Chapter 7: Moving On

(Alternatively, Letting Go Doesn't Mean Forgetting)

Author's Notes: So the plot isn't quite back on track but it's getting there! Sorry this took so long but I procrastinated like heck yesterday and wound up getting nothing done. It's here now, though. Enjoy!

(Yoshino's POV)

Yoshino lies in her bed staring at the shadowed ceiling, Shikamaru's words still echoing in her head. 'The SOLDIER, who hated the Planet so much he wanted to make it go away and the people who tried to stop him. There were a lot of battles.' What would it be like to have to fight against someone who hates that much, she wonders. And then she remembers, 'Someone I love went back to the Lifestream too.' My poor baby, she thinks. Her son's voice had been grief-stricken, his eyes full of the emotion. 'Sadness was the price to see it end.'

She wishes that she had bundled her son and little Naruto up and tucked them in with Shikaku and herself. At least that way she could have reminded herself that her son is with them and not in some far away place where she cannot reach him. But her son is an independent child for all that he is so little at this moment and one day he will be tall and strong like so many of the shinobi in their Clan. She wonders, what had he been like then? Had he been kind? Had his family, of before, loved him as much as he loved them? 'Sadness was the price to see it end.'

Yoshino closes her eyes against the memory of those words. Sadness. She has never disliked a word so much before but there is a first time for everything(she thinks that she may just hate it now). Shikaku, newly returned from tucking in the children, slips onto the bed and sighs heavily as he knocks his back on the headboard. "Are they okay?"

"Mm, as okay as they can be. Naruto still thinks that his Aniki is going to disappear and Shikamaru is barely in this world, mentally, that is, right now."

"It's not surprising," she says as she turns over to look at him. "Whoever our son used to be, that person fought many times to protect the people he cared about. He's lost a lot. He… His world essentially ended when he was born to us so he's already lost everything. He...he told me 'Sadness was the price to see it end' but I don't know which ending he was speaking about… I don't know how many endings our child may have seen!" Yoshino's voice rises a little and her eyes glimmer with unshed tears.

Softer, she continues, "how many more endings will our poor boy have to see? How many more people will he lose in this life? How long until those losses become nothing more then a tally on the board? Until they become statistics used to try and keep himself from getting close to anyone for fear of getting hurt again?"

"I don't know, Yoshino. I really don't," Shikaku murmurs. "All we can do is try and make this life the best it can be for him and to give him something to return home to. And hope he finds someone who makes him want to live, to keep coming home."

(Shikamaru's POV)

When he wakes up in the morning the first thing he notices is that Naruto is sprawling over him like some sort of demented blanket. A tiny grin tugs at the corners of his lips and widens, and before he can stop himself, he starts to chuckle. That something so simple can make him laugh is a wonder and he closes his eyes(thanking whatever being that watches over him for this second chance). Shikamaru lies there for several minutes before the scent of cooking food reaches him. Shikamaru sighs softly as he begins to poke his otouto.

"Naru. Naru, wake up. Okaa-san is cooking breakfast."

"Don'...wanna..."

"Don't make me call otou-san. If I have to yell at the top of my lungs then you're going to regret it."

"nooooo…."

Shikamaru takes a deep breath and says, "You asked for it."

He then proceeds to tickle his brother mercilessly. The blond flails, jerks away(not without put his knees into uncomfortable soft spots but Hyo(Shikamaru) was entirely too accustomed to pain from his past and ignores it) and cries out. "Me'ie!"

"Should have gotten up," Shikamaru says. Smugly, he finishes, "I did warn you."

Naruto sticks his tongue out at him and Shikamaru lunges at the younger boy, who startles and falls off the bed. Shikamaru slips off the bed after him and holds out his hand. "Come on, Naru. Okaa-san has already started cooking and if we don't get down there soon we won't be able to help her make otou-san's lunch. He's gotta work today, remember?"

"Un!" The Uzumaki is on his feet quickly and out the door before Shikamaru can say anything else.

The Nara rolls his eyes heavenward with a 'what can you do' smile. Quietly he murmurs, "I know you're probably still watching over me but...you don't have to worry about me so much. Not anymore. I'm going to keep trying. Just like you asked me to all those years ago. Besides...you'd be pretty disappointed in me if I didn't at least try to do my best before we meet again. I won't forget you or everything you did for me and I hope you and all the rest will be proud of the life I've led until the day we can see one another again."

(Shikaku's POV)

Watching Naruto run down the hall and thump noisily down the stairs was a bit amusing but, just as he is going to look into his son's room to speak to him, he hears the boy begin to speak quietly. "I know you're probably still watching over me but...you don't have to worry about me so much. Not anymore. I'm going to keep trying. Just like you asked me to all those years ago. Besides...you'd be pretty disappointed in me if I didn't at least try to do my best before we meet again. I won't forget you or everything you did for me and I hope you and all the rest will be proud of the life I've led until the day we can see one another again."

The words are just more confirmation about something Shikaku knows but the intent behind them is what's comforting. After all, promises made by the living to the dead are a rather common occurrence within a shinobi village. And promises made to keep going? Those are considered to be the most important kind. Shikaku leans against the door frame and says, "I'll hold you to that since they aren't here to hold you to it themselves."

His son doesn't startle. He merely levels an unreadable look on Shikaku. Then he takes a slow, deep breath and nods, "Okay. I think they'd like that, knowing that someone is here to watch over me..."

His son trails off for a moment, "...I think...I think they'd have all liked you and okaa-san."

"Oh?" Shikaku says it casually so as to not cause his son to clam up.

"Mm, you and okaa-san would have gotten along with them pretty well," Shikamaru says this with a thoughtful look.

"Well, that just makes it more important for the two of us to make sure you stick around for a long time. I'd hate to piss off a group of people who care about my kid that much."

Shikamaru grins, "I think you'd hate to piss them off period… We weren't exactly the nicest people to those who'd mess with us. Then again, most of those people were pretty messed up in the head in the first place so..."

"Ah. As in?"

"As in, I'm gonna kill, main, destroy, what have you, just for kicks kind of messed up."

Shikaku gives his son a deadpan look. Shikamaru shrugs nonchalantly, "Not my fault. I got pulled into all sorts of...crap just because I happened to exist. The fact that I got as far as I did just means I was stronger and more intelligent than the idiots that came after us."

Author's Notes #2: Let me know what you think about what's happened so far. I can't help but think that some might not like the last couple of chapters. I'm not happy about the Professor taking off with part of the 'script' and replacing it with his own but there's nothing I can do about it now.