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NSFW Good Luck Smiles On The Daring Waifu Catalog SI by ThrowAway675
Misc » Anime X-overs Rated: M, English, Words: 93k+, Favs: 43, Follows: 46, Published: Oct 25, 2023 Updated: Oct 26, 2023
6Chapter 1
Starting World: Naruto [Standard]
Starting budget 365
Challenges
Good Luck Smiles on the Daring +183 [548]
Difficulty [6.25]
Legacy Difficulty 0
You as Nara Shikamaru (Substitute) of T5 -20 [528]
Power Swap to Satoru Gojo(T7) -80 [448]
Bindings
Company Stamp free [448]
Lures
Zenryoku Zenkai -20 [428]
Faerie Feast -10 [418]
Other Controls
Signed and Sealedᵈˡᶜ -10 [408]
Home Perks
Pocket Space -5 [403]
Pocket Apartment -10 [393]
Home Securityᵈˡᶜ free [393]
Talents
Template Stacking I x2 [You as Nara Shikamaru has Nara Shikaku (Naruto), Accelerator (To Aru series)] -60 [333]
Body Tune-Up -5 [328]
Everlasting -10 [318]
Covert -10 [308]
Communication -10 [298]
Soul -10 [288]
Athletic -5 [283]
Aesthetic -10 [273]
Wild -5 [268]
Inculcationᵈˡᶜ -10 [258]
Template Stacking II x2 [You as Nara Shikamaru [Accelerator (To Aru series)], You as Nara Shikamaru [Nara Shikaku (Naruto)]] -40 [218]
Defenses
Body x2 -10 [208]
Wild x2 -10 [198]
Possession x2 -20 [178]
Information x2 -50 [128]
Mind x2 -50 [78]
Stress x2 -10 [68]
Addiction x2 -20 [48]
Defenses discounted for retinue members +34 [82]
Misc Perks
Universal Calibration -10 [72]
Mapper -10 [62]
Target Tracker -10 [52]
Sexual Calibration -2 [50]
Fertility Calibration I -2 [48]
Memorabiliaᵈˡᶜ -5 [43]
Time-Saversᵈˡᶜ -2 [41]
Generic Waifu Perks
Power Swap free [41]
Immutable Selfᵈˡᶜ[You as Nara Shikamaru] -10 [31]
HUDᵈˡᶜ[You as Nara Shikamaru] -10 [21]
Companions bought -20 [1]
Nara Shikamaru(T5)[buy] from Naruto
"Among the heavens and the earth, I alone am the Honored One."
That was my first audible sentence in my new life.
To be fair, the full power of Gojo Satoru is... well, incredibly overwhelming. The Six Eyes allowed me to see the world for miles, literally for miles, all around me. I could see every tree, every leaf, every person, every ant, everything, all over.
It is beautiful. Absolutely, painfully, stunningly, beautiful.
The clouds look amazing. That big blue sky.
"Well, someone's pretentious." Ino's mocking voice next to me replied as I lazily sat up, looking at her while giving the least amount of effort to do so.
I shrugged lazily, ignoring her remarks. Ino Yamanaka was definitely a character. She was always trying to provoke a reaction, constantly trying to get me and Choji to do whatever she wanted. In a way, Ino was really just mimicking her dad's behaviors, likely applying the lessons of what it meant to do T&I as a way to probe those around her. It's just that her skills were woefully obvious, because she was a novice in the art of provoking a response.
So many Clans tried to teach their children theory early, trying to get the good habits in before the bad habits developed, in order to nurture the next generation. With Itsuki's casual slaughter of the Uchiha Clan, the Academy's graduation age had been set back to 16, as if to say that an extra four years here would somehow help create a better foundation for their killers for hire to not be broken enough to attack the hand that fed it.
I was painfully aware of just how fucked up and barely functional the current system was. Better than the Clan Wars, if you consider the lower death toll for civilians and children under and around the age of 5 better. The higher death toll for shinobi, the barely tolerated trade from civilians across the countries, the corruption among the nobles, and all the other things truly didn't spell good news for the system's future health.
No, this world still operated under the same doctrine as the one I had left. The might makes right, and the weak hope to be able to carve out something out of the leftovers, if the weak don't cannibalize each other first.
Tier 5 Shikaku Nara meant that there truly wasn't anything I could learn from my father, being that I had the skills and abilities of my father as he was in Shippuden. It truly was more meant to hide that I had traded away my own affinity for shadows for Gojo's much greater skill, but it had potential if given the time to train fully, but in truth, I had another Template I'd rather train.
[Template Stacking II] for Accelerator. It put me at Tier 5 for Accelerator, which was a far cry from Accelerator's own Tier 8.
Which is why the importance of what and who you utilize for your Templates and your Base actually matters. A Tier 5 Specialist is significantly stronger than a Tier 5 Generalist, but a Tier 7 Specialist can be beaten by a Tier 5 or 6 Generalist that has mastered abilities that are a weakness for Tier 7's. It was why Link, a Tier 5 or a Tier 6 depending on the game, can beat Ganondorf, a Tier 7. A Specialist has holes in their abilities, weaknesses that Generalists can exploit.
Shikaku Nara is a Tier 5 Specialist, whose information gathering, tactical knowledge, and ability to read five to ten steps ahead of others if given the right understanding of the opponent, allows a full usage of a bloodline inherently meant to act as a way to stagger enemies to put them right into the paths of stronger foes.
Gojo Satoru is a Tier 7 Generalist, being a Jujutsu Kaisen Sorcerer who has fully mastered the Six Eyes and the Limitless, as well as Cursed Techniques and Reversed Cursed Techniques.
Accelerator is a Tier 8 Generalist, an Esper who has fully embodied the power of being the 'One Way Road', the 'One Who Wields The Power of God'. A man, with the aide of some help, had been capable of shaking the entire galaxy by creating and implanting a third metaphysical tree that governed reality, the artificial tree of mankind, into the universe he had lived in.
In short, I was planning on fully training up my Accelerator Template to it's greatest potential, while also relying on my current Tier 7 skills of Gojo Satoru to survive the 'early stages' of Naruto. Thankfully the Template Framework also meant it'd be easier to learn and regain Accelerator's lost skills at a much faster rate than it would be normally.
Of course, while I had Accelerator's power, I wasn't Accelerator. Accelerator's brain on it's own would be capable of beating ten supercomputers working against him, and the Misaka Network, of 10,000 ish Level 3 Espers, were all incapable of replicating even half of what Accelerator had been capable of doing with his calculations.
Iruka eventually came in and yelled at the class to shut up and sit down, some things just don't change, and I lazily lifted my head as Iruka began to announce the Teams.
"Team 10, Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara. Your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi."
Gotcha. I was still under the same team as Canon. I frankly couldn't give a shit either way, but at least it's nice to know my current existence hasn't already derailed something on it's own.
What interested me was that the classic Ino-Shika-Cho formation truly didn't apply to me anymore. Oh, I had all the skills and abilities required to perform my role, but why limit myself when I could fully expand the limits of my jutsu to unheard of heights? Why would I need to just stand around when I could just as easily crush the opponents using my Limitless?
To be a Jujutsu Kaisen Sorcerer, is to be selfish. To open yourself to dangers from within and without, to fully realize your sense of self beyond all limitations, even if the world should raise themselves against you. Jujutsu Sorcery is an Individual Sport, not a Team based one.
Gojo Satoru and Sukuna were not all that different from one another. Both heavily asserted themselves as 'The Strongest' that it became a core part of their identity, and while Sukuna would turn to fully mastering 'True' Cursed Techniques, Sukuna had abandoned his core principles in the end, by utilizing the Ten Shadows after taking over Megumi's body to fight Gojo. In short, he relied on someone else's Jujutsu in order to win, thereby indirectly abandoning the idea of holding himself up as 'The Strongest'.
Gojo Satoru hadn't. He fully embraced his principles, his beliefs, and his sense of self, in all aspects of the word. Gojo Satoru had used his Limitless and the Six Eyes to the absolute limit, and while he had some help for his starting attack, he'd faced off against Sukuna at nearly his fullest strength, in conjunction with Megumi's own Jujutsu, alone.
It didn't matter if Gojo Satoru died facing Sukuna in the fight, because in the end, Gojo Satoru had won, in all the ways that had mattered to him. To Gojo, he was truly 'the Honored One'. The one who set the standard on what it truly meant to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer.
It was why I doubted I'd stay in Konoha. I couldn't. I wouldn't. I didn't respect the Third Hokage's inability to hold Orochimaru and Danzo accountable. I didn't respect the shinobi world's system of constantly fighting amongst one another, teaming up to annihilate the strong, and constantly lying to themselves by refusing to recognize that their principles, their dogma, were all lies.
My father will be devastated. My mother will be horrified. My Clan will disown me. Konoha would never trust me. I'd be abandoning the village I had been born and grown up in.
So, why was I smiling? Why did I feel content? I didn't feel regret or fear or guilt. I just felt... at peace with myself.
Among the heavens and the earth, I alone am the Honored One. Embrace the selfishness. Embrace the magnificence of what it means to stand against the world that has caused so much atrocities, and when the world tries to end you, tries to change you, you laugh at the world and force it to change to fit your desires, your dreams, your ambitions. Embrace that, as the Honored One, this world will bend at your will. Or it will break trying to stop you.
I even had a perfect point in which to leave. The Sasuke Retrieval Arc, or now it'd be the Sayuri Retrieval Arc, I suppose. By that point, they'd probably write me off as a loss, someone who died trying to retrieve Sasuke. After that, I could buy 'Appearance Modifier', and become someone else.
Huh. Would this be considered pulling an Obito? Maybe. However, the freedom of not being bound to missions, a central location, alongside being fully capable of Stamping anyone I wish, it'd be easy credits.
I could even sell the Ichibi, since Shukaku tended to temporarily free himself from Gaara when Gaara went to sleep. Bijuu were worth way more than the Jinchurriki they resided within.
Sure, it'd mean it's impossible to capture the Ten Tails, since the Ten Tails wouldn't be revived without at least some chakra of all the bijuu, but the Ten Tails itself was only worth 200 Points. Hardly worth it when all nine bijuu were worth 900 Points all together.
Also, I can infiltrate the Akatsuki far easier as a Missing Ninja/Dead Ninja on record than I would as a regular shinobi.
Thanks to my HUD purchase, it was easy to take 'pictures' of each class mate as well as Iruka. As the Jonin came by to collect their students, I was able to tag them as well, until Asuma arrived to pick us up.
Ino grumbled having to deal with me and Choji, but I tuned her out. Ino Yamanaka may be 16, but she hadn't truly learned the hard truths of the shinobi world aside from the snippets of what Inoichi told her in stories or lessons.
Taken to Training Ground 10, Asuma told us that in order to qualify as Genin, we had to at least hit him once. How we did it, didn't matter as long as we got even a glancing blow.
"I'll give you guys a few minutes to plan, but then you have to find me and try to hit me." Asuma said easily, before he went into the trees nearby.
Ino and Choji looked at me. Waiting for a plan. I was the brains of the operation.
I took out my Stamp. "I'm using this on the back of your hands, Ino, Choji. That way we can tell if Asuma tries to pretend to be one of you."
Always plan for failure and sabotage.
It spoke to how much they trusted me that they immediately agreed, as I stamped them both.
Once I did that, I said seriously. "Choji, stand guard over Ino. Ino, try to find a bird perch or nest. Take to the skies, and release the technique once you find Asuma."
Ino's eyes widened, as she looked stunned that she had never thought of the idea, before groaning. "Why did I never think of that?!"
I shrugged. It just made sense to take advantage. We lived in a forest for Kami's sake.
Naturally, that plan went bust two minutes later as Ino woke up, looking embarrassed.
"I, uh, don't know how to fly as a bird." She admitted quietly.
I sighed. "Of course the Mind Transfer Jutsu doesn't let you take advantage of an animal's instincts. We do this the hard way. Ino, get on Choji's back. Choji, we'll be scouting to find Asuma. Once within range, I'll shadow bind him, then Ino can transfer her mind, allowing me to get over there and Stamp him as a 'hit'. If Asuma breaks out of the mind transfer, you can release Ino in a moment's notice to use the Human Boulder Jutsu."
They nodded, with Ino looking thankful that we didn't get upset at her inability to fly.
'Somehow' we found Asuma, and the plan was a success. Really, Asuma wasn't truly trying his best. He was really just trying to get us to work together and see what he had to work with.
Once that was done, I had moved the Stamp to the lower back of the team, meaning they wouldn't notice it during the three days it took to apply, and, per the Company, would ignore the Stamp during and after it's completion.
Afterwards, Asuma treated us to a barbecue as a way to celebrate our success at becoming Team 10. Ino looked like she was hardly going to eat before I spoke up, my voice serious.
"Ino. You don't have to eat as much as Choji, but you need to prioritize eating meat. Eating meat will allow your muscles to grow, but it also allows you to develop faster and better. Trying to starve yourself will hinder not just yourself, but the team in the long run. Without proper food, you'll be exhausted faster, you'll be weaker, your hair will fall out, and you'll never grow beyond what you look like now."
Ino's face paled as I didn't mince words, a combination of [Communication Talent] and [Inculcation Talent] working together to make Ino really rethink her dieting plan.
Asuma looked surprised for a moment, but nodded with approval. "He's right Ino."
This wouldn't be the last conversation, but eventually Ino would give up the dieting once she saw the results.
After eating, Asuma paid the bill and told us to tell our families the good news and to meet him at training ground 10 tomorrow around 8.
Ino and Choji left soon after, and I waited a few minutes before heading in a different direction from home.
The Six Eyes made it easy to recognize the absolute miasma of Cursed Energy that lingered in the Uchiha District. The immense negative emotions, the loss, the agony, all was easily felt even at a distance.
The lack of guards, the emptiness, all of it pointed to just how silent the district was. Houses filled with laughter and families, lay silent and cold.
If this place had been in Jujutsu Kaisen, the Cursed Spirit would've been on par of Jogo that came out of this place.
Silently moving through the empty streets, I eventually arrived to Sayuri's home. Here, the Cursed Energy was at its peak. The agony was concentrated here, and the misery that clung to the house was immense.
No wonder Sasuke became the way he did. Between the PTSD, the trauma, the miasma of negative energy, all of it practically crushed out all positivity out of him.
It was a miracle Sasuke hadn't committed suicide. Hell, the boy had likely been subconsciously suicidal, having aimed to take on Itachi while hoping for an honorable death to say he had at least tried to avenge his Clan.
Sayuri was training in the back of the house, near the lake as she practiced her Fireball Jutsu.
Say what you will about Sayuri, she's dedicated to her training.
Clasping my hands together, I appeared directly behind her, knocking her out with a swift blow to the back of her neck.
She collapsed almost instantly, unconscious. She'd exhausted herself to the point that she'd been easily handled.
A Stamp to the lower back, and I quickly went into the house to put her to bed with a quick contract written down.
'If you want to unlock the Sharingan, you need to be put in a life or death situation. If you want the help of a friend, sign the Contract and wait for me in the backyard three days from now late afternoon. The answer to Kakashi's Hidden Test is teamwork.'
I left the Uchiha District, heading for another potential individual.
Once I was within range, I could see Naruko was currently grumbling to herself in her apartment. I knocked on her door, surprising her inside as she eventually went to open the door.
"Shikamaru? What are you doing here?" She said aloud, confused.
After all, I had never been to her apartment, and I hadn't really interacted with her much in class or earlier.
[Covert Talent] made it easy to make me seem nervous, but excited.
"Naruko, I want to make a bet with you. I bet that I can make a better ramen than Ichiraku's."
Naruko's eyes widened before she pointed at me, her face turning red as she proclaimed. "Never! Ichiraku's is the best."
My smile widened as I grew confident. Or at least, pretended to grow confident.
"I want to write up a contract. If I can make better ramen than Ichiraku's, you have to swear undying loyalty and love to me. And I get to go out on a date with you."
Naruko's indignation turned full embarrassment, her face turning cherry red. Her mouth opened silently multiple times before she squeaked. "D-date?"
I nodded solemnly. "Yes. A date. Because while I think you can be stupid a lot of the time, you can be quite rude and abrasive, you are as stubborn as a rock, you don't pay attention to the details..."
Naruko's red face darkened in anger as she bristled at how bluntly I brought up her flaws. I continued, relentless.
"I also think you are passionate, because you always go for what you want. I think you're funny, I always get a laugh out of your pranks when it's not aimed at me. I think you're so much stronger than anyone takes you credit for, because despite being an orphan and alone, you were able to keep up with us even when you were skipping class. I love how passionate you get, because you never back down when you want something. I think you look incredible, just the way you are. While I don't know you completely, because who you are in private may well be different than in public, I'd love to get to know you, Naruko Uzumaki. Because I like what I see, and I want to know you even more."
Naruko's anger melted and her face flushed as her eyes widened as her lips opened slightly in surprise.
"I, I didn't know you felt that way about me." Naruko's voice spoke softly, her blue eyes looking at me carefully, no doubt trying to see if there's a prank or a lie.
"What do I get if I win?" Naruko spoke up, her face set in a small grin as she thought back to the contract/bet I was offering.
"Whatever you want." I said bluntly. I was very confident.
Naruko nodded. "Okay. Shikamaru. Write up the contract and we'll both sign it. If I win, I want..." Naruko bit her lip for a moment, her eyes narrowing as she looked at me.
"No judging me for what I say." She ordered and I nodded easily.
"If I win, if Ichiraku's is better. We'll take five bowls of ramen from Ichiraku's to go, and I get to eat it with you... and maybe a kiss."
I made it a point to nod, but I had to admit, the fact that Naruko was that worked up over a kiss said a lot about how little physical affection she had.
"A win-win."
The sounds of Naruko moaning so lewdly as she slurped the noodles I had made an hour later after returning with some fresh groceries was worth it. Especially as she, cherry red and looking mortified, declared her undying love and loyalty to me before begging for another bowl.
The fact that my mother saw the wide grin on my face later, and then learned that I, lazy bones Shikamaru, had cooked for someone to impress them on a date, had her demanding I bring Naruko over for dinner tomorrow, it was still worth it.
Well, shit. Might have to rethink the whole pretending to be dead thing later. Eh, it's not like I can't reform Konoha from the inside out.
And yes, I was picturing fucking Naruko over the Hokage desk. Who wouldn't?
[Naruko. Love Confession/Signed and Sealed. +72 Points.]
[Purchases:
Normalcy. -10 63
Pavlov's Bell. -10 53
Time Savers. [Rank 2: All Retinue.]. -8. 45
Shikamaru Nara: Added Potential: Yakumo Kurama. -5. 40
Hypnos. -15. 25
Sticky Fingers. -5. 20
Social Club. -10. 10
Maestro. -10. 0
0 Credits Remaining.]
Waking up the following morning, and making some last minute purchases, I got out of my bed, stretching as I felt immensely pleased with myself.
Normalcy meant that having multiple partners wasn't an impact on my social life or through social standing. The rest of the world would just kind of consider us fairly normal as long as we're not doing anything outrageous like fucking in public.
Pavlov's Bell basically installed an app on my phone that allowed me to give a sense of pleasure or pain, of various degrees, numbness, or even a variety of sensations at my discretion, to my retinue. With Target Tracker, this allows me to tweak each 'waifu' to be set to specific responses based on what they were doing or how they were feeling.
By raising Time Savers to rank 2, the same basic benefits of Time Savers is expanded to all of my retinue. [Only need 6 hours of sleep, always well groomed and smelling great, never need to use the bathroom, can fall asleep within a few minutes with ease.]
Added Potential: Yakumo Kurama. Easiest 5 Credits spent. Ever. Yakumo Kurama is a rather plain looking girl, who was born with a frail body, and an extremely powerful potential bloodline that amplified Genjutsu to such a degree, that even untrained, that the human brain would think her genjutsu was real enough to retroactively believe it happened in real life. In short, with Itachi's Tsukuyomi, you could be tortured for three days, but still technically survivable with Tsunade's help to bring you out of the coma. If Yakumo tortured you for three days in a genjutsu, you died. Period. How could I not go for some absolutely broken genjutsu abilities?
The drawback of Yakumo Kurama is that her bloodline is so immensely powerful that it creates a separate personality to wield it, a separate personality that is all too happy to inflict absolute carnage on the world just because it feels like it. Of course, that doesn't work thanks to [Mind Defense II], [Stress Defense II], [Immutable Self], and [Possession Defense II].
Hypnos. The ability to fall asleep instantly, really neat, in order to, get this, enter the dreams of anyone I've met in the past day. I can mentally check if any valid target is dreaming at any time. I can control the dreams of the target once I'm within their dream, and I can manipulate the events of the dream, save for the target's own mind, body, and action within the dream. The dream will substantially influence the target for several days afterwards, more if they genuinely connect with the experience. I can choose if the target remembers their dreams and, if I choose to make them remember, how vividly they remember the experience.
Sticky Fingers is a staple, and it has a lot of potential. I don't really need to go over how driving someone wild with a touch of hand, can influence a person.
Social Club. It gives me a dream realm that I can fully control. Within this dream realm, my mind and the mind's of my retinue are present, whether we're awake or asleep, and cannot impact our ability to function, while using or interacting with the dreamscape. I can control how aware each mind is in the dream realm, such as making them feel the sensations of the dream, but not what's causing them, or making someone believe the dream world is the real world, or even mix the elements of the real world with the dream world, overlapping the dream world with the waking world. No one else can enter this realm. It also allows me to bring my retinue's minds into the dreams of my targets from [Hypnos].
Maestro. The upgrade to Hypnos, because it allows me to manipulate the target's mind, body, and actions by assigning them a role in the dream.
So, imagine my surprise when I find out that there's not two mind's in this realm, myself and Naruko, but three.
Turns out, I fucked up when buying Shikamaru Nara as a Companion, thinking it was a requirement for Substitute. It is not.
Of course, the Company doesn't give a shit if you don't read the fine print, so they gave me the companion Shikamaru and just shoved him into the Pocket Apartment since having two of the same target in the world wasn't legally reasonable. Their words, not mine.
Of course, see, the Waifu Catalog Company isn't perfect either. They also fucked up.
Because everything I had done to myself at Chargen, before the world started, also ended up applying to my Companion Shikamaru, since the catalog considered us the same person. They did end up taking away the Talents, since I didn't have Talent Sharing, but everything else? Fair game. The Company lawyers looked horrified upon finding out that little loophole when I pointed out to them.
So, now I have a Companion Shikamaru who had all the same stuff as I'd had at the start. A true duplicate of myself as I had been yesterday.
How would the shinobi world handle two of me? I could even play it off as an upgraded variation of the Body Duplicate Jutsu that I recalled one of the Stone Kage had done in the Fourth Shinobi War. Just, a one time kinjutsu in my favor.
Of course, that didn't mean the other me could just hang out in my Pocket Apartment until then either. See, the other me would be my 'eye in the sky', using the frozen internet from my laptop, thanks to Memorabilia, to keep me updated on the stuff I wasn't likely to remember.
It had been years since I'd watched the original Naruto, after all. And a part of me wondered just how many movies and filler episodes would be making a return in this reality.
Getting out of bed, I swiftly got dressed and headed out into the living room. not surprised in the least to see dad was already out, likely doing his thing as the Jonin Commander/Clan Head.
Mom looked stunned at seeing me awake, as I would almost never get up without her yelling at me to wake up. "Shikamaru? Are you okay?" She asked with some concern in her voice.
I raised my hand, giving a 'so-so' gesture. "Yeah, I slept pretty well, but I'm actually feeling a little nervous since Naruko isn't exactly the easiest person to get to know over dinner. She's an orphan, so she hasn't been taught or raised on any manners or on how to be polite, so she's very straightforward. She's also heavily ostracized by the village, something I don't understand since all she's mainly done are some harmless pranks that get a laugh out of people. So, I'm worried you guys won't see Naruko the way I see her, and might judge her like the rest of the village, without really giving her a chance."
Mom's eyes softened and she gestured for me to sit down as she sat across from me. "Honey, I can't speak on behalf of the Nara Clan, I married into the family, but I know your father and I won't prematurely judge anyone you date. Your our son, it's frankly a miracle you've even decided to date at all. I could tell you the stories about how I practically had to drag your father into doing things with me, let alone dating, since all he wanted to do was watch the clouds. Tell me about Naruko. Help me 'see' her the way you do."
I nodded, thinking for a moment, gathering my thoughts together. I truly hadn't been giving it a ton of thought when I'd been honest with Naruko. What surprised me was just how... genuine those feelings had came to me. I guess, even with my own memories and the skills/abilities of Gojo Satoru, I was still Shikamaru Nara. I was still the same teenager who wanted to be lazy, but also wanted to keep his family and friends safe. The same teenager who called himself the 'greatest coward' who somehow still stood up for his friends even at the cost of his own life.
"Naruko, seems really simple on the surface. She's loud, boastful, always shouting from the rooftops about wanting to be Hokage. She can never sit still. She hates doing homework. She's always doing pranks. She misses the details a lot of the time, since a lot of social cues and stuff goes over her head. She'd make a terrible diplomat." I chuckled a bit before continuing, a soft smile on my face.
"She's smarter than anyone gives her credit for. She's aced the trap making parts of the Academy like it's nothing, and she can be devious when she wants to be. She's strong, sometimes even giving Choji a good solid fight, which is hard to do. She's so passionate, and stubborn as hell. Even with most of the village hating her, even when she's had no one in her corner, she still wants to be Hokage, and she'll continue to shout it from the rooftops, no matter how many people keep telling her she won't be Hokage. She's gorgeous. The way her yellow hair catches in the sun, it's like she's covered in gold sometimes. Those blue eyes, sometimes it feels unnerving to see how open she is, how honest her emotions are, it feels like those blue eyes could just take my breath away. Though her laughter, her smirk when she successfully pranks someone, those moments when she looks so happy, it just... does something to me. Like I want to be the one to help her feel that way, you know?"
Mom sniffed, her eyes wet with tears. "My boy's in love." She sighed, shaking her head as she grabbed a napkin to wipe her tears off quickly as she coughed to clear her throat.
"Okay. So, I'll help Naruko learn all the things she's been missing out on, and though she might dislike it sometimes, it'll help her and you in the long run. Especially since she's been having to figure out all those things on her own, and probably missing the point of a lot of things. Poor dear. This village doesn't deserve her." Mom hissed quietly, her eyes narrowing in anger at the injustice Naruko had been going through, before smiling wryly. "I better tell your father that you might get married to Naruko in a couple of months if you're that emotional over her. The wedding planning will be such a drag, but it's worth it for a good daughter in law."
I couldn't help but laugh at mom making fun of how dad and I often said how troublesome or what a drag it was to do chores was, slipping that in. Mom's eyes sparkled as she chuckled with me. "Now, go get with your team. I'm sure they'll be looking for you eventually." She ordered and I got up out of my seat and headed out the door.
So, Naruko, what'd you think of my mom?
You asshole! I'm fucking sobbing into my morning ramen, you dick! Who makes a woman this emotional this early in the morning?!
Why are you eating ramen at 8:30 in the Kami damn morning?!
It'd been pretty easy to 'overlay' the images and sounds of me and mom sitting and talking next to Naruko eating ramen, so that way Naruko would feel like it hadn't just been a dream. The fact that Naruko had nearly dropped her ramen at the start was hilarious, though the fact that I could make her believe it to be real was quite convenient. The fact that Naruko hadn't even questioned on how I was able to do such a thing was amusing, since she was likely going to wave it off as some esoteric jutsu I'd picked up.
If I did that to someone like Ino, she'd have been asking a billion and one questions, trying to pick apart the technique to see if she could replicate it.
The world is still gorgeous, and I couldn't help but take it all in. It was part of the reason I didn't keep my eyes blindfolded: while I still had the Six Eyes, my eyes still looked the same, and the slight draining caused by overusing the Six Eyes wasn't present thanks in part to Accelerator's Template, whose computational skills for his Vector Manipulation, even at Tier 5, made using the Six Eyes a breeze.
I could feel Naruko's emotions, her feelings of gratitude, love, loyalty, and passionate joy were echoes through the dreamscape. For all her bickering and annoyance of being emotionally vulnerable, her real emotions and thoughts were as clear as a sunny day to me. Social Club allowed me a space where the mind's of my retinue and I were always present, a space where the physical and spiritual world didn't matter. I could be in Hell, and Naruko in Heaven, and our minds would still be connected by the dreamscape. It was a form of social insurance, and a way to help each other. If Naruko was in danger, I would know about it.
If I was in danger... I chuckled. Ha. Me, in danger. That's a good joke. Hilarious even.
Once I got to Training Ground 10, the rest of the team arrived at roughly the same time I did. Asuma nodded with approval at seeing us. "Alright, today I'll be figuring out where each of you stand. All three of you are from Clans, so no doubt most of your training will probably be from them for Clan Jutsu, but I can help shore up the basics. A solid foundation is important for all shinobi. We'll start with a simple endurance test. Laps around the training ground until we get a feel of how long anyone can last."
Training Ground 10 isn't all that big, roughly three miles in diameter. Unlucky for Ino and Choji, Gojo's constant Curse Reversal Techniques meant that I never got tired. I was in battle condition, pretty much always. 3 Laps, Ino stopped, exhausted. Asuma gave her some water and told her she hadn't done that bad. Some more general conditioning, and some more food like the meat heavy meal from the barbecue, and she'd be set.
5 Laps, and Choji stopped, exhausted, looking baffled at my easy going pace as I was still going. An easy going smile on my face as I loved the feeling of the air in my face, the big blue sky, the clouds.
10 Laps, and Asuma called for me to stop, and I came to a stop, with Asuma looking rather astounded, and worried.
"Shikamaru, are you okay? Your last conditioning had you pegged at the same laps as Choji." He asked quietly. "I hope you haven't been taking steriods or some drug enhancers. They kill your performance in the long run." He commented seriously, his eyes staring at me.
I shook my head. "No, Asuma. I haven't taken anything. I just woke up like this. I feel great even."
Asuma nodded slowly. "Okay. I'll monitor you, but for now, we'll hold off on taking you to the Nara Clan to be evaluated until later. The next thing is sparring. You and Choji, no ninjutsu."
After a couple minutes, to let Choji catch his breath and get into fighting shape after the warm up, the sparring started.
Or rather, Choji tried to punch me and I watched as his fist never landed, simply hovering in the air.
"Asuma, Choji can't hit me. Some sort of... field seems to be blocking him." I said aloud, pretending to be confused.
Asuma's eyes narrowed before he told Choji to step away, only for Asuma to try and surprise me with a fast kick.
The kick never landed, and Asuma's eyes widened.
"Ino, Choji, you're dismissed. Shikamaru, we're stopping by to visit the Hokage."
I said nothing, noticing that Asuma didn't even try to touch me to take me along to the Hokage's Office.
Asuma didn't even knock, entering through the door to the office, much to the Hokage's secretary dismay.
The Third Hokage and Danzo looked at us, with Danzo's regular eye narrowing slightly at me as I shrugged at them both.
"Asuma, what's the emergency?" The Third Hokage said aloud, looking at us with a serious expression.
"Shikamaru. Can you explain to us about what your feeling, and how this morning went so far."
I explained how this morning went in regards to the exercises this morning and the sparring, before explaining how I didn't feel any chakra being used to maintain this field. [Covert Talent] was soaking up a ton of subtle knowledge and talent from the Third Hokage and Danzo, especially in conjunction with [Communication Talent].
I deviated from the subtle interrogation, frowning at the Third Hokage.
"I feel fine, great even. I don't see the problem."
The Third nodded, looking curious. "Indeed. His chakra hasn't dropped in volume, and this ability appears passive in nature. A random mutation in the Nara bloodline, perhaps?" He muttered quietly.
"Shikamaru Nara, I wish to extend an invitation for you to train under me. Such a talent cannot go wasted." Danzo fired immediately, his regular eye fixed on me.
The Third Hokage moved to speak, but I spoke up first.
"Sure. I don't mind. It's not a permanent thing anyway. I will want a contract with you though. My current employment is under the Hokage." I said lazily, shrugging.
Danzo's regular eye narrowed. "A contract? Is the word of an elder not enough?"
I yawned. "Words are cheap. A contract allows me to set the parameters of our working relationship. If I just agreed without anything, you could just enlist me as a permanent 'apprentice' and call it a day. No thanks."
Danzo actually nodded slightly, a twitch of his lips as his regular eye glinted with approval. And annoyance.
"Very well. Write up the contract and we can both sign it."
The Third Hokage sighed as he gave me a blank piece of paper and some ink. "You can always ask me for help if you need it, Shikamaru-kun." The Third Hokage offered quietly. I smiled, nodding to the Hokage. "That'd be great!"
[Covert Talent] and [Communication Talent] eagerly sucked up every drop as the Third Hokage helped me iron out the contract that I'd written out for the Master/Apprenticeship Contract as designed, especially as I still wanted to be under Team Ten, so it'd be more akin to a thing to do when I'm not on missions for Konoha. Then I surprised both of them when I wanted to write up a Contract for Danzo separately as well.
"Being an elder just sounds so ambiguous. Like, you can offer advice to the Hokage, but so many people offer advice unsolicited already on it's own. I'm thinking the Elders should be signing Contracts to really iron out what their roles actually are, especially since the Hokage should never need to doubt if he's getting bad advice from the people advising him, no?" I asked with a large grin on my face.
Ooh, Danzo looked pissed, especially as the Third Hokage's gentle encouraging smile ended up widening at the idea. "I better tell Shikaku that his son might have a better head for diplomacy than he did at your age." The Third chuckled. "Absolutely. Danzo, I order you to sign the contracts that Shikamaru is making, and I'll even bring in Koharu and Homura to sign contracts of their own."
The contracts made for Danzo, and for the Elders, were fairly simple. They couldn't assassinate the Hokage or the Clans in Konoha and anyone in them, they couldn't knowingly help anyone assassinate the Hokage or the Clans in Konoha and anyone in them, they would be required to offer the best advice possible for whatever situations the Hokage brings to them, excluding all advice designed to allow them to influence the Hokage in some manner for their own gain. They were required to use all formal and informal resources to help Konoha in times of crisis such as an invasion, spies leaking immensely dangerous intel or knowledge, etc., even at the cost of their own lives if need be for the good of Konoha and the Will of Fire. In times of peace or when not in an emergency crisis, said formal and informal resources would be used to aid Konoha in subtle manners that would either not be traced to Konoha if it was illegal within the Land of Fire, such as Black Scroll Missions, even not telling the Hokage if such subtlety would prove beneficial to the village on a need to know business as well as allow plausible deniability, and openly if it was legal within the Land of Fire as to allow increased positive reputation for Konoha.
Danzo, with extreme reluctance, ended up signing the contract as I handed it to him, with the Hokage looking bemused by the fact that it truly didn't change much for them aside from making Danzo liable if he got caught fucking up. Again.
Or at least, that's what the Third Hokage thought was happening. In reality, Danzo immediately felt the iron-bound metaphysical chains of the contract, the old man stiffening in a mixture of awe and horror silently as he realized that my contracts were fully binding when signed.
And since we weren't currently in an emergency or crisis, he couldn't tell the Hokage even if he wanted to. The power of the contract ensured he couldn't, in order to avoid making the Hokage liable in some manner.
Danzo was all but required to use my ability to create contracts in order to fully bind himself and his forces to my contracts, because it would subtly aid Konoha in the long run. The Third Hokage happily allowed me to write up copies of the same contract for Homura and Koharu, pleased that he'd been able to fully turn the concerns his son had held into something he could use to pin Danzo down later. "Shikamaru-kun, I'll inform your father about the curious mutation in your bloodline. We'll do some extensive testing in a couple day's time, and we can see how modified your bloodline has become compared to it's normal iteration." The Third Hokage informed me.
With that, Asuma, reluctantly, allowed Danzo to take me for training, no doubt worried about if I'd be indoctrinated into Root.
Alone, Danzo turned to me, his face passive. "I will bring you some papers for further contracts to be given to all of my forces. I don't know how you've done this, but it's power cannot be understated. Write up the contracts so as to ensure absolute loyalty and secrecy, even to that they cannot have their minds read."
Danzo vanished, and my smile widened with satisfaction, and he returned shortly after with a set of paper in his hands and some ink. He had a Root shinobi take me to a desk in some random room, seriously this far under Konoha it's like an ant colony nest crossed with a maze in here, and I got to work, specifically creating a contract that Danzo and all of his forces would be required to sign and disperse silently.
Roughly an hour later, I coughed aloud and Danzo arrived, silently signing his copy and taking the stack of papers with him.
'With this contract, all those who signed are bound for eternity, in life and in death, to the service of the one who wrote this original contract. All those who sign this contract are obligated to be utterly, silently, loyal above all else, and bound, to the one who wrote the original contract, without being able to recall why or what caused the loyalty. All those who sign the contract will behave and act identically as before writing the contract with the exception of not being capable of harming, killing, stopping, or damaging anything or anyone else that has signed the contract or is otherwise bound to the original contract writer in some manner, and they will be incapable of knowing why, explaining it away with some rational reasoning.
Those who signed this original contract will be required to make copies of this contract to be given to any they believe they can make sign the contract, whether it be willingly or unwillingly through the use of some subtle method such as using genjutsu to hide the contents of the contract. All copies will be considered a part of the original contract, binding those who signed those copies to be considered signees to the original contract and utterly loyal/happily bound to the original contract writer directly. All other contracts signed by the signees, if written by the original contract writer, are still in effect so long as it doesn't expose the original contract writer in any fashion, or inhibits the original contract writer in any way.
All those who sign the original contract, and the copies of the original contract as written above, will be unable to share the knowledge of anything within the contract, nor the existence of the contract itself, in any fashion, whether it be verbal, written, memory, or otherwise, aside from the permission of the original contract writer himself. All orders from the original contract writer, be they given verbally or through some other methods, are considered absolute, and will be followed to the spirit of the order given, even superseding the contract itself if required. All who sign this original contract will subtly help one another without being asked or ordered, and will be fully believing it to be of their own free will, unless it would endanger the signee of acting or behaving against their normal behavior or thought process, and all who sign this contract will be unable to recall any information that could endanger the original contract writer, or the original contract writer's nation of origin and all within that nation of origin, if under interrogation or being probed mentally/socially in any way by others.'
[Danzo. Signed and Sealed Capture. +54.
Fu Yamanaka. Signed and Sealed Capture. +28.
Torune Aburame. Signed and Sealed Capture. +12.
Sai. Signed and Sealed Capture. +12.]
I didn't expect to get Sai, but I suppose he was either deeper in Root or he was in training for Root. Either way, it was annoying to realize that Root truly didn't have a lot of Named Characters, and so there weren't a lot of shinobi worth points. Perhaps I'd get lucky with Danzo visiting Kabuto, since I believe he was still here pretending to be a genin/medic in training, but the odds of them forcing Kabuto to sign, sounds unlikely.
The fact that I now had Danzo fully under my control, and Root as well, was a fairly heady feeling. I wouldn't need to worry about Danzo messing with Naruko anymore. In fact, Orochimaru was about to get a rude awakening if he stopped by Konoha. I didn't recall when Orochimaru visited Danzo, but I knew it was prior to the invasion, as Root shinobi hadn't moved to protect Konoha as they should have. At least, from what I recalled from the show.
I yawned. Not bad, and it's still before noon.
Reaching for Danzo's mind through the dreamscape, I ordered Danzo to remove Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, as well as the arm made out of Hashirama Cells/Sharingan if Orochimaru had given them to him yet. Afterwards, he'd give me the eye in a preservation jar, and the arm. A few hours later, he'd send a Root Shinobi to pay a visit to Yakumo Kurama, informing her that she can be a shinobi if she signs the contract, and that she'd be given further training in genjutsu. Then he could use Body Tune-Up to restore his missing eye and limb.
By the end of today, I should have Naruko being at home for dinner along with my parents, and I'll have an extremely powerful, if not yet trained, Yakumo Kurama in my forces. With some training, I'd give her Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, because who better to give a powerful tool for genjutsu than a Genjutsu Mistress of her caliber? With 5 Credits, I could even make Yakumo an Uchiha, and allow her to utilize the Sharingan as if she had been born with it alongside her Kurama bloodline. Itsuki Uchiha would be in for a rude awakening as this 'plain girl' took her precious Tsukuyomi and bent it to her will with barely more than a thought.
Gojo Satoru wanted to uplift the next generation to change the Jujutsu Kaisen World. Why couldn't I do the same here, and change the shinobi world?
"Among the heavens and the earth, I alone am the Honored One. Time to shake things up in this hellhole, and make it interesting."
So, unfortunate news.
My Companion Shikamaru got sold off without my consent, due to the lawyers successfully arguing that having a duplicate of myself at Chargen wasn't accurate to the 'spirit' of the Waifu Catalog.
I did end up getting the 20 credits I'd spent, but I was far less pleased when I ended up losing out on the better deal of having a copy of myself to help me in my adventures.
With a Root shinobi, it was easy to leave the headquarters as they guided me to the surface of Konoha. Danzo was still eager to take me on as an apprentice, but now it was an actual apprenticeship rather than the 'slowly brainwash me to his side forever using Kotoamatsukami' thing he'd had going before.
So once or twice a week, Danzo and I would spend the afternoon officially training. I was actually curious on what Danzo would teach, since he was actually required to teach me now. Hopefully some of his unique Wind Style and his Fuinjutsu.
Sayuri hadn't signed the contract, I noted with some amusement at the torn up paper that I could see from miles away. I wasn't worried. Sayuri was already Stamped. It would take another 2 days for it to take effect.
In truth, I was honest on helping Sayuri unlock her Sharingan, since once she was Stamped, she'd have the same Defenses as the rest of my retinue.
Which included Stress Defense II. The odds of Sayuri unlocking her Sharingan after that were practically zero, unless I bought Toggle for her just to remove the Stress Defense II from her defenses without removing it for the rest of us.
As it was, I was especially excited for Yakumo. Ido's interference was low in this encounter, as Ido was all about impulses, and this shortcut to being a shinobi? Absolutely an impulse. She and Yakumo both would sign it.
Which made me wonder, if Ido would count as a separate Capture or not. Probably not. Under Company policy, Ido would be a Familiar.
[Paradox Defense II: -100.
28 Credits Remaining.]
Initially, I was considering holding off on buying more Defenses, especially this early in Naruto, but Paradox Defense caught my interest, since it also 'blocked all forced unwanted teleportation, whether that involves sending you elsewhere, or sending something into your current position.' So not only was I immune to Madara's Mangekyo Sharingan shenanigans, last I remembered was that he had some form of short time manipulation ability for his Mangekyo, but Obito's Kamui as well.
Pay 100 Credits to not get teleported into an empty dimension or turned into chunky salsa? Yeah, that made sense in my eyes. It was an investment.
The fact that it also extended to my retinue meant I didn't have to worry about Naruko being kidnapped by Obito. I wasn't even sure why he hadn't done so earlier: it wasn't like the dude hadn't just been chilling out making Kirigakure a fucking nightmare. A lot of people might argue that Itsuki threatened Obito to leave Konoha alone, but that didn't make a lot of sense, since that would leave Naruko pretty much ripe for the picking.
Why did the Akatsuki go after Naruto in the original timeline? It's not like they could've sealed Kurama first. They had to go in order, from Ichibi up. Meh, Kishimoto shenanigans. That and Itsuki was likely trying to subtly warn Konoha and Jiraiya of the Akatsuki's existence.
Oh hey, it looks like Might Guy's Team is back in town.
Inspiration struck, and my face widened into a vicious grin as I began to laugh. "hehehe... HAHAHAHAHA! Yes! That's it! Oh, this world, this big, beautiful, world, you just keep giving me more and more ideas!"
The civilians looked unnerved by my maniacal laughing.
"YES! Be inspired by this beautiful world and the fountain of YOUTH! Rock Lee! Laugh with me and my youthful friend! HAHAHAHA!"
"Yes, Guy-sensei! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Why are we laughing? HAHAHAHA!"
"Kill me now." Tenten groaned in the background.
"Only if you kill me at the same time. Their idiocy is giving me a migraine." Neji grumbled quietly, barely audible.
I raised a thumbs up to Might Guy and his team. "You, all of you, are incredibly awesome! Keep training, and keep being youthful! In fact, I want to help you all! Guy, Lee, Neji, Tenten, I want to form a Contract! A Contract, of YOUTH! A promise from one Leaf shinobi to another, that we will always strive to be our best, unhindered by life's many storms, only to grow stronger from the winds of those storms to fan our flames of youth to even GREATER HEIGHTS!"
"YES! We will all sign! For Youth is Eternal!" Guy roared in approval as I handed all of them contracts within an instant.
Guy and Rock Lee signed almost immediately, so fired up that they didn't even read the contract. Tenten glared at me and Neji looked like he wanted to strangle me, but both signed anyway, with Neji muttering. "Just get them to shut up, and leave us alone."
[Might Guy. Signed and Sealed Capture. +60.
Rock Lee. Signed and Sealed Capture. +30.
Tenten. Signed and Sealed Capture. +12.
Neji. Signed and Sealed Capture. +22.]
The first one to notice something was different was Neji, who froze for several moments. His hands immediately reached for his Konoha headband, removing it within a second, and brushed his hands over his clearly unmarked forehead. Neji's eyes widened in shock, as he then activated his Byakugan, the veins on his head bulging around his eyes. "It's... gone. The Caged Bird Seal is gone." He muttered in shock. Rock Lee and Might Guy whipped around to stare at Neji, and Tenten looked stunned.
[Possession Defense II] at work.
"You've weathered enough storms from Fate, Neji. No one must know or suspect otherwise. I'm sure you can understand why." I said simply.
Neji immediately tied his headband back on, frowning. "The Hyuga Clan will eventually find out. The Byakugan isn't limited simply by cloth and metal." He said quietly, apprehension and some fear in his voice.
I smiled coldly. "No, they won't. Part of the Contract is a subtle Genjutsu of my own design. They will see what they want to see, unless you physically show them otherwise, by taking off your headband right in front of them, because the Genjutsu doesn't try to create false images, but instead creates a form of normality. They expect you to have the Caged Bird Seal on you, and thus, to them, you will have one on you."
Team Guy stared at me. "Such a genjutsu, would be absolutely terrifying in the hands of an enemy. I am thankful it is in the hands of a comrade. Thank you for saving Neji from the Hyuga Clan, and from himself. I will do anything to repay you." Might Guy said seriously, looking at me with absolute conviction.
"I will need to consider your offer, I will say this: I would do it for any Konoha shinobi. It's not in me to allow suffering so needlessly when I can help it." I said quietly. Might Guy nodded and the team left, to where-ever they were going before.
[Yamato(Tenzo). Signed and Sealed Capture. +42.
Kabuto Yakushi. Signed and Sealed Capture. +32.]
I immediately searched through the dreamscape, finding Kabuto Yakushi's mind and ordering him to tell me how he signed on.
Kabuto: I am used to signing off on patient charts and permission forms since I am/was pretending to be a medic in training. A simple Genjutsu had me read something as something else. How infuriatingly embarrassing.
Then I searched for Yamato's mind and ordered the same.
Yamato: I signed it mainly because Danzo was adamant that it would help me with my Mokuton reaching greater heights, as he had disguised it as a Scroll. As Danzo had been the one to give me the few scrolls on Mokuton we had in the first place, I hadn't considered it any more than just a Security Scroll, designed to release it's contents to whoever matched the blood and signature of it's intended recipient.
With Kabuto, I had an 'in' into the operations of Orochimaru, and technically through Sasori, though odds were that Orochimaru had already subverted the mental seal Sasori placed on his victims/unsuspecting spy network. This would work beautifully as I could now use Kabuto to disperse copies of the Contract through the Sound since it was still six months through the invasion. In particular, the advantages of the Sound Five, with a fully restored Kimimaro, I had my own taskforce that could now disperse Contracts outside of Konoha while I was still operating within Konoha's borders, as far as anyone else was aware of.
Time to implement my new plan into motion.
Reaching into Danzo's mind, I commanded a new order.
Allow Kabuto to give whatever spy information he needs to Orochimaru during these six months to the Chunin Exams.
Summon me when Orochimaru visits you, and pretend to agree to allow the Sound and Sand to invade the village. The Snake Sannin will fold, especially when I can offer a deal that none can ever give him other than myself. Immortality, and the Rinnegan.
In the mean time, send a Root Shinobi to go bring Kurenai Yuhi into the fold using a Contract, and inform her that I can give her the edge she needs to make Genjutsu truly a terror to be spoken of in battle.
Send Fu Yamanaka out to seek out Tsunade of the Sannin, but do not approach her directly, or indirectly, and do not interact with her, merely keep an eye on her and Shizune, Dan's niece, from a distance. They may well be in one of the many casino locations within the Land of Fire.
When the time is right, I will seek out Tsunade myself to offer her a similar deal to Orochimaru. I reiterate: do not be noticed at any costs, and do not use genjutsu/ninjutsu to hide. It will not work on the Sannin, and Jiraiya will especially be ruthless if he appears to notice someone else tailing Tsunade if he's in the area.
Danzo: Your will be done, Honored One. One of the Root Shinobi is approaching Yakumo Kurama right now. I've removed Shisui's Mangekyo, but I have not yet obtained the arm made of the First Hokage's cells yet, though the ten Sharingan alongside the Mangekyo Sharingan of Fugaku Uchiha are still preserved if requested or needed.
I froze for a moment. Okay, I wasn't expecting Fugaku Uchiha to possess a Mangekyo Sharingan. I didn't even know what his Mangekyo was!
Danzo, what was Fugaku's Mangekyo Sharingan ability?
Danzo: I am not sure. There's no documentation of the abilities ever being used. His nickname of 'Wicked Eye Fugaku' indicates he was quite powerful, enough so that none ever realized he had a Mangekyo until after his death. I discovered it only because his Mangekyo Sharingan appeared when I channeled chakra into each pair of eyes to see if any had evolved during the Uchiha Massacre.
Interesting.
I shrugged, moving through the village as I decided to head back to the barbecue for lunch, especially as I wasn't exactly hurting for money. 10,000 dollars a month in Naruko's world is roughly on par of two or three C-ranks, so enough for a decent living, if not an opulent one.
As I sat down and ordered the barbecue, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a notification from the HUD.
[Yakumo Kurama. Signed and Sealed Capture. +22.]
To my annoyance, Added Potential: Uchiha, didn't work. It had to be given to someone born or entering a world they hadn't been to beforehand.
However, if Added Potential won't work, then Template Stacking will. Besides, Yakumo Kurama was filled with untapped potential, potential that the Third Hokage would end up throwing away.
[Template Stacking I and II:
Yakumo Kurama: Itachi Uchiha. -40.
Yakumo Kurama: Immutable Self. -10.
198 Credits Remaining.]
Not quite the Tier 6 of Itachi Uchiha, but it would still give Yakumo Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan. I can then give her Fugaku Uchiha's Mangekyo Sharingan to give her that upgrade to the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in a few weeks to a few months, depending on how long it takes for her to fully adapt and master the Template Framework that comes with having a Template Tier higher than the Template Stacking upgrade. With Immutable Self, it would allow Yakumo the freedom from Ido without the cost of her genjutsu abilities, something absolutely wasted by the Third Hokage.
I dove into the dreamscape as the food arrived, absently eating as I let Yakumo know that I was the original contract writer, but not who I was by name.
Yakumo: Thank you. Ido's gone, and I have all this power. I feel almost invincible. This is incredible.
You're welcome. Now, I'm going to use a one-time ability to restore your body beyond the limitations of your genetic defects. Afterwards, I want you to use your genjutsu prowess to convince the Third Hokage to sign a certain document, identical to the one you signed. I'm sure you know how to do this, since you use painting as a medium for your jutsu.
Yakumo: Gladly.
I smiled slightly as I continued to enjoy my meal.
Yakumo's ability in conjunction with the power of Itachi Uchiha would be horrifying, but it was horrifying in my favor. While it wasn't true reality manipulation, it's effects couldn't be understated when she was able to cast a village wide genjutsu with nothing more than some minor planning, and that was without actual proper training!
With Itachi Uchiha's genjutsu prowess, and Itachi's immense fighting potential, he'd been able to keep up with a Naruto that had mastered his Kyubbi cloak, the same Naruto that was capable of outspeeding the Raikage, she'd be an absolute monster to face in a fight, if you could even find her to fight before she caught you in a genjutsu miles away.
I'd say I'm cheating, but let's get real. I'm a shinobi, it's part of the job. The fact that I'm consolidating my forces like this would just make my life so much easier in the long run.
[Educational Talent. -5. 193.
Martial Talent. -10. 183.
Psychic Talent. -20. 163.
Science Talent. -20. 143.
Talent Sharing: -70. 83
Educational Talent.
Martial Talent.
Covert Talent.
Communication Talent.
Soul Talent.
Psychic Talent.
Money Talent.
Soul Defense Rank II: -40. 23
Creature Defense Rank I: -0.
23 Credits Remaining.]
The various Talents and Talent Sharing was designed to facilitate the retinue training one another, in particular as I could bring my retinue into dreams, dreams that could then be molded into real time training with Yakumo's aid of her Genjutsu. If Yakumo could cast Tsukuyomi in the dreamscape, those three days in an instant could be lengthened to centuries, because we perceive time differently in a dream.
Stress Defense II would protect the minds going through extensive training and learning.
Soul Defense II should, in theory, help Yakumo handle the effects of using Tsukuyomi on so many at once, as the technique seemed to be incredibly exhausting not just on chakra but on the minds of those casting the technique.
Paradox Defense II should block the negative effects since it could be considered time shenanigans, but if not, Everlasting Talent would do the trick to avoid the effects of immense rapid aging.
As Educational Talent allows one to rapidly train others to master skills at a tiny fraction of the time it would otherwise, I was hopeful that a session or two would allow everyone to become exponentially stronger than they were now.
Which is why I was being so blatantly risky with having Yakumo trick the Third Hokage into signing my contract.
With the Third Hokage as part of my retinue, not only could I revitalize the Hokage back into his prime, but I could use his immense knowledge and mastery of the five Natures to rapidly advance my retinue even further and faster.
With the Third Hokage, also comes access and the ability to disseminate contracts to Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi, and others in Konoha's forces.
Alongside a certain scroll: the Forbidden Scroll. I was certain within that scroll was Edo Tensei.
At the sacrifice of some nameless Root shinobi, or some prisoners in Konoha's T&I, I could summon the dead to enter into my services.
The First Hokage, the Second Hokage, Shisui Uchiha, Sakumo Hatake, Kushina Uzumaki, perhaps even Mito Uzumaki, and others.
I doubted Madara Uchiha was so easily recoverable, but even so, it would be quite the list of people to add to my retinue.
A few sessions with those legends, and my retinue would have at least one version of the Flying Thunder God, and the potential to either recreate the Flying Thunder God Minato had, or even improve upon it for a new reiteration of our own.
The other 'great' villages wouldn't even try to attack Konoha at that point. The Akatsuki might even need to alter their plans, as the odds of succeeding would be exponentially low.
Not that it matters. By the time after the Chunin Exams is done, I'll have already won. Simply by selling Shukaku, there will be no Juubi. And Obito's Space-Time Jutsu is already useless against us.
Of course, I didn't plan on having all the dead wander about in public so blatantly. No, no. They'd be a part of Root, wearing disguises and masks to hide themselves from the public. That way they can operate from the shadows, and I can avoid the drama of the other four villages complaining about how fucked up and overpowered Konoha was.
Bah, like they wouldn't have already done the same thing if they had the chance.
I have bigger plans for this place than simply an enactment of why Konoha is the top shinobi village in the world for a reason.
No, I wanted to make shinobi obsolete. I wanted to make it all but pointless to become a shinobi, and to break this system, you hit them where it hurts.
The nobles. The daimyos. They were the ones who profited from this system, even back when the Clans were little more than squabbling families against each other, it was the nobles and daimyo who hired them to do their dirty work.
Yeah, it's not a completely new idea.
Pain's idea of using the country destroying jutsu to force the shinobi world to stop fighting lest they end humanity and themselves was just the reenactment of the Cold War in my old world.
The difference is that Pain was solely focused on stopping shinobi from killing each other, where as mine would deprive them of the fuel and materials needed to wage war in the first place.
No nobles? No money. No money? No funding for the shinobi villages. No funding? Can't afford to train future shinobi. There's a reason Suna has the smallest and the weakest shinobi force by far aside for the rare ones like Chiyo and Pakura.
Sure, the shinobi could try and take the money by force, but when all the daimyo are being guarded or watched over by retinue and my forces?
They'd be slaughtered.
Then the real work begins.
See, Hashirama never replaced the core mechanics of the system he wanted to change, and because of that, it simply adapted and chugged along like before.
He united some Clans into a village, but other Clans got nervous and united into villages to counter his village.
The daimyo/nobles didn't care, in fact, they benefited: now they could hire groups of people with different specialties, instead of one Clan or two at a time. The nobles of this Era are way richer than the ones of the Warring Clans Era.
No. You need to change how the underlying system operates, the mechanics of the game must change.
Without the nobles, the villages of this world would starve, but I wouldn't allow them to cannibalize each other either.
I would be increasing trade and goods between the nations using the resources they had available to them.
Wars are bad for trade, and so they would be reluctant to give up their newfound wealth and products.
Capturing each countries government with contracts would make that infinitely easier in the long run.
Yakumo Kurama, the filler girl who was wasted by the Third Hokage, was the key, the linchpin, to my plans. Area wide genjutsu through painting, and genjutsu so realistic that the people, civilians and shinobi, considered it real? How could I not?
Yakumo. Lee. Naruko. Genjutsu. Taijutsu. Ninjutsu. How utterly wasted you all have been.
Yakumo, you should've shined as an example of why you look underneath the underneath. A frail looking girl entering the Chunin Exams only to turn the Forest of Death into a bloodbath.
Lee, you were wasted. You alone would have bodied the Six Paths of Pain.
Naruko. Oh, Naruko. The infinite chakra monster, endless stamina, and what did they reduce you to? A Shadow Clone and Rasengan/Rasenshuriken Spammer. You should have been creating tornados, turned the air into a billion invisible blades, cleared the skies alone with your power, taken Deidara and turned him into pulp when he got into the air.
But I am here now, and this world will never be the same ever again.
I finished eating my meal with a sigh of contentment as I paid the bill.
Now if only it'd be that easy for the social stuff. I should probably check on Naruko in person and see how she's handling it.
What the fuck do I wear?! I can't wear the orange jumpsuit when I meet his parents! I don't have anything else though! Oh Kami, I'm meeting his parents! I can't afford a housewarming gift! What do I say? What if they hate me? AAAA-.
Yeah, I'm definitely checking on Naruko before the dinner.
A lot of people fail to understand that buying the Talents doesn't mean you're automatically at the best of those with that particular skill, it worked as an experience multiplier and amplifier. It was also why Naruko was currently losing her mind out of terror of fucking up her first official date, well, if it could be called an official first date when said first date was also meeting the parents of the person you were dating for dinner.
As amusing as it was, a part of me also felt really sad for her, since a lot of the major subconscious stress from this was because she was so utterly convinced that this was her 'make it or break it' moment. The idea of first impressions being absolutely everything, likely stemmed from the fact that everyone around her judged her for her Jinchurriki status, or her pranks, or her clothes. They didn't see Naruko, they just saw an annoyance, a nuisance, a loser, an orphan, and a bad omen, all rolled in one.
Which is why I knew that it didn't matter how often I told her that my mom was already excited to meet her, that my parents wouldn't judge her for circumstances outside of her control, because Naruko had no reference for that. Everything she knows in her life was based on how everyone around her treated her, and that meant she just couldn't process the idea that not everyone else was like the civilians and the occasional resentful shinobi. She just couldn't process that someone, anyone, would try to actually see her without her trying to force them to acknowledge her in some way first.
In a way, Naruko, like Naruto, was a broken person. While outwardly boisterous, always seeming to be unaffected by the circumstances of her birth and those who treated her like garbage, in reality, her psyche was an absolute mess. She clung to the dream of being Hokage like a lifeline, because it was one. It was the only lifeline she had where she actually saw everyone else actually give acknowledgement and respect to someone else without back-talking them or deciding they weren't worth their time. To Naruko, being Hokage was the only way she'd ever feel like she was accepted by the village populace.
Whether or not that was true, didn't matter, because that's how fucked up Naruko's mindset was. Her mind was absolutely holding itself together using duck tape and ramen, desperately trying to form some normalcy and stability and companionship with something, anything. Trying to bind to anyone willing to give her the slightest bit of positive attention. Textbook child neglect, emotional and mental abuse.
In a way, if the Kyubbi had patiently explained to Naruko what had happened the night of her birth, that he held no grudge against her because they were in reality both prisoners inside a village that both wanted to use them when convenient and throw them away when it wasn't, and that what he wanted was just to be free, to be able to stretch his legs and visit the siblings he hadn't seen in centuries, Naruko would've torn off the seal herself in seconds. Had he actually showed an ounce of actually wanting to leave, an ounce of actual cunning that all Foxes were supposed to portray, he would've freed himself. Well, until Minato showed up. Not that he knew that.
Because Naruko wasn't inherently selfless. She had her moments of selfishness. No, Naruko's selflessness stemmed from her insecurity and belief that if she wasn't being there helping all her friends, trying her hardest to be the rock for someone else, than she was worthless. Naruko's selflessness stemmed from her belief that she was nothing on her own.
It was why Naruto would go on to do everything to bring Sasuke back. Not because he understood Sasuke, he truly didn't, there was a chasm of misunderstandings there between the two, but because he desperately wanted to be the hero who kept his promises, who saw Sasuke's absence as the reason for everyone being so torn up inside and not the fact that Sasuke had betrayed them. Obito's latter attempts to try and bring Naruto over to his side failed, not because of the fact that Obito's viewpoint was wrong, though it is wrong for a variety of reasons, but because Naruto couldn't understand Obito at all.
Where Obito mistook the forests, and the grasslands, and the planet, for the trees, Naruto was so hyperfocused on one tree with a dying leaf alone that he only could understand the one tree, and believed that all the other trees would be 'saved' if he kept that one leaf from dying. Naruto's mindset was so fixed on one thing that he couldn't truly learn to see the bigger picture, because to him, the bigger picture just didn't matter to him at all.
Naruko was less a person right now than she was the cobbled together traits of what she thought was needed to achieve her goals. In a way, she was very much like Sasuke after the death of Itachi this early on in her character arc, an empty canvas that was malleable to whoever could paint the right colors at the right moment, a whisper of the right things to say to nudge her in a direction they wanted.
The problem was that I refused to paint that canvas. I wanted Naruko to have the moment she never got to have in canon, to be able to choose and decide for herself how she wants to grow, what she wants to do. Letting her figure out her clothes for the 'date', really it's more of an informal dinner so that way my parents could actually see her for themselves rather than the rumors that neither of them actually believed in, was one of the first steps on that road.
And, if Naruko decided that the village was in the wrong, if she decided she wanted to force the higher ups to address her grievances, I wouldn't stop her. Sayuri would no doubt want her pound of flesh from Danzo, and I wouldn't deny it of her. It was easy to give them what they wanted when what they wanted was fairly simple compared to the bigger headaches I was dealing with, like the destruction of the daimyo/shinobi system. That and the higher ups truly had a lot to answer for that they sidestepped in canon.
Like the Third Hokage effectively abandoning Naruko to figuring out how rent and food worked at age 6, while barely giving her the money to make ends meet. Like the Fourth Hokage, who knowingly sealed the Kyubbi into Naruko out of some prophecy bullshit and the idea of the Leaf needing a Jinchurriki. Like, yes, Kushina Uzumaki letting her husband go along with the horrible fucking plan by creating the chakra barrier to keep out the Third Hokage and the rest while letting Minato do his thing. When the right thing to do would have been to repress the Kyubbi and the Fourth Hokage until the Third got there in time to use the Reaper Death Seal to either reseal the Kyubbi back into Kushina, which would've allowed her to potentially survive, though the jury was out on that one, or split the Kyubbi in half like before, and seal half in Kushina and the other half in Naruko, thereby ensuring either way they would either have two Jinchurriki or one with a powerful parent that could at least stand up for Naruko against the village's biased idiots!
Oh yes, I wasn't in a forgiving mood, not even to her parents, because they abandoned her to her fate, because of some god damn words out of a fucking Toad's mouth.
I took a deep breath, calming down as my hands clenched, the table and the kitchen shaking slightly as my own negative emotions poured briefly into the world around me through my Cursed Energy.
Naruko stared at me, looking worried. "You okay, Shika?" She asked with some worry and concern in her face.
I nodded slowly. "I will be. I'm just remembering some things that got me angry, nothing to do with you, so I needed to calm myself down." Naruko looked relieved, but still worried.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked quietly. I snorted, smiling briefly.
"Nah, too much of a drag. So, why haven't you asked me to take you out shopping for a dress or something?" I asked in response, amused as Naruko's face flushed hard.
"I didn't want to make you spend money on me. It's embarrassing." Naruko's whisper was barely audible, but I heard it anyway. My smile turned into a leering grin, making Naruko's eyes narrow.
"What boyfriend doesn't enjoy having his girlfriend model for him? Dresses, bikinis, skirts, stockings, so many things to make my sexy as hell woman even sexier, how could I ever choose?" I spoke lowly, slowly looking her up and down, licking my lips in obvious enjoyment of the sight. Normally I'd be more subtle, but Naruko definitely didn't do subtle, so I was much more blatant.
To Naruko's credit, she didn't back down, her face flushing almost red hot as she looked away. "Pervert. Fine, you can take me to grab a dress for the dinner, as long as it's not too expensive." She grumbled. "I like that you look at me like that. It's hot, feeling wanted. Stupid, sexy, Shikamaru."
I had to withhold my cackling laughter. It appears I've caught myself a Tsundere.
[Hiruzen Sarutobi. Signed and Sealed Capture. +60.]
And a currently living Hokage.
On the outside, I was taking Naruko out to go grab a dress, smiling with amusement as she continued to half-heartedly protest and thank me in equal measure while trying to not freak out over how I wasn't outwardly giving a shit about the glares from the civilians looking at us.
On the inside, a very different event was happening.
The air was still, and the entire world felt frozen in time, as if holding it's breath. The sun was gone, and the stars never came. The moon was there, but it's soft light never touched the surface. The people were all gone, as if sucked out of existence in an instance. Hiruzen Sarutobi felt as if something was very wrong, as if reality was now contorting in on itself. He hadn't felt like this since the initial Contract with the Shinigami.
"Apologies for interrupting your lunch, old man. However, we have a lot to talk about, and some things for you to clarify for me." His gaze was drawn from the frozen world to the man that sat across from his desk. Except, he wasn't in his desk. He was sitting across from his desk, and the man in the desk was the True Hokage, the Leader of All That Never Was.
Gojo Satoru, the Honored One, the Fate Breaker, The One Who Defied Heaven. Whose blue eyes seemed uninfluenced by the events of the frozen world, pinning him down as he gave a small cold grin.
"Explain to me why someone who proclaims himself to be Hokage, decides to abandon one of his own, against the wishes of their parents. Explain to me why you pretended to be friendly with Naruko, and yet abandon her to the tender mercies of your village. And make no mistake, if I don't like what I hear, there won't be an afterlife for you. I will ensure you never see your reality's wife, ever again."
For a brief moment, Gojo Satoru had shed his skin, and Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to scream in terror at the Thing He Could Not Unsee, the Thing That Should Not Be, and felt his soul briefly try to flee his body in an attempt to die rather than remain here for one moment longer, only for the Otherness to easily reach out and forcefully tie his soul into his body, unable to escape, unable to flee.
"I believe part of the Contract was 'in life and in death'. Even the Shinigami cannot free you from my grasp. Now, start talking."
"I never wanted to do that, but I had no choice. Konoha was on the brink of war. The death of the Fourth Hokage and Kushina Uzumaki had caused a chain reaction, and the other nations' spies had been able to get their hands on information that leaked from Konoha's higher operations. They knew someone was now the Jinchurriki of the Kyubbi, so I created a 'false' trail as far as anyone knew. By announcing that Naruko was the Jinchurriki, the other villages weren't sure if that was an actual truth or a lie. It bought us precious time. Time that I used to allow Danzo to send out Root Shinobi to have the villages turn on each other. Iwagakure was fed information on the weak borders of Kirigakure. Sunagakure was fed information on potential weaknesses on the various A-class Shinobi in Kumogakure."
"I had hoped that the civilians and the village would eventually recognize Naruko as her own person, and had hoped that my shinobi would help them connect the dots on how Naruko's yellow hair and her last name Uzumaki would allow them to slowly learn about Naruko's parentage naturally. Minato Namikaze was very much respected and adored by both the civilians and the shinobi, a Clanless Orphan that had rose to the top using Fuinjutsu that the world had not seen since the Second Hokage."
Hiruzen scowled, his own bitterness and rage against his own village now out in the open.
"I was wrong. The civilians never fucking opened their eyes. My shinobi closed their eyes to the obvious and buried their heads in the sand on how Naruko was being treated. As far as they were concerned, Naruko wasn't a Hero. She was a Bad Omen. A representation of Konoha's Downfall from grace. Worse, they had grown arrogant and failed to keep an eye on internal security, to the point that the Hyuga Clan had nearly caused a war in and of themselves with the events of the Kumogakure Treaty. The diplomat should've been caught and tortured into a confession, not summarily executed. Without any evidence, I was forced to give Kumogakure some semblance of what they wanted, and caused Konoha to look weak on the international stage because, even now, we still haven't recovered from what we lost."
"I left Naruko alone in the apartment, but I had ANBU guards on watch around her 24/7. I couldn't make them like her, but I wouldn't allow them to abuse her physically either. I had given up hope on the adults, but I had made it a Law to not speak of the Kyubbi to Naruko nor anyone else her age. I wanted her to have a chance with those of her peers, those of her age. Once again, I was wrong. The parents whispered and ostracized Naruko so thoroughly that the children copied the parents even without knowing why. The money I gave her should have been more than enough, but the civilians started price-gouging her. I was horrified when I had found out several years later that most of her inheritance, which should've lasted several times over her lifetime, was almost gone. Because of them."
The desk exploded apart as Hiruzen roared in absolute fury, a sharp strong blow from his hands blasting the wood apart only for it to vanish rather than having the wood chunks flying everywhere.
"If I wasn't Hokage, I would've taken Naruko from Konoha myself. If I wasn't so focused on ensuring Naruko at least had a physically safe childhood, there would be no Konoha civilians alive. I would've butchered them all. Every. Single. One. When Naruko looked terrified and shaking like a leaf, pale and whimpering, because the Uchiha Clan had taken to abusing their roles as the police of the village to try and 'toughen' her up, using subtle Genjutsu from the Sharingan, I stepped in."
A dark gleam of sadistic joy and a cold smile appeared on Hiruzen's face.
"I killed the police force the night of the Massacre. I killed them all, torturing them as I tore out their eyes one by one. I gave them the eyes of old Konoha shinobi, regular eyes that held no Dojutsu, because I wanted their last living moments to be filled with absolute suffering and horror at how I defiled them, at how I made them feel helpless and terrified, just like how they had made Naruko feel. I wanted their last things they ever saw was my hands and my wrath. The main police force never stood a chance."
"I confiscated back Naruko's inheritance from the civilians, and those shops never opened again, because they weren't alive to open them again. When Kumogakure threatened war several years later after the Hyuga Diplomat Affair, I had Danzo pretend to be me for a few weeks, and I left my office. Those weeks were some of the best weeks I've had in years, slaughtering and butchering every Kumogakure shinobi I came across, and I entered Kumogakure to deliver my response in person."
The cold smile widened.
"I told A that if he didn't back down, I would use the Forbidden Jutsu to bring back the Third Raikage and have him slaughter everyone in Kumo. Every. Last. One. I told him with a smile on my face that I'd remove Orochimaru's Missing Shinobi status, and tell her that she would be more than welcome to do all the experiments and test subjects she could ever want, in Kumogakure. After all, when your surrounded by mountains, it makes the best prisons as well as defense posts."
The cold smile disappeared, a sigh of exhaustion escaping him.
"You have every right to judge me for failing Naruko. I did, I absolutely failed her in all the things that mattered. But never doubt that I didn't care for her. I am a terrible Hokage. I am a terrible one because I never wanted to be Hokage, something that Danzo, to this day, doesn't understand. I'm Hokage because my sensei chose to die and let us live. I'm Hokage because I volunteered to sacrifice my life, because I would rather die than return to a village with the loss of my team, whom I considered my real family because my actual family was full of self-obsessed idiots with delusions of grandeur, with the exception of my father. I'm Hokage, because back then, we didn't have any other options. I'm Hokage, so I can let Naruko live long enough that when she's strong enough, I can let her decide the fate of this fucking disgrace of a village."
Hiruzen gave a dark chuckle, raising his arms in a 'what can you do' gesture. "I am not Hashirama. I am not Tobirama-sensei. I could never put my love for the village over the love of the individual people in it that I cared about more. Orochimaru took advantage of that. Danzo took advantage of that. And yet, despite that, Konoha has survived two out of the three Shinobi Wars. Not bad for a guy who never wanted to be Hokage. You can send me to hell now."
Gojo Satoru shook his head, a frown on his face. "No. I won't do that. You've had to make some tough choices, and frankly I don't agree with a lot of the 'public' decisions you've made, especially in regards to having everyone think they can get away with things, even if you make them pay for it later in private. However, I am going to clean up your mess, and you'll be a Hokage in name only, as I've already turned Danzo into one of mine. This village has some serious cracks in it's infrastructure, and I plan on shaking things up."
"How?"
A wide smile crossed the Honored One's face. "Watch and learn, old man, watch and learn. This world will never be the same once I'm done with it. Now, you can go back to finishing your lunch."
Naruko wanted to disappear. She wished she could vanish into the ground or just be invisible. Anything else was better than this.
"What's wrong? You look gorgeous!" Shikamaru's chipper voice was not helping, at all!
"Stop! I feel ridiculous! I feel so exposed!" She complained. The dress was nice, but it was still way too expensive, and Shikamaru had 'accidentally' tore up her jumpsuit when she had asked for him to give it back so she could get dressed and not pay for the dress. It felt so soft, and comfortable, and it even had pockets! But it was still so expensive and she felt like it showed too much of her skin, her shoulders exposed.
Okay, so maybe she was overreacting, but she didn't like wearing this out in public! The civilians' glares made her very uncomfortable even when she was wearing something as practical as her jumpsuit. Let alone in a dress without her kunai and shuriken pouches.
"You're fine, Naruko. Besides, my parents will be especially pleased that you went out of the way to look good for them. It shows you care about what my family thinks, even if they won't judge for things you can't control. It's the emotional investment of the thing that matters." Shikamaru said confidently, and Naruko wanted to just punch him and hug him at the same time. The butterflies in her stomach weren't helping with that either!
"Of course I care about them! I want to make a good impression!" She was never, ever, going to admit out loud that she was scared to death his parents would tell him to never bring her over or that they weren't allowed to date each other. The idea of Shikamaru standing up for her against his family made her feeling all warm and tingly inside only to turn ice cold at the devastated look on Shikamaru's face as they strip him of the Nara name and inheritance because of her. The very thought made her chest hurt so much that she wanted to cry. She couldn't do that to him! She wouldn't!
"You'll see. The fact that I actually went shopping with you will probably make mom jealous as hell. Watch." Shikamaru promised, and Naruko felt her head spin.
Does Shikamaru do anything at home other than cloud watching, shogi, and sleeping? Why is he doing all this for me? I'm not that special.
"You are absolutely that special, and I'm doing this because making you happy, and flustered, I love that blushed face you get when you get flustered by the way, makes me happy. That's all there is to it." Shikamaru had turned around and held her in his arms, making her squeak as his eyes seemed to pin her down as she couldn't look away or do much more than squirm because she must've said the last part out loud by accident.
Her face felt like it was on fire, and she was hugging him as he hugged her against his chest, and why the fuck did he get to be so tall, that wasn't fair, and she didn't know what she was thinking anymore. Because Shikamaru was kissing her gently and, she moaned at the light kiss that made her want more only for him to step back and wink at her as, yep, her face felt like it was even more on fire as she pouted at him.
"Stupid, sexy, bastard." She grumbled as they continued on back to her apartment so she could get changed, and...
Wait, this was the wrong way to her apartment!
"Where are we going?! The apartment is that way!" She gestured with confusion and a slowly growing pit of terror in her stomach that swallowed up the butterflies as Shikamaru's soft smile took on a vicious grin.
"You didn't think you wouldn't be heading over to my place early, didn't you? I mean, since you insisted I couldn't buy you a housewarming gift for us at home, I figured us stopping by early and you chatting for a couple hours with my mom would be a nice sort of housewarming gift of it's own, no?"
Mean Shikamaru! Evil Shikamaru! Betrayer of girlfriends!
She inwardly cried out in terror as they arrived at a house with the Nara Clan symbol next to a fenced area filled with forests and a 'Warning: Deer.' sign on the fence.
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