This chapter is freaking me out. I'm going into this not knowing how the hell I'm going to pull it off. I'm sure that fills you with confidence, but I'm just being candid.
SHINOBI WARS: Episode VIII – Helping Hands Going Home
"This is as far as you go."
The blue-haired woman said nothing more, and didn't even move, but her deadly cool voice accomplished more than any other form of intimidation possibly could. Shikamaru had absolutely no information on this person except that – judging by her style of dress – she was apparently a full member of Akatsuki. That meant she was likely to be at the same level as the other known full members, who so far were all S-ranked criminals and traveled in pairs. His mind was reeling, but he couldn't think of any way for both he and Ino to escape this situation alive without at least knowing what this woman was capable of, and who and where her partner was. As dangerous as gathering it would be, he needed more information.
"And you would be?" he asked, careful to keep his voice neutral and aloof.
"I am Kami-sama's messenger," she replied in that same cold voice. It wasn't the kind of answer he was expecting, and it threw him off for a second. That second almost cost him his life.
"Shikamaru, dodge!" Ino yelled right as he noticed himself; their enemy had somehow sent two larger-than-average shuriken speeding toward them. Shikamaru leapt to the side and sensed Ino do the same in the opposite direction. He was careful to make sure he wasn't being guided into a trap, and everything looked okay. The woman still hadn't moved.
He watched the shuriken go by. Its shape was a little abnormal, but it was spinning too fast for him to tell. After it was gone and nothing else happened, he got suspicious and chanced a glance over his shoulder.
"They're coming back!" he called to Ino. Their strange shape must have allowed them to curve like a boomerang, or maybe she had them on wire like Tenten used, or chakra strings like Kankurou. He dodged again, but was surprised once more. The shuriken did something new as they passed him the second time: 'unfurled' was the only word he could think of to describe it. When they did, dozens upon dozens of tiny little needles flew out at him. The woman still hadn't moved.
Determining that the needles must be poisoned since they were far too small to cause any kind of debilitating injury, he quickly performed a kage kawarimi to escape. The 'thunk' of a log hitting the ground indicated that Ino had also evaded the attack, but that was all he could discern regarding her at the moment.
He returned to his solid form and prepared a token counterattack with shuriken, but when he looked the woman was gone. He heard a noise to his left and turned to see Ino on a tree limb, and the Akatsuki ninja rising up, making a clean vertical slice with her hand. The tree limb fell to the ground, and Ino, with a very shocked expression on her face, slid into two halves.
"INO!" Shikamaru cried. Without even thinking, he launched the most powerful kage nui assault he'd ever mustered. It traveled so fast that by the time the blue-haired woman hit the ground again, she was impaled by a veritable wave of pointed shadows.
At the moment of impact, his target dispersed into seemingly hundreds of tiny sheets of what looked like paper, eight of which were skewered onto his needles. He released his jutsu right as several of the sheets shot toward him spinning wildly, forcing him to lean backwards to avoid them, and confirming that they were in fact made of some kind of paper. He now understood the shape and behaviour of the earlier shuriken; if this kunoichi worked with paper, they may very well have been origami shuriken.
Even in his shocked and anguished state of mind, Shikamaru could not help but fall into his battle routine. He tried to think of a way to counter paper techniques, but he was having trouble focusing through the haze of his sudden loss. And those whirling paper blades were about to slice him to ribbons anyway. He'd almost decided to just get it over with when just as the first of the sheets was about to make contact with his flesh, a flurry of shuriken rained down on them, pinning them to the ground.
"You missed me!" taunted Ino's voice from every direction. Shikamaru felt as though his heart had just now begun beating after a lifetime of sitting idle in his chest. She was alive after all! The bunshin or kawarimi or whatever it was she used was so convincing that he'd fallen for it too.
He rolled backwards out of his dodge and sprang to his feet, ready to defend or counterattack. He immediately saw why Ino's voice had seemed to come from everywhere: it really was coming from everywhere. All around him in every direction stood clones of Ino, prepping for battle or merely taunting.
He'd never seen her use this technique before, but he knew what it was. Naruto told him about her performance in the chuunin tournament that got her promoted. She created dozens of clones and rapidly traded places with them, so it seemed to the enemy like she was everywhere and nowhere. Good for a momentary distraction, but not much else against this caliber of opponent. That meant she was expecting him to come up with something in the short window of opportunity she'd provided for him. He only wished he had as much faith in his abilities as she seemed to. Had he really just contemplated giving up? That wasn't the way a ninja acted, and it certainly wasn't the way he, Nara Shikamaru acted. Not anymore, anyway. He needed to calm down and get his head in the game.
He gave his head one quick shake to clear it and began analyzing the situation. He knew it was too risky to assume his strategizing pose out in the open, so he drew a kunai and knelt holding it, as close to the position as he could get and still be on guard. He molded the chakra for a quick escape in advance in case he needed it.
He heard the ruffling of pages and saw in his peripheral vision the sheets of paper coalescing into a solid form again, minus the ones pinned by Ino. 'So is it a clone or an actual transformation technique?' he wondered. He needed to find out before committing to a strategy, since there was no point in escaping a clone only to be ambushed and killed by the real thing. And there was still the matter of her as-yet-unknown partner.
The sound of two dozen Inos suddenly abated, and he felt the real one take up a defensive stance by his side, facing the open area behind him.
'I've got your back, Shikamaru,' he heard in his head.
'I know you do,' he thought back, knowing she could hear him. He tried to send through every ounce of admiration he was feeling at that moment, trying to mentally bolster her as much as he could. Her clan's techniques were incredibly useful in situations like these where they couldn't risk being overheard, but there was a proximity limit and it required some of her concentration so he had to tell her everything he could very fast. 'She's using paper weapons and she can transform herself into paper, which means she has an almost unlimited supply of ammunition. We need to disable her somehow; our goal should be escape, not victory.'
'Any ideas?'
'Not yet. I'll let you know.'
'Know any fire jutsu?'
'None. Look out!'
Ino flipped away just as the woman's bladed hand drove through where her neck had been. Shikamaru used the chakra he'd built up earlier to dash forward and stick her in the gut with his kunai and bound away. He could tell as soon as he landed the attack that it would have no effect, and the woman's body burst into hundreds of folded cranes at the moment of impact.
"A paper clone?" Ino gasped, dodging the cranes.
"Either that or her reaction time is near-instantaneous with her transformation," Shikamaru called back, cutting the cranes out of the sky with his kunai. That's when he got an idea.
"Ino!" he called. "How strong are you with the Hokage's strength-enhancing technique?"
"Not very," she called back. "Even Sakura's stronger with it now."
Her statement was significant; Ino never liked to admit to any inadequacies, and she hated admitting Sakura was better than her at anything. Nevertheless, it had to be tried. "Now's your chance to test it," he said, and threw a kunai into the ground near her feet. Hopefully she understood what he meant.
A very loud boom several moments later told him she had. He looked over amidst fighting off cranes to see a decent-sized crater beneath her, already filling with water. He jumped over to her and landed in it. "Hit it again! Now!" She did as she was told, if not knowing why, and a torrential wave of water surged up and out around them. The cranes too close to them were caught up in it and fell to the ground, too waterlogged to remain airborne or retain their shape. Knowing he had only seconds, Shikamaru formed seals as fast as he ever had in his life and prayed.
-
When the water subsided and the woman managed to pull herself together, Shikamaru and Ino had taken refuge in separate trees. Ino was preparing a batch of five kunai on a wire and Shikamaru had drawn three shuriken and a kunai with an explosive tag. The woman's focus shifted to Ino, but even as it did several razor-sharp paper shuriken hurled themselves toward Shikamaru. He dodged easily enough, but when they burst as they had done before, he wasn't as quick in dodging the needles and three of them managed to hit home. He fell in mid-maneuver and swore.
He called out to Ino. "You have to do it now or we'll never get another chance!" She nodded determinedly and threw her lead kunai at her attacker, whose arms had become very wide and thin. The Akatsuki woman dodged easily, but Ino wasn't through.
"Not yet!" she cried, and tugged on the wire, sending the string of kunai after her assailant once again. A second easy evasion, and Ino took to twirling the wire like a flail, keeping her opponent on her toes as much as possible.
"Any time, Shikamaru!" she yelled. "I don't think this is going to hold her off much longer!"
"If anything, I think you're just starting to annoy her," Shikamaru called back. "But it should be enough." He hurled his shuriken at slightly less than full speed, and right as the woman dodged he threw the explosive note right into her path at full power.
"Your efforts are wasted," she said coldly as a wall of paper rose up to shield her from the explosion. "And if this is the best you can manage, you might as well just give up now." She raised her arm almost casually and caught Ino by the leg in midair. The blonde had been attempting another explosive tag attack at point blank using the dust from the fist explosion as cover. With frightening ease, Ino was hurled into a tree and Shikamaru could hear her spine break on the impact. She coughed up blood.
"I might as well go for broke, since I don't think I can keep this up much longer," he said to himself. He formed the necessary seals and sent another kage nui at his opponent, only this time, he sent each needle in its own random, weaving pattern. It would be much more difficult to avoid them all.
Avoidance, however, was not part of the dark woman's plan. She simply dispersed into several sheets once again, and let those that were impaled by the needles fall while the rest flew toward Shikamaru. When they reformed, his killer hovered over him with her arm forged into an origami blade. She said nothing before impaling him through the chest. At the moment of impact, Shikamaru witnessed three men with Rain hitae-ate descending upon his murderer in silence. With a grin, he looked over at Ino, who was barely clinging to consciousness at the base of the tree she'd careened into.
"Did it," he whispered as he watched her vanish in a cloud of smoke. Half a moment later, he followed her.
-
The moment she could see again, Ino gasped and rushed to catch Shikamaru, who was collapsing to the ground. The instant the water rose up around them, she had seen him perform more jutsu in rapid succession than she had ever imagined him capable of. It was no wonder he was exhausted.
"We need to keep going," he told her. It pained her to hear his voice so strained, as if even talking was a massive effort. "I couldn't take us very far and those shadow clones aren't going to keep her busy for long."
"You're crazy," she admonished him half-heartedly as she swung him onto her back despite his meager protests and started running as fast as she could. "You don't have the kind of chakra reserves to be doing two kage bunshin¸ a henge and a kage kakushi at the same time. You're lucky you aren't dead from chakra exhaustion." She tried very hard to make her tone firm and scolding, but her concern for him was leaking through and she couldn't hold it back. Not to mention her heart rate was still winding down from the life and death struggle they'd just escaped.
"I suppose you had a better way of getting us out of there alive?" he asked. He seemed to be at least catching his breath again as she ran.
"That's not the point," she argued. "What good is getting us out of there alive if you die from the effort?"
He started to answer, but Ino did not hear. Her highly tuned senses detected an attack from her left and she leapt out of the way just as a six-foot blade swung through right where both of their heads had just been.
"Nice dodge," Shikamaru commented. "Looks like we've got ourselves another fight. You'd better put me down or you won't be able to move very well."
She set him down with his back to a large boulder and scanned the area for their attacker. She noticed him so close to the last second that the stone his sword sliced through had a few drops of her blood on it. From her new perch on Shikamaru's boulder, she finally saw her would-be killer. It was someone she knew.
"You!" she exclaimed. The Rain ninja named Jin'e looked up at her furiously, his sword held ready for another attack. It was long and narrow, straight and double-edged. On top of a surprisingly short hilt was an abnormally wide cross-guard. It was unlike any sword Ino had ever seen, but clearly just as deadly.
"It's regrettable that you were not killed by the traitor Konan, but fortunately I had the foresight to move on ahead should you manage to escape. Now I will kill you and my men will kill her, and two of the Hidden Rain's biggest problems will be gone."
"Unless you had more men than the three I saw attack her," Shikamaru said casually from his seat on the ground, "they're probably already dead."
"Fool. You think I, who knows the traitor's strength so much better than you, would take such a risk? My men are of sufficient numbers and skill to deal with her. And if they are unable, I will be back with them soon enough to help finish the job." He pulled his sword back ever so slightly. A thrust? Ino knew she only had one chance to get this right.
His strike was too fast for her and she received a huge gash in her right side as punishment. Even so, she did manage to achieve her main objective, which was to keep his focus off of Shikamaru, and her second objective, which was to tie up his feet.
"I'll get you back for that one," she grunted, and pulled hard on her snare. Impossibly thin strands wrapped around his ankles pulled him up, and wincing through the pain, Ino used all her strength to hurl him right through a tree. Ever since her fight with Sakura in their very first chuunin exam, Ino had experimented with the idea of using her hair as a tool in battle. Over the years she had become so proficient with the technique that a rope only a few strands thick infused with her chakra had the strength to swing a grown man around like a yo-yo.
Unfortunately in this case, her opponent did not seem particularly inconvenienced by her ingenuity. Ignoring his trip through the tree as if it were nothing, a quick swipe of his sword released him from his bonds and he used his momentum to rebound off the only other tree in the immediate area, launching himself straight at her. She had no time to prepare a defense.
Moments before impact, and almost faster than she could see, something zipped in under the Rain ninja's trajectory and launched itself off the ground with incredible force, taking Jin'e with it. They didn't come back down.
Frantically, Ino looked around trying to determine exactly what had happened and where her attacker would strike from next. She couldn't imagine why he would pull back or alter tactics when he was so close to landing a death blow, and whatever it was that zoomed in underneath him wasn't likely something of his. Evidently something or someone had intervened.
A large cloud of smoke appeared and she got her answer. Sort of. What she saw was a middle aged man with messy, graying hair sitting on what looked like a giant grasshopper.
"Oy! Looked like you two were in need of a little help!" he greeted jovially. Then he got a look at the gash in her side, and at Shikamaru leaning against the rock, pale as a ghost and practically hyperventilating. "You all right?"
"We'll live," Ino replied. "Thank you very much for…whatever it is you did."
"Don't mention it. I'm happy to help any Leaf ninja in need."
"Really?" Ino asked, a little surprised. "Who are you?"
"Name's Kuwabatake Sanjuro," he said with a proud grin.
"I've heard of you," Shikamaru panted. "You're practically a legend in the Hidden Grass, isn't that right?"
"More of a myth, really," Sanjuro said. "Reports of my greatness have been greatly exaggerated. Mostly by me." He said this, too, with great pride.
"We should go," Ino said. "That man wasn't the only dangerous threat around here, nor was he the worst." Sanjuro's eyes widened a little.
"How many people you got after you anyway?"
"A lot more than we can handle, to be honest," Ino said. "And he was a mouse compared to what we just escaped from."
"Well neither of you are going anywhere fast in the conditions you're in. Lemme help." He dropped down from his mount – which was as large as a small elephant – and bit his thumb, smearing a little blood onto each fingertip. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Another burst of smoke, and a second grasshopper – this one about the size of a horse – appeared before them.
"Berami here'll give you both a ride, and I'll come along for a little ways to make sure you get out all right. It's a lot faster than you'd be able to go on foot, even in peak condition."
Ino stammered her thanks and went to help Shikamaru. When she leaned over to pull him up off the ground, she activated her telepathy jutsu.
'I think we can trust him,' she sent.
'It looks that way, and besides, we really don't have another choice. Either Jin'e comes back or that woman catches up to us. Either way, we're dead. I'll take an unknown over certain death anyday,' he replied. 'I trust your judgment.'
With that, she helped him up onto the grasshopper named Berami and then climbed up after him. "Can he carry us both?" she asked. The grasshopper turned his head back to her.
"Don't worry about me," he answered in a somewhat high-pitched twang. "I can carry twenty times my own weight. You guys are practically nothing up there."
"Let's go, then," Sanjuro announced. "Follow me, Berami!"
"Roger!"
The old man and his mount bounded away, and their own mount followed suit. The experience was exhilarating, and Ino had never felt anything like it before. With each leap, they were propelled forward at impossible speed, and soared through the air at heights of up to twenty meters. The wind in her face was almost painful (she could only imagine how it felt for Shikamaru in front of her), and each time they reached the apex of a jump and began to fall back down, her stomach was sent reeling. For a time, she didn't feel the pain in her side at all, and she found herself wishing she could do this on a day when it wasn't just because she was running for her life. It seemed like something a person might do for fun.
Ten or twelve minutes later, they came to a stop. Sanjuro instructed them to dismount. They had long since entered the border of Fire Country and judging by the familiar landmarks surrounding them, were less than a day's journey from Konoha.
"You should be able to make it on your own from here," Sanjuro said. "How are your first aid supplies? He looks like he could use a soldier pill." He indicated Shikamaru. "Maybe two."
"We have some; he didn't have time to take anything before we were attacked again," Ino said.
"Better do it quick; chakra exhaustion is not a pleasant thing. That should hold you over until you get home, at least. What about you?"
"I took a blood clotting pill and I have some salve and bandages."
"Good enough," Sanjuro nodded. "Boy, why haven't you taken a soldier pill yet?"
"I took one already," Shikamaru said. "It wouldn't do me any good to take another one."
"Shit, are you serious? Lie down right now before you fall over."
"We can't afford that; we have to keep going," Shikamaru argued.
"Like hell. I took you this far because I figured you could make it the rest of the way on your own, but you need sleep and you need it now. I'll wait here with you overnight just in case."
"I don't mean to be rude – we appreciate everything, really – but why are you doing all this? And what were you doing in the Rain country in the first place?" Ino asked.
"Funnily enough, both of those questions have the same answer," Sanjuro said. "Sit yourself down and I'll tell you all about it while your friend catches a few winks." He turned to his summons. "You fellas can get on out of here. Looks like I'll be here for a little while." Both insects gave a short wave before dispelling. It was an odd spectacle.
Ino pulled out her first aid equipment and started to treat her wound as Sanjuro made a little fire. It had torn slightly during the bumpy ride and now that she didn't have the adrenaline to distract her the pain was coming back in full.
She glanced over at Shikamaru and was pleased to see he was already fast asleep. She got up and pulled a blanket out of his pack and draped it over him, weighting it down with rocks so it wouldn't blow away. When she sat back down and started to doctor the hole in her side, Sanjuro was ready to start what he called his "little story."
SIX DAYS AGO
"So what can you tell me about this 'Akatsuki'?" Sanjuro asked.
"Not much, really," Naruto answered. "We know what they're after, but not why."
"And they're after Jinchuuriki."
"Right. They've come after me twice already. My friend Gaara from the Sand is a Jinchuuriki too, and we know they've targeted him as well, though they haven't attacked yet."
Sanjuro tried to process all of this information. It was a lot to take in; it wasn't every day you learned your brother had been captured by a band of S-ranked criminals who for whatever reason wanted the demon inside of him.
"How did you escape?" Sanjuro asked. "I mean no offense, but my brother is probably a lot stronger than you, and they got him. And yet you say you've evaded them twice."
"I got lucky, really," Naruto answered. "The first time they were confronted by a group of four jounin from our village. I didn't even know about that until later. The second time Ero-sennin was with me."
"Who?"
"Oh, right," the young blond chuckled. "Jiraiya."
Sanjuro couldn't help but laugh. It was the first time he'd ever heard the legendary ninja referred to like that, but it certainly fit.
"So you don't know anything else about them, like where they might be based or some of the other members?"
Naruto shook his head sadly. "I wish we did. I'd love to take the fight to those bastards for a change."
"It looks like I'll have to follow their trail to see where they took my brother," Sanjuro sighed. He was going to have to do this himself; there were not nearly enough personnel to spare at the moment.
"I wish I could go with you," Naruto said. That surprised the older Grass ninja.
"Why? You didn't even know my brother and you barely know me."
"I know that, but who cares?" the blond shrugged. "I like you, and I hate those guys. That's reason enough for me. Besides, I've never met another Jinchuuriki before besides Gaara. I want to help your brother."
"You helped enough just by caring and giving me this information," Sanjuro said. "It's more than I had this last night."
"You can say that, but it still doesn't feel like I've done anything," Naruto lamented. Sanjuro smiled.
"Toshirou would like you, kid. You go all out in everything. That's just like him."
There was a long pause, and then suddenly the tone of the conversation shifted. Naruto asked a question he'd clearly been steeling himself to ask since the day before.
"What was it like for your brother growing up?" he asked. "How did people treat him?"
"Not so good," was Sanjuro's reply. "From that sad look of yours I can guess it was the same for you, huh kid?"
"Yeah." There was another long pause, and then, "Sorry, old man."
"Huh? For what?"
"Well, Gaara and I had the same type of childhood. People hated us and were afraid of us and treated us like crap. In my case, I didn't even know why until I was twelve years old. It was nice to be able to share that with someone, and we're the same age so we can relate really well. But…well, it would have been really nice to have someone older who's been through it all too, you know? So I guess maybe wanting to save your brother wasn't all for his sake."
"Don't worry about it," Sanjuro said. "Nobody's completely selfless anyway. Besides, like I said, Toshirou would really like you. When he was twenty-five he just got fed up with the people of this village and went to live on his own. I'm the only person he keeps in contact with anymore. I think the way you've found so many friends and precious people would've made him really happy, you know?" Naruto smiled wistfully.
"Now it's my turn to ask you a question," Sanjuro continued. "Why haven't you told that girl of yours the truth? She thinks what you did back there was some kind of kinjutsu."
Naruto, who had clearly not been expecting this question, was caught off-guard and stumbled around for a reply.
"I just…it never…how am I supposed to…?" he trailed off and Sanjuro shook his head.
"Look, kid, I know what you're thinking. What if she doesn't accept it? What if she ends up hating you for it, right?" Naruto, in spite of himself, nodded dejectedly. "Well let me ask you this: how many people that you care about know?"
"Um…" Naruto pondered. "There's Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei, and the old lady and Ero-sennin. Shikamaru might have figured it out but I don't really know. I think that's it."
"And how many of them have shunned you or turned away from you?"
"None of them," Naruto answered simply. "But that's different!" he protested. "All of them knew beforehand, before we ever even met! They knew before I did. It would be different if they knew me first and then found out. And what if they hate me for it? What if she hates me?"
"Why would she? Would the knowledge that you house one of the great beasts somehow change who you are as a person? I think, if this girl really cares about you, then it won't make any difference. If anything, she'll be more upset at you for keeping it from her if she finds out on her own."
"I don't know…"
"Well kid, I can't tell you what to do. It's your life, after all. Toshirou never really had that problem because everyone around here already knew what he was when he was growing up, but occasionally we'd meet people from other countries who found out. Some of them took it well, and others not so much. There was one thing my brother always used to say: 'If people don't know the real you they can't really like you. And if they don't like the real you then they aren't worth your time.'"
"But I don't want Sakura-chan to not be worth my time," Naruto bemoaned.
"Well like I said, I'll leave it to you. You just think about what I said. I need to start making preparations to track my brother, and you need to get ready to get out of here. I don't think Inago-kun is going to want to hang around very long."
"It was nice meeting you, old man," Naruto said.
"You too, kid."
-
Sanjuro related the story of the siege of the Grass and Naruto's involvement to Ino. He told her about his older brother's abduction by Akatsuki and his conversation with Naruto that gave him a place to start. Of course he left out the parts pertaining to Naruto's unusual guest, simply implying that the young blond and his brother shared a similarly difficult childhood.
"It took me an entire afternoon to find their trail, and it's impossibly thin. I'm probably moving at about half their speed trying to follow it."
"But we found Akatsuki!" Ino exclaimed. "Just a few days ago! We were running away from one of their agents when that man ambushed us and you arrived and saved us."
Sanjuro, who had not been expecting this, nearly choked on the bit of dried meat he'd been eating.
"You found them? Where? How?" he asked hastily after beating his windpipe with a fist and catching his breath.
"We sort of stumbled onto it, actually," Ino admitted. "We were looking for Amegakure no Sato and we found a place that we thought might be it, but it had been taken over by Akatsuki. We killed a few of their subordinates and escaped the area, but I guess one of their members managed to track us down."
"Where was this place?" Sanjuro asked almost feverishly.
"A few days west of the border near the southern mountain range. I have the coordinates written down if you want," she offered, and moved to her pack to retrieve them. Sanjuro held up his hand and shook her off.
"Thanks, but no. The two who have my brother were heading south. It's more likely they'll end up in River Country or even Wind Country. I'm guessing this organization has multiple bases of operation."
Ino looked disappointed that her information hadn't been helpful. "Oh," she said. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Sanjuro said. "Can you tell me anything about this agent you fought? Any intelligence at all would be useful."
"We didn't get to see much of what she can do," she told him, "but the jutsu we saw were all paper and origami-based. And physical attacks weren't very effective because she can transform into paper and disperse."
"I see."
"There's a little bit more. The members of Akatsuki are always supposed to travel in pairs, but she was alone as far as we could tell. And she didn't say much, but she called herself 'God's messenger'."
"We can only guess what that means," Sanjuro said, pondering. "But it's more than nothing."
"What are you going to do if you find them?" Ino asked. "Do you think you can beat them?"
"It's hard to say. My brother is stronger than I am, but he was defeated, though they had the element of surprise on their side. If I can get close enough to free him then maybe we won't have to fight at all."
"Good luck, Sanjuro-san," Ino said. She bid him good night (though it was still late afternoon) and went to sleep. She said it was so she could wake up early so he could be on his way, but he could tell she was much more worn out than she was letting on.
-
The woman known only as Konan surveyed the surrounding landscape with disgust. When she had allowed the two Leaf ninja to temporarily escape in order to lure out the two squads of Rain ninja lying in wait to attack, she hadn't expected Jin'e to be so incompetent as to let them escape from him as well. Though the evidence at the scene suggested outside interference, she couldn't help but be upset with herself for the blunder.
It had only taken a matter of minutes to deal with the seven men who now lied in bloody pieces strewn about the roadside a few miles back, but even in that short time her true quarry had managed to slip away. They would now be able to report the location of Akatsuki's base in the former Hidden Rain village, and Konoha would thus have the location of Akatsuki's leader, albeit without realizing it. Pein would not be pleased. Closing her eyes and sighing in resignation, Konan let the wind take her as her many sheets blew toward home and the rebuke waiting for her there.
-
Sora roused her siblings as soon as the sun came up. They were still a few days from home at their current pace, and they couldn't afford to be attacked again. They would never survive it.
"I'm up already," Daiichi said when she approached him. "Thought I heard something earlier but it was just a squirrel."
"There's a reason we're splitting watch, Dai-nii," she said to him. "You need as much sleep as you can get. I'm pretty sure I can still handle a squirrel."
"Instincts," he shrugged. "Plus fifteen or so years of training. Hard to ignore."
"Any trouble with our guest during your watch?" she asked. The man in question was still asleep as far as she could tell, and still strapped to a stump.
"Nothing," her brother answered her. "I don't know, Sora, I think we might really be able to trust this guy. We'd be dead twice over if not for him."
"I know what you mean, but it's still suspicious," she said.
"He took a knife to the shoulder for Sango," Daiichi reminded her, speaking of their fight with the Rock ninja in which their youngest sister had released him from his bonds and he had helped to save them all. "That gives him points in my book."
"I'm not saying I don't want to trust him," Sora said. "I guess I'm just afraid to."
"I'd be worried if you weren't," Daiichi said. "But it is looking promising. And once we get him home, Koorikage-sama will know what to do with him."
"If we ever make it home," came a third voice. Her younger brother Kenji was hobbling over to join them. Shirotani Ichigo's great sword was still strapped around his shattered right leg where they had applied it as a makeshift splint. It served the dual purpose of keeping tabs on the blade at all times while serving as better support than any wooden branch they could ever find, even if its length did make it slightly awkward for poor Kenji to walk.
"What's with the defeatism all of a sudden?" Daiichi asked. "That doesn't sound like you at all."
"I keep telling you I'm slowing you all down. You'd make it home faster without me, and in this situation every second counts. We won't last ten seconds if we're ambushed again."
"And I keep telling you it's not going to happen," Daiichi replied sternly. "You don't notice it because you're feeling sorry for yourself, but the rest of us aren't in much better condition than you. If it weren't for that sword being such an awkward splint, you'd be setting a better pace than both me and Sango-chan." Daiichi's skewer wound was nothing compared to his crushed toes, and Sango's feet had both been impaled clean through on earthen spikes.
"He's right," Sora said. "You need to snap out of whatever funk you're in and just focus on what's important, which is all of us getting home in one piece, so to speak."
"I'm sorry, Onee-chan," the hawk-nosed man apologized. "You guys are right, of course."
"That's fine," Sora said. "Hurry and go wake Sango-chan while I untie Ichigo-san and we can get moving." She turned to her oldest brother. "Dai-nii, could you wake Ringo-chan please?"
"Sure."
Soon their makeshift camp was bustling with the preparations for departure. Little Ringo ended up doing a lot of the work, since she was the only one among them still capable of running around. In addition to his shoulder wound, Ichigo had suffered a pair of shuriken in the back, a fire jutsu of some kind that he'd only mostly managed to jump over, and a black egg to the face. Even a full day later his eyes were still full of tiny crushed glass shards. It had to be excruciating, but he hadn't complained once.
They were about to set off when Sora sensed a presence nearby. A quick look to her older brother told her he sensed it too. Ready to face the end, she reached for her scythe.
"Sango-chan, if you can, I want you to get Ringo-chan away from here," she said.
"But…Nee-sama…!"
"Please, Sango-chan."
Sango held her gaze for several seconds, her lip twitching and her good fist clenched, but finally she slammed her eyes shut and nodded.
"Good girl."
"We really do have the worst luck, don't we?" Kenji remarked wryly. He had drawn his weapons as best he could.
"In my experience there's no such thing as luck," Ichigo intoned. He seemed to have already accepted the inevitable. Kenji had begun unraveling the bandages that strapped the former Mist ninja's sword to his leg, but everyone knew it would do little good.
"HOLD!" bellowed a familiar voice from out of sight. Seconds later, its owner came into view, and Sora had never been more relieved in her life.
"Masanori!" she exclaimed ecstatically at the sight of a man she knew quite well. Shimoda Masanori was a jounin with a high reputation for someone as young as 24. She had not known him long, only since becoming a jounin herself, but she liked him very much. He was a very gentle and friendly man whose easygoing manner belied his lethal skill and power.
The others echoed her cheerfully surprised greeting. Even Ichigo and Ringo, who obviously did not know the man, were pleased to see that he was clearly a friend and not an enemy.
"What's happened to you all?" Masanori asked, taking in their injuries.
"We've been in a few fights," Kenji said. "But you should see the other guys."
"Who are your friends?" the newcomer asked.
"This man here is Shirotani Ichigo," Daiichi explained, gesturing to the swordsman. "He is former member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, but he has recently defected from Kirigakure and become our voluntary prisoner." If this news surprised Masanori, he did not show it. Daiichi went on. "This girl is a refugee we encountered," he said. "She says her name is Ringo, we have agreed to take her under our protection. She appears to have had some degree of shinobi training, but we have no reason to believe she is of any threat to us or the village." Sora smiled at her older brother. He hadn't even had to lie. She could see Sango trying to hide a scowl, but the girl said nothing.
"I see," Masanori said. "Well, I'll honor your pledge for the time being and I'm sure the Koorikage will as well until we can figure out what to do with her. Can I assume you could use some help getting home?"
"That'd be great," Kenji said. "But aren't you in the middle of something? You don't have a team with you, do you? What kind of mission are you on?"
"Reconnaissance only," Masanori said. "A lot like yours, really. The Koorikage wanted to send out a second wave of individual shinobi after the first batch of teams."
"If it wouldn't disrupt your mission too much, Masanori, we'd love your help," Sora said. "We aren't exactly moving at top speed these days and we're a little vulnerable."
"A little jumpy, too," the man laughed. "You all had the look of folks facing down their deaths a moment ago, but I still got the feeling you could have killed me if you had to."
"If it was just you, maybe," Daiichi joked. "But you're sure you can take the time?"
"Hey, the lives of my comrades take precedence," Masanori said. "If the Koorikage or the council have a problem with that, they can shove it up their – "
"Thank you, Masanori-kun," Sora cut in with a furtive glance to Ringo. The girl had probably heard such talk and worse before, but it still didn't seem proper.
And so the seven of them set out together, Masanori helping each of them with injured feet or legs walk in turn so as to ease the effort a little. They still had several long and tension-filled days ahead of them.
As they left their camp behind, Kenji brought up the rear with Daiichi and Ichigo right in front of them. "No such thing as luck, huh?" the hawk-nosed man remarked.
Ichigo closed his eyes and smiled almost imperceptibly. "That's right."
-
Ino awoke before the sun rose the next morning to find Sanjuro still standing watch over their makeshift camp, and Shikamaru still sound asleep. Neither particularly surprised her.
"You shouldn't be up yet," he said without turning to face her. "You used up a lot of your reserves yesterday."
"That's true," she admitted, "but I'm worried about Shikamaru. I'll feel better once we're back inside the village and Tsunade-sama can have a look at him."
"He should be fine; he just overtaxed himself. He's just going to have to take it easy for a week or so."
The two of them made small talk until the sun rose and Ino decided they couldn't afford to wait any longer. She gently shook Shikamaru awake.
"What is it?" he asked groggily. She was pleased to see that his face had recovered a bit of its color.
"It's time to get going," she told him. "We're less than a day from the village. Do you think you can travel?"
"I'm not sure, to be honest," he said.
"He shouldn't travel in that condition," Sanjuro interrupted, coming up from behind them. "I'll loan you Berami again. You should get back to your village in less than half an hour that way."
"Really?" Ino asked.
"Easily. Just make sure to give him a rest for a minute or so along the way, and he can dispel once you arrive. Tell that Uzumaki kid hello for me. And the others, too."
"Thank you very much, Sanjuro-san," Ino said with a bow. "For everything. I hope you find your brother."
The farewell was short and brisk, and soon two enormous grasshoppers were bounding away in opposite directions.
"What did you two talk about yesterday while I was asleep?" Shikamaru asked.
"Oh, this and that," Ino said evasively. "It turns out he's hunting Akatsuki. I told him what we learned, and he said the two he's following are headed toward a different base than the one we found."
"That's valuable information," Shikamaru said. "Anything else?"
"Not really, except that he really likes Naruto," Ino said cheekily.
"Doesn't everybody?" Shikamaru replied with a smirk.
The truth was, Ino had gleaned quite a bit from her conversation with the older Grass ninja. She wasn't sure what a lot of it meant, but it had given her something to think about. Ino was never one to be content with guesses based on bits and pieces of information. She couldn't stand not knowing things – it was one of the reasons she enjoyed gossip so much - and if there was something she wanted to find out she usually did. She'd be asking some questions and doing some research when she got home.
Not even ten minutes had passed when Ino, Shikamaru and Berami were stopped by a patrol of Leaf ninja. They had been expecting it, and the only real surprise was that it had taken so long.
"You wear Leaf hitai-ate. Who are you?" demanded the squad's leader. He was a chuunin Ino vaguely recognized.
"Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino," Shikamaru announced. As a jounin, he was more likely to be recognized, and indeed he was.
"Nara-san, what has happened to you?" the man asked.
"It's a long story," Shikamaru said. "This grasshopper is a summon, and he's helping us return home to the village."
"I'll have two of my men escort you."
"We'd appreciate it, thank you," Shikamaru said. "Though I don't know if they could keep up."
"What do you mean?" one of the ninja who had stepped forward to escort them asked. He sounded a little indignant.
"Don't take it personally," Berami said. "I don't think there's a human alive who can keep up with me. How far from your village would you say we are right now?"
"About four, maybe five hours," one of them said.
"I can cover that ground in twenty minutes," Berami declared casually. "Give or take." The eyes of every man in the patrol squad went wide.
"Seriously?"
"Of course. I'm the fastest of all the grasshoppers. It's pretty much all I do."
"You are?" Ino asked. "I didn't know that. I guess that's why Sanjuro-san loaned you to us."
"That's right," Berami confirmed. "He wanted you to get home as quickly as possible. There's no one better than me for that."
"I won't keep you then," the commander said. "You probably won't have any trouble at that speed, but just in case, be on the lookout for bounty hunters. There's a standing price on the head of all Leaf ninja, and we've had more trouble with fortune-seekers from Mud, Ash and Smoke this last week than we have from any of our actual enemies."
"We'll keep that in mind; thanks for the warning," Shikamaru said.
"Are you ready to go, Berami?" Ino asked.
"Yeah," the giant insect replied. "I think I've caught enough of a break that I can get you back in one go from here."
"Don't strain yourself," Ino cautioned. "If you think you need to rest for a few minutes, please do so."
"Roger," the bug answered. "Hang on." And Ino barely had time to do just that as their friendly mount bounded onward once more at ludicrous speed.
They came to a stop just outside the gate so they could announce themselves. It wouldn't do them any good to go charging into the village and have everyone thinking they were attacking. When one of the sentries came out to greet them, she was met with a surprise.
"Naruto?" she gaped.
"You're back!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Chouji'll be thrilled. He's been freaking out about you guys." He paused in his enthusiasm to take a closer look at them. Her captain had fallen asleep again and still looked completely worn out. "What happened to Shikamaru? And how did you get that wound? Are you all right? And why are you riding one of Crazy Cricket Guy's grasshoppers?"
"We're all right, Naruto," she said. "Shikamaru's just exhausted; he used way too much chakra. This wound isn't as bad as it looks, but thanks for asking." She smiled. "And we met Sanjuro-san on our way home. He saved our lives, in fact, and he lent Berami here to us so we could get home. In our conditions we might not have made it for another two weeks or more."
"If at all," Naruto said gravely. "There are bounty hunters everywhere."
"That's what we heard," she replied. "Is it really that bad?"
"We've lost eleven shinobi this week," he told her. Mostly chuunin, but we even lost Madarame Shinichiro and he's been a jounin since before we were even in school. And they got a team of genin, too."
"No!" Ino gasped, horrified. Naruto nodded solemnly.
"They were taking their day off to do some training of their own on the outskirts of the village while their jounin sensei was on a mission. From what we pieced together afterwards, the bounty hunters were all chuunin and jounin from the Ash. They never stood a chance."
"I can't believe it's gotten so bad," Ino said.
"Neither could I," he replied. "Sakura-chan and I just got back yesterday ourselves, you know. Baa-chan says they're doing everything they can to catch these bastards, but there's just too many of them and our enemies take up most of our focus."
"In that case, I hope your mission went a lot better than ours did," Ino said dejectedly. At that, Naruto's mood brightened slightly.
"Sorry yours didn't go well," he said, "but at least you all got back okay. As for ours, the Tree is going to help us. The Grass, too."
"That's wonderful!" Ino exclaimed. Almost at once a great invisible weight in her gut lightened significantly. "Oh, that really will help a lot!"
"I hope so," he said. "But you guys should really get going to the hospital. Sakura-chan is there right now helping Shizune-neechan, so let her know you're all right when you get there. She's been really worried too."
"She was, was she?"
"She couldn't help it, no matter how many times I told her and Chouji you guys would be fine," Naruto grinned.
"Why would you say that? Are you saying you weren't worried?" Ino asked, curious.
"Not really," he answered. "Shikamaru can handle himself. And he's always talking about what a great kunoichi you are, and he would know."
"He is?" Ino felt the sting of tears in her eyes that had nothing to do with the sadness of losing so many comrades and a pang in her chest that had nothing to do with her stab wound.
"Yeah. Plus, I saw you fight up at the Snow, so I knew what he was talking about. I don't need to waste time worrying about you guys."
"Thanks, Naruto."
"Huh? For what?"
She just laughed and shook her head. "Never mind. You'll come by the hospital later, right? I think Shikamaru would want to talk to you about what happened on our missions."
"You bet," he said. "I've only got another hour or so here anyway."
"Talk to you later, then," she said, and Berami bounded off once more, though inside the village he had to be a little more careful about where he was jumping and what he was jumping on. They reached the hospital quickly and he bid them goodbye before disappearing.
Medic nins came running out toward them, for which she was exceedingly grateful. Supporting Shikamaru was murder on her wound.
"What happened?" one of them asked, already directing two of his fellows to relieve her of her burden. They took Shikamaru from her and placed him on a stretcher. He'd already fallen back asleep after waking up long enough to get off of Berami.
"My captain may be suffering from mild chakra exhaustion and I'm bleeding," she said simply, indicating the wound on her side. The bandages had almost completely soaked through, even with the salve she'd applied.
"Come with me," the medic told her. "Those two will see to your captain."
And so Ino was swept into the hospital, down the hall in into a small room with a bed and a window on it. It made her feel better to know that this medic did not consider her injury serious enough to require the emergency room.
"Please sit down there and remove your top," he instructed her, indicating the bed. She did as she was told and he came over to inspect the gash.
"You're lucky; it's not very deep," he said.
"I saw it coming at the last second," she told him. He nodded.
"You've taken a blood-clotting pill?" he asked. It was her turn to nod. "And you've applied field salve too. Good." He took a small cloth and wet it with something, then dabbed at the wound. She winced and sucked in a breath.
"Sorry," he said. "I should've said something. This stuff stings for a moment, but I'm just making sure the cut is completely disinfected before we close it up." He dabbed at it a few more times and then gently wiped it dry with another cloth, apparently satisfied.
"Since your injury isn't particularly serious, I'd like to give one of our trainees the opportunity to perform the chakra aspect of the operation," he said. "I won't do this without your consent, of course."
"No, that's fine," Ino said. Her doctor left the room and came back a moment later with another person. Someone Ino knew quite well.
"Ino!" Sakura squealed and rushed over to give her friend a hug. "You're back! Chouji said you wouldn't be back for days yet. We were really worried about you two. Is Shikamaru okay?"
The sound of the doctor conspicuously clearing his throat brought Sakura back to her professional demeanor.
"Sumimasen deshita, sensei," she said to him with a bow. Turning back to Ino, she said, "Deguchi-sensei is going to temporarily sew your wound closed, and then I'm going to knit your flesh back together with chakra and we'll remove the stitches. You should barely have a scar, if you end up with one at all."
"Sounds good," Ino said.
"Hold on and I'll anesthetize you," Sakura said. She formed a few seals and then took her index finger and quickly jabbed three points around the wound. Immediately all pain and feeling in the area was gone. "That'll wear off in a half-hour or so," Sakura told her. Then the two medics went to work. Ino didn't talk during the procedure, so as to allow Sakura full concentration. She really seemed to know what she was doing, which was very impressive considering how recently she'd taken up medical ninjutsu. Of course, this was a relatively simple procedure, but it was certainly more than she herself could ever do.
When it was over, Ino could barely make out the faintest of scars, and thanked and congratulated Sakura on her work.
"If I were better you wouldn't have a mark at all," Sakura said.
"Hey, do I look upset about it?" Ino came back. "I'm just happy I'm not bleeding all over the place anymore. And no one would ever see it if they weren't specifically looking for it. You really did do a great job. Thanks." That seemed to perk the pink-haired girl up a bit.
"Haruno-san," Deguchi-sensei said. "I'll give you your break early today so you can talk with your friend, but make sure you're still back on time."
"I will. Thank you, Sensei," Sakura said. He left.
"So how is Shikamaru?" Sakura blurted out the minute the door closed, pulling a chair over next to the bed. "You seem cheerful enough, so he must be all right,"
Ino sat up, already tired of having to lie down, especially since there was no longer anything wrong with her. The feeling was already starting to come back in her side and she wasn't sore at all.
"He'll be fine, he just really overdid it is all. He has all the signs of chakra exhaustion, but it isn't serious, thank goodness."
"Kakashi-sensei had that happen once," Sakura said. "On our first big mission. I've come close a few times myself. It isn't fun."
"It doesn't look like it. The poor thing's so pale, and he can't stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time."
"He'll be fine in a week or so," Sakura said. "He just needs rest. More importantly, how did you guys make it back so fast? Chouji said you probably wouldn't be back for a least a week, and maybe longer. And with your injury and his condition…"
"We ran into a friend of yours," Ino said. "Or a friend of Naruto's, anyway. Kuwabatake Sanjuro. He leant us one of his grasshoppers and we got a ride."
"Wow, that was lucky," Sakura marveled.
"You're telling me," Ino agreed. "He saved our lives."
"Really?"
"I'll tell you more about it later," Ino promised. "I really shouldn't talk about it until we've given our report to Hokage-sama. But Naruto tells me your mission was a success?"
"It was!" Sakura announced happily. "But when did you see Naruto?"
"When we got in. He was on sentry duty," Ino explained. Her friend laughed.
"Oh right, I forgot about that! Ha ha ha!"
"Why does Hokage-sama have him out there?" Surely Naruto's talents could be more useful elsewhere.
"He volunteered," Sakura told her, still chuckling.
"What?" She could hardly
believe it. Sentry duty was exactly the kind of thing Naruto always
complained about it. What had she missed?
"It's a long
story, but he says he's trying to humble himself a bit. His words,
not mine, I swear. Also, Konohamaru has been griping about all of the
D-rank missions he's been doing that he says 'aren't worth his
time', so Naruto decided he should set a good example or
something."
"Are we talking about the same Naruto?" Ino asked, incredulous. It certainly didn't sound like the boisterous, hyperactive ninja she knew.
"I'm just as shocked as you," Sakura confessed, "but I can't say I'm unhappy about it."
"It's almost like he's growing up," Ino quipped.
"Almost," Sakura agreed with a fond smile.
The two of them continued to chat until Sakura's break was up. They deliberately avoided discussing the bigger issues facing the village and focused more on insignificant gossip. It was fun, and a welcome distraction from the stresses of the war. When Sakura left, Ino got up and crossed to the next ward to visit Shikamaru. She was unsurprised to see him still asleep, but at least there was someone in there she could talk to.
"Chouji!" she squealed in delight. He stood and turned to greet her with his usual friendly smile.
"I'm glad you both made it back safely," he said. "Sorry I couldn't be there to help."
"Don't worry about stupid stuff like that," she said, waving it off. "You did your job. I'm sorry you had to make it back here all by yourself. It couldn't have been easy with all those bounty hunters I keep hearing about."
"Fortunately I only ran into one pair of them," he said. "I don't think I would have survived any more."
"Don't even talk like that," Ino said. "We're all back home safe and that's all that matters."
"Speaking of that, how did you get home so fast? I only got home a couple of days ago myself."
Ino told him the story of meeting Sanjuro and riding Berami. He seemed impressed. "That sounds like it would have been a lot of fun," he said.
"That's what I was thinking," she told him. "It would probably be a blast if we weren't injured and running for our lives. Even with that, it was really exciting."
"Did you find the real Hidden Rain village?" he asked.
"We did," she told him. "The day after you left, actually, and by accident. We didn't even realize it until the next day. The bad news is, they'd already joined with our enemies and they tried to kill us."
"I should have been there," Chouji chastised himself again.
"Stop that right now!" Ino scolded him. "You had no way of knowing what was going to happen on the rest of that mission and neither did we. You had a job to do, same as us, and you did it. You nearly got killed yourself, you said. So stop feeling guilty this instant!"
Chouji laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Ino. You're right; I'll stop."
"That's better," she declared, crossing her arms and nodding in satisfaction.
"Can you do me a favor?" he suddenly asked.
"Of course," she said. "What is it?"
"Are you going to be here for a while?"
"Until he wakes up."
"Then can you make sure someone notifies me when he does? I've stayed here longer than I should already. I was supposed to be getting back to work this afternoon when I heard you two were back."
"Of course I will," she assured him. "I can probably ask Naruto to send a clone after you. He said he was going to be coming by."
"Oh wow, was the Hokage angry with him yesterday," Chouji mused.
"What?" Ino jerked, smelling juicy gossip. "Why?"
"I should probably let him tell you," Chouji dodged. "I'll see you later, Ino." He ducked out the door, avoiding her attempts to get him to spill his guts.
"Well that's weird," Ino said to herself, returning to Shikamaru's bedside and sitting in the chair Chouji had been using. "I thought the Hokage really liked Naruto. She always seems to let him get away with everything." She looked down at Shikamaru sleeping peacefully. His chest was rising and falling steadily and he was actually starting to get some of his color back. She sighed.
"You idiot," she intoned fondly. "Why did you have to go and do something like that? We could have figured a better way out of there." She wanted to reach out and stroke his face, but she knew that would wake up him and he needed his sleep. She contented herself with just talking to him.
"If you think I would have let either of us die right after you finally got the balls to kiss me, you're even dumber than I thought," she said. "I don't even know what you were thinking when you did that. It wasn't really the time for that sort of thing, you know. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I'd do it again in a second. It was just so unlike you." The urge to touch him was unbearable. She wanted some form of contact – even just resting her hand on his arm.
"Hurry and wake up so I can touch you without feeling guilty," she grumbled. "Stupid shinobi training. A normal person would stay asleep if someone just held their hand or something." She contented herself with placing her hands on his bed near his side, though even with that she had to be careful not to alert him. She was congratulating herself on her success when a large bang echoed through the streets right outside the window followed by irritated yells and Shikamaru jerked awake. Ino cursed.
"What is it?" he asked, slightly disoriented. He tried to get up, but Ino gently placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down.
"Shh, don't worry about it," she said. "If it was an attack or something people would sound afraid or determined, not annoyed. Somebody probably just knocked over a store display or something. You go back to sleep."
"You're healed already?" he asked her.
"It wasn't that bad, really. Sakura fixed me up a little while ago. I'm supposed to stay until tonight for observation, but that's fine with me since I was planning on staying here with you anyway."
"You don't have to," he told her.
"I know," she said simply.
"How long have I been asleep?" he asked.
"That one's hard to answer," she said. "Technically, a little under an hour, but you haven't really been awake for more than three minutes at a time since yesterday afternoon."
"Oh," he said. Then his expression turned serious and he locked eyes with her. "Did you find out if Chouji made it back okay?"
"Yes, he's fine," she said. "He got into a fight on his way back and got a little banged up, but nothing serious. He was in here earlier. I'm supposed to send him a message to let him know you woke up, but I really think you should go back to sleep for now. Naruto's coming later, and I know you'll want to talk to him too."
"I do, thanks. Has Hokage-sama said when she wants to speak to us?"
"I haven't heard anything yet," she said. "I think she's waiting until she knows you can stay awake long enough to get through your whole debriefing."
"Well, I think I can manage it," he said snidely, though the effect was diminished by the act of sinking back into his pillow.
"You get some sleep and I'll wake you back up when Naruto gets here," she said. Before he drifted off, she leaned over him and kissed him softly on the forehead, then took his hand so she could hold it while he slept without waking him. He was asleep by the time she sat back down.
She didn't have to wait for long. Naruto came by about twenty minutes later, and she asked him to send off a clone to tell Chouji that Shikamaru would be awake for a little while if he wanted to stop by. Naruto did so, and then she gently shook her teammate's hand and he slowly opened his eyes. She didn't bother to let go.
"Good to see you're alive, Shikamaru," Naruto greeted cheerfully with his usual bluntness.
"Just my luck one of the first people I have to talk to upon getting back is you," Shikamaru shot back.
"What happened, anyway?" the blond asked.
"The idiot tried to do too much is what happened," Ino supplied. "After he'd already been fighting, he tried to pull of two kage bunshin, a henge and a kage kakushi at the same time."
"Wow, really?" Naruto asked. "I didn't even know you could do the kage bunshin, Shikamaru."
"Whose clan do you think invented the technique, you dolt?"
"Oh yeah, I guess that does make sense," Naruto said. "I never really thought about it before. Now that you mention it, I think your clan's name was written with the technique on the forbidden scroll. I wasn't really paying attention to that part at the time."
"The point is, I didn't deplete my chakra reserves, I just overextended myself, so it's not true chakra exhaustion," Shikamaru explained. "So I should be out of here in a couple of days."
"As great as that would be, I'm going to wait to hear a genuine medic nin say that before I let you go anywhere," Ino declared.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but Naruto decided it was time to change the subject. "So tell me about your mission," he said. "I already know the Rain betrayed us, but what else happened? I heard you guys found Akatsuki." He seemed exceptionally interested in that, though he was clearly trying to hide it.
"We did," Shikamaru confirmed. "And what's worse, they found us just as we were leaving. That's how we ended up in here in the first place."
"But why would they come after you?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "As far as we know, they're only targeting people with…well, never mind. You shouldn't have been on their list." Ino did not miss that Naruto had been about to say something classified. Nor, she could tell, had Shikamaru. They both decided to let it go for the time being.
"I think it has something to do with us killing two of their subordinates," Shikamaru remarked dryly. "Or, less humanitarian, simply because we stumbled on one of their hideouts."
"'One of' them?" Naruto questioned.
"We're pretty sure there are several," Ino explained. "Sanjuro-san was tailing two of them and they definitely weren't headed toward the base we found."
"Maybe each team of two has its own base?" Naruto posited.
"Maybe," Shikamaru concurred. "It's impossible to say at this point, but that's certainly a possibility."
"Shikamaru," Naruto segued again. "Just so you know, I'm supposed to report to the old hag when I leave here and tell her how soon I think you'll be ready to be debriefed. What do you want me to tell her?"
"You're not supposed to ask me that," Shikamaru said patiently. "It defeats the purpose."
"I know that," the blond replied. "But I want you to get enough rest before people start bugging you. Besides, Ino would be mad at me and she's scary." Shikamaru laughed, and Ino did her best to look indignant but inside she was giggling too.
"I am not!" she huffed. When both boys laughed harder she crossed her arms in protest and turned away from them. Doing that meant she had to let go of Shikamaru's hand though, so she didn't keep it up for long.
"Go ahead and tell her to come by," Shikamaru instructed their friend. "I'm getting plenty of rest, and I'd rather get the whole thing over with sooner than later. Besides, there are some important things she really should know."
"If you say so," Naruto shrugged.
At that moment, Chouji appeared in the doorway. "I'm going to be in so much trouble," he commented to no one in particular. "I just made it to the academy when your clone showed up, Naruto. They're going to dock my pay for this for sure."
"Sorry to be such an inconvenience," Shikamaru jibed.
"I'll live."
"I should go and let you guys talk," Naruto said, heading towards the door. "I'll tell the old lady to come over as soon as she's done doing whatever she's doing."
"I'll come with you," Ino said impulsively as a thought struck her. "These two should get a chance to talk without a woman in the room." She stood up and leaned over to place another kiss, this time on Shikamaru's cheek. "I'll be back." Both Chouji and Naruto looked at her sideways, but said nothing. Naruto waited for her at the door and she fell into step beside him out in the hall.
"What was that about?" he asked. "I don't think they'd mind you being there." Ino inwardly mused that were she walking with Sakura, the kiss would have been the first topic of conversation. Funny how men and women were different that way.
"No, of course they wouldn't," she agreed. "Believe it or not, I actually wanted to talk to you."
"Oh," he said. "Okay. What's on your mind?"
"Actually, it's probably going to be something of a long conversation. You should go see Hokage-sama first."
"It's fine. I can just send a clone," he declared. "You're not supposed to leave here anyway, I thought." He made a clone, and sent it on to the administration building while the real one continued walking with her down the hospital corridor. "So you and Shikamaru, huh?"
"Huh…what?" she sputtered. Caught off guard, she didn't really know how to react to being called out so bluntly.
"I'm happy for you," he said. "Sakura-chan always said she thought you'd be a good couple. I never really thought much about it, but just now I think I saw what she was talking about."
"Thanks…I guess," she managed, still a little flummoxed at the idea of having this conversation in the first place. Not only was it weird, Naruto was one of the last people she'd ever expected to have it with.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked. She saw that they had reached the hospital lounge, where a half dozen people or so were scattered about on various couches and chairs.
"Actually, it's sort of a private conversation," she confessed. "This isn't exactly the place for it."
"Um, okay," he said. She could tell he was confused, and she couldn't really blame him. She wasn't explaining herself very well.
"Can we just go into one of the empty rooms?" she asked. "You have a sealing technique that prevents eavesdropping, right?"
"Just how private is this conversation?" he asked. He looked like he was about ready to bolt, and heaven only knew what he thought she wanted to discuss.
"That's just it; I'm not sure," she admitted. "I have a few ideas, but I don't know if I'm on to something or if I'm just really off-base. If I am right though, it's not the sort of thing a lot of people should be hearing, you know?"
"Okaaay…" he said, still clearly apprehensive. "Well, the room we just went by was empty; let's head in there. I just hope nobody sees us and gets the wrong idea."
Ino couldn't let that one go. She smacked him (lightly) on the back of the head. "Pervert."
A few seconds later, they were enclosed within the empty hospital room and Naruto had placed privacy seals around it. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked.
"Naruto," she began. Now that she was actually having this conversation, she suddenly felt very nervous. What if she was completely wrong? Would he be furious with her? Or just as bad, what if she was right and got the same reaction? No sense worrying about that now, she told herself. She'd gone too far already. "Why was Akatsuki after Sanjuro-san's brother?"
Whatever he had expected her to ask, it clearly wasn't that. Even though he regained his composure almost immediately, Ino could tell that her question had shaken him deeply. She suddenly felt extremely guilty, but there was no turning back now.
"Why are you asking me that?" he asked.
"Because I know almost nothing at all about Akatsuki except that they exist, and yet from everything I've seen and heard, you know as much as anybody in the village about them. Why is that?"
"It's because Ero-sennin is the one who gathered most of that information, and I'm his pupil," he explained. She didn't buy that for a second. The legendary toad sage was capable of keeping such information from his pupil if necessary (and smart enough to do so). But she let it go for the time being.
"Fair enough," she conceded. "But then back to my original question. Why were they after Kuwabatake-san?"
"You know I couldn't tell you even if I knew," he said.
"Except you do know," she countered. She hadn't meant to use her trump card so early, but he was forcing her hand. "I know you know, because whatever it is, they're after you for the same reason."
Naruto closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "That Cricket Geezer has a big mouth," he finally said.
"He didn't tell me that," Ino was quick to point out. "He just said enough that I guessed, and you just confirmed it for me. And that means they're after the Kazekage too, right?"
"Shikamaru would fall for a smart chick," he remarked dryly. Ino ignored the dig and pressed onward.
"So it is true!" she exclaimed. He neither said nor did anything to confirm or deny it, but his silence was all the confirmation she needed. "But why? What is it about you three that makes you targets?" The only thing she knew they all had in common was a difficult childhood, but she didn't want to bring it up unless absolutely necessary as it was probably a very sensitive subject for him.
"I really shouldn't tell you," he said. "Even some jounin don't know. The younger ones anyway. The older ones were all around when it happened, so of course they know." She didn't know if he was deliberately dropping hints or just becoming careless as a result of being called out like this. Either way, it still wasn't enough for her to put it all together.
"Is it something dangerous?" she asked.
"You could say that," he said with a dark chuckle. "More for me than for you, though."
"What do you mean?" she was growing more and more confused by the second, but she also found herself developing a sense of concern for him as well. She always knew he had it bad as a kid, but she never knew why. As she found herself on the cusp of finding out, she was suddenly a little afraid of what she might learn.
He opened his mouth to say something more, then closed it, and appeared to be struggling with something internally. Finally he said, "What the hell. Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei keep saying I need to be more open about it. You can be a test run." She had no idea what that meant, but she was too close to finding out the truth to risk ruining it by saying anything and derailing him. He seemed to have decided to let her in on whatever it was. "You have to promise me you won't tell anybody about what I'm going to tell you," he said fervently. "Especially Sakura. Do you promise?"
"Yes, I promise." She was so eager to hear it, she didn't even stop to think how difficult keeping that promise might turn out to be.
"All right then," he said. "I'll trust you on that." He took a moment to ready himself which included a deep breath and a visible relaxing of his muscles, and then looked her in the eye and asked, "What do you know about Jinchuuriki?"
"'The power of human sacrifice'?" She asked. "What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," he said. "Well no, not really. But human sacrifice is involved." He scratched his head. "Give me a minute to figure out how to word this," he said. "It was only explained to me a little while ago and it took me a while to figure out what it all meant." She waited patiently – though inside she was practically boiling over with curiosity and anticipation – and then he said, "A person's life is sacrificed in exchange for the power to seal a demon."
"What?" she questioned. It sounded like something out of a comic book. "How?"
"I'm not sure, and honestly I really don't want to know," he said. "Apparently there's more than one way you can do it, but that's not really the point.
"The point isn't about the person who dies, or the act of sealing the demon," he explained. "The point is what the demon is sealed in."
"What do you…no!" As suddenly as a lightning strike, all the pieces came together in Ino's mind. When he had said "demon", he was talking about a very specific kind of demon. She knew her history as well as anyone else who'd been through the academy. The Kyuubi. The death of the fourth. And…a lone orphan boy who had been ostracized and reviled by nearly every adult in the village for his entire childhood for seemingly no reason. For what? Being an unwilling vessel, an unknowing savior of the entire village? She suddenly felt very disgusted with herself for falling in with it all when she was younger even though she didn't know the reason, and with most of her family who had been complicit in the whole affair.
"But you…how could this be a secret? How could anyone not know about this?"
"People know. Everyone who was old enough to remember the Kyuubi's attack knows, even the civilians. Nobody our age does because the third made it a law that no one was ever allowed to talk about it," Naruto said. "I kind of wish he hadn't. I didn't even know myself until we graduated, and for years after that I was terrified that I might lose control of it or something."
"But you don't," she said. "You never have." Then she thought for a moment. "Have you?"
"I've come close. When we went to the wave country I thought Sasuke had been killed. That set me off pretty bad. If I get really angry it gets harder to control, but I'm getting better at it."
"How come you never told
anybody about this?" she asked. She remembered he had made her
promise not to tell anybody – especially Sakura. "How could you
not even tell Sakura?"
"I've tried," he said. "But
even in times when I've wanted to, I'm still not supposed to. The
law applies to me, too. I'm breaking it right now talking to you,
but Baa-chan probably won't care." He paused to breathe. "As
for not telling Sakura, it's because I don't want her to be
afraid of me. I can deal with a lot, but not that."
"You know, you really are an idiot," she told him sadly. He was struck dumb her declaration, and she took advantage of that and plowed on. "You have no idea how much she cares about you, do you? You honestly think something like this would affect that?"
"It's easy for you to say that from where you are," he uttered back at her. He was shaking his head as if to say she simply didn't understand. Well, maybe she didn't understand what life was like for him, but she understood enough about Sakura to know that this wouldn't change her feelings toward him at all. She only wished he could see that.
"With the exception of four people," he went on, "everyone who has ever known the truth about me has hated or feared me for it. Mostly both. I have enough people close to me now that it doesn't bother me anymore, but if one of them ended up turning away from me because of this it would really hurt. If Sakura did, I don't know what I would do."
When put like that, his insecurities were much more understandable, and Ino found herself feeling very sad for him indeed.
"Five," she said.
"What?"
"I'm assuming you weren't counting me in those four exceptions. So five people who know about it don't hate you or fear you."
The expression on his face was one that looked altogether foreign on the normally buoyant youth. He had tears forming in his eyes and he looked almost on the verge of a breakdown, though his smile was splitting his face in half.
"You're the coolest person ever," he said in an exceedingly grateful tone.
"Hey, enough of that," she said, waving him off. "I bet if you gave more people a chance, you'd see it wasn't all so bad. I bet everyone we graduated with would say the same thing."
"I don't know…" he wavered. This lack of confidence in him was unnatural and unfitting. She recognized the need to handle it delicately.
"Look, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to," she said. "It's really your secret to tell anyway. But I really think you should at least tell Sakura. What do you think will happen if you don't tell her and she finds out some other way?"
"I know, I know!" he burst out. "Old Man Cricket was telling me the same thing. I always knew she'd find out eventually somehow. I really just want to put it off for as long as possible."
"I think that's really dumb, but it's your decision," she conceded. "I think you're wrong about the adults too. Sure, a lot of people treated you like crap when we were kids, but it's not so bad anymore, is it? I mean, I know my parents always told me not to play with you when we were younger, but in the last few years they've had nothing but good things to say about you. And Asuma-sensei really likes you too. I think a lot of people are starting to realize they were wrong about you. Some of us are just a little slower at figuring that out."
"Thanks," he said. "You're right, I think. Iruka-sensei taught me something like that a long time ago, and I guess I sort of just forgot about it. Nobody has everybody like them, right?"
"Right," Ino smiled. Then she remembered what they were originally talking about. "So all of this means that Akatsuki is looking for people with demons inside of them, right?" she asked. Naruto nodded. "But why?"
"Nobody knows," he answered. "Even Ero-sennin says he has no idea and doesn't trust any of his guesses. We don't know how many Jinchuuriki they already have, either."
"How many could there be?" she wondered. "Besides you and Kuwabatake-san and the Kazekage, there can't be many more, right? I mean, I'd never even heard about it before."
"There are nine," Naruto replied. "One for each tailed beast. Well, there could be up to nine. Some of the beasts might be roaming around free without a host. And you never heard of it because it isn't something that's ever really been done in Konoha, but a lot of other places have long-standing traditions with this sort of thing. Gaara's something like the third host of the Shukaku as far as I know."
"So definitely nine," Ino considered. "Even if we assume that some of them don't have hosts, Akatsuki would probably still be going after them, don't you think?"
"Probably," he agreed.
"That limits their targets somewhat. You said they've come after you three times but never after the Kazekage?"
"Right. It's probably because Gaara's a lot harder to get to than I am, being the Kazekage and all. Plus he's stronger than me, so he'd be tougher to capture."
"But you beat him once, didn't you?" Ino questioned. "Sakura told me about it."
"Yeah, I did, but just barely. And that was a long time ago. I don't think I could beat him now. Good thing we're on the same side."
Ino's thoughts were still whirring. "What about the other six? Who are they?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "I wouldn't even know where to start looking. Ero-sennin says there's a rumor one or two of them might be up in Lightning Country, but it's still just a rumor."
"Does Shikamaru know about all this?" she asked. "I bet he could help."
"He knows what they're after," Naruto said, "but he doesn't know about…me. I don't think so, anyway. No offense, but I'm surprised you figured it out before he did."
"If he'd been awake to hear Sanjuro-san's story, he would have put it together right there," she told him. "He did have a lot more information to go on, after all."
"You think I should tell him, don't you?"
"Of course I do. You know you can trust him. Besides, it's possible he already figured it out and just didn't say anything so he wouldn't hurt your feelings."
"That does sound like him," Naruto reflected. He let out a long breath and appeared to be mulling it over. "All right, I'll talk to Shikamaru," he finally said. "I don't know if anyone can think of a way to counter Akatsuki that both Ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei overlooked, but if anyone could it would be him." Suddenly Naruto's eyes twitched as if he were hearing something she could not.
"Baa-chan's coming to debrief Shikamaru," he informed her. "She wants you there too. You'd better go."
"How did you do that?" Ino asked. She was sure he didn't know any of her clan's telepathic techniques, and they were too far from the Hokage for them to have worked anyway.
"Kage bunshin," he answered. "When one of my clones disperses, everything it experienced goes right into my memory." He tapped his forehead with his finger.
"Wow. I bet that's great for learning new techniques," she marveled. His eyes bugged with the unmistakable look of sudden realization.
"I never even thought of that!" he exclaimed. Ino deadpanned.
"Are you serious?"
"Wow, I can't wait to try that out!" he was rambling to himself. "Thanks, Ino!" He paused for a second and then he seemed to think of something else exciting. "Hey, if you want to learn the technique too I could teach it to you."
"What? Kage bunshin?" she asked, surprised.
"It's supposed to be a secret hidden technique, but call it payback for today."
"I didn't even do anything," she protested.
"Yeah you did," he assured her. "It's no big deal if you don't want to learn it. I offered to teach it to Sakura-chan once and she wanted to wait until she had enough stamina to be able to use it properly."
"Sakura didn't want to learn it?" Ino repeated.
"Yeah, she said it would take too much out of her right now, and she doesn't really need it for the way she fights. Anyway, you could probably learn it from Shikamaru if you really wanted, but I just thought – "
"I'll do it," she cut him off.
"Eh?"
"I'd love to learn it," she told him eagerly. "Shikamaru probably would teach me if I asked, but he'd get in trouble with his family for doing it. Besides, I think at this point you're better at it than any Nara. You're the perfect person to learn it from." He swelled with pride.
"All right then," he said. "Let me know when you want to do it. I can probably teach you how to perform it in a day, and then it's just practice from there."
"I will, thanks," she said. She looked forward to lording this one over Sakura. "I should go so I'm not late." She said goodbye as he took down the privacy seals around the room. It was only after she left that she realized she'd completely forgotten to ask why the Hokage had been angry with him, but she didn't really care at that moment. The conversation hadn't gone at all the way she'd thought it would when she started, but she came out of it feeling pretty good.
-
"That was the last team," Tsunade said as the envoys to the Hidden Cliff Village left her office. Three days after finding out about the Rain's treachery and she finally knew all the cards she had to play. "What's the final count, Shizune?"
Her assistant read from the list in front of her. "The Grass and the Tree have agreed to enter the conflict on our side," she announced. "The Steam have entered as well at the behest of their allies in the Sand."
"That's less than I would have liked, but more than I dared to hope for," Tsunade said. "Continue."
"The Waterfall does not wish to pit itself against any of the major countries if it can avoid it, but they have accepted contracts on Rain and Sound ninja for the time being. Likewise, the Rainbow and the Ivy feel they would be overmatched in the war, but they have accepted contracts on the Smoke ninja who have been bounty hunting within Fire Country. That should help to alleviate at least a bit of the strain from our ANBU and border guards for the time being."
"We'll take whatever we can get," Tsunade said. "The Ivy are also on notoriously bad terms with the Ash, so a little prodding there might garner us a little more help." She turned to her old teammate. "Jiraiya, what's the latest intelligence report on what we're facing?"
"The latest reports indicate that in addition to the Rain, the Reed have decided to answer the Mist's call. Also, the Thorn are allied to both the Mist and the Cloud, and while they don't appear to have made a decision as yet, they can't be happy about what happened in the Grass two weeks ago."
"And we have the Smoke, the Ash and the Mud all out headhunting for us," Tsunade added.
"At least the Cliff is staying out of it," Shizune offered. "They have a long history with the Rock, so that was fortunate for us."
"It was, but we're going to need more than that. We can't afford to send any more envoys right now, but I want to continue soliciting help from every hidden village that hasn't picked a side yet," she declared. "And see if we can't convince the Waterfall and the others to accept a few more contracts while we're at it. Focus especially on the Ivy. Getting them to take some contracts on bounty-hunting Ash ninja shouldn't be too hard."
"Can we afford all that?" Shizune asked.
"We're going to have to."
A tall young woman with a long ponytail poked her head into the room. "Excuse me, Hokage-sama, your afternoon appointment is here."
"Thank you, Sakaki," Tsunade said. "Please send her in." She took a moment after the girl left to rub her temples. So much was happening at once it was nearly impossible to keep up with it all.
"You're overworking yourself, Tsunade," Jiraiya stated.
"There's nothing I can do about that," she snapped, though she didn't mean to. "I'm the Hokage; that means I have to deal with all of this whether I like it or not."
"It might be time to pass the job along," her old teammate suggested.
"No," said Tsunade firmly. "Not just yet." The would-be argument was cut short as her appointment chose that moment to walk in. "Ino, good to see you."
"You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?" the girl asked.
"I did. Please sit." She indicated the chair opposite her desk and Ino dutifully obeyed. "I understand that captain of yours is up and about." She was quite fond of Shikamaru, and was anxious to see what he could accomplish for the village. She had similar feelings for the girl in front of her.
"Yes ma'am, he left the hospital this morning," Ino confirmed.
"I'm glad," the Hokage stated. "But as you've probably guessed, that's not why you're here." Ino didn't say anything. She was waiting to hear the rest. Smart girl. "As you may or may not know, jounin are selected via an examination process that usually involves a real A-rank mission chosen specifically for that purpose. It is meant to test in much the same way as an exam all the attributes we look for in an elite shinobi." Ino nodded. "This being the case, such a mission must be ratified by not only me, but by a majority of the village council. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't spare you for such a mission at this time."
Ino's eyes went wide with surprise. She opened her mouth, but the Hokage held up a hand to forestall her. "However, the appointment of tokubetsu jounin is left to the discretion of the Hokage alone. I am therefore promoting you to that rank on the basis of your infiltration and information gathering abilities. Effective immediately."
"Hokage-sama…!" Ino gasped. Tsunade was pleased to see her so excited, but it would have to wait.
"You won't have time to celebrate right away, I'm afraid," she said. "I'll be sending you on a mission tomorrow, and it's going to be a long one. I hate to do this to you so soon after your last mission, but we're becoming critically understaffed and we need to get you younger shinobi as much hard field experience as possible very quickly. Use tonight to say your goodbyes to whoever necessary, and be back in my office by dawn tomorrow to meet your team and receive your orders. Understand?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Ino said.
"Good. You're dismissed. And it may not mean much coming from me now, but congratulations on your promotion. You've really earned it." Ino bowed and left.
"You think she can handle it, eh?" Jiraiya asked after the door shut.
"She's the best one for the job, and she has a good rapport with the rest of the team. Also, she's apparently in on the big secret, so that's one less thing to worry about."
"Are you certain she's the best choice, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.
"I am," the Hokage nodded. "Nara Shikamaru is one of the best strategists I've seen in decades, and as much as I hate to admit it, Naruto is probably one of our best young tacticians. But no one in their generation blends both abilities together anywhere near as well as that girl does. Especially considering I can't afford to send Shikamaru, she's exactly what the team is going to need, and I'd like to see how she works with the rest of them. She can learn a lot from Kakashi."
-
Konan silently entered the underground chamber. Zetsu had just arrived to inform her that Itachi and Kisame had arrived in the River cave with their quarry. It was time to begin the extraction ritual.
"Is it time, Konan?" Pein's voice rang out in the darkness.
"Yes."
"Then let us begin."
"Is it safe?" she asked. "It will take much longer without Orochimaru, and this location has been compromised, after all." She still couldn't believe how unconcerned he'd been about the two Leaf ninja's escape.
"We will be safe. Even if an intruder approaches, which I doubt, I will still know. In the absolute worst case scenario, we can halt the ritual and begin again another time."
"It would not damage the bijuu?"
"No."
Konan began to mold chakra for the astral projection jutsu that would transport her to the cave in River Country where they would extract the 4-tailed beast from its host.
"You weren't here this morning, Konan, or you would know," Pein said. "This may be the last time we have to worry about being short one member." With that cryptic remark the jutsu was activated, and both of them were transported spiritually to the cave to begin what would now be a three-day extraction ritual.
* * *
I thank you all for being so patient and I'm truly sorry about the delay. I got stuck with the whole Konan thing and ended up redoing it four or five times. To those of you who will leave a review of this chapter, thank you in advance. I love hearing from you. Also, it keeps me fired up in writing the next chapter (which I've already begun, thank you very much!).
Also, it would seem I jumped the gun a little with my 100,000 word claim last time. I expected to hit it, but I fell a few thousand short. This one'll do it, though.
For those of you wondering: Yes, Jin'e's sword was a claymore. Or based on one anyway. He wouldn't call it that, of course.
Some notes on Shikamaru's exhaustion: it wasn't so much the jutsu that he performed, but the fact that he did them all at once that overtaxed him. Shikamaru's weakness has always been his relatively low stamina, so I don't think this one was too far-fetched. Besides, benching 90 pounds is relatively easy for someone in good shape. Several reps of 90 pounds would also be well within that person's ability. But try lifting 90 pounds four times in less than a second. Alternatively, try lifting 360 pounds with the same ease as 90. Either way, you'll hurt yourself.
As usual, many thanks go to my prereader HitokiriOTD, who (among other things) confirmed my suspicions that I had royally farked Naruto's and Ino's characters in the kyuubi reveal scene. I hope what I ended up with works better. I like it more, anyway.
Lastly, shortest opening comments ever. Woo!
Translations:
Kage kakushi – "Shadow concealment". Shikamaru used this on Naruto way back in chapter six of Koorikage. Remember?
Sumimasen deshita – "I'm sorry/please excuse me" (semi-formal, past tense). I put this in there because that's all I could hear her saying and couldn't imagine it in English at all. If that bugs you, sumanakatta.
Sensei – Sakura refers to Deguchi as "sensei" in the sense of him being a doctor, not her instructor
