.

Come What May

Peace. Peace. Inner serinity... and peace.

"Pineapple head.."

Breathe. Listen to your pulse. Forget the world around you, it's just the land of mortals.

"I love you..."

His eyes clenched shut even tighter, brows creased, jaw clamped.

Breathe. Breathe. Peace... Peace.

"Kill him.."

It's not real. It's not real, and it can't hurt you. Hidan is fine. He's fine.

A quiet knock reached his ears, and he peeked through one open eye at the paint-stripped door in from on him, not moving from his meditative stance.

He stared with dark, tired eyes, and when the sound did not come again, he closed his eyes and adjusted his position slightly. He'd been sitting here crosslegged for so long that his legs hurt even though they were completley numb, but honestly he was afraid of getting up.

The voices were not stopping, but at least in this state of mind he had nothing else to think about. When they invaded his head he could keep himself from panicing.

Inner peace. Breathe deep, focus on nothing, on everything.

"Pineapple head..."

"Eh, um.. I forgot your name kid.." came a new voice, muffled and far away. This made his face contort again, until there was another knock.

"You alive in there, hm?"

Oh, that voice was real. It was that blonde bastard.

"What do you want?" He replied finally, agitated and exhausted. Not sleeping would do that too you. Shikamaru's crows feet could rival Itachi's at the moment.

"Sasori has prepared some food," the deep voice behind the door said, sounding irritated in response to the Nara's tone. "Quit being emo and come eat, yeah."

"Not hungry."

Suddenly the door was being beaten mercilessly. "Listen you little shit! I couldn't give two fucks whether you starve yourself or not but if Kakuzu has to get up and come have another 'chat' with your crazy ass he's gonna be pissed and I'm gonna get the shit end of the stick! Hm! So get the fuck out of there and come be a little fucking social yeah? We're only here to help you and your stupid wannabe boyfriend out, so have some respect and be goddamn grateful!"

Shika sighed and let himself flop backward onto the mattress without answering the enraged blonde.

"Don't you fucking ignore me hm! Get your stupid ass out here!"

He stared up at a crappy plater ceiling, crubling in so many places that if he could actually die, the spikey haired Jashinist would be afraid of being buried alive by it.

'Safehouse' indeed, Sasori, you jerk.

Again he sighed deeply, after gettig Itachi's genjutsu deactivated, the group had unanimously wished they'd just left it how it was. The walls were dangerously bowed in most rooms, the wood beneath them rotted and weak, and the drywall that had been poorly installed had desintigrated long ago, leaving insulation leaking out in still waves onto the concrete floor.

Oh yes, there were rooms with doors and locks, and there were mattresses and cots and other manner of homely decor and neccesities, but all of it held the same quality as the decrepid building itself.

"Alrght mother! I'll be out in a minute, Jashin above just shut the hell up!" He finally snarled back at the incessant pounding on the door.

"Good decision, hm." Came the pleasant reply, and finally he was left alone again in peace.

He didn't want to eat... he didn't want to move. He didn't want to do anything but lay here and look at this shitty piece of shit fucking ceiling for the rest of eternity.

After he and Kakuzu's awkward little bonding experience, the three men accompanying him had seemed to be walking on eggshells around him. He hated it with a passion, the fact that even Kakuzu who didn't give a shit about him and had voiced this aloud, was going out of his way to try and not piss him off, was pissing him off even more!

Shikamaru had been more of less banned to go outside the warehouse without someone going with him for fear that he'd run off, which was why he'd secluded himself in this room like a rebellious teenager. And this fact only fueled his fury as well as confusion. Why were they all trying so hard? What the hell were they doing, bossing him around, controlling him with these rules and shit? He was Shikamaru Fucking Nara, the other immortal, Jashin's blessed desciple. They had no right to govern him like some child.

He could fight them, he supposed, to gain freedom. But even though he was infuriated by their tactics, he knew somewhere in his head that they didn't do it for any reason other than to help. Even the blonde idiot that he would love to grind into the dust was sort of trying.

And so, despite this, he spent his insane amounts of free time meditating in attempt to appease his anger as well as calm the hurricaine of thoughts and emotions constantly raping his mind.

One more large sigh was shoved from his body before he pushed himself from the mattress. He paused on his feet as little pinpricks attacked his legs, cracking his neck and popping his back, then knuckles, as he waited for the blood to return to the appendages.

"It hurts..."

His body tensed at Hidan's pitiful whine in his head,

Breathe. Just breathe.

And started out the door, after wrestling with the rusty lock for a solid 30 seconds, only ruining his mood and appetite further, if that were possible.

For a week they had been at this shithole. Shikamaru had kept his mouth shut as far as complaints go, seeing as every time he said anythig at all his little group would compare him to the albino, as well as the fact that he didn't really fucking care where they stayed. Anywhere else would be no more prefferable, seeing as the only fucking place he wanted to be is wherever the hell Hidan was. And that wasn't a possibility, despite how both he and Kakuzu had both tried to think of possible locations the zealot could be. Each of them continually shot each other's ideas down with un-argueable, logic, points. And so despite all their trouble, despite all the time that had passed, despite Shikamaru going more and more insane as each second passed, they had made absolutly no more progress on the situation than when they first arrived here. And this was the most aggrivating bit of bullshit out of all the rest. He wouldn't have cared how they treated him if he could just get some answers.

"Good afternoon Shikamaru." Sasori said in his emotionless but pleasant way.

In an attempt not to be rude, the Jashinist gave them all a curt nod, trying to convice the muscles in his face to release the scowl he'd been permanently holding. He didn't know if he succeeded or not, but the trio seemed to notice the attempt.

"You seem to have a little more energy today. Feeling better?" The redhead asks.

He plopped down in the metal folding chair at the crappy card table serving as their dining area, meeting area, and entertainment area, and looked with unhidden disgust at the food set on the plate before him.

"I can't eat this.." he mumbled, pushing it away.

It wasn't even the food. It looked fine, really. And judging by the smell he assumed the puppetmaster to be one hell of a cook, especially with the meager rations they had to work with. This was something he didn't really get, since it had been revealed that Sasori himself was inexplicabley some sort of half-human, half-puppet concoction, and not only didn't eat, he didn't even have taste buds.

No, he just didn't feel like eating. Just imagining putting food in his mouth made him nauseous.

"That's a big fat no, hm?" Deidara said, stopping in his mindless devour of his own food.

"Shikamaru, you need to eat. You have not eaten in 43 hours and the last bit you ate was not enough to suffice you for even half that long."

"So? I can't die. Who cares?"

"Well I call his portion then! Sasori you've outdone yourself with this one, yeah! This... this is art. Temporarily beautiful until eaten."

"That may be so but your body still needs food to convert into energy. You're muscles will deteriorate, your chakra will suffer. Surely it would help you to clear your head as well." Sasori said, blatantly ignoring his partner.

"I don't want it. I'm not eating."

"Let him be. He's just as stubborn as Hidan. If he wants to starve and sabotoge this mission then let him." Kakuzu finally said, having been silently eating his own plate. He didn't even look up as he said it, truely acting as if he didn't care.

Shikamaru shot him a weary glance and sighed. He knew better though, they'd been playing this game for awhile. Reverse psycology wasn't going to work. He didn't want to eat. He just wanted to be left alone.

"At the very least stay out here. It can't be doing your mental or emotional state any good to keep yourself closed off the way you've been." Sasori continued, unaffected as always.

"I need to contact Jashin. I can't do that with you all pestering me. It's distracting."

"Jeez Sasori just let him go! I'm tired of seeing him brush you off like this hm. It's pissing me off." Dei piped, his plate nearly licked clean.

"I'm not brushing anyone off I'm just trying to make some goddamn progress here!" Shikamaru snapped, giving up the battle to be polite. "You all can sit on your asses. That's just fucking fine, really. I know you don't care about him, but I DO!"

"Calm yourself boy." Kakuzu warned as the Nara rose to his feet and slammed his palms on the table.

"SHUT UP! You don't understand, you're not the one hearing him in your head. You're not the one who can't sleep because of nightmares that show you all the different ways he's being tortured. I don't know why you're even here, he's not asking for your help!"

"Here we go agaiiin..." Deidara murmered, resting his chin on his fist, propped up by his elbow on the table.

"You shut up too. You don't even have to be here so I don't know why you're bothering either!"

"Hey! Just cuz' you're going psycho doesn't mean you gotta take it out on us. We haven't done shit but try to help, hm. It's your own damn fault for getting involved with that dumbass, yeah!"

"YOU THINK I WANTED THIS YOU FUCKING WORTHLESS TERRORIST PIECE OF SHIT!"

"I believe what this brat is trying to say is that we cannot help you unless you let us. And to answer your question, we were given a duty to assist you in reclaiming Hidan from his captors. That's what we're going to do."

"If you were given orders to set yourself on fire, would you do it?"

The sound of silverware smashing into the table sent the three pairs of eyes to land on the oldest of the group, who was glaring at each of them as if he wanted to murder them all in the worst way.

"If I have to listen to one more second of this insufferable shit... I'm going to kill you all."

Sasori and Deidara each got up immediatly and busied themselves with something. Shikamaru stood staring unfazed at the old man with his arms crossed.

"I'd almost welcome that at this point..." he said quietly.

Kakuzu stood up calmly, regarding Shika with his usual unreable expression. "Come with me." He said, then turned and started heading toward the exit of the hideout.

The Nara stared after him in disinterest, not even caring enough to wonder what the hell the geezer was planning. "I need to get back to my meditation."

"You need fresh air and a decent ass-whooping. Now come." Came the echoed reply from the halls.

He did raise a brow at this. Did he just say ass-whooping? Who the hell used that phrase anymore?

"Pineapple head... please..."

He started after him. Jashin hadn't been answering any of his prayers since they'd been here anyway. It was almost as if the Slaughter God himself was missing as well. Honestly he'd given up trying to get a response a few days ago, he simply kept using it as an excuse because no one seemed to question it.

He just wanted to be alone, what with his only hope not replying and the whole 'voices in his head' thing was getting progressively worse... he was a little depressed.

Okay, that was an understatement. He wanted to fucking kill himself and everyone and everything else in the whole world. He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep... yes it's true he could try a little harder to care for himself, and that alone would probably make him feel better... but damn it all... it's like he was back to the broken man he'd been after Neji left. Only this time he was an immortal sacrificial muderer who was losing his sanity instead of a broken-hearted, lonley wreck.

But... Kakuzu was probably right, (That thought alone showed how far from himself he was) fresh air and some exersize would probably do him some good. And if he was reading between the lines correctly, then Kakuzu wanted to spar.

Even if he was depressed beyond all reason, he'd never pass up a chance to kick that old bastard's ass.

-o-

"You're sure you wanna fight me? Can your bones take it?"

"Don't insult me boy. You admitted yourself that our last battle was a mistake."

"I said it might have been a fluke. Might."

"Well we can clear the air right now. Then you can stop mocking me with your petty threats."

Shikamaru stopped bouncing from foot to foot in his warm-up to give Kakuzu a suspicious look. "Seriously though. Why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm tired of witnessing your tantrums. It always helped clear Hidan's head to get a bit of adrenaline running through the empty thing."

"Well I'm not Hidan. My brain works fine."

"So you say. Your actions disagree with that though. Quit your stalling and come at me, boy."

He narrowed his eyes as the man waiting calmly some yards away from him. He would enjoy beating the arrogace out of the miser, at least.

"Fine." He growled, foring chakra into his newly gloved hand until his stolen scythe appeared in his hand. In the week he'd been here he'd scrounged through all the rooms to find some decent clothing. It had been indescribeably wonderful to get out of those disgusting pants Kakuzu had made.

He gripped the sickle tightly and slammed the butt onto the ground. "You move first."

"You must think me an idiot if you think I'd do that." Kakuzu growled back.

"Hm. I don't need the advantage anyway." Shikamaru said, spinning the weapon and swinging his arm backward to build up momentum. A little more chakra unlocked the flexible spine and he whipped it forward.

Kakuzu didn't even move until the blades were about to impale him. The he whipped out his own extended hsnd and grabbed the weapon just behind the triple blades and wrapped his tentacles around them. He yanked the entire thing toward him and Shikamaru with it.

But he'd expected this, and let himself be thrust toward the man, sending another pulse of chakra into his scythe, pulling himself toward the man even faster as it retracted, and also catching the mans threads within the tightly locked spines.

The elders eyes widened half a milimeter as he found he couldn't retract his own hand. But managed to harden himself just before the Nara slammed into him with a shadow-blade alighting his flattened free hand.

He dropped and rolled, throwing the jashinist behind him, and then yanked with a grunt to free himself.

Shikamaru recovered just as fast and yanked as well, and a nasty snap signal the breaking of Kakuzu's threads.

He sneered al the older man, his hand up to his forearm dangling from his scythe like a disgusting pendant.

"Two seconds in and you're falling apart old man." He said.

"If you're going to embarass yourself with puns at least make them original." Kakuzu said, then he lifted his arm with the missing hand to reveal a single thread still attached that he'd hidden just beneath the dirt.

The previously limp body part sprang to life, clutching the weapon and wrenching it from Shikamaru's shocked grasp. At the same time a few stray threads wound their way around his hand, tearing his glove off as he was left unarmed.

He shouted a swear and jetted forward after the weapon now in Kakuzu's grasp. And he was surprised when the bastard expertly weilded it, pinwheeling the thing and covering it with his smokey chakra.

Shikamaru leaped sideways to avoid being knocked into next week, but the weapon followed close behind. Kakuzu now slipped the glove on in one quick movement and sent his own chakra into Shikamaru's upgraded weapon.

"Let me show you how to properly use one of these."

"Properly.. I MADE the fucking thing!"

He could say no more as he dove forward and rolled to his feet, the blades impaling into the ground where he had been. Kakuzu whipped the flexible handle around and nearly caught the younger in a mock version of a lasso just before he leaped up into the air to escape.

The weapon was yanked free in a second and shot after him, and he growled to himself.

This was fucking annoying... It had taken him forever to be able to sucessfully use that thing in battle and here came this old fuck waving it around like he'd been doing it all his life.

Something grabbed the front of his shirt in his split-second of distraction, he looked down to find the miser's free hand grabbing him before he was suddenly slammed into the ground.

With his vision still rolling from the impact, he shoved chakra into his hands and feet and leaped out of the way like an animal just in time to avoid being struck through with his own sickle.

He landed on the edge of the small crater left in the ground, and Kakuzu smirked at him from the other side, pulling the weapon back and retracting it. Shikamaru scowled. He may think he had the advantage, but all the Jashinist needed to do was get mad enough and he'd bury the fucker.

He put his hands together and made a series of signs, concentrating his chakra into a tiny little ball, a much smaller-scale version of the bomb he'd used to dispose of the other Jashinists he'd slaughtered. He continued doing this until each hand was filled with ten of the marble-sized explosives, and then he chucked it like a baseball pitcher at his opponent, leaping up and forward across the gap while tossing each one with as much speed and accuracy as he could muster.

Kakuzu squited at the ball flung at him, hardened his hand, and caught it. He managed to avoid all the rest only for the back that the thing went off right there and then and blew him backward, somersaulting a couple times before he regained his footing.

Shikamaru landed where Kakuzu had been and snatched up his weapon. It was literally blown out of the man's grip, though he still had the glove. He wasn't worried, Kakuzu may know how to physically handle it, but he didn't know how to work the Jashin-related aspects of it. Besides, he couldn't transport it from Shika's hand to his own without the spikey hair's blood. He may have injured him, but he wasn't bleeding.

Without missing a beat he launched toward his opponent again, swinging the blade wildly and making Kakuzu continueously leap backward to avoid it. Meanwhile he put his index and middle finger to his lips and muttered the invocation word, letting his shadow reach up in front of him, forcing the elder to dodge both at once.

Finally the coffee-skinned man gave one final jump and launched into a vertical barrel roll. Shikamaru skidden to a stop, studying his movement for a moment, trying to understand what the hell he was going to do next. He unlocked the scythe again and cast it at him, but his skin darkened to black and suddenly the man dissapeared, drilling a hole in the ground with his own body.

"Tch, spry for an old fucker." He muttered, backing up. He wasn't safe as long as he was standing on the ground, he needed to get up onto something or the next thing he knew a hand would jump out of the dirt and grab his ankle and... and..

He cursed. There was nothing to jump up onto!

"Fine, plan B." He snarled, leaping over to the hole and activating his shadows. He sent them down into it, closing his eyes to concentrate and feel what they were feeling. Stupid miser, all he had to do was follow the tunnel and... wait... that's not right.

The tunnels split off in five directions...

Oh goddammit he must've let his masks out.

As soon as the thought occurred to him the ground rumbled. He whirled in time to see three of the thread monsters explode from the earth and land heavily on the ground, circling the Nara. Without wasting time their mouths each cracked open, and a burst of fire, water, and air shoot from each of them respectively.

He dove out of the way, and the flow of elements only followed him. He made it outside the circle of beasts and continued sprinting, looking at each of them as he stayed just ahead of the attacks.

Shit, this meant he had five fucking opponents at once, and there were only three visible.

He turned on a time and flipped backward over the funnel of fire, and rolled sideways over the water jet. He took off toward the air beast who had stopped the attack in favor of changing from a constant stream of air to a machine-gun barrage of air bullets.

He made two clones that darted off toward the other two while he pinwheeled the scythe, setting it ablaze with the dark purple chakra to create a sheild as he lunged for the beast. He released the twirl of his weapon to slam it down into where the brain of the monster would be, if it had one, and swung. The threadminion, caught by the scythe, went flying, becoming dislodged just at the end of the arc.

Not stopping, Shikamaru rocketed off to assist his clones who were doing well to distract the other two, before the ground parted in front of him and Kakuzu himself sprang up and landed a rock-hard punch to his jaw. He managed not to go flying backward at this blow, or the next. Then the old man slammed and elbow into his gut, sending the air from Shika's lungs, and reeling backward, his fist covered in smog, he whirled around and landed a roundhouse that smashed through his ribs and temporarily killed the Jashinist and he went flying backward hundreds of feet.

The clones turned at this and launched themselves toward the old man, who did a double take on the unconcious, original shikamaru before engaging them both.

"How are you clones still here when he's out cold?" He asked the copies, blocking and evading their continuous string of attacks.

The didn't answer, as expected, and the thread minions suddenly landed on the both with all their weight, smothering and crushing them until they finally poofed away.

Kakuzu grunted and clutched at his chest for a moment, whirling to find the original Shikamaru awake again and clinging to the side of his air minion, which was howling in pain. The Nara's arm was buried in the threads, his teeth gritted, and in another instant the beast melted down into the grass, dead.

Shikamaru smirked when the man narrowed his eyes. "Now we're even again."

"You little-" Again Kakuzu was halted, looking down to find himself and both his thread monsters caught in that damn shadow possession. Shikamaru laughed and lunged forward, hands and feet glowing with purple, and a faint meteor trail flowing out behind him as he raced closer and closer. He'd been knocked quite a ways away by that kick, after all.

Just before he reached the man the final threadbeast exploded from beneath him, snatching it's master and carrying him free up into the air. It let go and Kakuzu hardened his body for the landing. But shikamaru leaped up to meet him in midair before he could. Surely his blade could slice through his rock-skin if he pumped enough chakra into it. He'd cut easily through that Juugo fellows rock-skin, after all. And If he managed to kill the original Kakuzu then he'd go ahead and call off the spar, if of course that's what it still was. Kuzu looked to be getting a little ticked off.

His opponent was having none of it, though, and he spun himself in a somersault and landed a not-even-chakra-enhanced kick with his heel to the top of Shika's head, sending him straight back down and crashing to the earth.

"GAAH! Son of a BITCH!" He cried out before he could stop himself. His spine felt broken, dammit. That really fucking hurt.

Kakuzu landed in front of him, and his body tensed as the two beasts jumped back into his back skin. "Back pains?" He said, smiling slightly.

"Shut up you old fucking codger!" He shouted, activating his jutsu and shoving chakra into his shadows to create his own minion. It solidified into what looked like some mixture of a horse and lion before lunging toward Kakuzu. He sung his fists at it, only for it to turn to a smoke plume and continue on through him, condensing again as it landed behind him and darted off after the remaining threadminion.

When he turned back to the indention left in the earth from the Jashinist, well... there was no Jashinist there. At the exactly moment he grunted, and his blood spurted out as a hand suddenly appeared, sticking out of his chest.

Shikamaru pulled his hand free and stumbled backward. Kakuzu fell to his knees for a moment.

"That's two-to-one. I'm winning." The Spikey hair panted, wishing his vertebre would hurry up and re-align so he could function better.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Both men's heads jerked to the side to see both Sasori and Deidara watching from the sidelines. Both men scowled.

"I didn't really fucking believe you when you said you kicked his ass... but..." He whisteled to finish out the sentance.

Sasori only rolled his eyes. "Forgive him. Pretend we're not here. We're only observing to get a better feel for your fighting style." he called, then turning to smack Dei across the back of his head.

"You guys are sooo g-AAUUGH!" He then cried, looking down to find several threads shoved through his chest, and he knew without a doupt, his heart.

"Two-for-two. Even again." Kakuzu said.

"That's, auugh, that's not fair. They distracted-GAAH! Dammit Fucking quit that!"

"All is fair in war boy."

He quickly chopped through the treads with a chakra blade, pushing to his feet. (Ah, that was much better, he could stand again.) Then he leaped backward to put distance between them and took a second to locate his minion.

He found it some distance off, on top of Kakuzu's and shredding the threads with the feline claws. He smirked at this victory. Good, he could just let it be and it would kill off one more heart. Once he had the lead again he would call it off, his chakra was running low.

Kakuzu apparently had other ideas. He put his hands together and his two puppet masks jutted up from his back and curled around to peek over his shoulders. Their mouths cracked open, and shikamaru's eyes went wide.

That son of a bitch! Shoulder cannons!? Really!?

He dove to the side just as fire and water exploded from the mouths and came roaring toward him. He had to stop for a second to rip of his shirt, which was on fire, but other than that he was unscathed.

Kakuzu, meanwhile, turned his own attention to his mask, down to it's last bits of thread. He took off toward it, those other masks peeking from his disgusting stitched skin keeping their hollow eyes on Shikamaru, who was following close behind.

He snapped some shadow extensions from his hands and whipped them forward, catching the older man around the ankles temporarily before he was blasted backward with a huge jet of water.

"GOD DAMMIT!" He growled, stopping to observe the situation. He looked to his shadow minion, who had Kakuzu's third heart in it's mouth. Hah, the old coot couldn't make it in time to save the damn thing. He mentally ordered the minion to clamp down and crush it with the false jaws, staring excitedly as the old man rushed to keep Shikamaru from gaining the lead again.

And then a blast of teal chakra shot through his minion, leaving a hold right thought the spot where his head would be.

A white and brown blur shot out from the bush and launched a fury of glowing fists on the shadow beast until it disolved, dropping the faintly beating heart onto the ground. The intervener then had to leap out of the way to avoid a blow from Kakuzu, and without thinking about how strange it was, Shikamaru launched forward to aid the old man.

The masks had turned around and now let loose an immense blast of fire toward the new arrival as Kakuzu let the wounded heart slip back inside his body. A light blue sphere flashed into existance, withstanding the fire and then rolling forward to crush the old man, who sucked his two masks back in and leaped backward, landing next to Shikamaru, who skidded to a stop.

Both men crouched into a defensive position, Sasori and Deidara suddenly landing next to them both and doing the same.

The smoke cleared, and Shikamaru's eyes squinted for a second before nearly bugging out of his head.

"Hey... Isn't that...?"

"Shut up brat."

Neji Hyuga stood in front of the four of them, eyeing them each nervously. "Uh... Itachi? I think they're going to attack me..."

The older Uchiha phazed into existance beside him, holding up his palm in a peace offering, and Sasuke leaped out from the bush and landed beside Neji, his usual smug smirk claiming his features.

"Neji!?" Shikamaru Shrilled.

The hyuga's eyes landed on him before a disbeleiving look took over his still-gorgeous features.

"Shikamaru? Oh my god... that's you?"

Sasuke cleared his throat, his arrogant glance at the Nara turning to a glare. "You look like shit."

Neji elbowed him and he growled.

"Ah, Itachi. I wondered when you'd show up." Sasori said, as always, perfectly unemotional.

"Itachi!" Shikamaru said, somewhere between surprised and excited. Oh thank Jashin! Now they could actually get shit done!

Kakuzu just hump'd and suddenly shoved Shikamaru to the ground, making Sasuke cackle and Neji scowl at the man. Shikamaru only looked up at the man like he was the strangest thing he'd ever seen. Did he just push him down playfully, like they were buddies or something?

"We'll continue this later. I won't have it get out that I tied with a child." He said, before turning and heading back toward the hideout.

"Oh Jesus fucking christ, you guys finally stop fucking off and take on a mission and it has to be the one that I'm assigned to..." Deidara said, throwing his hands in the air and following Kakuzu's lead, rambleing and swearing the whole way.

"Uhm.."

The meek, familiar voice drew Shikamaru's attention back to his ex, now standing above him. The brunette gave a somewhat embarrased smile and held out his hand, offering him help up. "Long time, no see." he said gently.

The Jashinist blinked, far too confused to do anything other than take Neji's hand and be pulled to his feet. He couldn't even get his mind to work well enough to reply, which made the Byakugan users perfect brows crease in concern.

"My apologies. As you can see I ran into a few... setbacks." Itachi said, walking up to Sasori and shaking hands.

"Yeah, getting banged being the biggest." Sasuke said aloud, his jealous gaze not leaving Neji and Shikamaru, until he was smacked on the back of the head and forced to look at his attacker.

Itachi glared at him. "Sasuke here refused to be left behind, He's been training Neji Hyuga, who refused to be left as well."

Neji whirled at this. "Now wait just a second here! You two forced me to come!"

"I did no such thing." Itachi said quickly, obviously masking a smirk, which Sasuke saw and mirrored, his eyes going back to his boyfriends.

"Yeah if I remember correctly you were ready to attack me if I left without you. 'Tachi had to restrain you."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

"Awe it's okay love. You just wanted to see how pathic your little ex here has gotten, I understand."

"Sasuke." Itachi warned.

"Sasuke!" Neji Gasped.

Sasori cleared his throat.

Shikamaru just stared at him dumbly, unable to process everything.

There was silence for a moment, before again Sasori cleared his throat, waiting until all eyes were on him. "Let's return indoors to converse any longer. Surely you're all tired from the quick trip." He turned around and started making his way toward the warehouse.

"Fuckin' exhausted." Sasuke said, following.

"You slept the whole damn way." Neji muttered, giving Shika one more apologetic glance before turning and doing the same.

The Nara watched them go, still dumbstruck, until he felt a presence beside him. He turned to find coalesque eyes staring at him emotionlessly.

"I apologize for Sasuke... I've never seen him so jealous before." He said, and when the Jashinist still didn't reply, he gently set a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru. I headed out as soon as Nagato informed me of your call. How are you fareing?" He said, looking the man up and down, and certianly not seeming pleased.

"Uh. I'm.. alive. So..." he finally forced out, staring after the group walking away. He turned back again, baffled completley. "Why is Neji here?"

Itachi smiled softly and started walking toward the building in the distance, guiding the pitiful man along with him. "Everything will be explained in due time."

-o-

A/N-

Wheeeeeellll I think that's a decent stopping point.

ALRIIIGHT! This chapter was so fun, I missed doing fight scenes, even though they're fucking hard as fuck. And kuzu vs Shika. So many possibilities. Dei needs to shut his mouth though, gawd... Distracting Shika like that... he's such a dick. In case you haven't noticed, they're not fond of each other. He also doesn't like the Uchiha's either, as in the anime. But now it's not so much burning hatred as much as just general dislike.

And also, WOOT! Reunion time! Saucy's jelly. xD

Sweet. So Next chap... I don't have planned out but I'm going to start immediatly. Lol, or else I'd tell you what to expect. It's a good thing i don't though, because my chapters never go exactly as planned. Lol fellow writers would understand.

Hey that rhymed.

ANYWHAY!

Ignore typos, I apologize. I swear I'm trying to pay closer attention. And don't forget to review, my beautiful, wonderful, sexy readers.

O.O What? Sexy? Nuthin...

Love you guys! Till next time!