Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto. If only they would auction the rights on Ebay…
Shoutout to the World: I KNEW Deidara wasn't actually dead!
Chapter 9
A Task Too Troublesome: Out Already?
Shikamaru sailed through the trees. The Forest of Death was not a place he wanted to revisit either, especially alone, without his team. He had improved a little, but he was still alone and had three man teams going after him- talk about a troublesome drag.
Maybe he should just let the first team he saw take his medals. He didn't even want to do this, Tsunade forced him to. Just get rid of the medals and finish his job, he thought. Spoken like a true shirker.
A shout abruptly shattered his thoughts.
"-eeeeeeeelp ussssssss!" a voice was crying.
"Already? That was fast. Oh well, maybe they just got careless." Shikamaru said, rushing towards the sound of the voice.
He reached a clearing in the trees and spotted the three Waterfall-nin. One was tied to a tree with those invisible wires, one was on the ground, bleeding from multiple kunai wounds, and a third slumped against the tree unconscious. The one tied up was yelling frantically.
Shikamaru leapt down into the clearing, approaching the tied up one.
"You realize that calling me to help disqualified you, right?" Shikamaru said, cutting the wires.
"Unless we weren't calling for help to begin with." said the ninja, as it was revealed in a puff of smoke to be a puppet. The other two were revealed to be another puppet, and Kankuro, the Sand ninja.
Shikamaru's first instinct was to immediately leap back, but suddenly his feet were enveloped in sand. The sand crawled up his legs, until it had his legs and arms bound.
"Good job, Kankuro. Good plan, Temari." said Gaara, stepping out of the bush.
Shikamaru's eyes went wide with fear. This guy…
Gaara laughed, but not sinisterly.
"I'm not going to kill you. You can relax. I've changed a lot since last Chuunin Exam. We just want your medals." he said.
Temari stepped out of the bushes, still carrying her huge fan.
"Well, I see you did nothing to help." Shikamaru said teasingly.
"Are you kidding?" she said, with a twinkle in her eye, "I came up with the whole plan. I knew you'd be easy to trick, Mr. Crybaby."
"Troublesome woman." he retorted.
"Just get the medals." Gaara said irritably.
Kankuro was busy cutting Karasu down from being tied to the tree trunk.
Temari made a show of finding the three medal straps on the back of Shikamaru's neck, tracing the strap down either side of his neck, meeting in front of his neck. Shikamaru shivered.
Gaara arched an eyebrow.
She unbuttoned the top button on his shirt. Shikamaru suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She could have just pulled the medals up out of my shirt using the straps…
Temari smirked.
"Temari, hurry up." said Gaara again.
She grimaced and seized the medals.
"Here they are," she said, taking them off his head, then tossing one to Gaara. Gaara caught it, still looking oddly at the two of them. She threw another at Kankuro, who looked up just in time to avoid getting hit in the head with it.
"We're leaving." said Gaara with finality, placing the medal around his own neck.
As the Sand brothers leapt into the trees, Temari looked back over her shoulder one last time at Shikamaru.
"Tell your brother he can let me out now." said Shikamaru, still in the Sand Coffin.
"Actually, I like you better that way." she said, and then leapt up into the trees after her siblings.
"Wha- wait!" he called, "Dammit, what the hell's that supposed to mean?"
Around ten minutes later, the sand finally went away, leaving him free to move again. He took off for the central tower. He had to say that he got his medals stolen, and then would probably be sent back into the forest to help more Genin that got in trouble.
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Shikamaru moved from tree to tree quickly, heading towards the middle tower. He usually didn't rush things but he REALLY wanted to get to the tower so he could stay and relax until the preliminaries started.
He had just leapt to a tree near to the ground when the tree suddenly started falling. He frantically tried to jump to another tree, but didn't make it, falling to the ground. Thankfully, he landed on his feet, spinning around in all directions. With all the trees, he couldn't see where the attacker's might be.
"Human Boulder!" came his former teammate's voice as Chouji came rolling at him, bouncing off the trees like a pinball. Shikamaru started running as fast as he possibly could, glancing over his shoulder every now and then. Chouji was right behind him the whole time.
Another tree fell down in front of him as he saw Sakura punch its trunk using her strength. He leapt on top of the tree as it was falling, using it to jump up into the tree beside it. Chouji came out of his spin, shouting:
"Partial Expansion Jutsu!"
An oversized arm shot at Shikamaru, destroying the branch he was on. He dodged backwards, forming his Shadow Possession Jutsu hand sign while in the air, using the extra length being airborne gave his shadow to snag Sakura and Chouji.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu, success." he smirked, "Nice try, though."
Then suddenly he lost control of his body. For the second time in an hour, he couldn't move. His signature jutsu fizzled out, allowing Sakura and Chouji to move agin. A blond haired girl dropped down in front of him.
"How do you like my new Mental Paralysis Jutsu, Shikamaru?" Ino asked.
"Very… effective…" he said, trying to move any of his limbs, but finding he couldn't. It was as if his brain's connection to them was completely cut off.
"See guys? I told you he'd be easy to take down. Now we'll just take your medals and-" Ino started.
"I don't have them." he said.
"Don't lie." she said.
"I don't."
"He couldn't have hidden them, part of the rules were that the Chuunin had to have their medals somewhere on their person." Sakura said.
Ino walked up to him and looked at his neck, then started patting the various pockets on his Chuunin vest and his pants.
"He's right. He doesn't have them." Ino said.
"Look, I already had them taken, ok? Don't be troublesome." he said.
"Taken? By who?" Ino asked.
"Uhh… Temari and her brothers." he said.
Ino's face burned with anger.
"That fan girl! I'll kill her!" she exclaimed.
"Be realistic, Ino!" Sakura protested, "All three of them are WAY out of our league. Speaking of which, Shikamaru, if you encountered them, how'd you get away alive?"
Shikamaru would have shrugged, but he couldn't under Ino's jutsu.
"Apparently Gaara lost his psycho streak. Good thing, too, since we saved him that one time and all." Shikamaru said.
"Well, at least that's some good news…" Sakura sighed.
"Now, can you please let me out of this jutsu? This is such a drag…" Shikamaru asked.
"You aren't going to attack us as soon as you are out?" Ino asked.
"No!" he said, "You know me, I'm too lazy to pull something like that."
"What if I don't believe you?" Ino asked.
"This is why women are so-"
"Don't even say it, Nara Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed, "Or I'll leave you in this jutsu for a month."
"All right, all right." Shikamaru grumbled.
He felt Ino undo the jutsu and he moved his fingers a little.
"Good luck getting your medals, guys." he said, jumping into the trees.
He finally reached the tower, opening the door and heading in. Genma looked up, surprised.
"You're back already? It hasn't even been three hours!" he said.
Shikamaru shrugged.
"Don't tell me you just gave away your medals or something… it'd be just like you…"
Shikamaru shook his head, relating the tale of what happened.
Genma laughed out loud when he was done.
"What the hell is so funny?" Shikamaru asked him.
"I think," said Genma, "You have two girls crushing on you."
Shikamaru glared at him.
"Don't even joke like that, Genma."