Mind (Jutsu) Games

Chapter 15 - Shocks and Shadows



Shikamaru stood there in shock; even though his mouth continued to exchange witty banter, it was on autopilot, a skill he had perfected through the years as a necessary way of putting up with - of all people - Ino.



Ino.



Even as he spewed forth verbal garbage, all his faculties were focused on just one thing. He had slept with Ino. With her body, at any rate, but not with her mind, which was tantamount to rape. He could never apologize enough for what he had done.



What did I do? he asked himself recriminatingly. And why?



The answer was simple enough. He had thought that his teammate was missing - possibly incapacitated - and had played along with the plans of the enemy in an attempt to lure them into complaisance, to show him what he needed to free Ino. The gamble of sex had been merely that - a risk. He had thought to frighten whomever they had sent into making a mistake, like loosing concentration of her henge no jutsu. Instead, the blunder was all his.



He had made love - delicious, wildly passionate love - to his teammate without her permission. She would never forgive him - she might even try to kill him - and he couldn't blame her. Not one bit.



All this and more raced through his mind in a matter of moments as he tried not to look at his teammate while she stood chained to the wall wearing nothing but a negligee. If they hadn't been testing his willpower before, they certainly were now. She looked completely ravishing, ravished - no, ravishable - in that slip of blue satin and lace, and he could already feel himself becoming aroused.



Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of movement to his left half-a-moment before a wind jutsu blew out the torch above Ino's head. Finally, he thought with relief, the cavalry's here.



It had taken well over an hour of pacing around the village attempting to look like a boy concealing fear and rage under a thing veneer of calm, even though he was awash with pre-battle excitement, before Asuma-sensei had called out to him. While not necessarily Shikamaru's first choice of people to receive a coded message, he was running out of time.



The Nara Clan's up and coming prodigy would have preferred to hand that slip of paper off to Shiho, his friend and occasional partner analyst in the Cryptography Unit, but by the time he was awake and moving, she would have been safely ensconced in her office at headquarters, surrounded by dusty files and even dustier books. She could have cracked his meager attempt at obfuscation in mere moments and, even if she didn't particularly care for Ino, the four-eyed genius had a bit of a crush on him. He pretended not to notice, to spare her the pain of inevitable rejection, but he knew she would never let him face a situation like this alone.



The clock was ticking, however, and he didn't dare take the risk of going into headquarters. He knew they were watching him, and that would set off all kinds of warning bells, possibly even getting Ino killed. So he took the risk and prayed that his former instructor would get help from someone a little more versed in decoding.



Now, however, none of that seemed to matter. Asuma had somehow cracked the code and was here, hopefully with help.



As darkness engulfed the room, Shikamaru did the one thing he knew his enemies would never guess - he stood still. Listening with ears that seemed to ache from the strain, he heard someone - Kurenai perhaps? - reassuring Ino amidst a series of quiet gratings. This was followed by a near-deafening, at least for him, click that rang out above the sounds of clashing kunai and shuffling feet. Their captive was free; now it was time to make them pay.



A satisfyingly meaty thunk came from his fist as it connected with his nearest foe, but the man was gone in the blink of an eye, not that having his eyes closed really made any difference this deep in the cave.



His ears and his abundant brain power more than made up for the handicap, however. Before most people would consciously be able to process the sound to his right as being near enough to strike, he already had his target in a head lock and was pummeling the stuffing out of him. The body he held suddenly exploded in a splash, leaving him soaking wet, his hands filled with nothing but water.



Even the wet chill of his clothing was nothing compared to the icy shiver that ran down his spine as the cold steel of a kunai kissed his throat.



"Stop now, or the boy gets it."



At the sound of her voice, the fighting immediately ceased. Cursing himself in every language he knew, Shikamaru forced himself to concentrate. The female was standing behind him, her blade against the bare skin just above his vest's collar. He had no clue as to the location of the other enemy ninja, but he felt safe in assuming that none of them would be staying in that cave for long.



Sure enough, he felt her tighten her grip at the small of his back. "If anyone gets between us and our exit, genius-boy will be leaving Konoha. Permanently."



Out of the surrounding darkness came the question, "And what assurance do we have of his return, should we stand down?" Maito Gai's voice was almost unrecognizable without his characteristic, enthusiastic cheer.



"I guess you'll just have to trust me," she replied, not assuaging anyone's fears in the least. With a shove, she forced her human shield along. His compliance barely merited the term.



As they passed by the near-silent figures in the dark, she purred in his ear. "Come on now, Shika-kun; don't be so hard on yourself. It's not your fault you were outclassed."



Something in her words - whether it was her intonation, the feeling, or the words themselves, he could never say afterwards - struck a chord within him. "You!"



"Me," her wicked smile was evident in her voice. When he stubbornly refused to take another step, she let the edge of her blade taste the sweetness that was his blood. Still, he did not respond. "You'd better start walking, Mr. Smarty-pants, or I might start thinking you don't want me around. And that would just be mean, especially given how... close we've become."



The obvious innuendo shamed him to no end, but he forced himself to swallow it down. They'd all know sooner or later anyway. The linguistic patterns were a match; this was the woman he had slept with, even if she had been using Ino's body at the time. And she had him right where he wanted her. Damn.



Another prod in the back from her bony fist started him moving again toward the cave's mouth. As they neared the entrance, the light of day seemed blinding after so long in pitch-black darkness. The sun's rays shone through the trees, casting dancing shadows on the ground which caught Shikamaru’s gaze. It struck him how like life those shadows really were.



We're all leaves blowing in the wind. Eventually we fall off and die, letting new leaves take our place. Most of the time, we don't even see the other leaves themselves, just the shadows they cast on the ground.



He found it particularly ironic that he, the Shadow Master, should come up with that analogy, but something about it kept tugging at the back of his brain. All of a sudden he felt like the moron he kept accusing Naruto of being.



Making sure to keep his pace steady and avoid arousing suspicion, he slowly formed the required seals, channeling his chakra into the desired jutsu. Then, waiting until the last possible moment, he finally tightened down the darkly translucent hands that had his captor in their grip.



Though he slid as swiftly as he could from her grasp, her fist jerked too quickly for him to avoid, slicing his throat far more deeply than the tiny scratch she'd given him earlier.



One of the hands slid around her throat as he reinforced the technique, cutting off blood flow to her brain. It was a race against time to see who would pass out first.



Seconds passed like hours as they waited until finally her eyes began to loose focus. Never one to let another have the last word, she smirked and murmured breathily, "Kinky," before slumping in the grip of his jutsu.



Shikamaru wasn't far behind her as he reeled to his knees, dizzy and foggy-brained. Still, he didn't trust her to actually be unconscious until the others arrived, taking his prisoner and tying her up.



****-****



Kakashi finished securing the woman, trying to force his anger down. A part of him - granted, it was only a tiny portion, but still - had been tempted to call her bluff as she'd held Shikamaru hostage. Even if she had been serious, the "genius" should have been able to defend himself. And should he prove to be incapable, then that was his own fault.



Such thoughts, he knew, were not only unfair, but were only the emotional by-product of his own reactions to the situation. Finally the copy ninja managed to shove his rage back into the hole from whence it came and turned to check on the boy.



He didn't look too good, but part of that was probably the shock of discovering what he had done to his best friend. Kakashi couldn't help wondering if the boy had even suspected anything at all. He wanted to give the newly elevated chuunin the benefit of a doubt, but he wasn't sure which way that benefit should go. Either the kid hadn't noticed the plethora of signs and signals that even Kakashi - who barely knew the girl - had picked up on, he'd ignored them in favor of personal gratification, or he had bitten off far more than he could possibly chew and didn't ask for help. Any way he sliced it, Nara Shikamaru was in deep shit.



Kakashi's musings were interrupted rather abruptly as the target of his thoughts slumped over in a dead faint. It was only then that the Master of 1,000 jutsus, rumored to be the most observant ninja in the village, noticed the red stain spreading across the collar of Shikamaru’s vest. Sticky crimson liquid splashed to the stone, pudling about his prone form. Within seconds, Team 7's teacher had found and assessed the wound; it was deeper than he'd like. Shikamaru might live, provided they got him to the hospital immediately.



Gai and Asuma were off in the woods, tracking down the other enemy ninjas who had made a break for it while their partner had Konoha's contingent distracted. So he briefed Kurenai even as he gathered and formed his chakra for the transportation jutsu.



"Neck wound," he informed her callously. "I'll take him in. You stay in case there are more of them in there."



Looking at him like he'd just proposed leaping off a cliff, she reached out as if to stop him. "Kakashi, even you can't pull this one off. You'll never make it to the hospital with a jutsu, and he can't wait long enough for you to run there. You try, and you're going to drain your chakra completely."



It was true, and Kakashi knew it. Taking just himself all the way across town was hard enough, sucking his chakra reserves dangerously low, and now he had another person to move as well. This was going to use up every ounce of chakra he had, but it was necessary and - hopefully - worth it.



"If that happens, put some lilies on my grave," he replied with a smile, not giving her a chance to respond.



The genjutsu specialist shook her head as Kakashi poofed out of existence, and then ordered Shino to stand guard at the caves. Most likely, their enemies had slipped out in the dark, but there was always a chance they had done what she would do, which was lay low until the hunt died down and only then try to run.



Moving off the help the rest of the pursuers, she kept a mantra - almost a prayer - going through her head. Let us catch them. And let the kids be alright.







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Okay, so I suck at writing fight scenes, but I hope you guys don't find this one to be too awful. Sorry for the long wait, and thank you for your patience. Personal update will be included in the next chapter (all the more incentive for me to post soon).

Have a great day and good reading!



Crimson Iris