Epilogue:

Taketsu of the Black Sand lay in his hole, the opening carefully screened with a camouflaged blanket, and waited for the targets who had dishonored his clan and the Hidden Sand Village. The small select group of elders had made it quite clear that neither the Leaf shinobi nor the kunoichi who had so disgraced her village and her station should be left alive.

He could hear them approach. They brought with them a small hand cart with a squeaky wheel piled high with goods. They were also having a very loud argument.

"I keep telling you, we're lost," the woman said sharply.

"We are not lost! It's impossible to miss the Land of Fire. All we have to do is head east!"

"Then why haven't we gotten there yet?"

"Gee I don't know... Could it have something to do with the fact that you had to buy half of the Suna marketplace as a gift for my mother? Troublesome woman!"

"I'll have you know that first impressions are very important! I wouldn't dream of meeting someone for the first time without the proper gift!" There was a pause as the wheel squeaked closer. "We're definitely lost aren't we?" There was a shout, the signal to trip the ambush. Taketsu and all his clansmen rushed out of their hiding places and surrounded the couple. "Oh good," said the woman brightly, her voice dripping sarcasm. "Maybe we can ask them for directions?"

"I think that would be a terrible idea," said the man.

The woman tossed her four blonde ponytails in an annoyed way. "What is it with men and asking for directions?" She unclipped a huge battle fan from her back.

Shikamaru ignored Temari and stepped forward hands raised. "Hello there," he said as cheerfully as he could in the circumstances. "I don't suppose that there's any chance of you letting us pass? I mean I know there are quite a few of you, but feel it only fair to warn you, I'm really quite a brilliant tactician. I'm sure I could find some way to defeat you all without too many of you getting hurt... eventually... but the thing is... Temari here, well, despite her amazingly good looks, she's not very patient and really quite good at killing people... If I take too long she's sure to take out at least four of you."

"Four? Hah!" sneered Temari. "I could gut seven of them in the time it would take you to weave a hand sign!"

"Seven? Really? Well aren't you feeling feisty today! Must be all the fresh air." Shikamaru turned and smiled at the ambushers. "What do you say gentlemen?"

There was a scream of "Get them!" and the enemy shinobi charged. As he used his shadow sewing jutsu to snare a platoon of four shinobi, and Temari's wind scythe blew away a trio of shinobi attacking in his blind spot, Shikamaru had the sudden flash of the chessboard in his head. On it sat two kings of green and gold, back to back, protecting each other.

"What are you doing?" Temari yelled at him, cracking her fan over an unlucky shinobi's head. "Pay attention dammit!"

Smiling, he got on with the battle.

Fin