Ino and Neji committed fully to researching sealing, making Shikamaru fell as if his time would be better spent delving into a new area of research. The problem was that he didn't know where else to start. It crossed his mind to go off what Ino suggested about the Mangekyou sharingan, but information on the Uchiha's kekkei genkai proved to be scarce. He really needed Sasuke's help on that front, but the Uchiha remained uncooperative. Sasuke maintained that the other three had something to do with his predicament and, as such, refused to associate with them more than he had to. What he was doing on his own to find a solution, Shikamaru didn't know. He could only hope it didn't involve putting the four of them through hours of interrogation in T & I.

Shikamaru stuck with studying sealing for the time being. There was a whole wealth of knowledge to be discovered in terms of sealing and it'd be remiss of him to neglect that information without a suitable alternative. "You guys finding anything interesting?" Shikamaru asked Neji and Ino.

"Interesting? Definitely. Relevant? Probably not." Ino flipped another page in the book she was reading with gusto. In private, Ino seamlessly reverted back to her usual self, but she had the uncanny ability to perfectly mimic Neji in every way -stature, vocabulary, inflection, attitude, etc.- as soon as she entered the public eye. That demonstrated Ino's greatest skills. She could read any person, log the minute details of their behavior, and mimic them so well their own mother wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Ino and the original.

"My findings are similarly irrelevant," Neji said frowning slightly at his book. "Trapping the soul of a tailed beast is sort of like transferring minds. Maybe we should study demon seals and figure out how they work."

"Yeah. Sure. All we need to do is drag Naruto in here, get him to show the seal he doesn't know he has, and then make sure he doesn't tell anyone," Shikamaru said scornfully.

"Don't be so testy, Shikamaru," Ino scolded. "We're just as lost and frustrated as you are, and Neji was just giving a suggestion. One that needs some refinement, but it's a good start."

Shikamaru nodded feeling a bit ashamed. He was letting his frustration get the best of him. "Sorry, Neji," he apologized sincerely.

"Apology accepted," Neji said with a shrug suited for the body he wore. He didn't seem to have taken any offense to Shikamaru's derisive words.

"Have my parents suspected anything?" Shikamaru asked.

"They noticed that you're away from home more often. That's it." Shikamaru wondered if he should be offended that his parents hadn't noticed someone else occupied his body. It worked in his benefit so he'd forgive it.

Ino raised her arms over her head and stretched. "We should train again. We've been researching all day, and I need to get better with the byakugan." Ino turned her gaze to Shikamaru. "And you need to work more with your chakra."

"It's such a drag," Shikamaru whined resting his head on his folded arms. Even Neji managed Shikamaru's chakra with relative ease. Only Shikamaru struggled to control his new chakra system enough for basic jutsus. Ino told him that it was due to the vast difference between his and Sasuke's chakra and claimed she would've had just as much trouble with Neji's if she hadn't had so much practice with other chakras. Despite her platitudes, Shikamaru found it annoying.

"Don't worry. I'll help you master it," Ino said patting his head sympathetically. Shikamaru jerked his head away and Ino laughed heartily.

Shikamaru caught Neji's eye and gestured at his counterpart. "Does that not bother you?"

Neji slowly looked at Ino and then back. "What?"

"Never mind." Shikamaru groaned putting his head back onto his arms. Apparently he was the only one bothered by the abomination of a cheery Neji.

Unsurprisingly, Ino made a much better teacher than Sasuke. "Sasuke has an affinity for lightning which is pretty much the opposite to your earth affinity," Ino started after she trained with Neji. "Lightning nature chakra moves sharply and can't be pushed as easily as earth chakra can. You move earth chakra where you want it. You direct lightning where you want it."

"How do I direct it rather than move it?"

"I'm getting there," Ino huffed. "Chakra likes to keep a constant ratio throughout your body providing the largest concentration to what is essentially your central nervous system. When you build up chakra, it naturally flows to restore the proper ratio. Don't look at me like that, Shikamaru! I know you already know this, but this is where I have to start!" Ino only had two flaws as a teacher. She tended to dumb down her explanations to much in an effort to be thorough, and she snapped at Shikamaru if he ever showed displeasure with said dumbing down.

"Ok. Carry on." Shikamaru relented because it was easier than telling her to get to the point thus angering her.

"Right. As I was saying-" Here Ino paused to glare at Shikamaru as if it were his fault that she chose to interrupt herself over a disgruntled facial expression. "If you mess up the ratio, chakra flows to the lacking areas to make up for it. When you want to send chakra to a specific part of your body, like your feet for tree walking, you're temporarily messing up that ratio. With earth chakra, it's simple. You just put in the extra effort to push your chakra against its natural flow to where you want it. With lightning, you kind of have to entice it to do what you want."

Now that sounded like a drag. His own chakra was going to force him to give it incentives? Pass. He wanted his earth chakra back. "How?" Shikamaru wished he kept his mouth shut when Ino narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm getting there," she hissed. "It's quite simple really, you just-"

"Trick my chakra into thinking I need more chakra towards my feet," Shikamaru said in revelation. He'd already been doing that while tree walking without thinking about it in terms of lightning versus earth. When he had his own body, Shikamaru pushed all the chakra he need down to his feet all at once. As Sasuke he had to hold a little bit of chakra under his foot and keep waiting til more was drawn downwards. It was a little slower but not much. Sasuke's chakra travelled quickly.

"That still doesn't explain why I'm having trouble doing basic jutsu."

"That's because you're not accounting for the increased speed of lightning chakra."

"So as I'm expelling chakra, more chakra is racing over to replace the expelled chakra and ends up getting expelled too. I suppose I can fix that by learning to complete the jutsu sooner, or learning the right amount to start with so I end up expelling the amount I want."

"Well… yes," Ino said looking put out. "Damn it, Shika. This is why I don't like teaching you. You always figure it out before I'm done explaining." Shikamaru shrugged unapologetically. "Whatever. I'll watch you with the byakugan and help you get to the target amount of chakra. And maybe Neji-" Ino trailed off as she looked at Neji sleeping peacefully under a tree. "Well, never mind that," she finished.

"Isn't he taking on my role a little too seriously?" Shikamaru asked staring jealously at his sleeping form. If he had to go back in time, it could at least be as himself.

"Oh, hush. Neji never got to relax as himself. He has too much expectation and pressure put on him," Ino said softly gazing at Neji with a sort of sad fondness. Suddenly, she twisted her face into a scowl. "Not to mention dealing with the green clad fashion disasters known as Gai and Lee. I wish my new persona involved lazing around all day instead of putting up with those two."

"Yet you always got on my case for 'lazing around' as you put it," Shikamaru said drily. Ino rounded on him pointing a finger at his face.

"That's because you do it all the time even when you have other things you should be doing." Shikamaru just smirked at her, and Ino rolled her eyes. Somehow it was getting less unsettling to see Neji act like Ino. "Whatever. Let's get started on your chakra."

It took a few days, but Shikamaru figured out how to manage Sasuke's chakra enough to consistently perform jutsu. As for Sasuke himself, it took a few more days after Shikamaru's success for him to approach Shikamaru without warning and, once again, in the middle of the classroom. Sasuke just slunk down in the seat next to Shikamaru with a muttered, "We need to talk."

Resting his clasped hands in front of his face, Shikamaru whispered back, "Do you still suspect us?"

Before Sasuke could answer, Sakura interrupted by darting over to stand in front of Ino. "Ino, you can't just sit next to Sasuke!" she shrieked angrily. Oh, jeez. Shikamaru thought glancing over to the door in the hopes that summoned Iruka to the room.

"Actually," Sasuke started as he threw an arm around Shikamaru's shoulder with a smug smile that did indeed seem natural on Ino's face. "We're dating now, so I can."

"What?" Sakura shouted as Shikamaru froze completely. What? This wasn't happening. Sakura turned slowly to Shikamaru with trepidation and sadness in her eyes. "Sasuke… Is that true?"

Shikamaru stayed frozen and didn't answer afraid he might start laughing from hysteria if he tried. Sakura turned her eyes downwards. "I see."

Sasuke watched Sakura trudge off with a satisfied smirk. "If only I could have done that years ago." He removed his arm from Shikamaru's shoulder. "We'll talk after class," he added as Iruka entered the room.

Shikamaru could only nod stiffly. What if he'd just gone insane? So insane he imagined he switched bodies with a younger Sasuke, and in his insane imagination, Sasuke pretended to have a crush on himself to get Sakura to go away. Surely, this couldn't be a part of reality.

Shikamaru and Sasuke went to Sasuke's apartment -now Shikamaru's apartment- after class. As soon as they were alone, Sasuke took out a few scrolls and tossed them to Shikamaru. "What's this?" Shikamaru asked opening one of the scrolls.

"Some incomplete research from some dead guy about permanently transferring a mind into an inanimate object. He ran into a dead end in his calculations, but I figured you might be able to get something out of it."

Shikamaru skimmed through the scroll quickly. Very interesting, indeed. Most of it seemed to contain speculation on whether a mind could sustain consciousness without a brain to latch itself onto, but a good portion explored the possibility of making a transfer permanent. "Thanks. This is amazing," Shikamaru said already looking forward to going through the scroll in greater detail. For once, he didn't feel anything negative towards Sasuke.

As he tore his gaze from his scroll to look at Sasuke, a niggling suspicion entered his mind. "You stole these from the top level of the Yamanaka clan archives, didn't you?"

"They should have had better security," Sasuke said as answer.

Shikamaru levelled his gaze at Sasuke. "And if you get caught?"

"If I did, I'd get off easy. Ino's the clan head's daughter," he said as if Shikamaru didn't already know that. "Besides, I'm returning them as soon as we copy them down, so we should start right away. Maybe they won't ever notice the scrolls were missing. If I had my sharingan, I would've just memorized the scrolls without needing to steal them."

Shikamaru knew better than to suggest Sasuke teach him how to use the sharingan. Sasuke would try to take his head off if he asked. "Why'd you bring these scrolls to me? Didn't you decide I was one of the ones responsible for this?" It made more sense to Shikamaru that these Yamanaka scrolls would increase Sasuke's suspicion of him rather than dissipate that suspicion. Ino was a Yamanaka after all.

"It seemed too stupid even for leaf ninja to do all this to get a missing nin back. And Naruto would have to have something to do with it," Sasuke said firmly as if he'd been reiterating those points to himself in his mind.

"But this is a Yamanaka scroll," Shikamaru said tapping the scroll he held. "They are still leaf ninja."

"I know, but this technique still requires close proximity, and it has nothing to do with time travel. I don't think it brought us here. I just hope it can get my body back."

"You should have brought these to Ino. This is her specialty after all." Sasuke frowned, pulled out a blank scroll and pen from his pocket, and snatched one of the scrolls in Shikamaru's hands.

"I'll get started on this one."

Shikamaru sighed and pulled out a blank scroll and pen of his own. Apparently, he was copying scrolls with Sasuke for the rest of the day. He couldn't imagine a more tedious activity with a more frustrating person for company.

Shikamaru managed to convince Sasuke to show the scrolls to Ino and Neji. Ino glanced over the first scroll with a sardonic smile. "This is definitely the work of my great-great uncle, Akio. Dad says he became obsessed with Suna puppets and dedicated his life to trying to become one. He became a bit of an outcast in the clan."

"If he dedicated his life to it, there must be more than these five scrolls," Shikamaru concluded.

Ino shrugged. "Dad said he destroyed a lot of his work near the end of his life. He was a bit insane by then."

"Pity," Neji said as he perused on of the scrolls. "I bet there was a lot of valuable information in his research."
"Maybe. Granddad said he saw Akio's research from his later years, and it was just a bunch of nonsense. He died fairly young too, so he only could have written quality papers for a short period of time."

Sasuke, who had stayed silent since agreeing to show the scrolls to the other two, leaned forward towards Ino. "Is there anywhere else in the Yamanaka compound that carries secret scrolls?"

Ino grimaced. "I really don't like you poking around the Yamanaka classifieds." She shook her head morosely. "I guess it can't be helped, but no. All our important scrolls are in the archives."

Sasuke nodded once. "I'll look in the top level again."

"Sure. And maybe you can tell us a bit about the Mangekyou," Ino said sweetly.

"That's a clan secret," Sasuke answered flatly.

"So are these," Ino said whacking one of the scrolls on the table. Shikamaru watched in dismay as the scroll tumbled to the floor.

"Those scrolls can help us," Sasuke argued.

"And how do I know that there's not something about the Mangekyou that can help us?"

"Tch," was all Sasuke had to say to that. Ino stood up slamming her hands on her desk.

"Listen here, you inconsiderate punk, whether you like it or not, we're all in the same situation, and we need to work together. If I had a choice, I'd have nothing to do with you either, but I'm mature enough to do what's necessary to fix things, and I certainly don't want to give out my clan secrets."

Sasuke stood up slowly and leaned closer to Ino. In a low, threatening voice, he said, "My clan secrets have nothing to do with this unlike your clan secrets. Back off now."

Neji, who hadn't pulled his focus away from the scroll he held when Ino and Sasuke first started arguing, narrowed his eyes at Sasuke as he told Ino to back off. For her part, Ino smirked at Sasuke in response to his words. "You know, you should really get more familiar with my fighting style if you're going to pretend to be me."

"I think I can handle sloppy academy style taijutsu," Sasuke drawled. Ino's smirk slid off her face immediately.

"I'll show you 'sloppy academy style taijutsu'. Training ground fifteen. Let's go."
Sasuke snorted. "If you want to embarrass yourself."

Ino narrowed her eyes. "Let's go," she repeated and pushed herself away from the table.

"Ino, I don't think you shoul-" Shikamaru cut off as Ino turned to him with a vicious visage. "Um, never mind."

"Good," she bit out. "Coming, Sasuke?" Instead of answering, Sasuke glided past her to leave, and Ino followed right behind him. Neji and Shikamaru exchanged brief looks before rushing after them.

"Should we put a stop to this?" Neji murmured as they drew closer to the training ground.

Shikamaru shook his head. "Ino would kill us. It's best to let her have her therapy." Shikamaru knew why Ino wanted to fight Sasuke so badly besides her current anger as his attitude. She was still embarrassed that she used to have an infatuation with the traitor and wanted to show both Sasuke and herself that that was no longer who she was. "If it gets too serious, we'll interfere."

"Ok," Neji conceded uncertainly.

At the training grounds, Ino and Sasuke stood at the center facing each other. "Rules?" Sasuke asked boredly.

"Usual spar rules." Sasuke nodded in agreement.

"Ok. Let's start when this kunai hits the ground." Sasuke threw a kunai up into the air. Four pairs of eyes followed the kunai as it reached its peak height and arced downwards. Once the top of the kunai touched the ground, Ino darted forward slashing towards Sasuke's right arm. Dropping down to avoid the hit, Sasuke swept his leg out towards Ino. She jumped away pulling out three kunai to fling at Sasuke who countered them with a kunai of his own. Sasuke shot back some kunai to which Ino blocked with a hastily made wall of earth. As the kunai flew, Sasuke quickly replaced himself with one of the kunai, leapt over the wall, and landed a blow on Ino's face. She swiped back at Sasuke, but he dodged kicking out at her stomach. Ino just barely avoided the kick. Sasuke continued his assault feigning a punch to the face, but switching to punching Ino's stomach at the last second.

Forcing some distance between herself and Sasuke, Ino turned on the byakugan. Sasuke widened his eyes at that. "The Hyuuga teach you that?"

"Working together," Ino explained shortly.

As she spoke the last word, she rushed at Sasuke. The two exchanged a flurry of hits and parries, neither landing anything solid until a hit in the side sent Ino flying backwards. In the air, she formed the seal for a jutsu and small drops of fire shot towards Sasuke. He dodged to the left, away from Ino. Ino replaced herself with the kunai that started the match putting herself just behind Sasuke. This time, her strike landed on Sasuke's shoulder. He gasped either in surprise or pain and then rolled away. Ino followed after him going for his other arm. Once again, she hit her mark but it was obvious that Sasuke let her. Realizing this, Ino tried to pull back, but it was too late. Lightning surrounded Sasuke and zapped Ino. She jolted before her muscles stiffened, and she collapsed to the ground. Sasuke dropped his defense breathing heavily.

"What did you do to her?" Neji asked dangerously as he walked to Ino's side. Shikamaru followed him keeping an eye on Sasuke and readying a shadow possession jutsu just in case.

"It's chidori current. It just shocked her. She'll be fine in a couple minutes," Sasuke said looking warily at Shikamaru for some reason.

"She better be," Shikamaru warned.

"It's true. She'll be fine," Neji said with relief as he checked over his own body with green hands.

Shikamaru relaxed. He moved towards Sasuke. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said with confusion.

"Good." Shikamaru lashed out with a shadow paralysis jutsu. He caught Sasuke off guard and walked towards him so that his lips were by Sasuke's ear. "Don't do that again." Shikamaru punctuated his point by slamming his fist into the side of Sasuke's head and then sending him to sleep with a genjutsu. As Ino's body collapsed to the ground, Shikamaru turned back to Neji and Ino.

Neji had a small smile on his face as he met Shikamaru's eyes. "Well done."

Shikamaru nodded but silently disagreed. In reality, he'd overreacted. Ino instigated the fight, and Sasuke ended it in a reasonably harmless matter. For a ninja spar, ending with one of the participants momentarily unconscious was perfectly acceptable. Only Shikamaru's fear at seeing his teammate brought down by an unknown jutsu at the hands of an enemy drove his angry response. His fear caused anger, and his anger stayed even as Neji confirmed that Sasuke hadn't harmed Ino. It was Shikamaru's distrust of Sasuke that led him to overreact so completely. In retrospect, he should have done something to put a stop to the spar. You just didn't have a spar with someone you couldn't trust to follow the rules of inter-village sparring. But maybe it had felt just a little good to punch Sasuke.