AN: Time for another part!
I do not own Naruto
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"So you mean...?"
From her position in front of the Hokage's desk, Shiho could do nothing but continue her light and excited smile. It wasn't very often that shinobi could give each other good news, at least in this day and age.
"The measurements of the man that Choji and Ino brought in did not match the ones we have recorded for Shikamaru. Further investigation showed that the cigarettes that he held with him didn't have any fingerprint matches to him, and instead they matched to a different member of the Nara clan. Either Shikamaru grew exponentially in the last 8 months, a slim, yet possible occurrence... or the man we have in the morgue is not Shikamaru."
And then, for the first time in a long while, Naruto found himself smiling as well.
Mornings in the Hokage Office usually brought nothing but sorrow and pain. The mornings were when the overnight patrol reports came in, when Shinobi were send off to missions, some missions resulting in their ends, and when some ninja returned from their missions, usually giving off reports of casualties and losses. In the five years that he had been in charge of the war, he had slowly gotten used to the monotony and dour that occurred during the morning, tempered his feelings to greet theirs, and slowly had begun to lose the very thing that he was once noted for. And in the days that Shikamaru had been considered dead, his attitude and mood had only seemed to get worse.
But, as Shiho gave her report in front of him, for the first time in a long while he felt calmer. Because perhaps Shikamaru's status was proof that at the very least, Konohagakure was doing something right.
Ever the skeptic, Sasuke narrowed his eyes harshly at the woman in front of him.
"Nothing's for certain," he spat. "The body could be mismatched, but the fact still remains that Shikamaru hasn't been seen for at least two weeks. He just randomly disappears during a Genjutsu, and then doesn't make contact with anyone from our side for two weeks. Add that to the fact that our scouts haven't even been able to catch a whiff of him ever since you began to send out scouts. The situation doesn't leave too many options open to us."
Naruto leaned back into his chair, and then moved his eyes to study Sasuke's face. Always the more serious of the two. But, even as he tried his best to stay in the reality of it all, Naruto could still sense a feeling of relief under his features. Sasuke was just as glad of the news that Shiho had brought as Naruto was.
"And what are these options that this news brings us?" Naruto asked lazily. He himself was too clouded with the fact that his friend wasn't dead to truly care about the now.
"Just two. Either Shikamaru is dead, and that we just haven't found his corpse, or that he's alive... and doing something else."
Naruto nearly stood up and out of his chair.
"What are you implying-."
"Don't play coy, Lord Hokage. We all know what has happened to Shikamaru in the past month."
For a few moments, Naruto tried to figure out exactly what Sasuke was referring to. Of course, he was usually a blunt man, and he was sure to make his feelings known to him ever since Naruto had chosen him as an adviser. And then it hit him, one of the possibilities that he was talking about...
"...Shiho, we're done here. Thanks for the news."
"Is there anything you need me to do out of the ordinary?"
"No, not at all. The man you have in your possession is still a dead man, find out who he really is and then notify his family of his passing. Then... you know how to move on from there."
Shiho quickly left the office. Suddenly, the two could hear the air conditioning in the room turn on. Naruto moved his eyes back towards Sasuke, and frowned.
"...Shikamaru wouldn't do that..."
Sasuke huffed, and then stood up straighter than he had been.
"I wouldn't put it past him."
"It's against his character, he's not like that-."
"His own son tried to do similar-."
"And that's his son, man," Naruto emphasized. By now, his tone was revealing his annoyance and embarrassment at the conversation.
"It would make no sense that he would stop his son, and then run out and do the very same thing."
"It would if he didn't want his son to get involved with his business," the taller man continued. He slowly moved himself from Naruto's side to stand in front of his desk. "He always did place more responsibility on himself than he needed to. He might have wanted to dissuade his son from acting, so that he could do the deed, and handle all of the fallout from it, by himself-."
"It just doesn't make sense. He wouldn't just leave, pretend to be dead, and go without telling anyone-."
"He did nearly the same before."
Naruto cook a deep breath in, thinking back to the incident before. Sasuke wasn't pulling any strings. Shikamaru had run off to avenge someone he loved without telling others, but at the very least he had brought his friends with him half of the way.
Maybe it wasn't out of character for him to be acting this way.
"...Why would he abandon his village in the middle of a war...?"
Sasuke shrugged.
"That detail does place my theory out of sync, but it could still be possible. He was getting better... but he still wasn't right the last time we saw him. Most signs point to that being a possibility."
"He could still be missing, though-"
"He's an adult. I'm sure he knows how to return home."
"I wasn't thinking of that. He could be captured..."
There was a sickly silence in the room, before Sasuke began to shake his head vehemently.
"He wouldn't let himself get captured," he muttered. "Not after he'd seen Sunagakure's handiwork."
"There's always that possibility. And it might not matter if he wanted it to happen or not."
"But is it a better theory than mine?"
"... I would like to believe so." Naruto paused, and then slowly turned the computer on his desk off.
"... We need to see if we can get into contact with Gaara, and if he will release the names of the prisoners he has."
"If he does have Shikamaru, why wouldn't he have used him as blackmail yet?" He muttered. His mind tried to think of alternatives, as he hated this line of thinking. "He would've gloated about having him by now-."
"We have Kankuro in custody, and we haven't done any of that. He could be holding him for ulterior motives."
"Such as-."
"We remember what Shikamaru did. It's not too unreasonable to suggest that they'd hold him there as a point of revenge, is it?"
Naruto slowly stood up in his chair, and then narrowed his eyes.
"...You're... this theory sounds much better than the last. But at least he's not dead, and we can still find him and get him back."
Sasuke nodded, and Naruto slowly moved himself to get out of his chair, and turn back on the monitor on his computer.
"What do you order us to do, then?" Sasuke pondered. To answer this, his Hokage looked towards him again.
"Immediately call back the scouts that we sent out before... and then send out some new ones. Get some Jonin to survey Sunagakure's perimeter from a safe distance away, to survey is there is anything different about their patrol patterns and the actions of the guardian shinobi on their walls. See if you can find a group that you can send undercover into Sunagakure, to find out any information on Shikamaru's whereabouts..."
Naruto then gave out a sigh of relief.
"...And then tell everyone who was concerned about this that Shikamaru's still out there. I'm sure that it'll increase morale... for once in this damn war..."
Sasuke nodded, and then moved himself to leave Naruto's office, giving off his own sigh of relief once he was out of it. Even if the news only gave them more trouble, it was still comforting to at least know that Shikamaru was still out there somewhere. It was possible that they had finally done something in a while that hadn't ended up in a disaster.
And he knew who else would be intrigued by this news.
"...Shikadai I know you're there. You can come on out now."
From his position just above the air ducts in the ceiling, the boy nearly gave out an audible yelp.
How did he know? He thought, slowly trying to move himself backwards into the vent. It made sense, he supposed. Sasuke Uchiha was a Jonin, and he could probably sense the boy's erratic and new chakra flow from a mile away. Not to mention the fact that he was nowhere as stealthy as he would've needed to be to pull off a "mission" such as this, and vents made enough noise for the man to know what was going on. Nonetheless, he still continued to crawl backwards, until he heard Sasuke's deep voice again.
"If you don't come down, I'll just come up and get you. Don't play around."
Immediately after the order, the boy slowly pushed open a section of the air duct, and then, through a crack, slipped himself down into and onto the Hokage Building's hallway. He landed on the floor in front of Sasuke with more force than he wanted to, and felt himself being pressure cooked under the Uchiha's dark eyes. The last time the two had met, the man had, quite rightly, chewed him out on his decisions and actions, but in retrospect, it was his talking down to and his actions that had saved his life. But it was still awkward and uncomfortable to be in front of the man now. Shikadai couldn't' tell what he thought of him through his eyes...
"...Now what exactly did you hear while you were up there?"
Shikadai gulped. In his mind the day before, doing something this like seemed to had been a good idea. Who else would've known more about the disappearance of his father than the Hokage himself? However, he had underestimated the security in the Hokage building, and there was no way through the air ducts in the ceiling to enter the Hokage's office. Going in through a window would've been dangerous, and there was a high chance of him being detected. Finally, it would've been a stupid idea to just go in through the front door. It seemed that his best method would just to have waited outside the door, and to see if the conversation within the room got loud enough for him to hear. But...
Shikadai gave an uneasy smile.
"... My old man's still alive."
Sasuke softened his jaw. Good. I can break it to him in a good way, then. His face was still rock solid as he began to relay what information he found appropriate to the child.
"That's right. The lead that we had before suggesting that he was dead turned out to be someone else. As of now, we have theories on where he could be, and ideas on how we're going to help him return." He paused.
"You should, we should, expect more information on his whereabouts within the next two weeks. Until then, just know that your Father's fine."
Or rather, he should be fine. Sasuke kept his face stern and serious, but on the inside he couldn't help but feel a tinge of joy as he watched Shikadai's face light up just a little bit more. In this war, many children had been orphaned, many women widowed, many men turned widower. It was good that, at least for once, someone was receiving good news.
Shikadai gave out a small smile of relief, before Sasuke brought him back to reality.
"...But you do realize that what you did was illegal. Only certified shinobi are allowed in these hallways, and you're barely a Genin. This could result in a write up."
He watched as Shikadai clenched his teeth, before he finished his sentence.
"Sir. I was just-."
"It's better than what you did last time." Sasuke barked. "Just... don't do it again. Another aggression like this and you will be fined."
Shikadai gulped, then nodded. Sasuke moved forwards, and then placed a hand on the boy's back, slowly pushing him forwards in the direction of the exit.
"Come on. Before anyone else sees you."
Despite his hate of being man-handled, Shikadai let himself be pushed ahead. Quietly, he took pleasure in the fact that he had at least had more concrete evidence that his father really was just late, and that soon the two would likely meet each other again.
Watching his small body try it's best to look firm and adult, Sasuke finally let a smile come through.
...Jeez Shikamaru. Despite all your complaints of things being Troublesome, your son sure is...
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Shikamaru Nara woke up to the sensation of a droplet of water falling down onto his face.
His eyes opened slowly, and once he made the motions he found that despite his rest, he still felt as weak as he had the night before. His sides still ached from his torture days ago, and his chest especially still made him feel light-headed and tired. Even as he slowly pushed himself up so that his back was in the air, he found that the pains wouldn't stop, and shortly after his attempt, he fell back onto the ground again, making a loud thud of a sound.
...Fuck.
He couldn't tell how much had passed since he had arrived at the cave, and it was all the more reason to push himself to get up. He couldn't tell if it had been hours or days that he had been out, and time had became everything to him the moment he had left Sunagakure. It was only a matter of time until Gaara sent shinobi after him. It was only a matter of time before the shinobi found out that his camel trick was in fact a diversion. It was only a matter of time before they caught his trail. If he didn't get into the Land of Fire soon, it would only be a matter of time before they caught him.
And if he couldn't get proper medical attention soon, it would only be a matter of time before his wounds ended up killing him.
He took a deep breath in, and then tried his best to normalize his breathing pattern. All of the running and riding he had been doing in the days before had destabilized his lungs, he thought, and he needed to get himself back into the pattern of extraneous work. Breathing better would also likely help his chakra flow, and his chakra flow would help him fight off any pursuers who did catch his trail. It was only a matter of time, after all.
Eventually, he felt brave and strong enough to try and move again. Slowly, he reached his hands out in front of him, and pulled himself up, straight backed and firm. He found himself having to cough heavily to try and get the kinks out, but soon he was feeling spry enough to slowly move himself onto his feet. His legs ended up aching more than his chest had, but despite this pain, he found himself able to stand up straight and tall. He took a few steps away from his previous area, and then began to look around the cave he was in.
It was an... odd kind of beautiful. Around him, certain rocks on the ceiling sparkled, and others stayed dull, as if they too wished to defer detection. There was little natural light, but the bit that did come in was coming from in front of him, a small sliver of light pouring out from behind the rock that partially blocked the entrance to the cave. He could barely see the outside, but it didn't matter. He had to leave now, and had little time to truly reflect on the beauty that was around him.
Slowly, he began to move himself towards the exit.
He clenched the wall next to him, and moved his feet forwards one at a time. The sound of his feet shuffling and scuffing against the ground below echoed throughout the cave, but he couldn't care at the moment. The most important fact that was he was moving, getting ever so much closer to his goal. Once he was out of the cave, he would have to make another mad-dash towards the Land of Wind's border, and only in the forests of his homeland would he have a decent chance at fully getting away. So he continued to walk, on and on. Moving until he was in front of the giant boulder that blocked outside eyes from prying inside the cave, into the final natural "hallway", it being long, but more well lit, and towards the light. Holding the walls around him for dear life.
"... Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand, Shikamaru."
Shikamaru immediately stopped in his tracks. His eyes slowly widened as he matched the sudden, yet familiar voice to one that he had heard so many times before, and his head slowly looked forwards, the direction that the voice had come from. The moment he matched the voice, he began to feel sick to his stomach. He wanted to run away, but he knew it was pointless. If he was truly in front of him... then it was all over.
"... I know you can hear me. Answer."
Shikamaru watched in terror as he saw a shadow block his light. The cave entrance was large enough that the sun punctuated the appearance of the man who had stepped in front of him, making him look scarier than he probably was at this moment in time. Whatever efforts Naruto had made in their childhood seemed to have been completely void in this moment, as his eyes had reverted to how they had been, all those years and decades ago. His back was slightly hunched to make him appear taller than he was, and his face revealed that it was likely he hadn't gotten much meaningful sleep in the past few days. His hands were calm and loose, for now, and his murderous gaze was fixed entirely on Shikamaru. They met eye to eye. Their auras clashed.
Gaara seemed to have forgotten his Kazekage hat at the village.
"...Well?"
"...You need my information."
Shikamaru slowly tried to push himself off the wall that he leaned on, but, upon realizing that he still wasn't strong enough to stand up tall, settled on balancing his body off of it, trying to appear stronger than he really was. His eyes focused on Gaara's, as he tried to do the only thing he knew he could do in this position. It didn't need to be said, if Gaara lost the little composure he did have and attack him, the leader of the Nara clan would die quickly. But at the same time, there was nothing he himself could do to get away from him. He blocked the only entrance to the cave, and even if he could get past him, he was far too weak to be able to run fast enough to outpace the Kazekage. He was entirely and utterly cornered, his existence wholly in another's keeping.
The only thing he could do is try to appeal to his better nature.
"If you kill me now, you'll never get the info you're looking for." Shikamaru slowly tempered his voice to try and keep it from shaking, but as he listened to himself, he realized how much he was failing at his attempt. "I'm the only high-ranking member of Konohagakure's government that you have, and will likely ever have. If you kill me, then you'll also be killing any chance you have at winning this war."
Gaara simply stared at him for many moments. Behind his feet, on the sand of outside, Shikamaru could see the sand begin to swirl, as if it was moving according to the mood of it's owner. Shikamaru silently gulped, hoping that Gaara would take the bait. As per usual, in his mind he began to go over the many scenarios that could take place. He could be recaptured again, and this time tortured more harshly as punishment for his escape attempt. Or he could be killed, this being a punishment for his escape attempt.
Neither of the outcomes were what Shikamaru wanted, but he would try the hardest he could to get the result that would end with him still being alive. Being alive allowed more possibilities. He could be rescued, he could try to escape again...
"..."
Gaara continued his silence for a few moments longer, his gaze towards him slowly going blank, before it returned to his look of anger and confusion.
"...You've... humiliated me... many times before... Nara." The Kazekage's voice reminded Shikamaru of a man spitting, and he struggled to keep his strong composure as he felt the wounds on his body threaten to open up again.
"First, you kill many of my people. Then you lie about your involvement. Then you kill more of my people. Then you steal away my sister for ten years, during which you've killed more people, stolen countless artifacts, stolen more lives, and brainwashed her, making her think that the rhetoric your village spews was anything close to the truth. Then, when fate comes for you, you cheat it, like the coward you are, and cause it to take your own wife instead. I finally get you into my hands, finally you can pay for all of your sins, I offer you a final chance to give in, and I offer what you want. You deny. Then you deny me what I want,and then you run away, and make me look like a damn fool in front of my own village. And you think some damn information is going to save your life, after all that!?"
...I'm, by all odds, dead now.
Shikamaru took a step back instinctively, but he knew that it would do no good but to make the man in front of him more enraged. It seemed like his attempt to appeal to Gaara did nothing but wound his ego, something that he had also developed during the war, and confirm whatever thought process he had been going through. He looked back to the bottom of Gaara's feet again, and this time saw that the sand was fully in the air now, and swirling madly. This was it, then. Gaara wasn't going to take him back to the village now.
Gaara was going to kill him.
With this knowledge, Shikamaru slowly pushed himself off the wall he leaned on, embracing the pain, and stood up straight in front of the Kazekage. No... he wouldn't do that. If he wanted to kill Shikamaru, he would've done it while he was passed out. Gaara probably had a more sinister motive to waking him up and shocking him like this was probably his own attempt to take hold of the situation.
Shikamaru nodded slowly, playing along. He ventured his next words carefully.
"...If I've pissed you off so much... then go ahead and kill me. I've already told you the reasons why you can't."
Gaara spent a few moments staring at Shikamaru, before taking a deep breath in, and letting out a cold and bitter chuckle.
"...That's what you'd want... isn't it? To die... to be reunited with her again?"
Shikamaru grit his teeth, and yet Gaara simply continued to speak.
"No... I was right. All that time ago. You're... not going to die. You're not going to escape either. You're coming back with us to the village... and this time you're doing everything that I say."
Shikamaru continued to look behind Gaara, trying to deny the darkness he already knew he was trapped within. He knew there was no escape from the man in front of him, at least not now. And Gaara's attitude wasn't making anything better.
Behind his legs, the sand behind Gaara began to fidget and tremor.
"... Take a few more steps off of the wall."
Made up his mind quicker than usual.
Shikamaru looked down at his battered and tired hands, and then took a deep, long sigh. He had been caught red handed, and there was really nothing else that he could do to try and deny, or to get away from the man in front of him. It was inevitable. A fate worse than death. He would return to the hot pokers, the stretching, the cutting and the beatings. It really didn't matter how much he resisted.
All men had their limit.
Despite the inevitability, he couldn't' give up just yet. So when Gaara sent his sand towards him, it running at a speed comparable to sound, Shikamaru ducked out of the way, throwing himself the best he could towards the opposite end of the cave. Still low and on the ground, he moved himself towards the entrance of the cave, hoping to get past Gaara due to his height, only for the Kazekage to harshly kick the man when he was close enough. Shikamaru felt his back crash against the entrance of the cave, and Gaara would only continue his assault, using his sand to lift the man up, and throwing him away, out of the cave and onto the desert's sand.
He fell on his back when he was thrown to the sand, and quickly tried to scramble around to get back onto his feet again, before feeling the kick of another boot hit him in his jaw. Shikamaru took the pain in silence, and focused his eyes on his surroundings, to see that Gaara had thrown him in the middle of a team of Sand Shinobi, likely the ones that had come along with him in the first place. He panicked immediately, and tried to move himself again, before another shinobi stomped on his face. He heard a dog begin to bark as he scrambled around on the ground, and, though he had enough time to get on his hands and knees again, the sand instantly hardened before he could take a singular movement forwards. He heard the crunch of sand, and as the desert's sun began to beat down on him once again, Gaara's voice returned.
"By the time I'm done with you, you're going to be crying..."
What the hell am I doing!?
Shikamaru spat onto the desert's floor, before he felt a heavy foot begin to press into his back. Around him, he heard jeers and cheers, before he collapsed onto the ground.
It was over. He was lost.
The foot on his back pressed him deeper into the sand.
"I gave you a chance before, didn't I? I warned you that this would happen..."
Indeed he did.
Shikamaru made one last attempt at holding his freedom, and pulled harshly on his bound right hand, reaching out in front of him, as if he was trying to latch onto his village and pull himself home. But it was too far. It was too late.
Shikadai would have to wait. Shikamaru would have to endure.
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AN: Sorry for the slightly late and slightly shorter than normal chapter! I had a lot of things to do during school and it was hard to get into the groove of writing. My next chapter should come out on the week of December 6-12, and I'm planning on writing a special "double chapter' for December 25th. Thank you again for reading, please R&R if you can, and I hope to see you next time!