CHAPTER 6 : Shikaku Nara

July 3rd, year - 72.

Shikaku. Late evening, Hokage building.

Sitting at the desk he reviewed the mission status, income status, overall mission turn out, reports regarding skirmishes between Iwa and Suna.

Suna has been getting bolder and bolder in attacking the convoys leaf shinobi is guarding. In the last three months alone three attacks had happened. At least one attack per month.

In previous occasions, if any attack happened then it was the result of a misunderstanding. But nowadays it was premeditated attacks.

Iwa too testing was the borders. One patrol team was completely killed near Land of Earth borders. And he was sure that it was Iwa shinobi. Most probably, their daimyo had given them permission to collect new territories from other countries. Or else that fence sitter was acting on his own and waiting for Konoha to start an attack so they could retaliate.

'Sigh….huh…uh….troublesome'

It has been like this since the news about the Uchiha massacre has spread. First three months after the massacre was absolute peace. But soon both Iwa and Suna were getting ready for another war. They had been amassing supplies, food, weapons, etc… Hidden cloud village has been doing it even before the Hyuga incident. Why they didn't start a war soon after the Hyuga incident, he didn't know. Must be some internal conflict, that was his assumption but there may have been some other reasons he couldn't have known too.

Leaf could of course pacify Suna by sending them the missions that originally come from the Land of Wind. But Hokage has objected to the idea. More like his advisors objected to the idea and the Hokage followed their lead.

Plus there were some rumours that Damiyo of Wind is going to pass all the missions to Konoha. If that happens, then there would be another all-out war. Fourth Shinobi War.

If it was up to him, he would send the excess missions to Suna and start amassing supplies for the war. But he is not the Hokage and can't give that order.

The war was inevitable, it is just a matter of time before someone blunders and every village will be up with swords and kunai.

In all the three shinobi wars, Konoha came out with the victory. But they too suffered losses, just not as huge as other villages. It was only in the third shinobi war, they suffered minimal losses. Due to Minato Namikaze.

But Kyuubi incident and the Uchiha massacre nullified all the gains of the third shinobi war. More like they suffered huge losses now than the losses from a shinobi war.

As for the Kyuubi incident, they couldn't pinpoint the origin or cause of trouble. Only the third Hokage heard Minato's last words. And the third Hokage refused to detail on that matter other than the news regarding Jinchuriki, which he guessed is completely another foolish action. The first and second jinchuriki survived without any exposure, but he just had to expose the third jinchuriki right after a disaster caused by Kyuubi. He could guess the ulterior motives under the third Hokage's actions. But couldn't he do it through some other method? Like what he did with Kushina.

And then the Uchiha massacre, which happened inside the village. The massacre must have taken place for nearly three hours in the evening 6.00 pm - 07.00 pm and miraculously there was no Konoha patrol shinobi present in that area for three hours. An entire clan was wiped out and they only found out after everything was over. Fucking Bullshit.

He had been to the observation centre where the ANBU spied on the Uchiha clan 24x7. he had been there several times. He knew how they worked. The observation was not stopped even when the Hyuga incident happened, not even when Orochimaru had defected. But the observation team was disbanded just a week before the massacre 'to give them a time off'. How convenient.

No ANBU, no patrol team and every Uchiha just happened to be in their clan compound or else in the police headquarters conveniently for Itachi to kill them all.

Third Hokage's answers and response completely stumped him and Inoichi. 'ITACHI killed the entire Uchiha clan out of the madness. Add Itachi's details to the BINGO books'

It was Inoichi who conducted Itachi's psychological profiling for the Hokage candidate. The result said Itachi is a pacifist, mature and naive ninja, who can be moulded into a perfect Hokage material. Just like Minato. And him killing an entire clan of people out of madness didn't fit his profile. He could make some theories and conclusions regarding Itachi killing his clan. And every conclusion was more worrying than the other.

'If Itachi was not crazy before the massacre, he sure is now'

'Uhhh…..What a drag'

He was soon done with his work, arranged all the papers necessary that are to be reviewed by the Hokage the next day and left the Hokage building.

….…

He was in his own world while walking towards his home and thinking about several scenarios that might happen in the village soon. He can confirm one such thing is the reduction of taxes and an increase in intake of missions. Mainly property and Excise taxes.

Tax reduction is to attract people to settle down in their village. More people will help bolster the overall population in the village. An increase in population will lead to an increase in mission rate, at least within the village. Whatever the Hokage is planning to do, doesn't equate to the whole of a clan, the Uchiha clan.

He had already assigned a couple of dozens to teams to replace the gap made by the absence of the Uchiha police force. But still, the security inside the village was reduced.

The overall shinobi, available for missions have also been reduced. Despite this situation, the Hokage wanted to increase the number of missions they take. Using this situation, Shikaku wanted to take control of some or overall ANBU body.

Just as he passed the clan compound gates, a shadow stretched from the tree nearby and attached to his. He heard a voice in his head.

He just walked towards his house as though he hadn't heard the voice.

'No irregularity noticed in the Clan estate. Shikamaru brought Kyuubi jinchuriki to your house. Jinchuriki's guards are asked to stay outside the compound at present'

'Good work, continue…Make sure to patrol around my house once again….thoroughly'

'Yes, sir'

This was a method he created with the help of Inoichi. As soon as he noticed Konoha was spying on its own villagers, he wanted a better way of communication, that cannot be observed by the other ninjas. He always can't be using Fuinjutsu. As it was costly and left a purchase evidence trail. And he can't be using seals everywhere he goes. That would raise a lot of suspicions on him.

It took some time but Shikaku and Inoichi succeeded in creating a new Jutsu.

/Shadow talk Jutsu - Nara (Shadow users) can communicate with other Nara through shadows/

And this Jutsu was only taught to select few ninjas who were loyal only to Shikaku. With all nara's being somewhat more intelligent than normal shinobi, nobody really believed in the shit called 'Will of fire'. So no Nara can be called a Konoha fanatic.

Their motto was 'keep the clan safe, in return, the clan will make sure your family is safe'. Because of that any secret within the clan never went out, and Shikaku also made sure of that.

Well he is not really planning any coup d'etat like the Uchihas, he was afraid of some wild factors inside the village, that would inflict damage on the clan.

As for his son bringing Jinchuriki…Naruto into Nara compound, Shikaku didn't know what to think of it. His son did ask about Naruto once before. But that happened long ago. And his answer should have been enough for Shikamaru to know what his stand was. He was sure his son would have forgotten about that or he has his own plans.

He was also coming up with different scenarios.

'In no way, the Hokage can order the Nara's to stay away from naruto now. Because in the current situation the Naras are important to the village. If we are inflicted, by proxy both Yamanaka and Akimihci will also involve themselves. The situation will turn nasty soon if that happened'

'Uhh…Troublesome. And here I thought Shikamaru would be lazy like me. Or maybe he just wants his father to do more work…..What a drag. I will have to make sure to punish the little shit with extra training'

….…

Shikaku entered the living room and saw Yoshino there with a book in her hands.

"I am back"

"Welcome home" Yoshino replied.

He walked into his study room with Yoshino following him. After she entered the room, he activated a noise cancellation seal. Even if his living room is bugged or if the ninja is using sound transmission jutsu to hear what they are talking about, the observers won't be able to find out.

Having these kinds of low-level Fuinjutsu seals are costly but easy. Shikaku refrained from using them on a daily basis since it would leave a trail of his bulk purchase.

He also provided these seals to every shinobi family in his clan.

"Where are they?"

"In our Shikamaru's room. They were playing shogi till now"

"Choji?" Shikaku asked with surprise. He never once considered that Naruto would be playing shogi with his son. As he knew the third Hokage would have made sure to keep the jinchuriki dumb, he considered it must have been Choji who played with Shikamaru. And Choji playing a board game against his son of all people surprised him. 'Maybe Choji is starting to use his brain'

"No…with Naruto. And the boy seems to know how to play against a Nara too" She had observed the game from the beginning. Naruto played as erratic as possible, which made it harder for her son to keep track of all of the opponent's moves.

Now that was a huge shock than Shikaku had expected. There are several speculations to that.

'It means his son has been hanging out with Naruto longer than he expected

Naruto is more clever and sharp than the Hokage would have wanted

As the third Hokage still haven't asked about Naruto's friendship with my son means, the Hokage still doesn't know anything about it'

"How good is he against Shika?" Also playing shogi well doesn't mean Naruto is talented in other aspects. He needed more information too.

"Naruto never won, but he is doing very good for an academy student. Unpredictable moves to keep Shika on the toe, but still not enough to defeat Shika. Nowhere near close. I have to observe daily to know whether he is improving or not" Yoshino had only observed them for one evening, so she couldn't rate his skill clearly.

There was a long pause, as both of them were thinking on their own.

"What do you plan to do with Naruto?" Yoshino broke the silence.

"Nothing"

"Nothing?"

"What do you have me do? Ask Shikamaru to not contact Naruto…..He is already 8, dear. At this age, Minato, Kakashi, Itachi and many other children became shinobi and killed at least dozens of people. He is not powerful but he has a mature mind and he can make his own decisions just like all those geniuses…..Plus it is also time for Naruto to have some friends"

"If the Hokage….."

Shikaku interrupted her, "Can ask me of nothing. His influence is waning. No single clan has authority over us now. Hyuga with their unwanted pride will befall soon and they are not as powerful as they were once. No Senju, No Uchiha or any other clan with an overwhelming power. Even if we can't make changes in the village, nobody can make us do anything for them…They may try underhanded methods. Only Danzo's private army will cause that kind of trouble. But that was a risk we were prepared for a long time"

Of course with Ino-Shika-Cho alliance, they come up in the top. The Akimichi can topple the economy of Konoha, Yamanaka has secrets of every ANBU and high profile ninjas of Konoha, Nara supplies half the village with their medicine pellets and ointments. Even attacking one clan will result in all three involving themselves. Their ancestors formed this alliance even before joining Konoha. If not for the powerhouses like Hashirama and Madara wiping out all the other clans in Fire country, that did not want to join Konoha, their ancestors wouldn't have joined this village.

There were nearly 40 clans in the vicinity of fire country before the formation of Konoha, during the warring states period. Out of 40 clans, 20 to 25 were clans with kekkai genkai. There were several noble clans too, who were once part of the Daimyo council. But now there only four noble ninja clans are present. Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuga and Uchiha. Out of four one is almost extinct. Out of 40 clans, only 30 joined Konoha, the rest were exterminated.

Including the four noble clans as of now, there are only 21 known clans are present in the hidden leaf village.

Now after nearly 50 plus years, Nara-Yamanaka-Akimichi, the three clans became an integral part of the Hidden leaf village. So that was why Shikaku was sure that the Hokage can't order the Naras to do anything.

The Nara may amount to nothing solely, but Akimichi alone, being the richest clan in Konoha, can topple Konoha's economic system. Add in the Yamanaka's who manage the better part of the Konoha's intelligence division.

Openly or covertly attacking even one of them would be foolish. So the alliance is strong.

"Now let us go meet the kid soon. I haven't seen Minato's kid in a long time. Even me spending time with Shikamaru is becoming less and less. All the damn paperwork in the office really cut shorted my free time"

Soon they both finished talking about other topics related to the clan.

When Shikaku shifted to take down the seal, Yoshino spoke suddenly, "I don't know if it is just my mind or me being overly suspicious, just minutes before you came here Naruto wanted to leave all of a sudden wanting to go to Ichiraku ramen stand. He was halfway into the shogi match and suddenly started losing badly"

Shikaku knew Naruto's love for ramen. So he didn't take what his wife just said, particularly into his mind.

As they left the room, Yoshino called for the children to have dinner.

….…

Hello people….

Q : Would you consider making Naruto a missing-nin?

A : If you are asking whether he would leave Konoha - Then yes. But not now. It will be like during the training arc. Uh..he won't be going on a training trip with Jiraya.

Q : Pairing?

A : Well, I have not decided on it. I will leave it to the readers when the situation comes. You can decide on it.

Q : When will Naruto become OP?

A : He will be strong, like super strong by the time the chunin exam comes(At least Itachi level). After that time period, he will become overpowered.

Q : Sharingan? Byakugan? Rinnegan?

A : I dono…..we have nano, it can decipher all that DNA and shit. You guys comment on it, whether Naruto would need a dojutsu or not.

Q: Fuinjutsu

A : Of course. Naruto becoming OP will largely depend on it.