Step by step, Ino guided them back through the tangles of Shikamaru's mind.

In some ways, it was easier now. She knew the obstacles, knew the shape of every pitfall his mind had so far produced. There was a certain familiarity in her surroundings that dispersed some of the uncertainty roiling in her gut. But in other ways—

"Is it getting blurrier? It's getting worse, right? I'm not just imagining this?"

They were back in the forest now—even through the watercolor muddle of the landscape, she could still make out that much. But she was beginning to fear that even if they made it through the trees, she wouldn't recognize the door she had first stepped through when they came to it.

She turned to give Shikamaru a brief glance over her shoulder. There was a pallor to his complexion, dark circles under his eyes, a glassy cast to his gaze—quiet subtleties and signs of fatigue that she hadn't noticed in their initial flight from the false-Konoha. She squeezed his hand, willing his attention back to her, back to the present moment.

"What does it mean if the whole place melts down?"

"I wish I knew." The weariness had crept into Shikamaru's voice too. He sounded less sharp, less focused than usual. "I'm not sure exactly what they did."

"You still haven't even explained who they are." Ino guided them around a rough patch of ground that still maintained enough integrity to be identified as a tangle of roots and underbrush. They couldn't afford for one of them to trip and fall now. "Maybe you should tell me what you remember. The last thing you can recall about the mission. I know you said explanations later, but we still have quite a bit of ground to cover and maybe that'll help solidify things for you."

Hopefully in more ways than one.

Even as she spoke, a puddle welled up out of the ground ahead of them, blocking the path she had been carving out. They could try to cut straight through it, but a gut instinct told her that would be more of a hindrance than a help in the long run. There was no telling how deep that puddle might suddenly be. She began to search for another route.

"I—I can try." There was uncertainty in Shikamaru's voice. That and the fact that he didn't even try to argue with her were the truest signs that something was very wrong. "On the way back from the mission, we were ambushed. One minute our unit was on a clear path back to Konoha. The next, we were surrounded by this unnatural fog, unable to see more than a few inches ahead of it. I tried to keep tabs on everyone, but… well. When it cleared, I was alone.

"And then… well, my memory starts to get hazy again. I don't know how much time passed, but I was taken into custody, moved to a second location. I remember an interrogation room—if you can call it a room. More like a cave that had been repurposed to hold a captive. Whoever they were, they didn't seem to have a very sophisticated setup."

Ino rolled her eyes, glad she was facing away from him. Trust it to Shikamaru to criticize the operations of the people who had managed to put him in a semi-catatonic state.

"If I had to make a guess, I'd say it was one of the groups that splintered away from Kirigakure when the Blood Mist fell out of favor."

Mention of the Blood Mist sent a shiver down Ino's spine, but the theory wasn't surprising. Even after the creation of a formal alliance between the five shinobi nations to contend with a world-ending threat, there would always be people still looking to settle old, petty grievances, and the roots of the Blood Mist and its brutal policies ran deep through the Land of Water. More than a few of the shinobi across that nation objected, publicly or privately, to Kirigakure's more peaceable policies.

"Well, that would certainly explain all of this water," Ino remarked dryly, trying not to let any nervousness creep into her voice. Shikamaru was depending on her—this was no time for hesitation.

Shikamaru let out a low chuckle, and some of the tightness that had crept into Ino's chest receded.

For just a moment, their surroundings seemed to clarify; the rain seemed to lighten. There. Just on the horizon, Ino caught the suggestion of a building, a roof and walls. It was working. She just had to keep him focused.

She plunged forward, tightening her grip on his hand. "And then? What did they want with you?"

"They definitely knew who I was. It wasn't a coincidence that they targeted our squad. They were looking for me specifically." He paused, seconds slipping past in tense silence. Even with that brief moment of clarity, his words were starting to elude him again. "They wanted an advisor. A strategist."

"So it was about intel."

"Seems likely."

Tsunade would not be happy to hear that.

With an abruptness that bordered on the surreal, the building suddenly loomed before them, the wide expanse of the wall filling their vision. Ino stopped short, but Shikamaru didn't, bumping into her from behind.

Just the proximity sent a jolt of renewed determination through Ino. He's here. He's here and real and solid. I found him, and I am going to get him out. I am going to get us both out of here.

Ino studied the rice paper screens that formed the building's entrance, trying to find the seam where the door slid back, but it was maddeningly absent. In a fit of pique, she abandoned the search, instead plunging her fist through the delicate material, ripping a hole straight through it.

"More than one way to make a door," she muttered to herself. She just had to hope that she hadn't damaged anything important—at least, anything that would have major ramifications for Shikamaru's mind. Somehow, she felt, it couldn't be worse than the watercolor mess of the landscape. Tearing the rent wider, she stepped through with Shikamaru in tow, back into the shelter of the room where she had played shogi with the vision of Asuma. Here, at least, it wasn't raining.

Ino turned to look back at Shikamaru again. He was staring at the space with a vague sense of unrecognition, a little frown curving the corners of his mouth.

"Was I… was I saying something?"

The foundations of the house shook. Ino sucked in a quick, panicked breath before letting it back out slowly, calmly through her nose.

She squeezed his hand again. "You were saying the group from the Blood Mist targeted you because you're a strategist."

"Right. I think… I think they were looking for information about our rebuilding efforts. About the restructuring we've done following the war. Personnel changes. I'm not entirely sure."

"And did they get what they were looking for?" Ino scanned the room as she kept him talking, trying to remember what came next. She had backed through a door to get here, but that was also the point at which she had hit her head—how much time she had lost to that, she didn't know. What had been before that? A mirror?

"Did they get confidential information out of me? Please." Shikamaru leveled her with a look that was so undeniably her Shikamaru that Ino's heart lightened, and she decided to forego the tongue lashing she would usually give him for that condescending tone. "You've seen this place. Do you think they got through this?"

"I barely got through this." Ino groused, holding up her injured hand, which had been cradled against her side. "Don't think I'm going to forget about this."

A little smirk twisted his mouth. "I wouldn't dream of it." His gaze sharpened again, glancing past Ino to take in the room around them. Her hesitation seemed to have finally gotten his attention. "What exactly are we looking for here?"

"A mirror, I think?" The words didn't come out sounding anything near confident. "I sort of… blacked out for a bit when I passed through here earlier. Shouldn't you know, since it's your brain?"

She expected some smart retort, but Shikamaru looked strangely stricken at her admission. "I should."

Ino wanted to ask what that look had been about, but she was distracted by a sudden wetness creeping into her shoes. A thin layer of water had begun to spread across the floor, seeping in under the walls and through the hole she had ripped in the door at a slow but steady rate. "I think we'd better find it quickly."

"Funny, I didn't think we were on a timetable here." Shikamaru deadpanned.

Yes, he was certainly back to his usual acerbic self. Good. At least that meant that she wasn't losing him for now.

"What did you do to get in here?" He circled the perimeter of the room, splashing through the gradually rising flood.

"I was in a room with a mirror. And I could only see the door out of the room when I looked in the mirror. So I had to walk backward and trust that it was there. When I opened it, I was here."

"Hmm." Shikamaru finished his circuit, returning to stand in front of her. There was a calculation running behind his gaze. "I think I have an idea. Give me your hands."

She held out her hands, flinching slightly as he went to grab the right one. He met her gaze, an odd expression on his face, caught somewhere between confusion and concern, mixed with something she couldn't put a name to.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Ino."

Carefully, she placed her hand in his. His eyes traced the mottled bruises along her wrist.

This was an accident. A defense mechanism. He would never hurt me consciously. "I know."

"Now, close your eyes."

She frowned, raising an eyebrow. "How is this supposed to—"

He breathed out a sigh of exasperation. "Dammit, woman, would you just trust me for once?"

She let out a long breath, her gaze caught on his, a stubborn battle of wills. But now was not the time to let pride get the better of her.

Ino fluttered her eyelids closed. "Fine."

With her eyes closed, the sounds and sensations of the rising water claimed more of her attention, lapping around her ankles now. She could feel her breathing going shallow again, so she forced herself to focus on the sound of Shikamaru's voice, just the familiar rumble of words from his throat.

"This place is governed by thought. So I need you to picture that room you described. Focus on the mirror."

She laid the details out in her mind—the formless white, the mirror suspended at its heart. That strange liminal space, an endless expanse—

A little wave splashed up on her shin, and Ino's concentration wavered.

"Shikamaru, the water—"

He squeezed her left hand gently. "Don't worry about that. You're okay. Just focus on the mirror, alright?"

"Okay." She concentrated on the feel of her hands in his—the calluses at the tips of his fingers, the softness of his palms, the reassuring, steady pressure of contact. The sensation was so real it sent a flush of heat up the back of her neck. Not now. She turned her thoughts back to the mirror.

"Just picture the mirror. Do you see it?"

The image was clarifying in her mind. Ino nodded softly. "Yes, I've got it."

"Can you project it to me?"

"Can I… what? Shikamaru, I'm already using a clan technique just to be here. I don't know if I can layer—"

"Just think of it like any other time you're trying to transmit something to me. I know it's different right now, because you're already inside my mind, but just… think of it that way. Like you would in any normal circumstance."

It was hardly a normal circumstance but arguing wasn't going to get them anywhere. Ino let out another deep breath. "Fine. I'll try."

"Good. Now when I tell you, picture us in that space and then open your eyes. Alright?"

"Okay."

She pictured the image and reached for that familiar tether that connected her mind to his. This had to work. She had to make it work. The slightest tremor quaked through Shikamaru's hands as she reached out, but Ino found that her nervousness was fading.

"Okay. I think I've got it."

"Alright, Ino. Open your eyes."

With the same abruptness that they had found the building, they were back in the mirror space. Her eyes widened, staring straight into Shikamaru's.

A surprised laugh burst from her lips. "It actually worked!"

He frowned, minute worry lines creasing his brow. "We are in my head, you know."

"And yet you needed me to come in here and drag your sorry ass out."

She gave him a pointed look, but it quickly devolved into a laugh, mirroring the little smile that quirked the corner of his lips.

"Since you're such an expert," he gestured at the strange space around them, the mirror its focal point, "what's next?"

This Ino felt confident that she could tackle. She allowed herself a little grin, her hands still clasped in his.

"Now we go through the mirror and get out of here."

Author's note: I've had this chapter sitting around for several months, but I finally cleaned it up. We're in the home stretch, folks! I'm determined to finish this year! Only a couple more chapters to go.

Thanks all who have had the faith to keep up with this story after all this time. For my new readers, who have discovered this story here or on ao3, thank you for taking a chance on such a long-running project. For those that have rediscovered this story and just dropped me a little note to say so, it means more than you know. Writing has been really hard over the past couple years, so to have you all say that this story still means something to you, either recently or after all these years, makes me want to cry in the best way. Love you all.

I mostly post on ao3 these days, so if you're looking for me over there, you can find my Naruto fic under the same pseud as here, or all of my stuff under the username LadyTegan. There's a new ShikaIno drabble collection over there that I wrote about a year ago and didn't crosspost, so check that out if you're interested.