Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto despite my best efforts.
Chapter 23: A slacker's decision
Naruto yawned, closed his eyes again and decided to spend a few more minutes in his mother's embrace. Sometimes he thought he was growing a bit too old for cuddling with his parents considering he would turn thirteen in a few weeks. That feeling always vanished after a few days of separation in the real world. Apart from his initial long stay with his parents when he was a small child the real world always ripped him away from them after a few days. The first few years when he had been friendless had been especially difficult. It caused him to cherish their time together even more, although his parents had given him increasingly more space as he grew older.
With a content sigh he relaxed and snuggled closer to the warm body of his mother. The world of his parents was perhaps the only place where he felt completely safe. Some part of his mind constantly feared and expected the Sandaime discovering all of his secret activities, the masked man with the sharingan materializing from thin air or Pain leveling the entire village without warning. Since their encounter with the Jashinists dreams about the dark god descending on Konoha had joined his occasional nightmares, but for now that didn't matter. Naruto felt truly safe and secure for the first time in weeks.
Later that morning the family assembled on the grassy hillside near the cottage.
"So, what did you keep busy for so long? We missed two visits." Naruto asked curiously.
"It's a bit complicated. You remember the remnants of the scythe you brought us?" Daiki asked.
Naruto nodded. "Sure. Anko-sensei mentioned the thing was indestructible, but I had no problem breaking it when I used mom's chakra. It felt strange and crumbled to dust after I took care of the priest. Have you figured out what that was about?"
"We have. A part of the priest's soul was encased in the scythe."
Hinata and Naruto blinked in confusion. "That's interesting, but why would anyone do that?"
Youko let out a low chuckle. "Souls are not easily influenced. It is extraordinarily difficult to affect them with mundane means like jutsu and some of that carries over. As long as the priest lived the scythe was nearly indestructible. Naturally that doesn't apply to demonic or divine powers, meaning you had no problems destroying it while using my chakra. An indestructible weapon is nothing to sneeze at, but the truly interesting part is that the scythe acted as a conduit to Jashin. These kind of conduits have to be attached to a soul."
"The scythe contained part of the priest's soul, but not his mind. It's a very neat way to circumvent the effects exposure to divine power has on mortal minds, even if it has some limitations." Daiki explained.
"So that is why he could call upon Jashin's power several times in short succession." Naruto said in realization.
His father nodded. "Yes. While we can't replicate the effect for you because of our special situation we learned a lot about what a god can do with the soul of a mortal. Most things we already suspected, but without access to mortal souls aside from yours we can't exactly test it."
"Most importantly we learned something that we didn't expect to learn for years. We have found the correct way to transfer parts of us permanently to the outside world." Youko announced.
Naruto was shocked into silence for a few moments before he jumped up and hugged his mother. "That's wonderful, mom. Does that mean you have found a way to escape the seal?"
Daiki shook his head. "Unfortunately no. The parts of us we can transfer are miniscule in relation to our spiritual size. It would be like trying to drain an ocean through a drinking straw. Furthermore we can't move our chakra in this way. What it will do is give us a permanent, conscious presence in the sanctuary even if it will take months."
It was hard for Naruto to hide his disappointment. For a moment he had thought one of the major problems of his life had been solved, but he should have known better.
"How exactly does that work? You don't seem too surprised." Hinata wondered.
Youko smiled. "That's right. We have expected something like this for a long time and made preparations, but in our original projections we would still have needed several more years to figure every detail out. It wasn't a sure thing by any means, but our new insights thanks to the scythe dust you brought back allowed us to eschew further research. The sanctuary doesn't only harbor the spring of magic we created. By now it is also holy ground for both of us. Naruto, you remember what we had you create shortly after your graduation?"
Naruto had to think for a moment. "That strange flower thingy, wasn't it? That was when I was learning to call upon your power."
Daiki gave him a nod of confirmation. "Exactly. It shows who claims that place and how strong the individual divine powers are. The reason we locked you out was that we had to make changes on this side. It required our undivided attention. We wouldn't have been able to shield you from our true nature."
Naruto and Hinata shuddered. He loved his parents, but he knew very well that he might never be able to completely understand what they were. He knew the words, but that didn't mean he could truly grasp the concepts. Each time he learned something it only enabled him to see that there was so much more he didn't understand about them. That wasn't even touching the times when he made not completely shielded contact with their true nature, as it had happened a few times inadvertently when his father channeled his power through him. They were truly not human. That didn't mean he couldn't ask questions and try to understand.
"What changes did you make specifically?" Naruto asked curiously.
Instead of answering his father gestured to the side. A giant door materialized a short distance away. When Naruto tried to examine it his gaze always slipped away, making it impossible to properly focus on the thing. It was quite frustrating and reminded him of the strange things his parents had shown him when he was beginning to learn about magic and training his mental durability.
"This is the Gate. It is what I am at the very core of my being. I made it more accessible." Daiki explained.
Hinata looked strangely at him. "How can you be a gate?"
Youko chuckled. "In the same way a water spirit is a lake and a humanoid person at the same time. Our being transcends the bounds of conventional identity. I'm a goddess and a bijuu and light and life… well, you get my meaning. It's more of a metaphysical concept than an actual gate."
"What is behind the gate?" Naruto asked.
"Everything."
The blond boy frowned. "That doesn't explain anything."
"It connects to every place at every time, but stands outside of time and space itself. Knowledge and truth can be gained by those that manage to pass it and return, but they will be irrevocably changed. It holds every possible future that ever was, even those that never came to pass and those that didn't exist in the first place." The black-haired men paused for a moment before sighing. "I am greatly diminished from what I once was, and so is the gate. It still connects to everything, but I can no longer use it to anything remotely resembling its full potential. Nonetheless it will still have to suffice for our plans."
"What would happen if I enter the gate?"
Daiki kept his face neutral. "You might cease to exist. You might end up on the other side of the world. You might cast off your mortality and ascend. Everything is possible."
The group fell silent for a minute. There had been hints for a long time. Tales of heroes and villains who attained godhood in other worlds, references to humans and other creatures who had tried to attain a destiny far beyond everything a mortal could hope for. Most had failed. They had never spoken about it directly, but Naruto wasn't stupid. He knew he would live for several hundred years if he managed to avoid getting killed. Still, he would die one day. Humans weren't made for true immortality, but his parents had hinted that there was more possible for him.
"You mean I could simply walk through the gate, that is a part of you, mind you, and if I'm lucky I'm a god when I return?" Naruto finally asked.
The ethereal gate dissolved into nothingness. "No. You aren't ready. I have control over the gate and can waive the toll as well as control what will happen to a degree. That doesn't mean you can survive what is behind it." He let out another sigh. "This isn't the right time to speak about it. For now I will use it only to establish a presence on the outside, but it will be some time before there is enough of us there to communicate. Now, what happened to you in the meantime?"
Naruto would have liked to continue speaking about the subject, but his parents expressions left no doubt that they were unwilling to discuss it further at this time. Instead he and Hinata brought them up to date on the happenings of the real world.
"I'm really worried about the chunin exams. We haven't picked up any specific indications, but there is a real danger of an invasion. From what you showed us it's one of the most dangerous situations we could encounter." Hinata said.
Youko shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it. As long as it isn't a scenario where several of the major villages team up Konoha should be able to weather the storm. If things go too badly you will have to retreat into the sanctuary. What we can do is go over the known locations of the summoning contracts again. I don't want you to be bound to the toads."
In the outside world Naruto's possessed body stood straight and unmoving while Daiki made the necessary adjustments to the sanctuary. Luckily the boy had decided to spend the night here; it would have been troublesome to have to move the body. Hinata's body was still in the Hyuuga compound, meaning that his mate would have to sit out this opportunity at visiting the waking world.
After almost an hour of work Daiki left the body behind and sent his ethereal construct for a quick survey of Konoha. As usual he discovered nothing that interfered with the magical spring. Aside from the initial two occurrences there had been no magical anomalies in Konoha that he could detect. The Kurama incident had been cleared up immediately, but sometimes he wondered what exactly had happened under the Nara compound. When he had been able to investigate on the following visit everything appeared normal.
His best guess was that some clan ritual had gone slightly awry, but there were no blatantly catastrophic effects like with Yakumo Kurama. The draw on the magic had been very slight, meaning that even the people involved probably didn't notice a thing. It was only years later that he became aware of Shikamaru's changed behavior in comparison to his original visions. He never told Naruto or Hinata about it; there wasn't anything they could do.
It bothered him that he didn't know what exactly had happened, but he would have to exist with that.
It was a warm and sunny day with the occasional white cloud leisurely drifting across the blue sky. A boy was stretched out in the grass on the side of a hill near the Nara compound. His friends and family would easily identify him as one Shikamaru Nara, the laziest genin of his generation. To a casual observer Shikamaru looked like he was dozing in the afternoon breeze, or perhaps pursuing his usual favorite activity of cloud watching. In reality he was neither asleep nor did he really observe anything in the sky through his half-closed eyes. His complete attention was focused inwards as his mind was working overtime.
He was currently reevaluating his actions in the majority of his short life, from the days in the academy to his current troublesome situation. He was coming more and more to a very unflattering conclusion. He, the supposed genius and most intelligent of his classmates, had colossally fucked up.
From the beginning he had only worked the absolute required minimum; any more effort would have been too troublesome. Heck, he had only done so much because of the constant nagging of his mother, troublesome woman that she was. He had mostly milked the Nara reputation for being lazy geniuses for all it was worth to avoid hard work. Most teachers had bought that hook, line and sinker and mostly left him in peace. Not that he was lying; he had indeed an enormous amount of brainpower. The problem was that he had never really applied his intellect to the problem of becoming a successful shinobi; instead he had used it to slack off as much as possible.
In retrospect he now saw that his laziness had caused the rift between him and his friends. When Choji approached him with an invitation to a study group he had declined because it was too troublesome. He honestly hadn't seen the need at the time. Sure, they weren't the best students, but they could surely get through their academy years without investing too much work, couldn't they? There would always be time later to get serious with their training. Obviously Choji had a different opinion, and he had spent more and more time with Naruto Uzumaki who apparently had an endless supply of energy and determination. They still spent time together, but over the years they drifted more and more apart.
The estrangement from Ino had begun with her transformation into a full-blown Sasuke fan girl. Sasuke this and Sasuke that had become her main focus, and he couldn't stand it. There simply wasn't much common ground anymore. But somewhere along the line she had changed a second time. He didn't know exactly when and why, but she stopped running with the fan girl crowd and instead associated with Hinata Hyuuga and Yakumo Kurama who were the only girls not obsessing over the Uchiha. It had been a prime opportunity to mend the rift with one of his early childhood friends and renew their friendship, but he squandered it. The effort required had seemed too troublesome.
Shikamaru remembered one final incident that stood out roughly one month before the final exams. Naruto had approached him and warned him not to graduate dead last. "Otherwise you might not like the people you are assigned as teammates." he had said. But as usual he had dismissed the words and they were soon forgotten. Actually exerting himself in the exams would have been too troublesome.
Once again he did the minimum amount of work required and graduated dead last as predicted. At the team assignments he received his just rewards; he was assigned together with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno to Team 7 led by one Kakashi Hatake. The looks of pity on the faces of his classmates were still etched into his memory, together with the shrieks of the fan girl horde who were disappointed to be separated from their precious Sasuke-kun.
It had gone downhill from there. His sensei was several hours late, a habit he would soon learn was standard practice for Kakashi. To his shame he had initially enjoyed the increased opportunity for napping and cloud watching. The introductions gave him some further insight into his teammates. He was not impressed. Nor were they with him.
The real genin test on the following day was an example of idiocy. Shikamaru saw through it pretty much immediately. Unfortunately he was unable to convince his fellow genin of that little fact. Admittedly there were extenuating circumstances. They were drilled during their entire time at the academy to trust their superiors and follow their orders. To deliberately doubt the words of their superior was something that simply wouldn't occur to the overwhelming majority of fresh graduates; you needed quite some life experience for that. Furthermore Shikamaru doubted it was advisable to teach them to question every word that came from their sensei's mouth straight away. Such a thing would only breed mistrust. He himself could confidently say that his trust in Kakashi had taken quite a hit. Whoever had designed that particular test had to be a complete moron.
Predictably they had failed the test after their sensei effortlessly wiped the floor with them. Sasuke had been tied up to a pole while Kakashi lectured them about his teamwork crap. As if people without experience that didn't even particularly know or like another would instantly work together when the conditions of the test were specifically build to set them against each other. After giving them orders not to feed Sasuke for some made-up reason Kakashi had seemingly left. Shikamaru had naturally seen through it but hesitated to feed Sasuke. He had seriously pondered to purposefully fail the test. His team didn't look especially promising. Returning to the academy would certainly have been far less troublesome. Before he could come to a decision Sakura had already given her lunch to Sasuke after he said he couldn't sense Kakashi anymore. Aforementioned jonin had chosen that moment to return and pass them.
To this day Shikamaru was convinced the outcome was staged from the beginning. The biggest Uchiha-fan girl in Konoha giving food to said Uchiha even if it was against orders seemed hardly an outstanding example of great teamwork. In any case, from that day on he was stuck with his team.
He still had some hope left that they could somehow made it work, but to no avail. For all the crappy D-rank missions and inane teamwork exercises they were put through they improved only marginally if at all in the teamwork department. In fact Shikamaru had developed a thorough dislike for both Sasuke and Sakura. After a few weeks he gave up hope of learning anything useful. Granted, he shared a big part of the blame. His sloth had once again gotten the better of him. After a few times asking for serious training from Kakashi only to be brushed off he had let the matter slide. Investing more effort or actually doing something about his crappy situation had seemed far too troublesome.
His attention was drawn to the real world by the crackling of paper. Clutched in his left hand was an innocuous looking note. It was one of the reasons for his current occupation of rethinking his entire life. He found it in his pocket earlier today after a visit to the mission office where they had met the other rookie teams. Naruto had been very agitated after picking out a mission scroll and had barged against him. When he next put his hands in his pockets the piece of paper had been there. It had only three short sentences written on it.
Kakashi has inquired after the necessary forms for participation in the upcoming chunin exams. Exams are scheduled to be held in one month here in Konoha. Thought you should know.
The interesting part was that judging from the handwriting not a single person but three had written the note. The first sentence had been written by Ino, the last one by Choji. He hadn't immediately recognized the handwriting of the middle sentence even if it seemed somewhat familiar, but after some searching of his old school stuff he attributed it to Naruto. The blonde boy always seemed fiendishly well informed about things he normally had no business knowing, although he rarely exposed the true extent of his knowledge. Ino was well on her way to becoming their generation's spy mistress and had probably information sources all over Konoha. The different handwriting indicated which piece of information came from whom. Shikamaru guessed he had only received that warning because of his erstwhile friendship with Choji and Ino.
'Troublesome. What to do, what to do? In our current shape the chunin exams are as good as a death sentence.' he mused.
Each chunin exam had quite a number of career-ending crippling injuries and deaths. And Shikamaru was virtually certain that he would be one of the casualties. Seriously, his team was probably one of the weakest in existence and it showed. Their competitors would be all over them and rip them to shreds at first opportunity.
He mentally went over his teammates, or rather the people he was forced to work with, as he had come to consider them.
Sakura. She had no jutsu knowledge outside of the academy three. Hell, even if she somehow miraculously acquired some useful jutsu she would almost certainly be unable to use them due to her negligible chakra reserves, which had to be one of the smallest in existence. What use was her frequently touted perfect chakra control if she had neither the techniques where it would be useful, the reserves to power said techniques, or the slightest idea how she should employ her skills in a combat situation? She was physically so weak that she posed no threat to the majority of other genin. In every fight so far she had proven to be completely useless. While she had some impressive academic knowledge it translated poorly to practical application, and she made no attempts at improving her skills.
To top it off she was constantly fawning over Sasuke and had anger management issues as well as an inferiority complex. She had on several occasions tried to hit him for some insignificant comments while their sensei watched and did nothing to curb her violent tendencies. Additionally Shikamaru had witnessed her talking to an imaginary person multiple times when she believed herself unobserved. That indicated some pretty severe mental issues, possible schizophrenia or something similar. All in all, she was a sorry excuse for what an aspiring kunoichi should have been. The worst part in his opinion was that she could have been competent, perhaps even great if she was given reasonable instruction and an attitude adjustment. Being on the same team as the object of her obsession really didn't do her any favors.
Shikamaru's face twisted into a bitter smile. Not that he could really complain on the attitude part, he himself was really no better, if in a different way.
He had below-average physical strength and his taijutsu was nothing to write home about. His chakra control and reserves were alright if a bit substandard for a relative new genin. Apart from the academy three he only knew a single ninjitsu; his clan's basic signature jutsu, the shadow possession technique. He could use it to immobilize an opponent by catching them in his extendable shadow. As soon as he became more proficient in the technique he could even control his target's movements or capture several enemies at once. Regrettably that was still a long way off; first he would have to work on his overall strength and complete some more rigorous clan training that he had eschewed so far.
Perhaps his greatest strength was his sharp mind. Unfortunately he fell short in the practical application of his planning ability mainly thanks to his laziness. Additionally he had been painfully made aware of a fatal flaw in his signature move. The strength of his hold basically depended on his own physical strength amplified by the power of his shadow. The second one wasn't really a problem; he had probably the strongest if largely untrained innate connection to the shadow of all Nara currently alive.
Shikamaru shuddered when he remembered his first time in the meditation cave underneath the Nara compound. The shadows cast by the countless flickering candles had seemed alive when they engulfed and permeated him. He couldn't have been more than five or six at the time, but the memories of being alone in the cave still seemed fresh. It had felt like all life was being drained out of him. Nothing seemed to truly interest him after that; he just wanted to have peace and quiet. The world of shadows was always one of silence and stasis, but none of the subsequent visits affected him so strongly. After that experience he had needed hardly any effort to control his shadow. Unfortunately, instead of using that natural advantage he had cut back even more on his training.
As it was the holding power of his technique was far weaker than he was comfortable with. A strong genin could break the jutsu within a few seconds while enemies with skill upwards from an average chunin would hardly notice the effects.
Perhaps his greatest weakness was his laziness. His entire life had been under a cloud of sloth. Not only had he slacked off in his personal training for a long time, it had landed him in his current shitty situation and prevented actively searching for a solution as that would have been too troublesome.
Sasuke. Where to start? The boy was good in taijutsu and proficient in ninjutsu while possessing above average chakra control and reserves. He knew the Uchiha taijutsu style, several fire jutsu and some supplementary capabilities involving ninja wire. Overall he was a very strong genin. Those were his good points.
To compensate for his capabilities as a shinobi his disposition was as bad as it could get. The boy was an arrogant jerk with an ego the size of the Hokage Mountain. He was a loner, not a team player. Most of the time he hid in a shell of silent superiority that he only left to make a disparaging comment. Part of the problem was that their personalities didn't mesh well. Sasuke saw him as the useless dead last the universe had saddled him with to hold him back from his destiny. He constantly belittled him by calling him dobe, loser or similar names. The fact that Shikamaru didn't rise to the bait seemed to make Sasuke despise him even more. Shikamaru suspected that a more active person could have gotten trough Sasuke's shell in time, but he just wasn't cut out for being persistent in pursuit of things if they proved too troublesome. All attempts from his side to at least create a working relationship had been spectacular failures, much like Sakura's constant efforts to garner Sasuke's romantic attention.
After he got to know Sasuke better over the course of the last months Shikamaru even suspected the boy was mentally unbalanced. In combat he would overestimate his own capabilities and attack opponents far above his level. You could even drive him into a violent rage if you pushed his easily reachable buttons with pretty standard taunting, like his skill as shinobi, his family or especially his brother.
Shikamaru snorted in bitter amusement. 'They should have called us Team Mental Disorder. My laziness certainly qualifies.'
When Sasuke wasn't brooding he left them no doubt that he thought the only thing they were doing was holding him back. The most galling thing was that Shikamaru had to admit that this statement was true. Sasuke was a much better shinobi than them. Like them he suffered from Kakashi's neglect, but he made no effort in helping them get better. Nor was he good at accepting advice from those of perceived lesser skill.
Following one of the strategies that Shikamaru thought up was out of the question for Sasuke who saw it as an attack on his claim of leadership, with Sakura following his lead. Shikamaru pretty much felt superfluous on the team. Granted, he could have done more for them to function as a team, but it had just seemed too troublesome. Sometimes he wondered who had the bright idea to assemble a team based on their academy scores while disregarding their actual skill sets and personalities.
Lastly, their so-called teacher. The man might have been a famous A-ranked elite jonin with years of experience with a stint as ANBU captain to boot, but he was perhaps the worst choice possible as the sensei of a fresh genin cell. He couldn't or wouldn't teach them anything useful. At all. The infrequent spars he had them doing didn't do much for their skills. Sasuke was so far ahead of Shikamaru who in turn was equally ahead of Sakura that none of the participants learned anything to improve. When he wasn't wasting their time by being hours late every day or doing D-rank missions he had them do these inane so-called 'teamwork exercises'. Yes, teamwork was important, but Shikamaru doubted these exercises did anything to actually improve it. To work effectively as a team each member needed some individual skills, but Kakashi refused to work on them until their teamwork got better. He could rarely be bothered to pay them his full attention, mostly ignored him and Sakura and left them to their own devices. His treatment of Sasuke was even more counterproductive. He alternated between indulgence, ignoring him and some strange form of discipline that only alienated the boy more. There seemed to be no pattern to his behavior that Shikamaru could figure out.
After a few weeks on his team Shikamaru had practically given up even his feeble efforts at getting some training from their sensei. He basically coasted along and was counting the days, hours and minutes he had to wait before he could either apply for a transfer to a different team or the six month review of the teams came up. In hindsight this was one of his biggest mistakes. He should have tried to move heaven and earth to gain some external training or bring attention to his situation. Unfortunately his father Shikaku had been extremely busy with some problems in his job as jonin commander that required him to work almost day and night. He even had to leave the village several times for lengthy visits to the capital. His mother Yoshino was preoccupied with nursing one of his aunts. The old lady had been practically a surrogate mother for Yoshino after her biological mother had died in childbirth when she was only four years old. Her health had been suffering for a long time and her end was drawing near. It had been a drawn out affair until she finally died a few days ago. Yoshino had almost never left her bedside for the entire time since she fell ill shortly after his graduation. None of his other available clansman he felt close enough to discuss his problems. He had squandered away his time, unaware of the danger he was in.
His last mission had been a rude awakening. In retrospect neither he nor Sakura had been anywhere near ready to carry out even a regular C-rank mission, much less the nightmare of the blatantly misranked train wreck they ended up doing. Granted, they had easily dispatched two chunin-ranked missing nin, but after some thought he attributed it more to luck on their side and lack of skill on their enemies part. Honestly, what kind of idiots used a genjutsu-created puddle on a road made out of dirt not two days worth of travel from Konoha in the middle of a dry spell as their hiding spot? It was to his immense if private shame that he hadn't recognized it then, but he hadn't really paid attention to his surroundings out of laziness. It would have been too troublesome. They should have aborted the mission right then and there, but Sasuke had demanded they continue, and after a sob story from their client Sakura and Kakashi agreed. His own objections had been disregarded. Granted, Shikamaru himself hadn't objected too strenuously, that would have been too troublesome, and he still trusted Kakashi enough to vaguely know what he was doing.
Their survival on their first encounter with Zabuza Momoichi after their arrival in Wave country was again largely owned to luck. Zabuza had underestimated them and instead of finishing them off quickly he had played around with Kakashi. After their teacher managed to get himself imprisoned in the Kiri nin's water prison technique all seemed lost. Luckily Shikamaru had convinced Sasuke to go with one of his plans, by itself an extremely rare event. He had used the shadow of a kunai with attached wire thrown by Sasuke to extend the reach of his shadow possession technique and immobilized Zabuza. The missing nin broke his hold almost immediately, more stunned from surprise of being hit with a technique than from the actual technique's effect. Fortunately this short time was long enough for a barrage of kunai and shuriken to close the distance to such an extent that Zabuza couldn't block them all and was instead forced to jump away, thereby releasing Kakashi. The fight had soon ended in Team 7's favor, but Zabuza's body had been removed by a hunter nin and Kakashi had collapsed from chakra exhaustion. His team had proceeded to Tazuna's house to seek shelter. In the following week a recovering Kakashi had even finally taught them something useful, a chakra control exercise named tree walking.
On their second encounter on the bridge Zabuza's little helper had effortlessly wiped the floor with them while Kakashi and Zabuza battled it out. He shuddered remembering how the fake hunter nin shrugged his shadow possession off like it wasn't anything more than cobwebs. Initially Sasuke had seemed to make progress in his fight with their enemy. It lasted until the masked nin brought out the big guns and enclosed him in a dome of ice mirrors, pelting him with senbon from all directions. At the end all of them looked like pincushions. They had again been exceptionally lucky that the fake hunter nin had been unwilling to kill them and be done with it. Sasuke had been knocked unconscious shortly after activating his sharingan for the first time while Shikamaru was almost completely unable to move but still conscious enough to observe the fight. In retrospect the missing nin probably wanted to capture sell Sasuke; he was very valuable as one of the last two Uchiha.
Zabuza and Kakashi had more or less maintained a stalemate while giving each other several light to medium wounds. The fight looked like to continue for some time until Kakashi whipped out a scroll. He was about to unseal it when he was hit from behind and lost his grip. The Demon Brothers had returned, and they wanted revenge. Kakashi had left them bound to a tree to await capture by one of the patrols monitoring Konoha's vicinity, but they had obviously managed to free themselves in time to escape. The following battle had been a brutal 3-to-1 beat down in which a wounded and tired Kakashi had no chance. Then Gato and a horde of mercenaries had appeared.
If Team 11 hadn't arrived when they did it would have been the end for all of them. They had been on a different mission and only come to Wave country in pursuit of their target, some of the mercenaries in Gato's employ. With surprise on their side they took out Gato and most of the mercenaries' most dangerous members with precision long-range attacks from afar before slaughtering the rest of the confused group. Shikamaru still had the occasional nightmare about Choji using his family's human boulder technique to ground the mercenaries into paste. A narrow bridge with no way to escape was a place as close to perfect one could get for that jutsu. The seawater had turned a sickly red color from all the blood flowing from the bridge.
Shikamaru snorted in disgust. 'They showed us how proper shinobi should act. We were practically begging for being picked off by either the shinobi or Gato's thugs. Funny how none of us thought about the possibility of Gato taking direct action.'
The following conversation with them had brought another chilling discovery. His team had left Tazuna's daughter and grandson unguarded. A few of the thugs had taken them hostage and were about to rape the woman, but Team 11 had rescued them at the last minute. Still, Tazuna's grandson Inari had suffered a grievous wound while trying to defend his mother. Hinata had managed to save his life, but a large scar stretching across his entire torso would forever remind him of his close brush with death. It just added to the things Shikamaru felt guilty for. He was a supposed genius; he should have thought of the possibility of a hostage-taking, especially with a scumbag like Gato. But again he had been too lazy to think the situation through.
The rest of the mission was quite unpleasant. As he was the only member of Team 7 still conscious it fell to him to brief Team 11 on their mission. Their reactions had been eye-opening. It had been this conservation that shattered his confidence in Kakashi's leadership beyond repair. His team had woken a day later, after all traces of the battle had already been cleaned up. They had been quite disbelieving in his account of the battle. Sasuke in particular had refused to believe that the members of Team 11 were so strong. After some more days of recovery they had returned to Konoha. He expected some sort of reprimand from the Hokage for their conduct on the mission, but nothing really happened. The old man asked a few questions and then sent them on their merry way.
The mission should have been a wakeup-call. They had all made some improvements during the mission, but it didn't last. As soon as they were safely back in Konoha they all slid back into their old behavior patterns. Shikamaru had even approached Kakashi for some extra training, but had been rebuffed with some half-hearted excuse about their teamwork not being good enough. If it wasn't for the note he was holding in his hand he would have coasted along without making much of a fuss. He had planned to request a transfer to a different team as soon as possible and somehow acquire additional training from external sources like his family, hoping Kakashi had learned his lesson and wouldn't endanger them beyond reason. Unfortunately, the note in his hand was proof that his hope was in vain. With a sensei and team like this chances were very good that he wouldn't survive the year he was obligated to stay under Kakashi's command.
To sum it up, his future looked bleak whatever he did. He was severely undertrained, his team was almost completely dysfunctional and his sensei was useless. That didn't stop Kakashi from throwing them in life and death situations they were completely unprepared for, like the C-rank mission or now the chunin exams. Even if he somehow managed to secure extra training he doubted it would make enough of a difference in the available time before the exams. Miraculously surviving the exams wouldn't solve anything, as he would still be on Kakashi's team. He knew he could simply refuse to participate in the exams, but that would cause him no end of grief. Even if he dodged the particular bullet of the chunin exams the lazy jonin would continue to assign them missions they were unprepared for, a disaster with deathly consequences waiting to happen. Promotion to chunin was a possible way out, but he could honestly say that he had neither the necessary skills nor the experience for the rank at the present time, nor would he gain them in the foreseeable future. Therefore his chances for actual achieving the promotion were effectively nil.
He could request an extraordinary transfer, but the permission of the transfer would be dependent on his sensei's approval or required some special circumstances. Unfortunately he didn't believe in his ability to convince the responsible authorities that these circumstances applied. Kakashi had too much political backing for that. There was no chance in hell he would get an approval of transfer from Kakashi himself, as a genin wanting to transfer would reflect badly on his reputation as a teacher. There weren't any free positions on the other active genin teams anyway.
He couldn't request retirement without a good medical reason at his age, and even attempting to resign from the shinobi force would inflict enormous damage on his clan's reputation. It reeked of cowardice. He couldn't do that to his family.
Shikamaru was mentally checking all laws and regulations pertaining to his situation, searching for a way out that couldn't be blocked for one reason or another. He was about to give up after several hours of hard thinking when he suddenly got an idea. With renewed vigor he reviewed the regulations. The idea had some serious drawbacks, but it should work. He only needed approval of one particular man in Konoha's hierarchy. As fate had it that man was his own father.
'I really have only one choice. It will probably set my career back for several years and bring me no end of trouble, but trouble is still better than death.' he thought.
Shikamaru stood with a heavy sigh and left in the direction of his home. He had to talk to his parents and he was sure he wouldn't enjoy the conservation.
"YOU ARE GOING TO DO WHAT?" Yoshino Nara shrieked.
Shikamaru cringed internally at the volume and tone of his mother's voice, but managed to keep his outward calm. "I said I want to request reassignment to the basic training program and return to the academy."
"Why?" his father Shikaku calmly asked while his momentarily speechless mother looked at him with sheer incomprehension. "You are part of the elite training program under the personal tuition of a famous jonin-sensei who never accepted a team before, meaning you are on the fast track to promotion. Why would you throw that away?"
"Because my team is a complete catastrophe, both my teammates as well as Kakashi. I won't learn anything from them." Shikamaru answered with a sigh.
A hint of suspicion entered his mother's eyes. "This isn't just a scheme allowing you to continue lazing about, is it?"
"Why don't you ask me what Kakashi taught us if you think him so great a teacher?" Shikamaru replied, traces of bitterness leaking into his voice.
"I don't see what you're getting at, but I play along for now. What has Kakashi taught you?"
"Tree walking." Shikamaru answered.
Yoshino nodded. "One of the basic chakra control exercises, appropriate for new genin. What else?"
"That is all he taught us."
This unexpected answer shocked both Shikaku and Yoshino into silence for quite some time.
"What do you mean he taught you only tree walking? Usually that is the first skill a sensei teaches his pupils, most often in the first week after passing the team test. To get the full benefits of the technique you have to use it daily at least for several weeks after you got the basic exercise down. It is only considered mastered after you can fight for an hour on a vertical surface. You have been a genin for several months, what has that man been doing in the meantime? Hasn't your team returned from a C-rank mission just a few days ago?" Yoshino asked in a disbelieving voice.
"It is as I said. And he didn't teach it to us several months ago but rather in the middle of the troublesome C-turned-A rank train wreck of a mission we recently returned from. Which we only managed because Team 11 turned up when we were about to be killed. Oh, and he neglected to tell us that bit about the mastery." Shikamaru replied bitterly.
Shikaku's face had turned dead serious. "I want to know everything that happened since your graduation. Now."
Shikamaru launched in a full scale recounting of the past months and a mercilessly honest appraisal of his team's skills. Time passed quickly until it was well beyond midnight. His mother flinched on several occasions during the retelling of the mission to the Land of Waves. As he reached the final battle she couldn't take it anymore and jumped from her chair to embrace Shikamaru. His father's face had become so motionless it seemed to be made out of granite.
"That… That imbecile! Taking a team of barely trained genin on a C-rank mission. In your current state you would have been hard-pressed to deal with a small group of common bandits. Even after encountering hostile shinobi he continued on. At least he should have immediately sent for help if he was so dead-set on continuing that blasted mission. I don't even want to think about what happened later. I almost lost you." The last sentence was said in a far softer voice intermingled with a sob.
Shikamaru was surprised to feel tears on his face. He had never seen his mother display much emotion besides irritation during one of her nagging sessions. Her crying was virtually unprecedented. His father was obviously busy with thinking of ways to punish Kakashi. From his darkening expression he came to the same conclusion Shikamaru himself had reached days ago, namely that he couldn't do anything to the lazy jonin. After waiting a few minutes for his mother to calm down, he completed his tale with their return to Konoha and Kakashi's further reluctance in training them.
"Why didn't you tell us earlier? We might have been able to do something." Yoshino asked.
He sighed. "There are several reasons. You both were incredibly busy, Dad with his job and you with Aunt Himiko. Partly because of my own laziness, and I'm sorry for that. But to tell you the truth, the severity of my troublesome situation simply wasn't clear to me before the mission. I knew something was wrong, but I had no comparison what a sensei should have been doing. I wanted to simply bide my time until I could legally request a transfer without making a fuss."
Yoshino looked guilty. "You're right, your father and I were both too busy to have time for you. I might have done the same as you in that situation. We must do something, if the man acts that irresponsible on a relatively simple matter there's no telling what he might do next time. I think if we talk with him…"
"That's not all." Shikamaru interrupted. "A reliable source told me that Kakashi plans to nominate our team for the upcoming chunin exams, and we are nowhere near ready. The only one of my team that might possess the necessary combat skills to become chunin is Sasuke, and even that is only because of his sharingan. Mentally none of us has what it takes to become chunin at the current time."
"WHAT? Not only does the idiot neglect your training, he wants to throw you into the chunin exams in your state? What is he thinking? Husband, first thing in the morning you will sack Kakashi because of incompetence. And don't give me some crap about it being too troublesome. Then you will charge him with dereliction of duty, reckless endangerment of his students and violation of whatever other regulations he broke on this damned mission. If the man still walks free at the end of the week, I will…" Yoshina raged.
"Dad can't do that." Shikamaru interjected. Yoshino stopped her tirade and looked disbelievingly at him for a moment before turning to her husband for confirmation.
Shikaku sighed. "Our son is right; I can't do anything about Kakashi. All jonin-sensei are outside my authority while they participate in the elite training program. They report directly to the Hokage. By signing off the after-mission report without reprimanding Kakashi he formally endorsed his behavior, meaning I can't take action myself as jonin commander. I wasn't even aware of the details of our son's mission. Regarding his training regime, or rather the lack of one, a jonin-sensei has unfortunately a lot of leeway in how he handles and teaches his pupils. External interference is forbidden because of some nasty incidents in the past. We could file a complaint, but it would take months to properly process it. Too many people are convinced of Kakashi's proficiency as jonin and teacher; they would simply not believe the allegations, especially if he has the backing of the Hokage. Heck, I wouldn't believe them if it wasn't our son telling us. I confess I always held Kakashi in the highest regard. I've even seen him as eventual Hokage material. The complaint would probably be perceived as some sort of political maneuver on behalf of our clan to damage Kakashi's reputation and opposed and delayed endlessly. Given time we could eventually convince enough people to start an inquiry, but considering what Shika told us, by then it might be too late. The entire situation is far too troublesome."
"But… but… there must be something we can do?" Yoshino asked.
"Believe me, I wish there was. I have been thinking over the situation for a long time now, and me transferring back into the academy is the only solution I could find. Kakashi won't listen to reason and I just don't want to take the risk." Shikamaru nodded to his father. "We should go over the laws and regulations together, but I don't believe I overlooked anything. My idea only works because of several loopholes. Apparently nobody has ever considered the possibility of an already apprenticed genin willingly going back to the academy."
Dawn was already approaching when they finally wrapped up their planning session. Books and scrolls containing the laws of Konoha were strewn across the room. Yoshino had succumbed to sleep some time ago and was now snoring gently while her head rested on the table in an imitation of her husband's and son's usual napping pose.
Shikaku tiredly rubbed his eyes. Pulling all-nighters had become a far too frequent occurrence for his taste. "That should cover everything. I will send Kakashi a message to excuse your absence because of undisclosed clan business for a few days. I will pick up the necessary forms while I'm at work and bring them with me. Tomorrow or rather today I will file them in the appropriate places and speed up the administrative work by calling in a few favors. This evening you should be free of Kakashi and be once again enrolled in the academy in a few days time."
"Thanks dad. I think … I will … go ... to sleep…now…ZzZzZz."
Shikamaru's head hit his folded arms with a dull thud, the positioning of his body virtually identical to his mother. Shikaku chuckled while observing his sleeping family. Then a realization struck him. He was the only one still awake, leaving him to clean up the room. And he had to leave for work in less than an hour.
"Troublesome."
Asuma Sarutobi looked up from his glass when the sound of a door opening caught his attention. It was already late in the night and he was catching up with a few of his old friends: Tekuno Kanden the trap master, the sword master Hayame Shirakumo, his apprentice Hayate Gekko and the elite bodyguard Genma Shiranui. Said catching up involved a lot of alcohol. Being a sensei was an interesting job, but contact with his fellow shinobi wasn't as frequent as during the time before when he went on high-ranked missions. He along with several other patrons of the bar watched curiously as Yoshino and Shikaku Nara entered the bar and turned towards Kakashi. The masked jonin had retired to his own table near the door earlier in the evening and was clearly surprised of being approached. The two Nara seemed angry, though.
None of them were close enough to overhear the increasingly agitated conversation. It ended with Shikaku pressing a bundle of paperwork into Kakashi's hands. Kakashi's one visible eye widened in disbelief when he scanned the documents. A furious but still hushed conversation later the Nara pair was about to leave.
The two Nara had almost reached the door when Kakashi said something that caused the pair to stop and turn around. Asuma shuddered internally when he saw the expression on their faces. Whatever Kakashi had said must have angered them further. Yoshino shook off the arm of her husband and went back to Kakashi until their noses were almost in contact. Kakashi clearly didn't like the invasion of his personal space.
This time Yoshino's voice was loud enough for all of them to clearly hear the words. "If you so much as approach my son without supervision I swear to Kami I will neuter you with a dull spoon, the orders of the Hokage be damned. You have done enough damage."
Kakashi's reply was again inaudible, but Yoshino's face smoothed into an unreadable mask. A second later she slapped him hard, sending the documents in his hands flying. All conversation ceased at once. The man clearly had not been expecting that and hadn't seen the slap coming from his blind side. He seemed more perplexed than actually hurt, though.
"I don't care. Run and hide behind the robes of the Hokage if you like. If you ever endanger a member of my family again they will never find your body." Yoshino said before returning to the side of her husband.
Shikaku's voice was soft, but everyone heard the words. "What my dear wife said. Oh, and Kakashi. Should you bring up assault charges we would be forced to start a formal investigation. That would include matters you would prefer to stay buried; like what happened on your last mission. If it were up to me you would be spending a lot of time in a psych evaluation. How the Hokage can trust you with a genin team after your stunt is beyond me." A moment later the pair left the bar and the various conversations started back up.
Genma and some others went to help Kakashi, picking up the stack of documents that had fallen to the ground during the confrontation. Asuma shook his head. Something was clearly up. He knew something had happened on Kakashi's last mission that caused Anko to no longer speak with him unless absolutely necessary for their jobs, but he didn't know details. Kurenai seemed to share the sentiment, but Asuma still hadn't found the opportunity to talk with one of them in private. All he knew was that there had been some trouble with a nuke-nin that had been resolved without losses on Konoha's side.
"What was that about?" Tekuno asked when Genma returned to their table. Kakashi had left the bar in a hurry.
"You know Kakashi had Shikaku's kid on his team? Well, he has him no longer. The boy went back to the academy."
Asuma had trouble not spitting out his drink in surprise. He quickly swallowed. "He did what?"
"You heard me. The boy went willingly back to the basic academy program with his genin rank suspended. I didn't even know you could do that voluntarily, but I scanned some of the forms when I picked them up." Genma answered, shaking his head.
The bearded jonin tuned out the conversation for a moment when he went over the regulations in his head. He had brushed up his knowledge when his father asked him to take over a team, even if it didn't end up being the reincarnation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio he had been told to expect. He came to the conclusion that it was possible, but it was a very strange way to withdraw from a team. It would probably ruin the boy's career despite his father being the jonin commander. Then he connected the dots. That was the only way that only required the approval of one person, and that person was Shikaku himself. It was the only foolproof way to get the boy out of the team as quickly as possible.
"Any guesses why the boy would want out?" Asuma asked.
Hayame and Genma shrugged. "No idea. You have far more contact with genin and Kakashi then I do. I heard Kakashi's team encountered the Devil of the Mist on their last mission. They took him down, but perhaps the Nara boy got cold feet?"
Tekuno shook his head. "That isn't what I heard. You didn't hear that from me, but Kakashi fucked up massively. Got them all almost killed. Would have gotten them killed if Mitarashi's team hadn't shown up. Not the usual stuff, but really stupid mistakes."
"How do you know that?" Hayate asked before coughing.
"A pal of mine over in T & I told me the story when I was checking on some of the equipment and security measures there. It isn't really classified, though. At least not yet. Zabuza wasn't alone; he had three chunin as help. One of them survived and is imprisoned there after Mitarashi's kids caught her." After ordering a new drink Tekuno continued with the chilling tale of what had happened in the Land of Waves. A quick glance around showed Asuma that they had attracted a lot of listeners. Half an hour later Asuma and the other listeners could only shake their heads.
'What in the world did Kakashi think he was doing? Now I know why the boy wanted to get away. I wonder why dad did nothing official about it. Did he want to keep everything under wraps? No wonder Anko does no longer speak with Kakashi after that stunt.'
For a moment he pondered why Anko hadn't said anything to him. She probably didn't want to be seen as badmouthing another shinobi, but too many people knew what happened. Gossip was already spreading. It was obvious the Nara knew. The Akimichi and Hyuuga would know, too. If his father was unwilling to take action Kakashi's career would survive, but his reputation would take a heavy hit.
Asuma tried to get their original conversation back on track after the crowd dispersed. "How are you holding up, Hayate? Now that the medic-nins finally left you out of their clutches you look much better. That poison gas really did a number on you."
"You tell me, man. I still have to take it easy for a few months, but I'm cleared for limited duty inside the village. I will probably help with the chunin exams. It shouldn't be too taxing and they need a lot of people."
Koharu scowled slightly while she examined the shogi board. Was Homura trying to lure her into an ambush or did he only want her to think he did? Making the decision to ignore the opening she moved another piece before she looked back at her old friend, teammate and fellow councilor.
"It seems the stories about Kakashi's behavior are spreading. Did you plan for that?" she asked.
"No, I had nothing to do with it. The entire messy affair was completely unplanned." Homura sighed. "It will cause no end of trouble for all of us. I honestly didn't expect Kakashi to fail that badly in his duties. His past record is impeccable. Shikaku asked some very pointed questions why Kakashi was allowed to retain his position. He's out for the man's blood, but I think I was able to placate him. We will declare the detailed happenings of the Wave affair a secret to clamp down on the open gossip, but that won't prevent the rumors from spreading further. It's already too late for that."
Koharu's scowl deepened upon hearing that. They were in a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'-situation. Kakashi was one of their top jonin, but he had acted like an utter incompetent in the last months. If the story about his behavior became common knowledge faith in Konoha's prowess would take a heavy hit. If they openly reprimanded him that would be unavoidable. If they did nothing official they would catch flak for letting that behavior slide. Hiruzen had opted for the latter option and had given Kakashi a fierce tongue-lashing behind closed doors. Koharu had to agree, it was the better of two bad choices. While she would enjoy embarrassing one of Hiruzen's closest supporters in public the reputation of the village came first.
Homura suddenly chuckled. "You know, we were really lucky Anko's team stumbled upon them when they did. Losing the Nara heir and especially Sasuke would have caused us enormous problems. I don't even want to imagine what Itachi would do."
The old woman grimaced. "Don't remind me. The Nara boy was the one who got the ball rolling. Without him pulling out of the team we would have been able to keep things under wraps."
"Now, now, you can't really fault him for that. He did cause us problems, yes, but without him we would never have looked into the matter. If Kakashi's team had been composed as originally planned we might still labor under the misconception that Kakashi is a great teacher. Young Sasuke doesn't appear to talk to anyone, the Haruno girl doesn't really speak with her mother about her job and the Uzumaki boy doesn't have parents."
That was true. Encounters with missing nin were a frequent enough occurrence that they wouldn't have investigated too closely without the Nara boy drawing attention to it. Some people would know thanks to Team 11's involvement, but it would have been manageable. If Kakashi had managed to defeat the missing nin on his own they might never have learned about his abysmal conduct at all. It wasn't as if they had the time to review every C-rank mission, especially when Hiruzen handled it himself.
After a moment of silence Homura continued speaking. "It's too early to say for certain, but we might have another problem. We let a client get away with blatantly lying about the mission parameters. It was one of the reasons Shikaku was so angry aside from the involvement of his son. Wave sees enough traffic that the story will spread too quickly for us to contain it. It sets a very bad precedent. He expects other people will be encouraged to try the same. We might see a not inconsiderable increase in misranked missions and shinobi losses."
Koharu rubbed her brow tiredly. "I know. What will happen to Kakashi? I was too busy with arbitrating between two squabbling minor clans to pay it my full attention. Will he be reassigned quietly?"
"For now Hiruzen plans to let him stay in charge of Team 7. I think he either wants to give him another chance or gradually phase him out when things have calmed down. Unfortunately he is the only one who can teach young Sasuke about the use of his sharingan; that didn't change. They are still scheduled to participate in the chunin exams. Hopefully the rumors will have died down by then. They are short a genin now, though, and the other participating genin teams have already been assembled." Homura explained.
That was interesting. She might just know someone who would take the position. That would put Kakashi and Hiruzen in her debt; always a useful thing. Koharu knew Homura didn't like the entire idea of the chunin exams that Hiruzen had introduced more than a decade ago. While she had her own misgivings (She would never have invited foreign shinobi onto village grounds but built a tournament area some distance away, like the other villages had done) the idea in general appealed to her. It gave them an opportunity to show their village's skill before the eyes of the public. Hiruzen's talk about them replacing war was nothing more than wishful thinking, of course, but they would be able to gauge the enemies' prowess.
"You aren't happy that all the rookie teams are to compete, are you?" she asked after Homura finally made his move on the board.
Homura sighed. "It's too early, but I understand Hiruzen. All new teams have reported very good skills. The teams from half a year ago are neither remotely ready nor skillful enough. That leaves only Team Gai as established working unit from the elite program. All other participating teams were specifically created for the exams; they can't be expected to excel in the teamwork department. We simply can't have another disgrace; not when we are hosting the exams. By getting all the teams to participate we increase the chances of success. It's a gamble, but a necessary one."
This time she didn't have to think long before she moved another of her pieces. "Hiruzen wanted to have ANBU help our teams subtly. Do you think he will go through with that?"
Her counterpart shrugged. "I don't think it will be necessary for the teams aside from Kakashi's. I have full confidence in their abilities. The risk that we are accused of cheating if we manipulate too blatantly is always there and should be minimized. Oh, and checkmate."
Shikamaru paused for a moment before entering the gate of the secondary academy building. A bare few months ago he would have laughed if somebody suggested he would voluntarily return to the academy, let alone participate in the basic training program. Now the thought wasn't quite so funny.
He would have to face a lot of scorn and probably attempts at bullying. His contemporaries that hadn't been accepted by a jonin wouldn't take kindly to him, a genin who had achieved what they all desired and threw it away. At least that was how they would see it. Most would have better skills than him by now, thanks to his useless sensei and his own laziness. Not to mention the larger part of the student population who were placed in the basic training program from the beginning. There was always some tension born out of envy between the factions, and he belonged to neither. His rank of genin was still on the books, but it was suspended upon successful completion of the training program.
After he graduated for the second time he wouldn't be getting a personal jonin-sensei, such a thing as a personal teacher existed only for those genin produced by the elite program. Normal shinobi were responsible for seeing to their own training. Shikamaru was in the lucky position to belong to a great clan which simplified the acquisition of additional training enormously. He would be assigned some relatively low-profile duty and stay there until he managed to prove himself capable of more sensitive duties. His leaving of the elite program would work against him there. Promotion would be several years off and was far from secure. One thing was certain; he had to do a lot of hard work before he managed to compensate for the hit his reputation had taken.
Saying goodbye to his team had been a quick affair. His parents had been there when he had talked with Kakashi, but they had barely exchanged a dozen words. The masked jonin seemed still to be reeling under the development. Sasuke had been his usual loveable self, but at least he had wished him good luck. Sakura was the only one who seemed to be truly sorry to see him go. He had pondered for a moment to offer her his way out, but he was certain she wouldn't accept. Sakura was still hung up on Sasuke and wouldn't leave her crush. She probably didn't even realize how badly Kakashi had failed them.
Shikamaru straightened and resumed his walk. Yes, he had a difficult time before him, but he would persevere. He got a second chance. Not many people did. He would not squander it away. He was through with lazing around and watching the clouds for hours a day. It was time to get serious.
A young man awaited anxiously the decision of the five person promotion panel. He had trained long and hard to make up for his erstwhile failures. By now he hoped he had corrected everything wrong with him. To his surprise only one person reentered the room, the village elder Koharu Utatane. Her presence had surprised him; the elders were normally not a part of promotion boards.
His anxiety increased when the woman sat down without a word and fixed him with an expressionless stare. After almost a minute of silence she began speaking. "Genin Idate Morino, I'm sorry to say that the majority of the board doesn't feel that you are qualified for the rank of chunin yet. The session is still running, but I felt you should now the current status."
Idate clenched his fist tightly. "May I ask for a distribution of the votes, Utatane-sama?"
"Two voted against you, two in favor of you. One abstention."
He was about to ask another question when he noticed something. The old woman was looking at him expectantly. She wanted something from him. 'Okay, calm down. Big brother Ibiki talked about that. I can play that game.'
"I see. In exactly what area was I deemed lacking? Would there be a way of swaying a vote?"
The old woman smiled. "It is mainly your ability to work in a team that is in question. Fortunately for you there is an opportunity for you to prove otherwise. Rookie Team 7 is missing a member for the upcoming chunin exams. It would be a shame if the poor dears don't even manage to complete the second stage. Volunteering to fill that void and helping out fellow Konoha shinobi might just be seen as the display of camaraderie necessary."
Idate felt his mouth go dry. He hated chunin exams. The aftermath of his last try was what had led to the desertion of his sensei and death of his two teammates. And now that woman wanted him to play babysitter to two snot-nosed brats or she would derail his promotion.
He put a smile on his face. "This is wonderful advice, Utatane-sama. Tell me more."
After that it was only haggling over the details.
Author's notes: Over 300 reviews! My thanks to all the people who took the time to write a review.
Apparently no one caught the reference with the gate. While I did give it some properties of the gate of truth from FMA in this chapter, I alluded to a specific entity from Lovecraft's works in the last one.
I hope I gave sufficient explanation for Shikamaru's behavior. He got increased capabilities with his clan's jutsu out of the magical interference. Unfortunately his laziness was likewise increased, meaning he didn't make use of it. Until now he wasn't able to muster the willpower to overcome his sloth. Sasuke is a bit worse off in terms of personality than in canon, mainly because Naruto wasn't working fulltime to draw him out of his shell. Kakashi did start out as an appalling sensei, but he got better later (though it's debatable how much). Unfortunately for him far more people know about his failings than in canon.
Chunin exams should start either at the end of the next chapter or the one after that.
So long.