(A/N) Right, so that whole 'secondary chakra system' thing is my version of this kind of time travel. Deal with it. Also Itachi has pretty handwriting, fight me.
He walked up the tree easily, so he returned to the ground to fetch the scroll, then returned to lay down on one of the branches. The deer would fetch him if his mother wanted him, otherwise, no one would disturb him here. It was the Nara clan forest, no one but the Nara came here without permission.
"My chakra is fine, my old chakra, that is." -Shikamaru
"Oh, goodie!" -Sakura
"Tree walking?" -Sakura
"Yeah, I can build up this body's chakra reserves later, but my own reserves are fine, and fully recovered." -Shikamaru
"From what Tenten said, that seems like something of a precious commodity, full chakra reserves." -Sakura
"Yes, unfortunately." -Shikamaru
"Sounds annoying. I've just been pushing chakra into my Strength of a Hundred seal. It's almost ready." -Sakura
"That's good. If you do end up going out with a chance of death, write down the seal and its workings. We don't want that technique to disappear." -Shikamaru
"Yeah, already writing it down. Slow going though." -Sakura
"And I'm teaching it to Karin. She's improving it, I think. So, it's a seal, right? I think she's using cursed sealing techniques to adapt hers to fit herself. It looks a bit weird, but I think she's almost done and ready to draw it on herself." -Sakura
"That's good, you guys will need everything you can get." -Shikamaru
"Yeah. We're even working willingly with the remnants of Akatsuki." -Sakura
"So you have said." -Shikamaru
There was a long pause, and Shikamaru assumed she'd gotten distracted. He used the opportunity to climb up a bit higher in the tree, hiding himself more fully in the foliage.
"Sorry, Zetsu just… sorta poked out of the wall… it was weird." -Sakura
"What did he want?" -Shikamaru
"I think he was just checking in, he mentioned something about doing rounds. I asked him to tell Tobi and Itachi about your situation, along with everyone else, of course, and to see if there was a way to talk to them." -Sakura
"Good. I wanted to ask Itachi about good Uchiha that would probably accept a guard position outside of the Hyuuga compound for a night." -Shikamaru
"Oh! One moment Shikamaru, sorry!" -Sakura
Shikamaru waited patiently. He assumed Zetsu had reappeared, given the sudden interruption. That theory was quickly proven wrong.
"Sorry Shikamaru, apparently Tobi has some sort of teleportation jutsu. So, he and Itachi are here now." -Sakura
"Hello." -Itachi
He had very pretty handwriting, Shikamaru would give him that. Not too loopy, but almost delicate.
"Hello. May I ask a question regarding the Uchiha?" -Shikamaru
"You may." -Itachi
"I plan to have my father request an Uchiha guard hidden where the Kumo ambassador eventually will go with his captive Hinata. Hopefully, the Uchiha will be able to stop him, but not kill him." -Shikamaru
"Do you know of any Uchiha that would be open to doing that?" -Shikamaru
"A couple. Mostly cousins. My elder cousin Shisui may work, as of right now, I believe he is a genin, but is known as Shunshin no Shisui." -Itachi
"I remember him from a bingo book." -Shikamaru
He'd gotten his hands on a bingo book when he was about five years old. Another village's bingo book, Kiri, to be specific. His father had accidentally left it lying around. He'd flipped through it.
"Either way, he is fully capable at that age, and he's more approachable than most of my relatives. He is most likely to accept the position." -Itachi
"I'll tell my father, thank you Itachi." -Shikamaru
"No problem." -Itachi
"All questions answered for now?" -Sakura
"Yeah. Tell Tobi thank you for me." -Shikamaru
"I will." -Sakura
"Have to go, the deer want me for something." -Shikamaru
"Talk to you later." -Sakura
Shikamaru closed the scroll, tucking it back into his pocket and walking back down the tree.
"Does my mother want me?" He asked the deer quietly.
A stag, sharp antlers gleaming in the dim light, nodded to him, and Shikamaru bowed slightly back. The stag was the head of the herd, old and wise. At almost 10 years old, he was the oldest in the herd, and the most powerful.
Shikamaru turned and hurried out of the forest, finding his mother quickly.
"There you are Shikamaru! Come on, we need to get stuff for dinner. Your father's going to be home before dinner, so we're making his favorite dish."
Shikamaru dragged his feet a little, but followed his mother to the market, allowed her to push a couple of bags of groceries on him, and then followed her back home.
He ended up napping at the table, while his mother cooked.
His father came home right before his mother finished cooking. He flashed ANBU hand signs at Shikamaru. 'Tomorrow, I'll take you to work with me. He'll do it then.'
Shikamaru nodded, then turned his head to go back to sleep.
"Get up and set the table, both of you!" His mother shouted from the kitchen.
The two male Nara groaned in unison and muttered, "troublesome," before getting up to set the table. One did not disobey Yoshino Nara.
Shikamaru checked the scroll as he was settling into bed.
"Sakura fell asleep, I'm awake now." -Karin
Shikamaru hummed. They had a weird sleeping schedule.
"I'll be sleeping now as well." -Shikamaru
"Alright, have a good night! Sleep tight and avoid nightmares!" -Karin
"Night." -Shikamaru
He rolled up the scroll, storing it back in the deer.
He fell asleep quickly, debating whether to change his ceiling early or not.
He was awake at dawn again. This time, however, he did have an excuse. He woke up to his father opening the door.
Shikamaru yawned in greeting. Shikaku yawned back.
"I'll be down in a moment," Shikamaru said after a moment. Shikaku nodded and left, closing the door behind him. Shikamaru started cursing the cold floor silently again, remembering why, in his universe, he put carpet in his room. He got dressed quickly, checking the scroll and noting the cherry blossom drawing underneath his last message. So Sakura was awake now, good to know.
He rolled the scroll back up, tucking it into the storage scroll, and then tucking that into the back of his pants, pulling his shirt over it so it was hidden.
He padded down to where his father greeted him with a bowl of miso soup for breakfast and a spoon.
"Your mother is sleeping, eat quickly, and we'll go meet Inoichi."
Shikamaru nodded, sitting down at the table and quickly eating the thin soup. He finished it quickly, placing the bowl in the sink and following his father out of the compound.
Inoichi was waiting for them in his office in T&I. "Shikaku, Shikamaru." He greeted. He gestured to the two chairs in front of his desk. It had been cleared of paper work. Said paper was sitting in the corner, and looked like it was on timeout.
"Good morning Inoichi," Shikaku said, yawning.
Shikamaru nodded, sitting on the stack of cushions on the chair directly in front of Inoichi.
"I'm assuming you know what I'll be doing?" Inoichi asked Shikamaru.
Shikamaru inclined his head. "Ino practiced it on me many times."
Inoichi inclined his head, hands forming seals. Shikamaru leaned back, getting into a comfortable position. Shikaku moved lazily so he would catch Inoichi's head when he passed out.
Inoichi finished the symbol chain, and slumped foreward, Shikamaru's eyes closing on their own.
He opened his eyes to find his mindscape, appearing much like a Konoha file room. Mostly well lit, with the exception of a dark shadowy corner.
"It's very organized," Inoichi noted.
Shikamaru nodded, glancing down at himself for a moment, before looking back at Inoichi.
Inoichi glanced at him, and frowned. "You're just 16." And he was. Shikamaru barely looked 16, but had a jounin vest on, along with a bright orange band with a Konoha symbol on it wrapped around his upper arm. "You're a jounin? And what's with the orange band?"
Shikamaru nodded. "Made jounin just after your deaths. The orange band was a marker for those who knew of and were helping the resistance. Orange was-is, Naruto's favorite color. What do you want to see?"
"What you know about Tsunade's death. If you don't mind."
Shikamaru blinked slowly, then glanced towards a darker area of the room. "Over here."
They moved through the cabinets, the surrounding area getting darker. Inoichi frowned worriedly. Usually, this was only seen in ANBU agents, not teenagers. Even jounin level ones. The dark area of a mindscape usually signaled some sort of memory the person wanted to forget, but couldn't. Hence why it was usually seen with ANBU agents.
Shikamaru hadn't said much about the missions he personally had been on, mostly giving them the basics of what happened between this time, and the time his world was at. Inoichi supposed the missions had been bloodier then he had originally thought.
"Here we are," Shikamaru said, stopping at a cabinet wreathed in darkness. He rooted through one of the drawers for a bit, coming up with a single file. He motioned for Inoichi to step back, which he did, and tossed the file through the air.
The file stopped in the air, opening up into a screen.
Shikamaru stops on a roof top directly across from Tsunade's hospital room. He glances over to look in.
Inoichi was surprised. Tsunade looked so small in the hospital bed, old and wrinkled, no chakra left to keep up the near constant genjutsu she usually had on. It was kinda sad.
A shadow detaches from the wall inside the hospital room, and Shikamaru frowns, stepping across the roof.
The shadow abruptly slits Tsunade's throat, and Shikamaru lunges across the rooftop, crashing through the window, landing right on top of the shadow, revealing a blank mask.
Inoichi glanced to Shikamaru for an explanation.
"Root. Danzo's personal ANBU guard."
Inoichi frowned deeply. "How long has that been going on?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "A long time. Unsure if it began during Lord Fourth, or Sarutobi's reign."
Inoichi raised his eyebrow. "Not showing any respect for our Hokage?"
"With all due respect, Inoichi," Shikamaru said, shaking his head, "He lost any respect when he let Danzo continue unchecked. The rot had spread far, far enough Danzo was able to take over all four other major countries with little difficulty."
Inoichi frowned, but gestured for the memory to continue.
Shikamaru abruptly snaps the man's neck, leaping off him to check on Tsunade. The wound was too deep, and with so little chakra she couldn't heal it herself. It was too late, she was dead.
Shikamaru's eyes burn with tears, and he leaps out of the window again, racing off to tell the others. They wouldn't follow Danzo if he could help it. Even Naruto wouldn't, couldn't ignore something like killing Tsunade. Not even for all the 'love' in the world. Also, it wouldn't be good to be found at the scene of Tsunade's death.
(A/N) Sorry, but it needed to be shown. Also the Nara yawning as greetings is something you can pry from my cold dead hands. Fight me. Sorry, I'm tired.