Chapter 3 – Adjusting

(Alternatively, I'm Not Really Sure How This Family Thing Goes From A Child's Point of View But I'm Going to Try to Figure It Out)

Hyo has his silent laughing fit in his playpen after his mother sets him down(he covers himself with his blanket and stuffs his tiny child's fist into his mouth as he shakes with silent mirth not long after. The memory of the absolute shock on their faces and the over the top reactions they gave to his hissing is nearly enough to send him into a howling fit but he only just controls it to the silent shaking). Surprisingly enough, she doesn't blame Hyo for biting Inoichi(she gives him a stern 'no, biting is bad' but leaves it at that). She claims that Inoichi deserves what he got since the man squeezed too hard when he hugged her and poor Shikamaru was squished as well. So now Hyo pretends to sleep – whilst really laughing – because he doesn't want to be bothered by these three new men right now(one is his father, he knows, but he can't really wrap his mind around that. He's still trying to figure out how he got lucky enough to not be an orphan this time around). Later he will be reintroduced(introduced for the first time in his memory) to his father and he doesn't know how to react to him(Hyo figures that he'll wing it and see how it goes).

Eventually, Hyo does sleep and sleeps so deeply that Shikaku sends a worried his look his way when he fails to wake up after Inoichi gets a bit too loud. Yoshino reassures him, telling him that the tiredness is normal since Shikamaru is still recovering and tells him about their child's trip to the hospital and how it had affected the poor boy. "He really does not like hospitals, Shikaku. We'll have to keep an eye on him if he chooses to become a shinobi. He'll probably be worse than Kakashi when it comes to escaping from there later in life."

"Oh, that's just wonderful..." Shikaku grumbles.

"It could be worse, old friend," Choza murmurs. He finishes by saying, "he could have tried to become an escape artist now instead of waiting until he's older."

"With teeth like those, it won't surprise me if he does become an escape artist," Inoichi says as he rubs his neck. "I think he nearly drew blood. Imagine what he'd do to rope if he had enough time."

Shikaku can only shake his head at the bizarre behavior his son has exhibited, "but…why hissing? I don't remember him having ever met a cat before."

Yoshino shrugs nonchalantly, "I did take him with me into the market a lot these last two weeks and he may have seen the same cat I did that got cornered by a stray dog. The cat won, by the way. I'm surprised he still remembers that, though."

Shikaku sighs and rolls his eyes towards the heavens, "My son thinks he's a cat. Mendokuse..."

It is dark when Hyo wakes up. The living room is covered in shadows and the light that casts them comes only from the kitchen. He can hear his mother talking to someone else and that person's voice rasps quietly back, husky and deep. The man's voice reminds Hyo of smoke(he remembers a time when smoke was something to be thought of fondly. When it meant campfires and friends and family. When it was about togetherness and good food and telling stories and the warm, fond laughter of the people he lived his life for. And Hyo longs for those simpler days, those days when they'd thought they had found the peace they had fought so hard for. A peace that had turned out to be a lie(and that hurt far more than the fighting that came after the lie)). Hyo sits up slowly, his blanket sliding down and off his tiny and thin shoulders(shoulders that had once been broad and strong and had carried more weight than anyone in this here and now will ever know. He wonders if he will ever have shoulders like that again, the kind of shoulders that can carry the weight of injured friends or innocents without faltering. He hopes so because Hyo is a fighter, a protector, and he can never imagine being anything else(and how sad is that? That he can't imagine or remember how to be anything else?)). He listens to them talk until his stomach lets out a loud gurgle in protest of its emptiness and the kitchen goes abruptly silent(so abruptly that Hyo flinches. Silence like that had never been a good thing. It had always brought with it things that were better left alone).

His mother isn't the first to reach the opening between the two rooms, however. Instead, it is one of the men from earlier(Hyo can tell from the male's height and shape in the doorway) but none of the man's features are readily available for him to see, since the light at his back casts him almost entirely in shadows(somehow, it is oddly appropriate for him to be surrounded by them). Hyo blinks up at the man and cants his head to one side(he doesn't mean for the gesture to turn out as adorable as it does but it happens anyway) and the man chuckles throatily, "Well, look who's up. It's going to be a nightmare to get you to sleep at a decent time tonight, isn't it?"

"Well, if you had woken him up when I asked you to he wouldn't have slept this long," Hyo's mother snaps from behind the man he is assuming is his father. Then, resigned, "I'm surrounded by lazy Nara men. At least Shikamaru is showing more signs of normal development now. I was beginning to worry about him."

"And I told you that it was normal for him to be the way he was. My own mother used to complain about what a quiet and lazy baby I was but I turned out fine," the man says as he turns partially. His profile is sharp and streaks of light highlight the thinness of his face.

"You mean indolent?" Hyo's mother sounds vaguely amused now.

"Mendokuse…," the man sighs. He turns to look back at Hyo, who has already levered himself up with the help of the playpen railing(nasty, horrible thing that it is, Hyo still can't deny that it is, in some way, useful) during the time that they were bantering, and goes still before reaching out and flicking the light switch. Hyo flinches, closes his eyes at the sudden flood of light and his face screws up into a scowl(he does not pout) as he slowly opens his eyes. The man stares quietly for a long moment with heavy-lidded dark brown eyes and Hyo takes the moment to memorize a black and jagged ponytail that reminds him of a pineapple, tanned skin, thin eyebrows arched high on his forehead like the wings of a bird(Hyo is certain that the look is displaying disbelief because – weirdly enough – he's seen that same look on his own face as it is reflected out of glass or mirrors), scars to the right side of his face(he was so very lucky to not have been caught lower or higher and consequently blinded in his right eye by the wounds), a thin nose, high cheek bones that draw attention to the way his cheeks hollow when he talks, and not quite thin – but not quite full either – lips(he looks similar to the Wutain people Yuffie leads as their Empress before the world goes to hell, this time permanently(Yuffie falls sometime towards the beginning of the end trying to protect her people and Hyo has never gotten over losing another sister, this one younger than him). However, the most important thing he notices is just how much this man looks almost exactly like he used to(except Hyo's hair had been longer – much, much longer – he'd had no scars on his face and his features were just the slightest bit more different), how they could have passed for brothers if this man had been around before the end of his world(and it is the weirdest thing to have ever occurred to Hyo(and that's including walking in on some of his adopted family by accident and realizing that there is more for him to learn about this world(he never wants to see or know anything about their love lives ever again! He also never wants to know more about the "Birds and the Bees" as Zack terms it. He freely admits to being traumatized and bolting for the metaphorical hills before Zack even gets a tenth of the way through. He later looks through the anatomy books at the library to figure it out himself and decides that he is just fine with never getting that close to another person(the thought of doing so is weird and uncomfortable to Hyo and later he learns that this is because of the experiments performed on him(he will never be able to be physically attracted to anyone, male of female, for the rest of that life)).

"Yoshino?" his father(Shikaku, his mind supplies) - Hyo is now certain of that fact that he is – calls out to get his mother's(Yoshino's) attention.

"Hmm? What is it, Shikaku?"

"When did Shikamaru start standing up on his own?" The question is asked calmly despite the arched look of surprise on his father's face.

His mother's voice rises in a shriek as she pushes his father forwards and out of her way, "He's what?!" The moment she sees him a huge smile breaks over her face and her eyes are fierce but happy(she's proud of him, Hyo realizes) and Hyo smiles back, laughing as his mother plucks him out of his playpen and dances him around the room. "Oh! Look at you! You're becoming such a big boy, Shikamaru!"

Shikaku(his father) chuckles and leans against the door frame with a small, crooked grin. "So this is as much a surprise for you as it is for me?"

"YES! Oh, I'm so happy right now! I can't wait to see his first steps! Oh! Maybe he'll start talking soon!"

"Wouldn't bet on that. I didn't start talking until I was three. Remember, smart but lazy."

Hyo's mother sticks her tongue out at his father and blows a raspberry at him and Hyo giggles(he can't wait until he's older and can laugh properly) at her silliness. Eventually, his father comes over and gently takes him from his mother. Hyo immediately places his hands on his father's shoulders(strong and so very broad under his little hands) to steady himself and he looks directly into his father's eyes. They are dark, so very dark(like his own when he dares to stare at his own reflection(but Hyo's glow in that life and anyone who ever looks closely at him can tell that he is a SOLDIER(even if he really isn't)) but they are warm with laughter and love and Hyo smiles at the older man with all the happiness he can find(because finally, finally he has a family that is his and his alone(and it is clear that he is so very loved by them)). Shikaku bounces him in his arms lightly and Hyo wraps his arms around his neck before dropping his head onto his father's shoulder with a happy sigh(his scent is masculine and it is forest and earth and fire. It is smoke(both wood smoke and cigarette smoke), weapons' oil, blood, and something else that Hyo can't quite name but is on the tip of his tongue. He breathes it in and memorizes it because it is unique to his father and he carves the tiniest of details into his mind because he never wants to forget(forgetting them would be the worst thing that could ever happen to him and it would be what killed him if he ever did, Hyo thinks)).

Author's Notes: So what do you all think about this story so far? I'm really curious to get some insight into your thoughts on this story and what you think could be different or better in some places because I'm literally letting this story write itself as it goes. I have the major events in my head and I know roughly where I want them to go but everything in between is just flowing out to tell Hyo's(Shikamaru's) story.