A/N: The final round will begin soon. Can't commit to a specific number of chapters aside from "No more than 5".
I don't have a ton left I want to accomplish during the month break, but there are still two things, so I'll be getting to them in the next few chapters.
Time for Chapter 38
Enjoy!
Shikamaru wiped sweat from his brow as he fell to his rear end in exhaustion. Shikaku Nara was hardly an expert when it came to the art of Taijutsu, but he was still superior to his son. Rubbing his sore jaw, the younger of the two Nara men glanced up at his expectant father.
"What're we even doing this for? Sensei already runs me into the ground on this stuff." he complained. Shikaku folded his arms across his chest and gestured for his son to stand.
"That's only once per week. Your hand-to-hand still needs serious help." he said. Shikamaru grumbled a retort under his breath, but largely kept it to himself. If nothing else, Shikaku was less painful to spar with than Kakashi was. He was significantly more forgiving, both technically and physically. Then, in subversion of Shikamaru's expectations, his father glanced off toward the back porch, prompting him to follow suit.
Since the beginning of their sparring sessions well over an hour ago, the pair had been observed with great amusement by both Yoshino and Haku. Shikamaru's mother was seated on a wicker chair just to the side of the sliding door, while Haku was sitting on the edge of the porch, with her legs dangling over the edge.
"My back's stiff. Tag in, Yoshino." Shikaku called out to his wife. Shikamaru tensed. His mother was certainly a fair bit less daunting than his father in a literal sense, but she was far more intimidating temperamentally. She would attack him. Much to his relief, Yoshino shook her head.
"Not today. This chair's treating me a little too well." she called back. A spark of hope ignited within Shikamaru. Perhaps he would not be forced to exert himself any further. An unexpected voice then chimed in to break the momentary silence.
"If you're needing a break, I could fill in for you, Nara-sama." Haku offered. Shikamaru's hope remained intact. The former huntress had spent much of her second and now third days of leave among the Nara clan, and in that time, it had become clear to the shadow user that Shikaku hardly trusted the girl beyond a basic level of hospitality and respect. For a second time that afternoon, his father surprised him.
"Don't hurt him too bad. He's sensitive." Shikaku said with a shrug, strolling over to the porch to join his wife. Haku then dropped down to the grass of the lawn and made her way to the middle of the backyard, where Shikamaru still remained.
"Really? 'Sama'?" the Nara boy commented as the Anbu stretched her arms and legs several feet away from him. Haku brushed a strand of hair behind her left ear and smiled.
"Well, he is your father. I can use it with you as well, if you'd like." she replied, her tone easy and playful. Shikamaru rubbed a small stain of dirt from his cheek.
"You're not exactly dressed for this." he pointed out, ignoring her prior comment. Haku looked down at herself. For the first time since the former huntress' reentry into his life, she was wearing something other than her Anbu uniform. As opposed to the gray flak jacket and mask, she was wearing a white sundress. Where she had gotten it in the first place was a mystery.
"I don't need to be. It's just a light spar." the Anbu said simply. It was a subtle jab at his ego, and Shikamaru caught it easily. No matter the situation, Haku Yuki never missed an opportunity to push his buttons.
"Less talking, more sparring!" Yoshino barked from the porch. Suppressing his urge to snap back, Shikamaru assumed a taijutsu stance. Haku remained relaxed and unconcerned, not bothering to follow his example. Knowing better than to keep his mother waiting any longer, the shadow user broke from his usual approach to combat and made the first move.
Stepping into range, Shikamaru launched a straight punch aimed squarely between Haku's eyes. The Anbu shifted her head off to her left just a few inches, causing the punch to whiz past her face. Despite the near-miss, Shikamaru was undeterred, and attempted to exploit her choice to remain within his distance by throwing a hooking punch off of his opposite hand. Once again, Haku made him miss with comical ease.
Ducking under his wide swing, the girl pivoted around him as he stumbled forward from his own momentum. Within the same second, she was directly behind him. With a light tap on his back from her middle and index fingers, Shikamaru fell forward and was forced to awkwardly catch himself on his hands to avoid face planting. Dusting himself off and rising, the Nara boy turned to face Haku, who wore a look of amusement.
"You're very eager." she teased. Shikamaru's jaw tightened slightly. She had an infuriating way of drawing out his usually quite limited temper with words alone. Opting not to respond, he engaged once more. As with last time, Haku came out of the scramble untouched. Sliding around him in a manner more akin to a dance than a traditional set of defensive maneuvers, Haku giggled girlishly as Shikamaru futilely attempted to strike her.
"Can you not laugh at me?" the genin grunted as Haku twirled around behind him after making him whiff on a right-handed swing for her head.
"Your father was right. You are sensitive." she jeered at him playfully. Turning on his heel to face her after having been outmaneuvered for the dozenth time, Shikamaru attempted to kick out her legs. Haku hopped straight upward to avoid being tripped, soaring several feet into the air. She then briefly tapped him on the top of his head with her toes and performed a short flipping motion mid-air. She landed behind him with casual ease.
"At least swing back." Shikamaru grumbled sarcastically after being forced to turn again. Haku raised an eyebrow and threw her head back to clear her hair out of her face.
"If you insist." she said. Taking the cue, the Nara boy led the proverbial dance. Attempting to be more careful about his entry into range, Shikamaru flashed out his left hand to measure distance, stopping it just short of Haku's face. She gave no reaction whatsoever beyond her still-present patronizing smile. Unfortunately, rather than taking her calm as a sign that she was several steps ahead of him, Shikamaru chose to test the waters. The pair then had the very same exchange Haku had so frustrated him with numerous times before.
Swinging wide, the Nara boy was easily evaded, with Haku weaving around him in one smooth motion. Unlike every other time she had made him miss, the former huntress made him pay. As he adjusted his feet to face her once again, Haku punched him square on the right side of his jaw. The impact took Shikamaru off his feet and sent him crashing to the ground several feet away.
The moment his back hit the lawn, the shadow user heard Haku let out a tense gasp through his daze. Seeing stars, Shikamaru chose to remain flat on his back as the cobwebs cleared away.
'She hits like a paper bomb.' he thought to himself as he stared up at the clouds over his head. He was afforded little time to contemplate the lack of congruence between Haku's slim frame and shocking punching power, as she was at his side in seconds.
"Are you alright?" the Anbu asked urgently. Shikamaru propped himself up on his elbows and rubbed his jaw, which was still burning from the violent counter he had absorbed.
"Just dandy." he muttered, opening and closing his mouth several times to ensure that nothing had been broken. Thankfully, his bones and joints appeared to be intact.
"I didn't mean to hit you that hard…" Haku said quietly, her eyes downcast. Shikamaru sat up fully and shrugged his shoulders.
"I asked you to crack me. Don't stress about it. It's fine." he said dismissively. The former huntress visibly relaxed at his quick forgiveness, sighing with a hand over her chest.
"I'll take some steam off of the next one, then." she said with an awkward chuckle. Yoshino and Shikaku soon joined them. Shooting up to her feet, Haku began to apologize, but was silenced by the elder Nara.
"Don't bother. He asked for it. This is on him. I'd just prefer it if you don't break him in half before his match even starts." Shikaku said, reiterating what his son had said only moments prior. Haku glanced down at Shikamaru, who had still yet to rise.
"Understood." she said curtly. The Nara boy sighed heavily. Being discussed without being acknowledged was hardly ever a pleasant experience. It certainly didn't help that he had just been knocked halfway to unconsciousness, by a woman no less.
"I could use some help cleaning up inside, if you'd be willing." Yoshino chimed in, gesturing to Haku. The former huntress nodded eagerly and followed after the older woman back to the house. Soon enough, Shikamaru was alone with his father.
"Don't get down on yourself. That girl's probably stronger than I am." Shikaku said as he pulled his son up to his feet by the wrist. The genin looked toward the house, where his mother and Haku had gone.
"That sounds like an exaggeration to me." he said. The elder Nara shook his head and looked off in the same direction, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"I could feel her from across the village the night she brought you home on her shoulder. I don't know who or what the two of you ran into, but all I can say is that she definitely belongs with the Anbu. She's a huge cut above your average Chunin. Probably most Jonin, too." he said. Shikamaru studied his father out of the corner of his peripheral vision.
"You just wanted to see her fight with your own eyes, didn't you?" he asked. Shikaku cracked a calm smile and met his son's suspicious eyes.
"You made a good guinea pig." he said, earning a mumbled insult from Shikamaru. They then lapsed into a contemplative silence.
"What do you think of her?" the Nara boy asked after a time. Shikaku remained silent as he considered the question.
"She's good at hiding it, but she isn't normal. You'd do well to remember that." he said. Ominous and vague as his words were, Shikamaru found that he had no genuine counterpoints. He agreed, whether he wanted to or not. Haku Yuki was, for lack of a better term, a reformed mercenary of sorts. In truth, he still knew very little about her beyond what he had been told, and she was nothing if not tight-lipped on her experiences.
"Kinda hard to forget, honestly." he said, images of Satsuki's lifeless body and Naruto's blood red eyes flashing across his mind's eye. At the thought, he felt a shudder work its way up his spine. Shikaku then laid a hand on his shoulder and pushed him along.
"We can be done for the day. I need a game of Shogi." he said. The father and son then followed after the two women who had left minutes earlier.
Once inside, Shikamaru was handed his second loss of the day.
Satsuki heaved a deep breath as she pulled her hand from the stony wall before her. Electricity still crackled from her palm as she shook the dust and pebbles from it. Only ten days remained until the final round. It was currently Tuesday, the second day of the week, and one of the three on which she was on her own in terms of preparation. Three and a half days had passed since she had interacted with anybody other than Kakashi, and two since she had spoken to any of her team in general.
Shikamaru was partially a given, due to his broad absence for the majority of their month of preparation as a result of his differing training schedule with his father. Naruto, on the other hand, was a self-imposed restriction the Uchiha had placed on herself following the prior Thursday. He was a source of both conflict and emotional stimulation. Two things Satsuki could not abide in her current situation. She had learned these truths the hard way.
Planting her hands on the rough stone, Satsuki leaned her weight forward, sweat dripping from the hair that framed her face. She had finally worked up the nerve to cut it the previous night. Roughly eight inches had been chopped off, leaving her hair just below her shoulder blades. She had considered cutting it to her shoulders, but had opted against it.
'Sweat would be less of a problem if I just let it be short for a while.' Satsuki thought to herself. The truth was, despite not being overly concerned with her appearance generally, she simply liked the way she looked with long hair. It wasn't practical, but it was what she wanted. Then, as she ran a hand through her dark locks, an image flashed across her mind.
Her mother.
Pale skin, long dark hair, softly shaped lips and eyes. A spitting image of the woman Satsuki was slowly becoming with time. She had taken the risk of looking upon her reflection months prior mere days after her cell assignment, and had come to the same realization at the time. And yet, despite the revelation being far from new, it hit her like a punch to the gut. Digging her fingers into the rocky surface, Satsuki let her forehead rest on the stone.
"All you're missing is the housewife getup." she joked to herself quietly, pain seeping through to the surface. The Uchiha girl had never been blind to the toll losing so very much had taken on her. Her dreams were nearly always memories. When she got lucky, memories of a better time. Most nights, however, they were a theater of horrific bloodshed. Beyond her nightly visions, she had forced herself to master the few recipes her mother had begun to teach her before her passing. She utterly despised cooking.
And now, as she matured, she had begun to model herself after Mikoto physically entirely subconsciously. Dreams, meals, and now even her appearance. In some twisted way, the choice in all of these things had been taken away from her. Manipulated by the unseen hand of Itachi's atrocities. Turning away from the stone wall, Satsuki slowly walked over to a puddle. It had stormed the previous night. The ground and air were still damp from the rain.
Reflections were rarely ever kind to the raven-haired girl, but she found herself drawn to them nonetheless in recent times. Why that was, she did not know. She was ready to face whatever the water would show her, or so she thought. Experience was bound to harden her with time. Staring down into the still puddle of muddied water, Satsuki was met with her own face. Cheeks streaked with sweat, circles under her eyes.
"I look like hell." she muttered to no-one in particular. For several moments, there was nothing but a dull silence. Her reflection remained mundane and normal. Stepping back away from the puddle, Satsuki turned her back to the water. As she took her third step in the opposite direction, she was frozen in place by a sound that shook her down to her core.
"I think you're beautiful, Satsuki."
Turning back around tensely, Satsuki's chest tightened painfully at what she saw. Standing in the puddle, dressed in the simple dress and apron she always wore, was her mother.
"You're dead." the Uchiha girl choked out. Mikoto simply smiled at her words and folded her hands in front of her waist. The very same gesture she always made when speaking to her children. The posture of a doting mother. A kind woman.
"The skirt is a little short for my liking, but you've turned out lovely. The boys just won't leave you alone, will they?" Mikoto mused. Tears quickly welled up in Satsuki's eyes.
"Stop it…" she whispered. Her mother paid her feeble request no heed, walking out of the puddle. Satsuki squeezed her eyes closed and turned her head down as her mother approached. Soon enough, she felt her soft hands on her shoulders.
"You really did get my hair. It's a pain to manage, isn't it?" Mikoto said humorously, running her fingers through the genin's damp hair. The tears then came with full force, leaking painfully from Satsuki's tightly shut eyes.
"Please stop." she whimpered. Mikoto then turned her head up with a gentle grip on her chin. Against all of her better judgment, the genin reluctantly opened her eyes. Dark irises, gentle and affectionate, greeted her. So close together, it was clear that Satsuki was several inches taller than her mother.
"Tall like your father. All in the legs, too. You really are a heartbreaker." Mikoto said, her smile as strong as ever. Satsuki covered her own mouth and pointlessly fought back against the sobs wracking her frame. Her voice was gone, and her eyes had clamped shut again.
"Those look like my earrings. They look wonderful on you." came the voice of her mother once more. Satsuki pushed down the urge to wail out in pain. Then, presaged by the feeling of Mikoto leaning into her ear, the raven-haired girl's heart was ripped straight out of her chest.
"I'm proud of you, and I love you more than you'll ever know, Satsuki." she whispered. The simple words shattered the last vestiges of Satsuki's self control. Stepping forward, she attempted to wrap up her mother in a tight hug. Her arms passed right through her. Stumbling forward, Satsuki fell to her knees. Looking around frantically, she found that she was entirely alone. No sign of her mother existed. No footprints, not even the lingering smell of her perfume.
"Why?" she hoarsely questioned. It had all been nothing but an illusion. A cruel hallucination. Whether it was born of her own mental instability, or some outside influence was beyond her knowledge, but the pain was all too clear. A burning fire in her stomach, and a suffocating pain in her chest left her crippled on the ground. She was a wreck. Broken and crying as memories of a happier time cut short freely invaded her mind.
She had not realized just how much she truly longed for her mother's touch until the present moment. Even a cheap, unwanted copy had been enough to break down every wall she had ever built around herself in an instant. As her hands sunk into the damp soil, an emotion she had seldom felt in recent years crept up on her. She was lonely. Well and truly. No matter how angry or bitter she had become, Satsuki had taken careful steps to avoid acknowledging her solitude. Now, reminded of what she once had, she could ignore it no longer.
Worse yet, another face shimmered through the haze of pain in her mind. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a smile hiding a sea of melancholy. He who had become her strongest tether to reality in recent days, whom she had chosen to avoid.
'This isn't about him. It's not his business.' she mentally chided herself, her hands balling up into fists against the dirt. In spite of the truth behind her self-criticism, Satsuki could not shake the urge to sprint in Naruto's direction. To break his door down and cry further as he awkwardly comforted her, as he always tried to do. She could not identify when he had become her solution. Or whether he truly was yet. After several minutes of silent consideration, Satsuki shakily rose to her feet.
'Stay away. It won't end well. You'll just hurt him again.' she thought with little firmness, repeating the conviction to herself several times to make it sink in. Taking several stabilizing breaths, Satsuki bottled up her feelings and pushed them to the back of her mind.
"Train more." she ordered herself aloud, facing the stony wall once again. She then began weaving hand seals. As Satsuki buried her suffering in exertion, another conflict raged nearby.
Up in a nearby tree, a crow chased a raven from its nest in the leaves.
Negativity was a thing Naruto tended to skirt away from.
He had every right to revel in it. His experience and circumstances justified a darker path. He had never given in to that fact. He had hardly ever acknowledged it. Less because what little indulgence he had taken disgusted him, and more because giving in and falling down would mean proving his detractors right. It would signify that they had been correct the entire time. That his neglect and ostracization had been the proper course of action. That his pain was an earned punishment, rather than a product of unfair discrimination.
Now, though, he was looking toward the source of it all. The nexus of his life story. The demon living within him. The Nine-Tailed Fox, whom he had never heard a word from in all his time as its host. Standing alone in the very same field on which his team had been initiated, Naruto's face was turned to the sky with closed eyes. Night had come hours ago, and his daily training was complete until five-thirty the next morning. He was alone, and he was calm.
His reasoning for delving into the being he jailed was clouded at best. Logically, it was nothing but a risk. An unnecessary step toward potential chaos. Despite it all, he couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling that something catastrophic was on its way. Be it the ever-looming threat of Gaara, or something far greater, Naruto was unprepared. He knew it to be true. He needed more than Kakashi had given him up to then. The older man had trained him well, and made him stranger than he had ever expected to be, but a piece was still missing.
Diving deep into the furthest recesses of his mind, Naruto sought out the being who had ruined his childhood. He hated it. He despised the demon with every fiber of his being. He was bitter and angry. Any chance he had ever been afforded to live normally had been ripped away from him by the beast's mere nature. Perhaps it would have been more justified for Naruto to direct his ire to the Fourth Hokage, as the late leader was the true culprit behind the blonde's status. He had certainly tried to hate the man. He had never succeeded in doing so.
At this conundrum of blame, Naruto finally felt the dark presence he had felt in his lowest moments. Vile and bloodthirsty. The Fox felt less like a consciousness, and more like a mass of raw negative energy. As he fell into his own abyss, Naruto strained to control his feelings. He was walking a dangerously fine line. To drown in the demon's presence would mean losing himself entirely. To tread in its murky waters would yield strength. Parasitic or not.
He could have sworn he heard a mirthless laugh as the pressure mounted around his own self-image. He was being taken, and finally, his physical body was beginning to show the effects. His skin was hot as a stove top, and the air hummed around him. He was cracking under the immense weight of the beast's presence. There was a scale to the Fox that Naruto never could have fully prepared himself to face.
Clenching his jaw and tightening his hands into fists, Naruto pushed back against the oncoming tide of ugly emotion and demonic influence. He valued his autonomy, and he intended to keep it.
"My body, my rules." Naruto hissed to the demon within him. With one last push, the Jinchuuriki broke through to the surface. The air cooled around him, and his skin ceased its burning. Opening his eyes, Naruto found that his vision was rimmed in crimson. Glancing down, he saw that his palms were bleeding. More strikingly, his body was emanating an aura of reddish-orange chakra that flickered like a blaze. Dragging his tongue across his teeth, Naruto discovered that his canines had become fangs.
He had invoked the unnatural power of his inner demon without the need for desperation. In his struggle, Naruto had seemingly claimed a piece of the Fox's power for his own. Whether it was a parting gift from the demon, or a forcefully stolen relic, the Jinchuuriki knew not. It mattered little. He had accomplished, in some sense, what he had set out to do that night. The grass around him was blackened and ashen.
Opening and closing his wounded hands, Naruto jumped straight upward. He soared well over forty feet into the air. He was capable of such heights on his own, but the ease with which he flew was utterly foreign. Landing back in the same position he had been in before, Naruto gripped the hem of his shirt and ripped it from his body. It burned up before it hit the ground. Contrary to his usual disposition, Naruto gave little thought to the fact that he had ruined his favorite shirt. He then kicked off his sandals.
Now wearing nothing but a pair of black shorts, the Jinchuuriki set his sights on a training log set vertically in the ground some fifty-odd feet away. Bending his knees slightly, Naruto blasted across the field. Half a second later, his fist was sticking out of the back of the thick wooden log. Pulling his arm free and stepping back, Naruto smirked when he saw that he had no splinters. He was astronomically more powerful than he normally was in every regard.
More than that, his mind was operating on a completely different gear. There was no room for logical thought. The only considerations he made were for what he would tear down next. His control was touching at best. He felt lethal, on the verge of a rampage. Though it took him several moments, Naruto managed to find his common sense again. Closing his eyes once more, the Jinchuuriki drew his consciousness inward. Slowly but surely, the fiery aura encasing him dissipated. Along with it went his claws and fangs.
After nearly a minute of meditation, Naruto opened his eyes. His emotional spectrum had returned to normal, and his lust for violence had died down. He was himself again. The power he had tapped into was potent. For the briefest of moments, Naruto had felt utterly unthreatened by the world around him. Above all else, however, it was intoxicating. Shaking his head, Naruto retrieved his sandals. He then began to walk home.
Unbeknownst to him, a pair of golden eyes tracked him hungrily every step of the way.
A/N: Okay, so I have decided to structure my updates a bit more tightly:
Every Friday, one of the days of the weekend, and either Monday or Tuesday. Those are the days you can expect updates from here on out. Around three per week, if that works for you guys :)
And yes, Naruto and Satsuki both grappling with their own individual issues. Satsuki especially. They'll be circling back around to one another very soon, no worries.
ALSO: Naruto and Satsuki's scenes take place three days after Shikamaru's scene.
Tell me what you thought of this one in a review, if you're able :)
I love you all
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