Chapter 18: The Fox's Legacy

-The Next Day-

Shikamaru awoke to find himself leaning at a rather uncomfortable angle against the wall. It seemed Temari had gotten up early and simply let him fall. He shifted into a sitting position, wincing, and squinted at the six-year-old annoyance that had woken him with a sharp kick in the shin.

"Good morning to you too, Usagi-chan."

Usagi crossed her small arms over her chest. "Wow you're a heavy sleeper," she remarked irritably, "we've been trying to get you up for ten minutes!"

"We?" Shikamaru asked blearily.

"Wake up, Shika-chan," Temari laughed, crossing into his field of vision, "we're leaving."

He pushed himself partway to his feet, then Temari grabbed hold of his collar and hauled him up by his shirt. "Hey!" he started to protest, before she silenced him with a deep kiss, which, he noticed, made Usagi giggle wickedly.

Shoving Temari off and slipping away from her teasing advances, Shikamaru scanned the room. His assessment; he had indeed overslept. Most everyone was already up and ready to go, a few people absent, already having gone through the window to regroup in the cover of the trees. His eyes flicked from person to person, assessing. He didn't fail to notice that his two teammates were still cozy, nor did he miss the faint aura of afterglow lingering around Tenten. His mouth quirked into a sly smile. About time.

Somehow it got decided they would put some distance between themselves and the village before stopping to eat. The next village was farther, Sasuke approximated a two or three day walk, so they'd be camping that night. He had mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, staying in the woods would attract less attention than the process of renting a room with their peculiar requirements in a village, and it also meant that if they were attacked there were no innocent bystanders to be caught in the crossfire. However, the odds of an attack actually occurring increased dramatically. Then of course there were his own personal reasons. Being surrounded by trees increased the number of hiding places, and the odds of managing to corner Sakura for a private word.

"Iiiiiino-chan!" Choji sang happily once they had the village at their backs, coming up from behind her. Ino grinned and wrapped her arms around one of his, momentarily distracted from watching Neji and Tenten walk a little ways ahead of them.

"Hey, Choji-kun?" Ino asked, turning her attention back to the two people in front of her.

"Hm?" he replied, grinning a little himself.

Ino smiled slyly up at him. "Do you think Neji and Tenten are acting a little strange?"

"Yeah," said Choji, watching them, "Neji seems almost happy."

"Do you think, maybe, they got back together?" Ino asked quietly.

Choji stiffened a little, "Maybe . . . I suppose they might have." He tried to keep his voice casual, as though it didn't really concern him, while inside his heart was thumping violently. Was this it? What this what he thought it was? Did this mean . . .

"Why do you ask?" again he tried for casual, but wasn't sure if he managed it. He barely trusted himself to form words.

Ino shrugged, "No reason."

His heart sank. Perhaps he'd misread her tone.

"Choji-kun?" she repeated, a little slower this time.

"Yeah."

"Do you think the others think we're back together?"

Choji swallowed his heart as it tried to fly up his throat. Yesterday had been perfect. It was like going back in time, back to when . . . when she'd been his. He rarely thought of her that way, as his, it was more like he was hers. They weren't like a normal couple. Ino was a take-charge girl, and Choji was all too happy to follow her. It had once occurred to him that if she walked off the edge of the earth, he would follow her, as long as she looked back before she did and gave him that beautiful, determined smile of hers. If she did that, he would know, know that it was alright, that whatever was down there, they would face it together. She'd always been squad leader, and from very early on he'd trusted her with everything. He had depended on her, he knew that, and he knew he still did. Not that she ever seemed to mind taking care of him, taking care of their squad. He'd always known she'd make a terrific mother, she just had that way about her. That way of taking charge when it was necessary, being supportive and encouraging when they needed her to be, and being gentle and warm when that was what they needed of her. Her kindness warmed his heart, and her courage inspired him. Her strength was his, and for as long as he could remember he'd longed to return that strength, that kindness, that care, and be the one to support her. He wanted to be there for her, and in the old days of Golden Army he'd gotten his wish. He'd been with her, been there for her, and she, she had wanted him to be there. She'd needed him. And just for a little while, he'd felt like a part of her.

Just for a moment, walking her home that night, he'd felt it again. For just a moment, she'd looked at him that way again. Like she needed him. Like he was a part of her. Like she needed him to make her whole. Just the way he needed her.

"Are we, Ino-chan?"

He was looking at the ground, so he didn't see her expression. He didn't see the slow, glowing smile spread across her face. He didn't see her eyes come alive with happiness and light. He didn't see her stretching upwards towards him. But he felt her hand on his cheek as she turned his head and brought his lips to hers for a long, slow kiss.

Neither of them saw Shikamaru grin and Kankuro roll his eyes, nor did they really hear Sakura, Lee and Kiba all cheering, and Hinata laughing lightly. They were just a little too busy at the moment to really care, anyway.

Usagi, walking between Hinata and Shikamaru, covered her mouth with her hand to stop her giggles.

They came to a fairly open space, where the trees were less dense, by a wide river, and soon a fire was going and several fish were pinned against trees with kunai on the far side of the water. Kiba and Akamaru were both knee deep in the water, catching fish with their bare claws.

Shikamaru sat down and water's edge and beckoned Usagi to sit beside him. Halfway out into the river to join Kiba and Akamaru, she grumbled but bounded back through the water to the shore, falling once, where she shook herself dry and collapsed down next to her uncle.

"What's the matter, Uncle Shikamaru?" she asked, wringing a piece of hair dry.

Shikamaru looked out over the water a moment before he spoke. It seemed to Usagi as though he were searching for the right words. "Usagi-chan," he said at last, "you knew Naruto was a jinchuriki, am I right?"

Usagi blinked, then stared."Yeah, sure I did."

Shikamaru went on. "And you understand what that means, right?"

Another, almost confused blink, "yeah."

He turned to her, studying her in a way that reminded her strongly of Kakashi. "Usagi-chan, do you understand why you're here? Why you aren't being sent home?"

Usagi sat up a little straighter. It seemed she was finally going to get some answers. "I was kinda hoping you'd tell me."

Shikamaru hesitated a moment. "I can't exactly be sure of what happened, Usagi-chan, but I can make an educated guess. Do you realize what you did yesterday? During the fight?"

Usagi shook her head. "You released a massive amount of chakra," Shikamaru told her, "the pure, raw energy was enough to destroy the Darks we were fighting, they aren't very stable after all, but the amount of pure chakra you unleashed is unheard of."

He paused. "Well, almost unheard of."

Usagi gazed at Shikamaru in confusion. "What do you mean, almost unheard of? You've heard of somebody else doing it?"

"Not just heard about it, I've seen it. I've only every known one person who could do what you did, Usagi-chan. Do you know who that person was?"

"Who?" Usagi asked, now openly staring.

Shikamaru cast his gaze downward. "You're father. Naruto."

Usagi's heart jumped. "What?" she demanded loudly, "wait! Wait does that mean . . ."

Shikamaru lifted his head to face her again. "Somehow you have the power of the nine-tailed demon fox."

Usagi just stared at him for a moment. No way, no way! This couldn't be happening The kyuubi! Hers! It just wasn't possible. "But . . . but . . ." she protested, "but I've never . . . I've never done anything like that before! I've never seen it or heard it! I haven't done anything amazing before, or . . . or had funny dreams, or . . ."

"Haven't you?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "Think, Usagi-chan."

Usagi stared blankly off into space, thinking. She wracked her brains, trying to delve into her memory, trying to remember . . .

"The night terrors," she breathed.

Shikamaru nodded. "When you were four. Those were probably side effects of being infused with the kyuubi's demon chakra."

"So . . . so you mean, this has been in me for a while?" Usagi asked. Shikamaru noted with concern that her voice had grown calm and much softer, like for once she was being serious. He knew from experience, when an Uzumaki acted serious, the situation was beyond serious.

"Usagi-chan, this might also explain another thing about those dreams," he told her quietly. When she glanced up, he continued, "You see you used to become very agitated when Neji tried to sooth you. I think I know why. He tried to calm you by manipulating your chakra network. Unfortunately, what was making you so upset was that your network was already overflowing with chakra. Even the tiny bit of chakra he used would have been enough to cause pain, when you were already overloaded. It wasn't Neji's . . ."

"No!" Usagi interrupted him, leaping to her feet, "My father is the master of the nine-tailed demon fox! He never said anything about losing it or giving it to me, and he wouldn't do anything to hurt me! He would have said something! He would have told me! He would have been teaching me and training me, he wouldn't just keep it a secret! No, no you're wrong you hear me! You're all wrong!"

With that Usagi turned on her heel and walked back into the river.