Work Text:
She stares at Shikamaru and wonders. Is he her brother? Is she his sister? Does it even matter when all Shikakos have been on the timeless side of reality and have merged over and over and eventually sent Shikako back to every dimension that she was not already in? Is she not simultaneously both his sister and the sister of countless other Shikamarus in countless other dimensions? And if so, how did it get this bad? How did her brother go from overprotective to attempting to lock her up.
Each Shikako who has been beyond this phase of reality became a god, became ShikakoandGelel and then split and became the Shikabane-hime and split to return Shikako to all dimensions that did not already have Shikako. All Shikakos are Shikako, because every Shikako has been (or will be and will be means nothing in endless eternity) Gelel. Every Shikako has been Gelel, been a god, then turned back, then became a god and turned back, then is a god, is not, over and over. Time does not matter in eternity. All versions of Shikako are simultaneously entering/one with/leaving godhood. Shikako will always be Shikabane-hime.
She has crawled through the abyss she is the abyss that crawled back out.
How dare Shikamaru claim she cannot take missions ‘for the sake of the Clan.’
How dare this mortal pretend that she is a resource that needs to be cloistered away and preserved.
She is infinite now. The Shikabane-hime cannot be killed. (Not anymore, not in any way that matters.) How dare he.
She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath. When she opens them her eyes are the deep black of space, from end to end, sclera, iris, pupil, all the black of the space between stars. Because in them there are also stars, not white lights glimmering, no, her eyes contain galaxies. And as she speaks she lets the galaxies and the black of the abyss bleed outward across the rest of her avatar. No longer pretending to be just mortal flesh.
“If the Nara fear a loss created by my death then be reassured: I cannot be lost. I exist beyond the boundaries of Time and Death.” Her voice echos uncomfortably against physical eardrums, but she lets it, does not muffle it. Let this child’s ears bleed a little from her very presence if that will help drive home that she is no longer his to contain. “If you will still claim the Nara cannot afford to let me leave then I will not be a Nara. You cannot stop me.”