Wow, now there's something to pull on ye ol' heart strings, though I'm torn between feeling sad or feeling insanely triumphant. Bah, forget the sadness. It's a dark victory for your nameless woman, but one that she refused, up to the last minute, to regret. It wouldn't be right to feel sad because of that.
Very dark, and wonderful piece to read! I'm glad that you were inspired to write this. Though now you've made me want to write out the scene where Shika kills Sasuke.
Author's response
Squee! . I always get giddy when an author I admire reveiws my work. It makes me feel so fuzzy inside. Thank you very much for your review.
Hey, maybe we could do a back and forth thing, and turn it into a crazy drabble/one-shot universe. ^^ I'm a big fan of Shikamaru, and less of a fan of Sasuke so I'll be looking forward to it, if you do get around to writting a Shika kills Sasuke fic. Hopefully with a more inventive title than that, though. ^^; I'm not good at titles.
For the record, I don't hate Sasuke, he just seems to me to be too full of himself for his own good. He's too perfectly broody and emo. Although, to be fair to all the Sasuke fan girls, my favorite character, Gaara, has the same problem, so really, I'm just a hypocrite. Although Gaara actually tries hard to redeem himself, thus giving him complex character, instead of decending into a super angsty spiral of darkness and hate.
Anyways, rant over. Back on review response.
Actually, I kinda wanted to leave her regret open to interpretation. "It was a horrible thing to do" could refer to many things. Seducing Sasuke in the first place, or giving birth to a child just so that the father can be killed, or giving the kid a near permanent Sharingan (which I'm sure would drive anybody mad, as it constantly would be draining chakra, let alone what the kid might see with it), or perhaps Sasuke's driving need for power that lead him to abandon Konoha in the first place... the list of terrible acts that have been committed in either this story, or the back story-cannon could go on and on. Personally, I feel sorry for someone who could get so twisted up in loneliness and hatred to not only do that to the person, but also to condemn a child like that. But, meh, that sort of thing is a major theme in Naruto, so she's in good company.
As to Shika killing Sasuke, that would be interesting to write, considering how powerful Sasuke is, and how the Sharingan would probably let him see through most of Shikamaru's strategies (pun so intended). That would be hard to write realistically -- unless of course, you just did the last few minutes. But still, beginning to end, Shikamaru vs. Sasuke would be something to see -- gahh, now I'm getting ideas! Errg. Evil. I should be working on my on going fanfics, not starting new one shots... >.