Shikamaru glanced from his place on the deck as Sakura played with the dogs. Haya was curled up in his lap, Koi sitting next to him, the dog's head resting on his thigh as he moved his Shogi piece into place. His eyes flickered to his opponent; the boy's attention on Sakura and the dogs. Shikamaru grinned and finally said "Go ahead." The boy beamed and moved to join his pseudo-aunt, leaving his uncle behind.

Shikamaru's eyes stayed trained on his nephew and he grinned as Sakura stretched out her arms and the boy jumped into them, pushing the pink haired woman to the ground. The dogs jumped in a moment later. Moving in to lick and wrestle with the four year old. The boy's laughs sounded throughout the backyard before he pushed himself up and began running, the dogs hot on his heels. Grinning a disheveled Sakura walked back to him and leaned down to kiss him lightly. She was dressed in a tank top and shorts, covered in paint splatters from their earlier chore of painting their new living room, he glanced back through the open shoji screen door into their empty house. Their things would come tomorrow, he'd be happy to have his books and things back.

They had moved. Sakura's small apartment had become just that, small. In the year they had been living together, their home had become just that, a home; with seven dogs, a cat and of course Asao. The little boy looked just like Asuma, well everything but his eyes, those were all Kurenai. He was four now, and Kurenai had started taking missions again; they usually didn't last any longer than a day or two, and on those days he typically stayed with Ino, Hinata, Choji, or Shino, he only stayed with Kiba when it was for the day, but when the mission lasted more than three days he immediately went to stay with Shikamaru. So after two, week long missions, where the boy was forced to sleep on the couch of their small one bedroom apartment Shikamaru and Sakura had made the decision to move.

To Shikamaru it seemed silly to go in search of another apartment, Sakura was his and he was hers. So instead of going through the ads with Sakura while the dogs threw in requests and Haya whined for food he had gone to meet with the elders. He was head of the clan, had been since his father had died in the war, and after nearly four years of experience he had learned several things; never put of clan meetings, make sure that issues were addressed early, be available for his clansman and never let his personal life be brought up or discussed. . . ever. It was because of this that Shikamaru had kept the clan away from Sakura, his mother included. He hadn't wanted her to feel pressure about anything, or allow the old geezers to get to her. This was why they thought that he still had his own apartment close to the clan compound. He didn't.

So with his mother at his side he had sat down with the elders and laid it out flat; he would be taking over the abandoned old house deep within the Nara property. Sakura would be living with him and they were to never bring up the M word, he would take care of that when the time came. The older men had protested that the two of them should be married first, and that they should take over the main house. Shikamaru had declined, that was his mother's house, and eventually she would need the room while watching her grandchildren. His mother had given a genuine smile, a rare thing since his father. As to the marriage issue, he simply replied that he had a plan. With grumbles the elders had accepted.

The next day he had told Sakura and she had raised an eyebrow in question, waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it didn't she simply rolled up the ads she had been looking at and threw them away, saying that she trusted him. They had gone on to repair the old traditional house over the next three months, making it theirs. Well as much theirs as they could without any of their things.

He felt Sakura's arms wrap around him, one of her hands scratching Koi's head. "The dogs love the yard, and it's good for Asao to have a place to play when he stays with us."

"The fact that my mother is less than a mile away doesn't bother you?"

Sakura snorted a laugh "Your mother is an amazing woman, a genius when it comes to poisons; absolutely brilliant your mother."

Shikamaru turned and kissed her "She enjoys the company."

Sakura smiled as Asao looped back around and Sakura stood "I'm going to go pick up the food."

Shikamaru nodded again, giving her one more kiss before she left, his eyes wandering back to Asao. That was when he saw it play out; a yard filled with a few kids, and the dogs chasing after them, Asao supervising, occasionally there would be a monkey around, Sakura would be sitting in her office her window open so that she could hear everything while Shikamaru would sit on the deck with their oldest son playing shogi.

Hearing the front door slam he watched as Asao looped back towards him tackling him over the dogs joining in while Haya ran for cover. Wrapping his arms around the boy he ruffled his hair "Time to head in and get cleaned up, Sakura will be back with food soon."

The boy gave cheer and raced into the house, dogs pushing past him before heading in himself, closing the door on the latest chapter of his life an embracing the new one.