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“No.”
It was perhaps her favorite and most used word in the English language. By now he had become accustomed to hearing it used for just about everything. Though to be completely frank, it hadn’t crossed his mind even for a moment that she’d disagree with something like this. Something so trivial. “What do you mean no?” he asked lamely, the words falling out of his mouth like sinking stones.
“I mean ,” Temari bristled, “No.”
Shikamaru blinked at his wife who was currently bouncing Shikadai on her hip and scowling at him like he’d just come home with a hickey on his neck. “B-but, It wasn’t really…a yes or no kind of thing,” he stuttered.
Temari’s eyes darkened, the sight of it a startling juxtaposition against Shikadai’s carefree expression. “Well that’s too bad, because I said no, didn’t I?” she bit back. They were standing in the kitchen, the dining table intersecting them where they stood. Temari pulled out a chair and gingerly plopped their son into it, getting him ready for dinner.
Shikamaru stared at her in disbelief, “Tem, you know…this isn’t really up to you right?”
Temari was placing a tiny toddler plate in front of Shikadai, smiling at him warmly as she did. When she turned back to Shikamaru however, she looked ready to kill. “I am his mother. Everything is up to me.”
Shikamaru scratched at the back of his head, not entirely sure where to go from here. “Daddy, look!” Shikadai crooned, waving around a forkful of mashed potatoes.
He sighed and patted his son’s head affectionately, “That’s nice bud.” He hardly had the energy to play pretend with a two year old at the moment, all he had left was about to be used for a verbal sparring match with his wife, apparently. Shikamaru moved to the sink where said wife was scrubbing angrily at a pot with a brillo pad. He leaned an elbow on the counter, trying to catch her eye.
She turned her chin upwards, shooting him down. “I’m not going to change my mind on this,” she stated flatly, authoritatively.
“Neither are the clan elders,” he said, reminding her, “He’ll be three next month and then…”
“I don’t care,” she snapped in a whisper, turning to glare at him. “He’s too little.”
Shikamaru furrowed his brow, perplexed, “But he isn’t really…I started my shinobi training when I turned three and so did you. It’s always been this way in my clan.” He really couldn’t figure her out, no matter how hard he tried and how much time he spent with her, Temari always seemed to surprise him.
Temari looked away from him and out the window that framed the sink in front of her. Her expression softened and crumbled into something like hurt, her eyes somewhere far away. He watched her curiously as she turned the faucet off and set the pot and scrubber back down. “I didn’t have a mother looking out for me,” she said finally, eyes still fixed on the darkening window. “I started my training that young because if I didn’t, I would have been killed.”
Shikamaru sighed and stood up straight so he could pull her to his chest. She was stiff at first, like the branch of a tree, until he placed a kiss to the top of her head and she defrosted. “We’re not in Suna,” he stated simply, the words muffling in her golden hair.
“And we’re at peace,” she said without missing a beat, “So why do we insist on training children for the battlefield?”
“Mama, can I 'ave juice please?” Shikadai asked from behind them, queuing Temari to push away from him and head to the fridge. She plucked a purple juice box from the shelf, taking special care to unwrap the straw and puncture the box with it before handing it over to Shikadai’s tiny reaching hands.
“Here you go, now what do you say?” He heard Temari ask, using that special saccharine voice she always did when she spoke to their son.
“Tank you!” Shikadai chirped back. He was still working on his H’s. At present, when asked what his own name was he would insist it was ‘Ikadai’, of all things. He was beginning to see where Temari was coming from. If the kid couldn't say his own name, what business did he have learning chakra control?
Temari was back at the stove now, heating up their own food. “Once he’s done I’ll put him down for a nap, then we can eat,” she droned as she fussed about the kitchen.
“Is that a good idea?” he asked reluctantly, “If he takes a nap now, he won’t want to go to bed in a few hours.”
Temari shrugged, “Clearly we need to have a discussion, so it’s best if he sleeps through it so we can actually talk. Besides, I can put his bedding in the dryer for a bit before bedtime, a warm blanket always knocks him out.”
“Hmm, yeah alright,” Shikamaru agreed. She was usually right about these kinds of things, so he never argued much. He decided to finish the dishes for her while she cooked, it was the least he could do considering how much housework and child care she did on a daily basis.
“Mama?” came Shikadai’s little voice again. Shikamaru glanced over his shoulder to see his son smushing the remains of his food around his plate absently.
“Yes baby?” Temari answered, a smile in her voice. She remained at the stove, stirring some kind of stew, the smell of which was wafting through the house pleasantly.
“My tummy is full now,” he said, turning in his chair so that his legs dangled off the side of it. Shikamaru placed the last plate on the drying rack and wiped his hands on a tea towel before turning back around. Temari had left her post at the stove and was now crouching in front of Shikadai, grinning.
“Is that so? Hmm let’s see,” she cooed, lifting up his tee shirt to reveal his bellybutton. “Oh yeah, that definitely looks full to me…but just to make sure I better check…” Temari said deviously before blowing an absurdly loud raspberry on Shikadai’s exposed skin.
The toddler erupted into giggles, holding onto Temari’s pigtails for dear life. Shikamaru couldn’t help but smile at the scene, his terrifying wife gone completely soft for their son.
***
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked, as if he were making some kind of personal attack on her. As if he were the one imposing the rule, the one ruining her life.
“I’m not!” he fired back. They were sitting on their bed behind a closed bedroom door so their voices wouldn’t carry into Shikadai's room where he was currently sound asleep. Temari had the baby monitor set up between them so that they could take turns glancing down at the screen. “Tem it’s not like he’d be disappearing. We’d start small, maybe just an hour or so a day.”
Temari was shaking her head before he could even finish the thought, “But once he starts training he’s going to want to spend all of his time with you!” She was sitting cross legged, across from him with arms folded over her chest, staring daggers at him once again.
“That’s not…necessarily…” he trailed off halfheartedly, his mind preoccupied with how jealous he was of his son, who got nothing but Temari’s sweet side and was currently curled up in his bed dreaming.
“It is!” she insisted, then lowering her voice, “Right now, he’s still my baby. He still wants to be my baby.” Shikamaru hated the way she said it, paired with the look on her face that had morphed from rage to sorrow in a matter of seconds, he was feeling like a supervillain right about now. “Shinobi training is…it’s like he’s growing up,” she added, dropping her arms and meeting his gaze with glassy eyes.
She looked at him like he’d just kicked her puppy, or rather, killed it. “Well he was always going to grow up,” he sighed, “but he’s always going to be our kid no matter how old he is.”
“I know that…I just…” she trailed. She was not the type of girl to act so pathetically, but she really had a soft spot for Shikadai, even more so than for Shikamaru or her brothers. “I wanted at least one more year with him.”
Shikamaru closed his eyes, centering himself as he took in a deep, elongated breath. He’d been upset with her all day, for making his life so difficult, and he was feeling particularly shitty about it right around now. He leaned forward, their mattress squeaking quietly with the movement, to grab her knees. She didn’t take her eyes off him as he pulled her across the bed to him. “We have our whole lives with him, Tem,” he said in an attempt to soothe her. The last thing he wanted to do right now was make her cry.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” she muttered, but climbed into his lap anyway, accepting the show of affection.
He waited until she’d situated herself, sitting sideways and draping her legs over the side of his, before he tightened his hold on her, letting her lean her head onto his shoulder. “...What do you want me to do?” he breathed after a long pause.
She eyed him, her forehead pressed to the side of his neck, “Just tell them he’s not ready to start training yet, that he needs another year at least.”
Shikamaru groaned and leaned back into the headboard, “You know I can’t do that.”
Temari’s expression soured slightly, “Why not? You’re the head of the clan aren’t you?” She paused, as if waiting for him to confirm that fact, then added, “That means you’re in charge.”
He knew it was a trap, he could sense it by the way she was leading him to agree with her. “To a certain degree but…” he muttered, trying to deflect responsibility as much as possible.
“Can’t you just try?” she asked, lifting her head from where it rested to stare at him with pleading eyes.
He reluctantly met her gaze. Her eyes were always intense, but it was the worst when she looked at him like this. The distinct shade of pthalo green paired with the fact that they were ginormous and sad, he’d never felt weaker, even when he was close to death during the war. “I’d have to get Chouji and Ino on board,” he sighed, giving in, “There’s no way they’d go for it if the other clans aren’t doing the same thing.”
Temari perked up, her pigtails bouncing as she jolted, “So then if they agree, we have a shot?”
“I don’t know,” Shikamaru grumbled, bringing a hand to the back of his neck to scratch an itch that wasn’t there. “Seriously, there isn’t anything else I could do? You’re really going to make me do this?” he pressed, hoping for another escape route.
Just then, Shikadai stirred on the baby monitor. They snapped their heads to the screen in unison, frozen in place while they watched Shikadai rolling over, a little whimper leaving him. When it seemed like he had settled back down, the pair breathed a sigh of relief. Much like his father, Shikadai hated to be woken up from a nap and would throw massive tantrums if he was disturbed mid-dream.
“Well I suppose…” Temari said, still eying the monitor, “There is one thing I’d rather have, if you’re offering.”
“Hmm?” Shikamaru hummed lazily as he looked over her features. She gazed at him deviously, knowing that what she was about to ask for was impossible. There were a number of impossible things Temari wanted, no more winters in Konoha, enough money for the two of them to retire early and then of course there was…“No. Absolutely not,” he voiced, suddenly putting the pieces together.
“Which rule is easier to break?” she asked with a grin, placing a hand on his chest to trace his muscles through his shirt.
Who’s the supervillain now?
Shikamaru caught her hand in his, stopping the tantalizing movement before it went any further, “Neither!” He wanted to sound stern, but it was difficult to be strict with her when she was sitting in his lap and looking at him like that. “Why are you so hellbent on dismantling my clan, troublesome woman?” he sighed.
“Because,” Temari huffed, sitting up and bringing her legs up and around so that she could straddle his hips and look him in the eye. “I want another baby and your dumb clan has some dumb rule-”
“It’s not just the Nara clan,” he reminded her for what seemed like the millionth time, “The one child rule goes for Chouji and Ino as well and it was put in place to prevent our clans from having branch families like the Hyuuga. You see how well that worked out for them don’t you?”
Temari was already rolling her eyes at him before he could even finish the familiar lecture. “Blah blah, whatever. I have two brothers and it’s never been an issue for us.”
“Right because your family is picture perfect, no problems at all,” Shikamaru scoffed. He could have mentioned how her father only had multiple children in order to find a compatible vessel for the Shukaku spirit. He could have said that she only had brothers so that Rasa had spares in case he killed one of them in training. He could have said that Rasa only wanted an army, not a family, but he kept his mouth shut, since he didn’t quite feel like getting clobbered to death today.
“Look, try to see things from my point of view for once,” Temari commanded, crossing her arms over her chest as if to punctuate her words. “I moved away from my homeland to come to the leaf, so that you could remain the head of your clan. This was against the wishes of my own village elders of course because need I remind you, I am a princess of the Kazekage bloodline,” she said pointedly, “Then I come to find out, on our honeymoon no less, about this one child rule! I’ve always wanted a big family-”
“It wasn’t always…” he interrupted, feeling the need to point out this detail.
She scoffed, fully on a rampage now. “Fine, not always but since I met you at least! I thought Shikadai would get to be a big brother, but apparently not because of some thousand year old rule!”
He quirked an eyebrow upwards, “It’s only been around for about 400 years techni-”
“Shut up!”
“Mmkay.”
“And now they’re telling me that my one and only baby is going to start training the second he turns three years old? That is ridiculous! He can’t even say his H’s yet!” she complained. Shikamaru got the feeling she would have been even louder about it if Shikadai hadn’t been sleeping across the hall.
He studied her face as she muttered indistinguishably to herself, slowly letting the anger dissipate on its own as she calmed down. “You done?” he asked after a while.
She glared at him, her bottom lip jutted slightly, eyes narrowed and sharp.“...Yes.”
Her least favorite word, he noted. Shikamaru sighed and tentatively placed his hands on her hips, his thumbs brushing soothingly over the silky fabric of her dress. “I’m sorry. I know you gave up a lot to be with me,” he said at last. His tone was ardent and purposeful, so she knew he really did care about her happiness after all.
Temari’s hard expression faltered, “I don’t need you to apologize to me,” then after a brief silence, “I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.”
He leaned forward to place a kiss under her eye. “Then what do you need?”
Temari sighed, tilting her head so that the flesh of her neck was easier to access. He took the invitation gladly, trailing kisses down to her collarbone. “For you to do something about it,” she said softly, “At least try to.”
Shikamaru hummed against her skin, “And how do you expect me to do that?”
“I don’t know, use that big brain of yours, figure it out,” she huffed before pushing out of his grasp and off of the bed. He mourned the warmth of her body instantly, wishing they’d used Shikadai’s nap time more wisely. “He’ll be up any second now, I’d better go run his bath,” Temari was saying as she tightened her loose Kimono dress, then adding as an afterthought, “Did you ever find his Mr. Moo?”
Shikamaru looked at her incredulously, “His what?”
She clicked her tongue, placing a fist on her jutted out hip, “The cow, it goes in the bath and squirts water from the udders.”
The way she said it, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, made him realize he was not supposed to ask any other clarifying questions about the toy they apparently owned.
“I…was supposed to find it?”
“Yeah he lost it like last week,” Temari sighed, pausing at the bedroom door to stare him down. When she saw no recognition in his eyes, she rolled hers, “Jeez, look alive Nara! We have livestock on the loose!” She shook her head and smiled wistfully before turning on a heel to stalk off to the bathroom.
“Right, I’ll look for it now,” he called after her, but she was already gone.
***
“So then…that’s it. What do you think?” Shikamaru asked, ringing his hands nervously. Kakashi Hatake was sitting at his desk, his face cradled in one hand, propped up by his elbow. His eyes looked uninterested and it made Shikamaru sweat.
Kakashi looked to the ceiling as if in contemplation and made a humming sound that was slightly muffled by the mask he was wearing. “So you want to up the minimum age requirement for the academy huh?”
Shikamaru straightened, then bowed slightly to show respect for the sixth Hokage. “Yes sir. I believe that in times of peace, it is unnecessary to enroll children in the academy so young.”
“That may be true,” Kakashi said as Shikamaru raised his head again, “But how does it benefit the village to start shinobi training later in life? The younger kids start out, the more advanced they become. Does it not help the village to have skilled fighters in our midst even in times of peace?”
A bead of sweat was starting to form on Shikamaru’s forehead. “Yes sir I completely understand your apprehension, it’s just that…” he trailed off, his eyes falling to the floor as thoughts of Temari filled his head. He met Kakashi’s gaze again, “It’s just that the families of the Leaf Village would benefit from having their children around, if only for a few more years before sending them off to school. Most clans, such as my own, start shinobi training years before their children are enrolled at the academy.”
Kakashi seemed to be paying more attention now, and he took it as a sign to continue. “The life of a shinobi is a cruel and often short one, even now when we are at peace with the other nations. While I understand that it is important to have skilled shinobi, I think that it is far more worthwhile to have well adjusted children that were able to have real childhoods.”
Kakashi sighed and raised a hand upwards to stop him. Shikamaru bristled and backed down, sure the conversation was already over. “So what happens if in a few years we are not at peace any longer? What happens when we need to fight battles but have no new genin to send out?” Lord Sixth asked inquisitively.
“I would fight in their place, we all would!” Shikamaru shot back, referring to all the parents of Konoha. “Aren’t we supposed to adapt to the times we're in as we’re in them?”
Kakashi nodded, his expression unreadable behind the mask. “Yes I suppose that’s true.” He paused, getting up from his chair and walking around the desk to face Shikamaru at eye level. “Might I ask, do you perhaps have a personal motive behind this initiative?”
Shikamaru felt blood rush to his face. “W-well, to be completely honest…It’s just that…”
“Yes?”
He winced, “The InoShikaCho clans have a tradition of starting shinobi training for the children of the head families once they turn three. That’s because they’re usually entering the academy at around six and we want them to have some base level training before starting school…”
“Hmm, so if the academy doesn’t start enrolling students until they’re seven or eight, you can put off your own clan-led training for a couple years, is that correct?” Kakashi asked, finishing for him.
Shikamaru slumped a little and nodded guiltily. He knew this would come off as him being lazy and not wanting to train his son, but truthfully that had nothing to do with it at all. “You see, Temari is…well she’s…” Shikamaru started in an attempt to explain the situation.
“I get it,” Kakashi said suddenly, patting him on the shoulder.
Shikamaru blinked in disbelief, “You do?”
Kakashi’s face broke into a smile, the kind that caused the skin around his eyes to crease. “To tell you the truth, Hinata was just here the other day saying the same thing.”
Shikamaru jolted, “Wait really? So does this mean you’ll move forward with the proposal?” he asked hopefully.
“I’d need to speak with the clan leaders for all the prominent families of course, but I can certainly move it forward,” Kakashi answered.
Shikamaru beamed, “I’ll talk to them, I’ll convince whoever I need to!”
Kakashi laughed and waved him off, knowing just how big of an undertaking Shikamaru was getting himself into.
***
Shikamaru walked through the front door of his home sluggishly. He had been running around all day and his limbs felt like jello. The house smelled like lavender and lemons, signalling that Temari had been cleaning all day. He dug his index finger into the back of his shoes one at a time, sliding them off and depositing them into the genkan before he stepped up to the shining hardwood floors above it. “I’m home,” he called sleepily, his eyes fighting to stay open for even another second.
Temari came whizzing down the hall with Shikadai in her arms like usual. He vancantly wondered if he’d ever seen her without him in her arms since he’d been born. “What happened?” she asked with far too much energy. Her eyes were shining with a nervous excitement that nearly knocked him over.
“Waa appen?” Shikadai parroted as best he could with the letters currently available to him.
Shikamaru shuffled his feet in front of him, heading for the couch. If he could just lay down for a second he was sure he would feel a bit better. Alas, he did not make it all the way to the couch, collapsing onto the floor of the living room instead. “C’mon spill,” Temari urged, poking her purple painted toes into his abdomen, “What did they say?”
“Three,” was all he could muster.
Temari squatted down by his head, “Three what?” Shikadai reached down and started tugging at his father’s ponytail, babbles spilling from his lips as he did. “Shikamaru! Three what? Weeks? Months? How much extra time did you get us?” Temari implored, only setting Shikadai down beside her so she could shake her husband's shoulders.
Shikamaru groaned at his family’s apparent inability to leave him alone for a single second. “Three years,” he grumbled weakly.
Temari blinked, not seeming to react to his words. “Years? As in he has to start training at three years old? They didn’t budge?” Her voice was a higher pitch, worried now.
“No,” Shikamaru sighed, still face planted on the floor, “I got you an extra three years. He doesn’t have to start clan training until he’s six. He’ll enroll at the academy at nine and graduate at twelve.”
Temari gasped audibly, even Shikadai stopped tugging at his hair, allowing him a moment's peace. “Y-you mean it?” she stammered, holding a hand to her mouth to hide her shock.
Shikamaru nodded his head into the floor, “I had to design a fast track program for the academy so that all the students could still graduate on time and all the clan leaders and elders had to agree on the curriculum. I’ve been in negotiations all day and-”
“Yes!” Temari exclaimed, turning to wrap Shikadai up in a bone crushing hug.
“Yay!” Shikadai wailed with her, having no idea what he was even celebrating, “Daddy did it!”
Temari was laughing, the sound of it infectious. “Yes that’s right! Daddy did it!” she cheered, picking Shikadai up and swinging him around the room with glee. Shikamaru closed his eyes for a moment, relieved that he was able to give her this one thing. That this was not something else to be added to her list of things she’d given up for him.
When he inched his eyes back open, his gaze caught on a small black and white object wedged deep under the couch, most likely pushed there by the vacuum. He raised an arm painstakingly, pointing to it. “Temari,” he mumbled, putting a halt to her dancing. She raised an eyebrow at him, then followed his gaze, ducking down to see the object in question.
“Mr. Moo!” Shikadai shouted wildly before escaping his mother's grasp and racing over to dislodge it with his tiny hands.
He smiled weakly at his son’s excitement, before allowing his eyelids to flutter closed again. He was so exhausted from the day that he barely registered the feather light kiss on his cheek before he was completely lost to sleep.