Troublesome Fate
By: Lone Ronin
Author's Notes: Here it is, the first taste of NejiShika, as well as the backgrounds of various characters revealed through strategically placed dreams and flashbacks, heh.
Part 6: Casting Light on Darkness
"It's gone." Neji finally said as he tracked the movements of the pieces down the river with his Byukugan.
"For now it is, it's possible to summon him again though, with the right knowledge." Subatsu explained as the teams regrouped.
"Subatsu-sensei!" Gai greeted his former teacher with an excited bear hug.
"It's good to see you again, Gai. I'm glad you're doing well." The old veteran choked out.
"I thought the skill of my team would be enough to kill that creature, but it wasn't enough, Teacher. I'm glad to see you're still passing your knowledge on to others, you're still youthful at heart!"
"This guy's really, really weird." Roka whispered to Yumi.
"Don't be hard on yourself Gai, it's more a matter of knowing how to fight it then a matter of skill." His old teach reassured him.
"You trained Gai-sensei? That's amazing!" Lee seemed just as happy as Gai to meet Subatsu.
"It's good to meet you." Tenten said with a respectful bow.
"Thank you, your weaponry skills are quite impressive." Tenten blushed at his compliment before the old veteran turned to Neji.
"You're Hizashi's son."
"Yes, I saw you at my father's funeral." Neji said quietly.
'He is very much like Hizashi.' Subatsu felt his age catching up to him as he recalled all those years ago as a jounin teacher when he first took the sullen Hizashi and his brash twin brother Hiashi on as genin students.
Subatsu had trained many skilled shinobi in his time. It was almost twenty-five years ago that he first became a jounin teacher to his first genin team.12 year old Hizashi and Gai sparred as young academy graduates while Hiazshi's twin brother Hiashi looked on. Despite a valiant effort, Hizashi beat poor Gai into submission.
"I don't know why you waste your time, when you can't even use the most basic ninjutsu or genjutsu. How do you even think you could ever beat me if you can't even beat my younger brother?" Hiashi berated Gai.
"I'm going to go train more." Gai said dejectedly as he went off.
"I don't know why we got stuck with such a loser, he doesn't deserve to be called a shinobi." Hiashi remarked.
"Who do you think you are, Hyuuga Hiashi?" Subatsu cut in angrily as he finally arrived to start the lesson.
"I don't tolerate that kind of talk from anyone and I won't put up with my students treating their team members that way. Gai studied hard and graduated at the top of his class in the academy, he has just as much right to wear that hitai-ate and be on a team as you do." The jounin reprimanded.
"Who cares what marks he got at the academy? Being able to memorize every hand seal and jutsu type is no good to you if you can't use chakra. All that matters is how well you fight and do missions." Hiashi replied.
"Knowing the basics and understanding how your enemy fights is an important factor in combat." Subatsu replied.
"I can take down anyone in combat without using a single hand seal." Hiashi responded as he charged his teacher.
Hizashi looked on quietly as Subatsu dodged Hiashi's assault, gracefully twirling and jumping as he remained just out range of his Jyuken, then trapped him in a web of trap wire, adding insult to injury by hog tying Hiashi's hands to his ankles and stringing him up so he dangled at eye level from a tree.
"Consider this an important lesson for today. The Hyuuga clan is well known for their Jyuken. I knew the first thing you would rely on would be your bloodline ability and I know that the basic jutsus related to it have a short range. Life isn't what you get, it's what you make of it. You had better improve your attitude and be more respectful of your teammates in the future." Subatsu reprimanded his arrogant young charge.
Hizashi helped free his older brother as Subatsu left to speak to Gai, Hiashi spitting and snarling insults at his teacher's back the entire time.
"Don't let the Hyuuga twins get you down Gai-kun, the Main and Branch Houses of Hyuuga tend to think that they are better then others, since they and the Uchicha are one of the last noble houses left in Konoha."
"But how can I be a good ninja when I can hardly use any ninjutsu or genjutsu? I feel like I have to train ten times more then everyone else to be just as good." Gai answered stopped striking at the practice dummy and turned to his teacher.
Subatsu sat down next to his student and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back to reveal his features, youthful and unscarred at that time.
"Gai-kun, let me tell you a story. I traveled to many different places in a lot of missions before I became a jounin. In one city, I saw a track where they have races with special dogs that run very fast, people would bet huge fortunes on the outcome of a single race. In order to make sure the dogs stay focused and motivated and run their hardest to the finish line, they use a special trick. They run a lure in front of the dog, that's always just out of reach. So if you always set a small goal just out of your reach, you'll always do your best until you see the finish line."
"I have a goal, but everyone laughs at me when I say what it is."
"You can tell me, I promise I won't laugh."
"I want to be better then Hatake Kakashi."
"You mean Kakashi the genius copy ninja, who trained under Yondaime, knows a thousand different jutsus and became a chuunin at the age of nine?" Subatsu asked, knowing the various titles that everyone called his friend by.
"Yes." Gai answered with a sad look, expecting his teacher to laugh like everyone else.
"Well, it doesn't matter if people laugh, does it? If you set a small goal for yourself every day, like trying to do fifty laps in a single training session, one day you'll reach your goal."
"Everyone says Kakashi is invincible."
"Kakashi is a good friend of mine, but he's still human, no one is invincible. Being able to beat him would make you an excellent ninja."
"You really think I can do it?" his face lit up.
"You can do anything if you put your mind to it." Subatsu's faith in him made Gai was so happy that tears started to stream down his face.
"You're the first person who thought I could do it and didn't laugh! I promise I'll train my hardest and I won't let you down!" Gai swept his teacher up in a bear hug.
The two teams made their way back to the post town they had originally met Anko in to rest with the other teams before the last part of the trip back to Konoha. Hours of asking and bartering around the hotels had turned up accommodations for the entire group. Everyone got ready for a much-needed bath, unaware they were being watched.
"Hee hee, there's some pretty girls in Tanaka today." Jiraiya the legendary sannin giggled to himself as he watched the girls going into the change rooms at the bathhouse through his telescope.
"Come on, Perverted Hermit. You promised you would help me work on my genjutsu dispel in five minutes, that was nearly an hour ago. You've been looking at girls all day." Naruto complained.
"Yes, but some really pretty girls ones just came into to take a bath. Why don't you go off and train by yourself for a bit?" Jiraiya rudely waved Naruto off before he turned back.
'I'll teach you a lesson.' Naruto thought as he transformed into a girl.
Shikamaru was just about to head for the bath when he heard a scream coming from the girl's changing area.
"There's a Peeping Tom up there!" a girl's voice screamed out before a mob of angry girls began chasing an old man with long white hair.
"Naruto!" Shikamaru recognized his old friend's favorite academy prank as a blonde girl with long hair broke off from the crowd with a smug smile.
"That'll teach the Perverted Hermit to go around peeking." Naruto laughed as he changed back to his normal form in a puff of smoke.
"I didn't know you were traveling too, Shika-kun."
He looked different from before. A little older in some ways with a new set of clothes, but it was still him. Yumi broke off from the mob and turned back to her teammate as Naruto chatted with his Shikamaru.
"I remember you, I helped bandage you at the hospital, I didn't know you were a friend of Shikamaru. Wow, you healed fast." The medic recognized Naruto and started pulling up the sleeves on his new outfit, amazed that there wasn't even a scar on him.
"Quit it, I'm perfectly fine! You picked a pretty weird girl to date, Shika, even for you." Naruto joked.
"Very funny. What are you doing here Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.
"Old Lady Tsunade put me on a long term mission but right now I'm looking for Perverted Hermit, he keeps promising to train me more, but whenever we get to a town he keeps sneaking off to look at more girls." Naruto pouted.
"You know, besides the fact that he is Jiraiya the legendary sannin, you really should have more respect your teacher that you're traveling with."
"No, he's right Shikamaru, that guy is a Perverted Hermit. After they treated your friends, he kept hitting on the nurses and female doctors before he left the hospital with Naruto, then in the bath houses, my best friend caught the dirty old bastard drilling a peep hole-" Yumi was about to launch into a laundry list of Jiraiya's misdeeds, when Hayataru approached the group.
"There you are, Yumi-chan, do you have any more oil of sweetflower for my throat?" he asked with a cough.
"It's in my large bag in my room. I'll meet you back at the hotel, Shika." Yumi turned to leave.
"If the other girls catch the Perverted Hermit, give him a kick for me." She added in a whisper before going with Hayataru, leaving Naruto and Shikamaru to talk.
"When are you coming back to Konoha?" Shikamaru asked Naruto.
"I don't know. I can't tell you about the mission, but it's going to take a long time."
"Naruto, since we might not see each other again for a while, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"The mission to get back Sasuke."
"Don't blame yourself for it, at least you got everyone else back okay." Naruto replied.
"Except Sasuke."
"I'll get him back."
"Sasuke's probably dead." Shikamaru said, trying to keep his voice down.
"No, he's alive." Naruto insisted stubbornly.
"How do you know?"
"Orochimaru promised Sasuke power, but he really wants Sasuke's body as a container. He can only perform the jutsu to do it every three years and he changed bodies before Sasuke reached him, there's still time, I've got another chance to get him back." The pain on Naruto's face at the mention of his old teammate told Shikamaru not to press him any further on the subject.
After he asked about how Kakashi, Iruka, Konohamaru, Sakura and the others were doing, Naruto ran off after his teacher, saying his goodbyes to Shikamaru.
"I'll get Sasuke back and then defeat Orochimaru! But first I have to find Perverted Hermit."
'So, Sasuke's probably still alive, something tells me Orochimaru isn't just going to sit around and do nothing for three years.' Shikamaru thought as he watched Naruto run off.
Shikamaru got back to the hotel after the girls abandoned their chase of the peeper as everyone started settling in for the night.
"Hey, old man." Kakashi spoke with Subatsu as sat in the crowded public bath, watching the younger shinobi bickering over towels and spots in the water.
"I'm only three years older then you and you know it." Subatsu replied as Kakashi sat next to him in the hot water.
"Thanks, for helping me with those creatures. I'm sorry I had that lapse back there, there's only so much a medic can do about it, you know. You should have left me behind, we almost had him." He continued.
"I've got my own set of chronic problems and I never leave anyone behind. You know that." Kakashi's answer left a moment of silence between them.
"You know, I was rather surprised to hear that Asuma specifically asked you to take on his former charge."
Subatsu flipped through his prospective new student's dossier as he spoke with Asuma about his proposal. He had heard that when Asuma had learned he was looking for a new chuunin for freelance missions abroad, the jounin had called in almost every favor and pleaded with as many people as he knew just to get Subatsu's attention. Asuma's suggestion wasn't completely unheard of, but it was usually done in special circumstances.
"You know it's really not a good idea to break up teams, especially after they've bonded."
"It won't be for too long, but I thought about it long and hard I think this will be for the best. His teammates are too dependent on him for leadership and direction, they need to be able to work in situations where he's not there." Asuma replied.
"Hm, some pretty dismal academy marks, rather inexperienced even by genin standards, obeys orders well, no infractions, so he was the one in charge of the group sent to get the Uchiha back. You know I only take on exceptional cases, what makes you think this will motivate him?" Subatsu asked, wondering why Asuma was asking him to consider this rookie chuunin whose record didn't look all that stellar on paper.
"If our ranks were better filled, it wouldn't matter that he's just content to coast, but Tsunade has made it clear if we're going to deal the Sound harassing the countryside and keep Konoha stable, that we need more skilled shinobi. Shikamaru's lazy, but he is responsible, I'm sure some missions abroad will help him realize what's at stake."
"I was a little unsure about him from reading his file, but Kotetsu did tell me about how he performed at the chuunin exam, and the blond girl from the Sand vouched for him before leaving, I'd say he has potential."
"I was rather surprised at how sheltered he seemed, but he seems to have proven himself well so far." Subatsu gave his assessment of his newest student.
"That's good to hear, my sources have been telling me the recent problems we've been having probably aren't going away any time soon."
"Perfect timing, just as I was hoping to retire and sleep the days away."
"You should try and find someone, it will make you feel younger." Kakashi suggested as he opened his book and started reading.
"I'm too old for intimate entanglements, emotional or physical, I just prefer to risk my sanity at this point training chuunin. How do you keep up with that young academy teacher?"
"I manage. I manage very well, in fact."
"Youth is wasted on the young." Subatsu muttered, knowing Kakashi had a sly smile under his mask.
"Quite." Kakashi noted as they watched Gai's over exuberance unnerving some of the other bathers.
"Hey Asahi, I heard that you're seeing that bitch with the big set of melons, Tamizuru." Commented Genki, one of Hayataru's teammates, as the four of them sat together in the bath.
"Dude Asahi, you're hitting that waitress at the barbecue restaurant? You better make sure you get some rubbers from Yumi before you get the clap." Heiki, Genki's twin brother and their fourth team member remarked.
"Yeah man, I heard she gets around more then your mom!" Genki added before snatching Asahi's towel as the twins broke out in laughter together.
"Give me back my towel, you little pig fucker!" Asahi chased Genki angrily.
Neji stood in the water nearby, not really listening to the conversation between Hayataru's team. His mind was working like an abacus as he plotted how he could run away. He had made up his mind that this was his best chance being this far from Konoha and having a large amount of provisions available. He knew that their sleeping arrangements were two to a room, he decided his best strategy was to drug his roommate and then slip away into the night, when everyone was relaxed and tired and full of food, it was just a matter of whom.
The older chuunin and jounin were out of the question, they probably had some training in detecting drugs. Lee knew him too well, his teammate would probably realize that something was amiss if he were suddenly nice to him and offered him a drink. The bird summoner Roka was unpredictable and didn't seem to trust him at all, going out of his way to avoid Neji, but every now and then looking at him. That sickly captain Hayataru was constantly bothering that female medic for medicines, as were the rest of his teammates for various other problems, he knew she might check up on one of them in the night, they all seemed close.
Then he noticed Shikamaru quietly soaking in an out of the way spot. It wasn't his first choice for a roommate to try and outsmart; he remembered how observant Shikamaru was from their mission to retrieve Sasuke. His skill at shogi and success at the chuunin exams also showed his analytical skills. But he also knew that Shikamaru wasn't unbeatable, Neji did occasionally manage to beat him at shogi when they played in the hospital. Even though Shikamaru didn't know him that well, he did know him well enough to trust him and lower his guard. Besides that, he was quiet and undemanding.
"Hey there." Shikamaru greeted Neji as he approached.
After cleaning up the group began sorting out sleeping arrangements. The female ninjas had no trouble agreeing who would share which rooms since there wasn't very many of them. But the males couldn't stop bickering over who would share with 2 beds to a room.
"What's the matter now, Hayataru?" Roka asked as the captain refused the latest sleeping arrangements that included sharing a room with him.
"The recent tests from my doctor said that I'm allergic to feathers."
"You're allergic to everything."
"Be quiet all of you! I'll decide the sleeping arrangements!" No one objected as Subatsu finally roared out and restored order.
Shikamaru decided to just quietly wait it out and go with whoever was left, not giving a word of protest when Neji volunteered to be his roommate.
'Don't let it happen all over again, I'm just being paranoid.' Roka told himself as he watched Neji again making a deliberate move to befriend Shikamaru out of the corner of his eye.
But no matter what he told himself, the Incident came back to him.
Roka bounded up the steps of the Academy with the cake Yumi had helped him bake, a gift for his favorite teacher. He hadn't been back in a while, but he could still find his teacher's office without trying. He was surprised to open the door to Mizuki's classroom, only to find his older brother Kotetsu and his brother's co-worker/secret boyfriend, Izumo substituting for the day.
"Where's Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei?"
"We were told they were injured last night, they're at the hospital." His older brother told him.
He rushed to the hospital just in time to run into a bandaged Iruka speaking with Sandaime.
"Iruka-sensei, what happened to you? Where's Mizuki-sensei? Is he all right?" Roka could tell something was very wrong when Iruka hesitated to tell him.
"It's all right, Iruka, you can tell him." Sandaime reassured him.
Roka was shocked to learn that his old Academy teacher had actually tried to steal something from the Hokage's office, then attempted to kill his co-worker and a student before being caught.
"I feel like all those good memories I have from school were one big lie."
"Don't take it personally, Roka, Mizuki was a good person, maybe one day he'll realize his mistake." Iruka did his best to comfort him.
There was one question Roka had for Iruka as his thank you gift for his old teacher suddenly became a get well present for Iruka.
"Was the genin some kid with an orange jacket?"
"How did you know?"
"I saw Mizuki talking to him the other day. I thought it was strange because I never saw him speak with that kid before, but I didn't think much of it at the time."
"I got Anko-san, who's your roommate Roka? What's wrong?" The worried look on Roka's face told Yumi that he had seen something unnerving.
"You notice that Neji guy seems rather aloof most of the time, even with his own teammates?"
"Shikamaru told me they did a major mission together, but he never indicated they were that friendly." Yumi answered as she did her best to try and watch them chat without looking directly at them as Shikamaru laughed at some remark Neji had made.
"I fear it too." Yumi whispered to her teammate, Roka nodded, knowing the one word on both of their minds concerning those close to them.
Shikamaru was unaware of his teammate's pasts and the traitors they had once known and trusted with their lives. For Yumi it had been her cousin Kabuto, Roka his old teacher Mizuki, for Subatsu, Orochimaru…
"Are you two all right?" Subatsu asked his students.
"Betrayal." Roka mouthed.
"Keep an eye on them then." Subatsu mouthed back, before leaving so as not to bring attention to them.
With everything finally worked out for the night, there was really nothing for them to do except enjoy the marketplace until dinner. As Shikamaru's team walked with Anko, Kakashi and Hayataru's team, a group of people in strange clothes approached them and greeted the jounin. Subatsu gave them a package of chewing tobacco and Kakashi offered them some scrolls and brushes as gestures of goodwill, which the leader of the group accepted and placed into his pouch.
"Who are these people?"
"They're a nomadic tribe that has good relations with Konoha, they're a valuable source of intelligence in the South of Fire country." Kakashi answered.
"They're willing to give us information that might be helpful, but it seems they only really want to speak with jounin and chuunin captains. In their culture, it's considered proper for leaders to sit and discuss important matters in long drawn out meetings."
"Do you need us for anything?" Roka asked.
"No, they know Kakashi and Anko and I have met them several times myself. It would probably just be best for all of you to go and enjoy the market. Just report back to me if you see anything important."
As the teams broke up and spread out around the area looking at the strange wares, Shikamaru's team saw one particular booth in the food section that caught their eye, where there was lots of tiny octopus swimming around in a tank.
"Would you like one? They're a delicacy." Said the vendor.
They each bought one and watched him pluck them out of the tank, expecting him to stick them on a grill after he cut off their tiny beaks on a chopping block and impaled each creature on a sharp bamboo skewer. But instead he just dipped each one in a little sauce and handed them their own octopus, still wriggling and very much alive on its skewer. The three of them looked sick for a moment.
"Are you going to eat that?" a local boy asked the team as he passed by.
Shikamaru gave his to the boy, who promptly bit into the head as he walked off eating his free meal. Yumi did the same thing, but Roka just hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and sank his teeth in, trying his best to bite off a piece of the tough, live octopus flesh. After some pulling and struggling he managed to tear off a tentacle and proceeded to chew before freaking out.
"The sucker's stuck to my tongue!" he cried out with a lisp as he tried to pull off the stuck tentacle.
"You're supposed to eat the head first." The vendor only now explained.
"Timing is everything." Roka lisped, his tongue still decorated with his would-be lunch as his team finally couldn't hold back their laughter any longer.
While Yumi, Roka and Shikamaru seemed to be avoiding problems for the most part, Neji's team just couldn't stay out of trouble. After Gai gave them a huge motivational speech about enjoying their youth before meeting with the older shinobi and nomads, he gave his students free reign around the market. As Neji, Lee and Tenten walked through the streets, Tenten suddenly screamed before whirling around and punching a man behind her.
"He groped me!" Tenten was outraged and prepared to pull a kunai.
"Remember Gai-sensei's instructions, we can't make a scene." Lee's advice made Tenten put back her kunai and they quietly slipped off, leaving the groper with a bloody nose.
Neji seemed to be wandering aimlessly, even though he was really making a mental map of the fastest way out of town under the cover of night. They walked a little further down the alley, where an old man with a cage of little brightly colored birds and a box of papers called out to them.
"Would you like to have my birds tell you your fortune?" the old man asked.
"I don't believe in that stuff." Neji answered.
"You can tell me my fortune." Lee said excitedly as he held out his money.
"I'd like a fortune too, here Neji, I got one for you, they don't cost that much." Tenten paid for two fortunes as the old man took a bird from his cage and it chose a paper from the box to present to each of them.
"Great riches and successes await you in your career." Tenten read aloud.
"Mine says 'Dream of love, but also stay awake and pursue it', that means Sakura-chan will fall in love with me, I just have to keep charming her!" Lee's fortune made his eyes shimmer.
Neji quietly looked at his fortune.
'Your life is 99 percent fate, the other 1 percent is hope, guiding you.'
Neji almost laughed at the irony, but before he could say anything, Lee accidentally bumped into a display of fruit and caused it to collapse. They quickly ran off with the vendor yelling curses at them as a crowd rushed in to grab what they could in the confusion.
"I don't think we're in the marketplace anymore." Said Tenten after they ran a few blocks away from the crowd.
It seemed they had wandered beyond the colorful vendors and shops and banners. This other section of town had some signs, but the buildings were old and in shabby condition. The streets didn't have wood floors either, it was just dirt. The people had different clothes and there were beggars everywhere, it was like they were in another town entirely.
'What a filthy looking area.' Neji thought to himself as they turned to leave.
"What do you think you're doing standing around and chatting, you're supposed to be working!" Neji half ignored the shouting of two older men until he realized they were addressing him.
"What do you want?" Neji asked as he turned around to face them, they stopped in their tracks.
"He's not one of ours." One of the men with a big gash on his face said.
"Are you sure? I only started being a bouncer last week." The other replied, he seemed to be the dumber of the two.
"With the way business has been? If he were one of ours, we'd be the busiest place on the street. But if he's that good looking he must belong to someone."
Lee and Tenten had no idea what the bouncers were talking about, but Neji was enraged; they thought he was a prostitute, someone who sold themselves for money.
"I don't belong to anyone!" Neji snapped.
"He probably ran away, let's take him back so we can get a reward." The bouncers made the big mistake of reaching out to try and grab Neji.
"You look stressed out Shikamaru-kun, I just made tea, why don't you have some?" Yumi offered before she went upstairs to get something from her bag.
"Thanks." Said Shikamaru as he picked up an empty cup.
Yumi and Shikamaru had finished shopping early and gone back to the hotel to put away their purchases and make sure they had arrangements for dinner. Hayataru had asked for more medicine and Shikamaru didn't really see anything that he had wanted to buy, while Roka had decided to stay out a little bit longer with everyone else who was still shopping.
"Oh, don't drink that green stuff in the pot, you're just supposed to breathe in the fumes. It's aromatherapy for Hayataru." Yumi called down from upstairs.
"No problem." Said Shikamaru, he couldn't figure out why Gekkou was constantly able to take in those medicines, they looked so disgusting.
"When do we get to eat? I'm hungry." asked Roka as he entered the dining area and put down the items he had bought.
"Everyone else is still at the market, just sip some tea for now." Yumi called out while still upstairs.
Shikamaru turned to Roka to see him with a spoon at the green liquid in the pot.
"Hey, pea soup."
"Don't eat that." said Shikamaru.
"Yeah, yeah, we have to wait on everyone, I know." Roka answered as he popped the spoon into his mouth.
"Actually it's medicine for Gekkou." Shikamaru said, too late, as Roka grabbed a handkerchief to spit it out into.
"What's in that stuff!" the older chuunin cried out.
"Let's see, tiger bones, crushed millworms, moss of moonflower, cowslip, locust wings…" said Yumi as she came down the steps.
"Forget it, can I just have something to get the taste out of my mouth?" Roka asked, looking sick.
Shikamaru passed Roka a cup of tea.
"Better?" he asked lazily.
"Yeah, thanks. Hey, the bats on this cup look like the ones on that talisman Shikamaru picked up." Roka commented after chugging the tea.
"Oh, you don't know? The people in this village worship bats, they believe they bring good luck. They also make a lot of money selling raw guano from the bat caves nearby or converting it into pottery like the tea cups." Yumi said as she came down the stairs. She had made a point to read about the area the night before they had left for the mission.
"Guano, what's that?" asked Roka.
"Bat droppings." Said Shikamaru.
"Great, I got a baby octopus stuck to my tongue, I just ate some green crud full of crushed up bugs and bones, then I drank out of a piece of pottery made of bat shit. This place is just the bedrock of the culinary arts." Roka groused.
"No one made you eat that octopus and Shikamaru told you not to eat Hayataru's medicine, so that's your own fault. As for the pottery, it's only got some guano mixed with the clay as a stabilizer and it's been fired in a kiln, so it's not going to hurt you." Yumi lectured him.
"Ugh, I can't wait until we get back to Konoha."
The peace was wrecked as a loud crashing noise was heard in the distance. A few moments later, Neji, Tenten and Lee suddenly burst into the hotel, unhurt but looking a little disturbed.
"What happened to you?" Shikamaru asked.
Neji stormed up to his room and shut the door.
"We went to the bad part of town by mistake and some guys mistook Neji for a prostitute before he threw them into the side of a building." Tenten explained.
"Please don't tell our Gai-sensei, he would be so upset if he knew we saw such a place." Lee looked ready to cry from embarrassment.
"Why did they think Neji was a prostitute?" Shikamaru asked.
Roka and Yumi almost fell over laughing.
"When a male under twenty keeps his hair any longer then shoulder length around these parts, that's the mark of a whore, and I thought Roka had it bad with the octopus incident." Yumi explained.
"Octopus incident?" Tenten asked.
"You don't want to know." Roka rolled his eyes.
After dinner, while everyone relaxed in the lobby of the hotel talking, Shikamaru snuck upstairs and started digging around in the bag with Yumi's books. He hated to admit it, but he really wanted to read more of that yaoi manga. He had always known that he was different in some way ever since he was young and learning about Yumi's odd reading habits left no doubts in his mind about why, it really explained a lot.
"If you wanted to read more of my manga, why didn't you just say so?" Yumi had gone upstairs to get more medicine for Hayataru and started giggling as Shikamaru jumped, caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.
"You're nearly as bad as Kakashi-sempai when I got him into reading the Icha Icha series, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, here, these are some of my favorites." Yumi handed him some books.
By now Shikamaru figured Yumi was the least troublesome person to be around out of all the people he was currently working with, so for a while they just sat around on the balcony of Yumi's hotel room and read manga. Of course, she had a little bit of everything from stuff about cute little animals, to some, well, not so innocent topics.
"How can anyone get excited about being tied up and whipped?" Shikamaru blushed as he flipped though one of the more edgy manga at Yumi's encouragement.
"Some people are into that, I also read some people are into stranger stuff, like the shape of feet-"
"Stop! Too much information!" Shikamaru's face got even redder.
"You know, you're really different from other guys." Yumi laughed.
"I hope you don't mind me hanging around you so much, you're just the least troublesome to be around right now, besides Neji."
"Don't feel bad Shikamaru-kun, this is a lot of fun, it's kind of like being with one of my girlfriends." Yumi's comment made Shikamaru tense in utter mortification.
"What's wrong?" the medic asked.
"It's nothing, I'm going to my room." Shikamaru answered, the truth being that knowing he liked other guys made him really paranoid about looking sissy or effeminate.
On the way out, Shikamaru passed Roka, who was leaning against the wall and chewing something.
"You look tense." He said as he offered Shikamaru some candy.
"Oh, here I borrowed these, I was teaching Yumi how to play earlier today, hope you don't mind." Roka added as he gave Shikamaru back his shogi set that the bats had given him.
Roka gave Yumi a concerned look as Shikamaru went to his room.
"We'll just keep an eye on them." The medic whispered.
Neji and Shikamaru began playing shogi as everyone began settling in for the night. Shikamaru was confident and relaxed, having completed a mission successfully and feeling certain about his abilities as a chuunin, while inside Neji was having an attack of conscience. His original plan of gaining Shikamaru's trust to drug him so he could run away had backfired.
He had spent most of the day talking to Shikamaru and now found himself so fond of his company to the point that he didn't want to hurt him and was even having second thoughts about abandoning Konoha. He had internally debated over what he was about to do even as he had started rubbing the sleeping medicine into the cup. Shikamaru seemed to like spending time with him as well, and suddenly the idea of going back home and dealing with his family actually looked somewhat tolerable if it meant he could see Shikamaru more often. But this was his best chance to leave, no one was really watching him and all he had to do was get Shikamaru to take the drugs. If he didn't go now, what did it mean he was going to miss out on?
"Hey, what's this?" Neji took the book Shikamaru had carried back to the room without realizing it.
"Oh, that's one of Yumi's." Shikamaru felt a little awkward as Neji started flipping through it, even though he didn't seem disturbed at all by the content.
"These guys look like Naruto and Sasuke."
"I know." Shikamaru replied, the heat rising in his face a bit.
Neji looked up and panicked when Shikamaru began pouring tea into the cup with the sedatives and raising it to his lips. Thinking quickly, Neji pretended he had spotted a shogi move and brought his hand up fast to knock the tea out of Shikamaru's hand and into his lap.
Shikamaru quickly jumped up and changed his pants, that tea was hot! In the middle of changing, he glanced at Neji and realized that his eyes had instinctively flickered, um, downwards. They both looked at each other for a moment and blushed at the awkward moment.
"What was that?" Upon hearing Yumi's scream in the darkness outside, Shikamaru put on his other set of pants and jumped out the window without a second thought.
"Come on Yumi, hurry back, where the hell are you?" Roka muttered to himself as he watched over his teammate.
Not trusting Neji and unsure of his intentions, they were worried that Shikamaru was at risk, they had stayed near their teammate's room to make sure he was okay. Roka had sent Taki to out the window at the end of the hall to watch Neji and Shikamaru's window when Yumi had left Roka alone to help Hayataru when he woke up coughing and looking for more medicine so that the sickly shinobi wouldn't give them away.
"I thought Hayataru would never stop coughing, how's everything going now?" Yumi finally came back.
Taki flew into the window and reported to Roka
"Taki says it doesn't look like he needs our help, but he says he saw something strange outside."
Roka led the way around the building as Yumi trailed behind before something grabbed her ankle.
Neji landed on the ground next to Shikamaru in the same chilly dense fog that had hampered his bloodline ability back at the quarry. Roka called out his crows and vines as Yumi stabbed a kunai into the ground as a handle to try and prevent whatever had a hold of her from dragging her away.
"Crows, protect Yumi!" Roka threw caution and a ninja's normal discretion to the wind as a swarm of loud birds defended his teammate.
The skinny chuunin struck out with his whip to snag Yumi's arm as he threw a kunai at whatever was trying to abduct her. It promptly let go of Yumi and flashed at Roka as he dodged it, escaping by a hair. The commotion woke up everyone and whatever was attacking backed off into the shadows as the lights came on in all the nearby buildings.
The less experienced chuunin stumbled around, still half asleep and confused. The experienced jounin and chuunin captains who slept with their weapons next to them and at least one eye open out of habit jumped out of their windows and into the fray armed to the teeth.
Neji channeled his chakra through his fingertips as Shikamaru wielded a kunai. Shikamaru managed to land a few glancing blows and Neji was able to detect it with Byakugan made a few lucky strikes, but he couldn't make out exactly what it was and nothing they did seemed to injure or slow the attacker as it literally ran circles around them.
By now they had the support of the other jounin, but it was too fast to hit with throwing weapons and seemed to dart everywhere at once in a blur. After a considerable chase, with parries and blows exchanged between creature and shinobi, Subatsu saw an opening and lashed out, feeling his blades cut and hearing an inhuman squeal before whatever it was ran further to the edge of town. The former ANBU fell over, weak from the exhaustion of the last few days, his age catching up to him. Gai was the only one fast enough to aid his former teacher, kicking it hard, fast and far into the brush with a roar but it was too dark to keep chasing it and long gone by the time everyone else had managed to get up.
"Damn, I'm losing it. I don't know if it was human, but whatever it was, I got a wack at it." Subatsu panted, exhausted as he wiped the blood off his blade, knowing enough to save it for analysis from his years of experience as an ANBU.
The surprise attack had sent the whole hotel into turmoil. Some shinobi agreed to watch on shifts for the rest of the night as others investigated the perimeters of the town to make sure everything was okay.
"Yumi?" Roka called out, feeling a little confused as he saw his teammate run towards the pond by the hotel's doors.
It was completely unlike her to just run off in a panic without checking to make sure everyone was all right. He knew her well enough that the first thing she did was help others who needed it. Instead he found her scrubbing her leg vigorously with a bar of special sterilizing soap from her medic kit.
"Yumi-chan, are you all right? What are you doing?"
"I'm not hurt, it's just that whatever touched me, it felt like it used to be human."
"What do you mean, 'used to be'?"
"It's hard to describe but when that thing touched me, I felt all funny inside. My leg felt so horrible and filthy, I just had to scrub it clean."
"Are you two all right?" Kakashi's sudden appearance made Roka jump.
"We're okay, Kakashi-sempai. Shikamaru and Neji-" he started.
"Pakkun's keeping an eye one them, everything's okay, I want to give you both something. Make sure no one else knows about them." He handed them each a sealed scroll.
"Learn the sealing and curse neutralizing jutsus in these scrolls, then destroy them. From what my sources have been telling me about the area, you may need them in the near future. I had hoped to teach these to my students, but I'm afraid that's not an option right now."
They quickly tucked the scrolls into the folds of their jackets, before Yumi started shivering.
"I feel strange." She said.
"Neji? Neji?" Shikamaru looked around, he'd lost sight of his roommate.
"You're looking for Neji?" Asahi asked.
"Where did he go?"
Asahi pointed towards the washrooms.
Shikamaru could hear the water running and saw steam coming from the doors, the water was so hot. He opened the door and was shocked to see Neji, who had stripped himself from the waist up and was now scrubbing himself vigorously with a thick lather of soap, as if he were preparing for an operation.
"What are you doing?"
"I felt really dirty after touching that, thing." Neji answered as he rinsed himself off before a cold feeling suddenly came over him.
"Your lips are going blue!" Shikamaru suddenly caught Neji as he collapsed, shivering.
Shikamaru dragged Neji up to their room and put him in his bed before running to get Yumi. He started banging frantically on the door and jumped back when Hayataru opened the door with his sword brandished.
"Will you quit that? Yumi's resting." Hayataru said with his raspy voice.
"Calm down, Hayataru." Roka pushed the captain back and came out of Yumi's room with her medic bag.
"Is Neji cold?" Roka asked as Shikamaru realized that whatever had happened to Neji from touching the creature was also affecting Yumi.
"Is Yumi okay?"
"She'll be fine, she's just resting and Hayataru's guarding her, he'd protect her with his life. Come on."
Shikamaru led Roka back to his room and let him treat Neji. Neji's lips went back to their normal color and his face smoothed out into a mask of calm as Roka put his hands over the other shinobi and performed Chiyute no Jutsu.
"I picked up a few pointers from Yumi, but she's still way better at it then me. Don't take this out, it will last about 2 hours and it's the last one." Roka commented while activating a hot pack from Yumi's kit and slipping it in the bed with Neji for added insurance.
"There, he should be fine by morning. Shit! How does she deal with this?" Roka suddenly grit his teeth and hissed in pain as the muscles in his fingers started to spasm and he instinctively curled them up to his body.
"I'll be fine, it's a side effect of the jutsu that you get if you haven't had a lot of specialized medic training to deal with it." Roka went to soak his hands in cold water to try and numb the pain, leaving Shikamaru with his unconscious roommate.
Shikamaru woke up in the middle of the night to the strangest sound. He opened his eyes and was alarmed to realize that Neji shivering violently with his teeth chattering caused the noise. The hot pack had worn off during the night and now he was so cold he wouldn't get up. Shikamaru quickly got up and looked for a hotel worker.
"Could I have an extra blanket? Hot water? Anything warm?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, we don't have any of those things left." The maid answered.
"How? You have to have something I can use."
"There have been shortages throughout the town because of the monsters. People have fled here for safety, the hotel's full of guests and it's hard to get supplies through because the caravans keep getting attacked. Our resources have been stretched to the limit, we're out of nearly everything."
Not wanting to waste any time, Shikamaru went back to his room empty handed. He knew he had to keep Neji warm. Unable to think of what else he could do quickly, Shikamaru took the blanket from his own futon and lay next to Neji, covering them both. Sensing warmth near to him, Neji turned over and hugged Shikamaru tightly. Shikamaru gave a yelp, more surprised then frightened; Neji was cold, it was like hugging a container of ice water. But it seemed to work, after about ten minutes, Neji stopped shivering and seemed to be sleeping comfortably. The problem was that now Neji was hugging him tightly and wouldn't let go. He didn't want to wake Neji up, since he looked comfortable and realizing that it was too cold for him to sleep in his own futon without a blanket, Shikamaru decided the best solution to his problem was to just go to sleep where he was.
Neji woke up in the middle of the night and lay on his side of the futon, looking at Shikamaru. Suddenly, Shikamaru shifted closer and hugged him tightly in his sleep. He held back a moan as Shikamaru took a deep sigh before breathing deeply on his neck next to him. Neji felt himself blushing as he recalled his most recent dream where he had been kissing Shikamaru.
He had known he was different ever since he had started to feel attraction towards other boys back at the academy. Knowing he was different in some way he couldn't understand or control, he simply hid under a quiet, moody and sulky attitude in frustration. But now Neji couldn't understand why he had suddenly developed feelings for someone who seemed to be his complete opposite; Shikamaru was lazy, unmotivated and reluctant to fight. Well not completely unmotivated, he had demonstrated the ability to take charge and lead in the mission to retrieve Sasuke when those he cared about were at risk. He had made for good company and he played a pretty exciting game of shogi. Plus, his wit and conversation kept up pretty well with Neji's and his current raging hormones didn't help much either.
In fact, his hormones were really racing now. It was ten times as intense as it had been at home, and right now he couldn't get up and go to a cooler area or distract himself by training. Shikamaru shifted again and sighed quietly in his sleep as he lay on top of Neji.
'Your life is 99 percent fate, the other 1 percent is hope, guiding you.'
Neji recalled his fortune as he felt his heart racing in some mix of hormones and tension as he leaned forward…
Shikamaru woke up halfway through the night and slowly began to realize he was pressing against something very warm and soft. Shikamaru opened his eyes partway to realize that during the night he had snuggled very close to Neji in his sleep. At first he thought about moving off of Neji when he realized that Neji was awake and didn't seem to mind, in fact, Neji seemed pretty warm and flushed, breathing heavily as he rubbed a soft hand up and down Shikamaru's lower back.
'Neji is…what the!' Shikamaru opened his eyes before quickly closing them as he felt Neji's lips on his own, interrupting his thoughts.
'Okay, I will stay calm, he's not hurting me. What's happening to my body? This feels, actually, kind of nice.'
The events from the last few days caught up with Roka in a fitful sleep where brief images of the recent turmoil in the village flashed through his mind. The old Hokage's funeral played like a black and white film, where everyone mourned and wept. Roka and his older brother were emotionally drained from helping their family prepare the public services and the bodies of Hokage and the fatalities from Orochimaru's attack on Konoha. But even after the public service was finished, the Hagane family's work wasn't done as they completed the rest of the service with Sandaime's immediate family. He remembered the pain on the face of his family's close friend, Asuma and how it had been the hardest on Konohamaru, Sandaime's grandson.
It was late at night before Yumi finally fell asleep, her routine as a medic not really letting her rest until she made sure everyone was feeling all right and everyone was safe. Her sleep wasn't restful either as she relived Nozumi's death from their mission abroad, both Yumi and Roka wept on his chest as he passed away in the arms of his team, then the task of delivering his scratched and bloody hitai-ate to his nephew and only living relative, Izumo.
"He told me before he left how he wasn't coming back." He replied.
The scene then blurred to the hospital, she was walking down the hallway doing her shift. She opened a door and saw Shikamaru struggling to try and pull a mass of snakes off of Neji as they slithered around his prone from. Looking at the squirming pile, she saw others she cared about like Roka and Hayataru trapped in it too. She tried to move forward and help, but she couldn't move. Looking down, at her feet, she realized the floor was covered in a mass of writhing snakes, wrapping around her ankles.
"Another nightmare?" Anko's voice came from the bed on the other side of the room.
"How did you deal with it?" Yumi asked as she propped herself up and hugged her knees.
"What?"
"When someone close to you betrayed you? Are you afraid of…of…" the medic started.
"You have to know when to be afraid, the ones who are foolish enough not to listen to their fear end up dead." Even now thinking about it made Anko relive her pain, Yumi suddenly felt bad for bringing it up.
"Why don't you get some fresh air?" the jounin changed the subject.
Heeding Anko's advice, Yumi went up on the roof of the hotel to find Roka, eating a midnight snack with Taki, something he only did when he was nervous.
"Are you all right?" Roka asked as he dipped some dry bread crusts into a bowl of broth before sharing it with the crow sitting on his shoulder.
"I couldn't sleep."
"Has Nozumi been in your dreams lately?"
Yumi wasn't surprised, the undertaker family of Hagane were even closer to death then most shinobi, they had an odd relationship with it, similar to the medics.
"The crows keep going on about snakes and bad chakra, I think he's trying to warn us."
'Damn that old dog, if they had been ten years younger, I would have been shredded alive. That former student of his kicked me hard too.' A badly wounded Kabuto thought angrily after he had managed to escape, barely.
His medical expertise had saved his life, allowing him to perform emergency treatment on his wounds and recover just enough to finally reach his destination at the edge of Field Country. He might have taken a chance had there only been a few Leaf shinobi in the area, but he didn't dare try again with Subatsu, Kakashi, Anko, Gai and so many of their students on high alert. But at least he had found a way around the Jyuken; knowing the fact that expelling chakra from one's body left the skin easily able to absorb toxins was a very useful thing to know. At least his little success made up for his disappointment of going back to his master without catching the Hyuuga. He hurried to the safety of Orochimaru's lair as the last of the performance drugs he had taken wore off. Kabuto knelt and spoke with his master as he treated his wounds properly and presented his research.
"Orochimaru-sama, I regret to report that Nobaru is dead. Whatever is left of his army has been scattered to the winds, you'll need another supply of slaves to complete the Sound."
"A minor loss, plenty more where those came from. Do you have anything of exceptional value for me, Kabuto-kun?"
Kabuto presented his most recent research on reanimating the dead and demon summoning experiments, as well as the findings from his espionage, revealing his cards.
"Some interesting characters here, though nothing I would think of as exceptional, first is Gekkou Hayataru, a sickly one, but his sword fighting abilities could pose some difficulty, he and his team could be a bit of a hindrance. Hagane Roka's main threat is his summons, a shinobi with more then just one is rather rare and those birds give him a wide view, but without them, his elimination would not be much of a challenge. Our best bet to get rid of them would be to take out the medic, she's their main support, the lynch pin that holds them all together, if you will."
"You don't have to offer me the head of your dear little cousin as a show of loyalty." Orochimaru with a chuckle, finding the idea of someone deliberately alienating themselves from one they were so close to just for him amusing in his own sick way.
"No, but I choose to, you said it yourself; nothing is without sacrifice, weaknesses should be eliminated."
"True, though one can never completely sever ties with their past, like my little Subatsu-kun and Anko-chan."
"They're the same as always, he's crippled, she's afraid, they both want you dead."
"Are you sure you aren't forgetting something, what about my main prospects?"
Kabuto finally produced the card bearing the data on Hyuuga Neji.
"His abilities are almost at their peak, it is only a matter of time before his conflicts with his family become intolerable and we can topple the last noble clan of Konoha, it is almost time to strike. But I do not believe that even then he will come to us of his own will like Sasuke, we will have to take him by force. The completion of a perfect and permanent body is finally within sight, Orochimaru-sama."
"The powers of the Byakugan to go with my Sharingan." Orochimaru's hideous long tongue darted over his lips at the thought.
"But I'm afraid to report that an excellent opportunity to abduct Neji was missed, there's a wild card in the mix."
"Nara Shikamaru?" Orochimaru fingered the card with his data.
"I must admit, I hardly even noticed him at all in the chuunin exams until he turned out to be the only one to pass them. He even dispelled my genjutsu and Kakashi trusted him enough to work with his charges. His presence may make it difficult for us to get to the Hyuuga. What he lacks in experience and jutsus, he makes up for with his cunning and use of what he has. Nor can I predict very well how he will go in reaching the next level, his summon is incredibly rare, I have little data on what bats can do, if they're anything like the birds, then they could have an edge on the Sound. Though far past his prime, his captain, Subatsu, has trained some excellent chuunin and jounin in his time." Kabuto added with distain, still sore over the kick Gai had given him.
"I'm sure it won't be that difficult. After all, Naruto was in the way and I still got Sasuke. Besides, the Nara doesn't even have the protection of a sannin, just that toothless old ANBU has-been."
Author's Notes: Damn, this grew into a huge chapter, I rewrote it about 3 times before I liked it. I seriously saw the octopus thing happen to some guy on a travel show in an Asian food market, just wanted to add some wackiness. I don't know why Orochimaru didn't try getting Neji too when he went after Sasuke in the series, but as you can see, there shall be lots more sides of killing and action to go with the main course of hot NejiShika animal lust. Reviews shall help me get my creative juices going faster.