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Watching his son nod off in the middle of telling his own story, Shikamaru could only shake his head and chuckle. He could remember what it was like when Shikadai was a newborn and how exhaustingly terrifying those months had been as a first time parent. Now here he was, newly retired from active duty and awaiting the birth of his fourth child’s second daughter any day now. It was hard to believe that so much time had gone by already.
Several children went stampeding past him and Shikamaru reached out with his shadows to catch one of his granddaughters when she tripped on the way by, setting the girl to rights with a pat on the head even as he looked around for his wife. It wasn’t like her not to be in the very center of the madness.
There really was no other way to describe the chaos that took over the quiet household every holiday when their four children and the families each of them had grown came together for good food, good conversation, and to reminisce over good memories. Sakura could usually be found in the epicenter of it all, ruling over her brood like she had once commanded the battlefield. All of their children had inherited enough Nara intelligence not to question her orders - or at least they had learned not to at fairly young ages. Some of the grandchildren, however, were still discovering the world and the sharpness of their matriarch’s eyes when displeased.
Rising from the table made his knees creak and his back ache. Shikamaru huffed about the tribulations of aging even as he nimbly dodged around two little tots having a mock battle in the middle of the kitchen. Just watching how much energy they possessed made him tired - although that really wasn’t anything new, he’d always preferred to be still when the option was there.
It took a bit of searching in a few unlikely places but he did eventually find his wife.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked, closing their bedroom door behind himself. Sakura looked up from the babe cradled in her arms and the moment he saw her tears Shikamaru was across the room cradling her face in his palms.
“Oh stop,” she told him with a wet laugh. “They’re happy tears.”
“Has your age finally caught up with you then? Senile old woman, making me sniff you out in some dark corner all alone just to find you sobbing over happiness.”
If not for the precious burden in her arms she would have swatted him for his cheek. She rolled her eyes instead before leaning in to rest her head against his shoulder, gently bouncing their youngest grandchild in the same blanket they had wrapped their firstborn child with the day they brought him home.
“Rich of you to call me old with that many wrinkles in your face,” Sakura murmured.
“What’s made you cry, love?”
“I was just watching them all smile and laugh and I started thinking about how thankful I am for everything we have. Then I thought that if I stayed there I might burst in to tears and I just didn’t want anyone to worry, that’s all.” A sigh escaped her but it was a happy sound. “Sometimes I just can’t seem to wrap my head around it all. One day I was only a little girl with nothing but decent chakra control and a brain too big for her muscles to keep up with. Then it feels like I turned around and I’ve got a husband, four children, more grandchildren than I can keep up with, and one of the boys down the road asks me to tell him stories of the days when I was a war hero. A hero! Me!”
“You’re certainly my hero,” Shikamaru told her.
Her first instinct was to laugh because of course a woman with as many accolades as his wife would never see them as anything to celebrate. She had always been the type to carry duty and honor as though they were no more than her due to the world. It didn’t matter how many years had passed or how much self-confidence she gained, Sakura would never look in to a mirror and see the guiding star that so many others saw her as. It was part of her charm.
“Quit trying to butter me up and hand me that bottle. This one’s about to start fussing.”
The words were hardly out of her mouth when the babe kicked out with one little foot and opened his mouth to loose a hungry squall. Shikamaru could only shake his head, doing as she asked.
“It’s like you’re in his head,” he remarked. She only shrugged. “You’re sure that you’re alright?”
“Yes, I’m just fine. What do you think, should we have another one?” Sakura looked up at him with a cheeky smile. They both knew she was long past the age of bearing another child but still Shikamaru couldn’t help the gentle thud inside his chest.
With every year that passed their family grew larger and larger, with every child born their hearts grew fuller and fuller, and he couldn’t imagine having lived this life with anyone but her.
“How about we get another cat instead?” he suggested, trying to ignore the way his words came out choked with emotion.
“A lovely idea. If you’re very nice to me I might even let you pick the name.”
“Michio if it’s a boy.”
Such a quick answer startled his wife, earning him a pair of wide blinking eyes that quickly watered and began spilling down her cheeks again. With both hands occupied Sakura had nothing to hide her face behind but that was alright; Shikamaru had wiped her tears before and he would continue to do so until the day he could no longer lift his hands. And then he would kiss them away.
With her face cradled between his palms Shikamaru leaned in to press their foreheads together. “Would you like to stay in here for a few more minutes?”
“I think that’s best,” Sakura answered in a wavering voice. “Thank you, Shika. Thank you for this life we’ve had.”
“Hey now, we’re still kicking. There’s still a lot of life for us to live. Naps to take and all that. Now come on, let’s sit you down over there, you can feed the baby and we can just stay in here until someone comes looking, alright?”
Sakura nodded without saying anything but she was wearing a smile as he led her over to sit on the bed, making a show of grumbling when his knees creaked again just to hear her quiet laughter. It was silly, he thought, for her to be thanking him when he was the one who could be nothing but grateful. Everything he had in this world, every happiness and every triumph, he owed it all to the beautiful woman at his side. After all these years together he still fell more and more in love each day he woke to hear her humming away in the next room with her morning tea, patiently waiting for a lazy man who didn’t deserve her to wake up and face the next step of their journey together.
Maybe someday he could make her understand what an honor it had been to take this journey with her.