FicWad

Asuma and Shikamaru stood outside the Hokage’s office, waiting for their last two teammates before they could start off.
“It’s not like Gai and Kurenai to be late…” Asuma commented.
“They won’t be.” stated Shikamaru simply. True to his word, Kurenai’s footsteps could be heard on the stairs below.
“Ok, every time you predict something, and it just happens to be right, you freak me out!”Asuma exclaimed.
Shikamaru shrugged, and yawned lazily in response. Kurenai appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Oh, hello, Asuma, Shikamaru!”
Shikamaru gave a brief nod in response, while Asuma blushed tremendously. Kurenai smile shyly as Asuma stuttered for words. Shikamaru smirked at the two of them, and leaned back against the wall watching the scene in slight amusement.
“So, where’s Gai? Isn’t he usually the first one here for pretty much every mission?” Kurenai asked quickly, changing the subject. Asuma looked relieved, and he finally found words in his mouth.
“Except when he’s trying to beat Kakashi at being late, yes.”
Asuma flinched, forgetting not to bring up Kakashi’s absence.
“He is here first. He’s been waiting here for almost half an hour.” Shikamaru lazily shoved open the door to the Hokage’s office with his foot.
“AHA!!!! The Shining Face of Youth Wins Once Again!!!” yelled a green clad, bowl cut ninja. Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage, had her head flat on the desk, crumpled papers in her hands. As they walked in, Asuma whispered into Shikamaru’s ear, “I told you not to do that…”
Shikamaru smirked. Kurenai rolled her eyes and went to greet Gai. Asuma went over to the Hokage’s desk and waited. Her clenched fists released the papers she had been clutching, and grasping the desk, pushed her head up off of it. A look of annoyance and frustration shot out at Gai’s back. Asuma pushed back a grin.
“Gods, make sure you get here earlier next time. One more minute of him and his youth-filled ass and he would have been out the window,” Tsunade growled under her breath. She grabbed a paper from the huge stack on her desk and thrust it at Asuma. He scanned the paper quickly before handing it off to Shikamaru. An S-Ranked mission on the border of the Rain Village. Asuma smirked as Shikamaru groaned and handed it off to Kurenai. After she let Gai snatch it out of her hands, she opened her mouth to ask a question, but was cut off as the door swung open with a bang. Shizune stumbled in, and leaned over, trying to catch her breath.
“Shizune!! What’s going on?!” yelled Tsunade.
Shizune straightened up, still breathing hard. The three jonin waited anxiously for her news. Shikamaru, on the other hand, took one look at her urgent face and quickly walked over to Gai, grabbing the mission paper from his hand. He laid it on Tsunade’s desk.
“Looks like you’re going to need a different team for this one.” He murmured under his breath. Tsunade gave him a questioning look, but didn’t say anything. Shizune had caught her breath, and finally began to speak in an urgent tone.
“Lady Tsunade…Team 12…that team that was the back-up squad for Kakashi’s team…they just returned.”
Tsunade waited impatiently for her to continue.

“The three chunin of the first team are dead.”
Silence fell upon the room like a misty fog. Kurenai touched the wall to steady herself from the sock. Tsunade lowered her eyes to the papers before her.
“Shit……” cursed Asuma, leaning his forehead against the wall. Gai just stood there, silent. Tsunade quietly asked the question they all dreaded the answer too.
“And Kakashi?”
The tension in the room thickened. Asuma held his breath.
“We….we didn’t find him amongst the corpses.” Shizune mumbled. “But that’s not the worst. We’ve just gotten a report saying that one of the Akatuski bases may be in the area in question. It’s very possible that Kakashi…..” Shizune’s voice trailed off. Asuma pressed his head harder and harder into the wall, gritting his teeth. Tsunade leaned her head in her hands. All was quiet. A tear trickled down Kurenai’s cheek. Gai just stood there, but you could see the rage building up inside of him, though he was trying his hardest to contain it.

“SHIT!!!!!!” Tsunade screamed, “DAMMIT!!!!!”
Fists pounded the desk, smashing the wood in. All the jonin started at the Hokage in shock. Tsunade gritted her teeth in frustration. Opening her eyes, slowly, she realized there was only one chance for her spur-or-the-moment idea.
“Asuma.”
Asuma came to attention, his brow set. He felt in his pocket for his lighter and his hand clamped shut over it.
“Kurenai.”
Kurenai walked to stand next to Asuma. She clutched his hand, feeling its rigidness, and looked straight into Tsunade’s eyes.
“Gai.”
For the first time since they walked in, Gai responded to her words and came up to the desk. A look of prideful yet raging determination shone plainly on his face.
“Shikamaru.”
Shikamaru pushed himself off of the wall and wandered over to the Hokage.
“I am changing you mission to one of greater importance. Head over to the designated area of Kakashi’s team, and find Kakashi. If possible, bring back information on Akatsuki.”
Tsunade turned to Shizune.
“Shizune, go with them. If’s he’s hurt, he’ll need a medic ninja.”
Shizune had her ‘are you sure?’ look on.
“But Tsunade-same…..Shikamaru…..he’s only a chunin…Are you sure he’s qualified for this sort of mission?”
Shikamaru closed his eyes. Tsunade was silent. Shizune gulped.
“This is a huge mission. You MUST bring him back at all costs. If not…” ignoring Shizune’s question, she shuddered involuntarily. “Kakashi is an important asset to this village. I would go even as far to say THE most important, even over myself, the Hokage.” Tsunade paused. “He has information in his head, information and plans of Konoha that only he and I know. The 4th Hokage entrusted him with everything. If Akatsuki gets it, nothing will stop them from killing him, and then advancing on the Leaf Village for Naruto. The destruction of the Leaf Village lies with him. Understand, if you fail….” Her voice trailed off. No one dared to speak.
“Just do it for your own reasons, dammit.” She muttered. Asuma nodded.
“Everyone, we leave in half an hour. Be at the front gate,” he said. Everyone started heading for the door, when Tsunade’s voice stopped them again.
“Shikamaru, stay here. I want to speak with you.”
Shizune looked at her questionably, but didn’t speak as she walked out the door with the others. Shikamaru walked back over to Tsunade’s desk.
“Lady Hokage?”
Tsunade looked up at him.
“I’m taking a huge risk by sending you on this mission, but I think it might fail without you. I expect Asuma, who is leading the mission, to ask you for your advice. If you come back alive from this mission, I’m considering promoting you to Jonin.”
A flash of interest shot across Shikamaru’s face, but disappeared as soon as it had come.
“Oh, and just between us, I will be assigning you to my one of my private bodyguards.”
This time his face lit up with shocked surprise.
“But…..Hokage-sama….What…”
“Why would I choose you? Because you’re smart, Shikamaru. Unlike many people in the village, I trust you completely. Enough to lay my life in your hands. As my personal bodyguard, you will go on all of your usual missions, but you will carry this.”
She handed him a small disk, black with a small white piece of metal in the middle. He fingered it carefully, running his finger over the white dot.
“This disk is infused with my chakra. It will pulse if I’m in trouble. You then press the white metal, and it will transport you to my side. Turn it over.”
Shikamaru obediently did so. The white metal was still there, but on this side, a band of red circled it.
“Now, if you need to release the chakra, run your finger three times along the red. My chakra will flow into you. It’s as simple as that.”
Shikamaru mused on that for a bit.
“What if I can’t release the chakra, or use it at all? What then?” he asked. Tsunade pulled out another similar disk from her desk.
“Using this, I can transport chakra directly to you. It works both ways. You can also send chakra to me. Oh, I forgot.” She handed him the second disk.
“Transfer some of your chakra into it.”
Shikamaru turned the disk round in his hand, and clenched it in his fist. He closed his eyes, and concentrated on the transfer process and as the chakra moved ingot the disk, it began to glow a subtle, sky blue. He let his hand loosen around it, cutting off his chakra flow into the metal.
“This is made of that chakra metal, like Asuma-sensei’s knives,” he said. Tsunade nodded.
“Yes.”
Shikamaru felt a pulsing in his hand, and opened it up in surprise. The disk was beating to the sound of his heart. Tsunade grinned a bit, and reached for the disk.
“Now, I can tell whether you’re in trouble or not.”
Shikamaru smirked.
“You try to cover up your reasons with other meanings,” he smiled. “Why are you trying to protect me?”
There was dead silence. Tsunade looked down at her busted desk.
“Because you are one of the only people I would trust with the position of Hokage.”
Shikamaru’s eyes widened, in surprise.
“WH-what?!”
“You heard me. You would indeed be a great leader, despite you lazy disposition. By protecting you, I’m protecting the future of Konoha.” She played with the disk.
“I gave one of these to Kakashi, too. Before Shizune burst in today, I was listening to his heartbeat pounding so hard, I was thinking the disk was going to shatter from the pressure.”
Tsunade brought forth a similar disk, white metal with a black plate in the middle. It was throbbing in her hand, as if in pain.
“Here,” she said, handing it to him. “You’ll need it.”
Shikamaru took the throbbing metal, feeling Kakashi’s heartbeat, broken and uneven, and placed it in his left pocket. His own disk, the heartbeat steady and firm, went into his right.
“Anything else?”
Tsunade gave him a small smile.
“Just two things. Number one; don’t turn down any help you can get.”
Shikamaru was already halfway to the door.
“And the second?”
“Don’t die.”
The door slammed shut behind him.