Edited: 03/06/24

Reuploaded: 06/06/24

° ❄️ °

We're going to just say that Konohamaru's Mother was Asuma's older sister. We know that Asuma was the younger sibling, but we don't know whether Asuma's sister or brother was Konohamaru's Mother or Father, so we'll just say it's the Mother ^^;

°❄️°

"Good afternoon, Kurenai," I greeted a familiar lady who opened her door to see me.

"Y/n?" she looked at me and then let me in, "is something wrong?"

"No, not at all, I just left Lady Tsunade's office though," I replied, sitting down on her sofa and watching as she waddled over to the seat opposite the one I was sat on. Her stomach was massive, but she's still got a few months of pregnancy to go.

"Oh? Why's that?" she asked, clearly interested.

"I just got promoted to jounin," I replied, still a bit shocked and confused, she was silent for a moment as the news registered in her head.

"Wow..." she said, "that's... wow..."

"I know, I'm still shocked as well," I said, "anyway, how're you? I'm just here for my weekly check-up."

She smiled. I come here every Monday and Friday, and we have tea but today is a Wednesday, so her confusion earlier made sense.

"I'm ok," she replied, rubbing her stomach, "I can feel small movements from time to time."

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed in glee, "did you decide on what you wanted to do with the gender?"

"Yeah, I decided that I'd leave it as a surprise. I don't want to know until he or she comes into the world," she replied, I smiled.

"So, I guess Shika and I are not decorating the bedroom properly yet?" I sighed, "man I was excited to get all colour coordinated."

She laughed at me.

"Finally, a laugh," I smiled, she hasn't laughed in a while, it's the first time she's laughed since I got back from the Hidden Rain.

"Sorry if I've been worrying you," she apologised, I just shook my head.

"It's my turn to worry after..." I trailed off, too stubborn to accept the fact so many people worried over me weeks ago, she just nodded knowing what I meant before moving next to me and grabbing my hands.

"I know you've already promised Asuma but please, promise me no matter what my child will always be under your watch along with your future children," she looked at me seriously.

"I promise you, Kurenai. Also what makes you think I'll have children?" I asked her, raising a brow in curiosity.

"Because I predict you and Shikamaru will get married, dear," she replied nonchalantly. My face started burning so I hid my head in the back of the sofa.

"Besides, the two of you basically live together," she poked at my side, and I sighed before looking over at her, shaking my head in disbelief.

"I'm going home tonight so that picture isn't going to continue," I told her.

"I think it's adorable how much the Nara's are looking over you," she told me, pulling my head off the sofa and sitting me up straight again, "I mean—I see why. We were close friends, your Mother and I, and you look almost exactly like her."

I blinked as she cupped my face in her hands but smiled a pretty lopsided smile.

"People keep telling me that but I don't know... I only really have one vivid memory of what she looked like and that was the memory of her death," I told her. She seemed to get an idea and stood up before going over to a bookshelf and grabbing an album off it then came back and sat closer to me this time to rest the open book across both our legs.

"This is the album of my academy days so let's not judge our looks, ok?" she told me before opening the book. There were about four photos per page with a date or a small description of what was happening.

"That's Asuma's older sister," Kurenai pointed to an older girl stood with Asuma, she looked like a female and more mature version of him.

"Ah—this photo," she pointed at a photo with my Dad, Uncle, a woman and herself in, "that's your Dad, Uncle, myself and your Mother."

My jaw dropped, we did look alike.

"Wait—but I was told Mother and Dad didn't meet until our clans clashed," I frowned, she shook her head.

"M/n was in the leaf village until she was 11 and then she was pulled away so follow the path of her clan, so we had three years in the academy with her," she told me, "I think we forgot about her though—I'm sure you don't remember most of the people you went to school with who failed their genin exams."

That's true. I don't remember a single name.

Every page she flipped had a different image and a different story to go with it.

Then there was a photo of all of Team 7, 8, 9, and 10 of my generation. Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. Then, Kurenai, Kiba, with a much smaller Akamaru on his head, Hinata, and Shino. Then, Hyousuke with a cigarette in his mouth, Yuuto frowning up at him, me just holding a book and Riku looking away from the camera occupied by a bird that flew past just as the photo was taken. Then, Asuma, Choji, Ino and Shikamaru.

"Wow—Team 9 was such a mess," I sighed, looking at the nice photos of the other three teams and then just our mess of a team. She laughed.

"I suppose so, but you did have Hyousuke as your sensei, so it makes sense. No team led by him would ever turn out normal," she told me before closing the album, "speaking of, why didn't you stay with his team, you know, after becoming chuunin?"

"I wanted to find the last of my family, train, become stronger, and then I did. But I got put onto backup for Asuma's team when I returned," I replied, "though I'm not complaining because I don't think that I could've dealt with Hyousuke's never-ending smoking and Yuuto yapping for long periods of times again."

Not to say that I don't want to go back and work with them. I think after all this Akatsuki mess, I may request we become a permanent team again.

Kurenai just laughed.

"I'm sure it would've been an interesting experience," she said, I nodded.

"But I kind of wanted something new," I replied, continuing on, she nodded knowing what I meant. After being on a team with them through my genin days, having something new for my chuunin ones made a little bit of sense.

I stood up.

"Well, I should head out, don't want to keep you up too late," I announced, stretching before walking to the door, "I'll see you another day. Take care, Kurenai."

"You too, y/n!" she called back as I opened the door and then left, heading towards the Nara house again.