Dear Shikamaru,

I hope everything is going well with you and that your children are doing well. I'm writing to you to let you know that everything is going well here. Ino and Inojin are doing well without you here, they have tons of help from family and friends around them. I think Ino is healing nicely as well, she sure is determined to get better though she seems to be stuck in her previous mindset so she isn't the same as she was before the incident. She may not be contacting you anytime soon because she is so determined to spend all of her time getting better and looking after Inojin. I wanted to let you know there is no need to worry, your children need you right now and I'm glad that you have been doing what you can for them. Let Gaara know that I will be contacting him soon.

Sincerely,

Naruto

Shikamaru's POV:

Something is clearly not right, why would the ninja who brought me the letter be so exhausted if it wasn't urgent, didn't he say he was sent to get this to me a.s.a.p.? I realized the guy was probably still outside so I open the door once more and look down to him still panting on the ground. I sigh, "Why were you sent here? Why were you told to get this to me as soon as possible?"

At this point Shikadai stands from where he had been watching me and walks up behind me watching the guy, waiting for an answer. The guy looks up at me and is still panting but is able to say, "Lord Hokage gave me that letter, Sakura-san is the one who told me I need to be quick."

I nod and help him up, "Thank you." He nods and makes his way, still panting, towards the village gates. I turn to Shikadai and he smiles at me unaware of what I'm thinking.

Naruto said everything was going well, but Sakura told the guy to be fast, what is going on?

Naruto's POV (Before he sent the letter):

It's been an hour since Choji has brought Ino to see the medics. It seems that Ino has regained her memories but her brain is on overdrive, which caused headaches and dizziness. When she fell down the stairs she hit her side pretty awkwardly which cause some minor internal bleeding and it seems she has broken her arm. Choji has mentioned that since Shikamaru has left, he and Ino have been sending letters to each other and since Ino will currently be unable to send anything that I should send one to Shikamaru to let him know what is going on. That is what I am currently doing… though in a different way, I know Shikamaru would want to come back if he knows that Ino is currently in the hospital and I don't want him to come so soon if his babies still need time before they can travel. I decided to send him a letter letting him know all is good, I made up some excuse about Ino being unable to send him anything because she's been soooo busy…I'm sure he'll buy it. Once I was done the letter Sakura walked in along with a ninja I called to deliver the letter. I handed the man the letter and told him to go to Suna and deliver it to Shikamaru. He nodded and walked out, Sakura turned to me and said, "Is that the letter to tell Shikamaru about what's going on?" I nod and she glares at me, "Why didn't you tell him he has to get there asap?" Without even waiting for a response she runs out of my office probably going to find the man who will be delivering the letter. I sigh, 'it's fine he probably won't take it seriously if I didn't tell him to be fast'. I go back to my normal duties, planning to call Gaara in the morning to catch up with everything happening.

Ino's POV:

I woke up in the hospital, sort of confused, how did I get here? I try to sit up but I couldn't, my side was killing me and so was my arm. Suddenly someone came into the room and when I looked up I groaned, there was Sakura looking pissed as ever, "What do you want Sakura? Why am I here?"

She walked over to the side of my hospital bed and glared down at me, "Ino, what were you thinking!? Choji went to check on you and you were laying at the bottom of the stairs wincing in pain and passing out! Why didn't you have someone help you up the stairs? You may be a strong kunoichi but your body needs to heal and you're not letting it do what it needs!"

I groan and ignore her lecture looking out the window, once she is done I look back to her and sigh, "Are you done?"

She sighs and sits on the chair by my bed, "For now…"

She gives me the run down of my injuries and I tell her what happened and how most of my memories are back and, though traumatic, I'm happy they are back so now I don't feel so out of place.

Soon there is a knocking at the door and Choji, his family and Inojin come in. Choji smiles at me as Inojin runs up to me, "So you're awake. You scared us there you know?"

I nod to him and say, "Sorry Choji I would have been fine going up the stairs if my brain didn't decide to give me most of my memories all at once, I didn't think of this outcome and thought I could do it without help or anyone to make sure it goes smoothly. Thanks for being there, Choji." Choji nods and the rest of the conversations go to other matters such as, exactly what I remember.

Shikamaru's POV (The morning after he receives the letter):

Shikadai and I are ready to head back to the hospital, Gaara and Kankuro are with us as always. Today we should know a little more about how Shikina is doing and whether or not she can come out of the hospital. I told Gaara about the letter I was sent and he said he will get in contact with Naruto once we are done at the hospital. We head up to the girls' room once more and see them both happy and awake, being cooed at by the some women medics who were in charge of the infant and birthing unit. Shikako was watching the medics intently while Shikina just stared on blankly at them and looked elsewhere. Once our presence was known the medics smiled at us and one of them spoke, "We will miss these two so much. Shikina is doing better than ever and will be able to be discharged today! She can travel as long as you're being accompanied by a medic and other shinobi for safety of course. She along with her sister are doing very well and like I said we'll be so sad to see her leave and we will miss them so much. Take your time getting their things together and come see us at the main desk down the hall to sign some paperwork." The medics all smiled and waved to the babies and to Shikadai as they left the room.

Once they were gone Kankuro sigh, "Damn looks like our daily visits won't be happening anymore, I was getting so close to having a date with that hot medic too."

Gaara glared, "Kankuro!"

Kankuro quickly made his way behind the babies and said, "Hey, hey it was only a joke I'm so happy they're able to leave the hospital and are doing better health wise." He put his hands up in surrender and ducked a little waiting for a hit. Being in the hospital and around multiple children saved him from that faith.

I smirked and walked over to the babies, "Well my little warrior looks like you pulled through like a real fighter. Shikadai can you grab the bag in the closet please?" Shikadai nods and goes to get the bag.

I got my girls ready and with the help of Shikadai and Kankuro got their bag packed. It didn't take us long to get ready, we went down the hall to sign the papers and then headed out towards the Kazekage Tower. We were planning on having some lunch with Kankuro and Gaara before going to get our own stuff and heading back to Konoha.

I can't believe it's over, the girls are okay, I saw Temari it was what I expected. Shikadai loves his sisters, thankfully and is doing better about the situation with his mother, thanks to Ino. I can't believe after all this time with Temari that I will be leaving with our twin girls and our oldest child without her, at the same time I'm not surprised about how this all went down. She never fully appreciated or respected our relationship and was never really close to any of my friends and she never really wanted to get along with them. It makes me wonder why she ever agreed to marry me and why it got as far as it did.

Once we got to Gaara's office he quickly got to work in contacting Naruto, one of his assistants got to work in getting our lunch and Kankuro sat down with Skikako and Shikadai to play Shoji after helping me get Shikako out of the carrier on my back. I sat and watched while Shikina slept in the carrier on the front of me. She was much smaller than her sister, I'm so happy she is now healthy and able to be with me and the rest of her family. She recovered much faster than anyone ever expected so it seems I'll be back in Konoha much quicker than what I had told Ino so it seems I will be surprising her. I'm sure she'll want to hit me for it but I can't wait to see her face when I walk in and she realizes we're back. I'm sure she'll be happy we're back but I'm also sure she won't be pleased that I haven't told her that I was on my way back and in a way I can't wait for it, it's been so long since she's been able to be herself, the one I'm used to, the one that yells and hits me out of nowhere. Though some may ask 'aren't you happy she doesn't yell, hit and boss you around?' In normal circumstances yes I would be over the moon to just be with her with none of that but that's not who she is and I miss her, all of her not just the good times but her flaws such as the yelling and hitting are all a part of her and it doesn't seem right to be around her without all of that. She isn't abusive if that's what some are thinking, the hits are playful and barely hurt at all mostly and the yelling is just Ino being loud just like how Sakura is loud and yells. She may have grown since she has gotten with Sai but she shouldn't have changed the way she has, she has become docile and submissive, she is still sometimes bossy, she hardly is the way she was before and everyone saw it. We all believed that she has grown and changed and has decided not to do that stuff any longer but now that I think about it everything about her was different after she got with Sai. Ino before marriage and Ino after were two completely different people, sometimes her old personality would come through but that was only with me and that was rare. So I hope now that she's away from Sai and unable to be hurt or controlled that she will go back to the way she was even after her memories come back. It was just the bossy, hitting and yelling personality that I miss, it's her in general everything about her was different, she wasn't Ino anymore, she wasn't motivated, she doesn't show her love of life the way she did before and I swear if I see Sai ever again it will be too soon and he would be six feet under before anyone can blink. No one would see it coming and I wouldn't be held responsible for the murder because no one would have seen what happened it would have gone by too fast.

"Papaaaaaa!" I snapped out of my thoughts to look up at Shikadai who was looking up at me along with Kankuro and Gaara. It seems they were trying to get my attention for a while. "Papa, I won Shoji against uncle Kankuro! Are you happy for me?"

I smile and nod, "I am very proud of you. That didn't take long either huh? Soon you'll be beating me then what will I do?"

Shikadai laughed, "Papa I don't think I'll win against you, you're too good. But I bet I'll win against grandpa and uncle Asuma." I smirked at this and got up when Shikina woke up crying and fussing. I moved over to the bag we brought with us and took her out of the carrier, preparing to feed her as the assistants came back in with our lunch.