Ryter here, once again to bring you one great story. Now I've know that you all must be a little miffed at me. I mean I did take forever to write this, but I promise that I'll make it worth the wait. Right now however I shall apologize to you for being really really late with this. I'm sorry.(Puppy dog eyes) Pwease forgive me. Okay that's over. Read on.

Disclaimer: If it were mine, it wouldn't be called FAN fiction.

Shikamaru lay under the stars wondering if this was the way he would die. The wound in his side was still bleeding and there was nothing that he could do. The pain had stopped long ago and he could feel himself going cold. He closed his eyes in annoyance.

"This is the last time that I take Asuma Sensei's place on a mission."

He let a cynical smirk cross his lips. THIS may be his last mission, period. It he was slowly getting colder and knew that the rest of his squad was probably miles away on a wild goose hunt to find the spy. There was nothing he could do, but try and fight his lossing battle against the sleep that wanted to claim him.

'There is no way this could get worse. Scratch that. If Chouji and Ino were making out while I died it would definatley be worse.'

He felt a wave of tiredness wash over him, and he let go and fell asleep.


Sakura doubled back through the woods. She had been assigned along with Naruto on a simple mission. They had to find some kids dog. They had caught the little scamp earlier that day, but Naruto had lost track of him and it had gotten away. Now they were going to spend all night hunting for it.

'Damn it Naruto! You can't even hold on to a dog for a few..."

She stopped. She heard a muffled moan in the distance.

"Hello. Is anybody there?"

The only sound that answered her was another moan that ended quickly. Grabbing one of her kunai she ran in the direction that the moan had come from.

'If someone is trying to get to me, they are so going to pay.'


Shikamaru made himself stay awake. This was not the place or the time to black out. Using one of his shuriken, he forced himself to keep his eyes open by repeatedly brining it down on his hand. It hurt like hell, but it was the best way to keep from blacking out.

'At least for awhile that is.'

He kept this up for a full thirty minutes before the blood loss and the numbing cold finally got to him. The trees and stars around him started to spin, and before everything went black he had could only think of one thing.

'Dying is going to be a real drag.'


Sakura came running through the woods, ready to attack if she had to, but she stopped short when she saw Shikamaru laid out on the ground. Her first thought when she saw the large pool of blood around him was that he was dead, but then she saw his chest rise slightly and knew he was still alive. She walked over to him checking his pulse. He was alive alright, but only barely.

"Shikamaru, what happened to you? Where's Ino and Chouji?"

He didn't answer, not that she thought he would. She took his already ripped shirt and tore it into strips. She then wrapped it around his wound. It would not totally stop the bleeding, but it would slow it down. She then lifted his limp body onto her shoulder and started to carry him back towardst he village.

"I don't know what happened to you Shikamaru, but you better make it so that you can tell me."

Yes, this is what you've waited for. I'm really sorry for the wait, but I did keep my promise. The next chapter will be up really soon and will be a whole lot better than this one. I hope. Please review and tell me if it was worth it, or if I totally let you all down. Oh, and next chapter will be a lot longer than this one. I almost always do short beginings. Sorry.