CHAPTER 5 : Visit to Shikamaru's House.

AN: I think I messed up the timeline guys. I am not editing the previous chapters. From here on the timeline is as follows.

The academic year starts in June.

First-term - June to October.

Second Term - December to April.

June 1st, Year 70, Academy 1st year.

June 1st, Year 71, Academy 2nd year. - (Jan - Nanites infusion. Story starts)

June 1st, Year 72, Academy 3rd year. - (six months Time skip)

June 1st, Year 73, Academy 4th year.

June 1st, Year 74, Academy 5th year.

June 1st, Year 75, Academy 6th year.

….…

July 2nd, year 72. Academy 3rd year.

Sasuke entered the classroom, walked towards his usual seat, and sat down looking out of the window.

Sasuke's days were going as slow as possible. Waking up, breakfast, going to the academy, listening to the useless classes, going to Uchiha training ground, training until his hands and legs go numb, dinner and sleep.

There was no major change in the schedule for nearly six months. He followed the same routine day after day, week after week, months after months. He could feel himself growing in power but there is no one to test his strength. His classmates are weak, Hn…a lot weaker than him, even if they gang up he would win in the end.

He had asked for early graduation like his broth…like Itachi, but the idea was rejected by the headmaster of the academy. He wanted to grow stronger and faster so that he can kill Itachi as soon as possible. But that is not possible now.

When he asked for a reason for his rejection of early graduation, he was told that the early graduation program has been banned after the Uchiha incident. Now he was stuck with immature nobodies shouting at him and following him everywhere he goes.

Then there was this one bastard, Naruto Uzumaki, who never takes no for an answer asking to be beaten up daily.

He had observed the boy, nobody really likes him. A loudmouth and a chronic prankster. Well, his reason for disliking that blonde boy is…rational as the boy was a nuisance.

But for the whole classroom….except for a certain few, is unnatural. Even the academy teachers dislike the blonde for some reason.

'Well, it's not like I give a shit about him. I have only one goal. Grow stronger and kill my…..that man'

Sasuke's desire for revenge has been growing little by little daily, pestering him and poisoning his mind with hate. Every day before going to sleep, he swears to himself that he would kill Itachi and restore the Uchiha clan to the top.

He came out of his musings to look around the class and noticed the class was quieter than usual. The next second he saw two girls barrelling into the classroom shouting at each other.

'Of course, it would be quiet, these two banshees are the main reason for the noise' he thought to himself and turned to look outside as usual.

After the event, everyone started to give Sasuke pity and sympathy. And the girls it to a new level by proclaiming to be madam Uchiha, which only brought irritation to Sasuke.

….…

Naruto was lying on the table and reading a book on chakra control that was displayed in front of his eyes. He could memorize it easily by asking nano to dump the information directly into his brain. But he liked it this way. Reading line by line, page by page, and coming up with wild theories and testing it out.

On the corner of his eye, he could see the map showing Sakura and Ino coming towards the classroom.

Nano could do that. Analysing their size, height, walking pattern Nano could display the names of the dots that are on the map. His echolocation reached this point for him to do this.

He thought about the training nano had him undergo for the past six months. He learned more than he was taught in the last two academic years. In the beginning, he had some doubts about following nano's schedule. Everything in the schedule was something he didn't want to do. Like everything except for the things that had to do with chakra and the stealth training.

Stealth is the only thing he liked out of all those things. Without emitting chakra, with all his tenketsu points closed he is like a normal civilian. Except for the advanced sensors, nobody could pinpoint his location.

Nano had him follow an academy teacher until he reached his house. The ANBU have noticed it, but they chalked it up as one of his pranking shenanigans. Of course, he pranked the sensei again and again until one-day Hokage had to put stop to it. That particular sensei was not someone who was outstanding or excellent at teaching. He was just one of the many who punished naruto a lot, even for reasons as simple as talking in the class.

During his pranking, he evaded the ANBU guards and the other hidden ninja whenever he can. That was the training nano had set up. Evading his guards and staying hidden while following the academy sensei as much as he can. Nano also recorded the guard's patterns and integrated those techniques into Naruto's mind. He became good at it faster than he thought. Nano summarized that stealth may be one of his specialities just like fast regeneration and larger chakra capacity.

'Nano formulate a mission for me to sneak into archives room with the data we have accumulated'

[Task Established

Task : Breaking into Archives

Target : Academy, hospital, Hokage tower

The plan will be formulated in…1 hour]

Nano always formulates a plan, a backup plan, and a backup plan for the backup. Naruto had planned to break into the academy and mission report archives room. If possible into the hospital too. If it was a place where he could find his parent's name, then searching the village archives is the best starting place.

He had mapped out the archives room in the academy and he had nano figure out the individuals patrolling the academy(Using enhanced hearing and smelling).

He had noticed sometimes there are only two guards guarding the room. He just has to wait for that opportune moment to sneak in. He will be able to sneak in even if there is a usual amount of guards present. But he wanted the mission to be 100% successful and sneaking past two ninjas is better than five ninjas any day.

Shikamaru and Choji entered his range and were walking towards the classroom. In normal mode, the map function was limited to 200 meters around him which is a large range.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto who was sleeping in his seat. He was getting worried for Naruto. No one was able to observe the changes in Naruto. But he was able to notice it. Lately, Naruto was becoming less enthusiastic than usual. Of course, he was loud, pranking people, disobeying the instructors…but if one observed closely, one can see that the enthusiasm in his voice is waning slowly.

'Like he stopped pestering Sakura for a date, coming to academy early, not demanding Sasuke to fight him regularly.

He even changed his way of dressing, he used to wear a white t-shirt with black shorts or a black t-shirt with white shorts but now he started wearing orange half-handed t-shit with black pants. Now that was the biggest change. But still, people didn't really care for what Naruto did or didn't do' Shikamaru thought deeply.

In addition to that Naruto has been playing shogi matches with him. His improvement can be said phenomenal.

His father may have asked him to watch Sasuke. But he knew Sasuke is already a damaged piece. One cannot control a damaged piece in the board properly.

Then he thought about Naruto, his father never told anything related to Naruto to him, other than the fact to 'not associate with Naruto'. it can be interpreted in many ways. If his father wanted him to stay away from Naruto, he would have said so directly. Plus he would bet his life on Naruto any day rather than on Sasuke.

"You come early here just to sleep"

Naruto opened one eye and saw Shikamaru. "If I come late to class, I would be getting a scolding or some kind of punishment. It is better to come here early and sleep in the classroom, you know"

Choji sat on the other side of Shikamaru and extended the chips bag to Naruto. All three had formed a chummy sort of relationship. Hanging out together most of the time doing nothing. Well, Shikamaru and Naruto doing nothing or playing shogi while Choji munching on something.

Naruto never relied on nano during the shogi matches. But he had asked nano to update his mistakes on shogi after every match.

Naruto took a handful of chips from Choji's extended hand and started eating. After Naruto started to cook, he would bring an extra portion to the academy to share it with Choji and Shikamaru. Well with Shino too, sometimes.

Shino Aburame - heir to the Aburame clan. He is also somewhat of an outcast like Naruto. Naruto can sympathize with him. He was also an outcast just like Shino.

The Aburame kid mostly joins Naruto in case he wants to socialize. Well to Shino, Naruto was a puzzle. His kikachu acts abnormally whenever he was with Naruto. He wanted to know why, plus Naruto was fun to be with. Loud and overly cheerful. That was why he joins Naruto now and then.

"Want to come to my house today Naruto?" Shikamaru asked Naruto interrupting his reading on chakra control.

Some of the spices in the chips he was eating went down the wrong pipe and Naruto started coughing.

[Removing foreign particles from the air passageway]

"Are you asking me?" Naruto couldn't really believe that. No one really asked him to come to their house. Well the only people who \spoke with him were Choji and Shikamaru. But he never had that kind of expectation from them. As every adult or parent, he comes across has hated his existence. And they made sure their sons and daughters to follow their example.

"I said your name right?….yes I am asking you, whether do you want to come to my house" Shikamaru said again slowly.

"I dono….Shikamaru, your father or mother may not like me. It is better for me to not go to your house"

"Why would my father not liking you has anything to do with you coming to my house?"

[The chances of Shikamaru's father knowing about Kyuubi is 100 per cent.

Shikaku Nara, commander of jonin forces, hidden leaf village.

The clan head of the Nara clan. And if Shikamaru is any indication his father must also be smart and knowledgeable. We also don't know his character, it is better for us to stay away from shinobi influence until we are strong] Nano gave its piece of advice.

Oh yes, Naruto knew about the presence of Kyuubi soon after his enhanced ear experiment. He had asked nano why the villagers hated him. And nano put together the information it collected through super hearing and showed it to Naruto.

In addition to that nano found a large amount of mutated chakra is being released into his body and chakra pool at a certain interval. He knows he isn't Kyuubi, but Kyuubi is with him in some way, he just didn't know-how.

The whole week after the revelation was a big blow to Naruto. He was so devastated and didn't leave his room for that whole week. He also came to understand somewhat the reasons for ANBU tailing him, Hokage visiting him despite his hectic schedule, civilians, and a better part of the shinobi population hating him. They hate Kyuubi but they can't directly inflict pain on Kyuubi. So they hated the next best thing close to Kyuubi, him.

His ambition to become Hokage diminished. But it was still there. In the darkness, light the size of candlelight. Becoming Hokage lighted his path, but not completely. Day by day his enthusiasm lessened, shadows were creeping up on the light.

His care for the village and the villagers dropped from then on. Maybe he cared for a total of two or three people in the village, that is all. Teuchi and Ayame are the two people he cared for.

Maybe Shikamaru is also one of those people he cared for. That was why he didn't want to break that relationship because if by chance Shikamaru's father hated him, their friendship would be over.

He still hoped for Shikamaru's father to be not one of those people that hate him.

Nano had plainly rejected the idea of him going to Shikamaru's house. But naruto still held some hope.

Well, he is still a kid, what can one expect from him, to be like a thousand-year-old master manipulator!

"Uhh…Shikamaru, you do know that people don't like me that much, do you? If I come to your house then your father may ask you to stop spending your time with me" naruto spoke hesitantly. Not entirely giving up on Shikamaru's offer or speaking against it.

"I have asked my father's permission to bring my friends home. He won't say anything. You are my friend, not his friend"

"If you say so"

For the rest of the day, Naruto and nano were coming up with different scenarios and several plans to reverse the situation if it went out of control.

The day went on as usual, with Naruto, Shikamaru sleeping in the class, and with Naruto getting his ass kicked in taijutsu.

….…

Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto walked towards the Nara compound.

"These guys are with me" As they passed the gates Shikamaru spoke, to no one.

"Okay" Shikamaru heard a reply from the side of the gates. Naruto knew someone was sitting in the bush. He could also see two more members on the map, one sitting on the tree and the other sitting inside the guard room. They were well hidden but he could see it in the maps.

As the three were well away from the gates, one of the three ninjas spoke.

"Isn't that the Jinchuriki? What is the clan head planning? Is he trying to rope in the boy?…." When no response came he continued. "Forming any connection with the boy at present will do us no good," said the Nara guard.

"I don't think it has anything to do with the patriarch. Shikamaru must have brought him here" said another Nara guard.

"Sigh….You guys no need to worry about it. If there is some trouble then Shikaku will take care of it. Now stop discussing useless matters and go back to sleep..(cough cough) work" ordered the last Nara, who is the leader of the trio.

Naruto too heard the conversation. It was the first time he heard the word Jinchuriki. All the others referred to him as demon, monster, that boy, etc…

'Search our database for the word Jinchuriki, if it is not found then set a new task to research on the topic' As he learned more and more, he became well versed in using nano and its terminologies.

[New Task Established

Task : Search JINCHURIKI

Finding any information related to the word…..]

….…

Nara Yoshino was sweeping the fallen leaves in front of their house. She retired from the field and started working in the cryptography department under Konohagakure Intelligence Department.

Generally, her department doesn't have any kind of work, unless it is during wartime. At present they have posted her department members to oversee the Konoha shinobi Library, any of their department work is get sent to the library. Their work in the library is to clean it, arrange the books as per the order, register books taken outside by the ninja. The work is done by her subordinates. So she usually spends her time in her house.

Today was one of those days where she would nag her son and her husband to train in ninja arts. Gods! How she hoped for peaceful years. But she knew the war is just over the horizon. The elemental nations faced shinobi war every fifteen years that lasted for 4-5 years. Only the last war ended in 3 years.

And it has been already 10 years since the last war. War is bound to start in the next five years. She just hoped that her family will come out of it unscathed.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard her son speaking with Choji and….Naruto. Great, he is another political bomb waiting to go out.

[Nara Yoshino knows who you are] nano observing her through Naruto's eyes spoke.

"Ara Shika is bringing his friends home today. Thank goodness I thought you didn't have any other friends other than Choji"

"Troublesome…"

"Good evening, aunt Yoshino" Choji replied casually and continued to walk towards the house. He had been here enough times to speak familiarly with Yoshino.

It was Naruto that was nervous. Even if he had matured in the recent days, he was still a child.

"Uhh…My name is Naruto Uzumaki, Nara-sama" Naruto just dictated the words that nano displayed. He expected a cold face or silence in return.

"There is no need for honorifics, you can call me aunt Yoshino just like Choji does, Naruto-kun"

Naruto heaved an internal sigh. 'Looks like she is not one of those people'

[There is still an unknown Nara Shikaku present. According to the chat between the gate guards, there is something bound to happen with the clan head. Moreover, the general mood of this clan towards you is rather passable. That is neither hate nor goodwill towards to you]

"Yes…aunt Yoshino" Naruto didn't know how to interact with the adults. Teuchi and Ayame were more like his friends than adults. Even while speaking with Hokage he called him in an informal way, Jiji.

"Good" Yoshino replied.

"We will be in the backyard practising, mom. So don't disturb us" Shikamaru said to his mother hoping she wouldn't come with them. Usually, she would oversee his training, but whenever Choji comes by she leaves them alone and Shikamaru gets to slack off.

"Okay, but be sure to do chakra control exercise for at least half an hour. I will be checking on you later" Yoshino reminded her son once again.

"Yes, yes….troublesome"

Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto soon arrived in the backyard. The backyard was connected to a large garden.

Okay, it should be called a small forest. Every Nara family's backyard is connected to the forest. Even apartments inside the Nara compound are connected to the forest in some way.

They tend to the deer in the forest, cultivate and collect medicinal herbs too. They with the help of Akimichi produce medicinal pills to distribute in the leaf village, which earns them a certain amount of money to run the clan. It can be said they are the second richest clan with Akimichi being the richest in the whole Konohagakure.

It is due to the Nara clan, the trio clans, Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka hold some irrefutable power in the village. This power was slowly built from the beginning when the village was built. With the Uchiha clan eradicated, the Hyuga clan's dispossession clouded with their pride, Senju almost extinct and the birth of the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance in the previous generation slowly cemented their power in Konoha.

Shikamaru sat down and took out his shogi board. "Come on let us play a game naruto"

"Uh…Shikamaru didn't you say you would be training. Even your mother specifically asked you to do chakra control exercise" Naruto asked Shikamaru. He didn't want to start a fight between Shikamaru and his mother.

"Don't worry my mother will not come here. And I will do the training after a match" Shikamaru assured Naruto.

They had already played several matches and it started getting dark.

[Nara Shikaku has entered the Nara clan compound]

Naruto looked at the map to see a dot, Shikaku Nara moving towards Shikamaru's house. Since nano had data on Shikamaru's father, it was able to identify easily. If he goes now he may be able to take a roundabout route and avoid

encountering Shikaku.

Naruto decided not to meet with Shikamaru's father today. He looked down to see the shogi board, they were still in the middle of the game.

"Uh…Shikamaru, it is getting late. Let's finish now. Ichiraku will close by 09.00"

"Oh…okay. Come on, I will take you till the clan gates"

"No problem, I still remember the way, I will be fine on my own, you know"

"Well then let me just inform my mother" Shikamaru turned and shouted towards the house.

"Mom, Naruto is leaving. I will leave him at the gates"

"What? I made dinner for him too. Let him have dinner and leave" Yoshino shouted from the kitchen.

Naruto had never eaten in anybody's house. It is his first time being in someone's house too. He really wanted to say yeas and stay but…

[It's no use, Shikaku could already see the front of his house from the street. Even if we leave now we would be seen. Be ready for anything to happen]

"You heard her" Shikamaru moved a piece on the board.

"You should do as aunty asked Naruto. She can be very strict sometimes. Don't worry even it becomes too late uncle will send a ninja to escort you to your house. He usually does for me" Choji added his piece of advice from the side.

"Your move" Shikamaru pointed at the shogi board.

Naruto prayed to the gods and continued to play the game. He could not concentrate properly, made mistakes, and soon lost the match.

Shikamaru watched it with raised eyebrows. Naruto started making mistakes at the last minute and lost. He thought Naruto was getting bored of the game.

"Let's go inside, I will show you my room"

When Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji entered Shikamaru's room, Shikaku also entered his house.

'Nano I want to hear what they are speaking'

[Yes, sir]

….…

Naruto - Academy 3rd year starting. Six months after nanites initialization.

AN: Some people commented about portraying Naruto as Dark/Villain character. I planned to represent him as chaotic neutral. Forming friendships, bonding with people close to him, having a resolution to protect them, his will to do anything to keep this particular set of people safe.

He will be bashing people, as many were insistent on this point.

I would like your comments on it. This is not a poll or voting. Just give your perspective. My spare options are:

Chaotic good - Sees good in other people, but just mischievous, willing to sacrifice

Chaotic Neutral - Same as chaotic good, but will not sacrifice himself. Doing what he wishes, reject all forms of Authority.

Neutral Evil - Doesn't take any sides, selfish, will do anything to get what he wants.

Lawful Evil – Tyrant, no morals, for the greater good Naruto.