Glowing in his Shadow
"Now, now Shikaku what is the problem?" Choza asked taking another piece of the beef in his chopsticks.
Shikaku Nara was a man of cool temperament. It was only on the rare occasion that he got angry. And this was one of those occasions.
His other best friend Inoichi poured him another glass of sake to free his tongue.
He readily took the glass and downed it in one go.
"It's the new chunin in my division. She's so annoying. I won't be surprised if she's ready to take my life. She's that annoying." He complained.
"But it's not like you to lose your temper so easily. What is it about this kunoichi that's boiling up you so easily?" Inoichi asked leaning back into his chair.
"For starters, she thinks that she rules the damn place. Ordering the jounins around and making sure all of us do our work prim and properly." He said pouring himself another glass of sake.
"Considering your nature, isn't it good that your squad finally has someone who takes their work seriously?" Choza suggested.
Shikaku glared at his friend. Choza had clearly forgotten that this was a session for ranting about the woman and not supporting her.
"Yeah, just give her all your work." Inoichi said merrily.
"I tried but the glare she gave me could kill people." He said despotically.
"Shikaku Nara has finally met his match." Inoichi said laughing.
"What do you mean by met my match?" He asked raising an eyebrow.
"A woman who is whipping your ass instead of raining words of praise on you." Choza said joining in the laughter.
It was true. Shikaku had a way with women which often made Inoichi and Choza jealous. It was true that Inoichi was the best looking from among them but he lacked the easy charm which Shikaku managed to produce out of thin air. He was nineteen but already had a string of admirers running behind him.
"She's troublesome." He grumbled taking another glass of sake.
His friends simply laughed in return.
Yoshino hated her new boss. He was the epitome of the word laziness. Nobody in the squad seemed to be bothered by his casual attitude and instead called him the 'smartest man in Konoha'.
The intelligence headquarters were in full bustle. It was rather obvious that a war with the Hidden Rock was inevitable at this stage. The intelligence team had been assigned the task of designing a new code which the Hidden Rock cryptographers would not be able to crack. Yoshino took it upon herself to design the code and spent day and night researching different coding methods while struggling to come up with her own.
It was rather irritating that at the age of nineteen, Shikaku Nara had been given the responsibility of heading such an important committee. But the Third Hokage had placed his trust entirely on his young shoulder.
She stood outside said man's office with the new code in her hand. Her brown eyes had purple patches under them from staying overnight at the office to discover the new code. She was thoroughly impressed with her work and maybe that lazy man would finally learn his place once he saw her hard work.
She tapped her knuckles against the wooden door of his office. There was no reply. She tried again. Frustrated, she finally decided to let herself in. The sight that greeted her left her fuming.
Her leader, Shikaku Nara had fallen asleep on a pile of papers. His snoring was the most banal sound she had ever heard.
She picked up a newspaper from his desk and rolled it up. Even though he was her commander, he was just three years older than her and Yoshino found it rather stupid to follow formalities when such a ludicrous man was involved.
She whacked him on the head with the rolled up newspaper. He did not budge. She tried harder.
He lazily opened an eyelid and gazed at her.
"Nara sama, please complete your work and then consider taking a nap." She said pointing accusingly at the huge pile on his table.
"It's not urgent." He replied stretching his arms before giving a yawn.
"If you cannot manage the work load, please inform Hokage sama. He can replace you with a more worthy leader." She snarled at him.
Shikaku Nara lazily glanced at her. She would have been beautiful if it had not been for her troublesome attitude. She had long brown hair which reminded Shikaku of the soil after the rains were welcomed in Konoha for the first time. She had piercing brown eyes which revealed wisdom beyond her years.
"Why are you disturbing me?" he asked her. She had a good figure as well. Her body was curvy yet toned. Sadly her standard chunin uniform required him to think of the rest using his imagination.
"Are you ogling me Nara sama?" she screeched at him.
He rested back into his chair and placed his feet on to the table. This further added fuel to the fire and now she was shooting daggers at him.
"What is your work with me?" He repeated his question again this time with more seriousness.
Suddenly remembering the purpose of her visit, she removed the sheet of paper containing her code.
"I have taken on the task of designing he code which Hokage sama required of us." She said placing the paper on his table.
He glanced at the paper. After a few minutes he looked up at her again.
"This is not good enough." He said mustering a yawn.
"But I spent so much time on it. Clearly you are rejecting it because you despise me." She barked at him. God, he thought, this woman has no control.
"You are correct about the despising part but no I'm not rejecting it because of that reason. It just lacks potential." He stated bluntly.
Yoshino was not used to being told that her work was not good enough. She had graduated with one of the top grades in the academy and her senseis had always promised her that she would be successful in whichever field she decided to pursue. She felt tears burning at the end of her eyelids. She would not allow him to see her crying.
"Thank you for your opinion. I'll try working on it to improve it." She said. But her emotions got the better of her and she could hear her voice cracking.
"There is no need to do so. I have already designed a code myself and shown it to Hokage sama. "
She simply nodded in reply and walked out of his office. She took a deep breath in a vain attempt to prevent her emotions from getting the better of her. She desperately needed some fresh air. Suddenly the spacious headquarters seemed extremely small.
She ran out into the garden which bordered the headquarters. She took a few quick breaths but the tears still fell. All those nights spent awake seemed absolutely worthless now. Her entire body ached from exhaustion from lack of rest.
"You don't take criticism very well do you?" A familiar voice interrupted her self-pity session.
"You don't understand how much time I put into that!" she lashed out at Shikaku.
He looked curiously at her crying face. She did not seem that dangerous when she looked so vulnerable. He noticed the dark patches under her eyes and the way her skin lacked its familiar glow.
"Take the rest of the day off. Come back tomorrow well rested." He said to her. He offered a bottle of orange juice.
She took the bottle and took a quick sip.
"I can't. The war is too close. I need to put in all my efforts at this point." She replied.
"If you aren't well rested, you are not going to be an asset to Konoha." He said.
She tried coming up with a reply but she could not. It was like her tongue was twisted. She realized with a shock that he had trumped her.
But she wasn't done there.
"Is it true what you said about despising me?" she asked.
He gave her a quizzical look before letting out a low laugh.
"Slightly but not entirely." He said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she barked at him.
And like that she was back to normal.
Shikaku Nara was working overtime for the first time in his life. The sudden start of the war had caught the entire village by surprise. At twenty- one, one did not have many expectations from life. He just hoped to get out alive.
He knew the day was crawling close where he would be required to go onto the battlefield. Inoichi and Choza had already been summoned. Intelligence work was more effective when done directly from the battlefield.
The appearance of Yoshino in front of his desk distracted him for a few seconds but he continued filling up papers with orders for his men.
"Nara sama, I heard you are leaving for the battlefield soon so I made this for you." She said thrusting a luck charm in front of his face.
A gift from the devil of all the people? Had he woken up on the wrong side of the bed?
He took the charm into his hand. It did not weigh much and was small enough for him to carry into battle.
"Thank you." He said.
"Also if you come back alive, I would like to make an attempt to improve our relationship." She suggested. Her brown hair was not tied today and fell magnificently till her waist.
He decided to toy with her emotions for a while.
"I might not return alive. Hokage sama is assigning me to a very dangerous mission." He said raising his hands up in defeat.
"What do you mean? You Shikaku Nara though I hate to admit it are one of the most capable shinobi I have met. You started leading the Intelligence in Konoha at the mere age of nineteen. You and Inoichi sama and Choza sama are known as some of the most adept fighters in Konoha." She scolded him.
He was taken a back for a few seconds. He did not know that she had such a high opinion of him. Maybe she was not as troublesome as she seemed.
"If I come back alive will you go out on a date with me?" He asked.
"That is a very strange question and in normal circumstances I would have rejected you. But considering the great service you are doing for a village, I might actually have to consider accepting." She said playfully.
Shikaku Nara was left speechless as Yoshino left his office.
Shikaku woke up with a stinging pain on his forehead. He ran a hand near his right eyebrow and felt two gashing wounds near his eyebrow.
"Don't touch it Shikaku! They are going to stitch it up as soon as possible." Inoichi scolded him.
He suddenly remembered that a Hidden Rock ninja he had killed had decided to give him a parting gift.
A medical ninja walked over to where he resting. She was a pretty woman, he had to admit.
"You were lucky you just ended up with this. You could have gotten worse." She scolded him playfully. She was trying to flirt with him but the splitting pain in his forehead prevented him from taking part in her little game.
"Move out of the way!" A loud voice bellowed into the tent which was being used to treat the injured. He noticed the Yellow Flash and Kushina Uzumaki walk in .But in Minato's hand was a body he was shocked to see. Yoshino, her name buzzed in his head like a bee.
"What happened to her?" He asked the medical ninja who was attending to him.
"She was kidnapped by ninjas from the Hidden Rock. Apparently she is one of the only shinobi in Konoha who can crack the tough code we have decided to use this time around. They kidnapped her and tried to get it out of her with torture. But she would not budge. I suppose they were going to kill her but Minato and Kushina san were right in time to save her." She informed him while bandaging his forehead.
He had himself taught Yoshino how to operate the code since he would be on the battlefield. He felt guilty for the knowledge he had given her had put her into trouble.
He found himself groping inside the pocket on his flak jacket. He removed the lucky charm she had made him.
He stood up suddenly shocking Inoichi, Choza and the medical nin treating him.
"Shikaku! Don't get up. Your injuries are still pretty serious." Choza warned him.
He ignored the frantic cries of his friends and the medical ninja and went to stand next to Yoshino's bed.
He put his large, calloused hand into her small, soft one and for some strange reason found himself crying.
Minato raised an eyebrow but did not say anything.
"Minato, I cannot thank you enough for saving her life." Shikaku said to the man known as the Yellow Flash.
"No. We should be thanking this brave girl who was quiet even under torture. She knows the true ninja way." Minato replied with a pained smile.
"I hope she makes it out alive." Kushina said with a look of worry plastered on her face.
"Don't worry. She will. She is tough one." Shikaku said with a smirk on his face.
After the war, Shikaku's life returned more or less to normal. He resumed his position as the head of Intelligence. But Yoshino had stopped coming to work. That's what torture would do to you, he though bitterly.
He decided to visit her on the seventh day of absence from work. Maybe some cheering up would get her fiery spirit back in her.
Yoshino lived in the inner part of the village. He was surprised to learn that her father was a local fisherman who had spent most of his income to fulfill his daughter's dream to become a ninja.
He was greeted generously by the fisherman and his wife. He was well known as a hero of the war. The house was considerably small compared to his and reeked of fish.
"Can I see Yoshino san?" He asked.
"Sorry, Nara sama but our daughter is not taking any visitors." Her father replied sadly. His wife took his shaking, wrinkled hand into her won.
"She is just nineteen but she already wants to give up being a kunoichi." Her mother said through her tears.
"Can I try convincing her?" He asked.
"I guess you could. My wife and I have given up on trying to get her out of her room. A war of a year can cause considerable damage to a man." Her father said.
Shikaku silently entered her room. Her room smelled of lavender unlike the rest of the house. She wars lavender perfume, he remembered. He found her curled up in her bed. He sat at the foot of her bed and cleared his throat to speak.
Suddenly noticing his presence on her bed, Yoshino looked at him. She did not say anything but turned away from his face.
"What about that date you promised me, Yoshino chan?" he said trying to start the conversation on a light note.
She did not reply and instead curled herself up into a tighter ball.
"Nara sama, please do not disturb me." She replied coldly.
Shikaku lied down on the bed next to her.
"What are you doing?" she asked shocked by his sudden action.
"Sleeping."
"Go and sleep somewhere else!"
"But I miss Yoshino chan so much that I need to sleep next to her."
"Get out of my bed and cut the chan!"
"But what about my date?"
"What is this?" she said tracing the two scars on his eyebrow.
"A ninja of the Hidden Rock got angry at me for killing him." He said.
She gently touched the scars and then proceeded to trace his eyebrows. The action was soothing and he found himself closing his eyes. Next she gently stroked his cheek. He found his breath quickening under her touch.
"My charm protected you." She whispered.
"Yes, yes it did." He replied.
In the heat of the moment, Shikaku found himself pulling her towards him. She did not resist and he relished the feeling of her flush against him.
"You can cry now." He whispered to her as he held her close.
He felt his jounin uniform getting wet but didn't say a word.
It had been two months since Shikaku Nara had started dating Yoshino that he finally decided to introduce her to his close friends, Inoichi and Choza. He actually wanted to avoid the confrontation for he knew both sides would be exchanging embarrassing stories about him. They arranged the meeting at the yakiniku place that the men normally frequented.
Yoshino dressed simply for the meeting. She wore a light blue kimono with a plain floral print on it. Her hair was tied back as usual. All the men were still in their jounin uniforms. Chouza had recently been given the responsibility of a genin squad and he was tough to catch free these days but he made time to meet his best friend's new girlfriend.
Yoshino instantly got on with the two other men. Inoichi charmed her with a bouquet of flowers and Choza being his usual friendly self instantly won her over.
"So do you have any embarrassing stories about Shikaku?" Yoshino asked taking a sip from her milkshake.
Shikaku glared at her. He then proceeded to shoot daggers at his two friends warning them of the consequences if they decided to open their mouths.
Inoichi and Choza ignored his warning and nodded at his love interest.
"This one time when we were genin, Shikaku had a huge crush of a chunin who was few years senior to us." Choza began.
"He was so enamored with her that he actually showed up for practice and pretended not to be lazy for a while." Inoichi continued.
"He finally got the guts to confess to her."
"But she flatly rejected him saying he was still a kid."
"Shikaku got so angry that he caught her in his Shadow Imitation jutsu."
"And did not allow her to move until she agreed to go on a date with him."
"That is so mean of you Shikaku!" Yoshino laughed while playfully punching him on his shoulder.
Inoichi and Choza joined in the laughter.
The food finally arrived and Yoshino was clearly surprised by Choza's monstrous appetite but did not say anything.
"How many women has Shikaku dated before me?" Yoshino asked curiously.
Choza almost choked on his food and Inoichi gave a nervous laughter.
"He always changes the topic when I bring up his old love interests." Yoshino told them taking another piece of barbequed beef into her mouth.
"There is no need to know that Yoshino." Shikaku said.
"Six or seven is my guess. Not all the girls were as lucky as you Yoshino chan to have the opportunity to meet the famous Inoichi!" Inoichi declared.
"So I'm special to you?" Yoshino asked Shikaku.
Suddenly the noisy table was quiet.
"Yes, yes you are." He replied.
"It's so peaceful here." Yoshino said as they strolled in the Nara forest one late evening.
"I love coming here. Perfect place to take a nap." He said.
"Is taking naps the only thing that runs through that walnut sized brain of yours?" she asked.
"Yes and maybe a little bit of you as well." He said pulling her in for a kiss.
They did not notice that the deer of the forest had surrounded them.
When they had been dating for a year, Shikaku finally mustered the courage to take Yoshino to meet his tyrannical mother. Thinking back to himself now, he realized that Yoshino and his mother were alike in many different ways.
Hiyori Nara was the matriarch of the Nara family and ruled over her son with an iron fist. Outside the house he was allowed to do as he pleased but under her roof he was her servant.
The two women instantly got along. Yoshino impressed Hiyori with her knowledge on herbs and Hiyori and Yoshino had a ranting session on him.
He had been kicked out of the room while the two women gossiped over cups of fresh green tea.
"So will you marry my lazy son?" Hiyori asked her.
"Maybe I will." Yoshino replied with a smile.
Shikaku made love to Yoshino for the first time, a day before their marriage. He knew according to tradition he was supposed to wait for the night of their marriage but she had been tempting him the entire week.
He found her giving him seductive glances or flashing him that cheeky smirk of hers and he would know that he done for it. She also decided to wear more revealing outfits during that week at their workplace. Shikaku was a man of great patience but even he had a limit and that bridge had broken long ago.
He pressed her against the soft mattress of his bed, kissing the living daylights out of her. She responded eagerly and thrust her hips up to welcome his crotch.
He released her from the kiss and looked at her panting figure underneath him. Her yukata had come slightly loose and he could see a bit of her cleavage and that simply added fuel to the fire.
He planted light kisses in her neck. She moaned in response. He was more experienced than her when it came to these matters. He had been the first man she had kissed but she was not the first woman he had made love to. Yet unlike those previous moments which were simply filled with lust, he felt an awe inspiring love towards the woman underneath him who was giving both her mind and body to him.
Shikaku Nara finally felt complete
They got married in the middle of spring. The ceremony was extremely extravagant considering Shikaku's position in the village and the Nara clan. But Shikaku found it a big bore. He was trying to yawn throughout the ceremony but a light slap from Yoshino on his thigh would remind him to stay awake.
The day Shikamaru Nara was born was the happiest day in Yoshino's life. She had always considered herself unsuitable to be a mother because of her overbearing nature. But when she held her son in her arms for the first time, she felt an overwhelming desire to protect this child she had brought into the world.
Much to Yoshino's annoyance, the first word her child learned was 'Dada'. Shikaku took it at as a personal victory.
"He's becoming too much like you." Yoshino complained one evening.
Shikamaru was a barely a month old when the Kyuubi attacked the village.
Shikaku had never been more scared in his life. He had just started the next chapter of his life and now this demon threatened to wipe it out within a few minutes.
He took Yoshino and Shikamaru to a shelter which had been built for the women and children.
"Let me come. I can help the medical team." Yoshino urged her husband.
"Shikamaru can't afford to lose two parents in one go." He told her.
Inside the pocket of his flak jacket was the luck charm she had made him few years ago.
The new generation of the Ino- Shika- Cho team had been formed. Her son wasn't too excited by the prospect though. He grumbled about the added responsibility of having to be a genin. Yoshino whacked him on the head when he said that.
Yoshino hugged her son close to her trembling body.
"Ma.." He began to complain. But he stopped. She felt him trying to hold back his tears.
Her child had been sent on a mission, mere days after he had become a chunin. But the Hokage had no option. She was short on men and the Sasuke retrieval mission was of utmost importance.
"He could have died if it had not been for that sand kunoichi." She remembers Shikaku telling her.
In this moment, their roles had been reversed. While Yoshino would normally do the scolding and Shikaku the consoling, their roles had had been switched. Shikaku told her with great guilt in his eyes how he had been forced to scold his son.
"It's fine." She said kissing the scars on his forehead.
"Why?" he asked her pressing himself closer to her body in the dark of the night in their bedroom.
"Because you taught him the ninja way."
Shikamaru had brought home the san kunoichi on his mother's insistence. She wanted to meet the woman who had saved her son's life and was now assisting him in preparing for the chunin exam.
She was a true beauty but she was feisty at the same time. She was stronger than Yoshino had been at her age and Shikaku remarked how much the two women were alike.
"She'll be good for him." She thought idly as she watched the two men playing shogi that evening after Shikamaru had dropped Temari to her living quarters for the night.
The mention of war brought terrible nightmares for Shikaku and Yoshino. And now Shikaku was headed off for battle the second time. Shikamaru would be joining him this time around as well.
"Kazekage sama has made your son proxy commander. You should be proud of him." Shikaku said as he pulled on his sandals as the two men prepared to leave.
"I don't care!" she shrieked at him.
Shikamaru's eyes widened at his mother's sudden outburst. He did not know of the torture she had to go through during the war against the Hidden Rock.
Shikaku caught her in his arms and held her there for a while.
"I'll come home." He promised her. He removed the luck charm from his flak jacket to show her.
But he never did.
The war had finally ended but the war inside Yoshino Nara had just begun. Her son had returned a changed man. To divert himself from the toxic emotions which intended to burst at any moment, he immersed himself in work as Kakashi san's new assistant.
I'm drowning as well, she thought. Yoshino found herself carrying the workload of managing the entire clan. They barely exchanged any words and Yoshino would often find herself idly glancing into space thinking about her deceased husband.
Then Temari walked in. She was the anchor Shikamaru needed in this rocky patch of his life. She also did some of the Nara clan work so Yoshino could pay more attention to her son.
She found them one day asleep in the garden that bordered their house and that's when she realized that Shikamaru would be alright.
Choza held Chouchou on his lap while Yoshino had Shikadai's sleeping body in her arms. Their grandchildren were turning two this year and they couldn't be prouder.
Look at your grandson, Shikaku. He is going to become as strong and smart as you and Shikamaru. He is the pride of not only Konoha but Suna as well, she thought.
And somewhere up in heaven, she knew her husband was smiling down at her.
A/N- I wanted to continue the timeline up till Yoshino's death but I thought it ended better here. Please let me know what you think in the comments section. I'm thinking of doing something similar for Shikamaru and Temari. What say?