- Hide and Seek -
Shikamaru is missing an ear. A fucking ear.
Ruya's body might have taken the brunt of the bomb tag, but Shikamaru had definitely taken the rest of it. He remembers Tayuya examining his face the way his mom inspected bad fruit in the market. He doesn't even want to know what he looks like now. As the shock of adrenaline gradually wears off, he gets woozier with every step…
But he doesn't have the luxury of slowing down. Tayuya is running him down like an animal. There's nothing but trees in every direction. Still, if he can put enough distance between him and his hunter, he might be able to double back to the lumber mill.
Hitoshi will send help. He'll have to send help when Shikamaru's team fails to return to the castle. He just has to stay alive until reinforcements come. He just needs to cling to hope…
But hope is a wet paper word that tatters on his fingertips.
He tries not to think about Ruya in pieces. He shuts off the sounds of Kiwa bleeding out. He's doing everything he can to not give in to despair. Even still, it crawls over him like a pair of foreign fingers down the back his neck. His useless brain keeps calculating the probability that he's absolutely going to die tonight.
He sends another prayer up to the Gods who are probably not even listening.
Please Gods, don't let him die out here in the middle of this fucking forest. He's spent the last three months doing a job he hates and Hitoshi hasn't even paid him yet. This isn't how he's suppose to go. He absolutely refuses to-
He hears the whisper of footsteps behind him. It's a hard noise to pick up with only one eardrum, but the soft patter of Anbu boots is unmistakeable now. Utsuho's strained groan warns him of the imminent attack. It's just enough of a heads up for Shikamaru to dodge.
He hurtles his body to the left, ducking the slick of a Katana blade imbedding into the ground beside him.
He hadn't been able to make headway after all. Tayuya has found him yet again.
Utsuho is just too fast. He'd been fast before, but with Tayuya's creatures inside him, he's become supercharged on Ruya's chakra. The blood slick Katana in his hands is even faster. Utsuho's strength seems magnified ten fold.
But his Captain is strong in more ways than one. Even with Tayuya's monsters possessing him, he fights their control at every turn. He wields the Ironheart spirit of the Morino clan against his savage hostage taker. He makes micro adjustments when he and Shikamaru fight, angling his blade so Shikamaru can dodge.
And yet, it is not enough. Even with Utsuho resisting tooth and nail, he has the advantage in their altercations. Utsuho strikes to kill where Shikamaru aims to block. He doesn't get tired after each of their battles, but Shikamaru…
Well, he's still hemorrhaging blood from the side of his face. The air in his lungs keeps getting thinner. The sun sinks lower with every second, about to make his best jutsu useless. When the light finally goes, Shikamaru will be doomed. He is going to die out here-
A sharp whistle splits the air. He's been too busy spiraling to pay attention. When Utsuho lunges, Shikamaru flies from his hiding spot, desperate to slip the outstretched blade.
By some miracle, he gets a lucky shot. His metal knuckles smash Utsuho's hands, sending the Katana flying. Tayuya spins a new melody now that he's out in the open. She doubles her songs tempo into a rapid staccato beat.
Shikamaru doesn't even see the blow coming. He takes a rib shot from Utsuho's brutal fist. He feels the recoil in his liver just as his knees impact the dirt. Utsuho continues sinking uppercuts into his sides, the meat of his massive hands landing like mallets. He hears a pop when the last of the blows finally cracks one of his floating ribs.
He screams.
He can't help it. His breath comes in short, ragged gasps. But even through the pain, fresh adrenaline has him hyperaware. He feels Tayuya standing at the corner of his vision. He dodges a kick from Utsuho's boot, lunging for her with knife edge raised. He's going to slice her throat clean open-
But Tayuya has anticipated this move. The second Shikamaru makes to rush her, she stops whistling her deadly song. Her lips return to a thin chapped line. The melody becomes a low, mid sonic waver.
Utsuho screams out from behind him, dead weight dropping to the earth. Shikamaru stops in his tracks. God damnit-
"You're not playing the game right." She tells him.
"This is a really fucked up game." He grunts, cracked rib making it difficult to speak.
Even though time is working against him, he's still trying to buy more of it. Every second he keeps her talking is a second she can't whistle Utsuho to death. Through his spinning vision, he sees Tayuya for what she is.
She is a predator playing with her food. He's so royally f-
"You might not like my game, but I'm the one who says when we stop playing." Tayuya looks at him, taking him in. "But you're right. I'm bored too. Let's play a new game."
He braces for the impact, knowing it's coming. When she whistles, Utsuho's arms wrap him from behind. He hadn't even heard his captain stand up, god damn bloody ear-
He wonders what it will be this time. The face? His knees?
But Tayuya chooses neither. This time, instead of a beating, Shikamaru feels his limbs go numb. It's the feeling you get when your arm falls asleep, but it's happening in his liver, his kidneys, his heart. It burns like frostbite submerged in hot water, and somehow he's wishing Utsuho would go back to beating him.
He screams out into the echoing woods. He's so tired of screaming...
Just when he thinks he's about to die, the pain ebbs. It's almost peaceful. The smoke demons stops pulling his chakra from him. Utsuho releases his limp body, staggering back with a guttural moan. His captain is resisting the monsters again, forcing his body to let go.
Shikamaru reaches for his inner power to find he's grasping at thin air. In the span of just a few seconds, most of his chakra has been drained. His legs can no longer carry the burden of his own useless weight. He stumbles backwards into a tree, willing himself to stay standing.
"Are you ready to play my new game?" Tayuya asks.
"Fuck…you." He manages to grit out.
"Excellent. I use to love this one. I'll even give you a good head start, since you're so excited to play."
Shikamaru looks up from the dirt, trying to steady his swimming vision. His heart feels like it's shredding every time it tries to beat. He manages to focus on Tayuya's yellow mouth when she gives him a fresh, wicked grin.
She whistles a slow, swooping tune. Beside him, Utsuho rises from the round like a corpse resurrected. He lifts his hands and covers his eye with palms still slick from Kiwa's blood.
All the while, Tayuya stares Shikamaru down. Her eyes promise him he is going to die tonight, her predators gaze striking his veins to ice. He's too low on blood and too short on sleep to fully understand what is happening.
But then, Tayuya starts counting
"50. 49. 48. 47…"
Shikamaru does the only thing that he can do. He peels himself away from his tree trunk shelter, staggering into a shaky run. He watches Tayuya watch him leave.
He bides his time. He says his prayers. He knows she will run him into the ground first, and after that she'll make him crawl.
As he runs, he tries to conserves what little chakra he has left. He almost reaches into his vest pocket to weaponize his last resort.
'No…not yet.'
He hasn't given up hope yet. Instead, he repeats and replays Tayuya's story, looking for the detail in it that will ensure his survival.
Overhead, the sun's edge grazes the horizon. Every moment it sinks lower, it diminishes his chances of escaping this nightmare. It diminishes Utsuho's chances too.
He turns a corner, finally out of sight. When it's safe, he carves an inconspicuous X with his knife on the underside of a tree branch. Anyone from Konoha will know how to look for it. This is the breadcrumb trail he's betting his life on. He just hopes it will lead Hitoshi's help to him in time.
In the distance, he hears Tayuya's echoing voice.
"Ready or not…here we come."
- Vault -
"Let's try it again!" Naruto says.
Kakashi bends over, hands on his knees. A river of sweat runs down his neck. Good lord, what has Jiraiya been doing with this boy? Has Naruto always been this fast, or is he just getting old?
"I'm ready when you are." He says, faking an easy tone. He's trying for light, but it comes out light-headed. Shit, he needs water.
He watches Naruto sizing him up. What happened to the kid who use to eat nothing but ramen and run his big mouth all over Konoha? Kakashi use to watch Naruto trip over his own boot laces. The kid had once stabbed himself in his own hand with an enemies poison Kunai.
But that boy seems to be long gone now, replaced by the titan of energy before him.
Knowing he's still being watched, Kakashi stands up. He puts on airs of being bored, like he's not exhausted from six hours of nonstop training. He knows Naruto has the Kyuubi, but seriously. The guy's been throwing off chakra like a perpetual battery, yet there seems to be no end in sight.
"What's wrong old man? Out of breath?" Naruto is taking far too much joy in showing off his new Jutsu.
"Not at all." Kakashi Lies. "I'm just waiting for you to stop being so slow."
His mouth is writing checks his chakra can't cash, but he negs Naruto on anyway. When his student laughs at their playful banter, it sends a bittersweet warning bell ringing through Kakashi's nostalgic heart.
He looks… just like Minato…
"You want fast, I'll show you fast. Get ready to eat my fist, Sensei!" Naruto spins his Sai around the tip of his index finger. Kakashi can just make out the Flying Raijin seal taped along the handle.
Mentally, he starts aiming his next attack. He digs his heels deep into the dirt, trying to time when Naruto will disappear in another blinding yellow flash.
"Kakashi!"
Time stops when he hears Tsunade's voice. He knows that fear. He knows that tone.
….no.
Fear burns down the back of his neck. He feels her footsteps pounding up the road like she's walking up his very spine. Her voice is a blade of terror that cuts through the afternoon. It cuts through his joy, severing it completely.
He looks over his shoulder, hoping he's wrong. Hoping he's just overreacting.
But it really is Tsunade. She races across the training field, horror in her eyes. He doesn't have to ask why his Hokage is here. Her face tells him everything he needs to know.
He knows because her face is Death reminding him it's coming for everything he loves. Electricity spiderwebs over his fingers. Where was Sakura? What had happened? Where was Sakura?
Fear grips his heart where the joy use to be. He could never just be allowed to love.
"Oba-chan. What's wrong?" Naruto's voice is light. He hasn't figured it out yet. Kakashi can't find the breath to prepare him.
Tsunade barrels into the clearing. She's not trying to catch her breath, she's trying to swallow down her fear. "It's Sakura." Is all she manages to say. "You have to go, now-"
Her words are lost when the winter air reverberates with the sound of a thousand birds. Kakashi feels his Kunai melt as Chidori explodes in his white knuckle grip. Naruto jumps back, nearly electrocuted. Kakashi drops the mangled kunai. It sizzles iron hot in the long grass.
What…had he just done?
He shakes his head, trying to clear it. Tsunade has taken a step back too, startled. Kakashi finds his other hand soldered to the back of Naruto's jacket. Naruto's panic is no better than his. Kakashi's grip is the only thing keeping the boy from running off in blind mania.
Sakura. Where. Is. Sakura.
"...Kakashi?"
Somehow, he pries opens the vault of his mouth. He syphons enough air from the bank of his lungs to whisper the single most dangerous word he's ever uttered in his life. His world freezes, balanced on the blade of his rage.
"Where."
- Decoy -
How long has it been? Seconds? Days? Time is an enemy that lies to Shikamaru. One moment, it's telling him it's on his side. The next, it's stealing away his shadow one luminescent second at a time.
Shika might not know this terrain, but he knows when he's being herded. Every time he tries to pull West, Utsuho's body appears from the right. He is always just behind Shikamaru, footsteps heard but presence unseen. Tayuya seems content to run him ragged. At least, until he tries to turn West.
Every attempt to do so ends in an altercation with Utsuho. Each altercation puts him deeper into a chakra deficit he just can't afford. But Hitoshi's castle is West. He can't just keep walking himself into Tayuya's trap. Where was she even leading him anyway? He has to find a way to double back.
Hopefully, the bits of chakra he's been able to conserve will last him until he can get back down the mountain. He leaps from branch to winter-bare branch, wondering if anyone has found his trail yet. When his boots hit the next tree, he hides in the shadowy shelter of the massive pine. The world stays silent all around. Maybe here he can finally catch his breath.
'I'm coming back, Sakura. I swear it.'
How could he have made such a stupid promise. He'd known he'd been tempting fate, promising Sakura anything. Yet, he'd meant his words at the time. He hadn't known making promises would result in this- running for his life from a psychopath.
He remembers sitting in Tsunade's office, back when his biggest fears were change and responsibility. Back when his hang ups revolved around asking a waitress to take his stupid food back.
What a child he had been. All that time he'd wasted doing the bare minimum when he should have been doing everything. He should have spent every second of his life seeing, touching, tasting the world. Now he was going to lose his life having only lived a fraction of it.
Stupid, stupid, stupid…
He holds his breath, listening for Utsuho but hearing nothing. He swivels his good ear in all directions. The only the sounds around him are of a nightdark forest. Out here, every noise is amplified by the absence of civilization. The smallest rabbits stomp like giants through the carpet of dead leaves below.
But still there is nothing. Only silence.
He takes another second to close his eyes. When he has recovered somewhat, he lifts his knife and marks another X into the bark of the tree. He knows there's little hope that a rescue party is actually on its way to him…But the only way he's going to make it to the end game is to play like there's going to be one. He digs his knife deeper into the trunk.
"You don't have to keep doing that you know."
Tayuya. Tayuya.
His heart drops lead into the sack of his stomach. His enemy is not behind him or before him. Her voice is coming from above.
He doesn't even bother looking up. He runs down the trunk of his hiding tree, crashing into the underbrush. He'd been traveling silently through the canopy above, but she'd still managed to track his movements. How, how was she still following him-
And then…it hits him. His heart sinks like the sun. He feels every inch the fool he has been, running himself ragged through these woods.
Her Demons. They hunt chakra. Out here in the middle of the woods, his is the only chakra for miles around.
His panicked gait slows to a run. Gradually his run becomes a walk. Bit by bit, his last hope leaves him.
He was never going to be able to hide from her. It had been pointless from the very beginning. That's why she'd been herding him deeper into the woods.
There was no where out here for him to hide.
Gradually, his legs stop responding all together. Why waste chakra running when it wouldn't matter anyway? He looks around the open clearing, his shadow fading in the disappearing light. If he was going to make a stand anywhere, this field seemed as good a place as any.
'I'm coming back, Sakura. I swear it.'
…She was never going to forgive him for this.
Even though he'd run ahead, somehow Tayuya is already there. The bead of orange that use to be the sun is now just a sliver above the mountain. The sky pops warm with watercolor light. In Konoha, he would have thought it pretty. Out here, it's just an echo of his last hope leaving him.
Tayuya whistles and Utsuho steps from the trees, pulling a Kunai from an ankle holster. Shikamaru lifts up his knuckle knife, preparing to give everything in this last fight.
But instead of running Shikamaru down, Utsuho marks his own X into the trunk of the tree Tayuya is standing by. His mark is obvious, easier to spot than the covert ones Shikamaru's been leaving.
"Get it yet?" Tayuya asks. She gestures a bandaged fist to the far side of the clearing. Shikamaru can just make out more of the same obviously carved marks.
Decoys. Decoys that would lead any rescue team in the opposite direction from where he'd run.
"While you've been resting, we've been having fun. We've marked plenty of trees leading off to nowhere. Anyone who comes looking for you will have days worth of trails to explore. What do you think, will they find your body before the animals get to it?"
Stupid stupid stupid-
Shikamaru doesn't hear what ever Tayuya says next. Her words are cut off when Utsuho grips him roughly by the scruff of the neck. The trembling wracks his body again. More burning ice pulling chakra from his insides. When the very last of his strength gives out, Utsuho slams him into the earth.
He lays exhausted in the dead winter leaves. Their prickly edges cut into the raw wound on his neck.
"Go on, run." Tayuya says. Utsuho is apparently done feeding.
But Shikamaru doesn't want to move. There's no point in running, he knows that now. He strangles the handle of his knuckle knife, wishing Asuma were here. Wishing his teammates were here with him.
But no one is here. He is alone.
Coming to a decision, he digs trembling fingers into the pocket of his flak vest. He plays off the action like he's clutching at his heart. In stealth, he wiggles free the only bomb-tag he's managed to bring with him.
He knows what he has to do. He's going to lure Tayuya as close as he can. When she's in range, he'll blow them both to back to the gods. She'll be dead and Utsuho will be free and he won't have to keep running.
He rasps out weak nonsense words, an incoherent babble that doesn't mean anything.
"What's that?" Tayuya asks. She steps forward, leaning in.
But he needs her closer if this is going to work. Closer, closer-
Something goes wrong. At the last second, Tayuya suspects. Chance deals Shikamaru a bad hand when he makes to execute his final act.
Utsuho boots him hard in the chest. A high-tone whistle sings through his brain. The kick sends his bomb tag fluttering into the air. It lands in a crumpled ball right at Tayuya's soot stained feet.
"Stupid move." She bites out.
Overhead, Utsuho lifts his kunai point, not to Shikamaru's neck but to his own jaw. Shikamaru's eyes go wide. He's going to be forced to watch his Captain try to eat his own blade through a hole in his neck.
He screams out the only threat he can. "If Utsuho dies, there's nothing to stop me from ripping you apart!" His voice is weak, but his rage is loud. He means every word of it.
Tayuya looks down at him like the sad, pathetic piece of trash she thinks he is. Chance deals him another fatal hand.
"So. You finally get it. For someone so smart, you sure took your time."
The silence rings out all around them. There is only the mountain and it's hushed noises.
He replays the words again in his mind. "…What?"
Tayuya leans all the way in now, the threat of his bomb tag neutralized. "That's exactly my point, Shikamaru. You can stop this any time you want. All you have to do is let your friend die and I'll let you stop running."
Leaning in, she does the unthinkable. She brushes his matted hair back from his face like she's trying to comfort him. He cringes at this show of false tenderness, more than he did at Ruya's death.
Her whisper is a soothing placation. "Save yourself the trouble of pretending you're willing die for this man."
Shikamaru remains motionless in the dirt. He doesn't want to listen to this. He doesn't want to acknowledge how weak he is in this moment.
"Attack me already." She urges sweetly. "Come and get your fair fight while you still have some Chakra left. All you have to do is let him die, and we can finish what we started all those years ago."
In a moment of weakness he will remember for the rest of his life…Shikamaru considers it. He hates himself, but his strategic mind considers it. Deep down, he knows that no one is coming to rescue him. He's always fought as part of a team, but this time he is on his own.
He hadn't even defeated Tayuya the last time they'd fought. Temari had swooped in at the last second, saving his sorry ass. What was he suppose to do now with no chakra and no hope?
Utsuho was already as good as dead, wasn't he? Did it really make sense to die on this mountain just for Utsuho's body to give out a week later? Maybe…he could still save himself. Sometimes you had to sacrifice your queen for a chance to win in the endgame.
"Before you go. I need you to know, my feelings for you are-"
In his head, he finds Sakura's words. Even here, all hope lost, he keeps finding reasons to stay alive. Why hadn't he let her say how she felt? Now he was probably going to die never knowing if he mattered to her. He should have let her finish her words instead of stupidly kissing her.
But…in Shikamaru's darkest moment, he finds her other words too.
"I'll either find a way, or I'll make one."
Time ticks on, and Tayuya waits. She grins. She knows she has finally broken him.
"...no."
She tilts her head, confused. "What?"
"I said...no."
Because no matter how the odds felt stacked against him, Utsuho wasn't a game tile. This wasn't a question of which one of them would live while the other died. This was a question of who he wanted to be before death came for him. What kind of man could he call himself if he saved his life at the expense of his Captain's?
Shikamaru was never going to be that man.
And he sure as shit wasn't going to let Utsuho die alone out here. Somewhere under Tayuya's spell, Utsuho was still in there, watching. If nothing else, he would die knowing Shikamaru fought for him, right up until the very end.
In an act of defiance that comes from somewhere deep inside him, Shikamaru spits at Tayuya's feet. She steps back, startled by his shift in energy.
"You'll never get me to betray my friend. You might as well just kill me now." He waits for Tayuya's blade to take him. He waits for her demons to carve him hollow.
But at the trembling in his voice, Tayuya sighs. "Shikamaru…I'm not just going to kill you. I don't want you to die."
And her voice is so unnaturally sincere. It's the kind of sincerity he'd expect from Asuma. From his mother. From Sakura.
He watches her bend over, pinching his bomb tag between her bandaged fists. She holds it up like she's trying to decide which of her toys she wants to use it on.
He is drained, mentally exhausted. He doesn't know why he asks, but he does. "Why not?"
"Because. I want you to Suffer."
...Oh.
So. That's how it's going to be then.
Okay.
Shikamaru thinks of how his family will grieve for him when they get the news he's not coming home. He thinks of the meadow behind his house where he'd played with Choji and Ino as kids. He thinks of Ruya's body lighting up before it obliterated into his face.
He thinks of a strongest girl he knows, and what she would do right now.
His memory flashes to Sakura, her head on his shoulder in the summit hall, trusting him to hold her when she felt weak. He thinks of the way she walked into that hall, cracking her neck like she was going to war. He thinks of the way she stared down Kakashi, telling him to be a better man.
He thinks of the promise he left her with before never setting eyes on her again.
Shikamaru can't die here.
He still has a promise to keep.
His heart goes cold. Colder than the mountain. Colder than the frostbite that licks his insides when Tayuya's demons consume his chakra.
With his last grains of energy, he grips his knuckle knife. He turns his face into the dirt so he can heave his broken body from the ground. He manages to get his knees under him, then his hands, then his feet. He rises up from the bloody earth, knowing he has no chance of winning. He picks his head up anyway.
He refuses to leave this world on his knees. If Tayuya wants him to suffer, he will do it standing up. He will bare his blade and gnash his teeth. He will fight his corner, and Utsuho's. If Tayuya says she wants his pain, he will make her take it from him the hard way.
Standing in the dying light of an indifferent world, Shikamaru watches his shadow disappear for good. He hates change. Against all odds, his heart changes now. He is a beautiful thing, and a different one.
"You don't want to kill me yet? That's fine. I'm not going to kill you either." He growls. "I'm going to shove you back into your fucking cage where you can curse me for the rest of your miserable life."
Tayuya smiles her yellow teeth.
"There you are." She say, appreciatively. The monster in her recognizes the monster in him. "So, you're finally ready to stop running."
Shikamaru imagines the girl he loves. He does what he's seen her do a hundred times. Knife in one hand and death in the other, he picks up his bloody fists, finally ready to swing for broke.
"Do your worst." He says, finding his rage.
Tayuya purses her lips and blows.
Overhead, the night sky explodes with molten stars.