Hi everyone, I know it's been a while. I have had a very busy last few months and I have not had much time to write . I am, however, always working on this story. Unfortunately a lot of times I get ideas that are for further on down the line plot wise or after some revising I decide to toss concepts that don't suit the flow. For those of you who are still here thank you so much for your patience and I look forward to hearing what you guys think. One of the best parts of creating something is getting to share it with others. If you have any questions, thoughts, comments, or ideas, feel free to reach out to me.

Yuki drank her herbal tea with a self-satisfied grin. After months of being on her best behavior, she had begun to feel like she was losing her touch. One of her greatest sources of pride throughout her life had been her prowess as a shinobi. There was an undeniable thrill to the ninja arts: the manipulation and deception of targets, chasing down a mark, or watching all the color drain from a person's face as they realized the game was over. Despite her attempts to become a "better" person, gritty shinobi work would always feel as satisfying as a good lay. To be honest, after she had broken a person, Yuki didn't particularly want to kill them. Leaving someone feeling defeated and hopeless did more damage than a knife ever could. The job usually required her to kill them anyway. At least Yuki could comfort herself with the knowledge that it wasn't the act of killing that she enjoyed so much; it was the hunt that got her off.

That's why this whole mental chess match against Shikamaru was so much fun. Well, not just Shikamaru. It was all those smug, self-important ANBU she was besting, too. They were all so comfortable and so confident in their skills. They approached Yuki so brazenly she had to take them down a peg. Sure, dicking with his specialists probably put Kakashi in a difficult position. Then again, wasn't it better that they were being put through their paces within the privacy of Konoha?

The last ANBU agent they'd sent had taken the least amount of time to shatter. All it really took was some light groping and breaking into the girl's apartment. Yuki had slipped in while she was in the bathroom, tossed some of her unmentionables behind a dresser to imply theft, and then went full horror movie on her. Yuki had done the classic ghost routine: flicker the lights, knock the radio between stations (so it played static), and pop up right in front of the glass shower door in full Yukionna mode. The girl had screamed and thrown herself against the wall; her flailing knocked down every bottle as she slid down to the floor. Yuki followed it with some more light flickering, a touch of fog, and disappearing as suddenly and quietly as she had appeared. Yuki left nothing behind but the echoes of the girl's own uncontrollable sobbing.

Seeing as Yuki didn't have a security detail the day after the incident, she was pretty sure the girl quit. It was unfortunate the girl had caved so soon. Usually, the black ops types had an inflated sense of pride in their professional image. That kept the best of them hanging on for weeks as Yuki slowly upped the ante. She caused all sorts of disorienting sensory experiences, destroying their mental state one peripheral pop-up at a time. Once, it had ended with a man screaming for her to come out and fight him. It was absolute pandemonium in that laundromat. It took Yuki everything she had not to burst out laughing on the roof as he screamed incoherently into the night. When he finally stumbled out muttering about how he wasn't afraid of her, Yuki had blown cold air onto the back of his neck, and he'd fainted.

The gentle warmth of the herbal tea warming her core, Yuki crossed over to her bedroom window. It gave her full view of the tree outside, their yard, and a large portion of the street out front. Winter had stripped the tree to its bones. Gray-white snow coated the yard up to the freshly salted sidewalk. The murky sunlight through an overcast sky kept everything in a perpetual pre-dawn like glow. Although it was long after sunrise, everything still looked sleepy. The cold kept everyone indoors, adding to the disorientation of time.

The agents Yuki had so far usually picked either the tree, the roof, or the telephone pole slightly out of view as their roost. Unable to see any bodies in the scene before her, if there was an ANBU agent, they were on the roof. She yawned and stretched with catlike smugness, her smile deepening with anticipation. If the roof was empty, Shikamaru had conceded. If he had found someone stupid enough to take the job, Yuki could look forward to playing with her new toy.

Yuki silently made her way downstairs, moving so lightly she practically floated across the house. There was a small window in the downstairs bathroom that was hardly noticeable outside. It blended right in with the façade of the house and made a perfect escape route. It was a tight squeeze, especially around her increasingly swollen belly, but Yuki made it through in one piece. Channeling the smallest amount of chakra to the tips of her fingers, Yuki crawled up the side of the house. When she reached the crest of the roof, Yuki tipped her head back so she could peep just over the top. Yuki suppressed a cry of surprise. Apparently, Shikamaru was stubborn in the face of defeat.

A new shinobi, a girl from the looks of the chest, was stationed up on the roof. She was wearing standard issue cold weather ANBU gear, a mouse mask, and a black hooded cloak. Yuki was shocked by her unprofessional demeanor. She was sitting down with her legs extended out in front of her, leaning back on her palms. The girl's eyes seemed fixed upon the clouds in a daydreamy stare as though she hadn't a care in the world. Yuki guessed she could have walked right out the front door without drawing this girl's attention. Was that his game? Was Shikamaru now throwing the worst of his ranks at her? If he thought Yuki would cease her torment out of pity, he was dead wrong. Weak prey merely meant he was going to have to send her more cannon fodder more often.

Regardless of his intent, the fact that this girl was here meant Yuki had to ruin her life. This girl had done nothing to offend her, but Yuki had no choice. It was the same irrepressible desire as an itchy cast. Did she really need to scratch it? No. But the gratification would outweigh the consequences. Yuki crept carefully up behind the girl. With any luck, Yuki's scare tactics would send the girl sprawling off the roof. For a moment, Yuki hesitated. A spill like that could be lethal. Then again if this girl was ANBU, she should be able to catch herself from that sort of fall. Her mind made up, Yuki swooped in and forcefully cupped the girl's breasts.

Nothing. The smile slid off Yuki's face. There had been no scream, no flailing, not even a slight jump. Was it a mannequin or a shadow clone? Yuki squeezed the breasts again just to make sure. They were firm, yet so soft Yuki knew that they were real. She sat there in shock as she tried to process where and how her plan had gone so awry.

"Hey, Yuki," A familiar voice rang out from the mask. The girl hadn't even turned her head. "So I guess I'm your guard detail now."

"...Tits?!" Yuki gasped as she shrank back in surprise. "But, how?! You aren't even a Konoha shinobi!"

Miki shrugged. "I'm doing this as a special favor to the Sixth. Apparently, you've been bothering the others or something. I dunno. It didn't sound so bad to me."

Yuki regained her composure. "You'll quit if you know what's good for you."

"What are you going to do, show up at my house? Good luck getting past Kabuto." Miki chuckled.

Yuki had not personally had a run in with Kabuto. He had saved her daughter's life a few years before, but that did nothing to make him any less unsettling. He had the friendly smile of a cubicle worker just looking for someone to give them an excuse to kill everyone in the office with a rusty box cutter. Now, in her career, she had come up against crazy before. Based on the shifty rumors she'd heard, Yuki could wager on her odds against Kabuto as being 50/50. Or 60/40. Typically, losing meant injury, scarring, or torture. But with Kabuto, Yuki wasn't sure that's where he would stop. She had this nagging sense that Kabuto was the kind of person that could make you beg for the sweet release of death.

"Well?" Miki prodded. "What was your next move?"

"I'll..." Yuki's eyes darted to the hood. "Shave you bald in your sleep!"

Miki shrugged again. "It's just hair. It'll grow back."

"I'll spike your drinks!" Yuki barked.

Miki chuckled. "I've had so many people put stuff in my drinks that I have partial immunity to all the basics. Especially roofies. Don't ask." Miki laid down on the roof like a cat sunning itself. "I'm supposed to get lunch with your daughter in a couple days. I can't wait to tell her about all the crazy hijinks you pull trying to scare me off. We'll have a good laugh at your expense unless that pisses her off, of course. You know how protective she gets of her friends."

Yuki set her jaw with an angry pout and her brows furrowed. "Round one goes to you, Tits. But don't get comfortable. I'm coming for you!"

"I mean, sure. Do whatever you want." Miki yawned. "It's a shame you're so hellbent on this bitchy power trip that you can't see the positives of this. Like, how you have a person who loves you so much, they're abusing their position and bending the rules to make sure that you're safe. Just a thought."

A rude name almost escaped her lips, but Yuki realized that would only magnify her loss. As much as she hated running from a fight, Yuki needed to regroup. There had to be some chink in Miki's armor; some weakness Yuki could exploit to crush her. All she had to do was apply herself, and the girl would be putty in her hands.

...

"Sweetie, it's so nice to see you. Did you bring me lunch?"

"Lunch?!" Yuki slammed her fist on Kakashi's desk. "Why would I bring you lunch?!"

Kakashi blinked innocently. "Because you love me?"

"How dare you throw Miki at me." Yuki fumed. She didn't see Shikamaru smirking behind her back, but she could feel it. The sensation was as uncomfortable as having a sock fall down inside her shoe and having to walk on it anyway.

"What's wrong with Miki?" Kakashi folded his arms, a concerned look in his eye. "From what we can tell, she's doing a fantastic job keeping you safe."

"First of all, I can't believe that you gave a damned ex-ronin ANBU status for this," Yuki pointed back and forth at Shikamaru and Kakashi accusingly. "And second of all, you are testing my ability to be a good person."

Kakashi frowned. "Why is that?"

"Because I'm not sure if I'm willing to do what it takes to break her," Yuki began to pace the length of his desk, biting at her thumbnail. "I mean, this girl was in the Sound Village. A little bit of ass grabbing isn't going to bother her. She laughs when I pop up out of nowhere, like a damned baby in a game of peekaboo."

"You didn't answer the man's question," Shikamaru said pointedly.

"Because if I want to win this, I'm actually going to have to amputate a limb or something!" Yuki stomped her foot.

There was a brief silence, after which Kakashi and Shikamaru burst into laughter. Yuki pouted and her ears turned pink. "Oh, you think this is funny?! I'm in the middle of a crisis here, trying to decide if preserving my winning streak is worth crossing the line from lovable rogue to actual villain! Not to mention the fact that anything I do will either bring my daughter or Kabuto down on me..."

"Yuki," Kakashi brushed a tear from his eye with the back of his glove. "Sweetheart. You made your point."

Yuki's face twisted in anger. "What the hell does that mean?!"

He shared a look with his assistant, who made a point of looking very busy while pretending to take important notes. "So I've been talking to some of the other mothers about your behavior."

"You've been gossiping about me, too?!" Yuki dug her hands into her hips. "Kakashi!"

"He wouldn't have to gossip about you." Shikamaru couldn't help himself. Yuki's attitude always grated on his nerves. "Do you think everyone in this village is blind? That no one has noticed you running out of apartments cackling like a witch while someone screams in the background? That there weren't other people in that laundromat shaking their head at the Hokage's future wife playing pranks?"

At the sight of Yuki's deepening flush, Kakashi began to worry about her elevated blood pressure. He got out of his seat and gently took her wrist, ignoring the scathing look she sliced at him. Kakashi guided her to the couch. He eased his fiancé into the cushions, took the seat beside Yuki, and squeezed her hand. "When Naruto was little, he defaced public monuments and put the whole town on lockdown multiple times a month."

"He ditched so much school I'm surprised he learned how to read and write," Shikamaru chimed in.

"Then we all had to get used to Beki spontaneously combusting," Kakashi gestured to a filing cabinet behind him. "I can show you Tsunade's standing orders. 'Don't arrest her. Whoever the nearest chunin or jounin is, give her your vest and escort her home'. That was our normal around here for what," He looked at Shikamaru for confirmation. "Almost two years?"

"It felt like a lot longer," Shikamaru's tone was biting as he added: "And it reminds me of how a certain someone can freeze our village over in the dead of summer, causing injuries and damage to public and private property and they get off completely scot-free."

Kakashi chimed in before Shikamaru could carry on his tangent. "All I'm saying is, what you're doing isn't going to generate as much gossip as you think," Kakashi explained. "And it just so happens that the other women that I spoke to about you are either close personal friends or Shikamaru's wife."

Shikamaru balked. "Way to throw Temari under the bus, Lord Sixth."

"You don't think she can handle herself?" Kakashi gave him a dead stare.

"Forget I said anything," Shikamaru mumbled.

"Anyway, as I was saying, this transition can be formidable for career shinobi like you," Kakashi rubbed her knee affectionately. "It's not uncommon for kunoichi choosing to retire to start families going through these crises. It makes sense when you think about it. You've spent most of your life cultivating fighting skills and conditioning your body for battle. Now, you have to limit your physical activity and channel yourself into an entirely different way of life."

"You forget I've had a kid before," Yuki folded her arms. "I'm not a new mother."

"We both know you're nervous about this because of how things went down for you with Beki," Kakashi ignored her sharp tone. "Look, honey, you squared off with me when I had my breakdown over this. I'm just returning the favor. I know with everything that's happened in your life, you feel like you have to keep your edge. The only thing between you and total ruin is the strength of your body and your resolve. It doesn't have to be like that anymore. You aren't in this alone. Instead of working yourself into a frenzy all the time trying to make sure you have the high score at the arcade, accept the fact that you've outgrown the arcade."

"Does she even know what a video game is, Kakashi?" Shikamaru furrowed his brow. He'd seen the woman nearly have a breakdown trying to use the photocopier earlier that week.

Yuki rolled her eyes. "Of course I do. Doesn't mean I can play one, but I got the gist of his metaphor."

"So, sweetie," Kakashi pulled her attention back to him by placing a hand gently on her belly. "Everyone recognizes that you're a titan amongst shinobi. We didn't place a protective detail on you because you're weak. There's a guard detail on you because it gives me peace of mind."

Yuki sunk further into the cushions. Kakashi's words were worming their way around in her head, triggering waves of conflicting emotions. Part of her wanted deny his accusations with as much venom as she could muster. Then again, her conscience had no choice but to admit fear of letting go played a role in her recent behavior. Having a detail put on her had seemed like an insult to Yuki. Kakashi didn't think she could protect herself, that the pregnancy made her vulnerable. Maybe the ANBU had exacerbated that initial impression by alienating her as an equal with their aloof approach. Was this all worth it then? Did it really just come down to pride?

"Your peace of mind, huh?" Yuki's voice was soft, but she kept her expression hard. Kakashi couldn't help but smile under his mask. Yuki came out of her temper the way a child did; begrudgingly, and usually only because she was lonely or hungry. Knowing things were now on an upswing, Kakashi pressed his case.

"I can't be home with you as much as I would like to be," Kakashi began. "And when I'm stuck here, I catch myself constantly worrying about you. It helps when you stop by to see me for lunch or if I call home now and then. I'm not always able to do that, though."

"We're in Konoha. What could possibly happen to me here?" Yuki cocked an eyebrow. "I eat soup that's too hot? Might Gai runs me over with his wheelchair?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Shikamaru, earmuffs for a minute here."

Shikamaru's expression soured. "I'm an adult, Kakashi. You can just ask me to step out of the room."

"I don't want to interrupt your work, but this is going to be very personal," Kakashi held up his hand. "I didn't want to throw you off if it was something important."

"It's fine," Shikamaru put down his pen and stalked for the door. "I'm going to go get some air."

Kakashi waited until he was out of the room. "I know nothing is going to happen...but Orochimaru."

"Orochimaru?!" Yuki hissed, and Kakashi clapped a hand over her mouth. He held a finger to his lips, and she rolled her eyes but nodded. He removed his hand, and she continued while whispering: "Really, Kakashi? That's what you're worried about?"

"I know. It's crazy. A lot of people don't know who you are, let alone that you're pregnant. It's beyond unlikely that he's either heard about it or cares." Kakashi sighed.

"But you can't help but worry that he's wanted one of my babies, so he'll want another?" Yuki stretched, splaying her arms over the back of the sofa. "I mean, I'm pretty sure Orochimaru and I exist in a sort of uneasy peace. He rescued me and Beks from the ice, after all. And he had a golden opportunity to kidnap Beki's kid, seeing as his yes man delivered it. Arguably, Satoru being a Hyuga, an Asou, and a Tsukimori made him an even better catch than Beks."

"Even though he was a boy?" Kakashi furrowed his brows.

Yuki made a so-so motion with her hands. "We've been surprised before. And besides, if you were so scared of Orochimaru being the boogeyman, why would you plant Miki on me? Isn't she loyal to him?"

"Miki has no loyalty to Orochimaru or the Sound. Her time there was wholly focused on surviving, not serving out of blind loyalty to his cause," Kakashi adjusted in his seat. "I figured if anyone could sniff out one of his plots, it would be her."

"Fair enough," Yuki shrugged. "I guess completely trusting that it won't happen would be like leaving a reformed fox in a henhouse." After a moment, Yuki shook her head and took a deep breath. She pushed up off of the couch, something she noticed was more strenuous than it used to be and dusted herself off. "Alright, fine, Kakashi. I'll...I'll put up with Tits puppy dog guarding me."

"I appreciate it." Kakashi stood. "But just so you know, it might not always be her. She does have a child to raise and a business to run."

"Whatever, I said I would play nice!" Yuki waved dismissively, frustration plain on her face.

Kakashi kissed her hand. He was so proud of her. Of course, if he told her that, Yuki would have no choice but to retaliate. After he offered to pick up dinner on the way home, they shared a kiss and Yuki headed off down the stairs. Kakashi watched her through the window and sighed. He remained in front of the glass for a while, zoned out, thinking about how strange his situation was. If someone had told him ten years ago he would be Hokage he would have called them crazy. Add on that he would be dealing with a pregnant fiancé kunoichi from the past, Kakashi would have accused them of spoiling the newest Icha Icha plot. Shikamaru returned from his walk with an apprehensive look on his face. After seeing Yuki had left, and that the office was still intact, he immediately relaxed.

"I noticed that hell hasn't frozen over," Shikamaru gestured at the office. "How did you sell her on this?"

"Orochimaru." Kakashi returned to his desk.

Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow. "You went with the boogeman?"

"Yuki's boogeyman," Kakashi tapped the desk with his fingertips. "I know I probably shouldn't be lying to her but it's easier this way."

"I think you're just being an avoider," Shikamaru said as he tossed some scrolls in aviary outbound bin. "You're just going to have to confront her about her behavior eventually."

"Shikamaru, are you the pot or the kettle here?" Kakashi stared him down.

"A pact of mutual silence it is," Shikamaru stared back. "Or mutual destruction. Your choice, sir."

...

As Yuki walked home, she stewed on her defeat. Kakashi was right, as usual, and she promised she would behave for his sake. That didn't wipe the ledger clean between her and Miki, though. Just because Yuki had pledged not to hassle her active duty guard detail didn't mean that revenge outside that window was forbidden. Good behavior would not only divert attention away from dastardly plotting but buy her time as well. That was all Yuki needed: a little more time to figure out the chink in Miki's armor. Just because none of the obvious ones worked didn't mean there wasn't a weakness to exploit somewhere. At peace with the compromise she had struck with herself, Yuki began to whistle a merry tune. She'd thrown the battle, but there was still a long campaign ahead.