Chapter Text
It was supposed to be the backup to the backup plan.
In the privacy of his own head, Shikamaru had actually ranked a dozen plans between backup and this, several of which included his own death.
Not that it matters now, with the puppets of their friends closing in on them and no escape route in sight. Even with their backs pinned against the wall, he still wants to protest. Unfortunately, Shikamaru had been a pragmatist even before war had stripped him of any vestige of idealism. He leaves the hopes and dreams to Naruto these days. Which is why if anyone is going back to fix things, it should be the man who befriended almost every enemy he had ever made. It should be anybody but the less friendly two thirds of a broken trio.
And yet here they are anyway, the last leaders of the Allied Shinobi Forces, crouched in a tiny cave on the edge of what was once the Land of Fire, while the handful of ninja still standing try to buy enough time for a last ditch attempt to save the world back before everything went wrong.
There is Naruto, laying down the last touches of a seal array that required enough chakra to power that it will likely kill even the jinchuriki to do it.
“Any time, now!” Kakashi calls from the mouth of the cave.
“Going as fast as I can, sensei!” Naruto calls back, an intense look of concentration on his face that pre-genin Shikamaru wouldn’t have believed existed outside of Ichiraku.
Shikamaru glances at Ino, her dread mirroring his own. If this doesn’t work, it will kill them both – and probably still Naruto – but at least he shouldn’t have to worry about living past her death. He worries anyway, of course. If it does work, all they have to do is save the world and live with themselves. What a drag.
“Naruto!”
“Almost done,” Naruto calls back, not glancing up. Nice of him to try so hard to keep the two of them from ending up in the void.
“Gotta be now!” Kakashi’s voice is closer now, accompanied by the sound of footsteps echoing through the cave. Naruto sets down his brush, gesturing to the still drying circle of ink.
Ino grabs his hand as they stepped into the centre. Shikamaru grimaces at his feet, trying to see if he’d smudged any of the wet lines.
“Take care of each other?” Naruto says, soft and serious in a way that had never suited him.
“Always,” Ino agrees. Shikamaru nods as well, mouth pressed into a thin line.
The array begins to glow and he meets Kakashi’s eyes. The man jerks his head towards his last student, one more order from their Hokage, look out for him. Like it was ever in question that they would never leave a young Naruto lonely again. Shikamaru nods anyway.
Then there’s only a blinding light, the feeling of Ino’s hand clutched in his, and the sound of Naruto screaming following them into the void.
•••
There's a moment that stretches into what felt like eternity, floating in empty white nothing.
He keeps a tight hold of his dearer-than-sister, trying to count the seconds and losing them quickly.
When the counting fails for the second time – or was it the third? – he switches to plans. This may have been the backup-backup, but it has still been meticulously thought out. Information and cover stories were memorised until they could recite them in their sleep, contingency after contingency was prepared. What if they landed in the wrong time? In the wrong place? What if they were separated? What if only one of them made it? He tries not to dwell too much on that last question now, or at least tries to ignore the part of him that hopes if only one of them made it, it was Ino. It’s a guilty thought, only slightly softened by the knowledge that Ino hopes the same of him.
He squeezes her hand tighter. No need to focus on that, it won’t be allowed to happen. He refuses.
“Are we dead?” Ino askes, voice echoing into the vast nothing.
“If this is what the Pure Lands are like, I want a refund.”
“Could be worse.”
“I had some people I was kind of hoping to see. Figured there’d be clouds to watch at least.” Ino’s laugh is a shade hysterical, but he’ll take what he can get.
“At least we’re not alone,” she says, tugging him closer until their arms are pressed against each other.
“At least we’re not alone.” They fall into tense silence again, following deep-rooted instincts to stay on guard in uncertain situations. There’s nothing to see, of course, even Ino is more an impression out of the corner of his eye than a solid form. The only thing that feels entirely real is the pressure of her arm against his.
He shuts his eyes against the nothingness, forcing himself to focus on his other senses and finding them no more help. The moment stretches impossibly, just enough that he’s starting to believe they must really be dead.
Then just as quickly as the void had consumed them, it recedes.
•••
The pair land in a pile of limbs, not willing to release each other even to roll with the fall. Not until they're sure they’ve made it. The moment things feel solid again, they leap into action.
Shikamaru scrambles to his feet first, taking in the tiny cave they had just left. Gone are the enemies wearing friends’ faces, gone are the friends as well. Gone is any trace of the seal array that had taken up the majority of the rocky floor. He turns slowly, taking everything in.
Ino makes her way toward the exit as he scans the inside once more, cataloguing what is really just a nondescript divet in the hillside. A sharp inhale has him at her side immediately, echoing the sound.
There, stretching out as far as they could see, are trees . Not so dense as they would have been closer to the village, given how far south they are, but still a forest. In the war at the end of the world, the Land of Fire’s legendary forests had been all but extinct. The constant devastation of war was everywhere, and there was never enough time for anything to regrow from the ashes. Kaguya seemed determined to take out the shinobi’s every advantage, and Madara before her had been vindictive in his destruction of anything he considered to be part of the Senju legacy. To see the forest stretched out in front of them, budding and green and lush with the new growth of spring, is almost to much to comprehend.
“Okay,” Shikamaru says absently, leaning his back against the outer wall of their cave. “ Now we’re dead.” he stares at a sky full of wispy clouds, unclogged by ash, too transfixed to dodge Ino’s light swat.
“We’re not dead, idiot,” she murmurs, looking just as awed as he feels despite the protest. “It worked.”
“It worked,” he repeats, hoping that would make it seem more real. It doesn't.
“It actually worked. Holy shit, Shikamaru, it worked!” the words circle through his head and absently he pulls out one of two precious cigarettes he keeps in the pocket of his vest. There hasn’t been a lot of time to smoke in the end of the world, so he at least has one left to celebrate with.
He slides down the wall of the cave to sit on the soft green grass, dragging Ino down with him. She pulls his lighter from her own vest – confiscated by a pink-haired mednin not long before she died – and lights it for him.
“Sakura would wring your neck if she knew you were enabling me,” he whispers, staring at the sky and pulsing his chakra once just to be certain.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Ino quips back with a sad smile.
“Do you know the odds of this working?”
“I assume they’re not good.”
“A thousand to one, at least.”
“A thousand to one,” Ino muses. “Same odds the Yondaime faced, right? In the battle that made his name.”
“All this time focusing on the Uzumaki blood and we forgot he’s half Namikaze too.” Ino snorts in response, but lets him finish his smoke in silence. “It worked.”
“It did.”
“Thanks, Naruto,” he says into the clean, spring air. He sends up a quick prayer that whatever corner of the Pure Lands the number one unpredictable knucklehead ninja ended up in looked something like this, then pushes to his feet.
“Let’s go home” Ino says, and they go.
They allow themselves the luxury of a walk, at least for now. Once they reach more travelled routes they’ll be launching from tree to tree, but for now they can afford grass and fallen leaves under their sandals. “Do you think we’re in the right time.”
“We left Naruto in charge of the math.” Shikamaru answers dryly.