Author's Notes: Wow, this chapter was hard to write. And the more of it I wrote, the more I realised what a horrible person Daruma is.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to me in the same way that 100 tonnes of gold does. Or -to put it another way- not at all.

Smart men have, on occasion, disputed the precise "nature" of a crowd of people. Some argue that it is similar in composition and though process to a patch of lichen (though lichen fails to replicate "movement" to anyone's satisfaction), while some postulate that it more closely resembles a herd of livestock.

At this time, on the outskirts of Enrai, the man known to his pursuers only as "Daruma" was leaning heavily towards the latter. As he sprinted full-tilt through the tightly packed, ever-moving streets, darting around all obstacles that came before him, he couldn't help but notice the hint of animal intelligence on the faces he saw. The civilians had all the reflexive capacity of cattle. The ones that actually noticed him took a surprised step back while their minds came to terms with what they were seeing, then began jostling everyone around them in an attempt to move out of his way. This, he imagined, was how stampedes started.

By the shouts of alarm and occasional crashes of indeterminate origin he was fairly sure that he was still being followed. And closely, at that. Relying on senses trained since an early age and honed through perilous encounters, he let his injured leg collapse- just enough to make him stumble to the right but not fall. A zigzag of kunai stitched itself into the ground he would have occupied if not for the stumble. They had been thrown from a high angle at a gap in the crowd (so as not to involve the bystanders [again reminding him that his pursuers were far too soft]) which he surely would have exploited if not for his hunch. He scrabbled at the ground with all his limbs like a dog and shot off in another direction, scattering civilians as he went. Nowhere near enough to shake the Konoha shinobi, but it gave him a moment to prepare.

His plan, while somewhat complicated, involved techniques no more sophisticated than an average Genin would be able to pull off, but together gave him a very good chance of escaping, or at least putting some distance between himself and his hunters. He grinned and started hastily forming seals with his hands as he ran. As foolish and immature as the Konoha shinobi seemed to him, they weren't completely stupid. He'd have to make this convincing.

Shikmaru made a dissatisfied noise with his tongue and fished around in his pack for another set of kunai. Daruma must have had the senses of an animal to understand how much danger he was in before the knives even left Shikamaru's hand. Trying a long-distance attack on a fleeing enemy was a very unreliable method of capture, but there wasn't much else he could do at the moment. The streets were packed, and Daruma was making sure he was always on the far side of a civilian. He would have liked to use Kagamane to stop him moving around, but he couldn't do that while running, and it was unlikely that his shadow could keep up with Daruma in any case.

He set off along the rooftops, hoping for another opportunity to present itself. Chouji had managed to catch up, and was only a little way behind him, with the rest of their group farther ahead, attempting to get ahead of Daruma. This sudden change of direction had taken them by surprise, and they were now jumping from roof-to-roof to retake their lead. Unfortunately, it seemed Daruma had plans of his own.

A cloud of smoke appeared around Daruma suddenly, causing a commotion with the nearby civilians. Then, what Shikamaru had been expecting to happen for some time now, happened. Five identical copies of Daruma leapt onto a roof, trailing smoke behind them, and started off in different directions. By dint of having anticipated this, Shikamar was able to accurately hit one of them with shuriken before it had completed its second jump. It collapsed into a mass of water that fell to the street below (much to the confusion of an unlucky shopkeeper), as did a second one that had strayed too close to Kimimaro and received a kick to the back of the head. That left four... at least four. Shikamaru made eye contact with Chouji and gestured with his hand. Chouji, understanding the message, set off after the Daruma Sakura was chasing. Naruto, Ino and Kimimaro were already after the remaining three. Shikamaru had other ideas about how to get the real Daruma, however. The possibility that it was one of the clones that had run couldn't be ignored, but he suspected that Daruma was still down there. Once the smoke dissipated, he started looking for anything unusual. And he found it, too.

A man, bearing no resemblance to Daruma whatsoever, was engaged in hasty conversation with an uncomfortable-looking old man. That in itself wasn't strange- that was happening everywhere, but the younger man was definitely making the old man nervous somehow. Shikamaru couldn't tell what it was from a distance, but he was willing to bet it had something to do with Daruma being an arrogant, condescending, foreign professional killer. He put his hands together and began stretching his shadow towards the suspicious man. He seemed to notice the shadow when it was a few feet away and tried to dodge it, which was all the proof Shikamaru needed. He hastened the lengthening of his shadow and caught the man before he had a chance to escape.

Grinning to himself, Shikamaru hopped off the building he was standing on and observed the man copy all of his movements apart from the change in elevation.

'Kawarimi no Jutsu has succeeded. That you, Daruma?' he asked, expecting an answer along the lines of "I don't know what you are talking about." Daruma surprised him by not bothering.

'Yup, you got me, Nara-san,' he said cheerfully. Shikamaru paused, not quite sure of how to respond to that. Daruma obliged by continuing, 'what was it that gave me away?'

'...Your people skills.' All the occupants of the street were now keeping a safe, but clearly audible distance to take advantage of what practically amounted to Street Theatre as far as they were concerned.

Daruma snorted. 'Figures... Where are the others, by the way? Off chasing clones, I guess? You sure you can take me on all by yourself?'

'I seem to have the advantage at the moment,' Shikamaru replied matter-of-factly, using part of his own shadow to slip a kunai from the pouch on his belt. He took it in his hand, so that only he was armed. He could attack Daruma at will, and all Daruma could do was make silly hand gestures in return.

'Oh? Your ability isn't as useless as I though it was. But...'
'Suiton:' another voice said behind and above Shikamaru. 'Bakusui Shouha!' Shikamaru turned and looked up just in time to see a torrent of water issuing from the mouth of what could only have been Daruma or one of his clones transformed to look like a regular person before it hit him. The force of the water easily knocked him flat and broke his concentration, ending his Kagemane and freeing the first Daruma, who staggered for a moment before pouncing on Shikamaru. He quickly took advantage of Shikamaru's temporary impotence, pinning his legs and arms in a way that made moving them difficult, and using techniques practically impossible.

'Hehehaa...' Daruma huffed with a crazed look in his eye, a trickle of drool escaping the corner of his mouth. 'You lived up to my expectations, Nara! But you know what happens now, right?'

'Yeah. You get beaten up by my support.' Daruma almost had enough time too look confused or surprised before a hand the size of his entire body swatted him neatly off Shikamaru and into a wall. 'Nice save, Chouji.'

'Of course...hmm?' Removing his oversized hand from the now damaged wall, Chouji found that Daruma had been replaced by nothing more substantial than a puddle of water. 'Mizu bunshin?'

Shikamar spat out of irritation, getting wetly to his feet and dripping indignantly on the street. 'Damn, I though that was the real one. But...that only leaves one more...' he turned back to the Daruma that had used the water elemental technique on him, and was mildly surprised to see him still standing there on the roof with a smug smile plastered on his face.

'Hehe. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not...' whatever happened to the clone at that moment seemed to come as a surprise. The smug smile disappeared and its eyes took on a bemused, vacant quality that suggested it had taken leave of its senses. For a moment, it looked like it was about to continue speaking, but then it became transparent and finally lost the ability to hold its shape entirely.

The assembled crowd, which had been watching the whole thing quietly, even when they got a little wet from the water technique, took this as a fabulous end to the scene and immediately began cheering and applauding enthusiastically.

'Good work Nara-sama!'
'The water-user was an unusual villain, but I liked it!'
'"Nice save," Chouji-sama!'
'Are you filming a sequel to Dokonjou Ninden?'
'Can you please sign this, for my son?'

'Nnghktssh-a-ffsshhhk...ru-chhkt-hear me?' Now that sounded important, particularly because the voice and static were coming from the short-distance communicator in Shikamaru's ear. Shikamaru pressed on the collar he was wearing, activating the microphone.

'Sakura?'

'The one I was chasing was a clone; it collapsed on its own before I could catch it.' That was a very useful piece of information. The clones had gone off in different directions, and since Mizu Bunshin had a limited active range from the user, he could work out where the real Daruma was.

'How long ago was this?'

'No more than three minutes.' Shikamaru did the math in his head. He didn't like the answer he got.

'Hmm... That's the last clone gone.' Daruma glanced over his shoulder. 'But this bitch is still following me...' Stricktly speaking, his mission was over the moment he was captured by the Konoha shinobi, and it was likely that the overall plan had already succeeded...or failed, whatever. Either way, he was done with this stupid country, and damned if he was going to let those leaf idiots catch him again. From the few days he had been in their custody, their confrontations and overheard conversations, he had a reasonably good idea of all their abilities. He was sure as hell lucky that Yamanaka was the one following him. Taking over someone else's body definitely had its uses, but it wasn't something she could use on him carelessly in this situation. In other words: he had the upper hand. And it was already a demonstrated fact that he was more than a match for her in single combat. She also knew this, which was probably why she was keeping her distance and being overly-cautious. There were, of course, ways around that.

Stopping short at the edge of the next roof, he jumped directly down, back to street level. Yamanaka, very wisely, did not follow him, instead she jumped to an adjacent roof then across the street. Which was, more-or-less, precisely what Daruma wanted her to do.

Using chakra to boost the strength of his legs (but going easy on the injured one), he sprang towards her predicted landing point the moment he saw her start across the street. The look on her face just before he kneed her in the chest was priceless.

The Raikage was not happy. Though an old man, he was storming through the access corridors of Kumogakure like a man possessed, letting nothing hinder his progress. Shinobi coming to him for direction or giving situation reports were immediately swept into his wake and left behind if found to be too slow. His village was under attack, and there was no way in hell he wasn't going to kill his fair share of invaders, no matter who they were.

'Raikage-sama!' came a voice somewhere behind the mass of people following him. 'Raika- let me through damn it! Raikage-sama!'

'What is it?' the Raikage snapped, not slowing down.

'I've just returned from the Observation Point-'

'Report, quickly.'

'All dead, Raikage-sama. It seems to have happened shortly after you ordered the doors sealed.'

Everything was starting to fall into place now. Tennji Nendo's murder, and the inconsistency of the last time he was seen alive. The failure of the messenger dispatched to Konoha to report back. The Kirigakure shinobi near the border. All of it had been leading up to this, but the Raikge would have previously thought the situation laughable.

'If I may be so bold, Raikage-sama...' the shinobi that had come to make the report started carefully.

'What now?'

'Should we not consider...negotiations?'

'Are you insane? The village is under attack! There won't be any negotiations!'

'...I'm sorry to hear that, Raikage-sama...' Realisation dawned on the Raikage in a split second. He stopped walking for the first time since he left his office. He had to. The number of steel weapons piercing him while still being gripped firmly by the handle did not allow him to continue forward.

'...Why-'

'Know this, Godaime Raikage-sama: your death is for the sake of both Kumogakure no Sato and Kaminari no Kuni.'

Figuring that the pain was the least of his worries at this point, the Raikage turned his head as much as he could, so that he might see his killers.

'...Hourai?'

'...Goodbye, Raikage-sama.'