Chapter Text
The Chunin Exam Stadium is a riot of noise and confusion — even though Shikako knew this would happen, even though she's prepared and been planning, it's still...
A lot. Too much, if she's honest.
It's nothing like the bridge in Wave, which had felt chaotic and out of control. There's so much more, more enemies, more allies, more bystanders caught in the crossfire. There's so much happening that she doesn't know where to look, where to focus, what to do first, how to think.
"Focus, Shikako-chan," Kakashi-sensei chides gently and her attention latches onto him like a port in a storm. He's calm, like this is something he's done a million times before, like it's nothing to worry about.
He probably has. This probably is nothing.
"Yes, sensei," she says automatically, letting herself trust in that, mimicking his battle ready stance that lets the overwrought tension bleed from her shoulders into something more useful. She flicks her kunai and it flies through the air, striking true.
Kakashi-sensei flicks through handseals; ones she recognises — a summoning jutsu — and presses his hand against the ground.
And it must be that her brain is scrambled, not making good choices, that she's watching too closely and mimicking too heavily —
Because Shikako does the exact same.
Her eyes blow wide with horror as the chakra catches the jutsu and she tries to pull it back because now isn't the time to reverse summon herself, she needs to be here—
And there's a puff of chakra smoke beneath her hand and a black coat blocking her view. A person.
"Huh," says a woman that looks like her mother, wearing a Konoha hitai-ate on one bicep and Nara mon on the other, just like Shikako does. "That's new."
She sounds nonplussed, like true confusion is too much effort, and looks around. She tucks her hands into her pockets.
"Shikako-chan?" Kakashi-sensei says, sounding a lot more worried now that he had a moment ago.
What has she done?
"Hi, sensei," says the woman that Shikako has summoned. She clicks her tongue and looks down at the seal beneath her feet, like its a mildly interesting crossword puzzle. "Summoning jutsu but you looped the clause to be self-referential and fixed a location determinator? That's kind of clever. Or insane."
"It was an accident," Shikako says, weakly. She looks at Kakashi-sensei who, helpfully, gives her a shrug like he wants to say no, I don't know what you did either.
She absolutely summoned her older self, didn't she? How does that possibly work? Just… just yanked her out of time? Surely that has to be more complicated than trying to cancel an untethered summoning jutsu?
"Usually is," Future-Shikako agrees, still blase about it. It's almost exactly like Kakashi-sensei.
A kunai arcs towards them, slamming into the bleachers next to where Kakashi-sensei is standing; Shikako's heart rate jacks right back up as Kabuto launches himself over the railing, more bruised than before but not, apparently broken.
Even Gai-sensei can't—?
Shadow tendrils snap out, solid and black even in the bright of midday. They wrap around Kabuto and engulf him before he even touches the ground again. There's an indescribable wet sound — something that will haunt her nightmares — and a fine red mist explodes out of the darkness, dripping and dribbling over the concrete, running in rivers and dripping over the side of the stadium like a waterfall, pooling in divots and puddling next to obstacles.
So much of it. More than just the five litres of blood. There's not even any clothes or hair or skin left, when the shadows fade away.
"Oh," Kiba says behind them. He sounds horrified and not chill at all. "You, uh, you exploded that guy."
"Molecular disintegration," Future-Shikako corrects. She gives the puddle a critical look. "I wonder if it killed him. He was a bastard to put down during the war but he might not have had his regeneration powerup yet."
"Fascinating," Kakashi-sensei says, back to sounding mild. Not at all phased by the blood or the overkill violence of it. "But regardless, we have important tasks at hand."
Future-Shikako hums in agreement and pats Shikako-Shikako on the head. "Yeah, you kids have to go fight a bijuu." She says it plainly, like it's nothing to be concerned about at all. She digs a stack of tags out of her kunai pouch and hands them over. "Single Tag Barrier seals. Chakra burst activation, pretty standard. Good luck!"
"What—" Shikako says and falters. Surely if future her is this confident then nothing is going to go too wrong, right? She would help herself if she was ever mysteriously transported to the past, right?
But future her also just disintegrated Kabuto.
"Go with them," Kakashi-sensei suggests.
Shikako almost believes it will happen for a second, that the weight of command will be lifted from her shoulders by someone more suited to it — even if that person is also her.
But Future-Shikako waves it off. "Nah," she says. "I figured I'd go make sure Orochimaru doesn't escape this time. It'll save you a lot of trouble down the track."
And then she's gone, a shushin so fast that Shikako doesn't even see how she did it. If it weren't for the dripping puddle of blood, Shikako would doubt that she was ever there at all.
"Focus, Shikako-chan," Kakashi-sensei repeats. "Forget about all that for now. Concentrate on what you can do. Pakkun will take you after Gaara — do your best to keep him out of the city. And… no matter what she said… try not to fight a bijuu."
Shikako takes a deep breath and lets go of everything but the mission. "Ready, sensei."
Kakashi sees the barrier around the Kage's Box go down, but from his assigned posting in the third stand there isn't much he can do about it. The first wave of enemy forces have been beaten back, and it seems their outer defences have held well enough that it's unlikely they'll be overrun again.
There's a brief lull in the fighting, enough that Kakashi contemplates sitting down — somewhere that doesn't have liquefied human remains — when the priority alarm goes off; calling all available jounin to a secondary location.
(You kids have to fight a bijuu, echoes in his head like Rin's death screams.
He has to believe this person is Shikako-chan grown old, because that means she survives.)
Kakashi considers himself to be available and moves.
The secondary location isn't the direction that he sent the kids — instead its back towards the village, near the empty Uchiha compound. Not the easiest place to break into the village, but empty ground is harder to defend and there are massive stretches of it there that may have once been training grounds but are now nothing at all.
By the time he gets there, there are already a handful of responders and none of them can do very much at all — because across the clearing is a barrier dome very much like the one that had surrounded the Kage's Box at the stadium.
In it—
Inside it, Councilman Danzo has engaged Orochimaru.
(I'll go make sure Orochimaru doesn't escape, she had said. Does he now hope that it wasn't Shikako-chan?)
"The barrier is impervious," Hiashi Hyuuga says, after having struck it with jyuuken multiple times to no avail.
Kakashi's Sharingan can't see any flaws with it, either.
"Prepare for when it comes down," is all Kakashi can say. He finds he isn't hopeful — not for their chances, or Danzo's or, belatedly, the Third's.
Those chances seem to get better when Jiraiya arrives, though the grim look on his face isn't promising.
"A bit of a problem, isn't it?" Kakashi manages to say, tone not quite hitting 'light'.
"Worse than you think," Jiraiya says, eyes fixed on the fight. His voice is low enough only Kakashi can hear. "That isn't Orochimaru."
Kakashi should be afraid of that — an unknown ninja capable of fighting on the level of someone like Orochimaru — but instead he feels something that might be a strange cousin of relief. "Ah."
Kakashi isn't exactly familiar with Orochimaru's fighting style, and that's probably true of everyone here except Jiraiya. Not-Orochimaru fights like what he thinks an S-rank Konoha missing ninja might fight like — Konoha sword style butchered beyond belief, but smooth and effective; Ninjutsu of every element flung without care of collateral or chakra conservation; snakes that spill off of his arms and sway in the air, striking fast and dangerous.
They don't, Kakashi considers, move like living creatures. The swaying and twisting is, perhaps, a little more like the tendrils of shadow that had reduced Kabuto to constituent parts. She's not using that technique now? Too difficult while in active combat? Something she had to have prepared ahead of time, and only had one use?
Inside the barrier, Not-Orochimaru pauses and says something. The sound doesn't carry through, as if the barrier is soundproof. Neither of them have spared any attention for the ninja outside, either — which could just be that they don't have any attention to spare during a fight of this nature.
But if Danzo could see them, he could see that Jiraiya was working to bring the barrier down. He'd be more focused on stalling, buying himself time for backup to arrive.
Instead—
Danzo pulls off his cloak.
"What is that?" Hiashi Hyuuga says, in a tone of voice Kakashi has never heard from him before.
Jiraiya stops working on his seal.
Mokuton branches spear away from Danzo, catching Not-Orochimaru through the chest yet doing no damage.
Kakashi is—
Kakashi is—
"Those eyes," he rasps, voice like a dead thing in his throat.
Obito's eye was a gift that Kakashi never wanted but wanted to get rid of even less. The Uchiha had hated it, had hated him for it, but ultimately allowed him to keep it.
This is not that. There are not enough Uchiha in the world to have given Danzo so many Sharingan so freely.
This is what the Uchiha had seen when they'd looked at him and Obito's eye — a monster, perverse, a bond so meaningful ground into the dirt and spat upon—
In his skull Obito's eye is burning, burning, burning with sorrow and rage and grief and weeping weeping weeping—
Something ripples through the air. Shatters the barrier. Collapses the very air inside it, pulling everyone watching forward in stumbling unresisting steps.
It cuts through Danzo, cracking the sky in half where he stands, revealing something dark and ominous lurking behind it.
Danzo shouts, audible, even though Kakashi can only hear the pounding of his own heart. A seal blooms where he stands, bleeding, and apparently intending to take them all with him.
Not-Orochimaru's not-snakes lash out and shove Danzo into the void.
It snaps shut around him, letting partial body parts drop to the ground.
Not-Orochimaru looks up at them all, and chuckles. "Not my best work," he says, sibilant and then is gone, only the fading traces of chakra letting the watching jounin know he'd made it to the forest and out of sight.
Jiraiya flicks out a hand and a small toad is summoned with a puff of chakra smoke and hops off into the forest while he steps towards the pile of Danzo limbs.
Kakashi wavers and steady hands grip his elbow to keep him on his feet.
"Easy, sensei," says probably-almost-definitely-hopefully-Future-Shikako. Wearing her own face again, and completely unconcerned, like she definitely doesn't think any of these jounin are going to connect her to the fight she just left. "Bring your headband down."
She guides him to sit and he realises he's shaking. Whatever technique that was, it took a lot of chakra.
Future-Shikako pats him awkwardly on the shoulder then fishes into her pockets. "Can I offer you a rock in this trying time?"
She hands him a rounded river stone, emblazoned with a henohenomoheji in ink. Kakashi takes it, bemused, and chakra rushes into him the second his hand touches it.
Not purified chakra, transferred by someone else. His own chakra, stored and waiting for him.
Definitely Future Shikako. Who else would have a stockpile of his own chakra? Who else could even get it?
"It's refillable, useless to anyone it's not attuned to," she says, brightly. "And you can throw it at people."
"The genin," he says, clutching his new favourite rock. It's enough chakra that he can still fight.
"They're fine," she says glancing up into the distance with the familiar look of a sensor seeing beyond what vision allows. Her range must have increased massively — they must be clear on the other side of Konoha. "The Sand siblings have retreated. Naruto has chakra exhaustion but he'll be okay by morning."
He has no choice but to believe her and no reason not to.
"And Orochimaru?"
She flick open her jacket to show a black ringed scroll holstered in the inside pocket. "For now, anyway. He tends to pop back up again — every cursed seal is an Orochimaru respawn point under the correct circumstances."
That's horrifying to hear for multiple reasons; one Orochimaru is the stuff of nightmares, let alone more than that, and there are at least two of those seals in Konoha. Both on people Kakashi doesn't particularly want to see die to a missing nin.
He breathes in and out, lets the exhaustion seep away. Now the panic and drive has faded, he can see the signs he'd missed before on her too — the sweat, the heat, the heavy steady breathing. Like she's fought hard and is wearing it rough, close to exhaustion on her own.
Of course she is. She's fought two S-rank ninja in as many hours. And almost managed to make it look simple and straightforward, and like she could keep fighting.
She's terrifying. His small, anxious genin. What happens to make her into this?
She catches his observation and clicks her tongue. "It's been a while since I had to fight multiple S-rank ninja back to back," she says, like she's admitting something. "I think I'm getting old."
She looks the same age he is. Ten, maybe fifteen years of life as an active duty ninja — it's not old but there are plenty that don't make it that far.
"That's my excuse," Kakashi says.
The crowd is starting to disperse now, and Jiraiya has clearly delegated the task of dealing with Danzo and his— his— of dealing with Danzo for now.
"The intruder is gone," Jiraiya says, which means his tracking toad found nothing.
"Yeah," the intruder says. "About that. We should probably report this whole… thing to the Tower? Who is managing the emergency response?"
"Shikaku and Inoichi," Kakashi answers, rising to his feet. He rolls his shoulders, but the chakra battery has helped stabilise him, he's hardly even stiff at all.
"And you are?" Jiraiya asks, a little sharper than his usual, especially when dealing with a kunoichi. He's not in Konoha enough that not recognising her is enough to set him off, the way some of the other jounin around are glancing at her, but he clearly finds something suspicious anyway.
They'd probably be more than glancing if she hadn't been sitting next to him.
Shikako sighs and rises to her feet too. "I didn't wake up today expecting to have to prove my identity to people who only knew me at twelve," she says, as if this is a minor hassle.
She digs through her pockets and pulls out a book far too thick to have fit into them. It's bound in green and has a Nara symbol on the cover, like it came from the clan library, but she's blase as she hands it to an outsider.
"You might recognise these as the third edition of some notes I showed you once," she says vaguely.
Jiraiya takes them, looking dubious right up until he flicks it open and sees what's written inside.
"Shikako Nara summoned me into the chunin exam stadium while it was under attack," Shikako says. "So, of course I helped my clan member out."
It's all true, though lacking in the most critical detail. It seems Jiraiya has put it together from whatever notes that he's been given.
"Either she was plagiarising you — badly — or…"
Shikako drags a pen out of her pocket and clicks it on. "You might as well review it while you're at it," she says, voice amused. "I think I only had the second edition looked at." She nudges Kakashi with her shoulder. "So, tower?"
"I suppose we had better," Kakashi agrees.
The Hokage is dead.
Shikaku is a practical man — he doesn't judge anyone as being beyond the reach of death, not even the Hokage. This has happened once before in his tenure as Jounin Commander, even.
The trouble is, when Minato died, the Third had been there to step back into the role. The transition had been rough but it had been obvious.
This time, Sarutobi has not left a clear successor.
"Raise the flags," he orders, when the reports indicate that the fighting is mostly over. Announcing the death of their leader will be a blow to morale, and a boost to whatever enemies understand the signal, but if he leaves it too long ninja will learn of the news through other sources first. Better to take the small hit where they can bear it, than to have their forces judge that the Tower moves too slowly to be trusted.
"When the clan leaders start to arrive—" and they will start to arrive, even if the flags are not meant to summon them, "-we'll convene in the second meeting room."
There'll be little enough that they can actually do but the impulse to meet and discuss it remains; the Daimyo will want to be involved in a full council meeting, as well as plenty of other figures who wouldn't — or shouldn't — be moving through the village in the midst of combat.
To his surprise, it's Jiraiya who shows up first. He's trailed by Kakashi Hatake and a ninja that Shikaku has never seen before despite her being apparently a Nara. She gives a jaunty wave but says nothing.
There are many reasons jounin like Jiraiya and Hatake might bring someone to his attention and a few that might result in them needing to be innocuously disguised. Who, after all, will question one of his clan bringing him news?
"Are you here to take command?" he asks, and it's only a half hearted hope. He's not entirely sure Jiraiya would manage to keep hold of Konoha — certainly he has the status as Sarutobi's student, and his combat reputation is unimpeachable, but… there's much that can be said about his absences from the village.
Jiraiya makes a face. "Don't even suggest it," he says. "I'll drag Tsunade back before I take that hat."
That is a much better and more interesting solution, however far fetched it might seem. As far as Shikaku knows, Tsunade Senju had been quite adamant about leaving.
"No, this is about something else," Jiraiya says. "And you'll want to know about it sooner rather than later."
"More important than the current invasion?" Shikaku says, even though he's already started to push himself to his feet and consider who to drag along with him.
"Yes," says Hatake.
"Related," says the not a Nara.
Great. "Inoichi, with me," Shikaku says. "Tokuma, take over. Fetch us if you need us."
They haven't been forced to use the Yamanaka Transmission Technique in vast amounts — the structure of Konoha and its signalling has held up to use, even if it is slower. But it means Inoichi can be pulled from his post for whatever bad news it is that Jiraiya has.
Carefully — very carefully — Shikaku does not consider the things that are known to make Hatake look that grim. Nor that his original posting was in the exam stadium.
What he doesn't expect to hear is; "Danzo Shimura is also dead."
"That's a blow," Shikaku says, carefully. "But he has not been listed as one of Konoha's active duty ninja for quite some time. Nor held any official position in the village. What makes this so time critical?"
Jiraiya tells him.
It is, predictably, very bad.
"And despite what the reports might say, it wasn't Orochimaru that killed him," Jiraiya adds, layering another complication on it.
"Technically speaking," the kunoichi says, speaking up for the first time. Her voice is strangely familiar, or like it should be familiar. She claps Hatake on the shoulder in a casual and un-telegraphed move that should lose her a hand, "it was Kakashi-sensei that killed him. It was a nice shot with Kamui, considering."
"Is that what it was called," Kakashi Hatake says, rather than deny it. "I didn't know the sharingan could do that."
"The sharingan can do so much weird shit," the kunoichi says. "Talk to Sasuke about it — I know the idea gives you hives, but it'll fix your chakra exhaustion thing."
Shikaku's eyebrow feels like it's trying to crawl off his face. "And you are?"
"Ah," she hums. "That's the other sort of related thing. Well, to start with; I was summoned to the exam stadium earlier. Shikako Nara called me for help."
He doesn't like that statement at all. "Summoned."
"Untethered summoning jutsu, but she'd looped the clause to be self-referential, and fixed the location," she says, as if the method is in question and not so what does that make you. (Or maybe that is supposed to be the answer—) "I'm a little surprised that it worked at all instead of—"
She hesitates, then seems to realise that elaborating on what the effects of a failed seal might be isn't the appropriate topic to bring up here and now, finishes with a little less verve. "Not working."
"That's how she did it?" Jiraiya mutters in a horrified voice. "What was she thinking?"
The kunoichi touches her chin in an exaggerated thinking posture. "The consequences of my actions are a problem for future me?"
It sounds exactly — Shikaku realises in dawning horror — like something Shikako would say, dramatic and not-at-all serious.
Which is what she's implying. He could ask for proof, jutsu and history and personal information. He could ask Inoichi to check. But despite his attitude, Hatake isn't a fool. He wouldn't believe something so ludicrous without good reason.
Shikaku takes a deep breath and looks at both Jiraiya and Kakashi. "You're convinced?"
Hatake curves his eye like he's smiling. "Unfortunately," he agrees.
That's that, then. Shikaku can afford to invest more energy into the situation when he isn't trying to shepard a village through a leadership change and a deeply rooted crisis. There's very little of the practical matters that he could help with, even if he had the time.
"The only one who might be able to help you reverse that is Jiraiya," he says. If he has to come up with a way to make Jiraiya help, he will.
"Oh, I'm not that worried," Shikako says, as if it genuinely hadn't occurred to her. "I figured I would just reverse summon myself. Either that would take me home or it would take me to the deer and I'd work from there. But quite a few people saw me arrive and I thought you'd want to establish an explanation for it, or mini-me might end up in some hot water."
Kakashi stiffens. "Yes, it... Left an impact," he says. "Best to say that she's a Konoha ninja not often in the village."
Something to follow up on, but Shikaku has far too many things on his plate to do it now. If it were absolutely critical, he trusts Hatake would mention it. And if it's not critical, it'll probably wind up on his desk over the next few days anyway.
"Very well," Shikaku says and thinks. "Inei Nara, special jounin under the Nara RnD team — typically stationed at the Koukousei research base but briefly returned to Konoha to mentor Shikako-chan."
Her lips twitch briefly. "Inei. With the kanji for 'shadow' and 'shadow'?"
"It's a traditional Nara name," Shikaku says blandly.
"It is," Shikako answers equally deadpan even as Inoichi shakes his head in despair. Like the Yamanaka are any better.
"Anything else?" he asks.
"Oh, just that it was me under the henge," she says, casually, "so you don't have to worry about a second Orochimaru running around. Yet." She seems to remember something and then pulls a black banded scroll out of an inner pocket of her jacket. "He can regenerate himself from his curse seals, though. So don't celebrate too fast."
Shikaku looks at the scroll presumably containing the body of an S-rank ninja. That, he decides, is not an active problem that needs dealing with. It too can wait.
"I left his bodyguards with the outpost," Shikako adds like an afterthought. "You might be able to get some Intel out of them."
"I'll deal with it," Inoichi thankfully offers.
Shikaku has had to order multiple ninja to cease pursuit on fleeing enemies, but that doesn't mean Konoha won't invest in any follow up later. The more information they have about Orochimaru and his plans and bases of operations, the better. Especially if he isn't out of the picture entirely.
"I was trying to see if Danzo was colluding with Orochimaru for, you know, this specific situation or just in general," Shikako continues to offer, like speaking more will improve the situation. "But he also saw through the henge pretty fast. It was just speculation on our part given some of his later actions and typical modus operandi. I wasn't unjustified, though! He was very clearly already in contact — you know, one of these ninja is known for unethical experimentation, on mokuton and Sharingan specifically, and one of these ninja had, uh, an abomination happening on his person."
"He'd already tried to assassinate the Third at least once," Kakashi Hatake says mildly. "Not that the Third thought it was worth doing anything about it."
A headache that doesn't feel entirely natural is building behind Shikaku's eyes. It feels eerily reminiscent of the time he'd sparred with an Uchiha teammate and been caught in a genjutsu that had lasted a full half-hour.
Concerning, considering the topic at hand.
"Do you have any intel relevant to the next twenty four hours?" he asks instead. If she is from the future—
"A little," Shikako says, wobbling a hand back and forth. "I was just a genin so it's not like we were involved... But cleanup started the next morning and the emergency shelters let out soon after. If there was any more fighting we never heard about it. Jiraiya-sama took Naruto to retrieve Tsunade-sama and she was sworn in about a month after the exam."
It's not the most promising intel, and he doesn't give it much weight, but he nods. "You'll have to stay with Hatake for now," he says. He suggests a patrol route for them, and Jiraiya disappears after them before Shikaku trap him in the Tower.
He rubs his forehead.
"Genjutsu?" Inoichi asks, eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"So it got you too, huh?" Shikaku asks back. "Not good." Who had contact with Danzo? Almost all of Konoha's upper administration.
They make it back to the temporary command station, and for a second surprise, Shibi Aburame is there.
"I have heard Danzo Shimura has been killed in action," he says, even though that news should not have spread so fast. Either there's a leak, or Shibi has been monitoring Danzo. "I request to be in charge of the investigation."
He doesn't go on, even though he's usually prepared to lay out his reasoning and counter any arguments before they arise.
"Why?" Shikaku asks. He's prepared to agree, barring any truly heinous surprises.
"A member of my clan," Shibi says, with such iron clad control that it's obvious it was far more than just that, "was once taken by Shimura for his black ops division. They did not return. I wish to discover what became of them."
Inoichi rubs his forehead. "Yes," he says, faintly. "Me too."
As far as Shikaku knew — and he knows far more about ANBU operations than anyone short of the Hokage should, technically, but secrecy and administration seldom go hand in hand — ROOT had been disbanded years ago.
He grimaces. "Granted, but there's circumstantial evidence that Danzo was able to use genjutsu to unknowingly compromise members of Konoha's upper administration. No one is without suspicion, but as his long time compatriots, please include Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane in the initial investigation, either as victims or accomplices."
Shibi takes a deep breath. "I see," he says. "That is concerning, however it may also explain a great deal about certain events."
"Please keep me in the loop of your investigation," Shikaku says. At least that's something he doesn't have to look into himself. Shibi is methodical and thorough and will probably turn up far more than anyone wants to know.
How troublesome.