Finding a Shadow
Finding a Shadow
“What in the hell were you trying to prove, Nara-san!” Team Asuma and Team Kakashi had recently returned from the battle against Kazuzu and Hidan. Shikamaru was taking advantage of the break given to them by the Godaime Hokage by sitting at his favourite spot and watching the clouds go by. The last person he expected to see right now was Temari.
He looked over at her and was confused. In all the years they had been friends, he had never seen her being as emotional as she was at this moment. Her rage was so strong there were tears forming in her eyes. “What do you mean Temari?”
“You know exactly what I mean! You went of to confront those two from the Akatsuki.” Temari had grabbed him by the vest and was tugging him off the bench. “Why didn’t you contact me, I would have helped you.”
Shikamaru tried to compose himself as best as he could, “There wasn’t time; the trip to Suna takes three days we would have lost our chance if we waited for you to come.”
Temari began to cry in earnest now and let Shikamaru go and threw her arms around his neck. “What if I had lost you?” Shikamaru didn’t know how to respond to this, they were very close friends but their relationship had never progressed beyond that stage. Slowly he lifted his arms up and returned her embrace.
“I’m sorry, Temari. I should have thought about you.” He kissed her lightly on her head and added, “Please don’t cry, I’m the one who’s supposed to do that.”
Temari lifted up her head to show him the smile he had always found to be her best feature. “Promise me one thing Shikamaru.” She paused and waited for him to agree, “If ever you are in danger on a mission leave a trail for me so I can find you, I will find you no matter where you are.” She leaned in and kissed him fiercely on the lips.
Ino couldn’t really figure out Temari’s plan, they seemed to be wandering aimlessly from town to town instead of doing a thorough search. At each town the same thing would happen Temari would tell Ino and Choji to use a fake name and have them go to one of the local hotels. After they had checked in she would join them in the room and wait for a few hours then suggest they move on to the next town. Finally at the fourth town she felt confident enough to question Temari. “What exactly are we doing, Temari, I don’t see how we will find Shikamaru like this?”
“These places are where Shikamaru and I stayed when we came here a year ago on a joint mission.” Temari explained, “We were travelling as a married couple using the various names that I have told you. I’m positive that Shikamaru would send a clue to where he would plan to hide if he needed to flee Kirigakure quickly. We just need to eliminate each place one at a time.”
Ino was impressed by this change in Temari, before they landed she seemed almost ready to fall apart but now she was close to her old self again, confident and focused. “It’s getting quite late now, Temari. Do we go on or should we spend the night here?”
Temari was about to answer when a soft knock was heard on the door. Temari motioned for Ino to answer while she readied her fan in case of emergency. It was the clerk from the desk. “Sabure-san?” I almost forgot a letter came from your brother a few days ago. I was to hold it until you arrived. It was busy earlier and it slipped my mind.”
“Thank you,” Ino said graciously and took the letter and looked at it. There was no doubt, it was Shikamaru’s handwriting, they had received the message they had been waiting for.
After Ino had closed the door Choji took the letter and opened it. He read it and looked confused, “Temari this is just nonsense I don’t understand it at all.”
Temari came over and looked at the letter and laughed, “It’s a children’s nonsense poem from Suna, and how he remembered it is beyond me. I think I sang it to him once when I was telling him what I could remember about my mother.”
“But what does it tell us about where Shikamaru is?” Ino asked.
“It doesn’t,” Temari replied, “At least not directly, but it’s a progressive code. We use it in Suna, he’s left this for me to find. These two characters are written in a slightly different style.” She pointed at the letter, “That’s the key. Using the key we get these kanji, write them down Ino.” She listed of a series of characters off.
Ino looked over what she had just written down, “hmmm, I hate to tell you this Temari, but this makes no sense either.”
Temari looked at the paper and studied the kanji Ino had written down. “I think He really enjoys showing how smart he is sometimes,” She said frustrated and taking the pen from Ino sat down on the bed and began to write various combinations down. She stopped writing and Ino noticed Temari blush, “When I get my hands on him.” she muttered crumpling up the paper. She looked up at Choji and Ino, “I know where he is now.”
“What did it say,” Choji asked, Ino noticed Temari face go a deeper shade of red.
“What it said isn’t important,” Temari said avoiding the question, “he is somewhere near a resort we stayed at, north of here. There was outdoor Hot Springs and because it was in the mountains snow even during summer. We explored around and found a few caves. That is probably the best place to start.” She collected her things and walked towards the door. “We should leave right away.”
The three Shinobi left the village quietly and headed north towards the resort. According to Temari it was almost on the northern coast of the island. They were moving cautiously to avoid any possible encounters with ninja who might have been following Shikamaru. After half a days travel Temari called a halt and suggested Ino use Shintenshin no jutsu to scout out the area before they continued on. As she had done before she chose a hawk as her target and began to fly around the mountains. As they had thought she spotted three teams of Shinobi, all of them were camped so Ino thought they had perhaps not found Shikamaru yet. She wanted to learn the situation so she approached the nearest group.
The team of four did not even seem to be actively searching the area but were having a brief discussion of the mission. “Isn’t it overkill to send us on this mission anyway, the other teams can handle it?”
One of the other ninja smiled revealing his sharp teeth; he was holding an enormous sword. “We just here to make sure the others don’t kill the little runaway. The Misokage wants him so he can reveal some secrets of Konoha.”
“So you think it is going to come to war then.” A third ninja asked.
“I don’t care, but there is just someone in Konoha I would really like to meet again.” The second ninja smiled even wider.
Ino had heard enough and released her mind from the hawk; she was back safe in Choji’s arms. “They haven’t found him yet. We are up against three teams the first one is quite powerful by their looks perhaps we should avoid them and go closer to one of the others. She detailed their positions and what she saw of there abilities to Choji and Temari.
“The team to the north is the best it’s closer to where he has headed and it sounds the easiest.” Temari decided, “We want to make this as quiet as possible. We may have a bit of a problem if all three teams converge on us before we find him.”
“I can feel his chakra now,” one of the Mist Ninja was saying,” He is in one of the caves over there near the hot springs, I can’t be sure of which one until we are closer.”
“Shall we inform the others then?” another shinobi asked their team leader.
“And let them get the credit with the Mizokage?” The leader responded. “He is only one konoha shinobi, if we can’t defeat him we have no right to call ourselves ninja.” He turned to the last member of their group who had been standing quietly by himself. “Kaishi, go up and scout the cliffs for us.”
Kaishi turned and brought up kunai in one hand and shurikin in the other and hurled them at his comrades, “I can’t stop myself! What is this?” he cried. As he spoke a giant jumped onto the ledge and smashed one of his friends busy dodging the weapons into the cliff face. The other two were caught in a gale and hurled of the cliff down the mountain side.
Ino appeared behind the man she had just performed Shinranshin no Jutsu on and smashed him with her fist as he tried to recover from his ordeal. Temari appeared ahead of her on the trail and Choji shrank back to normal size and joined them. “We don’t have much time. Ino go to the third cave on the right by the path, Shikamaru probably will have need of your Medical Ninjutsu. Choji and I will follow you slowly to guard against them.”
Ino hurried to the cave Temari had mentioned, “Shikamaru are you here, it’s Ino Choji and Temari are with me.” There was no answer so she hurried in her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. She could almost see a shape ahead of her and she bent down to find a nearly unconscious Shikamaru.
“Ino?” he whispered barely audible.
“Don’t try to talk; you’re almost out of Chakra I bet you have been pushing yourself. Hang on this will just take a minute I’ll give you a bit of mine. HyourouGan would be to dangerous right now for you, I think you have overdosed already.”
“Tell Temari…” Shikamaru began.
“Don’t you dare give up Nara!” Ino was almost in a rage I can heal you just lie still.” She concentrated with all her strength and let her chakra flow into Shikamaru’s body. He began to relax a bit and breathe easier.
“How is he?” It was Temari, she and Choji had caught up.
“Weak, he won’t be able to walk even if he regains consciousness.” Ino said.
“I’ll carry him.” Choji volunteered.
“Thanks Choji, but I’ll do it.” Temari said. “The traps we set near the entrance will be going off soon. We need your strength to help us get out of this cave through the back.”
“I’ll go with you Choji.” Ino said, the two ninja left towards the back of the cave together.
Temari sat down and took Shikamaru’s resting body in her hands, “You can’t get away from me that easily.” Tears began to fall again down her face and unto Shikamaru’s cheek. Very slowly and arm came up to brush the tears away and Temari looked into the weak but smiling face of Shikamaru.
“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”
Temari smiled and said, “Not often enough.” She hugged him tightly to her and then added, “Later I think you and I need to have a talk about appropriate messages to use in coded letters.”
It's still not great but if I don't post it soon I'll never move on.