Tsunade dismissed the lot of them almost as soon as they entered the village. "I can bodyguard myself." She said waving off Anko to take her team off to get paperwork filled out and Sasuke and Shikako so she could get work done without the office assistants trying to perform exorcisms on everything they might have touched. "Come see me in a week, or two, I'll figure it out."

They dropped by Ino's to inform her that everyone was back, and that a chunin party for Sakura was required before heading home.

"Well that was fun." Shikako said blithely as they left the shop.

Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes. "Kakashi's going to be infuriating. Zabuza married, picking fights with Biju..."

"My cute little genin dating and not telling me. I was heartbroken. How could you not tell your dear old sensei about exploring such a youthful part of your life?" Kakashi slouched pitifully behind them. "It's almost like you don't care."

"If I hear a word of this from Gai, I'll tell Yoshino." Sasuke threatened lowly.

"She would, wouldn't she." Shikako mused with a grin, imagining her mum chewing her sensei out about gossiping, as though he didn't already. She stepped forward with a hug.

Kakashi actually paused at that. "Oh no need for that." He hugged back, patting her head nervously.

She stepped back. "Hi sensei. I thought you were deployed?" She gestured for him to follow, and they continued to make their way towards the Nara end of town.

"More or less." He answered with a sigh, pulling out his obscene book, which he promptly stuffed down Sasuke's vest, and pulled out another. "I do lots of things, just last week I had to go help an old man cross the road."

Sasuke sputtered like an angry cat, and Shikako shelved Kakashi's comment to the side, innuendo for some classified thing that it was notwithstanding. "I thought you grew out of that?"

"You never grow out of having respect for your elders, Shikako. There's always an elder needing help crossing the street." He did his weird, but endearing little eye-smile and Shikako got the distinct impression that this particular innuendo was referring to an assassination. "It was good seeing you, but I've been expected somewhere dull for an hour now so I have to go. Sasuke, I'll be expecting a book report."

He disappeared before Sasuke could go properly ballistic.

Their eyes met, and he, to Shikako's shock, blushed. He tore his eyes away from hers to look at the ground. "I'm not going to read it. It's going in the trash." He assured her, as though he was being given hard drugs or cigarettes.

"Kakashi's just going to cry about his gifts being unappreciated." She caught his hand and pulled him along, but not before fishing the book out of his vest and twisting it into Hammerspace. "Besides, the best way to handle him is to double-down and give it right back to him. We'll write the book report together and give it to him in front of someone who will get on to him for it."

"I can't believe you." He grumbled as he followed her along.

She laughed. "You just have to know how to deal with people. He messes with you because you give him a reaction."

………..

"We're home!" Shikako announced as she pushed open the front door.

"Welcome back! How was Mist? Is that Sasuke?" Yoshino called from the kitchen.

"It was crazy and classified, but it turned out fine." Shikako answered, shucking out of her vest and hanging it on the coat hanger by the door. "Sakura did really well. Is Kino-chan sleeping."

"Yes, I just put him to bed." Yoshino came out of the kitchen and pulled her into a hug. "I'm glad you're home. Your dad is back for another week before he returns to the border. He'll be home for dinner."

Shikako eagerly returned it. "And Shika?"

"Courier mission. He should be getting back tonight or tomorrow morning." Yoshino replied, kissing her on the forehead before going to hug Sasuke as well. "Go put your things up and get clean. We'll be in the kitchen."

He accepted the hug, still somewhat awkwardly, and followed Yoshino into the kitchen when she took him by the hand. He gave Shikako an apologetic look as he passed his bag off to her to take up to her room.

She rolls her eyes. "I'll leave you some hot water."

"So what was Mist like? I've never been." Yoshino asked.

He shrugged and began kneading the dough she set him to. "I wouldn't want to live there. They seem to be overly concerned about their appearance after Yagura." He smirked. "Zabuza is head of their academy now though."

Yoshino's eyes widened in horror as they met his own.

"It's not as bad as it sounds." He reassured her.

It still ended the conversation though.

He was midway through peeling the carrots when Shikako nudged him out of the way, her hair wet and smelling like her shampoo. "Your turn."

He leaned over to get a better idea of it as he relinquished the knife. "Apples?"

She swiped the knife at him in mock annoyance, which he dodged casually, as she knew he would. "Yes, and spearmint, now go shower."

He left with his smug little look on his face and Shikako turned to face her mother, her face flushed with embarrassment.

Yoshino raised an eyebrow.

"He likes my hair." She muttered.

"I can tell." Her mum said, an amused grin making itself known.

"Mum, you troll, you're as bad as Kakashi." She huffed, "You're going to tease him for it, aren't you."

"I didn't tease your brother and Tenten and I'm not going to do it to you two, but you do make just as good a couple as you were as friends."

"It honestly doesn't feel like an enormous difference." She admitted. "I was afraid it would be completely different, not just, an additional layer, and I'm glad we did it."

Yoshino leaned over to kiss her forehead. "I'm proud of you, for being brave enough to take a chance on it even though you were so uncertain."

She shrugged, self conscious and not really knowing what to say back, but also kind of proud of herself for the same thing. "Thanks mum."

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Shikako leaned further into Sasuke's chest. "Play with my hair?" She asked. She sighed as his hands slid through her hair and put her arms around him. "I'll tell Sakura tomorrow." She said, dully.

"You're dreading it." He said, his hands stilling in her hair. His breath shivering in his body.

"Sakura and Ino nearly ended their friendship over you when we were in the Academy. I'm the reason why they didn't because it's fucking stupid to end your friendship over a boy." She answered, huffing. "I don't want to lose a friend over this." She raised her head to press her forehead against his own and look him in his eyes, a deep warm grey that was currently begging her not to do what he thought she was about to do. "But I'm not going to let her stop me from being with you either, just like I'm not going to stop my field career just because he wants me to."

"I love you." She said, like it was the simplest thing in the universe. "You're brave, smart, powerful, considerate, passionate, determined, romantic, and most importantly, you're my best friend. And I think I am very in love with you. And I'm glad you told me how you feel." She said, echoing his confession, and trying, and failing for the first time in her lives, to not notice how close his lips were to hers and how his breath smelled like black tea and mint.

The worry drained out of his body at her words, his hands drifting gently to cup her jaw and settle at her waist. "Can I kiss you?" He whispered.

She nodded, a bit of a laugh sneaking out at the feeling of her nose brushing his. "Yeah, I think so."

His lips quirked up in a grin and then they were on her own, pressing gently against her even as she pressed back, moving her mouth in time with his as they kissed, gentle and sweet and dare she say it, kinda hot. Literally and figuratively, his chakra was excited and campfire warm up close to his skin, spreading over her own wherever his hands touched. Her face, neck, her upper arms, a strip of skin around her waist he touched where her shirt had rode up an inch as he tugged it back down over her. She took his bottom lip in between hers and tentatively brushed it with her tongue and he broke the kiss with a surprised gasp and an utterly enraptured look that she couldn't tear her eyes from.

Until she sensed her mum coming down the stairs. Shikako turned away to face her as she rounded the corner.

"I didn't say anything about not taking pictures, you're going to want these later." Yoshino explained, holding up the camera. "Can I take one?"

Shikako nodded, a little embarrassed and relieved that they hadn't been caught.

Sasuke kissed Shikako's cheek and wrapped his arms around her. "Can I have a copy?"

"Of course dear. Are you spending the night?" Yoshino answered, lifting the camera and snapping a picture.

He shook his head. "No, I need to go back home." He answered, checking the time on the wall and shifting to get up.

She leaned forward to let him move. "I'll walk you out." She grumbled.

They stopped out on the porch.

Shikako slumped. "Did you have to say that?" She whined.

Sasuke pulled her into a hug, which she willingly succumbed to. "I didn't remember to turn on my Sharingan."

She rolled her eyes. "You are the sappiest person I know."

"My name isn't Ino. And you said I was romantic." He corrected dryly.

She snorted in derision. And then she said something even worse. "I'm glad you like the same tea I do." And then immediately regretted it when she recognized the implications of what she was saying.

He, fortunately, did not lower himself to the comments he could have made in response. Nor did he laugh.

She would have died of embarrassment if he had.

Instead he had the good sense to look embarrassed himself and cup her jaw and slip his other hand through her hair. "Can I kiss you again?" He asked hesitantly.

She wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him in and start back up where they left off. She shivered at the brush of his nose against hers as he nuzzled into the kiss, pressing in more firmly. His hands were everywhere, sliding through her hair, drifting up and down her back and sides, cupping her face. And so what if he was? He was being gentle, he wasn't touching anywhere he shouldn't, his chakra felt like a warm blanket over her skin. She tangled her fingers in his hair and tugged him closer.

He tugged her bottom lip with his own and the tip of his tongue flickered briefly across in response and she started in surprise at the sensation, understanding how he had broken their first kiss at the feeling. Her hand curled into the arm hole of his vest to tug him closer.

And again she was forced to break off to preserve her, their, privacy as she distantly felt Shikamaru coming down the street. Sasuke, not having the advantage her senses allowed, lifted her hand to kiss the scarring on her wrist from Kimimaru.

"Can I get by?" Shikamaru's voice announced in an annoyed, slightly disgusted drawl. "I'd like to go inside now and not have to see this."

They broke apart on reflex, and the gentle, comfortable feeling of warm intimacy and companionship turned into an annoyed embarrassment for the second time that night as she led Sasuke away from the door and out to the front gate. "Sorry." She muttered, her face burning.

Shikamaru brushed past, waiting until they were about halfway across the yard before tossing a "Don't put your hands where they don't belong, Uchiha." over his shoulder before disappearing inside.

Annoyed embarrassment turned instantly to humiliation and rage. But he was gone through the door before she could snap something she would undoubtedly regret saying later. She ground her teeth and distantly below the resentment she could feel Sasuke wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back against his chest.

"It's ok. I don't care, he can say whatever he wants. He's just doing what brothers do." He said quietly in her ear, taking her hand in his own and interlacing his fingers with hers. "He doesn't know how we are. Let it -"

"Yes he fucking does!" She snapped, breaking out of his hug. "He's known us as long as we've been friends. He's just pissed I'm not his perfectly defenseless sister he always had to take the lead for when we were kids. He's pissed I grew a fucking spine and started making choices he didn't like, and he's pissed I'm dating my best friend who hit me once when you were high on garbage and he fucking knows better than to think you'd ever do it again! Don't make excuses for him, you deserve better, and he knows better." She snarled like an angry cat, moving towards the door to follow Shikamaru inside -

"Shikako-" he started.

-and slammed the door behind her.

"Shikamaru!" She growled, turning for the kitchen.

He turned away from hugging Shikaku as she entered the room. Kino was in his arms. "What?"

The desire to knock him to the ground faded into impotent bitterness as she noted Kino and her parents raised eyebrows and felt a deep reluctance to expose the beginnings of her physical exploration to her parents. "Mind your own business." She snapped lamely, pissed that he had outmaneuvered her.

Yoshino took her brother from Shikamaru. "Okay you two. Go set the table."

She stared her brother down a moment more before he turned to obey their mother.

Sasuke quietly came back in. "I forgot my pack." He explained apologetically.

"Well if you can't stay the night, at least stay for dinner." Yoshino fussed.

Dinner was strained. Shikamaru's courier mission had taken him closer to the front (and what used to be Hot Springs) than was comfortable for anyone, and it hadn't gotten better when Sasuke had to admit that a portion of what happened at the wedding was classified.

"Of course it was." Shikamaru had sullenly muttered under his breath.

"Well, that's what happens when heads of state have conversations." Shikako snipped.

The rather obvious explanation shut him up for the moment.

"So what was the village like? Did they have you in a guest house? What was the food like?" Yoshino hurried on.

"Colorful, they're really trying to put Yagura behind them. We ate a lot of seafood, and they had us in a hotel suite. Tsunade in the master, we had an adjoining room. One of the nicer hotels I've stayed in but their hospital isn't as good as ours from the tour we got." Sasuke answered again.

"Two twins or did you sleep on the floor?" Shikamaru asked, false innocence dripping from his voice.

"Shitty couch, and we had to keep watch." Sasuke lied, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Shikamaru stop baiting him. If you wouldn't have wanted to be asked questions about Tenten, don't ask Shikako or Sasuke." Shikaku stated.

"Neji and Lee did, so I don't see why I shouldn't." Shikamaru retorted. "He's already hurt her once."

"I don't give a fuck about how much you want to bitch about me and my field career," she said rising from her chair, "but don't you dare suggest that my best friend would take advantage of me just because you don't like him. And don't even try to pull the 'concerned brother' bullshit, you aren't stupid enough to really believe it, and I never would have said anything like that to Tenten." Shikako berated, the rage and humiliation having only built over all of dinner returning full force.

Shikamaru glared back up at her, "Looked like I needed to say it from where I was standing." He argued.

And that was it.

"His hands were on my waist, not my tits!" She exploded. "Which is more than I can say for you and Tenten, and I didn't say shit, because it isn't my business!"

"I'm not a -," Shikamaru began.

"Enough, the both of you." Shikaku ordered quietly, ending the argument.

They both fell quiet, grinding their teeth, the anger on her side and resentment on his simmering angrily beneath the surface.

"Shikamaru, what did you say before you came in exactly?" Shikaku questioned, steady and firm as the foundation of their house.

"I told him to 'watch where he put his hands.'" Shikamaru answered resentfully.

"And you felt the need to say that why?" Yoshino asked, a tinge of exasperation in her voice. "Neither of those things were appropriate."

"Because every time she gets hurt it's his fault, and if she won't admit it then I'll remind him!" He spat. "And I'm tired of being the only one here that sees it. Ever since she got saddled with the 'Lucky Sevens' it's been nothing but an endless trail of missions gone wrong, extended hospital stays, and her nearly being killed defending them from threats that she has no business doing anything but running from, her teammates be damned. And instead of doing the smart thing and cutting ties after chunin, she invites him even closer since he doesn't have a family of his own anymore and one day, he's going to be the death of her too. " He said, turning his words into the sharpest knife he could as he accused them all, and across the table, where Sasuke sat pale as a ghost and still as the memorial stone.

He left through the front door and closed it behind him.

Shikako saw red, and then black, turning to shadow and reforming across the table before she could remember that her family didn't know that she could, and as soon as her arms were solid, she backhanded her brother savagely to the floor. But before she could chase him down to hit him again, Shikaku seized her firmly but not harshly by the arm and pulled her away. "You fucking monster!" She spat.

"Shikaku?" Yoshino pleaded hurriedly, Kino crying in her arms.

Shikaku created a shadow clone, which took Kino gently in his arms, whispering comfortingly in the baby's ear and leaving the room.

"I'll be talking to you when I get back." Yoshino scolded her son, putting her hand on her utterly horrified and enraged daughter's shoulder and reassuring her, "I'll talk to him." And left hurriedly in pursuit.

"Shikako, please go to your room. I'll be there in a moment." He said after a moment, and released her arm.

She stood there for a moment, torn between a deep concern for Sasuke, a deep trust for her parents, and a white hot hate for her brother.

"Shikako." Her dad's voice broke through. "Your mother will take care of him. Please trust her, and let me take care of you." He said gently.

She turned stiffly and stomped to her room, closed the door and collapsed on her bed, the anger transforming into a black hole in her heart as she lay there trying not to cry out of helpless fear and rage on behalf of her best and dearest friend having his worst nightmares thrown in his face and at her hopelessly deteriorating relationship with her brother, the first friend she had ever had and the rock on which she'd first built herself.

Shikaku knocked on the door sometime later, she couldn't say how long.

"Come in. " She answered woodenly, sitting up and hugging her knees to her chest as she slumped against the pillows stacked against the headboard.

Shikaku came into the room, the calm, steady presence he'd always been, closing the door gently behind him and met her eyes. He sighed, "May I sit?" He asked.

She nodded.

He walked around and sat down beside her. He stayed quiet for a minute. He bit his lip, looking hesitant for the first time in her life. He sighed again and began. "I'm not going to get on to you." He said. "Not after that."

"I hit Shika." Shikako said shakily.

He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in. "Before I eloped with your mother, and that is what it was before the clan let us marry, me and your uncle and grandfather had a very, very similar fight over your mother." He explained. "Now obviously it wasn't about Yoshino's nonexistent enemies, but it was about the kinds of things you could have said about Tenten if you had ever wanted to be as cruel as your brother just was. Things were said that none of us can ever take back, because they died before we could ever reconcile. I'm not going to approve of what you did, and you and Shikamaru are going to apologize to each other and he is going to apologize to Sasuke, but I understand why you did what you did and I'm proud of you for standing up for your partner even though I don't appreciate how you did it. I know how hard it is to stand against the family you love for someone else." He finished tiredly.

The dam broke in her chest and she started sobbing into his shirt. "H-he just d-doesn't g-hic-get it! I don't h-have a ch-choice!"

"Shhh, it's ok deerheart. What don't you have a choice about?"

"Everything!" She cried. "The Akatsuki, Orochi-hic!-maru, they're coming for everyone whether they like it or not and I can't just not do anything about it! I can't just play it safe and hope my family won't get massacred too, the only way to stop it is to do something about them and it feels like I'm the only one who understands that. What does he expect!? That if I stand aside and let them have my family, they're just going to leave the rest of us alone!? Being average and normal is not enough whether he likes it or not!"

"And sometimes you just get hurt." She said, wiping her eyes on the heel of her palm. "I thought losing an arm might teach him that even though I'd give him mine to replace it."

"I can't make Shika see that, he's going to have to realize that on his own." Shikaku said. "But I can promise you that you aren't alone, and I will do everything in my power to help you and protect you, no matter how far outside your weight class you feel you have to punch. And I am very proud to have such a determined, loyal, driven daughter who sees the world the way the things are and isn't distracted by the way she wishes it was. I promise you that I don't blame your teammates for you getting hurt fighting on their behalf, and as long as they are like family to you they'll be welcome here. I will never make you face the same choice I had to make." He promised.

"But?" She asked.

"But that doesn't mean that I don't understand why your brother is so worried about you. You can be extremely reckless and willfully dismissive of both danger and being able to ask for help. You are very much my and your mother's daughter and I see so much of us both in you, our strengths, and our weaknesses. And you have to understand that acting like these injuries and behaviors are nothing to worry about does nothing but convince your brother that you are willfully ignoring that danger and uncaring if you live or die. And just like Sasuke's nightmare is that he is going to get everyone he loves killed defending him, and yours is being helpless to stop your families enemies, his is that you are actively trying to kill yourself by putting yourself in situations you have no hope of getting out of."

"I understand where you are coming from." Her father comforted. "I have had plenty of extended hospital time myself because I have been forced to choose between a frying pan and the fire and chose to stand my ground. The scars on my face prove that, and so do the continued existence of Anko and Ibiki and my old team who made me choose between leaving them to die and fighting the Nibi on my own until help could arrive. I understand the choices you've made. But you and Shikamaru have to come to an understanding without driving each other away before either of you also say something you can't come back from. And that will require the both of you to meet in the middle. I will be happy to help you both get there again. He loves you and you love him, and that's what matters. Ordinarily, however, you understand that what he said wasn't worth rising to?"

"About Sasuke 'watching where he put his hands?'" She clarified, with a sigh. "Yeah. Sasuke was right, it was a stupid thing to get mad over. I just took it as another dig about Sasuke hurting me and at my inability to take care of myself and I was frustrated at being interrupted twice and I snapped." She admitted. "Especially when he was being so hypocritical."

"You don't think that may have been why he was worried?" Shikaku challenged lightly.

She snorted. "It doesn't matter, it wasn't my business then and it's not his business now. And he'd never do that anyway. He's so concerned about respecting how I feel about trying this out that it's been a month and a half since we started this and tonight is the first time we've ever kissed."

"Would you have agreed before tonight?" He asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know, probably not. He never asked."

"Well, I hope you don't think that I doubt your ability to take care of yourself when I say that I'm glad you two are taking things very slowly and putting your friendship first." Shikaku stated.

Shikako shook her head. "It's different, you've never tried to sideline me into a research job to keep me from taking missions or keep me away from my team." She frowned. "Were you worried that we wouldn't?"

"It may have been suggested that because the two of you were so close already that you might feel comfortable going faster than either of you should." He said vaguely.

She rolled her eyes. "That's not going to happen, and it's not the way we work."

He nodded. "Your mother and I thought the same." He said, getting up. "Be up for breakfast tomorrow morning and apologize." He told her.

She nodded. "Ok."

"Good night, deerheart."

"Good night, dad."

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Authors note: So this was originally going to be the chapter where Shikako breaks the news to Sakura.

This fight originally,

A. I Didn't originally intend on writing.

B. When I did I based it off of the one when Shikako comes back from Grass. Big blow up, but the actual fight was probably less than 500 words, but because the issue was established far earlier, it was kinda more of a breaking point . This fight was supposed to be a continuation of that fight.

Shikamaru feels like Shikako has no regard for her own safety and she needs to be reigned in before she kills herself and specifically that Sasuke is enabling and encouraging that pattern of risky/destructive behavior and reinforcing it with his own behavior. And Naruto is only less culpable in this. So he wants team 7 as far away from Shikako as he can get them. Buried underneath is some internalized misogyny and disgust at the idea of Shikako doing the things that he and Tenten we're starting to explore.

Shikako feels like Shikamaru is being controlling and possessive without regard for what she wants out of life and that he is blaming Sasuke for things that she knows are out of his control, and attributing malicious intent to Sasuke's actions by willful stupidity, because he's smart enough to know otherwise. And her last straw is that Shikamaru is A. Being extremely hypocritical, B. Accusing Sasuke of a crime that they both know is wildly against his character (getting handsy without her consent) C. Saying that if he did that she would be incapable of stopping it.

Sasuke feels mostly that Shikamaru is jealous of Shikako's combat record and success, and that the delusions of adequacy (average wife, average rank, average life) that are his life's goal is abject cowardice. He also is concerned about Shikako's pattern of destructive behavior because he feels like she is pushing herself

Also this was my first time writing kissing. Considering that I have no actual experience in this regard, I hope it went well.

I hope you enjoyed it, please review!