DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Masashi Kishimoto, various publishers and companies including (but not limited) to Shonen Jump Manga,Akamaru Jump, and Viz Media. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Temari shifted uncomfortably in her old bed. She had forgotten how lumpy it was, having been long spoiled by the comfortable on at her new home in Konoha. Shikamaru was sleeping deeply at her side, but try as she could, she couldn't fall asleep herself. All of her muscles hurt even though they had taken the trip to Suna slowly. It stuck her as odd, that as used to training and fighting as she was, something so natural as pregnancy would completely wear her out at the end of the day. Careful to not wake her husband she crawled out of bed. "So tired I can't sleep," she muttered walked to the window. Outside Suna was silent, the streets were empty except an occasional gust of sand that the wind kicked up. She leaned her elbows on the windowsill and looked out at the stars. She had missed Suna, the comfortable dryness of the summer's air and the savage beauty of its landscape. Her womb contracted, it had been doing that a lot more often lately as her body prepared for labor, but Sakura had assured her before they left for Suna that she had at least another month left before she would deliver. So when Tsunade had assigned Shikamaru to go to Suna to help Gaara with some political disputes between Suna and the head of the Land of Wind, Temari had opted to go along. She knew that after the baby was born it would be a while before she would be able to go back and see her home village.
While they were in Suna they were staying at the house she had grown up in. Kankuro still lived there, although Gaara had left to live at the home appointed to the Kazekage. Kankuro had left the house the same as it always had been for the most part, although at Gaara's suggestion he had converted his younger brother's old room into a room for his niece, Hatsune, who he spoiled mercilessly. Temari walked into the little girl's room and smiled looking around it. When they were little, Gaara's room had been a stark and empty space, which both she and Kankuro had avoided as often as possible. She had been surprised (and a good deal amused) when she found out that both of her brothers had pitched in to redecorate the room, painting its walls a pale shade of pink and adding ruffled curtains to the windows. Kankuro had filled her room with toys, including a vast collection of puppets, so Temari had to laugh when she saw that the little girl was snuggled down with a love-worn teddy bear that her uncle Gaara had given her. The fact that Hatsune liked her younger uncle best amused her parents, confused Kankuro, and made Gaara happier than anything else ever had. Temari leaned over and gently kissed her daughter's brow.
She made her way to the kitchen, setting a kettle on the stove to heat water for tea. She thought that maybe that would help settle her down enough to let her sleep. As she waited for it to boil, she stretched out the sore muscles in her arms, walking around the living room, which had only the most basic furnishings. It was littered here and there by things Kankuro hadn't had the motivation to save yet. She picked up one of Crow's spare arms from the bookcase and played with the jointed fingers of it, setting it back down with a tired sigh; he would never grow up.
In the kitchen the kettle began to whistle; she took it off the burner before the noise woke anyone else in the house. Walking to the table, though, a strong contraction surprised her, and she dropped the mug as she clutched her tensed abdomen. That slip up shattered not only the mug, but also the silence that had hung in the house. She wasn't worried about that at the moment, though, as she sat down in a nearby chair, trying to breath slowly and stop the pain. In a minute, Shikamaru poked his head into the kitchen. "Hey," he said rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong?" He hated being woken up in the middle of the night, but for his young family, he brushed aside the annoyance.
"Watch out, I broke a mug," she said, as she stooped down the clean up the mess.
"Yeah, I heard," Shikamaru said with a chuckle as he bent down and helped her pick it up.
"Sarcastic twit," she laughed, swatting at him with the hand not holding shards of broken mug.
"Troublesome woman," he teased back.
"Hey guys, you know I'm cool with you staying here, but I'd appreciate having some dishes left by the end of your visit," Kankuro said, with a sleepy smile.
"Don't look at me. This was your sister's handiwork," Shikamaru said, taking Temari's collection of broken pieces, and throwing all of them away.
Temari snorted. "Jerk," she whispered under her breath.
"Yeah, but you call her troublesome again and I'm sure she'll start cracking plates over your head," Kankuro laughed. "Well, if you two kids promise not to trash my whole house, I'm going to head back to sleep." He shook his head a little as he walked out the kitchen.
"Who you calling kid, little brother?" Temari called after him. "Owww!" she whispered with a grimace as another contraction caught her off guard.
"Hey, you okay?" Shikamaru asked her, his voice full of concern. He was behind her almost immediately, supporting her, as she cringed and almost lost her footing.
"I think so," she said, trying to calm herself down to relieve the pain. "This is the second one tonight, though. That's why I dropped the mug."
Shikamaru was silent for a minute as he thought of what to do. "You ought to go to the hospital," he said finally.
"Shika, honestly, it's nothing. What we ought to do is go back to bed," she said gently.
Shikamaru shrugged. "Whatever you think," not wanting to get in an argument with her, but hoping she knew her body better than he did. He helped her to her feet when the contraction had ended, and wrapped an arm around his waist, leading her to the bedroom.
She was about to lie down in bed when another contraction hit her. This time, she felt a small trickle of warm liquid drip down her leg. Her eyes grew wide with fear and anxiety that she never felt in battle. "Shikamaru," she whispered, her voice betraying her emotions. "I…I think my water just broke."
"That isn't funny," Shikamaru said hoping that that was just his wife's twisted sense of humor talking.
"I'm not laughing!" Temari growled, as she held her abdomen.
"That's it, you're going to the hospital if I have to drag you there myself," he said with finality.
She nodded, unable to speak at the moment, worry and pain clouding her mind.
"I'm going to go tell Kankuro," he said, his voice softening. "He can take care of Hatsune for us. Sit down on the bed, I'll be back in a minute."
She nodded again, and he went of inform his brother-in-law of the latest news.
When he got back in Shikamaru lifted his wife up. "I can walk," she said, trying to sound braver than she felt.
"So can I," he countered. "You just hang on and I'll have us there in a few minutes." Normally brute strength and action weren't Shikamaru's style, but as his father had told him years ago, the love of a woman brought out the best in men, and at that moment, the best he could do was cradle his wife as he ran through the empty streets of Suna, heading for the hospital.
Temari trembled as she clung to him, her arms around his neck. She fought back tears; this was too early, much too early, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wished that Sakura could make it to Suna in time to help with the delivery, but she knew that that was impossible.
When they arrived at the hospital, a dark haired nurse led them into a delivery room with many circular windows looking out into the starry night sky. A tear trickled down Temari's cheek. "Aw, don't do that Temari," he said softly, wiping the tear away. "It'll all be okay."
"How do you know that?" she asked, her voice shaking.
"I just do," he answered weakly.
The doctor walked in soon afterwards with a couple nurses. He examined her, his face a bit grim, although his voice was reassuring as he said, "Well, it looks like your going to have a baby tonight."
One of the nurses prepared the tools for the delivery. Shikamaru leaned over, pushing Temari's hair off her forehead and kissing her brow tenderly. "It's all be okay," he repeated softly.
In the waiting room, Gaara paced anxiously, every couple minutes glaring down the hallway at the door to Temari's room. Kankuro had called him as soon as Shikamaru and Temari had left, right before making the call to Konoha to inform Shikamaru's parents of the sudden arrival of their newest grandchild. "Lord Kazekage," a nurse said gently, laying her hand on his shoulder. "You're sister is in very capable hands."
He turned to look at her, a faint smile showing on the corners of his lips. He nodded. "I know," he said, his voice both gentle and strong. He couldn't help but think back to his earliest years, and how nice it was now not to be feared and hated. As a child, he would have attacked anyone who'd dared to touch him as she just had, but now he took comfort in her tender gesture. He sat down, trying to look more relaxed although his fingers tapping against the chair's arms gave him away.
"Let me know if you need anything," she said with a smile.
"I will. Thank you," he responded, watching her as she nodded and turned to walk back to the nurses' station. When she sat down to flip through paperwork he turned his gaze back to the door to his sister's room. Every now and then nurses walked in and out the room hurriedly, but he knew that disturbing them would do Temari no good. He could hear her scream now and then and the sound of it made him shudder. In many ways he wished he had sand with him so that he could find out what was going on, but as he thought of it more, he was glad not to know.
Four agonizing hours passed. Temari felt as though all her strength was gone as the doctor ordered her to push again. She tried her hardest to comply, and then…. there he was. Bloody and screaming, strawberry blonde hair pressed slick against his head; he wiggled against the doctor's hands. Tears filled Temari's tired eyes. "He's beautiful," she murmured.
Words escaped him completely as Shikamaru was handed his son who'd been wrapped loosely in a blanket after the doctor clipped the umbilical cord. A tear rolled down the bridge of his nose and dropped down on the baby's chest. He was a beautiful child, and strong for being born so early.
"What are you going to name him?" the nurse asked him, looking over her shoulder as she helped the doctor to clean Temari up.
"I don't know," Shikamaru said looking to his wife.
"Why don't you name him," she said, her eyes growing heavy from fatigue. "I named Hatsune, after all."
He wanted to protest, but she fell asleep before he could respond. He sighed, sorely tempted to ask one of the nurses to name the baby. "What should I name him?" he asked himself aloud.
"Why don't you give him a name that means something to you," the nurse offered. "Or name him in memory of an ancestor."
Shikamaru thought about it. A name that meant something to him. He supposed he should name his son something beginning with "Shika" as it had become something of a tradition in his family. Not to mention that Ino and Choji's wife, Rin, were both waiting for children in the next few months, and they had joked about the next generation of InoShikaCho. Of course, though, he'd never been terribly fond of his own name.
The nurse took the baby from Shikamaru, bringing him to the nursery to clean him up and take his measurements. Shikamaru sat in a chair near Temari's bed, his hands forming a circle as he contemplated the name he would bestow on his son. After all, this name would mark him for the rest of his life; it had to mean something.
Three days later, Shikamaru's parents arrived at Suna. They arrived at the hospital having picked up Hatsune from Kankuro's house before they got there. After she ran up and gave her mother and little brother kisses, Hatsune ran up to her dad with her arms outstretched. He picked her up and she gave him a kiss before she began on a babbling monologue of all the fun things she'd done with her uncles who apparently had let her run around like a wild child in her parents absence.
"These Nara men," Yoshino said to Temari, as she held her grandson for the first time. "You know I think they believe showing up early for their first appointment gives them an excuse to be lazy the rest of their lives."
"Shikamaru was born early?" Temari asked, looking across the room to he and his father.
"Shikaku too," she said with a laugh, "according to my mother-in-law."
"That would have been nice to know before we made the trip to Suna," Temari said loudly, with an accusing look shot at Shikamaru.
"What? I didn't know that," Shikamaru said defensively.
"Yeah, right," Temari said, rolling her eyes. She looked over to her son. "You'd better not turn into a lazy good-for-nothing like your father," she teased.
"Three days old and she's already nagging the poor kid," Shikamaru whispered to his father, elbowing him a little.
"She's got a point," Shikaku whispered back.
"Traitor," Shikamaru said with a bit of shame. He may be a bit whipped but his father had been strung up on Yoshino's apron strings for years.
"We can still hear you, dear," Yoshino said to Shikamaru in her frighteningly sweet voice as she smiled and handed the baby to Shikaku.
Shikaku held his grandson, looking down at him with a lopsided grin. "Hey there little guy, you've come into a world of trouble. You know that?" Yoshino shot him a threatening look, and he winced a little. Shikamaru shook his head. "So you called everyone back home," Shikaku asked.
"Yeah," he said looking over at the baby. "Ino and Choji were a little upset that there wouldn't be another generation of InoShikaCho, but they understood."
"I think Asuma would be proud," Shikaku said.
Shikamaru nodded. He had called Kurenai right after he'd bestowed his child with the name of his fallen teacher. She had thanked him for that. Years had passed since Asuma's death, but they had stayed in touch, Shikamaru fulfilling his promise to look after Asuma's daughter. She was almost ten now, about to graduate from the academy and become a genin. Shikamaru already knew what he would give her as a graduation present, the brass knuckles he had inherited from her father.
Hatsune wiggled in his grip and he set her down, gently taking his son from his father. He smiled down at the cooing newborn. The name may have placed some pressure on the kid, but as his sensei would have said, sometimes a little pressure is good. With is free hand he smoothed down the baby's unruly hair as he said softly, "Hey there, Asuma."