True to his predictions, Shikamaru's message delivery was completely uneventful. In fact, it was even more uneventful than his original prediction. Shikamaru had figured a low level mercenary might attack them once or twice, but not even that simple of a challenge came up. Instead, the whole mission consisted of minimal training exercises, complaints from both Naruto and Sakura, and Naruto's constant attempts to drag Shikamaru into pointless competitions. To put it succinctly, the mission was boring, even to Shikamaru. Unlike the rest of his team, though, Shikamaru was thankful for the uneventful nature of the mission. It allowed him the opportunity to plot and work on his sealing.

As both Ino and Sasuke had brought Shikamaru's attention to his sloppy sealing work, Shikamaru figured he should work on improving his skill. The problem was that he had no idea what he was doing wrong. When Ino had spotted his seal, she commented on how weak the chakra felt- something Shikamaru had noticed on his own prior to that. Unfortunately, he still didn't know the cause. From everything he knew about seals, his seals should work perfectly. Even if he had any doubts in his calculations- which of course, he didn't- then trying to increase his chakra input would give him some results. In reality, Shikamaru's experiments with chakra input only resulted in either similar seals or completely useless ones.

During the night watches, Shikamaru took the time to look over his seals making no progress at all. On one such night- only a couple days away from Konoha- Shikamaru sat at the base of a tree rigged with traps building a projection seal. As he drew the path for the chakra to follow, he noticed Sakura getting up from her bedroll and making her way over to him. Shikamaru frowned. The next watch wasn't for another hour.

"Do you mind if I take watch with you for a little?" Sakura asked timidly. Shikamaru nodded slightly keeping his attention on his seal. Whatever Sakura wanted, he was sure she'd bring it up soon herself. Sure enough, Sakura spoke up only a few seconds later. "How is Ino doing?"

Shikamaru raised his brows slightly, still not turning his attention from his seal. To be fair, it wasn't too surprising for Sakura to ask about Ino's well being. Despite the rivalry the two had during these years, Shikamaru knew the two still cared about each other. Ino's dithering over their friendship after the chunin exams had led to Shikamaru and Choji hearing way too much about the history between the two.

"She's well," Shikamaru said curtly.

"I see," Sakura murmured. She hesitated for a brief moment before she spoke again. "She just seems a bit… different."

Years of infiltration missions kept Shikamaru from tensing up at Sakura's concern. It was too much to hope that people wouldn't notice Ino acting differently, but he hadn't expected Sakura to confide in who she thought was Sasuke. "Does she?" Shikamaru asked indifferently.

"May- maybe not," Sakura muttered looking down at the ground. She seemed to be deep in thought. In a beat, she got a determined look on her face and turned a steady gaze to Shikamaru. "No. Definitely. She's not as sociable as she used to be, and she always seems like she has something better to do."

Sakura's expression turned a bit pained at her last sentence hinting to something personal happening with Ino. Shikamaru focused on drawing out the retrieval symbol as he formed a reply for Sakura. "Ino's a ninja now," Shikamaru started bluntly. "She likely does have something better to do."

Another brief silence passed before Shikamaru heard Sakura suck in a breath. "I see," she said in a small voice. "Well, I'm a ninja too," Sakura continued much more firmly.

Shikamaru bent closer to his work smirking slightly to himself. He'd always attributed the two girls' rivalry to some incomprehensible female behavior, but he couldn't deny the motivation it provided both even after the two had reconciled. "Yes, you are," Shikamaru agreed. He hadn't intended it as a compliment- only a statement of fact- but Sakura's blush told him she took it as such.

After a short moment, Sakura stood up brushing off dirt from her dress. Before Shikamaru could get too relieved about his return to solitude, Sakura knelt back down peering at Shikamaru's seal work. "What are you working on?"

"It's a projection seal," Shikamaru muttered with a frown. He really wanted to concentrate on finally figuring out what he was doing wrong. If only it were Kakashi that had decided to question what he was doing. The jonin could probably spot the problem right away with his expertise in sealing.

Sakura leaned closer to the seal and reached out with a finger to tap the symbol for input. "That's where you transfer your chakra." Shikamaru grunted in agreement. Sakura traced out the lines leading to the symbol for storage and then for summoning and projection. "So this line works as a circuit?" Sakura guessed as she traced the line back to the beginning.

Shikamaru glanced at Sakura in surprise. That was a rather close guess for someone who'd presumably never learned about seals before. "Not exactly. With a circuit, you want to end up back where you started. With this kind of seal, chakra is transferred to the storage seal for as long as needed and then released through the two symbols that combine to propel the storage outwards." Shikamaru pointed along as he explained. When he finished speaking, he looked back to Sakura who stared back at him with wide eyes. Too late, Shikamaru abruptly remembered that he was wearing Sasuke's body, and Sasuke likely didn't spend a lot of time explaining concepts to his peers.

Sakura recovered once Shikamaru caught her gaze and looked back to the seal. "Is it finished then?" Shikamaru made a grunt of affirmation. "Why are you still working on it?"

Shikamaru debated his options. Sakura's ability to quickly grasp the fundamentals of the seal made Shikamaru want to explain further. If her claims about her interest in R&D were true, she'd probably study basic sealing in the future. As a chunin, Shikamaru had a responsibility to push genin towards their interest- especially when the genin had as much potential as Sakura. Shikamaru remembered quite clearly from Ino's bitter rantings that Sakura always got top scores on test. She certainly had the brains for R&D.

Still, Shikamaru was acting as Sasuke, and Sasuke certainly never had any motivation for helping Sakura to improve. On the other hand, it wouldn't be unexpected for a young Sasuke to bond with his teammates from an outside perspective. In fact, sasuke had started to bond with Naruto before he defected from the village. Shikamaru made up his mind. He was never going to perfectly act as Sasuke, not when he had a mystery to solve and didn't know enough about Sasuke in the first place.

"I'm trying to figure something out," Shikamaru finally answered. If Sakura pressed further, he'd explain. Otherwise, he'd leave his answer vague.

Sakura did indeed press, apparently having grown bold after Shikamaru's willing participation in the previous conversation. "What are you trying to figure out?"

Shikamaru gave a brief explanation of sealing and the problem he currently had. Sakura listened raptly through the explanation. "There's something I don't get," Sakura said slowly when Shikamaru finished speaking. "If it's not a circuit why does it connect back to the chakra input?"

Right. Shikamaru should have explained that. "It's to create a shortcut from the input to the summoning. I don't want a seal where I have to run the chakra through the storage in order to retrieve."

"Oh. Ok." Sakura was furrowing her brow. Shikamaru decided it was time to end the conversation before Sakura dragged him into another teaching moment. Besides, it was about time for her to take watch, and sleep sounded amazing. He hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep ever since the whole time travel body swap debacle started.

Shikamaru stoop up just as Sakura opened her mouth. "It's my turn to sleep. Goodnight, Sakura."

"Oh, right," she said sounding disappointed. "Thank you, Sasuke, for talking to me seriously."

Shikamaru kept himself from sighing at Sakura's heartfelt expression and slight blush. She might have successfully held a normal conversation with him, but it was clear Sakura's crush on Sasuke was as strong as ever. With a curt nod of acknowledgment, Shikamaru turned around and headed towards his bedroll. As he started to drift off to sleep, something about his conversation with Sakura niggled at the back of his mind. The thought continued to tickle at Shikamaru's mind until it made its way to the forefront and burst into a full blown idea. His eyes popped open immediately, dragging him from a half formed dream about cloud watching with Temari. In resignation, Shikamaru reached for paper and ink. As he put his new revelation to paper, he reminisced over those wonderful times when he got to sleep.

Pushing aside his self pity, Shikamaru put ink to paper drawing his projection seal with two separate chakra receptacles- one going through the storage symbol to the retrieval and one going straight to retrieval. What he had figured out, what Sakura had unintentionally brought his attention to was that Sasuke's lightning chakra nature was once again the source of Shikamaru's struggles. Electricity free flowed in any direction it could often going the simplest direction. If he tried to use his shortcut, much of Sasuke's chakra would still take the path leading through the storage symbol. To keep the shortcut, all Shikamaru had to do was make a new chakra receptacle that only went to the retrieval.

The team entered Konoha by late afternoon the next day. Soon after arriving, Kakashi glanced to the sky and excused himself swiftly. "Hey, where are you going? We just got back! We have to debrief!" Naruto yelled after him raising a fist. "Useless sensei," he muttered.

"Come on," Shikamaru said shuffling off towards the Hokage tower. The sooner they debriefed, the sooner he could rest. He hadn't slept much the previous night.

Their time in the Hokage's office was short due to the uneventful circumstances of the mission. Only Naruto's dramatics prolonged the conversation. True to his nature, Naruto spent a great deal of time complaining about the boring mission.

Later than he would have liked, Shikamaru exited the building, Naruto and Sakura tailing behind him. "Hey, Sasuke," Sakura said and hesitantly added, "Naruto. We should go out to dinner to celebrate our first C rank."

"Sorry. I can't," Shikamaru said continuing his walk back to Sasuke's place.

"Oh, ok," Sakura said in a small voice.

As soon as Shikamaru's head hit his pillow, he fell asleep with plans to contact Ino and Neji first thing after he woke up. Shikamaru regained consciousness as someone shoved him out of bed. He sprang up readying a shadow possession jutsu that he let go when he saw Neji's image standing opposite of him. "There are nicer ways to wake someone up, Ino," Shikamaru said as he glanced towards the window. The sun still peeked up through the horizon which meant Shikamaru couldn't have slept much more than an hour.

"But not easier ones," Ino said with a mischievous smile. "How was your mission?"

"Standard," Shikamaru answered. "Except for when Naruto attacked Kakashi to see if he was really paying attention."

"Sounds like Naruto," Ino said rolling her eyes.

Shikamaru stretched and sat back on the bed. "I was going to find you and Neji tomorrow to make a new plan for Mai, but I suppose it's better if we start now." Sleep could wait. Again.

"Um, actually, that won't be necessary," Ino said nervously.

In confusion, Shikamaru scrunched his brows. "What do you mean?'

"I already searched Mai's mind. We carried out the plan while you were gone."

Shikamaru stood up abruptly searching Ino's face trying to see if this was some kind of horrible joke. All he saw was a defiant expression. Ino knew Shikamaru wouldn't like what she said, but she felt assured in her actions. "You carried out the plan while I was gone," Shikamaru repeated incredulously. "What were you thinking? We had this carefully planned out. When you found out I left for a mission, you should have called it off and waited for me to come back to regroup. You could have ruined everything."

"Well, I didn't, did I? I had to make a call, and I made the one I thought was best. We're running out of time. The chunin exams are coming up and security will be increased. We needed to get this done, and I knew we could pull it off even without you," Ino said confidently folding her arms across her chest.

"I can't believe you," Shikamaru said feeling anger boiling up. "Do you not understand the gravity of what we're doing? If you and Neji had failed, all of us would have found ourselves in T&I. You know first hand the horrors we'd face then."

"We succeeded!" Ino burst out, her voice starting to rise. "I know how to be cautious even if my plans have a bit more spontaneity than you would like. If I felt at any point that we could get caught, I would have backed out."

"You still should have stuck to the plan. We all decided on it for a reason."

"Yeah, we did, but it changed when you had to leave on a mission. You're the one that told me a detailed plan never holds all the way through. That you have to allow for the unexpected."

Shikamaru sighed staring up at the ceiling and shaking his head in exasperation. Ino was talking about advice that Shikamaru had actually gotten from Temari. He could remember clearly Temari standing above him holding her closed fan against his throat as he lay on the ground after she defeated him in a spar.

"I told you you got lucky during the exams," Temari had said smugly.

"I just had a better plan then," Shikamaru had said.

"That's why I'm saying you got lucky." Temari stowed her fan and held out her hand to help Shikamaru up. "There are too many unexpected variables in fights- in life- for you to be able to predict how things are going to go. You're good at predicting events- I'll give you that- but you're not that good. You can make your plan as detailed as you want going into a fight, but I guarantee if you don't allow for changes, you'll lose. Don't let yourself get hung up on what you expected to happen. Leave room for your plan to evolve for what does happen."

What Temari had said was true as Shikamaru had come to find out firsthand, but her words did not apply to the current situation. "We're still in early planning, and we were in a situation where we had more control than we will again. This is the time when we can be the most meticulous and get away with it. You had no reason to deviate from the original plan."

"I did though. I told you we're running out of time." Shikamaru opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but Ino barreled on over his words. "Look, whether you like it or not, it's the decision I made and it worked out. Do you want to hear what I found out or not?"

Still annoyed, Shikamaru gestured for her to continue. "Tell me." He could continue the argument later, but he needed to find out what they were up against.

"Ok. It's like we thought. Mai, herself, doesn't know when she's going in until she gets signal which makes our job much harder. The signal depends on the day and time of day. For example, if it's in the tenth hour of a Monday, Mai knows she needs to go into work if a gray cat passes her and stops to scratch behind its ear."

Shikamaru made a noise of disappointment. Signals that varied wouldn't allow for a lot of time to prepare if Ino had to disguise herself as Mai. "What did you learn about security? Is there anyway we can get in without involving Mai further?"

Ino shook her head. "I mean, I suppose there probably is some way, but the chance of success would be absurdly low. Not that it isn't already."

"What about once you get down to the lower levels? Are there further security clearances?"

"Just your standard identification tests; chakra signatures, scents, genjutsu dispelling. I'll get through those easily if disguised as Mai. The problem will be getting the scroll we need. From Mai's memories, I know where the room is located, but a guard always stands outside the room."

Shikamaru frowned. "I need more details- a map and any more information you have on security. We should get Neji too, so we could discuss this together."

"Ah, yes and uh-" Ino bit the inside of her cheek as she looked at Shikamaru tentatively. "There's one other thing you should know."

"What?"

"We had to adjust for your absence in our mission and we, uh, had Sasuke take your place. He knows now."

Shikamaru blinked back at Ino disbelievingly. "You had Sasuke take my place?"

"Look," Ino said holding up her hands in defense. "We didn't have much of a choice. Sasuke knew we were up to something, and he promised to share some information in exchange. Besides, his inclusion allowed us to stick more closely to the plan than if it had been just Neji and I."

"What information did he give you in exchange?" It had better be worth it because Shikamaru didn't trust Sasuke not to have ulterior motives.

"He hasn't told us yet. We were waiting for you." Ino scrubbed a hand down her face. "Shika, I get that you don't like this. I didn't want Sasuke involved either, but it's better that he's helping us than off doing who knows what around the village. I know you're the one that usually makes the plans and that Choji and I usually follow, but you have to trust me to make decisions sometimes."

Surprised, Shikamaru jerked his head back slightly. "Ino, I trust you to make decisions."

"No, you don't," Ino disagreed matter-of-factly. "You like to be in control and to call the shots even while you groan about duty. You respect my input and listen to my concerns, but you like to have final say. I mean, I get it. You're superior tactically and you know it. I know it too. That's why you always ended up the somewhat reluctant leader with Choji and I. But I know what I'm doing, and I'm not just going to wait around for you to tell me what to do when you're not here."

Shikamaru held back a hasty denial floundering for a way to respond. She was right, for the most part. He didn't know how to respond to such a blunt assessment. He focused on what he could deny with sincerity. "I don't want you to wait for me to tell you what to do, but this is a plan the three of us devised together. I expect to at least be consulted when major changes are made."

"There was no way to consult you, Shika."

Shikamaru stepped towards the door. "I expect we won't agree on this anytime soon. Let's just meet up with the others for now."

"Ok." Ino followed Shikamaru and took pace beside him. She bumped his arm with her elbow and grinned at him. "For the record, I'm counting this argument as a win for me if not just for the fact that I made you speechless for a few seconds."

Shikamaru scoffed. "Troublesome." Ino started giggling. Shikamaru quickened his pace to get away from her but felt a small smile creeping onto his face.