Chapter 44 Level up.

Shikamaru was convinced, all women were evil. As his body crashed to the ground again, he felt an odd hatred for trees that once gave him shade. This unpleasant hatred for his beloved shade bringer was the fault of the woman glaring down at him from its branches.

His love for sakura trees was burning away in the wake of his hatred for her. Sakura Haruno was appropriately named. With her pink hair and emerald eyes, she was the embodiment of spring. Shikamaru was starting to hate spring.

"I hope you're not trying to take a nap?"

Shikamaru's eyes focused on the object of his hatred. He didn't even care that he didn't see her come down from the tree. He just wanted to sleep, if only a little bit. As his eyes threaten to close, a huge blade swung down.

He moved by instinct, dodging the blade to find Zabuza standing over him. The swordsman faded like a mirage when their eyes met. Shikamaru gritted his teeth as Sakura walked through the fading illusion and looked at him disappointed.

It's been three days since she started to "train" him. He protested for her sake, but she blew him off and all but abducted him. Asuma, his sensei's parting words were to return stronger than ever.

"You're smart," she told him. "But you're useless if you die while thinking. No one is going to stand by and wait for you to come up with a plan."

"So what?" he asked. "You gonna make me stronger or something."

"This level of strength is impossible for you," she said, punching a boulder turning it into rubble. "You're too lazy, and we don't have the time. Instead, we'll focus on your strengths."

From that moment onwards, he'd was running from an illusion of Zabuza. Unfortunately, it was a hit or miss if the illusion could actually hurt him. One moment the blade went through him when he was caught unaware, but when he attacked, he was hit. Hard. Since then, he assumed the illusion was always solid and kept running.

Shikamaru glared at the Kunoichi that caused him nothing but misery.

"You made it halfway up," she said, looking at the stupid tree she expected him to climb. The tree climbing technique was hard enough as it was without him having to worry about dying to an illusion.

"How is this suppose to make me stronger?" he asked, leaning back against the tree. Since they were talking, she wouldn't attack him, right? The answer was yes, yes she would. Once again, his shade bringers turned into enemies, as veins suddenly wrapped around him. He didn't know why he was even surprised, she seemed hellbent on not making him relax. He frowned as the thought surfaced. If he doesn't move for a long time, he gets attacked by the illusion. Was that it?

"You need to remain focused if you want to get the technique down," she said the obvious.

"How can I focus when I don't know when an enemy will attack me!?"

She smiled at him, walking backward, disappearing in a gust of sakura petals. He was still stuck to the tree.

His mission was simple; "Make it to the top of the tree before sunset, and we don't need to do it tomorrow." The catch was the ghost Zabuza trying to kill him. Shikamaruto glared at the tree that had to be the tallest in the area. His progress scarred it the higher he climbed.

Stopping to think gets him attacked. He can't come up with a strategy if he's constantly under fire. He thought of a way up the tree the night of the first day, but the challenge was different each day. The sun hung dangerously over the horizon. The third day was almost over.

"Halfway," he muttered, his eyes burning with determination. Zabuza's blade cut him free of his binds, "Fifteen seconds." He could only stay still for fifteen seconds. Armed with the new information he ran towards the tree.

With a battle cry, he began to walk up its surface.

Shurikens flew towards him and he blocked them with his kunai, not stopping. Logs tied to a rope swung in his path, and he walked on them instead. He stuck to each log, crouching to keep his balance and not fall off again, and leaped to the other once they passed close by each other.

He was at the halfway point where his last obstacle reappeared.

Fireballs flew horizontally by the tree and back again. Shikamaru thought them illusions and climbed while ignoring them. His fall was disgraceful. This time, however, he wouldn't be fooled.

He timed their movement, being careful not to stay still for too long, and ran further up the tree.

It spiked this time. Spikes rose from the tree trunk, causing him to lose his grip and fall back.

"I'm not going through this again!" his mind screamed, and he stabbed the kunai into the tree, slowing his descent. A fireball flew by overhead and one below; he hadn't fallen far. He sighed before running back up the tree before 15 seconds were up. He made it to the spikes and ran around them. Treating the tree like he would he ground, he moved around the obstacles.

The top loomed ahead, and he readied his kunai for whatever trick she would throw at him. She didn't disappoint. Zabuza appeared, swinging his sword down.

Shikamaru ran right through him. He felt stupid for not realizing earlier; the illusion had no shadow.

Shikamaru panted as he stood on the top of the tree. The sunset had never looked more beautiful. He made it. It was finally over, Shikamaru couldn't wait to sleep.

"Great job!" Sakura cheered from a tree across from him. "Shall we move to the next level?"

Before he could speak, the ground shook violently. He grabbed onto the tree to stop his fall, and he looked down in horror. The grassy ground fell away, leaving only the trees. He looked away from the surreal scene, feeling a bit dizzy.

That's when he noticed. The horizon wasn't as high as he was before. In fact, his perspective was completely off. He looked down again, and understood.

The surrounding trees went skywards along with him. The ground didn't fall, but he rose a great distance above the ground. If he fell, he was dead. The tree he previously glared at became his beacon as he hugged it for dear life.

"This is the lava level," Sakura said, floating, yes floating by him. "Or better yet, the "There is no ground so don't fall, level." She smiled at him. "The goal is simple, don't fall."

It seemed simple enough until the tree he held on to began to shake. His instinct told him to run and he leap to another tree. Not a moment later, the tree he held on to fell to the ground. He watched with dread as the tree he trusted once again betrayed him.

Sakura simply continued to float around him as though nothing was wrong. Thinking back, all she said was to make it to the top regarding the last, "level" too. She didn't even mention the fact that it was time-sensitive.

The tree he held began to shake, and he leaped to another.

At least this one gives me more time to think

Or so he thought. Five trees later and he realized he was making a gap between the trees. Frowning, he quickly calculated a path. The trees formed a circle, and he effectively made a hole in the middle. In order to stay here longer, he needed to utilize all the trees. He looked to the edge of the trees and channelled chakra to his feet.

He leaped from his current tree as it began to tremble and barely grabbed onto a new branch. He sighed in relief when suddenly.

Whoosh!

He moved his head to avoid the kunai that can from nowhere. Even as he did, a barrage of weapons flew towards him. Quickly, he hid on the other side of the tree, using it as a shield.

Was this like the previous task!?

The answer was naturally yes.

He had no choice but to use he tries to evade the attacks, used to using the trees this way in the village. With how fast he was moving, the trees fell faster than he planned. It was when the tress suddenly started to explode, that he realized.

As the trees fall, the traps change like it was climbing the tree; it was the same here.

It was while leaping off a tagged tree that he received a fireball to the face. He should have expected it, but he didn't see it coming.

He knocked into a tree and channelled chakra to his hand to hold on to it. He breathed heavily as his heart raced; he really thought he was going to die. The shaking tree brought him back to reality. Leaping away be he could fall to his doom, Shikamaru had to think quickly.

The goal was not to fall, but that was impossible because all the trees would fall eventually, so there must be a catch.

He leaped off the falling tree as a fireball crashed into it. The ray of the sun blinded him momentarily, and he almost missed the branch. He glared at the sun as sunk deeper behind the horizon.

"Sunsets last langer the higher up you are, huh?" he muttered. On the ground, the sun had already set, but in the sky, he could watch it for longer. Before, if he didn't reach his objective before the sunset, he had to do it again.

"Could it be?"

He leaped from the tree as it shook, and a fireball attacked.

"Don't fall," was Sakura's order, but she was known to leave out important information.

"Don't fall before the sun sets!" he concluded. Before, it was "reach the top before the subsets," so this made sense. Finally figuring out the complete task, Shikamaru set about planning.

Taking out a kunai and wire, Shikamaru threw them to form a small web of wire between three trees and started to count. Each tree took 15 seconds to fall, since he stood on the wire between them, he wondered if that would remain.

Fireballs flew at him in random intervals, but he dodged them instead of running away. The trees around him shook and plummeted to the ground after half a minute had passed. The times of decent were different but not in the way he expected. He thought the time would be divided evenly among the trees, giving him 45 seconds, but it was less than that.

Why was that?

If he could figure out how the jutsu making them float worked, he could use it to his advantage. When the trees are touched, even lightly, they fall after a time. But he couldn't stay still because of the content attacks.

Shikamaru kicked off a tagged tree that exploded behind him. It really was a pain. Having unstable footing is one thing, but having to dodge attacked on said unstable footing was annoying. He couldn't think like this.

"No one's going to stand by and wait for you to come up with a plan." He remembered her saying. He'd already figured out she wanted him to think faster, but everyone has a problem thinking when constantly dodging.

"Ah!" he gasped as he landed on a tree branch, his eyes wide.

Up to this point, he was only dodging. No rule said he had to dodge and run away from the attacks. Since there was no attacker, he thought…

But there was an attacker. The person that put him in this situation to begin with. His dark eyes found Sakura, who floated nearby, spectating.

Their eyes met, and he threw a kunai at her as he leaped from the falling tree. She flew away from his kunai and yelp as it exploded.

"Where are you aiming?" she huffed, only flying away as more kunai flew towards her, this time with wires attached.

"Are you attacking me?" she asked, baffled.

"You gave me an impossible task," he told her as he ran along the wires. "There's no way to not fall!" he leaped into the air and threw a barrage of shuriken at her. Her summons surrounded her, shielding her. Sakura clicked her tongue when she found herself wrapped in wires. As he ran atop the wire to her, he formed the rat seal.

Panicked Sakura disappeared in a scattering of cherry blossoms. Without its hostage, the wires fell, forcing Shikamaru to land on a tree branch. He looked around for her; there was no way she ran away.

"You hated the game, so you attacked the game master, huh?" Shikamaru turned around to find Sakura floating upside down. "Talk about breaking the fourth wall."

He couldn't beat Sakura under normal circumstances, and he definitely couldn't beat her now. That being the case, he was tired. She had him climbing a tree all day; he was sick of it! He griped a kunai as he charged towards her.

Channelling chakra to his feet, he launched into the air. He reached Sakura's level and threw his blade. Sakura caught it and threw it back. He couldn't dodge in mid-air and caught hit before turning into a log with the poof of smoke. Shikamaru's appeared above her, dropping down with his weapon aiming for her.

It was Sakura's turn to be on the defensive. Sakura couldn't touch him, and from what he saw, neither could her summons.

This was payback.

She flew through the trees like a fish in water forcing him to chase her. It wasn't wise to waste chakra like this, so he came up with a plan to trap her. Taking out kunais and threw them seemingly randomly and formed a web of wire string and paper booms.

He wasn't stupidly skilled at this like Sasuke, but he could calculate where his hits would land. Sakura looked around, finding herself successfully surrounded by wire and paper bombs. She muttered something about bat woman and smiled at him.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Now you fall," he stated. The trees anchoring her web cage began to tremble. His smile was anything but nice. She would either fall or get blown up; either worked for him. He leaped to a tree not a part of the trap and watched with satisfaction as the trees fell.

As the trees fell to the ground and exploded, Shikamaru sighed in relief. The sky was turning purple, the sun nowhere in sight. It was over.

"I never imagined I would be watching the sunset with you."

Shikamaru could only sigh as Sakura suddenly appeared beside him, careful not to sit too close.

"Is it over?" he groaned.

"It is," She nodded, gazing off on the horizon. "What did you learn?"

"That I hate you and everything you stand for," he spoke honestly. "Cherry blossoms are now my most hated trees."

"I thought it was pine."

"Why would it be pine?"

"They don't provide much shade," she said matter-of-factly. Shikamaru thought of the pine trees he'd seen and frowned. A forest of pine trees did prove good shade, but he supposes alone they didn't.

"No, I still hate sakura trees more."

She nodded.

"So, what was it you wanted to show me?" she didn't explain what she was expecting from him.

"I wanted you to think fast under pressure. No one waits for you to think up a plan; being able to think racially while dodging shurikens is a valuable skill. Of course, what you did at the end was unexpected but not bad."

He looked at her sceptically.

"Never play by the enemy's rules. If they create a playing field, make it your own. And if you can't win with the rules they put in place," he looked at him with an odd smile. "Attack the rule maker, and break free."

The wind blew through her hair towards him and once again he saw Yosei. The smell of cherry blossoms assaulted him and Shikamaru decided he hated the smell of cherry blossoms.

"How troublesome."

Shikamaru's conversion – cough cough, I mean "Training," has begun.

Next chapter,

November 9

Happy Halloween when it comes.

Night song~