AN: All I have to say is, you all are great! Another hundred views in one day! I'm so glad to see you all enjoy my writing!
And to GrimSpeck18, thanks for your un ending support!
OH!!! And if you like this chapter, like I do, you will want to check out princessSiyaka, because she wrote all the Roxanne/Shikamaru stuff that happens in this chapter, because I didn't know how to describe it and she does.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters etc. You know the drill.
Chapter Eight: Clumsy Roxanne, Noble Shikamaru
Roxanne woke up the next morning, similar to the day before. She wasn't used to waking up early in the summer. But, she reluctantly rolled out of bed and got dressed for the day. Shikamaru told her to meet at the gate for training at 10:00 in the morning. It was nine when she got up, but by the time she'd get there she'd be right on time, which was a complete surprise considering she was never on time for anything.
Her almost black hair was messy and a little curly. Too lazy to brush through it, she grabbed a hair tie and pulled onto her wrist. She pulled on a hot pink tank top and black sweatpants, slipping on a pair of shoes on her way out.
Before she left her apartment, she took a breath of her inhaler, setting it back on the counter while she held her breath for the drug to take effect. Then she grabbed her fannie-pack and sprinted out the door.
She was just on time for her meeting, and Shikamaru stood there waiting. "Alright, let's go," he said, starting their run out into the forest surrounding Konoha. They finally found a small clearing in the trees, where they stopped. He turned to her, staring at her lazily with his hands in his pockets. "Alright, let's start with the essence of chakra, then we can move on to using and manipulating it," he started. Rox sat and stared up at him expectantly. He took a seat in front of her and folded his arms, eyes closed and thinking, obviously on how to start the lesson. "First, every being has chakra flowing through their body, kind of like the circulatory system. It flows to every inch of your body, starting here—" he indicated the center of his chest, "—and comes back to that same point and circulates again. That's called the chakra network," he paused, making sure Rox was following what he was saying. She nodded, letting him know he could continue, her hair falling in front of her eyes. She took the wayward strand and pulled it behind her ear. "Ok, so chakra manipulation… I can feel my chakra network circulate through my body. I take hold of the pull and draw it out. Once I have a solid hold of it I can form it or push it into an object."
"Kind of like when Gaara infuses his chakra into his sand." Rox offered, thinking of her own examples. Shikamaru looked a little surprised but nodded. "And, I know this is more along the lines of ninjustu, but I've always been curious how you manipulate shadows."
Shikamaru was slightly taken aback. He pondered what to say for a moment. "Well, only a Nara can manipulate shadows. It's about as natural to me as running. But that also means it causes me about as much physical exertion over a prolonged period of time as running does. I guess you're aware that there are different kinds of chakras as well, chakras that are specific to an element." Rox nodded, showing him she knew what he was talking about. "The Nara's chakra is shadow specific. That's why I can control shadows."
"That makes perfect sense! I'm surprised that I didn't think of that sooner…. So anyway, about chakra manipulation… if a person has never done it before, and has no idea what it feels like… how do they use it?" Rox asked, pulling blades of grass out of the ground and ripping them in two.
"Yes, that's the difficult part. Alright, I'm going to describe the sensation of chakra flow so maybe you will be able to copy. First, you have to find that flow of chakra within your body. When you find it, it's like finding a river flowing from a hidden but no less deep reservoir. It feels like a hum, vibrating with its energy." Shikamaru then shut his eyes and concentrated. "Once you find that flow, pull it out." He proceeded to draw out his chakra, making his hands glow slightly. "And there you go. The trick is to concentrate. Put your whole mind into drawing it out, and you will. At first, it takes a while and a lot of concentration, but then you get used to it and everything becomes faster." He released the chakra flow and his hands quit glowing that faint blue. "Now you try."
Rox nodded and closed her eyes, searching for that flow, that hum Shikamaru had described. She concentrated her hardest, eyes squeezed shut and eyebrows furrowed. After a moment, she heard him laugh quietly.
"You have to be calm, Rox, otherwise it will be more difficult for you to find it," he instructed. His face held an amused smirk, making Rox bite the inside of her lip. But she continued to try. She remembered the trick she and Cordi used to try by completely relaxing their minds to the point of almost thinking nothing. She focused on a blank space in her mind, as a calm meditative peace overtook her. Then she could feel the slight movement running through her body, from her heart, to her arms and legs, and back again, looping around her brain. She put her hands together, pushing this feeling toward them. They tingled and burned a little with the steady pushing. When she opened her eyes, she saw her hands glowing, and she smiled. "You're doing it," Shikamaru stated in a bored tone.
The elation Rox experienced was relatively short-lived. She found that once she lost concentration, she lost the flow and would have to find it again. "Ugh! It's like trying to keep water in your hands!" Shikamaru laughed a little at the comment.
"That's what the training's for. It took me a couple years to fully master my chakra," he said encouragingly. Rox sighed and looked up at him.
"But you're a genius, and you would have been way ahead of your class if you had been a little more motivated. I'm afraid that even if I try as hard as I can, I won't be able to master it quickly enough!" Rox shot back at him. For the third time that day, Shikamaru looked surprised. He scratched his head full of black hair, eyebrows furrowed.
"Well… I wouldn't say I'm a genius—"
"Don't be modest, Shikamaru. You're a helluva lot smart than you let on," she replied, cutting him off and looking down, letting her dark curls fall in front of her face. "It actually makes me feel very…." She paused and looked back up at him. He raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. "It makes me feel like I'm not… ugh, just whatever." Rox looked away from the amused flicker in his dark eyes.
"It took me weeks just to get where you are now, and my parents did not let me slack off when it came to chakra training," Shikamaru said in a bored tone, leaning back on his palms. Rox scoffed at him, obviously not believing what he was saying to her. "I'm serious, now keep trying. Once you can hold that chakra in place for more than a minute, we'll move on to the next step."
"And what's that?" Rox asked, brown eyes curious.
"We're going to see how well you run up trees," Shikamaru stated, lazily staring up at the sky.
"Really? Already?" Rox asked, surprised. He nodded, looking away from the clouds and back at her. "Alright…" She said and closed her eyes again, hands together and concentrating. She found the chakra much quicker this time and pulled the vibrating energy to the surface through her hands, trying to keep it there as long as possible. Sweat appeared on her brow as she fought to keep the humming chakra in her hands, but no matter how hard she fought to keep it there, it would ebb away within twenty seconds. She exhaled a breath she didn't know she had been keeping locked away in her lungs. She tried again and kept the chakra in her palms for longer. Each time she tried, she got remarkably better, until she held the chakra in her palms for more than a minute.
"Ok, you're ready for the next step," Shikamaru stood and offered Rox a hand, who took it. "The key to running up trees is to focus all your chakra into your feet, instead of your hands. This is quite a bit harder than holding it in your hands, but you'll see that no doubt," he sighed, hands in pockets and lazily walked over to a very large tree on the edge of the clearing. Rox nodded, and pulled her hair back, exposing her neck. Shikamaru turned away from her, taking his hands out of his pockets and faced the tree. He took one foot and placed it on the tree, then he put the other foot on the tree and walked up to an incredibly high branch. He looked down at her, but to him it was looking up, arms folded. "I was able to walk up this tree because of my training. You will have to be quick, because you are not in full control of your chakra. Alright, now you have to try to get up to this branch," he called.
Rox nodded again and took a breath. Pulling out a Kunai knife, she put her right foot on the trunk of the tree and focused all her chakra into it, then did the same with the other. She put her left in front of the other and sprinted up the tree, marking her end point with a strike to the bark. Quickly, she back-flipped off the trunk and landed square on her feet on the ground. She took another breath and tried again. After every sprint up the tree, her airways became harder to breathe through. After one relatively high sprint, she landed on the ground on shaky feet, wheezing.
"Shikamaru…. I think I need… a quick break," she gasped between breaths. By now, Shikamaru was sitting on the high branch, lazily leaning against the trunk of the tree and staring up at the clouds. He looked down at her with an eyebrow raised and arms folded.
"No, I don't think so. You can do this Rox, just keep trying," he replied lazily, looking back up at the clouds.
Rox gave a strange cough as she gasped, "no… I really… need a break!" He looked back down at her, watched as she held the tree for support and her knees gave out. There was something wrong with the way she was breathing. She wheezed and gasped as she twisted to search in her fanny-pack for something. She cursed when she didn't find whatever it was and pounded the ground with a fist. She looked up at him, sitting in the high branch, and said, "I need…. to get back…. to my apartment! My… inhaler… is there!" She sounded as if she were choking on the words. Obviously, she did not have enough breath to even speak so he leapt off the top branch and landed beside her.
Kneeling next to her, he put a hand on her back. "Can you walk?" he asked, watching her cough and wheeze. She nodded and began to stand, accepting his offered hand. They began their walk back to the village as tears began to roll down her cheeks and she coughed and panted, all the while sounding a little more strangled. He realized that she was beginning to panic. "Rox, it'll be ok, you just have to calm down," he said, rubbing her back reassuringly. A small sob escaped her, and her next breath was more choked than before. "If you keep crying, it's gonna be harder for you to breathe, just calm down." Rox nodded, as if she had hard all this before, but she couldn't stop, and her breathing got worse.
Gaara stood in the Suna main arena, waiting for Cordi to arrive. She was currently five minutes late to the test, and Gaara wasn't really known for his patience. He continued to scowl at the main entrance for the young woman to arrive, just so when she did arrive, she would know that she was in deep trouble.
The echoing of footfalls was heard suddenly just outside the arena. "Excuse me. Sorry. Pardon me," was heard along with those footsteps. Cordi then skidded into the fighting area, dust clouds forming around her feet from the sand she had sprayed from her feet sliding across the arena floor.
Gaara, still scowling, growled, "You're late."
"Yeah, I know," Cordi sighed. She quickly took some long breaths, trying to calm her lungs down. "I'm sorry, I'd give you a reason, but I really don't have one."
Gaara's narrowed eyes bored into her, showing her how pissed off he0 was. "Ready yourself," he growled. Then his sand sprung into action.
By the time Shikamaru and Rox reached her apartment, she was incapable of supporting her own weight. Her arm was around his shoulder and she leaned against him. His arm around her waist was the only thing keeping her standing. She coughed out more air than she wheezed in, and her sobs had turned to suffocated gasps.
"Where is your inhaler?!" Shikamaru demanded earlier, setting her in a chair in her living room.
She barely got enough air in to breathe, "bathroom…" Shikamaru nodded, but only got into her bedroom when he heard a dull thud from the other room. He dashed back and saw that Rox had slid out of the chair and was currently writhing on the floor. Shikamaru recognized a seizure when he saw one, but he was unsure what to do. Suddenly, a twitching of her neck propelled her head into the chair leg then onto the floor. Her arms flailed and her shoulders shook. He knelt beside her convulsing body and waited for her to lie still.
Finally she did, and he scooped her up in his arms and sprinted out the door. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Shikamaru tried to wake her up as he headed toward the looming building that was the hospital. Her head lolled in his arms, completely unconscious. He touched down just outside the building and sprinted inside.
"Help!!" Shikamaru shouted as he ran into the stark white building. Immediately, medi-nin came sprinted down the hallway as he knelt down, laying Rox on the floor.
"What happened?!" demanded one of the medi-nin, sweeping her hands over Rox's body.
"I was training her chakra manipulation, and she had a breathing problem. It was like she was being strangled." Shikamaru explained, stepping back to let them do their work. "She just had a seizure."
"Her airway is constricted!" Another medi-nin exclaimed, putting his hand to her neck. The hand glowed green as the chakra began to flow. When the medi-nin took his hand, he asked for an oxygen mask, attached it to Rox's face and then he and the other medi-nin lifted her onto a gurney. As they were wheeling Rox away, pumping air into her lungs, one of the medi-nin detached herself from the group and jogged back to Shikamaru.
"We don't quite know what's wrong with her, but maybe her friends will. Please go find them," she said, and when he nodded once in reply, she sprinted after the retreating group of medi-nin. Shikamaru sighed, turned, and sprinted out in search of Rox's friends.
Cordi feinted to the left, narrowly dodging the avalanche of sand. She threw a fireball at the redhead, who quickly blocked it with his sand cloud. He had been standing in the same spot throughout their so far thirty-minute fight. She tried her becoming fire technique, but it didn't work so well against his sand. She knew it was almost impossible for her to win.
She feinted back to the right, spinning around, firing two more fireballs at him. He blocked them again. Then she rushed him, feinting each time he threw enough sand to break several bones at her. When she got close enough, she held her hand out for her flame-thrower move. She ran around him holding up her hand spraying fire at him. She didn't realize soon enough that she was about to run into a wall of sand, which collapsed on her. Then, as with many of his victims, he pulled the sand up holding her. She gave him a look of fear, because she knew what was happening.
"And you'd be dead if this wasn't a scrimmage bout," Gaara smirked. He let her go and started to walk out.
"Sir, this just came from Konoha. They sent it on their fastest eagle, so we figured it was important," the messenger ninja explained as he ran into the arena.
Gaara quickly looked at the message and asked, "Did you read it?"
"No, we rushed it to you as quickly as possible," the messenger said.
"Well, if you read it, you would have known you shouldn't have rushed it to me, but to Ms. Cordelia here," Gaara scolded. The messenger blushed a little and looked down. "You are lucky that she is standing right here and we didn't have to look all over Suna for her." He handed it to Cordi who unrolled the parchment and read it quickly.
"Oh my God," Cordi gasped. She quickly dropped the scroll and sprinted to the exit.
"Wait, Cordi, what happened," Gaara asked, running after her. Cordi kept running. "Cordelia, I can't permit you to leave unless you give me good enough reason," Gaara informed.
Cordi spun around, a slight glare in her eyes, as she snarled, "My sister just had an asthma attack which gave her a seizure and is now hospitalized with what they think is a coma. Is that good enough for you!?" Gaara was silent. "Yeah, that's what I thought!"
She started to sprint away again when she heard Gaara say behind her, "Give me five minutes."
She turned again. "Excuse me?"
"I'm going to escort you. Meet me at the front gate with Aleera in five minutes. I have to give Kankuro his duties," Gaara explained. Cordi gave him a confused and shocked look. "We are going to ride Aleera there, right?"
"Yeah, I'm just surprised that you'd go with me," Cordi stated, still holding the confused expression and adding a head shake.
"Don't be," he stated, before running ahead to the Kazekage building.
AN: You may have noticed that I've changed the setting from Teen to Mature. If you have, the reason is that the next couple chapters are going to get graphic. I'm warning you now, so don't be surprised! Also, please remember to review! Thanks!