Chapter 8

Shikamaru woke up warm and comfortable. Without opening her eyes, she snuggled into the pillow in front of her, inhaling a scent that reminded her of home. The scent was pleasant, the scent of the air as it twists through the pine, and oak trees. A faint hint of steel, and deer, with an overlaying hint of smoke. The Nara clan always lit bonfires when deer-herding or celebrating something. For missions, they all used a scentless soap to remove their natural scent, but in their home village, there was no need. Shikamaru purred contentedly, an internal alarm letting her know she had another hours sleep before she needed to get up. Her pillow vibrated before a deep chuckle hit her ears. Shikamaru stiffened, as last night's events flooded back to her. As she moved to pull away and sit up, an arm on her waist tightened and held her still.

"I haven't woken up to you cuddled in my arms since you were 5, little fawn. It's good to see you still sleep better, and react the same, as you did then." Shikakus gravelly voice was feather soft, as he nuzzled the top of his daughter's head, inhaling the scent he had memorized when she was a babe. For a guy, whose scarred face was in nearly every bingo book in the Ninja Lands and name was whispered in fear, he had always been a sucker for his wife and little girl. His teammates used to frequently come to his compound to find him, only to end up laughing their arses off because he'd be curled up asleep with Shika, playing with her, or patiently trying to teach her to read/write/play shogi. So much for their plans in their early 20's to have a wife who looked after the kids; laughing about ever settling down and becoming family men. Shikaku raised his other hand and cupped her head, to hold her close. He handled her the same way he did when she was small. Everything was done firmly, but gently. Aiming to remind his girl she was loved; she was safe with him. He just hoped it would get through to her.

Slowly, Shikamaru allowed herself to relax into her father's chest. There was no need to verbally answer him, she thought, as she nuzzled into his chest, a hand coming up to grip onto his vest. It was the first time in years that she felt wanted with her dad, so she was going to savour it. Neither of them mentioned the wet patch forming on his chest, or the slight shuddering of her shoulders, as Shikamaru cried. She cried for a childhood of feeling like a waste of space, a childhood of being lonely. She cried at being held so gently, like she was fragile and worth so much. In silence, the two stayed curled up together, the elder holding the younger tight as she cried; His heart breaking at the silent sobs.

"Breakfast is the table, I've packed you a food scroll for your mission Shika-chan." Yoshino called quietly from the door, as she watched her husband comfort their child. She wished she could help, but after their last argument Yoshino was certain she wouldn't be welcome. Yoshino made a silent promise to herself to rebuild the bond with her child. It shouldn't be too hard; after all, her lunch group promised her that it was Shikamarus teenager rebellion coming to play. All Yoshino had to do was keep nagging and yelling at her, until Shika gave in. With a firm nod, Yoshino steeled herself to break up the adorable scene in front of her.

"Get up Lazyarses! If that breakfast goes cold, I'll whoop both of your backsides!" yelled Yoshino, before she turned and stormed off down the hall, slamming the door behind her.

It was probably a good thing she didn't stay, otherwise Shikaku was pretty sure he may have (finally) lost his temper with her. He felt his daughter raising the walls around her emotionally as she pushed out of his hold, muttering about getting a shower. As she shuffled into her connecting bathroom, Shikaku through an arm over his eyes and groaned at the amount of work he needed to do whilst she was on her mission. He had to sort out Yoshino, he wanted his sweet woman back, not this banshee that kept threatening him and his daughter. Hopefully, that would be easy to fix…

Shikamaru cursed to herself, as she ran across the rooftops. She was later than she wanted to be! Not a good start to her mission. Luckily, she always tried to get everywhere ten minutes earlier; so, she would still be on time when she got to the gate, but still, she was late for her. The little detour to Shirai's flat for new clothes took longer than expected, as her cousin and his team grilled her on not coming home last night. They didn't seem happy at Asuma taking her to her dad, though she was sure she saw a happy glint when she mentioned her dad hugging her to sleep last night. It was a drag at times, but she was glad they cared so much. However, if she didn't get moving, Kakashi and Anko would kill her for being late. With that though, she flung herself off the roof, and landed in a crouch in the middle of the dusty road. Swiftly pushing herself up, she jogged the last 300 meters to the gates, and slipped into the cool shadow. Whilst the Land of Wind was an actual desert, the Land of Fire earnt its name during the summer months. The temperature soared, and the forest surrounding the village kept the air humid. Honestly, it was awful. You stepped outside and sweated in places you didn't know could sweat. Seriously, eyeball sweat was a thing. With a shudder, Shikamaru changed mental tracks, Kakashi Hatake. She didn't really know him, outside of what was common knowledge. He was meant to be a genius, chronically late, insanely strong, and have an innate talent for picking up on hidden thoughts. Shikamaru was aware he had been in the ANBU, from what she had inferred, he was the Hound, THE ANBU. The one that was spoken about in both reverence, and fear. New recruits into ANBU dreamed of being like him, veteran ANBU dreamed of not being like him. She had asked her dad about him at breakfast, and Shikaku had only repeated the common knowledge. He then told her that the man had earnt his privacy; if Kakashi wanted her to know, he would tell her himself. Now she was thinking about it, Shikaku had said the same about Anko. All she knew about her was that she worked in T&I and had been the proctor in the second part of the Chunnin exams. Shikamaru sighed.

"How troublesome."

"Personally, I love mystery missions! They add an element of fun to the mix." A cheerful voice answered her. Drawing her attention to a scantily dressed lady next to her. Her clothing consisted of a fishnet body suit, a ninja skirt, and a long tan jacket. Her shortish purple hair pulled back into a spiky ponytail. ON one shoulder she had a backpack. In her other hand, a stick of dango, red-bean flavoured if the faint scent was to be believed. Shikamaru forced herself to look away from the woman, trying to suppress a blush. That fishnet really left nothing to the imagination!

"Aww, come now baby Nara. No need to be shy, you can look all you like." Anko purred, as she squished herself against Shikamaru, wrapping her arms tight around her. Her voice caused Shikamaru to shiver. It was deeper, breathy, and wrapped itself around Shikamarus mind. It gave a sensual feel, to the normally wild woman. "I promise I only bite if asked."

"Put her down Anko." An amused voice spoke up, causing Anko to pout before laying a kiss on Shikamarus cheek.

"Urgh Kakashi, you're ruining my fun. Baby Nara here is a cutie-pie, and it's wise to educate her in the more… pleasurable parts of being a kunoichi before she has to do the honeypot style missions. Besides, I can't snag the elder Nara, and this one has the added delight of being innocent." Anko whined. Her eyes glinting with a sadistic amusement at Shikamaru.

"Whilst I agree Shikamaru-chan is adorable, she is also our student on this mission. Another thing, I do not want the older Ino-Shika-Cho trio, and Asuma, coming after my backside because I defiled one of their kids." Kakashi's deadpan voice was a counterpoint to his dramatic shiver, causing Shikamaru to smirk in amusement.

"You can't be that scared of my dad, Kakashi-sensei. You're the copy nin, you'd win." Shikamaru quirked an eyebrow at Kakashi, amused that he is scared of someone weaker than him. Kakashi stared back, his dark grey eye curious as it rested on her.

"You have never seen your father in action have you, kid?" Anko broke in, hesitation in her voice. Something so out of place in her normal behavior, that Shikamaru frowned at her, and shook her head. Shikamaru had never seen her father fight, not seriously. He sparred with her occasionally, but mostly deemed it too much of a drag. Despite knowing he survived the Third Shinobi War, Shikamaru had always classed her dad as a desk nin, he stayed in his office and deployed troops, he didn't fight the enemy. So, to see to elite jounins, with their names in multiple Bingo books, hesitate about fighting him, took her back.

"We'll discuss this later Shikamaru, for now, I want to go over our mission specification. So, gather close" Kakashi pulled Shikamaru close to him and Anko, opening a mission scroll for them to see. "Our mission is a B class, with potential to become a low A mission. We are intel gathering. Basically T&I got some information about a potential risk to the village, so we are heading out to confirm or deny the information. High chance of meeting bandits, and a high chance of there being enemy nin. From the current intelligence, the nin we are facing are low chunnin to genin level, so nothing the three of us can't handle. If we are unlucky, we end up facing enemy jounin and/or missing nin, our job is to get back to the Leaf with whatever info we have. It's a 5-day mission, so a day and a half there, 2 days there, and a day and a half back. Understood?"

"Yes Sir." Shikamaru and Anko chorused, on paper an easy mission, in reality anything was possible. The chances of the mission going south was high. Shikamaru was glad that her dad had given her a scroll with the Nara clan medicine in, as well as an information booklet. She was also cleared to use the medicine on her team members, so long as they didn't get to take samples with them. He had also mentioned he had slipped some training packs in her bag incase she had time. She doubted she would, but at least they were there.

"Right team lets go. When we get there, we will discuss our plan. I've already signed us out." With that, Kakashi launched himself into a run towards the forest. He set an easy pace, at least for him and Anko. For Shikamaru it was pushing the higher end of her speed, she was having to use chakra to augment her natural speed, especially whilst wearing the weights. She just hoped they would slow down at some point for her to conserve some chakra.

Half a day passed in silence, with just blurs of green to see. Shikamaru wasn't a big talker, and that was probably a good thing with how much she was panting currently. The pace was starting to get to her, but there was no way she would admit that to the Copy Nin. Hell no, it was a drag to keep up, but she would not ask him to slow. Shikamaru gritted her teeth against the exhaustion eating at the edge of her sight. So focused on keeping up, Shikamaru nearly slammed straight into Kakashi's front as he appeared in front of her. Back peddling fast, Shika yelped, and nearly fell off her branch.

"Why haven't you said anything" Kakashi asked, his voice stern and his single eye a piece of flint. He wasn't happy with her at all.

"About what?" was her stammered reply. Shikamaru was a bit shocked from how fast he moved. If this was the speed of a jounin, she was nowhere close!

"Don't act stupid Shikamaru. You're not on a genin mission now. This is a chunnin and jounin mission. If you are being pushed past your limits, you say. What if we were attacked now? Anko and I wouldn't realise you were exhausted, because you haven't said anything. Wake up to reality, this isn't about proving yourself, this is about the village and completing the mission." Kakashi scolded her. He had noticed hours back she was starting to struggle but had wanted to see what she would do. Kakashi knew what pride did to people on missions. It was something all newly promoted ninja went through. That was the reason he requested her after all. She had potential, she just needed the motivation, and this mission would give him a chance to see if she would live up to that potential. Whilst it was remarkable someone who had been out of the academy for only 9 months managed to keep up the pace he had set, it was barely a fraction of the speed the two jounins had. Still, he acknowledged, she had done well to keep the pace up, though it had drained her chakra. Kakashi sighed and jumped to the ground, a glance at Anko sent her off to scout ahead. He waved Shikamaru to the ground next to him and set a gentle stroll, they were ahead of schedule currently so he could afford to walk for a little bit.

"Shikamaru, a ninja is only as strong as the team with them, you know this, as part of an Ino-Shika-Cho team. If one of the team is in a vulnerable position, as a team leader, what would you do?"

"I'd guard them, cover their weakness."

"Right, so if that team member didn't tell you they were at their limit on speed, chakra, strength; and something happened… Let's say their weakness caused someone to get hurt, how would you feel?"

"Mad they had put the team at risk, mad that I hadn't noticed it."

"Good. Now, why would they not tell you?"

Silence was his answer, before Shikamaru sighed and looked away. "Pride. They didn't tell you because they couldn't see past their pride. That would have made me even angrier. I'm sorry I didn't say anything Kakashi-san, I hadn't wanted to slow you down."

Birds tweeted as a breeze ruffled the leaves around them, Anko appearing next to them with a grin and a nod, the area was clear. Kakashi ruffled Shikamarus hair, before striking up general chitchat with Anko, leaving Shikamaru to her thoughts. Yep, he thought, she's a good one.

A small brown dog nosed around the entrance of a cave, a small distance out of the village of Ganhow. The village was a sleepy little place, right near the border of Fire and Earth Country. They rarely sent missions to either major ninja villages but did trade with the Nara clan for medicine. The information the Leaf had, mentioned that a gathering of Iwa nin was happening near the town. They were planning on sneaking close to the Hidden leaf and destroying their trade routes, before launching an attack on the village itself. After the disaster of the Chunnin Exams, the T&I department was taking any and all information seriously as a potential threat to the village. When they had briefed Kakashi, they had warned him about other rumours stirring. Apparently, Iwa had an informant in the village, which T&I were sniffing out. Kakashi's team, on paper, were looking in Ganhow for proof of foreign ninja being there; in reality, they were to hunt the nins down and dispose of them. They also had to find out if Ganhow was sympathetic to the Iwa ninja or not. So far, in the first morning of their two day stretch, they had discovered that it was a sizable group of ninjas in the mountains just a half hour sprint from the village. To cover more the ground the team had split up. Anko had hit the village bars and pubs; she had dressed to draw the eye and had been delighted to start to work on the local guys. Kakashi had taken Shikamaru to scout out the Iwa ninja. His reasoning was that Shikamaru had already started to specialize in stealth, which was his main skillset too; this would give him a chance to give her pointers as well as keep her close. Crouched in a rocky outcrop, the two waited.

By midafternoon, the two were resting against the rocks, a travel set of shogi set up. Kakashi had layered a genjutsu around them, and taught Shika the hand signs. With her bloodline, her chakra control was second to none, so she should take to the subtle art of genjutsu. When she had the signs down, Kakashi forbid her from trying it this close to enemy nin, the slightest flash of chakra would be a beacon to the Iwa task force. Instead, he settled for giving her some mental exercise, using the game she had brought with. Shikamaru had raised an eyebrow at Kakashi asking her to set up her travel set, causing him to grin and wink…or was it blink… at her. Kakashi knew she beat Asuma regularly, but half way through their first game, he realized just how far ahead she planned. The easy of her planning and constant reassessing, made him pause and watch her thoughtfully. He knew she would be intelligent, despite her academy scores, but he had a feeling she was better than most realized. When they got back to the village, he would need to hunt Asuma down. Someone this intelligent shouldn't be as far behind physically as she was; something was going on.

"Ahh, there he is." Kakashi rose to his feet and headed over to meet a little dog. Up close, you could see he was a pug. What had thrown Shikamaru off, was the pug's ability to talk and use chakra. The only ninken she knew was Kiba's puppy, and he didn't speak at all. Pakkun, on the other hand, was quite talkative, though if he would stop calling her a puppy, she'd be happier.

"They are there Boss. The cave doesn't go too deep, it looks more like a temporary base. It opens inside the entrance to a small round room, if you aren't careful you miss the entrance. Looks like a slit in the rocks, is actually overlapping walls of stone. I suggest you and the puppy here draw them out, and fight them in the open, rather than in their rabbit warren." The pugs voice was gravelly, and rough sounding, but his report was delivered perfectly. "I smelt 6 of them; at least 3 of them are chunnin level, and I'm fairly certain on of them is a jounin. The other two I do not know. Once you've handled the nin, I can lead you to the room that seems to be the control point."

"Right, thanks Pakkun. We'll draw them out here, hopefully one or two at a time. Can you hang back here whilst we are fighting, so I don't have to summon you again?"

The pug nodded and trotted of a fair distance to hide in the rocks. Kakashi turned to Shikamaru, his eye serious, as he put together a plan.

"Okay Shikamaru, what would you do currently? Assume you don't have the choice of waiting for Anko to get back, and we need those documents." Kakashi asked, his voice free of any inflection. Inside he was curious about her ability to come up with a plan. Her old man was one of the best, if not the best, in the village. Kakashi hoped all of his ability had been inherited by his daughter. As he watched, Shikamaru crouched down, and put her hands together into a circle infinity. A sign her father had taught her for helping to focus. Her father had told her that everything goes in a circle, people just join the life cycle at different points. Shikamaru snapped her eyes open.

"I'd see about sending a clone in to get their attention, draw them out to fight. Once they are out, have one of ours draw their eyes so I can slip behind them and capture them. I won't be able to hold them long, especially the jounin, but it'll be long enough for you to dispose of them. It'll be quiet, and wont draw attention, incase they have reinforcements nearby." Shikamaru's plan had the highest percentage of success, according to her calculations. She had run through various different actions, and decided that as a ninja, sometimes the battle had to be clever rather than flashy. Especially when the flashy ones ended in injuries for her and Kakashi.

Kakashi gave her a grin and nodded. "I like it. Simple, easy, low chance of getting into a fire fight. Let's give it ago. If something unexpected happens, we'll deal with it then. When you are planning something for your team, sometimes the simplest plans work the best. Most shinobi rarely do anything not flashy, so they don't expect something so simple to work." With a quick hand sign, a clone appeared next to Kakashi. It flicked Shikamaru on the nose gently, before speeding off with a smirk. When it reached the entrance of the cave, it gave the original a look before stepping in. Watching the clone move, Kakashi moved himself to lounge against a rock in direct view of the entrance. His sheer audacity at lazing around, to wind the Iwa nin up with his apparent disrespect, was amusing. He gave a quick wink to Shikamaru as she snorted in amusement and snuck to the cover of a rock by the entrance. This rock was part of the mountain, and so gave her a large amount of shadow to weave. Waiting in the shadows, just out of sight, Shikamaru ran over the past few days in her mind, whilst still keeping an eye out for enemy ninja. Kakashi and Anko had been teaching her sporadically. Little known facts about things, how to move in complete stealth, how to track properly rather then like the academy taught. It had been an interesting mission so far. To be honest, as troublesome as it was, it reinforced the fact that team ten were way behind what chunnin should be, let alone jounin. She was still waiting for the promised conversation about her old man, but the senior ninja had said it would be for on the way home.

Shikamaru shifted, they had sent the clone in a while ago, and he wasn't out yet. For someone who was normally patient, this wait was starting to get to her. Her blood drummed through her body, as excitement for action built. It was unusual, different, a completely odd experience, but addictive. If this was the rush the senior nin got from their missions, she needed it. She needed to go on higher missions more often. Unaware to her, Kakashi was watching her closely from where he was sprawled across his sunny rock. He could see the spark of adrenaline rush through her body, the bloodlust starts to build as the tension rocketed. It was that thrill that the elite of the jounin lived for, throw themselves into high risk missions. It was an addiction that made them addicted to winning. Afterall, each mission was a game. One side won, the other lost. The goal, now Shikamaru had had her first taste of that thrill, was for her to learn to stay in control of the rush, to not lose her cool to it. Most shinobi needed to be brought back under control after their first taste of blood lust. Still, maybe the take down of the Iwa nins will be enough to satisfy her for now. They'd spa on their way back, that should take the last of the hit off.

Kakashi's eyes were drawn to cave, as his clone darted out laughing manically, followed by two chunnin who had been henged to look like dogs. Kakashi had to admit, a good prank always lightened the mood, but two bulky Iwa nins with shaved heads did NOT suit puppy ears, whiskers, and tails. Nope, totally uncute. As the puppy-ised nin exited the cave, yelling about some gruesome torcher or another, Shikamaru struck. As quick as lightening, her shadow zipped across the floor and branched out behind the enemy. Once caught the Iwa nin yelped and started to struggle against her hold. The two Kakashis sauntered over to their captives, and with a quick movement pulled a kunai and held it to Iwa ninjas throats. A slow, but deep, cut spilled ruby red blood down their fronts, splashing to the ground in a river. The dark red uniform, now crimson rather than brick red. As Shikamarus shadow slipped away from the bodies, the ex-Iwa nin dropped to the floor, the blood flowing out to make a horrific imitation of wings on the rocky ground. Kakashi glanced over to check on Shikamaru, his eye glinting in worry as he took in the excitement making her body tremble.

"Ready for round 2, kiddo?" He asked as his clone flitted away into the cave again. His voice was carefully blank. Held steady to give the girl an anchor point through the adrenaline. "Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru nodded, and slipped back into the shadows, her eyes swirling amber and streaks of shadow, almost glowed in anticipation. Kakashi watched her with narrow eyes, he knew she was training with some of the higher chunnins and some of the special jounins. He'd have to hunt them down and get them to walk her through dealing with this. It's okay to enjoy the thrill, after all it's what keeps them alive most days, but you had had had to be in control.

Movement drew both of their attention back to the hideout, just as Kakashi's clone burst into the sunlight, yelling about there being four of them behind him. The original Kakashi shot up from his stone, landing in a defensive position. As the clone skidded to a halt next to his creator, 4 Iwa nins appeared cackling about killing a leaf nin. Well they did cackle, until they noticed the bodies of their comrades, then they snarled, fury radiating from their chakra. The four made to launch themselves at the copy nin, only to find their bodies frozen in place. Shikamaru had been quicker this time, splitting her shadow to capture the nin infront of her.

"What..what is this? Taka-san, I can't move my body." One of the chunnin stuttered, fear starting to fill his voice.

"Why, you guys never hear of the Hidden Leaf's shadow possession jutsu? It's a pity you didn't look to the shadows before you stepped out." Shikamaru tightened her hold the nin. "Kakashi-san, shadow possession… successful." Her father had trained her into the ground to announce a successful possession to her allies, otherwise they may not have seen the shadow attach. With a smirk, Kakashi launched at the Iwa in front of him, kunai glinting in the light…

Meanwhile, back in Konoha, two preteens were sat leaning against a tree. Silence was their companion as they waited for their sensei to appear. Wind rustle through the branches above them, catching in platinum blond hair, sending it streaming in the wind. The girl in question folded herself into her teammates arms, sadness in a pair of teal eyes. The same sadness mirrored in a pair of brown eyes, as the boy hugged his friend tight. Their hearts aching from their missing friend. No matter who or what joined them on their missions, nobody filled the space left by their shadow. They hoped she'd be back soon, snarky comments and laziness. The two of them found themselves isolated in their training fields most days, seeking each other's company more and more. None of the other rookies knew the split happening in team 10, and that was the way they wanted it. It wasn't like the others ever come seeking their company; Ino and Chouji didn't mind encouraging that for now. At least until Shikamaru was back with them. The other teams didn't understand the bond of an Ino-Shika-Cho trio. They have been together every day of their lives, since they were 5. One of them being gone felt like a limb missing. Soon, was the unspoken prayer, soon…