Naruto : Shadow King

"I see," said a now very lazy-looking person who had a stick of dango in one hand while the other supporting his head while he was half inside Kotaku.

[Kotaku is a heated table that people use in Japan.]

"Will you stop eating when you reply and for Kami's sake don't look at us with those lazy eyes,' the two people he was talking about said in unison, almost pleading. 

"Such a drag, you guys got no chill..." replied the man with half-dead fish eyes, the earlier tension and anger from his face was long gone. 

Yes, this was Shika who was now completely rested, fed and heated to the point that he wished to go back to sleep once again. It's not very often that his Nara tendencies come out like this, but he can't help it, this was just that much damn cosy...

"Ahhhhaaaaaa...." A long yawn left his mouth, making him more sleepy while the other two boys, Suigetsu and Haku's eyebrows were twitching by now. 

Yesterday Shika stormed inside their room, demanding an explanation for the sudden call for help through the emergency scroll when they were completely fine. 

He looked like someone had stolen his favourite pillow. Once Karin did that and the consequences weren't something she liked, the poor girl had to train with Shika's summons, Shika summoned toads with wings and let them lose on the poor girl. 

Sigh...

But surprisingly, Shika didn't make too much fuss this time, as long as he saw them safe, rather than asking for a reason why they asked for help as he did with a threat as soon as he entered the room, Shika just went on the side and stole their bed for a straight 16 hours long sleep. 

Both Suigetsu and Haku knew better than to wake up their boss when he was sleeping. In a year, they have learned that for Shika a Nap is interruptable becuase he's basically slacking off that time instead of working and thus he won't be mad, but they shouldn't wake him up from sleep, that is a taboo. 

Arguably that was the only time he actually acted like a boss...

"Don't yawn, you are making us sleepy too, you stole one of your beds, we haven't had a good sleep either..." Haku chidded, though the boy hardly felt this annoyed but sometimes the antics of their boss left everyone speechless. 

'Tsk...' Shika however was shameless, slowly rubbing the itch on his face, he clicked his tongue, making both the boys more agitated. 

"Enough, tell us already what are you planning on doing with those Akatsuki." Suigetsu unlike Haku had a short temper while trying to kick Shika out of the Kotaku from inside.

"Oi, don't do that, if you are that interested in getting me out of here then why not try leading by example." Shika chided as he looked at both Haku and Suigetsu too inside the same table as he was. It was just that while he was lying like a dead dog, they were sitting up tight, glaring daggers at him. 

"Okay okay, we are getting out of topic. Shika what are you planning on doing with the Akatsuki?" Haku sighed, he wondered why Shika showed a dual personality sometimes. 

"Hmmm..." Shika didn't want to think about that troublesome bunch right now, it was unusual for him to find such a nice and cosy place to nap but he knew that fun time was ending soon. 

After entering this hotel, the very first thing Shika did after making sure they were safe was to threaten them and then immediately fall asleep. 

Only after waking, while eating did he learn the real reason why they asked for help. Turn out that two of the Akatsuki Members are in this small town right now. 

'Deidara and Sasori originally were sent to the Land Of Wind to retrieve the One Tail from Gaara. So why were they here? A coincidence? Possible seeing that there are still few months left before the timeline of Shippuden starts.' Shika pondered to himself. 

He wasn't mad at Haku and Suigetsu, they did good for not directly confronting the two artists of Akatsuki, rather trailing them was better. 

He knew their strength, they were strong but not strong enough to handle both Sasori and Deidara.

Fans might troll Sasori for losing to Sakura but this was reality, Sasori here will be nothing less than a Kage-level shinobi, while both Haku and Suigetsu are at best Jonin Level. 

But, Sasori's puppets and poisons are not nearly as big of a threat as that mad pyromaniac Deidara. The dude can literally turn into a nuke and take everything out with him. 

Part of the reason why Shika sent Sasuke to the land of Wind was for this exact reason, knowing Deidara was going there, the only person suitable for handling an earth-style user was a lightning shinobi. Sasuke was perfect for the job. 

However, it seems like the plans are no longer keeping up with reality.

"We'll Wait..." Shika said, finally turning back his serious persona on again. 

"Fighting them inside the town is out of the question, so we'll have to wait until they leave the town. I already have my summon keeping an eye on them. We'll know when they leave..." Taking a deep breath he finally sat up from his disgraceful sleeping position and said.

"Remember when I said that almost all the members of Akatsuki are Kage-level Shinobi. Fighting them inside the town would be catastrophic, so fighting them head on. 

It would be stupid of us if we don't use our numbers and element of surprise on them." 

"So you are planning on setting up an ambush..." Haku caught on quick and asked.

"Yes, I want both of you to handle Sasori. Sasori's poison should not work on Suigetsu's hydrification so you can go close combat with him while Haku you can handle those puppets of his with Ice and precise long-distance snipping." Shika looked at both of them, neither looked like they denied the plan but...

"So are you planning on taking Deidara all by yourself ?" Suigetsu asked, burrowing his brows. 

"Yeah, that Pyromaniac is proficient in earth style and explosion. Neither of you have the arsenal to handle him. So just leave him to me..." Shika nodded. 

"Are you telling me that you can beat that bloody bastard while we can't ?" Suigetsu narrowed his eyes like challenging Shika. 

"Basically, Yes..." Shika didn't care, he knew what he was up against, if they could have taken care of Deidara then he wouldn't have stayed here anyway. 

"You..." Suigetsu felt like blood rushing to his head, he knew that Shika was strong but this felt like the lazy bastard was mocking him. 

The tension started to build inside the room when Shika looked at Suigetsu and said just this much. "If you are not willing then I won't mind letting you face Deidara, but let me show you first what you will be against..." Shika said and his eyes turned red, Sharingan came to life and before Suigetsu knew it he was on a battlefield where Deidara was using his bombs. He was fighting someone he can felt familiar but the focus was always on Deidara and he couldn't figure out who this person was. 

As the vision went on, Suigetsu's pale face became paler, the earlier bravado is gone and he almost piss himself when Deidara turn himself into a bomb. 

"AH Hah hah hah hah..." he got up from the vision with sweat on his back, huffing for air and saw like he was shaking. 

Outside the genjutsu, it was only a minute but when Suigetsu came out, he looked like he had changed his mind. 

"Still wanna fight him ?" Shika smirked and asked. To which Suigetsu could only shake his head like a broken record. 

"Cool, then it's decided, get some rest and be prepared, we move out when they move out." Shika smiled while patting on the shaken Suigetsu's back. 

Shika laughed to which Suigetsu just nodded, still pale, and Haku too noded but then he remembered something and looked at Shika.

"By the way Shika. Thank you..." 

"Thank You ?" Shika was taken aback at this. 

"You came to your help even in the condition you were in and for Zabuza Sama's Sword. That's why, Thank You..." Haku gave a bright smile, it was pleasant. 

'It is so hard to remember that this guy is a he with that face and that smile...sigh.' Shika saw and just shook his head. 

Just as he was planning on going back to his nap, he saw a bird come knocking on the window class, it was a message bird. 

"hmm.."

---

[Konohagakure No Sato]

It was a nice day in the land of fire, one of the rare days when the Hokage of the village didn't have any work to do. 

"Sigh, even after I don't have any work, why do I have to stay here in the office in front of all this completed paperwork," Tsunade grumbled seeing all the paper on her desk. 

Last Night she has work hard to complete all the pending tasks for the upcoming chunin exams. 

Technically she shouldn't come to the office with no work but unfortunately, she was the Hokage. She had to be in the office if nothing then for face sake. 

"Where is Sizune, at least remove all papers from here. My stress level spikes nowadays by just looking at these papers." Tsunade looks at those papers with fire in her eyes. Half willing to just burn them.

However, the safety of those papers was even more important than the border defence line, because if these papers were not delivered to Sizune on time, she had to do it again.

'Yeah as if, hell may freeze over before I'm doing all that work again.' She chided. 

'Where is Shizune ?' She asked, somehow her secretary, arguably the one who was really running the village at this point, was missing. 

Just as she was about to take advantage of the solitude and open her secret stash of liquor, the gate of the office swung open with enough force to almost startle her. 

"Lady Tsunade..." Shizune came in in a hurry. 

Tsunade saw the air pressure of suddenly opening the door make the stack of papers swing and her heart sank. With her dear life, she launches herself to defend those papers from falling and save her freedom.

Making sure that the papers were fine, she was ready to give Shizune a scolding but that was when she realized that Shizune wasn't looking good.

'Something happened, isn't it...' a bad feeling arose inside her. 

"What's going Shizune, why you are so much in a hurry ?"

"Lady Tsunade, it's not good. We just got a message from Hidden Waterfall Village..." Shizune said while trying to catch up to her breath.

"Hidden Waterfall ?" Tsunade was confused, but then something clicked inside her head.

"They have asked for Konoha's help. It's about their Jinchuriki. 

The Seven Tail Jinchuriki Fuu is missing, they found the traces of someone infiltrating the village ..." Shizune said and sure enough Tsunade's day was ruined.

'Akatsuki...' that was the only thing she thought. 

xxx

[Word Count: 1890]

Ah, seems like the story is altering with Shika's actions. What do you expect to happen now?

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