A Couple Steps Back

Chapter 35

Third person pov

Shisui led his fellow "club members" down the musty hall, which was lined with doors on each side. Excluding Rasa and Shisui, everyone seemed to grimace at the variety of sounds wafting through the air. Even Hidan seemed uncomfortable. He had never been a fan of anything that even remotely resembled a sex motel. He could practically smell the sexually transmitted diseases drifting about.

"This way." Shisui urged quietly, glancing around for any signs of someone who could be watching, although everyone was quite sure they would have seen them already in such a tight hallway. "It's the last door at the end of the hall. That room is never used."

"How would you know? Do you hang out here or something?" Sasuke asked, suspicion in his tone. It was clear that Shisui was hiding something, and most of the people there were pretty sure they knew what it was. Except maybe Rasa, who was having just a little too much fun acting like he was sneaking down the extremely narrow hall.

"Guys, get ready to run." The Kazekage grinned, and everyone turned back to look at him to see what he meant. Gaara's eyes widened with horror as he slowly raised his fist, as though in a threatening manner. The color drained from Shikamaru's face, and then, from Sasuke's. Naruto was simply confused, and he looked to Hidan for help, who shrugged.

And then, Rasa knocked on one of the doors. Loudly.

"Oh, fuck!" Naruto shrieked. Hidan sputtered, pushing the cackling Kazekage. Shisui's eyes widened with horror, and they began their dash down the hall, trying to make it to their room before the door could open. Gaara had his face in his hands as he power walked after his fellow time travelers, his face red with embarrassment. Shisui ushered them into their room.

It was dusty and void of furniture, Shikamaru observed as Shisui slammed the door shut. "This place will definitely work. There's more space than I was expecting, believe it." Naruto's blue eyes swept the space over a few times. There was plenty of room for some tables or some desks, and they could definitely put some form of shelving in. He could easily put seals in here as well, and the windows weren't all that large. This place would be perfect.

"You're right, and nobody will expect us to be here." Gaara said, his voice cool despite his embarrassment. He couldn't believe his father... He was so childish, and far more different than before. The time travel must have done something to him. He'd been dead before, so perhaps his brain wasn't fully matured or something odd like that. Gaara didn't know. He just couldn't wait to get the man back to Suna and away from Naruto. He didn't want him blowing the blonde's cover. 

"Shikamaru, Naruto and I definitely wont be suspected." Sasuke smirked. 

"Well I would hope not." Shisui scratched the back of his neck. "But- like, you guys are okay with being here, right? You're not... scared or anything?"

"These fucking brats aren't scared of shit. Especially not the woods brat. This bitch will lure your ass into the woods, chop you into pieces, blow your ass up and bury you alive." Hidan shivered slightly, earning a chuckle from Naruto, and an eye roll from Shikamaru. The ex-jashinist really was never going to let that go, was he? Shikamaru supposed he couldn't blame him. That must have been rather traumatic.

"So what do we do now?" Shisui questioned. These brats, for whatever reason, wanted Danzo gone. He felt the same way. He knew the elder man was conspiring with Orochimaru, and that he'd been in contact with enemy nations. It was clear that he was sharing information with enemies of the leaf besides the rogue sannin as well, and doing some other shady stuff. Shisui was sure the man had some sort of ninja force of his own, but he wasn't sure. 

These kids were oddly capable.

"We need to set this room up first of all. Organize it, and our information. We can't do that tonight, though." Shikamaru sighed. 

"We should talk about that Danzo guy. He's been contacting me, myself and I." Rasa said, and everyone turned to him. Shisui jolted slightly. Part of him had forgotten that Rasa was a kage. He just seemed so... laid back and so weird. He didn't seem fit to lead a village. Gaara, his son, was only five or so and he seemed better suited to the task! 

"You didn't think that was important?" Sasuke hissed. Naruto sighed.

"Calm down and lets hear him out. Has he mentioned something called ROOT at all? I don't know when it was established, and if it's already a thing, how big it is. That, and we need to know where it's located. We know where the future one is but..." The blonde trailed off, scratching the back of his neck.

"Naruto is right. Our information is too up-to-date." Shikamaru sighed. Shisui blinked a little. What were they talking about? ROOT? The future? They'd been saying some pretty odd stuff up to this point, but he'd brushed it off. They were kids, and kids said random shit all the time, right? But this... this made no sense at all. They clearly weren't joking. Whatever they were discussing... it was serious.

"What're you kids talking about? What's ROOT?" Shisui questioned, putting all his weight on one foot. The four children present turned to look at him, and Hidan clicked his tongue. Rasa didn't speak for once, simply standing there with his arms folded over his chest. Shisui pressed his lips together firmly. Whatever this was, it was serious.

"ROOT is an organization run by Danzo. Like his own personal ANBU in a way." Sasuke explained.

"It's pretty large... or it's going to be, later, if we don't stop him." Shikamaru sighed heavily, tired. He wondered how Ibiki was handling Shikaku. The man was smart, but Shikamaru hoped he wouldn't figure out where they were. There were no leads for him to go off of. Not even Ibiki knew where they were going. That, and nobody had revealed their chakra yet. It was all still hidden.

"How do you know all this?" Shisui clenched his fists, and Naruto let out a sigh, turning to look at Sasuke. Sasuke nodded a serious nod, turning to Gaara and Shikamaru. Shikamaru nodded, but Gaara's eyes narrowed. He wasn't sure about this... Naruto seemed to trust this man, but what if he sold them out? Everything would be over.

"Do you trust him? Are you sure he can be given this information?" Gaara asked, his voice coming out gruff. 

"We have no choice." Naruto exhaled heavily. The redhead nodded, turning to Sasuke expectantly. The Uchiha rubbing his temples, and Shisui found himself looking at the stump. He swallowed thickly. 

"You didn't... you weren't taken by men, were you?" Shisui whispered.

"No, we weren't." Sasuke looked him in the eyes. "We're from the future, and if we don't fix this now, everyone is going to die."

~

The book, Believer, is up on this account. It is a Naruto time-travel fanfiction like this one in which Naruto Uzumaki and Kurama travel back to when Minato was still alive to try and stop all the bad things that occurred from ever happening at all. And yes, it is written by me.