A/N; Author once known as Nara1991. I am in the process of moving all my work over to this profile. This is a very old fic but untouched, I have gone back and corrected grammar mistakes, spelling, a tweak here and there but have left it for the most part in it's original form. This has no Beta, so will probably contain errors, read at your own risk ;)

Disclaimer: All rights belong, and are reserved to Kishimoto, and/or their respective owners. I do not own anything Naruto related.

Strategizing

If I had the chance to start again, then you would be the one I'd come and find. Like the poster of Berlin on my wall, maybe there's a chance our walls might fall.

Athlete – Chances.

Having a woman in the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho formation was always going to a proverbial spanner in the works.

And no woman was more troublesome, than Ino Yamanaka.

Both heads of their respective clans now, with their Fathers untimely passings they had kept it secret – well, tried to. Not there was much to 'keep secret' anyway. They'd occasionally fool around together before and after missions. Never during, not that the troublesome woman hadn't tried that on occasion.

Clan members spoke though, on both sides, voicing their disapproval of their association beyond anything team-mate related – inciting them as being dangerously close to ending generations of the Ino-Shika-Cho assemble, that their late Father's would not approve… The pair of them hadn't cared what the rumour mill consisted of though, only they knew the truth of it all.

Straight up sex, no strings attached…mostly, he didn't have an interest in any other woman after all and the same could be said of Ino too, now they were older and she had put away childish girl-crushes.

That was until the day she came to him, with news that changed everything.

"I'm pregnant, Shikamaru."

"You're…You're what? Preg-..?"

"Pregnant, yes. Is that genius head of yours functioning properly today? Preg-nant."

Silence.

She waved her hand impatiently in front of his blank face.

"Helllloooo!? Did you hear me? That means! 9 months of hell, a big fat stomach, stretch marks, back pain, and incurable cravings for silly things!"

"I know what being pregnant means, Ino."

"So?"

"…."

"You do realise it's yours, don't you?"

The Nara sighed heavily. "Yes…My Mother is going to kill me…"

Gradually she had gotten bigger, and people had begun to talk. No amount of baggy clothing was able to hide it any longer, and he was now outside a hospital waiting room. At six months Ino was nearing 'the waddling stage', which did not bode well on her already volatile, hormone-induced temper. In the space of an hour and a half that morning, they'd already managed to get in four separate arguments; the last before they'd left Yamanaka flowers for the hospital. Which had resulted in her jamming a geranium up his nose. He rubbed at the sore spot in memory.

"Troublesome."

"That about sums it up, yes."

The domineering blond with whom his thoughts moments before had resided with, stood over him with her hands over her hips. Ever the observant one, Shikamaru stared at the object poking out of the fingers of her right hand, rather than face whatever wrath he did not deserve.

"Is that-?"

"The scan picture."

Her previous menacing look softened and she placed it gently in his hands, a smile tugging at her lips.

Shikamaru felt his face fall, along with the contents of his stomach, and something he had seldom experienced; a gentle warmth began to spread through his chest.

"Two..twins."

"Uh-huh…I can't believe…" She trailed off, with a small sob.

The troublesome woman was crying now, he sighed heavily and stood up.

"Why are you crying? Are you not happy?"

"Y-yes.." She sniffed. "That explains why I'm so fat!" The blond wailed loudly.

"Shush woman, you're not fat, you're pregnant."

"Yes, and it's all your fault!"

Here we go again.

"I've said I'm sorry Ino, what more do you want?!"

"I- nothing… I think it's the hormones." She stared down at her growing bump, and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about before too, how is your nose?"

"Still sore."

He couldn't very well tell her that the hormones only enhanced what she already possessed where her temper was concerned.

He was suddenly aware of Inos soft fingertips brushing his cheekbone. She reached up tenderly and tucked a strand of his hair that had somehow fell out of his immaculate pony tail, back behind his ear. He felt his chest constrict, and his stomach do the smallest of flips…it was times like this, his Father's old words about women showing their gentler side would come back to haunt him.

"Are you happy? That we're having twins?"

"Yes, I suppose I am. It's a first for my family, besides that solves the problem of who will be next in line to either of our clans now, doesn't it?"

She scowled "That isn't very funny, Shikamaru."

He shrugged at his failed joke, and Ino became stern once more.

"Well deer boy, with two extra mouths to feed you best get taking on extra missions before they get here! Oh! And when you're not working, you can help me in the shop!"

And with that she swaggered off, leaving the scan picture in his possession. He watched her go, following her until she became caught up in an animated conversation with one of the nurses, and then stared down at the picture again. He grinned.

He wondered why he had ended up doing things in reverse with Ino, his plan had been to have at least ten decent years of being a Shinobi, before he even anticipated kids entering the equation. Instead he had managed to mess up the orderly life he had been strategizing for himself, royally.

"Oi, you lazy bum! Are you just going to stand there gawping like a wet fish all day!? We have things to do!"

"Whatever woman, I'm coming. Troublesome…"

He smirked and tucked the picture into his back pocket. Despite all that, he wouldn't have it any other way.

A/N; Thank you for reading. If you have time to drop a review it means a lot :)