4. Absent

"Absent?" Temari didn't know what to think. At first she wanted to laugh and tell Shino that her son knew better than to skip class. Then she wanted to make Shino regret he'd ever accused her son of skipping class. But thankfully her more rational side kicked in and she asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Temari, he wasn't in school today. Look, go easy on him okay? He's just a kid; they all go through this phase. Just make sure he doesn't do it again."

She saw Shikadai walking up the path to their house. "Oh don't worry about that Shino, he won't be skipping school again after today." With that she put the phone down, annoyed. Clearly the laziness gene had affected her son more than she would've hoped.

When Shikadai walked through the door she decided to toy with him a little bit. She'd done her fair share of interrogations back in Suna; if her son thought she was going to go easy on him, he was wrong. She put on her usual smile. "How was your day, kiddo?"

"Good, just normal, nothing exciting." Now she was angry. If he thought he could lie to his own mother he had another thing coming. Shikadai ducked his head as he took off his shoes. When he got up to run upstairs like usual, he realised his mom hadn't moved. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs with the same fixed smile on her face.

"Really? There's nothing you want to tell me about today?" He shook his head. "You're not going to ask me how my day was?" She doesn't know, Shikadai thought warily. If she did she would've said something by now.

"How was your day then mom?" Shikadai shifted his feet uncomfortably in front of her. She didn't want to admit it, but torturing her son like this was almost fun.

"Well, my day was stressful Shikadai. First of all, I had a meeting with the council representatives that didn't go according to plan. Now we have to wait for another three months to approve the Suna-Konoha railway. Then, I had to go help Mirai with her training – she's such a hard-working kid right? I always think you don't get anywhere unless you put in time and effort." Temari started to glare at her son.

"Why are you telling me all of this mom?" Shikadai asked. She's got nothing, he thought as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Because, Shikadai," she said, edging closer to him, "after my very stressful day I wanted to come home knowing that my husband and son have also put in their all today, so we can all relax and enjoy a well-deserved break. But, imagine my surprise when I hear my son was absent from school today." She raised her eyebrows at him. Shikadai's eyes widened when he heard the word 'absent' and he felt his heart start pounding. He was in for a long night.

Shikamaru opened the gate to his house and sighed. It had been a long day, and all he wanted was to see his wife and son before he ate a dinner which compensated for him missing lunch and to go to sleep.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD LIE TO ME AND I WOULDN'T KNOW! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW DISAPPOINTED I AM SHIKADAI? I OUTTA LET YOU SLEEP OUTSIDE TONIGHT!"

Shikamaru paused in the doorway. He thought about his options: he could go in there, calm down his wife, tell his son off for whatever he'd done now and go to sleep with a headache, or… he could eat out tonight and say he got held up at the office. He was just about to creep away from the house when the door flew open.

"I DON'T CARE IF YOU WERE HELPING BORUTO OR NOT! Oh, Shikamaru, you're home." Temari looked furious, and the last thing he wanted to do at this precise moment was step into their house. He knew when she was like this it was like walking on a minefield. But, he saw no option so he smiled at her tentatively.

"What's going on?" he asked as he put his arm around Shikadai, almost protectively.

"Your son has been skipping class and lying to us about it." Temari said, matter-of-factly. She stood with her arms crossed in front of Shikadai.

"What were you doing, Shikadai?" Shikamaru sighed, and squatted down to Shikadai's level.

"It's not a big deal, I was just helping Boruto out with something, that's all. He wanted to spend a day trying out some new jutsu or something."

"That's it? We used to do that kind of stuff all the time in the academy, and worse. This one time…" he trailed off as he caught his wife's expression. He never quite knew how she managed to shoot fire from those teal eyes of hers, but he knew to stop when he was at the receiving end.

"So that's it? I do all the scolding and you swoop in with your fun stories like a hero? Would it kill you to tell your son that lying to his parents and skipping school is wrong?" Temari was visibly seething at Shikamaru.

He quickly turned to Shikadai. "Lying is wrong. And you shouldn't skip school. Just tell us next time okay?" Satisfied he had done good job, he stood up; but before he even had the chance to speak Temari's palm collided with his cheek.

The two Nara men sat on the porch outside with a shoji board between them watching Temari eat to her hearts content inside. They listened to their stomachs groan, Shikamaru nursing his cheek with some ice. "When are you going to learn what to say, Dad?" Shikadai grumbled.

"Don't start. I've been trying to figure it out for years."