Back to the past, Believe it!

Cunning is priced

"Where is he?" Shikaku growled, he huffed as he found no trace of his son. His son never ended up returning last night, but it wasn't only him, it was also the Jinchuriki and the Uchiha heir, Sasuke.

They've been distracted by the barrier and have been training different Shinobi to be able to handle the chakra strain. But without his knowledge whatsoever it stretched out the forces they have stationed about everywhere.

"Shikaku." Tsume said with a frown. 2 large dogs stood by her side. She had a large frown on her face.

"You need to see this." Shikaku frowned before shielding his eyes from the downpour. They walked silently next to each other, Shikaku didn't bother talking.

His eyes widened as Tsume brought him outside the village and a couple miles beside the walls. 2 dead Shinobi, they weren't Jonin, but regardless.

"When did this happen?" Shikaku finally asked as he turned his head. Tsume sighed before shaking her head. "It's about time you gained your composure." She said under her breath. Shikaku didn't bother responding to the jab.

"Well, it seems this happened around noon yesterday." Shikaku paused slightly before looking around the surrounding forest. "I don't know for sure, but I believe that's when the boys went missing."

Tsume frowned, "The Jinchuriki especially." Shikaku scowled. Tsume only tolled her eyes. "The Hokage already has squads out for the boy, but I'm guessing you already know that the trail is stale." Shikaku growled as he turned his head towards Tsume.

"I know better than anyone." Tsume responded with a sigh. The 2 dogs growled in agreement.

"This downpour is sabotaging any scent left behind. And Shibis bugs can't withstand this rough of rainfall." She scowled. A few other Shinobi that surrounded the corpses nodded.  "We've been trying to find something, anything." A man with red markings on his face said with a growl.

Shikaku nodded. His frown deepened, while there is most likely a chakra trail, it would have been reduced to a small trail by now, and they don't have any great sensors at the moment. All of them are in the hospital in a chakra overloaded induced coma.

Shikaku growled his face contorting into a deep frown.

Shikamaru groaned as he tried to stretch, to no avail. Right, they were chasing down Naruto's captor but were forced to go into a hollowed out dead tree for shelter.

Shikamaru nudged Sasuke who woke up just as soon as he was moved. "S'it time again?" Sasuke muttered. "Yup, let's hurry up before they extract Kurama from Naruto."

Sasuke paused before nodding, quickly making his way out into the opening that was now stupidly muddy.

"Ok we better be fast about this. We've probably been out of it for too long." Shikamaru groaned.

Shikamaru started running with sasuke following suit. Sasuke groaned as thunder boomed behind him.

Thunderstorms had to be his least favorite thing to work in.

Shikamaru huffed before grabbing Sasuke. "Stop." Sasukes eyebrows furrowed before he sighed. The raining certainly is making his mind foggy. How didn't he even notice that they were a few meters away from the enemy's base. It has to be something related to him being a kid.

He wouldn't be shocked to find out if his younger self was still dormant somewhere.

"Go ahead of me, I'll be back here, I'm guessing we're getting close." Shikamaru looked ahead of him a glossy look crossing his eyes. Sasuke knew now he was in what he liked to call 'thinking mode'. Sasuke nodded and hopped from the tree to another.