Chapter 106
"Try to understand your mother, Temari," Shikaku asked of her once, a long time ago. Her father had caught her eye as they both heard Yoshino yelling at Shikamaru for the umpteen time about the wet floor by the sink.
Even if they couldn't see Yoshino and Shikamaru in the kitchen, Yoshino's sharp voice carried out to the dining area where Temari was wiping the table with a cloth and her father was reading the morning paper.
"I am trying," Temari replied then. But it had been around two months since she returned to Konoha from Suna with a husband and yet Yoshino still did not show any sign of thawing. Her mother still hated the man she married on sight. "Really Kasan should see that Shikamaru is trying his best to please her—even volunteering to wash the dishes when I could do that instead."
Shikaku joked, "According to your mother, he's doing a sloppy job of it, allowing suds to drip onto the floor."
"Oyaji, seriously, you know what I mean."
The teasing light in Shikaku's eyes faded.
"Why couldn't she just accept him?" questioned Temari.
"If Yoshino accepts Shikamaru as her son, she has to accept the fact that she has failed being his mother. And failing in the mothering business is something Yoshino truly detested," uttered Shikaku. "She quit being a kunoichi to become a full time parent and wife. She takes pride of the home she has made. Learning that she has a son changes all that."
"It doesn't!" wailed Temari in frustration. "She's a good mother."
Shikaku shook his head then. "To you but not to Shikamaru."
"She didn't know about the switch!" she argued.
"Well, she should have," Shikaku said in a firm tone, "I should have but I didn't—we didn't."
"Otosan?" Temari heard it—the remorse in her adoptive father's voice.
"You know that we love you, Temari…" Shikaku's voice carried on, tinged with regret, "But Yoshino and I should have suspected when we first saw you and your blonde hair, but we didn't. We accepted you as our daughter. In Yoshino's mind, she failed to recognize that her child went missing. If she knew our son was missing early on, she would have moved heaven and earth getting him back…but she didn't. Yoshino is still grappling with that truth that she was unable to protect him. She was never a mother to him and that is why now she is recoiling from that fact."
Temari cringed as Yoshino banged some pans, telling Shikamaru that he had to re-wash them all for still being greasy. "Why couldn't she be just like you?"
"You're going to be a mother yourself, Temari. Just imagine, missing out holding your little one's tiny hands and feet. Imagine not being there when he first smiled, first crawled, first walked. Imagine you not being around when he stumbled and he needed his mom to mend the gnash on his knee. When he had good news and you weren't there to celebrate it with him, or worst when he had bad news, and you weren't around to console—or beat the crap out of him. Imagine missing out on all of those things that molded your child, Temari," spoke Shikaku gruffly. "What would you feel?"
The older man then paused, waiting for Temari to think about what he said. "For eighteen years, Yoshino didn't know about her son. And in that time, a lot had happened that could never happen again."
"Then she should be catching up with the things she missed out about Shikamaru and not treating him like an unwanted servant," Temari growled in a low voice, still careful that Yoshino and Shikamaru wouldn't hear her conversation with Shikaku.
Shikaku sighed. His daughter still doesn't comprehend Yoshino's guilt and the depth of her fear. "You should understand how your mother feels about the situation. Watching your child grow and being there as he grows up also become cherished memories—a mother's treasure. Yoshino doesn't have those with Shikamaru. That's why—" With a clipped voice, he revealed, "—your mother is afraid she'll grow bitter and hateful towards you if she allows herself to acknowledge what she has lost in order to have you."
"Oyaji—"
"That's how much your Kasan loves you, Temari." Shikaku smiled but his eyes were dull. "She choose you."
"But that's just it! She doesn't need to choose between Shikamaru and me. She can love us both."
"No, she can't. She's a mother, Temari. Mothers are the most selfish when it comes to their children. She will want to be part of everything that is connected to her child—every smallest detail of his life," retorted Shikaku. "Can we give that to her? We can't. And your mother knows that and this is her way of coping."
"But she's destroying her relationship with her own son."
"Yes. That is true."
"Aren't we going to do anything about it?"
Shikaku nodded his head.
Temari breathed a sigh of relief that was short lived as Shikaku murmured, "You, Temari, should choose your mother's side always. I wouldn't ask you to do anything else."
"But that's absurd!" Temarigrunted "There's no need to pick sides."
"I understand your exasperation, but I understand your mother too, Temari," Shikaku said quietly. "It'll break her if we force her to accept Shikamaru now…so please."
It was the first time Temari saw her father pleaded.
"Don't break your mother's heart," he instructed.
"Of course, I would never," she answered, her voice clear with conviction.
—o0o—
Temari said that then…and here she is now, clasping Shikamaru's hand, dragging him on their way back home, where Yoshino awaits.
Yoshino has to recognize that Shikamaru is a permanent part of the family. That fact shouldn't break her, instead it should mend her.
But Temari is aware, even if that is her intention, she's still not just going against Yoshino, she's also going against Shikaku's wishes.
In the end, it seems she's choosing Shikamaru over her parents.
Has Shikaku foreseen this happening that's why he asked her to always choose Yoshino?
Is she being too selfish? Grabbing a hold of her happiness…by betraying the woman that she still called mother.
The weight of that realization makes her steps falter and her grasp of Shikamaru's hand starts to slacken.
TBC
—o0o—
~10 7 15AF P10 10 15~