Something stirs. He moves a finger, wanting to stretch toward it, but… no. It is only a glimmer of false hope, a figment of his imagination.

Ino entered the room alone. Taking measured steps, she crossed to the center to sit in front of him.

Shikamaru was slumped exactly as they had left him, unresponsive. His gaze should have met hers when she sat down, but it failed to see her, utterly blank. The dark eyes, normally so very alive, looked…

She couldn't bring herself to say what it was they looked like.

Ino almost stretched out a hand, itching to touch his cheek, just to ascertain that he was, in fact, still alive. But then it occurred to her that the entire process was being observed, and her hand fell back to her side, lingering in the air for only the tiniest instant. This wasn't the time for foolish sentimentality. Tsunade-sama had given her a job, and she was duty-bound to fulfill it.

Taking a deep breath, she began the seals. Her hands moved through them fluidly, practiced from a hundred times of doing this very thing in training. Her hand shook only the slightest bit when she raised it to his forehead.

Ino's eyes snapped open, and it took her a moment to reorient herself.

She silently ran through her basic training: every mind was different, but most had the same basic structure: an outer layer, where all the superficial knowledge was kept; a middle layer, where the more complex goals and emotions were stored; and finally a well-hidden inner layer, replete with the person's closest kept secrets. It occasionally presented itself in different ways, but essentially, it was always the same.

Ino blinked at her surroundings, wondering if she'd made some kind of serious error.

Where am I?

The view that met her eyes was nothing like she had anticipated. While she had seen people whose outer layer was an open landscape, this was…

What… is this place?

A white sky stretched above her, unbroken by even a single cloud. Below it, a vast expanse of water stretched out in all directions, reflecting the milky sky back upon itself with an eerie glow. The only visible piece of land was the island on which Ino now found herself, which was little more than a hill of white sand.

Beyond her, not so much as a single ripple disturbed the water's surface.

Ino did a quick circle around the island, but the view was the same from every side. Everywhere, that endless pearlescent sea, mirroring the sky above it.

Ino had to repress a shiver. What kind of a place was this, to be a layer of someone's mind? Most people's minds were so cluttered, even on the surface level, which was often the calm before the storm that was the innermost layer.

It struck her then, the strangeness of this place and its possible meaning.

What if this isn't how it normally is?

That thought scared her more than the entire barren horizon.

Leaning down, she picked up some of the sand, letting it run through her fingers. It fell away quickly, sliding soundlessly back onto the surface of the island. When the last of it tumbled from her palm, she examined it again.

It was as though not a single grain had been disturbed.

Making a quick loop around the surface of the island, she quickly discovered that the sand always remained the same. No footprints followed her; even when she kicked the sand, the perfect dome returned.

Frustrated, Ino flopped to the ground, running a hand through her hair.

"I wasn't trained for this." She muttered.

It wasn't as though she was new to the idea of entering someone's mind. Even before her father's passing, she had been working a little with the Interrogation Unit – albeit not with any consistency – learning his techniques, figuring out how she could use her own skills to extract information. Ibiki had been slightly hesitant to formalize her training after the war, but Ino had insisted. Regardless of the dangers it entailed, she knew in her heart of hearts that it was what her father would have wanted. It was what she wanted.

And she was good at it. In the short months she'd been working, she had become one of the most requested interrogators in the village. And while it could be terrifying, entering the mind of stranger, there was also an element of challenge to it. Every mind was like a puzzle – she just needed the right components to solve it. Once you had the basic formula, it was only a matter of figuring out the various iterations.

But this… she threw a handful of sand out at the water, but it was like she hadn't thrown it at all. It made no impact on the surface, and when she looked back to where she had run her hands through the sand, there were no lines.

Standing up again, Ino gazed out at the sea around her.

She was going to figure this out.

Choji sat by the Hokage's side, his hands pressed so hard against the sill of the window that all the blood had drained from his knuckles.

"How long has it been?"

Tsunade let out a punctuated sigh.

"It's only been three minutes since the last time you asked me."

Choji blanched, lowering his head.

"I apologize, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade nodded distractedly. It wasn't as though she could chastise the boy. Truth be told, she was just as nervous as he was, she just wasn't at liberty to display it.

It wasn't as though she had expected this to be a simple process. She'd heard stories about this sort of ailment before – it rarely ended well. But she couldn't afford to think that this was like all the stories she'd heard. It just couldn't be.

Her fist clenched reflexively. She couldn't lose another one.

Each minute that ticked by seemed like an eternity. Every minute flicker of movement registered in Tsunade's mind; she was ready to spring at the first sign of progress.

I have to be calm, she reminded herself. There's a reason I trusted Ino to do this. Ibiki has told me she's the best there is, and she knows Shikamaru. I trust her. She'll make it out. She'll make it out, and she'll bring Shikamaru back with her.

She has to.

There was no sun to mark the passage of time, but Ino was fairly certain she'd been at it for hours, circling, kicking, yelling Shikamaru's name, at first by itself and then followed by a stream of colorful language.

None of it seemed to be helping. It only angered her more when she realized that perhaps all of this was purposeful, a mechanism to keep out nosy teammates with powerful clan jutsu. That wouldn't surprise her in the least. She could just see Shikamaru's smug face, could perfectly picture the bastard's wry grin as she railed at him with every ounce of anger in her being…

…blank eyes staring at her, unseeing.

The brief memory quickly silenced her anger.

Refocusing, Ino walked out onto the water, balancing on the surface.

She moved farther out, allowing herself to explore further but always keeping an eye on the island. She didn't want to find herself completely stranded.

The water – if she could even call it that – was completely opaque. When she touched it, her finger disappeared beneath the surface.

"Baka, what have you done?"

The question echoed out into the air, unanswered.

Ino paced the water's surface. She had officially run out of ideas from her standard training. This was like no mind she had ever seen before. That, perhaps, was what frustrated her most – Shikamaru was her teammate! The whole reason Tsunade had sent her on this mission was because she supposedly knew him. A lot of good that was doing now…

Ino stopped, frozen by the thought.

Am I really that much of an idiot?

She had been approaching it completely wrong! She had been treating this like any other one of her hundred puzzles, a simple cipher, unlocked with a key.

But this was Shikamaru.

Of course it was like no mind she had ever seen. Shikamaru was a genius. She ought to be lucky that this layer hadn't killed her outright. Most geniuses wouldn't have hesitated to barb the first layer of the mind, preventing any unwanted invaders. It was all there in the basic training: the more complex the person, the more detailed the layers of the mind. It reminded her of something her father had once said about Shikaku.

"The man has a mind like a steel trap." He had groused, recounting the one unpleasant experience he'd had in trying to work with Shikaku's mind. "And, believe me, in his case, that's not just an expression."

Ino shook her head. She was going to figure this out. She just had to think like Shikamaru.

Well, what would he expect from an invader in his head? He'd expect a shinobi, that much was certain. He would know to keep the first layer simple, to make it utterly impossible for even someone who didn't know him…

And then it clicked.

Ino looked back at the island, looked up at the white sky above. The sand… it didn't matter one bit – that was why it always returned. But the sky and the water… those were the keys.

After all, she thought, where was Shikamaru constantly? Lying on his back, out in some field, cloud-gazing. His mind, constantly stuck in the clouds.

So, that was where he was.

But she couldn't simply get to the sky. That was where the water came in; why else would there be such a perfect mirror?

And he'd expect a shinobi. That was the final piece.

Taking a deep breath, Ino prayed that she was right, and released the chakra suspending her feet on the surface.

There is a glimmer, like sunlight cast on the water.

The candle flickers again, the faintest flame singeing the darkness.

A/N: Hello everyone! Okay, so I know I said the following chapters were going to be much longer, but I must amend. They're going to get increasingly longer as the layers of the mind grow more complex. Just so ya know.

I just have to say, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all my readers. Such an incredible response for the first chapter of a story. Have I mentioned how happy I am to be writing a multi-chapter ShikaIno again? Special thanks to bakaindisguise, lethalshikaino, SeiraXD, SultanaV, HolaitsCiara, The Clawed Butterfly, Tsuki'sLullaby, Kari Hitsugaya, little-hina, Aki-child and my amazing, fantastic long-lost twin Wroathe! You're all wonderful, and if I didn't respond to your review personally, I apologize profusely, and will try to do better next chapter.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought, and as always, happy reading!

- Senka Hitomi