Yay, fast update! You may now all worship me, and my vacation. I will be leaving in a few days, but the 4th chapter is already with the beta. I'll have it up before I leave. But beware guys, the rewrite turned out to be slightly different from the original. Complaints are welcomed.

So please flame me, otherwise I can't learn anything from this.

I never told you guys why I write, did I? Well, I suck at every possible language, so writing out my overactive imagination is my way of learning. It's original, unorthodox but I could also be writing porn, so I never heard anybody complain. XD

Now, onwards! To mail... I mean Fiction! (Legend of Zelda reference FTW)

Insight: Tenzou
- Who am I to say...

When Tsunade said congratulations, Tenzou just kept quiet and smiled. He knows it is not the correct sentiment, unless Shikamaru wants to be congratulated for the amount of people he would kill. But she is Hokage, and though she wants to protect him, he knows she doesn't understand the definition of ANBU: Dark side. It is nowhere near black, instead covered in the dark red liquid that most shinobi have tried and failed to wash out of their clothes and burn out of their minds. But she doesn't see the blood or hears the screams that he and his pupil will remember, she only sees the missions; completed or not is important, and the causalities that effect the village.

It isn't strange that the ANBU are covered up. After all, who would sleep well if they knew that their highest ranked protectors are killing people for the greater good? Who would sleep well every night if they would remember the numb feeling of a twentieth kill, or even worse, the feeling when they have realized they just lost another piece of their humanity? Who would want to climb the ranks if they knew that the elite were a bunch of killers, not only of the village's enemies, but also of themselves?

No, congratulating someone for going into ANBU is not something you do if you know what kind of training they had to withstand, or what kind of sight they would have to behold in the future.

One says "Well done, Shikamaru." And he sees his pupil smile, knowing he didn't talk about the kills he made or the missions he completed to get there, but the ANBU philosophy:

Well done for protecting all those people, for making the necessary losses as painless as possible, for coming back and do it all again, for being selfless, for your loyalty.

No, a true ANBU wasn't a master in hiding or killing, it was person who could execute a mission without losing himself or his believes, even if he would have to act against them. Not emotionless, but mercy was a trait of an ANBU, being as quiet as possible to make sure nobody would notice your presence and would have to be killed because of that. Being as quick as possible so each life taken would be as painless as possible.

Why would one become an ANBU? Why die for a village as a nameless ghost when you would never be recognized for the great deeds you did for them?

He watched his latest pupil, knowing he would do good. He had answered all these questions without them even being asked by him. After all, in the future he would have to figure everything out by himself as well, so asking questions was not a part of the ANBU training.

Even if he knew the hand he was now shaking would take many lives in the future, he couldn't help but feel proud. Proud for the fact he thought him to take those lives maybe, but still proud that this boy would protect the village one way or another, but keep his sanity in the progress.

Yes, an ANBU wouldn't congratulate one on joining the ranks, but welcome them with open arms nonetheless. After all, nobody except for them would know the feeling. The horror and the excitement.

He loved it. But God knew they were a bunch of masochists confused for sadists. Maybe it was best they kept lying low, otherwise nobody would ever join them again, and he could never get his retirement!

"Follow me, Shikamaru. You know what comes next."

-Chapter 3: Blood and Bones

Feeling the newly gained tattoo still burn into his skin, Shikamaru reminded himself that this was ANBU, not the Chuunin brigade. There were no delays, no early celebrations and no time was wasted. Ever. And that was how he ended up in the HQ not even two hours after being officially accepted into their ranks.

'Efficiency, secrecy, success.'

He should have known that he would be busy from now on. Only two hours ago he had gained his new mask and tattoo, no a seal, had been inked into his arm for all eternity. He had always wondered why a group focused on secrecy would mark their members for the world to see. The tattoo was well known. He stroked the swirls absentmindedly while he listened to his chief, who was already assigning him to a new mission after Tenzou had left the room to go scare some innocent children by growing trees out of the nowhere.

The captain commander, ever the intimidating figure, somehow made it possible to make reading a mission scroll look threatening. While smiling. "Your objective is Gorgani Estaboli, a merchant you might have heard of. The word of his wealth has spread across the nations, even though the man lives in Wave."

"I have." Shikamaru said as an affirmation. "However, since when does the Hokage let us deal with civilians?"

"Usually not." The man said, not looking up from the scroll. Shikamaru that a man with scars and muscles like that seemed awfully out of place behind a desk. "However, the last team that was send to kill him disappeared without a trace. And the man is the former right hand of the notorious Gato. That's suspicious enough for the Hokage to send an ANBU, don't you agree?"

Shikamaru nodded, and the man continued.

"Good, then you'll know that he and his palace will be heavily guarded. Sneak in, make the kill, bring back his head." His commander said, not once his eyes returned to the mission scroll. "Avoid causalities, and keep you identity a secret."

"Time limit?" Shikamaru asked. "And who is going to accompany me?"

The man looked up for a second, and smiled with that stupid, 'I'm still a kid on the inside'-smile of his. "Why, Shikamaru? Did you not just write history and surprised us all by offering your services? You won't need a guard anymore if you're on our side. You amuse me, you might even ask the reason for the mission one day. And be back in a week. The kill itself shouldn't take more than an hour or two, so you'll have three days to get there and three days to come back. "

Shikamaru gulped. The man liked screwing with him, or subordinates in general, but he still didn't like the implication. Or the fact that he would actually have to hurry. "Yes sir." He added quickly.

"Good boy." The man said, a good natured smile plastered on his face while he finished up the document. When he was done he beckoned Shikamaru to come closer and handed him the document. "Now, in this scroll is all you need to know. Return it to me when you're done in seven days from now. Understood?"

Shikamaru nodded and took the scroll. He had seen his teacher do this a thousand times before, and he had done it before as well under the watchful eyes of his 'guards'.

Before hurrying himself through the woods to the sea he would have to cross, he made his way to his assigned room. The place was still as small as ever, but the floor was littered with all kinds of weapons and clothes. Shikamaru was not really a fan of cleaning after all, deeming it too troublesome, and if he mother wouldn't nag him to do something about it, he would just let it pile.

However, there was more than a mess in his room. His teacher was also sitting on his bed, not minding the way Shikamaru treated his possessions. His room wasn't much different of course, and Tenzou wasn't always a hypocrite. Only when he could bother Shikamaru.

Shikamaru didn't bother to seem surprised, because he wasn't. Instead he continued preparing himself. "Done with scaring innocent little children?"

"Hardly innocent if they are playing 'kill the cat' with a kunai. God knows academy students shouldn't be allowed to have weapons. But to answer your question, no I haven't even started yet." The man said, not denying the accusation for a second.

"Figures." Shikamaru said, but didn't bother to sit down next to him. Instead he picked some shuriken up from the ground and stored them in his holster. He then opened the small closet and took a few more carefully stored explosive tags out of it. "But why are you still here bugging me when you could bug them? I'm not that interesting."

Suddenly he felt something point in his back, and he sighed before twisting around to confirm his suspicions. And he was right. Somehow his teacher had managed to make some wood pop up from the ground, through the floor, and make the wooden tentacle point him in the back. He gave an unimpressed look at his teacher, who was still sitting on his bed with a shit eating grin on his face. "How many times do I have to tell you? Wood is not scary, not even when it pops up randomly. That's just weird undergrowth."

Tenzou looked slightly hurt, but it didn't take long before he was smiling that stupid grin of his again. "Look underneath the underneath, my mocking apprentice."

And Shikamaru did, and saw that a second 'tentacle' popped up from the floor, holding something. Well, not just something. He took it with wide eyes, not knowing what to say. It was… perfect. Of course, he had already known it would be an Owl, but he was still slightly stunned by the beautiful design, perfect in simplicity. It's big eyes contrasted his own sharp ones perfectly, and the few lines made it so different from his own face. He figured it fit his ANBU personality. It was perfectly symmetric, except on the left side. Different than it had been with his previous kitten mask, this one bore the kanji for his code name.

"You like it?" Tenzou said, laughing uneasily after an uncomfortable silence. "You better do, because it took me quite some effort to get that done in just a few hours."

Shikamaru ripped his eyes of the mask. "You had this made for me just now?"

"No, I always had it somewhere, waiting for the moment when you would realize what had been in front of you all along." Tenzou said, awkwardly admitting his trust in his pupil. Shikamaru's eyes had yet to return to their original size. "I just never imagined that you would realize it this soon. For a genius, you can be awfully slow sometimes. So as a surprise, I had that burned into the mask."

"I… uh… Thanks." Shikamaru muttered thankfully.

"Don't mention it." Tenzou waved it away and stood up from his previous position on the bed to leave before the situation got to awkward. "But seriously, don't mention it. You know the rules! And good luck with the mission" He said just before he closed the door.

Shikamaru nodded absentmindedly, his eyes back to the mask in his hands. His mask. It felt strange that something that hid him from the world could feel so important to him, though Tenzou's words had also added up to that feeling.

He let his hair down and took a relatively clean ANBU uniform off the ground and slipped it on, his eyes not leaving the mask any second longer than needed. It felt unreal, that this mask was his future. Not necessarily in a bad way though. In a split second he cast a simple jutsu that would cover up his smell, and he suppressed his chakra levels to a minimum level.

The ability to completely hide all your emotions was called a sign of a true shinobi, but being an ANBU asked you to take it to another level. When he slipped on his mask, he felt the familiar sensation of erasing himself coming over him. Together with the all the jutsu to keep every trace of identity behind, preparing for a mission was like creating a new personality.

Or not? He always felt a completely different person when he slipped on the mask, and he couldn't look at the world the same way somehow. He knew he would be able to cross Asuma, or even his parents on the street, and they wouldn't even recognize him.

Maybe it was because of routine: the fact he straitened his back when he walked in ANBU gear, the way his pace wasn't personal nor his face could be remembered. He didn't even need to think about unsealing his katana from the scroll on the wall, he didn't need to think when he put up the techniques that covered his identity. He had done it over a dozen times before, that it had become just that: a routine, an alternate way of acting that hid him in plain sight even better than the mask.

When the last click of his katana being stored on his back woke him from his slumber, he didn't waste another second. He made his way out of the underground headquarters, into another part of the underground maze that had once been a city like Konoha. He had memorized the pathways quite some time ago, so it didn't take long until he reached his own secret 'chamber' It was small passage leading to a dried well. The room was just big enough for him to stand in, but it didn't need to be bigger because the only thing it actually contained was a small black marking, not bigger than a ryuu, on the wall.

With a quick bite in his thumb, he drew blood and smeared it on the seal, unsealing it in the progress. Out of the wall came a box and a few scrolls, in which Shikamaru hid everything that he couldn't store at home with his parents or didn't fit in the small room in the head quarters. The box was empty, but that was the point of it. Inside of it he hid his clothes and hitai-ate. Then he sealed it up again and left his tiny storage room.

Another secret of the ANBU: the tattoo. It wasn't a tattoo, actually. Every seal master would be able to recognize it as a very strong storage seal. In Shikamaru's case, it held some of his basic weaponry and clothing, including many files he had written on his previous objectives and some basic literature like the Bingo book. Things that could never be found by an enemy, or even most allies.

Abandoning all thoughts and all traces, he prepared himself to make his way out of the city without being seen. Konoha had a keen protection system, but it was not foolproof. In reality, one of the final test before becoming an active ANBU was leaving the village without being seen. Apparently, not even the guards could be trusted with the information of who entered and left the village, even if it was for said place's own good.

He recalled the first time he had to do it. It was never really said you had to find a way to bypass the system, it was something you had to read between the lines, something an ANBU should be able to do. And reading between the lines was one of his specialties, though his sensei used to call him 'a healthy paranoid' whenever he would voice one of his deductions. Tsk, the hypocrite.

So, how does one bypass the system without killing off the guards in the process?

Lesson one: Think before you act, and apply your knowledge. Before you even planed an escape out of Konoha, you had to know that the village was not only protected by walls, but also by a barrier which was chakra responsive and surrounded the village completely: including the underground system. And then there is the underground 'village', an endless maze stretching underneath Konoha 'nobody' knew about. Not even ANBU. Officially, at least. In reality, it was rare to find an ANBU who wouldn't have traumatic memories of a orientation test in said maze.

Lesson two: Don't try too hard. One thing that came totally natural to Shikamaru. Don't go launching massive teleportation jutsu, because half the amount of chakra you would need to get into the village without the barrier picking it up would kill a seasoned elite jounin. Keep it easy, fast and simple.

A genius' solution: steal a map and memorize the right path, use the underground to get underneath the wall but not behind the barrier, and than simply completely stop your chakra flow the few seconds you go through the barrier. According to Tenzou, it had been the 'easiest' way of getting out ever made up by an aspiring ANBU, which was another way of saying that Shikamaru's laziness had finally paid off. That didn't keep him from using it himself.

Tsk, hypocrite. He thought while slipping through the maze without making a sound or leaving a trace.

When he was outside the barrier, he took off. The journey was boring and lonely, and the scenery variated between large trees and smaller ones. He let his mind wander to something, or rather someone else connected to the woods.

"An ANBU'S mask hides more than a face and represents more than an occupation," Tenzou said to a 13-year-old Shikamaru in one of their few lectures. Some knowledge was either too common or too sensitive to be written down, so they had to be passed over to new members verbally.

Shikamaru wasn't really interested.

"Hey, pay attention lazy boy!" Tenzou suddenly said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "I'm taking an effort to explain something to you, and you go counting mental clouds! Don't make me punish you with my fearsome wood skills!"

"you mean you are going to try to scare me again by letting trees pop up randomly in front of me? That's not scary at all. And I was totally paying attention."

Tenzou gave him a dubious look. "With your eyes closed?"He said knowingly.

"Yes, I'm awesome like that." Shikamaru replied mockingly.

"Anyway, my most 'awesome' apprentice, as I was saying. The mask is also the only personal thing, together with the tattoo on your right or left shoulder, which shows your gender." Tenzou said while looking him in the eye to make sure that he wouldn't close them again. The man still wouldn't believe that this was how he had spend his academy days.

"The mask is made out of a special kind of porcelain which doesn't break and doesn't absorbs any liquid after the top layer is applied. They are smooth, yet light, although you can't pinpoint the sensation of wearing one until you've done so." He continued, tapping on his own hanging on the side of his face. "However, I can't let you wear mine because that's prohibited. The masks are made by 'the mask maker', and his rules are rather strict."

Shikamaru's eyes sparkled in curiosity for a bit. "The mask maker? Not the most original of names. Is his identity a secret?"

"As a matter of fact, not only his identity is a secret, but The materials used to make them are a secret, like many other things in the world of shinobi, and entrusted to one person only. That person's life revolves around those facts, that secrecy; it is what makes his very existence." He told Shikamaru and finally had his undivided attention and devotion. "He lives to cake his hands in white dust and carve the faces of animals from the forbidden substance."

"The forbidden substance?" Shikamaru's mind started to wander while Tenzou kept talking about common ANBU legends about who the man was. The weirdest one being a theory involving Ichiraku's chef as the current 'Master of masks and noodles'.

It wouldn't take more than a few more weeks for him to first experience the feeling of wearing an ANBU's mask, the kitten one that unknowingly marked him as the cat's pupil.

It would haunt him for years to come, courtesy of a faceless comrade.

It wasn't until the sun colored the sea a beautiful shade of red on the 3th and last day of his travel, that he knew what that hidden, or rather forbidden substance had been.

As he got off the boat that had transported him over the sea for the last days as a stowaway, he figured that he would soon encounter more of that forbidden substance. After getting of the boat, it didn't take long before he had found his way into the nearest village, and from there on it was just following the riches. The more expensive the houses became, the closer he came to his objective, Shikamaru knew. He ran silently over the roofs while the sun was setting, creating long shadows that would have given him away if it wasn't for his speed. Without being noticed he made his way to the inner circle of the richest merchant of the countries houses.

And of course, a man like Gorgani, known for his shady business and merciless deals, wouldn't let himself be outdone by his potential rivals. His house, or rather palace was the largest and most colorful. It had at least four stories, and the garden was big enough to host a spar between Sasuke and Naruto.

Shikamaru got in easily. For all his riches, the man was way too over confident of his intimidating influence. The reason the door wasn't closed or even locked was most likely because the man was arrogant enough to think that nobody would dare to attack him. The palace was littered with gold and colorful paintings, expensive and great in their number, adorned ever wall he passed on his way to the man's study. The mission scroll had told him that the man would spend most of his days in that room, making new deals and concurring more of the market everyday. His wife even seemed to complain that he never got out again, but Shikamaru figured that the woman already found a lover of her own. He had heard the tales of extortion and blackmail, the way he had forced many families out of their houses for the sake of his own riches. Gorgani wasn't exactly a lovable creature. The man wasn't a criminal, he hadn't killed anyone by his knowledge, but even though Shikamaru wasn't allowed to ask the reason for his assignment, he figured that it would be a good riddance.

Without further ado he slipped into the study, spacious enough for him to hide on top of a bookshelf in a corner without being seen, and found four man talking about the profits of underpaid workers.

"Otherwise they would only waste it on alcohol anyway! This way we teach the population to spend their money wisely," Gorgani said. He wasn't small by any means, Shikamaru noted while he watched the meeting conclude when the other men nodded in affirmation while ironically sipping some more wine.

Their eyes hardly ever left the many riches in the room, their envious looks barely covered up by a fake smile. Gorgani didn't seem to mind, if he'd noticed it at all.

It didn't take more than a few bottles of wine and some expensive chocolate before the three men agreed that lowering the minimum wages of their workers was best for all of them. Shikamaru waited until they had left the room before and Gorgani had send the maid that had was cleaning the mess from the meeting away.

In a split second he was behind the merchant and aimed for the man's head. One well executed strike of his katana would put an end to the man's life and his business, and would grant Shikamaru some sleep.

However, before the blade could connect to the skin, he felt an incoming shuriken attempt to take his life, and he had to abort the action.

He fell back into a darker corner, but saw he had been noticed by not only Gorgani, but also those who had just kept him from doing what he had came for.

"Another assassin? This is getting old." Gorgani said, and clicked his fingers.

Suddenly there was not only his objective, but he was also faced with two other 'causalities'. He caught a glimpse of another shinobi nearing him at an alarming pace, and knew he had to strike now. While muttering a lone 'troublesome', he feinted forward, dropped into a crouch and swept one outstretched leg around behind him. His foot connected with the fourth ninja's ankles and effectively knocked him of his feet. The woman fell face first on the floor, and with a well aimed kick on her temple, Shikamaru knew that she wouldn't be getting up. Ever.

The other ninja's didn't need another warning. In a split second the two others pushed his objective into the back and blocked his way. They knew who he was coming for, and that alone was a bad sign. Shikamaru didn't waste any more time and jumped on the left guy, pouncing the man onto the ground. He landed a blow on the man's shin before narrowly avoiding a hit from his comrade. The other ninja wasn't fast enough to keep up with him either though. In a split second Shikamaru unsheathed his katana in mid air and twisted his way to the man. He aimed for the man's head, but hit his shoulder instead when the man tried to dodge. Not wasting a second, he twisted the blade into the pierced flesh and heard the man yell in agony. He pulled out immediately before the man could react and landed a good kick on the man's head. The crack he heard was enough affirmation for him to know that he had reduced the number of his opponents from four to one.

When he looked up to where the fourth and last man was supposed to be, he found none.

"Bravo!" a voice from behind him suddenly said. He turned around and saw Gorgani sitting in his chair, a self-aggrandizing smirk plastered on his face. Shikamaru immediately put some distance between them and awaited the mans next move when he saw the man's hands move.

However, instead of forming handseals, the man started clapping. "Bravo!" he repeated "Never before did someone pass my guards so quickly before! Especially someone your age!"

The man stood up from his chair and took a few steps forward, daring Shikamaru to move, or even to react. Something about the way he moved made Shikamaru believe in the Hokage's assumption of the man's shinobi status. The man seemed wealthy, but too much aware of his situation to be an ordinary civilian. Not like those 'business partners' from earlier.

This was immediately confirmed when the man stopped clapping and formed a single handseal a moment later. Shikamaru could dive away just in time for the wind blast that followed. Shikamaru caught his ground again, but noticed that the man had stopped attacking him again in favor of clapping.

"And so quick too! What a talent. Pray tell me, where are you from and how much do they pay you? I can always pay you more, you must know." The man added, his voice laced with greed. Shikamaru resisted the urge to react, and waited for the right moment to strike. Gorgani continued "How did you think that I got those other ninja? They were the last squad who where send to kill me. Instead I hired them. A pity they died, though, they were fine guards. From a village called … Kono…ha, I believe."

Shikamaru's eyes widened behind his mask, and his eyes immediately went to his fallen comrades. He caught himself growling at the man unconsciously.

However, Gorgani had probably seen it as well, based of the gleam his eyes suddenly possessed. "Oh, you are from Konoha as well? Don't blame me for their deaths. After all, it was you who killed them."

Shikamaru schooled his features and cursed himself for giving such an important piece of his identity away to his subject. The man couldn't leave this room alive.

Luckily, he wasn't planning on letting him leave from the start, but still.

"So" The man continued. "Are you interested in taking their place? You can even come live here with me in the palace. All this, could be yours as well." He stretched his arms, indicating the many golden candles lighting the air.

Shikamaru didn't even follow his arms, or grace him with an answer. This was an assassination, and he had already wasted too much energy. Instead of a verbal response, he unsheathed his sword, and broke out in a run.

Gorgani however, obviously didn't really need as much protection as he implied he needed. Without wasting a second he lunged forward as well, flying forward with a well executed kick. Shikamaru sidestepped, blocking the kick to with his katana to the left and sweeping using the mean time to throw in a punch with his free arm. Gorgani quickly ducked and countered with a low kick of his own. Shikamaru jumped up in the air again and created some distance between them to buy him some time so he could analyze his opponent. The man was obviously trained in a style that focused on kicking, and from the looks of it, he was very adept in using the wind element, which made it very likely that the man was above jounin level.

His assailant didn't like what Shikamaru was doing, and immediately went at it again. However, Shikamaru ducked not a second too late before the next kick could make contact with his temple and in one graceful swipe of his leg he had the man floored. The man immediately rolled away from Shikamaru's attempted finishing blow, the katana missing him save for a some skin of his shoulder. The man growled in anger, but didn't move from his spot a meter away from Shikamaru, his entire body in a defensive stance from the floor.

"This is your last chance, boy. Choose to join me now, and you will get to keep your life, and even get paid for!" He said with a fake friendly tone. Shikamaru didn't bulge but instead jumped up again, forcing the man out of his favorable position. They both landed less than four meters from each other, and the man was not happy to say the least. Shikamaru could feel his chakra levels rising, and knew that the man wouldn't go easy on him anymore. Enough words were spoken now. It was time for action. "Fine! If you want to die so badly! Go ahead, give me all you've got! Make my day!" Gorgani said, raising his voice in a dangerous fury.

Though it was technically night and Shikamaru was passive by nature, Shikamaru did just that. He jumped up and landed not far behind the man, feinting a kick to his shin before lashing out with his katana. The man ducked once again and attempted to kick him, but Shikamaru was prepared this time. He back flipped and grabbed the leg, pulling it with him and through the air. A sickening crack echoed through the air as the man could prevent Shikamaru from landing on his leg.

Gorgani didn't grown or scream from the pain, but twisted the leg immediately out of his grip and used Shikamaru's surprise to land a weak but effective kick with his knee into his spine. Shikamaru grunted softly, and he swore he could hear the man mutter a faded "I thought he wasn't mute" before completely freeing himself. Gorgani was back on his feet, albeit not very steadily, and his hands were already forming handseals again. Shikamaru still was a little bit nauseous from the knee, but alert enough to block the nameless jutsu before it hit him. The chair behind him was slashed in two by the wind blade, and Shikamaru was just glad that it wasn't him. Gorgani wasn't a civilian, and those chuunin wouldn't have won from him even if they wouldn't have betrayed Konoha. The man was very good, and very powerful.

However, Shikamaru was better. Shikamaru twisted himself around the man in a split second, blocked the counterblow and used his grip on the man's arm to throw him off balance by kicking Gorgani's injured leg. The man buckled over somewhat, but was stronger than Shikamaru had anticipated and freed himself before Shikamaru could hit a vital point, and started raining blows with his bare hands at whatever part of Shikamaru's body he could get. Shikamaru blocked each and every one of them, but decided to take a risk and let one through. The man was strong, and the fist hitting his chest would bruise terribly, but it was worth it. The man moved as expected, and tried to take advantage of his blow by taking the time to pull back his fist to get more power into the collision. Shikamaru immediately intercepted, gripped his katana tighter with his right hand, and landed a much quicker blow on the man's jaw with the other. The collision surprised the man who thought he'd won for sure now.

He stumbled a little bit, and Shikamaru pounced on him before the man could recover. They both fell on the ground, but Gorgani took the impact of their combined weight. Shikamaru saw his opportunity to impale the man with his katana, straight through the chest. He pinned his victim to the ground while the body lost it's strength along with blood.

Shikamaru took one more look at the pleading blood shot eyes, the lips that where forming words like 'money' and 'price', before twisting the katana painfully inside the man. The man grunted in pain. "With the greetings from Konoha." He added, stood up and pulled out.

The man's eyes widened, thinking that Shikamaru had changed his mind, but was proved wrong when the katana easily separated the man's head from his shoulders, separating the Gorgani Estaboli from the living. Shikamaru watched his eyes widen just before his body went limp and his eyes lost their life.

For a one unprofessional second, Shikamaru winced at the amount of bloodshed he had caused. The once stylish carpet was now littered with blood, and some had even landed on a candle.

He quickly recovered himself and checked the room for any traces of his presence. The consequences of the kill couldn't be landed on Konoha of course. He mentally made a picture of the traitorous leaf shinobi's profiles, laid out the scroll he had stored inside his newly attained tattoo and sealed them inside of it without making another sound. The kill had already been way too messy, and way too loud. People would come looking for Gorgani soon, and he couldn't be here when that happened. Sealing away the man's head as well as a token of his success before he quickly cleaned the blood off his sword with the corps' expensive silk robe, he stepped over the body, into the night.

He was out of the castle before a young maid would check the merchant's room to see if he needed a drink, and instead found his blood and intestines decorating the room. She screamed bloody murder.

NOTES:

Location, location, location: I am well aware that this could be viewed as a filler chapter. However, it isn't. In the original ITS, I just told the audience a lot about his skill level, and didn't actually show it. That's something I intended to change in the rewrite, handling the 'show, don't tell' way of writing. Gorgani won't be mentioned again for awhile. He'll never be a key character, but you better remember him though. Also; I hope you all caught on to the subtle mind fuck in the beginning of the chapter (not the insight paragraph).

Insight: (FYI: this is during the end of the last chapter (not the flashback), but then Tenzou's POV) I usually don't defer from Shikamaru's point of view, because simply everybody has too many secrets and secret agenda's, and if I switch the surprise and the plot would be gone. So once in a while, a side character gets to give his 'insight' on the situation, to give the reader a little clue about what's going on outside the Shika's little world.