Chapter 52: Sealed scroll of darkness
"Oden-Sama, you're back? How did the mission go... did you not find Sasuke?" Shikamaru spoke as he noticed that Sasuke was nowhere in sight.
"Oh.. that brat... hmm take this..." Oden said as if he had forgotten about Sasuke, and then threw the scroll with Orochimaru's dead body to Shikamaru.
'Huh, what does this scroll have to do with Sasuke... did he kill Sasuke and bring back his body?" Shikamaru thought with slight fear. Shikamaru didn't admit it often as he was never close to Sasuke, but he did look up to the number one genius of their class and was always impressed by him.
Oden saw their faces become pale after he threw the scroll to Shikamaru, all of them imagining their own things.
Oden couldn't help but to grin.
"This scroll contains the body of an annoying little pest that betrayed our village, I tried to convince him but he refused to listen so I... took care of him." Oden said nonchalantly
"Bring that back to complete your mission, I'll be returning first." Oden said before flashing away.
The team looked at each other in trepidation, afraid that Sasuke's body would be in that scroll.
"Should we... take a peek..." kiba asked.
"A shinobi should never look into mission scrolls." Shino said, but even his voice was slightly different than his normal tone.
"This scroll is about our mission after all, and Oden-Sama didn't forbid us from it, so to make sure that the mission is complete we should take a look." Shikamaru said as he released the body from the scroll.
At first glance, they became confused as the dead body in the scroll was way taller than Sasuke, and it's skin was pale white, almost like a pearl.
Soon a layer of recognition flashed in their eyes as they realised who this was, and all of them instinctively flashed away at the same time, creating a distance between them and the body.
"Isn't that Orochimaru, the snake-Sannin??!" Kiba shouted fearfully.
"It seems like it, what should we do?" Shino asked, this time even he sounded fearful.
Orochimaru was someone that very few could face for more than half a minute and survive, they probably wouldn't last even that.
"He... should be dead... let's seal him back and hurry to Konoha." Shikamaru said, but he didn't take a step closer to the dead body.
After seeing that nothing happened and the body was still not moving, Shikamaru gathered his courage and walked towards Orochimaru to seal him.
As they came together once again after sealing the body, all of them felt like the seal was even heavier now that they knew what was in the seal.
"An annoying little pest..." Choji whispered but everyone heard him and looked at him weirdly, why would Choji call the Snake-sannin, someone that could kill them all before they could react, as such?
"Choji, even if he's dead, he's way above our capabilities." Shikamaru explained.
"It was Oden that called him that, not me!" Choji hurriedly explained, seeing their misunderstanding. He was only repeating what Oden had called the Snake-sannin.... and trying to figure out how hat word would suit someone as storing as Orochimaru.
It was then, that they realised that Oden had indeed described Orochimaru as an annoying little pest.
"Then what are we?" Choji whispered once again.
"Dirt on the road?" Kiba said in self reproach.
"No, even the dirt on the road has its purpose, my insects consume and grow thanks to the dirt that is surrounding the world, which makes it invaluable for the insect world, so that they can..." Shino started going on a rant.
"Let's hurry back!" Shikamaru said, stopping Shino from going too deep into his insect knowledge.
The team of genin and chunin travelled back towards Konoha, still slightly worried about the content of the scroll.
When they came close to the village, only a few hours away, they felt a chakra closing in on them from the front, so they all stopped and stood in a formation, ready for an attack.
Soon, a short old man, with white thick, slightly long eyebrows appeared in front of them. He wore an old and washed up attire, making him look like someone poor. Yet his aura made all the genin vigilant.
"Who is that old man, Should we beat him up?" Kiba asked.
"No... he is not an enemy." Shikamaru said as he recognized the old man that was so short that he barely reached his shin.
Neji's eye also twitched in recognition.
"Oh... it's you guys, Shikimara? boy and Noji Hyuga, brother of my granddaughter in law, what a coincidence." The old man said in surprise, he hadn't expected to find these youngsters while he escap... tavelling to find himself.
"Akai-Sama, we need to hurry back now." Shikamaru said with a bow, trying to hurriedly leave. Not even correcting him on his his name.
"Who is he?" Kiba whispered to Neji.
"The grandfather of Oden-Sama." Neji answered, hoping that they would leave as soon as possible, he was afraid of what the old man might force them to do.
"Two Zaraki in one trip huh, must be my great luck." Kiba said jokingly.
"TWO WHAT? Brat who else did you meet from my clan?!" Akai shouted as he heard Kiba's joke.
"Erm... your grandson?" Kiba said nervously as he saw the old man's reaction.
Akai lost the colour on his face and started to look around, as if a mischievous child had been found out by his parents. He looked like he was escaping after doing something bad.
"Don't worry, he left long ago, we also need to hurry back so we can finish our mission." Shikamaru said as he tried to capitalize on the fact that Akai seemed to not want to meet Oden.
It seems like Akai really didn't want to meet his grandson as he sighed in relief when he heard Shikamaru.
"That's good then, brat play a match of Shogi with me before you leave." Akai said as he walked beside Shikamaru and stood beside him with a smile.
Kiba who stood near, was the first to respond.
"Old man, we don't have time to entertain you!" He said.
"SMACK"
Next thing everyone saw that that Kiba flew straight towards the woods.
"Hmph, just because your clan has dogs, doesn't mean that you should behave like dogs. Didn't your elders teach you how to behave like a respectable shinobi? Be respectful!" Akai reprimanded Kiba that had been smacked away by him.
Everyone got nervous as they couldn't even see when Akai had smacked Kiba.
"We... can play one match, but only one." Shikamaru said as he tried to appease the elder.
"Good, finally someone with brains, no wonder your clan is known for being smart." Akai said, pleased.
As Shikamaru set up a board while Akai was sitting in front of him, the others were looking on awkwardly.
"So... Akai-Sama, are you out on a mission?" Shikamaru asked, trying to release the tension.
"Hmm, no, I am out here because I felt the presence of a few spies, I was worried that Konoha had enemies so I hurriedly chased the spies without even informing the Hokage because I was afraid that the spies would escape. Act first, think later. It's better to say sorry than to ask for permission." The old man lied with full confidence as if he was speaking the truth, without batting an eyelid.
They all believed him except for Shikamaru, he realised one fault with what the old man had said.
If he was hurrying after spies... how come he had time to stop and play Shogi...
"I see.. we were lucky someone like you noticed our enemies before they escaped." Shikamaru said playing along. He had seen first hand the temper of this old man so he didn't want him to lose it here.
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Did you guys know that Shikamaru looked up to, and respected Sasuke? Yeah I didn't. I read it when I was studying for my chapters. It's in the Naruto manga in the chapters where Sasuke had just escaped Konoha. Shikamaru receives the mission from Tsunade and is shocked by the fact that Sasuke had left Konoha and joined Orochimaru, and somewhere there he admits that he looks up to Sasuke for being the first in the class and a genius. (I'm too tired to find the chapter number and reference, I guess you'll have to trust me)
right after, Choji also confirms that if Shikamaru wasn't so lazy and hid his abilities he could probably have a good chance of rivaling Sasuke while they were in the academy.