A/N: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have some bad inaccuracies in here, but hey, if you like the series, you can look over them, right? Review if you like.

"Hey, Shikamaru!"

"Hey, guys." Shikamaru sat down with his tray of meatloaf, as did Lee. "Lee, this is Aelita, Jeremy, Odd, and Ulrich. And then you know Kiba and Hinata."

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

"All right, everyone, welcome to gym."

"Hey, Lee."

"Hey."

"We're going to do sprints today, five people at a time, as usual. Oh, and we have a new student, his name is Lee. Okay, first set..." Lee and the Lyoko gang sat on the bleachers and watched the first run.

"And second, Odd, Jeremy, Lee, Shikamaru, and Leah. And Shikamaru, RUN this time, got it?"

"Right, right, okay." The five took their places.

"Go!"

"I just don't get that."

"Geez."

"Buah?! He just- De-"

"What?" Lee confusedly looked around at the gaping faces around him. Jim dropped his stopwatch.

"What?" The audience was in silence as well.

"He's... fast."

"Ya think?"

Lee kicked off his shoes and got in bed. It was 9:00. The lights had already been turned out by Lee's roomate a few minutes earlier. Soon both ninja were asleep.

Wah! Wah! Wah! Lee rolled over to turn his alarm off. Shikamaru rolled over to the center as well. He glared at his alarm clock.

"You set. Your alarm. To go off. At 4:30 in the morning?!"

"Yes. Why?"

"It's 4:30 in the morning!"

"Am I not supposed to get up yet?"

"No, you're fine, but don't set your alarm! It's 4:30 in the morning!"

"Oh, okay, sorry." Lee put his shoes and headband on before slipping out of the room. Shikamaru rolled back over and grumbled something inaudibly.

"Okay, everyone, two minutes to the bell; you can put up your things now," said the history teacher. Papers were heard shuffling loudly, but the noises soon quieted. A couple of seconds later, the bell rang. The students filed out of class, though not quite orderly.

"Not the weekend just yet, but I can wait."

"Yeah, totally." Many other conversations and goodbyes were heard as students exited.

"Hey, Shikamaru!"

"Hey, Kiba."

"Wanna go mess around on Lyoko?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, just get me there and mess around."

"I'm not sure..."

"Oh, come on! What could possibly go wrong?"

Shikamaru and Kiba slid down the ropes and boarded the elevator. Shikamaru punched in four digits and hit the red button as the elevator's doors closed. The chunin got out in the control room while his companion rode down to the scanner room.

"Transfer, Kiba. Scanner, Kiba. Virtualization." Kiba appeared in the desert sector and looked around.

"So, what now?" Shikamaru asked, leaning back in the chair.

"You just make sure nobody comes after me, 'kay?"

"Sure."

"All right." Kiba started walking around.

"Shikamaru? Shikamaru!"

"Aah! Wha?"

"You didn't fall asleep, did you?"

"Maybe."

"Ugh, whatever. Just try to stay awake, okay? I don't want to get myself killed in here."

"Then why did you want in there in the first place?" Shikamaru checked the monster scanner. "Someone's coming up on your right, Kiba!"

The genin whipped around.

"Whoa, what is this?" He looked up to see a jellyfish-like creature.

"I don't know, the notes don't say anything about it. Does it have an Eye of X.A.N.A. on it?"

"Yeah."

"Go ahead and go for that, then."

"Right!" Kiba rushed forward with his arm out. He leaped up and swung his arm back. "Whoa!" Almost invisible tentacles leaped out.

"Rrgh!" Kiba was getting tangled up in the translucent mess. Three more tentacles approached him, one at each of his temples and one in the center of his forehead. They started to glow, and Kiba stood stock still. A window popped up on the main screen of the supercomputer.

"What the-" Shikamaru looked it over. "Kiba! Kiba! Can you hear me?!" There was no response.

"Ugh!" Shikamaru whipped around, sprinted, and jumped down into the scanner room after setting a very short virtualization delay. He soon appeared on Lyoko a distance away from his friend and ran forward just enough to get within range.

"Shadow Possession!" The monster froze, the pink-tinted information in its appendages stopping cold. "Kiba! Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "What happened?"

"I'm not completely sure. From what I saw, it looked like that guy was stealing your memory or something of the sort. Can you move enough to hit him?"

"Yeah, let me try." After squirming for a minute, most of Kiba's body was free. He slashed a restraining tentacle. There was a whirring noise, and the tentacles all fell limp. Kiba dropped down to the ground.

"So what now? If you release your Shadow Possession, that guy is probably going to come after us. I can't devirtualize myself with my own blade; I've already tried."

"Okay, Kiba, we're going to have to do this quickly. First, get over here." Kiba walked over to the chunin.

"All right, I'm going to release my Shadow Possession, then you stab me with those blades of yours. I'll get devirtualized, run up to the computer room, and devirtualize you. But you have to avoid that monster for the entire time. You hear me, Kiba? Run. Don't try to fight him. And don't let yourself get cornered, all right?"

"Got it."

"Ready?" Kiba nodded.

"Release!" The shadow sped back toward the scyphozoa, and Kiba hurriedly slashed the other ninja. Shikamaru soon appeared back on Earth and sprinted up to the control room. He typed quickly, then pressing enter.

"We're set in thirty seconds. You doing all right?"

"Yeah, he's pretty slow, but-Whoa! His tentacles reach really far!"

"Just keep it up, and look ahead, we don't want you getting to a dead end."

"Right. How much longer?"

"Nineteen seconds."

"Okay." Kiba ran for a while longer.

"Aah! Crap!"

"What?!"

"It's a dead end!"

"Kiba!"

"How much longer?"

"Six seconds!"

"Gah, he's coming in closer!" Kiba flattened himself against the large rock behind him. The scyphozoa headed forward. One of its tentacles shot out.

"Three seconds!"

Kiba leaped over the rock, stabbing one of his blades into the far side, narrowly avoiding careening into the digital sea. Bit by bit, his body disappeared from Lyoko. Shikamaru met him in the scanner room.

"You happy? You got to 'mess around on Lyoko', right?"

"Oh, man, there is no way I am going in there alone again!"

"You can bet on that. Come on, let's just go back to our dorms."