A/N: Second flashback chapter. Enjoy!
-Remnants of a Shinobi's Fire-
Interlude Two: Code Silver
def: Warning of:
(1) A security breach
(2) A combative patient with a lethal weapon is on the loose
(3) A violent situation is unfolding and lock down is in place
1 year 9 months prior to current story line, Mariejois.
The Throne Room was one of the Tenryubito's most closely guarded treasures, and the only section of the castle that remained strictly off limits to all those without noble blood. Despite having gathered at the elaborate stronghold for hundreds of meetings, Doflamingo had never been able to set foot inside the exclusive room.
Not after he'd renounced his title, anyway.
...Which made it all the more suspicious when he'd turned a corner and caught a glimpse of a shadow slipping out through the crack under the doors, slowly solidifying into the morbidly obese form of one Gekko Moriah.
Now, the Shichibukai was by no means a tightly knit group, but they had an unspoken agreement to keep out of each other's way. He may not admit it, but the flamboyant Shichibukai actually did hold some modicum of respect for several members of their group.
Unfortunately, Gekko Moriah was not among those select few.
If Doflamingo could pick just one person to kick out of the Shichibukai, it would be the shadow user. Moriah was a disgustingly weak simpleton, and he didn't even add to the visual aesthetic like Hancock did. Plain and simple, Doflamingo despised the eyesore, and had made it his personal mission to make life hell for the other Shichibukai at their monthly meetings.
With a wicked grin, Doflamingo attached his puppet strings to Moriah's large form, but before he could do much else, suddenly found his entire body immobilized. Frowning slightly as some invisible power forced his head to look down, Doflamingo was surprised to see a shadow stretched out from Moriah's body, solidly connected to his own.
"So you finally learned some new tricks, huh?" Doflamingo smirked, not at all bothered by the fact that the shadow user had caught him in a trap. It'd been a while since he had some fun anyway.
Moriah simply rolled his eyes and leaned back lazily. "What do you want?"
Doflamingo raised a brow. Now this was new. Moriah had never failed to rise to his jibes before; he was incredibly easy to bait, and the one of the reasons Doflamingo liked tormenting the guy so much was because of his hilarious reactions. When had the idiot become so cool-headed?
"What were you doing in the Throne Room?" Doflamingo asked instead. "I thought it was reserved for Tenryubito only."
"Of course it is," Moriah replied, turning his back on the other Shichibukai and starting to walk away. "For anyone but the World Nobles to enter the Throne Room is punishable by death... not that it concerns us. We have a meeting to get to."
To his surprise, Doflamingo found his feet moving in concert with Moriah's. It was… interesting, to say the least. Doflamingo could clearly recall the many times he'd manipulated Moriah's shadow puppets with ease, but apparently the shadow user had grown significantly stronger in the two months since they'd last met.
Throwing his hands up in the air with an overly dramatic sigh, Doflamingo allowed himself to be dragged away and made a mental note to keep an eye on his least favorite Shichibukai. Something weird was going on here, and he was going to find out what.
"So what you're saying," Boa Hancock repeated skeptically, looking unusually stressed despite her meticulous appearance, "is that some unknown kid appeared out of nowhere and completely destroyed Marineford?"
Hawkeyes glanced at the group disinterestedly from his seat by the window. "And why weren't we notified of this sooner? There were absolutely no reports in the news."
"Use your brain," Doflamingo smirked, leaning back in his chair and crackling gleefully. "You don't seriously expect the World Government to advertise that they were completely flattened by an unknown nobody? I bet the outward façade of Marineford is the only thing intact right now."
Kuzan Aokiji's eyes narrowed, but he couldn't deny the truth in the despicable Shichibukai's words.
"You are not to repeat this to anyone. The perpetrator has been detained, but we do not know whether he's alone or working for a group. The only reason the World Government has even deemed it necessary to inform you of this is so you can keep an eye out for other suspects."
"The one responsible," Moriah spoke up for the first time, voice uncharacteristically curious and lacking his signature maniacal tone, "who is he?"
"We do not know his name. He is blonde, blue-eyed, about 6 feet, and wears a criminal amount of orange. We were unable to find any identification on him, and his face returned no hits for facial recognition."
"And what exactly… are you planning on doing with him?"
Aokiji frowned. "That, unfortunately, is classified. Why are you so interested?"
Gekko Moriah shrugged, before chuckling dementedly. "Oh… I want his shadow, of course! Such a fine specimen shouldn't be left to rot in a cell."
"He won't be. His execution is in a month."
Doflamingo thought he saw a flicker of panic pass in the other Shichibukai's eyes, but it was gone before he could say anything. Turning to Aokiji instead, Doflamingo grinned at the admiral's still limping figure.
"Man, someone sure has it out for you guys this year. First two Tenryubitos get murdered, then Marineford gets totaled. If you're not careful…"
Doflamingo licked his lips in glee.
"Who knows, maybe one of the Gorosei will get killed off next."
Back in the privacy of his room, Nara Shikamaru released his henge and dropped unceremoniously on the lavish bed, very much tempted to scream into his pillow.
The problems just kept coming. The Tenryubito incident had only just blown over, and before he could fully clean up the mess this happens.
The Nara genius didn't know how or why Naruto chose to flatten Marineford and make himself the number one hated enemy of an entire fleet of marines, but he did know he had to get him out.
Aokiji had said the execution was in one month. That gave him four weeks to find out where the blonde was being held, plan an escape, and break him out.
"This is impossible," he exhaled, lighting another cigarette and taking a deep drag. "It's three of us against an army."
"Were you always this pessimistic?" A wry voice cut through the darkness, prompting the lazy genius to sit up in alarm and whip around with a kunai ready in his hand. As his vision adjusted to the darkness, the shadow user breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized the familiar silhouette seated against the open window, blonde hair swaying gently in the breeze.
"You shouldn't be here," Shikamaru muttered, but the relief in his eyes was clear. "The entire World Government is out looking for you. Did you know you're now officially the third most wanted person in the world?"
The blonde arched a brow, and shrugged.
"Honestly, Shikamaru, what did you think was going to happen? We did, after all, kill two Tenryubito."
"Three, technically," Shikamaru grimaced. "I was hoping Hinata would be able to keep the shit from hitting the fan."
The other shinobi was quiet for a while before she spoke.
"We already knew this was going to be the worst-case scenario. But it's not all bad—I think I may have found a possible ally. I'll be able to hide out on his ship for a while."
"You trust this man?"
"Not entirely. But if there's anyone able to stand up to the World Government, it's him and his crew."
Shikamaru felt a huge burden lift off his shoulders at her words. "Good," he sighed, "because we have another problem to deal with."
Joining the other nin at the table, Shikamaru took note of the confident expression on his friend's face and thought not for the first time how lucky he was to not have to do this alone.
"...I'm glad you're okay, Temari."
A/N: Hopefully this cleared up some of the questions alluded to in the last chapter. I had this written some time ago, but I decided to seek out several beta readers to help me polish things a little. Many thanks to ashardoffreedom and DestinyCrusader!
Random Comments/Musings:
-I was very tempted to write "the Iron Throne" instead of the Throne Room. GoT fans will know what I'm referring to. (Also, is it just me, or does Doflamingo remind anyone else of an older and more capable Jeoffrey lol?)
-So Shikamaru is also revealed to be impersonating Gekko Moriah. How he came to do so and what happened to the real Moriah will be revealed in time, probably around the Thriller Bark arc. FYI— at this point he has not yet infiltrated the Marines.
-Temari is in the story! I bet some of you thought it was going to be Ino, huh? Temari's a better fit for what I have planned since I see her as more badass/calculating than Ino. I also kind of need her to tie in someone else from Naruto-verse. She won't have a super big role, but her actions will set several important things in motion. In case it wasn't clear, she's Public Enemy #3 for killing the Tenryubito. Why she did it will be explained soon.
FYI—in this story, public enemies are not designated based on power/strength level, but on who the World Government sees as the most unstable, the most likely to wreck havoc, with the most influence, etc. Dragon is #1 not because he's the most powerful in OP (though he probably is pretty high up there), but because as leader of the Revolutionary Army he's the biggest threat to the current balance of power. Killing two Tenryubito is enough to escalate you to #3 because everyone knows they're untouchable, so whoever has the gull to actually kill two of them is either batshit crazy or confident enough in their abilities to take on the whole world. But the actual act of killing the two nobles isn't hard at all; any decent shinobi or pirate should be able to do it.
The really smart characters will have the sense to stay off the government's radar entirely. Someone like Neji would make more sense power-wise as enemy #3, but like Shikamaru I think he'll have the sense to remain discreet. You'll find that the shinobi on the World Government's hit list all tend to get somewhat reckless/hot-headed/over-confident at times.
Loguetown arc is up next. Already written, just need to be beta-ed. Should be up in 1 or 2 weeks. Remember to read and review!