I can’t just go wandering into another village…
Shikamaru keenly felt his own position all over again. He took his first days off in three months and headed toward the village of Iwagakure on his own. A group of ninja appeared at the village border to greet him. They presented themselves as guards, but he knew that they had been observing him for a while already.
He didn’t want a meeting with Kurotsuchi. This was at most a personal trip. Even after he told them quite plainly that he was there to visit Ohnoki, doubt remained in the eyes of the Iwagakure ninja. The nervous faces of the men guiding him through the village confirmed his suspicions that Kurotsuchi’s behavior at the meeting had indeed been part of some deliberate plan.
Iwagakure was in crisis.
With no interruption from Kurotsuchi, Shikamaru obediently allowed himself to be led to Ohnoki’s home. It was a small house; past the entryway, there was only a parlor and a bedroom. Ohnoki laughed that it was plenty for a single broken-down old man. Shikamaru felt like he was seeing a true ninja in the former Tsuchikage, his life modest, with no boasts of splendor after finishing out his service.
“That’s check, old man,” Shikamaru said to Ohnoki, the shogi board between them, his voice slightly louder than normal. Ohnoki was starting to lose his hearing, so he didn’t always hear people speaking at a normal volume.
“Mm.” Leaving his rook five squares ahead of the king, Ohnoki launched a general into Shikamaru’s end. He was so focused on his attack that he didn’t realize he was in check. He apparently hadn’t heard Shikamaru.
“Hey, old man!” He tried shouting at Ohnoki, who had brought his face down to the board.
“What?” This shout reached Ohnoki, and he glared at Shikamaru with the sharp gaze that was very much the same as it had been when he was still called a legendary stone ninja.
“I said, that’s check. If you keep going there…”
Ohnoki noticed the presence of the rook. “What am I doing?! Real blunder there. Take back.”
“You said no take backs before.”
“This here’s just a simple oversight. You can go ahead and let me have it.”
“I told you more than once that it was check.” Shikamaru sighed. “You’re the one who ignored me.”
“Hwaa?!” With a deep furrow digging into his brow, Ohnoki flipped the shogi table from the bottom. He stood up and, after taking two or three wild breaths through his nose, he turned to Shikamaru and snapped out his index finger. “One more time!”
“You sure about that?” Shikamaru asked, scratching his head.
The old Iwagakure ninja squared his shoulders and nodded. “You can spend the night today, I s’pose. So then we have plenty of time still. I’ll deign to play you.”
“Whoa, whoa, you’ll ‘deign’ to play me? That’s my line.”
“What did you say?!”
“Nothing.”
The old man’s blood surged when the contest grew heated, of course. His powerful anima radiated from his body, though much smaller now in his old age.
Happy to see the former Tsuchikage was still in good health, Shikamaru picked up the overturned shogi table and gathered up the pieces. “So, uh…”
“What?”
So the old man could hear him. It could be that his ears simply got better when he was on edge, but Shikamaru suspected the old man only pretended he couldn’t hear when it was convenient for him. But then what about missing the check earlier? Shikamaru decided that if the old man were so inclined, voices would reach him. He might have been old, but he was still the former Tsuchikage.
He began to arrange the pieces on the table with quick smooth movements. Dropping his eyes to the game board, he asked, “What’s going on in Iwagakure exactly?”
Ohnoki wavered. It wasn’t agitation. He was suddenly tensing up. He must have known Shikamaru hadn’t just come to play shogi.
So we come to the heart of the matter…
A heavy air rose up between them, like the presence of a third person watching the proceedings.
Shikamaru pressed on. “Did you know that your granddaughter demanded Konoha disclose confidential info at the last meeting?”
Ohnoki said nothing.
Shikamaru had already finished lining up the pieces. Even so, they only stared at the board. Neither moved to start a new battle.
“Kirigakure’s Mizukage also acted like he was in agreement with Kurotsuchi even though Chojuro’s always been friendly toward Konoha. Iwa and Kiri are both dependent on water and mineral resources. And it looks to me like there’s some kind of connection there.”
“I’m retired,” Ohnoki muttered, his face stern, his eyes fixed downward. “I left village matters to my granddaughter.”
Shikamaru drew the ashtray by his knee toward him and pulled a cigarette from his breast pocket. Staring at Ohnoki, he brought a flame to the end of it. He slowly inhaled and then exhaled hazy smoke before asking, “I seriously doubt a man like you’s totally in the dark. Is there something happening in this village that you can tell a man from Konoha?”
“Why? Would you stop already?” Ohnoki picked up one of his pawns, and then said slowly, “The world might be at peace, but a ninja’s a ninja.”
Shikamaru heard the door open, followed by the sound of heels clacking across the floor. The sliding door separating the parlor from the entryway had been left open, and now a slender woman dressed in black appeared there.
“Kurotsuchi,” Shikamaru said.
“Give us a heads-up if you’re coming, Shikamaru. Your visit was so sudden, I couldn’t give you a proper welcome.” Kurotsuchi looked down on him coolly, hands on hips, pale leg peeking out from the slit in her skirt. The faint smile on her lips seemed particularly malicious.
“Got some time off for the first time in ages. And when I realized I hadn’t played shogi with the old man lately, I couldn’t just sit there, so I wandered over your way. My son plays nothing but video games. He never sits down to shogi with me. I’ve been dying for a partner lately.”
“Oh dear. Really?” Not moving to take off her shoes, Kurotsuchi continued to look down on him. Ohnoki didn’t so much as glance at his granddaughter. There seemed to be kind of friction Shikamaru couldn’t read between the two of them.
It had been Ohnoki who trained his granddaughter, the possessor of a Kekkei Genkai, to be the Tsuchikage. It was no exaggeration to say that he had created the current Kurotsuchi. They had a powerful bond not just as grandfather and granddaughter, but as ninja as well.
What on earth happened then?
“Say, Shikamaru?” Kurotsuchi started.
“What?” Still seated, Shikamaru accepted the cruel gaze squarely as he crushed his cigarette out in the ashtray.
“What are you trying to get my predecessor to tell you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t play dumb,” she snapped.
Ohnoki sat frozen between them, his eyes lowered.
“You came to dig into the matter of the other day, I assume?”
“If I was here on official business, I would have made a formal request as a ninja of Konoha,” Shikamaru told her. “Don’t misunderstand me here. I really did just come to play shogi with the old man.”
“So then I’ll ask you.” Kurotsuchi spread her hands out. “Is Konoha going to accept my request? Or refuse it?”
Why are you in such a rush with this?
She was a woman with a good head on her shoulders. Normally, she would have said nothing about Shikamaru coming into Iwagakure by himself like this. She would have simply looked past it. And they were still very much in the early stages of the game. She had nothing to gain from pressing the issue now.
“We’re still discussing it,” he said.
“I would have assumed you were too important to take time off and dawdle here at such a critical time,” Kurotsuchi spat, her voice dripping with irony.
“I just happened to have some days saved up.”
“And this is how you chose to spend your precious time off?”
“There’s no room for me in the house at home.”
“Goodness, poor you.”
“Let it go already.”
“I can’t simply leave my old comrade like this. How about I talk to Temari for you?”
“You’ll only make things worse. Don’t.” He sighed. Not when they were in the middle of a fight over their anniversary.
“Oh my. Temari and I used to be good friends, you know.”
“That’s not the point. This is a family issue.”
“Hmm. My condolences.”
“Shut up.”
As they parried and countered in this absurd and detached conversation, neither looked away from the other.
“Don’t you think it would be best if you left?”
“Oh?” Shikamaru stood up. “Sorry, old man. I’ll head out for today. Once things settle down, I’ll come play again.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Ohnoki said sadly, still staring at the board.
On the step up into the house, Shikamaru pulled his shoes on. “Thanks for having me,” he said over his shoulder.
“Take care on the way home.” There was no malice in Kurotsuchi’s voice.