like Hinata or Sakura or any of the guys you know. You might have cracked for her because you're closer to her and feel responsible for her, but….she isn't going to have Asuma's baby."

Just like Hinata. Shikamaru tried not to let the image come into his mind, but it was already there. He saw Ino in Hinata's place during the interrogation, and his hands started to tremble. He took the last long drag of smoke, then flicked the butt into the fire and reached shakily for another.

"So why Hinata specifically?"

"Because she fit the story best, and because I couldn't use anyone else."

"What do you mean, you couldn't use anyone else?"

Kakashi sighed and tossed another large stick on the fire. "I didn't want to use Ino because of what I just told you, but I couldn't have if I'd wanted to. You know her better than I do, and you'd have known it wasn't her. That would have screwed everything up."

"There are others."

"It had to be someone you're fairly close to, which narrowed it down to Hinata, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten. I don't know Tenten well enough to create a genjutsu of her personality, and…I couldn't put Sakura through that hell. I'm responsible for her, because she's on my team and was one of my students. That's why I chose Hinata."

"Cold."

"Necessary."

"I guess," Shikamaru muttered. "Don't you worry about Sakura and Naruto though?" Like the way I've been worrying about Ino and Chouji for the past two days? "What if they get captured?"

Kakashi nodded at the fire. "I know. I am concerned. But they're both tough as nails, and powerful enough to keep from getting captured, if they work as a team."

"Have you gone over any defense at all with them?"

"A little. Very little. Eventually, I'll teach them more, but in the meantime, that's what I'm here for. To make sure they don't need it."

"Hm."

"What else is on your mind?"

Everything. The fire shifted, and a shower of sparks danced upward.

"How long did it take you to break the first time?"

"...nobody's ever managed it."

"You've never…"

"No. I've come damn close though. A couple of times, I probably should have, but I was too damn arrogant. It cost more lives than it saved."

He's never broken. Ever. And I lasted a grand total of five and a half hours. Shikamaru closed his eyes, but a hot tear slid out anyway. He made no move to acknowledge it, because he didn't want to draw attention to it. Instead, he took a long puff of smoke.

"And Genma?" he whispered.

"With me? Just under five hours. Real life, six days."

That made Shikamaru feel a little better. He'd lasted longer than Genma under the Sharingan. And if Genma could last six days for real…maybe that wasn't too shabby.

"Remember, I have an advantage over most interrogators." Kakashi tapped his temple beside his covered Sharingan, and Shikamaru nodded and opened his eyes.

"Asuma?"

Kakashi chuckled softly. "Wouldn't know. I was still developing the training when I tried it on Asuma, and I was too obvious. I jumped straight to what I knew was his weakness, and that tipped him off that it was a genjutsu. Wore myself out before I could break him."

"What was his weakness?"

"His family."

They were quiet for a few moments. Shikamaru was still turning over this new information before he moved on to any more questions. Kakashi interrupted his thoughts.

"Did I push you too far?"

Shikamaru tossed the cigarette into the fire and shook his head. "I don't know."

"Are there parts you'd rather not remember?" the jonin asked gently.

"Does it get any easier?"

"Not really. Maybe a little, just from knowing what to expect, but you'll never be immune as long as you're still human."

Shikamaru was quiet a long time before he answered. "No. I need to remember all of it. Maybe…maybe if I couldn't see the pictures quite so clearly, it'd be easier to get past, but…I don't know."

"Which pictures bother you the most?"

Shikamaru swallowed. "Hinata. Kurenai, after."

"Which part with Hinata?"

"The…before. When he was…"

"Hn. Do you want me to help you with those parts?"

Shikamaru sucked in a deep breath. My team needs me to get past this. If I'm ever going to be any use as a shinobi again, I've got to be able to eat and sleep.

"I don't want to forget," Shikamaru said hesitantly, "especially…especially their eyes. Either of them."

The eyes had affected him the most. Hinata had met and held his gaze while the Interrogator was slamming roughly into her from behind. It was almost as if she'd been drawing strength from Shikamaru, like even though she was naked, crying, hurt, and being violated, as long as she had a friend and ally there, she could stay strong. And Kurenai's red eyes had shown so much pain when Shikamaru had betrayed Konoha on behalf of her baby…he didn't want to ever forget either of those, even if they were just part of a genjutsu. The rest of the picture, though…all the violence, he could do without.

"I can do that. Is there anything you do want to forget?"

"I'd like to forget what he looked like."

Kakashi nodded, understanding that he meant the interrogator. Shikamaru was staring at the trees again, trying not to feel nervous about Kakashi using the Sharingan on him again.

"Look at me."

Shikamaru turned his head to meet Kakashi's gaze, forcing his eyes to stay open.

"No genjutsu this time. I'm just going to hypnotize you, and you'll wake up feeling refreshed. You'll remember all of today, and all the parts you want to remember from the other night. Got it?"

"Hm."

Shikamaru's heart sped up a little bit when Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing the mismatched eye.

"You still trust me?"

It took Shikamaru a little longer to answer this time than it did the last time Kakashi had asked him that question, but after a few seconds, he swallowed and forced himself to nod.

"Yeah." He took a deep breath, expecting the same plunge into blackness he'd felt last time, but instead, Kakashi nodded.

"Good. Just try to relax."

Then the Sharingan started to swirl, slowly at first, then getting a little bit faster and a little bit faster, and before Shikamaru realized what was happening, he felt himself gently and peacefully blacking out.