...And Some Times She Didn't

AN: Sorry this took so long. I lost a lot of my notes and drafts for this one, and it killed my motivation to re-write some of those scenes, and I still don't remember all of them. I still hope you enjoy these, though!

XxXxX

Smile

*Idea used with permission from JJ1293

topic/180237/137948546/97/Recursive-Fanfiction

"Did you hear? The Shikabane-hime is dead!"

Normally, such an outrageous statement would get the claimer in question thrown out on their bums for being drunk and disorderly. This Iwa chunin, however, wears an administrative vest, and has only just burst into the bar. He might actually be credible.

The other shinobi, hungry for what might be the juiciest gossip of the year, sit up and take notice.

"What? Slow down and back up. What's this nonsense about the Shadow Cockroach finally kicking it?"

"It's true!" the first ninja insists. "After the Shikabane-hime singlehandedly discovered and destroyed the Beta Bunker last year, Lord Tsuchikage had a team put together to… deal with her. Long story short, they've been setting up a sting for months, and she finally fell for their trap!" The man brandishes a ripped out bingo book page with a large red 'X' inked over it. "Bye bye, Konoha's newest seal master."

"I'll drink to that!" A scarred veteran kunoichi calls from the back.

She is not the only one who remembers the last war well enough not to want to fight another Konoha seal master in the inevitable fourth war.

"Free drinks for everyone!" The bartender calls, as the room devolves into celebration.

In the hullabaloo, no one notices the slight smirk of the plain-looking chunin kunoichi sitting in the back corner, drink untouched. No one notices when she pays for the bar to have another round, and then slips out the back.

No one notices that Shikako Nara now has explosive and surveilence seals planted all over the bar where nearly every Iwa chunin looses their lips.

No one knows that she is not done yet.

XxXxX

Missing

1. Hatake Kakashi dies on his way home from a mission; killed by vengeful Grass shinobi. Konoha decides that's the last straw to finish what the Civil War started. Grass and – through the destruction of the Kantokusha Clan – its prison, get destroyed. Madara is more than happy to prey on the newly freed prisoners' anger towards the shinobi villages.

2. Uchiha Sasuke leaves Orochimaru's corpse in the ruins of his base. Kabuto escaped, off to create his undead army, but Sasuke doesn't know that. He's focused, as always, on Itachi. If he didn't already have the Mangekyou, killing his brother wouldn't have given it to him. He does take the shiny red eyes that will give him eternal light, though. Madara appears, and tell him the truth of the Uchiha massacre. Sasuke does turn traitor, then. Not on Team Seven, but Konoha will never take him back once he slaughters Danzo and the other elders. He dies covering Naruto's last, mad rush against the Juubi.

3. Gaara is kidnapped. Sakura does not get sent as part of the back-up mission – Sai is the typical third for Team Seven missions. Kankuro and Gaara both die, permanently. Sasori escapes. Despite Temari's best efforts, Sand withers away to nothing by the end of the War. Konoha accepts what shinobi it can into its own forces, though many still go rogue. Gaara's dream dies.

4. Jiraiya dies. Pein invades Konoha, to much greater devastation than could have been expected. Naruto still talks him down and gets him to resurrect everyone, but Tsunade is left in a coma. Danzo becomes Hokage, in time for the Kage Council. He is elected leader of the council and the army. Sasuke is a loyal Konoha shinobi who does not murder him on his way home. Tsunade mysteriously wastes away one night.

Shizune and Sakura's suspicion grief over her passing induces them to make careless mistakes in the field. They follow their master within weeks. Between Danzo's aggressive, questionable war tactics and the lack of competent healers, the Allied Shinobi forces suffer heavy losses. Naruto still wins in the end, though there is almost no one left to celebrate with him.

5. Shikamaru's plan is not as informed as it could have been. Danzou finishes the fight with Shisui's eye intact. Sai still decides his loyalties do not lay with Danzou. He steps in to help Shikamaru escape Danzou's clutches. He dies for it.

Danzou is made leader of the Five Kage Council, and his place in Konoha his secure. The Ino-Shika-Cho clans, with help from the Rookie 12, rebel. Konoha, and then the Alliance, is torn apart in a civil war. They all die for it.

XxXxX

Ghost

"Shikako… You don't have to do this. You saw how unhappy Keisuke became. You deserve to go rest in the Pure World."

"After we defeat the Akatsuki. I can still plan, perform recon, help with seals... Let me do this!"

"…Fine. After."

And they do. But then:

"After we save the world from the Moon's Eye plan."

"After the Peace is settled."

"After I get to see my new nephew."

"After I help your kids get over… your passing."

After.

"Great-Auntie Shikako? Why didn't you ever move on? Aren't Great-Grandpa, and Grandma and The Rokudaime and a bunch of people expecting you?"

"You see, Shika-chan, my soul probably isn't going to pass into the Pure World. They all have each other, but… I don't think I'm every going to get to see them again. So, I'm doing right by them by taking care of you, and Ino-kun, and Chou-kun, and really the rest of Konoha! You're my precious people too, aren't you? So I'll always look after you."

XxXxX

Forgotten

It's cruel of the universe, that Shikako would make it through the Fourth Shinobi War practically unscathed, only to be taken out in the clean up less than six months after the fact. Tsunade spends eighteen hours in surgery, and walks out to proclaim that she has done everything she can. It's all up to Shikako, now, whether she wakes up or not.

"Your presence, your voice, your words… any of it might help," Tsunade offers, and Ino agrees, so Shikako's loved ones takes turns – hell, they practically schedule set shifts –visiting her.

Naruto comes by every day to excitedly recount his new Hokage duties. Sasuke comes in halfway through to complain that Naruto's only having such a good time because he foists all the boring paperwork off on him. The non-Team Seven Konoha Twelve members rotate through coming in the mornings and on lunch breaks. Sakura checks in on her breaks every shift. Kakashi slips into the room in the middle of those nights he can't sleep – which are more often than not – to let his chakra signature run into hers as he reads. He doesn't giggle. Yoshino and Shikaku make sure at least one of them makes it by every day, and they bring little Onnamei at least once a week, so she can know her older sister. (So maybe, maybe, her older sister will know her.)

Shikamaru doesn't come, after those first few days. He's too busy outside the village, no matter that he's taken himself off active duty. Shikako fell into the Black. He's sure of it. The Nara legends are very clear; there's only one entity left that might save her – though none have found it since the clan's earliest days. It's thought to be lost forever.

But Shikamaru is a genius even among his brilliant clan, and no one should discount a motivated Nara.

He finds it sealed in a distant cave, beyond the elemental nations in four months.

Young Nara. You are very far from your home. Why have you come?

"Please, my sister has fallen into the Black. I need your power to heal her."

She gave herself up for you. She cannot be healed.

"All the legends said you could help!"

What I do is not healing. I can only return her soul to its original state.

"That's good enough."

I warn you, this will not give you what you truly want.

"I don't care! Give me my twin back!"

Very well.

The entity shimmers and pours towards him. It presses in and through him, power surges through his veins- and just as suddenly, it's gone. Shikamaru blinks. When he walks back out of the cave, he finds that it's night, though it certainly didn't feel like so much time had past. He might even have thought he had dreamed it, if it weren't for the small black seal now inked on his palm, thrumming with power.

The journey back to Konoha feels like it takes even longer than the trek there, no matter that it's much more direct. Energy thrums through Shikamaru, both from the seal and his eagerness to heal Shikako. At least Naruto has smoothed the way for him. He's allowed to go straight from the gates to the hospital

Tsunade and Ino are there as healers to monitor the proceedings. His parents and Team Seven wait – unhappily – outside, desperate hope on their faces as he passes them and goes into Shikako's room. Shikamaru ignores them all; he has eyes only for his sister.

Shikako.

He has a preternatural sense of just what he has to do. He lays his palm on her head so that the seal is directly above Shikako's Crown Chakra – the junction of the spirit – and pushes chakra into the seal. That pushes the seal over its breaking point; the Entity's energy pours out, flushing through his sister's spiritual system.

Please work. Please.

Shikako coughs, reflexively trying to force the foreign chakra from her lungs.

Her eyes flutter open!

"Shikako!"

And he's not crying, he won't let a little something like tears clog up his throat when he has so much to say to his sister, needs his words desperately if he is to ask if she is okay.

But then Shikako is pulling away from him, fighting weakly against his hug, and he releases her, ready to apologize for hurting her when he knows she's been in a coma for so long… but it's not pain or exasperation he sees on Shikako's face. She's confused. Scared. Of him.

Shikako opens her mouth, and speaks words Shikamaru only half remembers from the odd child-language Shikako used when they were young. Even so, Shikamaru is still devastatingly certain of their meaning.

"Who are you?"

XxXxX

Released

"What is taking her so long this time?"

"Mah, Shikamaru, don't be so impatient. She'll come back eventually. She always does."

"I know, but she normally makes it back in a few years. It's been five. What if she got reborn somewhere hostile? What if they're hiding her, not letting her come home? This could be another Kumo situation-"

"If this was another Kumo situation, we would have heard the explosions by now."

"Yeah, as amusing as that was, no one is stupid enough to try and hold her again. All the big countries are allied with us now, and all of the littler ones don't have anywhere near the power to keep her from us, if she wants to come back."

"Maybe that's why she's staying away; she got sick of your putting up with Kiba's dog breath as he spreads wild stories about her."

"I am only doing my sworn duty to spread her greatness to the four corners of the world, so that everyone knows they have to help her come home to us again!"

"Nah, Kakashi-sensei's probably just holding her up. I can just hear him, 'Ah! My cute little genin can't leave me yet! Who else is going to tell me about that new Icha Icha ghost writer series?'"

"As if he doesn't; have enough people there to keep him company."

"That was mean, Shika."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just… five years. It's never taken her longer than four before. I kept thinking she was going to show up for her death anniversary last month, or our birthday last week, or Shikadai's birthday yesterday…"

"Yeah, she would wait for a big day like that. She sure picked up sensei's flare for dramatics over the years."

"Oh man. You know we're going to be losing some battle and she's going to show up and be like, 'Sorry I'm late you guys, I got lost on the road back to life…' or something."

They all laugh at that. Shikamaru allows himself a smile.

"Yeah. I'm… I'm sure that's it."

The discussion breaks down into a series of bets as to how Shikako's been reborn this time, and how quickly she'll come back. Nobody bets on "never."

Nobody wins the bet.

XxXxX

Traveler

Nara Shikako closes her eyes as life slips from her and wakes up, much to her chagrin, Cait Kent. Her life's a struggle, but she has a twin brother to care for, so she manages. There are people to love here too, and she helps them save the world. More than once. She would be happy to pass on after this life.

Cait Kent becomes Landra Calrissian. Unfortunately, she does not get a lightsaber in this life (no matter how many black markets she searches through; the Empire is thorough), but she and her twin manage to survive their rough corner of the galaxy. Their lives are exciting, if unimportant to the galaxy at large, until one day Han Solo comes back to their city, followed by the Skywalker boy that will change everything.

When Kandra dies again she wakes up Clarkia Everdeen. "Oh hell no," she thinks.

Even after all this time, she remembers this book and the misery that awaits her. "Shikako out."

XxXxX

Peace

Shikako opens her eyes to pure whiteness. It doesn't last long; her vision is quickly filled with a familiar smile.

"You're awake!" The voice is nothing like Naruto's when it speaks, but something about it still makes Shikako draw the parallel. Shikako blinks, and this time she can see the long red hair that is not the choppy blond she has been expecting. "Oh! It's so nice to finally meet you! I mean, I'm glad it took so long, of course, butthisisstillsoexciting"

"K-Kushina-san?"

"Oh, don't be so formal! You're my son's sister! Here, let me help you up." Strong young hands pull on Shikako's rapidly de-aging ones. "Oh, everyone else is so happy to meet you!"

"Me?" If the Bloody Habenero is put off by her bewildered tone, she doesn't show it. The older (does something like that even count here?) woman keeps dragging her along excitedly.

"Yes! Oh, we're so blessed they had you!"

"Who?" Kushina tugs a little to fast, and Shikako stumbles, still getting used to her younger body again.

Luckily, strong hands catch her. This time, it's the blond she had been looking for, if still not the voice. "Us." Namizake Minato stands her back upright, and then swings an arm over his wife's shoulders. "Calm down, my Love. Let her catch her… er, breath. We can wait a moment."

Kushina groans, but another voice backs him up, "You're always so impatient, 'Shina. Give her a second to adjust!"

Shikako finds herself looking a noble face that must be Uchiha Mikoto's. Fugaku embraces the dark haired woman, with Itachi standing awkwardly at their side. Near the Uchiha family, Hatake Sakumo stands stoically next to a fair-haired woman that must be his wife. A scowling Yondaime Kazekage, with his wife and brother-in-law rounds out the odd group.

Kushina takes a breath, then steps back to stand with them, like she's the leader some sort of bizarre welcoming committee to the after life. Shikako's impression isn't far off. The red head fixes Shikako with another blinding smile and says enthusiastically, "Thank you so much for taking such good care of our babies!"

XxXxX

Onnamei- Very roughly, "Girl Name.' Because of course the parents of 'Deer Boy' and 'Deer Girl' would name a third kid "Girl Name."

Clarkia - a flower also known as Deerhorn, in the vein of Katniss and Primrose flowers