"Aruki… Before we go, I just want to say that… I'm sorry for everything."
The brown-haired woman just stared at him unbelievingly. "You're sorry?"
"I'm so sorry, Aruki. I love you so much. I should never have married you. Then you and Jerome wouldn't be stuck in the middle of this. You would be safe."
As the tears started pouring down the man's plump cheeks, the woman smiled and reached up to wipe them away. She pulled him into a tight embrace, burying her face into his shirt.
"You foolish man. I wouldn't trade our marriage, our life, and our son, for anything in the world. I chose it of my own free will and I knew what the responsibilities were. I love you, Genzi, and don't you forget it. So please, stop weeping."
He felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and it only made him cry even harder.
"Oh, my dear, sweet Aruki. I love you, too."
He tried to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible, and though his huge size would normally be a drawback in the thick foliage and crunchy snow, the thought of saving his one child, his son, miraculously added a lighter touch to his feet, and he kept his pace slow.
It all felt like a huge dream; in some secret place in Genzi's heart, he had never thought that a day like this would come, when he would be facing his younger brother with the prospect of life or death. He had been living in a fantasyland, caught up in a perfect life of family and fortune, away from the realities of the shinobi world that surrounded him. Now his brother, Ruka, was here to take it all away when he had least expected it.
Ruka had been following them for weeks now, but until those few hours ago, the younger man had never showed his face; instead he had sent his wolf, his partner in battle, to spy on them and weaken their spirits with fear.
At least he had gotten to say farewells to his wife. Because Genzi wasn't sure he'd be coming back to her tonight.
Glancing first to his right, he watched Temari as she scoped the horizon, staying silent and always keeping her left hand clutching on her fan, which stayed tied down on her back. She was a good woman. Kind, fierce, beautiful. His heart lurched at the thought of her dying because of him. A ninja he had selfishly hired because of his own mistakes.
He looked to his left, seeing Shikamaru tread through the snow with a face more serious and harder than his female partner, Temari. He had a stiff neck, as if any slight noise would set off a flurry of shurikens and kunais in its direction. From what he had seen in the past few days, Shikamaru really did take his jobs seriously, as the Hokage had promised him when she responded to his request. If Shikamaru died, too, there would be an unforgivable guilt and sin on his heart that no time could ever take away.
Neither of them deserved to be there. But, then again, neither of them had to be there. Genzi grasped at the area on his chest where the necklace would usually be hanging. No matter what, Jerome, Shikamaru, and Temari would all three stay alive. Even if it meant his own life!
"So is that the final plan?" came a soft voice, brimming with sureness.
"Yes! From what I've calculated, it should give us more time to evaluate just a bit of his true skills, giving us more of an idea and more of a tactic," came another whisper.
"And more of a chance," was the morbid response.
Three shapes padded out into a medium clearing.
Genzi was in-between Shikamaru and Temari, with the spiky-head on the left, and the sand-girl on the right. The only one that seemed to show fear was Genzi, as he clutched a shape that protruded from underneath his shirt. A pair of eyes watched the blubbery man from within the treetops, blazing with a greedy lust.
"Ruka!" Genzi hollered around the clearing. "We've brought the Heart of Gold! Now give me back my son!"
Shikamaru glanced over at Temari, who was filtering through the brush around them, looking for a sign of the strange man who had been causing all of their trouble.
There was a quiet swish of air from behind, and heavy pawsteps thudded into the snow. Shikamaru could hear the heavy breathing and the growling of an animal as he swiveled around to see the white wolf charging towards them. Temari and Genzi had turned too, just in time for everyone to move out of the way as the creature's fixated jaws swiped at nothing.
"Temari, now!" Shikamaru yelled, gripping Genzi by his arm.
"Right," she said quietly, grabbing at her fan latched to her back. In a flurry of movements, both the wolf and Temari were face-to-face, ready to attack one another. But Temari had been quicker and well prepared for this. A gust of powerful wind knocked the wolf to its side across the clearing, rolling its huge body a couple of times before it found its balance on its paws. It's yellow eyes narrowed and its snarl deepened, blood trickling down from a cut on its eyebrow.
During this time Shikamaru had run further away to the side, taking out one shuriken from his weapons pouch, timing his throw perfectly in sync with Temari's Cutting Whirlwind Technique.
His shuriken buzzed towards the white wolf just as it regained its balance, but it wasn't so easily defeated – in an impressive performance of power and perception, the enemy wolf had pumped up with its back legs, sending itself soaring towards a nearby tree, where it used the new leverage to bounce back towards Shikamaru, jaws parted to show glowing blue teeth.
"Chakra enforced teeth, as I expected," Shikamaru thought out loud with an impressed grin. He easily dodged the wolf's attack with plenty of time to spare, with which Temari and Genzi used to group back together with him.
"This should be easy," Temari snickered to Shikamaru, firmly planting her fan against the ground and holding it at its base with her hand. It was an insulting insinuation that she was relaxed and unafraid of the wolf's petty strategies, which had obviously irked the wolf as it lifted its tail and lowered its head, preparing for another strike.
This time, however, neither of the ninjas were prepared as the beast's eyes started glowing blue.
"God's Angelic Twine: Flash of Holy Light!"
A blinding white light grew from the wolf's forehead, small at first, but soon flashed into a brilliant dazzle of white. Shikamaru gasped as a searing pain ripped through his eyes and into his brain, like a terrible migrain. He tried to close his eyes to rid himself of the blinding whiteness all around them, but it wouldn't fade. He heard somewhere overtop the overwhelmingness of his own situation, the growls of wolf and the screams of a man and woman. In moments, he felt a mighty pressure on his left shoulder, and in moments, the pain and the blinding whiteness was gone, as well as everything else.
Somewhere hiding within the treetops, a man's glowing blue eyes faded back to a deep brown. There was a smirk on his pale face.
He inched further down the tree, waiting for the perfect moment…
Three clones disappeared in puffs of white smoke. The clearing was now empty, except for the lone wolf standing at its far end. It snarled and raised its head defiantly.
"Come out of hiding, little mice, and give me the Heart of Gold."
Silence.
Its narrowed eyes scanned the brush, starting from left to right. When it could not sense them, its eyes faded back to a pale yellow. In the background somewhere very near, there was a loud squeal, full of pain and fear, and it echoed around the entire area as if something or someone amplified it. It was Jerome.
The wolf lifted its chin again and looked like it could laugh.
"Genzi, calm down!" Shikamaru commanded desperately.
They were hiding in the cover. The plan was going as expected, but as soon as Jerome began to wail, the devoted father could not hold his place and angrily stood up to reveal their hiding place, racing across the snow towards the wolf. He did not even have any weapons, but had his fist risen with a bloody intent.
"The idiot!" Shikamaru cursed, rushing out to aid him.
Temari clenched her teeth and felt her comrade's frustration, rushing out quickly at his side. "Shoot."
From one tree on the edge of a clearing, a round, black ball was tossed and landed in the snow, rolling once in front of the calm wolf's paws. It quickly exploded to swish black, choking smoke all around the area.
Temari stopped, reaching an arm out to find Shikamaru. She felt his arm and tugged on fiercely, pulling him towards her, so that they could stand back-to-back. "I can't see Genzi!" she yelled frantically.
Shikamaru held his arm up to his eyes and nose, coughing, and tried to pinpoint Genzi's location in the thick fog. Crap, crap, this is not going well, he thought gruesomely to himself.
As quickly as she had pulled him towards her, Temari pushed Shikamaru away a foot or two, and reached for her fan. With an awesome swipe of her strong arms, her fan blew a whirlwind forward and far beyond the clearing, taking majority of the smokebomb with it. As the frenzy of snow, dust, and smoke cleared away, the two ninja stood side-by-side and angrily stared at the scene before them.
The wolf had its jaws wrapped around Genzi's right arm, and on the man's left side, Ruka crouched over his brother, holding a kunai to his throat. But what amazed the two Konoha nins the most was that, standing next to Ruka's left side, there was another white wolf, and a painful-looking pink and hairless scar raged across its side, where Shikamaru's kunai had gorged a hole into it.
It was alive and well, and it held a young eleven-year-old boy by his jacket collar.
Ruka laughed and pressed the kunai further against Genzi's soft skin.
"Give me the Heart of Gold, or they both die."
Temari glanced over at Shikamaru, confused. How did Ruka know that Genzi did not carry the necklace?
"Temari…" Shikamaru whispered to her, though he did not look over at her.
She watched him closely.
"It's now or never," he told her, and she nodded, reaching into her weapon pouch with a confident smirk.