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Summary
The endless dinner invitations allowed him to become more and more part of the life of little Mirai—now three years old—whom Asuma had left behind, along with cigarettes and lighters, without ever even meeting her.
And if he had met her, Shikamaru sometimes wondered, would Asuma have done the same? Would he still have gone from one mission to the next to protect the village from enemies clearly beyond the ordinary—enemies who would have likely killed him first, because he was the strongest and most dangerous? If he had seen how much Mirai resembled Kurenai, with those enormous red eyes that seemed to hold the entire world inside them, or heard her delicate laugh—would he have gone off to die anyway, giving everything up?
Wasn’t it Asuma who had taught him how important it is for a human being to find a life partner and dedicate oneself to them, to live together as one single thing, one single force and will, building a family to care for? Then why had he given it all up?