Chapter 59
The clouds blew in suddenly, the blue spring sky turning gray within minutes. Rain began, only a few drops of warning before the torrent. Some people screamed in surprise as the water hit them. Sasaeko threw her arms up over her head in a futile attempt to block out the rain. She was already soaked. Through the rain, though it was hard to see, she peered at Shikamaru.
“Let's get inside,” he said, voice raised to be heard over the noise of the weather.
She nodded, not bothering to try to speak, and headed back the way they had come. As they passed, several people ducked into shops or back into their homes. More than one person had abandoned their tasks completely to seek shelter. Through the downpour, they found the steps to her apartment again, and hurried up through her front door, shutting it hard behind them as if the weather were chasing them.
“Sorry,” she said, slipping off her shoes as she tried not to drip on the furniture. “I wouldn't have bothered you if I'd known it meant getting you caught in the rain.”
He shrugged, glancing around the unlit apartment. “Rain would've happened either way. At least this way I can dry off here. It came on too quickly for me to have gone anywhere else. If I didn't know better about spring storms, I'd say it seemed unnatural.”
She nodded. “Wait here, I'll get some towels.”
Before she could get far, however, glass shattered as a tree branch hit the front window, breaking a pane. She gasped in surprise.
“Go get a plastic bag or something, we'll tape it up,” he said, ignoring her instruction to stay put and heading for the window. “The rain's coming in.”
She disappeared down a hallway and returned soon, carrying a garbage bag and some tape. Within a couple of minutes, they had sealed off the hole, and they ducked down to pick up the broken glass. Shikamaru swore as he cut his hand.
“Hold on, I'll get the first aid kit,” she said, standing and disappearing again.
While he waited, Shikamaru tried not to bleed on the carpet. She returned a couple of minutes later, having shed her outer kimono. In her hands, she had not only the kit but a fluffy towel. Shikamaru let her push him gently down onto the couch, draping the towel across his shoulders. She knelt on the floor between his knees. He watched as she bent over his hand, applying stinging disinfectant and a bandage.
The rain drummed on the roof. As she pressed the bandage into place, he realized how close she was. The water had soaked her completely, plastering her hair to her head, making the fabric of her shozoku cling to her body. For the first time, he had some idea of what she looked like under all the loose, obscuring layers she normally wore. Sasaeko looked up from her work, still holding onto his injured hand. Their eye met, less than a foot apart. A thin rivulet of water cascaded down from her hair, trailing over her collarbone, and disappeared down the front of her clothes. He could see a drop of water suspended on her eyelashes.
“Shikamaru,” she said after a long time.
He blinked rapidly. “What?” he asked, his voice huskier than he meant it to be.
“Why are you so set on Chouji and me getting together?”
At Chouji's name, guilt flooded in from some distant place. His gaze slid away from hers, skating over her soaked figure to settle on the carpet.
“I just want Chouji to be happy,” he said.
“You're a good friend.”
Her words felt hollow, and stabbed at his guts again with shame.
“Why Lee?” he asked, surprising himself. “What drew you to him in the first place? I mean, he's not exactly...”
“Not the type to have girls chasing after him?” she supplied. He glanced at her and saw a small smile on her lips. It flickered away as she spoke, but his eyes stayed. “I realize I might be the only one who's looked at him that way. That not many people understand it. But there's more to him than most people see. He made me want to be better.”
At that, Shikamaru scowled, looking away from her lips and into her eyes again. “What? Did he make you feel like you weren't good enough?”
She shook her head slightly. “I did that to myself. It's... something I'm good at.”
His expression softened again. Sometime since they had come inside, he realized, a touch of color had returned to her cheeks, just barely visible in the low light. He told himself it was that same dimness that had made her eyes look so large and dark. Neither of them had moved, still so close together.
“I'm grateful for what you said to me, you know,” she said, her voice soft and low. “Being around you seems to help me see things more clearly.”
---
Ino looked up from her magazine when the rain began to beat against the windows. She frowned absently. Just moments ago, it had been sunny. Still, she shrugged. As long as she was in here minding the shop, it mattered little. Fewer customers might come in, but it wasn't as though it had been a busy day to begin with. She went back to her reading.
Before she could even finish the page, however, the shop bell chimed as the door opened. The roar of the storm grew louder for a moment as someone rushed in, and the rain with them. Then the door closed again, and it was once more quiet. Ishitaro stood staring at her, ears red, water streaming down his skin as color flooded his cheeks.
“Sorry,” he blurted out all at once. “For coming in uninvited.”
She shrugged. “It's a shop. You don't really get invited in.”
His face grew redder. He glanced back at the door as if considering a retreat, but stayed, shaking off some of the water onto the doormat before slipping past the display of jonquil and Linaria bipartita and over to her counter.
“This... This is your family's shop, is it not?” he asked, his voice a little too loud. Ino watched as he realized this, and his ears grew redder.
“Yeah. Yamanaka Flowers. I'm Ino Yamanaka,” she said, going back to her magazine.
“The rain certainly was sudden,” he said, the words coming out too quickly.
“Spring storms,” she said, shrugging one shoulder, not bothering to look up.
Even out of the corner of her eyes, she could see his posture getting stiffer, and had to suppress a grin.
---
Sumire put away the last of the clean dishes, half an ear on the sound of the rain outside, and turned to leave the kitchen. Years of shinobi training kept her from jumping in surprise at the figure silhouetted by the window, but it was a near thing.
“The fuck are you doing in my house, Sai?” she asked, keeping her voice even in spite of the profanity.
“The rain isn't natural,” he said, and she noticed he was dripping on the carpet. “I think it may be part of an attack.”
“What do you mean, an attack? Are we being invaded?”
He shook his head. “I have yet to see the foreign agents, but they are likely already here. I believe Amegakure is behind this.”
“Hibiki?” she asked, already reaching for her shoes.
He shrugged. “Difficult to say, which is why I'm here. You and Shikamaru had the most contact with her. I had hoped you would have some insight.”
“Why aren't you looking for him? He's the genius.”
“I couldn't find him. For now, others are searching out the source of all this rain and looking for the Hokage to alert her.”
“She wasn't in her office?”
Sai shook his head, and she swore. Sumire packed her kit and stood by the door. “Well, I'm not sure what they'd be after, but I think I know how to find Shikamaru.”
---
Ishitaro put a hand on the counter of the flower shop as if steadying himself. Ino saw from the corner of her eye, but kept reading.
“I have learned a little about the language of flowers recently,” he said, watching her.
“That so?” she asked, and turned the page.
“It... It's almost like a code,” he said, ears reddening. “A way to say something that an outside observer might not notice.”
She made a noncommittal noise.
“The Linaria Bipartita you have here is quite lovely,” he said, glancing back at the display. “I have also developed a certain fondness for mallow and purple heather.”
Ino glanced up at him, watching the color emerging on his face.
“Truthfully, I-” he began.
The doors opened, rain streaming in along with two new visitors. Ino sat up straight and Ishitaro turned to see Sai and Sumire come inside, water streaming down them. Sumire's bangs had plastered themselves to her face, and she had to push them out of the way.
“Sorry to intrude,” she said, not sounding all that sorry, “but we need your help, Ino.”
“What's the matter?” she asked.
“We need to find Shikamaru,” said Sai.
“Could you use your Mind Body Transmission Technique to find him?” asked Sumire.
“Sure, but what's up?” Ino asked.
Sai shook his head. “We'll tell you once you've found him.”
Behind the counter, Ino took a deep breath and made the hand seals as she closed her eyes. She cast about for the familiar signs of her teammate's mind. After a moment, she found him. She jerked in surprise hard enough that she nearly fell off her seat, but maintained her balance.
Shikamaru, she thought at him.
Across the village, he mirrored her twitch of surprise. Ino?
“Found him,” she said aloud to the shop.
“The rain is artificial,” Sai said. “We may be under attack.”
Ino passed the message on to him. You're at Sasaeko's? she added.
...Yes.
We're on our way.
---
When Sasaeko opened her front door, the other four shinobi crowded in, dripping rain all over her living room carpet. Ino flashed her a quick smile, but the expression changed when she saw Shikamaru and the otherwise empty apartment. She shot him a scowl. To his credit, Shikamaru blushed and looked away.
“We'll talk about this later,” she said to him in an undertone, before addressing the others in her normal voice. “Okay, what's the plan?”
“First, what are they after?” Sai asked. “There have been no reports of violence, though incidents would be easy to miss in this weather. If we had some idea of what the infiltrators wanted, it would be easier to proceed.”
“Information, probably,” Shikamaru said, glad of the mission to focus on. “Or sabotage. The rain is cover. Keep people off the streets and make them nearly invisible. Either way, we should head to Hokage Tower. It's the most likely target.”
“You said Tsunade-sama wasn't at the tower?” Ino asked, and Sai nodded. “Going by when the rain began, she was probably out to lunch.”
“Right. Let's split up. You go find some more help,” he said, looking to Sasaeko. “Ino, Ishitaro, go find Tsunade. Sumire, Sai, let's go to the tower and see if we can head them off before they get whatever it is they want.”
They filed out of the apartment and went their separate ways into the rain. After a few false starts and taking a wrong turn in the rain and then backtracking, they passed close enough to a bar that Ino could recognize the sign. She reached out to touch Ishitaro's arm, and they slowed.
“Do you know where the Hokage is likely to be?” he asked, leaning close to be heard.
Ino shook her head. “She likes sake and chicken breast, but she also likes variety. I guess we can check her favorites f-”
Ino froze, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck trying to stand up in spite of the rain. She gripped Ishitaro's arm, and he looked at her with obvious concern.
“What's the matter?” he asked.
“We're being watched.” She let go of his arm and kept walking. “Act natu-”
Before she could finish her thought, a roaring sound drowned her out. As she turned to look, a wave of water twice her height hit them. Ishitaro grabbed her arm as it pushed them, struggling against the force of it to curl around her. They slammed into a streetlight with such force that it bent, and washed past it. The wave broke, depositing them nearly a block down the street. Ino coughed up some water. Behind her, Ishitaro groaned. She turned to look. He let go of her to clutch at his leg, the knee bent at an odd angle.
“Are you hurt?” she asked, getting to her feet and looking around for their attacker.
“I think it's broken,” he said, gritting his teeth.
A figure jumped down into the street, back in the direction they had come from. He landed with a splash, his straw cloak fluttering around him. A wide conical hat hid his face, rain streaming off of it. As soon as he had stood, he launched himself at them. Ishitaro made a series of hand seals. A wall appeared before them. The unknown shinobi thudded against it.
Ino took a deep breath and tried to reach out with her mind, to take over the body hidden behind the wall. Even as her consciousness brushed against them, she could feel them retreat. Motion in her peripheral made her look. Ishitaro was forming more hand seals. She recognized them.
“No,” she said, holding up a hand. “Keep the wall up.”
She closed her eyes. With a bit of focus, she could sense their chakra. Ishitaro's behind her, solid and warm. The distant blurs of people in the bars, the noise of the rain keeping them from noticing the fight outside. Something moved nearby.
Ino concentrated her chakra into her fist, a bright spot she saw for only a moment before opening her eyes. As she heard the tiny sound through the rain, just beyond the wall, she punched out. Stone broke. Her fist emerged on the other side and grabbed the shinobi before he could react. She braced herself against the remains of the wall and pulled, again and again. Her opponent bounced against the wall, cracking it around her arm. She heard another crack, more organic in sound, and the struggling stopped. She nodded to Ishitaro, and he lowered the wall.
With her free hand, she reached into a pouch for some rope. The shinobi moved. He slammed a hand down on her arm, breaking her grip. Rushing past her, the cloak whipping around him and into her face, he ran for Ishitaro, still prone on the ground. Ino's hand abandoned the search for rope. She grabbed a kunai, plunging it into the cloak. It connected with a horribly meaty sound.
The shinobi dropped. He landed on top of Ishitaro's wounded leg, earning a hiss of pain in response. Ino reached down, flipping the body over. Below the hat, the man's face was unremarkable and unknown to her. She felt at his neck for a pulse. Even as she searched for it, it faded away. She glanced at the ground around them, stained with spreading red. Her aim had been a little too good. She sighed and shoved the body off of Ishitaro.
“Dead?” he asked.
She nodded. “Hold still, I need to take care of your leg.”
As she touched his leg, working chakra into his body to heal him, the pain eased. His mind no longer clouded by it, he began to blush at her nearness. Within minutes, she was done, and he flexed his leg experimentally.
“All better?” she asked.
He nodded, and she helped him to his feet, only to shove the dead body into his arms.
“Come on. Let's keep looking.”
---
They stepped in out of the rain, and Sumire let out a low whistle. The storm had begun a little after noon, just as most of the village had stopped to eat lunch. Not everyone, of course; security wasn't quite that lax. But the timing had left Hokage Tower staffed by a skeleton crew. A chuunin looked up from his work at the duty desk.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
Shikamaru scanned the room before striding up to the desk. He leaned in close. “The rain may be cover for an infiltration. We're searching now. Keep quiet, but let the jounin on standby know, and keep your eyes open.”
The man nodded and sped off. Shikamaru passed back by his team and stalked down a familiar hallway, bypassing several doors. When he found the door to the cryptography department, he pulled a kunai from his holster and readied it before pushing the door slowly open. Satisfied that no one was about to attack him, he walked the rest of the way into the room. Behind a shelf, papers rustled, and he tensed until Shiho's familiar face peered around at him. Color stained her cheeks.
“Sh-Shikamaru-san. What brings you here today?”
“Has anyone else come in here since the rain began?” he asked, voice pitched low and quiet.
She shook her head, dropping a folder in her nervousness. In spite of her assurances, he checked the entire office, feeling around for anything hidden, any traces of genjutsu.
“What's the matter?” she asked, once he had finished.
“We don't know for sure yet,” he said, peeking out the door again. “We might be under attack. Stay here, lock the door, and if anything happens, scream as loud as you can for help.”
She nodded, silent, and he left to check the rooms he had skipped.
---
Sumire headed straight for the Hokage's office, figuring that it would make an attractive target. The potential for sensitive documents, coupled with the fact that it was a prime place to set a trap meant it was where she would have chosen to go, were she in their enemy's hypothetical shoes. She heard nothing but the rain as she swept up the stairs and through the hall to the imposing doors.
Inside the antechamber, nothing. Apparently Shizune had chosen not to work through lunch that day, though she often did. Sumire frowned, wondering if it were a coincidence, or if someone had lured her away. After a sweep of the room turned up more nothing, she pushed open the door to the office itself, staying cautiously to one side. When nothing jumped out at her, she slipped inside. As far as she could tell, there was no sign anyone had been in here in at least an hour. She had not been to this room often, but it looked no more or less disordered than it did when Tsunade was in residence. She had at least put her papers away before going to lunch, though there was a half-empty bag of chips open on her desk. After checking every corner, under the desk, and poking at some of the ceiling tiles just to be safe, Sumire left the office.
She stepped out into the hallway and, by instinct, pulled out a kunai. Emerging from a door several yards away, a figure spotted her. With only the briefest of hesitation, the figure rushed her. They collided as she swung for them, the intruder grabbing her arm and executing a judo-like flip that slammed her into a wall and pressed all the air from her lungs. Not stopping to fight, they fled. Sumire slid to the floor, stunned and dizzy. She gasped for air, and when it came, she cried out.
“Intruder!” she yelled, and had to stop to cough before she could say it again. “Intruder by the Hokage's office!”
She pushed herself to her feet just as the others arrived, their footsteps behind her muffled by the carpet and the rain. Still struggling, she pointed down the hallway where they had run. The others rushed ahead of her, and she followed as her breath returned. When they reached a dead end, the others began opening doors to search further. Sumire stopped by a window, not fully closed. A little bit of rain had leaked in, but not so much as if it had been left ajar this entire time. She whistled, and Shikamaru joined her.
“Here?” he asked, noticing the water right away.
She shrugged. “Probably. I think I nicked them when they attacked me, though. They won't get too far.” To demonstrate, she held up the kunai. The tip was just barely red, but the length of the blade glistened with an odd, oily sheen, a tinge of brown that had nothing to do with oxidation.
“Will they die from it?”
“Eventually, if left untreated. Depends on if they have allies. Should give us enough of a lead to track them by, though.”
Behind them, a dog barked. Sumire grinned before turning around. At the end of the hall stood Sasaeko, Kiba, and Akamaru, all three of them soaked. A wet dog smell pervaded the corridor.
“Just the guy I had hoped to see,” Sumire said, walking back over toward them, snagging Kiba's arm. “Here, smell me.”
Apparently used to the request, both Kiba and Akamaru leaned in and sniffed. Kiba frowned. “The intruder?”
Sumire nodded. “He hit me on the way out. Ready to track him down?”
“Always.” Kiba grinned, climbing up onto Akamaru's back. “Try to keep up.”
They set off down the hall, and Shikamaru watched a moment later as they disappeared into the rain. He walked back downstairs to the duty desk. The chuunin had abandoned secrecy when the yelling started and had gathered most of the shinobi on duty.
“Start searching the surrounding neighborhood,” Shikamaru said, directing some of the forces outside. “And we'll keep looking in here. Just because we saw one doesn't mean there's not more.”
As several chuunin and genin trooped outside into the rain, the Hokage entered, flanked by Ino and Ishitaro, the latter with a corpse slung across his shoulders. Judging by the enraged look on Tsunade's face, she had heard as much of the problem as Ino knew. Shikamaru told her the rest.