Disclaimer: I own the plot. I don't own any characters or places or anything that is from the Naruto series.

Kick. Punch. Duck. Dodge. Flip. Kick. Elbow. Block. Punch. Duck-

Shit. I though as I happen to catch the smirk on my opponents face. Dodge. I should have dodged.

It was too late now, even as I saw it happing in slow motion, I knew I couldn't do anything to stop it. Haku's kekei genkai was a strange one, most thought that ice release was just the ability to mix both wind and water affinities together to make ice. But kekei genkai's, I had discovered, never simply did one thing. So far, from Haku's memory I had discovered that ice release and the ability to perceive everything in slow motion, to speed up your own movements by double, still never helped me, I was just that slow. And a strange ability to become one with ice and somehow teleport between the ice mirrors created.

It was also really bizarre being hit when I had Haku's kekei genkai activated. The pain of the attack, it came on so slowly, an itch almost, at first then slowly, little by little there was more and more until it hurt. I wasn't sure what was better, the sudden pain or the gradual grow of it. All I knew was that it was my last fight. I was done. I hit the floor, also very slowly, and then the world speed up, Haku's kekei genkai released and everything was normal.

Normal being me laying on the ground utterly exhausted staring up at a very smug and only slightly winded Uchiha wondering to myself what I ever saw in a prick like him.

"I win again." Sasuke said mockingly and also unnecessarily. I glared because, right now, that was all I could do, but what I really wanted to do was call him an asshole, or take a page out of Naruto's book and call him a teme. I didn't realise how right Naruto was about that until this moment.

I paused waiting for the shrill screech that was Inner but just like it had been for the past two days, there was only me in my mind. I sighed and felt tears well in my eyes. I was alone, truly alone in my head and I did not like it. I missed that crazy voice in my head, I knew that she did nothing but drool over boys and go off about how awesome we were, even when it was clear that we were not awesome at all. Still I missed her, she was a part of me and with her gone I did not know what to do.

"Catch." I voice grunted and, like it had a mind of its own my arm, as painful as it was to lift, rose and caught whatever had been thrown without even looking. If Inner were here she would be screaming about how cool the action was then take it overboard by saying we could probably fight blindfolded too, that's how awesome we are.

But Inner wasn't here, only Sasuke and I, and Sasuke didn't know Inner and I could only speculate what she'd say because she wasn't here. Not even when Sasuke and I were alone.

Absently, I sat up, though it did hurt to even move, thanked him and I took a drink from the water bottle that he had thrown to me. It had been two days since I had last heard Inners voice, at first I freaked, I didn't know what to do, not just about Inner not being there, but about what happened with Shikamaru.

Of course I had told my team about Inner's disappearance, it seemed that since the wave mission I had become much more truthful with my two teammates, and to a somewhat lesser degree, Kakashi-sensei. I had asked, well, more like begged, Sasuke to train with me, both in the hopes of bringing Inner back and also to serve as a distraction. But so far it has not helped on either end, Inner still wasn't there and my mind still wondered. Maybe it would have been better to have asked to train with Naruto instead, but he reminded me of Inner so much, and besides that, Naruto just didn't like to strike me, even in training. But the Shikamaru situation, that was a different story.

"You're distracted." The words sliced through my thoughts and brought my attention back to my sparring partner who was sitting three feet in front of me, leaning against a tree with a water bottle of his own next to him.

I took a minute to look at him, yes, it was undeniably that he was attractive, he was almost feminine in his beauty, yet there were things that were undoubtedly male. His strong jaw line, the angle of his eyes and the way his mouth was set in a thin line, though his lips were very full. Though the aura he gave was what defined him as 'male', it dripped off him in the way he carried himself, in every movement, every sound he made with his deep, almost too deep for a person his ages', voice.

No wonder why Inner fawned over him, he is attractive.

"She's still not back." His voice broke through my thoughts again, this time though, I made sure to stay on the subject.

"No." I sighed and rubbed my eyes, trying to fight the burn of tears before they truly started. "I keep thinking about it, she was there that morning, we were talking about Kakashi-sensei's journal, and she was there when I went out to get strawberries and when I met-" I cut myself off, I was supposed to not be thinking about Shikamaru not when there was a bigger problem of Inner being missing. But for a second, just a second, my mind drifted to the feel of Shikamaru lips pressed against mine, the passion I thought impossible for the lazy boy. I shook my head at how uncharacteristic we both acted a blush adorning my cheeks.

Sasuke grunted, a wordless prompt for me to carry on with my sentence and I blushed a darker red looking away, unable to meet his gaze. His eyes narrowed, I wasn't looking but I knew they did because, to some extent, I knew him, which meant that I knew he was now curious and would not stop until he got the answer out of me.

I sighed, resigned to tell him.

"When I met Shikamaru." My lips tingled as I spoke his name and my stomach gave a pleasantly uncomfortable flutter.

"Nara?" I heard the surprise in his voice but didn't turn to see if it appeared on his face, if I looked at him now I wouldn't be able to continue and I needed to get this off my chest.

I gave a stiff nod and took a deep breath. "We, no, I-I, well..." I stutter pathetically, I felt Sasuke's annoyance grow though he stayed quiet. "I may have, accidentally, kissed him." My voice rose in pitch with each word I spoke.

It was silent for a long time, or maybe it was only a short while and it just felt like a long time because I was panicking. Because this was the moment I realized, truly realized, that now the words were out I couldn't take them back. They just hung around and as each agonising second passed I wished more and more that I had never let them see the light of day.

"How can you accidently kiss someone?" My head whipped around to face Sasuke. Of all the things to have asked, even just the hows, like how did it happen, he choose to ask that. The sarcastic retort left my mouth before I could even comprehend what I was saying.

"Oh shut up, it's not like you never accidently kissed someone before, or are you trying to tell me that you like Naruto and all the fighting is some kind of foreplay."

I froze. Sasuke froze. Birds were suddenly quiet. The wind no longer blew. Trees no longer swayed or rustled. All was silent, unmoving. The world, too, froze.

What in the five great nations. I thought as my mind raced and I realized that it wasn't just my perception, the adrenalin, anticipation and dread that made the world freeze. It was this ten time damned stolen Kekei genkai, somehow, it seemed that it froze time. And then before I could process the fact that, now I could apparently stop time, everything unfroze and I was faced with Sasuke's slightly sneering, disgusted face.

"Tsk." It was the only thing that he said before he turned to leave and it made me realize that he didn't have to be here and he certainly did need to be hearing me moan about my problems. Most of all he didn't need to take my crappy mood especially after the favour and kindness he was doing me. So as painful as it was for me, I still reached out and took hold of his arm.

"I'm sorry. I'm just really stressed and I know I shouldn't take it out on you since your only trying to help." I let go of him as I fell back to the ground suddenly drained on energy. "Its strange how off balance I feel without Inner, I mean all she did was tell me how awesome I was and point out attractive guys but...I miss her. She was a part of me and now she's gone and I don't understand how or why."

Tears fell, I had kept them in until now, suppressed them, held them at bay but it was no use because they were going to come out sooner or later. Everything was simply getting too much. Killing Haku, the Kekei Genkai's, Both mine and his, the training, the aches from having too much chakra, trying to find out about what my Kekei Genkai did, Almost dying, trying to crack Kakashi-sensei's code and now Shikamaru. It was a wonder that this didn't happen sooner.

So I sat there, silently crying as I held onto Sasuke, as if I let him go I would just be blown away. As if he was the only thing keeping me here on ground and not lost and maybe it was true. Because I truly felt alone and only the fact that I held on to someone, even the cold and distant Uchiha Sasuke told me that there were still people around me.

Sasuke shifted and I became all too aware of how Sasuke must be feeling and let go. It took me a moment to calm myself and stop the tears from falling, in which time Sasuke stood still, not making a move to either comfort me or to leave. I was thankful for that. For all Sasuke's distant aloofness, he was a really good teammate and person.

I stood on shaking legs, bowing to Sasuke as I thanked him. I felt a little better, not much but still. Sasuke had done little more than listen and not leave as I cried but it helped and for that I was grateful.

"Talk to him." Sasuke said, his back still faced towards me. "Nara is not unreasonable."

I stared at the back of his head and suddenly found myself talking again, telling him about what I had found out about, about my ancestry, about how there was another part of a Kekei Genkai. One that, as of whenever they were alive, had once killed and sent people who were kissed by them into a coma. I found it easier to talk when he wasn't looking at me with his penetrating stare so the words flow much more easily.

It was quiet when I had finished talking but not the panic filled one or the strange kekei genkai, time stopped, quiet. The birds still sung the trees still rustled and Sasuke was still stock still but not frozen.

"All the more reason to talk to him." And with those word Sasuke left, never turning back or offering anything else. It didn't matter though. It was more than enough, it was actually a really big thing for Sasuke and I was thankful he had listened and gave advice. I owed him.

I felt lighter, still sore and tired but lighter all the same. I would find Shikamaru tomorrow. I'd talk to him because, Sasuke was right, he deserved to know and I didn't deserve to have this added wait of drama when I still had so much to worry about.

But that would be tomorrow, right now I needed to shower and sleep, and maybe my clone would have found something.

Sakura was in the Hokage library finishing the journals, kind of, her clone was at least. But that was beside the point, the point being that the work was being done by Sakura. Even if said Sakura was a simple clone who was, yet again, having identity crisis issues.

Sadly, the remaining journals were in no way helpful, they only mentioned The Reaper in passing. Truthfully, Sakura didn't know what she was searching for anymore, sure, she had found a few things that could be the bloodline she had, if you excused the silly thing about a witch and death being a person when it was a state of being, two totally different things. She had found no concrete evidence to support the, admittedly weak, theories of what her bloodline could be. It was frustrating to say the least.

Clone Sakura took a calming breath, Inner was gone even from her mind. Then again, I suppose it did make sense, no Inner in the original, no Inner in the clone. Still, it was harder to concentrate when her mind kept wandering back to the missing Inner problem. It was as if she suddenly lost a limb, a very loud and annoying, yet sometimes helpful, but overall mostly hindering limb. Like a nose, she felt like she lost her nose and she couldn't get use to breathing out her mouth.

But Sakura clone was just a clone and what did she know, she still had that pesky identity crisis' every time she was brought into existence. Then again, what she really a continuance from the last clone, was that why, every time she came into existence anyway, always came back to the same question of her realness. Of her individuality.

Not that it was important, or was it, if it was important to Sakura it was important to her, Sakura's clone, but was what was important to the clone important to Sakura? Was there a difference? Clone Sakura sighed, wondering if any other clone had these thoughts.

Shaking herself Clone Sakura sighed and got up, deciding to take a break from finding her bloodline and continue her search for the foreign language from Kakashi's journal. She paused though, looking at the tall and imposing shelves of books. Even the sections about foreign language were vast and the thought of pouring over books looking for a match one to the one in her journal seemed like such a daunting task. And with no Inner cheering her on and saying they could do it and they were awesome, she could not find the motivation to even start.

She felt like crying, she just wanted to sit around and cry and miss Inner and worry over her impending demise that came each time she was dispelled. And maybe eat cake, could she, as a clone, eat cake?

Depressed and hungry, maybe, if clones could eat, she didn't even end up jumping when Kashikoi, the large owl summon, spoke to her, she hadn't even known that he had come back from wherever he went after he saw who had entered the library or when she was leaving.

"Yooour chakra is fluctuating my dear, yooou are in state of distress. Yooou must calm dooown or yoou will pass oout. Breathe deeply. In, oout, in, oout. That's it." He coached me as he took me under his wing.

A small, slightly hysterical, chortle interrupted the breathing rhythm but she quickly got the rhythm back and soon calmed down.

"Thank you Kashikoi." Clone Sakura said gratefully.

"What is wrong?" Kashikoi asked, with Clone Sakura still under his wind as if she was a baby bird would was upset that it could not fly.

"Nothing. Everything." She replied with a sigh. "I have so many things going on now that I'm not even sure what wrong anymore. Now it just feels like the normal thing to feel out of sorts and lacking in information."

"Tell me." Then, much like the original, Clone Sakura unloaded what she was feeling.

Talking helped, it helped a lot and Kashikoi was a great listener and by the time she was finished, Clone Sakura was ready to tackle the previously daunting task of research again.

With the help and guidance of Kashikoi it was much easier to stay on task but she worried that she was keeping him from something. For a second she wondered if Kashikoi could make a clone, then the two clones would stick together while the originals were off attending to business.

Still it was nice that Kashikoi to come and offer his support, he was only the guardian of the Hokage Library and was only meant to make sure those who came in were allowed access to the sacred shelves.

"It will get better, these scroolls and books are sure to have what you need and if nooot, yooou will find a way." He stayed there after he said that while Clone Sakura continued her search.

He did little more than just stand next to her but Clone Sakura felt like that was all she needed. She needed someone to ground her, someone with her because she didn't know how to be alone and just the knowledge that, though Inner was not here, or in the original, put her at ease.

Clone Sakura opened the first book, a translation book, open and tried to match the words with the ones on Kakashi-sensei's book. She didn't find anything helpful but she notice that there was a significant dent in the work compared to what there had been before Kashikoi was there.

Nara Shikamaru was simple person. Sure he was able to think up and perform complex strategies and yeah he could take a glance at the most intricate plan once and be able to recite it back at any given moment. But that was just his mind, how it worked, and that brilliant mind was owned by a very simple guy. He liked simple things like a nice cloudy day or the calming soft sounds of the Nara forest. His tastes was simple, he didn't like complex food, plain origiri was fine with him. He didn't like loud sounds, from the drunk shouts of men to the high screeching of children. And he hated it when people were too emotional, either too happy or too moody.

So why, he questioned himself, did he feel this overwhelming feeling for the most exotic, complex, loud and emotional girl he knew. Sure, he understood when it started and why it was happening, but it still left him with questions, simple questions that he knew the answer to but still found himself asking them anyway. It was because of that kiss.

The thought of it alone filled him with a burning fire, it raged inside him and screamed to be let loose. To burn all standing in his way until it was both extinguished and fanned hotter by those same lips that had started it. Shikamaru found it hard to eat, to sleep, to think and function normally and he hated it but at the same time he wanted more.

Shikamaru was a genius but it didn't take one to realize that this was not normal. Not at all, sure, he knew that he was around the age where puberty hit, he was getting an increase of chemicals that were now racing through his brain, releasing other chemicals that where inactive until now and making him change. But he knew that those changes were supposed to be slow, they were not to hit so suddenly and all at once, which they were and it was all Sakura's fault.

A shiver went up his spine at the thought of her name, which he had succeeded to not think up until now. The fire, which she left in him was burning hotter still and he found himself, again, thinking of how her lips felt against his own. Again he was thinking of her and he just didn't like it, it was so out of character for him because he didn't linger on things.

But he hadn't been doing much of anything in character for him lately and they all came back to the same reason, the same cause. Sakura Had wormed her way into his mind and then took over. He had even found himself asking Ino about her. It was a good thing that he was so smart or Ino would've been curious and that was the last thing he needed.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, he needed to stay on track, this was the second time he had been sent out to get tea leaves, last time he had gotten coffee beans and his kaa-san had not been happy. To get it wrong a third time would not only mean an angry okaa-san but also a third trip.

Shikamaru managed to gather the will power to restrain himself from overthinking what he had been stressing over until he had successfully gotten to the market and was on his way home again. And it was on the very same road, him just walking back from the market just like before, that he again ran into the very person that had been plague his thoughts.

Sakura was pretty that was undeniable, she was not the most beautiful girl he had seen. She had a too wide forehead, her nose a bit upturned and her lips looked a little thin. Still, she was pretty with her wide eyes, pale complexion and that exotic colouring. And she didn't look the best she had ever looked, she was dirty, mud caked up her legs and arms, her hair was soaked, as if she had been swimming and even from a meter away he could smell sweat. Yet Shikamaru could not help but think she was beautiful, he could not help but want to kiss her.

He just stood there for a while and stared at her, just watched her, she was not facing him but for some reason he felt that she knew he was there, that he was right there and had her full attention though she was not looking. Then she did look and he froze.

It felt as if he was caught, as if he had been standing trapped for a while and only when she looked at him did he realise that he was, and he didn't mind. It went against logical thought and his ingrained shinobi instincts to like being trapped, but he felt as if it was right, like he belonged to her and it was okay that she held a noose around his neck. Just as long as the rope was short that the other end in her hand.

He stepped forward, finding himself unable not to, he needed to be closer to her, it had been days and he found it unbearable but with her in sight. It was like all the work to keep himself from seeking her out the past days had disappeared. He needed to be close, to touch her and kiss her and never let her go. He was mesmerised.

There was a part of his brain that yelled at him, thrashed and screamed that it wasn't right, that this was unnatural and told him to ask what she had done to him. But she was so close and as he got closer the voice got quitter until the voice of logic that was so loud and commanding, was silent.

He invaded her space, not on purpose, well, okay, on purpose but only because he couldn't get close enough to her. They could merge into one person and it still would not be close enough to her. That logical part of him would have pointed out just how wrong his thoughts were, but it was silent and there was nothing that could be done to separate him from her.

Shikamaru was so close that he could hear the pinkette gulp, her breath catch and then feel the air when she exhaled. She was tall, just a hair shorter than himself yet thinner, while the Nara was slightly lanky for his age of twelve with tight muscles given with regular ninja training. She was thin, not yet lithe like most kunoichi, not built like Ino who had just the slightest of a curve, but an athlete's body with little fat and a small bit of muscle.

All in all, Sakura was breathe taking, at least to Shikamaru, because how else would you describe the fact that he felt like he couldn't get enough air. Something was truly wrong and yet how could it be when she was so close.

"We need to talk." Her voice was breathy and short and made him think that whatever this was that made him act like this, it was effecting her too.

He absent-mindedly grunted as his hand rose to flick some mud off of her shoulder. His body hummed when he touched her, though he was close he had, up until that moment, not actually came into contact with her.

Then his other came up and touched her arm, massaging softly. Her skin was soft, it was slightly wet from her perspiration, which he could smell clinging to her, and warm from her training. Just the touch of her set him on fire, a low blazing fire ignited in his lower abdomen and he got the sudden urge to taste her skin and sweat.

He saw a bead of sweat running down the side of her face from her large forehead and acted on the strange urge. With the voice of logic silent he could not stop himself from acting on it. He licked from her check to her hairline. She tasted like salt and sunlight, it reminded him of the beach which he had only had been to once when he was out of the village. He remembered the salt water on his own skin and the sunlight beaming down.

Shikamaru liked it and wanted another taste, and with no logical side of him to protest he do it again to the other side of her face. He wanted to consume her, to lick all the perspiration off of her skin. He looked her in the eyes, hers were a dark green and that drew him even closer to her, he leaned in, he was going to kiss her this time.

"Enough." The shadow user's mind cleared a little with the word. Not completely because he still had that voice telling him to kiss her, to silence her protests with his own lips, but he had a bit of control. And his voice of logic and reason was back and already it was categorising and working out what was happening to him because it was not natural at all. For Kami-sama's sake, he licked her!

Shikamaru took a step away and dropped his hands, no matter how far his mind was, no meant no and he was thankful that, though he had lost so much of his mind in the haze of desire to be close to Sakura. He had not lost his morals, that he was able to pull himself back when she had said no.

"Gomen." His voice was a little rough, low and thick in a way it had never been before.

Sakura seemed lost for a second, as if the haze that had cleared out from his head had settled into hers but she shook her head and was normal again.

"As I said, we need to talk." She eyed him like the words were going to set him off again but he had gained his self-control and with a little more distance from her was able to think much clearer.

"I don't think it would be best to do it right now. You are obviously busy." She gestured to the bag he held in his hands.

He nodded, his kaa-san would probably kill him if he wasn't back soon and Sakura looked like whatever she wanted to talk about would take a long time.

"Are you free sometime tomorrow?" She asked.

"Aa. What time?" He asked, he had team training tomorrow and didn't know how long that would last but he would clear it, or go early if need be.

"I have team training until around three. Any time after that alright with you?"

He thought for a moment, he could say three but then she would be late. "How about three thirty?"

"It's a date." She froze at her own words but did not return them, she simply turned her back on him, red faced, and started to head in the direction of her own house.

Pure bliss shot through the Nara and he felt like he was grinning and he had a hard time tapering down his happiness when he finally walked in the door of his house. He felt like a little girl, worse he felt like Naruto, a complete fool and he didn't care. Those last three words had caused this. It's a date. This happiness was just too great and even his logic let him have the happiness.

But he didn't want to tip off his mother to what was going on and walking in grinning like a fool was sure to make her alerts sound. Lucky, or unlucky, for him his mother's screamed words wiped all happiness from his face.

"About time. Bring the sugar here my tea is already cold."

The sound of the door shutting softly was the only answer his mother got as he ran back out the door. And when Yoshino came to see if maybe she had imagined the sound, all she saw was a bag of tea on the floor by the front door.

Sorry for the long wait. It's been hard for me, you may know that my mum's been sick with cancer, I can't remember if I told you guys. She ended up passing away recently and my life was crazy. I had no home, I had moved to Australia, I had no job even if I were to go back to Australia, having quit to stay with my mum for her last months and to top it off my dad was also sick catheter they put in him for dialysis he can't leave the country and I don't want to leave him. Suffice to say that writing was the last thing on my mind. But things are looking up. Less trips to the hospital, found a house and when my dad no longer needs me a job will be easy to find. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you all. Explain the reason I haven't updated in about a year or so. Thank you for understanding.