Naruto opened his eyes, saw that it was a little past eight in the morning, then closed his eyes and sighed. The last couple months had been busy for him and Shikamaru, with missions and training. Shikamaru had finally mastered the jutsu that let him use his shadow as a shield, and going into the shadow realm was a lot easier now. He even started working on traveling through the shadows, which made him a lot faster.

As for Naruto, he greatly improved his control over Kurama's chakra, and could now hold Kurama mode quite a while, perfected his sage mode and could do what Kakashi called a perfect sage mode, and even mastered the Rasengan, working with Kakashi to improve it where his father couldn't. Kurama was even happy with the progress they've made on the summoning as Naruto could now summon half of Kurama's original size, although they mostly stuck with the size of a large wolf.

Overall, the two had made great progress, and felt more confident in their abilities to protect their family. The sand had tried a few more times to take Shikadai from them, but they were able to thwart the kidnappings before they got to Shikadai.

Shikamaru shifted behind him, tightening his arm around Naruto's chest a bit as he nuzzled his face in Naruto's shoulder. Naruto smiled and was about to turn over, but suddenly heard footsteps running down the hall, and a little face peek into the room.

"Mommy, I hungry," Shikadai said.

Shikamaru groaned and buried his face a little more in Naruto's shoulder and tightened his arm a bit more again.

Naruto chuckled. "Ok, give me a minute to get your daddy up, then we can have some breakfast."

Shikadai smiled. "Birthday breakfast?"

"Yeah, birthday breakfast."

"Yay!" Shikadai yelled and ran back down the hall.

"He is way too loud in the mornings," Shikamaru said, his voice muffled. "I blame you."

Naruto chuckled again and finally turned over. "He's been so excited for his party the last couple days, going on about how he was going to have birthday food, birthday fun, and birthday gifts."

"He couldn't have slept in for a little more birthday sleep?"

"He's not as lazy as you, Shikamaru."

"Yet."

"Daddy, get up!" Shikadai yelled as he walked back in the room. "Mommy need make birthday breakfast."

Naruto laughed as Shikamaru groaned. "Daddy wants birthday sleep," Shikamaru said.

"No. No birthday sleep. Birthday breakfast," the little boy said as he stomped his foot.

Shikamaru put his forehead on Naruto's chest.

"Why don't we let daddy sleep, and you and I can make the birthday breakfast," Naruto said, taking pity on his boyfriend.

"Ok," Shikadai said and ran up to the bed. He pulled the covers off Naruto, then grabbed the man's hand and pulled. "Go now."

Naruto got out of bed, changed his clothes, then headed to the kitchen hand in hand. "What would you like to eat?"

"Birthday pancakes!" he said as he jumped alongside the blonde.

"Ok. Birthday pancakes it is."

As Naruto made the pancakes, Shikadai sat at the table and drew, talking a mile a minute about what he and Yoshino did yesterday. He smiled as he listened to the boy, extremely proud at how far he had come with talking in the last couple months.

"Mommy, can Kurama come out?"

'What do you say, Kurama?' he asked as he started flipping the second batch of pancakes.

'I suppose,' the fox replied with a bit of a sigh.

Naruto flipped the last pancake, then turned and focused Kurama's chakra before placing his hand on the ground. A white puff of smoke appeared, and soon a small reddish-orange fox, the size of a cat, was sitting there.

'Why did you summon me at this size?' the fox asked, annoyed.

"So that you're Shikadai's size."

The fox glared at the blonde, but then humphed when Shikadai threw his arms around his neck. "Hi, Kurama," the boy yelled. Kurama flinched.

"Shikadai, inside voice," Naruto warned, feeling a little bad that the boy just yelled in Kurama's ear.

"Sorry," Shikadai said. He moved back over to the table and climbed into his seat. "Sit, Kurama." The boy pointed at the chair next to him.

Kurama sighed and jumped up into the chair.

Naruto smiled as Shikadai started talking to the fox. He got the second batch of pancakes onto the plate, then grabbed plates, cups, and silverware from the cabinets and drawer. Once he got the table set and sat down, Shikamaru came through the door, a large yawn on his face.

"Morning," Naruto said.

"Daddy up!"

"Shikadai, inside voice," Naruto said again.

The boy looked down. "Sorry, mommy."

Shikamaru chuckled, ruffled the boy's hair, which was still down, then kissed Naruto before he sat down. "Smells good."

"Thanks," Naruto beamed.

Shikadai talked around his bites of food, telling Shikamaru the same story he told earlier, every once in a while holding out his fork so Kurama could eat off of it. Shikamaru didn't like it when he did that, but since the boy had been doing it for a while now, there was no point in tell him to stop now. Naruto just smiled as Kurama munched on the food, occasionally getting a glare from the fox.

After everyone was done eating and the dishes washed, Shikamaru took Shikadai to get changed. They spent the morning spending time with each other, then headed out toward the park where Shikadai's party would be held around noon. They were supposed to meet up with Shikaku and Yoshino there to set everything up, and having the playground equipment to distract Shikadai was a plus.

There were already children playing there, so Shikadai immediately ran off to play, and the two adults saw Yoshino placing some things on a table a little ways away. Naruto went to help her, placing their gifts for Shikadai next to the ones from Shikaku and Yoshino, Shikamaru went over to his father, who was setting up some chairs for the adult guests, and Kurama decided to find a tree as far away from the kids to curl up under, which had become his favorite pass time when he was out.

It took about ten minutes for them to get everything set up, and it would be another half an hour or so before people would start showing up. Shikamaru had taken to laying on the grass, eyes closed, and Naruto smiled as he laid down next to him. The blonde stared up at the clouds passing by. "This takes me back."

Shikamaru turned to him. "What do you mean? We do this all the time."

Naruto turned. "But this is where I first met you, or rather, where we first talked." He turned his head back to the sky. "You told me all about the clouds that day. It made me so happy."

Shikamaru grabbed Naruto's hand and turned the blonde's head, kissing him. "Best decision I ever made." He leaned in to kiss him again.

They broke apart when they heard snickering and turned to see Shikadai with his hands covering his mouth. "Mommy daddy kissy face."

Stupid Kiba. Letting that man be around Shikadai was probably the worst idea they could've made.

Shikamaru sat up, grabbed the boy, and started kissing all over his face. "Eww. No kissy face me, daddy."

Naruto laughed and heard two others laughing. He turned his head to see Asuma and Kurenai walking up to them.

"He's got a point, Shikamaru. Public displays of affection are frowned upon," Asuma said.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and let Shikadai go. "I guess I forgot. My sensei doesn't exactly follow that rule."

Asuma fake laughed as he wrapped his arm around his wife, who just chuckled at them then rubbed her very large stomach. The two had decided to get married, but instead of the big traditional wedding like Naruto and Shikamaru were planning, they decided to just do it in Tsunade's office with Shikamaru, Naruto, Hinata, and Ino as the witnesses.

"Baby?" Shikadai asked as he walked up to Kurenai and placed his small hand on her stomach.

"Yeah. You'll get to meet little Mirai in about three weeks," Kurenai told the boy.

"Unless she decides to come early," Asuma said.

"I'm sure Kurenai's ready for that," Naruto said.

"You have no idea," Kurenai replied as she rubbed her stomach again.

He didn't, but he always wondered how it was going to feel. He and Shikamaru had talked a little about when they were going to have their own child, and Naruto would constantly ask if he would go through what Kurenai did. He was sure that by the end of the nine months, he would feel just like Kurenai did now.

"Present!" Shikadai said as he pointed at the small present in Asuma's hand.

Asuma handed over the present and Shikadai quickly turned to Naruto. "Present, mommy."

"I see that. You better go put it with the others," Naruto replied as he pointed at the end of the table that held the gifts.

Shikadai ran over to the table and pushed it next to the other presents, then ran off to go play with a boy that called his name.

Shikamaru and Naruto stood up, wiping the grass off themselves and followed Asuma and Kurenai over to the chairs where Shikaku and Yoshino were sitting.

Soon the park was filled with people, the kids all playing on the playground equipment, and the adults talking amongst themselves. Lee and Kiba were running around with the kids, Akamaru choosing to lay next to Kurama, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, and surprisingly Sakura, were talking over near the drinks, Choji, of course, was at the table with the food, but he was also talking with Shikamaru and Asuma, Neji, Kakashi, and Gai all had missions, so they weren't able to come, he hadn't seen Jiraiya since he went on his first mission back, Inoichi, Choza, and their wives were over with Shikaku, Yoshino, and Kurenai, and Sai was by himself, drawing something.

Naruto walked over to his pale teammate. "Hey, what ya doing over here alone?"

"Oh, hello, Naruto. I was just drawing."

Naruto looked down at the notepad and saw an amazing drawing of Shikadai running away from Kiba. "Man, I'm always amazed at how well you draw."

"Thank you," Sai said with a large grin. "I can give it to you when I have it finished."

Naruto sat down beside him. "I'd like that." He turned his attention to the pinkette that was laughing with Hinata. "Hey, do you know why Sakura came? She never comes to anything I invite her to."

"I think she said something about Ino dragging her along. That, and something about how she's Shikamaru's friend."

Naruto frowned. "What did I do to make her hate me so much?"

"She never told me that."

Naruto looked over at him. "I wasn't actually asking you specifically."

"Oh," Sai replied, then went back to drawing.

Naruto watched him draw for a while until Shikadai came running up to him.

"Mommy, it cake time?"

Naruto smiled up at the boy and stood up. "Let's go ask your dad." He held out his hand, which Shikadai took hold of. "You coming, Sai?" Naruto asked as they walked toward Shikamaru.

Sai nodded, put his colored pencils away, and got up to follow them.

Shikamaru agreed that it was a good time to do the cake and presents, so they called everyone over. Because they were doing the party at the park, they made sure to get a big enough cake so that the random kids and parents that were already there or decided to show up could have some too.

Everyone sang the birthday song, then Naruto and Yoshino cut and handed out the cake, giving the first piece to Shikadai. Once everyone finished their cake, they went over to the chairs and moved the presents over as well.

Shikadai had a blast unwrapping all the presents from everyone, crying out a loud "Thank you" to everyone, making everyone laugh.

They stayed there for a few more hours, letting the kids get rid of all that energy from the cake, and by the time Naruto, Shikamaru, and Shikadai made it home, they were all exhausted. Shikadai had fallen asleep on Shikamaru's shoulder, and Naruto was grateful that they decided to seal all of Shikadai's presents in a scroll to make it easier for them to carry.

Shikamaru put Shikadai in his bed, then fell onto the couch, letting out a loud sigh. Naruto laughed as he sat down next to his boyfriend and curled up next to him, laying his head on the man's chest and wrapping his arms around the man the best he could.

Shikamaru replied by wrapping his arm around Naruto, but other than that, he had his head on the back of the couch with his eyes closed.

"I think Shikadai had a good day, don't you?" Naruto said as he looked up at his lover.

Shikamaru let a small smile cross his face. "Yeah, I do. There were quite a few more kids there than we were expecting."

"Yeah. I'm glad he's making friends," Naruto said as he closed his eyes.

"Did you watch him much today?"

Naruto opened his eyes and looked up. "What do you mean?"

Shikamaru looked down at him. "He avoided the sandbox all day."

"The sandbox?" Naruto questioned, eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. Dad noticed too."

Naruto sat up, a frown on his face. "What do you think it means?"

"Not sure. Dad thinks he might've misunderstood what we meant when he overheard us talking about the sand village, but I don't think that's the case."

"You think what Inoichi did is wearing off already?"

"No, but it might be an unconscious thing. The trauma is still there, just buried, and if our negative talk about the sand is combining with that subconscious trauma, well..."

"He's thinking of normal sand as a bad thing."

"Yeah." Shikamaru sighed and laid his head back again. "We'll just need to keep an eye on that."

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes again.

They spent another hour just relaxing on the couch before they decided to just head to bed.

NNNNNNNNNN

Three weeks had passed, and the kidnapping attempts had pretty much stopped. Naruto was both relieved and on edge about this, but was able to put it out of his mind enough not to stress over it. He knew that the sand would probably try again at some point, but he really hoped they had given up because they saw that there was no chance that they would get their hands on Shikadai again.

Naruto was in the kitchen making breakfast. Shikamaru got back late from a mission last night, and surprisingly Shikadai was still asleep as well. He looked up at the clock that was above the kitchen door, almost 9:30. He knew that they would probably be waking up soon. He turned back to the eggs that were sizzling in the pan and figured it would be another minute before they were done.

He jumped a bit at the loud knock on the front door, turned the burner down, then headed over to open it. "Ino?" he asked as he saw the blonde girl panting in front of him.

Ino gave him a wide smile. "Kurenai had her baby. Sakura just told me. Apparently she had been in labor all night and finally had her sometime this morning."

"That's great," Naruto said, his smile wide. "How's she doing?"

"Ok according to Sakura, but I was on my way there myself to see them. Since your guys' place was on the way, I figured I'd stop and let you know."

"Thanks. I'll let Shikamaru know when he wakes up."

Ino crossed her arms and frowned. "He's still not up? It's almost 9:30."

"He got back late from a mission," Naruto tried to defend.

Ino looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Well, looks like he's up now."

Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw Shikamaru walking toward them, a yawn on escaping his lips and hair sticking up all over the place. "What's going on?" he asked when he finally reached them.

"Kurenai apparently had the baby this morning," Naruto replied.

"I was on my way to see them," Ino added.

"I'm sure they want some time to themselves, Ino," Shikamaru said, another yawn escaping his mouth.

Ino rolled her eyes. "It's not like I'm gonna stay all day. I just want to see little Mirai. I hope she looks like Kurenai."

"I'll be sure to tell Asuma you said that," Shikamaru said with a small smile.

Ino stuck out her tongue, but a smile quickly formed. "I'll see you guys later," she said, and ran off.

Naruto closed the door and headed back to the kitchen. He needed to check on the eggs to make sure they didn't burn. "You hungry?" he asked when he saw Shikamaru follow him and sit at the table.

Another yawn escaped the dark haired man's lips. "Sure," he said, then looked around. "Where's Shikadai? I thought he'd be up by now."

"Still asleep, unless he's just playing in his room," Naruto replied as he flipped the eggs over once before scooping them up and putting them on a plate. He cracked two more eggs in the pan, adding salt and pepper to them.

"Guess I'll go find out," Shikamaru said as he stood up.

Naruto smiled as he watched his boyfriend leave, then turned back to the eggs. As he was scooping those eggs onto another plate, Shikamaru came walking back in, Shikadai's head laying on the man's shoulder. Naruto smiled and brought the two plates over to the table as Shikamaru sat Shikadai in one of the chairs. "I take it he was still asleep?"

"Yep. Took almost a minute for me to get him up. There were toys scattered on the floor, and since I know you make him pick up before he goes to bed, I assume he got up and played a bit more after you put him down," Shikamaru said.

Naruto shook his head then kissed Shikadai on the head before he walked back to the stove, cracking two more eggs in the pan for himself. He heard Shikamaru get some forks from the drawer and cups from the cupboard, then opened the fridge to grab the juice before walking back over to the table.

"Did you want to go see Kurenai and the baby?" Naruto asked.

"I think we should wait until at least this afternoon. If she was in labor all night, then she's probably tired, plus I'm sure they want to spend some time with Mirai by themselves," Shikamaru replied.

Naruto turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "You heard that?"

"Well, if she had her this morning, then she must have been in labor all night, or at least part of the night."

Naruto nodded, then turned back to his eggs. They were done enough for him, so he scooped them up and placed them on his plate, then moved over to sit next to Shikadai.

The morning went by pretty lazily, Shikamaru and Shikadai falling back asleep on the couch while Naruto watched an interesting show about a guy's journey to learn a thousand jutsu. Around two in the afternoon, they all headed to the hospital to visit Kurenai, Asuma, and Mirai.

"Hey," Asuma greeted as the three walked in. He was sitting by the bed holding a bundle of blankets while Kurenai slept in the bed. "She just fell asleep," he said, gesturing to Kurenai.

"Should we come back later?" Naruto asked.

"I'm sure it'll be fine as long as we're quiet," Asuma replied with a smile. "I'm sure you came to see her anyway." He tilted the blanket down so that a small face peeked out.

Naruto smiled as the three walked up to him, and Shikadai placed his hands on Asuma's leg and stood on his tiptoes to see the small baby. Asuma situated her so that Shikadai could see her a little better. "Baby," the boy said, then turned to Naruto. "Baby, mommy."

"It is a baby. It's little Mirai," Naruto said. He studied the little girl's face. She looked a lot like Kurenai, but he could tell she had some of Asuma's features, especially her hair, but there was no doubt that she had Kurenai's eyes.

Mirai was wide-eyed and looking at the three newcomers. Her eyes were red ringed just like her mother's, and Naruto had to chuckle a bit when she just stared at Shikadai. The boy reached up to her and tried to pull the blanket off her, which made Naruto quickly snatch the boy's hand.

"Careful, Dai," Naruto said.

"Mirai cold?" Shikadai asked as he looked up at Naruto with a confused look.

"No, but babies like to be covered."

"Why?"

Shikamaru and Asuma both chuckled. "Why" was Shikadai's new favorite word. He was constantly asking why different things happened, or why things were a certain way, and sometimes it was a little hard to appease the boy's curiosity.

"You remember how Mirai was in Kurenai's tummy?" Shikamaru asked.

Shikadai nodded. "Baby grow in mommy tummy."

"Well, it was really warm inside Kurenai's tummy, and when she came out here, it got colder for her. The blanket helps her to feel more comfortable. She'll eventually get used to the new temperature, but for now, she needs to be covered," Shikamaru explained.

"Oh," Shikadai replied as he turned back to Mirai, who was still staring at him, and he reached up again, this time to push the blanket more toward her face.

Asuma chuckled again, then stood up and handed Mirai to Naruto, who looked at him wide-eyed. He smiled. "I have to use the bathroom. You did come to see her, didn't you?"

Naruto smiled and settled the baby in his arms. He felt Shikadai pull on his pant leg and sat down in the chair Asuma was using. He moved the blanket out of Mirai's face again. "Hi, Mirai. I'm Naruto."

Mirai just stared at him, then smiled.

"Mommy," Shikadai said as he tried to pull himself up.

Shikamaru picked the boy up and sat him on Kurenai's bed, being careful not to jostle the bed too much. "Don't jump around and wake Kurenai," he told the boy, who only nodded and leaned closer to Naruto to see the baby.

Naruto moved the chair a little closer to the bed so that his son didn't fall of the bed trying to look, then stared down at Mirai, who was just staring back at him as if the girl was trying to figure him out. She still had a small smile and glanced at Shikadai and Shikamaru every once in a while, but then went back to staring at Naruto. He smiled. It had been over two years since Shikadai was this small. He pushed the blanket a little more away from her face and ran a finger down her cheek then down to her little hand that was poking out of the blanket. His smile got wider when she gripped his finger tightly.

Shikamaru leaned over his shoulder, running his own finger down her cheek. "Thinking about our child?"

Naruto looked up at him, the smile never disappearing. In just a few months time, he was going to be married to this man, the man that saved him, loved him, chose him over anyone else in the village, married to his best friend, and will have his child thanks to Kurama. He was both excited and scared for that, but knew that as long as Shikamaru loved him, they would be able to get through anything. "Yeah. I was actually thinking back to when Shikadai was this young, and how our kid will be this small."

Shikamaru chuckled and kissed the side of Naruto's head. "Well, they all grow up eventually."

"Yeah," the blonde said and looked back down at Mirai. The girl had her eyes closed and was breathing steadily, so he assumed she either got bored with studying him, or she finally felt safe enough in his arms to sleep.

"Mommy, I hold?" Shikadai asked.

Naruto looked up at Shikamaru, then over at Asuma when he heard the man walk back in the room. "Would it be ok if Shikadai held her?" he asked the man.

"As long as you or Shikamaru help him, I don't see why not," Asuma replied. He walked over to the side of the room and grabbed two more chairs and brought them over to the bed, sitting down in one.

Shikamaru chose to sit on the bed next to Shikadai, again being careful not to jostle the bed too much, and Naruto handed him Mirai. He smiled down at the girl before holding her out to Shikadai, who scooted back just a bit at Naruto's instruction. He helped the boy wrap his arms around the girl, and during this whole exchange, Mirai had opened her eyes again.

"Hi, Mirai. I Shikadai," Shikadai said with a big smile.

Shikamaru kept his hand under Mirai's head, since the boy couldn't hold her completely, and he smiled down at his son.

"You'll make a good big brother some day," Naruto said.

Asuma raised an eyebrow. "Thinking of adopting?"

Naruto blushed. He completely forgot that they hadn't really told anyone that Kurama would somehow give them a child. "Uh. Actually..."

Shikamaru must have seen the panic on Naruto's face, as he sighed and explained for him. "Kurama said that he can somehow make Naruto have a kid of his own. He won't go into detail about how it's possible, but as long as it doesn't harm Naruto, I'm not too worried about it."

"Really?" Asuma said, more curiosity than distaste in his voice.

"Yeah. He said he'd only do it once, but just having one child with Shikamaru is enough for me," Naruto said, relaxing a bit when Asuma didn't seem disgusted by the idea.

"Are you already..." Asuma asked, trailing off the question.

"No. I wanted to wait until after the wedding," Naruto quickly answered, the blush returning.

Asuma chuckled. "I guess that would be a good time to do it."

Naruto's face got hotter and he turned his attention back to Shikadai. Seeing his son smiling and talking quietly with Mirai made his heart warm. He was definitely going to be a good big brother. He started wondering what their child would look like. Would they look more like Shikamaru and Shikadai? Would they have more of his own features? Would it be a boy or a girl? He personally wanted a little girl, but then again, he didn't really care what he had. He just wanted some kind of proof of his and Shikamaru's love. The smile returned.

The three men talked for a while, Shikadai eventually getting down on the floor to play with the few toys Naruto decided to bring, and Shikamaru and Naruto took turns holding her. After a half an hour, Kurenai woke up and joined in on the conversation.

"Asuma, have you asked them yet?" Kurenai suddenly asked, laying back on her pillow with half open eyes.

"No. I wanted to wait until you were awake," Asuma replied as he took Mirai back from Naruto. She was starting to get a little fussy. He handed the girl to Kurenai, then grabbed the small blanket from the side table the nurse left and draped it over the girl.

Kurenai took a moment to situate Mirai under the blanket so the girl could feed, then relaxed back against the pillow again.

"What did you want to ask us?" Naruto asked.

"We were hoping you guys would agree to be Mirai's godparents," Asuma answered.

Naruto and Shikamaru's eyes went wide. "Godparents? Us?" Naruto asked.

"Don't look so surprised, Naruto," Kurenai said with a smile. "You're both good parents, and I've seen you take care of Shikadai."

"We couldn't think of anyone more qualified to take care of her if anything happened to us," Asuma added.

"W-what about Hinata, or Ino?" Naruto asked.

"We thought about them, but right now, they don't have the experience you two do," Kurenai said. "If you don't want to, then we understand."

"No," Naruto said, a little louder than he meant to, his hands raised in front of him. "Uh, I mean..." He looked over at Shikamaru. "Are you ok with it?"

Shikamaru smiled. "Yeah. We'd be honored to be her godparents."

Kurenai and Asuma smiled at them. "Then it's settled," Asuma said.

Naruto smiled, then looked over to where Mirai was hiding under the blanket. 'I won't be like Pervy Sage. I'll be there to watch over you as you grow up, Mirai.'

After another ten minutes, Shikamaru decided that they had overstayed their welcome and ushered his family out the door, promising to stop by Asuma's place for a game of shogi soon.

Naruto couldn't keep the smile off his face as he walked between his two boys, one hand in each of theirs. He was going to be marrying the man he loved soon, have a child of his own, and now he was the godfather to Mirai. Things were finally starting to look up after so many months of stress and problems.