I disclaim already.
I - Their Life in General
"Let go!"
"Nuuhh you let go first!"
The two boys rolled around in the dirt, struggling for the scrap of metal between both their clinging fingers.
"I got it first!"
"It's mine!"
"No it's your dad's!"
"So it's mine!"
The one with darker hair rolled it out of the struggling boy's hand and bolted across the yard.
The other boy screamed, "Mom! He's not sharing with me! He's not sharing the kunai!"
"Stop complaining! Go get him! Beat him to a pulp!"
"Ino!" Shikamaru cried from inside the window, "Stop encouraging violence!"
"Shut up Shika – go get 'em! I want to see that look on Sakura's face when our kid beats hers in to the floor!"
"Mooom!"
"Get 'em! Pry it out of his hands!" Ino cheered.
Shikamaru groaned and turned back towards the papers across his table. I gave up the moment I asked that woman to marry me.
"Nah nah! You can't catch me!" The dark haired boy cried from on top the roof.
"You know I hate running around! That's not fair!"
"You're just lazy!"
"Am not!'
"My mom says that runs in the family!" The boy hooted, clambering across the roof.
"EXCUSE ME?" Ino shrieked.
"it's true you know," Shikamaru muttered.
"Get back here you runt! Get back here right now!" Ino ignored her husband and raced to catch up with the boy who leaped on to the neighboring roof.
"Go get 'em mom! Yeah!"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes and called blandly, "You're lunch is getting cold and your mom's getting angry!"
The little pony-tailed boy completely ignored his dad, instead he hopped up and down enthusiastically at the sight of his mom scrambling at the little black haired boy, "Go mom! Go!"
"Hey Shikamaru! Where did the little guys go?" A voice called through the doorway. Shikamaru averted his attention to the woman approaching his table and sighed.
"On the roof."
Sakura jerked her head outside and grinned, "Ino flipped again?"
"every day…" Shikamaru added uncharacteristically and gave the other man who stepped through the doorway a polite nod, "Sasuke."
"I'll go get him down." The dark haired man said and disappeared.
"Men always spoil the fun…" Sakura pouted as she watched with a slightly amused expression at the sight of Ino fumbling across the rooftops at a smaller and more agile body.
Shikamaru snorted in to his milk.
"What? Say something?" Sakura asked, turning towards him.
"What? Me? No – nothing…" The jounin turned to his papers sharply and resumed random scrambling of something to read.
"Hm." The pink haired woman gave him a strange look and slid in to the opposite chair, "So anything new?"
Shikamaru shrugged and Sakura watched annoyed as she could only see the top of his head. The rest were covered by the spread of tests by the students from the academy.
"Wouldn't you know first? You work right under the Hokage don't you?" Shikamaru muttered, sliding his hand across the current page with a red marker.
Sakura looked at the papers on the table, "She never tells me anything…and I think she's getting tired of her job."
Shikamaru looked up suddenly, "What?"
"No no I mean as in she's getting tired…old…Tsunada-sama is getting old…we just can't tell but being around her every day I can really see it happening."
"Sensei! Look at this! Look at this!" A small voice called from a window down the hallway.
Shikamaru didn't even lift his head, "Yeah yeah! I'm looking!"
"No you're not! Really really look! I nailed every one of those! Look!"
Sakura peered out the backyard window to see a small brown haired girl toss five senbon deep in to five individual set targets right dead center.
She nodded knowingly, "Tenten's daughter – "
"Just came in yesterday – turned seven and already has better aim than – "
"THAT'S NOTHING WATCH THIS SHIKAMARU!"
"…Naruto's…kid…" Shikamaru finished, "They share the same lack of manners…"
Sakura laughed as she watched the blond haired boy fumble all of his senbon when he tripped over his own feet while trying to strike a cool pose in mid air. His bright white eyes brightened gleefully when all the kids in the yard laughed.
"As well as the same recklessness – you've heard from Naruto lately?"
"Nah – he's on an Anbu mission – "
"I know that…he won't lay back on the letters, I get about three a day from Sasuke every time he goes check up at the border."
"So Sasuke's just back from a visit?"
"Yep, he's leaving right after we get home. I miss him all the time…Ino's lucky to have you – you stay home all day."
Shikamaru snorted again, this time followed up with large strangled gasps of fresh air because he just swallowed the piece of bread he had been chewing.
"What?"
"Huh? No – nothing. It's lovely I get to see Ino all day." He cleared his throat and shoved his face under the papers again.
"She's horrible huh?"
Shikamaru put the papers down and nodded almost over enthusiastically for a lazy jounin, "Oh yeah."
"Are we ready to go Sakura?"
"Yep!" Sakura rose from the chair and waved at the green vested man, "I'll see you tomorrow Shikamaru!"
"Sure have fun." Shikamaru muttered blandly. Sakura chortled as she joined her husband at the door.
"So how was your day today? Learn anything?" She said to the little boy in Sasuke's arms.
"I can throw six kunai now!" He said happily, "And I stole one from Ino! She couldn't catch me, I'm faster!"
"Very good!" Sakura said cheerfully, patting the boy on the back.
Sasuke cleared his throat.
"Right, we better get going – wouldn't want to make daddy late for work now would we?"
The three left the building just as a red-faced Ino came crashing to the floor, "Curses! If that kid didn't look so much like Sasuke I would've pounded him in to – "
Shikamaru lifted a lazy arm to shut his wife up, "Watch the profanity…this is a learning center…there are kids everywhere."
"$#!" Cried the blond boy from the backyard when he accidentally stabbed himself.
"DON'T $#& SWEAR!" Ino screamed at the vague direction. Shikamaru slapped himself in the face and held his head with his hands. Why…why why why.
"Hello Ino! Shikamaru!"
"Tenten!" Ino cheered, suddenly very happy.
"I'll get the kids…" Shikamaru mumbled as he scrambled out of the way from his wife who ran across the roof to hug the woman at the door.
"Ino…hi…" Tenten choked in the bone-crunching squeeze.
"I haven't seen you in two months, you know it gets really boring with Neji coming everyday."
"Well there's Shikamaru…" Tenten said nervously when Ino broke away.
Ino snorted through her teeth.
"Something wrong?"
"Oh no…what? Oh its lovely…seeing Shikamaru all day. Makes you want to – " Ino made the motion of wringing her hands and she laughed. Tenten lifted her eyes in a questionable manner.
"So….how was the mission?" Ino said loudly and dragged the chuunin to a seat.
Tenten shrugged, "The plan was over-done…we finished it three weeks earlier than planned – and the teams at the border weren't pleased to find about five more bunkers before they had even began preparing tents for us."
"Mommy!" A girl cried and Tenten lifted the small body in to her lap, "I nailed every one of them! Look see!"
"That's my girl!" Tenten said approvingly at the four targets, "But where's the fifth one?"
"Very good! You nailed every single one of them!" Shikamaru cried as enthusiastically as a bored ninja could. There was a kunai punctured through the side of his jounin vest and Tenten burst out laughing.
"That would've been funny if I don't have to patch this up now." Shikamaru added with a depressing sigh.
"Won't you let Ino do it for you? I have to patch Neji's clothes all the time." Tenten added.
Ino waved her hands, "Yes I'll do it for you Shika…just leave it on the bed."
Shikamaru gaped, "You'll fix it for me? For real?"
"Of course I will honey…" Ino smiled sweetly and Shikamaru visibly recoiled from her wide grin.
"Well I need to go, Neji isn't back from his mission yet so I need to prepare the family dinner with the Hyuugas – have a nice afternoon Ino, Shikamaru." Tenten exited the building with a polite wave.
Ino was still smiling sweetly.
Shikamaru hurried to pull the kunai from his vest just as Hinata entered the house.
"Hello Ino-san Shikamaru-san…"
Ino greeted her with another smile, Shikamaru found this the right time to leave. He hurried out the back door with full purpose to call for Naruto's kid.
"How are you doing today Hinata? Feeling better?"
"Oh yes…I'm recovering just fine…there's just a little coughing…but please don't tell Naruto that, he's already sending me five letters a day."
Ino, still smiling, nudged the girl to the chair and forced her to sit, "Well we won't worry him so don't push yourself too hard, that fever was a nasty one."
"There's no need – I have to get home to help Tenten-san with the dinner." Hinata gave Ino a small smile for Ino was still grinning from ear to ear, "Without Neji-nii-san I think she's quite lonely."
Shikamaru reappeared, clearly disappointed that Ino was still looking mighty cheerful, and Hinata was still present, he lifted the squirming boy in his hands and looked over at the Hyuuga expectantly.
She beamed, "We're going home now, say good-bye to your sensei."
"Let me go Shikamaru! Down right now!" The boy screamed, his hands shoved firmly down his back so the two women around the table could not see what he was holding.
Shikamaru firmly grasped his sides and did his best to maintain a calm mentor, "I can't unless you promise you'll let go of that scroll."
Hinata changed her friendly look to a concerned one, "What do you have behind your back?"
"Nothing!" The boy cried defensively.
"That's a very important family scroll – I don't want to tell Naruto that you've been – OW!" Shikamaru promptly dropped the boy and stuck his hand in his face to see a clear red bite mark.
The blond haired boy ran around the room and spotted the papers on the desk. He peered at them and exclaimed, "HA! I BEAT HIM! SUCKER! I GOT ONE MORE POINT FOR WRITING MY NAME!"
Shikamaru sighed.
Hinata was now furious and stood to her full height, "Drop that scroll young man and apologize to Nara-sensei!"
The suddenly very sullen boy reluctantly dropped the scroll and lowered his head, "Sorry Shikamaru."
Than after a stern look from his mother he added, "Sensei."
"You didn't have to." Ino said from behind the table, "Shikamaru makes a lousy teacher, isn't that right?"
"Right." Shikamaru said heartily. Rule number one, you cannot disagree even if the situation is death defying and you know her decision would surely end in demise, you must never disagree. The only time you may however agree is when she asks the question "Do you thinkthis makes me look fat?" Then by all means, do disagree. In fact disagree like your life depended on it.
Shikamaru knew that rule by heart.
And by the painful bruises whenever he would mess the two agree and disagreeing part up. Who could blame him, he was only one man.
By the time Shikamaru had dropped out of his momentary wise thought, Hinata was already waving goodbye to a beaming Ino.
Ino looked cheerful enough.
He gazed hopefully at his ripped jounin vest, maybe he didn't have to do it himself this time, "Are you really going to fix – "
"no."
Ino slammed the bedroom door before Shikamaru could even bat an eyelash.
Oh lord. What did he do this time?