AN: So, to break up the suspense of the story and build preliminaries to the character relationships I am exploring in this fic I have decided to include interludes! Technically, I am aware that Interludes happen BETWEEN parts of the story. Most of these will be snippets of what happened before the story. Some will be fluff. Some will be angst. Some will be romantically charged. But all will be placed BETWEEN chapters. Hence, we shall name them Interludes! The first is Shikamaru and Sakura, because quite frankly they make me giggle in my head.

ALSO, I am taking requests for the characters in the next interlude. Sakura will be one of the characters (though she doesn't physically have to be there), and it can include any number of characters present in the story or otherwise. That includes all of Konoha, Suna, Akatsuki, and yadda yadda whatever else you can figure out. If you have a "theme" or situation to suggest I can work with that to, though if I can't figure out a way to do the situation justice I may just forgo it for my own creative thinking. Yeah. Review and lemme know.

Interlude: Shiver

Characters: Shikamaru, Sakura

Rating: T

Summary: One second too late and she was bleeding out in his hands. It was cold, they could make no fire in fear that the rogue shinobi's teammates would find them, and they were out of Chakra. All they could do was wait for the rest of their team to find them, and time was not their friend.

"Haruno-san, this isn't funny. Stay awake." They could have no fire; the smoke would give out their location. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't fucking freezing. But behold, the night sky was clear with no moon and the snow lay thick upon the ground. The air was quiet, the absence of life only amplified with the signs of a battle already fought. Ground was upturned and cracked in the wake of overpowering strength; weapons laid embedded in snow and unsuspecting trees, and let us not forget the patches of bright crimson turned brown staining the white. What was nice though were the bodies of two very dead rogue Shinobi now face down in their own filth. Their enemies fell by their own arrogance. You would think after the war that the reputation of the medic and the strategist would precede them; apparently some people were just behind in the times.

"I mean it Haruno-san, stay awake!" A hand, shaking from the cold and frenzied rush of emotion, tugged viciously on pink locks. Demanding with pain and blood stained fingers for eyes to stay open.

They weren't alone though, the strategist and the medic. No, a canine-blessed tracker and the ink-user had been with them as well. The mission was supposed to be simple; there had been a dignitary of the land who had several of his villages plundered. Their role was to investigate and report. They were only to initiate should they come across the culprits, and lucky them they had found each other in a fuck'n snow storm. The battle that followed split them up into pairs, Sai and the Inuzuka against one set of rogues and Sakura and Shikamaru against the other. They weren't low level rogues at that; the use of genjutsu effectively separating them from each other and landing them in the predicament they were in now.

Hands pressed into a wound that refused to stop seeping blood, the crimson life so warm over his cold hands. Brown eyes, normally so lazy and disinterested, were focused as if razor edged as they bore into the hazy green that tried to focus on his face. Eyelids flickered low over that glassy gaze, and with another growl the man pressed his forehead against the woman's and ground out another command, compelling her to focus. "I'm the fuck'n captain of this team Haruno, and I say stay awake. You don't want to get back and get bitched by Hokage-sama for insubordination, do you?" Empty words of desperation painted on a backdrop of a false threat; even to his ears the statement was brittle. It was all the man could do not to panic; it was his own stupidity that was her downfall.

They had been fighting, and winning at that. It wasn't a short battle though, nor an easy one. Chakra was being used up expansively on both sides. Her close range attacks were near explosive and his long ranged control was commanding the battle field. Coupled with her quick responses to his changes in tactics and techniques, you would almost believe the two had rehearsed the beauty of their deadly assault. But it wasn't that they practiced, because truthfully neither had the time to train with each other while keeping up with their own lives. No, they both merely fitted that way into each other, their natural chemistry drawn out by similar intelligence and observation made them synchronize. For all his smarts though, Shikamaru was only human. One moment to late did he realize the genjutsu in affect, and it was in that one moment metal was aiming at his chest. Reflexes did little when there was no window to move, and as he tried to shift to make the blow nonfatal a body came in front of his. Pink and red, stabbed with a kunai. He felt himself freeze. She didn't even flinch.

She dispelled the genjutsu clearly and tore the blade clean out of herself, making quick work of the rogue who had foolishly spent himself on a masking technique. She had then turned to him, hands flirting over his body with flickering healing chakra as she patched up his own wounds. Lacerations, abrasions, a jagged tear from a katana along his bicep; his mind finally caught up when his eyes watched her own blood hit the snow and he grabbed her hands from his face. Bleeding, he near shouted it at her, and when she looked down at herself she looked genuinely surprised. Then, she fell into his arms. He had found the cave they were in not long after, laying her propped up against the wall. He had demanded she heal herself, she gave him a half smile and held her hands up, her chakra flickering sluggishly. His body had gone rigid. She spent herself on him. Stupid girl.

That is where they were now, his hands trying to stop the bleeding (from her stomach, of all the places to get stabbed!), and his voice urging her to stay awake.

Don't sleep in the snow, Shikamaru! What if you never wake up!

He snorted halfheartedly, the image of her 12-year-old self with her hands poised on his hips coming to mind. Hypocrite. "Stay awake. Just a little longer." He nuzzled her forehead with his own, hoping the action would push her eyes open just a little more. "Dog-Face and that emotionally stunted project of yours should find us soon." Her mouth twitched at the comment, her brow furrowing against his.

"Don't be mean to Sai…" He breathed out slowly, her first sentence since he had dragged her here. And it was in defense of a friend, he could almost laugh. He cursed his own low level of Chakra, he may have not been a medic but shadows could bind a wound just as effectively as bandages could. Now, they could do little but flicker at the edge of the cave, his pathetic brand of defense. Sai's ink may not be sanitary, but it would hold the blood in till Sakura gathered enough Chakra to do something about it. With her slow lazy heartbeats the blood gushed sluggishly through his fingers, and cursing under his breath his eyes started to scan their outfits. What did they have to spare? Most of their outer cloaks had been ruined in the battle. Inner clothing was tight to the body, and would require him to relieve pressure to tear. If he let go of the wound though, it could very well start to flow heavily again. Sakura couldn't handle any more blood loss. His thoughts were cut short by fingers on his jaw, his eyes snapping forward again to see those glassy green watching him with a knowing smile. "… It's going to be fine. Just need to rest. You're doing great."

Her breath brushed his lips softly, and though he knew her words were meant to comfort it did nothing but turn his worry into aggravation. "What were you thinking?! You're a medic. You are the one who is not supposed to get hurt!"

She frowned at that, her fingers moving soothingly over the tense muscles of his jaw and onto the junction of where it met his neck. "… The kunai."

"Wouldn't have been fatal!" Stupid. So stupid. She should have known better, trusted him more! But no, now she was bleeding out in his hands and comforting him over it. It was wrong, on so many different levels that he could not even thi-

"… I wouldn't have enough Chakra after dispelling the Genjutsu to heal you of a stab wound." There was no anger; she was too tired for that. "… What if you judged wrong?" His rampage died on his lips, because the look in her eyes and the meaning behind her words were not wasted on him like it would have been on others. His manly pride was just as easy-going as he was, and as such he didn't take it as a jab to his skills as a Shinobi or a genius. He took it for what he knew she meant. What if he had died? What if she had let him die? What if he had left her, alone? Her lip quivered, her breath stuttering across his mouth, her insecurities pouring out all over his hands. "I can't watch you die."

Her confession was not one of romantic feelings, though it was one of love. What he ever did to garden it was beyond him, but Shikamaru felt so undeserving of it. He closed his eyes, forehead still pressed to hers and hands still holding her together, only to let them open again and focus on her with a new light. "How do I keep you awake?" There were few things the man could do in this situation, though he was counting the minutes till he had enough Chakra to bind his shadows around her wound. Keeping her awake was priority.

"Talk to me." She whispered it, her eyelids fluttering again as darkness started to take over. Oh god. She wanted him to talk. Why did all females want to talk? He grimaced, the expression clear on his face cause Sakura's lips quirked in amusement. "About anything. Just gotta stay awake."

"Babies." For a moment, the word hung between them and Shikamaru had to wonder just how damn long he had been around Ino and her whining about needing a man and children in her life for the topic of babies to be the first thing to come to mind. He was going to throttle the blond when he got home. But the flicker of attention in Sakura's eyes brought hope, and so praying she would put the flush to his cheeks to the cold weather he pressed forward. "I think we should have some."

… The hell kind of stupid was his mouth saying?

The lightest quivers of her torso against his hands proved Sakura to be laughing at the idea, her eyes clearly focusing as she arched an eyebrow in his direction. "… Babies?" He didn't move, he didn't even breathe. "… You and I, we should have babies?" She was smirking. At least she was paying attention. He fought down his embarrassment and pushed on.

"Yes. Babies. You know, pudgy little bundles of automatic poop and puke makers? Those things." Her smile spread a bit wider.

"… And why, should we have some?"

He shrugged, though he doubted she saw it with his face being practically in her face. "Oh you know, the forwarding of Shinobi kind and all."

Her hands had shifted from his jaw to his biceps, her smile never moving. "No, I mean why should we have some?"

Oh… Oh. He had said that, didn't he? Well damn. He gave her a disapproving look. "Now Sakura-chan, can't you see all the benefits if we had children? They'd be smart, with parents like us how could they not be? Match up your chakra control with my family's shadow technique and they would be some scary little runts at that. Why, they could take over the world if they set their mind to it, though that would mean they took after your initiative instead of mine. If they take after me you'd just find us all in the backyard napping and what not." For a moment his mind flashed an image of him spread out in a grass field, several children with various shades of black and darker pink hair curled about him napping. It shouldn't have looked so appealing. In his head, they all looked rather cozy.

Her fingers flexed against his arms, snapping him out of his mental snapshot. "Is that so, Shika-kun." He shivered slightly as she said his name, purely from the cold he was sure. "And I suppose I would be inside brewing tea and prepping dinner?" The image of her, dressed in the colors of his family sitting on his porch waiting for him also made it into his traitorous mind; another thought that shouldn't have been so appealing. "Will we have a white picket fence? Will Ino be our neighbor?"

He pulled a face, one that she must have found absolutely hilarious because despite the pain she truly did laugh. He flexed against the wound, the force causing more crimson to crawl across his digits; but only a little bit. Already he could call the shadows up along his arms towards the wound. "No. I know she's your best friend, Darling, but can you imagine the gossip she'd spread? Oh, Sakura was up all night yelling at Shikamaru again for being out with the boys. Oh, she threatened to leave him for a more proactive Shinobi, a more romantic one who bought her flowers. Oh, did you hear about their children? With a mother so smart you wonder why they are always skipping school; it must be because of that dead beat dad of theirs." Her laughter was relentless, softly tumbling from her lips in giddy giggles. He wasn't afraid though, his shadows had wrapped snuggly around her middle and she would lose no more blood. Not as long as he had his way. As his hands had nothing to do, he found them straying to her waist. "As for you, I didn't take you for a housewife. One who would dote on her man, yes, but never a housewife. You'd be bringing in the bacon, sweetheart, working those long hours at the hospital and getting all those fancy titles. Guess that means I get to be the trophy husband." His own lips had quirked into its natural half smile; the pretend he had formed being just as blissfully distracting from their current situation as it was productive at keeping her awake.

"And what a trophy husband indeed you'd make! Handsome and sweet, so doting and caring, I bet Ino would make up half of those little rumors just cause she'd be so jealous I have you to come home to every night, babe." The way she said babe shouldn't have made his stomach warm, but it did. "Not to mention the sex life." He stiffened just a tad as her smile turned coy. It was definitely warm now. His mind was yelling at him that she was good now and he could back off, but his arms had found their way around her back and she was not protesting. They were playing pretend, so he could push it just a little more.

"What about the sex life, hm? Sa-Ku-Ra?" Her eyelashes lowered again, this time in a motion that had nothing to do with blood loss. The sea glass green darkened to a shade of forest as her hands slid innocently up along his shoulders. He tensed as her body curved into his, watching as her lips bowed cutely into a thoughtful pout. Dangerous. If his mind was yelling him warnings earlier it was now shooting tanks and cannons.

"You have shadows that bend to your very whim. I am sure you could find something… productive to do with them? Perhaps… restraints of sorts?" Oh god, she was into bondage. "You could have them touch me from the other side of the room, spread me open on display and watch me come undone? You wouldn't even have to move, just have those shadows of yours do all the work." And an exhibitionist… Hellcat in boots and the Shinobi world didn't even know it. His breath came a bit quicker, pictures not as innocent as the ones before filtering through his mind in quick succession. "As for me… I have perfect chakra control and I'm a medic. Remember what it feels like to be healed?" He nodded slowly, his eyes darkening as his forehead rubbed against hers. The calming ebb of soothing relief that left cells buzzing with life; that was healing chakra. Prickling intense relief, pleasurable and right. "Well, being the skilled person that I am, I can focus that chakra just about anywhere I wish, baby. My hands." He felt his center tighten. "My mouth." Something deep down twitched. "… Even… there." He felt a groan on the back of his throat, his teeth biting into his cheek to keep it from coming out. She saw it, she must have, her smirk only widened. "So you tell me, what about the sex?"

It had gotten hot, very hot. They were pressed together, her smirk in place as his mind raged with brand new possibilities for a relationship that wasn't real. But that didn't mean it couldn't be real. That they couldn't be real. His mother would be in love with the idea, he was sure. It'd nip his Temari problem in the bud. They were both smart, they could play shogi, they were both dedicated to work and had no illusions of what a perfect relationship would be like. They could forge one for themselves, the connection needed to be unbreakable and oh so perfect. His fingers flexed into her back, causing her to deliciously arch into his chest and electricity to spike down his spine. All he had to do was tilt his head just a little bit and he would be able to taste her. The thought made his mind haze with the what-if's and the maybe's. Then, just as he was about to throw the cautions of consequence to the wind his shadows outside the cave bent as feet passed over them. All at once he was crouched over her, kunai out and eyes trained at the mouth of their shelter. Sai and Kiba came into view. They waved, She smiled, He inwardly cursed all holy and not.

They were on their way back to the closest town, Sakura perched prettily upon Akamaru's back as Kiba, in the front of the group so that he may sniff out any who approached, gave a riveting blow by blow of how he defeated their enemies. Sai helped a little too. The painter was walking next to Sakura, his hand lightly on her waist to keep her from falling off the beast while Shikamaru brought up the rear. The last could do nothing to mask his glare as it focused on the hand that touched the medic, just the slightest bit smug that it was his shadows that separated the two. It wasn't that he suspected Sai of any inappropriate conduct, he was merely concerned for the woman that was so important to him, it was just that the chemistry between Shikamaru and the Medic had left his shadow-user a bit off-balance. He didn't often notice women, they usually brought trouble, but the way she fit in his arms and the images their little conversation brought had put Sakura in a brand new light. He had always admired her for her dedication to achieve and now he felt his gaze focusing on the potential of what else she could be. What they could be together.

"The medic got hurt. Aren't you being redundant?" Sai's voice was softer than Kiba's boisterous recollection, but it was still loud enough for Shikamaru to hear. Though it may have been abrasive, Sakura seemed to translate it into him being worried over her. She smiled fondly at him and rested her hand on her worried friends bicep, and once again Shikamaru glared.

"Just a little, but Shika-kun took good care of me." Silence. Utter silence. Kiba slowed, and glanced over his shoulder with his eyebrows rocketing into his hairline. He glanced at Sakura, than to Shikamaru, then once more back to Sakura.

Suddenly, his lips cracked into a smirk. "Shika-kun?"

Shikamaru groaned, feeling the pervy intentions sent his way. "It isn't what you thi-"

"Kakashi is going to MURDER you!" Kiba was near glowing in mirth.

The accused man bristled, his hands fisting in his pockets. "I'm telling you it ain't like that! She's injured on top of it, dog-breath! Do you really think something could have gone down?"

His glare intensified on the Inuzuka, who merely shrugged his shoulder and continued to snicker. "Whatever you say, Shika-kun~"

Shikamaru produced several Kunai, all to ready to chase the man down when Sakura cleared her throat lightly. "Actually." The males of the group turned their attention to her, and she gave the most innocent of smiles. Immediately, Shikamaru felt his manly pride put in the crosshairs. "He did say we should have babies." Kiba tensed, his eyes widening even further. "Even gave me reasons why. He's very persuasive."

Silence again, and once more it was broken by Kiba. "Scratch that. Kakashi is going to lock you in his Mangekyō Sharingan and THEN Murder you. Many times. Again and Again. With pointy objects and shit knows what else!" His banter earned a scowl from the Shadow-User who glared at Sakura as if she had just done the most obvious act of betrayal. By her side, Sai frowned.

"… Does that mean you accepted to have his babies?" The innocent confusion of the question brought a flush bright to Shikamaru's cheeks, causing Kiba to burst further into amused laughter and comments on the upcoming torture as Sakura gave a coy grin and an upturned shoulder as her answer to the ink-user. They started slowly towards town again.

"Who knows?" Shikamaru focused his eyes on the girl as she glanced at him over her shoulder, the smallest of blushes tingeing her cheeks before she snapped her attention back to Sai. "… He was very persuasive."

Shikamaru smirked all the way back to Konoha. Of course, he hid for a week when he got there.

- End

A.N.: Okay. Review notes. Suggestions for characters in the next interlude, Review them to me. Situations? Review them. Remember, it can be more than two characters. The bigger the group, the longer it will take for me to make the interlude though. Just warning you~