A/N: Well, here's the last update until 9/27. I'm going off to get myself married, so you can't be upset at me. Updates will resume upon my return. While I'm away, encourage your friends to read and review. I'd love to know what people's impressions of this fic are. Enjoy!

He didn't have to wait long, for soon more attackers were coming out of the trees. There were at least two dozen, and unlike before, these wore ninja garb, although there were no forehead protectors in evidence. Shikamaru suspected that the newcomers weren't actually from a ninja village, but instead had been trained by the missing-nin he and Hinata had been warned about. He watched as Hinata let loose a shower of kunai, dodging swiftly as the pseudo-ninja tried to hit her. She took out several with her next round of shuriken, then leapt into the air and landed on their weakest flank. The group turned to face her, but before they could react she was among them, needles in her hand. Her style was similar to her Gentle Fist, but instead of using her fingers, she used the needles, and instead of blocking chakra channels, she hit vital points.

Shikamaru saw that she had things under control, for the moment, and so he hurried the couple away from the fray. "Here," he said, giving them a kunai each. "In case things get bad. Now, stand still, and don't move unless you absolutely have to. If you accidentally move across this barrier, I can promise you it won't feel good." He crouched and bit his thumb, quickly drawing a series of seals in the dirt around the couple. Placing a piece of paper between their feet, he bound the seal and stepped back as it flared to life. "If we die and you need to run, pierce that paper with the knife and the barrier will disappear."

"But-" the target began.

"See you later," Shikamaru said, and joined Hinata, wordlessly fighting alongside her. He guarded her blind spot, and she took care of the rest. His limbs felt heavy from chakra depletion, and his vision began to blur. "Not much left," he said. "Shouldn't have blown it all up front."

"A girl never likes to hear that," Hinata said and although he appreciated her attempts at light-heartedness, he could tell that fatigue was setting in upon her as well.

Suddenly the attacks ceased and their opponents retreated, standing apart from them in silence. "You're far from home," a raspy voice said, and Shikamaru saw a pair of real shinobi step forward. The symbols on their head protectors were scratched out, but from what he could see, they were from Wind country.

"Only because we still have a home," Shikamaru replied. He could feel the strength rolling off the shinobi in waves. These weren't just missing-nin, these were S-class criminals. He knew Hinata understood it, too, for she was trembling slightly against his side.

"It's okay," he whispered to her, not believing his own words. "Naruto's been beating guys this strong for years."

"Y-yes," she replied, standing a little straighter, but he wasn't fooled.

"Which one's stronger?"

"The tall one has more chakra in his channels."

"Okay. When I give the signal, jump back and cover your eyes. When it's safe, take out the other one. I know you can do it."

"B-but-"

"It's okay. We went through the exam together. You know you can trust me."

He felt her nod. "Don't do anything bad," she murmured.

"You mean don't do anything stupid," he said with a grimace. "You know I'm not into heroics. Too troublesome."

She smiled, and he took that opportunity to form some seals. If he lived, he really ought to up his chakra reserves. His stamina wasn't bad, but this situation proved it could obviously be better. He held his breath as his technique was initiated, his ultimate technique. Slowly his corporeal form began to fade, replaced by a shadow, darker than the night around him. The shadow took on his shape, and he heard the criminals gasp. "Are you afraid of the dark?" he asked, and his voice came out as a sibilant hiss.

The taller criminal took a step back, but suddenly Shikamaru was behind him. It took no time at all for him to move, for he was the shadow itself, and night was his domain. He reached out a dark hand and clutched the shinobi around the throat, readying a kunai, when the whole lot of them were bowled over by a stinging wind. Shikamaru gasped as he hit the ground, falling through it, as it were, since he was shadow. The pain that traveled the length of his body jolted from his technique, which left him to dig up his own leg from underneath the dirt. "Not me! Little bird!" he cried, and Hinata jumped into the air, performing kaiten as kunai suddenly rained down around them. Shikamaru barely managed to dodge the majority of them, and the ones that did slice him were not Hinata's.

"You're in over your head," a brash voice said, and suddenly one of the S-class shinobi screamed. Skeletal arms encircled his body and squeezed, a needle glinting in the starlight.

The other criminal was already in motion, intercepting Hinata as she attempted to land. Always quiet, she uttered no battle cry as she engaged the enemy, forcing Shikamaru to tear his attention away from where the first shinobi was struggling with an unknown assailant. The shorter criminal slashed at Hinata, which she avoided easily, and as she lunged in to apply her Gentle Fist, a hidden weapon appeared from his sleeve, the cruel dart heading directly for her eyes. She flinched and closed her eyes, but wasn't able to veer from her path. Shikamaru shouted, struggling from the earth that entombed his limbs, but he knew he wouldn't be in time. The dart whistled as it was released, and he felt his heart leap into his throat. There was nothing he could do.

He stopped dead in his tracks as a spray of sand erupted in front of his partner, the dart immediately lost in the particles. The sand wrapped around the body and lifted it high into the air, where sharp air currents cut him to ribbons before the sand crushed him. Hinata crouched on the ground, eyes squeezed tightly shut, leaving Shikamaru to watch as the blood dripped from the bottom of the sand cocoon. He still didn't see the people he knew he would see, and so he whipped his gaze around to the target. To his relief, the couple was still safe, standing in the circle of his seal. The other S-class criminal was dead, his tongue, which was black and swollen with poison, lolling out of his mouth.

Finally pulling his limbs free of the dirt, he crawled over to Hinata, arriving the same time as a shadowy figure. Shikamaru put his arms around the small woman and pulled her close, looking up at the figure defiantly. The person blotted out his vision of the stars. "That's Naruto's woman," a deadpan voice said.

"Yes," Shikamaru said roughly.

"You shouldn't touch her."

"She's my friend. I'm protecting her."

"Bah." There was a hiss of sand.

"No, it's all right," Hinata protested, standing up. "It's all right, Gaara!"

Shikamaru sighed and fell back in the grass, feeling the sticky sweat and blood on his body for the first time. Damn, he was tired. He stayed there for a moment, then sat up. He could see someone lurking near his target. With a grunt, he stood up and made his way over, releasing the seal. Kankuro executed a sleep genjustu, and soon the pair was snoozing gently in the grass. "Yo," he said.

"Hey," Shikamaru answered. "Your poison's going to make that corpse smell awful tomorrow."

Kankuro shrugged. "It's still a corpse."

Shikamaru grunted, looking over to where Gaara was examining Hinata. "So the criminals were your target?"

"Yeah. They're good, old-fashioned traitors. That girl's the daughter of an important man in our country, though, so her well-being was our secondary objective. She made great bait."

"Damn. Better you than us," Shikamaru drawled. He nodded to Kankuro, who was already shouldering the slumbering civilians, and strolled back over to Hinata and Gaara, trying to hide his limp. He'd nearly broken his leg, being slammed into the earth like that.

"I'm fine, Gaara, really. Besides, I'm the medic," Hinata was saying.

"I'll not let someone hurt Naruto's woman," Gaara said.

Hinata smiled. "And we both appreciate it," she replied, reaching over and gently patting his upper arm. To Shikamaru's surprise, Gaara actually smiled, sort of.

"Cute," he heard someone say in his ear, breath warm against his skin.

"Temari," he breathed.

The woman put a hand on his shoulder and spun him so that he faced her. Her eyes glittered in the darkness and a smirk was on her face. "Saved your behind again."

"As if," he grunted. "I had him taken care of."

She shrugged. "That was a pretty serious technique. You wouldn't have survived it, so I stepped in."

"And damn near killed me anyway," he growled, shoving his hands in his pockets and wincing as he did so.

She scowled, her features fuzzy in the dark. "Ingrate," she muttered, smacking him on the arm. He gasped and faltered, and suddenly her arms were around him, holding him up.

"I see," he gasped. "You saved me so you could kill me yourself."

"Okay, I get it," she snapped. "I didn't know you were actually hurt. You hide it well."

"Some say I hide everything well."

Suddenly her hand was on his rear, passing over it as she moved to assist him. "I'll say."

He hissed as she helped him walk to Hinata. "Have you no shame?" he asked.

Her smile was so wide he could even see it in the darkness, her teeth white in his peripheral vision. "None," she chortled. "Hey, girl, you're a medic?"

"Her name's Hinata," Gaara said sharply.

"Whatever," Temari replied. "Hinata, this fella's hurt. When you've tended yourself, attend to him."

Shikamaru felt thoroughly annoyed at how bossy Temari was being. She was even worse than Ino. At least when Ino was bossy, he knew she was showing she cared. He had no idea why Temari was bossy. "Do what you want, Hinata," he added.

Hinata shook her head and sighed. "I'll take care of everyone," she replied. "Is the cabin a good place to stay?"

"It's fine, we'll just have to all tent outside tonight" Kankuro said, appearing next to her. "I put the sleeping beauties in there. There's a tub out back, too."

Shikamaru desperately wanted to call dibs on the tub, but that would have taken too much energy. "You go first, Hinata," he said.

"But you need clean water for your wounds," she protested.

"You do, too," he replied.

"I'll get fresh water for both of you," Gaara said, and from him it sounded like a pronouncement from the emperor.

"Thank you," Hinata said, and the group of them shuffled off to put things in order.

Shikamaru sat on the bench outside the cabin, watching Gaara watch Hinata as she wrapped bandages around his injuries. "You should have been more careful," she commented as she tied off the wrapping on a nasty cut on Shikamaru's leg.

"Eh, worked out fine," he muttered, amused at how protective of the woman Gaara was. He liked that Gaara held Naruto in such high esteem that he would protect what Naruto cared about. Of course, Naruto would have died to save Gaara, too. Things could definitely be worse. After all, Shikamaru had an opportunity to bathe, eat Hinata's wonderful cooking, and was currently slathered in pain salve. "Thanks, Hinata."

She nodded. "No problem. You should go to bed now."

"Sure," he replied, looking to where Kankuro had set up three tents,one for the two Sand males, one for Temari, and the one that Shikamaru and Hinata shared. "See you in a bit."

"Okay," she replied, wrapping up her supplies under Gaara's watchful eyes.

He limped to his tent and slid inside, stripping down to his underwear and hoping Hinata didn't mind. It felt so good to not move. If only he could watch the stars, he thought, and immediately drifted off to sleep.