“And that concludes our meeting. Does anyone have any questions?” the host of the session asked, his tone disinterested.
Shikamaru listened with closed eyes. The bespectacled chairman was a shinobi from Kirigakure named Chojuro, and Shikamaru remembered that he had guarded the Mizukage during the Great Ninja War.
“It seems that no one does. So, Shikamaru?” Chojuro prompted from one side of him.
Opening just his right eye to look at Chojuro, Shikamaru nodded slightly before opening the other eye. Ten ninja sat at the round table, men and women, mostly somewhere near his own age.
The Allied Shinobi headquarters in the Land of Iron.
There were no ninja in the Land of Iron, where the power of the samurai dominated. Before the last Great War, the hidden ninja of the five great villages had held their meetings in this shinobi-free land, meetings which later became the alliance of the five great nations before morphing into the current Allied Shinobi Forces. Given that the Land of Iron was the birthplace of this continental alliance, they had decided to build its headquarters there, and ninja from each village, with a focus on the five great nations, came together in this building, working day and night to develop the world of ninja.
The ten people gathered there with Shikamaru were the rising stars of their villages, including candidates for the next kage ninja. The meeting was a place where those responsible for the next generation could discuss the future of the shinobi world. In addition to Shikamaru and the others, chairman Chojuro, Temari from Sunagakure, and Omoi from Kumogakure were in attendance. Shikamaru had been given the job of leading the gathering. It wasn’t something he had volunteered for; he had simply been nominated by everyone else in the room.
“Shikamaru?” Chojuro said, worried about the still-silent Shikamaru.
He cleared his throat and looked around at the assembled group before opening a heavy mouth. “Doesn’t look like we have anything new to put on the agenda. I really hope our meetings will continue to be as relaxed as this one,” he said, standing up. “All right, everyone, I’ll see you again in a month.” He collected the papers spread out over the round table, tucked them under his arm, and turned his back to the others. Baffled by their leader’s curt attitude, the attendees began to trickle out of the room.
He walked matter-of-factly down the long hallway, cold white walls extending ahead and behind. Many ninja were busily hurrying along, but their footfalls made absolutely no sound. They were ninja. An audible footstep was an absurdity. This level of movement control was the first of the most baby of steps at the academy.
“Oi!” A voice called to Shikamaru from behind.
He clicked his tongue imperceptibly. The voice belonged to the person he least wanted to speak with at that moment. Ignoring it, he kept moving forward.
“Shikamaru, hold up!” The voice beat at his back, threatening to send him flying.
“What?” He turned just his head to look at the woman over his shoulder.
Temari from Sunagakure. Her hair was shorter now than it had been two years ago, and she had pulled it back into two bundles on either side of her head. Her eyes were gentler now than they had been, set in a fairly adult-looking face. But given that she was older than Shikamaru, her face didn’t just look grown-up; she was actually already a very fine adult.
“What’s going on with you?” She stared at Shikamaru with eyes that drooped somewhat more than they used to.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been weird lately.” Temari’s slender hand reached out to Shikamaru’s shoulder and pulled him around to face her.
What a drag… The words made it all the way to his throat before he managed to desperately swallow them back down.
“I mean your attitude at the meeting there. You just sit there with your mouth shut. Everyone gets nervous; the whole place tenses up, you know.”
“It does?”
“You didn’t notice it?” Temari’s eyes grew wide. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s something you can’t talk to me about?” Temari’s hard gaze hurt.
In the two years since the Great War ended, Temari had been a good and understanding partner in their work on the alliance. She shared his desire to keep the shinobi from fracturing into factions once more after they had finally come together in the face of a powerful enemy. She had rallied the Allied Forces with him. The strong bond between Naruto, seen as a candidate for the next Hokage of Konoha, and Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, also played a part; the relationship between the two villages was extremely good, even among the five great nations. With these kinds of outside factors also at work, Shikamaru and Temari each recognized the other as their greatest ally in the alliance.
“Something’s happening in Konoha.” She had fairly good insight.
However, her shot was a little off. Nothing was happening in Konoha, although it was true that they were trying to take care of the situation with only the shinobi of Konoha. So Temari was half-right, half-wrong.
The basic policy of the alliance was that matters relating to the life or death of shinobi themselves exceeded the framework of the villages and should be shared with the entire group. What Shikamaru and Kakashi were attempting to do was in very clear violation of this policy. Even so, he couldn’t say anything. Getting the alliance involved now and stirring up trouble with the Land of Silence was not a good plan.
I’ll handle it… His resolve hardened.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“There’s not.”