With the enemy nin dispatched, Shikamaru followed Pakkun and Kakashi into the rabbit warren of a cave network. It was dimly lit, casting shadows around the trio, something that allowed for Shika to relax a bit more. Her own shadow trying to leap ahead of her, being dragged back through force of will. A little-known fact of the Nara clan's ability is that shadows around them became almost…alive… not the right word, but the closest she could get. They developed personalities of their own and could act with some independence. The clan believed the shadows came from the old Gods; that their clan was still in touch with the old ways, so their reward for loyalty was a genetic disposition to the shadows. Hard to deny when you are standing there having an argument with your shadow about hugging other people's shadows without consent. The problem with the ability was that humans aren't meant to work in the shadows that literally. To bend the shadows to your will, you had to stare into the abyss and not get lost. It was why the number one important rule about working with shadows, was do not learn on your own. Beginners easily lost themselves into the void, so the clan enforced this rule with an iron fist. Every knew technique you learnt, was practiced with someone experienced until you were deemed in control. The clan jutsu had ranks assigned to them. Shadow possession was the only one a genin was allowed to learn. It was the only thing really that her father ever was firm about. He had warned her a few times that she wouldn't enjoy the consequence, but she had no idea what the punishment was. It was always dealed out by the parents of said rule breaker.
Shika was pulled from her thoughts as the duo in front of her slowed to a stop. Pakkun indicated that was the room they wanted before popping out of existence in a cloud of smoke. The room ahead was open to the corridor, obviously somewhere that someone had just opened out the corridor and kept widening. The rough stone walls were stepped, creating natural looking shelves. A large round chunk of stone had been flattened to create a table. Candles provided the lighting in the room, centered around the table covered in paper sheets and scrolls. She watched as Kakashi slowly approached the table, taking care to check as he went for any traps. It was interesting to see how the elite approached a possible trap room. He did everything differently from the academy lessons. His method seemed to be, lets give it a go and hope.
"Umm Kakashi-sensei?" Shikamaru asked. Her voice light and airy in the silent room. She loathed to seem unaware, but the curiosity was killing her. She waited until his dark eye swung her way before she continued.
"The academy showed us a different way to enter a potentially trapped room. Why is yours different? It looks like you are trying to spring a trap…" Her voice trailed off towards the end of her sentence, her eyes focused on the shinobi ahead.
"Ahh, that's cos I am." Kakashi grinned through his mask and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Quickest way to find a trap? Is to spring the trap." As he explained his rather simplistic thought process, he noticed her eyes seemed to have simmered down the bloodlust. That was good, he really really didn't want to have to help her work off the excess energy. He knew some great ways, but the thought of Konoha's Shadow Walker (and team) hunting him down made him pause a bit. As pretty as she was, Kakashi like Shikaku as a commander, and really didn't want to break the trust of having his only daughter on his team. Besides, Kakashi thought, he liked having a life, and really didn't fancy dying this young. To steal a Nara term, that would be troublesome! He waved a hand at the girl, directing her to follow him into the room.
"Come come, it's clear in here. It'll take both of us to skim the documents. We are looking for military orders/plans and to see if the village below is in on it. Quicker we get it done, the quicker we can head back to Anko. Tomorrow we can spend training. I figured we'll work on stamina and chakra control. Between the two of them, it'll help your reserves grow. I figured I'd show you an offensive jutsu too. Build up your fire power. Do you know your element yet?"
With a half smirk, Shikamaru entered the room to start looking through the scroll, noting anything that looks important, and what was general information.
"I don't. I know an earth jutsu, a lightning jutsu and my shadow ones. So, I guess lightning or earth?" She rummaged through a pile of scrolls, pulling out anything that caught her eye. "Kakashi-sensei, look at this." She through the scroll at him as she continued. "Iwa invasion notes. Apparently, the aim is to cut off all the trade routes slowly, and then attack when we send our forces out to find out why we have nothing coming in. It also mentions a traitor." Here she hesitated... "In the Hokages office."
Kakashi snarled, nothing angered a shinobi more than a traitor. His chakra flared and flooded the room, brushing harshly against her. He had managed to reign in his killing intent, but his chakra was more than able to let Shikamaru know that the copy nin was pissed.
"New plan. Find everything we need, I'll summon my pack to take the notes back to Tsunade-sama. We'll wait for orders before heading back tomorrow." Kakashi stalked outside to summon his pack, whilst Shikamaru gathered everything together and sealed it in a storage scroll she had found…
The sun was setting, before they had found Anko and filled her. She in turn told them that the village were aware of the Iwa ninjas being close but didn't know about any planned invasion. The village simply sold them the supplies to survive, since they were too far away for Konoha to send protection quickly. With a brief outline of tomorrow planned, Shikamaru found herself being dragged to the bedroom by Anko. Apparently Anko had taken offense that Shikamaru had ever been drunk. Kakashi just grinned at her from behind his mask, before burying his nose in his porn, leaving her to the not-so tender mercies of Anko. In a brief flash of childishness, Shikamaru stuck her tongue out at Kakashi as the door slammed shut, before turning wary eyes on the insane woman next to her. Her wild grin had slipped into a predatory smirk, her eyes hooded and heavy on Shikamaru.
"Now, baby Nara, tell me you've packed more clothes then uniform clothes. Specifically, civilian styled. I doubt you've brought make-up, but I have that covered. We are going to a bar. I'm going to teach that pretty little head of yours about how much power we have over mortal men."
Shikamaru paled and backed against the door, as Anko's words registered in her mind. A non-verbal whine caught in her throat as Anko started cackling and pulling clothes out of Shika's backpack. Shika was pretty certain her dad would not be happy at the skills Anko was going to teach her. Hell, she wasn't sure if she would be happy learning these skills either. Though for the looks of it, she wasn't going to get a choice... Maybe she could slip away from the troublesome she-devil… Very slowly, Shikamaru crept to the side, one hand reaching behind her for the handle. Her wide terrified eyes stared at Anko, hoping she'd escape before the crazy woman saw her. The door handle turned slowly and creaked lowly. Shikamaru froze, but the gods seemed to be on her side, as the purple haired demon in front of her kept rummaging for an outfit. Her confidence bolstered, she resumed opening the door until it was open wide enough for her to squeeze through. With a silent sigh of relief, Shikamaru inched her body sideways to slip through the gap.
"Do not move cutie-pie. My babies don't like being stood on. They get all… bite-y!" With a feral grin, Anko looked up. The sadistic glint in her eyes back. Shikamaru whined lowly at the look, before glancing down to see Anko's "babies". She jerked back into the room at the sight of the two entwined, yellow and black snakes. The two of them looking at her with beady little eyes, their long slender tongues flickering at the air. Behind them stood Kakashi, his book away as he shook in silent laughter. A brief displacement of air behind her, alerted Shikamaru to a close presence. Arms threw themselves around her neck and chest, pulling her back tight against what was definitely a woman's body. A tongue flicked against the shell of her ear, before teeth bit down causing a spark of pain; the sensation tugging a quiet moan from Shikamaru. A wave of heat flooded her neck and cheeks, as Shikamaru closed her eyes out of embarrassment. The surprise in the single dark eye staring at her from the door, compounding her shame.
"Well, well, well. Would you look at that, the cutie-pie here likes a little pain. Who'd a thought?" A breathy purr caressed Shikamarus ear, as Anko spoke. "I may have to change the plan for tonight. Maybe we should have an … early… night." Shikamaru shook her head, desperately trying to hold back a shudder as Anko's voice filled her ears. Anko's hand stroking the over the mesh on the open part of her top, the other tight around her waist.
"Step away Anko." Kakashi's growl was dark, with a feral tone to it. His chakra reaching out to curl protectively around Shikamaru. "Before the Shadow Walker hears. You know the shadows willingly reach out for him. Don't provoke them by upsetting their heir."
The reaction from Anko was more abrupt then Shikamaru expected. The woman forced the distance between them to widen, by shoving Shika at Kakashi. Her face a pale grey, and her eyes darting to look at the shadows in the room warily, before she turned her eyes back onto the pile of clothing and continued her rampage.
Kakashi reached out towards the falling girl instinctively. His arms curling around her shoulders and pulling her close to his chest. He could feel how embarrassed she was, from the heat radiating from her face. He stroked his hands down her back as he watched Anko continue putting an outfit together. He held Shikamaru close to him firmly, when she attempted to pull away. In the privacy of their team, she didn't need to back away from comfort so soon; especially as such a young ninja. Most of the veteran ninja wanted to see some type of childishness left in their young. It helped their generation know they had made the world a little safer with their sacrifices. Still, the young Nara was an independent one, and wouldn't stay in his hug for long, so he stepped back and ruffled her hair.
"Get a shower kid, Anko and I are taking you to the bar in a bit. It'll do you good to see how some people gather information… Or in Ankos case, conquests." With a grin, Kakashi disappeared back into his book (where did that come from?) and vanished off into the sitting room attached to their bedrooms; leaving Shikamaru alone with the crazy lady…again!
"Well kid, lets get moving! I have sake calling my name, and a game or two of poker!"
Meanwhile, back in the Hidden Leaf, shadows lashed across a training ground, barely contained fury in each strand. Three ninjas in animal masks were dodging to avoid the wall of black. Desperately trying to break through the onslaught to reach the commander of the shadows. With a growl, the bear masked shinobi threw himself into a back somersault to dodge being stabbed, his hands flashing together as he straightened up.
"Fire style: Phoenix renewal" A ball of blazing white-blue flames shot towards Shikaku, who didn't even flinch. His shadows rose up to bat the flames away. As the fireball shattered, Shikaku looked back at the ANBU he was moving like puppets on strings. With a cold smirk, he directed his shadows back onto an offensive track; well he did, until he noticed the bear masked nin looking off over Shikakus shoulder. Spinning, Shikaku dropped into a crouch as he scanned behind him. A yell from Inoichi drew his attention up.
"Shika, above you!"
From out of the sun above his head, Shikaku could see a shape forming against the glare. What was it? He was confident his shadows would protect his back whilst he figured it out. He watched carefully, his mind making plans and binning plans, until the shape was clear. It was fire. The same white-blue as the earlier fireball! Cursing Shikaku threw himself out of the way at the last possible minute.
"Do you like my new jutsu, Commander? There is a reason it's called phoenix renewal." Bear's voice was smug. He was overly confident in his new technique. "It tracks the person it was targeting originally, and I know you don't have any water jutsu in your arsenal!" His smug and celebratory tone was really starting to grate on Shikaku's nerves. His killing intent flared, and his shadows increased in speed and strength. His own bloodlust feeding into the void. The rabbit- and cat-masked ANBU backed away their hands up in surrender. They had felt this intent before; no way were they getting in the firing line. Clearly their teammate had a death wish.
Shikaku took a few precious seconds to slowly smirk at the bear ANBU, in his mind actions speak louder than words, so why waste his breath correcting the idiot in front of him. Instead, he made sure he pour dark promises into his smile, and was rewarded when the bear shinobi lost his confidence stance.
"What...why are you smiling? Don't you see, you can't win! You shouldn't have expected to win! You're too old, and too specialized to win against ANBU!" He yelled at Shikaku, who simply raised an eyebrow, dodging another attack from the blue flames. If this is what the ANBU thought, he would need to do a surprise evaluation of the ANBU forces later this week. Someone would need to knock the rookies off their high stool. Maybe Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma would like to help. Yes. That would do nicely, he though, his smirk widening into a savage grin. He channeled his inner Yoshino and tutted slowly.
"Temper temper rookie. You've had your fun. Now…. Now it's my turn!" With his teammates' laughter ringing in his ears, Shikaku melted into the shadows below, just as the phoenix fire collided with the place he stood. Bear froze at first, he hadn't meant to kill the Jounin Commander! The Hokage was going to kill him… worse the Nara clan matriarch was going to hunt him down! As the flames died down, the bear relaxed. There was no charred body, which means the Nara was still alive. Wait, where was he? He frantically glanced around, searching for his opponent. Where was he?!
A slow clap directly behind him, caused the bears eyes to widen slightly. That was it. He tried desperately to move his body, but he couldn't even tense up. He was wide open, and the Jounin Commander was stood close behind him. A dark sounding chuckle sent shivers of fear down the ANBU rookie's spin.
"It is an impressive jutsu, I will give you that. It's a pity the user has more ego than brains though. Allow me to show you a favourite technique of my own. Ninja art: Hell's calling, heavens denial." With his jutsu complete, Shikaku stepped back out of the shadow, and shoved his hands in his pockets, mildly watching the now screaming rookie. His face blank as he watched and waited for the ANBU to release the genjutsu; when he didn't Shikaku gripped the illusionary technique mentally and gave it a vicious twist. The sadism that he normally hid behind the veneer of a lazy alcoholic was in full force. If the rookie couldn't even dispel a technique that was announced, then the idiot didn't deserve to be in the ANBU.
"Time to release him Shikaku, before we end up having to taken him in to the secure ward at the hospital." Inoichi and Chouza rested their hands on their brothers' shoulders. "I think he has learnt his lesson. I think the rest of his squad have also been reminded that you are just as dangerous now as you were during the war."
With a roll of his brown eyes, Shikaku released his grip on the bear-masked ninja and stalked away. He nodded to the other ANBU before leaving the training grounds. He guessed that now he would need to talk to his wife. He'd worked off the anger and was feeling pretty settled. So, plan for the afternoon: go home, have the conversation with the wife, go out drinking afterwards. His daughter should be back in a day or two, then he could come up with a way to fix her problem. Damn, this was a lot of effort. What…A…Drag…
