(A/N: I'm sorry this chapter is coming out so late, but now that school has started back up, I've had no time to write.
This is the last chapter I have written up, so if I'm going to post anything, I'm going to have to write it first.
There are a few chapters left that I haven't posted for Journey if you're following that, but I'm planning a full rewrite of Journey that I'll start posting after I've got the first ten chapters written (I currently have only two- don't hold your breath).
And... yeah. Enjoy.)
Tenten felt like screaming as sleep continued to elude her. As if to cement the thought and mock her simultaneously, her eyes popped back open, refusing to stay closed no matter what she did.
Her body was sore from sparring all day, her mind was weary from helping Sakura with her record keeping, but she could not force her brain to shut off.
Wondering about all of her missing team members, including those missing and even those accounted for—it was absolutely maddening, how her mind buzzed endlessly like a hive of perpetually agitated bees.
It must have been the caffeine she consumed earlier, she decided.
She'd lain still in bed waiting for sleep to come for over an hour, but only seemed to get less and less tired. Then she listened to music for another hour and a half before giving it up as a lost cause. So she got up and pushed aside some of her room's furniture to clear a large space. She practiced several katas and returned the room to its original state.
She sorted her tools and weaponry into the satisfactory ones and the ones that needed maintenance, and then she started to write letters.
And her brain only seemed to get less tired, even as her hand cramped, her writing became illegible, and she could barely see straight.
Then Lee entered the room with a knowing smile, bearing a pack of cards and some energy drinks for the next day.
Tenten grinned tiredly and Lee smiled back with the same expression, and the teammates spent the night praying for their friend, teammate, and brother-in-all-but-blood's safety.
Shikamaru woke up dazedly, hissing at the kinks in his neck and the knots in his back.
He'd fallen asleep in his desk chair in the basement, but there was a blanket covering him.
So Gai wasn't back yet, otherwise he'd have been carried to his room on the upper level.
He stretched groggily but became immediately alert at the sight of two new additions to the queue of frames on the wall.
One was rather plain with a simple printed swirl design repeated along the perimeter, but the other was woven out of willow branches and interlaid with strips of jade.
He stepped up to it, muttering the words to the jutsu that allowed him to enter the store of memories, but nothing happened.
He took a step back and studied the frame.
And then he recognized it for what it was; a mirror.
"For when you forget about yourself," Chouji explained, walking in from the stairwell, "and the other is a frame for me."
Shikamaru looked at him with gratitude.
"Thank Gai-san, he was the one who picked them up on his trip back."
Gai stepped in sheepishly and Shikamaru couldn't help but grin.
"Thank you, Gai-san."
And Gai's beaming grin spoke for all three of them.
"Who took a hammer to my skull?" Tenten groaned, sitting up.
"That'd be me," Anko drawled. "Yer stance was 'bout as solid as a rag doll, lil' lady. Didja sleep at all las' nigh'?"
Tenten shook her head, getting to her feet unsteadily. "No, so I'm just gonna go to my room and take a nap—"
"Oh no you don't," Sakura shouted, storming onto the field. Her hands glowed green as she diagnosed Tenten's injuries. "Yeah, you've got a concussion. No sleeping for you yet, and certainly not alone."
Tenten moaned in horror. "I've already been up for over twenty hours without a bit of rest and my head feels like it's about to explode."
Sakura shook her head in disapproval. "You know better than to pull all-nighters," she reprimanded.
"Wasn't trying to. Couldn't fall asleep 'cos my brain wouldn't turn off," Tenten slurred, sitting down hard on the lawn. "Haven't you ever worried 'bout Uz'maki or Uchi'a?" she spat, speech disoriented.
"Shit," Sakura cursed. "Stay awake, dammit! Athena, you'd better stay awake or so help me I'll tell Neji-san about your last birthday!" she threatened.
"You wouldn't dare," Tenten mumbled into her knees. "I'm awake, 'm up, no need t'do that."
Anko flicked the top of Tenten's head and she protested weakly. "Lil' lady, yer a moron. Tha's wha' Hatake'd say, ya hear me?"
"Yeah, I hear you," Tenten grumbled, bringing up a hand to massage her aching temples.
"Inuzuka, Hyῡga, and Aburame are nearing the Endpoint. Haruno'll have a hell of a time making sure that all ends up well," Shikamaru groused. "Chou, tell Haruno to make sure she keeps them far away from each other."
Chouji nodded.
Then Shikamaru changed his mind and called after Chouji, "Actually, I'll do it myself."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
He turned to the computer monitor in front of him, shaking his head. "Don't see why we need to go through the computer," he muttered, threading some magic into one port and chakra into the other to get past the identification locks protecting the device.
"To: Haruno Sakura. From: Base." He quickly composed a message detailing the best strategy to keep the imposters unaware while ensuring the real team got the welcome and the care necessary.
He hit "Send" and waited as the machine took some of his chakra with which to establish the connection for the message's travel, and some of his magic to cloak the chakra's presence. Magic was everywhere in the world, but chakra existed mostly within creatures, so a pathway of chakra would be suspicious, but a trail of magic would not be conspicuous.
In fact, it would most likely be misconstrued as the migratory path of one of the miscellaneous creatures that the IT team had spread rumors about in order to mask their communications.
His father had come up with the idea to manipulate the natural force of gossip to aid them rather than to hinder them.
But, Shikamaru reminded himself, his father was not the one at the head of the largest, incredibly complex, most significant information transport of their era.
No, Shikamaru was.
And he would succeed, no matter what it took. Failure was not an option.
Sakura grimaced. "That was the gist of the message, but he caught me just as I was finishing up with a patient, so I lost the first part of it."
Tenten shrugged. "He's under a lot of stress, I'm sure he just forgot to check. It was his chakra, right?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, it was definitely his chakra. So we should tell them that it's time for them to go because their recovery time is up?"
"Yeah?" Tenten groaned. "I'm no good at this strategizing stuff, just tell me what to attack and I'll do it. Should I go find Hatake-sensei?"
"What about me?"
"Oh, there you are, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura remarked offhandedly.
"What, nobody jumps in fright anymore?"
"You're becoming predictable, Hatake-sensei," Tenten replied.
"And we could feel the distinct lack of magic in the air," Sakura elaborated.
Kakashi hummed in approval. "Now, what did you need?"
"How do we keep Aburame Shino, Hyῡga Neji, and Inuzuka Kiba's imposters from finding out they've been discovered when the real deals come in tomorrow afternoon?"
"Have they been isolated this whole time?"
"Yeah, they think they're recovering at a special health care center and that only patients and staff are allowed to stay."
"What other 'patients' have they been in contact with?"
"Just Tenten-san and Lee-san," Sakura answered.
"So if their time is up, how come little lady and Lee-kun don't have to leave?"
Sakura considered the question for a while before tentatively suggesting, "Tenten-san and Lee-san are special exceptions?"
"Why?"
"Maybe because they've either got terminal or chronic illnesses, or complex injuries that will take even longer to heal than two eyes, a punctured liver, or a splintered femur."
"Such as?"
"Schizophrenia," Tenten cut in. "Or Dissociative Personality Disorder, some kind of mental illness. Maybe bipolar? They've seen me in all kinds of moods, and he's seen me go from fury to tears in a split second."
"Dissociate Identity Disorder," Sakura corrected. "Bipolar, though, would work best from his experience with you," Sakura said decisively, "and Lee-san is recovering from a brain injury that prevents him from sleeping. He's been worse than you," she noted, looking at Tenten.
"Problem solved," Kakashi crowed in glee. And he promptly disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Sakura shook her head in exasperation. "He's such a diva…"
"They've got the right idea, and Hatake is helping them."
Shikamaru sighed in relief, shaking his head in disappointment at his own slip-up. He couldn't believe he'd allowed himself to get so absent-minded as to not check if Sakura was otherwise occupied or not.
He shook his head in shame, chewing on a ragged thumbnail.
"Shikamaru-kun?"
Shikamaru looked up from his paper-covered desk.
"Yeah, Gai-san?"
"I'll be off now."
"Where to?"
Gai looked at Shikamaru strangely. "To Endpoint, like you planned last week."
"Ah, yes, right. Travel safely," Shikamaru said.
"Is the way clear?"
"As much as it's ever going to be if you take the route I showed you."
"What route?"
Shikamaru groaned. "Right. Sorry." He fished through the piles on his desk and handed Gai a neat map with a path drawn across it. "This one. I've got the ideal times for arrival at each checkpoint marked as well."
Gai nodded and saluted. "Good luck, Shikamaru-kun!"
Shikamaru grunted noncommittally and Gai was off.
He sat for a moment longer in his chair before roaring in pent-up stress and frustration, swiping half of his papers off his desk before overturning both it and his chair.
He stood for a moment in the center of the mess, breathing heavily.
He lifted an arm up to his eyes as he started to cry.
-End Chapter 9-