AN: This is set in Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine universe after war has broken out with Cloud and Rock on one side and Sand, Mist, and Leaf on the other. Kishimoto owns Naruto, and Silver Queen owns Shikako.

With all the tension between the Nara twins, I wondered how far each of them might go if push really came to shove. I knocked this out quick and figured I might as well post it. I have plenty of ideas about how to continue the story, maybe make it a two or three parter, but I don't know when or if I'll get around to that. Reviews certainly wouldn't hurt.

"You what?" I asked flatly.

A cascade of emotions churned within me in that moment, filling me up, the pressure of it throbbing in my ears in rhythm with my racing heart. There was betrayal, and disbelief, and how dare he? Anger. That was the only overriding constant.

Shikamaru regarded me evenly from his seat at the desk, the clan head's desk, dad's desk.

"I'm assigning you permanently to the Nara R&D division," he repeated. "The clan doesn't have anyone else with your expertise in seals. Your work will be invaluable to the war effort."

"The war effort?" I gaped at him. "The war effort. Did you think that phrasing it like that would make me take it any better? You couldn't have thought you'd actually be fooling anyone."

"Shikako—"

"Damn it Shikamaru, we only just buried dad and you want to do this now?"

He slammed his flesh and blood hand on the desk and rose to his feet. I glared up at him with killing intent only barely restrained.

"It's because we lost him that I refuse to lose you too!" he shouted. "Do you even know what it does to me whenever you run off to get yourself half killed? And every time you can't wait to tell me how it's not a big deal, how it doesn't matter, how you don't care. Well I care, Shikako! I'm through with you being selfish with your life!"

"Selfish?" I nearly saw red. "You think I'm doing this out of selfishness? Do you even know me at all?"

Shikamaru set his jaw. "You're going to R&D. That's an order from your clan head."

I closed my eyes and took deep, heaving breaths. My arms were rigid at my sides. My green fingernails drew blood from my palms. There was an answer for this, wasn't there? It wasn't one that I liked, but father had anticipated it once upon a time. If Shikamaru had forgotten I only had to remind him.

"Your orders only matter as long as I'm part of the clan."

The threat alone would be enough, I thought. But then there was a rustle of paper and my brother went further than I ever thought he would.

"If your plan is to leave the Nara and continue taking missions on your own, you should know that it won't work." Shikamaru held up a document. "The clans of Konoha have certain rights that not even the Hokage can ignore. It turns out that the Hyūga set a precedent about rogue members."

"Blood limit safeguards," I choked out as I read the header. "You want to put a seal on me?"

"No," Shikamaru admitted. "But if I raise the issue then your mission availability becomes an internal matter of the Nara clan, regardless of whether you acknowledge it or not. If Tsunade tries to intervene, the other clans will have to back me or lose their rights as well."

Checkmate, I read in his eyes.

It was ruthless, calculated, and I hadn't seen it coming. That was what hurt the most about it all. My imagination hadn't been vast enough to even consider this sort of betrayal, that Shikamaru might manipulate village law against me. On some level, I had trusted him not to. I stubbornly fought the angry tears in my eyes.

We'd been playing this game for a long time, Shika and I, but a line had been crossed now. The rules had changed. My freedom was at stake, and if I wanted to keep it, I'd need to do whatever it took to win. I'd need to cross some lines of my own.

Already the path forward was taking shape in my mind.

"Okay," I said with icy calmness. "My move."

If I hadn't still been furious, if I'd been any less desperate than I was at that moment, I might have lost my nerve or come to my senses and turned around. But that would mean going back to the Nara compound and submitting myself to my brother's authority. It would mean letting him win.

Shikamaru was not going to win.

I pounded on the door with just enough restraint so as not to break it. A familiar chakra jerked into motion and seconds later the door swung open. Sasuke stood before me, kunai in hand, Sharingan spinning wildly. He looked a little harried in his pajamas and I reminded myself that it was the middle of the night.

"What is it?" he hissed.

I squared my shoulders. "Marry me, Uchiha."