Complications

Shikamaru was unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong.

He should have been in good spirits. He had the whole afternoon to himself and there were plenty of interesting clouds floating through the sky. It was the perfect time to relax and let the mind drift lazily from dream to dream. Of course Shikamaru was technically on guard duty so perhaps it wasn’t the best time to be engaged in cloud inspired daydreams.

Shikamaru slowly cracked open an eye and shifted his gaze to his partner. If anything slipped past the hyperaware Rock Lee if would be a miracle. Lee took guard duty seriously and after spending twenty minutes trying to convince Shikamaru that he should be youthfully diligent Shikamaru had issued him a challenge. Surely a youthful ninja of Lee’s caliber would be able to protect the gate without any aid. Lee had cheerfully declared that he would defend the gate or do 500 laps around the village.

Shikamaru thoughtfully chewed the blade of grass between his lips. Even if Lee somehow failed this easy task Shikamaru doubted the Taijutsu specialist would mind. He had the sneaking suspicion that Lee sometimes threw his challenges on purpose so he had an excuse to do insane amounts of physical training.

Shikamaru’s thoughts were jerked away from his partner when he felt a familiar chakra approaching his position. “Some things never change. Get your lazy ass up Shikamaru. You’re disgracing your village.”

Shikamaru frowned as he sat up. Temari wasn’t due back in Konoha for at least another month. “What are you doing here?”

Temari crouched next to Shikamaru and flicked his forehead. “Is that anyway to greet someone? No, ‘Hi Temari-sama it is an honor to be graced with the presence of someone as intelligent and beautiful as yourself. I missed you terribly the last few months and am overjoyed by your unscheduled return.’ And I came all this way just to see you.”

Shikamaru felt his frown deepen as he absentmindedly rubbed the sore spot on his forehead. “That better not be the only reason you’re here. Your brothers have already made it quite clear that they don’t approve of our friendship and I do not wish to deal with an angry Kazekage breathing down my neck.”

“I wouldn’t be worried about my little bro, Nara. I’ll be breathing down your neck enough for the both of us.”

Shikamaru felt his stomach sink to his toes. He swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat and turned his gaze toward the gate. He met Kankuro’s gaze and wished he’d taken Chouji up on his offer to switch duties. Teaching at the Academy never sounded so relaxing. Slowly he rose to his feet and tried to formulate the best strategy for getting himself out of this mess when another unknown factor presented itself. Standing next to the bouncing gate keeper was the last person that Shikamaru wanted to see, the Kazekage himself.

Gaara made his excuses to his talkative companion and turned to face Shikamaru. He crossed his arms solemnly and raised a nonexistent eyebrow. “I don’t remember telling you I didn’t approve of your friendship with Temari. Perhaps you misunderstood my letter.”

Temari sent her brother a sharp glance. This was the first time she’d heard about and correspondence between Gaara and Shikamaru. What the heck had her little brother said to make him this nervous?

Gaara was wondering what he had said that made Shikamaru react so badly. Scaring the man off was not what he had intended when he had sent the letter. “Clearly there has been a misunderstanding between us that we need to clear up but there are more pressing matters to attend to at this time.” He motioned for his siblings to follow him through the gates. “But I will say this, if you and Temari wish to be together, as friends or as lovers, I have no objections.”

Temari felt a weight she hadn’t known she was carrying being lifted from her shoulders. She still wasn’t sure if a real relationship with Shikamaru would work out, but it no longer seemed completely impossible. She gave Shikamaru one last playful shove and teasing look. “No excuses now, Shikamaru. You’ll finally have to give me that Shogi match I’ve been bugging me for. If you try to get out it I’ll know that you’re more afraid of me kicking your ass than you are of my brothers.”

Kankuro was going to protest but stopped when he noticed the look on Temari’s face. Perhaps she was more serious about the Nara bas… about Shikamaru than he had thought. He would not have given her such a hard time if he had known. He once again caught Shikamaru’s gaze. “I’m going to give you two choices kid. Option one; we sit down and have a few drinks and I take the time to actually get to know you. Option two; we have a sparring match and knock each other around until we work everything out. You pick the one that works for you.”

Shikamaru was trying to process all the new information that was assaulting his brain as he watched the Sand Siblings walk away. Apparently he what he had interpreted as a threat from the Kazekage had been some badly worded encouragement, Temari may have been harboring deeper feelings for him than she let on, and Kankuro may not hate him as much as he claimed. This meant that he now in the very uncomfortable position of deciding exactly how he felt about the most troublesome female in his life. He looked up at the sky and wondered if he should request a transfer to some distant allied village.

“Don’t think about it too hard Shikamaru-kun. Love is something that is felt not with the mind but with the heart and soul. You cannot think yourself into or out of love with Temari-san. You either have deeper feelings for her or you do not.”

Shikamaru’s eyes snapped down. He had almost forgotten that Lee was there. He absentmindedly rubbed the back of his neck and turned back to the sky. “If only it was really that simple Lee. Love is much more complicated and troublesome than that.”

Lee gave him a sad smile as he placed his hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder. “My friend, the thing that complicates a relationship is not the emotions but the people that are involved. Get in touch with your true emotions and I’m a confident that you will be able to figure out how to proceed.” Lee gave Shikamaru’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze and returned to his post at the gate.

Shikamaru stared at Lee as he walked away. He wasn’t sure if Lee’s view of the world was overly simplified or if he had just been given the best advice of his life.

~``~``~``

Kankuro observed his brother as they made their way through the streets of Konoha. There was a nervous tension in Gaara’s frame that Kankuro had never seen before. It was almost as if Gaara was afraid of something. Kankuro fought back the urge to kick himself for not questioning this little trip further when Gaara had ambushed him the middle of the night.

That night Garaa burst into Kankuro’s room and demanded to know if he could be ready to leave for Konoha in the morning. Kankuro remembered muttering his agreement on the condition that Gaara get the hell out and let him get back to sleep. In the morning he had been half sure that it had all been some sort of crazy dream but the presence of his travel packs at the foot of his bed shot a hole in that theory.

When he had joined his siblings in the living room he had been shocked to learn Temari was going as well. The three of them hadn’t left Sunagakure at the same time since Gaara had become the Kazekage. Kankuro had taken it as a good sign; that his little brother was finally ready to let up some of his obsessive control over their village. He was beginning to think that had been a mistake on his part but didn’t have any more time to think about it as their group almost literally ran into three familiar faces. Kankuro put out a hand of steady a very startled Kiba and smirked, “Watch it there dog boy. I wouldn’t want to have to pick your sorry ass of the ground again.”

Kiba got over his shock almost immediately and smacked Kankuro’s still outstretched hand away. He rolled his eyes at Akamaru and placed a hand on his furry head “We get saved by him one freakin’ time all those years ago and he makes it sound like it just happened yesterday.” Akamaru made some grumbling sounds in the back of his throat and let out a series of short yips. Kiba smiled and nodded his agreement. “That’s a great idea buddy. We’ll have to drag him over to the practice grounds sometime and show him who’s gonna need their sorry ass picked off the ground.”

Kankuro chuckled and cross his arms firmly over his chest. “If that was a challenge brat I’d be more than happy to wipe that smug look off of your face. You just name the time and the place and I will be there.”


Hinata tried her best to ignore Kiba’s horrid behavior and smiled shyly at the three visitors. “It’s wonderful to m-meet you all again so soon. How have you b-been Temari-san?” Hinata was proud of herself for barely stuttering in their presence. If she could exercise the same control around Naruto then maybe she’d finally be able to thank him for changing her life the way he had.

Temari shrugged and sent a pained look over her shoulder at the bickering pair. “As well as can be expected with a lunkhead like Kankuro for a brother but with a teammate like Kiba I’m sure you can understand.” Temari gave Hinata a wink as she turned back around.

“If you think having you for sister is a walk in the park you’ve got another thing coming.”

“What did I ever do to you Temari? Comparing me to Kankuro is kinda a low blow don’t ya think?

Hinata ducked her head to cover the small smile and embarrassed blush she felt creeping across her face. As the good hearted bickering increased in volume she snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye at the third Sand sibling. She hadn’t been given the opportunity to spend much time with Gaara during her visit to Sunagakure. She had been a little disappointed because there was something about the Kazekage that reminded her of Naruto.

As she silently studied Gaara she noticed that he ‘felt’ even more like Naruto than normal. It was as if he possessed traces of Naruto’s chakra. Hinata frowned in concentration. Was this a side effect of the Life Transfer jutsu? Any of Naruto’s chakra that was left behind should have been absorbed or pushed out of Gaara’s system by now. When no one was looking at her she quietly activated her Byakyugan.

The swirling ball of energy in Gaara’s stomach immediately caught her attention. There were two separate chakra’s swirling together to create a new chakra in the center. She had the distinct impression that she had seen something similar somewhere before but couldn’t recall where. Shino’s voice interrupted her thoughts and snapped her out of her Byakyugan.

“Has much fun as this has been we must be going. We promised Kurenai-sensei that we would meet her for diner and it is extremely rude to keep a pregnant woman waiting for food.”

Suddenly all the pieces connected in Hinata’s mind. The chakra in Gaara’s stomach was eerily similar to the process that takes place in a pregnant woman’s womb after conception. Before she even realized she had moved she felt herself tapping the Kazekage on the shoulder. When he turned to face her she struggled to put together a coherent sentence as she felt the blood run to her face. “G-g-garaa- s-sssama! I-I-I… y-you…anh!”

Gaara gave a panicked gaze to his sister than back to the girl passed out at his feet. He hadn’t experienced this kind of reaction in years and he wasn’t sure what had brought it on. Hinata had always been shy around him but she had never given him the impression she was afraid of him. Gaara was wracking his brain for anything he had done that could have cause Hinata to fear him when Kiba’s low chuckle attracted his attention.

Kiba was crouched in front of an unconscious Hinata and shaking his head. “And here I thought Naruto was the only one who could do that to her.” He tilted his head up and caught Gaara’s eyes. His mouth widened into a grin as he teased. “You must have become quite the stud Kazekage-sama if you could sway Hinata’s heart like that.”

Shino quickly joined Kiba at Hinata’s side and the two of them lifted the unconscious girl onto Akamaru’s back with practiced ease. “Naruto is hardly a stud, Kiba. Perhaps she has a thing for Jinchuuriki.”

Kiba scratched his head as the two of them made their way past the startled Sand shinobi. “I guess that makes sense; there isn’t anything else particularly interesting about Naruto.” Almost as an after thought he called over his shoulder. “Don’t worry too much about it Kazekage-kun, she’ll be up an about in no time. And don’t forget Kankuro, if you leave the village before we have our match that’s the same as admitting defeat.”


Kankuro could barely contain his laughter at his little brother’s expense as he yelled something appropriately insulting at Kiba’s retreating back. He had never seen Gaara look so thunderstruck. He was going to tease Gaara mercilessly about this… later. He was pretty sure if he tried now he’d find himself pinned to a wall with sand. He clapped his hand onto Gaara’s shoulder and gave him a gentle shove in the direction of the Hokage’s office. “Come on kid, you can worry about Hinata-chan later. Right now we should check in with Tsunade and get her started on whatever the heck is wrong with you.”

Dismissing Hinata’s strange behavior was not as easy as it sounded. With a million different thoughts flitting through his head he wondered absentmindedly if his life could possible get anymore complicated.


A/N
When I sat down to write the next part of my story a couple weeks ago I was surprisingly uninspired. This little chapter kind of wrote itself why I was debating some important plot points. I promise I am not intentionally delaying a mass discovery of the ‘complication’, at least not on purpose. Now that I’ve got a more clear idea as to where I’m going with this story the plot should start moving at a much quicker pace.

And once again, thanks to everyone who read my story and a special thanks to my reviewers.

~Wren Elessedil Dragonsbane~
I’m glad I’ve managed to catch your attention. I think my writing experience shall be much smoother now that I’ve ironed out the plot in my head.

~Fairy Niamh~
The reactions are coming. The next update should satisfy at least half of your curiosity. I’m not sure I’d trust Kakashi with a small child but it’s an intriguing idea. I shall think on it some more but rest assured I have some deliciously evil things planned for our dear Copy Nin.

~kagomegirl~
I’m glad you like it and I’m sorry the update took so long. I’m hoping the next one will be out much faster.

~Kaisei 13~
I think he’d be really cute too.

~Mehla Seraphim~
Thank you, I worked hard on it. I don’t like to use Mpreg without a logical explanation as to how the impossible has occurred. I glad that you feel I’ve pulled that off.

~Kami no Noshikage~
If your interest has survived the long pause between chapters I would be more than happy to let you do whatever fanart my writing inspires you to draw. Just promise to share and I’ll put a link in my story.

~Andrew Shumway~
Thank you. I’ve read my share of painful fanfiction in general and I’m glad that mine has not yet fallen into that category. And thank you for point out the problem with my story flow. I felt the same way as I as writing it, but I’ve never been very good at setting up a story. The ideas in my head start somewhere in the middle of the story which can make it difficult to backwards engineer the beginning without losing the intended plot somewhere along the way.