(A/N) You picked A Nara's Shadow Through Time and Space! Here's the first chapter! Don't worry, the Tenten-centric ones will make another appearance when SDC ends. For those that worried about that.
"He suspects a lot of things," Temari muttered, spinning a small fan with chakra. "Always does."
"He's actually going to do something this time," Naruto said. "He may have been in the shadows for a long time, but no longer. He can only manipulate people so much."
"We can't hold an entire clan in the hideouts," Kankuro growled, looking up from his puppet parts. "We're barely surviving as it is."
"Worst case scenario, they have to stay in the forest. You know no one can get in there," Naruto said, narrowing his eyes. "No one they don't want, anyway. And I can fortify it with seals on top of that."
"Naruto, you know as well as I do that it won't work forever," Kankuro shot back.
"It'll work long enough for us to get a better hideout setup," Naruto insisted. "I'm almost done with the space expanding seal, almost done with constructing that other dimension. We'd need a gatekeeper for the seal, but once it's done, we can all be safe. Just give me another month or two."
"We can leave," Temari murmured, glancing around the cave they were in.
Naruto cursed, glancing at his wrist. "I'm cutting it close. I don't know when I'll be able to talk again."
The remaining two sand siblings nodded as Naruto plunged into a seal drawn on the wall and disappeared.
Temari stared at it longingly. "If only."
"If only," Kankuro agreed, turning back to his puppet.
"Hello, Mirai, Kurenai-sensei," Shikamaru drawled, waving to the pair.
"Good morning Shikamaru," Kurenai replied, smiling at Shikamaru. "How are you doing?"
"Fine, I guess," Shikamaru yawned.
Kurenai chuckled. "Tired as always, I see."
Shikamaru shrugged. "Lots to be tired about. Been on a lot of missions recently."
"Anything too dangerous?" Kurenai asked, brow furrowing in concern.
Shikamaru shrugged uncaringly. "Not too bad. Can't talk about it though, you aren't an active kunoichi anymore."
Kurenai chuckled, looking at her daughter. "I'm good raising Mirai. It is my hope she'll grow up in a better world than I did."
"It's already better, there isn't any war," Shikamaru pointed out. "The landscape isn't desolate, and we're recovering quickly. We'll be back up to full strength soon."
Kurenai nodded, looking out over the village, or what was left of it after the invasion. "Soon. It was nice talking to you Shikamaru, but I do have grocery shopping to do today."
Shikamaru inclined his head. "Of course. Have a good day Kurenai-sensei." With that, he moved on, as slouched as ever, gliding along like he was mostly asleep.
The entire conversation had conveyed two things, one, that Danzo wasn't trying to kill him just yet, and that Naruto's dimension that he was building was almost ready.
Well, he wasn't precisely building a dimension so much as he was accessing the already there summons dimension and building a new place for them to live.
It had been Kurama's idea, oddly enough. The giant fox had very reluctantly started to cooperate after Danzo said exactly what he was planning to do with him and Naruto in his earshot. At least Naruto tried to make it interesting and talked to him.
Shikamaru sighed as a hawk circled over him once. Another mission. Perhaps he'd get out to see Temari again, or Sakura perhaps, he hadn't seen either in ages. It was pretty quiet without them around. As troublesome as they were, he kinda missed them.
The entire thing took less than two minutes and was done without a word. Shikamaru collected the mission scroll, read and memorized it, then burned it in front of them before leaving to pack.
It was near Sakura and Karin's hideout, close enough he could stop by for a short chat to see how well they were holding up. And perhaps give them a Akimichi food scroll, as Naruto had taken to calling them. Naruto drew them up, the Akimichi filled them with food, and they went with anyone who had a mission near one of the hideouts. The people inside got fresh food for once, instead of the ration bars they mostly had to survive on. They were surviving, living, and Naruto was working on a seal to save them.
Shikamaru sighed, finishing up his packing and storing the scroll in one of his pockets. He had gone onto Danzo's radar. The mission would be too high for a normal chuunin, and was probably a bit too difficult for him. As such, he was taking no prisoners, and taking all the precautions he could. His head was now on the chopping block.
"Shikamaru, it's wonderful to see you," Sakura greeted him.
"You just want the food," Shikamaru muttered, tossing the scroll to the two girls.
"Maybe a bit," Karin admitted, unsealing one of the fruits and biting into it. "So, your head on the chopping block yet?"
Shikamaru sighed, half lidded eyes staring her down. "Yes."
Sakura frowned. "We don't have any more hideouts, you know that."
Shikamaru nodded gravely. "And so does Naruto."
Karin growled, looking severely annoyed. Whether at herself or Danzo, it was to be determined. "How close is the seal to finishing?"
"Far enough that they'll get my body," Shikamaru replied, appearing, for all intents and purposes, to be asleep.
"I may have another option," Karin said, frowning slightly. "It'll probably only work once, but we can try."
Shikamaru cracked open an eye to look at her.
Karin shifted, pulling out a large scroll. "It's a space/time seal, like the one Naruto is working on, but it's destination is another universe. And maybe back in time, I'm not sure. Can't really test it though. It doesn't send live things through, just their soul and chakra. And any weapons or clothing."
"That's specific," Shikamaru said, yawning.
Karin shrugged. "Best I could manage. It does leave a corpse behind, so it'd mean you could 'die' on a mission, and they'd bring your dead body back as proof."
"No communication?" Shikamaru drawled, closing his eye again.
"We have an idea," Sakura offered. "But it still needs a lot of work. Basically, there are two scrolls, one with you, the other here. They are both the same scroll, and not. Anything written on one will be written on the other. Theoretically there could be a bunch of secondary seals, so you could talk to one person instead of just talking and hoping that they're there and can see."
"The execution is what leaves much to be desired," Karin said, eyebrows furrowing as she frowned. She offered Shikamaru a scroll. "See if Naruto makes anything of it."
"I'll drop it by him," Shikamaru said, sighing and taking the scroll. "I should be going."
They waved, and Shikamaru walked through the seal to get to the outside of the cave.
The outside of the seal was hidden well inside a natural cave, so when Shikamaru walked out of it in the morning, it wasn't suspicious, as it was a perfectly fine place to take shelter for the night. They had counted on that, and that was how all hideouts were hidden. Hidden enough to not be suspicious, and hidden enough that no one accidentally stumbled across them.
His mission completed, Shikamaru walked back into Konoha. He noted his completed mission, passed Karin's scroll onto Naruto, and went home for a nap. He was feeling actually tired more and more often now, Danzo was driving his shinobi hard, insisting they keep on top of normal missions on top of rebuilding Konoha.
Heck, he couldn't remember the last time he sat down and played a leisurely game of shogi against someone. Probably before his father's death. His father, along with the other two parts of his generation's Ino-Shika-Cho had been killed on a particularly bad mission. They hadn't gotten help there fast enough. His mother was filling in for clan head, along with Ino and Choji's mothers. Shikamaru suspected they were getting more done then their husbands ever did.
He was woken in the middle of the night by Naruto. "Psst, Shikamaru!"
Shikamaru raised his head lazily to look at Naruto. "What."
"Danzo. He's going to accuse you of treason and have you executed," he hissed.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Karin's seal?"
Naruto shrugged. "As ready as I think it can be. The communication is also about as good as it's going to get. C'mon, I got a mission for us, we leave now. You'll come back as a dead body."
Shikamaru sighed, dragging himself out of his bed, and following Naruto. He was already packed from his earlier mission, no need to dawdle.
They walked right out of the gates, Izumo and Kotetsu nodding once to Shikamaru, apparently already knowing he wouldn't come back alive.
They traveled as quickly as they could manage, reaching Sakura and Karin's hideout in two days.
"Hello again," Sakura said, mildly amused as they walked into the cave through the seal.
"Danzo wants me dead officially," Shikamaru said. "He intends to mark me a traitor and execute me as soon as I get back."
"So you won't," Karin finished, watching Naruto bring out the scroll she'd made.
Shikamaru nodded calmly.
Karin quickly scanned the seal, nodding when she finished. "It should work fine. Shikamaru, get over here."
Shikamaru cracked open an eye, then stood up and sat down next to the scroll.
"We have to draw these designs on your arms," Naruto said, almost apologetically. "They should disappear once they're done doing their job."
"What's their job?" Shikamaru asked, surveying the designs laid out on the scroll next to him.
"They tie your chakra and soul and mind together, along with a very slight link to the scroll you'll be going with," Karin explained quickly. "Do you have a scroll with clothing? I'm pretty sure that your clothes will be going with you, and I'm assuming you didn't want your dead body to be naked when we bring it back."
Shikamaru sighed in agreement, pulling out a scroll with extra clothing in it. You never knew when you might have to walk into some place after killing people, so it was best to have an extra set of clothing so you didn't turn up covered in blood. He unsealed the clothes, and Naruto took them. "Alright. Do you want a brief explanation about the scrolls?"
Shikamaru nodded, offering his arms for Naruto to draw on.
"So, you'll have one, and we'll have one here in this cave," Naruto started, holding up two scrolls once he'd finished inking the seals onto Shikamaru's arms. A band at his wrist, and a band above his elbow. "The one staying here will be linked to me, the one going with you will be linked to you. I'm the least likely to die, so that's why."
"You two and the scrolls will function as anchor points allowing us to be connected to where you're going. If one person or thing is taken out, either dead or destroyed, the other three can hold the connection, but the scroll or person needs to be replaced or the whole thing falls apart," Karin continued. "Theoretically, we can use the seal once more to send another connected scroll through, but it's a heavy maybe."
"Understood," Shikamaru said, accepting the scroll Naruto handed him.
"If your scroll is destroyed, there is a fail safe that makes it so the words written on our scroll will appear on your forearms until such time as we can get a copy of the seal across to you so that you can recreate your scroll." Karin quickly turned away as Shikamaru lay back onto the scroll. Sakura did the same, but continued sharpening the tanto she was carrying.
"Anything else will have to be communicated by scroll, we're kinda short on time, so good luck, have a safe trip, and don't die!" Naruto said quickly, placing his hands on the seal next to Shikamaru's shoulders, and channeling chakra.
"Good bye," Shikamaru managed, before blackness over took his vision and he passed out.
(A/N) And that's it! Like TTDS, it does have an accompanying story, one that remains in the Danzo ridden world. That will be posted probably when this is finished, should anyone remain interested then. Place any questions about what I did with different people in the comments, and I'll answer them. Questions about the scrolls and everything else will also be answered.