Flash Forward: Naruto Edition

Chapter 7 - Shikamaru

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Shikaku Nara was an exceptionally smart man. The clan head was a person whose intellect had few equals and he himself knew that. Now while in the shinobi world, this often led to one becoming arrogant and a feeling of invincibility, the jounin commander of the Leaf Shinobi Corps was nothing of the sort. Many had attributed that to being humble, but it was probably due to the fact that he couldn't really care less about such things.

The man had risen through the ranks at an accelerated pace through no fault of his own, but rather through necessity. He was raised during a time of war and was forced to either become strong or die trying. And if there was anything that he had learnt from his numerous years on the battlefield was that having trust in your comrades was absolutely necessary. It was a common principle that was driven in his head that camaraderie and teamwork was the bread and butter of Konoha's foundation. And right now, the divide between the kids was absolutely sickening in his eyes.

'It'll only get worse before it gets better,' he thought with a inward sigh. Honestly, he respected Minato as his hokage and one of the few men to have bested him in shogi, but there were days he had to wonder if the blond haired kage had left his brain on stun. Surely the man had to have realised the political and psychological backlash the knowledge of who the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki was would have had on the village and the toll it would have played in the young vessel. Now, his best friend's secret child was forced to live a life of loneliness and rejection while he could do nothing to stop it.

Well... not anymore.

With an over exaggerated yawn and a forceful kick to the back of the chair, he forced his son out of his seat and onto the sealing matrix. He smirked at his son's grumbling as he straightened his  jacket and dusted off his pants.

"Well will ya' look at that. Shikamaru wants to go next," the scarred jounin drawled. When his son tried to protest, Shikaku sent him a glare that looked only more menacing when coupled with his battle scars. The argument quickly died on the tips on Shikamaru's lips.

Yoshino merely raised a brow at the interaction but said nothing against it.

The Nara genin walked slowly over to the sealing matrix as though it was the plague. He wasn't sure what he would see in his future and honestly, it both terrified and intrigued him. He had woken up this morning expecting that today's meeting would have been some sort of standard orientation into the life of a shinobi, yet in the span of a few hours, his whole life had been flipped upside down.

His sensei had died before he could have met his own daughter and the fact that his death had such a massive impact on the team showed that the man was someone Shikamaru had come to trust and rely on. Not only that but the dobe of the class and the guy Shikamaru barely paid attention to unless he was talking about a way to sneak out of class was apparently the vessel of the horror of the Leaf.

Shit like that could really mess with your perception of things.

Shikamaru would have liked to have said that the information didn't change things but he himself knew that was not true. After today, he would probably never look at Naruto the same way again. This was not to say that Shikamaru hated the blond. That would just be stupid in his eyes. No, Shikamaru however, was wary in his presence now. He knew that the Fourth hokage was considered as a prodigy with no equal but he couldn't stop the smidgen of fear that trickled into his mind whenever he saw those whiskers on his classmate's cheeks and finally knew what they meant. Yet at the same time, he had seen that he had gone on to become Naruto's advisor. That surely indicated that future him had to have known about Naruto's tenant yet accepted the blond as he is. Was Naruto not as dangerous as the village had set him out to be? Or was it that future Shikamaru had no knowledge of the Kyuubi sealing? The latter seemed the least likely but was still a possibility. Just thinking about made him want to bang his head against the wall in frustration. There was too many factors to considered in such a short time and he honestly didn't know what to think.