By the time we set up camp, we were already back in River Country, though further north than we had been previously. We'd considered travelling longer and setting up camp late, but there was no denying that we were all tired. We could use the rest.
I fell asleep to the sound of crackling fire, and woke hours later when my body told me it was time for shift change, even if no one had roused me.
"Eh?" Naruto whispered loudly as I sat up. "What's wrong?"
"It's my turn," I said, also whispering. Nighttime had that effect. "Isn't it?"
Naruto shook his head. "Nuh-uh. You got hurt so you don't have to keep watch tonight. We decided."
I sighed and hooked my arms over my bent knees. I should have seen that one coming. "Are you sure? You used the Kyuubi's chakra and I know that makes you tired…"
Naruto hesitated. "Nah. It's fine."
I hummed, saying nothing.
"I wasn't going to say anything," he said in a rush. "Because you were hurt so it doesn't seem fair. But when… when you were…" He struggled with the words.
"When I was," I agreed. We didn't have to specify.
"Yeah. I was really angry. And… I guess I used a lot of its chakra. Even more than I used the last time against that bone freak." He made a face. "But you started to glow, do you remember?"
I didn't, but I guess that was a given. I'd seen light, so it wasn't much of a stretch to think everyone else had too.
"You started to glow, and there was all this light everywhere. And it kinda… went inside me and made me feel all warm. And the Kyuubi got really quiet and all its chakra just went away. I was inside my head – inside the seal, I guess – and I saw it. The light. And the Kyuubi. Normally I don't see it," he clarified. "Even if I talk to it in the seal. It's hidden in the dark and only teeth and anger. But this time I saw him." He looked pensive.
I couldn't think of what to say to that. "Ah."
"He does kinda look like a fox."
I cracked a smile. "I guess that's where the name comes from, then."
Naruto grinned back, eyes squinting into tiny crescents. "Kurama. That's his name, I mean."
"Kurama," I repeated, wondering vaguely if Naruto had any idea… But of course he couldn't. I'd encouraged him to this end, had asked about the Kyuubi's name back when he'd first 'revealed' he was the Jinchuriki. I just… hadn't expected it to happen so fast.
Not that simply learning his name meant that they would work together. But it was the first step along a road that Naruto wasn't meant to take for years yet.
I hoped…
"That's… wow." I was super eloquent, clearly. I tried to marshal some kind of train of thought.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. Then he laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "But you should go back to sleep! I'll keep watch, no problem!"
"Right," I agreed. "I just have to-" I waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the trees, and slid out of my sleeping bag. "I'll be right back."
I wrapped his jacket around myself and ducked out of the campsite. I didn't go far, just enough to have a bit of privacy to go toilet, but I didn't head back immediately afterwards.
Because I still couldn't feel my chakra.
By now it should have started to return, even if only just slightly. The fact that I wasn't showing any of the symptoms of chakra exhaustion only made it stranger. I just didn't have any.
I touched the spot on my chest anxiously, but it was healed. It hadn't come undone.
Then I reached for my chakra, the same way I had done a million times.
Beneath my hand, my flesh turned malleable, losing solidity and slithering in a way unnatural. I gasped, but no sound was made, no air rushed around, because I no longer had lungs with which to draw breath. My entire torso was transformed, blackly shifting shadows instead of flesh. It crept down my arms and legs, marched up my neck towards my face.
I jerked backwards, trying to get away from myself.
Stop! Stop!
I panicked, trying to claw at it. But my fingers went through the shadow with only the barest sense of pressure, grabbing nothing. I tried to press it down, suppress it with my chakra, but I couldn't. I didn't have chakra. This was my chakra. The more I pulled, the stronger it was, the faster the transformation happened.
I was struggling, and that only made me pull harder, a reflex action, grasping at my chakra to strengthen myself against whatever enemy I was fighting.
Stop!
It was cold, crawling over me, out of me. It was shadow. It was darkness. It was the void.
Colour dropped away as the transformation completed. Sound dropped away. Everything was less vibrant, less real. The darkness of night became less threatening, my eyesight piercing it cleanly and completely. I had become it. I could twist and float away, nothing more than one shadow among many.
But… I was still me.
I waited, calming by the moment as nothing more happened. My mental grip on my chakra relaxed, letting it ebb back down to resting state.
I let it go.
The world snapped back into place. My body was flesh and blood once more. I gasped for breath. And then I started to cough, great hacking heaves that burnt my throat.
Don't do that. Don't do that again. That had been… I didn't know what that had been. It wasn't a technique. I hadn't done anything. But it was a transformation, like the Gelel warriors had transformed. It was clearly linked.
Maybe it was a fluke, I thought desperately, trying not to contemplate the scope of it. If it was caused by the Gelel, if it was permanent… then how would I be a ninja without chakra?
No. That was getting ahead of myself. I leant against one of the trees and just focused on breathing. I'd feel better when I wasn't hacking up a lung, and closing in on hyperventilation.
"Shikako-chan?" I heard Naruto call uncertainly. "Are you okay?"
I swallowed another cough. "Fine," I rasped back, starting to move. "Just swallowed wrong."
Shikamaru was awake when I got back, and I murmured an apology for waking him before slipping back into my sleeping bag.
Sleep was a long time coming.
.
.
We got back to Konoha three days later, skipping the outposts and making a beeline for the village proper. It was slow going because I couldn't chakra enhance and simply couldn't keep up a standard ninja pace.
That said, we didn't run into any complications, so there was a small bright side to it.
"You're instructed to report to the Hokage's Office immediately," the gate guard said, as we signed in.
"We have a team member in need of medical treatment first," Shikamaru said, hands stuffed into his pockets, and slouching.
The Chunin's eyes flickered over all of us, but he seemed willing to let that go.
Then another ninja appeared out of the crowd to 'escort' us to the Tower, and things started to go downhill. Common sense – and regulations – said that injured shinobi should be treated at the hospital before reporting, especially if said injuries were serious. If it was really bad and urgent at the same time, debriefing could be done at the hospital.
Except this guy was unmoving about the fact that we needed to report right now, immediately, ASAP.
And Shikamaru wasn't happy with that. He hadn't been happy all the way home, and it had just simmered under the surface. Someone was about to find out what happened when you really pushed a Nara into nastiness. You really didn't want a genius brain one hundred percent focused on making you just as unhappy.
"We can report in first," I said, nudging Shikamaru's shoulder. "Another hour isn't going to make that much of a difference."
He scowled.
"Besides," I said. "Tsunade-sama is a medic. We'd probably have to talk to her anyway." Because it was weird and crazy and probably well out of the normal limits of medical ninja.
So, really. Reporting to the Hokage would be much faster than going to the hospital.
"I don't like it," Shikamaru said flatly.
"Those are your orders," the Chunin said, equally flatly. "Your opinion is irrelevant."
I was starting to dislike him. I hoped he wasn't going to be someone we ran into repeatedly.
But when we got to the Hokage's office, Tsunade wasn't even there. The two village elders were, and an older man with one covered eye and an arm in a sling. Danzo. It could only be Danzo.
Shit. I could feel cold sweat breaking out on the back of my neck, just from being in the same room as him. He had Shisui's eye, with its undetectable, mind altering genjutsu. He was the one that had sentenced the Uchiha clan to death. He was responsible for so much.
And my team mates had no idea who they were in the room with.
"Hey!" Naruto cried, indignant. "Baa-chan made us come all the way up here and she's not even here!"
I could feel my heartbeat picking up, starting to hammer uncomfortably in my chest.
"Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, Nara Shikako," Koharu said, giving us all a gimlet stare and ignoring Naruto's outburst. "This is your mission debrief."
"Who are you all, anyway?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms. "And why are you in Baa-chan's office?"
I made an aborted gesture in his direction. I didn't really want Naruto getting in trouble with these people. Especially not with Danzo.
The Elders looked offended. I supposed it had been a while since they'd had to introduce themselves, or run into anyone with Naruto's brand of bluntness.
"Idiot," Shikamaru sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "They're the Elder Council. The Hokage's advisors. Koharu-sama. Homura-sama." He nodded at them both and left an empty, querying silence where Danzo's name should have gone. Maybe he didn't know it.
No name was offered. It probably flew straight over Naruto's head, but Shikamaru would have picked up on it.
I hoped he picked up on it. It wasn't exactly like I could tell him 'beware of Danzo'.
And it wasn't exactly like we could refuse to say anything. We could insist on reporting only to Tsunade, but I wasn't sure how that would go down. We had no specific orders saying we could only report to the Hokage, and theoretically we should have been able to trust them.
And we definitely didn't want to look like we had anything to hide.
"Where is Baa-chan?" Naruto asked again.
"Tsunade is currently at the hospital. I believe there was a situation that required her personal attention," Koharu said. "However, it has already been decided that this mission was to be upgraded to S-rank, due to the politically sensitive nature of your actions."
"S-rank?" Naruto squeaked in surprise.
I was a little surprised myself. While, yes, the most basic description of mission rankings involved the danger level – A-ranks were more dangerous than B-ranks and so on – there were other factors that counted. S-ranks were more likely to be assigned because of politics than because of the chances of running into S-rank shinobi. Put that way, an alliance with Hidden Sand to defend against an invasion of two countries from an unknown aggressor probably did count. I just… hadn't expected it. Doing A-ranks was one thing. S-rank…
No one did S-ranks as a Genin.
It wasn't done.
"Yes, S-rank," Homura confirmed. "As such, it is very important that we are able receive your account of events immediately and assess the situation for the benefit of Konoha. There is no time to waste."
"Well, we gotta do it quick," Naruto acquiesced. "Because Shikako-chan is supposed to be at the hospital."
I shifted uncomfortably in my borrowed jacket as three sets of eyes bored into me - three sets? Two sets and one? – and was grateful that I didn't look obviously injured. Then again, that might have got us out of this meeting.
"I'm sure it can wait," Koharu said dismissively.
Shikamaru took a short step forward. "We were arriving at Mizugiwa to complete our original mission, when we noticed a distinct lack of activity in the area," he began, tersely. "The town had been destroyed, and we estimated it to have been within the last day. We began a search of the area to determine if the perpetrators were still nearby. We located a large, mobile stronghold that they were using as a base, and decided to investigate further while Naruto sent a message to the border outpost via summons. In our investigations we discovered several more targets and decided to move on ahead in order to warn our allies in the Land of Wind. Once there, we took part in an ambush that defeated the leader of the army, and his subordinates surrendered."
"Those actions are well beyond your initial mission parameters," Homura noted.
Shikamaru nodded, face neutral. "Our Intel at the time suggested that reinforcements would take several days to arrive, so we were prepared to gather information for them. We were forced to act, however, when they spotted our presence, and when we found that there was a second force already attacking the coastline of the Land of Wind."
For all he was saying, there was a lot that Shikamaru wasn't telling them. And the way he was saying was heavily slanted. True, yes, but presented in such a way that we were less likely to get in trouble for it all.
"This army," Danzo said, speaking for the first time. "Where was it from?"
"South, across the ocean," Shikamaru said. "They believed that they used to reside in the Elemental Nations before the time of the Sage of Six Paths, but sailed across the sea. Their intentions seemed to be to return and subjugate their original homeland."
"The oceans to the south are supposed to be impossible to pass," Koharu said. "They would have had to sail through the doldrums and convergence zone…"
"Their ships were weird?" Naruto offered, a little uncertainly, not looking like he really understood what she was saying. I didn't really, either. "They were all made out of metal, not wood."
"First contact with a new nation," Homura mused, exchanging a look with his fellow Elder. "An unpromising beginning, but perhaps…"
"More importantly," Danzo interrupted, stepping forward, cane tapping on the floor. "Were they the cause of the atmospheric phenomenon over the north-east of Wind Country, several days ago?"
I swallowed. This was where we had to tread most carefully of all. "Yes," I said. "During the ambush, a relic was destroyed. It released a large amount of chakra, but did little damage."
"A relic?" Danzo repeated. "A weapon." His eye stared into me, like he knew I was lying. Like he could see. See what I knew about the mine, about the stones, about how they were created. See… about the book.
I froze.
The book. In my bag. That explained everything about the stones. About how they were created. That might, just, have enough information to repeat the process.
"I-" I started, voice rasping and breaking. I reached for my chakra to stabilise myself, to regain composure.
And realised what I had done.
I gasped, hands flying to my chest, folding over in half to hide.
I ignored the cries of my name, then hands fluttering on my shoulders, and focused on keeping my chakra small and squashed in my chest. I couldn't let myself transform. Not in front of them.
Shikamaru's hand pressed in under my neck, fingers seeking out a pulse. I choked, fear and panic causing another surge of chakra that I repressed. I had to. I had to. I couldn't tell if it was working. I could only hope.
I couldn't let it go without calming down.
But I couldn't calm down.
"What is going on here?!" A strong, familiar voice called, door slamming open. I caught a glimpse of Tsunade in the door frame, Sakura peering out behind her.
"She doesn't have a pulse!" Shikamaru shouted.
A hand descended on my back, green chakra flowing into me.
Then there was nothing.