Part 3
Shikamaru sighed as he looked at the ten ninjas in front of him. In just a few minutes, he would have to disappoint one of them – and the choice hadn't been easy.
"When I call out your name, come and stand over here, by Chouji. The one who is left will be going home." He sighed again. "This is troublesome, but… I must remind you of your contracts. No complaining. No following me around ever again. That's the rules.
"Alright. In no particular order. The first person who is safe today is…"
All ten drew in a suspenseful breath.
"…Deidara."
The Akatsuki ninja sauntered over with a smile. He winked at Shikamaru, making him lose his concentration momentarily.
"Uh… Ino."
Ino smiled knowingly. Behind her, Sakura glared into her back.
"Sakura."
The glare changed into a look of surprise as she joined her friend beside Chouji.
"Gaara."
The sand Kazekage shifted his gourd and walked across, seemingly emotionless.
"Temari."
She followed her brother with a smile and nod in Shikamaru's direction.
"Naruto."
He punched the air, then ran to the others.
"Sai."
The bare-midriffed boy smiled and walked gracefully over to Chouji.
"Neji."
An arrogant swish of his black hair.
Now only Tenten and Hinata were left. Hinata looked down at the ground, her face burning. Even Tenten looked a little uncomfortable.
"Well…" said Shikamaru, looking at the two remaining contestants. "It was very troublesome for me to decide what to do. But, based only on your memories and the fact that Tenten couldn't seem to remember anything good we did together, Hinata came out a clear first. Having said that, Hinata is a little too shy for me… but in the long run, that's not one of the criteria I was looking for yesterday. Tenten, I'm sorry. You have to leave."
She nodded bravely, and without saying a word went back to her room and gathered her things. While Chouji instructed the others to take a break for an hour, she walked out of the forest with her head held high. As soon as she was out of sight, however, she began throwing weapons at every tree in the forest.
Group One
Ino was chattering loudly about what she thought the next challenge might be. Sakura only sat and listened to her, thinking that the first person to go was a girl; this meant that Shikamaru was, for the moment, biased towards the guys. As two of the remaining females, this was bad news for group one.
Group Two
Neji sat brushing his long, dark hair, grumbling to Hinata about how lucky she was. Hinata herself was barely listening. All she could think of was how close she had come to losing any chance with Shikamaru for good. It scared the hell out of her.
Group Three
Gaara and Temari sat in uncomfortable silence. Eventually, Temari shifted a little on her bed and met her brother's eyes.
"This is going to be tough, isn't it?" She said.
Group Four
Naruto glared at Deidara. The little clay model he had made of himself glared back. Naruto hated the little thing. Ever since Deidara had made it last night, it had been watching him and smiling. He could feel it. It was driving him insane. Eventually, he muttered "Baka," and glared out of the window instead.
Group Five
Sai looked gloomily at Tenten's empty side of the room. It felt lonely now. He wondered what was next, and who would be leaving tomorrow. Deciding to take extra care that it wasn't him, he picked up a book on flirting techniques and began to read.
Chouji surveyed the remaining nine with a business-like air.
"Onto the next round," he said. "We'll be starting immediately. Now, as you all know, Shikamaru is a very intelligent person. So, he doesn't want to spend his life with someone who will never understand what he is saying. This is what you have to do: Shikamaru will sit in his tree house, and you will go up one by one. Shikamaru will give you each a problem, and you have to tell him what you would do to solve it."
Shikamaru, sat at a table in the biggest room of the lot, awaited the first person. He knew it would be Ino. As her blonde head appeared in the doorway, she flashed him a smile and climbed in. When she was seated in front of him, Shikamaru told her the problem.
"You are part of a four man team. You, me, a medical ninja, and a leader. The enemy has killed the medical ninja, and I am badly wounded. The leader is hurt too, but is mostly too shaken to fight. There is only one enemy left, and he has retreated temporarily to recover from his wounds, believing that we will be sitting ducks. What do you do?"
"I send the leader for help whilst I try to trap the enemy in my jutsu. Once I have him, I attempt to help you." She answered at once. Having known Ino for so long, Shikamaru was not surprised. She left with a smile and a toss of her blonde hair.
Next to arrive was Sakura. The pink-haired kunoichi looked a little down at his question. "Well… I would try to heal you with my medical ninjutsu, so that we could all face the enemy together, and have a better chance of winning."
Neji came after Sakura. The heir of the Hyuuga clan, his long black hair stirring a little in the breeze, looked deep into Shikamaru's eyes and spoke with passion. "I would kill them for hurting you." He replied, looking angry, as if it had really happened.
He was replaced by his cousin, Hinata. The shy girl gasped, and looked at the floor apologetically. "Shikamaru-kun… I… I… I'm not very strong, b-but… I-I would try to h-help you…" she seemed a little distressed, so he patted her hand reassuringly.
Gaara's turquoise eyes flashed dangerously when he heard the problem.
"Two words." He said. "Sand coffin."
Shikamaru gulped nervously, and nodded.
Temari followed her brother. "Oh, honey," the older blonde said, "I'm much stronger than you, you know. I would just save you again. You'd never get hurt with me around."
Hmm, thought Shikamaru. Gender role reversal is troublesome.
Naruto's cheerfully smiling face was the next to appear in the doorway. When presented with the problem, his eyes seemed to glow red, just for a second.
"I would unleash the Kyuubi. Even if it consumed me – anything to save you."
Deidara smiled, and traced the edge of Shikamaru's cheekbone with one finger. "Well, Shika-kun…" he purred, "I would use my explosive clay to get rid of the enemy from the air. Then I would fly you to a doctor, un?" Shikamaru, captivated by the other ninja's intense blue eyes, shifted a little in an attempt to distract himself.
"Uh… that's… that's good… good…" He tried to say. Deidara's wandering hand reached up and pulled the cord from Shikamaru's hair, making it fall around his shoulders. He smoothed it down with that same hand.
"You should wear your hair down more often, my little stag, un?" he said, and left in a flurry of his black robe. Shikamaru gulped, and tried to collect his thoughts.
Sai deliberately stretched when he reached the room, so that his shirt rose even higher than normal, drawing attention to his toned chest. When Shikamaru presented him with the problem, he simply gave a mysterious smile.
"Genius… I would help you out and get rid of everyone else, and then we would come back and report the mission completed, and then we would go to my place, and then we would –"
"Okay!" said Shikamaru quickly, noting Sai's new nickname for him. "That's enough!"
As the nine candidates went back to their own rooms for a meal, Shikamaru shook his head in wonder. "Well, I'm glad that scenario hasn't really happened." He remarked to Chouji. "I think Sai would rape me."