flowers live as they will

Prioritizing promotion over the survival of two pawns was a senseless strategy. The dragon horse, while useful for capturing the persistent rook, would inevitably find itself caught in the throes of his opponent's iron defense. He had played too aggressively.

No.

He hadn't played aggressively enough. Sacrifices were necessary—that was the cost of war—but none of them should be in vain. What he could have done with two pawns was this ... then that ... then ...

...

Shikamaru stirred from his half-asleep state. He had only managed to shut his brain up for all of twenty minutes before he felt the faint tremor of another person's chakra. It was steady. Footsteps light, evenly paced. A woman.

After spending a good portion of his life with his eyes closed, he could easily distinguish people and their moods by the rhythm of their footsteps. His mother's was slow and deliberate. The convenience store lady's was quick and skittish. And Ino's was—

Lighter than most and more evenly paced.

Shikamaru rolled onto his side and went back to sleep. It was his day off, so he couldn't be bothered.

Talk about creepy, though. No way did she want to risk getting stuck in there.

Alas, Shikamaru's mom had asked Ino to track him down, and some kids had last seen him heading in this direction. So for now she'd endure and collect her payment by making Shikamaru lend his ear to her well-deserved venting.

All that had gone out the window when her foot snagged the wire, after hearing a faint rattling something in the dark. Diving for the nearest shadow, Ino's back hit the wall of the cave, risking the path into the unknown for the cover it provided—

—and as if to spite her, stone began to grind, the awful teeth-rattling sound nowhere near as awful as the wall of stone climbing up to seal off the cave's mouth. Fast.

Unbelievable.

Keeping a hand on the cave wall, Ino searches for even the slightest shaft of light, but the cave entrance is well and truly gone, sealing her and the mystery trap-setter in complete darkness.

"We can hope, can't we?" Asuma asks, scanning their surroundings briefly before turning his gaze forward again. The forest was just up ahead. "Though you could be jinxing us by saying it out loud," he chuckles, humor seeping into his tone as he shoves his hands into his pockets. "Regardless, we need to make sure we're keeping our guard up."

Asuma had checked his own pack twice. For their short journey east, he hadn't packed much but the leather pouch at his held his shuriken and smoke bombs should he need them. If anything, they couldn't say they weren't prepared for a potential ambush.

From what he could tell, the path leading into the forest ahead was clear. There were no fallen logs in the road, no wire traps or tags that he could see from their current location. So far, so good.

"We do have this, don't we?"

Though she tries not to let it get to her head, she can't deny the dizzying high of having him rely on her as a partner, made all the more intoxicating since they were working as just a two-man unit.

“I know the woods are still a ways away, but I can scout ahead for us. I’ll just--” Ino grabs the back of the merchant’s horse-drawn wagon and hauls herself up into it, folding her legs beneath her. “-leave my body in here for a sec.”

The merchant grumbles something at her about slacking on the job, sparking another fire in her, a much more wrathful one.

"Who's protecting who here?!!"

They both turned away from each other in a huff.

There. A dozen meters away, a rabbit sits twitching its nose behind a nearby stump. Ino watches and waits in case the rabbit makes a sudden dash. But after a few breaths, it makes no moves, so Ino makes hers.

Lining up the small creature in her hands, she whispers under her breath,

“Shintenshin no Jutsu.”

But she’s still Ino. Still staring at the rabbit from her point of view. She knows she didn’t miss, because missing would mean flying into a world without sight or sound, soaring in a straight line into nothing at all. And right now, remaining in her body is more disturbing than that deep dark place.

“Shintenshin no Jutsu…!!”

She hisses the words harshly, clenches her fingers tighter, as if it’s an issue of wringing out the jutsu. Through the gap in her hands, the rabbit blinks back at her.

Unfolding her legs, Ino lets them dangle uselessly for a moment before dropping from the cart.

Revisiting the basics is never a bad idea no matter a ninja's rank. It helps recenter her perspective and strengthen her core techniques. To think about how she gathers her chakra, how it ebbs and flows, where she keeps it focused, and how she can relate that in her teachings should she ever be assigned as an instructor again.

Of course, the upcoming exams mean that everyone is searching for a spot to practice. Kurenai counted herself lucky to know of this place, a secluded hot spring encased by trees and shrubs. A perfect locale to test chakra control while surrounded by nature. She could not have chosen better.

The soft crunch of leaves beneath footfalls draws her attention. So close to the village, it is likely only one of the locals, and the assumption is proven true when one of Asuma's team appears.

"Ino. Are you here to train?" Kurenai stands in the middle of the pond, feet firm against the water's surface and her calm, dark gaze directed at the young woman.

What luck, then, that someone else had beaten her to it. And after Ino had woken up early and everything. Through the brush, their silhouette stands perfectly, infuriatingly still, as if to say I’m not leaving anytime soon.

Teeth gritted, Ino marches toward the clearing, ready to bite the head off the jerk that's ruined her plans. She shoves aside a stupid branch that has the nerve to stretch out in front of her, and behind it is —

"Kurenai...sensei?"

Breath catching, Ino swallows down all the insults she'd been on the verge of throwing out at the 'intruder'. A too-loud laugh bubbles up as she mentally scrambles to shift gears.

"Oh...! Aha! I, uh."

Strictly speaking, she’d come there looking for a fight over the spring. But that’s the last thing she wants Kurenai to know: that Ino lost her head because of one early morning and one minor inconvenience. So she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and smiles sheepishly.

“Yes!” Then, dropping her voice a few levels, “Yes, I’m here to train, but I didn’t think I'd find anyone else all the way out here. Especially not you, sensei."

Ino takes a second to admire how still the spring water is beneath Kurenai’s feet; her interruption has hardly phased the other woman.

Each step turned the crunch of gravel into the crack of glass until the air around them shattered, filament scattering through the high mountain sky and refracting the darkness around them in the pool of blood red lilies. Though Hiruko's body remained still, seemingly unruffled, the tail twitched and flicked this way and that for a moment as the footsteps approached them through the sea of dead flowers.

"Impress you."

The words were nearly spat as he turned, a grunt of disdain tearing from his throat. It was not a calculated and detached reaction that found his chakra channeling down his fingertips and to every inch of Hiruko, the strings moving his mechanisms from merely motion to martial clicking and whirring to life quietly - it was as close to a gut reaction as someone like Sasori could make.

Death to death.

Enough of this farce.

Whether the girl would choose to allow herself to die here would be to her discretion - the poison would find its rot seeping into her every nerve and fibre in its course, and when all this was done he would have a pair of golden Yamanaka dolls for his shelf.

Then the fight began.

If the cloak of death had blanketed them like an icy fog, then the Akatsuki's poison felt like a scalpel, picking her apart bit by bit. Ino couldn't allow this fight to go on for long. She had to get help before she stopped breathing. Had to warn the others before the scorpion in their midst could sting anyone else.

"Higan...bana-san..."

Higanbana's hands were already weaving signs, so Ino gave up on words for the moment. Instead, she reached for that connection again, a hasty hand grabbing at the air, no time for finesse, because if this was going to work at all then it had to be now, while Ino's body still held out.

Genjutsu would have to do for now. Something to distract the kage bunshin, or throw off her aim. Hare, Dragon, Dog, Snake. As she felt the ground rumble, Ino wove her own signs as quickly as her stiff muscles would move. The warmth of their connection enveloped her again, only this time, something laced it, a prickling like static electricity.

If Higanbana could tell that Ino was in danger, if she had a plan for the Akatsuki in their midst, Ino couldn't find it.

Down the channel that linked their minds, Ino shoved a wordless message of danger directly behind Higanbana. The real threat wasn't the two shinobi before her (Ino would laugh at the irony if she could). No, whatever justsu Higanbana wove, it should strike stood behind her. That was her true mark.

Higanbana looked over her shoulder, but the movement—it was all wrong. Her head snapped to the side before returning to face them just as abruptly. When Higanbana dropped her arms, the movement there was also far too sudden. And didn't she already weave those hand signs?

He was not concerned for time, of course, any more than he was concerned for whatever traps had been purported to be located along every path they might have taken. Sasori was of the cautious sort, being acquainted with traps himself, but the respect he paid for the traps lain along the mountain amounted to nearly the respect he displayed for the proctors, and he remained unbothered by their existence.

Even more amusing, then, that with his entire lack of careful step, not a single one had sprung.

Glancing over his shoulder, Sasori shook his head. Needing a familial relation to pass even the simplest of tasks was an embarrassing thing for a shinobi, and yet the Leaf seemed to function wholly on this type of nepotic caste.

"Slowing down again? The top is just within sight."

If she could even see that far ahead of her by this point.

The air would be thinning as well, something that a shinobi of the Sand would already have been used to if it was something he required, but a spoiled Konoha child would have little experience with the hardships of nature.

By now, watching the cloak in front of her proved easier than navigating the terrain on her own. Ino did indeed plan to keep him in her sight for as long as her blurring vision held out.

None of the creatures Higanbana had mentioned had crossed their paths, and Higanbana herself had vanished at some point. Maybe surviving the trip to the summit with an Akatsuki member was part of Ino's test, then.

Liquid fire spreading from the cut on her abdomen. Another step forward.

The Akatsuki continues to trudge along, leaving her a trail of dust-clouded air and venomous words, words that Ino wished she had the breath to reply to. As that cloak drifted further and further out of sight, Ino took the anger she so desperately wanted to vent and sent it to her legs.

Dry mouth. Tingling in her fingertips. Another step forward.

If this uncanny creep was Ino's test, then she'd pass it, all right. She wasn't dying here. She refused to, not until she could show them exactly what she was made of.

And then the mountainside leveled out, sloping back down and out of sight. She'd made it. Ino drew the puzzle piece from her pocket and squeezed it tight as she took stock of the peak. The relief brings a new flush of anger with it, seizing her with the urge to hurl the puzzle piece at that tail with all her strength.

But no, not yet. Patience, like Higanbana said. She'd wait until the right moment, until she had enough strength to make her outrage count.

"Made it," she breathed. Then, louder, "You creep. Don't think I won't pay you back for this."

He drew the appendage into a sway, the dance of a hooded cobra, to intimidate, to distract, to hypnotize – if she were as clever as she seemed to believe herself, she would rip her attention from the movement of it, to focus on the movements of its conductor underneath and to prepare herself as necessary for whatever the main body would do. 

But he knew that she was not half so clever as she needed to be, even to stay alive. 

WHAM - !! 

Regardless of where her gaze fell, or for how long, after the moment of tense silence that followed her words, echoed only by the continued rattling chuckle, the full weight of Hiruko's tail slammed down at an angle from her shoulder and chest to drop her to the ground. 

Sasori made no move to step in closer, and simply allowed the tail to continue its extension, the serpentine twine along the length of her body, where the glistening tip nicked and strayed against the exposed skin. 

"And one of them is worthless." He did not bother to glance at the other, the tip of Hiruko's tail hovering against the girl's cheek almost thoughtfully. Hiruko's eyes widened for a moment, more a threat display than narrowing by degrees, and the silence of the forest echoed around them for a long moment. 

Then, the tail wrapped itself around the girl's hips and forcibly dragged her back to standing, before swaying back to its position, coiled and retracted within his shell. 

His forward momentum continued, shuffling gait against the scattered detritus of the forest floor. Here, he allowed his gaze to rest upon the lady who fancied herself death, and his voice lowered in pitch, a grating rumble that held a promise. 

As if to slap the device away, she swung her arm, then abruptly stopped. No, the burn wasn't just her temper flaring or her ego protesting—the tiny cut to her torso seared worse than its size would suggest.

Like a scorpion, that tail carried toxin.

Ino couldn't heal herself, but she clapped a hand over the wound anyway, mind torn between taking stock of her symptoms, and following the conversation in front of her.

Akatsuki. Another word that hit home.

"Then, Higanbana-san..." Ino suppressed a shiver before continuing. "Why shouldn't we capture him right now?!"

Higanbana sighs in response. "Unfortunately little flower, certain rules prevent us from interfering unless its life and death." "Rrrrgh..." she wants to object so much stronger, but that's her superior (and her blood). "Then...! Then let me at least go and find the mountaintop on my own!" "If you wish to try you may, but do be warned Yamanaka Ino, all manner of creatures wander these forests at night." A raven overhead splits in two, a half going to each of you as if saying that whatever occurs from this moment on, the consequences are yours to bear.

Tightly, tightly, Ino clenched her fists—to suppress the spreading pain, to make sure it didn't show, to give herself a second to lament her two terrible options. She couldn't even tell what she'd been stuck with.

Sweat was already beading on her forehead, and the ache spreads with every breath, but the absolute last thing Ino wanted was to show it.

While it was clear that this arena was built for the children to stumble about in, buffeted about by padded guard rails to guide them along the path to launch them forward into real danger without any of the experience to harden them, there was something else here that was keeping the girl not merely safe, but protected. 

His eyes narrowed in amusement as she floundered about, the need for connection driving her forward so much as to overwrite her own caution in the real world surroundings - and what connection was it that she sought, that was being proffered with such indelicacy? 

A raven appears to replace the once you so rudely dispersed earlier, flying back and forth in an irregular pattern with a hint of almost... annoyance, yet she does not speak. Merely watching, waiting to see how you respond to the question posed to you by the young Heiress. 

The chuckle turned darker then, a click, a rattling sound from the hollow of Hiruko's throat, and here he did halt his forward progression, turning on the girl abruptly in a manner that would find her tripping over herself to avoid colision. 

"'Counter'?" The clicking rattle sound again, Hiruko's apertures widening in time with his eyes, pinning and dilating, beady and exaggerated at once. He took a step closer to her, and the tail swayed behind him. "You need even the most basic things explained to you, don't you? A waste of such a jutsu, on a mind like that." 

Another step, the brush crunching like glass underfoot. 

"I didn't want to counter it, child. I want to take it." 

It was here, perhaps, that he might have emphasized her situation – the foolishness of so blindly following someone so dangerous into an expanse of alien emptiness, knowing that she could not physically overpower him, and then to prod at him following the revelation that if she were to scream, none would hear it. 

"I said I wasn't dying here with you." And she meant it, even as the strange clacking sets her teeth on edge. "But I'll die before I let that happen."

Through her whirling options and her hand inching toward her weapons, Ino has yet another question:I'm talking with a person, but is this a body that I'm looking at?

With a flutter of wings you notice how the conspiracy of Ravens begins to move almost strategically in a circle, as if blocking something from your sight before Higanbana appears with little flourish, a hand outstretched as her favourite raven comes to perch atop it, an explanation as to how she's been watching you for so long. She does not say anything yet, but you can see that her hair has recently been redyed raven black, as if trying to hide something she failed to previously

Ino's eyes flickered to confirm the woman's identity before fully drawing out a senbon.

"Higanbana-san. Would you mind not stepping in for a second?"

She nods her agreement, hands flashing through a flurry of handsigns in preparation

Then, to the one who'd just threatened her, she flicked the senbon. Not directly at him (her anger hasn't completely blinded her) but close enough to make his cloak flutter ever so slightly as the needle sinks into into a nearby tree.

"I'm not fighting you. I'm not stupid enough to do that. But you must be, to make that kind of threat in front of two people with Yamanaka blood."

Well, if she was so determined to die on her own.

Sasori's steps continued forward at the same clip as they had before, unbothered by the way the world around them nearly tremored, something he could only interpret as a childish tantrum from the figure who had wanted his attention so badly, and had not received it. True to his word, he did not look back when he noticed that the girl had halted, despite understanding that it was due to duress of some kind, the panic that welled in her voice as she called out.

"Wait," he mocked in a gruff falsetto, the body language of Hiruko implacable and disinterested in her - no, his attention was at the rustle of the brush nearby, the caw of the bird as it emerged, an omen of death in its own right casting a pall over their trail and arcing downward toward the girl.

The senbon had launched from Hiruko's left arm, tracing after the bird to hear its indignation in harmony with the chuckle that he let out.

As something flies out from underneath the Akatsuki cloak, you suddenly hear the sound of glass shattering. For a moment the entire world seems to shift...

Both of you are frozen in place as the forest around you crumbles away for a moment, placing you in a well lit cavern. It gives you enough time to look around, letting you see the six other teams positioned almost as a clock, each pair surrounded by a sea of vibrant red Spider Lilies. At the center of the clock you spot the proctors... and the missing jounin positioned in a pentagonal space with two spots empty before the cords of the harp echo loudly, reverting the world to the way it was previously. You cannot help but wonder which is real, and which is the illusion...

The laughter grew in volume but did not quite fringe on boisterous, and over the scrap of cloth covering Hiruko's mouth, his eyes took on a wider cast, flicking over the surroundings in contemplative silence beneath the amusement.

There are boons to birthrite, the mind arts of a Yamanaka can only be overcome with the mind arts of another. So as you focus, the mirror shatters once again allowing you to look properly around the cavern, while you are unable to move beyond the circle of spider lilies that surround you. You notice that Higanbana has left her position and now stands close to you, without the mask and the harps you're able to properly focus on her. And it is through that focus that you understand the reason she was able to use Nara Arts despite the lack of almost commonplace black hair. "You shouldn't be awake little Heiress~ Training the mind is important for all of us after all." The way she says it is familial almost, and yet you notice a fox almost sneakily coming to rest against your legs. "Patience Ino, all will be revealed soon enough~" Yet as the dream calls you once more, you notice her dress is replaced with a sleeveless vest, a noticeable mark on her right shoulder, denoting her as ANBU, current or former you cannot tell.

Who is that woman to Ino and Shikamaru?

In reality (or so Ino believed) a raven swooped in close to to adorn Ino with one of those eerily beautiful symbols of death. As if determined to leave her not a single good moment, the hulking shinobi strikes it down. Which begged another question, as she watched the bird disperse: just how low would they go?

Biting down her anger, Ino took in a deep, deep breath. The sharp scent of leaves and earth pricked her nose and filled her lungs. Making the Tiger sign, squeezing her hands tight, Ino felt for that connection between herself and...Higanbana, right? At the same time, Ino couldn't stop walking, or she'd be completely left behind.

The connection welled up to meet her, reminding Ino of her father, of the days he'd let her practice her fledgling arts on his own mind. Higanbana's walls are much the same, gently repelling Ino's touch without rejecting her.

While you feel yourself connect with her mind, while the connection is warm you can feel her amusement at you trying to figure out what the object is as she gentle guides you away. For a moment you catch a glimpse of something that amused her, the image of what looks like an Uchiha and is DEFINITELY Neji covered in glitter. "Nice try little flower~" Higanbana does not close off the connection, yet you can feel the walls come up, as if telling you to try harder if you want to get ahead. After all, flower seeds are fluid, they flow with the wind.

Ino's own sputtery, startled half-laugh caused her to break her own concentration. She wanted to hear more from Higanbana, all the more given her only other choice of company. That deep, rumbling voice only seemed to speak up for the cruelest reasons.

They were all of them acquainted with death, in their own manner experts in her call, but Sasori suspected that none of those gathered quite understood what dying felt like. The drain of color, the drop of sound as the dark began to blur about the edges, and the instant he understood that it was the only sensation that was available in this gathering before the treeline he stiffened, his gaze seeking out the cause of it with a flutter for the container in his chest. 

Then the world shifted, not quite a tilt but a displacement – nothing so dramatic as this idiot girl was pretending that it was as her feet slipped from beneath her and her arms on instinct reached out for the nearest point of stability. 

Perhaps there was something to be said that he was the only immovable in the face of death, but after the long beat of silence after the world settled, all he said as he fixed his furious gaze upon her was, "Let go." 

Two words, with inimitable tone and intention behind them, shimmering incandescent with indignation, irritation, impatience. 

She would right herself and take her time about it, as these Konoha nin did whenever there wasn't someone there to hold their hand, and he had done his share of that with their own leader, hadn't he? His nose wrinkled beneath Hiruko's façade, but he busied himself with the reconnaissance of the area they found themselves in, damp and forested and chillingly quiet. 

It didn't take a genius to know that there would be danger awaiting them underfoot – but if there was a single thing these people could do that would threaten him, he would be surprised. 

A feminine voice echoes from your shadow, sounding impressed, yet the impressed nature sounds like it is almost hard to earn. "Oh? An Akatsuki member? I'm intrigued you entered the village and yet... there is no need for death to embrace you yet." 

The expression under Hiruko's face intensified, and he responded to the voice with a disgusted silence, a dismissal stemming entirely of disrespect as he continued the gentle trudge forward into the forest. 

It didn't give them the right to talk to her with such disdain, like she was a stain on their cloak. Ino had much more of a reason to feel disgusted, stuck with someone who'd toy with innocent lives.

"Oh-kay," she scoffed, dropping the fabric, her fingers brushing up against a cold and rigid something. She'd intended for it to be as cutting as his own words, but taking in their new surroundings lessened the bite, and then her only possible ally was already leaving.

"I'm coming, already!" She yelled at that receding, shambling back.

Only...her feet won't move. They won't listen to her. Dread prickling over her skin again, Ino looked down to make sense of it all, finding the familiar sight of two shadows merged.

"Shikama-" the name came out of her mouth on instinct, cut off by the sight that didn't fit the name: one of the proctors, slipping away into the woods, returning Ino's body to her.

"I am not dying here with you," she muttered darkly, stomped after him. As much as she wished to talk about what had just happened, the only pair of ears around clearly didn't care to listen. "And I'm not following you either. I'm only keeping an eye on you until we find Kakashi-sensei and the oth-. Wait."

"I'll go first." She nods to Asuma in the darkness, then opens the trap door and disappears through it back into the academy's halls.

As expected, Komorebi is nowhere near her, and so there's no one to witness the dashing shadow that makes its way from the hallway to the classroom. The window Asuma spoke of is still open.

Kurenai moves toward it. Moonlight and fresh air spill through and caresses her skin, a welcome feeling after hiding in the hallway's shadows for so long, but she remains focused on the task at hand. The area is clear and it's time to make her escape.

With practiced ease, Kurenai slips out of the window and down the side of the building, barely disturbing her surroundings until she lands on her feet beneath the shadow of a tree.

"I'm clear." She speaks into the mic. The academy looks quiet from here. Hard to believe there's several ninja trying to escape its confines.

He takes a moment to shut the door behind him, as if that would conceal the path he'd taken. They were aware of the proctor's route she was taking through the halls. She hadn't entered any rooms, though Asuma supposes it hardly matters now. They all had a clear path to escape.

The classroom is dimly lit by the moon's rays pouring through the open window. The smell of smoke still lingers, though just barely now. Asuma smiles to himself and makes a break for the window, channeling just enough of his chakra towards his feet to run down the outside wall of the academy. Once he spots Kurenai in the line of trees, he runs towards her and takes cover in the underbrush.

Shikamaru was five years old when he learned how to suppress his chakra. And he was twelve, crouched behind a tree in the Forest of Death, when he realized there was no way for an ordinary shinobi to conceal it completely. His mother had known the entire time.

It seems like Komorebi's trying to teach him the same lesson.

After her silhouette glides past the teachers' lounge, Shikamaru slips out. He leaves the door cracked with a coat rack stand hidden in the shadows by the west-side wall, which separates the lounge from the hallway he's in. If the team needs more time, he can make noise and emit chakra. From where Komorebi is, she would be able to sense his general direction; he can only hope that she'd investigate the lounge first.

Kurenai's voice crackles in his ear. Then Asuma's. The tension in his shoulders soothes over. Two safe, and he knows Ino can make it.

There's no way they'll hold their sensei back now. With Shikamaru keeping tabs on Komorebi, and with both their escape routes secured, all that's left is to finish executing the plan.

Ino sits on the edge of the roof, using her heel to press down on the ladder. The joints are caked with rust, but it feels nice and stable.

Halfway into her descent, Ino notices the ladder's not fully extended after all. She gives the drop-down ladder another nudge with her foot. This time, its lack of movement is less welcome, but she can jump the rest of the way down if she has to.

"I'm heading down n—eek!"

With a grating clang, the bottom half of the ladder falls away just as she lifts her foot to keep descending.

Jumping it is, then.

Landing on the grass, Ino looks over her shoulder to make sure the noise didn't draw any eyes. She then glares at the broken ladder beside her before moving to rejoin Asuma and Kurenai.

The time between Ino's and Asuma's reports on Komorebi's movements isn't particularly long either. At best ... "We have about two or three minutes before she restarts her round." More, if he's able to hold her back. "Ino, can you make it down the ladder in two?"

Footsteps pad along in the distance.

Shikamaru moves behind the coat rack, his hand still poised over his mic as he watches the door.

"I can't tell if there's a direct path from where you are to the rooftop, Asuma. It's a pain in the ass, but I would go back and try the window."

A silhouette appears at the far end of the frosted glass. He reaches into his pouch.

Though the lack of Komorebi's footsteps up here are a welcome repreive, but she's not out of the woods yet. As if to reminder her, the evening air sits still and stagnant.

Ino positions herself against a corner of the fence. From here, she can keep an eye on the windows in question, and maintain a quick path to the ladder. Clambering up the fence and down the other side would leave her too exposed, make it too difficult to keep an eye on the situation while moving.

A Yamanaka doesn't take those risks without an ally to cover her. Not unless romantic intrigue is invovled.

"Asuma-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, I've got a clear line of sight on the east side. Once you're out, we'll follow."

He's crouched behind an armchair, hands pressed into the Rat seal. Beside him, moonlight bleeds into the lounge, soaking the marbled floors all the way to the door. But Komorebi doesn't come back.

A frown pinches his brows. He lingers for a few moments more before letting the seal fall to his side. Perhaps the hallway is longer than he'd assumed ... or they're in another genjutsu.

There's rustling in his ear. Movement. Shikamaru sets them aside as he squints at the bulletin board hammered into the east wall. Is that ... ? A patrol route, looking eerily similar to the layout he has mentally mapped out in his own head—except with more spaces north. And if Komorebi was just here, around the teachers' lounge, then ...

He reaches up for his mic but stops mid-way.

There's more rustling then. Whispers. Asuma's voice. Kurenai's voice. Whatever thought Shikamaru had in that moment dissipates, and he finds himself pressing his earpiece in, as if that would help him make sense of what he's hearing. What's happening? Are they—

Ino comes through, and Shikamaru damn near rips the earpiece out.

"Could've chosen a more elegant way to tell us," he grumbles, rubbing the base of his neck. His gaze returns to the patrol route. "North Hall, heading East ... yeah, that tracks. Looks like she patrols—" Right. He should probably loop Asuma and Kurenai in too.

He switches his mic back to the main line.

Ino suddenly comes on over the mic and reality comes back to her. They're on a mission and shinobi shouldn't fall prey to distractions.

Shikamaru comes on next and once he's finished, she nods and presses her hand to her ear piece. "Good job, Shikamaru. Asuma and I will stay hidden until she passes."

As if on cue, Komorebi's loud footsteps echo through the hall, her chakra signature at it's peak as she passes by their current hiding spot embedded in the wall. Asuma inhales and holds his breath for a moment, only releasing it when it her presence begins to fade again.

"The teacher's lounge is nearby. Sounds like she's headed in that direction next. She'll be back on the east side afterwards." If he remembered correctly, it was also down the hall. This part of the academy wasn't very large.

Kurenai rests her hand on his chest and a small smile tugs at the corner of his lips. She always turned stoic while she was working, and while he didn't get distracted very easily, her seriousness still served as a reminder for him.

With enough time, they could grasp any patterns in Komorebi's movements, but prolonging this test is sure to have risks. Knowing her movements in advance is a great advantage.

And now, more than ever, Ino is dying to get out of here. To fully freak out and shake Shikamaru by the shoulders. To see Asuma and Kurenai in this new light.

Emboldened by the new intel, Ino tiptoes to the stately windows beside the Hokage's desk. Far below, she can't see anyone on the ground on this side. Slipping back out into the hall, Ino spots a narrow staircase that only leads up. There's only one place in the building higher than the Hokage's office.

As much as she wants to stay silent and hear what's happening between the teachers, she can't very well ignore them.

"I'm okay, sensei," she replies, deciding to leave out her close call with Komorebi. "I'll check out the situation from the roof, to see if anyone's waiting for us below those windows, Kurenai-sensei."

Up on the roof, Ino takes a deep breath and--strange. The wind isn't as refreshing as she'd expected. As she edges closer to the eastern side of the building, she realizes can barely feel the outside air at all.

A fence rings the roof, with an opening for the handles of a drop-down ladder. Before Ino can take a look, an owl's hoot sends her scrambling for cover.

"Roof looks clear so far. The fence is still up, but so is the ladder down."

Silently, she slips from the vent and into the hallway. She can hear Komorebi through the hallways. Judging by the sounds and her other senses...she's closer than Kurenai thought. But there's still time to search and they need every advantage they can get.

Kurenai moves confidently through the darkened hallway when a strange sight along the ground catches her eye. The outline of something. Her hand moves along its outer edge until she can fit it into the indent of a handle. Soundless, the heavy door opens to reveal a dark space. It doesn't go anywhere but it is some kind of secret hiding spot.

And then she feels him, Asuma, at her side pulling her into this dark space. She doesn't resist, simply fits herself against him as they take up the entirety of the hidden area. It's not a smile that greets him however but a frown.

"Asuma, why are you smoking here?" She plucks the cigarette from his lips and puts it out immediately against the wall that they're cramped up against. "The smoke and smell will give you away." He knows better.

One of his hands deftly reaches for her glowing scroll at her hip to secure it in one of the leather holders he'd found, and then once it's fastened shut, he places it back in the pouch she'd been keeping it in. "That'll help block the light." The hand lingers for a moment, his thumb gently circling over her hip before he pulls it back to shove it into his pocket.

His other arm extends to rest against the wall above her head though (as much as part of him wanted to) he doesn't make an attempt to further crowd her space. His stance might suggest he's a little too relaxed but he's kept his eyes peeled, he's been listening, and he's still aware of Komorebi's chakra.

After seeing him off, Ino pauses, her hand on the doorknob. Komorebi's chakra grows more and more oppressive by degrees. It's water about to hit that intense boil once again. Time to move.

She makes her own way into the hall and in the direction where the scent of smoke is weakest. She's creeping down the passage that leads to Lady Hokage's office when her earpiece crackles, fuzzy staticky noises that sound like frantic movement.

Ino freezes. Ducks into a nearby pocket of shadow. Waits to hear the situation.

No way.

No WAY.

Asuma and Kurenai are hiding. Together. And they're being so cute about it. This test really is her reward.

Hands clapped over her mouth (because if she doesn't, she will squeal), she listens intently. Was that static from them? What kind of hiding spot are they in right now? Did Kurenai take Asuma's cigarette away? Did their hands touch?

The oppressive feeling of Komorebi's chakra is on her again, and nearing its boiling point. She'd completely lost focus.

As quiet as she can, Ino makes a dash for the nearest room: Lady Hokage's office. Fortunately, the heavy door opens soundlessly, and Ino slips behind it just as Komorebi's presence hits its peak.

Shakily, she presses her hand to her mouth again, this time to hold in the sharp exhale that wants to burst from her lungs.

When the coast is clearer (because it'll never be clear, not until they leave), Ino opens her mic to the other three.

"Komorebi's in the north hall, heading—"

She closes her eyes, hones her senses, feels the proctor's presence trickle weaker and weaker.

"—east. Hokage-sama's office is unlocked."

Then she hurries to switch communications to Shikamaru's line alone, and hisses, half-harried from tension and half-giddy with delight.

"Did you hear them just now, Shikamaru?! New plan: we are not following the sensei. Not unless it's life or death."

As soon as Ino's leg disappears into the ventilation shaft, Shikamaru ducks. The footsteps outside the classroom draw closer, louder, each step weighed with a steady rhythm—which means Kurenai had made it past Koborebi undetected. His eyes flick up to the hole in the ceiling. If Koborebi peers in, it would be evident where they'd gone. He can hold her here, temporarily, if it means giving Asuma and Ino a few extra seconds to find a place to hide.

His fingers inch toward his pouch, where the palm-sized scroll is safely tucked away. The moonlight doesn't reach far enough for shadows to matter, so he'd need to make his own light source ...

But the footsteps don't stop.

Shikamaru draws his hand away and reaches up to his microphone, lowering his voice to say, "Asuma, Ino, she's headed your way. Move fast." He creeps along the rows of desks to the one underneath the vent. Earlier, when he stepped on it, something jiggled inside.

... Pencils?

Could be helpful for distraction. He pockets the pencils and climbs back up on the desk. A pause. "Kurenai-sensei, where are you?" He'd intended to follow Asuma and Ino to the West side, but that would leave Kurenai behind. She can handle herself, he's sure, but he doesn't want to take any chances. If Neji hadn't woken up at the last second to swim out then he would've—

Once her footsteps recede, Kurenai moves toward the alcove. She searches quickly, moving her hand through the darkness, and grabs a scroll. Pulling it into the moon light she realizes her intuition to search the high risk area had proved correct. Her efforts have won them a teleportation scroll. Kurenai gives the area a quick glance, finds nothing more of interest, and returns to the classroom.

Shikamaru is still inside. She nods and produces the scroll. "Here, take this." And presses it into his hands. "We may find more items in the hallways where she roams."

Asuma has spoken at length of his pride in his team, but she knows he and Shikamaru have spent much time together outside of their training as well. A bond similar to hers and Hinata's. And even here in the dark, she can see the intelligence shining in his eyes.

Which is good, because it means Komorebi's patrol is a ways off. But she can't so much as sense Shikamaru coming down the vent, and that's what makes it too quiet.

Of course she knows he hasn't gotten himself caught. Last-ditch plans under pressure come to him like water flows downhill. But the adrenaline running hot through her veins insists that Komorebi had been right outside their door, might have even opened it by now.

Don't worry about things that you can't control. He and Kurenai-sensei can handle themselves. Keep moving.

Sticking close to the wall, creeping forward little by agonizing little, Ino notices the scent of cigarettes grows stronger in this direction. He must be searching the first-year classrooms. To let him search uninterrupted for as long as possible, Ino presses her back to the nearest classroom door. She eases it open and slips inside, leaving the barest crack open for a view of the halls.

To Asuma, she whispers, "I'll let you know if she comes this way. How's it going in there, sensei?"