Chapter Text
The village hidden in the leaves was calm on this Wednesday morning. Children were at the academy, ninjas were sent on their mission, and Shikamaru was taking advantage of a day without any meeting to go through that mountain of paperwork in front of him.
Naruto had only been Hokage for a few months now and was still getting used to the work it meant. Shikamaru, as the good assistant he was, helped him through, so Naruto could see his family more. The poor man was overloaded and his children started to feel neglected, especially Boruto. To Shikamaru’s relief, Shikadai didn’t seem to mind that much, he understood both men had difficult jobs with endless tasks. The man hoped the young Nara could reason his good friend.
Shikamaru took a letter on his pile, and started reading it. It was coming from Yamato, who had been tasked for a few years now to watch Orochimaru’s every move and report any suspicious behavior. Shikamaru frowned. It had been a while since the last letter from Yamato.
The man requested back up, claiming the Sanin was up to weird things. He is doing way too much researches on Hyuga and Uchiha clans for him to be up to anything good. Shikamaru shivered. The legendary Sanin had been after the Uchiha clan for years, especially Sasuke. If he was looking to get the Sharingan or Byakugan, Shikamaru didn’t know what the man could do with it.
Shikamaru decided to show that letter to Naruto, to discuss about it. Should they intervene on the Sanin research? Try to learn more about the man’s motives? Was it something he was after, or just plain research for his own fun?
“I’ll ask a few Anbu men to join Yamato.” Naruto claimed. “I don’t like it much. We decided to trust Orochimaru, but he still has a lot to prove regarding our village. I only hope he is not after Sasuke. I haven’t heard of him in a while, maybe I’ll try to reach him. He could have heard something.”
Sasuke was doing in own research for Naruto, in secret. While the village did not trust him yet, Naruto was convinced of the trustworthy of the Uchiha man. Sasuke reported occasionally. He hadn’t visited Konoha in almost three years, though. It was difficult for both Sakura and her daughter Sarada, who wanted so badly to see her father.
Shikamaru took the phone and got a hold of the Anbu leader, who sent two of his members to the Hokage’s office. Once that was settled, Shikamaru took another pile of paperwork, sighing. The day was about to be long and draining.
Naruto and Shikamaru finished the pile just before diner. The sun was going down, and Shikamaru wanted to visit his father’s grave before going home. He hadn’t visited it in a little while, besides, he had finished earlier compared to usual, so Temari wouldn’t even notice.
He knelt in front of the grave for a good fifteen minutes, asking his father for advice. Despite being the Hokage’s assistant for quite some years now, he still had moments of doubts. Naruto relied a lot on him for any decisions, and Shikamaru felt the weight on his shoulders.
He was about to go home when he noticed two familiar silhouettes from afar. Kurenai and Mirai had just brought a fresh flower bouquet to Asuma’s grave. He heard the child laugh, and decided to go say hi to them.
“Hey Mirai, how is it going at the academy?”
She had just started a little earlier that year, and with the Hokage change, he hadn’t had a lot of time to visit his protégé and catch up. Temari had been the one training Mirai lately.
“I love it! I will be a good Kunoichi, you’ll see! Just like mom.”
“I know you’ll be. Do you have a lot of friends there?”
Mirai’s face saddened.
“There is not a lot of children of my age at the academy. We are three in my class, and they are younger than I am. They’re twins, and they too never met their father.”
Shikamaru made a sad smile to Mirai. He hoped, with that time of peace, that no more children would grow without one of both their parents. The war had killed way too many people. It frustrated him to hear about Mirai’s friends. For the lack of future shinobis in her class, he should have seen it coming, Mirai was born in the middle of the war. It wasn’t a good period to conceive children.