Chapter 14
With a sigh, Shikamaru dragged herself towards the training grounds. What a troublesome day. First, she had dragged herself home from a troublesome mission. Then she had lunch with overprotective adults, and then she had to chase after Kakashi and try and get him to relax. When she finally found him, it had taken hours, hours, to get him to respond to her. She had had to stand there, at the memorial stone, and randomly chat at him! Her! She never chatted unless she had reason too. However, she considered Kakashi-sensei a friend, so she had tried her best to pull him out of his slump. Urgh, seriously. Uchiha better hope he never ran into her. Traitors that hurt her friends were so far down in her bad books there was no coming back. It would be a drag to fight him, but by the gods she would win. Shikamaru smirked ferally at the thought, too absorbed in her thoughts to notice Iruka fall into step next to her, slowly nudging her towards the reserved training ground.
Iruka glanced at the silent girl next to him. His face a picture of worry, as she continued down the path, he nudged her without acknowledgement. It was highly unusual for this girl in particular, to not notice her surroundings. He had noticed the savage smirk, and the way her chakra was practically vibrating with tension. Ah, she must have found out about Sasuke. It had always amused Iruka, that the one girl Sasuke showed interest in (all be it, distain and disgust), was the one girl who couldn't stand the boy. Iruka was nearly 80% sure the disgust and distain were more aimed at her lack of effort, and her lack of trying whilst flying through everything; then at the girl herself. A small part of Iruka wondered if he had place Shikamaru on Sasuke's team with Naruto instead of Sakura, would he have stayed in the village instead of defecting? A bigger part of him was glad that Shikamaru was away from him. He could have done some serious damage to the laid-back girl. Well, dwelling in the past won't help, it was time to look to the future.
"You in there, Shikamaru-chan?" Iruka nudged her gently, his voice coaxing the girl from her thoughts. They were getting close to their training grounds, and it wouldn't do for her to be in her head now. He watched her silently, as she startled and blinked up at him. Her doe eyes filled with surprise.
"Iruka-sensei, when did you get here?" Shikamaru questioned, her head tipped in curiosity. In fact, she glanced around, how did she get here? She had only just left the memorial stone. With a confused glance at Iruka, Shika froze at the look of concern on his face.
"Sasuke wasn't your fault, Shikamaru. I read your report, and the council minutes. The civilian council demanded he stayed free of chakra sealing, and unsupervised." Iruka sighed. "For all that we live in a military dictatorship, we try and work as partners with the civilians in our home. That's why the councils were formed. To ease the load on the Hokage and allow our village to be as close to a democracy as possible. A lot of the time, this means the majority swings in the civilian favour… as it did here, because there are more civilians then shinobi on the council. This time however, and this stays quiet from your year mates, the Hokage is putting her foot down. Should he be returned to the village alive; he will be, at the very least, sealed and with ANBU supervision for the rest of his life. He will not be allowed out of the village, and any children he has will be raised by someone else. That is, of course, if he isn't executed for treason upon returned. Which is what most of the clans are pushing for I believe." Iruka finished what he was saying at watched the girl in front of him. She had pushed past confusion of being in the training grounds already, and was back to being her normal apathetic self, though a spark of fury and bloodlust showed themselves in her eyes. Clearly, she agreed with the clans on the council, and most of the shinobi for that matter. Which reminded him...
"Shikamaru, I know you aren't close with Ino-chan anymore, and have never been close to Sakura-chan, but please be gentle with them. Ino seems to be crying a lot over this, but with rage from what I've heard, team and family mean a lot to the Yamanakas. Sakura, on the other hand, isn't dealing well. She's shut down and seems to be rather zombie like currently." Iruka raised his hand to cut Shikamaru off from interrupting. "I did not say become her best friend, or even like her, just be a bit careful around her please. If not for her, then for me." With his piece said, Iruka continued towards the group on the training grounds, leaving Shikamaru in thought.
With a sigh, Shikamaru watched Iruka walk away, his words ringing in her ears. Had she been so hard on Sakura that Iruka-sensei felt the need to warn her? Sure, she didn't like the girl, but she had never actively been mean to her. She just didn't like the girl! Why couldn't people understand that? Why would you want to like someone, who instead of helping her not as bright team mate, beat him? Shikamaru didn't understand how Ino, of all people, adored the pink-haired banshee! Especially after Sakura started competing with Ino over Sasuke. Urgh, Ino could do so much better than either of those two. Really, her and Chouji were the best possible people for Ino, they just had to get Ino to notice that. Wait, Shikamaru shook herself mentally, what was that about? She didn't want anything to do with Ino and her troublesome moods. Clearly, she was worried after Iruka's warning. That was it, she didn't actually care about Ino…did she? Huffing, Shikamaru slouched after Iruka, determined to put it from her mind. Emotions and people were a drag.
"Oi, Ko' wanna spar?" Shikamaru called as she approached the group on the field, her voice filled with a challenge. There was someone new with them. He looked familiar but the lowering sun behind him, blocked her from seeing any defining features.
"If you want your butt kicked that much baby Nara, lets go. First to surrender loses?" Kotetsu smirked back at her. He rocked onto the balls of his feet, bouncing slightly, as his energy levels hiked up. He was always itching for a spar and fighting Shikamaru made him think. He couldn't just react instinctively, he had to look ahead and plan. Try to preempt her plan and then counter it. Currently, he had the advantage in experience, strength, and speed; but that wouldn't last long. Ko' had heard rumours that the upper levels of the shinobi hierarchy were beginning to take notice of her. He knew Ibiki had approached Inoichi-sama about taking her under Ibiki's wing at T&I. Ibiki had argued that with her brain power, she should be trained in a range of areas. That she could be multi-specialized in a range of high intensity/high stress areas. Kotetsu heard (he definitely didn't listen outside of the door...) on the grapevine, that Inoichi-sama had denied the request outright, and chewed Ibiki out for suggesting it. A pity, Ko thought as he observed the girl in question practically stalk towards him with a wild grin, she would have been a great addition to the team.
"Before you two start, maybe we can introduce the baby Nara to our final group member?" Raido cut across the growing anticipation. His own chakra rising to force the other two to calm. His chakra slipped around Kotetsu's and gripped it tight, forcing the always moving ball of sunshine energy to relax. Shikamaru's was harder to grip. It was as elusive as the shadows she controlled. As soon as his chakra tried to grip hers, it dispersed like smoke. Giving in on catching the smoke-like chakra, Raido stepped close to the girl, and used his height to loom over her. A less elegant way to subdue her, but just as effective.
"Shikamaru Nara meet, officially, Genma Shiranui. He was the proctor during the finals of your chunnin exam."
Shikamaru looked towards the ninja she had recognised. Up close she could see the features which would have reminded her, including that senbon in his mouth. He was a lean looking ninja. He wasn't heavily muscled, instead he seemed to move with a feline grace. He wasn't raw power, not like Guy and Lee. He was the understated, deceptive type of power. Someone who relied on people underestimating him and his ability. Shika remembered the invasion, Genma had been nearly impossible to see, he was so fast, but he had left a huge trail of devastation among the Sand and Sound nin. Shikamaru shivered, she had never seen anyone use senbon in a fight until that day. She had passed two Sand nins screaming in pain from three senbon in each, afterwards she had discovered Genma coated his senbon in his own brand of poison, just in case he missed. Shikamaru's attention was drawn to his hand, as he stepped forward, his hand out to shake hers.
"Pleased to meet ya', kid. The guys have told me plenty." Genma drawled, his voice low enough Shikamaru had to focus to hear him. Something about him simultaneously set her at ease and raised her hackles. Maybe it was the rough easy-going manner crossed with the dangerous glint in his eyes, and the senbon in his mouth. Whatever it was, it was guaranteed to be troublesome. With a sigh, Shikamaru lifted her hand lazily to clasp Genma's. Her hand was cool in his, and so small. With a subdued shiver, Shikamaru shook his hand quickly before removing her own.
"Nice to meet you Genma-san. I hope your mission went well." With a low bow, Shikamaru withdrew behind the mask and distance of manners. She knew of Genma, had heard many stories about some of his escapades from the older Ino-Shika-Cho team. Her cousin also had plenty of anecdotes about him. Apparently, he often worked for T&I, and was extremely good at seduction and undercover missions. When he wasn't out in the field, he was a part of the elite Hokage guard. Handpicked by the 4th, their squad were the line of defense specifically for the Hokage. They complimented the ANBU guard, by being a little more visible. Either way, this guy was not to be taken lightly. With that in mind, Shikamaru turned to Ko'.
"Now introductions are done, shall we play?" With a smirk, Shikamaru pounced on the grinning idiot in front of her, she was gonna win today! She could feel it!
"I'm telling you, Shikaku, her mindscape is crumbling! You need to step up whatever plans and schemes you have to fix our family. Whatever you need from us, tell us, we will help. I'm seriously worried about her mental health, brother. She has spent years training with Yamanakas in the mental arts; if her mindscape completely crumbles, it could cause a serious breakdown. One I'm not sure I have the skills to put back together." Inoichi's voice was stern, and worried. What he had seen in his brief mind walk of his surrogate daughter had shaken him to the core. With this in mind, he had dragged Chouza with him, and burst into Shikaku's office. The jounin commander had been pouring over maps and updating them to show the new trade agreements; whilst a clone had been looking through paperwork to advise the new Hokage on how to precede. Both versions of Shikaku had jumped into a defensive position at the abrupt entrance to his office. The following conversation had turned his normally lazy and apathetic face into stone, as he listened and analyzed his teammates words. It seemed that he had ran out of time, instead of the more subtle plans he had, he would need to use a blunter method to put his family back together. He refused to lose, not this time, not again…