Shadow of the Leaf

By Kai the Enchanter

Disclaimer: Owning Naruto, huh? No.

Chapter Two: Genius and Genius

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Shikamaru stared at Kakashi, in shock. The man had disappeared during Sasuke's attack on Konoha two years ago. Where had he been in all this time? It had been said that Kakashi's progress as a great shinobi had halted for a few years, but had continued when he pushed himself for his failure in teaching Sasuke. It had been said that Kakashi was one of the few shinobi left who could stop Sasuke. It had even been said that at the time of Sasuke's attack, Kakashi had been on the verge of equaling his sensei's abilities. But where had this man been?

"You seem surprised to see me." Kakashi dropped down, and plucked an ear of corn off the ground, and looked at it, smiling.

"Hatake Kakashi was said to be the only shinobi left who could defeat Uchiha Sasuke in single combat. If that's true, then where have you been? Where were you the night Konoha fell? You could have stopped him, or at least you could have helped Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi sighed, and walked away from Shikamaru, into the fields.

Shikamaru followed him, to a small house, probably smaller than a genin's apartment. Inside, there was soup cooking on a fire, and bread baking. Kakashi dropped a few ears of corn onto the table next to the cooking food. Shikamaru glared at the older man. Kakashi couldn't have survived long like this. Even assuming he had enough food to survive, Sasuke's men would have noticed the smoke coming from the fire, or the smell of the food.

"Wind element seal. No smells get out. Also there's a few seals that make this area look like complete wasteland, not even fit for training in."

"Then why did I see it as a corn field?"

"You're a very skilled shinobi. I also modified the seal for your benefit, so that you'd walk through and find me instead of circling around it."

"How long have you been following me?"

"Since you started off this morning. Now, what was it you asked before? Ah yes...where I was when Sasuke attacked our village. Well, if you must know, Nara Shikamaru, I was a little occupied."

"What task was more important than stopping Uchiha Sasuke?"

"I'll admit, there aren't many tasks that would be more important than that. But I think tearing Hoshigaki Kisame's lungs out qualifies as one of them. And I think things would have turned out for the worse had Kisame been allowed to live." Shikamaru gaped at Kakashi. He'd heard that two years ago, the missing-nin from Hidden Mist had been found, with his chest burst open. He was carrying mission scrolls from the Akatsuki that ordered him to destroy Hidden Mist. He wouldn't have succeeded on his own, but with any other member of the Akatsuki, Hidden Mist would've followed the same fate as Konoha.

"Aa." Kakashi smiled again, and plunked a bowl of soup in front of Shikamaru. He slid a plate of bread, corn, and some sort of meat, presumably chicken, across the table to him.

"Did you know that there are no fields left in all of Fire Country that are fit for the cultivation of rice? Terrible, just terrible." Shikamaru nodded absent-mindedly, not really taking in Kakashi's words. They didn't seem too particularly important, anyway. The soup was a bit more interesting anyway. Somehow Kakashi had gotten ahold of tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, green onions, just about everything that would've been available in Fire Country years ago, when the future was bright.

"Well...there may be a few fields left right outside of Konoha. Sasuke always did like his rice balls. I go on a little trip every six months, steal some of Sasuke's rice, bring it back here, to use for sushi. Keeps him on his toes, let me tell ya." Now Shikamaru had to glare again.

"Then why haven't you stopped Sasuke now? You know where he is, you know he knows you're still alive, and that he has to kill you eventually. He's probably got his men combing all of Fire Country searching for you." Kakashi didn't reply. He looked at his soup.

"You know, Shikamaru. I simply haven't been ready to kill Sasuke. If anyone can kill Sasuke, they say that I can. But we don't know for sure. More importantly, in my heart, I'm not ready. These two years, I've been training, but I've also been searching. I will kill him one day. I have no doubt that I will either kill him or die by his hand. But I have a duty that I have to fulfill. When I kill Uchiha Sasuke, I want to lay down by his side a package of Cup Ramen, and the first cherry blossoms of spring. The cherry blossoms were easy to find, you know, but ramen...that's scarce these days, as one might expect. Now eat up. I've been waiting for another Leaf shinobi to show up for two years, I'm not wasting any time tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, we train. Tomorrow, we set out to make Uchiha Sasuke's life worthless."

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Shikamaru and Kakashi awoke with the dawn, and stepped out into the fields behind Kakashi's house. There was a good open grassy area, with a lake, supplied by a spring of pure water that drew water from the mountain in the distance, a majestic monolith that dominated the skyline.

"Show me what you can do, Nara." Shikamaru yawned, and looked at Kakashi. He hadn't bothered to unveil his Sharingan, but his hand twitched a little, as though he would be ready to do so any moment now.

"He's not taking me seriously. Ah well, I'm used to it. At least he didn't take the book out."

Shikamaru drew a kunai, and threw it at Kakashi, who dodged to the side, throwing a trio of shuriken at Shikamaru. Shikamaru flicked his wrist to the side, and Kakashi gaped as the kunai swung back, deflecting one of the shuriken as Shikamaru dodged the other two. He saw that a metal wire ran from the kunai, and hung loosely from Shikamaru's wrist. Shikamaru grinned, and pulled the wire back, hurling the kunai yet again. This time Kakashi didn't dodge.

Kakashi flipped up his forehead protector, revealing his Sharingan eye, and knocked Shikamaru's kunai out of the air with his own, preparing to draw his own shuriken, when he froze. He stared down at the ground, where he saw Shikamaru's shadow. The kunai and wire had cast a shadow that was connected to Shikamaru's own, allowing him to extend it as shadow traveled through shadow.

"I didn't expect to have to use it against you." And Kakashi glared at Shikamaru, his ordinary Sharingan solidifying into the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Shikamaru found himself wandering in an abyss, where he heard terrible screams. Kakashi appeared out of a thick fog.

"It's over. I could put you into a coma with this if I chose." Shikamaru muttered to himself and looked at Kakashi.

"Try me." The world twisted and moved, and Shikamaru found himself impaled by katanas, burned by flame, frozen, slashed, and beaten. But he didn't succumb to the illusion. The Uchiha genjutsu wasn't having much affect. He was mentally becoming wearier as he fought it off, but the actual jutsu would have been much worse. Finally, both he and Kakashi found themselves in the real world again, and both collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

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"How'd you get the Mangekyou Sharingan? I thought you had to kill your best friend to get it." Shikamaru and Kakashi were collapsed next to the lake, where they'd splashed water on their faces, revitalizing themselves.

"I got it a long time ago. It wasn't until after Sasuke abandoned the Leaf that I found out how one came to use it. It wasn't until then that I realized that I had the power all along."

"How'd you get it?"

"The mist makes things hard to see." Shikamaru didn't press the issue, and Kakashi stood up shakily.

"Let's go again. No holding back this time."

"You were holding back before?" Shikamaru also stood up, and readied himself. Without another word, the two attacked each other again, kunai and shuriken clashing.

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End of Chapter Two

That was fun.

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