Naruto had had a lot to take in over the last four minutes; someone more highly strung wouldn't have coped. Or someone with more of a tendency to speculate. But his comparative lack of analytical skills meant that while he'd wondered about Shikamaru's recent strangeness, he'd never come to a conclusion about it that could be proved wrong. And he'd spoken to Jiraiya about Gaara, and somewhere, unacknowledged, suspicions had lain.
He'd think about the implications later – for now, he and Shikamaru had a fight to win. He tried to apply himself to thinking of strategies. It was difficult: chakra raged around the fighting two, and even though chakra sensing was not one of Naruto's best-loved skills, he could practically see it, moving around Shikamaru like dye in water. And as if the menace that that energy gave off wasn't enough, the Nara's face was made savage, like it had been in the hospital. But the change was real now, not illusory, his eyes were blood-coloured and his whiskers (why the hell didn't I wonder about those before? thought the blond) were black and jagged, but not incongruous. They suited Shikamaru's enraged face, they were appropriate for this wild, powerful version of his friend.
Naruto tried to ignore the differences in his appearance and concentrate on the way his fighting style had changed. It wasn't hard, everything from movement to aggression to modes of attack was dramatically altered by the fox's influence. The difficult part of the job he'd been given was just stop himself from thinking about the cause of those changes, and the implications of it. He watched.
Shikamaru swiped Gaara with clawed hands, flipped over his sand-broadened shoulders to rip at an ear, dodged his opponent's tail and then dived downwards through the trees as Gaara spun round and struck at him with both arms. He snarled instead of swearing when he realised the strategic loss this change in position represented, and backed off as he tried to regain the height advantage. It worked, because for now he was the faster of the two.
But – no! As he'd climbed, Gaara had generated still more chakra, and everything except his feet had been changed. The gourd was now completely integrated into his form; the levels of demonic chakra coming off him made Shikamaru adjust his crouched stance and tighten clawed hands around the branch he was sheltering on in concern. The branch was one chosen because it wouldn't hold Gaara's weight, and it was near and above the enemy demon-host (or demon, now? No, that change surely would have been more dramatic). He watched the alert figure of the Shukaku's host, mind racing in an attempt to plan.
He realised he'd gouged gashes into the wood in frustration, and was tempted to examine his hands like he had in his kitchen. It was strange, to act without realising it, and to look back and see the change. It was as easy as well-practised tree-hopping to summon chakra around his hands for attacks, and not difficult to move on all fours or know how to balance like that. Instincts, he thought, but I've got to plan as well.
His thoughts about this form were interrupted as his opponent attacked, sending missiles towards Shikamaru; as the fox-host leapt back from them by reflex, Gaara turned to attack Naruto, who Shikamaru had just jumped away from. The Nara reacted instantly, turning and throwing chakra into a return leap, casting his shadow ahead of him to catch missiles that were moving faster than the unaided eye could follow. Naruto hasn't got much chakra left, and for us to launch a decisive attack he needs all of it. Shikamaru felt fiercely protective of the blond, and he positioned himself in front of his friend defensively.
Gaara raised one twisted hand to his head, baring his teeth in pain. Why? Shikamaru asked himself, but he didn't care – Gaara was exposing himself to attack. Shikamaru darted in, lashing out with ribbons of flame that lashed across the sandy form, then threw his shadow-snare weapon and caught the demon-boy's ankle. The still untransformed ankle, so he screamed and fell backwards, pulling Shikamaru (who was connected to him by the thread), and who pulled him back and punched him with a fire-covered fist. The Sand-nin was thrown back as Shikamaru disengaged the snare, snarling and whimpering like an animal, and he transformed his lower legs and screamed out a challenge.
"HahaHA! So you will fight, then! For your friends, such a foolish motivation."
He crouched, using his tail to balance, and charged. Shikamaru dodged, dancing a path of evasion that the slower and larger Shukaku-host couldn't follow. Then he circled, jumped into range of his enemy, and sent his fox-fire attack biting into him. They played a high-stakes game of tag, Shikamaru sly and evasive, engrossed in directing demon-chakra to mimic the shadow-bind and burn. His mind reduced to making basic tactics; go for that branch, stay out of his tail's range, retreat when he sucks in air for his fuuton attack. He took a vicious pride in seeing Gaara's sandy flesh sizzled and blackened where it was touched, stopped thinking of strategies for winning – it was a game in stalemate, but he was hunting and hunted at once.
A pattern of attacks emerged – Shikamaru staying higher in the trees, flicking his thread of chakra-conducting material out like he was fishing and then sending a flare of energy down it as it connected and retrieving the thread while Gaara howled, leaping if he used a fuuton sandstorm-like attack that lacerated skin and misdirected his chakra-snare. If he was lucky, he could get several attacks in before Gaara managed to smash his branch down or send Shikamaru into a retreat.
This dance went on for long minutes, the space around Gaara becoming clearer and clearer as his forceful attacks broke branches and severed tree-trunks. Shikamaru would be at a major disadvantage if it got too clear, but he was enraged that this creature had challenged him and hurt his friend; he'd kill it now.
Shikamaru had been cut across the shoulder by a shuriken, but he hardly seemed to notice. Naruto was worried about the blood that was turning his friend's green tee-shirt dark, but he'd stayed back because he couldn't move fast enough to be of help without the shunshin. He was limited to occasionally dodging or retreating as the two of them got too near.
He wouldn't have thought it would be possible to be bored of a fight between two people using such ridiculous levels of (demon!)-chakra, particularly not since they were both pretty much geniuses. But Shikamaru's attacks seemed to just be making superficial wounds and annoying the Suna-nin, who hadn't yet been able to hit his foe. Shikamaru was moving too fast for Naruto to follow clearly, though he himself could have matched and exceeded that speed with shunshin. But Shikamaru had told him to make a plan, and now he had thought of one, stealing the idea from a scheme he'd been intending to use against Sasuke. It was his favourite kind of plan, as well – a cunning ninja trap!
First, he pulled out a special variety of explosive tag from his pack, then prepared the simple activator seal.
Next Naruto moved to behind his friend, who was growling under his breath at having to back away. He explained his idea briefly and affixed the tag to a kunai and then tied that onto Shikamaru's weird hand snare thing. He told him to store chakra in the secondary seal on the tag – it powered it, and the activator responded to a second burst of that chakra by detonating – and then made him power up a second set of tags. These things were damn expensive in shops, it was lucky he'd made Jiraiya teach him to prepare them. Shikamaru agreed on a signal with him, and Naruto set off.
The last of his chakra was used in shunshin-ing to set the tags on Gaara's back – the demon-host flailed with his tail to swipe Naruto away, but the blond kept ahead of it and ran up his back, jumping away as he stuck the last note on Gaara's forehead.
Then Shikamaru took aim, threw the kunai, jumping in close so it landed and stayed stuck in the arm Gaara had used to protect his face. The arm that had an explosive tag fixed to it only an inch away from the kunai.
Chakra ran down the 'fuse' of the thread.
And reached the tag stuck to the kunai.
And exploded outwards.
What followed was a chain reaction of monumental proportions, true fire mixing with chakra-flames that spread out and triggered more tags. Shikamaru got a more than a little burnt as he belatedly realised he was attached to an explosive (being linked to your projectile weapon was perhaps not the great idea he'd thought it was), but he sliced through the thread and leapt away from the worst of it in time.
Naruto laughed like a pyromanic as the bundle of sand, smoke, and leaping crimson flames fell to the ground. Shikamaru sighed in relief, feeling drained but more like a normal human now he'd expended so much of his borrowed chakra into the kunai. He squatted down to watch the explosion clear...
... And leapt back up as if he'd been scalded. The Shukaku's chakra roiled around the obscured site of Gaara's fall, and it focussed.
And the figure of a monstrous tanuki grew from the cloud of debris, expanding until it overshadowed the two, towering above the forest.
Naruto's jaw dropped, his eyes wide in horror. Shikamaru kind of slumped, feeling strangely distant from the whole thing. He wasn't thinking about what would happen, he wasn't really that scared, because although the raging chakra surrounding the enormous creature was pressing against his senses, he was shielded by the demon-chakra he himself was wielding. He just felt very tired, and realised he had probably exhausted his normal chakra supply and might well be going into some kind of oxygen-deprived shock if the Kyuubi's power worked differently enough it wasn't feeding his muscles properly. Then he realised how absurd it was to be worrying about energy supply theories and biology when he was going to die, and laughed.
Naruto looked at him, horrified.
Shikamaru realised he wasn't communicating very clearly, and that he was still feral-looking. Laughing wasn't sensible when confronted by a demon, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"We're screwed." He looked at his friend. "I'm sorry, Naruto."
And he was. Sorry for everything.
But Naruto grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him, blue eyes very clear.
"You're still in charge of this mission Shikamaru, you can't go to pieces now. Recite your objectives!"
The objectives rang in Shikamaru's head: You are to use any means possible to neutralise the Shukaku's host. Before he could take on fully demonic form and destroy Konoha. It's a bit late now, thought Shikamaru caustically. But Naruto was right, he had to focus.
Shikamaru didn't want to attack the demon, but he had to. He started a spiralling climb through the trees, hoping he would be able to think of a plan. His mind didn't seem to be working too well.
He had to defend Naruto, defend Konoha, even. It was an ambitious task, but if he didn't at least attempt it, he'd have to watch Naruto give everything up to try and do it himself. The blond had come up with a decent strategy against the previous incarnation of Shukaku, but he'd lost a lot of chakra against Lee and Neji, and most of the rest in various evasive manoeuvres and the initial pursuit. He was in no fit state to fight. Besides, Shikamaru had decided not to deny the implications of being a demon-vessel, and this would be the proof of it. Could he do anything against a demon? He had more of a chance than Naruto. Kakashi had told him not to copy Gaara's actions, but if he could, he would. Saving Naruto was more important than rules.
As he climbed and tried futilely to think of a strategy to defeat something thousands of times bigger than himself (and with no obvious vulnerabilities) he couldn't deny that he felt a certain excitement at the prospect of fighting for real. It was stupid to think that, when he might well die, but as Gaara said, he would prove his existence. It was one of those stupid things people felt the need to do, something he'd never seen the attraction of before. But he understood now: if he was going to die, there was nothing to gain from fearing it or complaining about how troublesome it was.
Shikamaru settled himself on the highest strong branch, and summoned up all the chakra he had left. And flung himself high into the air towards the eyes of the tanuki.
Shikamaru has no cunning plan. Please donate reviews to the fund to buy him one! (Or he'll DIE.)
... Not really. But please review anyway.
Dictionary.
Tanuki – Japanese animal, the raccoon-dog. Which Shukaku is. Wiki them and read the mythology behind them, it's amusing. And involves testicles. 0.o
Fuuton – Air-element jutsu. The actual name of partially-transformed Gaara's attack I have forgotten, but he basically fires sand and air out of a load of mouths in his chest. It would be quite disturbing if he'd been better drawn.