Chapter Text
He slid the back door to the house shut behind him, making sure to make it click loud enough that Zaki knew he was there. She hadn’t greeted him when he’d walked in the door, but that wasn’t entirely surprising since he’d actually gotten home late. The moon was reflecting off the pond in their backyard to prove that to him.
“Long day?” That was Zaki’s greeting as he stepped off the low porch surrounding the house. She hadn’t shifted to look at him, instead keeping her gaze on the moon. “Yoshino stopped by earlier, asked if I knew when your shift at the prison would be done for today. Naturally, I didn’t have an answer for her, so she instead took it upon herself to pack bentos for you all afternoon.”
“Didn’t I say we should’ve tried to find her a different house a little further away than right next door,” he said tiredly, sitting cross-legged behind Zaki’s head and waiting for her to shift her head into his lap like she always did whenever he joined her out by the pond. He glanced at the surface of the water as he waited for her to settle against him; the stems of the lotus flowers he’d planted were growing, a few leaves already breaching the surface of the pond, but they’d be waiting for the blooms to fully show still.
“Yeah, but I didn’t feel right separating her from this house that far; it might not be the same one that she raised you in, but she still has some memories with Shikaku-sensei in it,” she explained, lifting her head slightly to help him untie her braid before relaxing fully against him.
Shikamaru only hummed in response, watching as his fingers combed through her hair gently; he didn’t think he’d ever tire of the way the lighter golden strands in her hair reflected the moonlight so plainly. He’d picked up a lock of her hair and was rubbing it between his fingers to watch that exact phenomenon when he realized she was looking up at him, so he shifted his gaze to lock eyes with her.
“I technically lost my job today.”
“...Technically?” Her eyebrow arched as she narrowed her eyes at him.
“So did Lady Tsunade,” he nodded with a small shrug, a small smirk pulling at his lips when Zaki’s response was to sit up and turn to face him.
“So you decided to make a game of getting me to guess what you mean?” She tilted her head slightly, her hair shifting behind her in a dark golden curtain.
“More fun than shogi, wouldn’t you say?” He chuckled, meeting her gaze evenly.
“Okay, now I know this isn’t a normal situation; nothing is more fun to you than shogi and napping.”
“Go on, start guessing,” he encouraged, leaning back on his hands as he eyed her. She must’ve realized he wasn’t going to budge, because rather than narrowing her eyes at him, her finger just met her chin as she began to think.
“Well, if both you and Lady Tsunade are out jobs now, that means either you royally fucked up your job at the prison, and put a lot of people in danger - which obviously isn’t the case, or you wouldn’t be here right now - or something seriously great happened to where Konoha no longer is obligated to watch over the prison as part of the agreement with putting the Union into full power.”
He only lifted his chin slightly as she spoke, careful to not reveal anything to her as she continued to eye him.
“If Lady Tsunade stepped down, that wouldn’t surprise me,” she continued, looking down and away from him now as she thought. “Her Mitotic Regeneration is said to take years off the end of her life; she’d look like she’s around a hundred years old at this point if not for her using her Yin Seal to redirect some of her chakra toward her appearance. So she’s probably aware that she hasn’t a whole lot of time left, after what she used to heal herself and everyone after the war.”
“I’ll tell her you said that,” he said coolly, only to be met with a swift slap to his knee that didn’t hurt but made him chuckle.
“She’ll kill us both,” Zaki countered, and he nodded his agreement. “Lady Tsunade picking a successor isn’t surprising, then,” she continued, finally eyeing him again. “And I know you well enough that you would’ve bolted from the room the moment she even had a single inkling of a thought of asking you to take her place. Plus, she and the elders would’ve both thought you far too young for the position. No, she would’ve chosen someone with similar intellect but far more experience-...”
Shikamaru watched as her eyes narrowed on him again, clearly having figured out who was replacing the Fifth Hokage, but still hadn’t pieced together what about that situation had caused him his job.
“So what did you and Kakashi do at the Blood Prison to absolve Konoha from its responsibilities of taking care of it for security?”
“I already told you; start guessing,” he answered cryptically, giving her an easy smirk before he laid back on the grass himself, stretching out so his legs were on either side of her instead.
“Making yourself awfully vulnerable to me, Shika-kun,” she murmured, her hand touching his thigh to emphasize her point, but he didn’t flinch as he kept his gaze on her.
“Because Miss ‘I have to show respect in everything I do’ would never do such a low blow no matter how mad I made her, unless her life was in danger,” he said, putting his hands behind his head as he watched her. “Now go on, you still haven’t guessed what happened.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do, just guess blindly? I have no information on what was going on at that Prison, you weren’t allowed to discuss any details with me other than when you’d be there and when you’d be home so we could coordinate babysitting Mirai with everyone.”
“Okay, I’ll give you a hint. Just one; the Tobishachimaru.”
Zaki’s eyes narrowed as she stared down at him, and he looked away from her and up to the stars as he waited for her to speak.
“Someone hijacked it and tried to use it for a prison break?!”
He blinked and looked at her, unable to keep the surprise off his face as he pushed himself up on his elbows to look at her. His mouth opened a little to speak, but she continued, eyes bright with confusion and pride as she kept her gaze on his.
“You stopped a prison break from a fucking airship, which led to something else happening so someone could take your place as the warden. Shikamaru, that’s incredible!”
“Now, hold on,” he said, sitting up again. “That’s not entirely what happened. You are correct about the hijacking and prison break, but I didn’t exactly… Prevent it,” he corrected sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “But we did fix it within the same day, and prevented Kusa and Iwa from going to war with each other and us over it, so there’s that!”
“Oh, so you did lose your job because you were fired,” she deadpanned, and he sighed as his head fell forward to rest his forehead against her shoulder.
“I wasn’t fired, just replaced,” he mumbled. “One of the ninja who’d been part of the hijacking is both imprisoned there and in charge of the prison now. Her kekkei genkai is effective in keeping the prisoners in check. And before you ask, no, it isn’t Steel Release, it’s Ice,” he added, lifting his head off her shoulder to look at her. “She and Kakashi shared some kind of bonding session when they were on the falling airship together, and he trusts her, so I’m inclined to as well.”
“You know they replaced you at the prison so you could go back to focusing on getting the Shinobi Union functioning properly, right?” She raised her eyebrow at him as a small smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth, and he groaned as he leaned into her again.
“It’s so much work,” he complained, burying his face in her neck as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“Maybe so, but it’s not like you’re alone in doing it,” she murmured, and he lifted his head to lock eyes with her again.
“You’re right; we’re never alone, Kashizaki. Never again.”
Shikamaru felt her smile against his lips as he kissed her, but she pushed a little against him despite returning his kiss.
“I love you, Shikamaru,” she whispered when he pulled back slightly, and he tightened his arms around her to pull her further onto his lap.
“I love you, too, Kashizaki,” he answered, and chuckled into the kiss she gave him in response.