Chapter 104: Three Years

Days followed nights, summer followed autumn, and autumn followed winter, the cycle did not last long and now another winter came more than three years after what happened in the abandoned Uzumaki quarter, and almost three years after the Uchiha Massacre ...

During this time, Konoha continued to live her normal life. The disappeared clan was still remembered, but few saw what happened on that ill-fated day. Therefore, for many it seemed that their acquaintances simply disappeared, as if they had never existed. It was really sad. The clan disappeared, leaving only one survivor. Since then, Sasuke Uchiha's life has changed dramatically. From a kind, slightly shy boy with talents, in an instant he turned into a closed one and lost his former childish smile. Now it was a gloomy child with a brooding and gloomy look. Although it was not all that sad, Sasuke still had a friend with whom they often quarreled and fought. Naruto Uzumaki, who would have thought ...

Naruto could truly be called his friend. After all, only with them could Sasuke still smile or compete with joy.

Shikamaru sometimes watched these two and was amazed. Yet history has changed. Sasuke was talented, Naruto was diligent. The second began to train much earlier, so he largely bypassed his friend Uchiha. Naruto did not have that rival spirit mixed with mild envy, so he was able to approach Sasuke and since then these are both the main rivals in the academy. Sasuke stubbornly tried to catch up with his comrade and life went on as usual ...

More than a year ago, Shikamaru left the academy and fully took up ninja affairs, continuing to operate according to plan and embarking on lower-ranking missions.

Just at this time, in the center of the village, in a small cafe, where the noise and din of outgoing visitors reigned, there was a small room outside the basement doors. The room had perfect lighting, although it was rather cold and damp. But it was here that Shikamaru spent most of his time in recent years.

The room was not decorated, but all its walls were littered with hundreds of different sheets of paper with incomprehensible symbols. These were all fuinjutsu seals ... There were so many seals that it was almost impossible to count their number. Only on the cold stone floor were there relatively few of them. Many symbols on the walls were repeated, many were drawn not in black ink, but in blood. Some were unfinished, and some looked quite good, even a slight sense of danger emanated from them.

At that moment, in the lotus position in front of a small wooden table, sat a tall young man with dark, slightly sharp hair, braided into a ponytail. The guy's face was a little pale, there were bruises under his eyes, his hands had only a few abrasions and the white bandages completely disappeared. Here are just all the guy's clothes, like his forehead, were covered with ink, as well as the fingers of both hands, with which he alternately deduced symbols with special zeal.

Shikamaru's eyes were glittering, and several glittering beads of sweat had already accumulated on his forehead. He was as tense as possible. But what is strange, he used two brushes at once and displayed with both of them characters that were not similar to each other. Having learned this fuying technique, he increased the speed of work several times. But it didn't help him at all. Having already spoiled a couple of hundred sheets, he never came to the desired effect, and this time he again reached an important moment ...

All in a couple of seconds, having brought out an ideal fuyin print, it immediately flashed with a bright green light, as at the same moment, the light faded, the paper quickly began to turn black and after a second, completely rotted into nothing.

Shikamaru could only snort in annoyance at the result of his last hour's labors.

- What time, damn ... Am I so bad or what? This Mito is too demanding! Looking at the old yellowed scroll in the corner of the table with red symbols on it, Shikamaru could only sigh.

- I've already learned half of everything. The part is difficult to repeat, but still real. Now, even without Naruto, I would be able to infiltrate that Uzumaki quarter. Even so, this sealed scroll still defies. I used the triple burning method, the three styles Maelstrom unsealing method, breaking the shackles and a dozen worse methods - and nothing. How good was Mito? - reaching for the glass of Sake, Shikamaru raised it, threw it back and not receiving the coveted liquid, he just shook off the drops from the glass in irritation:

"Eternally ends .... Eh," putting the scroll down, Shikamaru slowly got up, wiped his face with a towel, crunched his neck and sighed: "I could have used the Great Unsealing of the Ten Yang Orbs, but… Hah, these are already excessive methods. You will need chakras like from three jinchūriki. Although, if you find the Bijuu and seal it ... - Shikamaru nodded thoughtfully: - As an option ... But I don't have the Style of Eight Trigrams, and using other seals is a little unreasonable, it is clearly worse. Now, understanding the structure, I can repeat that seal, I still remember the view from the manga ... But only the correct distribution and mixing of chakra can cause an unpleasant disaster.

Crunching his fingers, Shikamaru walked to the wall hung with paper stamps and ripped off one of the largest, said thoughtfully:

- My seal may also work, although .... Whom I am deceiving, I still have to learn a year or two before calling myself a master. It is worth visiting the Mito Treasury once more. If I don't find the complete Eight Trigram Style and the final part of the Maelstrom style, it will put a break in my training.

Glancing at the ceiling, Shikamaru folded up a couple of seals and the glowing fuin on the ceiling immediately went out, the room instantly plunged into darkness. Only small beams of torch light could hardly break through the wooden door of the entrance.

Approaching the door, Shikamaru easily opened it, took off his jacket from the hanger, threw it over his shoulders and slowly stepped into a small corridor. Oddly enough, but only after leaving the room, from all sides there was immediately heard the noise and hubbub of the crowd from the upper floor. Shikamaru just grinned, folded the seal, slammed the wall and without turning, slowly trudged towards the stairs, barely lit by a couple of torches. At the same moment, with an unpleasant scraping noise, the stone completely hid the wooden door behind. The only thing left is a stone wall with an uncomplicated symbol of the Nara clan.

Climbing the stairs and opening the door, Shikamaru extinguished all the torches with a light movement of his hand. He closed the door behind him, he immediately entered the pantry with groceries. The boxes were neatly laid out everywhere, most of them sealed. There were only two doors, one to the backyard and the other to the kitchen. Without thinking twice, Shikamaru took a step and entered the kitchen. Work was in full swing there now. Three cooks rushed about the kitchen and cooked the food by the sweat of their brows.