Chapter 13 Chūnin Exams Part 11

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm." Henrik Ibsen

It seemed to Shikako that the world suddenly stuttered as people collapsed right and left for no definable reason. The Genjutsu that caused the distortion was powerful beyond measure; it was terrifyingly easy to see how it had snared so many.

'Huh. Maybe that's why Kabuto's here?' Shikako thought hopefully, and that getting to have a look at her internal workings was merely a fortuitous aside.

Akamaru was as immune to the Genjutsu as Shikako herself, and jumped over to a groggy Kiba, who was already forming the seals for Genjutsu release. This was good - two allies awake already. Kotetsu and Izumo were in the thick of it already, and Kakashi-sensei had gone straight for the back of the stands where the illusion originated.

There was a flicker of metallic chakra.

Kakashi-sensei, it seemed, had taken her warning about 'ANBU Cat' very seriously.

Then the Kage's box exploded, billowing thick smoke out into the air. It only added to the impossible blur of motion, and crush of people were dashing to and fro. There was too much to take in, but Shikako was only looking for one thing: Orochimaru. Thankfully, the Hokage seemed to be occupying the traitor's attention admirably, and Shikako wished the old man luck. She might even remember him fondly if he managed to keep The Snake away from her teammates.

Taking a breath, Shikako made a choice. Rather than push all her friends under the seating and leave them there (hoping that they might escape enemy notice), she woke them up.

She laid down cover fire between jabbing her sleeping friends awake. Ino came to readily, and after a muttered "We're under attack." took a shuttered breath, drew her weapons. Chouji was next, and Kiba blocked flurry of shuriken from skewering them all. She woke Hinata and Tenten at the same moment, explaining their predicament as succinctly as possible.

Lee she lodged firmly down into the footwell. Tenten looked like she was about to protest - but Shikako just looked at her firmly.

Grudgingly, Tenten let it be.

Lee would be nothing but a liability in this fight, and as a Genin with no bloodline he wasn't in any specific danger of kidnapping, or a retribution killing, while vulnerable.

Then there wasn't time to think about any of that that, because enemies crawled or if the woodwork right and left. Shikako had to play the most delicate game of Replacement Tag ever - because the enemy nin were not interested in preventing civilian casualties.

She even got to use her Touch Blast in a real battle for the first time - application was still much slower than she'd like.

The battle was impossibly taxing, and the Nara was hopping awkwardly around the backs of the seats, manoeuvring around unconscious bodies and trying not to have her head kicked off, while also doing her best to give the others backup.

The assembled genin weren't great together - weren't teammates - but they all had at least a basic understand of each other's skills, and enough trust between them to allow each of the others to guard their back.

Kiba was especially distracted, but this was probably the first time he'd killed, and he was still managing to go through the motions of not dying in a warzone - so he was probably doing better than Shikako herself. She'd just stood there in stunned surprise after the melody arm had exploded; almost leaving her teammates open to attack from Kabuto.

"What the hell even is this?" he said, eyes wild and his kunai still dripping blood.

"An invasion," Shikako reminded him sombrely, surely just confirming what he didn't want to acknowledge. She did try for sympathy, but couldn't spare the attention to focus solely on him. She trapped a Sand Nin for Ino to switch with, and through him the Yamanaka took out two of his companions with non-lethal force.

"At least they've done us the favour of identifying themselves." She added. It really would have been very confusing if they weren't wearing uniforms. And probably have made things much harder on the unblooded Konoha nin.

Carefully, calculatedly, Shikako used the back of a chair as a Frisbee of Doom to explode a small gathering of sound ninja - why were so many soft targets allowed to be on this battlefield?

Shikako's inattention to her immediate surroundings was costly, forcing her to make a series of unbalanced movements in retreat across the uneven, body strewn area.

Thankfully, Konoha was a place where your comrades could be counted upon to pull your arse out of the fire when you were a moron, and Kotetsu performed that duty admirably; cutting the enemy easily down from behind.

She thanked him breathlessly as she rose, and he responded noncommittally. Because that was how things were. They were comrades - and in the end, that was that.

She was separated from the group now, but she signed for them to continue as she tried to fight her way back to them.

The sound of her own blood pumping was a thunderous roar, but Shikako listened past it, focused. She hadn't damaged the sleepers, and Izumo fought the blasts sole survivor.

Orochimaru and the Hokage were still locked in combat, and there were now two other high level signatures added to the mix. One of them had an unfamiliar-yet-somehow-almost-familiar chakra-feel, but Shikako didn't have the time to think about why.

Orochimaru was not headed in Sasuke's direction at the moment. That is the important thing to take away from the observation.

That was a relief.

She shoved aside the gibbering wreck in the back of her mind, 'now isn't the time.'

Shikako deflected more attacks, killed more enemies - tried to take in some of the more important aspects of the battle. Kotetsu was gone; back into the fray, Kiba was fighting and largely uninjured, the rest were holding their own admirably. The Jōnin-sensei present were all occupied with multiple targets, but didn't seem overly endangered. The overall skill of their attackers seemed to be at a mid-Chūnin level at the highest - which Shikako can work with.

The Sand Siblings exited stage left, Sasuke hot on their heels.

Shikako cursed as she cut down more Sound Nin: she hadn't had the chance to tag him with the 'Hearthstone/DHD Seal' – yes Shikako was unrepentant and indecisive nerd; it wasn't her biggest problem right now.

Shikako was about to chase off after her wayward teammate when a black blur flew past her position.

Kabuto, unmasked and dressed in back, called out tauntingly to Kakashi-sensei; who was fighting over a dozen enemies at once. His Sharingan was exposed, but he didn't look any worse for wear.

It was too easy to forget that sensei wasn't some harmless, goofy slacker - at least until it really wasn't.

Then Kabuto made a grab for Shikako. Maybe she would just be a hostage, but somehow the Nara doubted she was that lucky. With a level of quickness that came purely from unspeakable terror (though the deactivation of the resistance seals, and a lot of Chakra enhancement probably helped) she evaded his reaching arms.

As she jumped back, Shikako left her shadow behind, holding the medic traitor in place as she retreated.

Then Gai-senseis punishing blows ricocheted down the sympathetic bond, and Shikako wished she'd just run away or something.

Shikako was still reeling on the ground when Kakashi-sensei landed lightly next to her.

"No time to be wool gathering, Shikako." He admonished gently with a very bright eye smile, and she glared sullenly up at him. "I'm sure he will Very Youthfully make it up to you later." He teased; but his presence, however annoying, was a stabilising factor in this unstable situation.

When her sensei seemed to examine her scrutinisingly, Shikako instantly stood and tried to look much less afraid than she really was.

Kakashi looked like he was regretting his decision to give her the mission even as he set the parameters. Not wanting to give him any more reasons to bench her, Shikako did not panic at being put in charge.

Much.

"Hai Sensei." She said, voice dry but steady. Mind a terrified whirlwind of hastily constructed and dismissed plans.

Then Kakashi summoned an incredibly cute pug... because that is the world Shikako lived in.

"Pakkun here will track down Sasuke by scent."

Then Pakkun broke the tension by being hilariously deep voiced, and offering his 'soft and supple' paw for Shikako to shake.

"Got it?" Sensei asked.

"Track Sasuke. Protect him. Stop Gaara." She summarised, in a single breath.

Shikako made her plans; and hoped to any God that might be listening, that her precious people all survived today.

"There's an opening in the back wall. Get ready. I'll cover you," he said.

Shikako nodded, and began searching for Naruto - they really needed him to have any hope of success.

Quickly, she darted over to the Rookies and Tenten. Shikako flashed a hand sign that meant 'close ranks' and with their backs together, she briefed them.

"Kakashi-sensei has given us a mission. Gaara has fled the stadium and Sasuke went after him. Our job is to pursue them and back Sasuke up… and protect him from being captured."

They all stiffened, but Hinata seemed especially rigid.

"Hinata, are you combat ready?" She asked evenly. Shikako had to ask for appearances, though she already knew the answer - Hinata's lungs and heart were probably in better shape now than before Neji lost his shit.

The heiress stuttered an affirmative.

Shikako examined the Ninja under her command – 'Why is this happening to me? No one was in charge before, that might even be the better option' - and picked her second. Tenten had experience on all of them, but no leadership background and only minimal knowledge of the Rookies capabilities...

"Kiba, lead everyone out of the stadium. I saw Sasuke leave over the North-West edge. See if you can catch a trail. Do not engage without backup: no matter what. I'm going to grab more reinforcements and I'll meet you in the forest."

There was an uncharacteristic seriousness in Kiba's eyes when he accepted her orders.

"Go! Godspeed." And then as they leave she pitched her voice to reach only them 'And number 1 rule: No Dying!" Because chakra enhanced vocal cords are surprisingly fun and useful.

The trip across the arena was not fun, but having Kakashi-sensei's ninken zipped into the front of her jacket was oddly comforting. Like a furry, sentient hot water bottle.

Darting round the the edges of the area was the best way to get to Naruto, swiftly she cut a bloody trail though Konoha's enemies; she had prepared for war, coming here today - even if she took great care not to show it. She had been able to pack a good deal more Sebon onto her person than she could have kunai. Her accuracy was less, sure, but a bomb is a bomb at the end of the day - whether it hits the meat of an arm or the aorta, it didn't matter once the charge detonated.

Another fun thing the Forest of Death had taught her.

The ninken was a silent warm presence against her chest, and that he didn't speak up even when Shikako knew that he could feel (never mind scent or hear) her desperate fear and the pounding of her heart.

It meant a lot.

Shikako slipped quietly into the box that held her brother, her teammate, her fiend, and her enemy. Using the latter's distraction in her favour, Shikako knocked out the Sound Nin with one enhanced kick.

They didn't have the time for pleasantries, so Shikako simply slammed a chakra spike into Naruto's arm, and informed the room at large that they had a mission - if they were still combat capable.

They all nodded with varying levels of enthusiasm, and Shikako lead them out.

Though Naruto looked very confused by Pakkun.

When she was sure everyone was coherent enough to understand, Shikako explained again what was happening.

"We're under attack from Sound and Sand" she said shortly – for like the billionth time. "And we have a mission. Find and protect Sasuke, find and defeat Gaara. We're meeting up with others in the forest; I'll give you more details then. We'll go out the front; and up over the wall. Stay low and fast, we don't need to draw unnecessary attention here. Eyes open."

They got out without incident - which was a relief. And from there, Pakkun led.

Also, did Pakkun even know what Sasuke smelled like?

Kiba found them soon after, bringing the rest round with him. They were a big group now that they were united. Nine nin and two ninken.

Hopefully they would be enough.

"Any trouble?" Shikako asked, as wary of good news as of bad at this point.

Kiba shook his head. "Nah. We're good."

"Right," Shikako stated - because everything had been going smoothly in the forest is death all three times it had gone horribly wrong. Chiding herself for being overly superstitious, Shikako started handing out weapons and drugs in the move - 'cause that's how she rolled... or something.

Everyone was in serviceable condition, and the only ones at their best condition were Shikako and Tenten. All she could do was trust them to know their limits... this was such a terrible idea.

Why was she in charge again?

She also pulled out and divvied up explosive seals galore - she was prepared to lay siege to a small nation of it had to come to that - for all that she really didn't ever want to go to sound, if it could possibly be avoided.

Taking a deep breath, Shikako began their mission briefing.

She hoped they didn't see how terrified she was.

"Our mission is to track down Sasuke and prevent him from falling into enemy hands. Our secondary mission objective is to assist him in defeating Gaara of the Desert."

"Got it!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully in spite of the circumstances.

As succinctly as she could manage, the younger Nara rattled off all the pertinent information, Gaara being the Ichibi Jinchuuriki, the implications of that, that his brother and sister would be protecting him. She moved on to their skills, and how they were going to deal with that - Splitting them off, weak to strong: perfectly lined up like the Mirror Seal. Everyone accepted and acknowledged the plan, so Shikako assumed that she was understood.

Ino, Kiba and Shino vs Temari.

Shika, Tenten and Hinata vs Kankuro.

It had been a tough call - Shino had fought Kankuro once before, but he had battled today, and sustained too many losses to his colonies already. It would be better to have fresher opponents to face the puppeteer, so the ranged fighters were best. And Hinata would be able to see the chakra strings between Kankuro and his puppet, so that would be incredibly useful.

Then she came up to the main event.

"Ino, under no circumstances are you to Mind-Body Switch with Gaara. Ever. Naruto is our best shot at combating Gaara. Your clones and your summoning jutsu are the biggest advantages we have against him." And Kyuubi, she added silently, looking him in the eye. "If we run into other enemies, Chouji and I will be the ones to drop back. Remember the mission objectives and regroup as necessary."

"Any questions?"

Shikamaru had questions, and Shikako made sure to think them all through; because even though he didn't have all the information, Shika was still much, much smarter than she was.

Then Pakkun broke in with the news that they were being tailed by nine enemy nin.

It sounded familiar... Shikako let the tenuous memory-thread unravel on its own as she planned.

They had almost killed Shika, Before. She recalled suddenly.

Would have if Asuma-sensei hadn't turned up at the opportune moment.

Silently, and with deadly focus, Shikako reached out with her senses...

There! Closing in fast.

"I got this." She said, "Keep going - I'll catch up" there was a palpable disbelief in the air, but no one seemed willing to contradict their mission leader.

As she hung under the branch, applying a seal that would almost certainly take lives, Shikako reflected in the utter lack of guilt sure felt.

They would have tried to kill Shikamaru.

They could not be allowed to make the attempt.

With the seal as destructive as she could possibly make it, Shikako ran back to the others as fast she could. She let out a breath when she passed the blast radius, but the seal detonated just before she got back to the group.

It was beyond her greatest expectations; the shockwave knocked her forward several feet. The others were visibility nervous when she caught up with them.

"Hoooly shit," Naruto breathed. "Just how many explosive tags did you use?"

"None." Shikako said and wiggled her fingers playfully at him, the grin on her face felt a little too tight, a little too wild. They probably needed some levity in this situation - but Shikako was much too afraid to supply it herself.

There was a faint whisper of chakra on the edge of the Nara's perception.

Between Pakkun and Hinata they established that no one would be following from that direction.

'That is...' Shikako swallowed. 'The best outcome...' She still didn't feel guilty - not as such. She just wished that it hadn't been necessary. Wished they hadn't forced her hand - because being a threat to one of her marks - to her twin? She just couldn't let that lie.

"Right," 'This is an acceptable outcome.' She told herself, it's just that, she hasn't expected it to get them all... With Team 7 luck they should have been ANBU level or something.

From the distance they could hear explosions, and tripwire traps slowed their way.

They were getting closer.

The fear was building - every step that took them father away from Orochimaru, took them closer to an insane Jinchuuriki.

Rock - Hard Place, and no good options in between.

"Maa maa, you're not worrying about Moonbeam are you?" Naruto said, catching her carefully concealed unease. "That's just him showing off! We gotta get up there quick, he'll never shut up if he beats them all before we get there! Dattebayo!'

"Maybe that's what I'm worried about," she returned with a stained attempt at playfulness. "We'd never live it down."

Then Pakkun informed them that Sasuke and one of the Sand Nin had stopped moving forwards, and started fighting.

Felt like Temari.

We've got this' she told herself firmly. 'This'll work. It has to.'

When they move forwards, without the Temari assault team but with Sasuke; Shikako feels nervous. Everything in her screams to keep her marks where she can protect them.

She knows that she can't keep them safe. Not really. Not against Gaara, or Orochimaru; but some distant part of her insists anyway.

It's even worse to leave Shika, but she had to believe that they'd be okay - because this is the greatest possible chance of her marks survival she presses the mission. That too.

As they ran towards the ambling chakra signature of the injured future Kazekage, Shikako pressed a Seal through the back of the Uchiha's shirt as she handed over a solider pill and more backup weaponry.

"You'd have got this in time for the fight, if you hadn't been so late. I guess after a month Kakashi-sensei's lateness just rubs off on you, I wonder if you'll ever recover?" she admonished playfully, faux sadness in her voice. Sasuke just looks at the Lightning seal inscribed Fuma Shuriken and smirked broadly back at her. And it is a thing of elegant brutality - with the four interconnecting circuits of lightning seals painted on its four folding blades. "Take care, ne? Friendly fire is a thing - especially if you're going to use that."

The 'Recall Seal' (as she had termed it in the interim) wasn't perfect, not by a long shot; but this most current design did move small forest animals most of the way to the 'Anchor Seal' without hurting them. It was more like a sealed version of the Shunshin, or maybe the Kawarimi, technique, than a true summons - which would probably have required the use of reality bending elements, so Shikako was glad about that. There had been a very interesting equation about offsetting the extra cost of pulling a person at such a frequency that they simply passed through the intervening matter without interacting with it (utilising the space between atoms, which Shikako had never believed possible before). It made Shikako want to cry with the desire to speak to the genius so had created this - she rather suspected, though, that the man was well beyond her reach.

Also, the tests before she'd added the stabilisation mechanism (which allowed the seal to dump the intact 'cargo' early if there wasn't enough chakra to make the full journey) had been... messy. And traumatising.

She'd only got a chance to test it on herself once - finding time away from prying eyes was ridiculously hard these days. The seal was outrageously inefficient in its current form. As soon as ink flowered on the back of Sasuke's shirt, it began drawing energy from Shikako; at a constant low level (less than the cost of chakra enhancement, but it could be significant in the long run) stream that connected to the anchor point in Shikako's bedroom. She theorised that the Chūnin scroll was only able to be active for one week, due to this power linkage/drainage problem. The 'Heaven and Earth Scroll' part of the seal was clearly the simpler half of the equation in any case. So she had mostly had to reverse engineer the damn thing using only a fragment of the original design.

It was also stubbornly single use, but that wasn't so much of an issue in this scenario.

Shikako hoped, when they came upon the redhead, that they could simply observe his progress until he was out of Fire Country entirely - which was obviously impossible.

She wished it even more when Gaara began screaming for Sasuke to fight him.

He sounded deranged, and his chakra wild with hatred.

Shikako bit her tongue until it bled, and steeled her resolve.

Her precious people would survive this. She would make sure of it.

Notes:

Review problem has gone away, so now I can actually read and respond to them. Please give whatever your thoughts are, and I will reply one way or another. I love hearing what people think, so please share your thoughts and ideas if you want to.

Hearthstone is a thing in World of Warcraft that will bring you back to your favourite tavern no matter where in the world you are, and the DHD (Dial Home Device) is something from Stargate that is literally a keypad that opens a wormhole portal between different planets/galaxies.

I had a hard time with the seal - I've been struggling trying to think about how it's not basically the Hiraishin, and wondering why they would use something like that in their Chunin exams. Honestly, if they can summon 'on call' Shinobi from a distance (even just a few kilometres) then they should never have any problems with ambushes, or being overrun in a war zone... Well... whatever...

I've decided that it is an inefficient 'stepping stone' for Minato as he worked out how to make the Flying Thunder God, so there.

Snippet From donahermurphy's Review:

I headcanon that Shikaku, going out for drinks with Inoichi, tries to talk through why Shikako is Acting Like This. She might be upset about not being able to do her usual activities, but usually Shikako is at least reasonable about things. It's like she's trying to make him angry, when all they want to do is help her!

Inoichi blinks. "You might not want to rule that out," he says.

Shikaku looks up from his drink. "You think she might be doing it on purpose?" he asks, baffled.

Inoichi shrugs. "Not necessarily consciously. But it's not just a matter of how she's dealing with the diagnosis- it's also how she's dealing with her parents dealing with the news. When children are trying to prompt their parents to react to something, or shift their parent's attention, anger is often the tool that comes easiest to hand. It's not working as well on your wife, I think- she's used to Shikamaru's antics aggravating her. But it's possible that Shikako prefers making you angry to seeing you sad, or having to think about the repercussions herself."

Shikaku sighs into his cup. "She's doing it with good news, too. The latest test- well, that why I'm out here. The latest test on her condition said it's not nearly as bad as we thought. She'll have to make some life adjustments, to be sure, but we caught it early enough that it's extremely unlikely to be..." He trailed off.

"That's good news," Inoichi says encouragingly.

"As long as she doesn't push herself too hard, and-" Shikaku drinks from the sake cup. "I just don't want it to get worse. And of course she tried to leverage the news into letting her off and do whatever she wants with her chakra coils, and probably toss her improved odds down the drain-" he cut himself off. "It's not fair of me- she's twelve, she thinks she's immortal, and she's unbelievably upset that she won't be able to do the things all her friends would be doing. And her new hobby is arguing with me."

"Sometimes that's a Dad's job," Inoichi says. "You've heard some of the stuff Ino's gotten up to, over the years."

"Point," Shikaku snorts. "You should hear her opinion of Hyuuga Hiashi, though. I'm thinking I'll probably never be able to repay him, and she's acting like he went and plucked her out of the Chunnin exams all on his lonesome, for kicks."

"A new target for her ire," Inoichi commented.

"Getting angry at me or Hyuuga-san is probably healthier for her than trying to outstubborn Chakra Instability by pretending it doesn't exist," Shikaku adds. His tone wry, if not happy- and that was an improvement.