GAHhhDHH GAHKKD still not editing live laugh love
Third person pov
Turns out Trexx can, in fact, eat a tailed beast. Or rather, he can eat the sand construct said tailed beast is manifesting out into the world as. The actual One Tails is luckily still in Gaara. Shikamaru is counting their blessings, as few and far between as they do seem to be-- he would hate to see what would happen if Trexx regurgitated a bijuu in the middle of dinner at the Nara compound later.
He's not sure how Trexx does it. Shikamaru doesn't have a good idea of how Arron's kekkai genkai works in general, actually. Her shadows are different than the ones the Nara clan wields, holding a level of sentience Shikamaru hadn't thought possible to imbue into something as intangible as darkness.
Arron has the ability to gives shadows shape and life. Or maybe they aren't shadows at all? It's too troublesome to think too hard about, honestly. The point is: Trexx takes about five minutes to choke the One Tails down like he's nothing more than a midday chicken wrap after a whole four hours of hard labor out in the sun.
If you asked Shikamaru to recount the event, he'd be unable to put exactly into words what just happened. He's pretty sure it was traumatizing enough that part of his brain is now blocking it out. For as big as Trexx was able to grow, there's no way the One Tails should've realistically been able to fit. And yet...
Well. The Ichibi never stood a chance.
"I am tired." Arron announces as Trexx let's out a burp so loud it shakes the very ground beneath their feet, causing the Earth to rumble and the trees to shake. The girl turns to look at him, blinking as leaves fall around them. "We nap now, yes?"
Shikamaru stares at her, squinting. Looks at Trexx, who's beginning to shrink. He shrugs. What kind of Nara would he be if he turned this down?
"Yeah. Yeah, a nap sounds great." He sighs, feeling strangely like he's aged several years in the past ten minute span. "The village is sort of in shambles right now, though. It's kind of a drag, but I think we've done our part."
Stopping an entire tailed beast from rampaging definitely had to count for something, even if Shikamaru had done nothing but stand here and witness the horrors. And if it's not enough, Shikamaru can say fully, genuinely, that he truly does not give a shit.
They just brushed shoulders with death. It was terrifying. He's never had an adrenaline rush that horrifically all-consuming before. Thank you, goodbye, he's done now.
Arron hums in assent, nodding and accepting his words with ease. She's never been one to question him before and she's definitely not going to eyeball his logic now. Shikamaru offers a hand, smiling a little when she takes it.
There's a lot to worry about. Shikamaru knows his teammates are probably fine. He's got no idea what's going on with the Hokage, but you know, what's he supposed to do about that anyway? The entire chunin exams have been wrecked. It's not his business anymore.
Getting Arron out of the line of fire seems more pertinent than anything. She's done well under the stress and so has Trexx, but he knows her, and he can see the way her eyes dart around uncertainly as she threads her fingers through his and squeezes.
Shikamaru let out a slow breath of air, shaking his head. He scanned the clearing, doing a headcount of everyone who'd been involved. Naruto was there and looking relatively unharmed. Sakura seemed fine. Sasuke was doing... whatever the hell Sasuke usually did. Brooding and being depressed, probably.
His eyes slid over the the shivering Sand Siblings. Puppet boy looked like he'd looked death in the eyes and lived, which yeah-- that was fair. After seeing Trexx literally consume the entire One Tails after said One Tails almost killed them all, Shikamaru can get why he might be shaken.
Wind chick seems much the same. Her fan is shredded and one of her hair ponytails has come out. She's at least two shades paler than Shikamaru remembers her being the last time he gave her a good look and is shaking just as badly as her younger brother, lips curled into a thin line and arms crossed tight over her chest.
Shikamaru searches for the main cause of this issue to begin with, eyes narrowing when he doesn't spot a head of red hair anywhere. Trexx lumbers back up to them happily, now back to his original size. Still large, but nowhere near as gargantuan as the beast he'd grown into in order to take the One Tails on.
"Nap." Arron tugs on his arm expectantly. Shikamaru's brows furrow.
"Yeah, I'm with you there. But..." He scans the clearing one more time, frowning. He turns to look at her. "Do you have any idea where Gaara went? The crazy redheaded guy?"
Arron stares at him for a beat before she turns to look at Trexx. Shikamaru feels an immediate sense of foreboding overcome him when she starts to squint, reaching out to poke the shadow creature's stomach. Trexx is too busy staring at the sun overhead to notice or care.
Is this going to count as a war crime? Trexx isn't a human, so it technically wasn't cannibalism... right? Just Gaara getting absorbed into the endless dark abyss that is Trexx's overall being, which seems about as existentially horrifying as it sounds. Shikamaru brings a hand up to his face and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Insane man was in dirt cat." Arron recounts morosely, confirming Shikamaru's worst fears. She grimaces, poking at Trexx's stomach again. She gives Shikamaru a look. "Trexx eats."
"Trexx eats sun." Trexx offers, still staring up at the sun. Shikamaru stares at the pair of them, feeling so... so tired. So incredibly tired that he's almost tempted to just let Gaara drown in the shadowy hell of Trexx's stomach all eternity just so he can go get what is bound to be the best sleep of his life.
"...Okay." Shikamaru says in as measured a voice as he can manage. His shoulders slouch in defeat. Recounting these events to the Hokage later was going to suck ass. No way anyone believed him. "This is such a drag. We need Trexx to... spit him out, Arron. He can't stay in there."
Arron looks genuinely confused, clearly not seeing his line of logic. Shikamaru's not sure he sees his own line of logic either.
"Bad man?" She questions in a tone that clearly indicates that Shikamaru is being an idiot. "Trexx eats, no more problems. Gone. Poof."
She makes a little explosion with her free hand. It's absolutely adorable and he kind of wants to just agree with her and go take the nap they both deserve after all this stress.
"Lamp." Trexx... agrees? It's hard to tell with him these days.
Shikamaru wishes he had a worse sense of duty. Wishes he cared less. It would make his life about ten times easier. Possibly even eleven times easier. They'll never know for sure, since his currently reality is ass and going to stay that way.
Seeing the look on Shikamaru's face, Arron lets out a sigh that Shikamaru can't help but relate to. Looking disgruntled, she turns to Trexx, reaching out and grabbing his arm. It takes a few tugs to get him to look away from the sun, and when he finally does, it's pretty obvious he's processed absolutely none of what they'd been talking about so far.
The creature stares down at them. Arron reaches out and points at his stomach. Shikamaru watches as Trexx cranes his neck to look at where she's pointed. His eyes give nothing away, beady and white in the darkness of the rest of his being.
"Redhead boy. Ginger. Awful small man-- no eyebrows." Arron's accent sounds thicker in her irritation. Shikamaru hides his snort with a cough. "Spit out. Shikamaru wants him back for reasons."
Trexx stares for a short moment before beginning to make what is quite possible the worst noise Shikamaru has ever heard in his entire life. Like a cat trying to throw up, but the cat is a garbage disposal with a fork stuck in it. Even Arron cringes at the unfamiliar noise. Trexx has never made it previously when puking things up, so why--
One weird cough, then another, and then a noise that sounds reminiscent of a chakra chainsaw. Trexx's gaping mouth opens wide. They both take a few rapid steps back as something shoots out so fast it blurs, slamming into the ground with a near deafening bang. Trexx gives a thumbs up before he turns around, looking up at the sky again to stare into the sun.
Shikamaru and Arron stare at the entire wagon Trexx just spit out. Full of watermelons that are somehow still fresh. It is most definitely not Gaara.
"Damn." Arron frowned. She turned to look at Shikamaru, looking mildly distressed. "No nap."
No nap indeed. Shikamaru sighed and wondered why the hell he still bothered.
~~~~~~~~~
Hiruzen gets out alive, but only just barely.
The rolling thing and the little bouncy monster that came with it turn out to be a far larger threat than Orochimaru ever was. After eating the Snake Sannin and killing Tobirama a second time, they turn on Hiruzen and Hashirama both with an obvious hunger in their beady little eyes. Their forms, Hiruzen thinks, will haunt his nightmares for what will likely be the rest of his days.
He has no idea what they are. He has no idea where they came from. He has no idea where they went, either-- possibly the most horrifying part of it all. The walls had come down and suddenly they were just gone, melting into the shadows as if they'd never been there to begin with.
With them went Orochimaru's body and Hashirama's as well, because former First Hokage or not, he'd never stood a chance. The little bouncing one had expanded horrifyingly to consume him head first in a single blink, pinging around like a demented basketball.
Hiruzen shivers at the memory of Hashirama's horrified face in the second before it happened, eyes wide and mouth open in terror. He tightens the shock blanket around his shoulders, sinking lower in his seat. Physically, he was largely unharmed save for a few internal injuries that had been no real trouble to heal.
Mentally... well. He wasn't sure he'd ever be the same.
"I apologize, Lord Third. You say... shadow monsters... came and killed Orochimaru?" Shikaku asked. He looked strangely pale, an odd grimace on his face. Hiruzen nodded.
As jonin commander, Shikaku was practically his second in command, especially in a vulnerable time such as this. Hiruzen had encouraged the man to go check on his son, but he'd gotten a strangled look on his face and simply said that he was fine.
Hiruzen felt too frazzled to think about it.
"They ate him. Lord Hashirama as well." Hiruzen confirmed. Shikaku's grimace deepened to the point of him looking pained. "One was a ball-- it did nothing more than shriek. And there was a round one as well that rolled everywhere. It kept repeating the same thing over and over again as if possessed."
Shikaku looked, if possible, even more pained. He wasn't even trying to write Hiruzen's statement anymore, instead just staring at him with a deeply uncomfortable expression on his face. Hiruzen stared back, squinting a little. It wasn't quite horror on his face, nor was it disbelief. It was more... resignation?
Slowly, Shikaku sighed. It was like watching the air deflate out of a balloon. The exhaustion on his face was bone deep. Hiruzen watched as the life in the man's eyes died.
"The rolling one-- it was repeating the word Noot, wasn't it?" Shikaku asked, sounding beyond tired. Hiruzen nodded, eyes rounding. "And it ate the First Hokage?"
"No, the little round one did." Hiruzen said only to then pause. "...Have you run into these creatures before?"
Shikaku sighed again, harder this time. Hiruzen was going to take that as a yes.
~~~~~~~~~
They're finally home when Noot comes crashing through the sliding front door of Shikamaru's house, breaking through the papering and delicate wood. Mothball comes in shrieking after him, bouncing off the walls and breaking the lamp Trexx had been stealthily trying to eat.
Shikamaru and Arron, who had just spent two hours getting Trexx to finally throw Gaara up, both stood there in the growing wreckage with flat expressions on their faces. Hands linked in solidarity, watching dead-eyed as the once put together living room slowly fell apart.
"When will be over?" Arron asked, almost desperately.
"God, I wish I knew." Shikamaru said, and not a moment after, Mothball was ricocheting in front of them and... vomiting... the First Hokage out onto the carpet.
For a moment nobody moves. The First Hokage's chest is rising and falling with rapid, frantic breaths, which is fucking crazy considering he's supposed to be dead. Mothball stops entirely, almost as though he didn't fully expect that of himself. Noot halts in his attempts to destroy as many things as possible and Trexx, who'd been reaching for the lightbulb overhead, pauses.
Arron blinks down at the man at their feet. Shikamaru turns to stare at the ceiling as if not looking will make it any less real. In a perfect world, maybe. See no evil, fear no evil. Someone free him from these binding chains before insanity finally takes its hold on him and drags him down to the lowest pits.
Slowly, Noot starts to turn. His perpetually angry expression somehow manages to get angrier, which shouldn't really be possible considering his entire face is literally just two eyes. Mothball is literally stiller than Shikamaru has ever seen him be, so much so that Shikamaru almost wants to nudge him with his foot to see if he's alive.
"...No lamp." Trexx points out, and no. No, the First Hokage isn't a lamp.
"Man." Arron confirms, frowning. She turns to look at Shikamaru. "Is he bad man?"
Honestly? Shikamaru's really got no idea anymore.
Before he can form a coherent enough thought to start formulating questions, the First Hokage finally seems to blink out of his haze of shock and push himself up onto his elbows from his place on the floor. He rips his gaze away from them to instead scan his surroundings. Immediately, his eyes find Mothball standing at his feet, staring at him.
He freezes. His eyes dart to Noot. There is another moment of peace, and then--
"NOOT!" Noot shrieks, and he's joined by Mothball's wailing as well. The First Hokage's scream of terror is loud enough to rattle their eardrums.
~~~~~
Okay this is for me idk if I got them all
-Trunk looks like a log, protects
-Bunk is the jolly good one gumdrop
-mothball is the circle that screams
-Noot rolls
-Trexx is trexx