Shattered Glass

XI.

In the end, the score was Shikamaru three, Kankurou one. Kankurou still couldn’t wrap his mind around how Shikamaru could eat green-tea flavoured ice cream with hot sauce liberally drenching the cold treat. Finally, he gave up and just paid for their meal, escorting his lover from the restaurant, just walking around Konoha as he watched the younger man fondle that bump that was slowly but surely growing. It frightened him a little bit that he was going to be a father, especially since he didn’t know the first thing about taking care of babies. But then, he figured, he would be moving to Konoha anyway since after the birth Shikamaru would be in no mood to travel and their baby would be too young.

And he really didn’t want to contend with Ino. The girl had given them their space, but she still watched the two of them like an overly protective mother hen. He supposed he was grateful for her unseen presence, giving him the confidence to walk with Shikamaru proudly, knowing she, and others like her, were there in the shadows for protection and support. Kankurou had found himself being assimilated slowly into Konoha life, interacting with younger shinobi and kunoichi as Shikamaru still substituted for teachers at the Academy. It had become something of a challenge to go through the day without one kid asking why Shikamaru was going to have a baby, since he didn’t look like a mommy, and only mommies could have babies. Kankurou could only watch in amazement as Shikamaru answered the question in the calmest tone ever, not once getting frustrated with the kids for the repeated inquiry. Every day, Kankurou waited for the parents to come storming in and taking the children out of school, just because of what Shikamaru was telling them.

“I’m a special mommy,” Shikamaru would say, “My baby is a special baby. I may not look like your mommies, but don’t you think mommies could be daddies too?”

It was always the same, the kids mulling it over, and one or two spouting that their mommies go to work every day, but when they come home, their daddies are home to help them with homework or to play with them, and their daddies never went to work. Perhaps Konoha was much more lenient about the same-sex relationships and the gender-role reversal that Suna was. Kankurou also found himself going out on short missions with Naruto and Lee, sometimes Kiba and Shino, sometimes Ino and Hinata, or any of the combination of the above. He was accepted by the ninja who were his age or younger, and in turn the adults began to accept him.

It wasn’t an embarrassment to have his name called in ironic contempt when he did something stupid anymore, and he found himself with much more free time to spend with Shikamaru as that baby bump grew larger. Ino began to give them schedules for birthing classes, and Sakura always had time to fit them in for an ultrasound.

It was during one ultrasound that Sakura asked them if they wanted to know the gender of their baby. Silence pervaded the room, and Kankurou almost said yes, biting his tongue when he looked at Shikamaru. At Shikamaru’s nod, Sakura smiled, moving the paddle to view the baby’s forming face.

“That my friends,” Sakura said, “is your baby girl.”

Kankurou’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Shikamaru gave a startled little laugh. The two looked at each other, back to the screen, back to each other. Later that night, as Shikamaru curled in Kankurou’s arms, the argument about names started and kept on until Shikamaru passed out, head pillowed on Kankurou’s chest. Kankurou stayed awake for a few more moments, stroking the soft brown hair that was fanned out across Shikamaru’s shoulder, admiring the man. He’d come so far, so soon. A chuunin with severe losses behind him and a bright future ahead of him, Shikamaru was most certainly one in a million. Kankurou placed his hand against Shikamaru’s stomach, feeling their daughter kick his hand as if to tell her father everything would turn out okay. He only smiled, closed his eyes, and thought about more names to fight with Shikamaru over in the morning.
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Everything was progressing smoothly, even after the reevaluation and the formulation of a new plan. The subject was progressing better than it had first been thought, even if the seed wasn’t the desired one. It still proved the theory, either way, and the only thing left now was to finish out the plan. It wasn’t enough to watch from afar, no, the upbringing had to be taken into consideration as well. At first, the plan was to let the child remain with the mother had the chosen father been the one to use the subject. But with these two bloodlines coming together, it was now more important to remove the child after birth and raise it in a confined environment, molding it to the surrogate’s will. Eyes were within the walls of Konoha, always ready to inform at the slightest change. Soon everything would come to fruition, and life could continue on as normal with only the loss of an infant. Despite the love the pair was spouting, there was certainty in the fact it was all an act to keep the father alive.

Oh, what a fool Chisuru was, to meddle in the affairs of the heart.

True she had disappeared from Konoha, true she had orchestrated the events to claim such a prize, and she was willing to do anything to get it. She hadn’t expected the chuunin boy, Shikamaru. She’d expected someone else, someone younger, someone Konoha wouldn’t care about. She’d assumed much of the same of Suna, of the girls she’d lured out as an appetizer for her group, of the young medic nin she’d unfortunately had to destroy to take her place. She hadn’t counted on the elder brother of the Kazekage to come looking, but it was a turn in events that pleased her. Even if the man she had chosen hadn’t impregnated Shikamaru, Kankurou was just as good. But then she realized the implications a child of that particular breeding could have, and her plans had changed from leaving the child in the village to demanding its removal vital. She’d gotten arguments, but it was nothing a bit of flesh couldn’t quell. She insinuated herself among the medic ninja again in Konoha, this time using her real unremarkable appearance instead of the jutsu she usually wore to protect her identity. Unremarkable as she was, she didn’t tell anyone her name and while she did get confused stares from a young pink-haired girl, and hesitant questions of her name, she merely garbled something, as if feigning a speech impediment. She was left alone then, the pink-haired girl always called away on some other duty. Chisuru only had to bide her time now, and wait for the right moment to swipe her prize. She considered inducing labour just to speed up the process, but impatience had always cost her in the past. So she waited, she earned trust, she proved her loyalty, and was allowed to join the women in the rooms of expectant mothers as they trained her. She kept herself unremarkable, and waited.

She’d gotten better at that over the eight and a half months since this intrepid little journey began. It soon paid off, her careful planning, her patience, for a room was being prepared for the chuunin near the end of month nine, the pink-haired girl presiding over the arrangements. Chisuru knew this part would be the hardest, trying to abduct an infant in the presence of several jounin and the Hokage herself. But she knew she could do it. It was just a matter of escaping without notice. She prided herself on that, smiling as she remembered fooling the whole hospital into believing Chisuru had been a figment of their imagination. She had no reason to believe she’d be suspected or even followed once she escaped.

Once again, Chisuru underestimated the powers of the heart.

When Shikamaru was brought in, she made sure she was on the birthing team. She bowed in and out, running errands for those helping Shikamaru birth the baby, so it wouldn’t seem unusual for her to duck out and run down the hall. She only had to get past the few cameras that were mounted in the halls and out the side door. She practiced several times before Shikamaru had been brought in, and knew her path well. So she ran and she returned and she waited, and finally a bawling, bloody, infant girl was handed to her. She let the baby be weighed, deemed healthy (for if the tiny girl wasn’t healthy there was no point in taking her, and Chisuru would have to start over), and thought herself quite clever when she switched the bundle that was Shikamaru’s baby girl with the bundle of the dead child, ducking out of the room and running, as if she was going to get more towels. Chisuru tore off the medic nin uniform as she escaped the hospital, smiling down at her prize, the infant girl staring back at her with the deep green eyes of her father, intelligent and inquisitive. She didn’t bother to meet with her little group of missing nin, and started walking.

Oh, how Chisuru did underestimate the love of a father for his daughter.

Especially since Kankurou had a very special friend by the name of Uzumaki Naruto.