An Absence of Thorns

Chapter 20: Tikari

"Kiba, I can walk to the Hokage's tower on my own." I reassured him for the twentieth time that morning. The way he was acting reminded me of how protective he had been when I was pregnant with Kohana. Though it was nice having everything done for me for a change, it became more tiring than if I had done everything myself.

"It wouldn't be a problem," he gave a kind smile.

I placed my hands on his chest as I gave him a quick kiss, "Go to work. I'll be fine."

He took in a breath like he was about to continue the argument, but stopped when he saw the look on my face. The breath left him with a sigh, "Fine. I'll see you when I get home tonight. Love you."

"Love you too." I gave him another quick kiss before heading out the door.

||~x~||

It felt so good to be able to walk through the streets of Konoha again. Even though I had been home for the past few months, I still felt so lucky to be here. My gaze wandered up to the stone faces that watched over the village. I lingered on the third face for a moment as I scanned over it.

Morning granddad.

A slight chuckle escaped me as I stared at the last face as I walked up to the tower. I had always known that Naruto would become Hokage one day, but I hadn't thought about seeing his face carved in the side of the mountain.

Friendly faces greeted me as I worked my way up toward the blonde-in-question's office. It was the normalcy of things like this that made me feel like nothing had changed, and maybe the past few years had just been some messed up dream.

I forced those hopes away as I knocked.

"Come in."

A slightly somber Naruto greeted me with a smile, "Good morning, Tikari."

"I see someone still isn't a morning person." I smirked as he sighed in defeat. A chuckle from the side of the room caused me to turn and see Shikamaru was there as well.

"Morning." He gave me a smile as he continued putting things up on the shelves along the wall.

"So," I walked over toward the blonde and his desk. "What did you want to see me about?"

Naruto leaned back in his chair as I felt the atmosphere in the room change. My blue eyed friend looked as though he wasn't ready to have this conversation and he had never really been someone to run from things he thought needed to be done or said.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he sat up straighter in his chair. "I just had a few things I needed to talk with you about and I thought we could go ahead and do it now so that you could have plenty of time to think."

I raised an eyebrow at his words. Shikamaru came over to stand at the side of the desk as Naruto continued.

"I know that I told you to take as much time as you need, but I wanted to know what your thoughts were when it came to what you want to do going forward." I thought about where he might be taking this conversation, but kept my mouth shut. "You are more than welcome to come back at any time, but I also wanted to give you all of your options."

"If you wanted to, there is a place open on Naruto's guard detail if you would still be interested." Shikamaru picked up for him, "I know that was something you and Kakashi talked about before and it is still there if you would want it. You could also fall back into any ANBU or jonin position that you would like."

"Thank you." I nodded.

Naruto held a hand up, "I also wanted to pass on another option for you. If you wish to step away from everything, I would sign off on it."

Step away from everything?

That wasn't something that had even crossed my mind. Even after we had Kohana, I knew that I would go back to being a shinobi and complete missions. Had that changed?

"Oh..." I began to trail off further into my thoughts.

"I wanted you to have time to think things over before you made a decision."

I appreciated his concern. It also warmed my heart when I saw the stacks of paper that surrounded him, knowing that he was still the same loving Naruto he had always been.

A knock sounded on the door behind me. Naruto answered and another person stepped in as I moved off to the side of the room.

"Hey sis!"

I turned with a smile as I saw the all-too-awake face of my baby brother. I gave him a nod before he looked back to Naruto, reporting in on the mission he was returning from. His mission wasn't anything super secretive, but I didn't really hear a lot of what was said.

Could I just stay home with Kohana? Would that be a bad thing?

I had missed so much of her life, but this was always what I thought I was meant to do for my entire life. Now I was grateful for Naruto making sure I had enough time to think about this.

"Sis?"

I blinked a few times, "Sorry."

He chuckled at me, "It's fine. I asked if you wanted to grab some food with me."

"Thanks, but I was going to get some training in before I headed home."

A smirk came to his lips. I'm sure I mirrored his expression.

"Oh don't get ahead of yourself little brother. Don't go thinking I'll go easy on you like I used to."

"I would hope I reached the point where you can't go easy on me."

"Oh you're on."

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Happy Thanksgiving! (I'm from the US) 

Regardless, I hope everyone has a great day no matter when you're reading this.

See you,

Kiki