"What do you think about this?" He asked her, arching his eyebrow. "Why are everyone's memories – Ino, Chouji, and the rest of the guys, why are they neutralized?"
"I don't know, I wish we could find Gaara, he was the only one who is unaccounted for, which probably meant that his memory was intact."
Temari frowned. "Most importantly, we need to find whoever is behind this, and the mysterious person who called me."
"Yeah, he or she is probably the reason why so many clues are left for me to retrieve my memories, he or she must have done something …" Shikamaru frowned. "I wonder why."
"Speaking of which, I am trying to figure out, so I hacked into the government's database some days earlier, and there is an encrypted file, it is probably related – their conversation was interesting though … I think it was left from whatever sweep they were doing before or after the memory neutralization. I have just finished decoding everything this morning."
"Show me," he said. She turned the computer screen facing him, as he read the message.
Chat History
Goldie: So they have started to clean?
Ciervo: Yes they have, they are trying to hide everything – the whole thing was messed up.
Goldie: Well, they will be coming for me anytime now, are you ready to hide with the wasbeer?
Ciervo: Yes I am, I made sure the little gamo would be able to uncover all this, even if anything happened to you and me.
Goldie: And the mustela?
Ciervo: She is dead on record – I will make sure gamo and mustela makes contact afterwards … just in case.
Goldie: I am counting on you.
Ciervo: So am I, your departure will be a great diversion for them to unearth everything.
Goldie: So be it.
"What does it all mean?" Shikamaru scratched his head. "All of these makes no sense, except for the fact that they are talking about some secret."
"Exactly," Temari said. "All of these names referred to something – I have searched online and found out – the strange names are all animals. Ciervo is 'deer', gamo is 'fawn'." She wrote it down on a piece of paper. "I am pretty sure that you are either ciervo or gamo."
"I don't remember saying all that, nor do I remember anyone called Goldie."
Shikamaru said, his hand on his chin. "That could only mean I am gamo, and I have to uncover all this." He then pointed his finger at Temari. "In that case, you must be mustela."
"Probably," she smiled. "And whoever ciervo is, he is hiding with the raccoon – wasabeer, I think they are referring to Gaara, since he had dark circles like a raccoon."
Shikamaru closed his eyes for a second, before opening them again. "I think I know who ciervo is."
"I think I do too, but I am not sure."
"Me neither," he said. "But I think I know who would do that."
"Who is it?" Temari's eyes were almost burning with curiosity, she wanted to know; she needed to know.
"My father." He said solemnly. "Nara Shikaku."
"That would make sense," she said.
"Do you know that your father was involved in all this?"
"No, for as long as I could remember, he was stationed far away at a research station – he used to taught in my university."
"Maybe we could find some clues back at your university."
"Let's go there then."
They arrived at the university, it was an early Saturday morning, with little classes on that day, the campus was empty with only a handful of students.
Shikamaru walked into the archives with Temari behind him, the librarian welcomed him with two coughs.
"Hello, Mr. Nara." He said, eyeing the woman standing behind him. "Off for some morning research, aren't we?"
"Yes," he replied. "This is my assistant."
"Oh, good morning 'mam." He dipped his head towards her, and she nodded back hastily. "Go on right in," the two of them walked into the dusty archive, as the librarian took out his phone and dialed.
"They are here, Izumo, it's time to get to work." He smiled as he put a syrup candy into his mouth.
Temari anxiously looked around, as Shikamaru held her hand and led her through the stacks of books and documents.
"I remembered that I hid my father's research materials somewhere here – ah." He took a stack of paper and shoved it into his backpack. "That should be it, we can go ahead and see if there are any clues."
Temari nodded when suddenly a hand shoved her out of the way when she heard a loud bang.
"Fuck," Shikamaru muttered. "It's Kotetsu, the librarian."
Temari said with a smile as she reached into her bag and tossed Shikamaru a handgun. "I never come unprepared."
He sniggered, as he opened the backpack and gave her and himself a gasmask.
"So do I." As they put on the masks, Shikamaru tossed a couple of smoke bombs around them; the whole archive was covered in smoke, triggering the faucets above them, the sound of the fire alarm ringing and the water flowing from the faucets made the situation even more chaotic.
Shikamaru and Temari ran towards the archive door, suddenly she pulled him to a stop.
"There's another guy holding an automatic rifle, we don't have enough firepower to go face-to-face."
Shikamaru nodded after dropping the gas mask. "We are trapped, aren't we?"
"We could wait for the firemen, and we are all toast." Temari sneered. "Or maybe we can turn this into our game."
The two heard footsteps closing by, Shikamaru nodded at her, as he walked away.
Temari hid herself behind the bookshelves, as she saw the dark-haired man, approaching Shikamaru, whose hands were held high in the air.
"I don't understand." He said. "Why are you guys doing this?"
His nonchalant voice was seemingly taken by surprise. The man began to laugh.
"What an idiot," the man said. "Izumo, come and see this, we will catch the blondie later."
Temari smirked as the man began to move from the entrance to where the sound was, almost immediately, she followed behind him. As he prepared to turn, she leapt and hit hard on the side of his neck, he fell the ground with a grunt.
Temari pulled out a couple of zip ties and bound his hands and feet together in a against a pipe. She took the automatic rifle, and proceeded to the source of the sound.
"Oi, Izumo?" Kotetsu said impatiently.
"You friend is out cold for the time being," he heard a woman's voice, in horror, he turned around to see the blonde woman, with his friend's automatic rifle in her hand, pointing dead at him.
He sneered as he attempted to pull Shikamaru towards him.
Shikamaru dodged, his hand skillfully pulling Kotetsu down onto the ground and taking his gun from him.
"That's why you shouldn't be so ignorant." Shikamaru said exasperatedly. "Now, this is a drag, but I will let you live if you answer us a few questions."
Kotetsu spat onto the ground. "Do I look like I will succumb to threats from brats like you?"
Temari pointed the rifle dead onto his forehead, her green eyes glaring at him.
"Yes."
Shikamaru sighed as he crouched down. "Guess we are taking you with us then."
Temari nodded at him, as he pulled out a needle from his backpack.
"Yup, that's the tranquilizer." Temari said in agreement, Shikamaru quickly injected the needle onto Kotetsu's arm.
"You! You…" Before he could say anything, he collapsed onto the ground. Shikamaru picked him up and the two proceeded to the entrance.
"What happened to the other guy?"
"He is tied to the pole right now, the firefighters will deal with him."
"Aren't they supposed to here right now?"
"I hacked the system yesterday to make sure all signals are relayed to the fire station thirty minutes later."
"Cool," he smiled at her. "And I screwed up the CCTVs around this area of campus."
"Guess we are both doing our jobs." Temari sneered. "Now let's go."
The two proceeded to their car, throwing the sleeping man into the backseat, Temari gagged him with a piece of cloth and tied him up with zip ties.
"Where should we go?" She asked Shikamaru.
"That place," he said, a dim light in his eyes. "The white building."
"The Nest it is then." Temari smiled at him, as she started the car.
More answers awaited as the couple drove away.
Author's note:
A short chapter! Sorry about the late update, I have just came up with this plot a few days ago :p
Anyway, more answers await, now that they knew that Shikamaru's dad was involved - stay tuned!
Enjoy! xoxo
V.S.V