"Still nothing, Sasuke?" The jinchuriki frowned towards his mate. Logically, he knew the Uchiha would tell him if he saw something, but the silence was hemorrhaging the worst of thoughts in his brain. For the first time since Sasuke's departure from the leaf, and since his joyous return, Naruto felt the pain of losing someone he loved. The blond hadn't realized his attachment to Sasuke when they were little. The brunette was one of his first, real bonds. He'd just wanted to be recognized by the boy who was his rival. When they had met again at Orochimaru's for the first time since he'd expressed as an Alpha, he just knew Sasuke belonged to him. Alpha pairings were rare, but Naruto knew the moment he'd seen him. Sasuke had admitted later to knowing as well, but his path for revenge had clouded any decent judgment until he realized how far Naruto was willing to go to love him.

With Shikamaru, it had been different, and Naruto remembered the man sitting on the rooftop with him after Jiraiya's death as a kindred spirit. Shikamaru knew how he felt, knew what it was like to lose one of his closest bonds and the silence was more comforting than the empty apologies anyone else had had. Later on, he would understand the task Asuma had left to Shikamaru as they saw Kurenai. The Nara had inherited his sensei's Will of Fire and it had been the same Will of Fire that burned in Naruto: The Future. As time went on, the genius continued to be a constant presence in his life, a landline, a rock.

Naruto wasn't too proud to admit that when Sasuke left on his path of redemption that he had clung to Shikamaru. They had never put a name to what they had, only that it was comfortable. Slow and lazy kisses that spent more time comforting and exploring was as far as they had ever gone. Naruto hadn't ever wanted to put a name to it. Shikamaru was comfortable. Shikamaru was home, but without scent to truly see how the genius felt, and knowing without a doubt that Sasuke would return, Naruto just let things be. When Sasuke did return, he found that the other Alpha had been happy that he had found someone who was comfortable, and then he too spent time with the Advisor and found the same thing. Shikamaru had wiggled his way into their dynamic with ease and without him now, there was a large gap that left Naruto feeling emptier than he had ever felt before.

"I don't see his chakra in the air, but that doesn't mean anything." The forest passed by in a whirl of green and brown beneath the two shinobi's feet. The Uchiha had often used the sharingan to track changes in chakra but the ones he saw now was nothing that a shinobi would have. A genin possessed more chakra than what he saw and he knew the team from Konoha would run into them soon if they hadn't found the trail yet and he knew Kakashi would send a good team to retrieve a jonin of Shikamaru's stature. One thing Sasuke did know though was that the Nara wouldn't have been taken down easily and whatever had happened, had to be bad.

"Wait! I see something," the brunette said a moment later and landed on the trail. It was more than one chakra signature, but before he could note the familiarity, several figures landed in front of them. Naruto and Sasuke both tensed momentarily until they recognized Tenzo, Sakura, Ino and Choji. Despite the relief the blond felt at seeing those closest to Him and his two most precious people, his smile lacked the joy it normally held.

"At least we know what the something is now." Sakura smiled at her mate before stepping forward. As soon as Ino had sensed their chakra signatures, the four-man squad had concealed themselves in the tree line. They had been relieved to see that it was Sasuke and Naruto instead of the cause of Shikamaru's disappearance. The two alphas were strong and even with their four-man squad, they had known they were outmatched.

Sakura wondered if they knew but judging from the concern she smelled from Naruto and Sasuke, she knew that they did. At one time, the Kunoichi had been jealous of their bond until she found her own in the Yamanaka. Ino was more than she felt she deserved most of the time and the best alpha she could have ever hoped for. The blond kunoichi didn't feel inferior because of her mate's talents and let Sakura bloom as she was meant to. What Sakura didn't understand was the relationship between Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru. Sasuke had been solely focused on his clan and she knew Naruto wanted his own children. A part of her had been concerned Shikamaru would risk himself just to make them happy if they made him feel wanted. As she scented their concern and worry, she knew her two former squad members cared for him in the way the Nara had only ever hoped.

"Now that we're all here, Pakkun has picked up Shikamaru's scent. Let's go," Tenzo ordered and the six-man retrieval squad and their tracking dog leapt into the trees to follow the trail. After a moment, they came to a tree that had a blackened hole and several limbs broken from its trunk.

"Explosive tag." Pakkun grunted and the group began to look for clues. After a moment, Choji had found a kunai embedded in a nearby tree that didn't belong to Shikamaru. "I can smell about six or seven on his trail."

"Considering the one kunai, it's safe to say they didn't want to kill him. The ground is flat here," Tenzo remarked. "He stopped to rest. Looks like he packed up before the group engaged." The ANBU didn't like this. It was planned and meant for the Hokage's Advisor. The fact that they had come at the man with so many assured their chances of taking him alive.

"I can smell at least four or five Jonin-level shinobi aside from Shikamaru. Maybe a couple of chunin."

"Was he trying to outrun them, Pakkun?" Ino spoke up.

"Judging by his movements…yea," the pug spoke up and the group was off again. The path through the trees changed direction several times before darting back. They had been herding the genius. Suddenly, Pakkun dropped to the ground and sniffed at a bush. "One of their Kunai landed. I smell his blood, but not enough to be a serious injury. I also smell smoke grenades," the pug continued before dropping down to a bush. "And then his scent disperses in different directions. My guess is he created two shadow clones. His followers must have been close enough to see it though as they too divided themselves up. If they had a tracker ninja, they would have followed the real Shikamaru."

"Which way is he?" Choji spoke up and the nindog frowned, nose pressed to the ground.

"Maybe I can help," Sasuke said, brushing his hair back behind his eye to reveal the Rinnegan. Sakura suppressed a shudder at the chrome looking eye, even as she frowned at Ino.

"Can you connect with him at all, Ino?" She asked instead while Sasuke worked.

"He's too far still," the blond shook her head with a frown. "I'll keep trying."

"Pakkun," the brunette spoke, commanding the attention of all. "Follow the scent to the right."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that. It seems two of their Jonin and one of their Chunin followed that way." The pug took off and the group followed once again. As she had done many times before, Sakura mentally checked over the supplies in her pack. Ahead, sunlight poured between the trees and as the group approached, they noticed the clearing was man-made.

The clearing was unnatural. Several trees had burned, been broken from their trunks, or uprooted entirely. "Earth user," Tenzo muttered, seeing how uneven the ground was. "A strong one at that." The ones that were broken or burned came from explosive tags, some of them definitely from Shikamaru as they knew his penchant for traps. A dark, wet spot against a trunk of the tree had Pakkun rushing over there.

"It's not his blood," the pug muttered after a moment. There was enough for someone to die and the group was relieved it wasn't Shikamaru's blood. They found one of Shikamaru's chakra blades that he had inherited from Asuma in the ground next to another pool of blood. "Not him either," Pakkun assured them as Choji picked up the blade and pocketed it. Even knowing the blood wasn't his didn't leave anyone feeling better. The Nara would have never left those blades behind and the group found a second one in the tree on the outskirts of the jutsu-made clearing. "But he does have a little blood here. It could be from the original

"Those other four joined up here," Sasuke spoke, sharingan flashing as he neared the blade. Both Naruto and Sasuke were oozing anger that covered their concern and Sakura might have felt bad for whoever had caught their attention if it hadn't been because of Shikamaru.

"He went down here," Pakkun kept going, not oblivious to the two alphas but eager to find the trail again. "More injuries. It smells like they dosed him with a…paralytic. His scent mixes with theirs after this. He was still alive. And I smell…" The pug trailed off and shook his head before speeding up once again.

"Orochimaru."