We were five years old and mother sent us to give father a scroll. We knew where his office was at the Hokage Tower and we entered the Hokage Tower without giving much of a thought about the people around us. Shikamaru knocked on the office door, and we waited patiently. After a few moments the door opened revealing father, he didn't greet us, he only went back to sit behind the desk. Sometimes he was so caught up in his work, he didn't give us much of a notice, but that had never made us feel offended by him, we were intelligent children and knew that the man had an important and hard job.

Shikamaru went in first and I followed him, then he shut the door and I placed the scroll on father's desk. He nodded and thanked us, so we both turned to leave when the door opened and it revealed… An old man, with bandages, and leaning on a crane. I almost vomited right there by the sudden rush of panic I had. Feck. That was Shimura fucking Danzo! I stepped back and Shikamaru followed, both of us feeling chilled to the core by the man's presence.

"So you have them, perfect." he stated, not even sparing us a glance. "Then we shall see if they are meant for the assignment." he said and turned to leave. I wanted to ask father what was going on, but the man stood up, a grim expression on his face, and told us to follow him.

We walked down the corridor and outside the building, there the Hokage waited us, with Danzo by his side and the other two council elders (what was their name again? Shimura? Homura? Something like that), but what surprised me was seeing two ANBU members. I recognized one of them, it was Kakashi behind the mask, I knew his mask well, that and his silver hair gave him away, but what was Kakashi doing there? And what about the other ANBU, the one I didn't recognize. I looked up at father questioningly, but he didn't look back.

I felt sick. Something was not right.

When we approached the others father told us to bow to the Hokage and we did so, not even questioning him. The old man, Sarutobi Hiruzen, smiled at us warmly.

"I believe you two want to know why you are here." Shikamaru answered a clear yes and I only nodded hesitantly. "Since both of you are of the Nara clan and your clan is known to have bred intelligent allies, the council members wanted to see how you two, as the clan head's son and daughter would do against an ANBU member." we both raised one-one eyebrow. "Of course, you would not have a chance against an ANBU member, but we asked Tiger, here, to let you be the attackers and measure up your levels." the Hokage explained and we nodded. Father went to stand next to the council members and Tiger came forward. I watched father, hoping he would give us a hint, about what was expected from us, but he didn't.

Tiger stood on our right and we turned to face him, I knew that if I showed my true potential Danzo would get me, but at the same time, I felt an urge to do father proud and to show what I was capable of. I shook that thought away and turned to lock my eyes with my twin. Shikamaru was a smart boy, he was a born tactician, while I was the striker, he was the commander and I was the soldier. We didn't know many techniques, I only gathered what I saw from others and add to that our clan's Kage Mane no Jutsu. Even knowing that jutsu, we couldn't make it last long (mine lasted far longer than it should for a five-year-old, after all, I was mentally 24 years old and my chakra reserves knew that apparently, but I liked playing it dumb and show as little as possible). The Hokage announced the start of the spar and we readied ourselves.

Shikamaru and I both jumped back and watched Tiger intensely. The man was tall, he looked to be in his late twenties, early thirties, of course, that was only his body build, we couldn't see his face. Fucking masks. But he was a Nara, he even had the same ponytail as we had. His right hand hovered over his pouch. He wanted to attack, but he couldn't do it, so he made that gesture to make us be on edge, and try to attack him. He baited us, but we didn't take the bait.

Suddenly Shikamaru took out a kunai, from his pouch, mother gave them to us, after she taught us how to handle them. The boy aimed and I realized what his plan was. He wanted me to act and so I did. As the kunai was thrown I performed the hand seal for the Kage Mane no Jutsu and my shadow followed the kunai precisely. The ANBU waited and dodged the kunai easily, but let himself be caught by my shadow.

The thing about our shadows, nobody has ever spoken about how it feels to use the jutsu. I could feel the ANBU member, I knew he was in my clutches, but I felt his chakra reserves too, I knew he was far better trained and he could get out easily, but he wanted to test us, so he let even Shikamaru's shadow trap him. Then he began to struggle through it and he got out of Shikamaru's shadow easily, but not from mine. I held him tightly, showing just a little bit of my power. Shikamaru caught on and he quickly began throwing kunai at the man. I knew that I should give up, showing too much would only get me in trouble, heck that would put me on ANBU radar. So when I saw that Shikamaru aimed a kunai at the man's vital spot (heart) I held him until the last moment, when I let my shadow slip away, playing my part of the act. It all looked like I slipped my control. The man moved and he dodged the kunai, but his arm got scratched by the kunai.

"That's enough." the Hokage commanded and the ANBU turned to the man and bowed. We both turned as well, finally relaxing our poses only to see father looking at us with a sad and sour expression. Did we do too much? Did I show too much? "Good job, Shikamaru-kun, Shikanai-chan." the Hokage smiled warmly and we bowed respectfully and thanked him.

"When are going to put them in the Academy, Shikaku?" Danzo's cold voice interrupted and we looked at father.

"Next year, when they will be six." he said calmly.

"You are holding them off." Danzo retorted.

"I am giving them a chance to have a childhood." father said with the same calm tone.

After that the Hokage and the council members began walking away, father told us to go home and he followed the elders. Tiger went with them, but then Kakashi still stood there and looked at us for a moment. I raised my hand and waved shifted a little so that I knew he was paying attention to me.

"Are you trying to be a dog?" I asked and he shrugged, not answering. "Your hair is giving you away, Hatake-san." I smiled and I was sure he gave me a look behind his mask, but I turned to my brother and we left.

Walking down the streets of Konoha we were both lost in our thoughts and we didn't speak, but I could not bear the sudden quietness that just seemed to unnerve me so I decided to speak to my brother.

"Hey, Shikamaru, what do you think father thought about our attack?" I asked the boy, but he just sighed and shook his head.

"I guess, we will find out when he comes home. We'll just have to wait." he said not looking at me. "But it bugs me… Why did the council want to see our progression now? Father surely told them, he doesn't want to teach us much, not until we enter the Academy at least." he put his hands in his pockets and looked at me. I shrugged, not knowing what to answer.

"Maybe they wanted to see if we are like Uchiha Itachi." I answered and he chuckled.

"Yeah, since he happened everyone thinks every clan head has at least one genius of a kid." he shook his head. "But we are Nara, we are naturally born intelligent, it's not like they could label us prodigies because of our genetics."

I liked Shikamaru that kid could talk like an adult, but still act like the boy he was. I loved being his twin, he bugged me, many times, but at the same time, he was the only person I trusted almost completely. It has always pained me that I could not tell him, that I, in fact, had once a different and simpler life. Shikamaru knew my new persona from inside and out, but he didn't know my once adult self, and yet, he was the boy that could talk to me like I was an adult and a child at the same time.

"I heard Itachi's brother will enter the Academy in the following years as well." I decided to change the subject, he looked at me.

"Troublesome." we both muttered at the same time and we began laughing.

With Shikamaru I felt understood, sometimes we acted like we were the extension of the other person, sometimes we knew what the other was thinking, he knew when I was feeling down and came to hug me without a question and I knew when to be there for him to watch clouds. We cared for each other deeply, we didn't say it out loud, that would be just too sappy, but we acted on it.

We ran down the streets and greeted the people we recognized, at a point we saw Choza with Choji and we stopped to have a little talk, but after that, we went straight home. Mother was in the kitchen, making dinner and we helped her. By the time we were finished preparing the food, we heard father coming home.

Shikamaru and I both rushed to the front door and greeted him with a smile, the man looked at us with a tired gaze and smiled slightly. That was when I knew, we weren't going to be targeted by Danzo.

Later, after we ate, Shikamaru and I were helping mother to put away the dishes. That was when father cleared his throat.

"You did well today." he told us and we both turned, thanking him. "I was really surprised, you actually managed to leave a scratch on an ANBU operative." he chuckled.

"He let himself be caught." I added, but the man shook his head.

"You don't get it." he was still smiling, but he looked proud. "He could have easily got away from both shadows, but he couldn't. That was impressive." Shikamaru smiled and I did so, but father turned serious. "The council pressed me into putting you in the Academy, I hope you two understand why, but I declined that." we nodded, he tried to protect us from the gruesome life of a ninja after all. "And I told them, that when you will enter, in no circumstances you two will not be advanced classes." that took me a little unprepared, but I nodded. I guess he didn't want us to be treated like we're some kind of a gift for the village. "And you should avoid that man with the cane." he looked at us with a pleading glint in his eyes and we nodded.

"What assignment was he talking about?" Shikamaru asked and then I remembered, when Danzo came in, he spoke about something about an assignment and if we were fit for it.

"He was referring to my job, the council is pleased with my work, so they hope that when my time comes there would be somebody to take the mantle." he smiled again, but that smile seemed fake. "But don't worry, you're only children, you shouldn't worry about your future." he chuckled and told us to go play.

Shikamaru didn't realize father was hiding something, he left without a second thought, but I watched father for a few more moments. There was something more about Danzo's involvement, I was sure about that.


Enter Danzo.

Once again, this chapter is in fact made up of two chapters. The first one stops after meeting Kakashi and asking if he is trying to look like a dog. But then again, the following chapter will introduce another key character, and so I thought let's make it in such a way, that this chapter to show some mystery about Danzo's intentions. With that, I guess this became the longest chapter so far.

I don't own Naruto.

Now then, you could see that Hiruzen said the –kun and –chan prefixes. The thing is, I will only write the suffixes if I see them necessary to the plot (showing respect, stuff like that, you'll see once the story starts to get twisted).

The jutsu I've already used won't be shown with their English terms in the brackets in the story, but you'll have them here:

Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique)

Have a nice read and thanks for reading!

Angelicsailor: I'm glad that you're glad – that's a weird way of saying, thanks for the first review :)