Book One- The Enemy

Chapter 23

The Art of a Kunoichi
The Art of Beauty
Passage Four

Words from the lips of Akemi, the Bright and Beautiful One

A man's weakness lies beyond these commands,
beyond his eyes that see,
beyond the words spoken for him to hear,
beyond his primal needs to feel,
beyond the aroma of the jasmine he smells,
beyond the lips he wishes to taste,
beyond everything,
the strike must occur to his very core,
the one place he will not see coming,
His promise. His love for thee. His heart.

O

The mere sight of old enemies making contact sent each of the nation's armies in a tense silence, wary and alert, as expected. It didn't take long to see the tension break and a pair of opposing shinobi crossing paths bumped into each other, stared, one yelled out an insult, the other threatening back before they began to shove at each other, kunai quick to come out as the metal clinked together in the now physical dispute.

Shikamaru dropped his head and groaned, they had made it into the camp not ten minutes before someone had to pick a fight, and all they were doing was passing through to head into the desert where they'd assemble to make it towards the ravine for their final battle.

"Just like you said Shikamaru, they were bound to start a fight" Sakura watched the scuffle, unamused, at his side shaking her head in disapproval, Choji to his other watching the scene with a handful of chips slowly making their way to his mouth, although he seemed more interesting in seeing who was winning.

"That's why I said to head straight outside the camp" He pinched the bridge of his nose stifling the headache at the already out of hand fight "does no one listen to me?" Shikamaru grabbed the cigarette from his ear, quieting the glare from Sakura when she noticed "I ate so don't give me that look" he muttered bringing it to his lips, lighter forgotten while he watched the rivals ahead of him, thinking how to intervene when a hit almost took out his own man, he had no choice after all, slipping his hands into his pockets, remaining calm as he made his way to the dispute.

"New recruits I guess" Choji chuckled through his mouthful, giving him a shrug. Shikamaru sighed and stepped forward to the forming crowd, a few bystanders who began a chant for their favored victor. He glanced momentarily from each opponent, the Leaf shinobi ducking the slash from the Sand and pushing into him to knock him over, the Sand groaned and fell back quick to dodge the kunai pushed down to his head and rolling his opponent off before he scrambled to stand, jumping back to get some distance.

The moment they began to pace around each other, hesitant who would make the first move, they had failed to notice the split shadow slithering towards them, few in the crowd spoke, someone gasped, and the men stilled under the sudden paralyzed hold. Both of their eyes widened, bodies shuddering as they tried to move, their eyes scanning around them helplessly before setting on following the thin dark trail back to Shikamaru as he stepped forward in their line of sight, sign raised before him and an annoyed look.

He already planned for something like this to happened, seeing as no one seemed to want to entertain the idea of trusting their enemy for a single battle, not that he could trust the Sand with what was to come, the warning clear from what he had observed in the Land of Rain, in her. With Gaara weakened someone was bound to attack them, he knew that, just too much hate from both sides to let it go as easily as he could, or at least force himself for the sake of the villages, for the sake of his order to protect the peace, for her, the invasive thought instantly irritating him more as he glared between the two, settling to speak to his shinobi first.

"I thought I made it clear not to start picking fights with the Sand when we got here" The Leaf shinobi forced his eyes to glare back at his captain, seeing to have become angry himself by the one order he gave, one both men disobeyed.