Shikamaru stood watching Kabuto in silence. The silence was only interrupted by the sighing of the trees as the wind blew. The night was only illuminated by the burning of the prison, faintly spitting flames at the sky in the background. Shikamaru closed his eyes and inhaled deeply in sync with the breaths of the forest. He exhaled, and in a split-second he erupted into battle.
At an amazing speed, Shikamaru closed the gap between he and Kabuto. He swung his blade in an attempt to slice Kabuto in half. Kabuto swiftly avoided the attack and sneered at Shikamaru.
"You'll have to do much better than that." Kabuto said with a giggle. But, instantly after he said this, the shadow of Shikamaru holding his sword came from the ground and impaled Kabuto. However, Kabuto's smile did not fade.
"That's a cool trick, but you're still going to have to do much better." Kabuto said as he disappeared. In his place was actually a mass of black snakes that struck at Shikamaru. However, instead of running, Shikamaru threw a flash bomb at the ground. Momentarily blinded, the snakes stopped trying to bite Shikamaru. This also served as a diversion for Shikamaru to grab his other trench knife without being seen by Kabuto.
Shikamaru looked for Kabuto and saw his cloak, but he wasn't fooled by Kabuto's childish tactics. He was aware that Kabuto was trying to spring a trap, but he decided to play along. "Kabuto, stop playing games, I can see you hiding over there. However, before I kill you, let me ask you something. How did you know who the host of the Two-Tails was?" Shikamaru asked.
For a brief moment, there was no reply, but then there was a slight giggle. "I completely fooled the Leaf Village for my own gain. I was aware that the Leaf Village Intel Squads were closely watching my steps and I decided to use that to my advantage. Instead of having a long and drawn out battle with a demon, I acted as if I were searching for the demon, to provoke the Leaf Village into sealing the demon up for me." Kabuto explained.
Shikamaru thought about this for a moment and realized that there were parts of the story missing. "If that's true, then what was your purpose for murdering the Fire Daimyo?" Shikamaru insisted. However , there was no answer to that question. This seemingly angered Shikamaru and he pulled out a kunai attached to a seal.
"Answer me!" Shikamaru shouted as he threw the kunai at the Kabuto fake. As Shikamaru thought, Kabuto tried to ambush him from behind. In reaction, Shikamaru pulled his katana out again and swung at Kabuto. Instead, he sliced the head off of four snakes that protruded from Kabuto's back. Kabuto simply punched Shikamaru in the chest and sent him barreling into the home of a Leaf Village resident.
The residents screamed in terror. "I'm very sorry. I will pay for this personally." Shikamaru said as he tried to stand up. But, he realized that none of his ligaments were working correctly. He tried to move his right finger and found that his left eye lid was twitching.
While this was going on, Kabuto had appeared at the hole that was created by Shikamaru's body. The residents of the home cowered in fear of the man they saw standing in the hole in the wall. "This is the end, Shikamaru." Kabuto said as he pulled out a small dagger. But, when he said this, a small child ran out and stood in front of Shikamaru. It was a little girl, that could be no older than four years of age, and no taller than Shikamaru's knee. She was wearing a small necklace that shined violently in the small amount of moonlight.
"Don't you dare hurt him! He is a ninja of the Leaf Village!" The little girl proclaimed. Kabuto looked at her and smiled. He kneeled down and looked her right in the eyes. Then, a cobra came out the back of his cloak and bit her on the neck. She didn't say a word and only fell to the ground, dead.
"My baby! My baby!" The mother screamed. Kabuto looked at her and the father with a smile and two cobras that had seemingly been behind them the whole time, bit them on the necks and killed them.
Shikamaru saw this and his eyes grew abnormally wide. "You monster! What have you done?" Shikamaru asked. He was shaking and desperately trying to move so that he could kill Kabuto.
"I told you already, Shikamaru. I don't care about these lowly villagers. Anything and everything that gets in my way will be destroyed, including you." Kabuto said with a mocking tone.
Elsewhere in the village, Hoheto had just made it to Tsunade's estate.
"What's going on? And, where is Shikamaru?" Tsunade asked as soon as he was there.
Hoheto was a bit taken aback by Lady Tsunade because she was in nothing, but a bath robe. However, he cast aside his pervertedness at the moment because of the seriousness of the situation. "The village jail has been set to flames and all of the convicts have escaped. We believe that this was done by Kabuto Yakushi, but Shikamaru is dealing with him at the moment." Hoheto explained.
"Oh no, this is very bad." Tsunade said as she began to get dressed.
"I know, we must deal with the convicts immediately..." Hoheto started, not quite understanding.
"No, you idiot! I'm not sure if Shikamaru can defeat Kabuto. Kabuto is at a level beyond that of Orochimaru. We need to rush to his assistance quickly." Tsunade said, cutting off Hoheto.
Shikamaru listened to the words that Kabuto had just said over and over again in his head. He replayed the death of the little girl and her parents a million times. Almost instantaneously, Shikamaru let out a battle cry and stood up. Kabuto seemed to be very surprised by this, but didn't move from his spot. All of the shadows in the dark room converged and attacked Kabuto. They forced him through the roof and back outside.
"I can not forgive you for what you have done here! You must die here!" Shikamaru proclaimed as he grabbed both of his trench knives. Before Kabuto even had time to think, Shikamaru was upon him and preparing to slash at him. Quickly reacting, Kabuto forces himself to a safe distance. Or, so he thought. When he was seemingly out of range, he noticed a cut on the tip of his nose.
"How is that even remotely possible? I'm at the least, 5 meters away from you." Kabuto asked with a hint of fear. However, Shikamaru was silent and only glared at Kabuto directly in the eyes. Very suddenly, a shadow slithered out of the hole caused by Kabuto's body when he was forced out of the roof. The shadow violently attempted to catch him, but Kabuto stubbornly evaded. Kabuto soon realized that he was being forced into a trap. Shikamaru was charging at Kabuto from the complete opposite direction of the shadow which was at an angle. He couldn't escape to the front and behind him was the edge of the roof, where he could possibly fall and have further complications.
"Just die!" Shikamaru exclaimed as he swung his arm to strike Kabuto. Kabuto quickly made a decision and acted upon it. He hopped into the air to avoid the two-way attack and began to make hand signs.
"Corrosive Cloud!"Kabuto called as he exhaled a stream of yellow gas from his mouth. A mass of shadows collected around Shikamaru and formed an all-around shield. The fog was dense around Shikamaru, but eventually it cleared. But, Shikamaru was still surrounded by the shadows. Kabuto landed in front of the mass of shadows and stared with a peculiar grin.
"You can't..." Kabuto started, but was interrupted by a huge blade of chakra erupting from the mass of shadows. Kabuto ducked and rolled backwards to dodge the frontal attack. There was a brief moment of peace, but then Shikamaru came flying through the roof from under Kabuto. Kabuto was unprepared in every way, and it was all he could do to avoid having his head chopped off. Instead, Shikamaru stabbed right through Kabuto's left pectoral muscle. Coincidentally, Kabuto was then binded to the spot where he stood by Shikamaru's shadow. Then, a replica of Shikamaru, composed entirely of shadows emerged from the shield of shadows and approached Kabuto with Shikamaru's other trench knife in hand.
Kabuto quickly figured out what was going to happen and reacted. He opened his mouth and cobras began to pour from his throat. Sickeningly seeming to come up ten at a time. The cobras darted toward Shikamaru. who attempted to dodge this attack by jumping back. This was just as Kabuto had predicted and it caused Kabuto to be free to move again, and the replica of Shikamaru to freeze in place.
Shikamaru cut the heads off of many snakes, but one out of the bunch managed to get through and bite Shikamaru on his right shoulder. "Shit! That hurts like hell. I can already feel the poison coarsing through my veins." Shikamaru thought to himself. As Shikamaru writhed in agaony, Kabuto tried to jump off the building and escape. Seeing this, Shikamaru made his shadow replica throw the trench knife toward Kabuto. The knife barely missed by an inch and struck right behind where Kabuto was trying to run. Kabuto stopped and turned around.
"This has gone on for far too long," Shikamaru said as he jumped down of the building ", I'm gonna finish this now."
"It's no use, Shikamaru. In the next couple of minutes, that poison that you feel will have made it to your heart and you will struggle to even pump blood." Kabuto said maniacally.
"That doesn't matter to me. By then, you'll be dead anyways. If you haven't noticed I have the advantage." Shikamaru said grabbing his shoulder.
Kabuto looked around, but didn't quite understand. "If you're talking about your trench knife piercing my shadow, it didn't work. You missed." Kabuto laughed triumphantly.
Shikamaru simply shook his head. "Think again." Shikamaru said solemnly. Suddenly, Kabuto looked up and saw the kunai with the seal attached to it that Shikamaru had thrown earlier. On it, was the symbol for shine. The seal almost instantly activated, and a bright white blinding light shined. The light lasted for about three seconds, but that was all Shikamaru needed. When Kabuto looked down again, he saw that his shadow was pinned to the ground.
"You dumb ass. I used the light from the seal to stretch your shadow in the opposite direction, thereby pinning it." Shikamaru explained. Shikamaru then pointed down and Kabuto saw that the other trench knife was pinning down Shikamaru's shadow. He soon found out why.
Shikamaru made a couple of hand signs and stared at Kabuto. "Shadow Jump." Shikamaru said simply. Shikamaru submerged into his own shadow, and emerged where Kabuto's shadow was. He placed two explosive tags in Kabuto's mouth and then quickly retrieved his knife. Shikamaru grabbed the other knife and braced himself. There was a moment of absolutely no sound, not even from the burning Konoha Prison. Then, there was a small pop followed by an enormous explosion.
Shikamaru sighed and sat down when the smoke filled the area. "Finally, I was just ran out of chakra. There's no way that bastard survived that." Shikamaru said to himself. However, when the smoke cleared, Shikamaru was filled with a kind of disgusting fear. Kabuto had taken on the grotesque form of a large half man-half cobra. Kabuto looked at Shikamaru with an immense amount of evil in his eyes and was about to attack. But out of the blue, Lady Tsunade and Hoheto appeared.
"Hoheto, take Shikamaru to a safe place. No questions asked." Tsunade commanded calmly. Hoheto grabbed Shikamaru and proceeded to do as he was commanded.
"Sso Lady Tssunade, you've come to facsse your death? For that, iss what liess ahead of you if you get in my way." Kabuto slithered.
Tsunade calmly looked Kabuto in the eyes. "This is the end of the line Kabuto. You will not be allowed to terrorize my loved ones anymore!" Tsunade yelled as she suddenly became serious.