AN: So, I discovered that there is some major backtracking and timeline alteration I need to do. Obviously this isn't DOS canon, but I've already stated that I'd like to keep this DOS canon compliant for as long as possible. So, and I'll update this at the top of each chapter as needed, here is the how the timeline will work out:

(Arts) Payback
(Arts) Return, parts 1 and 2
(Arts) Dealing with it 1
DOS chapter 99, and in the evening (Arts) Dealing with it 2
Sasuke leaves the DOS picture to do Kakashi's training
(Arts) Pack and Hive
Sasuke comes back into the DOS picture from Kakashi's training (so essentially if Sasuke isn't in the DOS chapters being released, those chapters are happening in the above mentioned gap)
(Arts) Getting Settled 1
(Arts) Back in Action
(Arts) Here There be Monsters
Donahermurphy's snippet

Also, nobody really got it, but the second shoutout in the last chapter was the Ribbajack from late Brian Jacques's book of the same name.


"Kiba you must surely have something better to do than look over shoulder and watch me draw." Shino commented in a distinctly irritated tone as he sketched a scene detailing an Aburame victory over a Kamizuru set during the Third War. "Why? Because last I noticed you were still working through the jutsu Sasuke left you."

Kiba shook his head slowly. "Nope, worked through the mud wall, clone, and earth walking techniques before he got pulled to do whatever it is Kakashi-sensei wanted him to figure out, and I finished with the three basic fire jutsu scrolls he left me two days ago. I'll admit to the last one taking me a little longer to nail down, but I finished it." The Kamizuru was getting her wasp hive forcibly chewed out of her body by the Aburame's kikaichu. Kiba took an experimental sniff, and noted that neither their sensei nor his second sister were in the area yet. Kiba frowned. Kurenai-sensei had promised to finally start teaching them some low level genjutsu. It wasn't really his style, but he figured that it wouldn't hurt to further expand his growing number of ways he could kick someone's ass.

"Shy-littermate-Hinata did say that she had to sit in a cruel-not-a-pack-Hyuuga meeting." Akamaru reminded him through their mental link as he worried a roll of rawhide made from a rabbit pelt.

Kiba knelt down to run his fingers over his partner's ears. "It's noon though. I would have thought that those sticks in the mud would have finished by now."

"You should have brought something to chew." Akamaru lectured "Always-eating-Choji's never bored, he always has something to chew. Lazy-shadow-Shikamaru's never bored because he always has his clouds to watch. Buzzing-littermate-Shino's never bored because he has his markings to make."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm working on it."

Akamaru huffed and dropped the rawhide, nudging it over with his paw. " Here, throw it. That way you can keep both of us entertained."

Kiba laughed and threw the rawhide across the clearing. "So, Shino. Akamaru says I need a hobby. Got any ideas?"

Shino didn't answer.

Kiba nudged him in the ribs. "Shino, come on. surely you've got something."

"You could practice giving other people some peace and quiet for once. Why? I'm sure that would fully occupy your mind." Shino replied.

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Alright, that's it. I'll bite. What the hell crawled up your ass and died? You've been extra pissy all morning."

Shino took a deep breath let it out slowly. "I apologize." He bit out. "Why? Because you are right, I have been taking my anger out on the wrong targets because it would not be right or legal to pursue the proper ones."

Kiba frowned. "What happened?" "Get ready to throw down buddy, somebody messed with our pack again."

"Oh finally, some proper rabbits to chase!"

"Chiyako was publically humiliated and attacked and Mr. Cranberry was grievously injured by their classmates yesterday. She hid in the bushes outside of the Academy crying until Shikako found her and helped bring her home. And this is not the first time such things have happened." He seethed.

"False alarm, we can't beat up Academy children." Kiba explained to Akamaru.

"Why not? Pups need to be put in their place occasionally." Akamaru retorted. He liked Chiyako.

"And I completely agree, but this is out of our jaws. Don't you think Shino would have gotten back at them if he could?"

"Shino sometimes needs a push."

"We just can't, as much as I'd like too. Legal human reasons."

"You're quiet." Shino noted coldly.

"Sorry, I was trying to talk Akamaru out of teaching the bullies a well-deserved lesson. Is there anyway we can help that doesn't involve beating up cruel little Academy snots?" Kiba offered. "Maybe we can get Mr. Cranberry to eat all of the fleas or something. I don't know. She's always welcome at the Inuzuka compound, you know that."

Shino nodded, accepting the explanation. "Not particularly. And thank you."

Kiba waved it off. "No problem, you'd do the same for me."

Shino shifted uncomfortably. "I do not know if this is an appropriate observation to make considering that it is normally frowned upon to have empathy with one's enemy, but I cannot help but wonder if Orochimaru's experience with the Academy was similar to Chiyako's. Why? Because, Chiyako suffers the scorn of her peers like many Aburame before her because society does not look kindly on insects and arachnids, viewing them as signs of filth and decay. Many people's view on serpents is similar, if not worse due to the high number of venomous snakes in this area because of our favorable climate. I wonder if he was frequently bullied as a child because he associated himself with creatures thought of as creepy and dangerous."

"I have heard that in Kiri, dogs are seen as a public menace, and that D-rank missions are often to kill feral dogs." Akamaru added, trotting up to Kiba and laying the rawhide in his lap.

"I've heard that too." Kiba pulled Akamaru into his arms. "I think I'm lucky that I was born in Konoha and not Kiri, or I would be in the same position. And no, I don't think it can be too wrong to empathize with your enemy, as long as it does not stop you from doing your duty. The only reason Gaara is our ally is because Naruto empathized with him."

Shino nodded and put away his notebook and pencil. "We should begin warming up for training. Why? Because my kikaichu can smell Hinata and Kurenai-sensei's approach."

"Finally." Akamaru wagged his tail. "Let me go. I'm going to greet shy-littermate-Hinata. She alway's needs cheering up after talking with her cruel-not-a-pack-Hyuuga."

Kiba complied and Akamaru rocketed across the training ground. "Taijutsu?" He offered, standing up. "You need work with that."

Shino nodded, taking Kiba's and allowing Kiba to pull him up off the ground. "I agree. You are still able to beat me in a taijutsu-only spar easily. That needs to be rectified."


Also, Donahermurphy wrote an awesome little snippet concerning the Third Unforgivable Seal used by Shikako last chapter that can be considered canon in the Arts of War and Life AU (and fits into the corresponding place in the timeline at the top of the chapter), so here is that:

Got inspired from Ch.8 of "The Arts of War and Life," where Shikako uses a seal she calls "The Third Unforgivable," which instantly kills a giant summon.

And I got to thinking... that would work. Seals are the interface, right? Shikako knows death. The severing of the soul from the body- she knows that, bone-deep. And writing the blocky gothic lettering of Avada Kedavra in blood- if it's imbued with chakra, I feel like there's no reason that shouldn't work just as well as her touch blast.

It's a curse, a solemn utterance to inflict harm or punishment on a target. It calls upon a supernatural power, whether chakra or... something else. It's something with power. Those words have power, in her mind- much, much more so that just writing 'kill this."

(I think, by even by DOS rules alone, making Avada Kedavra into a seal would actually work. Because the Unforgivables have always been about intent.)

Anywho, here's a ficlet. Post Shikako successfully using the AK Seal, either in The Arts of War in Life scenario, or just in DOScanon against some kind of giant, terrifying summon.

"So Sasuke tells me you took out a giant summons with one seal," Ino said, teasingly. "I'm surprised we didn't hear the explosion all the way from Konoha."

Shikako frowned in mock-annoyance. "I didn't explode it," she grumbled. "I made a new kind of seal."

"Yeah?" Ino asked.

Shikako shrugged. "Most offensive combat seals are about creating an effect or situation that will fatally injure your opponent. This one skips straight to the 'death' part. It doesn't inflict an injury, it's…. more direct."

"A straight-up killing seal?" Ino asked. "Huh. I thought nobody could make those."

"Well, it has disadvantages." Shikako acknowledged. "Radius and timer isn't flexible, and it's not the kind of thing I can practice, even if I wanted to. Making sure the target is right above the scroll when it opens is the only way to hit anything. And it will only get one thing at a time- if a sparrow's between the scroll and the target, it'll just kill the sparrow instead. Really, a giant summons is the only situation where I can see it really being useful. Maybe if someone with frightening powers of regeneration was trapped for long enough I could use it, but that's about it," Shikako explained, animatedly enough.

Ino rolled her eyes. "You keep complaining about the disadvantages, but that doesn't change the fact that you made a seal that pretty much every seal master ever has tried and failed to make."

Shikako was quiet for a moment.

"I suppose I just… thought about it differently," Shikako said, looking away from Ino, out towards the grass clearing. "Most seal makers try to describe death as if it's a wound, or a type of sleep," she said, "and that's not…" Shikako shook her head. "That's not the right way of thinking. The seal I made... death's like getting lost. I just snipped the anchor line." There was something terribly far away in her eyes.

"You didn't get lost, though. You made it back," Ino reminded her.

"That was Shika." Shikako's voice was so quiet, Ino almost didn't hear her.

"I just… reached back," she continued, distantly. Her hand made a trembling, grasping motion. Shikako looked down at it like it was a strange, alien thing. Like it belonged to someone else. "He was… probably a better anchor than my body would have been. I'm used to using Shika to hold on to." There was something very sad in her expression. "I've never been very fair about it." Something ancient and self-condemning in her eyes.

"You've been fighting with him," Ino said, gently. Factually. Not a reproach, but an invitation. Because asking about her death- no. Shikako would retreat from that. But a fight with her brother, if there was something for Ino to fix, a reason Shikako could excuse herself for talking about something that made her feel so weak…

"Shika and I have different ideas on what makes a person safe," Shikako, the closest to bitterly Ino had yet heard from her. Then she sighed. "But… I think it's more that I haven't… I haven't been able to be there for him, afterwards. It's the one time in our lives he's actually needed me for support, and I've just been…" her lips tightened. "I just shoved everything off for him to deal with alone. Because I can't-" her voice cracked, and her face twisted.

She was silent a moment.

"I think this is the only time he's ever asked me for something," Shikako finished.

The words hung there, rippling through the silence like waves in a pond.

There are some things, Ino knew, that you couldn't let be true. Because it would break you.

And Shikako was frighteningly good at sharpening a truth until she could break herself upon it, if there wasn't someone to ground her perspective. Ino had wondered, more than once, if that was one of the reasons Shikako could be so determined to not deal with things, sometimes.

But Shikako was trying to deal with this now, and it that made it Ino's job to try to turn her perspective around to something… a little more forgiving. And maybe more truthful, at least in Ino's opinion. Shikako's vision tended to magnify her failures and blinker her strengths. It was endearing, sometimes. But worrisome, more so.

"From our last year in the Academy alone, the list of things Shikamaru has asked you to handle because it was 'too troublesome' for him to bother with is longer than my arm," Ino said, mild chiding in her voice.

Shikako looked confused for a moment, and then actually rolled her eyes. It was an improvement over her previous mood, at least. "Ino, walking twelve steps to the front of the room and handing Iruka-sensei our papers isn't what I was talking about. I mean important things."

"Everything's important," Ino replied earnestly. "What we do day-to-day doesn't suddenly stop mattering because we do it so often." She paused a moment, to let her point sink in. "You know Shikamaru's always trusted you to do the gentle pushing," Ino continued. "You just… calmly set things up in a way that prompts him to do the things it would be more troublesome to not do, so he doesn't actually have to bother working up the energy himself. You spoiled him a bit, really."

It cracked a smile from Shikako. One that looked more present than the dazed, wistful thing that had graced her face before. "Especially compared to the non-gentle pushing?" she asked.

Ino smirked in acknowledgement, then let it gentle into something softer. "If you didn't notice him asking for things, it was because you kept giving him what he needed before you even had the chance to consciously register what he'd asked for. And he did the same for you. So don't say he never asked for things before. You two always did that, the whole Academy." Ino said.

Shikako was quiet for a little while.

"I guess we did," she said softly. She let her knees curl up. Then sighed, bone deep. "I wish we weren't fighting." She let her finger worry themselves against the friendship bracelet on her wrist for a minute or two before she continued. "I just… I don't know how to fix things without actually talking about it. And Shika wants me to talk about it, and-" her lips twisted, and she shook her head.

"Do you want me to talk with him for you?" Ino asked.

Shikako paused, clearly torn.

"This is the part where you say 'Yes, Ino,'" Ino prompted.

Shikako huffed a laugh. "I don't mind you talking to Shika about it- hell, tell him this whole conversation if it would help. I just… I'm not sure it will. Not if I don't do it myself." She frowned.

"You let me worry about that," Ino assured her. She paused for a moment. "You're usually pretty private, though. Are you sure you don't mind what I tell him? Or how?"

"If it helps fix this mess, then I don't really care about anything else," Shikako said, a bit of frustration leaking through. But she hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Though- maybe not anything we talked about in the hospital? I don't-"

The memory ended.

Shikamaru blinked. In the minutes he'd been within Ino's jutsu, his eyes had somehow gotten wet. He swallowed, convulsively.

"Thanks," he managed.


AN: And now for commentary on this chapter.
I'm not going to deny it, I was a massive fan of Orochimaru when I was in middle school. Not a fan of what he did, but definitely a fan. The reason why is the same reason that I'm a fan of Shino. Both of them are very intelligent characters that I can empathize with for a very specific reason, particularly Orochimaru. They made associating with animals others hate and despise a part of who they are and they are not ashamed of it. I was, and always have been, also been known for my association with snakes, in just about every social group I've been even passingly involved in. Thankfully I've never actually been treated harshly for it like Chiyako was, but it has gained me some weird looks over the years and my hobby has rarely ever been looked favorably upon by anyone not also involved in it. Chiyako's story struck me because I've heard of instances in earlier times when teachers really didn't bother with what students brought to school so long as it didn't harm anyone and didn't police the playground quite so closely, (Back in the good old days when if you lived in a small town out in the country and you came to school with a deer rifle in the back of your truck for the deer hunt you were going on that weekend, no one called the police.) and young herpers brought snakes to school in shoeboxes and had them stomped to death by other kids because it was a snake, just like Mr. Cranberry.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for your reviews!