(A/N) Hello! Miss me? Onward, to another Shikamaru world event. Yes the one hinted last chapter. This is a heavy scroll chapter. Me remembering that this is basically a Naruto chatfic.

"No, I am not going to slip poison into his drink." -Shikamaru

"Why not!" -Ino

"It's a perfectly valid thing to do!" -Ino

"Ino, no." -Sakura

"Ino, yes." -Ino

"Ino, no." -Shikamaru

"As great as it would be to see that, I must agree." -Hinata

"Hinata! Wonderful to see you again!" -Ino

"I trust you are well?" -Shikamaru

"Yes, I am well." -Hinata

"Just got back from a long mission however." -Hinata

"Hey guys!" -Kiba

The sloppy handwriting was accompanied by an inked pawprint. Looked like Akamaru was there as well. Which was reassuring. The pawprint was massive, how big had Akamaru gotten?

"How big is Akamaru?" -Shikamaru

"Eh? Almost as big as Kuromaru! Not quite, but close!" -Kiba.

"That's good, he's growing well." -Kakashi

"Ah, the resident cryptid." -Sakura

"Excuse you." -Kakashi

"Excuse you!" -Sakura

"Oh shush you two." -Ino

"I still maintain we should poison Danzo. I know a couple that would do the trick! Nice and slow and made to look like a disease!" -Ino

"It won't work on our Danzo because he's kind of paranoid like that, but yours shouldn't be that paranoid!" -Ino

"I am not poisoning Danzo." -Shikamaru

"Final warning." -Shikamaru

A tiny pouting person was drawn. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at it, then scribbled in a note that he was rolling his eyes in parenthesis next to the person.

A person sticking their tongue out was drawn, and Shikamaru rolled his eyes again.

"Is there any actual news?" -Shikamaru

"Nope, things have been pretty quiet. Which is good." -Sakura

"All quiet on our end as well." -Hinata

"Good." -Shikamaru

"I leave you to your argument." -Shikamaru

With that he rolled up his scroll and sealed it away. He was hungry, and wanted food.

So he went into the kitchen to find a snack. It was only halfway to dinner, so he wasn't about to wait. Especially not when the other option was pretty much just watching the others argue. He loved them, but they were very tiresome when they argued about everything and nothing.

"Shikamaru?" His father asked, waking Shikamaru from his impromptu nap. "There's news."

Shikamaru blinked up at his father. "What kind?"

"Good, and related to the Uchiha," his father said, opening the door further. "Let's not talk here."

Shikamaru hummed in agreement, rolling off the bed and following his father into his study. "What is it?" he asked as soon as they were in there.

"We have managed to get the presence of other non Uchiha shinobi in the Konoha Police force approved," his father said, very slight excitement entering his tone. Which basically meant he was ecstatic. "Fugaku has been participating more and more in conversations now that Inoichi and I have made an effort to include him. Chouza is following our example, as are several of the other clan heads."

Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief. That had likely completely circumnavigated the Uchiha massacre, or at least delayed it a very long time. Shikamaru wouldn't let what had happened in his time happen here. Not while he was alive. He just had to deal with Danzo.

"Now shoo, I have missions to assign," Shikaku said, making a shooing motion with his hand.

Shikamaru huffed a barely audible 'troublesome', but left. He opened up the scroll again once in his room, scanning the conversation, which was a long lecture from Sakura, Ino, and Shino about what poisons were best for whatever things. Shikamaru actually memorized a good section of it. It was good information. Even if he wasn't going to poison Danzo. It may come in handy later.

No one was writing at the moment, although Shikamaru didn't have a way to tell how long they'd been silent. Maybe they should add that. No, it wouldn't work cross dimensions. Oh well.

Writing started showing up, and Shikamaru rummaged for a pencil to reply. Maybe.

"Hey, Hinata, or someone in Konoha, does Choji have any food scrolls ready? We could really use one, and Tenten can just teleport in and grab it." -Karin

"Oh, Choji's been meaning to get me to tell you, he has a lot of food scrolls saved up, cause they don't decay or anything, he has a bunch preprepared. I'll tell him to get some ready." -Ino

"Sounds about like him." -Shikamaru

"Oh, hi Shikamaru." -Ino

"He also says bring back all of the scrolls you guys collected, he needs to reuse them, Naruto's been too busy to make him enough new ones." -Ino

"We'll collect them." -Karin

"Tell him to expect Tenten in about half an hour. I'll write here when she's ready." -Karin

"Alright!" -Ino

"I get off in twenty minutes anyway." -Ino

"Pretending to be writing down flowers you need again?" -Shikamaru

"Oh I'm doing that too." -Ino

"Just don't get caught." -Karin

"Duh." -Ino

"I won't. I promise." -Ino

"Now keep that promise." -Karin

"Of course." -Ino

Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the two. Maybe they'd stop making metaphorical pining heart eyes at each other. Doubtful, but possible.

(A/N) I swear I didn't plan for Ino/Karin. I blame them. So, since doesn't like links, you can either wait for tomorrow and check out Silence of a Shinobi that's on Ao3 for the link, or you can take a quick look at the most recent chapter of Scarves Hide Scars on Ao3, or you can join my discord server! The code is pnQAF39 if you wanna come chat!