Chapter 2: Where's My Shadow?
It WASN'T a rather sunny day in Konoha. In fact, the clouds were covering the sky.
Shikamaru was in panic. His beloved shadow wasn't there anymore!
"SHADOOOOW! WHERE AAARE YOU?!" he bellowed, much to Ino's and Choji's dismay.
"Will you shut up about that shadow, Shikamaru?!" Ino said frustrated.
He glared at her. "I can't practise any shadow jutsu without my SHADOW, you potatohead."
Ino slapped her forehead. "You'd rather wait until the sun gets back?"
Shikamaru stared at her. "I don't have time for that! I WANT MY SHADOW BACK!" he pouted.
Choji suddenly got an evil idea. "Well, you could always make it a mission to get it back.. right?"
Shikamaru brightened up. "Yeah! I'll make someone find a shadow for me! I'll do it at once." Then, he lay down on the grass, and closed his eyes. Ino raised an eyebrow.
"Is that at once?" she asked. Shikamaru smiled lazily.
"It's too troublesome to do it. Can't you get someone to do it?" he asked, putting on his puppy eyes and a tiny pout. Ino rolled her eyes.
"Fine, but just because I can't bother with you being lazy while we train."
--
"So, you'll do it?" Ino asked, smiling.
"Sure! I'll get it back as fast as possible, believe it!"
--
A certain spike-haired blonde was hiding in a tree. "Where could it be..? There must be a shadow SOMEWHERE."
Then, something happened.
"Whoa.. Déjà vú!" Naruto exclaimed as a shady creature once again appeared in front of him.
The first thing he saw was sparkles of youth.
Then, he saw a tight green suit on someone who should never, ever be wearing it.
Then.. He saw the unthinkable.
As the smoke slowly disappeared, he saw Itachi Uchiha.. with a newly cut bowl cut.
"What.. The.. HELL?!" he shouted, falling down from the tree. Unfortunately, it was a rather large tree. With many branches. And a long, long way down.
As he landed after falling onto the umpteenth branch, he realised he was laying on something- no, someONE soft.
"Sasuke-teme?! You again?" he asked.
Aforementioned teme sighed. "Yeah. This time, Shikamaru's the one stealing my emo corner. So I decided I'd just go see if you were doing anything remotely interesting."
Then, Sasuke did something he would regret for the rest of his life.
He looked up at his older brother.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAHH!! WHAT - IS - THAT - THING?!" he screamed, before fainting.
"Huh, he's just like Hinata at that too.." Naruto mumbled.
That was when he looked up to face Itachi again, and realised Itachi had even made sure to remember the bushy eyebrows.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!"
Then, he stumbled backwards, before remembering that Sasuke was still unconcious behind him, and he tripped over him. "Oops.."
Itachi stared at the two boys, smirking as he saw them scream and trip over each other. He was apparently even scarier now than he had been in his Akatsuki cloak.. Maybe he should make this the new official Akatsuki outfit. After all, it seemed to be much more terrifying than the black cloak with red and white clouds.
When talking about clouds, Itachi thought, there sure seem to be many of them today.
"The weather sure is cloudy today," Itachi commented loudly, and Naruto stared in awe as Itachi poofed away in a shadow before reappearing next to him.
"Itachi-teme? You can make shadows on a cloudy day?!" he exclaimed. This is it! I'll take Itachi's shadow and give it to Shikamaru so he can practise with it!
Naruto made a sneaky grin to himself as Itachi nodded in silence, appearing to find the large tree rather amusing, as he continued staring at it.
"And please don't call me teme, Naruto-kun," Itachi said calmly. "It's easier with just Itachi."
Naruto gave him another big, sneaky smile, while trying to not look at his bowl cut, sparkles and green jumpsuit. "I'll stop calling you it if I can have your shadow.. Itachi-teme."
Itachi simply stared at him with even more amusement than he had given the tree. "Give you my shadow? How?"
"Oh, just poof away in a shadow to over there or something, and I'll catch it," Naruto suggested, waving a hand at him.
Itachi laughed. "Why would I? I rather enjoy being evil, so if you want it, come get it."
Naruto pouted, closing his eyes. "You really are a teme."
Itachi poked Naruto's forehead, giving a sly smile. "Try getting it from me, if you want a shadow that badly."
Naruto swung his fist into Itachi's face - or at least, Itachi's face had been there just moments before. "Hah! I knew it! You'll disappear in a shadowy poof if I try hitting your shadow clones!"
"No shit, Sherlock," Itachi mused from behind Naruto. The blonde decided to kick backwards, which resulted in another shady poof. He threw himself over it, screaming. "Gotcha!"
He opened his palm, just to find.. nothing. "Whah? Where did it go?" he asked confused.
Itachi slapped his forehead with his new bushy brows at Naruto's stupidity. He wouldn't be surprised at all if the mission was made just to get him something to do.
Naruto, however, heard the bushy brows of Itachi Uchiha make some noise, and ran to the tree Itachi was hiding behind. "Gotcha this time, sucker!"
This, of course, didn't work this time either.
--
After a couple of hours with hide-and-seek, the Shinobi were exhausted. Well, Naruto was, at least. Itachi just poofed in and out, and Sasuke still hadn't regained conciousness.
Naruto was now carrying a big shoebox. He poked Itachi, making him poof away again, and threw himself with the box over the shadow.
"Finally! Now I'll just go get this to Shikamaru. Byebye, teme! And.. uh.. unconcious teme!" he waved.
That was when Sasuke decided to wake up. He looked at Naruto with a horrified look on his face.
"Naruto-baka! I just had the worst nightmare ever! I dreamt that Itachi-nii-san was dressed and had his hair cut like Gai-sensei and Rock Lee!" he said, almost crying, before looking at the still sparkling big brother smiling evilly down at him.
"Hey there, foolish little brother."
Sasuke fainted for the second time that day.
Now Naruto decided it was the time to leave. He ran off with the shoebox, happy he had finally caught a shadow.
--
"So you actually captured a shadow?!" Ino asked shocked. Shikamaru stared at him.
"That isn't possible. You'd never be able to catch a shadow you don't control." he said with a know-it-all attitude.
Naruto grinned. "Just look!" he said, opening the box. And right then, the sun popped back from behind a cloud, casting a shadow on Shikamaru.
"Wow! It's my shadow! It even looks just like me!" he squealed. Naruto nodded happily.
Naruto did a Nice-guy-pose with his thumb up. "Mission accomplished!"
A/N: This one was done by a request from a friend. Enjoy, and if you want more missions, REVIEW. That way I'll know this is appreciated. Feel free to come with suggestions for more missions you'd like to see This was dedicated to my friend, Emma.
