A/N: Not sure what to say other than thanks to the two folks that left reviews! And I got to stay in today because I had a sore throat but I don't think it's the cooties because it's gone and I feel like I'll be awake all night with the amount of sleeping I did today. Anywho. Enjoy the chapter!

Shikamaru was really missing the D ranks.

The excitement of a C ranked mission had slowly diminished as Shikamaru realized how much walking it involved.

Kakashi had taught him the basics of tree and water walking – he had already had the theory down before he'd finished at the Academy – but the silver haired shinobi said he lacked the chakra reserves to travel through the treetops for extended periods of time.

Troublesome.

And now his feet hurt.

But because he didn't want to sound like the child he was, Shikamaru kept his normal phrase in his head.

Heaven forbid Kakashi-sensei not allow me to leave the village again if I make an issue about being tired. All I'm doing is walking.

But of course, his sensei realized he was tired anyways.

"Do we need to work on your stamina?"

Shikamaru blanched as he remembered the last time he had to work on "stamina." It was one of the rare times he hadn't trained with Kakashi. The jonin had left him instead with Gai-sensei, and at the end of the day Shikamaru was too sore and too tired to even twitch. There had been ten laps around the village, and that in and of itself was exhausting. Gai had said he should be able to breeze through a hundred no problem, but one look at the tears in Shikamaru's eyes had melted the green clad jonin's heart.

So…cuteness did manage to have a use sometimes. But he'd be damned if he ever admitted to Kakashi that he used it on purpose sometimes.

But then Gai had started to work on his taijutsu. Shikamaru had passed the academy test, but that was the one spot that he had struggled with because he had never felt the need to exert that much energy. The Nara firmly believed in working smarter, not harder.

That was definitely not what Gai-sensei had in mind. Definitely work harder. All. The. Time.

Shikamaru had drawn the line at wearing the green spandex outfit that the strange man had offered him. When he reported that to Kakashi the next day, all his teacher did was laugh until he cried.

"If you hand me off to Gai-sensei again, I will find a way to murder you in your sleep," Shikamaru threatened.

Kakashi chuckled. "Maa, don't look so terrified. It wasn't that bad."

Shikamaru's eye twitched. "Need I remind you that he tried to get me to wear that green…abomination?"

"But it would help you channel the power of youth!"

Shikamaru frowned and then, using a trick he'd been working on lately, gathered chakra into his hand and punched Kakashi's side.

To his great surprise the jonin actually yelped and stumbled to the side.

"What the heck? That hurt!" Kakashi sensei said, rubbing the offending spot. Shikamaru blinked.

"Uh, I didn't think it was actually that hard…" he said.

Kakashi unzipped his vest and lifted up his uniform shirt and undershirt. Shikamaru's eyes resembled saucers when he saw the already forming bruise.

"Yep. It was really that hard. Where on earth did you learn to do that?" Kakashi said, dropping his shirts and fixing his one eye on his student.

Shikamaru stumbled over his words for a moment. "Um…well…I just used the same theory as tree walking and water walking. If we have enough focused power in the chakra to make ourselves stick to things and keep from sinking in the water, and then extend that to hopping through the trees with chakra, I figured that it would be really easy to reinforce a punch. I already suck at taijutsu, and I figured with my size it might be something that could come in handy?" He finished with a question, feeling the need to shrink into a small ball and bury his head in the sand.

Kakashi continued to study him for a moment, and then huffed. "Well, maybe you're ready for some more advanced stuff than I was working on with you then. The technique you've been working on is actually something that the Sannin Lady Tsunade has refined over the years. Her legendary strength because of how she uses chakra to enhance what she has already is half of her reputation."

Shikamaru's eyes went even wider.

"I…um…well, are you okay?" He finally managed to get out of his mouth.

Kakashi gave him an eye smile, which Shikamaru knew was fake nine times out of ten, and shoved his hands into his pockets

"Maa, I've had much worse than that little flick. It surprised me, but I'll be perfectly fine my cute student."

"Urgh, stop calling me cute!"

It was just a whisper on the edge of his consciousness, but it was enough to make every muscle in Kakashi's body tense. Shikamaru didn't realize that his sensei had just frozen, but that was just as well.

Perhaps it was a false alarm.

They had arrived at their destination about ten minutes ago, and Shikamaru was going around collecting the various herbs they needed for the village pharmacists. Kakashi had actually been helping this time, and was currently on his knees with a storage scroll in front of him. He wasn't the most amazing with seals, but after having Jaraiya as a constant in his early life, the silver haired genius had picked up on a few things.

It was easier to carry a few scrolls than a basket.

And Shikamaru had shown an interested in learning how to seal things.

So Kakashi was going to make this a teaching moment.

And then the whisper of something wrong on his senses.

Kakashi moved a foot up so he was crouching, his hand moving to his weapons pouch. This movement Shikamaru noticed. The boy paused from plucking one of the plants out of the ground, and his eyes went wide as he noticed the kunai in Kakashi's hand.

And then Kakashi moved.

There were two of them, and they had both targeted Kakashi.

Thank kami for small favors. Hopefully they forget Shikamaru completely.

The two missing nin were from Ame? If the headbands were to be believed. Immediately, Kakashi could tell that they were S ranked shinobi. Not only the speed in which they moved, but the fact that he didn't notice them until right before they attacked, and then how easily they moved. Kakashi couldn't recall having seen them in any bingo book though.

Shit.

The first shinobi was thinner, and was using a sword for most of his fighting. He was using the weapon in such a way that it looked as if it were as easy as breathing.

The second shinobi was a bit stouter and didn't use any visible weapon. His strength seemed to be his weapon, and Kakashi's mind flew back to what he'd explained to Shikamaru earlier about Lady Tsunade's legendary strength.

This guy wasn't as good as the Sannin, but he was pretty darn close.

Shikamaru, Kakashi noted, had quickly crab walked backward until he was up against a tree, wide eyes following the lightning-fast fight as Kakashi dodged first one shinobi's fist and then parried a thrust of a sword with his kunai from the other shinobi.

Kakashi flew through the signs and as he ducked a sword swipe, slammed his hands into the ground, completely dislodging the earth around the enemy shinobi's feet. Then he flipped backward and flew through a few more hand signed to produce a katon, causing the shinobi to spring in two different directions.

Ha.

Kakashi used the momentary distraction from his fireball jutsu to create a shadow clone, and sent it after the shinobi that was relying on his strength to fight.

The bigger they are the harder they fall.

In the brief moment that they'd already fought, Kakashi had pulled his headband up and observed that the stouter of the two seemed to follow where the taller moved. They moved as if they were used to fighting as a unit, so first, separation. Then, if he had deduced properly, the taller one with the sword was the leader. Which hopefully meant that the other one was less smart.

It was a leap, but it was one that Kakashi hoped worked in his favor.

While Kakashi's clone fought the other shinobi, Kakashi pulled out another kunai and went on the offensive with the sword wielding shinobi. The fight was simple weapons against weapons for a moment and then Kakashi managed to find an opening, and then moved. Kunai discarded, fingers flashed through the signs and his lightning blade came to life.

At that moment, several things happened at once.

Kakashi's shadow clone disappeared.

The memories of the clone hit Kakashi full force, causing him to flinch just a little,

And then he realized where the fight had led his clone and the other shinobi.

Kakashi had been wholly focused on the man in front of him, and had forgotten to think about anything else.

Bakakashi, don't forget about your teammates!

Kakashi's eyes widened, and he turned –

And Shikamaru screamed.

When the fighting had started, Shikamaru had felt an adrenaline rush like none other in his entire life, and he had quickly scrambled back as Kakashi engaged the two missing nin.

The earth jutsu peaked Shikamaru's interest, and he filed it away for future study, as he'd discovered recently that he was an earth type. He thought of this even as Kakashi blew the fireball between the two shinobi and created a shadow clone to do half the fight.

It was interesting to watch.

Like a really really intense game of shogi.

Shikamaru was mesmerized as he watched his sensei dance with the sword-wielding shinobi. At this point, Shikamaru was standing, herbs forgotten at his feet, hiding behind the tree that he'd scooted over to earlier. Part of him screamed to run, but the other part wanted to stay and watch.

I should have run.

There was a sudden "oomph!" And Shikamaru felt the tree he was peeking around tremble. There was a poof of smoke, and the Kakashi clone disappeared.

And then the other missing nin was right there.

"Well, well, well, you puny little thing," the missing nin growled. It sounded like the man had been gargling with rocks.

Shikamaru was frozen to the spot and mentally kicked himself for not moving. And then the giant was reaching down and pulling on his arm. Then Shikamaru fought.

"Brat," the man growled as Shikamaru landed a kick on the man's shin. There was a twist –

And snap –

And fire like nothing else he'd ever felt radiated from his wrist all the way up to his shoulder.

He wasn't aware that he was screaming at first. But then the fog of pain dissipated to a sharp throb, and Shikamaru opened his eyes, when did he close them? when he realized that Kakashi-sensei was yelling his name.

Shikamaru twisted around and watched in horror as his sensei, distracted as he was by him, I distracted him! had missed the thrust from the other shinobi and the sword was still moving –

And the taller missing nin stabbed his teacher.

Shikamaru screamed again, but this time in fear for his sensei's life as Kakashi curled over the blade sticking out of his abdomen.

It was funny, Shikamaru would think later, what went through your head at moments like this.

Kakashi was going to have to wash his vest.

Maybe he'd need a new one.

Did his sensei know how to sew? Because there were going to be two holes in the vest now.

And in his shirts.

And then all Shikamaru could register was painpainpainpain—for sure his chest must have just been hit by a mallet for sure and the world was flying past him—but wait, he was the one flying – and then then his back hit something and his vision went white.

But all Shikamaru could think of as he barely hung onto consciousness, was that he might have just killed his teacher, because he couldn't keep out of trouble and then he'd had to go and scream and distract him.

He coughed. "Kashi-sensei," he tried to yell, but he didn't hear any response. Through blurred vision, all he could see was the hulk of the missing nin that had just kicked him across the clearing slowly walking to him.

Shikamaru was afraid it would be the last thing he ever saw.

Not sure if I'll update this or the other story next. But muahahahaha. I forgot how much I loved writing cliffhangers.