The Badassery that is Shannon is back! :D
Thanks so much to my faithful reviewers :3 makes me all fuzzy inside when I see my number of comments continue to rise…
NotAStalker – welcome back! :D Shika's the best, isn't he? X3
MidnightheartXxX – she sure is badass, that's for sure! :D and the best thing is she can only improve her skills from here on out… XD
Moonlttiger – I LOVE it when people ask me questions :D now for some answers…
No, Shannon won't meet her father (we don't even know who the poor sod is yet, lol). I think I may need some help…if you have the number for Cliff Hangers Anonymous, let me know X3
Shannon's powers won't stay this volatile for too long…she wants to be in control of them so she won't be liable to snap so easily…and possibly so she won't scare Sasuke too much lol…if you wanna see how she does that, guess you'll just have to read, now won't you? ;D
That much anticipated fight with the Akatsuki is one step closer…
**Chapter seventeen**
The writhing tendrils of black shadow sprouting from Shannon's quivering form tossed the bloody chunks of dismembered demon aside like garbage. She wasn't shaking from fear or anything of the sort – she was shaking from rage. Pure, unadulterated rage. The kind of rage that made her want to reduce whole buildings to dust with only her bare fists.
Her breaths were short and shallow as she tried to contain the blinding fury that boiled inside of her. Even her violent side didn't want to cause any more harm to her wounded companions. After a while, her conscious side broke free and surfaced, bringing with it the full realization of what she had done.
Shannon's head snapped up, taking in the bloody limbs strewn around her. She felt the bile rise in her throat, her stomach turning. Her head burned at the thought of the fact that she had just taken her first lives. Technically the souls had spawned from hell and were therefore considered dead, but she had still taken a talking, breathing being and reduced it to nothing.
Her legs began to shake. A sound to her left brought her attention to the fact that Shikamaru was still trying to get up from the miniature crater he was lying haphazardly in. Shannon stumbled over to him and dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face. She felt wretched. She had allowed her friends to be tossed around like ragdolls; had let herself become distracted and they had suffered the price for it.
And Shika…he had tried to snap her out of whatever trance she had fallen into, and it had cost him dearly.
Choking back a sob, Shannon hooked her arms under his and half-dragged, half-lifted him out of the hole, cradling his head on her lap.
"Shika…I'm sorry…I did it again…" she sobbed, wiping a trail of blood from a cut above his eye. "You got hurt again because of me…"
Shannon screwed her eyes shut, shaking away the tears. It wouldn't do any of the others any good if she just sat there crying. They needed help. Shannon's stomach dropped. They needed help she couldn't give. She was all alone in the middle of a battlefield, with no medical skills, easy prey for any passing enemies. The sobs broke free, wracking her petite form. They could die, all because of her…all because she was too weak to control her own powers…to scared to stay focused in the heat of battle…
Weak. She hated the word bitterly, but it plagued almost every aspect of her life. She could hear it repeating itself in the back of her mind, taunting her.
Weak…weak…weak…
"Shannon! Wake up!" someone was shaking her roughly, snapping her mind away from the terrible scene replaying itself in her head. "Shannon!"
Her eyes shot open and she bolted into a sitting position, chest heaving, heart pounding. She felt someone touch her shoulder and she flinched, snapping her head to see whoever it was.
Sakura's worried eyes met hers, the gentle grip on Shannon's shoulder never wavering. "You were screaming in your sleep again."
Shannon forced herself to calm down, her body slumping. "Sorry about that…"
It had been two days since the attack by the demons, and everyone was still feeling the after-effects – both mentally and physically. Sakura's healing chakra and soldier pills had helped in the recovery from their battle wounds, but no amount of medicine could take away the shock at being beaten so brutally. The ninja were still shaken that they had been so weak compared to these new enemies. They had a feeling that they were a little out of their depth here.
Sakura's expression softened. "It was the nightmare again, wasn't it?"
The brunette sighed, hanging her head. "It won't stop…it's been two nights in a row now…"
"It's understandable," the pink-haired medic nin patted her shoulder comfortingly. "You went through some serious trauma. But you shouldn't think about it so much – without you, the situation probably would have been a lot worse."
"I didn't do anything," Shannon muttered. "You guys still got tossed around pretty good and I couldn't do anything about it. I tried, but…"
"First of all, you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself," Sasuke interrupted from his position against a pole opposite her. Shannon shot him a sharp look. "And then you need to stop putting yourself down – you took those demons out before they could seriously injure any of us."
Shannon took a deep breath, letting his words sink in. He was right, in a sense. But she still didn't feel comfortable with the fact that she had killed something.
"And anyway," Sasuke's tone was friendlier now. Shannon almost fell over – this was the nicest he had been to her since they met what seemed like so long ago. "You can use this as an opportunity to improve your skills with those shadows of yours, if you really don't want anything like that to happen again. We'll arrive at the Akatsuki meeting point sometime tomorrow – we need all the preparation and skill we can get."
Pushing her shock aside, Shannon looked at the black-haired ninja and nodded. "I see your point," she agreed. She thought about it for a little bit longer and sighed, massaging her throbbing temples. "The only problem is I don't know how to control these shadows at all."
"I'm sure I could help you with that," Shikamaru said as he walked into their small circle. He tossed a few re-filled water bottles next to their packs and faced her. "Seeing as we have similar fighting tactics and all."
Shannon mulled his offer over in her head. It was true – she and Shikamaru both had control of shadow elements…and he was sure to be a patient teacher. And she was desperate to learn how to control this new power of hers before she hurt anyone in the group unintentionally.
A few moments later, she grinned and raised her determined gaze to meet his. "Sounds like a plan."
Shikamaru returned her smile and motioned for her to follow him to a flat section of ground not too far away. They needed as much time to train as possible if they were going to defeat the Akatsuki and get Josephine back in one piece.
As they two shadow users walked away, Sasuke felt a small smile tug at the corner of him mouth. Naruto, sitting next to him, chuckled and elbowed him in the ribs when he noticed.
"Careful, teme. You might just make us start to think that you care."
"Shut up, dobe," Sasuke scowled, but his smile soon returned.
…
"Focus."
Shannon gritted her teeth and concentrated on the small tendril of shadow writhing in her palm. She could feel the tug of her 'other side' at the back of her mind, just itching to take over, but she squashed it down. Shikamaru had been teaching her how to focus on her surroundings, rather than the uncontrollable rage that bubbled inside of her when she released the shadows.
She took a few calming breaths and listened intently to her surroundings – the sound of the wind whistling through the battered buildings, Shikamaru's steady breathing, her own thumping heartbeat.
"That's better," Shikamaru breathed a mental sigh of relief. It had looked for a second as though she would lose control, but her determination surprised him. "Now try releasing more shadows."
Shannon frowned at him. They had been sitting cross-legged on the ground, working at a blistering pace for the past five hours, neither of them taking a moment's rest. Shannon had been soaking up whatever information Shikamaru could give her about how to keep her violent nature in check while using her shadows, and not rip everything around her to microscopic pieces.
So far she had managed with ten tendrils out. Shikamaru constantly kept pushing her, making her increase the number of them every half an hour. The more shadows she released, the harder and harder it was to keep her bloodlust under control.
Seeing her hesitation, Shikamaru took one of Shannon's hands – the one with the lone shadow tendril balancing in it. He looked her in the eye and said, "Focus on me."
Shannon did as he told, focusing all her attention on the shinobi before her. She took in every detail of his face, the ragged clothes he wore, his wildly spiked hair. She felt the subconscious rage recede somewhat.
Shikamaru noted her calmed attitude and smiled. "Now release more shadows."
Shannon took a deep breath, closing her eyes in concentration. "How many?"
"All of them."
Her eyes snapped back open, wide. "All of them? You can't be serious!"
But the look on his face was deadly serious. "We don't have time to mess around, Shannon. We face off with the Akatsuki tomorrow. We need to be prepared. If you want to be able to control those things, you'll have to listen to me. Trust me."
Shannon saw the pleading look in his eyes and sighed. She swallowed down her apprehension. She trusted Shikamaru the most out of their entire squad. Possibly even more than she trusted Ashley. He had saved her life more than once. She wasn't about to lose faith in him now. Taking another calming breath, Shannon focused on her partner's deep brown eyes, blocking out everything else.
She released all her shadows in one fluid motion. The inky, smoke-like appendages swirled around her form, lashing out like hungry snakes. And with the shadows, came the uncontrollable rage, worse than she had ever felt it before. Shannon clenched her teeth, screwing her eyes shut tightly. Her grip on Shikamaru's hand increased painfully. She grunted with the effort of not letting the overwhelming bloodlust completely take her over.
"Shannon! Listen to me – focus on me."
Shannon forced her eyes open again, her jaw clenched so tightly she felt as though her teeth would crack from the pressure. Her vision was starting to redden with rage, her blood pounding in her ears.
"Focus! You can do this."
Shannon dragged her heated gaze to Shikamaru's steel-hard one. His eyes never wavered or flickered for a second. She forced herself to focus on nothing but his eyes. Slowly, her mind began to calm. She remembered everything about those eyes – how one look from them had given her strength when she felt so weak and insecure; they held a confidence and determination in them that fuelled her will to succeed. They had comforted her when she had been falling to pieces. They had put her back together again.
The rage slipped further and further into the dark recesses of her mind, eventually disappearing altogether, as Shannon focused more intently on Shikamaru's eyes. A realization suddenly hit her with such force it almost physically knocked her breathless.
She loved those eyes. Not just the eyes, but the person they belonged to. Shannon was as naïve to the nature of love as they came, but this feeling…it was unlike anything she had experienced before. It felt like…like a part of her she hadn't even known was missing had suddenly been filled.
Everything else melted away, like the person before her was the only thing left on the planet. The more she focused on those eyes, the more she realized that her feelings were genuine…not just that nonsensical stuff those starry-eyes pre-teens used to dream about and fantasize about having. This was real, genuine emotion.
Shannon suddenly found herself short of breath when she realized that Shikamaru was staring back at her just intently as she had been looking at him. She reddened slightly, thinking she had been caught out. There was no way he could ever feel the same…it was impossible. He was a shinobi, someone who had been trained for years to disregard feelings and harden themself to emotion. And what was she? Just some poorly-trained civilian with freakish powers and an anger-management problem.
Shannon averted her eyes, looking down at the ground. She was foolish to believe even for a second that her newly-discovered feeling would be reciprocated in any way…
She hadn't realized how close their faces actually were until she felt Shika's lips gently brush against her own.
Shannon felt like she had been jolted by an electric shock. Her eyes widened in surprise, heart thudding almost painfully in her chest. It took a moment for the surprise to fade, but the tingling sensation never left her body. Shannon's eyes slid closed and she gently kissed him back, albeit unsurely. She felt his fingers twine themselves with hers, and her heart leaped again. Shikamaru pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. Shannon responded readily, detangling her hands from his and instead wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I was wondering when that was going to happen."
The two of them pulled away from each other abruptly, heads snapping to the source of the voice. Sai stood a little way away, smirking knowingly. Shannon, realizing that her arms were still around Shikamaru's neck, blushed profusely and averted her gaze from the artist.
"Uhhh…" for once, both of them were at a loss for words.
"But anyway, don't let me intrude," Sai winked at them, causing the pair to redden even more. "We've been waiting long enough for this."
"We?" Shannon questioned lamely as the black-haired shinobi walked away.
Shannon turned her head to look back at Shikamaru, who met her eyes with an equally confused look of his own. He suddenly smiled, chuckling slightly. Shannon blushed again, but laughed along as well. Sai had a habit of making people very…confused.
"Who gives a shit about them?" Shikamaru smirked, pulling Shannon back down again.
Had her lips not been otherwise occupied, she would have been inclined to agree with him.
I'm really bad at affection scenes -_-' sorry if that one sort of sucked…I haven't written one before…who knew they were so difficult to write? :s
Anywho! Akatsuki coming up next! :D now we finally get to see if Shannon's grand plan actually works or not B3 it'll be just as much of a surprise to you as it'll be to me…LOL XD
Don't forget to review if you wanna see what happens! :3