Disclaimer reminder: I own nothing.

Other Reminder: This one gets a bit violent again.

At the river, Shikamaru stood a few paces behind Kakashi as the older ninja alternated between different types of physical blows to the captive - formerly thought to be a terrified and misinformed civilian, but now revealed to be a kunoichi of at least moderate skill.

Kakashi wasn't asking her questions at this point; he just seemed to be taking out his frustrations and his fear for his friend on her. The hunch of his shoulders was almost primal as he let his emotions control his punches, slaps, and backhands.

Does he want me to stop him? I don't really want to. I'm...that was a really fucked up trick she pulled. How did I not see that she was a plant?

Kakashi backhanded her again.

It's an act. It's all about acting. She acted like the innocent victim, and now Kakashi's acting like he's lost control of his own rage... What's my most effective part to play right now? Shikamaru studied the woman, but didn't move his hands to their normal thinking position. Instead, he focused on observing her.

She was still wearing a defiant expression - not quite smirking but not quite angry, more like...determined. With her new haircut, it was all the more disconcerting.

The scorpions, she had claimed to Ino, were her way out of here by way of what effectively constituted a hostage trade-off. But how did she expect the logistics to work? Could she control the scorpions from a distance? Or would she demand that Genma be left alone with her, so she could supposedly take her scorpions and then make her escape? Or extract them first under careful scrutiny and expect to be allowed to walk away afterwards?

None of those options made sense, except possibly controlling the scorpions from a distance. And in that case, they needed to know the distance.

Another option also occurred to Shikamaru. Maybe escape wasn't her true objective with them - if that was the case, she wouldn't have allowed herself to get caught in the first place.

That was more troubling than anything he'd thought of so far.

"Kakashi-sensei," he said softly after a moment.

Kakashi ignored him.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" Shikamaru repeated with a bit more force.

Kakashi still ignored him.

So he wants me to play the good guy... Shikamaru sighed and formed a hand-seal. Shadows snaked from each of his feet to join Kakashi's shadow, and Kakashi's form froze in place in mid-slap.

"Sensei. Don't you think we should at least ask her some questions?"

Kakashi just growled, and Shikamaru fought to keep his face stoic. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or shudder, but neither would fit the role he was hoping to play right now.

The woman laughed darkly and spat on the ground. Then in a sing-song voice, she taunted, "Sensei? Sensei! Oh Sensei, losing your cool isn't a very good look! It's awfully shameful when a student has to control the teacher!"

Shikamaru used his shadow to allow Kakashi's arm to complete the slap he'd interrupted earlier.

"Well, you're not exactly likely to live to tell anyone about it," Shikamaru drawled as the kunoichi scrunched her face in response to the unexpected impact.

"I am if you want your friend to live," she said, the sing-song voice gone now.

"Tell me more about that."

She eyed Kakashi, whose one visible eye was still glowering.

"I want him backed off away from me."

"And then you'll tell me what I want to know?"

"And then I'll tell you my demands."

Shikamaru stepped backwards several paces, causing Kakashi to do the same. This is gonna be a weird conversation later.

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm going to release the jutsu. You...?" Shikamaru left the question hanging.

Kakashi shifted his glare from the captive onto Shikamaru, and after a momentary stand-off, the rage broke. Kakashi blinked, still somehow managing to look frustrated, but also giving an eye-roll that seemed to say "okay fine, I'll behave."

Shikamaru let his shadow return to his own form as normal, and when Kakashi stayed put and crossed his arms, Shikamaru turned back to the captive.

"So what are you expecting to happen here?"

She sat up a bit straighter and looked between the two Konoha nin before answering. "I expect you to let me go, and in exchange, I'll extract my babies from your friend."

"How?"

"I control them. How I do it is my secret."

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched. "I mean, I need more details about the logistics of your proposal. How do you propose to remove them, and why should I believe you'll actually do it without killing him?"

She studied Shikamaru a bit more closely. "You don't seem to care much for your friend."

"I'm a cold calculating bastard. Now tell me why I should believe you."

"Fine. I 'propose,' as you say, that you take me back to camp, untie me and back off to one side of the camp leaving me an escape route, and I'll take them on my way out. Leaving him alive."

"You've got no reason to leave him alive."

"How about my honor?"

Shikamaru laughed and the kunoichi smirked as well. "Try again."

"I much prefer to get my babies back. If I leave them too long in the...in your friend, they die too."

"Even if that's true, it won't stop you slitting his throat before we could stop you."

"So make your counter-offer."

Shikamaru stepped toward her, so that his shadow fell over her face. "You seem to think this is actually a negotiation."

She studied him, for once without speaking. Then he continued.

"I'm thinking that we haul you back to camp and give you the option to help him under close watch by me and our ranking medic. If he dies, you die in the same instant whether that's sooner, or as you said, tomorrow. If he lives, we won't kill you and we debate among ourselves the value of keeping you versus letting you go."

"That's a no-win for me."

"There's a possibility that we won't kill you. That's a win."

"No. I won't do it. You still need me."

"Your entire expectation revolves around you getting to walk away?"

"Safely."

Shikamaru studied her for a moment longer, then stepped back. She blinked at the return of the sun in her eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei, I think we should break her legs."

Her eyes widened, but Kakashi was already striding toward her. She stammered for something to say, but Kakashi kicked her shin with all the force of his anger and there was a resounding crack before she could put anything coherent together.

Her scream carried across the river and echoed back a second later, and Kakashi repeated it with the other leg. Another scream followed, more ragged than the first.

Shikamaru's gut lurched. On my order. He did that on MY order. No, not even an order. A whim. Shikamaru couldn't look at the odd angles that each of the woman's shins were now bent, because he was already so close to vomiting. No weakness. Show no weakness and no mercy. He gulped his heart back down into his throat, hoping nothing would come up, and studied the far side of the river as if he were scanning for anyone who could have heard her screams.

She panted for several moments, and Kakashi went to stand back behind Shikamaru. When Shikamaru said nothing and just continued scanning, she interrupted his thoughts.

"You're insane," she snarled, still breathing hard. "Now I can't escape so I've got no reason to help your friend."

Shikamaru looked her in the eye, carefully controlling his peripheral vision. "You had no reason to help him before either. And now you know I'm serious."

"I was going to. I offered."

Shikamaru returned his gaze to the far riverbank. "Any motivation you had before is still there. You fooled us before into thinking you were an airheaded receptionist; that shows you've got at least some brains. You're too smart to believe we'd stand back and give you free access to our injured man that *you* injured, and you're too smart to get yourself caught in the first place if you hadn't wanted to be here."

He paused to give her time to absorb what he'd said, then continued.

"I want to know why you're really here, and what your scorpions - if that's what they really are - what they actually do."

"I'm here because you captured me."

"Why did you let us capture you?"

When the kunoichi didn't answer after a few moments, Shikamaru looked at her again. She seemed to have steeled herself against answering any more questions for the time being, and was now glaring at a spot a few feet in front of her on the ground. Her entire body was straining against the ropes, presumably from both her fury and the anguish of her freshly broken legs.

Shikamaru's stomach wrenched again. I can't keep going. I'm going to falter any minute. And she's shutting down. He pulled the syringe of sedative from earlier out of his pocket. It still had about two thirds of the liquid inside it. Ino said about 4 hours if someone got the full dose ... this should be good for at least two hours then. Maybe three since she's petite.

He pulled a kunai from his pocket and the kunoichi flinched a bit, but she continued staring at her chosen spot on the ground. Shikamaru made a tiny etch in the glass with the tip of the weapon to mark how much liquid remained inside, then sheathed his kunai and held the syringe out toward Kakashi.

Kakashi walked forward more slowly this time, taking the syringe from Shikamaru and inspecting it, then leveling his gaze at Shikamaru.

"All of it," Shikamaru said, feeling Kakashi's eye on him but still keeping his own eyes locked on the river. "In the neck."

Kakashi nodded slowly, and it was the type of nod one gives at a deep explanation of a piece of art. After another brief moment of contemplation, the woman flinched (and Shikamaru hoped he didn't flinch) as the Copy Nin stepped toward her, uncapping the needle as he went. Instead of going directly, though, he went around behind the log, and she winced with each crunch of his boot against the river bank gravel.

When he was directly behind her, Kakashi stepped up close until the back of her mildly burnt head was almost resting against his torso. When he put his free hand on her forehead to pull her back against him, she clenched her eyes shut.

Shikamaru sensed, rather than saw, when Kakashi used his tight grip to hold her head still against his chest while he angled the needle, then jabbed it slightly harder than necessary. He pushed the plunger down very slowly - excruciatingly slowly - seeming to savor her discomfort as long as possible, both from the injection itself and from being held in place by the man who had so enthusiastically caused her so much physical damage just a moment ago.

After several long, dragging seconds, her body started going limp against Kakashi, until finally - finally - he pulled the syringe out of her neck. He re-capped it without moving his other hand from her head, then leaned her gently as far forward as the ropes allowed her to go.

"There. It's done. She's out."

Shikamaru managed to make it to the river before he let the vomit escape from his mouth.

A bit short, but I'm very curious to hear your thoughts on what I've picked up… leave me a review?