- Two days later, inside the Hokage's office -
"So, he's showing signs of waking up?"
Tsunade asked Shizune, leaning forward at her desk with a relieved expression on her face. Kakashi was to be her successor; she didn't want him to lie in a coma for much longer.
"Yes, Lady Tsunade. Kakashi had shown signs of waking. He's reacting to sound and touch, and I think chakra as well; his head would sometimes turn toward the window just before a ninja would jump past on the rooftops."
Tsunade's good mood was apparently too much for the balance of the world to bear. A massive explosion, followed rapidly by dozens more, mushroomed into roaring balls of fire across the horizon.
'That's just my luck,' Tsunade thought bitterly. 'I'm going to go down in history as the most attacked Hokage.'
She spun on her heel, barking a sharp order to her assistant. "Level three security alert, Shizune! And get me Team 10 immediately!"
Before Shizune could move, the office door swung open. Shikamaru walked in alongside Ino and Choji. Their sensei, Asuma, was still away on an external mission.
"We came for orders the second the bombs dropped," Shikamaru reported. He spoke with a rapid, clipped urgency that completely betrayed his usual lazy demeanor. "With Ino's Mind-Body Transmission, the civilians are already moving to the shelters. The active shinobi in the village have initiated Protocol 2; they've split up to delay the enemy and sweep the streets for stragglers. Iruka is already clearing out the Academy. What are your orders, Lady Hokage?"
Tsunade opened her mouth to speak, but the window directly behind her shattered. She tilted her head out of instinct as a small sphere, tightly wrapped in burning explosive tags, hissed through the broken glass and into the office.
Shikamaru's hand shot out. He caught the lit bomb mid-air, entirely unfazed by the violent sparking of the tags. Without breaking eye contact with Tsunade, he dropped the sphere straight into his own shadow. The explosive vanished instantly, its detonation seamlessly routed away and forced out of the shadow of a distant tree behind the Hokage monument. A muffled, faraway boom echoed across the mountain.
"Your orders?" he asked again. His perpetually lazy eyes sharpened into steel, ready to execute whatever she wished.
"Shikamaru, you and Ino work with the ninja in the village; you'll relocate the injured and fight off the enemy. And you, Choji," Tsunade looked at him with a gleam in her eyes, "If you manage to damage the attacking enemies to my satisfaction, you'll eat all you can for free for a full week at the BBQ restaurant you love so much; how does that sound?"
Choji's eyes lit up, and he promptly shot out of the broken window at Tsunade's amused gesture to the window, watching the usually laid-back foodie leap hundreds of meters in the air straight at a glider coming back to bomb the Hokage tower again.
"I don't know how a fatass like you jumped this high, but you're about to take a harsh fall."
The Sky Ninja mocked, ripping back a lever on his mechanized glider. A hail of a couple dozen kunai and shuriken shot toward Choji.
Normally, an insult like that would have made Choji snap. Today, he was too riding high on the promise of a week's worth of free BBQ to care. The storm of sharp weapons bounced harmlessly off his expanded body as if striking a solid titanium wall.
Before the Sky Ninja's brain could even process the sight, Choji's massive hand clamped down on one of the glider's wings. With a roar, the chubby boy spun and flung the ninja and his rig like a frisbee directly at a second enemy glider. The violent collision triggered the second glider's payload, igniting a blinding explosion that obliterated them both.
"BBQ!"
Choji's voice boomed throughout the village, even over the sounds of explosions, making the flying enemy shudder for some unknown reason.
Shikamaru's lip twitched as he watched his friend leap into the sky once more, his figure rapidly approaching another poor bastard who thought he was safe.
"Let's go, Ino, Choji will make our job a lot easier."
Shikamaru walked over and leaped out the broken window alongside Ino, both leaving to carry out the orders.
As they swept through the village, they met Neji, Tenten, Lee, Naruto, Karin, Sasuke, Kiba, and Shino already helping the injured ninja and civilians.
Shikamaru observed the ones being transported to the hospital by Naruto's shadow clones.
"Naruto, who treated them? Their injuries, while serious, are not life-threatening."
"An old man, with a lot of negative emotions."
Naruto replied with a frown as Karin nodded alongside him; while not directly sensing emotions like Naruto could, Karin could infer or deduce emotions that most keep behind polite smiles.
'Since when could he sense the emotions of others?'
Shikamaru thought about asking before shaking his head, looking to Neji,
"Where's Hinata?"
"Lady Hinata is helping at the hospital," Neji said. His tone was perfectly neutral, yet a rare sliver of brotherly pride slipped through anyway. "She has become quite the medical ninja."
Shikamaru nodded, his eyes already tracking the enemy forces overhead. He spotted a single glider breaking formation and angling directly toward the medical facility. While he couldn't be certain the hospital was its primary target, Shikamaru wasn't about to take that gamble.
"Naruto, throw me at that glider."
Shikamaru gestured with a tilt of his head.
Naruto opened his mouth to volunteer himself or Sasuke to take care of it, but stopped. He knew the village couldn't always rely on the two of them to solve every problem. Nodding to himself, he stepped forward instead, grabbed the back of Shikamaru's flak jacket, and chucked him straight at the oncoming glider.
Naruto let out a low whistle as Shikamaru sank effortlessly into the glider's shadow. Even Sasuke shifted his gaze, paying closer attention now; it was the first time either of them had seen Shikamaru use this specific technique in person.
"That's quite the ability," Sasuke muttered.
The others nodded in agreement, watching as the enemy glider suddenly veered sharply to the right and spun completely out of control. Inside the shadow of the cockpit, Shikamaru's hand had shot out. He had closely watched the pilot manipulate the levers and already had a general sense of how to steer the rig.
With a brutal jerk of the controls, he sent the glider into a terminal dive. Just a split second before it slammed into the ground, Shikamaru melted into the shadow of the street, stepping out seamlessly as the glider exploded behind him. He didn't even look back at the blast, already walking away.
- Chapter End -
Cool guys don't look at explosions ;)
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I'm going to give the other characters time to shine as well; I've not done a good job at that, but I'm trying, I promise.
Oh, and I don't know if any of you forgot, but the clan kids got the same improvements that their parents did from the serum, but in most cases, stronger. This may be in how far Shikamaru can move through shadows compared to his dad, or even the distance he can feel the shadows, which isn't a stopping point; abilities improve in Naruto; it's not like Solo leveling where you're stuck at a rank unless you're someone like Sung Jin. So, expect the characters to get used to them and find better ways to use them over time.
Another one would be Choji and his father, Choza; they too got the same improvement, essentially a crazy durability and strength buff. They have the archetypes of Wolverine and The Hulk: the enhanced body, stronger bones. (Like Wolverine's metal exoskeleton, but without the metal, and more natural strength that allows them to perform feats like jumping hundreds of meters in the air. That was Choji jumping without chakra; just wanted to throw that in there.
That's all from me; I'll throw in the improvements Mei and Tsunade got from the serum at some time, but that'll have to wait.