Nara Shikamaru hailed from a long line of very intelligent men.

His family had been comprised of political advisors and men who knew the value of working from the shadows. His father had been a political advisor for Mayor Sarutobi for a long time and once upon a time, Shikamaru had thought he would follow in his father's footsteps.

Life had a way of working things different to one's expectations, he supposed, considering where he had ended up now.

He sighed as he took another look at the kid sitting in front of him on the carpet and let his head hit the back of the sofa. He didn't feel really intelligent babysitting Daiki for the 30th time this week.

"Ah, I always knew working with Uchihas was trouble," he commented to himself.

Daiki looked up at his muttering, a startling resemblance to his father, which always made Shikamaru pause. He grinned toothily. "Shika, look!" he said, jumping up from his sitting position and toddling over to Shikamaru's side on the sofa.

He was holding a paper in his hand, a black crayon in his other. He presented the paper to Shikamaru by shoving it in his face.

"Wait kid," he said, shaking his head in amusement despite fighting another urge to sigh or go beat Sasuke up for pinning him with his child again. This was not why he'd gotten his Masters in Political science.

The picture depicted stick figures, who he presumed were supposed to be Daiki's family. There were 5 in total. "Okay, who's this?" he asked the kid.

"That's Mama," Daiki pointed to the stick figure with purple strings protruding from the round head. He moved to the next one. "That's Dada,"

Shikamaru choked over a laugh at the stick figure whose hair looked like a porcupine resting on his head. Oh he was definitely saving this picture for later. "And who's this?" he asked, moving next.

"Lola," Daiki pointed to the short stick figure. "And Daiki," he said to the one immediately next to it.

"Who's Lola?" Shikamaru asked.

"Lola and me play every day," Daiki said excitedly before his smile dimmed. "Lola and Mama are coming back?"

Daiki had asked about his mother almost constantly. Shikamaru felt another spike of anger at his friend and boss. "Yeah...I told you, she's just gone for some work. She'll be back soon. You can show her this picture then,"

Daiki didn't look like he believed Shikamaru any longer, but he still nodded. "Then we can go home?"

Shikamaru didn't know what to say to that. "You'll have to ask your mama about that," he told the child. Not wanting to dim the mood further, he moved to the last stick figure. "Is that me?"

It looked like there was a fire around his head, but Daiki's smile grew again and he nodded vigorously. "Do you like it Shika?"

Shikamaru stared at the piece of paper, feeling something well up inside him.

He didn't know how long it had been since he had been exposed to such innocence. He had remembered this feeling of quiet peace when he was a child himself, but Konoha had never let him or anyone else retain their purity.

He didn't know how long it had been since someone looked at him so earnestly, as if he would keep them safe. After all the bloodshed and violence and corruption, he didn't know how long it had been.

Daiki wasn't even his son, but the flare of protectiveness he felt for the boy was-

"...I love it," He told Daiki, turning towards him.

"You keep it," Daiki told him happily.

"Thanks kid," he replied, clutching the paper tighter.

"I want food,"

Shikamaru sighed. He didn't know the proper diet for a child but this week had taught him a lot. "What do you want to eat?"

"Noodles!" Daiki shrieked.

"Okay," Shikamaru smiled, shaking his head. His first attempts had been disastrous but he had a basic hang of it now. "But you have to finish the vegetables again,"

Daiki nodded. "I help you make it," he offered.

Shikamaru figured there was no mess Sasuke's cleaning staff couldn't clean. Besides, it served him right to leave Shikamaru with babysitting and disappearing with a cryptic text.

I'm going to talk to Hinata.

He picked up Daiki and they walked towards the kitchen. Daiki started blabbering about his friend Lola and how he loved playing tag and how his mama made noodles for them every day and also nuggets and absolutely never made him eat his vegetables, which Shikamaru supposed couldn't be true knowing Hinata.

But he replied when necessary and let Daiki run around as he prepared the food.

Even so, there was a lingering worry in the back of his head.

Sasuke was his friend. He was utterly loyal to him both as his advisor and also as a friend. But he could admit with no hesitation how volatile his friend had become over the years, especially after Hinata.

He had seen firsthand how distracted and unfocused Sasuke had been the whole week; how despite his best attempts at staying detached, his anger was getting the best of him.

Shikamaru worried that the conversation would Hinata would make things worse. And he didn't want that. He wanted his friends safe and happy and he didn't want Daiki, who was playing by himself with spoons in front of him, to grow up in a dysfunctional family.

He didn't want Konoha to change this boy too.

Maybe Hinata was right, but even so, Sasuke wasn't in the wrong either.

He decided to give them a few hours to talk things through. But if he needed to intervene, he would. He couldn't stand by and watch things go wrong.

Not again.

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Author's note: While Sasuke and Hinata talk (argue) it out, we have a brief chapter from Shikamaru's point of view while he's babysitting Daiki. Let me know what you think of the story so far and what you think of me (unnecessarily) complicating this storyline by adding more and more lore and points of view to it instead of getting to the damn point.