So I got a job, but it's commission based, and I am now learning how to use my time effectively. This chapter has been put off and edited over short periods of time before I took breaks due to not managing my time well. Here's hoping that I got better.

"Speech"

'Thought'

"Telepathy"

"Demons"

"Jutsu/Summons"

Windows/Skills

Shikamaru panted softly as he leapt over a clone of Zabuza and sliced its head open, getting him even more soaked than he already was. "Okay! Everyone group up around Tazuna!" He dashed over to the bridge builder and deflected the copy of the legendary blade, stabbing the clone in the gut with a kunai, making the water splash all over him and Tazuna again. He was very glad that it wasn't blood. When he saw his team group together, he noticed the lack of a pink haired banshee. "Flamingo...Kami dammit!"

Ami saw where Shikamaru was looking and saw her cowering against a tree, a Zabuza clone just kinda passively slashing the air around her, instilling fear. "I got her!" 'It'd be better if we just let her die, but I'm going to take the high road here.' She leapt over the clone and clawed its throat out, landing right in front of Sakura with her back turned to her. She looked back at the girl and groaned. "Hey. Fucking get it together." She grabbed onto her fellow genin's collar as she turned around and glared into her eyes. "Tell me right now. Do you want to die?!"

Sakura shook her head fervently.

"No? Well then you are royally screwing yourself here by being scared, aren't you?" Ami glanced behind her to see Kage bunshins of Naruto holding back a few clones. "So, here's a proposition for you. Get your flat chested ass in gear and actually fight, or you can go home and quit the shinobi program. Either way, I'm not going to die because you decided to freeze up and get impaled!"She backhanded Sakura, able to stop the girls shivering. "Get the hell to your position!" She tossed the girl back towards the group and waited for her to stand up.

Naruto gutted a Zabuza clone and then looked at Sakura. He was about to yell inspiring words of encouragement before Shikamaru smacked him on the forehead. "Oi! Onyx, what was that for?!"

"She needs to get up on her own. She can't always rely on other people to believe in her. She has to believe in her own strength and potential, as her belief that she is a good kunoichi has been crushed by reality." Shikamaru looked at Sasuke. "Sasuke, what are the hand seals for the Gōkakyū no Jutsu?"

Sasuke quickly used said jutsu against the Mizu Bunshin charging them. "Why?"

Shikamaru fired off a charged Endan, making the clones around Sakura back off. "I didn't ask for your doubt, I asked for the hand seals!"

Sasuke groaned as he blocked an overhead strike from a clone with two kunai. "Fine! Snake; Ram; Monkey; Boar; Horse; Tiger! Now tell me why you need it!"

Shikamaru closed his eyes and then began to analyze the similarities to the Endan that he already knows. 'They're both fireballs, though the Endan is less versatile. They even share the same hand seals. The Gōkakyū is just larger, so it takes more initial chakra, while the Endan can be delayed. It's essentially the same jutsu, just using a different method of ignition.' Shikamaru began to form the fire chakra in his coils, much more than when he uses Katon: Endan. He opened his eyes and flipped through the seals, and shouted out his jutsu just to rub salt into Sasuke's wound. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" He released a stream of fire from his mouth that razed over the battlefield in front of him, allowing Ami to retreat back to her allies.

You have learned a new skill!

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu(Active): LVL: 1 EXP: 0.00%: Cost 350 CP per second: The staple jutsu of the Uchiha clan, this, along with its sister jutsu Katon: Endan, share the same principles of chakra moulding. While it may lack the strategic bonus the delayed release of its sister, it makes up for it in power.

Hand seals: Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger

Can either be released in a conical stream(10m) or a spherical AOE explosion(3m radius)

Deals 75 fire damage per second(conical)

Deals 125 initial damage, then 25 fire damage per second(fireball)

'Damn. Put three times as much chakra then needed.'

Naruto watched the flames coalesce into a large fireball and saw it shoot towards the actual Zabuza, who batted it away like it was nothing. "Amazing! How'd you do that Onyx?!"

Shikamaru panted softly, then crouched down as he began to regenerate his chakra. "Cover me. I'll explain later." He smirked when five clones appeared in front of him.

Sakura was looking up at the time, because when she heard that jutsu, she thought that Sasuke had come to save her, but she was shocked that Shikamaru was the one to do it. 'That lazy bastard...saved me…' She gritted her teeth as she pushed herself up and ran to the group. 'If he can bother to put effort into something, then I can do this!'

Kasumi smirked as Sakura stood next to her. "Oh, so the fangirl got up? There's some hope for you yet." She stabbed a stray clone in the crotch and then looked at the group with confidence. Yeah, they were going to win this.

Anko was not sure that they could win this! She leapt over a blade of water that came from Zabuza's sword, then was kicked in the gut. She skipped across the water a few times, then used the Shunshin to recover and resume attacking Zabuza.

At the same time, Kakashi was attacking Zabuza from behind, unable to land a hit on him, even with his Sharingan revealed. 'Damn… I've slacked off way too much. I've gotten weak.' His thoughts were interrupted by Zabuza slamming his hand onto the water.

Zabuza smirked under his bandages as he forced his chakra through the water. "Suiton: Bakusui Shōha!" The water rose very rapidly with him on top, and he directed the small tsunami of water to crash down on all sides, causing the Konoha shinobi to split up. "Is that all? I expected more from you Kakashi. You've grown weak in the time of peace." The mist formed around him again as he disappeared.

Anko leapt above the water and ran at Zabuza, then slid to a halt when he disappeared. She heard the chirping of birds to her right and saw Kakashi slice through the wall of water with a small blade of lightning around his hand. "Kinda loud for an assassination jutsu, huh Kakashi?"

Kakashi panted softly as he stood on the water. "Shut up Anko...Let's just get this over with…"

Zabuza chuckled from the mist. "Yeah, let's finish this up. I have a payday waiting for me. Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" His voice called from the mist, and a roar pierced the air as a dragon split the thick water vapor and shot towards the two opposing shinobi.

Anko leapt out of the way of the dragon. "You gotta be fucking kidding me! How much chakra does this fuck have?!" She leapt out of the way of the dragon again.

Kakashi dodged the dragon as well, then slashed it with a chakra metal kunai and channeled lightning chakra into it, causing the dragon to roar and explode in a shower of water droplets. "We're standing on a very large source of water. He doesn't need to use much to do that!" 'Which means that I don't need much either.' He rapidly performed hand seals, then smirked. "Anko jump! Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" Kakashi hooked the small amount of water chakra he used onto the river and used it to create a very long vortex of water shooting in one direction. He swung his entire body around and used the jutsu to sweep the river, trying to make Zabuza jump to dodge it.

Zabuza did in fact leap into the air as he glared at Kakashi. 'Shit. He can use Suiton jutsu. I need to be more careful so he doesn't copy anything else of mi-'

Anko bit her thumb as she produced a scroll from her jacket. She tossed it into the air as she leapt up to it and slammed her bleeding hand onto the scroll. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A sealing array appeared on the scroll and three large Water Moccasins appeared.

One of the snakes immediately shot towards Zabuza, making the bandaged shinobi replace himself with a random rock. Another caught Anko on its head while the third one looked at Anko, likely in relief. "Oh thank Kami you're the one who summoned us Anko-san. I hate working with Orochimaru-teme, but Manda has decreed it. Who do you need to die?"

Anko smiled at the large snake. "Hey Mamushi. Yeah, I need the one wearing cow print shit to die. You think you guys can do that for me?" The snake she was standing on lightly smacked her in the back of the head with its tail.

"What have I told you about language, Anko-san?"

"Fine. I'll work on it, just get it done!" Anko leapt off the snake she was on and watched the three summons go after Zabuza, one of them diving into the water without a single ripple being made. She landed next to Kakashi and caught the scroll she used the jutsu on. "There, that should keep him busy. Let's get to shore so we can catch our breath."

Kakashi nodded as he panted heavily. "Fine...by me. I'm really out of shape…" He was then lifted by Anko and tossed towards the shore, making him tumble quite a bit and actually hit one of the Mizu bunshins, getting him even more wet than he already was. "..."

Anko chuckled sheepishly as she ran to the shore. 'What we really need to do is get to Shikamaru. He can boost our chakra a bit, keep us in the fight." She gasped as she heard three consecutive dispelling noises, then looked behind her to see Zabuza dashing at her. "SHIT SHIT SHIT!" She ran towards the shore at full speed, leaping over Kakashi and landing next to her genin. "How's it going over here?"

Shikamaru stood up with a sigh. "Not great. The numbers are getting much smaller, but everyone except for Naruto and I are suffering from Chakra Exhaustion. You obviously haven't taken care of Zabuza, or else the clones would be gone." He connected a stream of Chakra to Anko and filled her reserves up as the rate of his enhanced recharge, slowly filling her reserves and preventing her from suffering from extreme Chakra exhaustion once the adrenaline in her body wore off.

Anko nodded as she stared at Zabuza, who had a large gash down his arm. "Well, that won't be a problem for much longer. My summons might not be the most durable, but they are fucking venomous, and that will take him out soon when the poison reaches his heart." Just as she said that, she watched the bloodied Zabuza collapse on the ground, three Senbon sticking out of his neck. "...What?"

Kakashi raised his head to see the same sight, something about it feeling off to him.

Living Tool

Haku Yuki

LVL: 41

A shorter shinobi with long, flowing black hair and a hunter mask dropped from the trees around the group, and slammed their hands against the ground. "Sensatsu Suishō!" Hundreds of senbon rose from the ground and shot at the remaining clones, dispelling them all. The shinobi slowly stood up and stared at the group. "I thank you for your assistance in capturing this traitor. I will be taking him now." The shinobi quickly lifted Zabuza over their shoulder, sealed his blade away, then flickered away in a water shunshin.

You have survived the encounter with Zabuza!

You have gained 2500 EXP ([10000/100]* 25)

You have gained 4 levels in the [Shinigami no Shokei]!

You have gained two levels in [Resist Intent]!

You have gained a level in [Surface Walking]!

Four of the six genin fell to their hands and knees at nearly the same time, panting heavily. Ami was the first to say something. "Thank...Kami...that's over."

Kakashi nodded as he stood up and stumbled over towards his Genin. "Yeah...now then, let's get to Tazuna's hou-" He was cut off by collapsing straight forward, unconscious.

Shikamaru sighed as he cut the chakra flow from Anko, then walked over to Kakashi and began to fill his reserves up again. "You guys should be glad you still have a living sensei. His chakra reserves are very close to empty. Any more of the flashy jutsu he usually does and he would have died." He sat there for a moment, then stood up. "There. He won't die." He cut the chakra flow, picked Kakashi up with an application of [Oni's Strength] and tossed him at Team Seven, knocking all of them down. "Oops. Sorry Kasumi, Sakura. I was just aiming for Sasuke, but with how large of a projectile Kakashi makes...can't be helped."

Luckily, Kasumi and Sasuke had enough energy to catch Kakashi and the later glared at Shikamaru. "How were you able to use my clans jutsu like that?!"

Shikamaru shrugged. "I just did. How about I explain it to you when we get to a place to rest." He looked at Tazuna, who was currently unconscious as well. "Anko-sensei, you wouldn't happen to have any smelling salts on you, would you?"

Anko seemed confused at the question at first, before she looked at Tazuna as well and sighed. "Yeah...I'm the interrogator of the squad right now. It's my job to have them on me." She pulled a capsule from her jacket and walked over to the downed Tazuna, then cracked the capsule open right in front of his nose, causing him to gasp as he shot up into a sitting position.

"W-What happened?" Tazuna looked around frantically. "Did we win?"

Shikamaru groaned softly as he turned towards a row boat that had washed up on the shore due to Zabuza's large scale Suiton jutsu. "...Let's pick up the pace. We have a boat, let's use it."

As Teams Seven and Eleven entered the boat and rowed across the river, which they had Naruto do, Shikamaru was filling up everyone's chakra reserves except for Naruto's, because he would die if he ever tried something like that. Fixing the other genin up was a simple matter and didn't take too much time. Anko was a different story, as they had nearly reached the other river bank by the time he was done with her. "Okay, Naruto and team Seven, you carry Kakashi by his limbs. Nothing is broken, so don't worry about some pain. If you don't want to do it, Naruto will make a clone to replace you, though it will be mentioned to your Sensei."

Naruto and Kasumi, along with two Naruto clones, proceeded to lift Kakashi off of the ground and carry him like that for the rest of the journey. Throughout the whole trip, Shikamaru was refilling Kakashi's chakra reserves, because he didn't want to waste time. By the time they got to Tazuna's house, they saw that the doors had been torn off of its hinges and there were drag marks in the mud.

Tazuna gasped as he ran inside and quickly investigated the house. "Tsunami?! Inari?!" He panted heavily as he ran back outside. "T-They were taken! I know it! Please, you have to save them!"

Anko looked at Shikamaru, then sighed. "Shikamaru, you pick out a squad to save the two captives. Now."

Shikamaru nodded and then pointed at Sakura and Ami. "You two, with me." He then began to run in the direction of the drag marks.

Sakura had trouble catching up with Shika, unlike Ami. "W-wait! Why are we in such a hurry?"

Ami looked back at Sakura, an enraged glare on her face. "Well, what happens when thugs kidnap a kid and a young woman?! I saw the pictures inside, so what do you think?!"

Sakura thought for a moment, then paled considerably. "T-They wouldn't!"

Shikamaru nodded. "They would. And they may already have done it. So it's our job to recover what's left."

"T-They could be dead?!"

Shikamaru nodded again. "Yes. Inari is more likely to be dead, though Tsunami will be used until she is broken, and then killed when the ones who took her are done with her. That or she will be sold as a slave if what Tazuna told us has any weight to it, which I'm certain he was leaving things out to spare the innocent minds of children."

Sakura nodded, then sped up, now able to keep up with her fellow genin.

Naruto looked at Anko as he dropped Kakashi onto the couch. "Anko-sensei, why did Shikamaru take Sakura and not me?"

Anko thought for a second. "Well...probably because she hasn't seen death yet. Also, because you're more capable. He left the stronger team here to defend our client, so it was a tactically sound decision. As for Sakura...well, she'll be useless, but he's counting on that, so he's going to test her, and give her a very harsh awakening. It'll either make her leave the shinobi program, or she'll start to see how dangerous this job is for girls like her and she'll change. Either way, she'll live longer."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. "That girl needs something like this. In the Uchiha clan, we are adapted to the life of shinobi already, as we are made to kill our puppies when we reach the age of five. I believe the other clans used to practice this, but stopped due to complaints of the Inuzuka clan."

Kasumi stared at Sasuke. "Y-You killed a puppy…?"

Sasuke nodded. "I loved that puppy...but my father ordered it, and I did it."

Naruto glanced at Sasuke. "Your dad kinda sounds like an asshole."

Sasuke glared at Naruto. "As right as you are, dobe, he didn't deserve the fate he received."

Shikamaru held his hand up, making both kunoichi behind him stop. He closed his eyes and expanded his senses. "...They are in front of us...one child, one civilian, and three slightly larger than civilian targets. The child and civilian are currently imobile, so I'll assume they're tied up or unconscious. Ami, go and free Tsunami and Inari. Sakura, you're with me."

Sakura blinked. "Are we going to capture them?"

Shikamaru looked at Ami, who nodded and leapt into the trees without a sound. "Maybe one of them." He snuck closer and looked at the position of the sun, seeing that it was setting. "Lots of things can happen when the shadows lengthen..." He saw one of them standing alone, clearly relieving his bladder. "This one we'll capture for interrogation." He silently performed the [Kage-Kubishibari] and strangled the man, depriving him of oxygen until he fell limp. He then used the jutsu to drag him close. The second part took an extreme amount of concentration. "Tie him up. As tightly as you can make it, I don't care if you dislocate limbs, just make sure that he can't escape."

Sakura was shocked at the cold tone of voice Shikamaru was giving her, then nodded hesitantly as she dislocated the man's shoulders and legs as to tie him up tighter. She watched Shikamaru put his face mask on and silently walk into the camp. "What are you doing?"

Shikamaru paused for a moment, then looked back at Sakura. "Watch. Very. Carefully." He took his scythe off of his back and walked towards the two other taller men. "Hey. Fucksticks." When he got the attention of the two, he threw a kunai in between them, then decapitated one of them. He spun his scythe for a moment, then slammed the tip of his blade into the other man, impaling him through his spine.

Sakura gasped at the sight, then proceeded to throw up her lunch as she saw Shikamaru twist the blade and slice through the man horizontally. A clone of shikamaru held her head in place though, making her watch. "W-why are you doing this…?"

The clone looked down at Sakura as his original spun around again and cut the remaining thugs head off. "This is our job. If you can't stomach it, then you need to leave, or you will die. This is a fact of life, just like how we need to breathe, shinobi kill. We can avoid killing as much as we can, but some people just have to die. Like these ones. All we need is one captive, and the rest need to die, so that they can't report back to their boss."

Sakura shivered heavily at the sight of the original shikamaru cleaning his scythe like nothing had happened. "B-But...they might have had families… friends…"

The clone nodded again as the original immolated the two corpses. "Yes, but this is the job. It's not rescuing princesses through running away with her, allowing an army to chase after you. If the mission is to rescue the princess, then you take out as many hostiles as needed on your way to the target and leave. The best missions are ones where nothing happens, as you won't need to kill. So, do you honestly still want to be a shinobi? Make your decision by the time the mission is over, otherwise it will be made for you by someone else." The clone walked away and over to the original as another clone formed next to him.

Shikamaru looked at the clones. "Henge into these two, then act all drunk when you get to town, try to find someone else at a bar that seems shady, probably someone who has a weapon on them, and act like you forgot where the base is. Once you're inside, gather as much intel as possible."

The two clones nodded and became perfect copies of the two thugs, but with slightly reddened faces, indicating drunkenness. They walked off, and once they were far away enough, then began to laugh in the voices of the thugs.

Shikamaru walked over to Sakura and then picked her up, dusted her off, then looked at the captive. "You know how to seal objects up?" When he received a nod, he handed her a sealing scroll. "Put him in there. He's immobile, so it should be easy, and won't kill him." He walked towards Ami as he took his mask off, seeing her holding a crying Tsunami on the ground, and a sleeping Inari. "Lilac. How are they?"

Ami felt Tsunami flinch at the new voice. "Hey, it's okay. He's with me. He's the one who took out the guards." She then looked at Shikamaru. "Physically, she's fine. She said that the goons mentioned something about not touching the merchandise."

Shikamaru nodded as he gently picked up Inari. "So they are running a sex slave operation. Good to confirm. I have some Kage Bunshin infiltrating the base right now. We'll have their location and mode of operation in a few hours." He walked over to Tsunami and crouched down next to her. He pulled a rag from his Inventory, as well as a water flask. He got the rag damp and then looked at Tsunami. "Do you mind?"

Tsunami stared at Shikamaru, then gulped. "N-No…"

Shikamaru nodded and then began to gently clean Tsunami's face of the dirt and tear stains. He stood up when he was finished, burning the rag to nothing. "Let's get you and your son home." He adjusted his hold on Inari to drape him over his shoulder and offered a hand to Tsunami.

The woman stared up at Shikamaru, then hesitantly took his hand and got up with his assistance, revealing that she was taller than him. "Oh. You're...a lot shorter than you look from the ground…"

Ami snickered at that. "Okay, lets go. How's Flamingo doing? I saw what you did."

Shikamaru sighed. "She's...shaken. But it will give her something to think about, and it will certainly save her life." He looked up at Tsunami, then smiled at her. "Your father is waiting for you, so let's hurry back before it gets dark." The group left the tent silently, coming across Sakura holding a scroll. She was visibly shaking, but still followed Shikamaru.

Tsunami seemed concerned at this. "I-Is she okay…?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "No. She just witnessed death for the first time. I didn't have her kill, only watch."

Tsunami's eyes widened. "B-But you're just children!"

Shikamaru nodded in response. "Yes, but we are children that are Shinobi. Death is in the job description." The rest of the trip was spent in a tense silence. After an hour of walking, Shikamaru received the scroll from Sakura, then opened the door to the house.

"Tsunami!" Tazuna ran over to his daughter and held her close. "You're okay… You're okay…"

Tsunami hugged back, trembling as she did. "Tou-san...T-They were-"

Anko cleared her throat. "As much as I want to hear what happened, you should get some rest. All of you."

Tsunami nodded softly. "O-Of course...thank you all so much…" She carefully took Inari from Shikamaru and carried him upstairs. Tazuna followed very shortly after, making sure that his daughter didn't fall.

Anko looked over at Sakura, who was sitting against the couch, still extremely pale and shaking. "Okay Shikamaru, what did you do?"

Shikamaru sighed. "I had her watch as I killed two of Tsunami's captors and explained to her what being a shinobi is."

Ami nodded in response. "I don't like killing, but those guys had to die."

Anko sighed. "Fine. I guess you did what you could. But you couldn't incapacitate one of them for capture?"

Shikamaru blinked. "Oh yeah. Present for you Sensei." He tossed the scroll at Anko. "There were three of them, this one is yours to play with." He shivered at the evil laugh that came from his sensei, then sighed once she left. "...I'm going to go keep watch. Come up to the roof if you need anything."

Kasumi watched Shikamaru leave after Anko, then looked at Ami. "What's up with him?"

Naruto responded from the kitchen. "Shikamaru has killed more than any of us except for Anko-sensei and Kakashi. He killed three when his compound was attacked, Mizuki-teme, one of the demon brothers that attacked us on the way here, and two of those bandits. I've been told that killing has this...effect on you when you do it at such a young age. It makes you cold. I think that he's trying to deal with it."

Sasuke nodded. "That's exactly what he's trying to do. As a rite of passage, once Uchiha become genin, they go out with their parents and take out a bandit camp, making their child take the last kill. It's worse the younger they are, and they usually end up taking their own lives due to nightmares."

Naruto and Ami stared at Sasuke, then Ami spoke. "Kami, how fucked up was your clan? I kinda get why you're such an ass now, but...geez."

Sasuke nodded. "Before...he...snapped, he openly opposed this method along with my mother, and his friend Shisui. It became too much for him, so...perhaps that's why he killed them all...but it's my job to kill him. I have to."

Ami sighed. "Didn't ask for your life story, but it's helpful to know that you aren't inherently an ass." She looked at her blond companion. "Let's go talk to him." They left the house and hopped up to the roof to see Shikamaru watching the stars. "Shikamaru...we need to-"

Shika sighed. "I'm fine. I'm keeping track, and I'm remembering their faces. It's the best way to stay sane, so I'm told. They were people, and I recognize that I erased whatever they could have been. I'm aware of everything, but sometimes, you have to choose. And if you have to kill to save a life, then you do it if there's no other way, or your hesitance will cost you."

For coming to a logical conclusion to your internal dilemma, take +1 WIS!

Naruto nodded. "Yeah...but...do you still want to talk about it?"

Shikamaru sighed. "...The only part that's hard to accept is how easy it is sometimes. It's...awful...it being that easy."

Ami nodded. "So we finally found something that your skill won't numb for you. Guilt."

Anko hopped onto the roof. "Dammit Shikamaru, if you were feeling this way, then why didn't you come to me about it?" Her genin looked at her like she grew a second head. "What?"

Naruto seemed nervous. "No offence Anko-sensei...but you aren't really the...feelings...kind of sensei." He seemed to confirm this as a fist was driven into his gut.

Anko growled at Naruto, then sighed. "I know, but it's still my job, which I have been neglecting a bit as of late. So...talk to me. Your power making it hard on you?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "The opposite, which is what's worrying. It's too easy for me to resort to killing. I can come up with all of these scenarios in my head, but half the time they are of me killing the target instead of capturing."

Anko sighed. "Well, it looks like your dad didn't teach you this, did he? Well...only half of your scenarios involve killing, so at least you're just a rational shinobi. Clearly you don't like that, so I'll teach you a trick to dealing with it, and keeping your kill count at a minimum." She crouched down next to Shikamaru. "So, you've killed seven people. Keeping track helps a little. It keeps you sane. But here's what you really need to remember." She leaned in closer. "You need to learn that it's okay to feel when killing. You're going cold right before a kill, so you don't have to feel the guilt that comes with it. Just let it go through you. You'll get used to the guilt around your twentieth kill…"

Shikamaru sighed as he sat up. "Just let it though, huh…?" He closed his eyes, forcibly deactivated [Gamer's Mind] and almost immediately tears began to fall from his eyes. "Dammit…" He felt Anko rubbing his head as his two teammates rubbed and patted his back to comfort him as he wept.

The masked shinobi sighed as she took the senbon out of Zabuza's neck. "You need to be more cautious Master. Those shinobi nearly got you."

Zabuza gasped loudly as he shot up. "Kami...dammit Haku. Did you have to be so rough?" He rubbed the holes in his neck, then sighed as he set his hand down. "I had them on the ropes. They were running out of chakra fast."

Haku nodded. "Yes, the adults, but the masked child with the scythe and the blond one, they seemed to have endless stamina and chakra."

Zabuza shrugged. "So what? They're kids, and they were fighting my water clones. If they were having trouble with those, then we don't have to worry about anything." He laid on his stomach as Haku fixed the wounds on his neck. "But I do admit, those two surprised me. Able to make Kage Bunshin in that quantity, and one who can regenerate chakra as fast as he spends it. If I were stupid, I'd think that both of them are Jinchūriki, but Konoha only has one."

Haku's eyes widened behind their mask. "You don't mean that one of those two carry the Kyūbi, do you?"

Zabuza cracked his neck loudly as he sighed. "Yep. That's exactly what I mean. One of those two has a ball of angry fluff in their gut. My bet would be the blonde one, so now I just want to find out what makes the other one tick." He stood up and threw a few punches, then slammed his leg through a table. "Good work Haku. Your jutsu are improving quickly. As expected from one of my tools, but it's still good work."

Haku's breath hitched, then looked away. "T-Thank you, Zabuza-sama…" They looked back at the missing-nin. "So, how do we proceed? Should we kill them while they're recovering?"

Zabuza hummed in thought, then looked over at the door, which was slammed open.

A very short, fat man with sunglasses and a suit walked into the room. "What the hell are you two doing?! I hired you to kill the carpenter and I couldn't see one corpse at the ambush site!"

Zabuza growled as he stared at the man in the eyes. "It'll get done Gato. I was playing with my food last time. It won't happen again. Besides, they'll be easier to deal with now that I've nearly drained the ones who are actually competent. So get out and let me work."

Gato visibly flinched at Zabuza's stare, then growled as he walked away. "Get it done!" He snapped and his two bodyguards followed behind him, one looking back at Zabuza for a moment before following Gato.

Zabuza groaned as he flopped into his seat. "I want to kill him so badly…." He clenched his fists hard enough to draw blood, causing Haku to grab onto his hands to heal them. "...Let's give them a week."

Haku looked up at their master. "Why give them time? It will only be more difficult to be rid of them if we allow them to rest."

Zabuza looked up as he smirked under his bandages. "Besides pissing off that fat fuck to no end...I want to see how quickly they can improve. Call it a hunch, but I got a good feeling about that scythe user. He'll be fun to fight." He then glanced at the doorway and looked at Haku. "Shut the door."

Haku nodded and quickly closed and latched the door, giving them privacy.

A figure silently and carefully crawled down the wall and then dusted off their clothes. 'That would have been a disaster if he decided to kill me.' He stretched casually as he walked away silently. 'Then again, it's not like anything would be left behind.' The figure walked behind a pillar, then transformed into a random looking goon with average features. Someone that no one would remember was even there.

You have rested in a secure area on a bed!

HP has been restored by 55%

CP has been restored by 55%

All physical status ailments have been cured!

Shikamaru sighed as he swiped the window away, just now realizing how long it had been since he last slept. It was around the time when he met Ami. "Huh…" He sat up and then stretched a bit as he stood. He casually walked downstairs to see Tsunami, Anko, and Kakashi awake. "Hey."

Kakashi looked up from his book and eye-smiled at Shikamaru. "Good morning! Word through the grapevine is that this was the first time you've slept in a few months. How'd you manage that?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "Practice. Like anything else. How do you shrug off complaints from others like they're nothing?"

Kakashi chuckled. "Fair point, but you know it took a surprising amount of effort to learn to do tha-"

Shikamaru let out a fake yawn, but it sounded decent. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

Anko snickered to herself as she sharpened her blades. "Your yawn needs some work, especially since you don't get tired anymore." She then looked at Kakashi, who was crying. "Hey, Cyclops. Don't get any ideas about stealing my student away from me."

Tsunami sighed as she set a spoon down. Apparently she was making breakfast. "How do you three do that? Just...act normal?"

The three ninja looked at Tsunami, then all sighed at the same time. Kakashi held up a closed hand.

Anko and Shikamaru both sighed and held out closed hands. "Ro-sham-bo." All three of them opened their hands, and Anko's was flat while Kakashi and Shikamaru had two fingers released. Shika walked over to Tsunami and began to stir the food that was in the pot. "Anko will explain it to you."

Anko groaned loudly, then looked at the ceiling. "Not fair. Lazy minds think alike…" She sighed, now trying to find out how to phrase her explanation. "...Okay...so you know how you have a really shitty day, and you come home to your kid with a plastered on smile?" When she got a noise of confirmation, she smirked. "Well, us ninja have plastered on personalities. Think of them as masks. The good ones have a mask for every occasion, from eating, to killing, to fucking. That's how we get through our days. I wear the sadist mask, Cyclops here wears the lazy mask, and the nerd behind you wears the 'reluctant hard worker' mask. We swap them out at any given time, and leave the nightmares that like to creep up on us behind with it. Some call it insane, I call it efficient."

Shikamaru sighed as he tasted the breakfast stew. "This is amazing. I would let it thicken up a little more before serving it though. Some rice flour would help with that, but only use a little, otherwise the stew will get gritty."

[Cooking] has gained a level!

He then set the spoon down and walked outside. "Come on, Bitch-sensei. You need to do your job and wake up your lazy genin."

Anko whined childishly. "What about Kakashi though?! Why doesn't he have to do it this early?!"

Shikamaru looked back at Anko. "Why are you complaining? You get to torture two tired genin who want nothing else than to get away from you. And Kakashi gets to spend the day recovering, along with his brats. You know that our team doesn't get that excuse."

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Actually Shikamaru, if you have a way of getting me back into fighting shape today, I would love to hear it."

A clone appeared next to Kakashi and immediately took a meditative position on the couch as a blue stream of chakra connected it and the jonin. "Don't go too far. My range isn't that great yet. And don't worry about me dispelling, I'm perfect enough to regenerate chakra if I focus. I have to remain still for it to work though, or I'll probably explode or something."

Kakashi looked at the Kage Bunshin. "So you're saying that we both get to be lazy for medical reasons?" He received a nod, which made him look at Shikamaru.

The boy shrugged. "As long as I get the memories of being lazy, it counts in my book." He then cursed as he was dragged outside by a snake. "See you later, Hypnos." The door slammed shut, making Tsunami flinch.

"Does...that always happen?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I would think so. She's the most openly sadistic woman in Konoha." He then heard screams from upstairs, and guessed that it was Naruto and Ami. "And the other two are awake now and probably leaping out the window." He chuckled as he read his book.

Outside the house, Anko had Naruto and Ami wrapped up in the coils of two large constrictor snakes, and had Shikamaru pinned to the ground with her foot. Which had a lot of snakes wrapped around it, constricting the boy. "Okay LISTEN UP! I WILL ONLY SAY THIS ONCE! YOU THREE ARE GOING TO WORK EXTREMELY HARD! YOUR CLONES WILL DO JUTSU TRAINING WHILE I WHIP YOUR BODIES INTO SHAPE! UNDERSTOOD?!" The snakes constricted somewhat tighter, eliciting groans from the three Genin. "I'll take your groans of agony as a 'yes'." She released Shikamaru and had her snakes set the other two down. "Nerd-gaki, juice your gal pal up."

Shikamaru sighed as he did what he was told. He had forgotten how troublesome of a teacher Anko is. He was about to be given a cruel reminder.

Kami panted softly as she held her gaping chest wound, dripping white blood. "Nyarlathotep… Why are you..even doing this…?"

The small boy wearing baggy clothes shrugged. "The better answer is why not? I'm bored, and this universe is honestly pretty fun. So once I kill you, what happens to your little pawn down there? Does 'hard mode' activate? Because that sounds fun."

Kami chuckled softly. "You won't be able to mess with the game. Not this time. The only way that happens is if we all die. If only one of us lives, no matter how close to death we are, the game will continue to function as normal."

Nyarlathotep sighed, then snapped as multiple tendrils that were darker than the deepest shade of black stabbed through every part of her body, causing her to glow and then shatter into celestial dust. "Then I'll just do that. It's my time to have fun, because there's no one else to hold me back." He sighed as he heard a loud screech and a purple and black swirling portal opened up.

A woman with long black hair draped in front of her face shambled out, black tar dripping from her blackened kimono and her hair. She looked at the boy in front of her with pure hatred in her yellow eyes. "You killed my sister…" She threw her arm to the side and the very essence of the dark began to attack Nyarlathotep.

The boy made a barrier of light around him, laughing gleefully. "Finally! You don't even want to try to bore me with human games! Let's have some fun!"His laugh quickly became filled with madness and he sent bolts of pure light at Yami. When they were simply absorbed into the god, he chuckled. "A puzzle boss! Gotta figure out how you work before I can SLAUGHTER YOU!"He screamed as countless tendrils of abyssal darkness purst from his back and began to attack Yami relentlessly.

Yami kept glaring as she deflected each tendril of darkness with a finger. "Abomination…" She hit the Elder God in the chest with a palm strike, making reality itself shudder as Nyarlathotep was sent flying...somewhere. She appeared behind him and grasped the base of his tentacles. She grasped the back of the boy's head as leverage and then tore all of the tentacles out at once, eliciting a scream of pain from the god.

Nyarlathotep began to laugh once he finished screaming, then looked back at Yami with an eye that opened up on his shoulder. His arm suddenly twisted back inhumanly and attempted to stab the god in the eyes.

Yami leaned back and then tossed the other god away with enough force to break the sound barrier several times over before appearing before him and extending her fingers, slicing the boy in two. She looked back at the two halves of a corpse, then watched as the two sprouted countless abyssal tentacles and pulled itself together, fusing again.

Nyarlathotep stood up quickly, then rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. "Well, looks like I'll have to kick it up a notch with you!" His laughter began again as his hair became the black tendrils, and faces began to form on his person as well. He tore his shirt off so that Yami could see, then grinned. "I have so many faces, you'll take millennia to punch them all!"He then grunted as he was assaulted with countless fists made of darkness. "Okay, maybe a century or two!"

Yami growled as she cracked her neck and countless dark lances pierced the boy. "Why won't you take this seriously…?!"

Nyarlathotep chuckled happily. "Two reasons, the first is that it's what you want! The second is if I take you seriously, then I would be done in a fraction of a heartbeat! And that's not fun, so I'm not gonna do that!" He seemingly flexed and all of the lances shattered, leaving no puncture wounds at all. "I'm gonna play with you until I'm bored!"

Shikamaru panted heavily as he narrowly avoided getting stabbed by Anko, using his scythe to vault into the air. He was then kicked in the stomach and sent tumbling to the ground. He rolled with the hit, flipping onto his feet and using his scythe to stop himself.

Anko smirked as she appeared behind Shikamaru with her blade at his throat. "Aaaand time!" She stepped away, allowing the boy to fall to his knees. "You did good. Go send a Kage Bunshin to work on your Surface Walking ability, and go get the other two for lunch." She helped Shikamaru up, then walked away to go and work more on that captive.

Shikamaru groaned quietly as he made a Bunshin that split his CP evenly, then walked over to his teammates, who were on the ground. "Naruto, stop exaggerating. You have more Stamina than I do." He then helped Ami up as he stared at the Jinchūriki.

Naruto shushed Shikamaru. "I'm trying to not get killed by Anko-Sensei from being overworked!" He then felt a familiar sandal on his face.

A clone of Anko was pressing her foot on Naruto's face. "Is that so~? Well, we'll just have to train extra hard after lunch then, won't we Gaki?" She then kicked him in the ass hard enough to send him onto his feet. "Now then, I got some stuff for you all, but you gotta work fo-...Why are you ignoring me?"

Shikamaru pulled out two sandwiches and gave them to his team before starting to eat one himself, if only for the temporary boost in CP regen. By 2%. Other than that, the sandwich was okay. "Yeah...I need to work on my [Cooking] skill more. Way more. This won't do." He made another clone, who immediately walked off to help Tsunami with prep for dinner. "There."

The clone's eye twitched, then hit all of her brats in the back of the head. "STOP FUCKING IGNORING ME!"

Shikamaru took the hit like it was nothing, considering that the clone can't put too much power into the hits. It still took 10 HP from him though. "Anko, we aren't ignoring you...well, I'm not. I'm splitting my focus. Just tell it to me and I'll make sure that Naruto hears it, because I'm sure that Ami can hear you just fine."

Ami nodded as she rubbed her head where the fist connected. "Yeah, what he said… geez…"

Anko sighed. "Fine. I want to get the Blondie training on more chakra control. He'll need it if he ever wants to master his Kage Bunshin."

Naruto tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Anko sighed and then closed her eyes and held up the cloning sign. She looked very strained as another version of her seemingly phased into existence. She released the sign, panting heavily. "Smokeless Kage Bunshin. Takes both amazing chakra control and extreme focus. The less control you have, the more focus you need. That right there needed me to tune out everything."

Shikamaru nodded as he sat down and began to meditate in his thinking pose. "If I have more control, then I may be able to do the silent summoning with less Chakra...Wait." He then made a clone. "See if you can make a clone."

The clone of Shika sighed, then performed the jutsu, with a clone appearing in smoke next to them.

Shikamaru nodded as he waited until he was at full CP, then used all of it to make a single clone.

You are now suffering the effects of Chakra Exhaustion. Chakra regen is halved for five minutes.

Anko immediately ran over and punched Shikamaru in the stomach. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF!"

Shikamaru shook his head as he lamented the lost HP. "I made a Kage Bunshin to train that one skill. His job is to sit there for the rest of the day and make clones. Those clones will also make clones, so on, and so forth. You can have Naruto make a single, high chakra clone, and have that clone make a ton of them so that the blonde won't get any backlash from the things popping rapidly as they lose chakra. Just have the original focus on physical training."

Naruto grinned. "Thanks Shika! I'll do that from now on!" He was about to do that, when Anko hit him on the head. "Hey!"

Anko chuckled. "That might work for you, Nerd, but it wouldn't work the same for Naruto. Because all of the clones have the same memories and training, they would have the same control, and improvement rate. It won't stack onto each other like yours would." She patted Naruto's head. "Make a high Chakra clone, but for improving control only. Make only one."

Naruto sighed and nodded as he made one, who went to go run up trees. "Man. I was hoping that it would work."

Anko shrugged. "It wasn't a bad idea, it's just been done before. I did it when I tried to do chakra control, and I didn't get any boosted results. It's much better for studying though, because you can have clones read different things and then the knowledge will be transferred. Unfortunately, not Control training."

Shikamaru sighed as he laid on the ground. "That's a shame… I wanted to get Naruto as strong as possible. He subtly switched Naruto over to the boosted Control training mode as the blonde clone went off. "At least it works for me. Once I get enough Chakra...hmm…"

Ami stared at Shikamaru. "What is it?"

Shika sat up. "I can transfer Chakra to a target, but it's a transfer. So I can likely reverse the flow of Chakra to take instead of give!"

For figuring out the dual nature of the skill, you have gained +1 INT!

Chakra Draining is locked until you reach LVL 10 in [Chakra Transfer]

Shikamaru nodded and once the five minutes were up, he let his clone transfer Chakra to him, and he began to do the same. He was making a loop of Chakra, and for the life of him, he couldn't understand why he didn't think of it before. Once his Chakra had naturally recovered enough, he made another clone and had them do what he was doing a moment ago. He then stood up and stretched. "I better see how the B-Team is doing."

Anko snorted in amusement. "Hell no. You send a clone when you get the chance to. Otherwise I'll break your legs."

Shikamaru groaned. "Fine. But I'll just end up sleeping it off for five minutes, you know."

It had been three days since the team last saw Zabuza and Haku, and Team 11 had made quite a bit of progress. Naruto had raised hs Chakra Control to 20%, no small feat for one who has a Bijū inside of him. That is what they focused on the entire time, and it has paid off, as Shikamaru had found a loophole in the method of Kage Bunshin training for his blonde friend. He made Naruto make a clone for each Tenketsu point in his body and have a different leaf stick to each one. It had boosted it from the miserable 5% that he had before. He was now having him balancing senbon on each point, with...varying results. It was easiest when done on the fingers and toes.

For Ami, they had focused on the opposite, which was increasing her reserves. This was done through VIT training and through teaching her the [Chakra Regeneration] skill. She constantly had a single clone training Control while she did her own training to keep up with her slow growth in Chakra. As a result, her Max CP became 632 and her Control had remained level at 71%.

In Shikamaru's case, they had also focused on stats, but through clones. Over the course of the past few days, the number of lazy bastards had grown to twenty, and all of them were working on low CP skills or stat training. Three were reading books that Kakashi and Anko had on them, the orange one being taken immediately before he could even see what it was. Kakashi was bedridden for another day because of that stunt. Anyways, it was discovered that if one clone played against someone with higher WIS than himself, he gained more points. As for LUK, he just played some betting games against a bunch of Naruto clones. Due to that, he was able to gain 3 points in INT, 4 points in WIS, and 7 points in LUK. This also pushed his WIS past 50, and he got the corresponding notification for it.

Due to raising your WIS past the limits of the average person, you have gained access to Medical Ninjutsu! You must first obtain the skill books for [Anatomy] and [Medical Knowledge], as the learning requirements are dependent on those two skills.

He was a bit frustrated, but he could always absorb a book or two, then have the clones read up on them to raise those. For the first time in his life, he's regretting being lazy, or he would have remembered some of his Biology classes, other than where to slash to cause an immediate kill. He had also improved his physical stats, but not as quickly due to there only being one of him. He had only increased his STR by 1, his VIT by 2, and his DEX by 1 as well. Anko kept him from working on his skills, so he just trained them while she slept. He mostly trained his [Surface Walking] and [Chakra Regeneration] by sitting on the water until he nearly ran out of Chakra. They reached LVL 25 and LVL 30 respectively. Then he would go into town and practice his [Stealth] by following some of Gato's men around and then capturing them while replacing them with Henged clones. He could only do a few per night. There was...one more thing that he did though.

Shikamaru smiled as he set bowls of rice down in front of orphans on the street. Not that they could see the smile. These were the kids who had escaped Gato while their parents couldn't. When he found that man, he was going to get every last bit of information out of him before he killed him. This monster certainly deserved it, but right now, he was helping the orphans with his half-decent [Cooking] skill. He turned away from them as he removed his mask to speak. "The fish is almost done, but you can start eating now if you want." The response he got were the sounds of the kids eating.

Your [Cooking] skill level has increased by 1!

That was just an added bonus. He stood up and made a clone. His CP Regen was good enough for him to create clones with Minimal CP in quick succession. "This guy will stay here and watch you. I have to go look for others." He then leapt up and began to sneak around on the rooftops. After an hour or so, there was a shrill scream, causing him to quickly alter his course towards it. He glared as he saw three men with bloodied fists and clothes dragged a young woman out of her home. "Gato…" He created a clone to go check on the people inside as he tailed the kidnappers. His clone had dispelled, indicating that the family the woman was taken from were made an example of and killed. The husband, and their two kids. He waited for the men to take the woman away from the main streets before silently dropping down behind them.

The man dragging the woman tossed her in front of him, then chuckled lowly. "Now then, you saw what we did to your family. Do you really want to cross us?"

The one on the right seemed confident, judging by his stance. The second, the one on the left, seemed scared as he looked around rapidly, and his knees were quivering. "Hey, you didn't have to kill them! I didn't want to see that!"

The one in charge hit the scared man in the gut. "Quiet. Grow a spine. I'm not gonna deal with your whining today." He lumbered closer to the woman, undoing the clasp on his belt.

Shikamaru didn't wait any longer and then bisected two men very quietly, and glared at the third. "Say anything and your life is forfeit." He forced all of the anger he was feeling onto the man, causing him to turn white. Guess he doesn't have any K.I. resistance.

[Project Intent] has gained a level!

Shikamaru watched the man run away and he sighed as he cleaned his blade, and then put it back as he looked at the woman. "Are you okay..?" He was allowing his sadness into his voice so that he didn't seem like a threat.

The woman gulped softly and shook her head. "T-They killed my family…" She scooted back from the corpses and looked up at Shikamaru, afraid. "You killed them like they were nothing...like they did…"

Shikamaru nodded. "Yes...but I didn't enjoy it like they did…" He sighed. "There is a group of orphans in the village. I try to take care of them, but I can't be there for them all the time. Not to mention that I am woefully under-equipped to protect them even if I could be there all the time. If you're willing, I would like it if you could help take care of them."

The woman stared for a moment longer, then sighed. "Okay… but no weapons… and no magic that you Nara do…"

Shikamaru blinked, then stared at the woman. "I'm not wearing my headband right now…How did you know I was a Nara…?" It was then he looked at the woman's name and title.

Sealed Fate

LVL: 4(?)

Uzumaki, Megumi

Ending it before I lose too much drive. The chapter probably has a lot of conflicting tones in it due to the timeframe I wrote it over. It is not my best work, but I don't have the mental energy to edit it right now. Thank you for reading, honest critisem is welcome, but don't just flame for the hell of it. Be respectful of the other people reading the reviews. Have a good day everyone!

*Forgot to add the line breaks. Just a quick edit.