Author's Notes: Hello everyone! Here's the next chapter, fresh off the keyboard. Thank you sooo much to everyone who has reviewed or messaged me, it really keeps my spirits up and helps me churn these chapters out faster. Whenever I get stuck I look at what you write and it pushes me forward. As always, read, review, and let me know what you think. Konoha may be on the brink of war, but who's to say personal angst doesn't take a front seat for our favorite shinobi and kunoichi?

Disclaimer: Though I'm tempted to steal Kishimoto's identity I don't think I'd do a very good job at being him. And then I'd never find out how the story really ends. Which would drive me crazy.

Close Quarters

"Feels like the weight of the world, like God and heaven gave me a turn." – 'Weight of the World' by Evanescence

Morning found Konoha a changed village. Gone were the cheerful street vendors and chatty shop owners. No one roamed the streets, previously open windows were now barred and latched. The sun continued to shine, the birds continued to sing, but not a single person stopped to enjoy the atmosphere.

Konoha was preparing for war.

Bulletins had been posted late in the night, calling all citizens to arms. Active shinobi and kunoichi were summoned to headquarters to be briefed on the approaching threat, laypeople were encouraged to take vacations, children at the academy were skipped ahead several lessons to the proper handling of battle weapons. Everyone was preparing for the coming attack.

Unfortunately, no one knew just what form the attack would take.

Tsunade had been up late into the night, alternating between meeting with advisors and checking on her five patients, Yamanaka Ino and Aburame Shino now being included on the list. Shino had begun displaying signs of testosterone overload halfway through the night. It had subsequently been discovered that by calling his father's insects into himself he'd been unwittingly contaminated. The find only made strategists more nervous. Just how versatile was this serum? Just how much of it was needed to be affective? The arguments lasted well into the morning.

Which was why, when Shikamaru finally managed to rendezvous with the Suna delegation around noon, he was thoroughly exhausted. Sinking down into a chair between Temari and Gaara, he fought against a building headache. "Sorry I'm late." He managed, "Is there any coffee?"

Temari pushed a cup to him. "So what is the status of your teammate and the others?" She asked, cutting straight to the point. It was one of her better qualities, she had the least feminine scruples of any girl Shikamaru had ever met. "We already learned the basics from the bulletins."

"The original three are much the same." Shikamaru frowned down at his drink. "In the case of the Yamanakas this might be voluntary, but Aburame Shibi is clearly out of his mind, his room has to be monitored around the clock."

"The other two?" Gaara's eyes were focused on the passing traffic in the street. "Did the Hokage determine an effective treatment?"

"Not really." Shikamaru drained his cup, which Temari replaced with Kankuro's. "She managed to balance their hormone levels through manual, chakra-fueled treatment, but it's a tedious, time-consuming process. They were mild cases and it took her two hours for each, much like poison removal."

"That's a nasty procedure." Kankuro shook his head, remembering. "Worst day of my life. Well, almost."

"Estrogen treatments?" Temari proposed. "Would it counteract the testosterone?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "They decided against using it. On a very slight case it might work, but only if injected quickly enough. Once the brain is overloaded with too much of any hormone the results can be dangerous. Estrogen injections are being prepared for the battle kits, but we're not sure how well they'll perform. Purging the system with chakra is the only reliable method we've arrived at."

They lapsed into silence.

"Suna is willing to offer support in the coming battle." Gaara spoke, fixing kohl rimmed eyes on the tired Konoha genius. "If not stopped at the outset, Lightning Country will become a problem for many more people than the Leaf nin."

"Thank you." Gaara's offer caught Shikamaru off guard. Though logically he knew the boy had come a long way from the cold-blooded killer of the chuunin exams, he couldn't help but fall back to his first impression at times. "Tsunade will want to talk to you immediately."

"I wish to see the hospitalized individuals first." Gaara stood, the others mirroring his movements. "To observe what we will be dealing with."

"Of course." Shikamaru had been planning on heading back to the hospital to check on Ino anyway. "It's only a block or so from here."

Paying their bill the four of them stepped out into the street. Groups of genin scurried back and forth, working under the watchful eye of their teachers to fortify buildings and begin building battle stations. In the distance Shikamaru could hear the peal of bells. Was Tsunade seriously considering using the old warning system?

The bell system predated the oldest building in Konoha by at least two hundred years. Shikamaru wasn't even sure when it had last been used. Before his father's time, definitely. If Tsunade was resurrecting such an archaic idea she must be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Then again, it was hard to prepare for a war in which the enemies may very well be your own people.

The mood in the ICU was calmer than it had been the night before, but the sense of urgency was palpable. Aburame Shibi's room was still under heavy guard, though the shouts of its lone occupant were now fewer and far between. A small ANBU contingent remained behind, the three masked figures discussing something in low tones.

"Kankuro and I will observe the three nins who were initially affected." Gaara decided. "Temari, you will accompany Nara to see Aburame Shino and Yamanaka Ino. I expect a full report later."

"Yes, Gaara." Temari fell into step with Shikamaru. "Which room are they in?"

"The farthest on the right." They began weaving their way through the hallway. "I'm not sure how much you'll be able to talk to either of them. Ino and Shino had both been sedated heavily when I left them last night."

"Sedated?"

"For the pain." Shikamaru shook memories of Ino's screams out of his head. "Resisting the testosterone is extremely painful, we think this may have been built into the serum on purpose. It ensures the majority of those affected would succumb to the aggressive impulses instead of opposing. Ino was prepped by her father on how to resist it and Shino's reaction was delayed because the toxin was spread through contact with his bugs. Both of them were able to hold off the hormone long enough for the Hokage to intervene."

"Hmm." Temari fingered the edge of her fan. "So it's a matter of will power then?"

"Only for a while." Shikamaru knocked on the closed door to the treatment room. "Without treatment even the most skillful will succumb, an example being Yamanaka Inoichi. We estimate he was able to delay the onset by at least 7 hours."

"That's not much time to work with." Temari mused. The door to the treatment swung open, revealing Sakura.

"Shikamaru!" She exclaimed, a weary smile creasing her face. "Ino was just asking…" Her eyes fell on his companion. "Temari." Sakura shot an unreadable glance at Shikamaru.

"Suna has offered its help in the coming battle." Shikamaru told her, "Gaara requested that the Suna nins be allowed to see the status of the patients."

Sakura's eyes were shuttered as she regarded Shikamaru. "They aren't just patients, Shikamaru. I'm not going to let you use Ino and Shino as guinea pigs."

"Sakura!" Shikamaru was taken-aback by this response. Sakura was very rarely rude, so why now did she choose to make his life more difficult? "We're going to need Suna's support, we can't withhold information and expect them to help us."

Sakura bristled. "If it's information you need, by all means, don't let me stop you, but if I hear that either of you have been upsetting my friends, you will have to answer to me. Understand?" Pushing past both of them, she shot Shikamaru a parting glance that he couldn't even begin to decipher. "You have ten minutes and not a second more." In an instant she was gone, moving on to the next room.

"Is she usually that welcoming?" Temari murmured as they walked through the door.

"I don't know what's bothering her." Shikamaru replied. Sakura was usually pretty level-headed. Maybe she was tired? They rounded the corner, now visible to the occupants of the beds.

Shino was in the bed closest to the door, his characteristic sunglasses in place, covers pulled up to his nose. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, as usual, but Shikamaru found himself wondering just how much of the previous conversation the boy had heard. "Shino." His greeting was met with a nod. "How are you feeling?"

"Better."

"Shikamaru? It's about time you got here." Ino's bed was partially obscured by a privacy curtain which she pulled aside as she was speaking in order to see him. "I was beginning to wonder when you'd get your lazy…" She fell abruptly silent.

"You're looking better." He remarked, then, watching as the smile drained off her face, hastened to explain the situation. "Temari and the other sand nin are going to be helping us deal with Lightning Country so I'm taking them around to show them the current state of things."

"Oh." Ino pulled the covers up over her shoulders. "Well I'm still alive if that's what you're wondering." She turned away. "If you don't mind, I had a rough night so I'm going to catch up on some sleep."

Just why did women forever contradict sense and logic? For all their blather about manners and sensitivity, Shikamaru was convinced they meant to hold only men to their high standards. "Ino!" He strode to the side of her bed. "Cut it out! I need you to answer some questions for Temari."

"All my vital information is on the chart outside the door." She shot back. "If that's what you came for, why'd you bother coming in?"

"To see how you were doing!" She showed no signs of complying and he sighed. Of all the times for adolescent Ino to rear her obstinate head. "Can't you please just sit up and answer a few questions?"

"Ask Shino." She replied. "I'm going back to bed."

"For the love of…" Shino was a hopeless conversationalist at the best times, after witnessing this little scene he'd probably offer as much information as a clam. "Temari, I'm sorry about this, we're going to have to come back later."

"It's fine." Her eyes glittered as she stared at the girl on the bed. "It's a pity that Konoha kunoichi can't take orders. I'll wait in the hall." She strode out.

Watching her go Shikamaru fought hard to regain control of his temper. He was tired, stressed, and worried, of all the things he didn't need a temper tantrum from his former teammate ranked high on his list. "Thanks a lot Ino."

"If you want someone to follow your orders go get some damn genin to obey your every bidding." She snapped back.

"Very mature of you." He retorted, regretting the words before they left his mouth. What was the point of digging this hole any deeper? He'd write off her behavior as a delayed reaction to everything she'd gone through in the last 24 hours. "I'll come back later when you're ready to talk."

"Don't bother."

Or maybe she was just being Ino. He turned at the door. "I'll be back, Ino. And so help me, if you aren't willing to talk to us then, I'll consider you in contempt of authority." Her shoulders were stiff under her sheets. She didn't reply.

Shikamaru slammed the door on the way out. It was a childish move, and it didn't make him feel much better.

Twenty minutes later and Ino was still mad. How dare he? To waltz in here and wave that sand kunoichi under her nose while she was bed ridden and more discouraged than she could ever remember being. He'd treated her like she was an attraction on a guided tour! And all while that…that girl stood there and smirked in all her jounin superiority. Even that cocky Kankuro would have been preferable.

Temari was the absolutely last person Ino wanted to see when she was this vulnerable. She was wearing a hospital gown for heaven's sake! She hardly resembled the competent kunoichi she had worked so hard to become. That she'd been injured in the line of duty was all she had to console herself. What had Shikamaru been thinking? What had Temari been thinking? Hot tears scalded the inside of her eyelids and she buried her head farther under the cheap hospital pillow.

It figured that the one boy she really wanted to think well of her was the only one who could make her cry.

She really did feel horrible, it seemed as if every pore on her body had been picked apart and clumsily reassembled. She was considered one of the lucky though, at least she wasn't in the same state as her parents, or Aburame Shibi. The thought of the current, impossible situation was almost too much and older, more painful memories were quick to surface. Her lips trembled and she pressed them tightly together, willing herself to think of something, anything but that…

Asuma sensei.

She'd never properly mourned the man she considered her second father. It had been easier and more productive to seek revenge, band together with Shikamaru and Chouji and rush off after the people responsible for their loss. She was kidding herself, however, if she thought that had been enough.

Once the tears got started it was awfully hard to stop them.

"You're crying?" The deep voice was a rude reminder that she didn't have her own room.

"Obviously." Struggling to regain control, Ino sat up and rubbed her eyes hard. "It's been awhile." The excuse was a lame one, but what else was she really supposed to say?

It was true though, the last time she'd cried had to be at least four or five years ago when she'd found out that her teammates had left without her to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke. Her parents had thought she'd been upset about Sasuke's defection and she'd let them think that, but it wasn't the real reason.

That Shikamaru considered her too weak to include on his team had hit her like a shuriken in the chest.

Miserably she wondered what he must think of her now.

"Nara upset you that much?" Shino was watching her, probably gauging whether he should call the nurse.

"Yes…no…both." Ino sighed, "I really blew that, didn't I?'

"You should have complied with Nara's questioning." Shino assessed, "He was only doing his job."

"Oh, so pandering to that sand kunoichi is his job is it?"

The Aburame regarded her carefully. "I don't think you're being fair to Nara. He's never shown you any ill will."

"I don't expect you to understand how I feel." She snapped, but regretted doing so right away. "Shino, this isn't a good time for me."

"I understand. I haven't had the best day myself."

Well of course he hadn't. In the past 24 hours Shino had defeated his father in battle, watched the man go crazy, been afflicted with the same serum that had caused his father's break down and now he was stuck in a close quarters with one of Konoha's most temperamental women. It was not what anyone would consider a good time.

And yet he was making an effort to talk to her and she appreciated it. The least she could manage was to be civil. Banishing the last of the traitorous tears from her eyes, Ino sighed.

"Shino, do you think I'm weak?"

It was a loaded question, so she had to give him credit for answering at all. "At the moment, emotionally, yes you are." He replied after a pause.

"I meant in general, as a kunoichi."

She waited while he thought about it. "Your jutsus are not conducive to intense battle situations." Shino said finally. "You seem competent at taijutsu but not to the point where you can cover your weakness effectively. If you trained more, perhaps you could begin to make up for it, but at the moment, no."

"I see." It was a harsh assessment, but Ino had asked for it. He hadn't lied either. Shino had told her the truth.

He surprised her by continuing. "On the other hand, in the area of espionage and spying Yamanaka skills are unparalleled. In terms of mental power and manipulation you and your father are this village's finest. Even the Hokage recognized this. Everyone agrees you did very well last night."

"The…they do?" His praise stunned her. Sure, she'd been hoping to hear at least something positive, but not on that scale. Certainly not from Shino. "Thank you."

"I'm only stating the facts."

"Thank you anyway." A small smile sprang to her lips. "You didn't do too badly yourself."

His eyebrows raised a bit at the compliment, but there was no other reaction. "You will have to comply to Nara's questioning when he returns, regardless of whether the sand nin is with him or not."

"I know." Ino's brow furrowed at the thought of facing the two of them. If she knew Shikamaru, which she did, he was mad as hell right now and would probably not be kind on his return. Humiliation awaited her. Ino sighed.

Maybe now was a good time to take a nap.

It was well past seven in the evening by the time Shikamaru arrived home. Sighing wearily he kicked off his sandals at the door, stepping up onto the polished wooden floor of the entryway. What he wouldn't give for two hours of down time, to collapse on his bed and stay there without having to worry about the approaching apocalypse of Konoha, but no, he had to be born with a high IQ and the inability to resist pushy women.

He was going to blame his father for that latter attribute.

"I'm home." He called out to the silent house. He could faintly detect the sound of cooking coming from the kitchen, which meant…

"Shikamaru!" His mother rounded the corner, a pair of long cooking chopsticks in her hand. "Welcome back!"

"Thanks mom." He let her hug him, briefly relaxing in the familiar embrace. "I'm sorry I didn't come home last night…"

"Your father explained everything." She told him, she took in his dirty appearance. "I wouldn't let you get away with it normally, but this is a special circumstance. Come in and get something to eat, you look exhausted."

"I can't stay." He told her, "I have to get back to the hospital."

"Not right now you don't. The Hokage can wait until you've had a proper meal and a few hours of sleep." Yoshino began pulling him forward. "If she has a problem with that she can talk to me."

If such a confrontation was allowed to take place there would be nothing of Konoha left for Lightning Country to destroy. "It's not for the Hokage." He told her, "I have to talk to Ino and Shino. Temari and I stopped by to interview them earlier, but Ino…it wasn't a good time to talk."

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place?" Yoshino smiled. "Ino's here."

"I…what?" He stared at his mother. "Did you say Ino's here?"

"In the kitchen." The cooking chopsticks flourished towards the aforementioned room. "I picked her up from the hospital this afternoon. Poor dear, it's a shame about her parents. Your father is worried sick about Inoichi, not that he'd admit to it, the stubborn git…"

Of all the people Shikamaru was unable to keep up with in a conversation, his mother was number one. Many in Konoha wondered how someone as outgoing and forceful as Yoshino could have produced a son as retiring and unmotivated as Shikamaru. It was true, Shikamaru was Shikato's mirror image, but what many people didn't know was that when either of the Nara men needed to talk, really talk, Yoshino was the only one they went to. This may have also been partially due to the fact that if she knew either was harboring a secret no amount of smarts in the world could stand in the way of her extracting the information. Shikamaru had often wondered if Shikato had been fast-talked into marriage.

His mother was still talking, something about life-long bonds and loyalty, a tangent far different from his current thought processes. There was no point trying to catch up to her train of thought. "Is Shino here too?"

"Shibi's boy?" Yoshino gave her son a once-over. "Why in the world would Aburame's son be here? This isn't a hotel Shikamaru, I'm sure he'll be much more comfortable at his own home. Are you feeling alright? You look horrible."

"Thanks mom." He held his hands up. "Just…explain again, why is Ino in the kitchen?" Unless the blonde was laying in wait to shred him to pieces for whatever he'd done earlier in the day he couldn't think of a single reason why she would choose to spend the evening with Nara Yoshino.

Then again, they were actually pretty similar personality types. Heaven forbid the two of them ever teamed up.

"You haven't been listening to a single word I've said!" The chopsticks contacted hard with the top of his head. "There is far too much of your father in you Shikamaru, and after all my hard work…"

"Mom? Mom please…" He rubbed his head ruefully. "Explain again."

Yoshino sighed. "I told you dear, when you and Ino were born we named the Yamanakas as your legal guardians should your father and I die while you're still underage, and they did the same. Ino isn't 20 yet, so we're merely acting on the Yamanaka's wishes."

"The Yamanakas aren't dead." Shikamaru glanced towards the kitchen, wondering if Ino was eavesdropping. She had a tendency towards that. "The Hokage is confident they'll recover once she has time to work on them."

"Well of course they aren't dead." Yoshino replied, a bit too loudly in Shikamaru's opinion. "But Ino was scheduled for release from the hospital this afternoon and that nice Haruno Sakura came by to ask for my help. Ino needs to be under surveillance, just in case they didn't catch all of the hormone. They could hardly send her home to that empty flower shop. Our names are on the legal papers, so we're the logical choice."

"I see." So that was the way of things, was it? Well that saved him a trip to the hospital at least. It also meant he'd be living in close quarters with the girl for the next few days, which would be fine unless she was still mad at him. Regardless, it would give him a chance to make sure she didn't get herself into trouble during the coming battle. The thought made him feel slightly better.

He wasn't about to let the Hokage use Ino for her badly-planned ideas again.

"Go in and get something to eat." Yoshino ordered him. "And be nice to Ino, she's had a bad day."

"And I haven't?" He muttered, ducking as the chopsticks swung again. "Where are you going?"

"To get the guest room ready." She shooed him off. "Now go, she's probably wondering where everyone's gone."

Taking heart in the thought that he was on his home turf, Shikamaru walked into the kitchen. It was the largest room in the house, separated from the living room by only a sliding door which currently stood open. A long wooden table dominated the space, surrounded by chairs and covered with a neat white cloth. Shikamaru had often complained that the piece of furniture was much too large for their modest, three person family, but it stayed, entirely due to the fact that his mother considered it part of his future inheritance and would hear of no one moving the blasted thing. Only half of it was used for dining, the other half cluttered with papers, various books and, as always, his shogi board.

He'd wanted to banish the board to some dusty closet after the funeral, not wanting the constant reminder of what had been lost. However, in a rare instance of forcefulness, Shikato would hear nothing of it. "Leave the board." His father had told him, hands shoved deep into his pockets. "Reminders, no matter how painful, are necessary. Without them we'd have no memories. Without memories, few of us can remember who we are."

And so the shogi board remained.

Ino was sitting at the far end of the table, facing him over a half-finished bowl of miso soup. She blinked innocently at him, "Oh! Shikamaru…"

"You heard everything didn't you?" He sank down into the chair kitty-corner from her. "I know you were listening Ino, so don't pretend."

"It's really irritating how you always know everything." She huffed, "Of all the people in Konoha, why did you have to get the highest IQ?" This was said with no malice, it was an old retort in fact, as comfortable for Shikamaru to hear as it was for Ino to say.

"It didn't take smarts to figure it out." He helped himself to his own bowl of soup. "You're just predictable."

"I am not predictable." Ino replied, but she didn't push the argument any farther and Shikamaru let it drop, as usual. He gulped his soup down and helped himself to seconds. His mother would be happy, she approved of healthy appetites. Drinking down his next bowl at a less-desperate pace he took a moment to watch the girl across from him.

Asides from a slight palor, there was no evidence that she'd been through an intense, healing procedure less than a day before. She was also back to wearing her normal clothes, having presumably ditched the hospital gown back in the ICU. Scabs from cuts she'd received while in her father's mind ran up and down her arms, but all were healing well. Yes, Ino looked like she was going to be fine. So what, he wondered, was wrong with this picture?

It came to him as he watched her pick up the same piece of seaweed for the fifth time with nervous movements.

Ino wasn't talking.

This was, strategically, a very difficult situation. After years of interaction with the blond Shikamaru was well aware that one badly-phrased inquiry could bring all the furies and fires of hell down onto his poor, undeserving head. To not inquire was potentially dangerous as well, since it would be interpreted not as fear, but as disinterest.

Buying himself time, he filled his mouth with salty broth from his bowl. Just how should he breach this silence? An apology was usually the safest way of disarming the situation, but what was he apologizing for? Shikamaru thought back to their earlier encounter, where exactly had it all gone wrong? He'd walked into the room, said hello to Shino…

She saved him by speaking first. "I'm sorry." The abused shred of seaweed was being ground against the bottom of her bowl. "For earlier."

An apology from Ino? That was rare indeed. And unexpected. Shikamaru didn't say anything right away, sensing that more was coming. He was right.

"I wasn't feeling well." She rushed on, words blending together. "So it was a bad time, but I should have cooperated so…sorry."

"It's fine." He said. Maybe Ino was not as well as she looked, for her to apologize twice in a matter of 10 seconds was not only rare, it was worrisome. He and Chouji might groan about it to all of their friends, but Ino's fierce, unrepentant nature was simultaneously exasperating and endearing. She must have been shaken badly from her experience the night before. He almost continued, beginning to say how glad he was she had come through okay, starting to tell her never to scare Chouji and him like that again, but stopped himself. He was in no position to say such things.

If a shinobi wore his heart on his sleeve he was certain to lose it.

Instead, he stood, taking both his and her bowls to the sink. There was no use in letting her permanently embed seaweed into his mother's lacquer ware. He'd be the one cleaning it out anyway. She moved to help, snatching a damp cloth from the sideboard to wipe down the table.

With their fathers on the same team, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino had been shuttled between the three houses for babysitting, gatherings, and meetings from a very young age. They were all as comfortable at each other's houses as they were at their own.

"You did a good job with shintenshin." He stacked dirty dishes in the neat piles his mother demanded. "The information your father had for Tsunade was invaluable."

A smile sprang to her lips. "I did do a good job, didn't I? Shino said everyone was talking about it."

"Did he?" Shino had said that? The idea of him and Ino chatting alone in their hospital room was…odd. He wondered who had started the conversation. What else had they talked about? The sight of Shino's dark sunglasses in contrast to the pale hospital room stuck in his mind. The younger Aburame was serious, methodical, and a powerful fighter. Ino was none of those things. So what had they found in common to talk about during their hours of recovery?

Why did he care?

"Yep. He's not as creepy as you would think." She continued, catching her slip before he did. "Not that you'd think he's creepy…you guys are friends right?"

"Yeah." Were they friends? Maybe. As close to friends as one got with Shino anyway. "I'll need to talk to you two tomorrow, the sand nin need to be prepped for what's coming and at this moment you and Shino are the only two who've faced down this serum."

"Right." She paused. "Is…uh…is Temari going to be there?"

"Temari? Yeah, she's coming." He was surprised Ino knew the sand kunoichi's name. They hadn't had extensive contact with each other as far as he could recall. "You remember her?"

"Of course." Ino was looking at him strangely. "From the first chuunin exams, and operation 'Return a Favor'."

"Oh that's right. So you two know each other, good, that means you'll get along then."

Ino coughed suddenly and he raised an eyebrow. "You're not getting sick are you?"

"No, no, I'm fine." She waved him off and walked to the doorway. "Just tired. I'm in the guest room, right?"

"It's the room across from mine." He directed, "Second on the left."

"Okay. Good night."

Shikamaru watched her climb the stairs, before turning back to the sink. For a moment he considered finishing the dishes before shoving the idea out of his head. He had a long day ahead of him, and he'd never been one for voluntarily doing chores anyway.

Shoving his hands into his pockets he reviewed everything he knew about the coming conflict. Lightning Country was determined to take Konoha down and had the equipment to do so. Shikamaru was equally determined not to let that happen. Their motive was shaky, in his opinion. No country would risk angering a village as powerful as Konoha over something as trivial as natural resources. He would have to ask Ino to repeat what Inoichi had said verbatim. If needed, he'd assemble a team to further investigate the matter. Did they have time? There was so much to be arranged…

Konoha wouldn't fall, not on his watch.

As Shikamaru walked past the table the shogi board caught his eye and he paused momentarily before moving one delicate pawn piece forward, the first move he'd played in many long months.

Let the game begin.