A/N: So, just few things. Sorry this took so long to get out, writing for Yukio is more difficult than you might think. He’s a rather complex character despite all appearances- there’s a reason behind his actions… most of the time. As such, I had rewrite this a few times till I was satisfied with his words and actions in this piece. And then there was how to end it... I'd never actually planned that part out... XD

Secondly, I have a question since I’m planning out how to wrap up this book (I have around ten or so more chapters planned, so don’t worry :3). Would you rather I wait until this is finished to post the companion story with Hatsu, “It’s in the Stars”, or do you care? I haven’t been able to decide.

Finally, this is entered in the Naruto Watty Awards being hosted by NarutoWattys as a general fanfiction. Smoke and Lightning, as well as Oblivion, are both entered as Hatake Kakashi fanfictions. If it’s not too much trouble, drop by there in the next couple days after the book is posted and vote!

I’m done~ Go read now~

The flash of red as Kazue dropped to the ground outside of the arena made her pause. Further ahead, weaving her way through the mass of trees in the direction the genin had gone, was Miki. Surprised, Kazue hesitated for a heavy moment, before darting after her sensei. There was no time to try and decide which was more important, her teacher or attempting to help with the matter of Gaara- Miki was moving too quickly. Besides, if she was right, the direction they were heading in followed the trail left by the others.

“Miki-sensei!”

The red-head faltered, pausing on a branch to glance behind her, a crease forming between her brows before she swiftly started forward once again.

“You should go back.”

Kazue hesitated, then gave a firm shake of her head as she picked up her pace in an attempt to catch up with the jounin. Something was off- that tone was one Miki reserved for when she was ticked off at something. Kazue had heard it only a few times over the years, never had it resulted in anything less than massive bloodshed for the enemies they faced.

“I’ll come with you.”

Miki pursed her lips, but didn’t respond.

There was no time to argue. This time, she’d kill him.

That she was certain of.

________________________________

Laughter cut through the air.

The laughter wasn’t mad, nor amused, simply a cold, humorless sound.

“Niisan,” Yukio echoed, that smile on his lips turning wry. “What’s it been… ten- no- nine years, since I saw you last, and you still call me Niisan. It’s endearing, really. Who’d have thought you’d have a soft side, Asuma-kun?”

Muttering something under his breath, Asuma sat a startled Shikamaru back on his feet, gesturing for the genin to move away from him. Shikamaru glanced between the two, knitting his brow thoughtfully with narrowed eyes. At the same time, he did as requested, shakily taking shelter between two, large trees, bracing his back against one of them. He was well aware that with the state he was in it didn’t matter if Asuma’s… brother, was a threat or an ally, he couldn’t do anything about it. His chakra levels were practically non-existent, it was a miracle that he was conscious at all.

“It’s the best choice I have,” Asuma replied simply. “I have a feeling you don’t go by your name anymore.”

Yukio blinked, a frown flitting across his lips, replaced by a cheerful smile within a second as he released his hand from the branch above him and simply hung upside-down, lacing his hands together behind his neck.

“That makes more sense. After all, last time we met you tried to kill me. Not exactly brotherly affection!”

Asuma’s expression tightened.

“You’d slaughtered half of a village.”

Yukio shrugged.

“I’d forgotten about that,” he replied, dismissing the matter as something meaningless. “Besides, if it was only half, then it’s not that important, is it? The village still exists.”

“You were supposed to have died.”

Surprise flickered across Yukio’s face as he released his legs from the tree, flipping his body as he fell so that he landed lightly on his feet. At the same time, he pulled his hands from behind his neck, shoving them in his pockets as he cocked his head to the side.

“That’s right, I was curious about something. Did you feel guilty?” he questioned curiously. “Thinking you’d killed your only brother? What about now, are you relieved to know I’m alive?”

“Otousan was.”

Yukio’s expression faltered for a moment. Surprise flickered through Asuma at the sight. Perhaps his brother wasn’t completely gone. That thought was wiped away a second later, however, as the amused, almost playful expression returned to Yukio’s face.

“That old geezer’s still hanging on? How unfortunate. I was sort of hoping he wasn’t.”

“Why are you here, Niisan?” Asuma demanded.

A chuckle hit the air as Yukio cocked his head once again.

“Aren’t I allowed to be curious about my younger brother? Also, wasn’t that a bit rude? You aren’t supposed to talk like that to your nissan.”

Asuma’s hard expression never wavered.

“I’ll keep that in mind for when I see him again.”

Yukio winced dramatically, pulling a hand from his pocket to place against his heart.

“That hurt, it really did.”

“Why are you working for Orochimaru?” Asuma continued, as if Yukio hadn’t spoken. “Why are you here?”

Yukio simply grinned, dropping his hand from his chest. A second later he gave a careless shrug and shifted his posture so that he was facing Shikamaru’s direction, as if to point out that he wasn’t looking at Asuma anymore.

“Do I really have to answer any of that?” he questioned. “It’ll be your typical, bad-guy response. Got an offer I couldn't refuse. Just wanted to watch the world burn. Revenge on the village. The chance to wreak some havoc, to see blood spilt. Take your pick. Any of them will do, really.” Here he paused, as if to let that sink in, before instantly changing the direction of his words, the cheerful tone to his voice never dropping away. “Is that your student over there? He’s what… the same age that little pig was when you guys took her? No…perhaps a bit older than that... I don’t-”

“Your attention should be on me,” Asuma cut in with narrowed eyes.

“But you're so boring,” Yukio countered. “Reasons this, reasons that, maybe I just wanted to check in on my little brother and my little pig.”

Pulling up the information his father gave him, Asuma slipped his fingers through the loops of his chakra blades.

“Her name’s Miki.”

Yukio rolled his eyes, his attention settling back on Asuma a second later. If he’d noticed the movement for the chakra blades, he made no indication.

“If we’re going to go that route, you may as well call her Maemi. Neither one of those are names I’m going to use, one just as useless as the other.”

Asuma stiffened, the connection snapping together in his head as he tightened his grip on the blades, preparing to rip them from their positions.

“Maemi… that’s awful close to Manami, isn’t it?”

Yukio clenched his jaw, playful mood forgotten as a dark expression swept over his face. Within an instant he’d launched himself towards Asuma.

“Don’t say that name! It’s against the rules!”

Sparks flew as Yukio’s kunai, which seemed to have come out of nowhere, clashed against Asuma’s chakra blades. Within an instant blue flashed over the surface, cleanly slicing through the seemingly solid metal that made up Yukio’s weapon. The shinobi instantly leapt backwards, putting dozens of feet between them as he narrowed his eyes. Asuma swallowed down anything he might have said, the expression in his brother’s eyes one that he’d hoped never to see again. The one that told him that the person he’d grown up with, the one that he’d looked up to, was nowhere to be found. That he’d been killed off- leaving behind nothing but a shell of his former self.

A shell that had no wish except to eradicate all traces of his past from sight.

Just as Asuma was prepared to launch himself forward, there was a flash of red in the corner of his eye. He froze, almost instantly aware of what he’d seen. His eyes flickering to the side to follow her appearance, Asuma lowered his hands, debating the options this presented in his mind.

“Little pig!”

Surprise surged through Asuma as Yukio spotted Miki, his expression instantly twisting back into the playful one he’d worn upon revealing himself. It was as if the dark look had never existed.

“Shut up.”

Without a hint of hesitation, Miki launched herself forward the second her feet touched the ground near where Yukio had placed himself. As if he’d anticipated the movement, her blade only met air as he lightly dodged just out of range, a grin cross his lips as he wagged one of his fingers back and forth in the manner that one might use to scold a child.

“Now, now, so impatient! I haven’t even gotten the chance to properly greet you, and already you’re attacking again! What happened to those nice manners I taught you, hm?”

Flashing him a gesture with one hand that showed just how appreciative she was of his commentary, Miki twisted her wrist, swiftly changing the arc of her katana. With quick, practiced steps, she closed the distance between them only slightly slower than the speed at which Yukio had created it. When he evaded her attack this time, Yukio barely managed to snatch a kunai from his pouch by hooking it with one finger in time to meet Asuma’s instantaneous attack from the opposite direction. Amusement flickering across his face, he swiftly drew back, eyes darting between the two shinobi.

“Two against one? Now how is this fair, I thought Konoha-nin were supposed to play by the rules!”

The only indication Miki gave that she heard him was the slightest tightening of her lips as she sprung forward again, falling into step with Asuma as they coordinated blows, forcing Yukio on the defense. The playful smile on his lips almost seemed to falter as he attempted to keep up with the various jutsu sent his way.

Meanwhile, having decided that Yukio was thoroughly distracted, Kazue slipped from the shelter of the trees and quickly made her way over to where Shikamaru was still bracing himself against one of the trees, his narrowed eyes following the fight.

“Can you walk?” she questioned.

Tearing his gaze away from the trio, he considered the question for a moment before nodding.

“Barely.”

Her attention was almost instantly snatched away from him as a startled shout erupted from where the trio of fighters were facing each other. Kazue’s eyes instinctively snapped to the scene, catching the sight of the stranger standing a good distance from the Konoha-nin as he tore his shirt away, flickers of flames eating away at the fabric. Not willing to give him a break, Miki launched forward again as Asuma swept his hands through another set of signs, encouraged by his jutsu hitting it’s mark.  

Kazue was almost stunned by the sight of Yukio’s chest. Covering the upper, right hand side of his body was a massive amount of scar-tissue left over by what must have been an old burn. For a moment the sight was overlapped by the memory of the last time Noriaki allowed her to see his chest, of the scar tissue that covered every inch. A lump formed in her throat, something she attempted ignore as she watched Miki almost land a blow, only blocked last minute by the kunai Yukio slipped up.

The weapon wavered, the searing pain swiping over his skin making his concentration on the weapon slightly difficult. Miki was far from an inferior shinobi, and when accompanied by such an amazing jounin as Asuma, it would have been strange if he’d been able to outmaneuver them as easily as he always seemed to do when it came to encounters with the missing-nin.

At the same time, his skill was found in how he suddenly swept a foot up, missing Miki’s chest by centimeters as she leapt back to avoid the blow. His lips twisted up, eyes narrowing at the same moment as his eyes darted between them, his mind quickly pulling up his options. Within moments he’d sprung backwards, taking advantage of her momentarily cease in attacking from when she’d avoided his own, before launching himself forward, swinging his foot around once again. As she easily evaded it this time around, he quickly swung out with his kunai, moving his free hand to snatch shuriken from his belt at the same time and send them flying in Asuma’s direction.

As Asuma avoided his attack, Miki skidded back at the sudden force behind Yukio’s kunai when she met his blow with her katana. They exchanged a flurry of blows and kicks, each avoiding being hit by the other as they changed positions in the clearing. When Asuma darted forward, his chakra blades raised carefully, Yukio simply smirked, smoke instantly filling the clearing as he dropped a smoke bomb.

Coughing at the sudden intake of smoke into her lungs, Kazue doubled over slightly, tears touching her eyes despite the fact that no pain came with the action. Just as she started to straighten to attempt and catch sight of what was going on, she stiffened at the kiss of cool metal to her throat. As Shikamaru called out her name in alarm, she simply froze, her mind caught up in a memory.

“Kazue!”

“Shut up, kid, if you don’t we’ll just finish things here. Easy enough to tell the brat’s parents after the drop that there was a little scuffle.”

Tears springing to her eyes, Kazue shook her head as much as she dared in Noriaki’s direction, his tear-stained, childish eyes wide and scared. Taking the hint, he slipped back to the ground in the corner they’d been ordered to stay in up until this moment.

“Hey… I had an idea… why don’t we teach the kid a lesson…?”

Jolting herself out of the memory, Kazue focused on the space around her as the smoke began to clear. Miki had froze across the clearing, an uncharastically alarmed expression on her face. Asuma froze as well, his knuckles drawing white through the hilts of his chakra blades. With his free hand, Yukio curled a hand around her chin, tugging it up to get the proper leverage despite the way she instantly tensed in response. One move and he’d be able to sever the jugular.

“Oh, how I love these situations,” the shinobi announced in a sing-song voice. “Hostages, always the best solution, don’t you think?”

Kazue didn’t hesitate, or perhaps it was that she didn’t think.

Without pausing, she thrust her elbow back into the shinobi’s gut. Not having expected such a bold movement of a genin with a kunai to their throat, Yukio didn’t evade and instead found his breath stole from his lungs. The kunai jolted backwards, cutting cleanly into the skin of her neck, sending warm blood gushing down her previously clean skin. There was no pain, but even she could tell from the amount of liquid that suddenly appeared that the blade had probably cut something.

Not seeming to care, she instantly spun, snatching another kunai from her pouch and thrusting it forward.

When Yukio attempted to dodge, he found himself frozen in place. Unable to quite piece together what just happened, he let out a breathy, hissing noise as the blade plunged into his chest, sending a sharp pain surging through him. Instantly Kazue twisted the blade, well aware that she’d most likely hit something vital. In response, Yukio coughed, wet, crimson red staining his lips at the same time. Feeling sick, Kazue released the blade, stumbling backwards as her head spun.

In an instant Asuma was behind her, steadying her, as Miki appeared in front of Yukio.

Miki had two choices- kill him or capture him. With this wound, even with how exhausted the genin was, Yukio wouldn’t be escaping Shikamaru’s jutsu.

Everything inside her screamed for her to shove the blade still plunged into his chest even deeper, to watch the pain flash across his face as he realized she was prepared to watch him die. To savor each movement, each expression, to attempt and make him feel everything he’d inflicted on those around her.

She was tempted to draw her katana and slash at his eyes, make him feel the same pain that Hisoka had faced.

Instead, she found her voice.

“Shikamaru-kun, right? Release him, you’re exhausted. Even he won’t be able to fight after a wound like this piled atop his burns.”

Not the sort to fight past the needed point, Shikamaru nodded, releasing the jutsu as slumped against the tree he’d been using to steady himself. His eyes, however, flickered over to where Kazue had fallen against Asuma, settling on the massive amount of blood coating her throat. Could anyone survive losing that much blood?

Another cough tore free of Yukio, as well as bubbling laughter, as blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth. There was no doubt, now, if there had ever been any. Kazue had kicked something important, without medical treatment Yukio might even die. Her temper flaring as Yukio fell to his knees after Shikamaru released his jutsu, she couldn’t resist the urge, and raised a foot, knocking him back into the dirt. A curse escaped Asuma’s lips from behind her but he didn’t leave Kazue’s side. His brother might have been a bastard, but that didn’t mean he was ready to watch him die when it wasn’t the only option available.

Yukio only laughed harder.

“Gonna kill me, little pig?” he questioned. “Go ahead, I’d love to see it. Just imagine, you actuall-”

He cut off in a fit of coughs as she dug her heel into his chest, just below where the blade had been shoved. Her eyes were narrowed into thin slits, her emotions almost overwhelming.

“Miki-chan…”

She stiffened as Asuma’s voice reached her ears. Her eyes flickered back, catching sight of Kazue slumped against him, of the girl’s pale face despite the fact the wound had already begun to close. Her mind drew up how pale Shikamaru had seemed to be when she’d looked at him, then her eyes fell back to the smug expression that had appeared on Yukio’s face.

Every part of her urged her to wipe it off.

Gritting her teeth, she gave his chest one more, harsh dig with her heel before pulling back and dropping her and to grip his shirt. Within a second she’d drug him to his shaky feet, sparking another round of coughing laughter.

“Weak, weak, little pig. Where’d the emotionless girl I raised go? Konoha has killed y-”

Unable to help herself, instead of pulling him along like she’d planned, Miki drew back her fist and punched him square in the face. A satisfying crunch hit the air as his nose broke and he fell to the dirt, out cold.

“Bastard.”

With that one, cold word, she seized the back of his collar once again and prepared to drag him back towards the village, seeing no reason to even attempt to be gentle and carry him.

“Let’s get back.”

“The sooner the better,” Asuma agreed, glancing down at Kazue and preparing to carry her, much like his initial plan for Shikamaru had been before all of this had begun.

She shakily pulled away from him, stumbling forward, then straightening herself with a slightly proud expression appearing on her face.

She’d done something useful.

“I can walk,” Kazue announced.

Asuma watched, amazed, as the girl took unsteady steps in the direction she’d come from. Running a hand through his hair, he started to question Miki on the matter, but thought better of it when he caught sight of the expression on the woman’s face. Instead he shook his head and started after her, watching for any sign that she might collapse.

‘Those Asari… they sure are something.’

A/N: Next chapter should wrap up this arc and set up the ending arcs(aka the next ten or so chapters :3)! Hope you enjoyed! I would love to hear any opinions you had about this chapter!