Shikamaru felt a great sense of deja vu as he sat in class listening to Iruka list off the teams for all the new genin only this time the Ino he sat next to was not really Ino. Surprisingly, Sasuke had almost no reaction to Shikamaru's warning and subsequent punch. When the genjutsu wore out, Sasuke just got up calmly, repeated Shikamaru's own words back at him -don't do that again- and then left. The next day, he acted like nothing happened, and he continued to sit next to Shikamaru in class.
All the teams ended up the same as they had been originally. Shikamaru felt a twinge of sadness that he couldn't be a part of team ten, but he didn't think he could handle speaking with Asuma again anyways. As Shikamaru waited for his new sensei to show up, he decided to take a nap. No one would grow suspicious just because Sasuke decided to take one nap.
A small clatter woke Shikamaru up from his doze. He blinked sleepily at Kakashi standing in the doorway with an eraser on the ground. "My first impression is… I don't like you three. Meet me at the top of the school." He disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Shikamaru groaned. They could have just stayed in the classroom. No one else was there.
Shikamaru trudged up to the top with Naruto and Sakura bickering in front of him. At least, neither were bothering him this time. Sakura had mostly backed off since Sasuke decided to use dating each other as a cover for any strange behavior and their new camaraderie. Naruto just found Sakura more interesting for the moment.
"Ok. Let's start with introducing yourselves. Your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future," Kakashi said pleasantly when they got to the top of the school.
Shikamaru held back a laugh. It would be too easy to imitate Sasuke here. "I don't like anything. I dislike most things, and my dream is to kill a certain man."
Naruto shrank away from him, Sakura eyed him uncertainly, and Kakashi gave a fake smile behind his mask. "Great. Sakura, you next."
"Um, ok. I like-" Sakura looked at Shikamaru shyly, blushed, and then continued. "I like trivia, and I dislike idiot blondes. My dreams for the future are… um, to make chunin and specialize in research and development." Shikamaru raised his eyebrows. He never knew Sakura once had an interest in R & D.
"A reasonable endeavor. And last?" Kakashi gestured to Naruto who launched into a two minute rant about ramen and Hokages.
"Lovely," Kakashi said when Naruto either ended his introduction or paused for breath. "Now that you've gotten to know each other, I'm sad to say that it all might not matter. There's still one more test before you can officially be called genin."
"What?!" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed at the same time. Shikamaru settled for raising his brows in pretend surprise. Anything else was just not worth the effort. Shikamaru felt grateful that Sasuke wasn't overly expressive like his two teammates.
"We passed the genin test. That means we're genin!" Naruto continued adamantly.
"Not exactly," Kakashi said pleasantly. "Each jounin instructor gets to give his team a test to weed out the unworthy. Only about… say… 33% pass the tests."
"Hey! We're worthy!" Naruto protested.
"Good. The test will be easy for you then. It starts at seven at training ground seven. Don't eat breakfast or you'll throw up." Kakashi disappeared.
I'm sensing a theme of seven, Shikamaru thought derisively. "See you tomorrow," he said out loud and left.
The next morning, Shikamaru arrived after Naruto and Sakura but before Kakashi. "Hey, Sasuke! I know you're going to pass," Sakura said encouragingly.
"Hey, I'm going to pass too, Sakura!" Naruto interjected. Shikamaru decided he didn't want to be a part of that and slumped against a tree closing his eyes.
Sometime later, Kakashi made an entrance causing Sakura and Naruto to yell at him for being late. Shikamaru popped open his eyes and frowned at the jounin. He'd tried to needle the nature of the test out of Sasuke who told him that all he needed to do to pass the test was feed Naruto. Somehow, he was sure there was more to it.
"Good morning," Kakashi said in the midst of accusations of lateness. He pulled out a couple of bells. "Here's how the test works. You get a bell by noon, you pass. You don't get a bell, you don't pass. Come at me with everything you've got or you have no chance. Go!"
Shikamaru and Sakura sought cover while Naruto stood his ground in front of Kakashi. Shikamaru ignored their exchange in favor of figuring out what to do. Whether they worked together or not, they didn't have a chance of getting a bell from someone as skilled as Kakashi if they were all assumed to be genin level ninja. Shikamaru supposed Kakashi was just trying to gauge their skill level and see if they could put aside their differences long enough to get the bells. That meant he had to put some effort into this test.
Shikamaru rushed over to where Sakura hid. "Sasuke!" Sakura gasped a little too loudly. Oh, well. Someone as skilled as Kakashi already knew where they hid anyways.
"Let's attack while he's distracted. We'll have the best chance if we're all attacking him at once."
"Ok," Sakura complied.
He directed Sakura behind Kakashi and started an aerial attack of his own. Confronted with three genin striking from three different directions, Kakashi expertly demonstrated a replacement jutsu.
"You'll have to be better than that," Kakashi said casually leaning against a tree reading his orange book.
"Naruto, take the south side. Sakura, take west. I'll take east." Luckily, Naruto didn't argue. The three spread out and charged at Kakashi again. Shikamaru tossed two kunai behind Kakashi. As Kakashi threw back Sakura and Naruto with one arm each, Shikamaru pulled on the chakra strings he'd attached to the kunai drawing them towards Kakashi. With widened eyes, Kakashi jumped over the kunai as they darted passed. Shikamaru kicked out at Kakashi as he landed. Kakashi caught his foot, and Shikamaru tugged on the chakra strings again. As the kunai flew towards his arm, Kakashi released the foot and dashed backwards.
Thanks, Temari, for that trick, Shikamaru thought. With Kakashi now in Naruto's general area, Naruto produced a barrage of shadow clones and surrounded Kakashi. Distantly, Shikamaru heard Sakura scream. He hesitated. Should he help Naruto or check on Sakura?
"Naruto, send a clone to find Sakura," Shikamaru ordered as he rushed into the fight.
"On my way!" one of the clones yelled.
Kakashi decimated Naruto's clones easily even with Shikamaru to distract him. The most annoying part was that Shikamaru had numerous chances to complete a shadow possession if he were allowed to.
"Alright. That's enough," Kakashi declared disappearing and reappearing away from them. Sakura stumbled into view. "You three pass."
"Huh, but what about the bells?" Naruto asked.
"Not necessary. The bells were a temptation to pit yourselves against each other, but you stuck together as a team even making sure to look for Sakura when she got separated. So congratulations. You're officially team seven. We have our first real training session at the same time, in the same place, tomorrow. Later."
"Well," Sakura said after Kakashi disappeared and Naruto celebrated. "Should we go out to dinner to celebrate?"
"Can't. Sorry. I have plans," Shikamaru said truthfully. He and the other body swappers met every night they could at his apartment.
"You and I could go to dinner, Sakura! We don't need that bastard!" Naruto called loud enough for Shikamaru to hear as he headed home. What he really wanted to do was go to bed, but that was not to be the case. The other three showed up shortly with books and scrolls to go through.
"Sasuke," Ino addressed the Uchiha to the great surprise of the other three people in the room. Ever since the fight, Ino and Sasuke had spent a tremendous amount of effort into pretending the other didn't exist. Sasuke deigned to raise a brow at Ino in response. "Read over section three of the fourth scroll."
"The one with the squirrels? I already read that." Sasuke asked already going back to the sealing book he had in his hands. Ino's hands twitched, but she remained calm.
"Read it again. Carefully. My dad started teaching me the mind transfer jutsu after I became genin which means he'll start teaching you soon, and I need to show you something first," Ino explained. Sasuke ignored her.
"Sasuke, read the damn scroll," Shikamaru said thrusting the scroll at Sasuke. He didn't have the patience to put up with this right now. "If Ino has something to teach you about the mind transfer jutsu, you should listen. It's one of the most dangerous jutsus to perform incorrectly."
Sasuke reluctantly took the scroll. "Fine." Across from him, Ino mouthed a quick thanks to Shikamaru. A few minutes later, Sasuke set the scroll down. "Why did I have to read that?" he asked sounding miffed.
Shikamaru thought he knew why Ino had him read that. The section covered an experiment Akio Yamanaka carried out involving squirrels. In his experiment, Akio attempted to permanently transfer the mind of a live squirrel into the body of a recently deceased squirrel. Each attempt resulted in the return of the live squirrel's mind into it's own body. By the end of the third transfer, the squirrel no longer had the ability to walk properly and couldn't be tempted into eating anything. Those were the kinds of dangers involved in improper use of Yamanaka clan jutsus.
"Do you know why the squirrel ended up disabled?"
"Because Akio kept its mind in the body of the dead squirrel too long," Sasuke answered easily.
"Yes, but do you know why that harmed the squirrel? Specifically?" Sasuke didn't respond, so Ino continued. "You don't because you don't really know how that jutsu works. All you know is that the squirrel's mind ended up in the body of the other squirrel, but you don't know how. That's the sort of thing you're supposed to learn years before actually attempting the jutsu to scare you off of trying to skip steps in learning the jutsu. If you're reckless in the learning stages, you could end up like that squirrel."
"I get it," Sasuke said looking on the verge of rolling his eyes.
"I don't think you do. This isn't like jutsus you're used to where you'll probably get a curable physical injury. People that mess with the mind transfer jutsu end up losing a part of themselves and, if it's really bad, mentally incompetent," Ino stressed trying to get Sasuke to take her seriously. He shifted the sealing book to the side.
"Ok. What do you think I should know?"
Ino relaxed, relieved that Sasuke had started to listen. "Ok. Let me establish some terms. The user is the person performing the mind transfer jutsu. The target is the... well... the person the user targets obviously. First thing you need to know is what actually happens when the user's mind takes over the body of the target. A mind transfer sends a part of the user's mind to the brain of the target along with some of the user's chakra. The chakra connects the user's mind to the brain and allows the user to take control of the target. As the chakra fights to keep control away from the target, it slowly starts to dissipate. When you allow the chakra to completely disappear, that's when you lose a part of yourself. Without chakra, the part of the user's mind in the target will start to die away. Now, the user will come to in her own body once the control she had elsewhere is lost, but she will have lost a part of herself. She will have lost the part of her mind she sent to the target.
"At first, the differences in the user won't be that prominent. Maybe she forgets a few things or maybe she has different emotional responses to situations than she used to, but she'll still mostly be her. One mistake isn't too dramatic, but it only takes two to damage the user's mind beyond repair. On the second mistake, she forgets some obvious things. Maybe she forgets she has a brother or maybe she forgets how to walk. She'll forget important things. Things that disrupt her life. At the same time, her emotional responses to everything dampens. She no longer cares as much when her friends get injured. She no longer feels joy when she sees her parents for the first time in months. She still recognizes that she should feel these things, but she doesn't. And it gets worse. No one has lasted more than five such mistakes without becoming completely brain dead.
"So don't think that you can press your limits when you're learning the jutsu. If my dad says it's been long enough, then it has. End the jutsu as soon as he says so. If you're not sure you've used the jutsu for too long, you have used the jutsu for too long. And don't you dare try to figure out how to do a permanent transfer on your own. It won't end well for you. I think I outlined the reasons why pretty well." As Ino ended her speech, Shikamaru let out a breath. He knew most of that, on some level, but he never had all the dangers outlined so clearly before. Besides him, he saw Neji staring at Ino with uneasiness. Neji probably never heard anything about the dangers of the mind transfer jutsu before. It was the stuff of nightmares.
"I won't press my limits," Sasuke promised. He looked unbothered by Ino's words, but he gave her his full attention the full time she spoke, so Shikamaru figured Sasuke knew to take this seriously.
"Good. If you ever feel like changing your mind, remember my great-great uncle's squirrel. That could be you." For the rest of the day, the four continued their research in a state of agitation.
A little more than a week later, Ino slapped a small, unrolled scroll on the table while the three boys read their respective research material. "Take a look at that," she crowed triumphantly. The three looked up at their research. Sasuke immediately scoffed and went back to his book.
"It's a storage seal," Neji said slowly waiting for the reason he was being shown a plain storage seal to be given to him.
Shikamaru looked a little more closely at the seal and smiled. He recognized the handwriting. "You made your own storage seal."
"I did," Ino said proudly. Sasuke flicked his gaze back upwards, his interest piqued by this new revelation.
"When did you learn that?"
"Oh, I've been taking lessons from Tenten for a while now, but I recently made my first successful seal on our last mission. Did you know Tenten makes her own seals? Just storage and projection seals but still impressive." Ino spoke in a rush clearly excited by her success. Neji nodded absently. Of course, he knew his teammate delved into the art of sealing.
Shikamaru grabbed the seal and started examining it. He'd never tried making his own seals, but he knew the theory behind it by now. There was the chakra receptacle, and that was the chakra release. Around the edges were the equations needed to carry out the storage and retrieval of various objects. Closer to the middle, the words displayed the intentions of the seal.
"Hold on," Shikamaru said as he frowned at one of the equations. He took out his pen and wrote an equation in his own notes. "Here," he said passing the notes to Ino.
Ino looked down at the equation in befuddlement. "What? I did all the equations correctly. Tenten checked over them, and I already tested the seal. It works."
"I'm sure it works, but it can work better. You wrote this seal in the Senju style," Shikamaru said pointing to the awkwardly placed symbols in the middle of the seal. "According to the books, Senju seals are weaker because they require more concentration. Uzumaki style seals always have a focal point to make concentration easier. You wrote the seal in the style of the Senju, but you did the calculations like you wrote it Uzumaki style. You weren't imagining a bit of a lag when you retrieved items from this seal. The lag was really there."
"I- but-" Ino stuttered and then recovered. "Tenten said my calculations were perfect."
"She was wrong. She's probably made partially faulty seals her whole life."
"I don't know." Ino looked at Neji for help.
"Tenten changed the way she made her seals a couple years from now. I don't know what the change was, but her seals worked better afterwards," Neji told Ino.
"Well," Ino said with a hollow voice. She snatched her seal up from the table. "This is why I hate you sometimes, Shikamaru. I figure out how to do something before you do, but you still show me up and prove that you know more about it than I do."
Shikamaru's lips twitched with amusement. "I just know the theory behind it well. You're still the only one that knows how to put the theory into practice. Which means you'll have to teach us."
Ino perked up at that. "Well, it will be a drag, but I guess someone has to do it." She heaved a dramatic sigh and then winked at Shikamaru. He laughed. Surprisingly, so did Neji.
Sasuke just shook his head before shutting his book. "How long will it take to learn more complex sealing?"
That dampened the mood. Every book they read cautioned against learning complex sealing without the assistance of a sealing master, and they only knew of one sealing master currently in Konoha. Shikamaru doubted the Hokage, as busy as he was, wanted to spend time teaching a genin to seal.
"The Science of Sealing says that it takes one year to master the basics and two years to start the deconstruction of advanced seals. The book says that once you can comprehend every part of an advanced seal you come across, you can start creating your own. So I guess it will take two to three years…" Ino trailed off at the end as she gazed morosely at the table. Each of the four started to feel discouraged as they considered the apparent probability that by the time they could reverse the time travel, they'd already be that far into the future. That is, if sealing would even allow such a thing. And if it took sealing to get their bodies back, they'd be stuck in the wrong body far longer than they wanted.
"One year to master the basics and two years to start deconstruction under the guidance of a seal master, something we don't have," Neji pointed out bleakly.
Shikamaru clenched his fist. He knew that they could just tell the Hokage and ask for his help, but that would take away every freedom he had. If the Hokage knew he had four ninja in his village that knew the future, he would take every advantage of that. The Hokage wouldn't even want to send them back to their time, not when he could press them for information whenever he needed. Shikamaru liked the Hokage. He cared for the members of his village, ninja and civilians alike, but he was shrewd and prepared to do something a little morally gray if it meant keeping those people safe.
"I'm not staying like this for three years," Sasuke said firmly. "I can handle living through the past again. It doesn't particularly matter what year it is, but I'm not staying as Ino."
"You might not have a choice," Shikamaru said. He could feel that sinking despair in his stomach. He'd felt it since he first woke up in the past as Sasuke, but he managed to ignore it until now. He had no idea how long this would end up lasting. It could be indefinite. He barely even had a glimmer of hope for returning to the right time. Almost certainly, it would take to long to figure out to even matter.
Sasuke stood up and gathered the Yamanaka scrolls that he insisted on keeping hold of. "I'm done for the night," he announced before running off. Shikamaru stared at the door as it slammed shut. He felt the same.
"You two should go," Shikamaru said to Ino and Neji as he stood up. They nodded with blank expressions on their faces. Shikamaru didn't wait for them to leave before heading to his bed. Correction, Sasuke's bed.