Shikadai's POV
Groan.
Another boring day.
What a pain.
It's another relaxed, peaceful day in Konoha, Shikadai sat slumped across his dining table. Boruto is training somewhere, so he wasn't around to cause trouble for everyone's amusement- which meant the hokage wouldn't be out either. And consequently, his dad would be busy helping him. What a pain.
Groan
"I'm back! Shikadai?"
That was his mother.
His mother could be such a pain. Telling him he should train instead of waste time on his game, calling him out for lacking respect, telling him how to greet Uncle Gaara, telling him not to groan, and to put his clothes in the basket… She didn't nag, instead she told you in short, clear cut sentences. And she never repeated herself. She would just give you a look. He never knew what she would do, but seeing how his father always begrudgingly obeyed immediately, he followed suit. Life would be so simple if he didn't need to do everything his mother told him.
Uncle Kankorou used to joke that she was the last person he'd thought would turn into an old maid, yet he never said it to her face.
He asked him once,"Uncle Kankorou, what's the deal with mom?"
"What'cha mean kid?"
"Why does she have to be such a hardass all the time."
He laughed at that, "Kid you don't know the half of it. You're lucky you haven't gone up against her with her tessen."
Shikadai gave him an unamused look, which he guessed probably looked like he was annoyed. Uncle Kankurou and Uncle Gaara were never fazed by his unintentional angry expressions. "Let me paint you a picture, kid. Things were different when we grew up. Suna was one of the most dangerous villages, a real dog-eat-dog world. And your mom was the first born of the hokage. Let's just say dad wanted boys so they could be jounin that destroyed the village's enemies."
Jounin performed high-level secret missions for the village. Shikadai knew Suna used to be pretty corrupted and that his grandfather was a pretty mean dude.
"What kind of dad wants their kid to be in that much danger?"
"You got me kid. Your mom was the only one who got to know him."
And he never went further than that. So shikadai guessed, his mom was forced to grow up under a watchful eye, being the only daughter after all. But when he looked at her, that was one thing he couldn't imagine. His mom sure was tough, and strong, but she didn't seem like someone who would kill. Yeah, he admitted that she carried herself like she was from a millitary sometimes. He'd even found that giant fan tucked away in their house, to which, when asked what it was, his mother smirked as if it was a long-lost friend, saying that it was her greatest weapon as a shinobi.
Shikadai couldnt imagine it. His mom, in her long, hefty kimono, wielding a huge metal fan, destroying enemies and levelling battlefields, with a fan? Get out of here.
Shikadai was born in Suna and only came to the leaf village when he was about 5 years old. He remembers the day he arrived, and met all his dad's friends. All of them cooed and stared and teased him. Uncle Chouji's round face, said he was scary because he looked like Shikamaru, but had Temari's angry expression of death. Lot of the other adults agreed. And he remembers the Hokage saying, "I don't wanna say i say i told you so to you dad, but i pretty much saw you coming." This made Shikadai wonder even more. His dad was really laidback kind of guy, and his mom was always on her guard. How on earth did these two meet up, when they lived 3 days away?
He directed the question towards Aunt Ino who loved telling him and all his friends their parents' love story. She told him that his parents were the genuine lazy Romeo and killer Juliet. And he read the story Romeo and Juliet. They were star-crossed lovers, doomed from the start, who sacrificed everything to be with each other.
But he would never believe it. His parents were so busy with their jobs that they were barely ever in the same room together. When he looked at his parents, he couldn't imagine two fools in love. He saw partners in agreement, and imagined their marriage going down as a meeting, rather than a proposal. He couldn't image passion or love.
So once, after his mother had chewed them out for leaving their clothes on the floor rather than in the basket, asked his dad,"Hey dad," His father looked at him, his face smiling as if he knew what he was going to ask. As if he was transported back to a dream.
"Yeah son?"
"Dad, why did mom marry someone like you?"
His faced was a bit taken back, "Why wouldn't she want to marry someone like me?"
"I dont know. You're rarely home, and when you are, you don't do much anyway."
His dad's face dropped, and his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Since I'm asking, why did you want to marry someone like mom anyway?"
"You're full of weird questions today, arent you?"
He looked at his dad with half lidded eyes, that people often told him were fixed to look like they were glaring at whoever he was looking at.
"Geez, you have your mother's glare." "Okay, kid. I'll be honest with ya, i married your mom because she was the most troublesome woman i had ever met."
"That's real romantic, dad."
"I'm not done yet- she wasn't your average kunoichi. She was anything but average. Heck, she scared me more than my mom. But she's worth every ounce of trouble. As for why she married me, well, that's the one puzzle I've yet to solve."
Dad was a joker by nature, as mom told him. But this was one of the few moments, he seemed to be only half-joking.
"Shikadai, is that you?"
Shikadai slumped lower on the table.
"Shikadai, answer me when i call you."
"Hey, mom?"
"Yes son?"
"Why'd you marry dad?"
"Because he asked"
Wow both his parents were romantics.
"Is that all?"
"That's the truth. What did you expect to hear?"
"I mean, why didn't you take someone from Suna? Then you wouldn't have to be travelling between the two villages all the time."
She stopped in front of him for a second, he gazed up at her, in her blue kimono, carrying groceries form the market. Then sat down at the table in front of him.
"Hmm.., I guess I'd have to say that there just weren't many smart boys left in Suna."
Left?
As if she had read his mind, she continued,"Since I killed most of them"
His eyes shot open, at her calm tone. Uncle Kankurou's words rang in his brain, fresh from when he said them. A real dog-eat-dog world. Dad wanted jounin who could defeat all the village's enemies. His mom gave him a big toothy grin. Your mom was the only one who got to know him.
"Help me prepare dinner" she told him before getting up and going to the kitchen. He remained seated for a second.
"Shikadai?
"Yeah mom, coming." He jumped up on his way to the kitchen.
He stood next to her in the kitchen, peeling the vegetables as she sliced the meat expertly with a knife in her hand. Shikadai watcjed carefully this time, thinking Mom is pretty cool. Dad must have been pretty cool too, if mom hasn't killed been able to him yet.