Ok ok, I kno u guys all really really really wanted another chapter, and sorry for not being here

But I had some trouble….

Its over now

So

Be happy hahahaha ^.^

-mayu

Innocence

Chapter Twenty-one

'Troublesome test, troublesome sound genin hiding in the bushes, troublesome Orochimaru, troublesome TEAMATES! DAMMIT! TROUBLESOME TROUBLESOMENESS!!" yes, you could say Shikamaru wasn't on his rocker at the moment. Being majorly pissed off, on the verge of exhaustion and in the middle of a deadly forest filled with people out for his life, was not the greatest thing for the boy's blood pressure.

'When this is over, I'm gonna get in my bed, and Never. Come. Out.'

Footsteps signified that the sound-nins had finally left the safety of the bushes to stand about twenty feet away from where Shikamaru sat, his unconscious teammates laying behind him.

"Oi! You! Hand over the Uchiha so we can kill him!" the one at the front cried arrogantly, his spiky hair shooting out at odd angles, his grin savage.

"Sorry, no can do!" Shikamaru called back sweetly, inwardly cursing. He barely had any energy left to stand, his injuries throbbing up a storm.

Looking back, he saw Narue seemingly in a deep sleep, barely even breathing, while Sasuke twitched violently beside her.

He was sweating, and his face told he was in great pain. The hickey on his neck glowing an eerie purple, and seeming to pulse.

"Well, if you can't, I'll just have to kill you myself!" Zaku grinned, already sure of his victory. He made a move to step forward, but was halted by his mummy teammate.

"Can't you notice the traps? He's laden the area with them." Dosu glared at the pineapple haired boy across the clearing, who at the moment was thanking his lucky stars he had spent the effort to protect the site he had picked. Looking back at his teammates, Shikamaru grimaced, he was alone for this.

"That's right, so you better stay on that side. It won't be long before my teammates wake up." Shikamaru reached into his pocket for the meager supply of kunai left. Taking out four, he held them within his fingers, and let them fly, headed towards the stationary ninja.

They easily dodged them and the first one, Zaku, laughed. His amusement however, lasted only until he stepped on the hidden wire, the wire that was hooked up to five different kunai launchers, which subsequently launched eight kunais at a time. To say that the sound genins panicked for a bit would be an understatement, at least until Zaku remembered why he was a ninja.

"ZANKUUHA!"

A blast of air erupted from the nin's hand sent the incoming pointy objects to go hay-wire and shoot off into the forest surrounding them. Shikamaru scowled, his hard work was ruined by one shot. Wearily, Shikamaru stepped forward, away from the tree roots and his teammates. Reaching into his pack, he brought out the little white scrolls Hayate had given him before the exam started, holding it slightly behind his back and away from the eyes of the sound nin. Settling into a basic defensive stance, Shikamaru waited for the enemy nins to move.

Dosu, the mummified genin noticed how Shikamaru could barely stand with the wounds in both his right leg and shoulder, and quickly signed this new information to his teammates. Zaku and Kin smirked, and spread to each side, deciding to rush the boy and be done with him easily.

Shikamaru knew what they were planning, and took actions to stop that. Slicing his thumb on a kunai behind his back, Shikamaru, at the same time, threw his blood smeared scroll in the air and threw a handful of smoke bombs at his feet, to give him the time to prepare.

In short time, Zaku had blown away the smoke with his air blast, and revealed a smiling Shikamaru. Attached to each finger, a bunch of strings leading up to hovering pointy objects, a cloud of them hung over the pineapple haired boy's head, a BIG cloud, with a LOT of sharp things in it.

Smiling to the sound nins, Shikamaru thought to himself, with no little amount of worry, 'I Can't keep this up for long, too many different chakra strings….if I can get them in one or two attacks, I'll be fine but any more then that I run the risk of chakra exhaustion…damnation!'

With a thought and twitch of his hands, Shikamaru sent his puppet weapons flying at breakneck speeds towards the ninjas, even as they tried to dodge them, there was always one attacking from each direction, so none of them got off scott free.

When Shikamaru drew back his toys for a break, he was met with three pissed off and injured ninja. Zaku could only use one arm, as his other sported three disconnected shuriken and a large gash across his chest, below his collarbones. Dosu's bandages were sliced in many places, blood pooling and being absorbed around every wound, and Kin had a kunai in her leg and had large gashes about her shoulders.

Seeing Zaku bringing his arm up for another air blast, Shikamaru sent a third of his cloud to him, faster than before. This time, his attack disabled the nin's other arm, rendering him useless.

Shikamaru could feel his knees buckling and shaking. Already he was tired. Glaring in disgust at himself, he put a hand on the tree covering his teammates and leaned, trying to make it seem as tho he as not tired, and not about to collapse.

"I'll kill you!" Zaku was pissd beyond belief, and so, with acrazed glint in his eye, he grabbeda kunai withhis teeth (dotn ask how, hes a ninja) and sprinted towards the boy. Shikamaru's eyes widened, he couldn't dodge this.

10 feet

5 feet

2

Slick

The kunai had punctured and slid into flesh, but not Shikamaru's. Opening his closed eyes, he gasped in horror and dismay.

Narue stood there, blue eyes happy, her small hands grasping Shikamaru's harms, and Zaku's kunai knife buried deep into her back, right into her left lung. Coughing up blood, Narue weakly smiled and said, "H-hi, S-shika." The little blonde collapsed, from shock, blood loss and pain.

Shikamaru's heart couldn't comprehend, but his brain could. 'the kunai is too deep to remove here, the blood loss will kill her, with only the use of one lung and bleeding internally, she would have a max of ten minutes to live. We're maybe three miles from the tower, and even longer still to get help. but i have to save her, oh my god-"

"NARUE!"

Shikamaru dropped to his knees, holding the limp blonde in his arms. She was so small. Her smiling face came to his mind and he let out a grief-filled wail.

"Shikamaru, will she live?" Sasuke's voice suddenly came out of the forest's sudden silence, and shika lifted his tear streaked face to look at the purple enveloped Uchiha. The boy was surrounded by the evil purple chakra of Orochimaru, hate and anger and power radiated from his stone cold face.

"In ten minutes without help…she'll be…dead." Shikamaru chocked on more tears, and bent his face over the little blonde bombshell whose light suddenly seemed so dim.

"You hurt her," Sasuke said to the sound nins, his voicea parody of his normal one, "now I'll hurt you."

The resulting fight wasn't really a fight, more of a game of cat and mouse. The nins ran with their injuries, and Sasuke ran after them, hunting them down. A kunai to the spine for the kin girl, a hard punch to the head for Zaku and Dosu screamed when he was kicked so hard, multiple ribs cracked.

Sasuke was about to go in for the kill when Shikamaru's yell stopped him. "Sasuke! We have to get Narue to the tower! NOW!" the pineapple haired boy had already started running, the limp figure clutched tight to his chest.

Sasuke's purple chakra suddenly thinned out and diminished, and he was left staring at his hand.

'What is this power, its so strong. I felt like I could do anything. Is this what Orochimaru promises?' Sasuke clenched his hands and leaped away, leaving the three sound nins to death.

Narue was in the chamber again. The pain she had felt when the kunai ripped out her insides was gone, leaving only a faint impression. She was alone again, alone with the fox.

But she couldn't feel or hear the fox.

It was like he wasn't even there.

Walking down the corridor, she was interested in the different colored doors. Choosing the first blue one she saw, she opened it and peeked in, apprehensive of what was inside.

Inside it was a sunny day in a clear green field. No civilization was in sight. In the center of the field sat a little blonde girl, a younger Narue. The little girl was playing with some flowers laughing and smiling happily, unawares that the other older Narue was watching.

A sudden sound distracted the young Narue from her flower playing, a short little yip from the bushes and rustling. A young fox tumbled out, its fur a glossy orange and feet, snow white socks.

"Hi there! What your name!" young Narue exclaimed, holding out a hand to the fox. Not answering, the fox crept forward and sniffed at the girls hand. Giving it a lick, he enticed giggle from the girl and she started to pet him.

The duo sat there for a while, trading little pleasures such as a scratch behind the ear, a nuzzle, a lick or two.

Older Narue stood watching this, and suddenly felt a pull to her midsection. The sunny afternoon was being swallowed by the dark and clammy sewer. Frowning, Narue tried to open the same door, but found her hand passing through the doorknob.

Turning away, she continued down, looking through the doors and watching her memories play out. She smiled at the happy ones with her family and friends, frowned at the sad ones and basically enjoyed watching her life once again.

At the last door, the color of it was red and the doorknob had a lock on it. Narue contemplated on this for a little before she came up with a brilliant idea.

Pointing at the big padlock on the doorknob, she said commandingly and imperiously, "Go away." and the lock, disappeared. Smiling to herself, she opened the door and entered.

She was on a street in Konoha, a dark and dreary day, the sky threatening to rain. The street was pretty much empty, and Narue was confused and slightly bored for a little.

Faintly, and growing louder, she could hear running footsteps and angry yelling. Looking down one end of the street, she could barely make out a running fugre, with a shock of yellow hair and short enough to be a child.

Behind the running child was a screaming mob of angry citizens, wielding a number of different kinds of weapons. When the running people came closer, Narue gave a start when she realized the running child…was her.

She was barely six years old, tears streamed down her face, and she was panicked.

Taking a wrong turn, the running Narue ended in an alley and the older Narue ran to follow her, staying ahead of the mob. The older Narue started to cry as the mob closed in, pulling the screaming, terrified, younger Narue into their midst.

Cringing at every hit and scream, Narue yelled, "STOP IT! STOP!" they couldn't hear her, even feel her when she started to wail on them with her fists. In fact, her hands passed right through. Biting her lip, Narue suddenly pushed through the men blocking her from seeing herself, walking straight through them, she opened her eyes to see herself, bleeding, screaming, and hurt.

To see her fellow Konoha citizens so angry and triumphant to be beating on her, made Narue incredibly sad and heartbroken.

Noticing a change in atmosphere, Narue noticed a black haired Anbu pushing through the crowd, and a small hope pushed into her heart. It was crushed however, when the Anbu crouched down beside her bleeding body and take his mask off.

Narue gasped, it was an older version of Sasuke, with dark sleep lines running out of each eye. Looking into the younger, beaten girl's eyes, Uchiha Itachi turned his Sharingan on and muttered to himself.

"Memory Shatter no Jutsu."

The beaten Narue stilled, even when a kick or punch rocked her body, she did not take her eyes off of the Uchiha's red, spinning doujutsu. Uttering a shriek of pain and suffering, the younger Narue collapsed, staring lifelessly out, even as the mob closed around her, beating her to death.

Uchiha Itachi backed away, melting back into the crowd, his Sharingan eye causing people to shrink away from him.

Older Narue stood up shakily, feeling the familiar pulling away, and kept her eyes on Itachi as she was pulled away from this memory. Again, she was staring at the red door, not noticing when the lock appear again, and clicked shut on the memory.

Collapsing to her knees, Narue put her arms around herself, her minds eye filled with the spinning Sharingan of Sasuke's older brother.

And so she stayed, for how long she didn't know, but she stayed there on her knees in the dank dark, and only when a bright light and a voice called to her did she lift her head.

"Narue!"

There!!!!

How was that!

Review an give me some input, cuz I need some sort of help.

Hahaha!!

Hope u liked it ^.^

-mayu