Since Naruto is still ongoing in the manga, everything from here on is my assumption. There are a few minimal things I've changed from the manga. Reviews are welcomed. Anyways, Enjoy! :D
Chapter 29: Truth and Hope
It was three months since the war had ended with the Allied Shinobi forces being victorious. After Sasuke joined their side in the war, Naruto, being the war hero, convinces Tsunade to allow Sasuke to return to the village. Many people still held reservations with not killing Sasuke, but with Naruto around, there wasn't anything they could do about it. Himai almost killed him when he confirmed Shikamaru's theory that she did bind her chest to make it seem that it was smaller than it really was.
Himai returned home and handed her mother Hishu's ring. She didn't have to say anything else. Hiyougo didn't cry at all. In fact, she smiled, saying he was in a better place. The funeral was held a week after they returned. Hiyougo, Himai, and Hikougi were the only ones who didn't cry.
Hishu was right about Hiryuu backing out. Hikougi became in charge temporarily while Himai found another loophole to taking over the clan: In the event that the child with the second strongest connection refuses to take over, the first child will choose the clan's successor.
The person had to be someone willing to allow the clan to move forward and open up to everyone. Someone strong but understanding and who's will was not easily swayed. Himai chose Higami to take over, who accepted. She and Jino took some heat for having sexual relations out of wedlock, but everyone settled down once they announce they'd been planning on getting married.
Even after the war, there were still many rogue ninjas around, some in the allied forces went rogue. It was up to the 5 great nations to take charge of that. The most efficient way to take care of rogues was to exterminate them. Himai would be sent on week long missions every now and then to find and kill as many as she could or to capture them.
Examinations resumed two months after the war's end. Himai seemed to be inspired by the war to make the tests almost impassable. Shikamaru took a peak at the chunin exams she was preparing and felt sorry for Konohamaru and his team who signed up for it. It's like she wanted everyone to fail.
Their friends mourned the loss on Neji when they returned. Tenten was most upset. Shikamaru and Himai knew about their relationship, but it seemed no one else did, so they never said anything. Hinata didn't say anything for weeks until one day she just randomly started crying. The two eventually got over it.
Kurenai had her baby while they were gone in the war. It was a girl. Himai was so excited over the baby, some would've thought it was hers if people didn't know how close Kurenai and her were. Shikamaru laughed to himself, she became a different person around a child. One would think she wasn't a fearsome shinobi who could cut off your head in one go. Kurenai was happy to have Himai over almost every day if it meant he could catch up on sleep.
Himai and Shikamaru were in Team Asuma's training field. Ino and Choji were fighting again, although it was one sided because Choji never fought back. Himai swore Ino was in denial over Choji. Shikamaru was leaning back on a tree watching them and playing with Himai's hair while Himai was laying back on his chest. She kept it short because it was easier to manage, and Shikamaru asked her to.
"You think they'll ever admit to each other?" Himai asked
"I think Ino will do it before Choji. He's more of the silent type."
Himai sighed. "I'm just scared for Choji's existence. There's no way he's gonna fight Ino back."
"Let's walk around and come back when they're finished."
"No. Sasuke's in town. He's gonna say something perverted again and I'm not in the mood to deal with his crap or restrain myself from killing him. I don't care that he's Naruto's friend or Hinata's almost boyfriend. If he doesn't shape up I will kill him."
"Yeah sure whatever, let's go Mai." Shikamaru got up and pulled her up with him.
They walked along the shops of the village. Everything was almost done being built with the return of all the shinobi.
They walked by the newly finished Hokage tower and heard glass breaking. They were right under it.
"Mai!" Shikamaru grabbed Himai and pushed her out of the way of the falling object from the tower. When they opened their eyes, it was Sasuke on the ground with blood on his face from the broken glass. Tsunade jumped from the broken window and landed in front of him and grabbed his collar.
"Listen you little ungrateful twerp! You're only here because of Naruto if not I would've given the order to kill you! So you better learn to behave yourself!"
"Hmph. As if I want to be here. I'm only here for Naruto and Hinata's sake."
'Hinata?' Himai thought trying to control her temper.
"If you're gonna live here then you should respect all other authority! In case you've forgotten you're still a genin! You have no right to take to people so disrespectfully!"
'Genin huh?' Himai had a sly smirk on her face now.
"Sasuke." Himai stepped up to the two on the ground. Tsunade let go of him and Sasuke stayed on the ground.
"You planning on taking the next Chunin exams right?"
"What of it?"
"Out of the hundreds of people who take the exam when I plan it, only a handful have been able to pass. The amount of people who've passed had yet to reach 20."
"Is that a threat?" Sasuke stood up to stare down Himai. She looked up at him and grabbed him by the collar and used the headhunter jutsu on him. With only his head sticking out of the ground, Himai stepped on it.
"It's a warning." Himai took her foot off her face and went to link arms with Shikamaru and walked away. Shikamaru just followed her lead stunned.
'What a drag. And here I was thinking she'd calmed down a bit.'
"Hey Mai?"
"Hm?"
"Remember, we have that reunion with everyone today at the barbecue place. Don't make a scene with Sasuke around. I know you can't promise anything but you can at least try."
"Yeah fine whatever I ju-"Himai stopped waking and looked into the dango shop. Inside was watt looked like a father and her young daughter sharing dango and tea.
"Mai? What's the matter?"
"…The first time I ever tried dango, was with my dad."
Returning from the War
Himai had asked Hikougi for entrance to the archives. She wanted to see the scroll he'd left her. Inside the room when she opened it were three scrolls. One for Hiyougo, one for all of Hishu's children, and one for Himai. Himai took her scroll and opened it.
"Himai,
If you're reading this then I died in the war. I'm sorry for leaving you all so soon, but there are a few things that need to be cleared up.
I'm sorry I won't be there on your wedding day if you do get married to the Nara boy. He's a fine man, and you'd be a fool to not realize it. Being with someone isn't about you. It's about the other person. Two become one. I know it's a mother's job to teach this to their kids but your mother just melts at the thought of marriage and all. You don't get married to be happy. You get married to give your happiness to the other person.
Yes, you have a temper, don't deal well with slow people, are sometimes a workaholic, and you have a knack for getting into trouble, but that's only half of who you are. I know you hide your gentle and caring self to make up for your loss in height so others can take you seriously, but never lose sight in who you really are. You're a gentle and caring person who just wants to protect everyone around her. Don't ever lose sight in that.
I meant to do this sooner, but with the war preparations, there wasn't time and it would have been unwise. At the end of this scroll there is an unbinding seal. This is the seal to release the genjutsu on your memories. We've had it since before the Uchiha massacre. You don't have to undo it right away, or ever. I think you should have access to the truth of our relationship, since we never got around to speaking of it.
However, before you undo the genjutsu, know something. The memories that you'll see about our relationship, even if we never placed the genjutsu on you, our relationship would have been the same no matter what. You still would've been mad at me for sending you away, you'd still not want to be the head of the clan, you'd still have wanted to become a shinobi even if I told you no. We might have gotten in less fights, but nothing would've changed. So don't live with and 'what if's' because there are none.
Never forget that I have and always will love you no matter what.
-Dad"
Himai evaluated her state of mind before undoing the seal. Many memories came rushing back to her. It was a bit overwhelming, but it felt good to know the truth.
When she'd digested her retuned memories, a picture she hadn't noticed before had fallen. It was a picture of her 8 year old self and her father back to back with their arms crossed looking at each other and smirking. It was the day she'd mastered the fire dragon jutsu. She had ash and bandages on her face, but it looked like she didn't mind. Himai was happy her father was right, he always was.
Present
The whole group was together at night. Everyone was eating and engaged in conversation. The current topic at hand was Sasuke and Hinata. Unlike Himai and Shikamaru, where mentioning their love life was taboo, Sasuke and Hinata could've do anything about it. Hinata never would and if Sasuke ever tired anything, he was a dead man.
"Aw come on Hinata you're among friends we won't judge you in you and Sasuke are together!" Ino said Hinata was trying to back away from her.
"No, well just tease Naruto for letting go of an amazing person." Himai said calmly eating a piece of meat.
Naruto had confessed to Hinata that he liked her after the war, but Hinata declined his invitation for a date, saying she'd gotten over him and he'd taken too long to respond. Sasuke took immediate advantage of that opportunity since Hinata was assigned guard duty around him. It seemed like he was getting to her in a good way.
"Aw come on Himai sensei that's not fair!"
"Your loss."
"I would prefer Hinata with anyone else other than Naruto or Sasuke, but I don't have the authority to do anything about her choices." Said Shino.
"What's so bad about me that you can't see me with Hinata huh?!" Naruto yelled.
"You're loud, obnoxious, slow, hardheaded,"
"Shino I think he gets it now." Himai relied to him as Naruto deadpanned.
"Hm. He basically just called you annoying." Said Sasuke.
"I'd say what I don't like about you but that may take all night." Kiba replied to him.
"Um, can we please change the subject?" Hinata pleaded
"That's right. Himai how's Akarui? I haven't seen her around as much. I used to see her all the time after school got out." Tenten asked.
"I don't know ask Shino." Himai said a little irritated.
Choji, the one to never waste food, coughed on his pork. "Himai I was eating don't make jokes like that."
"…She wasn't joking…" Shino admitted. Everyone except for Shikamaru and Himai was shocked, to the point where Hinata was the first to speak.
"Are you serious, Shino?"
"Is there something wrong with me being in a relationship?"
"There's no hope for me if you're able to get a girl and I'm not!" Kiba exclaimed.
"Maybe if you didn't flirt with everything that has boobs you wouldn't have that problem." Sakura said.
"I don't flirt with you."
"Oh yeah and what's that supposed to mean?!" It took Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee to hold her back from killing Kiba. After they settled down Kiba opened his big mouth again.
"Ha. Couldn't get the real thing so you went for the copy."
"Hey that's my sister you're talking about!"
"I might accidentally use my shadow strangle jutsu on you if you don't shut up."
"It's funny how everyone reacts to Shino's relationship. I wonder how they will react when they find out Sakura and Lee are secretly together." Sai though aloud, a little too loud. Shino was completely forgotten.
Shikamaru and Himai had enough of everyone's loud expressions so they quietly left and walked around the village to waste time.
"You know I thought everyone knew of Lee and Sakura." Started Shikamaru.
"…I didn't."
"Yeah? Guess it was just me."
"Sakura's gonna go for Naruto soon, just wait for it." Himai sighed. "This is then when they find out people are in a relationship. Kami forbid they find out about anyone getting engaged."
Shikamaru gulped at that time. "Yeah, they'll lose their heads that day." He said while putting a hand behind his head. "Hey, it's spring. The cherry blossom trees are blooming, let's go see the stars there."
"Sure." There was a full moon that night. It was the middle of spring, so the cherry blossom trees were in full bloom. There was a part of the forest where the tree blanches never cluster together and you could see the stars perfectly. They sat up on one of the tree branches with Himai leaning her head on Shikamaru's shoulder
Himai took a deep breath and exhaled. "Finally, we can breathe without having to worry about war or anything."
"Yeah."
"Hey look a shooting star!" Himai pointed out to a white light passing by the sky.
"It's pretty bri-"
"Sh! Make a wish on it rat!" Himai said with her eyes closed and putting a finger in the air.
Shikamaru chuckled at her antics and did as he was told. When he finished. He turned to Himai. "So what did you wish for?"
"I thought the rule was that if I told you it wouldn't come true."
"Well if it's about me I'm sure it will."
"We- I mean- but-" Himai removed her head from his shoulder and turned away from him.
"So it is about me eh?" Shikamaru said leaning more to try seeing her face.
"I never said anything!"
"Then why get so defensive all of a sudden."
"It's because- well, you-"
"Hey." Shikamaru grabbed her chin and made her face him. His face was very close to hers.
"You don't have to hide anything from me. Alright." He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. Himai just sat there, her mind unable to process the situation until a few moments later when she kissed back. They parted and looked each other in the eye.
"You know you can be really slow to respond sometimes Mai."
"H-Hey! We just had our first kiss and that's the shit you come up with?! What the fuck?!"
"You're the one that's cursing like a sailor!"
"What's with you all and the pirate jokes?!"
"Come on don't be so defensive."
"Don't be making pirate jokes!"
"Ugh shut up will you?" Shikamaru leaned in to kiss her again. They both smiled into it.
'Hm, I could get used to this.' They thought.
