Sakura groaned as her eyes opened, her body on fire. It felt like her leg had gone to sleep except it was over her entire body and a hundred times multiplied. She could barely breathe without setting off a fresh wave of pins and needles. So she laid still, her arms at her sides and willed the feeling to pass. As she waited she began to hear the jingle of tack and felt the jostling of a wagon underneath her. The sky above her was either just breaking dawn or falling into night she wasn't sure which.

In a rush it all came back to her. The clearing, the Akatsuki nin and Sasuke throwing his kunai. She remembered saying something to Naruto but after that it was all blackness until she had woken.

That's not right, I shouldn't have woken at all. I should be dead. If she had had a shinobi on the operating table the moment they'd taken the same wound she had they still would have died. You don't take a kunai through the heart and wake up. Well, unless you were Tsunade.

She lifted her head slightly and the world spun around her. Her head thunked back down on the wood of the wagon and she groaned. A nurse's face appeared in front of her vision.

"Try to lie still, your body has endured an enormous amount of stress in the last few hours." She said, smiling down at her kindly. Then the face was gone.

She could feel her strength returning but it was slow. As if she'd just woken from a long sleep. She risked lifting her head again and the world only wobbled this time. She was wrapped in white linen, ensuring she couldn't hurt herself in her sleep but also limiting her movement when she was awake.

The position wasn't unknown to her, being in it was new though. She's placed many patients in stasis before. She shouldn't have woken if the stasis was maintained properly but as her mind recovered she realized that her situation was anything but normal.

She listened intently to the whispering, none of it heartening. A tailed beast was loose and by all accounts it was Naruto. She centered herself and began infusing her muscles with chakra as Tsunade had shown her. She needn't have to escape her bindings. She was already stronger than Guy and Lee together but she'd been doing it so long that it was calming to her. A ritual she knew and understood.

I need my pouch. She thought suddenly and sat up. The bindings around her split like tissue and she stood. The nurse, a woman she'd seen before but couldn't name barked something at her but she stood on unsteady legs anyways, glaring at the older woman. After a few tense moments the woman relented mumbling, 'Medic nin always make the worst patients.'

As she took stock of her surroundings she noticed three things right away. The first was unavoidable. As far as she could see people were walking, riding or jogging along the road her wagon was currently bouncing on. She didn't need to count the people to know that they constituted the bulk of Konoha.

The second thing she noticed was Shizune staring at her with red-rimmed eyes. She'd been around the woman and considered her a friend but the stare she was receiving spoke of anything but friendship. Malice gleamed in her eyes as she glared at Sakura.

The third was the scroll at her feet. It had been placed next to her in the wagon. She knew it better than she knew her own face. She'd stared at it every chance she'd got. Her mentor, now dead she realized with a sort of cold shock, had refused to let her sign the scroll until she'd finished her training. Tsunade's death was the only feasible explanation for all of the things that she was seeing at the moment. Which meant they either had a new Hokage or the village had been destroyed and they were on their way to...she looked around for a moment. To Suna it looks like. While she could appreciate the Kazekage's generosity, especially given the two village's long-standing enmity, she doubted that their hospitality was limitless.

First thing's first.

Shinobi don't cry. She snarled at herself as her eyes welled with unshed tears. She bent down and unrolled the scroll, ignoring Shizune. She looked at the other names on the scroll but recognized only a few. The one that held her attention was Tsunade's. Her blood was just as red as if it had just been taken. She look around finding an open field, not willing to summon Katsuyu in such close proximity to so many people.

She rolled the scroll and hoisted it over her shoulder, still struggling to keep her tears in check at the realization that Tsuande was dead. She remembered one of her mentor's first lessons.

Tsunade glared down at Sakura, her arms crossed under her breasts. "There's a reason I teach like I do, and there's a reason I wont teach some of the things I know."

Sakura looked at her questioningly. "Knowledge is knowledge, why wouldn't you teach me everything?"

The Hokage looked at her, her face stern but not unkind. "If you progress as you should, you'll figure it out yourself. If you don't, then you wont be worthy of those techniques."

She hopped off the wagon on wobbling legs and trotted to the nearby field. She couldn't afford to get out of sight before summoning but she could at least get to a safe distance. She set the scroll down reverently, as though Tsunade was looking over her shoulder and realized that it was her scroll now. A tear dripped down onto the parchment but she ignored it. Biting her thumb she made her mark on the scroll.

An intense feeling of freedom enveloped her. Sasuke was a traitor. It was as simple as that now. There was no love for him left in her. He'd cut it out. Mixed with that was a deep and abiding sorrow that she didn't allow herself to indulge in. She could mourn later. She knew why she was alive and the Hokage was not. As a medic-nin she knew that she should be dead. Only Tsunade could have reached into the grave and pulled back life.

She said a silent prayer for the woman and reached deep into herself for the boiling couldrun of anger that she knew was there. The other Sakura oblidged her and she drank from it deeply, feeding it until the ground trembled with her heartbeat. With a loud, "Kya!" she slammed her palm onto the ground.

Shikamaru shadowstepped into what he hoped was an abandoned shop. Night was still creeping towards them on ponderous legs and every moment he evaded the nine-tails was a moment he grew stronger. Full night wouldn't see him strong enough to defeat it but if he could just turn the bastard north he'd count it a win.

Gama Bunta bellowed a warcry at the Kitsune, leaping into the air, crushing a hillside underneath him. Manda shot forward as the Kitsune's eyes followed the toad up and snapped his jaws around the fox's leg, his thick body wrapping around the other on the same side.

Despite their hatred of each other, they worked in tandem. The fox bucked once and snarled, his tails shattering the Hokage monument as he fell on his side. Gama Bunta was on his way down now, his tanto clutched in all four limbs as if he were sitting on it. For an impossible moment Shikamaru thought they'd won. One of those earth shattering tails came around though, slapping the toad out of his dive and throwing him leagues to land with a tidal splash in a nearby lake.

He drew the Kusanagi and brought it over his head in an arc. As it reached the peak of it's arc it elongated, growing and growing until it was as long as the village was wide. It came crashing down on the Kitsune's neck with a clang that he could feel in his teeth.

I thought you could cut anything! He snarled at the Kusanagi.

If you knew how much chakra I just cut through, you wouldn't be complaining. You could build a mountain of your shadows with that much.

He let her slip back into a snake form as the Kitsune's gaze fell on him. I would be dead already if Shukaku hadn't prepared me for that look. Killing intent dropped on him like lead weights.

He used a small amount of chakra to project his voice. "Sasuke, surrender now!"

Jiraiya was somewhere out there as well as Guy and Lee. If he could buy them some time perhaps they could come up with a plan. Their plight was two fold. Sasuke was controlling the Kitsune. If they stopped Sasuke he had no doubt that the Kitsune would kill them all. The only thing keeping them alive at the moment was the Kitsune rebelling against the Uchiha's commands.

They were gnats trying to fell an eagle. He had to find a way for either Naruto to reassert control or to bind the Kitsune again. He was no expert in seals but thankfully Jiraiya was. If he could just give them time he had to believe they'd come through.

"There is no forgiving the Leaf. I will crush you all." Sasuke said, his voice level but louder.

He's nothing if not talkative. "Yeah, we've trained you, fed you and a few idiots have actually befriended you. No forgiving that." He knew what had been done to the Uchiha clan through the Hokage journal but if Sasuke had to explain it, so much the better.

Sasuke's eyebrows drew together in consternation. Blood still dribbled from the loss of his sword arm but he ignored it. He'd eaten a blood pill and knew that he was fine for a while at least.

He was master of the Kitsune. The entirety of Konoha spread out before him and he could wipe it out at whim but the victory gave him no pleasure. He was, for lack of a better word, purposeless. For so long he'd known exactly what he was about and what he was doing and now he was directionless and making it up as he went. He felt rage against Konoha and all of it's crimes but underneath that he was profoundly unhappy.

It stung that at every turn if he'd listened to Naruto and Sakura he'd still have a brother that loved him. He wondered, vaguely if he was making the same mistake again. Following the path of vengeance was easy. Anger was easy. He knew, logically that anger was empowering. It was so much better than being afraid all the time. He had been afraid of his brother when he was young but he'd replaced that fear with anger. It allowed him to function, albeit without moral compunction and with reduced effectiveness but it didn't leave him trembling and worthless. Anger had saved him from inaction but he knew, deep down that it was also his drug of choice. He inwardly blanched as his mind's eye painted the picture of his parent's death again and his own failure to act.

He'd spent so long thinking of anger as a tool to use to achieve his goals that it didn't occur to him that it was coloring not only his actions but also his decisions.

He shook his head furiously, ridding himself of the moment of doubt. No, they will pay for their crimes. Justice is it's own reward. I will do what no one else can stomach. He turned around to face the will of the Kitsune. It should have terrified him but he faced it without flinching, safe in a cocoon of boiling anger.

"Kill the Sanin, I will handle the Nara and keep away from us. I don't want any 'accidents'." Receiving no reply he drew on his will to dig barbs into the consciousness of the Kitsune. There was a moment of resistance and he jammed them in farther. The resistance fled and he knew that it would do his bidding. It was quite like having a tiger by the tail. He dared not remove the genjutsu from the creature but while it was active he only had limited use of his sharingan. He would have to do without genjutsu.

He wasn't going to underestimate the Nara again and he wanted to face him before night fell completely. He opened his eyes on the outside world just in time to see the Kusanagi retreating back to where the Nara weilded it.

Shikamaru stuck to the alleys of Konoha, relying on the lengthening shadows to bolster the few jutsu he had in place. The streets were dusty and he could still smell the myriad of day to day scents that had permeated the buildings for generations. A sparrow flitted through the street, flapping lazily, unconcerned with the battle taking place not far away. He could hear the fight between the Kitsune and Jiraiya raging, he could feel it in the soles of his feet. He hoped Manda was as good as his word but he didn't have time to worry about it. As sure as the moon he knew he was being hunted. He'd tied a strip of cloth over his eyes, effectively blinding himself. He couldn't take any chances with the Sharingan. Though he couldn't see the buildings around him he knew where he was. In his mind he saw the adobe home and he placed his hand against the rough stone of the wall to reinforce the vision.

Instead he relied on the Kusanagi again, his feet were bare and he was glad for the time he'd spent blinded in both the pit and after damaging his eyes. He was a bit rusty 'seeing' through her and his stomach turned as she switched back and forth from her five senses as they each became more useful than the last.

The hard packed earth of the street was a good conductor of vibration but it conducted everything and the city was badly damaged. Bricks fell with the shockwaves of the distant battle, making him pause to ensure it wasn't the footsteps of the Uchiha. It was slow going at best but that suited him just fine. Not only could he meander lazily but he was also burning daylight away.

He felt a surge of killing intent and then a large release of chakra just as the Kusanagi saw a huge heat bloom in front of them. He felt the heat from the flames on his face and he threw up a wall of shadow in front of him using it to shadowstep the fire back to where he'd felt the spike of killing intent. It wasn't unlike throwing kunai into the shadow except that he hadn't formed the half sphere as he had with Oorochimaru. It was still too light out and no doubt the Uchiha had seen the shadow forming even as his own jutsu ended. If he hit Sasuke it was likely the Uchiha had been vaporized. His clan had always been good with fire jutsu.

The urge to remove the blindfold grew inside him but he suppressed it. Instead of a pool of shadow around him he laced the area with shadow, sliding them into the darker cracks, along the edges of the roadways, under trash and debris until the entire area was awash with irregular shadow threads. It was less powerful but took less chakra to maintain as well. He didn't dare think for a moment that he had caught Sasuke in his own blast.

"Come out, come out." He said in a bored tone though his heart was pumping like a hummingbird's wings. His voice echoed in the alleyway ominously. As it came back to him he thought he sounded a bit like he was taunting the Uchiha. Maybe that's why Ino gets so mad at me. I'd glare at me too.

He felt, through the Kusanagi, a form land on a rooftop nearby and saw with her eyes that the Uchiha was staring at him. He sighed, realizing that he'd hoped the Uchiha had been killed as quickly as that and still feeling disappointed despite it being a low probability. Can't blame a guy for hoping I guess.

"They made you Hokage?" Sasuke said, a sword in his offhand.

Shikamaru could smell the blood from Sasuke's open wound. That used to be his sword arm. I suppose it's too much to hope that he isn't ambidextrous. As soon as he thought it he knew that it was a false hope. He'd seen the Uchiha throw kunai with both hands. No, even the loss of an arm wouldn't slow the traitor down much.

Shikamaru shrugged. "It was less a bother then making Kakashi take up the mantle." He pulled his own tanto blade free of it's sheath, not willing to use the Kusanagi in her sword form for fear of losing her sight. "Besides, who else would take the job? It has a pretty high mortality rate." He thought about this for a moment. "Actually...with the exception of me, it has a 100% mortality rate. That's pretty damn depressing."

Sasuke was silent, not taking the bait.

"Your dog do that?" He said, nodding to Sasuke's wound. There was no reply. "You gotta teach them early not to bite. I think I have a newspaper around here somewhere you can use."

"Why are you fighting for the village?" Sasuke asked, his tone hard.

Shikamaru sighed. "Technically I'm just standing around. Jiraiya is the one fighting at the moment. I sort of...delegated it out." He leaned on the handle of his tanto. "They say it's the mark of a good leader, what they feel comfortable delegating out. It means they've surrounded themselves with capable people. Personally, I think the people in charge just like to take it easy and it's an excuse to not do anything but there it is regardless."

Getting nothing from the Uchiha he forged on. "Why are you so hellbent on destroying it?" Drag it out, Shikamaru.

Just end him. Why are you bothering to talk? He's rabid. Her tone was both annoyed and exasperated. She couldn't fathom why he wasn't killing the Uchiha already and it bothered her. She was never afraid and while he ignored her, he did take strength from her tone. It was calming to him to know that she was there.

We've faced some weird stuff together.

I miss the cave. You were easier to understand there.

There's more to life than just surviving.

No there isn't.

He smiled to himself. Technically she was right, and that was something she was rarely capable of. We're going to win. She flicked his ear with her tail, showing her displeasure.

"You know what Konoha did to my clan and my brother." Sasuke said, not phrasing it as a question and breaking Shikamaru out of his internal dialog.

"What? Oh that, yep I know." Shikamaru said, affecting a yawn that he didn't feel.

"Then you know why I must destroy it." The certainty in his voice chilled Shikamaru.

He shook his head, turning it up towards where he knew the Uchiha stood. "Not a clue. By all accounts your brother performed his task without complaint. He even refused help. He was recorded as saying 'If someone else does it I would have to kill them for it.' For his services he was..." But he didn't get to finish.

"He was banished and made a missing nin." Sasuke said, the anger he felt just slightly bubbling to the surface. It's the eyes, that's what's creeping me out. His eyes are dead even though he's flush in the cheek.

Shikamaru nodded. "He was also set up with a secret pension and an estate with every comfort. He chose not to avail himself of his early retirement and instead kept protecting Konoha and her interests."

This seemed to give Sasuke pause and Shikamaru pressed on. "Ask him for yourself, I'm sure he's on his way here after the nine-tails broke free."

"He's dead." Sasuke said, his voice calm and quiet.

Shikamaru cursed silently. "For that alone I should see you executed." Itachi would be sorely missed. A greater, more selfless ally Konoha couldn't have asked for. "You know he did it all to protect you and you've pissed it away." His bored affectations melted away and his eyebrows drew down, even under the blindfold. Easy, Shika...anger isn't your strong suit.

"I never asked for his protection."

"And yet the only reason your alive to whine about it is because of that protection." He had already tried to stretch his shadow towards Sasuke but the distance was too great and the front of the building where the missing nin stood was bathed in fading sunlight.

Sasuke was silent and he continued. "Konoha owes much to Itachi and it's in the spirit of this debt that I will make you an offer. Relinquish control of the Kitsune and surrender and I will see to it that you receive Itachi's pension and estate, I think it's in the land of waves somewhere. You will swear an oath never to raise a hand against Konoha or it's allies and you will be officially titled a missing nin." It burned to offer the truce. Shikamaru the man wanted to tear off his head for the death of his mother but the Hokage had no such luxury. No room for me, just my best.

"You're grasping at straws, Shikamaru. I can crush both Konoha and you, why would I surrender?" The question sounded rhetorical but he answered it anyway.

The Nara looked up at him grimly. "Power is not it's own reason, Sasuke. I would have thought you knew that by now. Perhaps you can do those things but the question you should be asking yourself is 'Should you?'"

"You can respect the legacy of your brother or you can throw it in a midden heap. Mark my words though: Even if I can't stop the Kitsune, I can stop you. Is your flawed need for vengeance worth your life?"

Sasuke thought about this for long moments. "They say you killed Oorochimaru."

Shikamaru threw up his hands, genuinely frustrated. "Why does everyone say that!? I was just there!"

Sasuke was gone. He saw a flicker of vibration before Sasuke's sword speared into his shoulder. The Kusanagi had detected Sasuke before Shikamaru had and had saved his life. Dropping in front of his chest she had turned part of her body back into sword form and had deflected the blow away from his heart.

He gasped in pain. The Kusanagi, still in snake form, curled around the blade in a flash and then winked into her sword form, straightening and snapping the blade in three places before returning to his shoulder again.

This is what comes from bantering with a rabid dog.

I'll remember that for next time.

Sasuke jumped back reflexively putting distance between them and shook his head. "I had thought for a moment that you really had killed Oorochimaru." He tossed the hilt of his sword away disdainfully.

"Told you so." He said, through gritted teeth. His shadow armor closed over the wound and the blade fell free with a clang. He sewed the rent in his shoulder together as best he could with shadows but it would need to be tended later, he couldn't hold it together indefinitely.

Shikamaru grinned at him ferally. "I'll give you that one for free. Last chance to surrender." He still hadn't moved a muscle.

As soon as the man opened his mouth to speak Shikamaru shadowstepped. He attacked with everything he had been setting up in the alley. Spears of shadow lanced out, not towards Sasuke but to where he might retreat to. The man was too fast to hit with shadow sewing but he could still plan ahead of him.

The Uchiha had summoned another katana and deflected Shikamaru's tanto attacks easily, attacking back in return. A combination of shadow armor, his own parrying and the Kusanagi deflecting what blows she could was the only thing that kept his head on his shoulders.

Sasuke was by far the better swordsman but he had to be careful where he stepped, sometimes attacking from the walls and other times flipping backwards to avoid the Kagemane as Shikamaru swept it about.

The last of the Uchiha was familiar with his jutsu though and using a scroll, tossed a flare high overhead, bathing the area in a stark white light that all but destroyed Shikamaru's shadow sewing. Only his armor survived and that only because it was beneath his clothes. Thus freed from the threat of a Kagemane he redoubled his attack.

He leapt onto a wall and groaned as the exploding tag on the other side of the wall exploded, knocking him into the wall across the street. Sasuke had done some planning of his own. His shadow armor held and he flipped to the street. He worked his kata, but it was broad in stroke. He was having to guess at movements, his sword blows were sweeping and provided him protection for a moment and then left him wide open, he was mitigating his vulnerability with shadow sewing. Forcing Sasuke to use the tiny opening in his defense to cut at the Nara.

By the time he could find an appropriate shadow to shadowstep to Shikamaru was bleeding from a dozen different places. None were life threatening but together they slowed him. He tossed back a blood pill and waited for the next attack.

Sakura mashed down the despair she felt when she saw the Hokage monument. Only the First had survived the nine-tails attack and half his head had been sheared off. In the distance she could see the titanic battle playing out between the two summons and the nine-tails. She didn't pause as she reached the Hokage's tower. Her only hope was that Naruto and Yamato had gathered her things after Sasuke's attack and brought them back with her.

Gluing her feet to the wall of the tower she sprinted up it, crashing through the Hokage's window. There, on the floor next to a blood-soaked stretcher that Yamato had obviously made with his wood release jutsu was her thigh pouch. She sighed in relief and picked it up. Opening it she checked the contents and pulled out two scrolls. Now was not the time to hold back. Naruto needed her and she wouldn't fail him. Not this time.

The first scroll she immediately summoned, trapped inside the seals was a set of armor. The Akimichi had helped her craft it using her designs. On every inch of the thick plate metal were inscribed seals. The mesh at the joints was so dense that even Chouji had had trouble bending them. She slipped into the armor. In all it weighed over four hundred kilograms and was three inches thick at her chest where a medic-nin symbol was laquored proudly in gold. It had cost the majority of her savings but if it worked she would gladly have paid ten times the amount.

It felt like supple leather to her and she quickly finished putting on the rest, topping it with an unadourned helmet. The second scroll she hung from a silk cord she tied around her waist. The weight settled on her easily enough and she took a moment to readjust the straps and catches holding it in place. The floorboards under her groaned in complaint but held. She lept out of the window and hit the ground with the sound of an anvil dropping from a great height.

Not this time.

Shikamaru finished sewing up a rather nasty gash in his thigh and sighed. The Uchiha seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of flares. Night had crept over Konoha but he was no better off for it. Still, he had a plan. Rather he had eight plans, none of which ended well for him but neither did they for the Uchiha.

The problem wasn't with his lack of a Kagemane. It was the delay between what the Kusanagi saw and when he reacted to it. The Uchiha was just too damn fast. It wouldn't be long now before the decision was made for him.

He deflected a complex set of attacks from the Uchiha relying as much on the Kusanagi as his own arm. He was steadily backed down the alley, giving ground under the onslaught. As they reached a cross street, shadows untouched by the flare Sasuke had thrown lanced out towards the Uchiha. He was expecting them though and slashed through the needles of shadow. Shikamaru had only meant them for a distraction and hadn't hardened them as he normally would have. They shattered like fine glass and dissipated. He used the distraction and the Kusanagi lanced out, slithering over his arm to bite at the Uchiha.

As quickly as she attacked he was just as fast. His sword came around and Shikamaru felt the bite of the blade on his wrist for a brief second before it was gone again. He heard the thump of his hand as it hit the ground in front of him. Someone screamed. It might have been him. Instinctively he cut off the chakra and staunched the flow of blood to his left wrist. Already he felt light headed. His shadow armor lanced out from under his clothing, spears shooting in every direction. His concentration was so scrambled that he didn't know where Sasuke was now.

His blindfold fell off, forgotten as he tried to master the pain he was in. He fell to his knees, panting and saw Sasuke standing over him. The last Uchiha flicked Shikamaru's blood off his blade and stared down at the Hokage coldly.

"Konoha will burn. Justice demands it."

Shikamaru grinned up at the Uchiha, his chakra gathering. He formed a shadow, the strongest he'd ever made. "Do you know what 'Hokage' means, Sasuke?" The shadow began to take shape.

The Uchiha's blade came down and Shikamaru grabbed the blade with a harsh clang. The shadow held. Where his wrist ended the shadow began, a three clawed fist of black as deep as nightmares gripped the weapon by the blade. "It means 'fire shadow'."

He felt a set of tremors at the edge of his perception and suppressed a smile. "Blaming the entire village for the decisions of one, even if you believe those decisions to be in error is insanity."

Even as he spoke easily Shikamaru could feel the crushing weight he was putting into the blade. His knees pressed into the already hard packed dirt and he redoubled his chakra output into keeping the claw intact. "It has ever been the duty of the led to question their leaders. Konoha would have no power without it's people. Their culpability is absolute."

"Absolutes don't exist in morality, Sasuke. I make sure I cover that day one in the academy as does Iruka. Surrender now or suffer my judgement, I'm tired of trying to convince you and I want some dinner."

Sasuke blinked at him, startled that he would even offer when he was in such a position. "Suit yourself." Shadows lanced along Sasuke's blade spearing towards him. Sasuke let the blade go and jumped backwards, right into Choji's open hand.

"Baiku no-jutsu!" He heard Chouji yell. The hand closed like the jaws of a bear trap and for a horrible moment Shikamaru thought Chouji meant to kill him.

Sasuke's face turned bright red as he was crushed inside the immense hand but Shikamaru only heard his collarbones snap, maybe his hip. He wouldn't die from that. He let go a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Now, Ino." He said tiredly.

"Your hand..." She started and he glared at her. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

She made the appropriate symbols and shot into Sasuke's mind. Before, she'd been able to look through memories as though she were searching through a file cabinet, she'd learned quite a bit more since then though. She cut off the nerve centers for the pain he was feeling. He would feel it still, there was nothing she could do for that even if she wanted to but it needn't bother her.

With Sasuke's voice she said, "I've got him, Chouji."

Chouji's grip lessened and the Uchiha fell out of his hand which returned to normal size. "Did you stop up the pain?" He asked, picking up Ino's unconscious body and placing it inside a large metal cocoon which he placed on his back. The cocoon was a new invention that he hadn't seen before. He could tell Akimichi handiwork when he saw it though and he doubted that anything less than the Kyuubi itself could get into that contraption unless Choji wanted them to.

Ino nodded Sasuke's head, his eyes staring blankly at the sky. Chouji brought his foot down with a sickening crunch and shattered first one knee and then the other. "That ought to keep the little lizard from jumping around."

Shikamaru winced but he saw the logic behind it. Not for the first time since the attack he wished he hadn't sent Hinata away. Her ability to block tenketsu would have made transporting the Uchiha much safer. He gathered up his severed appendage and stuck it in his jacket pocket. He knew he was still in shock but he couldn't stop for it. "You mine as well come out Anko, I can hear you up there."

He turned in time to see her land lightly on the ground next to Choji. She was still wearing his anbu mask but she raised it, setting it on top of her head. "You didn't say how long I had to go with the caravan...Hokage-sama."

He blanched at the title and resigned himself to a fight with her when they finally got to relax. "We'll talk about your interpretations of my commands later. The village is far enough away?"

She nodded and dropped the mask back into place.

"Can you control the nine-tails now?" He asked, turning to Ino-Sasuke.

Ino-Sasuke shook her head. "No, it doesn't work like that. It's tied to something he's done and I can't relate to it, let alone duplicate it."

He grumbled something. It was small enough hope but it would make things so much easier.

"There's something else, Shika." She said, forgetting his honorific. "He's not in control of it anymore either."

He cursed openly this time. Ino-sasuke motioned for him to come to her. "Come closer. I can at least use his chakra for healing and you look like you need it. First eat a soldier pill though and if you haven't eaten a blood pill do that too."

Ino had been bossing him around since they'd first met. Oddly enough, now that he was Hokage, her medic status superseded his authority in regard to medical attention. If she ordered him to hop up and down on one foot he'd have to do it...at least until he got a second opinion on the matter. It was odd the things you remarked upon when you were missing a hand. He nodded and dry swallowed a soldier pill, feeling life and vigor returning to his limbs. He kneeled down next to Ino-Sasuke and the captured nin's hands glowed blue. His movements were jerky and he could hear the broken collarbones grinding as she struggled to make his hands move as she wanted them.

"Gods, how are you still standing?" She said, Sasuke's eyes still blank in their head.

He didn't answer. "Leave...my wrist unhealed." He was having a thought.

He could feel his skin and muscles knitting back together and while it didn't hurt it was an entirely unpleasant feeling. Like a million ants were crawling inside of him. He released the shadow stitches as she repaired his cuts.

"I can try on your hand as well but I think we should wait for Sakura. She's...a bit farther along than I am." He could tell it killed her to say so but there it was.

"It's fine, here...you guys take it. Put it on ice or whatever." He took his severed hand out of his jacket and tried to pass it off to Choji but Anko intercepted it, waving it in front of his face.

"He's been plenty handsy with me already." She snorted a laugh and Ino scoffed. Anko made his hand make a rude sign and waved it at Ino. "Spin on it, Yamanaka." She stuck the hand down her shirt and admonished it to behave itself.

"Sakura is with the Konoha caravan. Take Sasuke with you and give him to Ibiki. He's not to execute him until I or Kakashi sentence him." If he died Kakashi would be the next Hokage. Practically burning through Hokages today. For some reason that thought struck him as funny and he laughed. I guess shock isn't all bad.

Chouji ignored the graveyard humor in Shikamaru's eyes. "What about the nine-tails. You can't defeat it by yourself." He said, looking at Shikamaru gravely.

"Well thankfully I'm not alone. You have your orders."

Chouji gave a quick 'Hai!' and Ino-Sasuke gave a bone grinding half salute. They left him and Anko tarried. "You should get healed first." She said, the confidence in her voice melting now that they were alone. "You wont be able to mold chakra."

He closed his eyes and adjusted the shadows, inverting, weaving and lengthening. Before he'd simply stuck the claw at the end of his wrist, stopping the blood from moving at all. He winced as the shadows formed themselves into what he knew a hand should be. Firm but pliable shadows for sinew, slippery and flexible shadows for veins and chakra coils. It was long moments as he worked with the extensive knowledge of anatomy that Hinata had given him during his stint as an Anbu.

Finally he opened his eyes and Anko gasped, looking down at his hand. He raised it in front of his eyes and let the shadows fade somewhat so he could inspect his handiwork. The shadows didn't need the oxygen in his blood but the coils did. He could see blood running through the 'veins' he had created, could see where the tenketsu ended and re-solidified the shadows again.

There was no muscles in the hand so flexing it took an effort of will, not strength but with practice he would be proficient. He made a few hand symbols and the successful Kagemane melded with Anko's shadow. He kissed her and felt no resistance as her shadow made her lean forward just as he was and kissed him back.

He released the Kagemane and she opened her eyes. "What are you going to do?"

He grinned at her and rubbed the back of his neck where the Kusanagi rested. "My best. Make sure you keep Konoha marching and keep an eye on Sasuke, he's got tricks up his sleeve still I'll bet." He thought about it for a moment. "And yank out his eyes."

Anko grinned but it wasn't a friendly grin. If he had to guess he didn't think Sasuke would make it to a qualified medic nin for that particular procedure. She pinched him on the rear and then she was gone too.

He hopped up to the nearest roof and took stock of the battle. It was too far away to see much of anything in the darkness but gouts of flame, streaks of lightning and inhuman roars pointed right to it.

"Alrighty..." He said, looking down at his interim left hand. "time to outfox the fox."

Bit short but I wanted to get something out there.