A/N: BIG NOTE. There are a few things in this chapter that get a little creepy/violent. For that reason I would say this is a HIGH T rating if not low M. I will put a warning around the spot that I would rate that that way and if for some reason you don't want to read it, I will put a brief explanation at the end for what was going on. I just tend to write lots of angst/violence well and I want to make it realistic for what type of trauma Shikamaru and Kakashi need to deal with as a result of this mission.

Kakashi's breath stuttered in his chest, the instinct to pull the sword out of his stomach fighting with the logical nature that it would not be a good idea.

He'd been hurt worse before. Now, not very often. And not very many times. But small mercies, he didn't think any vital organs had been hit. But it was still not very good.

And then the missing nin in front of him yanked the sword out for him and Kakashi swore because shit, that hurt.

He had heard Shikamaru scream, and it had thrown him off because why hadn't I paid more attention to my student? Was he okay? What happened? But he was in a worse predicament now because he was injured.

Kakashi was the Copy Ninja though, and a sword through the stomach was not going to slow him down that much. He could see in the stance and look in the eyes of the man in front of him though that he thought he had Kakashi on the ropes and that was a big mistake.

Kakashi let himself fall to his knees, not a ton of acting going into that one, his left hand going up to cover the entrance wound. He wondered briefly what the exit wound looked like. It definitely hurt. But with the action, he made himself look weak, weaker than I am at least, and the missing nin in front of him took his sword and started to swing, probably planning on taking his head off. But Kakashi moved faster than most people could see, and once again he called out his raikiri. The missing nin didn't have time to be shocked. Kakashi was now up and behind him, and he pushed his hand wreathed in lightning through the man's chest.

It was only a few seconds, but Kakashi was terrified of how long it was and what had happened to Shikamaru?

But even as these thoughts went through his head and the sword wielding missing nin collapsed dead at Kakashi's feet, the silver haired shinobi wavered, the world suddenly tilting and his vision wavering.

Have I lost too much blood? I didn't use that much chakra yet…

And then the world tilted sideways and Kakashi stumbled forward a few steps, trying to see his student beyond the hulking figure of the other shinobi, but it was an aborted effort as suddenly the tree branches above him were the only things he could see. And even then they were getting blurrier. There was another stab of pain, one subtler but more sinister in his stomach, and Kakashi's heart missed a beat as he realized.

The blade was poisoned.

"Shika…" he tried to call, but his voice barely reached his own ears. The trees above him were going dark. Or actually, that was maybe his vision.

The last thing that went through his mind, was that he had failed. Shikaku had entrusted him with his son, and they were both going to die because he had been too cocky and hadn't watched over his student better.

Shikamaru struggled to draw a breath in, the sharp stabbing pain in his chest of probably a few cracked if not broken ribs hindering him. But he struggled to get up as the missing nin that had kicked him across the clearing advanced on him. He forgot that his wrist was broken for a moment, and tears rose unbidden to his eyes as he put weight on it.

"Damn it!"

He had just managed to stand on wobbly feet when the hulking man reached him. Shikamaru barely had the time or the equilibrium to try to side step the man when he reached down and picked the Nara up by his neck.

If he had been having trouble breathing before, now it was nearly impossible with the hand wrapped around his neck. He took his good hand and tried to pry at the larger one cutting off most of his air supply but it was like trying to pry away steel.

"You need to learn some manners," that much larger man growled out. Shikamaru choked another breath, and forced himself to calm down. Kakashi-sensei was hurt and he didn't know what was going on but he was absolutely not help if he couldn't try to do something and stop being so helpless.

This is the creepy/violent part. High T Low M rating.

"Such a pretty face."

Shikamaru froze, and watched with wide eyes as the man grinned, yellow pointed teeth making him look like the boogeyman everyone feared was under the bed or hidden in the closet at night.

"It would be such a shame if someone changed that."

Shikamaru's heart was pounding and his breath still stuttering as the man reached down and pulled out a kunai, and suddenly Shikamaru's struggles increased as he watched the sharp point come closer to his face. When the point connected with the skin under his chin, Shikamaru's whole body tensed and it was fire crawling up the side of his face and oh kami is he going to cut my whole face and when the man was done, the fire ran all the way from under his chin up his left cheek and ended by his ear. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt – ! Shikamaru hadn't had the strength to scream, but shame covered him like a blanket as he'd whimpered.

Shinobi don't cry.

There was something warm dripping down the side of Shikamaru's face, and he wasn't sure if it was tears or blood or both. But something the pain had done, was help focus the Nara.

Shikamaru had never trained with shadow stitching before, but his father had performed the jutsu in front of him a few times and Shikamaru knew the theory. All he needed was a shadow, and the one between his shirt sleeve and skin would do nicely.

The brief moment of clarity afforded Shikamaru formulating a plan and slowly, as to not draw attention to his hands. His wrist protested and Shikamaru bit his tongue to keep from crying out. The clarity retreated for a moment though as the man's smile became impossibly larger, and his voice growled out, "You smell delicious."

Shikamaru's eyes widened, and the man pulled him closer and hot smelly breath hit Shikamaru's face as the man licked the blood dripping down the side of his face.

But then the clarity was back, and he was close enough now.

Shikamaru forced his mind to go blank, and as the man's nose nearly rubbed Shikamaru's left eye, he focused on his chakra and shadow, envisioned a sharp point, and calculating where the man's heart was, shoved his hand forward.

It was much easier to do than he thought. It was like cutting through butter. Slight resistance, but it still happened.

There was a brief moment where the man pulled back, eyes wide, Shikamaru's blood glistening off the man's mouth. The hand around Shikamaru's neck briefly tightened, causing Shikamaru to choke again, and then it went limp, both Shikamaru and the man falling. There was a squelch as Shikamaru's hand, which was in the man's chest nearly to his shoulder, pulled free. And then all he could do was sit on his knees and stare at the downed missing nin in shock.

Then it was like a switch had been turned on, and Shikamaru jerked to his feet and stumbled back a few steps, wanting to be nowhere near the body of his tormentor.

End Creepy/violent scene. Most of the next section is directly from my other story, Copy Cat's Shadow.

It was splattered everywhere. All over him and his sensei. For some silly reason in the back of Shikamaru's mind, all he could think of was the simple D rank where they had ended up in a paint fight.

But this time, it wasn't the blinding white.

It was a crimson red.

Shikamaru knew he was hyperventilating. He knew this. But he didn't know how to stop.

How much blood was his?

How much belonged to his sensei?

Shikamaru fell to his knees again, his legs shaking too much to hold him anymore. Kakashi was laying several feet in front of him, unmoving. He could see that somehow, both his sensei and he had managed to get closer as the fight progressed. Relief flooded Shikamaru as he realized that Kakashi's opponent was dead as well.

But why wasn't Kakashi moving then, if the other missing nin was dead?

"C'mon Shikamaru. Move!"

The hysterical part inside him wanted to giggle at himself motivating himself. But Shikamaru didn't laugh. He wanted to cry.

He started to crawl, and then stopped. The missing nin that he'd just killed. He was right there.

I just killed him.

It was just a C rank. Only a C rank. And just one of those because they were outside the village.

The man's dead eyes were looking at nothing, and he was in the way of getting to Kashi-sensei.

The smell of copper was overwhelming.

Shikamaru threw up.

That was all it took and then floodgates opened.

He'd killed a man.

He looked to his right hand, coated in blood from the tips of his fingers all the way to his shoulder.

He had killed a man.

Later, he wasn't sure how he had managed to make it to Kakashi's side. The brutal fight from only minutes before felt like hours before.

What do I do what do I do what do I do –

Shikamaru knew that he needed to do something quickly. If he didn't, then he'd pass out and who knew who would find them, or what might happen. Kakashi might die.

He might already be dead.

"No!" Shikamaru would not think that.

He reached forward, trying to quell his nausea, and pulled a soldier pill out of one of the pouches on Kakashi's front. He only knew that it was there because one day Kakashi had gone through his vest and explained where he kept things in case of emergency. It was just a simple lesson.

Now, it might save their lives.

He knew with how small he was, and how low his chakra was as a result in addition to chakra drain already, that what he was doing was incredibly dangerous. There were black spots swimming in his vision. The shadow stitching technique that he had just used took a lot more out of the Nara than he realized it would. But Shikamaru knew that there was no other way to do this. Shuddering, and swallowing bile, he popped the pill into his mouth and then dipped his thumb into some of the blood pooling around Kakashi's body.

He'd seen his sensei perform the hand signs several times. He knew that technically he wasn't on the contract, but the theory would still work with the right hand movements and the blood, right?

Shikamaru had instantly felt the effects of the pill, and after performing the summoning, immediately felt the drain. But he let a small sob of relief out as Pakkun appeared in a poof of smoke in front of him.

"Wha-pup?! Kid! What happened?"

Shikamaru shuddered. "Kashi-sensei—"

And then he knew no more.

Pakkun had slowly gotten fond of Kakashi's student. And in the time that Kakashi had been teaching Shikamaru, he had noticed a great improvement in the mental stability of his master. It made Pakkun happy, as he had very rare moments in his memories since a puppy himself of Kakashi being truly happy. He wasn't there yet. But Shikamaru's nature, and somehow making his way into Kakashi's heart past his high walls had given Pakkun hope.

When he felt the traditional summoning, he knew that there was something different. Kakashi's summoning felt like sparks. This one felt darker. Heavier.

Pakkun had blinked a few times, and the scene around him slammed into focus in a nightmarish way that the nin dog would not forget for years to come.

Shikamaru was kneeling in front of him, blood running down the side of his face and dripping on the ground. There was blood coating his right arm up to his shoulder, and his breathing was coming in ragged gasps. There were remnants of tears on the boy's face.

The smell of blood was overwhelming, and Pakkun smelled it from four different people. Kakashi's was among them.

Pakkun whirled around and felt dismay at the sight of his master laying prone to the side of him, the only sign he was still alive the small rise and fall of his chest. His abdomen was covered in blood, and something didn't smell right about it. Pakkun whirled back on Shikamaru.

"Wha-pup?! Kid! What happened?"

Shikamaru visibly shuddered, which was something given that he had already been shaking quite a bit. But the boy took a stuttered breath and said, "Kashi-sensei—"

But that was it. The boy's eyes rolled, and he was falling. Urushi was suddenly there though, and Shikamaru slumped over on the other dog's back. Pakkun sniffed at Shikamaru's still form, and panic set in.

He couldn't sense Shikamaru's chakra.

"Bull! Bisuke!"

It had taken a moment, but Pakkun had put together what had happened. Shikamaru, in a desperate attempt to get help, had summoned them. The entire. Pack. And the chakra drain had taken too much of a toll on the small body.

"Yes sir!" The two dogs said, standing at attention.

"Get back to Konoha! Get help! We need someone with medical expertise, and someone that can provide backup if there's anyone else here."

Without any prompting, the two ninken took off. "Shiba, Akino, Ūhei, Guruko!"

The others came to attention as well, ears forward. "Set up a perimeter! We guard these two with our lives!"

The others shot off to obey Pakkun with no complaints. Urushi whined a little, not willing to move out from under Shikamaru's slumped form. Shikamaru's face was stark white against the blood across his face, and he looked dead. If not for the small tha-thump slowly sounding out to Pakkun's sensitive ears he would have thought the boy was already dead.

Pakkun turned and sniffed at Kakashi, a whine escaping his own throat. Kakashi's breathing had gotten slower, and the blood pooling around him had slowed. It might not be a good thing.

"Hang in there pups, just hang on."

So you got a longer chapter today. Mostly because I did copy and paste the extra bit in the middle from my other story. And I didn't want to leave you on such a big cliffhanger…

For those of you who did skip my one section. Shikamaru got cut really badly on the side of his face, and the creepy larger ninja decided his blood tasted good. Shikamaru retaliated by using his clan's shadow stitching technique to create a blade of sorts to stab the man through his heart.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Reviews are fuel!