Author's Note : Freaking finally. Not too sure if the drabble did help or what, but yay Nara family cheesiness?


Shikaina's Birth ... or Why Naras Are So Lazy ... or A mini-Shika Adventure ...

Shikamaru's favorite part of the day was the mornings and evenings.

Not the parts everyone else though of when asked of the morning and evening, but the parts the Nara clan held sacred.

Two hours before dawn and the two hours after dusk, the time the Nara clan trained in, were the parts of the day the Nara heir liked best.

As a shinobi clan of shadow wielders, they were more powerful in the dark. When the shadows stretched everywhere and a Nara was only limited by themselves rather than what amount of shade they had at hand. That didn't mean they didn't train in the sunlit hours, but it was just easier on them to warm up or work on something in the dark.

Besides, daytime training was reserved for their teams and non-clan friends.

Every morning, in the dark hours before the sun rose, his mom would silently stalk into his bedroom and wake him up by tickling his ears with her cool fingers. Once he was awake, showered, and dressed; she would lead him outside so they could observe the traditional training hours.

At first, he had only watched his parents condition themselves as he struggled to stay awake for it. His mom with her katana and occasionally a Leopard or two and his dad with his own kagemane no jutsu and taijutsu.

They had only recently started teaching him the Nara clan's katas and he now joined them in limbering up in the mornings or practicing in the evenings.

After the morning practice, once they watched the sun rise together as it burned away the Nara clan's preferred training conditions and after they ate breakfast, they would normally pile into his parent's bed or the study's couch to nap or laze the time away until one or all of them actually had to leave the house.

Once night fell and they finished with the evening training hours, they would spend a quiet hour or so on the back porch merely watching the stars together before heading to bed.

However, his mom didn't join him and dad that morning. She hadn't for the last two weeks, instead she collected Akira-chan and carefully strolled off with one hand pressed to her very big belly as she wandered away.

The four-year-old Shikamaru knew what pregnant meant, and that it wasn't a permanent condition. He knew full well that was how he came to be, because his mother was his mom, and he was rather interested in actually having a sibling.

Anything that could prevent a ninja from training had to be serious, though. Even the rare times his mom had been sick didn't stop her from observing the traditional training hours, she just grumbled a bit then.

It made him wonder if he hadn't been a little hasty in reassuring his parents that he wouldn't mind being a big brother at all. This seemed to be a fair bit more serious than he had thought at the time.

(ooo000ooo)

Shikamaru gave his best impression of his mother's 'not impressed' stare so his current playmate would understand he wasn't on board with that suggestion.

Namikaze Naruto merely stuck his tongue out at him in response. He supposed his god-brother had gained some immunity to mom's less than amused looks for whatever mischief he got up to under her watch. He got exposed to it more than Shikamaru did himself, which also probably meant he also needed more practice at it in order to make the blond ever rethink his proposed course of action.

"Come on, Shika-kun! It's the Chūnin Exams. We won't host another until after we leave the academy." Enthused the son of the Yondaime, ignoring the little Nara's lack of excitement for the whole situation in general. "When else are we ever goin' ta get as good of a view of it?"

"When we go do it ourselves?" Shikamaru ignored the pout, Naruto was surprisingly good with suckering others into doing what he wanted with that expression. "Look, Naru-kun, kaa-chan's stressed enough as it is. I'm not doing anything to add to that."

Naruto scratched at a whiskered cheek as he thought that over. "You're-err… right. 'Suppose not, then. Aww… I wanted to see it."

"Why not ask? The Hokage's supposed to be there, he might take you along with him."

He blinked big blue eyes at him, surprised and bewildered as if the thought had never occurred to him. Shikamaru heaved a sigh when Naruto scrambled upright and then inside his home to ask his mother if he could.

Some days, he wondered why he hung out with the hyper blond. Then he remembered he got exiled to Minato's and Kushina's home when his parents both had other things to do. That didn't include the days both he and Naruto got sent to a different home, or when some of his parents' friends needed their kids watched for a few hours.

"Aww dang. That would've been fun." Yamanaka Ino merely grinned brightly when the Nara heir turned the same look the other blond had been given. "Come on, Shika-kun, you know it would have been interesting to go take a look."

"Sure, until someone noted one or few of us were missing from where we're supposed to be. Then we would have been in more trouble than I want to deal with."

"True. We probably would've been grounded until we started the academy." Her grin turned into a smirk, and she tapped a pink painted fingertip against her lip. "Unless, of course, someone could manage to talk one of our parents into taking us along. Real smooth, Nara."

"Naru-kun's just like that. Whatever happens from his attempt to talk to Mina-ji is all on him." Shikamaru countered lazily, going back to the book he had borrowed from hime-ba-sama earlier.

It was that or nap, and the little Nara heir was already recovered from that morning's practice session. He wasn't tired enough to go back to napping just yet.

Ino, sensing the only available child in the Yondaime's backyard was getting distracted, pouted. "Oh come on, I'm bored."

"Not my problem."

"There's nothing to do!"

"Practice your calligraphy."

"That's not even funny. Seal users are way too picky about that." Scoffing, the daughter of Konohagakure's Head of Interrogation crossed her thin arms over her chest and pouted as hard as she could.

Shikamaru wasn't impressed with her argument either. For one, he was toying with the idea of asking his mother to teach him some fūinjutsu himself, and he knew already that the art needed a lot of refinement if he really did get around to asking. Additionally, he had seen her father fold under that look regularly and one rare time when his own had done the same. He, however, was immune from growing up with her. "Read a book."

"I've already read all of Naru-kun's books," Ino protested, giving the one he held a second glance, "and Mina-ji's are all too hard."

Given that the book was one of their Yondaime's and Shikamaru was already tripping over a few unfamiliar kanji a few pages in, it probably was a little farther out of her range than she was comfortable with. "Then wait for Naru-kun to come back."

"He'll run me into the ground."

"But you won't be bored anymore."

She scowled at him. "You just don't want to move, do you?"

"Not really."

Ino flounced off with a huff, muttering things under her breath that he was mostly sure she learned from her father when he hadn't been paying attention to how close his daughter was. Shikamaru waited until she stopped near the flower patch in the far corner, because for some reason he was always asked where Ino got to as if he was her keeper, before going back to trying to figure out the book he borrowed.

(ooo000ooo)

"You got him to read this?"

"Some of it, I'm pretty sure he couldn't understand a few things but it did distract him for a few hours." Kushina shrugged that aside, carefully keeping the smirk off her face because their kids could come down the stairs at any moment. "But you wanted to know if he was learning anything when he pretend naps through the few lessons we've all been giving them, and that's a good measure for how well he can read right now. He didn't ask any questions of me, so I'm assuming he understood enough to understand most of the topic."

"A Guide to the Land of Hot Water." Natsumi read the title stamped on the spine aloud, dearly wishing to rub the bridge of her nose… but with her nails the way they were that wasn't a good idea. "Why does Minato even have this? It's not like Hot Water was ever a difficult country to get though. They're more hippy-ish than we are assumed to be."

"I actually have no idea." The redhead informed her with a slight tint of surprise to her voice and an easy shrug. "Something I'm mean to ask him as soon as he gets home. But it was the least interesting thing we've got, and I figured something dry and technical would get Shika-kun to ask for something else if it gave him some trouble."

"It'll be a few more hours, Minato's currently with my hubby trying to figure out how we're going to separate the different chūnin candidates being sent here so the Fourth War won't start in the middle of a hotel hallway."

Kushina snickered, flicking jade eyes out her front window to where the Hokage's Tower would be if there weren't so many trees between her home and their kage's office. "That, and a few other things I've heard Minato had to deal with in the last few years, makes me glad he's the Yondaime and not me."

"Paperwork, eww." Natsumi agreed, only slightly sarcastic as she handed the book back. She had more than enough of that as it was, both useless books on random things and the ever dreaded paperwork.

Really, who needed a guide book for Hot Water? It was practically all onsen resorts or spa clinics, peppered with a few random farm communities. She saw enough of it under Jiraiya's wing to be rather sure of that.

"Are you going to be okay walking home?"

"Is there another way to get there?"

Kushina, halfway to the bookcase the volume had been borrowed from, blinked back at her blankly.

"Cause I have to get home, honestly, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to pop by walking the bare half-mile to the Nara compound. I still have to make dinner and for some reason I want cabbage." She thought about that. "Stir-fry, I think. With chicken."

"Vegetables?"

"Mostly. Last week it was radishes fried with candied ginger."

Kushina slotted the book home and then took a glance at Natsumi's seven month pregnant belly, a smirk teasing her lips. "So if Maru-chan cause you to down milk like it was going out of style, then what does this one mean?"

"That he or she probably isn't Maru-chan. Although, I'm only pretty sure of that."

She gave the former assassin a dry look in return for that.

Natsumi rolled her mismatched eyes. "Shika said we could be surprised this time. I'm going to be surprised. So no, sorry. Can't help you win that bet you've got against Mayuko on what gender Shika-baby number two is."

Kushina snorted, but whether over the unimaginative name Natsumi had bestowed her baby bump or the unhelpful nature of her comment was questionable. "Seriously though."

"It's like, less than I walk every morning within my clan's compound. And just in case I might happen to lose my way, I'm pretty sure one of the multiple guards I've got will graciously volunteer to guide me safely home."

Much to the confusion of three-fourths of the village a nearly always present Nara guard and Leopard Summons, two ANBU shadows, and just about every Uchiha MP she passed would count themselves as one of Natsumi's guards. Which didn't include the odd Hyūga, Akimichi, or Yamanaka she encountered that made it more than obvious they were keeping an eye on her for as long as she was nearby.

If she hadn't been kidnapped the first time she was pregnant, she might have protested the scrutiny.

Stag alone kept a rotating shift of guards on her and she was getting rather familiar with Shikaku's second cousin, who normally just coordinated the Nara compound guardsmen. Her two Leopard guards were rather amused that they were probably only Summoned just for show. Akira was less so that Tsuyoshi, but her father had been killed the last time their Summoner had been pregnant. Now Akira had to continually remind Tsuyoshi that they weren't just there to eat a few pounds of fish or nap most of the day away, but it looked as if that was the most of what they would be doing for Natsumi.

As Konohagakure no Sato's ANBU General it made her job a bit harder than it should have been, but she had long since established a method to keep a finger on things back when Shikamaru had been only just born and Shikaku had been deployed for the final parts of the Third Great Shinobi War. She had been forced to run ANBU through her Watch Captain and the Sabotage and Seduction Commanders, curtailing any attempt to visit the subterranean headquarters while everyone insisted on keeping her location so visible.

Natsumi was pretty sure her poor ANBU rookies were confused and a little scared of her sudden total disappearance from the halls of their HQ, and her veteran agents were probably not helping things at all. The ghost rumor was still rather popular.

Kushina rolled her eyes at her. "You complain, but I know you're rather pleased with all the fuss."

"Well, yeah. Have you seen this thing?" The Nara's Lady gestured to her belly, which she could already use as a shelf if she wanted. "I can't do more than waddle right now."

"I'll give you that." Eyeing said feature, the wife of the Yondaime pursed her lips. "I'm not too sure I want to go through that again…"

"You're thinking about it?"

"Possibly. Maybe after Naru-kun starts his genin career." Kushina glanced to the hallway, calculating just how much time their respective sons actually needed to wash their hands. "If you two want to stop eavesdropping, we'll get going already."

Naruto, without an ounce of shame for being caught out, bolted to his mother's side with a broad grin. Shikamaru followed in his wake, ambling in a stroll carefully copied from his father more than anything.

"Ramen!" Cheered the bouncing blond boy, giving his godmother a bright grin of her own. "Hi Sumi-ba-chan!"

Natsumi blinked at him with a smile of her own. "Hello Naru-chan. Ramen?"

"Kaa-chan's taking me to Ichiraku Ramen."

"So we can make dinner later without him starving." Kushina finished for her son dryly, threading her fingers through Naruto's short hair. "I figured Minato would be late again, he has been for the last few weeks."

"So… what if someone tells Minato that his daily habits are becoming predictable and he needs to be more random?"

"I'll beat the ever living snot out of them." She informed all three of them brightly, giving Natsumi a sharper smirk than usual. "Why? Have you heard something?'

"No, of course not." The Leopard Summoner denied just as cheerfully, steering Shikamaru on towards the redhead's front door where Tsuyoshi was waiting for them and giving the two behind her a backwards wave. "At least, not until I have a few of the many guards I've got in range to help me."

(ooo000ooo)

"You're late."

"Not my fault. You've met my teammate Obito, right? He can't go a day or so without getting into something, and someone's got to ensure he can pull himself out of it." Kakashi informed his pseudo and only slightly legal nephew cheerfully, hunkering down to Shikamaru's level. "Natsu-nee said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Shouldn't you be resting? Or whatever old men do when they get back to the village?"

"…I would like you to know I found that so funny it wasn't."

Shikamaru cracked a grin for the silver haired Hatake, pushing himself upright as he gave up cloud watching on a clear day. "So…"

"So?"

"Kaa-chan's pregnant."

"I've noticed. In fact, she's been that way since late last fall." Kakashi remarked levelly, letting himself fall backwards to a seated position because he was slightly tired from the mission even if he was putting off the whole resting up bit. He also manfully refrained from commenting that it was very likely said Nara baby number two had been conceived the night of his elder sister's wedding anniversary, if only to not gross out the young Nara heir he was talking to. "Did you miss that? I'm pretty sure she told you about it."

"Yeah, but… now I can sometimes feel the baby move when she lets me, and kaa-chan's fat."

Snorting, the jōnin shinobi quickly checked to ensure they really were alone in the clearing of the Nara's forest. They might be only somewhat concealed from the clan head's house behind some bushes, but Kakashi was willing to bet Obito's precious goggles that they were being watched by two or more Naras at least. "For the love of the kami, Shika-chibi, don't tell her that."

"I'm four, not stupid."

"Right, yes. Four." He nodded a few times, trying to recall what he was like at that age. Badgering Natsumi and his own mother for more things to learn or to be sent to the academy… probably a good thing this four-year-old was afflicted with a Nara's laziness to balance his genius. "So what about… nee-chan's being fat and pregnant is giving you fits?"

Shikamaru crossed his arms over his chest and chewed on his lower lip, trying to figure out how to phrase his problem. "I… guess it didn't really sink in? It wasn't like there was any changes until lately. What is a nii-san supposed to do, anyways?"

Kakashi was pretty sure telling the brat he should just be an older brother wouldn't go over well, and he didn't really want to piss off his sister because she had the memory to get her revenge well after she finished being pregnant and picked her katana back up. Instead, he gave it a little thought and figured out how to address the kid's confusion.

"Pitch in a little. That's pretty much it, really. If your baby sibling is being loud or fussy for no reason distract him or her for your parents." Racking his brain didn't help him more, Kakashi wasn't sure what would help the young Nara heir out, so the shinobi shrugged instead. Whoever decided it had to be him doing this heart-to-heart was going to be stabbed, repeatedly. "Recall when we taught you about instinctive reactions like flinching? This is another instinctive reaction, but you'll only really understand when you finally get a good look at your baby sibling."

Heaving a sigh for the unhelpful advice, Shikamaru ran his thumb along his jawline like he had watched his father do many times before when thinking on something complicated. "That doesn't help, Kashi-ji."

Kakashi shrugged again, a bit distracted on thinking about who he could foist his little nephew off on. Itachi maybe? Damn Kochi for going to visit his brother with his own damn brat, he was both a father and a big brother and could've handled this easily. "Why worry? It's just something that you have to experience for yourself before you really understand."

"You can say that now because you're already a nii-san." Shikamaru gave the older male the look he thought that deserved, scowling up at him just because. "Think back, all those many years ago, when you were about to become one and tell me what you now thought you should have been told then."

"You know, these cracks against my age make me less likely to help you out."

"I'll tell kaa-chan what really happened to the tea set Tsunade-sama gave her when she was on mission to Kiri, and that Obito-san had nothing to do with it."

"Your blackmailing skills are good, remind me to admire them when they're not being used against me."

"Let's see, it involved you and said tea set and a runaway Dog Summons by the name of Bisuke."

Kakashi blinked slowly as he processed that, he had been sure the brat had been a little too young to really recall that incident in any useable detail. It had been a whole year ago, should he be more interested in the now? "Alright, don't be so hasty. Nose plugs."

Shikamaru blinked back at him, confused. "Nose plugs?"

"Babies stink, Shika-chibi. I really did wish someone had informed me to find a decent set of nose plugs before Midori-chan was born." Giving an eye-smile to ensure the kid knew he was being sincere, Kakashi shrugged and ruffled his own hair with both hands. "Other than that, I was a little too fascinated to really care about what I did or didn't know about being a nii-san."

"Huh…"

"Then again, I did have a rather awesome if kind of mean role model. Natsu-nee helped me through some of it, and the rest I picked up on my own."

A twitching in the Nara heir's left eye informed the older Hatake that maybe that didn't help enough to get him off the blackmailing hook.

"You know who else you can ask? Itachi-san and Ibiki. They both are nii-sans as well, they might be able to help you out more than I can."

"Itachi-san's on mission, diplomat guard. He's not expected back for another few weeks." Shikamaru informed him tartly. "But... Ibiki-ji-san? Really?"

"Really. I think his otouto is about to graduate from the academy sometime this winter, actually. Since said otouto is still alive, and Ibiki is still on good terms with him, then he's a valid source of information."

After a long moment staring at the man, the younger boy huffed. "If that's what you're judging by so you can shove me off onto someone else, you have very low standards."

"Hey."

"I could also go up to random kids at the park and ask them the next time tou-chan takes me just to escape kaa-chan's mood swings, but you wouldn't want your little nephew doing that, right?"

"My cute little nephew also just tried to blackmail me."

"So? We're ninja, it's what we do."

"Point, except you're not a shinobi just yet… and I now have something to hold over your head, that you tried to blackmail me."

Instead of getting surprised or disgruntled, Shikamaru just smirked in his face. "Kaa-chan would only be amused with me after getting irritated with you, and tou-chan would say that's what you get for breaking her favorite tea set then lying about it, badly. Out of luck there, Kashi-ji. I don't care if you try to tell them, because then we'd have to tell them what really happened to kaa-chan's tea set to the point that I could use it as blackmail."

The silver haired Hatake clan head rubbed his cloth covered chin thoughtfully. "Hmm… I foresee a problem with that."

"Maybe you do. I've apparently got to go ask kaa-chan if we can go visit Ibiki-ji-san. Somehow, without letting her know why."

Distracted from trying to find a way to inform Natsumi that her son was a little free with his coercion attempts without getting himself in trouble, Kakashi gifted the younger kid with a confused look. "Why?"

"Because." Deciding the older shinobi was a lost cause, and it hadn't really been his best option to begin with, Shikamaru decided to be just as unhelpful. Getting up, and brushing the odd twig and leaf off himself, he started back to the house to find something a little more interesting than staring up at a cloudless sky to do.

"That's all you're going to say?"

"You want more? Give more."

Smoothly rising to his full height, the Hatake ambled along after him and offered something before they reached the house. "Ask before you pick your baby whatever up. Apparently their neck and head are fragile for the first few months. Have Natsu-nee show you how to handle your soon-to-be-sibling if kaa-chan or Aikido-baa-sama aren't there."

Shikamaru thought about it, but it was something even if he was sure his mother would've warned him about it before it could possibly be a problem. "I don't want kaa-chan to know because I already said I'd be alright with it a few months ago."

"Don't want to seem as if you lied?"

"Something like that, and Ino-chan was talking a few days ago. About how excited I had to be with an impending sibling coming soon, and everything she would've done if it had been her kaa-chan."

"Hmm, listening to a girl's gossip? For shame, Shika-chibi."

"Yeah well, stuff it."

Strike one. Shikamaru wasn't too clear on what the strike was against, but since his mother tended to mutter it as a count of when she ran into a dead end he figured it was something to express her displeasure.

Either way, habit caused him to think it.

(ooo000ooo)

Shikamaru wasn't surprised when mom opted out of the evening training session.

She had done it for the last two weeks as well, so he at least expected her to do it.

Instead of going inside, though, his mom settled on the porch with Tsuyoshi at her back to watch dad instruct Shikamaru in the Nara clan's taijutsu in the fading twilight.

Which resulted in two very distracted Naras, because dad kept glancing over to where mom was lounging instead of concentrating on his son and heir's efforts to hit him. Given that even distracted he was still more of a match for Shikamaru's clumsy taijutsu skills, the Nara clan head could probably afford the distractions unlike how badly it was effecting Shikamaru's skills.

However, when he ended up tucked under one of the older Nara's arms for a whole two minutes just so he could check on mom, Shikamaru was willing to give up on taijutsu practice for the night only ten minutes into the training session.

Mom laughing at him and his predicament didn't help a whole lot.

After another hour or so of clumsy attempts to at least touch his dad, a failure to do so that grated a little because the older Nara was more than just a little distracted and he still failed to do more than tire himself out, the two of them ended up with mom and her Leopard on the porch instead of trying to use the end of the two hours for more training.

Instead, the three of them watched the shadows of the Nara's forest bend and twist under the control of their fellow clansmen. Shikamaru was content to do so only because his mom was running her claws lightly through his hair while they watched.

He wasn't entirely certain when he fell asleep, but then it didn't really matter. He was still working out how much napping time he needed to counter the early mornings and late nights, therefore falling asleep unexpectedly was allowed at his age.

\V/

"Naras are so lazy."

"What was your first clue?" Shikamaru asked without even opening his eyes, content to mostly ignore this heckler. He was still tired, and not particularly willing to give up his comfy spot just to deal with whoever it was getting snotty.

Chouji sighing behind him let the Nara heir know that whoever it had been wouldn't be chased off so easily. Neji seemed content to huff in all his stuffy clan superiority, ignoring the interloper the best the six-year-old could.

Cracking a yellow eye open, because for whatever reason the yellow unnerved the younger Uchiha clansmen, he gave the Uchiha kid his best impression of his dad's 'what are you on' look.

Sasuke was giving his cousin whatever his best Uchiha MP look as well in a decent attempt to scare the brat off, but apparently the second son of the Uchiha clan head wasn't nearly as scary as that clan's heir. Up until the soon to be five-year-old Inuzuka Kiba barreled his way past the brat and knocked him off his feet.

"Kaa-san said yes to a birthday party!" The dog boy all but shouted at the top of his lungs, skidding to a halt with the help of the Akimichi heir keeping him on his own feet. Looking back to the kid he knocked over, Kiba sniffed in mock disdain. "Dude, really. You don't have to fall over yourself, ya know. Sasuke will bring you if you really want to come that badly."

Snorting, the young Uchiha that was somewhat tolerable stepped on the back of the not-tolerable one. "I think not. He requires a bit more polishing before we allow him out of the clan's compound."

Shikamaru privately betted with himself over Sasuke copying that word for word from his brother. "You're going to get your dog this time, Kiba-san?"

"Finally, yeah. Then we'll see what nee-chan's three can do against me and my dog! …or dogs. Ya know, depending."

Neji gave him a flat stare but Chouji was the one who paused to give the Inuzuka a questioning look. "Won't your dog actually be a puppy? …or puppies?"

"Aww… crap. That's right." Kiba looked disappointed for all of a moment before shrugging that off easily enough. "Whatever. We'll just have to train up a bit before, that's all."

Sasuke got bored of keeping his balance on his struggling clansmen's back, even if he was rude, hopping off to give his attention to his guests. "Will your okaa-san allow us into the kennels again, Kiba-kun?"

"Everyone but Shikamaru, probably."

Shikamaru didn't really care, because as far as he was concerned Akira and Tsuyoshi were better than any old dog. Out of all the things his mom could teach him, what the Nara heir had his sights solidly on was her Summoning Contract. "I'd prefer a nap instead, so no thanks."

"You're so weird. But awesome, kinda." Kiba hastened to tack on, giving the Uchiha that had been trying to heckle the young Nara heir a teasing look and a toothy grin. Proving that knocking him over hadn't been as much of an accident as it could have been. "Even if you do smell of cat."

"Are we waiting on anyone else?" Shikamaru asked instead of answering, keenly intent on getting a bit more sleep to make up for that morning's training session. If he wouldn't be left alone to do that here, then he wanted to go to the Uchiha clan head's home instead and do it there.

"Hinata-hime and Ino-chan." Sasuke informed him seriously before Neji could, because as the second son of Fugaku it was his job to keep track of important if young guests in his clan's home grounds. "Then we can go see what okaa-chan has for us to eat before lunch."

"What about Naru-kun?" He had to ask, because as his god-brother it was his job to watch the blond's back.

Kiba was his god-brother as well, but more of a dog-brother that yelled way too much.

Sasuke looked a little disgruntled, as he always was when the son of the Yondaime was mentioned. "He's not here today. He's with his Otou-sama."

(ooo000ooo)

"I don't know why, but I'm more tired now than I was when only just pregnant with Maru-chan." Natsumi informed Mikoto, browsing through her fridge as she plated up some snacks for the clan kids she volunteered to watch that day.

The Uchiha genjutsu mistress ignored the Nara pawing through her fridge, they had all gotten used to the pregnant former assassin getting into another's fridge the last time around and it was easier to ignore if you had once gone through the craving part of pregnancy yourself. "The baby is a Nara, why are you surprised?"

"Second pregnancy was supposed to be easier, remember?"

"You weren't as sick this time around, were you?"

"Well, no." Natsumi allowed thoughtfully, closing the Uchiha's fridge with carrots in hand. "That's true, I suppose."

Mikoto left the snacks where they were, seating herself at the kitchen table with the ANBU General and accepting the carrot stick held out for her.

Natsumi had never gotten over the impulse to feed those around her when she sought something to eat. It was reassuring, in the same way the sun would always rise and the rivers would always flow. Natsumi would always feed you if you were in reach, even if it was your own food.

Snapping off the tip of her own carrot with her teeth, the Uchiha kunoichi watched as the Nara one munched on her own for a few minutes. "So, done with your errands?"

"For now, yeah. I'll take Maru-chan home with me if he wants, but there's still the paperwork I'll never get out of doing even on my deathbed."

"Ah, paperwork. The dreaded end of all competent ninja." Mikoto smirked around her carrot, giving her fellow kunoichi a wry look. "I have more than enough of my own to do, you won't find any sympathy here."

"They ought to warn academy kids of this crap. Become a shinobi, fight for your village for all of ten years and then forever battle the evils of bureaucracy!"

Masterfully controlling the snort, the Uchiha's Lady discarded the remains of her carrot and rose to snag the plate of snacks she had made for the clan children in her care. Natsumi sighed and broke off the nibbled end of her carrot using her nails for leverage, quickly popping the bit into her mouth and leaving the rest on the table with Mikoto's.

The children spilled into the Uchiha's formerly quiet home with a loud thump, because apparently Hinata tripped Kiba when the Inuzuka brat somehow upset Ino and Neji prevented her from joining him on the ground. The boy ended up trampled when Sasuke didn't care if he was in the way and Chouji didn't realize he was there, and getting stepped on by an Akimichi, however unknowingly or young said Akimichi was, hurt like hell.

Shikamaru, grass stained and a little rumpled already, looked pathetically grateful she was there to pick him up.

Hinata tried to sound serene and calming as she fussed over the pile-up, but the amused tilt to her lips gave away the lie. Luckily for her Kiba wasn't the sharpest tack in the box, and probably wouldn't ever be, so since Ino was calming down now that the Hyūga heiress had gained her some revenge the kids allowed themselves to be lulled by the Uchiha's Lady's snacks instead of quarreling over how the trip-up happened. Neji practically radiated smug approval for his clan's heiress' actions while she pretended wistful ignorance of said actions, Sasuke just smirked like the brat he was, Ino sat as close to Hinata's protective presence as she could, while Shikamaru and a bruised Kiba reassured Chouji that stepping on the Inuzuka boy wasn't really that big of a deal.

Mikoto gave Natsumi a pointed look over the kids' heads.

Once snack time was over with, the Nara's Lady volunteered to take the Yamanaka and Akimichi heirs home with her and Shikamaru.

Because the Uchiha genjutsu mistress had to have her hands full with the Hyūga kids in the Uchiha compound and Natsumi didn't envy her that task at all.

She did overhear something that made her wonder, though, just before they left the house.

Shikamaru cornered Sasuke instead of joining Chouji near the door to wait on Ino, giving the young Uchiha the most serious look he could. "When is your nii-san due home?"

"Mission parameters indicated at least a week in field, not counting traveling time, nii-sama should be home later this week or early next." Carefully pronouncing the long and somewhat tricky words just made the youngest son of Mikoto's sound three shades of adorable, but her own son just grunted.

"Tell him I have a question for him, not urgent but something that needs addressing."

Sasuke nodded solemnly, probably because his big brother was an heir of a shinobi clan and so was the young Nara he was talking to. Being his brother's social secretary probably wasn't something he was too enthused with, but it did sound somewhat important. "I will."

Natsumi was confused and a little curious. What did her son need to talk to Itachi about?

\V/

"Stealing your gaki, nee-chan!" Kakashi hollered into the house as he snagged Shikamaru.

"Oi!"

Ignoring the objection, the Hatake clan head swung the young Nara up to sit on his shoulders and hoofed it as fast as he could out of the Nara clan compound.

"Just so you know, I'm only doing this so you'll never tell Natsu-nee about the tea set thing."

"Deal." Shikamaru informed him blandly, gripping silver hair hard as the village blurred past the two of them.

Kakashi only slowed when they reached the main street of the village, dropping down to the civilian foot traffic as easily as any Leaf shinobi worth their hitai-ate. With his perch on the admittedly very tall Hatake's shoulders, the Nara heir could see exactly where they were going.

Most children wouldn't be very pleased with a trip to T&I's headquarters, but Shikamaru wasn't just any kid.

The silver haired shinobi was just any ninja either, he got the admittedly strange duo past most of the security checks rather easily. The truth was sometimes stranger than fiction, and Kakashi excelled in bullshitting enough to use the truth when it suited him.

Right on up until they encountered the Head of Intelligence only feet from their target, at least.

Inoichi-ji-san wasn't as easily circumvented. "Does Natsu know he's here?"

"She knows I have him." Kakashi informed the famed interrogator with all the nonchalance he could muster on demand. It was a lot from the Nara heir's point of view.

"But not that he's here. Why?" Inoichi pressed on, looking a cross between bemused and concerned.

"I'm being blackmailed."

The Yamanaka clan head stared blankly at him, then gave Shikamaru his attention rather than try to extract answers out of the notoriously twisted shinobi he was being carried by. "Maru-chan? Why are you two here?"

"To see Ibiki-ji-san." It wasn't his fault, Kakashi started it.

"I see." Even as he said it, the shinobi frowned at them both as if he couldn't.

Sometimes, dealing with Yamanakas gave Shikamaru a headache. Why couldn't they ever say what they really thought? Ino had the same problem her dad did.

"Well… he's on break for the next ten minutes still, I suppose-"

"Great! Thanks! Bye!" Kakashi chirped with faux cheerfulness, whisking them both down the hall to Morino Ibiki's office in the Torture and Intelligence building. Shikamaru did his part by waving lazily at his uncle as they bolted pass.

Ibiki wasn't any more amused than Inoichi to see them there.

"I'm being blackmailed," Kakashi informed him with all due seriousness, patting the Nara heir on his head once he plunked the kid down on one of the chairs in the office before ducking right back out of the room, "you two have fun."

The interrogator stared at the son of his old jōnin-sensei, then at his office door. "He abandoned you here, didn't he?"

Shikamaru shrugged dismissively. "Probably."

Sighing heavily, the massive shinobi gave up on what he was working on to lean back in his chair and stare flatly at the four-year-old that had been suddenly dumped on him. "Blackmail?"

"Kaa-chan's tea set."

Ibiki looked intrigued enough that the little Nara informed him exactly what Kakashi had wrangled his silence on. Unfortunately for the Hatake clan head, Shikamaru had only agreed not to tell his mom about it. Natsumi's second fūinjutsu apprentice and old genin student agreed that it was an oversight he would be delighted to help his fellow jōnin out with, with a nasty grin that he probably shouldn't be giving a four-year-old.

There was a reason Ibiki-ji-san was Shikamaru's second favorite uncle out of the lot of them he had, and not just because he was the most normal one.

Arranging to take the young boy back home took a little doing, but Ibiki strolled out of the T&I building with Shikamaru ambling close on his heels within an hour of getting the Nara heir dumped on him.

"So what did you want to see me about?"

"I'm going to be a nii-san. What does a nii-san do, anyways?" Shikamaru asked him with all the confusion he had gained over the topic.

"Pitch in." Ibiki grumped sourly, glowering a path through the afternoon traffic they were wandering through.

The Nara heir gave his broad back a flat look. "That's exactly what Kashi-ji said."

It was enough to prick Ibiki's touchy pride, and the scowl on the shinobi's face got that much darker from how far it was clearing their way. "A nii-san is supposed to protect the otouto the best he can, and guard his imouto from other boys. Good enough for you?"

"I guess."

It was something different at least, and more than he had before going to see the interrogator. Shikamaru figured that would be the best he could get from the adults around him, his last hope was the Uchiha heir.

Strike number two.

Now, how to explain this adventure to his mom?

Or worse yet, his dad when Inoichi-ji told him of it?

(ooo000ooo)

Mom opting out of the nightly training sessions again wasn't surprising at all, but at least dad managed it a little better that night.

Shikamaru still failed to even touch his old man during the sparring part, much to his own disgruntlement.

In the end they did actually managed to train the whole two hours, and the Nara heir ended up in a boneless slump next to his mom's hip while she leaned into their clan head.

"My feet hurt, and I didn't even do anything." Natsumi informed her son with a mischievous grin.

Shikaku bent his long frame over her, giving her a steady look. "Shouldn't you be at the point of not doing anything?"

"I am, and I've taken care of the last of the things I couldn't get out of. Those two, you know who, will take over the rest until I get back to it."

Shikamaru ignored the hints of whatever mysterious thing his mom did during the day with all that paperwork that appeared from nowhere, crawling into her lap next to her big baby belly because he was that tired. It was the first time he had actually trained all two night hours as well as the morning session, and he would need a bit more adjustment to his daytime napping from the look of things.

"Additionally, I wanted to ask about that comment of yours."

"What comment?"

"About making them godfather." The kunoichi informed him seriously. "Can we? They need something else, they lasted all of a year out of there before wandering back because they have nothing else."

Shikaku puzzled that over for a moment, eventually shrugging at his wife. "I want to actually meet them first. Not how we have already, I mean in the flesh without the clay."

"Alright then, godmother?"

"Mayuko. I think." The Nara clan head suggested.

"I'm fine with that. I'll ask them, or send a messenger, tomorrow."

Shikamaru drifted off to sleep before he heard what else his mom wanted to talk to his dad about.

\V/

He really should have expected it, given what mom told his dad last night.

At first, he really only liked that mom didn't seem at all that fussed to get up out of bed after they were done with the clan training and breakfast that morning.

Then Naruto barreled into the house with all the subtly of a bull in a tea shop, and Shikamaru realized what his mom meant by taking care of the last of her things she had to do.

It meant the Nara clan head's home was the designated spot to drop off other clan kids, probably until mom finally had her baby.

He was normally fine with the whole switching homes for a few hours thing, he didn't really want to be left at home with a Nara or Leopard guard or taken to the Akimichi's clan head home for a few hours. Seeing other clan compounds was interesting, and switching it all up kept all of them rather interested in learning about why it was done that way instead of how their own clans ran things. It was something to do, and they would grow up to be the next shinobi clan heads and their seconds so that knowledge might help them out later on down the line.

…or at least that was how they sold it to their respective clan elders.

However, his mom would be pregnant for another month and however long from what Tsunade-sama had said. That meant a month and however long of everyone going to the Nara clan instead of somewhere else.

A month and however long of Neji and Sasuke being stiff with each other, of Naruto somehow needling the Uchiha unknowingly, of Ino excitedly chattering to a quiet Hinata, of Kiba reeling from place to place with all the grace of a drunk, three-legged dog. All day long.

At least Chouji knew his way around the Nara clan compound well enough not to be a bother.

Shikamaru was doomed. He was never going to get enough sleep this way.

Thankfully, at least, it seemed as if his mom had called in reinforcements.

Senju Tenzou and his sister Naomi had a brightly cheerful and wiggling Naruto in a firm grip long before his mom managed to make her way down the stairs.

Shikamaru wasn't sure, but he was more than certain the two of them fit into his family more as his cousins than as his uncle and aunt. He didn't know why he felt that way, but it was how he thought it should go. Tenzou and Naomi were the children of his mom's sensei, though, so they were technically his aunt and uncle rather than cousins.

At least as far as the twisted family tree was concerned.

He still needed to sit down and puzzle that thing out again, he was sure it had gotten a bit more snarled when Nagato-ji found Uzumaki Karin-san and her family in Kusagakure last summer.

"Shika-kun! Tenzou-kun's here!"

"Aa… I see that, Naru-kun." Shikamaru could be excused for his less than enthusiastic response, he was still tired and they were probably early.

If Naruto wasn't early he was always late, enough so that if you noted he was late it would be an hour or two before he showed up. It wasn't his fault, sometimes things happened and his parents got distracted on their way. There were downsides to being the son of Konohagakure no Sato's Yondaime Hokage, and being late some days was one of them. He couldn't exactly run himself around the village, any number of people would panic if he tried.

Naruto swung his small body just so, slipping from the thin sweater he had been wearing to bounce over to his lazy friend and god-brother. Tenzou blinked at the hand suddenly not holding anything but a swath of orange cloth even as his sister snickered at him and his expression.

"Kaa-chan said we'd be spending the week here. Isn't that the coolest?"

The Nara heir blinked at his god-brother as Naomi calmly strolled over to help his mom over to her couch in the study. "Just the week?"

That was a lot better than what he feared it would be.

"Yeah. For some reason, Sumi-ba-chan shouldn't be stressed more than she is." Naruto informed him with all the seriousness he could press into one statement, which was a surprising amount for a normally cheerful kid. "Cause we don't want ta cause problems with the baby."

"There can be problems?"

Shikamaru did not yelp. No he did not.

Tenzou coughed lightly, holding Naruto's thin orange shirt out to him. "Aa, yeah. Those. She had some with you as well, Maru-chan."

Realizing the older Senju was, in fact, an older brother suddenly got him the intent interest of the Nara heir pinned to him. After checking to ensure Naomi had thoroughly distracted his mom, that is.

First things first. "What kind of problems?"

"You cost her a kidney." The Mokuton user informed him blandly. "That also caused you to be born almost a month early, truth be known. As far as I'm aware, and this is what I know from living with both Hahaue and Naomi, all they're really concerned over this time is that she doesn't incur any additional internal damage. From what I know about her being pregnant with you, she had just come out of the last of the major fighting in the Third War before getting pregnant and that's why she lost the kidney she did."

Naruto poked the older shinobi in the chest with one finger. "Four years old. Four. Years. Old. Try that again, but keep in mind you're talking ta four-year-olds."

Tenzou gave the blond kid a pointed look. "I know perfectly well you understood that, but if you must. They want her to be as lazy as any good Nara, otherwise she might have this one early too."

"Naras aren't lazy, we're conservative." Shikamaru informed him with a smirk. "We're conserving energy."

The Senju snorted, but Naruto actually took that seriously.

"Conserving energy for what?"

Giving his occasionally insightful if a little thick god-brother a smirk of his own, the Nara heir shrugged unhelpfully. "Tradition."

It was, after all, tradition that no one but Naras, Yamanakas, and Akimichis know when the Nara clan trained. Not even his mom had gone against that one.

The Namikaze scowled at him for all of a moment, until Kiba tromped in full to bursting with ideas he wanted kicked around for his birthday party and he got thoroughly distracted. Tsume and her Kuromaru both gave a nod of recognition to the Senju kneeling at the Nara heir's side before they left the Inuzuka boy with the blond.

"Tenzou-kun? Can I ask-" Shikamaru double-checked that his mom was distracted before turning back. "you a question?"

"Sure?"

"What does a nii-san do, anyways?"

Rocking back on his heels, the shinobi gave the son of his neko-taicho a long look. "May I ask who have you asked that of already?"

"Kashi-ji and Ibiki-ji-san."

"Err, Shikamaru-kun… Kakashi-sama is a shinobi who can say a lot without saying much of anything, and Ibiki-san is a man of few words to say the least."

"I noticed."

Tenzou smirked wryly at that tart comment, steering the young Nara on to keep both Kiba and Naruto in his sight while they talked. "Well then, what did they tell you?"

"Pitch in and protect them. Which was all well and good, but not much help." Shikamaru informed him with all the bruised pride of a kid who went out of his way for something that didn't pay off as well as he'd like. Explaining his jaunt to T&I alone had given him a decent amount of trouble, and he was still sure Kakashi would make him pay for telling Ibiki about the tea set thing. "Oh… and Kashi-ji wanted someone to tell him to pick up nose-plugs before Midori-chan was born."

"That is what a nii-san does, you know… except for the nose-plug thing. I'm pretty sure that's just a canine sense of smell thing. Hana-san has said the same thing."

Stalling out on that point, the Nara stared at the Senju.

Tenzou sighed. "So it isn't so much a question of what to do you are confused by, but more of a 'what it will mean for you' that confuses you. Am I right?"

"Huh… yeah."

Shikamaru turned that over in his head, but refrained from asking Tenzou what he thought when he was about to become a nii-san.

The reason why the Nara was sure the two youngest Senju clansmen fit in more as cousins than aunt and uncle was because no one ever spoke of Tenzou's or Naomi's early years.

The only ones that had 'you were so cute at that age' stories about them was his own mother and the Yondaime's secretary, a one-legged ex-shinobi named Ito-san they respected highly for some reason.

The last time anyone foolish enough actually tried to comment on those years they got a face full of very irritated Leopard Summoner and one pissed off Toad Sage. Admittedly the young idiot had tried to tell Naomi she had been hidden for most of her life because she was a disgrace to the Senju name, as if her lack of Senju clan features mattered when her own brother was the one to bring the Mokuton kekkai genkai back into the clan. His mom had claimed she was pissed that her reasons for hiding the two of them for the Slug Princess and her sensei was referred to in such a way and Jiraiya claimed he was pissed his daughter was slandered in such a way for taking after her Uzumaki ancestors more. Tsunade had just been pissed off, and rumors abounded that she might have smashed her desk by trying to set down her coffee mug when she heard of the incident.

Those were reasons to react to that how they had, but Shikamaru had also heard what his mom had said to Naomi much later in both the Toad Sage's and Slug Princess' hearing. That the brat 'couldn't know' so she shouldn't give his words any weight.

Couldn't know about what… was something he wasn't too sure he wanted to know about. Especially with how serious it had all seemed at the time.

Shikamaru did at least know it wasn't quite as it seemed, more than probably most the village did. They seemed perfectly happy with it however it was, so he knew it wasn't his problem to dig into.

"Thanks, Tenzou-kun."

The Mokuton user spared him a pleasant grin, before using his ever so vaunted kekkai genkai to separate the Namikaze and Inuzuka boys before their little scuffle spilled into the Nara's forest.

Then hung them there in the air until Naruto apologized and Kiba gave a sheepish one of his own to Shikamaru, because they were his guests and they had been fighting without allowing him the time to play mediator.

Shikamaru sighed, resigned himself for doing that most of the next week, and set about convincing Tenzou to let them down.

\V/

He didn't recall Sasuke's tidbit of his older brother's whereabouts until he got face to face with the Uchiha heir himself.

Honestly, he had been a bit full up trying to juggle his naptime requirements and a nearly overflowing house full of other clan kids… and not stressing his mom out. There was a new kid in the group to try and placate, the daughter of an old friend of his mom's named Sakura-chan that preferred spending time with either Hinata or Ino, and an Inuzuka getting more hyper by the day setting off and egging on the already hyper Namikaze to watch. Shikamaru had his hands full, and would be very grateful for the last month of his mom's pregnancy being free of the others at least.

Itachi didn't seem to mind drifting around the Nara heir until the younger kid got his wits together again, that was a plus at least.

"So I had a question. It was 'what does a nii-san even do', but after talking to Tenzou-kun it turned into 'what will it mean'." Shikamaru informed his fellow clan heir as seriously as he could, feeling a little ragged over the whole topic already. "Can you help?"

"Aa…"

The Nara belatedly recalled Itachi was another of those that could be described as someone of few words. He should have asked Tenzou when he had the chance.

"It's not so much what it will mean for you, but what you want it to mean for them." The Uchiha surprised him by answering rather cryptically. "Do you want your younger sibling to look up to you as a shinobi? As a protector? Or maybe a mentor, even? No matter what, you will be his or her nii-san. What do you want it to mean to your younger sibling?"

Shikamaru thought about that for a long moment, giving the older chuunin a nod. "Thanks, Itachi-san."

Leave it to an Uchiha to twist a question back in on itself, but it did give the Nara something to think about.

\V/

Shikamaru stewed over the question for another week, then tried to answer it the week after.

Then his mom's water broke, right in the middle of the Chūnin Exams, and he didn't have the time to ponder it anymore.

At least she did go into labor in the middle of the Chūnin Exams and not at the beginning or end, which meant everyone had a moment or two to attend the birth of the Nara clan head's second child.

His dad had to go get his hand broken, from what his godmother dryly informed him of when he reached the waiting room of the hospital, so Shikamaru spent some decent time with his godfather and his favorite uncle.

Who then proved himself the Nara heir's favorite uncle all over again when he rather easily solved the question that had been nagging at him for months.

Minato smirked rather broadly when hearing the little Nara's problem. "Speaking as one of those otoutos that had a nee-chan to look up to, my favorite part was the fact she would spend her time on me first. Sempai always checked up on me, even if she tended to leave me to my own devices most of the time. What you should do is rather like what you kaa-chan did for me. Be there, even if only to pick on him or her. You don't really have to do too much more, at least not as long as your kaa-chan and tou-san are there."

Shikamaru let his forehead hit his godfather's knee out of pure exasperation.

He had been asking the wrong half of the sibling equation the whole time?

A rusty chuckle drew his attention over to his sibling's soon-to-be godfathers, a pair of shinobi, twins in fact, by the names Ichirou and Jirou. The younger was the one with scars cutting into the right side of his face, Jirou, and the man nodded his agreement to the Yondaime's answer.

Given they were twins and their names meant 'first son' and 'second son' respectively had caused his dad to remark that their parents had the worst kind of humor imaginable when he met the two of them.

Worse, the two of them had agreed rather dryly as well.

It was typical of what his mom tended to think was funny, anyways, so it wasn't too surprising she had wanted them as godfathers.

Shortly after Minato proved himself superior to all the other uncles the little Nara had, Shikamaru actually met his new sibling.

Then he realized what Kashi-ji had been talking about when Shikaina blinked grey eyes at him sleepily from the crook of their dad's arm. The arm that didn't have a broken hand, anyways.

Huh, he had an imouto.

"You're not even an hour old, and already you're so troublesome."