"She's...nice."
Yoshino tried to inject enthusiasm into her voice, but the words came out carefully neutral. Almost polite.
Shikamaru only grunted in reply.
She had forced her son to help her clean up after the meal and he was grumpily complying, wiping dry the plates in a careless manner.
Yoshino watched her son carefully from the corner of her eyes.
"You've missed a spot, it's dripping, do it again." She ordered.
Shikamaru gave an exaggerated sigh but began scrubbing the plate obediently.
"So how did you meet again?" She probed.
"Mum, you promised that if I took her home for a meal you wouldn't ask too many questions." He retorted.
"I said that I wouldn't turn up at your workplace to find her, and that I wouldn't ask you anything during the meal. This is after the meal, answer the question!"
Yoshino felt the now familiar vein popping slightly in her forehead, her son knew just the right words to annoy her. He seemed to have reverted back to his more immature state of three years ago when it came to his girlfriend.
What was her name again? Oh yes, Shiho.
"So how did you meet?" She asked, a warning tone in her voice.
"Work. Decoding team. A few months back."
"What made you like her?"
"Mum!"
"Answer the question Shikamaru, she's potentially my daughter in law!"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"You're the heir of this clan, you better not be stringing a girl along with no intention of marriage!"
The truth was...Yoshino was a little upset at the choice of girl Shikamaru had chosen. She couldn't help but feel that her son had purposely chosen someone who was as opposite to her as possible.
Shiho was...nice. Yoshino couldn't remember very much about her except for a vague sense of niceness merged with a shy demeanour. For the life of her she couldn't remember very much of their conversation, and Yoshino took pride in her memory of little facts, especially embarrassing ones.
"What do you like about her exactly?"
She didn't want to admit it, but she was actually a little disappointed with dinner that night. Yoshino had been looking forward to it for days and was practicing the best recipes that she knew.
"You are so troublesome..."
"Answer the question."
Shikamaru sucked his teeth in and sighed,
"I guess she's quiet and drama free?"
That was a disappointing answer. Her son needed a firecracker under his arse sometimes to get him to achieve anything worthwhile.
She was really looking forward to meeting this girl who had managed to catch Shikamaru's interest. Yoshino had imagined her to be a woman with great strength of personality who could keep her son on track. In fact she was secretly hoping it was that sand kunoichi Shikamaru had worked with often, now there was a woman with a good head on her shoulders.
"Is that all?" Yoshino couldn't hide the disappointment in her tone and felt Shikamaru bristle uncharacteristically at her words.
"She's smart you know," he said almost defensively, "Shiho's better than me when it comes to decoding."
"So do you talk about decoding a lot?"
She had worked with decoders once. To be really good at the job generally required sacrifices in other areas and the very best tended to be a little socially awkward.
"Every now and again, it's a good mental exercise."
It wasn't like her son to feel the need to defend his decisions, it was as if Shikamaru was trying to convince himself of something.
"So when did you ask her out exactly?"
He muttered something under his breath too quiet for her to hear.
"Speak up!" She ordered.
"She asked me." Shikamaru admitted.
Yoshino paused.
What?
She didn't expect that out of the shy girl, maybe Shiho had more fire to her than she gave her credit for? But this opened up a new set of questions, Yoshino knew her son very well after all.
"Did you just agree to go out with someone because it was too much effort to reject her?"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her, but his posture was still defensive. Any pretense of washing up was over.
"Come on, even a lazy person like me would know not to do that, that's just troublesome down the line."
"That's true..." She narrowed her eyes, "But I'm not surprised if you went with the flow even if not all the factors fitted."
Her son was silent for a while, before opening with a question.
"So you don't like her?"
"No!" Yoshino found herself automatically denying, "She's nice!"
"You're a terrible liar mum."
Yoshino sighed heavily and took off her apron, she went to the table and sat down.
"Sit." She ordered the teen.
Shikamaru stared at her in horror, "Do we really need to-"
Yoshino glared at him until he complied.
"I know your father is better at this sort of thing, when it comes to this clan and your inheritance." She began, "So I can only give you my perspective, but I think you need to know it."
"This is troubleso-"
"Quiet down and let your mother speak!"
Shikamaru frowned but stayed silent, there was a curiosity in his eyes now.
"I never liked your father at first."
Yoshino held up her hand warningly to stop her son interrupting.
"He was an unbelievably smug man when he was younger; brilliant, but did he know it. I only really started liking him when he reined that in."
Yoshino smiled to herself, reliving the memories of her early twenties.
"Even then it took him a really long time to make me agree to go out with him."
"Wait, he asked you?" Shikamaru burst out, "You didn't seduce him?!"
Yoshino promptly slapped her son's head, "Of course he asked me!" She snapped, "Nara men are notorious for being slow at matters of the heart, it generally takes years for them to realise women exist!"
She let that sink into his brain before continuing,
"He pursued me for ages, it actually got really bothersome sometimes."
She hadn't used that term for a while, it brought back days when she would watch the clouds with Shikaku.
"You're boasting mum, were you playing hard to get?"
"Maybe a little, your father did like his games." Yoshino surprisingly half agreed, "But the main reason was that being the lover of the heir to the Nara clan is downright troublesome."
Her son widened his eyes in surprise.
"What?" She asked defensively, "I was a little lazy when I was younger, how did you think you came out like you are?"
"Dad-"
"You were worse than he ever was, remember you're my son as well."
Yoshino had felt partly responsible for Shikamaru's naturally lazy attitude and so had tried her best to force it out of him, whilst her husband took the stance that their son would grow out of it like he did.
"Anyway, my point is that I had reservations about dating your father and for the most part I was right."
"What did dad do?"
"It wasn't your father, it was the clan. As soon as we were an item everyone suddenly took notice of us more."
People whom she never knew from the Nara clan were suddenly paying attention to her; during missions, social gatherings and in the streets...
"That was fine, I was prepared for that and I knew his family well, but when we got married..."
Yoshino remembered all the etiquette lessons, the ceremonies, the responsibility of managing the estates and the subtle pressure for her to have children. No, it was not easy.
"You don't need to know the details, just know that it was hard to adjust. Marriage wasn't just about us, it involved his own clan. Not every woman has the qualities to be a clan leader's wife."
His voice was quiet as he asked, "Then why did you do it? Why agree to be with the old man if it was nothing but trouble?"
She answered promptly as if it was the most natural response in the world, "Because he is worth it. I have never met a man whom I wanted to support by his side more."
It was a lie to say she didn't wish that he was from the branch family at the time, but Yoshino had figured that Shikaku wouldn't be the man he was if he didn't have the responsibilities of the clan.
She had walked into the role of his wife with her eyes wide open, but it was still a shock to her system. If she hadn't steeled herself for the responsibilities and the family politics Yoshino had a feeling she would have ran away.
It required a woman with real nerve to be able to support her son. Someone strong, enduring, smart and who truly appreciated the importance of duty. Love and real affection was a bonus that she and Shikaku were fortunate enough to experience.
From what she had seen Shiho didn't seem to exactly bring out the man in her son, Yoshino had never seen Shikamaru act so petulantly since his genin years.
There was a silence as she watched Shikamaru mull over her words.
"I get what you are saying, it's annoying but I really do." He finally said, "But don't you think it's too early to think about all this kind of stuff? I've been with Shiho for less than a month!"
"I'm not saying that you should interrogate every girl you meet," Yoshino replied,"I'm just telling you that you shouldn't go into a relationship half heartedly, especially when you don't even know if you like her."
"How are you sure that I don't like her? Public displays of affection are a drag."
"Because you're my son and even if you've got a better work ethic now," She smiled a little, "You're a Nara, and Nara men are slow with romance."
But when they find the right woman, they catch up pretty quickly.
Yoshino was surprised at how suave Shikaku became when he began chasing her, he was charm personified compared to his old smug self. Perhaps a part of it was due to her falling for him though.
"It was true for your father, his father and his grandfather. So tell me, do you really like her?"
His silence was all she needed to hear.
I don't think she's the one.
Shikamaru was far too careful around Shiho, changing the way he spoke in her presence as if she was a doll that would break at the first crack (which was ridiculous behaviour, the girl was a Chuunin for goodness sake). The shinobi also seem more lethargic than usual and this was reflected in his grumpier attitude lately.
"Okay the talk is over, back to the dishes."
Her son looked surprised, as if he was expecting more nagging from her. But he got up with little protest and they shortly continued washing the dishes in a thoughtful silence.
Yoshino wondered if she got her point across. She didn't know if Shiho was the best partner for Shikamaru, but at the very least she would make sure her son wouldn't waste anyone's time when it comes to matters of the heart.
I think I made Shikamaru a bit too bratty here, but I wanted to convey that he is pretty much a child when it came to romance and that Shiho doesn't exactly bring out the man in him. I don't think I conveyed it that well though...
The next chapter is the war one. I don't want to dwell on it too long though so am going to cover the whole war in at most two chapters. Yeah that's the plan.