summer clouds - shikatema

PROLOGUE: infinite tsukuyomi

Hey weebs! This part ends up being relevant later on, and it's a flashback. Like I said in the disclaimers, this was supposed to be the original story. I wrote it when I was only thirteen so the style is a bit clumsy and different from the rest of the story. So sorry about that lol. I really hope you enjoy this book. I worked HELLA hard on it over the course of like five months (not including the prologue) and I think it's really good overall. Love you guys, and please enjoy!

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He was frozen. He struggled to move-- to turn to Choji and say something-- but he couldn't. As hard as he tried, Shikamaru was just unable to do anything but feel himself be helplessly enveloped in some sort of thick bandage that seemed to descend from above.

There was a buzzing, no, more of a pulsing in his eyes.

Despite all our efforts... is this really happening? What a drag...

Darkness washed over Shikamaru as the bandages obscured his vision. He felt himself reluctantly black out.

—

Suddenly, as if there were a light switch that had just been flipped up, he was standing back in Konoha. The sun shone on him a comforting warmth that he hadn't felt in a long time, not since before the war began.

The streets seemed unusually serene; everyone was going about their daily business without a worry in the world.

What happened...?

They were at war. Why was everyone acting so carefree? It didn't make any sense. All of a sudden, he couldn't even remember how he'd been placed in the village at all. It was like a dream, where you couldn't quite remember the beginning, only parts of the middle and the end.

He looked down at his left arm, where his headband was attached to his sleeve. "It should say 'Shinobi'..." he said quietly to himself. However, the metal band only had the Konoha symbol branded onto it, no matter which way he looked at it.

"What's wrong with you?" Shikamaru heard a familiar voice ring out from beside him, and he looked up from his headband to see the Kazekage's sister and the princess of Sunagakure, Temari.

She looked confused as ever. Her headband read "Suna" just like his read "Konoha." Shikamaru was unable to respond, as he didn't really know the answer himself.

Temari sighed. "Whatever. Let's just keep going, yeah?" She shrugged and then turned to head straight forward down the street again, the tessen on her back gently rattling as she did so.

He unconsciously followed her, watching her shoulders as they slightly rose and fell in alignment to the steps she was taking. However, his mind was far from the woman in front of him.

What the hell is going on?! Why is this happening... and how? This can't possibly-"

Be real.

It hit him at that moment, an unfathomable truth that scared him as much as it confused him. He was trapped in a genjutsu. But he'd have thought it was impossible to create an illusion this realistic and powerful. And why wasn't anything bad happening to him? Why would the enemy cast a genjutsu that wouldn't harm him? He felt his memory gradually fade away into nothingness...  how was he supposed to wake up?

Abruptly, he was confronted with a sight that made his heart almost completely leap from his chest.

In front of him were four people; and two of them he believed he'd never see again.

His father, Shikaku, and his mentor, Asuma.

But surprisingly, all at once his mind stayed calm and collected as if it were no surprise at all to see two people that he missed deeply and that definitely passed away, killed.