A/N: NaruAndHarrHaremFan's "REBORN A NARA" challenge. I liked the idea and decided to write something... Not sure how far it will go.

Naruto dies during the 4th Great Ninja War and is reborn as Shikamaru Nara!

Preferences/

-Naruto retains his memories from his past life. YES

-He gains Shikamaru's intelligence YES

-He keeps his own work ethic YES

-Must befriend new jinchuuriki YES

-Must not hold back, but must still graduate as a part of the rookie nine YES

-Pairing: any you want, but harem with Ino, Samui, or Hanabi is preferred. No harem, sorry :)

-whether or not he has any left over chakra from the Kyuubi YES

Beware, I don't like Naruto, but it's one of the few parts of where one can read something interesting.

THE MASTER OF SHADOWS

by CreatorZorah

Chapter 1

It was a good warm day, the sun was shining bright and only few puffy clouds above the Konohagakure were slowly moving west. It was a day like any other and it wasn't surprising at all to see young Nara Shikamaru beating the hell out of a training dummy.

"Your son is such a workaholic," Inoichi said leaning with his back on a tree. "The only Nara that doesn't seem to be lazy."

"He's troublesome," Shikaku grunted looking at his son. Even since Shikamaru had turned four and had been allowed to train, the boy turned to an anomaly of the Nara clan.

"Are you sure he's your son and not Gai's?" the blond said with a grin.

"Are you sure that your daughter isn't Namikaze?" Nara asked.

Yamanaka rolled his eyes and said, "Don't remind me. It's a wonder that we don't have the whole village full of blonds. The whole female population seemed to have a crush on the Fourth."

"Nah, she was the only woman Minato had his eyes for," Choza Akamichi noted.

Shikaku nodded. "It's a pity they died so young," he said.

"Did you find something out about your son's chakra?" Inoichi asked suddenly.

"No," Shikaku answered with a frown.

He remembered that day like it was yesterday. When Shikamaru had heard about the failed kidnap attempt on Hyuga heiress, his son for some reason had gotten really upset. That had been worrisome enough, since Shikaku jadn't been able to understand the reason behind it. But then Shikamaru had gotten angry and had released some of the fox's chakra. It turned out that his son had lots of the Kyuubi's chakra.

Shikamaru was a pseudo-jinchūriki almost like Sora, whose father inconveniently had gone rogue recently leaving Shikaku without anyone who could tell him more about his son's condition. But the Sora's case was still different, because unlike him, Shikamaru had developed whiskers at that day, reminding Shikaku of the infamous Gold and Silver brothers. His son had lot more Kyuubi's chakra than Sora.

The problem was Shikaku was sure that no one could have sealed the tailed beast's chakra inside of his son. Besides, why someone would do something like this? There was no logical reason. The only explanation was spontaneous absorption of the leaked Kyuubi's chakra. And still, he wasn't comfortable with the explanation.

Shikamaru sighed in relief as he noticed that his father and teammates left him alone to train. Kicking the dummy wasn't fun at all. It was useless, since his body was too young to gain some muscles. But he couldn't show his father that he was trying to regain the chakra control. Ever since he hadn't been careful, releasing some of Kyuubi's chakra in front of his father, Shikaku paid him way too much attention.

He felt helpless on that day, knowing about what would happen, but being unable to change anything. Sure he could have just gone to his father to tell him that he was in reality Naruto from the future, that had been somehow sent by some freak accident to the past before he had a chance to die. But he still wasn't sure if he had to say anything about it to Hokage or someone else. He feared that they would do something that would completely sabotage the timeline.

He wasn't even sure if he had to try to keep the timeline as it was. He had to make Konoha stronger. However, he wanted to be the one in control of the changes. Chaotic changes to the timeline could have unpredictable and dangerous consequences.

He failed to save Neji's father, he was too young to do anything, but perhaps he could prevent the slaughter of Uchiha clan. That would definitely make the village stronger. But was it wise? What about the coup? Was there a way to prevent the massacre? It was four years away and he doubted that he could convince the right people to make different choices. The time will tell.

And there was the problem of the other Naruto. In less than a year they both would start the Academy. Shikamaru didn't know how to act around himself. Sure he would befriend him, but it would be troublesome. The boy scowled realizing that he was falling back to typical Nara behaviour and sighed.

His new body wasn't nearly as strong as the previous one. Furthermore, he could tell that considering the amount of chakra he had right now, at the age of twelve his chakra reserves would be around the hundredth of the amount he had once possessed. It was still more than any normal shinobi would have, but much less than he would like to have. Therefore, no Mass Shadow Clone technique anymore. It would waste too much chakra. Though, there was the Kyuubi's chakra he could rely on without losing control.

But there were advantages. He hadn't been able to think this clearly in his old body. He could solve so many problems at the same time. No wonder Shikamaru had been a genius. He knew a lot about Nara Clan techniques now. Shadows were difficult to control and they drained users of their chakra very quickly. And considering that Naras didn't have large reserves, their techniques were quite limited in their use. But Naruto's new body had tons of chakra. He could already imagine things he could do with shadows using the chakra he possessed.

He looked up at the sky and for a few minutes watched clouds that dotted the air. Then he darted to a tree in attempt to climb it using his chakra, but failed and fell down. Yes, first he had to bring his chakra under control. Nara techniques required a very precise control, and of all Nara, Shikamaru would have the greatest problems with controlling chakra. Even as a four-years-old he had more chakra than a lot of his Clan members.

"Hey, Shikamaru!" The voice belonged to Choji, Shikamaru noticed him a while ago. "What are you doing?"

"Training, Choji," he answered.

"Why?" Choji asked munching some snack.

"To grow stronger, to be able to protect our village," Shikamaru explained, knowing that it was useless trying to convince Choji to train along with him. The Akimichi wasn't a prodigy or genius, and it was a difficult concept to grasp for a someone as old as him. Choji wasn't old enough yet to have a reason good enough to get stronger.

"My father thinks it's alright to wait until I start the Academy."

"And he's probably right," Shikamaru said trying to run up the tree again.

Choji looked at him and said, "That's cool. How are you doing that?"

"You have to focus the right amount of chakra to the bottom of your feet to stick to the tree, then you just climb the tree either by running or by going."

"Sounds difficult," the other boy said sitting down on the ground.

Shikamaru fought off a sigh and continued the exercise. He would have the same problem with... Naruto. He hadn't been serious enough until he met Haku and Zabuza. That encounter had shaped him into what he was. Naruto of this time was still an ignorant child. He hoped that when the time would come to go to the Academy, he would be able to shape his friends into what they needed to be.

Months later

"Checkmate," Shikaku said.

Shikamaru looked at his father. He loved his new family. Sure they were weird, but it was such a great feeling to have someone who loved you and called a son. He glanced at the board and sighed. "Troublesome," he said. "I shouldn't have attacked seventeen moves back."

Father nodded and agreed, "You weren't prepared to attack."

"I'll win the next time," Shikamaru said.

"You've told that the last time we've played too," Father reminded him. "Are you ready for the Academy?"

Shikamaru nodded. He couldn't wait, because his father would begin teaching him the clan techniques. His chakra control was still bad, but the amount of chakra grew a lot and he was sure that there was no one else with a comparable chakra reserve in the village besides him and Naruto.

Of course he tried to use his old techniques. The only way to use Mass Shadow Clone technique like he had been doing it in his previous lifetime was the fox's chakra. He had to avoid using it though. Still, even without the fox's chakra he could create ten shadow clones without any problems. On the other hand he couldn't use Rasengan without the help of a clone again. But having immense reserves of chakra that were constantly growing like mad, made it very difficult for him to perfect the control.

"Don't forget, if something strange happens with your chakra, notify me or your mother immediately," Shikaku said.

"Alright, dad." Shikamaru was annoyed with his father because he wasn't telling him about the fox's chakra. But he knew the reasons and couldn't blame Shikaku for trying to keep him safe.

"Good." Father nodded. "It's late, you have to get a good sleep to have a clear head tommorow."

"Yeah, yeah," he said.

Lying in his bed he closed his eyes and wondered how his second first day of the Academy would go. They wouldn't get a good teacher until the eighth year, when Iruka-sensei would start teaching. Well, he wasn't really fair saying that, as the teacher had been probably good for everyone who hadn't had the name Naruto. Shikamaru didn't even remember what the name of the teacher was.

On the other hand it would be a good opportunity to befriend Naruto. He always wondered how strong he would have been if he had been taught by someone adequate early on. Shikamaru could help him a lot. He sighed. Being Naruto himself, it was so confusing to think about the other Naruto.

But nothing could prepare him to what was waiting for him at the Academy. When he searched the next morning for Naruto at the Academy he couldn't find him anywhere amoung students even though he could clearly remember that he hadn't been too late. But when the pupils began to fill classes he froze before the door, blocking the entrance for the rest of the children.

He couldn't look away from the girl that was sitting alone at the first row. She had a long blond hair, bright blue eyes and whiskered cheeks. The girl looked at him and giggled.

"Shikamaru, you're blocking the way," Choji said.

His eyes widened and he said, "Sorry." With that he sat beside the girl as Choji took the last place at the table. "I'm Nara Shikamaru," he introduced himself to the girl.

"And I'm Akamichi Choji," his friend said.

The girl smiled and said cheerily, "My name is Uzumaki Mito."

I don't have much time for this story, since I have Hermione Granger and the Prince of Serpents/Harry Potter and the Burning Hells to complete and these are very long stories. But I'll try to write a chapter every now and then.