Inheritance

CHAPTER 17

He had to end this now and stop the seal from releasing any more of the Kyuubi's chakra, or they were all as good as dead.

Shikamaru, for the second time in only a few minutes, found himself cursing his own weakness as he ducked and weaved between the relentless, albeit slow and cumbersome strikes of the statues that he now faced, alone.

He had allowed himself to get separated from the blonde he was fighting alongside, pushed away and isolated. And all it took was a glancing hit from a thrust aimed at his heart to put his team-mate out of the game. He had partially dodged, and the stone weapon had jarred his shoulder rather than pierce his heart, but the blow had sent him tumbling to the ground, with what he was certain was a fracture on his left shoulder.

All Naruto had seen was the blow and the statue that had struck the Nara tower over him as he attempted to scramble to his feet. It was as though the rest of the battle had disappeared, and all Naruto could see was Shikamaru about to be crushed by the next blow. He dived out of the reach of the statue he had been fighting, and flew in Shikamaru's direction.

However, the blonde's inexperience shone through, and his tunnel vision was punished with extreme prejudice. One of the statues had landed fierce punch to the side of Naruto's chest as he ran, sending the Genin tumbling across the clearing, smashing him into the far wall of the canyon.

That had been a minute ago now at least, and a ragged Shikamaru couldn't help but fear the worst. Even above the din of battle he had heard the cry of the only medic nin of the team, and the few strangled sobs that had escaped her lips since. Shikamaru wasn't sure if a blow like that would be able to kill a person, but he was sure that it could cause damage that would, if left untreated. At any rate, he knew Hana would not have reacted in such a way if it were not serious.

It had been his fault. Naruto had been hurt because Shikamaru hadn't been willing o put in the work. And now, as he leapt back from another attack, clutching his shoulder as his left arm hung limply by his side, he realised that unless Kakashi could defeat his opponents in time to save him, he had little chance of living to regret his mistakes, let alone learn from them. He vowed secretly that if he did live, he would beg Asuma-sensei to train him and his team properly.

He ducked under a horizontal slash from the statue directly in front of him, and was forced to dive between it's legs as a thrust from another of the reanimated statues attacked from the left. He grimaced as the landing jarred his shoulder, and rolled instinctively to the right as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. It was a wise thing to do as yet another statue attempted to stamp on the Genin before he could get himself to his feet.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. He hadn't even seen the stone behemoth approach from the side he rolled towards, and was too slow reacting when it did. It slammed it's sandstone hand against his shin, trapping him in place, and breaking the bone cleanly. Shikamaru didn't think he had the air left in his lungs to scream, but a cry of agony forced it's way from his throat regardless.

Held in place on his back by the cold, lifeless hands of one statue, he gazed directly at the nightmarish head of another, searching desperately for a pair of eyes to look into, forgetting between the pain and fear that he would find none.

What he did see was the sword of the statue standing over him raise for the killing blow.

Pain.

Quite possible more pain then he'd ever felt.

His ribs. Arms. Back. Legs. They were on fire.

He tried to move, only his fingers at first. Even they sent shivers of pain through him, jarred him as he tried to form fists.