Red Shadow : The Hidden Uzumaki (Naruto's older sister)

Chapter 11 : A Nara's Mind

Shikamaru never felt the need to force himself to do something troublesome, it had always been that way for ages. The Nara clan was and will be a respected clan which was known to be the strategic force of Konoha. Even if they were the brightest, they would be known inside the village for being lazy and having a deep fear of their wives or daughters.

Their brains required so much of their energy that they had to rest a lot which made them a bit uncaring. Many members were only doing things when being ordered by their clan head or a superior, initiatives were not their strong point. Although when exposed to a life-threatening situation, they were using the full extent of their resources and formidable mind. There was an exception in their clan when one's found a purpose they get out of their lay back state. Those could prove to be worse than an Uchiha holding a grudge, they would not let go of that goal, by any means were good to achieve that objective.

They became real monsters, they considered themselves as very stubborn when wanted, the excuse of a thing being too troublesome was automatically deemed as unimportant. They still complained and faked being bothered, but they were far from uninterested. A formidable example of that is the previous clan head, Shikaku's father, the feared Shikan Nara. He had set his mind on stopping being known as the lazy intelligent clan. He worked hard on getting political influence in the village on the major clan council and even extended their influence at the civilian council. He reinforced their traditional alliance with the Akamichi clan and the Yamanaka clan, they instituted a new political alliance and not only an alliance on the ninja affaires.

He even pushed it at the daimyo's court, he achieved to be well viewed in the eyes of notorious factions and made honourable things for the clan such as developing a valuable network among all the hidden ninja villages even with the rivalries among them. The clan could get intel on all the current state of those villages. In short, he had made the clan influential and formed an information network which could prove to be very useful for the Hidden Leaf. After his son became the Jonin Commander, he left him the head clan charge and retired, but still did a lot for the clan in the shadows.

His son had set his own mind on making this village a safe place and put a bit of order in it. Shikaku's son, Shikamaru, had never found such meaning. After all, he was only three years old and was a typical Nara. He became friends with the Akimichi heir who was very easy-going and somehow tolerate the Yamanaka heir. His hobbies were watching clouds and recently, playing shogi, he liked to do just sleep. When his IQ would be evaluated, there was no doubt that it will get one of the highest since the clan foundation. He got bored quickly of annoying things, there was nothing out of orders, he was meant to be like his father. He would hold a good position near the hokage before retiring and living simply trying not to die from his wife's frying pan. That was true until something changed everything. When his father, Shikaku, had come back from his work not being that much tired and almost happy. Shikamaru remembered that day, he had gone to a BBQ with Choji's and his dad, he had enjoyed it.

"How was your day shika?"

"Well enough and your day?"

"I have finished sooner than expected, I had help." Shikaku had answered slowly while being quite pleased.

"Since when do you have an assistant, I don't recall that you had one."

"Nope but the Fourth hokage's daughter and the Third hokage's granddaughter came and hang out with me for the day, she is really good at classing and doing paperwork."

"Yeah? Isn't she younger than me?"

"No, she is a bit older than you and she is an interesting person."

"How so?"

"Why don't you find it by yourself, I am sure you will find it interesting!"

He had for once not shrugged off his old man's idea, he wandered with Choji around the village to find information about Yuki Namikaze, the heiress of the merchant Namikaze clan and prestigious Uzumaki clan, or so people said. Everyone that he had spoken with had told him that Yuki was a prodigy, she could speak around a few months old and walk around one, she had been kidnapped around her one-year-old birthday. Also, she was adopted by the Third homage which was very busy so the villager had said that they tried to take care of her in his stead. Shikamaru listen carefully to all those rumours and opinions, he hadn't even stopped grannies from pinching his cheeks because he was so focused on analyzing this information. He had spent three days accumulating facts about the girl, from what he could see she was well view in the village mainly because of her lineage but also because of her personality. She was kind and bright, she helped the villagers as much as they help her. Although, he still couldn't make up his own mind only based on that so he then went to see other ninjas starting with the Yamanaka clan and the Akimichi clan. They also held her in high esteem and were a bit sadden by the fact that she wasn't very much interested in making friends. She preferred to spend her day with books and scrolls about ninjutsu or kenjutsu.