Chapter Text
It had been obvious to Shikamaru well in advance that the rooftop of the multi-story building they found themselves on would, as so often, turn out to be its weakness. As he crouched down in front of the unguarded ventilation pipe, his pitch-black clothing blended seamlessly into the darkness that had spread relentlessly since sunset a few hours earlier. The moon, which had disappeared moments ago behind a thick layer of clouds, was the only theoretical source of light. It was quite possible that it would start to snow later that night.
When he had thoroughly studied the mission dossier a few days earlier, a sly smile had already crept across his face. For an A-rank mission, this would be a breeze. Their task was to infiltrate an independent research lab suspected of illegally developing novel combat substances using funding stemming not only from Konoha, but also from Suna. And as Shikamaru well knew, all labs matching the profile of their target facility had one thing in common: an extensive ventilation system, essential for safely handling potentially hazardous materials. This would soon grant them access to the building complex.
Kakashi had stressed the importance of absolute secrecy and discretion until it could be determined whether unauthorized research really was taking place and, if so, for whom. Thanks to an informant that had tipped them off about the suspected misuse of funds, they knew exactly in which room they would find the samples they were to retrieve and return to Konoha for analysis. Conveniently, the airshaft ended precisely in that room, on the third floor of the five-story building.
The informant, too wary to take on the task of delivering the dangerous materials himself, had passed the responsibility to Kakashi, who, in coordination with Gaara, quickly assigned Shikamaru to secure the necessary evidence. The Hokage had given him free rein in choosing a partner, so it was unsurprising that Temari was the one now shivering slightly in the cold, watching impatiently as he nimbly unscrewed the bolts securing the pipe’s cover. She had been in the area anyway when Kakashi had asked Shikamaru over to assign him the mission.
Silently, the jonin placed the grate he had just removed on the rooftop and glanced at Temari. She nodded, climbed into the airshaft, and slid down, not making any sound. As they had discussed in detail beforehand, she signaled him with a brief flash of her flashlight that she had made it safely to the other end, giving Shikamaru the signal to follow her. Despite the backpack they had brought to carry the samples, he had no trouble slipping through the pipe into the building. After a fairly elegant landing, which he took note of a little smugly, he straightened up and scanned the room. It was dark. Silence enveloped them.
As their contact had assured, aside from a few security staff, the building was deserted at this late hour. To familiarize themselves with the security team’s patrol routes and timing, Shikamaru and Temari had spent some time observing them from the cover of the nearby forest before scaling the roof under the cover of night. As a result, they knew that—depending on how long one particular guard took on his rather frequent smoking breaks—no one would be in this section of the complex for the next ten to fifteen minutes.
This low risk of confrontation combined with the fact that the pipes of the ventilation system were not particularly spacious had them leave most of their equipment in a hideout several kilometers away and take only the bare essentials with them. They carried a handful of kunai and shuriken, a small first-aid kit—because you never knew—and a few smoke and paper bombs, given that some of the guards were former shinobi who had left the service for various reasons. They had no intention of being reckless and had packed their pouches with a small selection of tools that could save their lives in an emergency.
Since their surroundings remained calm, Shikamaru switched on his flashlight and pulled a small slip of paper from his pocket, noting the approximate location of the samples they needed to retrieve. While Temari positioned herself by the door, cautiously peering through the small glass pane that let the dim glow of an emergency exit sign from the hallway seep into the lab, he began inspecting the unassuming cabinets lining two of the room’s walls. When he found the one he had been looking for, he methodically opened each drawer, searching its contents.
After several minutes, during which Temari kept a sharp watch on their surroundings, Shikamaru finally found what they had come for. Clamping the flashlight between his teeth, he retrieved four glass vials containing a bluish liquid from their holders, as described in their dossier. Just as he was carefully stowing them away, Temari hissed his name in a sharp but alarming tone. Instinctively, he looked up, dropping the vials into his backpack with less care than he’d intended, and turned off his flashlight. Within seconds, he was beside her, his back pressed against the wall. She raised a finger to her lips.
He listened intently, casting her a questioning look, but she still gestured for him to be quiet. And indeed, moments later, a beam of light broke through the darkness outside on the hallway. The sound of footsteps broke the silence causing Shikamaru to scowl, irritated by this unexpected complication. Apparently, the chain-smoking guard, who was returning far earlier than anticipated, had run out of cigarettes.
The light drew closer. Temari cursed her blonde hair, which glinted like a beacon in the dimness, and pressed her back closer to the wall. Shikamaru shifted his position slightly, shielding her with his body from the incoming light. Both had reduced their breathing to a minimum. The footsteps came to a halt. Shikamaru’s hand crept toward the pouch strapped to his thigh, grasping a kunai. Moments later, a thin beam of the guard’s flashlight cut through the glass pane, sweeping the room. It landed on the cabinet Shikamaru had been rummaging through, its drawers still partially open. The beam lingered there briefly. Then it vanished, accompanied by the noisy jingling of keys.
The man at the door barked into his radio, giving his position and demanding backup due to suspicious activity in one of the labs. The key found its lock. Shit. Shikamaru clenched his eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath.
The door provided them a brief cover as the guard entered the room, giving Shikamaru just enough time to decide. Fight or flight? Lacking most of their equipment, he chose the latter. Trusting his judgment, Temari followed without hesitation. He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway at full speed. The guard’s furious roar echoed behind them as he took up the chase. Reaching a junction, Shikamaru instinctively turned right. The turmoil behind them grew louder, indicating reinforcements had arrived. With his mind racing, Shikamaru rand through their options. The stairwell was on the opposite side of the floor. There was no other exit. Risking a confrontation at this point was absurd.
“Now what?” Temari’s voice carried a note of urgency. The squad behind them was slowly catching up.
Gritting his teeth, Shikamaru made a snap decision and pulled out some of his paper bombs.
The force of the explosion tore a massive hole in the outer wall of the research facility. Windows shattered. Smoke detectors wailed, activating the sprinkler system. Dust filled the air as the blast echoed. Without slowing down, Shikamaru and Temari sprinted toward their improvised emergency exit. As if to ensure he kept pace, Temari reached for his hand as the smoke swallowed them up and they leapt from the edge of the building into the frigid air.
Shikamaru landed heavily, less gracefully this time, but unscathed thanks to the chakra he had concentrated in his legs. The vials in his backpack clinked together. Temari, beside him, wiped the mixture of dust and water from her face before glancing back at the chaos above.
“Unusually rough by your standards,” she remarked dryly. “But effective.”
Shikamaru snorted. “How much of a head start do you think we have? Two, three minutes?”
“Barely,” she replied skeptically.
He sighed in frustration. There was nothing more troublesome than unforeseen events throwing his plans out of kilter. Returning to their camp now, with the guards breathing down their necks, was probably a very bad idea.
“Well then. Let's go,” he concluded in frustration, mentally bidding farewell to the cozy night around the campfire he had secretly hoped for. Instead, for better or worse, a few long and uncomfortable hours awaited them in the forest that surrounded the area.
Temari nodded and set off, Shikamaru following behind her. If they could evade their pursuers long enough, they could possibly reconsider whether a return to their camp would be worthwhile. Since Temari's fan was there, which she had reluctantly left behind, Shikamaru already knew the answer to this anyway. But until then, they had to find a place of refuge for the night and wait and see.
Chapter Text
As they reached the edge of the forest, a quick glance back confirmed their suspicion: a considerable number of the security guards appeared to be hot on their heels, intent on retrieving the samples Shikamaru and Temari had stolen for an in-depth analysis in Konoha. The fact that they still didn’t know exactly what the liquid was that had been produced in the research facility made Shikamaru feel a little uneasy. He tried to suppress his concerns while he and Temari determinedly pressed northward.
Much to his chagrin, their mission had gone anything but according to plan. As a result — something he found particularly grating — they now had to improvise, all while carrying an inadequately secured, potentially hazardous substance on his back. Now, their top priority was to widen the gap between themselves and people following them.
Fortunately, the tightly packed trees, which the two shinobi navigated with practiced ease, worked to their advantage. From above, the narrow trail that meandered through the forest looked more like an overgrown footpath. The vegetation had clearly been reclaiming the man-made route for quite some time, rendering large sections impassable. Under these conditions, it proved easier than expected to increase the distance between them and the guards.
For some time now, apart from the faint sounds of a nearby stream, they were the only ones disturbing the peace of the forest. It seemed likely they had finally shaken off the last members of the security team who had pursued them into the woods. The temperature had dropped further, reducing the chance that anyone else would have ventured so far from the research facility.
Just as on the rooftop earlier, Temari was beginning to feel the biting cold seep through her insulated clothing. Though they had kept moving, she found herself shivering again. With a brief gesture, she signaled to Shikamaru that she wanted to stop. Once he nodded his assent, she came to a halt a few moments later on a particularly sturdy branch of a conifer.
Shikamaru, also not opposed to a break, stopped beside her and rested his hands on his hips with a weary sigh. His breath condensed into small clouds. The drop in temperature had not escaped his notice either. His clothes, damp from sweat and the humid air, clung to his skin uncomfortably. Combined with the creeping chill, a fire would be essential if they didn’t want to risk hypothermia.
Though this would inevitably increase the risk of being spotted from a distance, Temari seemed to share his view. "You scout for shelter; I'll look for firewood?"
"Back here in fifteen minutes?"
She nodded and managed a quick grin despite the cold and her growing fatigue. "Don't forget — I have high standards."
About thirty minutes later, Shikamaru dropped the branches he had taken from Temari, shrugged off his backpack, and collapsed unceremoniously onto the forest floor. The low-lying hollow, carved out by the narrow stream they had glimpsed earlier, was the best shelter he could find on short notice.
The inconspicuous, relatively wide bridge spanning the stream offered them some protection from the impending snowfall and the icy wind whistling through the trees. Like the remnants of the path, the granite stone above them was heavily overgrown. The dense underbrush of ferns and grasses flanking the bridge provided better concealment than Temari had initially anticipated.
The remaining wood she had gathered, which Shikamaru hadn’t taken off her hands, clattered onto their pile of firewood, enough to last them through the night. Much of it, like their clothes, was damp. "Think you can start a fire with this?" she asked, sounding tired and disheartened.
Shikamaru pulled one of his kunai from his pouch and produced Asuma’s lighter. "It’ll do." He didn't sound too enthusiastic. But it didn't help. Taking one of the thicker branches, he used the kunai’s sharp edge to chip away the outer layers of wet bark, hoping to reach a drier core. Temari sat down beside him, drawing her knees to her chest.
"Need help?" she offered.
He shook his head. "I’ve got it."
Skillfully, he arranged the more flammable twigs and branches into a small pyramid, placing dry grass at its center to give their campfire an initial point of ignition. Under Temari’s watchful eye, he lit the grass with the lighter. "There we go," he muttered a bit more confidently as the flames slowly took hold. As they grew stronger, he added a few of the remaining pieces of wood to the fire. Temari let out a sigh of relief and inched closer to Shikamaru. It seemed the cozy night by the fire he’d been hoping for wasn’t entirely off the table.
"You still carry his lighter every day, huh?" she asked softly. He nodded silently, wrapping an arm around her waist. Over the years, the scars left by Asuma’s death had become less tender, at least to a degree. Still, when it came to his mediocre coping mechanisms and expressing his feelings, Shikamaru remained reserved, even with Temari. She never pressed him to open up to her more, not even at that moment. Instead, she rested her head on his shoulder and draped an arm around his back.
For the first time in hours, a faint smile crossed Shikamaru’s face. They had been this close before — perhaps even closer — and he’d grown to appreciate it. But this time, Temari frowned after a moment.
"Why is your sweater so damp?" she asked, probing the small of his back with a puzzled expression.
"I don't know? Sweat?"
To his frustration, she broke the embrace and examined her hand, which had brushed against the fabric.
"No, the area is too small for sweat…"
"What else could it…"
He froze, staring into the flickering firelight. The faint clinking sound from his rough landing outside the research building echoed in his memory. "Oh, shit," he muttered. Temari didn’t need to ask what he meant. Alarmed, she grabbed the backpack he’d set aside and unzipped it.
Her hands clenched the material as she examined its contents. Her lips pressed into a tight line. Shikamaru’s gaze bore into her. "How many?"
She exhaled sharply, as if she had been holding her breath, and set the bag back down. "One... the other three are intact."
Shit.
Shikamaru let out a frustrated sound, then pulled off his sweater to inspect it in the firelight. A hand-sized stain was visible on the dark fabric. A similar mark marred the back of the bag.
At some point during their escape—likely during their leap from the third floor—one of the glass vials had shattered. The bluish liquid, the potentially dangerous bioweapon of unknown properties, had seeped out. It had soaked through the seams of the backpack and onto his sweater, ultimately reaching his skin. And Temari had touched it with her bare hand moments ago.
He cursed and grabbed Temari’s forearm, pulling her closer, and examined her seemingly unscathed hand, looking for the smallest clue about what they might have contaminated themselves with. She let him do so while silently calculating how long it must have been since the liquid had reached his skin.
"Do you feel anything?" she asked.
He shook his head while continuing to study her hand intently.
"You?"
"Nothing either."
She let out a deep sigh.
"What do we do now, Shika?"
He looked up in surprise and met her gaze. Shika. It hadn't been long since Temari had taken a liking to his childhood nickname. Ino, who was always happy to make sure that Temari found out about things that he would rather have kept from her, had casually mentioned it to her a few weeks ago during a barbecue with the whole group. However, Temari had only rarely used it — mostly when she wanted to tease him. But under these circumstances, the use of his nickname seemed to imply something else. The uncertainty he thought he'd glimpsed in her eyes for the briefest moment was gone in a flash, hidden once more behind her wall of pride and professionalism.
He cleared his throat, took one last look at her palm, and let go of her arm. "There's not much we can do. Except complete our mission. That stuff could be anything. Once it's analyzed in the lab, we'll know more."
Silence fell. Temari knew he was right. The fact that the contents of the vials hadn’t affected them immediately was only at first glance a good sign. The range of possible effects that simply hadn’t become noticeable yet was endless. They truly had no choice but to return to Konoha, hand over the remaining three samples to the Hokage, and hope that the analysis wouldn't reveal anything too fatal.
"Fantastic," Temari summarized their situation.
"At least it’s not so fucking cold anymore," Shikamaru said dryly, pulling his sweater back on. At this point, the fact that he came into contact with the soaked fabric again made no difference anyway.
"Hardly comforting."
"I know."
Silence returned for a moment, broken only by the cozy crackling of the fire, which now felt oddly out of place given their situation. Temari drew her knees up to her chest, stared into the flames, and suppressed the unease rising within her. Burying her head in the sand and spiraling into crisis mode wouldn’t help anyone. So she resisted and forced herself to maintain a stoic demeanor. Meanwhile, Shikamaru repeatedly clicked Asuma’s lighter open and shut, staring straight ahead.
Internally, he cursed the guard who had had turned up unexpectedly and caused their misery. Above all, however, he was angry with himself for the carelessness he had shown in handling the samples during the situation. They should have taken more time to better assess the circumstances. They hadn’t waited long enough before making their move. It had been his responsibility to ensure everything went smoothly. In the face of his failure, he wore a somewhat pained expression and absentmindedly tightened his grip on the lighter.
"Temari, I didn’t mean for this to…" he began eventually, but she cut him off immediately.
"Forget it, Shikamaru. And I mean that." She gave him a stern look, her tone carrying enough weight to keep him from arguing. "This is not your fault."
He remained silent, avoiding her gaze. The lighter clicked open and shut again.
"Stop always blaming yourself for everything. Just because you’re officially the head of the mission on paper doesn’t mean you’re automatically at fault when things don’t go according to plan. I’m still here too."
He still didn’t look entirely convinced but at least stopped fiddling nervously with the lighter. Temari sighed and, for the second time that night, moved closer to him. The ease with which she leaned against him made Shikamaru relax his tense posture and expression, at least a little. Hesitantly, he wrapped his right arm around her waist again.
"No one’s forcing you to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. So don’t."
"Okay," he whispered softly.
Following an inner impulse, Temari nestled into his embrace and closed her eyes.
"You’re taking first watch?" she murmured sleepily.
"Mhm."
"Wake me in an hour…"
"I will."
"And make sure the fire doesn’t go out."
Shikamaru snorted softly and held her a bit closer. Seconds later, she was asleep.