Title: Simple Arithmetic

Author: Lovesrainscent

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or these characters and do not make any profit from posting this story.

Summary: A mission goes horribly wrong for Shikamaru. He must weigh the cost of his actions. Dark. Character death. After all, they are trained to kill.

Simple Arithmetic

Their team was hurrying back to the border, scrolls safely secured. The mood was tense, the pace rushed. Information in the documents they had obtained was priceless, plans for an invasion of Konoha that appeared on the surface, impossible.

To jounin mission leader Shikamaru Nara's line of reasoning however, the audacity of it alone had made it the only recourse their desperate enemy could take. He'd argued in front of Konoha's intelligence corps that the absolute lack of chatter they'd picked up on the topic of that particular stretch of the border was statistically improbable, thus making it suspect as a highly secret operation.

And he'd been right.

Infiltration had been successful, they had enough data in hand to carry back to Konoha to convince even the most ardent hold-out on the council that a full scale invasion was about to be thrust upon them. Even if they couldn't prevent it they could prepare for it. And the right preparation could save untold lives...on both sides.

They were in that sweet spot of a mission, the most difficult parts behind them, the objective reached, plans obtained and on the return leg. Adrenaline remained high, Shikamaru could almost feel it crackling in the air around them. He stayed alert and vigilant, yet a lot of the anxiety of the task was now behind them. As mission leader it was an accomplishment already that his team was still intact at this point. All that remained was a straight shot to the border.

He glanced at his teammates whisking along through the trees, Ino to his right, Chouji to his left. Chouji carried the copied information regarding troop positioning, provisioning and timelines. Chouji may have carried them but Ino had obtained them. Shikamaru smiled slightly to himself, despite being loud, bossy and bitchy, Ino was very, very good at what she did.

Even though she didn't have enough curves to appeal to him personally, she certainly appealed to a lot of men. A face and a body that she had no qualms whatsoever about using as a weapon coupled with some serious abilities in neuro-linguistic programming, persuasion technology and other assorted mind-fuck Yamanaka jutsus made her an indispensable member of his team.

And besides, he thought halfway chuckling to himself, bedding Ino would be like bedding his own sister….

Not to mention that Temari would hand him his ass, or kick his ass out of the apartment, or both more likely....

Still even though Ino didn't appeal to him personally he could understand the attraction she did engender in a lot of men...

A volley of senbon from ahead in the trees jerked him out of his reverie. The three Konoha nin halted in the trees and instinctively assumed a protective formation, weapons poised in hand, a battle-ready relaxed alertness trained in them since childhood.

Through the trees he saw a flicker of motion. The distance was too far for him to use any type of shadow possession jutsu. He glanced at Ino and she paused slightly then nodded, answering his unasked question as to her ability to sight a target. A simple nod of his own gave her permission to proceed.

From the corner of his eye he could see her slender fingers test the heft and balance of her kunai before arching back and hurling it toward the thicket in front of them. She'd taken an interest in Tenten's tactics lately and had been studying with her fellow kunoichi. The motion of her arm was pure fluidity and the release of the kunai effortlessly graceful.

A soft 'thump' and a woman's body fell at the edge of the thicket. She lay groaning on the ground, clutching a wound at her throat.

The three leaf ninja looked at each other. Secrecy was of utmost importance to the mission and they worried they'd been found out.

Shikamaru analyzed the situation - he had no doubt that if they had actually been discovered and followed there would have been a full contingent of Grass ninja waiting for them before they reached the border. This woman appeared to be an unlucky kunoichi who was regrettably in the wrong place at the wrong time. She may simply have been returning from her own mission and recognized them as unauthorized personnel in a restricted area, not realizing the true nature of their mission.

He considered his options. They were extremely close to home now. The most straightforward thing would be to take her back to Konoha. She couldn't be allowed to report back to Grass that she'd seen them. It would arouse too much suspicion. Her disappearance would be suspicious, too, but occasionally ninja didn't make it back from assignments. One missing kunoichi would be less of a concern to Grass officials than a kunoichi who reported three unknown ninja in a restricted area near her own border.

"We'll have to take her with us. Ino, get her bleeding staunched and the wound bandaged. Plant some post hypnotic suggestions if you can that we were the ones to find her wounded, maybe she'll be more compliant that way. We'll take her and let the diplomats sort it out."

"Okay," Ino replied. "I'll see what I can do."

She approached the woman cautiously. She knelt down beside her speaking softly, turning the other woman's head gently so that she could determine the extent of the injury.

The woman's thumb moved ever so slightly at her waist.

Shikamaru's eyes widened in horror. "Ino, MOVE!" the words felt like they were ripped from his throat.

The blast from the paper bomb nearly knocked him off his feet even though he was yards away.

Bracing his feet against the ground his blood ran cold as the smoke cleared. Mouth agape, he stood mutely surveying the scene in front of him.

It was impossible, surreal. Ino lay on her back. His eyes were drawn to her usually bare, trim midsection which was now a unnatural spreading patch of scarlet. Forcing his feet to move he ran over and knelt beside her, hands faltering.

Where was the goddamned medic?

Shit, Ino was the medic!

"Ino, Ino," his voice quavered. Hands hovering over her, he tried to analyze where to begin. No pulse, the blood wasn't pumping out of her it was leaking out, pouring out. Chest compressions? Pump her heart for her? But if he couldn't contain the seepage he'd just force the blood out of her faster.

He tried to apply pressure to her middle, but there wasn't enough skin left to close it. Horrified he watched his hands sink into Ino's gut as he tried to cover the wound.

Sitting back on his heels, his own blood ice now in his veins he managed to turn to look at Chouji who was frozen, rooted to the spot, looking like he was going to vomit.

Shit! Shit! Shit! This could not be happening. They were almost home. The border was less than three klicks away. They were going to turn in the documents, give the intel spooks something to chew on and then go hang out at the barbeque restaurant until some spookling came and pestered Shikamaru to return to SigInt. They would tease each other like they always did, Ino that Chouji ate too much, Chouji that Ino was too scrawny and both of them that he was too whipped by Temari to stay out late drinking like he used to.

This could NOT be happening. He wiped the sweat off his brow and realized with revulsion that it was not sweat but Ino's blood. Not only was there blood on his hands, her blood was on his face, his clothes, sprayed there from the initial blast. There were bits of Ino in his hair and on his flak jacket.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Ino!

He choked back tears, bile, vomit.

Ino was ... gone. Dead. In an instant. No last words like those from Asuma, no farewell, just ... nothing.

Her mouth was open in a small 'o' almost of surprise, her eyes blue and wide and vacant staring blankly up at the sky.

He should be teasing her. It was a joke, really, a giant fucking cosmic joke that Ino died with her mouth open. They could tease her about it at the barbeque tonight and...

Shit!

Ino was gone and she was never coming back.

He repeated it over and over in his mind like some perverse mantra - Ino was gone and she was never coming back, never coming back, never never never...

Training took over. The mission wasn't finished yet and the cost had already been too high, far too high. It was almost a relief, actually, to just drone out an order as mission leader rather than as a friend. He had to get his other friend out of there. He and Chouji had to make it back for Ino's sake.

"Chouji, get going."

"Shikamaru?" his friend's voice was disbelieving. Shikamaru couldn't bear to turn around and look at him again yet.

"She's dead, Chouji. Get going. Get back to Konoha, now!"

"But she's....it's Ino.... you're going to just..."

"Yes, goddammit, Chouji," he could barely contain his rage. "It's Ino, and she's dead and there's nothing we can do."

"But you can't just leave her..."

"I'll take care of it Chouji. Do you want us to fuck this up even more? Hasn't it already cost enough? Do you want to lose what we came for? Get back, now! That's an order!"

"But... you're bleeding..."

He wanted to tell his friend that it was Ino's blood but as he turned, finally able to face him again, Shikamaru winced, steadying himself on his one good leg and realizing only just then that he himself had been wounded, probably shrapnel from weapons one of the two kunoichi had had on them.

"I'm all right. I'll make it. I'll come along after you. You...get back home."

Chouji's voice was anguished. "Shikamaru, I can't...just leave you...her...Ino...I can't just leave you here."

Shikamaru met the redhead's wide-eyed gaze with his own, trying to steady himself on his injured leg. "I said I'll take care of it! Don't argue just GO!"

And Chouji's own training allowed him to comply. He turned and leapt into the trees headed for home with the scrolls still secured.

Exhaling wearily and grimacing, Shikamaru turned again to the two bloody bodies in front of him.

Nara stayed behind. They always stayed behind. Shadow possession jutsu was useful for delaying an enemy but Nara stayed behind for other reasons as well..such as...mission cleanup.

Chouji couldn't carry the body - he had too much on him as it was. If he hadn't been injured Shikamaru might have been able to get Ino's body back to Konoha with him, but under the circumstances...He winced again as he tested more weight on his leg.

And then there was the second kunoichi's body, too.

He hesitated. There was still something wrong about this whole scenario. What was a single shinobi doing out here? Was it just coincidence? Had they been found out earlier and followed all this way? Where was the rest of her team? And why for fuck's sake would she commit suicide...murder...taking Ino with her!

Flicker again in the shadows among the trees up ahead. He had trained in his clan's lands from his earliest years to detect the slightest movement of the deer in the forest so it was really no effort at all to detect the movement of this additional Grass shinobi. He waited, one hand on his own kunai, judging the distance from the sound and the direction of the sun over his shoulder and the shadows he could cast.

"Stop!" a girl stepped into view, clutching her own kunai directed toward him. She appeared to be about twelve years old, slight of build. Her short, tousled brown hair was held back by her own Grass hitae-ate. The crisp fabric and shiny metal Grass symbol in the front of the hitae-ate indicated she was a very new genin, probably only recently having graduated her own Academy.

"I can't let you pass," she added, her voice trembling only slightly.

He wanted to deride her, sneer at her, scream at her for any part she may have had in killing Ino but instead he waited. Finally he asked softly, "Where's your team?"

Her eyes flicked to the bodies off to the side and then back to him. "I was training with my sensei. My teammates are back in town." Shock filled her eyes as she realized how much information she'd conveyed just by answering his one question. "But they'll be here any minute..."

"No they won't."

The tip of the kunai dipped just a little bit then she straightened and kept it pointed at him.

The two faced each other, Grass genin and Leaf jounin. Her hesitation spoke volumes to him. He himself spoke at last, "You were out here alone with your sensei. Your teammates don't know. She was helping you, training you to pass the chuunin exams because she knew you were going to need all the help you could get."

Her soft brown eyes flickered with anguish to the dead bodies again. The loss in her eyes took him back to his own younger days.

He'd been a genin once, facing down Sand and Sound ninjas. He'd been scared spitless but still stood there because it was his duty to delay them as long as possible and allow Sakura and Naruto to continue on after Sasuke. Then Asuma...Asuma had appeared out of nowhere like some avenging angel just when he was about to give out of chakra. He remembered the relief and absolute devotion he'd felt when he'd heard that welcome voice behind him. Asuma.

No sensei was coming to rescue this girl. Sensei was over there with Ino where the flies were beginning to buzz around the two of them. No sensei was coming and neither of her teammates knew she was out here.

Three klicks. He was a mere three kilometers away from home. Home without Ino. Home to face Inoichi-san. But home nonetheless.

And this....genin... was all that stood in his way.

"Why didn't you help your sensei?"

"My orders were to let her handle it. Only if something happened to her was I supposed to try and stop you." Her voice dropped a little but her kunai didn't as she forlornly added, "We thought you were thieves. But she must have realized you were ninja and that's why..."

Shikamaru's heart sank. This kept getting worse by the moment. Clearly the sensei had realized that they were not garden variety thieves, that's why she'd at least taken out Ino, leaving only two for her young charge. If Ino was still here, they could have played on that, she could have planted the suggestion in the girl's subconscious that she and her sensei had been waylaid by thieves. But that was the crux of the matter, wasn't it, Shikamaru thought to himself as he swatted at the flies now buzzing curiously around his own blood stained face. Ino was no longer here.

He wondered how he must look to her, standing there with blood spattered on his face, his hands still bloody from Ino, streaks of it up and down his clothes where he'd tried to wipe them, his own blood trickling down his leg from the gash there. He shifted slightly trying to rebalance himself, testing to see how much weight the wounded leg could take.

Without warning she let her kunai fly at him and instinctively he countered hers with his own, the two colliding in the air between them.

Now he knew how he must have looked to her... wounded. Clever girl, she had been waiting to see how badly his leg was injured. One kunai and she'd learned a lot - the ease with which he'd intercepted it indicated that not only was he not an ordinary thief, he was a trained ninja easily exceeding her skills. The fight or flight question answered definitively in her mind she turned and fled hoping that his injured leg would impede his ability to catch her.

Unfortunately for her she hadn't counted on kagemane no jutsu. The sun over his shoulder, shadows lengthening, he easily caught her in it and immobilized her.

Turning her to face him again he saw her eyes widened in shock and horror. "What have you..." she started but he stopped her from speaking.

Brown eyes wide, nostrils flared, her breathing was rapid and shallow. He held her in the jutsu and counted the cost of his actions.

She knew too much. Maybe not everything but enough. Enough to know they weren't simple criminals. Enough to know they were ninja, accomplished ninja. Enough to have overhead him tell Chouji to get back to Konoha.

He couldn't let her go back to the village. She might not know kagemane herself, but certainly someone there would recognize it when she described it to them.

And Ino wasn't here to clutter her mind, confuse her and make any of her reports unreliable.

Uninjured he might have been able to incapacitate her and get her back to Konoha like they had originally planned to do with her sensei. But now with his leg giving out that was out of the question - he'd be lucky to get himself across the border.

Two kunoichi were already dead.

If they could allow Grass to proceed with their invasion plans all the while unknown to them Konoha was preparing to intercept them, then countless lives could be saved on both sides. Shikamaru had no doubts that if faced with a fortified defense, the enemy might abandon their plans altogether.

But if he let her go, Grass might accelerate their schedule and attack before Konoha had a chance to prepare, maybe while the council was still arguing about it. Konoha's losses in that eventuality would be...unacceptable.

One more kunoichi and how many lives could be saved? Hundreds? Thousands?

Three kunoichi. Three kilometers. That's all that stood between him and the end of this godforsaken mission.

Two dead kunoichi plus one more. The arithmetic really was very simple. One more dead kunoichi and at least Ino's sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he formed kage kubi shibari no jutsu. Her liquid brown eyes reminded him too much of the deer at home so he closed his own eyes, forcing hers closed as well since she was still under the kagemane. Somehow he felt better knowing that at least she wasn't watching him kill her.

He felt her pulse against his shadow through the jutsu, pounding against her carotid. Slipping upward just an inch or so below her jawline he felt the junction he was searching for and pressed firmly. Signals conflicted, the feedback to her heart indicated that her blood pressure was now too high and her heartbeat obediently slowed down to...eventually...nothing.

Her body slumped and he caught her gently in the shadow bind, easing her to the ground while keeping the pressure on her neck a few moments longer just to be certain. Finally he opened his own eyes and looked at what he'd done. She almost seemed to be sleeping, no struggle, no wounds, no outward sign to indicate cause of death.

Swallowing hard he surveyed the scene. There was still cleanup to do. He could take care of it in both places but somehow she seemed so...lonely lying there apart from the other two. It was a short distance, he thought he could at least place her beside her sensei.

Limping over he bent down and picked up her slight form. She was still warm and he held her cradled against him just a moment while he whispered one more apology to her, her soft brown hair feathering against his cheek. It was eerie how much her slight little form reminded him of all the times he'd caught Ino as she executed shintenshin no justu. Faltering over to the other bodies he placed her between the two women.

Sighing, Shikamaru kissed two fingers of his right hand and placed them gently against Ino's by-now cold cheek. "I'm sorry Ino," he whispered to her, too.

Cleanup.

He grimaced. It was necessary. Ino's body couldn't be allowed to fall into enemy tracker nin hands. And the bodies of the other two would be evidence that something big was up. He reached into his pack and pulled out a vial of decomposers developed especially for this purpose by the Aburami clan. Scruffing leaves and additional organic matter over the bodies in a shallow grave would speed the process. It was an improvement over chemical solvents, those were too easy to trace. In six hours there wouldn't be a sign that any of the three females had existed.

Pouring the vial over the grave he paused making a prayer or a plea or something that it would somehow have all been worth it.

Then he turned around and headed for home.