A Couple Steps Back

Chapter 21

Third person pov

Naruto could not believe his luck.

A rather young looking Ibiki Morino stepped into the room, and Naruto immediately knew. He was going to go live with this man. The T&I department was a treasure trove of classified information. Naruto wasn't sure why Ibiki would want to adopt him, or take care of him. Quite frankly, it was actually a bit odd. But honestly, that really didn't matter right now. This was an opportunity even better than the one he had with the Hokage! He absolutely couldn't waste it. Unless he wanted to provoke Shikamaru into committing a homicide.

"So this is the kid, huh? Five years old?" Ibiki eyed Naruto with clear calculation in his eyes. Naruto thought that maybe living with such a man might actually be the worst idea ever, but if Shikamaru could hide it from his own father, then surely Naruto could hide it from some T&I interrogator, even if he was the head of his department. How hard could it possibly be? Sasuke was going to be hiding it from a giant group of Sharingan wielders. 

"Whoa." Naruto said with as much childlike awe as he could muster. Ibiki's calculating look turned to one of amusement, and the Hokage chuckled. "Naruto, this is Ibiki Morino, a trusted colleague of mine. He's interested in taking care of you." The Hokage explained to the young blonde, who was staring at Ibiki as though he were trying to figure him out. The expression looked out of place on the face of a five year old, but again, Naruto had been through a lot.

"He's scrawnier than I thought he'd be." Ibiki mused, earning another chuckle from the Hokage. Naruto shrugged nonchalantly. "Malnourishment, sleep deprivation and neglect can do that to a person, or so I heard. At least I don't look like a baked potato." Naruto shrugged. Hiruzen flinched at the blunt remarks. Ibiki simply barked out a laugh in response to Naruto's quips. He was starting to like this kid.

"Interesting. He's got guts." Ibiki turned to the Hokage. "I'll take him."

"Do I look like a stray dog to you?" Naruto asked, clearly annoyed. The Hokage let out a sigh, and Ibiki opened his mouth to answer. The blonde was quick to raise his hand, stopping the "baked potato" from speaking. "You know what, don't answer that. I don't want to know."

Ibiki chuckled again. The Hokage offered a smile to the head interrogator, turning to Naruto. This visit was going much better than expected. Going off Naruto's reluctance, Hiruzen had immediately assumed the boy'd reject anyone who walked through the door. He seemed to be taking a surprisingly fast liking to Ibiki. The Hokage wasn't sure why, as the man was rather intimidating, but he couldn't see anything bad about the situation. 

"So what do you think, Naruto?" The Hokage turned to the blonde, who shrugged. "Can I go hang out with him first? In case this doesn't work out, I wanna milk him for food and other stuff as much as I can." Naruto told The Third excitedly, earning a snort from Ibiki. The Hokage had to laugh at that. It was such a Naruto thing to say. Hearing it come from the boy's mouth was comforting.

"Sure, Naruto." The Hokage allowed, turning to Ibiki. "Have him back in a few hours?"

"Sure." Ibiki bowed, turning to follow Naruto who'd darted out into the hall. The blonde waited excitedly in the corridor, bouncing on his heels. Ibiki took his sweet time closing the Hokage's door, but once he did, he began to walk. He didn't say a word, his hands shoved in his pockets in a grumpy sort of way, and his shoulders hunched. Looking at him, it seemed pretty normal. Ibiki didn't seem like the social type, in all honesty. 

Once they were out of the building, Ibiki finally spoke, turning to Naruto with an expectant look.

"So, how're we going to save the future, Nanadaime-sama?"

"What the fuck?"

~

"Psst."

"But if we kill Danzo then they'll.... yes, yes, that'll work."

"Pssssst."

"What about ROOT? How big is... I suppose that would tell us."

"PSST." 

Shikamaru stopped muttering, and his head snapped up. At one in the morning, he wasn't really expecting to be disturbed. Let alone by someone so good at concealing their chakra: something even he couldn't do yet. And if he couldn't do it, Sasuke and Naruto definitely wouldn't be able to. Shikamaru had the least chakra out of the lot of them, meaning he would naturally have the most control over his own. 

The Nara heir froze at the sight of none other than Hidan, a rogue ninja from Yugakure, sitting in the frame of his open window. The man was trying to crouch, but it really wasn't hiding him all that well. His silver hair was too shiny looking in the light, and he was a pretty big dude. But that wasn't the point. Hidan, a man Shikamaru was absolutely sure had died, was standing there. The man who'd killed his sensei was standing there. A murderer, and a sadist.

"Before you-" Hidan let out a yelp as a pencil propelled with a rather large amount of chakra whizzed past him, narrowly missing his neck. He hissed at Shikamaru, who was now crouched in a defensive position, his eyes sharp. "God dammit, I don't know if I'm immortal or not anymore, you damn brat!" He whisper-yelled at the boy, glaring. He supposed this meant Shikamaru was from the future too, based on his reaction.

"Let's find out." Shikamaru reached for the red pen next to him, and Hidan held his hands up in a surrendering sort of way, dropping silently into the room. He slowly stood up, eyeing the pen inches from Shikamaru's hand warily. Who knew office supplies could turn into such lethal weapons in the hands of a war-hardened child from the future. Hidan wondered what all he'd missed. What had happened to make this brat this way?

"Listen, I'm not here to hurt you." Hidan whispered harshly. Shikamaru's eyes filled with sheer disbelief, and Hidan groaned quietly. "Look, I had a lot of time to think, and I don't wanna be... bad anymore, okay? This is clearly a second chance. Jashin doesn't even hand those the fuck out. That's the whole immortality thing, alright? I just want to know what's going on."

Hidan sounded sincere, but Shikamaru didn't dare let his guard down. He did, however, decide to give him a chance. Having someone in the Akatsuki would change the game board significantly, and up their chances of success.

"Sit down slowly, and otherwise, don't move. This is going to take a while."