Shikamaru woke up, groaned, and rolled over. That was normal. There was a home video of him, age three weeks, waking up, groaning, and rolling over. It had been his initial reaction to waking in the morning for nearly forty years now. For the last approximate bit-less-than-thirty years, the second morning ritual of his day was to check that none of the traps he'd set the night before had gone off. This second ritual of the day was where things registered as odd to Shikamaru.

First of all, he hadn't slept on a raised bed since the mission to Suna ten years ago and Temari had been pleased to demonstrate how loudly a headboard could bang against a wall, thereby making her brother Kankurou very irritable the next morning and quite happy to take it out of his hide rather than that of his sister. Then Temari had been poisoned and killed later the next day on a mission in Grass. He'd slept on futons ever since – which had the added bonus of not having a space beneath him that needed trapping, and only had to be rolled up, not made, the next morning.

Second, there were no traps to check. Oh, it was his room alright. He'd recognise it anywhere. But it was what his room had looked like back before he'd hit puberty, and long before he'd moved out of his parent's house into his own. The lazy genius also figured that it was after his fifth year, since there weren't any toddler-type toys around his room. Of course, by that he meant three-dimensional puzzles. Capable as he clearly was of standing on his own two feet, he was obviously beyond rattles and building blocks and teething rings.

Shikamaru raised a hand to an ear, checking to see if he'd had them pierced yet. He'd gotten the piercings when he was eight. Two plain silver loops. He'd gotten the small silver loops as a birthday present actually, though he'd stopped wearing the loops into battle by the time he was fifteen. It was just something that could get caught and cause trouble. Not that it mattered right now. His ears currently weren't pierced at all.

Judging by the clothes in his wardrobe, when he finally shuffled over to it and looked inside for what he would wear for the day, the suddenly young again Nara calculated himself to be approximately six years old. The total lack of mesh-armour shirts is a big hint, him having gotten his first at seven years old. Older than five and younger than seven.

Even Naruto would have been able to figure that one out. Alright, that's not fair to the Hokage, the blonde was bright. Just in a non-conventional way. Hmm... Even the legendary stupid brothers... actually, no. Those two probably wouldn't have been able to figure it out. Troublesome.

Shikamaru dressed himself and went downstairs for breakfast. If he happened to check the date on his father's newspaper at the same time to confirm what he'd figured out already, well, that was just good sense.

~oOo~

Shikamaru lay on the grass and stared up at the clouds during the lunch break. Academy lessons all over again, and it was even more boring and troublesome the second time around. Right now though, he was thinking about how much he wanted to change history. It wasn't a question of if, not if it meant he could save the Third and Asuma-sensei, stop Sasuke from running off, heck possibly even prevent the "Uchiha clan massacre"... Nah. A mite too ambitious for a six-year-old, which is what he was now, even if he had nearly forty years worth of memories.

So the question was how could he, as a six-year-old, change history? Well, the last time he'd been an Academy student he'd felt the paper tests too troublesome to bother with. He could start by changing his place in the class standings. That likely wouldn't affect team assignments though, however much it might affect classroom dynamic. Nara men were as notoriously intelligent as they were lazy and cynical. It was a package deal and expected. If he happened to put forth the effort to do his paper tests and score as well as he knew that he could, well, he'd still end up on a team with Chouji and Ino. Not a bad deal in general, Chouji was his best friend, and after a few years of being on a team with Ino a person got used to her. For all his genius though, he still had no idea how Chouji and Ino had gone from team-mates to dating. He understood that they were a great couple, hell, he'd been Chouji's best man at the wedding! They had two kids already with a third on the way. They were a great couple, and woe betide anybody who said otherwise. He'd just missed the part where one of them asked the other out and received a positive answer, and failed to be able to formulate a believable scenario in his mind.

The proposal he understood, he'd helped Chouji look for the ring. But that was after the relationship between the two had been established.

Never mind. Not relevant beyond that he didn't want to mess up that part of history as he knew it, which meant no messing with his own team's dynamic. Mess with other team dynamics instead. That sounded like a much better idea. Oh, and dealing with Kabuto. Shikamaru's initial desire was to kill the spy, but this was a ninja village and he wouldn't get away with murder for long. Besides which, better the enemy you know and all that. He wasn't personally in a position to be able to feed Kabuto much false information, but he knew how Konoha was run well enough to be able to have some effect on what the spectacled spy could learn.

For one thing, knowing that even if he was declared Rookie of the Year he'd still be put on a team with Ino and Chouji meant that it wouldn't be any loss to him to knock Sasuke from the spot. The Uchiha might not be quite so stuck up about being the strongest and the best if he wasn't right from the start. Also: Naruto.

Shikamaru liked Naruto as a Hokage. He did a good job. He cared about his shinobi and worked hard for them. He left the desk-work to a shadow clone most of the time, meaning that he could keep his own skills sharp, leading the village by example. They'd still been enjoying a great time of peace under Naruto's leadership when Shikamaru had woken up six years old again. Naruto was just naturally charismatic, given the chance and a little bit of attention. Hell, the crazy blonde had gotten Gaara to calm down and make nice during the infamous chuunin exam of their youths.

Shikamaru hadn't minded Tsunade as Hokage. She'd done a fair job too. There had been a hell of a lot of improvements in ninja gear under her reign, to say nothing of inspiring a new generation of medic nin into being.

Danzo, on the other hand, Shikamaru did not want to see becoming Hokage again. The crazy old man had nearly flattened Konoha when he'd been in charge.

But back to Naruto. He was considered the class clown and "dead last". If Shikamaru was willing to knock Sasuke down a peg or two, then why shouldn't he help his future Hokage climb a little faster than before? He knew now the reasons for the problems that Naruto had faced in the Academy, and he could help. Chakra control took precedence of course, what with Naruto's massive amounts of the stuff. After that, taijutsu forms and training in tactics, as well as some tutoring in the classroom stuff. It wouldn't hurt for Naruto to be able to understand the theory in his head, even if his body got the hang of the practical long before the blonde's brain caught up.

~oOo~

Shikamaru hadn't known, when he'd come up with the idea, that his heart would break to see those big blue eyes looking up at him in such wonder – and just because he'd extended the hand of friendship. He hadn't known it would completely shatter to see that wonder fade and hear what Naruto had to say to his offer.

"Your parents won't be happy with you if they find out, and they'd be really unhappy with me," Naruto answered, then offered him a small, broken smile. "Thanks though, Nara-san."

Shikamaru grabbed Naruto's wrist when the blonde boy turned away from him, and didn't let him go. "Tou-san is too lazy to care and Kaa-san would only nag, but she nags about everything, so I'm used to it. Come on!" he insisted, then spotted the perfect thing to get Naruto started on his chakra control right now as well as build his friendship with the other boy – something Naruto clearly needed, however well-adjusted he had seemed in later years. "I'll race you to the top of that tree!" he challenged with a grin, pointing to the tree in question.

Naruto gave Shikamaru another wondering look, before he turned to consider the tree that Shikamaru was pointing to.

"There aren't any branches low enough to grab onto for climbing," Naruto pointed out.

Shikamaru's grin gained a challenging edge to it, an uplift at one corner that his Hokage had learned meant the Nara had just won at something.

"I've seen ninja walking up the sides of trees with just their feet. It's a chakra exercise," Shikamaru explained, and dragged Naruto over to the tree.

Carefully, Shikamaru gathered his chakra – and it was harder now than it had been yesterday, but he put that down to not having been six yesterday – and placed his foot on the bark. Then he raised his other foot, and started slowly walking up the tree.

"Hey! How are you doing that?" Naruto asked, and the excitement in his voice was obvious to hear.

"Gather chakra at the bottom of your feet," Shikamaru explained, not climbing up any higher. "If you don't have enough then you'll slide off. If you have too much, you'll get pushed off. Do it slow until you get the feel for it," he advised.

Naruto nodded firmly and there was an expression of intense concentration on his face as he gathered his chakra and set his left foot a little way up the tree that Shikamaru was already standing on, perfectly parallel to the ground even though it made all of his muscles burn to hold him that way.

It took a while, but Naruto did manage to get the tree-walking exercise. That Shikamaru got a bit of exercise from the 'game' was a not-at-all-bad side-effect. It did highlight to him though that he'd taken for granted that he would still, as a six-year-old, have the same control over his chakra as he'd had when he was nearing forty. It was a largely mental discipline after all. Tree-walking had proven just how much work he was going to have to do if he wanted to be able to do the things he was used to doing though.

The answer, just by the way, was a lot. And he'd be dragging Naruto along for the ride, giving his Hokage a leg-up as it were that he'd been denied the first time Shikamaru had been this age. Hell, giving his Hokage a friend, which was something that no child should have been denied.

~oOo~

Shikamaru fought a smirk as he watched Ino and Sakura fighting each other for the seat next to Sasuke, only for it to be taken by Kiba while they weren't looking. It was the day of their graduation exam, and though Naruto could do a regular bunshin this time around – thanks in large part to Shikamaru's getting him on chakra control exercises so early – Shikamaru had also walked Naruto through the process of the kage bunshin. It wouldn't do for his Hokage to not know the jutsu that had practically become his trademark.

Besides, the kage bunshin meant that Naruto could once again establish himself as prank king of Konoha while in the Academy – and really not get caught. To say nothing of being able to learn a lot more stuff at once, which also helped the blonde's class standing. Thankfully, this time Naruto didn't try and graduate early, or Shikamaru would have lost track of his Hokage completely.

Though it certainly would have changed how history had happened, Shikamaru really didn't want such a thing to happen. Naruto was his friend as much as his Hokage after all, especially this time around.

A few days later – after Mizuki-sensei had been caught as a traitor after tricking a different failing student into stealing a scroll from the Hokage's library – Shikamaru's theory that class standings would have no affect on his team assignment was proven true. In fact, none of the important team assignments were changed, though Shikamaru couldn't recall if any of the other teams had altered. None of them had passed last time after all, so he hadn't bothered to remember the other Academy graduates. He hadn't interacted with any of them after this date anyway, though it was of course possible that they could change history just as easily as any of the 'Rookie Nine' had.

The D-rank missions were exactly as he remembered them, and Asuma-sensei was... lazier than he remembered. Probably because he himself had been lazier the first time around, so he hadn't really noticed how relaxed Asuma-sensei was about teaching them. That was alright though. Shikamaru would coast through training with his team-mates and work himself harder later, usually with Naruto after they shared an afternoon snack.

"We're leaving on our first C-rank tomorrow," Naruto confided once they'd both wiped each other out and were on their backs on the grass, staring up at the clouds. "Guarding a drunk bridge builder from Wave."

Shikamaru had heard about that mission. Apart from anything else, his team had gotten their first C-rank mission the day after Naruto's team got theirs. It didn't look good for the other jounin-sensei if only one team had progressed well enough to get a C-rank. Stupid reason, but if it meant no more D-ranks, then he wasn't going to complain.

Well, he wasn't going to complain any more than usual, anyway.

"When travelling, beware puddles where it hasn't rained and white rabbits where it hasn't snowed," Shikamaru offered, doing his best to make it sound like a proverb. For him, it kind of was. It was written in elegant kanji on a hanging scroll in his Hokage's office. Naruto had been feeling philosophical one day, apparently. It was a good point though, as it said to watch out for things that were unusual, as they could be dangerous. It had become a common saying among Leaf nin when they found out someone they knew would be leaving the village on a mission.

The present Naruto just snorted softly in amusement, but nodded, taking his friend's words for what they were: good advice.

~oOo~

Shikamaru was frowning at the display being given by Yakushi Kabuto to the other rookies. Him and his damn "ninfo cards". Bastard traitor spy. He'd let the evil, twisted psycho live long enough. In this exam he was going to -

A poke to his temple distracted him from his thoughts.

"Naruto?"

"You know too much," the blonde informed him quietly. "Not in the way he knows too much," Naruto continued with a nod towards the traitorous spy. "But don't insult me by denying it, please Shikamaru-san. Kakashi-sensei only just taught us the tree-walking exercise on our last mission, he's a lousy teacher and the look on his face when I told him I'd been tree-walking for years was priceless, but that's not the point. Nobody knows the future, but what you said just before I left on that mission..." Naruto trailed off. He didn't need to say more.

"This isn't the time," Shikamaru pointed out.

Naruto nodded. "I know," he agreed. "You're the one who taught me how to think analytically after all. But right now there's a lot of noise and all ears are trained on Kabuto-san."

Shikamaru inclined his head in acceptance of this. "After the written test," he promised.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at his friend suspiciously – just how did Shikamaru know there would be a written test? – but nodded anyway.

"And Naruto?" Shikamaru cautioned softly as his friend turned away. "Keep your mouth shut, no matter what."

Naruto nodded once, sharply. He was so getting answers from his friend, first opportunity he got.

The questions on the paper test were hard, not impossible, but hard, plus the subtle prod they got from the proctor, the "cheat, and don't let us catch you at it!" bit. Shikamaru was tempted to use his shadow to give Naruto the right answers, but he'd managed on his own last time just bluffing his way through. For his own team, he was pleased to see Ino stealing the answers, filling in her own sheet, and then filling in Chouji's sheet for him as well. She'd done that the first time around, and he suspected that this was when she'd started to think better of the boy who would eventually become her husband.

One thing was for sure though. This time around, Shikamaru wasn't going to be getting involved with Temari beyond orders. It was one thing to be assigned as her tour-guide around Konoha, her babysitter, or sent out on a joint Suna-Konoha mission with her. He didn't think he could bring himself to get back into a bed with her though. After she'd been killed on that mission, his choice of bedroom furniture wasn't the only thing about him that had changed.

"So?" Naruto asked as they sat together in an out-of-the-way spot to sign the papers that would let them into the next part of the exam.

"I woke up one morning," Shikamaru started, "and found myself about thirty-five years younger than I had been when I went to sleep the night before," he finished.

Naruto blinked. "Any idea why that happened?" he asked, unable to bring himself to utter the meaningless platitudes like "I see."

Shikamaru shook his head. "None," he admitted. "There are a couple of people I plan to stop though, just so they don't come back to bite Konoha in the balls in a few years, which they will if left alone now."

Naruto nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "Who?"

"Kabuto for one," Shikamaru answered. "You said it yourself earlier – he knows too much. He's a spy and a traitor and completely twisted. He's not coming out of there alive," he stated firmly with a nod towards the Forest of Death.

"Kunai to his balls if I see him," Naruto promised.

Shikamaru shook his head, a morbidly amused smile on his face. "He's a medic, he'd just heal himself right up. Annoying as hell. I'm going to drown him, then chop him into little pieces for the forest crawlies to eat. I doubt it will prevent the invasion that's going to happen during the final stage, but -"

"Invasion?" Naruto cut in.

Shikamaru nodded. "Sand have been tricked into allying with Sound. Also, Orochimaru the snake sannin is hanging around here somewhere, S-class criminal and Otokage. He's after Uchiha-san, plans to give him a seal that has all sorts of interesting side-effects, but the important one for Uchiha-san is that it will make him feel more powerful."

"Just what the ego-tripper needs," Naruto said with a quiet, disgusted sneer. "Alright," he declared, standing up and brushing himself off. "Avoid snakes, watch out for sandy places, and keep my ears pricked. Gotcha. See you in five days, ne?"

Shikamaru smirked up at his friend. "If not sooner," he quipped.

Naruto nodded and headed off to re-join his team-mates.

~oOo~

Their first night in, while Ino slept and Chouji was on watch, Shikamaru excused himself to his best friend – even building a better rapport with Naruto hadn't changed that – and went hunting for the traitor. With all the shadows everywhere, he'd have an easy time capturing his prey, and then it was just a matter of walking him into a body of water and forcing him to breathe deeply. After all, there wasn't anything to heal or regenerate when a person was drowned. Kabuto would die, and then Shikamaru would feed him to the giant tigers of this forest.

He almost couldn't believe his luck when he found the pale-haired, spectacles-wearing, lying bastard within the first fifteen minutes, and a suitable body of water in the following two.

Just to be thorough, of course, Shikamaru stripped the man of his belongings. His "ninfo cards", his ninja wire, his kunai, his shuriken, his senbon, any scrolls he had on his person – and he had more than just his team's heaven scroll – and finally his Konohagakure headband. The traitor didn't deserve to wear it. Not in life, not in death.

It took three-and-a-half minutes to properly drown him, and another four to chop him up into pieces for the forest animals.

When he returned to camp, Shikamaru was glad that Chouji didn't say anything, didn't ask anything about where he'd been. Even when Shikamaru handed over the scroll he'd gotten – the scroll they'd needed, conveniently enough – Chouji didn't ask questions.

A few days later, in the tower, Shikamaru was slightly surprised to see that the teams present hadn't changed from last time. Well, except that neither the team from Sound or Kabuto's team was there. It was all the rookies: his graduating class, Team Gai, and the Sand Siblings. Still too many for them all to go into the next round though. Such a pity.

"So, any trouble with snakes?" Shikamaru asked Naruto quietly as they headed up to the balcony while the Uchiha and Rock Lee remained behind for the first match.

Naruto nodded. "Sasuke got bit," he answered quietly. "Obviously he survived..." he trailed off.

"But the poison didn't leave his system," Shikamaru finished. "I hope Rock-san wins this fight."

Naruto shrugged. "Never seen him before," he admitted, which to Shikamaru was both surprising and important. "But I'd just as soon see Sasuke out now as later. He needs that thing looked at."

Many were surprised – and Maito Gai was very proud – to see Rock Lee defeat Uchiha Sasuke. It certainly upset a few people who believed that geniuses and people from clans were superior to those who weren't. Shikamaru couldn't wipe the grin off his face. Here, here was proof that the lines of history were being altered. Now he just hoped that Neiji and Hinata wouldn't be paired up again, though he suspected they would be, if only because there didn't need to be more than one Hyuuga in the final round for the spectators to enjoy watching.

He was right too. After Sakura and Ino knocked each other out (again, and in exactly the same way as they had the first time he'd watched that fight), and Chouji had been taken out by Kankurou, it was Hinata against Neji.

Hinata went down, and Shikamaru placed a hand on each Naruto's shoulder and his mouth. "If she gets up, she'll be hurt even worse," he cautioned. "Visit her in the med-bay later, take her flowers, encourage her, but later."

Naruto swallowed the words he wanted to yell down to the Hyuuga cousins, and nodded.

"I reckon that fate stuff Neji was spouting is crap though," Naruto said quietly as Hinata was taken away.

Shikamaru nodded. "I agree," he said. "After all, I'm here changing history right now. I know fate isn't written in stone."

Naruto gave a wry, not really happy at all, smirk. "It's a cop-out for people who don't want to change, either themselves or their situations, who think they can't and need justification for not trying," the blonde said – and he said it loud enough for Neji to hear as the Hyuuga walked past them.

Shikamaru chuckled softly, watching as Tenten went down the stairs to take her place against Shino. It was a fight Shikamaru had never considered before. Certainly it had never happened before, not that he knew of. In the end, it was declared a double knock-out, just like Ino and Sakura. Shino lost a lot of blood to Tenten's weapons, and his bugs had eaten her chakra to the point where she could barely lift her next weapon.

Like the first time around, Naruto fought Kiba. The fight was different, but ultimately the result was the same: Naruto won.

When Temari was pitted against Gaara, she forfeited before Gaara did more than turn his head to look at her.

Which meant Shikamaru got by on a free pass. Lucky him. Or not so lucky, as his opponent for the first round of the finals that would be taking place in a month was Rock Lee. The excitable, leotard-wearing, bushy-browed nin probably wouldn't stand still long enough for Shikamaru to be able to catch him in a shadow bind. This would take thinking.

How would he catch Lee, and still have enough energy left for the invasion, which would probably happen during Gaara's fight again, which would be against Naruto this time around. Though, he also wondered if Kankurou would forfeit his fight against Neji the way he'd done for his fight with Shino the last time. It was possible after all...

~The End~