Back to the past, Believe it!

An undercover failure

Shikamaru was looking for all kinds of things, what he wanted specifically was documents, something to paint the picture that Danzo is guilty, or show ROOT is still active. And in the end he found it.

It was in an old base of Orochimaru's, a couple still laid covered in this part of the past. When Pein destroyed the leaf village it uncovered a lot of the mans old work. But there simply wasn't the time, nor the available manpower to uncover it, research it, and see what the bastard had been up to. But they never got the chance, the chance to see it, because the leaf village was uninhabitable. During the war.

Well, regardless, he found a paper in Orochimaru's old base, it was around an hour away from the village, which disturbed him, but regardless it was clearly vacant.

But apparently, he was followed, or well, found, another person, a member of ROOT was looking for the same thing he was. But of course his intentions were different from his own. He found it first, but was caught on the way out by another ROOT member, there were two. One left and another pursued him.

At first he was fine just running away, he was going an okay pace, he was worried, he didn't know how to get away. He knew how to run, but not to lose this guy, not to mention he was in the dark when it came to this guys friend that ran off to do who knows what.

Then what he expected least to happen, did. What he didn't need was someone from the Leaf village coming to him, seeing him in an obvious chase, he's already in a damned situation that is going to be hard to get out of. Kakashi. He is, unpredictable at its finest. The copy ninja has yet to master the sharingan and compared to Shikamaru when it came to strategy was a complete novice, better than most, but a rookie.

But he can't walk up to Kakashi and tell him that and hope for the best, now thats a way to get him reported to the Hokage and deemed a fake of the actual boy he's supposed to be. The Hokage, no offence to him, he was a good ruler during his time, but he is a complete pushover.

From what he was able to gather, or bothered too, during the last timeline from his father, was that he in a sense knew ROOT still existed. That is going to be one of the hardest hurdles to jump over.

But then he dropped the document, Kakashi was behind him, he could tell by his signature that he wasn't chasing him, but rather just doing his own thing, probably finishing a mission. Kakashi dropped to the ground as the scroll rolled through the bushes, down the hill.

Before Shikamaru could get the chance to take it back, it was in Kakashi's grip, then the scroll was opened, then he ran.

Shikamaru had little to no choice but to watch as his evidence was carried away, He was hidden well enough that the Root member passed him, then he found Kakashi's signature.

His mouth thinned into a small line as he watched the man look around wildly than jump into the trees. That is when Shikamaru realized he needed to take responsibility of what just happened, in case Kakashi just bit off more than he can chew, is what he means.

He felt his throat constrict as he made it near what can only be described as ruins. He wasn't insulting Kakashi, but he didn't know he was getting followed. He wouldn't have, but thanks to Katsuyu hes had an extended range. He was a good distance away, but due to the stop he had to make thanks to Kakashi it was closed greatly, something he'd describe as no breathing room.

He felt his chest constrict just thinking about it. How old was he? Like ten? This could ruin a great deal of things he's been working on.

For the past two years, he's been building different lines, these lines are people, people that give him information they think might be useful to him. He worked damn hard for those connections, there has been a slow increase of a certain criminal gang popping up here and there, more about a skilled and dangerous bounty hunter, and a missing puppet master.