Akimichi Chouji was not the sharpest ninja in Konoha. That honour belonged to someone else, though whom exactly he didn't know. He couldn't tell you what someone was thinking from just a twitch of their eyelids, and he couldn't make out someone's background from the way they wore their uniform. But he could tell his best friend's emotions from the tiniest things about him. The way he lay down while he watched clouds might mean little to Hyuuga Neji, but it spoke volumes to someone who'd known him for his entire life.

Shikamaru only ever had two moods when he was cloud-watching. The first, which happened most of the time, was him de-stressing, contemplating the world and drifting off to sleep every now and again. It was easy to approach him while he was doing this, because he was never bothered if you woke him up. The second, which was altogether much rarer, was him seriously thinking about a problem and trying to understand it. As a kid he used to have a thinking pose he would go into while doing this, but he had now assimilated it into his cloud-watching routine. The dangerous thing about the second mood was that he looked, for all intents and purposes, asleep. It was only the imperceptible twitch of his eyebrows and the way his hands were behind his head that meant he was concentrating. And disturbing him while he was in the second mood could be very dangerous indeed.

So when Chouji walked to Training Ground 31 and saw his friend on top of the hillock, he immediately quietened his footsteps and stowed his packet of crisps. Shikamaru wasn't supposed to be free today, and 31 was team 10's personal training ground, so he clearly did want some privacy. But Shikamaru and Chouji were in many ways the same person. While one was quiet and tall and thin and the other was boisterous and big-boned and of middling height, they both knew each other so well that sometimes privacy didn't come into it. Chouji often wondered what he'd done in a previous life to deserve Nara Shikamaru, and maybe one day he'd find out.

As he approached his friend, the seriousness in his eyes shocked Chouji. Shikamaru was never this intense. The time he'd heard Shikaku-jii had been critically hurt on an A-rank last year, or when Team 10 had been ambushed by the Kumo Jinchuuriki were the only times Shikamaru had locked up in the way he had now. Well, there had also been the break-up, but Temari was a special case. What in the world had his friend so tense?

'Crisp?'

Shikamaru opened one eye that wasn't even looking at Chouji.

'Nah, I'm not hungry.'

'How long've you been here?'

'Couple hours.'

'Hard mission?'

'Not really.'

'Seen anyone else yet?'

'No. Just made my report to the Hokage and then came straight here.'

'How'd that go?'

Shikamaru finally broke a grin. 'There is a guardian spirit somewhere looking out for me. No less than twenty sticks of incense will do for the kind of magic it worked on Jiraiya-sama.'

'Hehehe. You always were a lucky bastard.'

'I'll have you know my parents were married when Kaa-san got pregnant.'

'That's not how my father tells the story!'

So Chouji did what he knew best, banter with Shikamaru and let him destress, and he would tell Chouji whatever he needed to know in due time.

Aburame Shino was not an overly emotional ninja. He got angry like other people did, and he got annoyed and he got depressed, but he was Aburame and he would not let his emotions cloud his judgement. Some of his fellow ninja took that as a sign that he wasn't like them, and they were right. He was a good ninja, and a good ninja was logical. He didn't kill off his emotions or something stupid like that. He just made sure they didn't interfere with the task at hand, which was something not many Leaf ninja could do.

So it was not surprising when Information and Recon approached him and not anyone else when they wanted someone to check on a possible leak. Shino was good at what he did, and he would have been in and out in less than a week. Other ninja would have gotten emotional at the mere thought of a traitor, but Shino knew there would be no point in getting that involved. He would follow his orders and if he had any concerns, he would put them in the mission report.

It would have taken him almost no effort. But something in his gut told him not to accept it. Be patient, that feeling said. There's something underneath the underneath, that feeling said. And for the first time in his career, Shino went not with his head, but with his gut. He refused, citing tiredness and other nondescript reasons that essentially meant he didn't want to go, and I&R left it at that. Sometimes jounin didn't go on missions that they thought were too easy, and that was how the cookie crumbled.

But equally, Shino wanted to know what had happened on that mission. It had been somewhere in River Country, in a nowhere town which would be perfect for a traitor to go to ground. Shino wondered how they even found the source, given how obscure the location was. So he tried to find out who it was who got saddled with it, and what the report said. He turned up at the Filing Office a couple of weeks after he turned the mission down, and asked them about 'that C-rank in River about the traitor'. Usually, this was more than enough for the filers, who had a near obsessive memory for this kind of thing. But the woman just looked at him blankly, and said there wasn't any such mission. So Shino spoke to her superior, who also didn't know anything. Neither did his superior, and neither did his. It was as if he had hallucinated the entire thing. The village thought Aburame were all disturbed in the head as things stood, and they didn't need more reasons to add to their idiotic prejudices.

So he left it at that, simply because it was more trouble than it was worth. He'd go directly to Yamanaka-san and ask what the hell had happened in a few weeks.

The day after he'd gone to the filers was Reunion Day for Team 8. Reunion Day was the day that Team 8 would go eat at Kurenai-sensei's favourite restaurant, reminisce about the coolest, funniest, most amazing Jounin-Sensei Konoha would ever have. Shino wasn't prone to boasting, but Team 8 was one of the best teams of three that Konoha had, and it was all because of Kurenai. Other teams in their year had their own traditions. Team 7 spent all of their time either on the bridge, or in front of the Memorial Stone. Team 10 constantly hung out on that hillock on Training Ground 31. But Team 8 didn't need places to go to feel at home. All they needed was some sushi, some sake, and Kiba telling yet another fart joke while Hinata tried her best not to burst out laughing and Shino tried his best not to smack him.

Reunion Day meant wearing the pair of sunglasses Kurenai-sensei had bought him after he'd made chuunin, sharing just one drink with Asuma-sensei and Hiru-kun in honour of the woman they all loved and missed, and watching the sun go down from on top of the Sandaime's head with his team. But that same feeling that told him not to go on the mission was also telling him something else, that this Reunion Day would be different from the last. Despite his normally logical approach to life, Shino just couldn't shake the misgivings he had about the mission and about what the coming weeks would bring.

He was walking home from the Hokage mountain, having said goodbye and left Hinata and Kiba walking to the Hyuuga compound together. While they had always been completely platonic, there was no reason Shino couldn't push them together and hope for the best. The day had gone much as he had expected it to, and Shino was beginning to feel that his twinges of doubt had just been something he should have ignored. He continued, lost in his reverie, until he noticed a chakra signature approach him. It was unusual for someone not Aburame to come this close to the clan compound, and it was not someone he was familiar with, but Shino suppressed his misgivings and let whoever it was take their time. This was Konoha after all, no one was going to be attacked in the a village guarded both by killer ninja and military police. Whoever this was probably had a message for someone in the compound, either his father or his uncle, and would rather hand it over to a known Aburame than have to actually enter the compound.

The ninja appeared in front of him in a flurry of leaves. Shunshin was a waste of chakra, but it was convenient inside the village, especially for ANBU who didn't generally have to worry about chakra capacity.

'Shino-san. May I have a word?' said Shikamaru.

Shino invited Shikamaru into the compound for some tea, and was a little surprised when he accepted. They were sitting in Shino's own home now, discussing the same mission that had been on both of their minds.

'So you were landed with the mission after I turned it down?' Shino said.

'Yeah, I think they wanted someone skilled in stealth, and I was the next logical choice.' Shikamaru-san replied.

'I can't say I'm not interested in what happened.' Shino said noncommittally. It made no sense to reveal to his fellow ANBU exactly how intrigued he was by the mission.

'Well, it was certainly very challenging, despite its rank. The report has been classed above A-rank, so in actuality neither you nor I has any clearance to know about this.' Shikamaru said.

Shino raised an eyebrow.

'And yet here we both are, talking about it.'

'Well, we were approached, and I think that gives us a reason. If you have any concerns...' he trailed off.

Shino grimaced internally. Technically, neither of them were allowed to talk about this. On the other hand, they had been approached, so that did give them some reason. And while Shino was a stickler for the rules, no one could be in a team with Inuzuka Kiba for any length of time without learning that sometimes, rules were made to be broken. This case had made him behave differently, and Shino wanted, no, needed to know why.

'No, not at all, Nara-san. I was just making sure both of us knew where things stood.'

Shikamaru grinned. Shino had a reputation for being un-Aburame when times called for it.

'Call me Shikamaru. At any rate, I've been trying to find out about the mission's specifics. I assume you read the report?' Shikamaru asked.

'No, but it was described to me briefly by Yamanaka-san. A Leaf-nin gone rogue in River country, with some very dangerous information?'

'Something like that. The mission was to find his daughter, a girl called Uzumaki Aoki, and seek confirmation that way, and find out if he had leaked it to her, as well.' Shikamaru said. 'But there are a few things that puzzle me. The father wasn't even officially a ninja, he only attended the academy until the age of ten and then dropped out, I assume he disappeared soon after. How he even got hold of this information without getting caught completely baffles me. I also don't understand why they didn't just-'

'-Send you after the father instead of the daughter?' Shino completed. 'I agree, that makes no sense whatsoever. Maybe I&R were getting desperate?'

'Maybe. But why now? If this ninja, whoever he is, has never leaked whatever he has, why worry about it so long after the fact? Konoha's never been stronger, there is very little one Academy student could do to damage us.'

'I agree. Leaving that aside for a moment, I had some concerns as well. Primarily, where the information even came from. I can't remember exactly where the town was...' Shino said.

'Shiwa. It's a small town, fishing and wood exports. Just a typical town in River Country, really.' Shikamaru said.

'Right. No one's ever heard of it, no one would ever go to it, no one's ever come from it. It's a dot on a map, if that. How did I&R find out that the daughter of a random civilian was living there of all places?' Shino continued.

'I think the info came directly from the Hokage. He was certainly very interested in both my verbal and the written report, unusually so for a C-rank.' Shino suspected there was something more that Shikamaru was not telling him, and if they were to make any progress, they couldn't have any hidden agenda sabotaging whatever it was that was happening between them.

'Shikamaru-san, if we are to do this, you must tell me everything. I cannot function on insufficient data, especially on something like this that is already quite sketchy.'

Shikamaru studied Shino for a while, as if trying to find something in his face that would make his decision for him. He sighed.

'Very well, Shino-san. Let's cut to the chase. I have been interested in several issues pertaining to the village for a good long while, since Sandaime-sama retired, really. The coming of Jiraiya-sama, the changes in the functioning of the village, the different interpretations of what I would call the philosophy of Konoha, the return of Senju-hime, they all happened in a very short time. Most people seem to have forgotten that most of this was set into motion before Orochimaru's attack during our chuunin exams. The general village consensus is that Jiraiya-sama was so enraged by the final betrayal of his once-best-friend that he came back with a vengeance. But Sarutobi-sama was making noises about retiring while we were still at the Academy. Senju-hime arrived in Konoha just before our first exam took place. I have puzzled over this for a long time, and the only conclusion I can come up with is that something did happen before the chuunin exams that made Jiraiya-sama come back. It wasn't Orochimaru, though I imagine that couldn't have helped. But I've never really researched it. I never had the clearance I needed for some files, and once I got into ANBU it ate up a lot of my time.'

Shino nodded in sympathy as he listened.

'But this mission brings up some of those concerns again. Concerns that there are things in Konoha's past that some people, maybe even Godaime-sama, are trying to be very subtle about. I suspect that whoever Uzumaki Aoki really is, she is part of a secret that has had dire ramifications for our village.'

Shino was stunned, but he hid it well. If Shikamaru hadn't put it so well, he would have suspected him of being insane, or trying to pull a very unbelievable prank. But everything he knew about the Nara told him that they were an intensely analytical clan, not prone to making overblown judgements or underhanded political ploys. No, Shikamaru truly believed everything he'd said.

'What do you want me for, Shikamaru-san? Surely any research you need can be done on your own?' Shino knew that now that his fellow conspirator had spilled the true reason for his concern, both of them were in it together. But Shino would not commit to anything unless he knew everything he wanted to know.

'You know as well as I do that one ANBU simply does not have the time to put into something like this. Two heads are always better than one. But there's also something else. If I'm to get the information I really need, I need someone with contacts in R&A. I know you have those contacts, Shino-san.'

R&A was the last wing of ANBU. Retrieval and Assassination employed the best of the best. Silent, stealthy, deadly. And it was true that Shino knew people in R&A. No one could serve in it for more than two years, Jiraiya-sama declared it too stressful for any ninja. But any ninja who was once in R&A would always be in R&A. And as much as he deplored the use of underhanded tactics like Shikamaru's, he also respected the way he'd constructed his offer. Pretending to only want to talk about a C-rank, and then building it up into a village-wide mystery was exactly the bait Shino would have gone for, and now he was caught hook, line, and sinker.

'Very well, Shikamaru.' Shikamaru noticed he'd dropped the honorific. 'If you want to figure out this conspiracy theory of yours, you have my help. But if we're to do this, we're doing it my way. We're going to be methodical, neat, and go through every possibility with a fine-toothed comb. No lead is too vague, no suspect is too far-out, no theory is too hare-brained. And we must keep this deadly quiet. Anyone you or I inform of this is a potential leak. This includes Chouji-san and Kiba. We can only afford to tell people when we are sure that we have enough evidence to convince them of its importance, and that they will not breathe a word of it to anyone else. We have to be as subtle as whoever has hidden this from the village at large, if not subtler. If you can agree to this, then you have me and anything I can help you with.' Shino said.

Shikamaru's grin turned positively mischievous at that. His eyes gleamed with an inner fire, one that Shino had never seen in them before but one that Chouji, had he been there, would have recognised as meaning that his best friend was on the prowl.

'I think you and I will get along very well, Shino-san. It's getting late, so I will take your leave, but I will meet you tomorrow in the T&I wing around, say, noon? I am due some time off anyway, and I intend to take full advantage of it. Tomorrow brings a new day, yes?' he said. He thanked his host for the tea and walked out of the door, but not without adding one final comment.

'And Shino, thank you for believing me.'

that also went quite well, din't it? i liked the dynamic between shikamaru and shino, one professional to another, one genius to another, one clan heir to another. i hope i'm making the mystery interesting, and as always, reviews are appreciated.

to my one reviewer for the last chapter, soprano-in-waiting : like shikamaru said, two heads are better than one. both him and shino together trying to unravel this very knotty mystery will, i hope, prove more interesting than just our favourite shadow-weaver. i also want to try and tell the story of what's changed in konoha in my AU. it's pretty obvious who the 'father' is to you and me, but shino and shikamaru have no idea. cool, no?