Shikamaru's observation of these two, revealed several key things. For one, the one named Hidan was perhaps the biggest moron that Shikamaru had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He was loud, boastful and very arrogant. He believed himself to be immortal but the raven-haired man knew he could at least be captured. Secondly, Kakuzu, while irritated by his own partner's stupidity, was fueled by greed. Greed that had blinded him already by giving him something worth more than Asuma: A Jinchuriki's soulmate. Another thing Shikamaru knew, they were two far away to read his wrist with the small cursive and when the two akatsuki took a step towards him, Shikamaru smirked.

And the last thing Shikamaru knew he had going for him: They didn't know who the fuck he was.

Revealing himself would have been his dumbest move ever, but the Nara had a plan, and it started with a quick henge to make his mark invisible. As much as he seemed desperate to save Asuma and his team, he wasn't willing to sell out Naruto either. The two turned towards him and took a step. As fast as the two could move, Shikamaru knew he needed to be faster. Brown eyes flicked to Izumo and Kotetsu who were intelligent enough to pick up on his unsaid words. Get out of here. Their departure broke Hidan and Kakazu's gaze on him momentarily, allowing one hand to shift into his pack to quickly pull out another tagged could feel the quick burst of chakra and turned one kunai facing downwards and the other towards the two akatsuki before throwing one at his feet and the other at his enemies.

"TOO LATE!" He yelled as the explosions, rocking into his chest, robbed him of the breath he needed even as it sent him flying backwards. Shikamaru could feel his chakra wane as he drained more to get away. Kakuzu emerged first through the smoke, his skin far darker than it had been before it lightened up again. Earth jutsu, the Nara's brain supplied automatically. It hardened his body to be near impenetrable. An immortal and a man with body armor. Shikamaru knew he was in over his head as Kakuzu shoved his fist into the brunette's stomach as shadows weaved around them, wrapping around the masked man.

The shadow strangulation was not enough to completely stop the blow, not with as little chakra as the genius had, but it kept that hardened fist from plowing a hole through his body. Shikamaru held on tightly even as the world tilted on its side, even as he threatened to lose his lunch, even as Hidan stepped closer. Suddenly, crows flocked through the air, converging on Hidan. The genius hadn't planned for it, but it was better than any plan he had. He had back up. Asuma would make it to the hospital.

A light brush on his shoulder had him dropping his jutsu and rolling just as Raido came uncloaked out of the crows with a black sword. That was all Shikamaru saw as he hit the ground hard and explosions erupted around them, filling the area with smoke. Large arms hoisted him back to his feet even as nausea threatened to make him lose whatever his stomach held, but the arms were familiar and a relief.

"Choji," he breathed happily when the woods surrounded them once again. The world spun as they leapt through the trees and Shikamaru decided it was a good time to nap.

—xOx—

"After eating all of that food, you should rest, I'll explain everything then." Kakashi smiled at Naruto even though the blond began complaining. After promises and sweet talking Yamato into paying for ramen, the three of them left towards the training grounds. A flurry of activity behind them had them moving out of the way just as several shinobi rushed past. Most of them wore the standard leaf shinobi uniform and yet, Naruto's eyes were immediately drawn to dark hair pulled up into a high ponytail and the body it was attached to that Choji was carrying on his back. A quick glance to the right showed Asuma-sensei being carried by a man Naruto recognized as Raido. Judging by the grim expressions on Ino and Choji, it wasn't good and Naruto found himself racing after them, much to Yamato and Kakashi's objections. Kakashi fell into step alongside Yamato and watched as Izumo, Kotetsu and Aoba changed direction to head towards the Hokage Tower.

"Ino, Choji, what happened?" The blond crashed into the waiting room as Shikamaru and Asuma were rushed down the hall.

"Akatsuki, that's all we know." It was Choji that spoke, hand on Ino's shoulder to keep her from following after their two teammates. "They went to aid the Fire Temple, but they didn't know it was the Akatsuki that attacked. We followed after them, if we hadn't gotten there…" Choji trailed off and shut his eyes tight against the memory.

Shikamaru's eyes rolled back in his head and nearly sent the two of them to the ground when he pulled Choji off balance.

"Ino!" Choji yelled, once they reached the clearing where she was pouring healing chakra into their Sensei. The blond kunoichi quickly moved to the man they had grown up with, glowing hands hovering over him. As she concentrated, her gaze grew more somber.

"Chakra depletion. He's going to be okay," she stood before her eyes flickered to his bare wrist.

"Choji…"

"Why are you here, Naruto?" The Akimichi's dark eyes roamed over his teammate's soulmate warily. Choji knew Shikamaru had always been fond of the blond ninja, even as a child. The three of them had gotten into trouble more times than they could count during Iruka-Sensei's class and it seemed Naruto had always been the one motivator to the otherwise lazy Nara. The pained smiles that Shikamaru now wore when he saw Naruto made sense. Naruto, for all of his sunshine personality, had made it clear he believed Sasuke to be his soulmate and of course Shikamaru found it too troublesome to counter that.

"You should go and get back to training. Aren't you training to bring your soulmate back?' Ino interjected, when Naruto didn't answer.

Was that why he was training? He was training to get Sasuke back, yes. He had to be tougher, stronger, and able to endure more than ever before, and yet… His eyes trailed down the hallways through closed doors where he knew Shikamaru was. Instead of returning to training like Ino told him to, Naruto found himself taking a seat to wait patiently, much to Choji and Ino's surprise.

"He's always there for me," the blond shrugged and looked at his hands. "I want to be there for him." He could feel the rest of Team 10's eyes on him but his own remained on the door.

"He exhausted his chakra network," Ino finally said. "Asuma-Sensei was the one hurt. He suffered several burns and a puncture wound in his leg, but Shikamaru just needs rest."

—xOx—

It was several hours before Kakashi and Yamato followed Tsunade out of her office and followed her to the hospital. Hearing that Shikamaru had faked being Naruto's soulmate, even for a second had shaken the Hokage to her core. She was angry, which wasn't anything new these days, so when the small party stormed into Shikamaru's room, it wasn't a surprise to see the man pale even more in sight of her anger.

"Hokage-sama," he greets respectfully.

"Don't you Hokage-Sama me, brat! Did you really tell them Naruto was your soulmate?!" In hindsight, Shikamaru knew how it looked, but he also knew that the decision he made saved his team. However, before he could say any of that, the door was thrown open to show his team and…

"Naruto?"

The blond looked somewhere between confused, concerned and amused. Finally, Naruto settled somewhere on concern. "You pretended to be my soulmate Shikamaru? Why?"