•Shackles of Time•

Chapter 7: Interesting Things are Always Troublesome

"and that fire burns brightly within you, it seems"

Heads whipped towards the foreign yet vaguely familiar voice of their newest arrival, kakashi seemed to be the only one who wasn't the least bit surprised.

"shikaku-sama? and to who do we owe the pleasure?" asked asuma as he bowed slightly.

"tou-san?" it was shikamaru this time.

The nara head waved them off as he yawned "nothing, just came to pick you up and watch a little, is all. Troublesome women" he muttered the last part. Four people in the clearing knew as much as he did that he was lying, he didn't need to know that they knew though so they kept quiet.

"hm, you don't usually come shikaku-san" stated ino, not needing to use the -sama suffix, their fathers being close enough as it is.

The man shrugged "had nothing to do" he then plopped down under a tree, seemingly resting his eyes.

Shikamaru raised a suspicious brow, he was the clan head of the naras and the head strategist of hokage-sama himself and he had nothing to do?

Bullshit.

'troublesome'

Because interesting things are always troublesome.

• • • • • • • • • •

You could explain shikaku as every other man in the world. Has the standard black hair, ink black eyes and a lazy posture, certainly not one that indicates any threat to both ally and foe. He likes to keep his presence small, enough to avoid 'troublesome' situations, supposedly.

Despite his outward facade, however, he is quite the fearsome man, perhaps a lack of name in the bingo book will prove him unworthy for most. But there, exactly, lies the true genius. As the smartest man in konoha, being a part of a clan renowned for their intellect and even being a clan head in the said clan, therefore making him the smartest (if his record of shogi is anything to go by), he is tricky enough to make enemies underestimate you, for such is the downfall of great shinobi. His smarts are only known to certain people, mostly konoha chunin and above. He likes to play it low, too troublesome is his excuse.

So when hiruzen sarutobi, his hokage, called him in he had expected to either help him with some paperwork or help with the paperwork, those were most of the reasons he was called in anyways. Well, if everyone else was either busy or really unwilling and had the guts to defy the hokage, granted, most of the work required the hokage's personal attention so it wasn't really that hectic for him.

He entered the familiar wooden doors after hearing affirmation to enter, he saw the usual picture. An aging god of shinobi sitting on a desk getting swallowed by a bunch of tree corpses (hokage's words, not his).

Bowing respectfully, he then proceeded to take a seat.

"shikaku" greeted the aged man, stopping his scribbling for now and directing all his attention at his head strategist (he loved meetings, gets him away from paperwork).

"hokage-sama" the nara head greeted back formally "may I ask the reason for your summoning?" he asked with a raised brow, the question more of a formality than anything.

"ah, yes" here, he suddenly turned grim "im sure you remember naruto uzumaki, no?"

At the mention of the kyuubi's container, although the man knew he was more than that, he turned serious as well "naruto-kun? yes, I remember him quite well"

'who could forget'

"im afraid that certain... changes have happened with him and the uchiha, they have yet to indicate any threat but I fear for their well being" he stated, both were being far too paranoid. Even in their own village.