Chapter 62

Shikamaru's mom- Yoshino

Shikamaru had walked back from meeting with Kakashi preparing himself to talk to his mom about Temari. He wasn't sure how she would react and sometimes she could get pretty angry with him. Although he could usually see the signs and head her off before it got too bad, she was more unpredictable since his dad had passed away.

He stepped into the house and called out for her "Hey mom, I'm home."

"Shikamaru, I'm in the kitchen," she called out to him.

He came in and sat down while she cooked dinner.

"How did rebuilding go today?" She asked him. Normally he could see where this was leading, but today he had too much on his mind.

"It was fine Ma," He replied. "How was your day?"

"It was fine? Hmmm…That's interesting, because the Hokage guard came today to ask for you and said he had already checked the work groups and thought he'd try here before he tried, what was her name, Tamara's house…" She gave Shikamaru a calm look that she only reserved when she was really upset.

"You must be mistaken, I told him, but it turns out he thought I was the one who was mistaken." She continued to look at her son and smiled at him. The smile wasn't real but was a dangerous invitation for him to answer. Shikamaru tried to think of a way to respond.

"There's no Tamara that I know of in the village, I replied. And do you know what he told me?!" Her calm façade fading away "She's not from this village!" She yelled.

Shikamaru still hadn't replied and his mother turned back around to furiously stir the pot.

He wondered if she was beyond the point where he could talk to her with how angry she was.

"Ma, can we talk about this?" He asked her.

"Can you be honest with me?" She snapped back.

"Yes, I'll tell you everything," He replied.

"Everything?" She asked. She wasn't expecting a long story from him. She thought he maybe had a crush and she caught him in a lie and was surprised there was more. "How much is everything?" She asked.

"There's a lot," He looked down as he began, "and I'm going to start from the beginning."

She could tell her son was wrestling with something and put her anger aside to hear him out. She sat down across from him as he started.

"I had faced Temari, not Tamara Ma, at the Chunin exams. She was very smart and one of the strongest opponents I had faced. When the match was over, I conceded the match to her, trying to be a gentleman. Do you remember?"

"Yes, I remember, and your father, he was as shocked as I was."

"After the match we realized there were a group of Sound Ninja working for Orochimaru that fled the village, Kakashi sent me to follow them with a few other ninjas from the village. When we reached them we paired off. Kakashi sent back up from the Sand. The group of Sand Ninja's consisted of Temari and her two brothers; Kankuro who's here now rebuilding and Gaara, Kazekage of the Sand Village. I was paired off with a sound ninja that was beating me, I had nearly lost and the battle was over, and then Temari arrived and finished the fight. In that moment I knew I liked her, but understood that we couldn't be together."

"That was years ago…" His mother interjected, her tone had softened considerably after hearing that Temari had helped Shikamaru.

"There's more. We've met many times and my feelings have only grown stronger. She fought alongside the leaf since and was even part of the United Shinobi Alliance. She respected father and his direction in the war," Shikamaru knew this was true but threw this in to try to help his mom like Temari.

His mom was silent and Shikamaru continued.

"When I escorted her back to the sand village a few weeks ago I was really sad to see her go…" he began.

"Is that why you were moping around here for days?" His mom asked.

"Probably," he reached his hand up to rub the back of his head "Not sure if I was exactly moping…"

"You were moping," she replied.

"Anyways, when I went back to the Sand with Naruto I told myself that I would try to talk to her, but I still couldn't do it. I told Naruto how I felt about her on the journey up and he ended up blurting it all out in front of her."

Shikamaru's mom grimaced at Naruto's behavior and shook her head.

"But it's okay mom, I probably wouldn't have told her, but when she overheard she told me she felt the same."

After hearing the ups and downs her son had been through over this girl, she was happy to hear things were working out, but still had some reservations. "She's from another village Shikamaru…" She replied.

"But this is the start of a united world, and if that's what we laid our lives on the line to fight for, then why can't we be together."

Having lost her husband in this same war, knowing he went to fight for this same cause of uniting the villages against the evil in the world, and his personal view that they could do more united than divided. It was harder for her to share that belief than it was for her husband and her son.

"Temari and I have talked about this, in depth. We know we want a future together…" He started when she broke in.

"It's not like we're talking about marriage, Shikamaru, this is just a girl that you like, right?" She wanted to clarify because she wasn't sure they were on the same page.

"Actually, we are talking about marriage," he replied, wincing, expecting his mom to slap him upside the head.

She sat back in her chair and sighed. She couldn't imagine her lazy son could really want to be married. "I'm not sure how I feel about this, you know it's forbidden." She added.

"It's been approved by the Kazegage and the Hokage," Shikamaru mentioned.

"It has?" She sounded exasperated "isn't this moving a little too fast? Marriage? You're only 19?"

"But weren't you 19 when you got married?" he asked her.

"Oh, I guess I was, but that was a long time ago." She replied.

"We want be able to marry but probably won't for a few years so we can date properly, so it isn't moving as fast as you might think." He looked up at her, hoping he was easing her concerns.

"But you were over at her place today when you should have been at the work group?" His mom asked suspiciously.

He could tell what she was thinking, "It wasn't like that Ma, we have worked on the work groups before. She wasn't feeling well when I saw her today and she refused to stay home. I was trying to convince her to rest so she would feel better."

"So she's unwell at the moment?" she asked.

"Yeah, I don't think she's going to be much help tomorrow either." He added.

"Maybe we could both go visit with some soup, I want to meet this girl," she offered.

"Not while she's sick, she'll kill me if I let you see her like this." He mentioned.

"What?" His mom wasn't used to hearing him talk like this about anyone other than her.

"She's really looking forward to meeting you and talking, but she shouldn't have to do it while she's sick." Shikamaru replied, being protective of Temari.

"If you don't want me to go then I don't have to Shikamaru," she replied. "But at least take her some of this soup to help her feel better." She didn't want to offer her future daughter in law no help when she was sick.

"Thanks mom," He took her response as approval. "We'll all sit down together when she's better."

"I look forward to it," She replied as she got up to finish cooking dinner.