A/N: To the guest who reviewed Chapter 2 last 10th of March, I posted my reply to your inquiries in this chapter before this update. I originally planned to move it to the review section but...Anyway, if you haven't seen it yet, just tell me okay. I'll just post it again. Or better if you can create an account.

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Chapter 109

With a resigned sigh, Shikamaru slowly closes his eyes and opens his mouth wide. It's up to the women in his family to fight who gets her chopsticks first into his awaiting mouth.

"Ass," hisses Temari as Shikaku snorted his laughter, his way of admiring Shikamaru's hastily thought out elusive tactic.

However, Yoshino grabs her chance, deftly raising the chopstick with a piece of mackerel at the end and thrusts that end into Shikamaru's mouth. A triumphant glint in her eyes as she says, "This first."

Temari's mouth gapes open, as a surprised, "Oh," leaves her lips. She watches helplessly the older woman who goes ahead and now crows triumphantly after being the first with the deed. Temari can only mutter, "Not fair," under her breath. Shikamaru should have tasted hers first. Yoshino has cooked her dish like—really simmered the thing to perfection. While hers is a hastily prepared concoction and that...

A second pass by and Temari catches it, that small tell tale sign. It's very slight, she can bet her last pouch of ryo, her kasan has most definitely have not seen it. Shikamaru has given a split second cringe as he chews the piece of succulent fish in his mouth.

Temari frowns. Moving fast, she does not hesitate picking up her chopstick. She tears the fish meat off her dish and shoves it in Shikamaru's mouth before he can reach for his water glass.

"So which one you like better, ass?" Temari then asks, shoulders tensing, eyes warning him to give the right answer.

Shikamaru glances at his wife while sporting an unreadable expression that he fights hard to maintain on his face. Internally, he's swearing to high heavens. Yoshino's dish is too damn spicy while Temari's just too salty, it killed off whatever remains of his already burning taste buds.

Shikamaru's control on his facial muscles slips as he wonders if he can voice those criticisms out loud. With a loudly expelled breath, he decides he can't. "I like all mackerels. No matter how you cooked them," he answers, trying to reach for his glass of water surreptitiously

"Wrong answer," snaps Temari. "Try another one. Something more definite."

"It's the only answer you'll get from me," retorts Shikamaru, wondering if they would now force him to finish eating up their dishes and expect him to not leave any morsel behind. He sips the water from his glass, inconspicuously swirling the water in his mouth, making sure the liquid touches the flat side of his tongue to rid it off the awful tastes. The two women have accomplished the impossible, they have succeeded in putting him off against mackerel—his favorite. Why couldn't they just simply broil the damn fish?!

"Your stay in Suna as the Kazekage's adviser has made you a diplomatic man, Shikamaru," comments his father, clearly enjoying his discomfort.

Shikamaru gulps the water down. "I—"

Shikaku interrupts him, a knowing look on his gaze. "Son, your mother saw Temari hurrying—almost panicking that she couldn't prepare her dish on time."

As he says it, Shikaku turns his head to glance at Temari, noticing her fidgeting uncomfortably in her chair as she can probably guess what he's about to utter next.

Shikaku's eyes crinkle at his daughter and affection seeps into his voice as he divulges to Shikamaru, "Your wife while you were gone was busy pouring over recipe books and trying beforehand the dishes she thought you might like. Now, that the moment has arrived for you to try her cooking, your wife was sort of ruffled when she saw the competition. Yoshino then knowing all this, decided to tip the canister of chili powder to her dish when she thought nobody was looking."

"Kasan, you didn't!" blurts Temari.

Shikaku continues, ignoring Yoshino's accusing sharp gaze on him. "Shikamaru, don't ever think that your mother is trying to kill you by scorching your tongue and stomach. She really has an reasonable reason."

"Of course, Yoshino has...but that doesn't explain why Temari's dish is—" Shikamaru's voice trails off, catching himself on time. Ridiculing his wife's cooking after it was revealed to him the lengths she had gone through to prepare it will make him look like a real bastard of a husband. "Uhm I mean that doesn't explain why her dish tastes—unique."

Shikaku bursts into laughter. The only one clearly enjoying the situation. "You have taken after me, son."

Shikamaru frowns. He doesn't get his father's joke and then suddenly, he does.

Damn it all to hell! He's not whipped like...like Shikaku. He's just like what the old man said previously, a...a diplomat, trying to maintain peace in this powder keg of a household.

Shikaku crosses his arms on his chest as he leans back on his chair. Three pairs of eyes are currently trained at him, glaring at him with various intensities. Uneasy, the older man clears his throat as he continues with his tale, "Temari, belatedly realizing that finally you and your mother are in good terms, wanted nothing more than to make sure you like Yoshino's dish more than hers so she dumped the soy sauce to her dish quite liberally."

Yoshino gasps, totally aghast. Ever practical, she realizes that now they don't have anything edible to accompany the rice on the table. Afterall, when she mixed that insane amount of chili powder to her dish, she thought they have at least Temari's mackerel to eat. Now, as she glances at her daughter, she can see that Temari has thought the same thing.

"Oh kasan, you shouldn't have done it," speaks Temari, regretful, for she knows it took Yoshino almost three hours to finish preparing the Slow Cooked Mackerel.

"You shouldn't have either," retorts Yoshino, hiding behind a mask of bravado but her eyes can't conceal the fact that she's not really angry. In fact, she's quite touched by her daughter's gesture.

However, that still doesn't change the fact that they don't have a nice meal for Shikamaru.

Shikamaru's shoulders slump forward. Obviously, after travelling for three days, running, and nibbling nothing but rations of preserved meat jerky, he's to go to sleep for the third consecutive night, still hungry.

"Tch, I was really looking forward to eating mackerel tonight. The smell coming from the kitchen was wonderful," grumbles Shikamaru, his tone heavily tinged with censure.

"Sor—" Temari, about to say sorry to Kamaru, glowers instead. "Stop complaining ass or I will force you to eat our cooking."

—o0o—

"Ugh," Temari grunts, struggling to sit up on the bed as soon as she has laid down on it.

Shikamaru, already lying on their bed, his arms about to haul the woman to his side when Temari surprises him with her sudden movement. He pales as soon as he sees unearthly pain marring his wife's beautiful face.

Hastily scrambling to a more upright position himself, Shikamaru's gaze travels all over Temari. He hates the fact that he's sitting on the bed helpless while she's rigid with pain."Is it time?" he whispers, his hand a bit unsteady as he tucks the strands of blonde hair away from her face.

"YE—S!" Temari grits her teeth, even screaming seems too painful. One hand remains clutching her huge protruding belly while the other searches for and then grips Shikamaru's hand, hard. Fresh beads of sweat burst from her forehead as she seems to forget how to breathe.

"Breathe," instructs Shikamaru, mimicking the action loudly.

Temari, whose eyes are tightly shut, opens them to glare at Shikamaru. The stupid ass, of course, she knows she should breathe. She then proceeds to breathe loudly just like Shikamaru demonstrated as she grips his hand more punishingly.

"Aw, aw," yelps Shikamaru but his hand remains where it is.

After a while, when he finally feels the pressure on his hand easing, Shikamaru stands up and leans down towards the bed, about to carry Temari to bring her to the hospital.

"I can walk," grumbles Temari. The worst of the pain has ebbed away, and only a slight discomfort remains in her lower back and in her pelvic area.

"I'll carry you. Don't argue."

"I'll argue the hell I want, ass!" snaps Temari, trying to stand up on her own. "You just arrived today. And if I'm to believed your claim that you ran all the way here, you must be exhausted. Even with that nap in the bathtub, you still haven't have enough rest after your three day journey. Then instead of a feast you ended up eating plain boring rice for dinner. And now to top it off, your son decides it's time for him to meet you. This...this is too much for a lazy ass like you."

Shikamaru, one by one, tugs Temari's hands, putting them around his shoulders so he can carry her. "Since you are able to say that much I take it the worst of the pain of the contraction is gone," he drawls.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Temari bursts into tears. "This is not how I imagine things would be once you come back. I wanted to show you that Konoha is your home now, that you'll never have a reason to regret leaving Suna to stay here with us. But instead, we had an argument—which was entirely your fault. Dinner sucked which was entirely my fault and now your son wants to deprive you of a well deserved sleep."

Temari's crying becomes more earnest as she wails, "I wanted to be a real wife to you before I become a mother. I wanted to take care of you before he arrives but that won't happen now. "

Shikamaru laughs, his shoulders shaking with mirth as he wipes away with his free thumb the liquid pouring from Temari's overbright teal eyes. He has thought those tears are because she is petrified of finally giving birth to their kid. But no, the tears are not for her, it's for him.

"Tch, woman, you make it sound like I'm such an unlucky guy," he utters in a mildly rebuking tone then his tone changes, becoming tender as he adds, "I'm so fucking lucky to be finally here with you and our kid, alive. I'm so damn lucky that you love me—and that I can feel that love filling in my hunger, that I can feel that love removing the tiredness from my limbs. I'm so lucky that our child has perfect timing, that he waited long enough for my arrival."

Shikamaru says all this to the woman in his arms. His dark eyes, clear and unwavering, look directly into Temari's blue-green ones. Temari can only nod her head. She can do nothing but believe him.

Then Shikamaru ruins the moment when he chuckles. "And I promise, I'll allow you to baby me at the same time as our baby."

Temari glowers, thumping Shikamaru's chest with her fist. "I didn't mean it that way, ass."

"I know. I know. Stop hitting me, woman."

With a huff, Temari allows Shikamaru to carry her towards their bedroom door. After several steps to it, he then grunts that she's heavy.

Temari just snorts. No matter how he complains, she's not a burden to him. On the contrary, she feels like she's the most precious person he ever has, the way he clutches her in his arms, making her feel so very wanted.

Temari's lips wreathe into a smirk, her eyes shining with happiness. Shikamaru and her, and then soon, very soon, little Shika...a family.

She wraps her arms more tightly around her husband's neck, her head snuggling on the crook of his neck. She doesn't feel like an outsider anymore. She's a part of this growing family, a really important, really vital part.

She doesn't need to be conscious of her blonde hair and she doesn't have any more reason to hate the fact that she can't perform any Nara Clan shadow jutsus. She can do the hell she wants, she can even fucking cry...

She can't believe she just did that but Shikamaru doesn't seem to mind. He didn't accuse her of being weak...So she wouldn't mind showing him that side of her next time. That's the softer side of her that he alone will get to see.

As he carries her along the hallway, Shikamaru suddenly shouts loudly, "Otosan, okasan, it's time!"

Shikamaru, calling her parents, his parents...otosan...okasan...it's like music to Temari's ears.

Which reminds her, her family is quite big. She has to let her and Shikamaru's brothers know too. Someone has to write that message to Gaara and Kankuro that they're now uncles then someone has to deliver that message to Suna.

Suna...

"Did I already say this?" she asks.

"What?" Shikamaru questions. "You feel another contraction coming up?"

Temari chuckles as it becomes obvious that despite his outward calm, the man carrying her is in a panic mode. "No, not yet...I just wanted to say—Welcome home, Shikamaru."

"Yeah, I'm finally home," he answers back, his shoulders somewhat relaxing.

—o0o—

~2 16 16, 3 7 16AFP 3 12 16~

A/N: Whew, I wonder if this is over...

I hope you guys criticize this thing, or direct me to plotholes, things like that. Really, feel free to comment anything...and I mean anything.

And to all the people who reviewed, faved and put this on alert, thank you for giving fuel to this thing. This is a big machine, so sometimes, it needed to gulp too much fuel -winks-