OMG, this is my longest chapter ever. Wow, i'm really inspired for this story... So, you learn a little more about Shika, and about WTF is going on. Hope u enjoy!
Disclaimer: Don't own and blah blah blah
Garra had just finished her early morning training and was trying to find Naru. She was pleasantly surprised when she turned a corner and saw Naruto asleep on Gaara's shoulder, the latter looking slightly uncomfortable and the former looking extremely content.
'Awww, Kawaii!'
She snuck a camera out of her pocket and quietly snapped a picture for her photo album. This alerted Gaara to her presense, and his eyes narrowed at his alter ego.
"…What did you do?"
Garra looked at him innocently, the camera safely pack in her pants pocket.
"I took a picture for my photo album. How could I resist, you two look so cute together!"
Gaara barely kept down a blush. He gave Garra his best death glare.
"…If you show that to people I'll kill you."
Garra waved him off.
"You can try. By the way, if you try to get up to steal this from me Naruto's head will bang into the wall.
"…You're evil."
Garra gave him a grin. It was a scary grin, a grin that said, 'I know something you don't,' and a lesser man would have cringed when confronted with it. Gaara was certainly not a lesser type of man, but even he shuddered inwardly. He was saved from further scary grins (somewhat) when Naru came around the corner with a first aid kit. She observed the scene before her and inwardly cooed.
'Awww, kawaii!'
Gaara was now very uncomfortable under the stares of the two females. He glared back out of habit and shifted slightly. Naruto's eyes fluttered open and he yawned mightily, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and wincing as the pain in his head came back full force.
'Itai!'
He immediately clutched his poor throbbing head, and Naru hurried forward with medical aid. Garra took the opportunity to grab Gaara from the floor and, with a wave to Naru, started dragging him off to find the others in his party.
-Hinata was not a happy person. In fact, she was pissed. Very pissed.
"You mean to tell me that the same system that was destroyed in my world is still going on in your world? What the hell! Can't they see what inevitably happens when you create such a system? Literally enslaving your own family and lowering the self esteem of all considered weaker than they should be. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF FAMILY IS THAT?"
She was almost growling in her fury. Neji and Lee were slightly scared, but Lee was also impressed by her youthful fervor. Neji spoke.
"It's gotten a little better since I took the chuunin exam, but the elders of the clan are not particular to change."
-Hinata looked at him worriedly.
"You have the cursed seal, right? It's never been used against you, has it?"
"…No. Not yet."
Neji sounded slightly sad, and both his teammate and –Hinata felt sorry for him. Suddenly a rumble was heard in the distance. It came closer, and closer, and…
"HINA-CHAAAAAAN! XD"
A large mass of fur and muscle leaped into the air and landed… right on top of Neji and Lee, who were both too shocked to get out of the way. They found themselves crushed underneath the weight of a dog. Actually, it was more of a wolf/dog hybrid, but much larger than any known dog or wolf. It apparently did not notice what it had landed on.
"Are you okay Hina-chan? I could sense your distress from, like, a mile away! What happened, what happened, what happened?"
"…Kyoko, I think you're crushing Neji-kun and Lee-kun."
Kyoko looked down and was met with a wide pair of eyes and a pale pair of eyes. She cocked her head to the side in bemusement.
"Oops, sorry! Didn't see ya there, y'know?"
She quickly got off them and promptly shrunk to a smaller size, about the size of the average wolf. The two Konoha shinobi dusted themselves off and eyed the wolf/dog quizzically. They were not left in the dark for long. -Hinata patted the dog/wolf on the head and made the proper introductions.
"This is Kyoko. She's my friend and one of my cousins. She can be a bit… hyper, but that's just how she is."
Neji was confused.
"You have a… wolf/dog for a cousin?"
"Yep. It's kind of hard to explain… you'd have to ask Neji-neesan for a complete explanation. Also, Kyoko's more wolf than dog. Is it so strange to have wolfs as family?"
"…Yes, actually it is."
-Hinata cocked an eyebrow.
"Why would it be strange? The Inuzuka's consider their dogs as family. In fact, they're related to my pack. Yukiko-obasan took a mate from the Inuzuka's and so absorbed them into her family's pack and vice-versa. Kyoko's actually one of Yukiko-obasan's pups."
Both of the boys were very confused, but before they could ask for more clarification a somewhat familiar sounding rumbling occurred. They slowly looked skyward.
"Uh oh."
Shika woke up from her nap when she heard a familiar, dreaded rumbling from the sky. Chouji went to wake up Shikamaru, while Shika sighed and resigned herself to her fate.
'Mendokusai…'
The Gaaras found Temari and Kankuro but before they could say a word of greeting an ominous rumbling sound permeated the air. Garra sighed as she looked toward the sky.
'We're off again? Never any time to rest…'
Naru gave Naruto his medicine and began rubbing ointment on his sore head. Naruto sighed with relief as his headache gradually left; he hadn't felt that much pain in a while. It was amazing how a simple blow to the head hurt almost as bad as a hand through the chest… like at the Valley of the End.
'Sasuke…'
"Naru-chan?"
"Hai, Naruto-nii?
"Do you know someone named Sasuke?"
"You mean 'Suke-chan?"
"…Sasuke's a girl here?"
Naruto snorted.
"As if. No, he's a boy. He's a pretty good guy I guess, but for some reason he's fun to torture. Even Shika goes after him."
Naruto was about to inquire into this interesting tidbit of information futher when they heard a rumbling sound and glanced toward the ceiling.
"Looks like it's time to go!"
All across the Yadoya people were sucked into the sky. Hinata and Kyoko, back in their homeworld, looked at one another.
"-Kiba-kun just has to know about this."
The travelers soon found themselves back in Konoha; they landed in Tsunade's office, much to the surprise of both -Sakura and the Godaime. Tsunade breathed a sigh of relief.
'Looks like all the gaki made it back okay. Any new visitors…? Ah.'
Tsunade pointed to Shika.
"A new arrival?"
Shika was no longer in her green kimono. Instead she was in a short grey kimono that reached to her mid-thigh and a pair of black pants. She also looked extremely annoyed and somewhat uncomfortable. She glanced at Tsunade.
"What else would I be?"
Then she turned to Garra.
"What kind of village did you say this was again?"
"A Shinobi village."
"…And we're dealing with demon infiltration generated by an unknown source?"
"Yep."
'Mendokusai.'
"…And I was brought into this why?"
"Probably because you're one of the best strategists we know, and also because you seriously need to sort out your little 'problem.'"
"I don't have a problem."
"Denial will only make it worse."
"I still don't know what you're talking about."
"…Idiot."
'How can a genius be so stupid?'
"Whatever."
'Stop, Garra, I don't want to deal with this right now. Especially not here.'
Some of the people present listened to this with more than a little bit of curiosity, especially one Nara Shikamaru and one Akimichi Chouji. Naru noticed and decided to change the topic.
"Hi -Sakura-basan! When did you get here?"
'…gaki no baka (stupid brat). Oh well, I suppose 'basan' is better than 'baasan'…'
"A little while ago. Where did you all end up?"
"At the Harusame. -Neji wasn't there, but I sensed -Hinata around. So, anything eventful happen while we were gone?"
-Sakura shook her head.
"Nothing at all."
"That means that we should probably expect something fairly soon."
All heads turned to Shika, who had adopted Shikamaru's customary 'thinking pose.'
"First, there was one attack, which was foiled by Naru and Garra, who are both classified as guardians. Second, they were sent on a trip, with others, to find reinforcements, mainly me. Third, there were no attacks while they were gone. This is probably because the person behind this had to adjust their plans to accommodate the variables that have suddenly popped up, mainly us. Now they'll begin to test strategies to see what the most affective course of action is, meaning that we should expect something soon. Also, we should expect more reinforcements to arrive, because these sort of things almost always turn into something of a 'family reunion,' or at least the closest we can get to one. Naru, Garra, and I should stick to forests because we will be the ones targeted first, and all demon and/or human encounters should be kept outside the town as they usually cause much property damage, and I don't think the residents would react too kindly to our presence. So, if we have the permission, we should leave to investigate right away."
Most were left slack jawed by the end of this commentary except for the two who were used to it. Even –Sakura was a little shocked.
'For her to have that kind of knowledge immediately on hand means that she has experienced this first hand. What on earth has Shika-chan been through…?'
The three girls were now staring expectantly at Tsunade. The Hokage collected herself and cleared her throat slightly.
"Shika-chan made an understandable argument. You have my permission to explore the forest, however I must insist that you take a few Konoha ninja with you for guidance and possibly an alibi should you meet anyone unexpectedly. You three will be splitting up, correct?"
When they nodded people began to volunteer.
"I'll go with Naru-chan!" Proclaimed Naruto cheerily.
"…I'll go with Garra." Deadpanned Gaara. Tsunade was about to argue, Gaara not being a Konoha citizen, but he sent her a death glare that reminded her that he was also the Kazekage, and she let it go.
"Chouji and I will go with Shika." Stated Shikamaru lazily.
Tsunade gave her consent and the six started off for the forest. -Sakura looked after them worriedly and stretched.
"Tsunade-sama, may I have access to any useful medicine technique scrolls you may have on hand? I have a feeling I will need them later."
This worried Tsunade a bit, but she led -Sakura to a pile of scrolls that were in complete disarray but had useful information in them. -Sakura sweatdropped and began to sort through the mess, hoping against hope that she wouldn't have to repeat the horrors of the last time she'd been with the three girls… except that time it had been four.
Neji and Lee left to find the other people who had been involved with this rapidly growing problem, and Temari and Kankuro returned to their hotel rooms to evaluate their present lives and exactly what had gone so wrong with their family.
Shika was not happy. In fact, she was very unhappy.
'Damn, why did Garra have to bring that up? I… I don't want to deal with it now. Of all places, why a ninja village? -Neji would slap me for saying this, but I think fate has a grudge against me or something… mendokusai. I wish I was back at the Onsen playing Shogi with someone…'
Even worse, she had to put her hair down so that people wouldn't notice she was practiacally a carbon copy of Shikamaru. Now all she needed was a kunai and she would be back to the way she used to be…
'Was it really that bad? Maybe. I'm still scared to go back and find out…'
The three were quiet until they reached the forest. Shikamaru glanced at Shika, who's face was currently unreadable.
'What's wrong with her? Women are so troublesome…'
Shika sneezed. Her eye twitched dangerously.
'…Someone just thought something sexist. Grr…'
She was about to turn around to interrogate the two boys when she sensed something eerily familiar… Something that should never have been felt again.
"Duck!"
She quickly pulled the two boys down with her as three objects flew through the air where their necks had been and embedded themselves in the trees behind them. Shika turned around to confirm her suspicions. Embedded in the tree trunk were three extremely jagged shuriken, the kind designed to shred flesh to pieces, making a difficult recovery and causing much pain a blood loss. A weapon of torture; an all too familiar weapon…
"Shikamaru, I want you and Chouji to stay behind me at all times. Shikmaru, do you know a technique called kage mane no jutsu?"
Shikamaru nodded.
"Chouji, I want you to protect Shikamaru's back. Shikamaru, when the enemy gets in a position where you can use the kage mane no jutsu, do it. I'll take care of the rest. Understood?"
The two boys nodded, going into mission mode. Chouji took a kunai out of its holster and Shikamaru got into position, ready to use the kage mane no jutsu when needed. Seeing that the boys were in position, Shika took action.
"Come out. I know you're there… Kumano."
An eerie, menacing laugh came from the trees.
"Are you challenging me, little girl? Very well, I'll take the challenge. But first… how do you know of me?"
Shika smiled bitterly.
"Tsk Kumano, you don't remember me? How disappointing. Do you perhaps remember a town that you terrorized a couple of years ago? Girls around the neighborhood were being brutally murdered by a mysterious person. The police were clueless, and more girls were dying by the day. Sound familiar?"
The voice stayed quiet, and Shika took that as a sign to continue.
"After you killed a certain victim, some people decided to go after you. Remember them? Anyway, while they were fighting your cronies, another came to fight you. You died later. Now I'm wondering… what did I do wrong? I was sure you were dead. Mind telling me why you're alive?"
A large figure suddenly burst out of the bush; it was a man about six feet tall, with blazing red eyes and long blonde hair that reached to his back. His mouth was twisted into a scowl, and he was holding two jagged edged shuriken in his hands. He eyed Shika incredulously.
"You! What are you doing here? You killed me, but you should be dead as well! You little bitch!"
The man charged, his blonde hair billowing behind him like a silky banner; he slashed down with the shuriken in a blind rage. Shika dodged easily and his shuriken embedded themselves deep within the ground. Before he could yank them back out again Shikamaru took action.
"Kage mane no jutsu!"
Kumano found himself unable to move freely, and this enraged him even more. He tried with all of his might to move, and Shikamaru started to sweat with the strain of keeping him in the jutsu. Shika stared at Kumano coldly.
"So I did kill you. Why are you alive now?"
Kumano glared at her angrily.
"I don't know who he was. He resurrected me from the dead and told me to kill anyone I wished in this world. What happened to you, bitch? You should have died when you turned eleven! How are you still alive? And where are the scars?"
Shika regarded him coolly.
"I didn't die, as you can see. As for the other questions? I actually have no idea. But enough of this; I still have a promise to keep. Shikamaru, you can release the jutsu now."
Shikamaru looked at her like she was crazy, but released it anyway; she seemed to know what she was doing. The second he was free Kumano immediately wretched his weapons from the ground and charged at Shika with a roar. When he was upon her she suddenly grabbed his wrist and wrenched one of the weapons from his grip. In a powerful slash she severed his head from his neck, black bood gushing out of the wound and staining her outfit. The two boys watched with unconcealed horror as Shika walked over to the head and kneeled in front of it.
"That was for Kumako-chan."
She turned around and saw something headed right for Chouji. Her eyes widened and an unpleasant memory came to mind.
"Chouji-kun, look out!"
Flashback
A eight year old Shika looked away, ashamed, as her friend –Chouji stared at her in horror. The boy eyed his friend's body, unable to look away from the ugly welts and cuts.
"Shika… why didn't you tell me…?"
"Because… I don't want you to get-
Before she could finish the sentence the door to her room bust open, and both kids looked into a pair of cold brown eyes.
"Shika-chan… I told you what would happen if anyone found out… guess I have to teach you both a lesson, right?"
"Chouji-kun, look out!"
End flashback
Shika pushed Chouji to the side and gritted her teeth as claws raked her arm, leaving five deep gashes. She whirled around to face the figure that had landed on the ground and immediately narrowed her eyes.
"…You…"
The figure was wrapped in a black cloak that obscured its whole body. All they could see where a pair of glowing black eyes.
"Hello Shika-chan, nice to see you again. I can't linger, unfortunately, but I'll be seeing you later. You can count on it."
Before any of them could move the figure disappeared. The boys looked over at Shika and noticed that she was shaking. At first they thought it was with fear, since her hair was covering her face, but when she looked up they noticed that it was a completely different emotion. She was shaking with pure, raw, unadulterated fury. Then it was gone, replaced with concern as she looked at Chouji.
"Are you okay, Chouji-kun?"
'Kami, I almost let it happen again…'
Chouji nodded shakily.
"Hai, I'm okay Shika-chan."
'You're the one who's bleeding… because you tried to save me.'
Shikamaru was taking deep breathes to calm himself down.
'Fuck, that was scary. Even scarier than the save Sasuke misson. Why was Shika so angry with that figure…?'
Naru stopped suddenly.
"I smell blood."
Naruto was instantly alert.
"Do you know who?"
"…Shika."
The two blondes immediately set off in the direction of the scent.
Garra sensed an immense anger radiating out, and immediately stopped where she was. Gaara looked at her quizzically as she ran off in another direction, but decided to follow her. Garra was a bit worried.
'What in the world would cause Shika to give off such a strong reaction? I've never felt her so angry… I wish -Neji was here…'
When the four arrived at the scene they found Shika splattered in black blood. Chouji was trying to convince her to at least clean the wound, while Shikamaru calmly explained to her the danger of blood loss and infection. Shika, however, was impatient.
"I know all that! Trust me, I've fucking had a lot more dangerous wounds than these and I'm telling you that it can wait! We just gained some important information, dammit! Now let's go!"
"So what'd you find out? How did you get that wound?"
Shika turned to Garra.
"We have a major problem on our hands. We have to tell the Hokage ASAP. Can you take us there Garra?"
Gaara nodded and transported them back to the office in a swirl of sand. In the office was Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, and the remaining people who knew what was happening. -Sakura stared at the gashes on Shika's arm.
"Shika-chan, what happened?"
Shika ignored her and turned to Garra and Naru.
"Someone's resurrecting dead demons and sending them here. Today I saw two of them; one of them confessed before I killed him, and the other… She should be dead."
Shika's hair was covering her face so that no one could see her expression, but Garra and Naru could sense the absolute hatred contained in those last three words. Everyone else in the room was stunned. Naru turned to Tsunade.
"Baachan, do you know anyone who could possibly know a technique to raise the dead?"
Tsunade slowly let her head drop into her hands. There was no way…
"The only person I know who has been capable of doing that is… Orochimaru.
TBC
Dun Dun Dun! I hope u enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned for the next exciting segment!
Please Review, it inspires me greatly.