3

3

Shikamaru raced ever higher as though lured upward by the long, twisting staircase, eyes focused on Gengo’s back ahead of him. His aides were fighting in the hall, while this man, revered like a god, fled by himself. Closed in by stone walls, the spiral staircase felt strangely oppressive. The twisting path was almost dizzying.

“How about you be good and give up already?” Shikamaru called, with no expectation of an answer.

Up ahead, an enormous iron door—an ill-formed and unrefined gate totally without adornment—appeared. Gengo didn’t hesitate; he pushed the heavy door back and disappeared inside.

Shikamaru caught a glimpse of darkness through the crack before the door shut behind the other man. He put a hand on the closed door. He was certain it had to be some kind of trap. He knew he was being lured in somehow.

He opened the door anyway.

It didn’t matter what scheme Gengo had hatched. He could only go forward.

The space on the other side of the door was pitch black. An aura lay hidden in the silent darkness.

One person.

Abruptly, the door behind him slammed shut. The aura was in front of him, so either there was someone else or that had been a little trick of the owner of the aura before him.

“So you’ve come alone, fearing nothing, hm? I can only pray your action does not prove foolhardy.” Gengo’s voice. “You have no hope of finding me in this darkness.”

“For generations, the shinobi of the Nara House have manipulated our own shadows. And what gives birth to shadows is darkness. In a sense, darkness is the mother of the shadow. For me, living with shadows, this darkness is like the inside of my mother’s womb. I’ve been able to see you this whole time.”

This was half bluff.

He was indeed accustomed to the darkness, but that didn’t mean he could actually see in the dark. He was simply a little more sensitive to the strength of auras than other ninja.

“Interesting… You truly are an interesting man. It’s almost a shame to kill you here,” Gengo said, in a tone brimming with self-satisfaction.

Silence…

Shikamaru and Gengo alike held their tongues, narrowing their awareness to focus on their opponent’s aura.

“I was originally a ninja of Kirigakure,” Gengo began speaking as if intentionally breaking the silence. “Do you know of a man named Momochi Zabuza?”

He did.

Naruto kept mentioning that name around the time he had just become a genin. Shikamaru was pretty sure Momochi Zabuza was a masterful rogue ninja who got stuck fighting on a mission he shouldn’t have accepted.

“When Zabuza attempted a coup d’état in Kirigakure, what he was aiming for was my ideal world.”

Gengo’s ideal world—that ninja themselves would rule the world.

“However, the plot was exposed through the reports of collaborators, and Zabuza became a rogue ninja. My youthful self numbered among his followers at that time. But Zabuza needed money to realize his ideal, and thus joined forces with wealthy merchants—basically the mafia—and accepted dirty work. Many of our brethren turned their backs on Zabuza and went their separate ways when he dirtied his own hands in the name of his just cause. I was one of them. It’s been a dozen or so years since then, and I finally obtained a country. It begins now…”

Gengo’s voice was shaking.

“My ambition finally begins now! And yet, because of you lot!”

Bloodlust began to bleed into Gengo’s aura. The quiet sound of kicking at the earth reached Shikamaru’s ears.

He drew his kunai and readied himself. He couldn’t see anything. All he could do was follow the aura.

Gengo was headed straight for him. He was getting far too little information from directly in front of him.

“Zabuza mistook the path! He hurried to realize his ideal and dirtied his hands! But I’m not like him! After a long road of hardship, I came up with this jutsu, swallowed people into a vortex of passion, and now rule this land. And I’ll expand this vortex until it consumes the entire continent!”

Shikamaru heard something unusual in the shouting voice. The sound of the air being sliced.

A blade. And a fairly large one.

A hatchet? No, thinner. Something like a halberd or a longsword.

The aura pressed in on him.

The rush of air was closing in on his own neck. He held his breath and flew to the side. His body was almost at a diagonal when he felt the blade racing above him.

“Nicely dodged. But don’t think that this is the end!” came a shout, following by the side-sweeping wind changing trajectories in the empty space between them.

Shikamaru tumbled forward and propped himself up on one knee, as the howling pressed in toward the crown of his head.

In the darkness, he dreamed of Gengo.

From the range of the slicing sound, he figured out the length of the blade and got an idea of the hilt attached to it. Beyond that was Gengo.

In this darkness, he couldn’t generate a shadow. He couldn’t use ninjutsu to capture his enemy. He only had his own body to rely on.

Shikamaru had no weapons left besides somewhat unreliable physical techniques. His mind was loose, ready; he even had the mental leeway to note idly that he should’ve gotten Lee to teach him something if this was where he was going to end up.

“Heh heh.” He laughed to himself, satisfaction at the return of his old soft way of thinking.

The howling touched the tip of his tied-back hair.

“Ngh!” Concentrating every nerve in his body, he rolled forward with all his might toward the Gengo he pictured.

Once the longsword had gotten well within reach, he immediately went limp. When driven forward by a blade, it was more effective to get in close than it was to try and run.

You try to live, you die; you go for death, you live…

The foundation of the art of war.

Behind Shikamaru tumbling forward, the longsword cut into the floor. He rolled once more, and then squatted deeply, stretched his legs out, and flew upward. He felt his head hit Gengo’s body.

With a groan, Gengo dropped into a crouch. “Enough!”

Shikamaru set his right foot on top of Gengo’s bent knee and launched his left knee at his opponent’s head. Thanks to his boundless dreaming about the strength of the other man’s aura, his movements, the many sounds, Shikamaru had a very clear image of Gengo in his brain.

“Gaah!” Even after taking that very hearty blow, Gengo did not fall. Through brute strength, he kept his body upright, released the longsword, and wrapped both arms around Shikamaru’s torso.

At first, Shikamaru felt like he was floating, but then an electric current and a sharp pain pierced his spine at the nape of his neck. By the time he realized he had been punched, Gengo’s aura was already standing up. Shikamaru heard the sound of steel scraping along the stone floor. His enemy had probably retrieved the longsword.

His whole body was numb. It took another few moments for his body to do what he wanted it to again.

“In Kirigakure, we have the seven swords, and the jutsu to manipulate these swords is beaten into the village ninja from a young age,” Gengo noted as he swung the longsword.

His target was the prone figure of Shikamaru.

There was only one way.

Absurd.

He’d never even considered trying a stunt like this before. But he had no other techniques for escape.

“Now, then!”

Shikamaru raised his arms to meet the howling. Aiming for the sword in his imagination, he thrust both hands forward.

He felt a chill in his hands.

The sword.

“L-looks like that worked somehow.”

“Ridiculous,” Gengo muttered, dumbfounded.

With good reason. Because somehow, Gengo’s longsword was firmly wedged between the palms of Shikamaru’s hands.

“The ninja art of catching a naked blade… I guess.”

“How long do you intend to continue this foolishness?!” Anger bled into Gengo’s voice.

His opponent poured his strength into the blade suspended in midair. He intended to use physical strength alone to push it down and into Shikamaru. Gengo, standing with perfect posture, pressing the longsword down, and Shikamaru, still lying prone on the ground, trying to push it up. The advantage was with Gengo.

Slowly but steadily, the blade descended.

“I will kill you, you bastard. And I will pull all of those in the hall together into the same mind, and we will proceed toward my ambition.”

“Whoa, whoa, now I’m ‘you bastard’? You don’t even realize your true colors are showing here. No way you’re gonna be able to just do whatever you want with this world.”

“What am I to say of this situation? You are a fool who cannot even grasp the superiority of your opponent.”

“And who was it that was going to make this fool his right-hand man?”

“You and your endless trivialities… There’s no center to your words.”

Gengo put even more power into the sword.

As he pushed back, Shikamaru’s arms trembled. He was already close to his limit. Tepid sweat poured down his forehead. He had been driven into a corner.

Even still, Shikamaru laughed. “You know, some things are strong exactly because they have no center.”

“I have no intention of getting into some vain dialogue with you. It’s time you die.”

“Now listen,” Shikamaru said, as the blade closed in on his forehead. “I like looking at the clouds.”

“Silence.”

“The thing about clouds is, you can’t grab on to them. You can try, but it’s not gonna happen. And if there’s a wind, they get blown away pretty quick. They’re pretty shady, no center at all.”

Something cool touched his forehead.

He ignored it and kept going. “But even something shady with no center can sometimes make it rain, sometimes make it snow.”

“And what of it?”

“I’m telling you you’re wrong to think that having a center is the same as being serious. Even with a center or whatever… Even you’re not unshakable; as long as you have something in you that totally won’t bend, it all works out somehow. Although an idiot who doesn’t get something like this, who thinks he can just make everyone do exactly what he wants, isn’t ever going to understand, even it kills him.”

The skin on his forehead split and something warm spilled out. And yet Shikamaru didn’t stop talking. Gengo was naturally being drawn into the rambling tale he was telling. The other man’s awareness was so focused on his words that Shikamaru could practically reach out and grab it.

This was his chance.

Still prone on the ground, he kicked out at Gengo’s pivot leg braced in front of him. His enemy stumbled; the blade tilted slightly. Rather than go against that flow, Shikamaru merely turned his head, and the blade was driven into the floor, its point stealing only the top layer of skin on his forehead.

Turning his body in the same direction as his head, he pulled himself out from between Gengo’s thighs and sprang to his feet.

After taking a single shallow breath, Shikamaru kicked at the floor and leapt upward. Immediately, he thrust his right leg out toward Gengo’s face.

The sudden, soft sensation of catching his opponent’s nose came through from the sole of his foot.

Gengo did not fall.

As Shikamaru landed, he bounced backward, escaping the reach of the longsword.

“So? How’s my word genjutsu taste?”

“Don’t underestimate me, boy…”

“Hey, hey. Now it’s ‘boy’?”

From behind Shikamaru came the piercing sound of metal scraping against metal. A brilliant light poured in.

“You okay, Shikamaru?!” It was Choji’s voice.

Shikamaru looked over his shoulder to find the door thrown open, his companions staring at him. Choji, Ino, and Sakura, together with Soku and Ro, now free of the genjutsu.

And of course, Temari was there too.

Wondering what had happened to Sai, Shikamaru shifted his gaze back to Gengo. “Get your jutsu ready, Ino!” he shouted.

He whirled his right hand around behind his hips, raised his thumb, and gave a signal that only Ino would understand. Theirs was a relationship built on long years of working as a team. They understood each other’s thinking perfectly.

“Roger!” came the answer from Ino.

“No one do anything until I give the signal!”

The blood flowing from his forehead obstructed his view. Wiping it away with his hand, he pulled out the Konohagakure forehead protector he had tucked into his vest and tied it tightly around his forehead. He had his doubts about just how good the band would be at stopping the bleeding, but it was better than nothing.

“And now the cavalry, eh, Shikamaru?” Eyes bloodshot, Gengo brandished the longsword and charged in to close the distance between them.

Shikamaru wove his signs, and a shadow stretched out from his feet and raced toward Gengo.

“I am not such a fool as to be caught by a rotten magic trick!” Before the tip of the shadow could touch his feet, Gengo kicked at the floor and bounded forward. Letting gravity take over, he slashed at Shikamaru.

Shikamaru’s head split in two. His flesh lost its color and faded to black.

Jutsu.

“Doppelgänger!” Gengo muttered, as Shikamaru charged his back, kunai in hand.

He slashed at Gengo’s neck.

Gengo did indeed have the sword arts drilled into him in Kirigakure, and he stooped forward to dodge the blade with exquisite timing. He then flipped his body with the strength of his bent knees alone, and the blade of his longsword followed, horizontal and still lowered.

Shikamaru’s torso was bisected. And again he transformed into shadow.

“Such impudence!” Gengo sneered hatefully.

“I’m ready!” Ino shouted at the same time.

“Good!”

Shikamaru’s preparations were also finished.

His real body was sufficiently far from the reach of Gengo’s blade, waiting for Ino to activate her Mind Transmission jutsu. Ino, in her signature position—the palms of both hands thrust out, a triangle created with her thumbs and index fingers—stared at Gengo.

“Ninja art! Mind Transmission jutsu!”

Gengo immediately turned on his heel and ran from her, and Ino smiled quietly. The palms that had been targeting Gengo turned to Shikamaru.

His entire body went rigid. He knew Ino was coming into his mind.

The jutsu was only activated for a brief instant. In the time it took for their breath to nearly become one, he was already free of it.

“Soku! Ro!” Ino called, releasing the jutsu.

Just as planned…

The mind transmission jutsu let her dive into the mind of her target, allowing both minds to share the consciousness within the body where the jutsu was activated. They had used this so Shikamaru could share with Ino the plan he had put together. And she would share it with Soku and Ro.

It had been the three of them who decided to take this man down, after all.

“Okay! Here we go!” Shikamaru yelled.

Soku and Ro nodded.

He raced toward Gengo as Soku and Ro ran to the edges of the room to take up positions in opposite corners.

“Whatever you try, it’s futile!”

“Look, this is the final battle. We should at least have fun with it.”

Kunai and longsword clashed in midair. But there was an overwhelming difference in mass between their weapons of choice, and Shikamaru bent nearly in half, pushed back by Gengo’s slash attack. The longsword swiveled around and came back.

And again Shikamaru was bifurcated. A shadow, after all.

“How long will this mockery go on?!” Gengo spat, frenzied.

Dropping from the sky above, Shikamaru attacked the top of his enemy’s head, only to be cleared away by the longsword. A shadow again.

Shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow…

Over and over, the longsword slashed through Shikamaru. No matter how Gengo slashed and chopped, however, Shikamaru turned into a shadow and vanished into thin air.

“Where have you gone to, Shikamaru?!” Another Shikamaru disappeared from Gengo’s eyes.

Behind you… His enemy didn’t notice Shikamaru sneaking up on him.

“Checkmate.”

The look on his face changing at the murmured word, Gengo whirled around.

Too late.

The shadow stretching out from Shikamaru’s feet was already entwined with Gengo’s body.

Producing countless shadow dopplegängers, he had used Ro’s power to color them all with rich chakra. Gengo’s brain gradually came to remember this as the nature of Shikamaru’s doppelgänger’s chakra. As he cut them down one after another, Gengo had begun to unconsciously chase after the chakra emitted by the doppelgängers. Once he had Gengo chasing this chakra, the real Shikamaru took the rear and used Ro’s power once more to erase all of that chakra. When he leapt out from a total blind spot, Gengo had no idea what was happening until he was hit by Suffocating Darkness.

“Shikamaruuuuuu!”

Body bound, Gengo exhausted every ounce of strength he had to turn his head toward his captor and spit out his name with violent malice—his long tongue, shining slippery and red, peeped out.

“Hinoko!” Shikamaru shouted.

“Gaaaah! I keep, like, telling you not to use my naaaaame!” With an ear-splitting shriek, Soku released chakra from the index finger of her right hand.

Shikamaru watched as a bolt of orange lightning precisely caught and pierced Gengo’s tongue.

“Kah? Kaaah?” Thrusting his head up high, Gengo spluttered nothing but dry air.

“The chakra flowing to your tongue’s been cut off. Your body’s no longer able to spit out any words.”

Tears trailed down Gengo’s cheeks.

“I’m definitely going to build a world without war. So forgive me for stealing your dream.” As Shikamaru spoke, he sent Ro a signal with his eyes.

Indomitable as ever despite the torture and the genjutsu he had been subjected to, the big-boned man ran over, his shoulders rising and falling in an exaggerated gesture.

“Lock him up and take him to the alliance.”

“Yes sir, Lord Shikamaru.” Ro nodded, eyes glittering. His gaze was filled with admiration.

Trying to hide his embarrassment, Shikamaru pinched the tip of his nose between the tips of his fingers and then pointed at Gengo. As the Suffocating Darkness jutsu was released, Ro restrained Gengo’s arms with handcuffs specially made for the Anbu, with several layers of metal rings and talismans.

Before he knew it, Soku was standing behind Ro.

“Mission complete, huh? A little clumsy, but still…”

At Shikamaru’s slight embarrassed grin, their faces crumpled almost into tears, and they nodded.