(A/N) Hello! Mandarin Uchiwa: I'm glad you like it! Don't worry, I'll be sure to tell you lot more about what's going on here! Other Guest: *visible confusion*
Side note, I wish to murder whoever is unable to make a good timeline software. How do people write things like this with multiple timelines? Well, now that I think about it they probably don't, but whatever. I need a good timeline software to plot this dangit.
"Shikamaru." -Sakura
"Shikamaru." -Sakura
"Shikamaru." -Sakura
"What." -Shikamaru.
Shikamaru was glad the scroll didn't have some sort of alarm function when someone wrote in it. He might have had to wake up. Sakura was lucky he was already awake.
"Shikamaru." -Ino
"I said what, troublesome woman." -Shikamaru
Shikamaru groaned, suddenly getting why they were pestering him. The extra scrolls had been finished. Troublesome.
"Who has one?" -Shikamaru
"Ino, us, Tenten now has the main copy, Shino, Neji, Kakashi and Itachi." -Sakura
"Tenten has the main copy?" -Shikamaru
"I do." -Tenten
"They figured it'd be safer with me. I haven't settled on a hideout and am just bouncing between them." -Tenten
Shikamaru had to agree it would likely be safer with someone who had Hiraishin. Tenten had been fearsome before she got Hiraishin, and this likely only ensured her place as a very high ranking ninja indeed.
"Neji, how are Lee and Gai faring?" -Shikamaru
Last he'd heard of them, they'd been drafted into ANBU, although he hadn't seen them since, he was pretty sure they were still alive. They were stubborn like that.
"If I want to have them over for dinner I have to physically go get them because they don't ever remember." -Neji
"He's just salty because Lee forgot the epic Naruto beatdown Neji received the other day. He has since been reminded, although whether it stuck remains to be seen." -Ino
"How on earth did Lee forget that Chuunin Exams?" -Shikamaru
"They've kind of been coping in their own unique way, with severe short term memory loss." -Ino
"They aren't home a lot, so I moved in with them." -Neji
"I have to go hunt them down a lot unfortunately." -Neji
"It's been an adventure." -Ino
Shikamaru bet. That sounded so very troublesome.
"At least they remember to take care of themselves." -Neji
"That sounds like a stab at my sensei." -Sakura
"A valid one." -Ino
"I resemble that comment." -Kakashi
"Don't you mean resent?" -Shikamaru
It wasn't like Kakashi to make a mistake, but he figured he should check. Just in case. Was this Kakashi's nice handwriting? As opposed to what he used on mission reports, which was an ineligible chicken scratch.
"I said what I said." -Kakashi
So he hadn't made a mistake. Well now they had confirmation that it had, in fact, been a stab at Kakashi, and a correct one at that.
"Well now we know you can, in fact, write properly." -Shikamaru
"We've all seen your mission reports." -Sakura
"I reserve the right to remain silent." -Kakashi
"You aren't in Konoha, so that's null." -Ino
"Although it's basically null these days in Konoha anyway." -Ino
"Ino you work in T&I." -Shikamaru
"Yeah, the right to remain silent isn't exactly in your vocabulary." -Sakura
"Oh shoot! I have to get back to work! Ignore me jotting down flowers in the sides, I'm excusing this as our orders scroll." -Ino
Shikamaru jotted down his own goodbye, rolling up the scroll to stuff into the seal he'd inked on his forearm. Invisible unless he pushed chakra into it. He did have to actually get up at some point today. He had a rematch with his dad. He suspected it would be another quest for information on his father's part, but he couldn't fault him. He'd be curious too if his kid came from an alternative future.
"Morning," he greeted his mother.
"Good morning Shikamaru," she returned, placing a plate on the table. "Get up earlier next time, you might get more."
Shikamaru blinked tiredly at the plate. Eh, it was food. He could make it up at lunch. Not like he was really doing anything. Except playing his father at shoji.
He settled down across from his father after he'd finished eating.
"You're here."
Shikamaru deigned to yawn in response. His father made the first move, and Shikamaru judged his options before moving as well.
They played in silence for almost an hour before his dad spoke.
"Why did the Hyuuga side with Danzo?"
Shikamaru shrugged, moving his piece. "He promised to allow them their traditions if they sided with him. They sided with him and kept their abomination of a seal."
"That's all?" Shikaku asked, raising an eyebrow and moving a piece.
"He also allowed them to seal the Hyuuga members in ROOT," Shikamaru admitted. He surveyed the board for a long while before moving a piece. "They became his personal force within the village, and he trusts them above the other clans. With the exception of a few people including Hinata and Neji."
"The clan heiress?" Shikaku said, raising his other eyebrow.
"The clan heiress and her cousin," Shikamaru agreed, yawning.
"Troublesome," Shikaku sighed, moving a piece, face assuming it's usual bored expression.
(A/N) Is this the Naruto version of a chat fic? I mean, it might as well be, except with seals instead of phones and a chat. I mean now we have more perspectives and can have more information. So a good thing? For the record, my dad says 'I resemble that comment' a lot. It seemed like something Kakashi would do. Also, let me know any information you'd like to know, and I'll do my best to provide! I can't always remember what information I've handed out, and which I haven't.