His tongue hurt. That was the first sensation that registered with Shikamaru as he came back to consciousness. His tongue was pressing against his teeth as if it had grown in size. An involuntary moan escaped past his lips as he tried to move his tongue. Then he felt the ropes holding him in a seated position, his hands tied to the arms of a chair. It was then he remembered the needle and remembered that Ouga was one of them.

"He's coming around."

Ouga's voice rattled through Shikamaru like he was standing next to a loudspeaker. He knew he should have tried to pretend to be unconscious, but that had been impossible. When he opened his eyes the world was a blur. His eyes hurt as did his head.A hand cupped his forehead and he felt his head lifted against his will. The light that was shined into his eyes blinded him and he couldn't see the face of the female voice that spoke.

"We can't start yet."

The light went away and the hand disappeared from his head. Shikamaru felt his chin hit against his chest. Pain shot up from the back of his neck. Shikamaru wondered if that might not be a good thing. He was getting feeling back.

"What do you mean?" Ouga demanded. "We don't have time!"

"I know!" The woman snapped. "We only have one chance at this."

The woman's voice sounded familiar but it took him a few seconds to place the voice with a name. His mind was sluggish; thinking was like trudging through mud. Then he recognized it, it was Chika, Kanaye's daughter. Well, he supposed he had been close. Was Kanaye really innocent? Did his daughter drug him up when she needed him out of the way or was he faking it all? Come to think of it, maybe the man never had been arrested in the first place. Maybe Temari was still working on that. What Ouga had told him couldn't be trusted now.

As he sat slumped in his chair he could feel his mind become unclouded over the next several minutes. He tried not to show any signs of that. He had been captured and there was only one reason they would want him. They wanted him to kill Naruto.

It took an effort not to clinch his hands at that thought. The idea that he could be used like that made him angry. He remembered what Arata had said. Women and children were best able to rewrite their brain if damaged. He was an adult male, was Arata wrong or were they just desperate? Why? What was this obsession with Naruto? It was hard to think it was just a New Guard thing.

His head was yanked back again and the light was shined into his eyes. "He's ready." Chika announced.

When the hand was removed this time Shikamaru didn't let his head fall. No point in pretending unconsciousness now. Instead, he looked around the room. The only light in the room came from two hanging lights. He must've been in the center of the room or near it. A table sat a few feet away with several needles in a stainless steel tray. Two of the needles were filled withclear liquid. One looked thick like syringe. The third needle was filled with orange liquid.

He could see part of a bed when he twisted his head as far as he could. There were two doors, both made out of heavy metal. Ouga was in one corner, his arms crossed uncomfortable. When their eyes met it was Ouga who looked away.

"Traitor." Shikamaru slurred the word out, but Ouga flinched at the accusation nonetheless.

"Traitor, yes." Ouga nodded. "I will not deny that. There are things worth becoming a traitor for though."

"Your clan is that important? You'd betray your villagefor your clan? Gaara trusted you and you betray him for the ghost of a fear."

Chika rubbed his arm with an alcohol wipe. Shikamaru tried to move his armsbut they were strapped both at his wrist and just below his elbow. His ankles were similarly restrained. When Chika moved to the table he tried his feet. The chair was not secured to the ground. Pushing against the ground, he felt his chair rock back. Ouga did not noticed

"I have no clan." Ouga said. "I was raised in the orphanage."

Shikamaru watched as Chika reached for one of the syringes. Just as she was about to grab it he pushed against the ground. The chair rocked back, two of the four feet left the floor. The chair teetered, and for a second, it could have gone in either direction. Tossing his head back, he committed the chair to an introduction to the ground. Before the two met, Shikamaru tucked his chin against his chest.

The back of the chair hit the floor. Shikamaru grunted, but he wasted no time. His arms were restrained, his legs were restrained, but he could still move his waist a little. Throwing his weight to one side, he tilted the chair onto its side. With one more turn, this time with the help of his foot, he was able to turn it again, smacking into the table. He was on his knees, face planted against the floor as he heard the pan land with a satisfied clang.

Then they were on him. Cursing and shouting, he tried to move to make handling him as difficult as possible. Still, there is little anyone can do well tied to a chair. He was quickly righted and pushed into a corner. His efforts had been worth it. The pan had landed upside down, crushing at least two of the needles and spilling their contents.Ouga placed a single foot on the front of the chair, keeping Shikamaru from attempting the same trick again.

Ouga growled, "Hurry up."

Chika was crouched over the broken needles. "I have to get more. They broke in the fall."

"Then hurry up." Ouga snapped.

The look Chika leveled atOuga's back made Shikamaru wonder who was in charge. She left the room without saying anything.

"So, what are you getting out of this?" Shikamaru asked.

Ouga didn't even look down at him.

"I doubt I'll be remembering any of this. So what's the harm? What is it? Wealth, power, a title?

Ouga wanted to hit him, Shikamaru could tell. Whatever his motivations were, he had not listed it. Then, unexpectedly, the man smiled. "I do this for peace."

"Peace?" Shikamaru repeated. In the back of his mind he knew how often that was someone's motivation but it was a nebulous word, really. Peace at any cost is no different than victory at any cost. Like justice and fairness, everyone's definition is slightly different. "Well, you're going to have to explain that to me?"

"We were united, all of us. The different villages all put aside their differences and fought together. We had a purpose, a great enemy. Our finest moment, but it was just a moment. Nothing changed."

"Then why go after Naruto and Gaara? They want peace."

"They want the status quo" Ouga said, his tone low. "They're not instigators of change. Their successors, the ones after them who is to say. We need change. The New Guard, as you call some of us, are unorganized, no focus. Many say when Naruto is in power things will change. They think he and Gaara have plans. Fools."

Shikamaru began to see their plan. The argument between the Old and New Guard was largely theoretical. Neither side was organized, but if two people who were at least viewed as New Guard leaders have been assassinated, that could very well galvanize some others to action. They would unleash chaos. Peace on a pile of the dead.

Chika came back in the room at that moment, holding the steel pan.

"So, who looks after your father when you two are running about kidnapping kids?" He raised his voice but he doubted they had overlooked something as simple as soundproofing.

Chika frowned. "You shouldn't be talking to him."

"He's not going to remember any of this."

"He shouldn't." Chika corrected. "We haven't had a success with adult males yet."

"Your father's refined it. He said it would work."

"I don't like it." She muttered under her breath. "Here, hold this," she said louder, giving him the pan.

Taking one of the needles filled with clear liquid, she injected it into his arm. Shikamaru tried to move his head forward to block the needle, but he didn't have that much movement. For a second it felt like fire was creeping up his arm but then he had a strange sense of relaxation.

"Don't fight it. Just relax." Chika's voice had become soothing like a nurse. "Just let the drug relax you and everything will be okay."

No, it wouldn't, Shikamaru thought. His vision started to become dark around the edges. He felt himself becoming distant, like he was watching something else. By the time they injected him the second time he kind of forgot why he and so… So something. He stared at one of them and then the other, knowing he was forgetting something. Well, if he had forgotten it, it couldn't have been that important.

When the door flew across the room with a deafening bang and cloud of dust, Shikamaru watched it like a leaf falling from a tree. Figures rushed in and the fight that followed was quick and dirty. When it was over someone was staring into his face and saying something, but listening seemed like too much of an effort at the moment and Shikamaru just wanted the man to go away. Then he remembered he could go to sleep and the man probably wouldn't be there when he woke up. It seemed like a good idea so he closed his eyes.

Shikamaru woke up with a soft bed under him and the sound of Ino's chatting voice. Takara interrupted his former teammate. "He's waking up."

Shikamaru opened his eyes only to find his vision blurry. His eyelids felt like they were made out of sandpaper. "Water" his tongue stuck to his mouth.

The big blonde blob came closer and he felt a straw poking his lips. Sipping that cold water quickly made it in the top ten best moments of his life. With his tongue free, he said, "My eyes, everything is blurry."

Ino let out an over exaggerated sigh. "You're so demanding. Here, I shall help."

Prying his eyes open, Ino put some eye drops in each eye, which was definitely not one of his favorite moments in life. However, after he blinked several times, the world was more than just amorphous blobs. Takara was at the far end of the bed, curled up in a chair, looking at him. He gave her a smile that he hoped was reassuring. "Care to catch me up?"

"Takara, would you like to start?" Ino asked. Takara shook her head no. "Fine" Ino said with a shrug. "She heard your argument with Ouga, then she heard your silence. She said she peeked around the corner and saw you on the floor and Ouga standing over you. He sealed you into a scroll and left without noticing her. Takara, being the smart girl she is, waited a few minutes before running in finding me."

Shikamaru nodded. "How did you know where I was though?"

Ino smiled. "Isn't it obvious? Takara suggested it right away. You were at Ouga's place. Who would ever think to look there?" She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. "They're still interrogating them."

Shikamaru nodded to himself. "So we just have to wait."

By the next morning, Shikamaru was feeling well enough to leave the hospital. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed in on any of the interrogations. A bit more irritating was all the shadows he picked up. People were following him and they made little effort to hide the fact. It took him a while to figure out why that was happening. The answer was obvious, so much so that he had overlooked it. Someone thought they had arrived too late. On the third day, though, they had disappeared, which meant they come to some conclusion. He hoped they would let him in on the interrogations then but no offer came.

On the fifth day they finally got a summons to meet with Gaara. The Kazekage's condition had improved since the last time he had seen him. Of course, since the last time he had seen him the man had been choking on his own blood, anything but death would've been an improvement. Sitting in a chair, he was flanked by either of his siblings and nodded as they entered.

"Shikamaru, Ino and Takara I appreciate your patience." Gaara's voice sounded as if he had a sore throat. It even seemed to hurt him to talk.

Kankuro took up the monologue from there. "We never thought Ouga was anything but loyal. The investigation would've ended without your intervention. Our belief now, though, is it was the three of them and just the three of them."

"What they accomplished, that's a lot for three people. That speaking from a purely technical point of view," Ino said.

Temari step forward and held out a scroll. "The details are here, but it's not as complicated as it first seems. Essentially, they were just using the initial research a little more refined but in itself nothing impressive. The boy, Ryoichi, he was a special case. To program him it took months. He was their third subject too. The other two died."

Shikamaru watched Ino take the scroll. "I'm not sure if I follow. Why was he a special case?"

"Project Rainbow hoped to take someone with little to no combat training and turn them into a weapon," Temari recapped. "For Ryoichi, that meant he had to learn several tasks that were completely foreign to him. Like how to sneak past security, how to hold a weapon, how to use it and so on. They had to program him to consider the chances of success and it all had to be on a subconscious level. For Mikka, it was simple. She had to pour something into a container, and when chased activate exploding tags. Neither task was foreign to her in itself. They just had to have her do them without her knowing it. Ryoichi basically had to rework his personality while Mikka was working off the equivalent of muscle memory."

"What about the injections?" Ino asked.

"The first dose they gave you was to relax you, the second was to make you more suggestive. The third we're still trying to analyze, but it sort of created a memory. We'll give you a sample to take back with you."

"How long does it take?"

"About an hour or so they say." Temari said. "Once we had the time-frame I had a hunch. I asked the people who patrolled the underground tunnels and they said they saw someone fitting Mikka's description often. Apparently, she used the underground tunnels to exercise. It was easy to grab her."

"And I'm guessing they were going to send me after Naruto?"

"You are his friend. Opportunities like that don't rise very often." Gaara almost smiled as he continued. "Of course, you're also the person who wouldn't let things go."

Shikamaru smiled. "I didn't really do much."

"You made them scared," Temari announced. "When Kanaye was brought in I didn't let Ouga anywhere near the interrogation. I was being spiteful really, but he thought we might be onto them. You were their last gamble."

Gaara leaned forward. "It is to our shame that these plotters came from our village. Your efforts show the advantage of our alliance."

That line had a political ring to it, Shikamaru thought. It was also probably an indication the meeting was over with but he thought he should set the record straight. "I thank you for your praise, but much of the credit belongs to my apprentice, Takara. She was the one who noticed the red stain on Kanaye. Without that I would have never even thought to look for your tunnels."

The closest thing to a smile crossed Gaara's lips. "We are so used to the tunnels we probably would've thought nothing of them. Takara, you have this village's and my personal gratitude."

Takara shifted from foot to foot, but she didn't hide behind him, which was an improvement Shikamaru thought. "How did those three meet by the way? I mean, how did Ouga meet them?"

"Kanaye and Ouga served together briefly during the last war. They started talking and eventually brought in Chika when she expressed similar views to their own. Arata, it seems was innocent all the time. The man really does see little more than his patients and research. It'll all be in the report we're preparing for you. You will be able to leave tomorrow morning. " Kankuro's tone indicated that the meeting was at an end.

Ino and he expressed their appreciation of their hospitality and excused themselves in to the hallway. As they were walking down Takara tucked on his arm and he looked down. She stared up at him with a certain mischievous look in her eyes. It was enough to make him wary. "Yes?"

"Gaara thanked me personally. He's the leader of this village."Right?"

"Yes, he did and he is."

"And you said that you couldn't have done it without me, right?"

Shikamaru hesitated. "I gave you credit where credit was due."

"So, if he thanked me and he's the village leader and you said I helped you does that mean I get some of your pay?"

Ino laughed. "I think she's got you there. Obviously, it should come out of your half."

Shikamaru sighed and said under his breath. "Troublesome. All women are troublesome."

The End

Authors note: I appreciate you reading and making it this far. Feel free to review =^_^=