Chapter 13

Shikamaru POV

"Ino and Midoriko are getting on better than I would have thought." The younger Nara said once they were out of earshot, Chouji and his father just grunted at Shikamaru's observation.

The Nara heir slowly let his eyes wander over the room in contemplation, he had thought that two so different personalities would clash and lead to at least a few uncomfortable situations until the two women had gotten used to each other. That had actually been the first of some tests Shikamaru had planned for his new stepmother. He didn't mean those to be malicious but well… he was a ninja and while Midoriko had made a positive impression he wanted some assurances that she would be a good fit for his father and the clan.

That Midoriko had taken the loud and slightly obnoxious blonde in stride and seemed to know how to handle her blunt demeanor was a pleasant surprise. He knew from experience with nobility on missions that there was an expectation of demure and restrained behavior from women, even kunoichi and Ino… well she was the exact opposite of demure and quiet.

In turn Ino seemed to find Midoriko's calm nature acceptable. Shikamaru had already feared that his blonde teammate would find Midoriko too bland, too weak like she had Chouji in the beginning. So either Ino had become a lot more even tempered in the last few years than he had dared to hope or something magical had happened between the two… they were both female so Shikamaru didn't exclude that possibility right out of hand, women could be unpredictable at the strangest moments.

"Hhm, I think Midoriko-san will get along with mum and Shizuka-obasan." Chouji said happily before he opened another packet with chips.

Shikamaru couldn't help but agree, both Shizuka-obasan and Emiko-obasan were a lot more restrained than Ino, at the very least they should be able to tolerate each other. Thankfully.

A passing glance at the clock showed that it was five minutes after eleven and they were slowly approaching lunch. His father would have to be at the office at one pm and so Shikamaru wasn't surprised when Shikaku stood up from his comfortable sprawl over the kitchen chair and said, "Let's go out for an early lunch."

"Great!" Chouji instantly agreed while he practically jumped up to move the group along.

Shikamaru just rolled his eyes good naturedly and let himself be dragged out of his own chair by the enthusiastic Akimichi. They rejoined Ino and Midoriko in the living room to inform them of their plan. His new stepmother made a quick trip upstairs to retrieve her purse and on Ino's recommendation a light jacket that would protect her shoulders and upper arms from the strong sun rays. To his father's discreet question if she needed money she just shook her head and assured him that she had converted enough back in her homeland to last her for a while.

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While walking through the streets all four ninja were unsurprised by the many glances that were following Midoriko. More than one civilian man stopped to get a better look at his father's exotic looking wife and even a few females were staring rather blatantly with jealousy or lust. To the amusement of his team and father their ninja colleagues were only a tad subtler. Unfortunately the attention was not wholly positive, a few of the villagers sent Midoriko distrustful glances or sneered in her direction. None of them approached thankfully, though that was almost certainly because she was encircled by a group of ninja. Shikamaru made a mental note to keep an eye on that situation, hate against foreigners was unfortunately not that uncommon in Konoha.

What was also interesting was his new stepmother's reaction or better her non-reaction. Midoriko kept an eye on the miens of the villagers for a while before she apparently dismissed them as a harmless. Not even the distrustful glances and glares seemed to bother her, though she kept those people always in her sight until they were past them. Filing the information away for later Shikamaru turned his attention back to more important topics, like the new shogi move that he was contemplation, there had to be a way to counter his father's infamous protection line.

Midoriko POV

Midoriko was once again thankful that she had subjected herself to the intense instructions of her dragon of an etiquette teacher, the woman had made her practice with chopsticks again and again until she used them like a native and was well aware of what certain grips and motions with them could imply. Konoha didn't seem to have any cutlery in their restaurants at all and if she had learned only after she had arrived in the Elemental Countries Midoriko would have hopelessly embarrassed herself and her new clan in public.

Apart from that realization lunch was excellent and the company quite enjoyable. She mostly listened to Ino who not only turned out to be an excellent resource of gossip and general knowledge about Konoha but also gave surprisingly good advice on the different dishes on the menu. She was supported in her task to educate Midoriko about the local dishes by Chouji, who was very knowledgeable about all the different preparation techniques. The food and especially the spices, while still foreign to her, were tasty and the green eyed witch enjoyed her vegetable- fish dish with a side of sea weed soup very much.

Throughout the meal she also confirmed what she already suspected, neither Shikaku nor Shikamaru were big talkers when in a group. She couldn't say yet if that was good or bad habit but Midoriko had learned to appreciate a calm atmosphere after her Hogwarts time and the thought of having relaxed meals in comfortable silence or with only sporadic conversation brought a small smile to her lips. She was also quite certain that with Ino around silence during meals probably wouldn't happen very often.

After lunch, for which Shikaku paid, her husband left them to go to work. Midoriko used the short moment in which Ino listed off the places she wanted Midoriko to see to a politely listening Chouji and a supremely disinterested Shikamaru to give Shikaku a quick but affectionate peck on the cheek. Shikaku quirked the left corner of his lips up and one of his hands pressed for a moment against the small of her back before he turned and ambled off a side street.

For a short moment longer Midoriko's eyes lingered at her husband's backside before she turned around to face the suspiciously quiet ninja. All three were looking at her with various expressions of amusement and the green eyed witch had to suppress a blush. While she wasn't particularly embarrassed that she had so blatantly checked out Shikaku, she felt a bit uncomfortable about the fact that she had done it in front of his son and Chouji and Ino who easily qualified as Shikaku's nephew and niece.

She cleared her throat and asked, "So, where are we going first?"

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For the next hour Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji showed Midoriko around the slowly recovering Konoha… most of the buildings were only half finished or in the last stages of constructions and Midoriko got the feeling that the shinobi were more concerned with her learning the layout of the village than actual historical sites or buildings that would be important to her daily routines. Not that she had a problem with that.

They walked along one of the newly built side streets before they crossed into the main street she had seen when she had arrived in Konoha the day before. It was the biggest street in sight and led directly from the front gates to about the middle of the village. There it abruptly ended and was replaced with a network of streets that stretched to the mountain face and looked more like a labyrinth than anything else.

"I'm going to be hopelessly lost the first few times I want to run an errand." Midoriko absentmindedly murmured while she stared at the jungle of buildings and dead ends.

Beside her Shikamaru's lips twitched in amusement and he hummed thoughtfully, "Probably." when Midoriko looked at him he shrugged his shoulders, "We are ninja, Konoha is built like that on purpose, it will slow down any attacking force and there are enough nooks and crannies to make it very hard for invaders to find our infrastructure buildings, besides the obvious ones visible from the gate."

"Or ninja." Chouji piped up beside him, opening up another bag of potato chips.

"Or ninja." Shikamaru agreed amused.

They led her through seven streets until they arrived at the foot of the biggest and highest building that had somehow survived the destruction of Konoha.

"That's the Hokage Tower." Ino said cheerfully, "Our Godaime has her office in the highest room and the round buildings on both sides contain the Academy and a part of our bureaucratic structure."

Midoriko nodded thoughtfully while she watched as a steady stream of traffic flowed in and out of the building. From above it probably looked like a Mickey Mouse head she thought idly, slightly amused by the thought of such an important military building having the shape of the Disney logo.

When they continued the tour Ino and Chouji started to explain more about the beginning of Konoha and its development since then. It astonished Midoriko that the village was only around 60 years old when she was used to buildings and historical sites to be at least a few hundred years old, Hogwarts was after all a bit over a thousand years old and the records of magic users in general went back another five thousand years, at least.

When they finally crossed back onto the main street Midoriko had a new appreciation for that fact that she had grown up in peaceful times, the Warring Times era of the Elemental Countries didn't sound like a time period she wanted to be born in. but before she could voice anything along that line of thought she was distracted by her surroundings.

The colorful mix of newly built shops, eateries and apartments on both sides of the main street caught Midoriko's attention; it looked like every shop had a specialty unlike back home where you could get most what you needed in one shop. She was going to have fun exploring all of them in her free time. The Nara main house she now lived in had only the bare basics and what looked like recreations of furniture heirlooms that probably had been in the family for generations before they were destroyed. Midoriko felt for her new family, to have their home but most importantly those heirlooms that remained of the generations that came before them destroyed had to be devastating.

"You can't see it yet but there will be seven main streets connected through four ring streets to section the village into districts in the first half of Konoha. Just like a cut in half spider net." Ino explained.

Shikamaru murmured in agreement before sighing, "But that will take at least another a year to complete them. Even with all the Earth Jutsu users working around the clock to raise the ground level back to normal."

"Where do they take the earth from for that?" Midoriko asked curiously.

"At the moment mostly from the emergency paths that are built under Konoha… you will be showed those at the annual evacuation exercise in two months. We couldn't do it last year because most of the village was destroyed and we were at war but this year it should be right on schedule." Chouji answered this time, a proud smile played around his lips.

"Chou is part of the volunteer team that helps building them when we are not on missions outside the gate." Ino added with a smile at her teammate.