summary: snippets of asuma's life after he cheated death. –– au. asuma, team ten-centric, canon pairings
wc: 4480

when he woke up, the first thing he saw was the colour yellow––way too much yellow, really. asuma didn't expect that the pure land would be so bright and yellow. he hated it. would he be allowed to smoke here? he was already complaining about this place in his mind. he felt like shikamaru with how much he wanted to complain about this place. as his eyes focused, he noticed that the yellow was in the shape of a daffodil––great this pace was filled with flowers too. all he needed was a river of food or something and then he would have a piece of each of his students with him in the afterlife.

it was when he heard the beeping sound––the all too familiar tone of a heart monitor, that asuma realized he wasn't in the pure land. he was in the konoha hospital, and that the yellow things in the shape of daffodils were actually daffodils. his room was filled with them, on the window sill, on the table (where the food that had been placed there for him had been eaten), there were some in his bed and––his hand flexed just a bit before brought it up to touch his beard, his hand shaking just a bit steady from without the constant use––the flowers were in his beard.

he didn't need to think twice to know that ino had been here. a lot. the daffodils braided into his beard like some type of flower crown for it. she had done it once before and he hated it then.

now though, asuma found it kind of soothing. relaxing to know that at least one of his students was alive.

and if ino was alive, that meant that shikamaru and chouji were alive.

(they always operated in threes, if one went the other two weren't too far off, and asuma knew that it would be worrying and make things much more complicated for later in life but for now it was how they worked).

his thoughts were pulled from his––thankfully alive––students when he heard his hospital door slide open. a head of pink hair entered the room and asuma immediately recognized his nurse––or was she his doctor?––as haruno sakura, ino's entertnal rival. the girl immediately began tutting as she saw all the flowers.

"tsunade is going to kill ino if she sees all of these flowers in here." the girl began walking around the room as she began taking the flowers down and getting ready to throw them away. asuma could heaar her mumbling to herself about how ino was so reckless and how putting all of these flowers in the room was just a nuisance. when she turned to asuma, preparing to pull the flowers from his beard the vase––one asuma recognized as ino's favorite––was dropped on the ground.

"you're…you're awake!" the fifth hokage's apprentice ran to the sarutobi's side, rushing to go check his vitals. she called for a nurse and demanded to get tsunade in there too. so they could survey his status together.

"hey, pinky, can…can i get a cigarette?" asuma could feel his vision going dark once more, but he was sure that his request for a cigarette was going to be denied.

the second time asuma awoke, it was to the bickering that he was oh so used to. ino was scolding her boys about something, and neither of them were responding, which was making ino more and more frustrated because he could hear her voice slowly getting just a bit louder, and even if chouji and shikamaru didn't care about ino yelling, asuma did.

"ino…if you stop yelling, i'll take you shopping." it was asuma's usual bargaining chip with ino, and like always it worked. ino dropped the flower that she was holding––a king protea she would explain later on, it meant courage––and all three of his students turned their attention to him. the look of shock on their face made asuma smile just a bit. it was rare that he got them like this––quiet and in disbelief, but if they were quiet asuma would always have just a bit of peace.

like always, it only lasted for so long because soon asuma had ino wrapped around his neck, hugging him too tightly, and chouji was crying and shikamaru was observing it all, a small smile on his face despite looking just as exasperated.

it reminded asuma of when he spent his first full day with the trio, back when all four of them had been much younger. it had ended in a situation like this, ino hugging him, chouji crying tears of happiness, and shikamaru watching it all.

(back then he decided that this was where asuma had decided that these kids would be alright. and now, he was sure of it).

"so you managed to cheat death?" the way kurenai spoke to him made asuma laugh, the laugh followed by coughing. god, he wished that he could have a cigarette right now, but tsunade, ino, and sakura had all scolded him about having one in the hospital. so he was going to play the good patient for now.

"yeah, i guess you could say that." asuma shifted in the bed, sitting up and looking at his girlfrie––no, kurenai was his wife now. there was a smile on his face as he looked at her, his eyes trailing down to look at her stomach. he had done it, he lived and he was going to see it. he was going to see a life with his wife, and the life of his child.

"well…i'm glad." there was a pause as her hand moved to rest on her stomach. "we're both glad."

the two sat in silence for a moment, and asuma knew that he was glad too.

it's in the middle of the war when asuma meets him again. the man who was supposed to kill him, and it's almost like the scar on his chest stings at the sight of him, and asuma is ready, his trench knives glowing with chakra in his hands. before he can attack though, he feels a gust of wind coming from behind him. both he and the dead-undead man are surprised and hey look to the source.

blue wings, bigger than asuma had ever seen them, were on chouji's back. to his left was ino, a stern look on her face as she stared at her teacher and the man who tried to kill him. and to chouji's right, was shikamaru, undoubtedly already seven steps ahead in his mind.

"we'll take care of him, sensei." ino, like always, took the lead, and the tone in her voice wasn't one that he wasn't entirely familiar with. he had heard it once or twice, only in moments of complete seriousness. he had heard it before his heart stopped and he had given his last words to his students.

before he could comment, or even scold them––or anything, really––the trio are off. and truthfully, he had never seen them like this before. able to take down an enemy in such a manner, working as the one person that they had been trained to do.

the soul––ino, directing the boys where to go, predicting each of kakauzu's moves.

the mind––shikamaru, controlling and taking chouji in each direction so that he could attack him.

the body––chouji, doling out each attack and protecting his teammates from any potential threats.

when they finished, kakuzu sealed away, asuma approached his students, pulling them close into a hug, ignoring how sweaty and dirty they were (ino complained about it. she always did, but he ignored it for now.)

"you guys…" his grip tightened on them, pulling them close to him. "your ino-shika-cho formation was perfect."

they're adults now. they've seen the horrors of war. asuma knows that his students are strong. but he still wants to reach for shikamaru and pat his back and tell him that everything is okay. he almost expects ino to run to him, like she's done so many times, to come and cry to him because things aren't going the way they were supposed to go.

(she once told him, years and years ago, that her daddy was the strongest and that he'd never die).

but he doesn't go to comfort shikamaru. and ino doesn't come crying to him.

instead, they take on the roles that they were born to take on––albeit earlier than any of them expected––and they do it with the amount of bickering that they always do. and asuma can't help but laugh a bit when ino tells shikamaru that it's not a matter of can or cannot, she's going to do it.

he would comfort them later––only if they needed it, asuma decided.

"did you just bite through your cigarette?" shikamaru broke through the mass of nerves and thoughts that were going through asuma's mind, because his teacher really had bitten through his cigarette, and now the tobacco was filling his mouth in a way that he certainly did not want to.

trying not to gag, asuma spat out his cigarette, in a nearby trashcan, and quickly fished another one out of the pack in his front pocket, openly ignoring the no smoking rule that was in place in the hospital. it was the only thing keeping him sane right now. and from the look of his students, he wasn't the only one nervous.

as he sat in the waiting room, shikamaru had actually gone through several different mission strategies in his hand. he was sure tsunade (and kakashi) would be more than happy to see their advisor actually going the work that he was given. chouji had gone through two–or was that five of his emergency snack rations.

and ino, ino was––oh right, ino was inside the hospital room, helping bring his daughter into the world. and oh god, just the thought of it made him want to eat his cigarette once more, or something.

his daughter. his own flesh and blood, was being born. and he wasn't entirely sure how he was supposed to handle this. what if he was a terrible father? what if she rebelled like he did when he was younger? what if he had absolutely nothing in common with the kid and it just made things awkward. how do you even talk to babies?

"maa…asuma, don't look so worried." kakashi's voice––when the hell had kakashi gotten there––broke through asuma's thoughts once more, and asuma couldn't help but roll his eyes, because what the hell did kakashi know about worrying.

also why was gai (who had been ever present at kakashi's side, in his wheelchair, since the war had ended) been allowed in the room––asuma could hear him chanting youthful slogans at kurenai and ino and ino telling him to shut up and kurenai laughing, actually laughing at the situation––but asuma, the father of the child not?

whatever. he would deal with that later.

"i'm not worried. i'm just thinking…i've never…kids, you know? i didn't even think that i was going to have them one day. not even students, but now, here i am." how had asuma managed to finish off his cigarette in two breathes? maybe he was going to have to quit smoking for good once the child, his daughter, was fully brought into the world.

"well, life doesn't always go the way that you plan it to. we all know that." there's no bitterness in kakashi's voice as he spoke, instead it sounds like he was almost appy with this. and asuma knows that if kakashi's life had gone the way that he had planned it, he wouldn't even be here right now.

asuma too.

"and you did raise kids." chouji offers asuma more support, pausing his snacking to try and help his teacher overcome his nerves. "you helped raise konoha's best strategist since shikaku himself…" and chouji wasn't lying, asuma had done a good job, at least he liked to think, with shikamaru and the hand he had in the male's success. but he was sure that he would have to be a bit more hands on with his own daughter.

"i did, but not from scratch…and girls are much more…complicated to deal with than boys." asuma couldn't help but grimace, because god he had to deal (and steal deals) with ino––and he had told himself when kurenai had told him that she was pregnant that he hoped it wasn't a girl.

he had no idea how to deal with girls, especially since the only one who he was really close to besides his wife, was ino. and ino was a fireball and a half, who did what she wanted, said what she wanted and lived how he wanted. and asuma was just something like a guiding hand that would try to guide her in the right direction (or at least suggest it to her).

god help him if his daughter turned out anything like ino. he had had one ino in his life, he didn't want to have a second.

"i dunno, i think you did pretty okay with ino." kiba, kurenai's student had offered his opinion. "she's a bitch but in all the right ways." asuma was sure that it was a compliment, but even in the moment of stress and nerves he still wanted to shove the inuzuka's head through the wall––he had a tendency to want to do so any time the inuzuka spoke.

"what kiba is trying to say is that ino is very head strong and confident in herself. why? because she had someone like you as a teacher in her life. and he is saying that because of this, your daughter will grow up to be confident too. why? because you are good at helping instil that confidence in people, even if you have less than honest methods for doing so." kiba is lucky that shino was there to explain what he meant, and in the back of his mind, asuma hoped that his daughter, if she had any influence from her mother's team, that it would be from the hyuuga and not the two guys.

or, as asuma watched kiba share a popsicle with his dog, at least she would have better taste in boys than ino did.

he opened his mouth to say something but stops when the room door is thrown open, and ino, for once in her lfie, is a gentle smile and soft words as she beckons asuma inside the room.

"sensei, come meet your daughter." and asuma, on shaky legs,c arries himself to the hospital room, where kurenai is holding his daughter in her arms, looking just as pretty as the day he met her. he doesn't need to ask as kurenai hands the small girl to him, as he soon found her deposited in his arms and he used all of the child rearing lessons ino had forced him to take to cradle the small child in her arms.

"hey…so…i'm your dad." looking at her round eyes, red like her mother's, asuma realized that there was nothing to be nervous about.

"so what if they're a little rough around the edges…" asuma tried to comfort ino, who appeared to be on a rampage. his student, was no longer the teenaged girl who obsessed over boys, and dated nearly every guy in the konoha twelve and then some (the brief relationship with the man slated to be the fifth raikage and then the kazekage's brother had kakashi begging ino not to cause an international incident). instead she was the woman who was taking the torture and interrogation unit by storm, who had had a huge hand in beautifying konoha after the war, and was the woman who broke down the walls of a former root operative.

but, as ino aggressively arranged flowers for a wedding––something asuma didn't even know was possible––asuma realized that no matter how much time passed, somethings would never change.

"so what if they're a little rough around the edges." ino mocked asuma as she slammed the bouquet on the counter, sheers stripping at the stems and thorns almost aggressively. asuma was sure that lee's fiancée didn't mind, she was marrying rock lee, there were a lot of things that she wouldn't mind.

"it's not that they're rough around the edges, they have absolutely nothing feminine about them. how are shikamaru and chouji going to survive with them? karui can't even cook, i don't know how auntie even thought she would be a good wife for her son, what is she going to do? let them live off of take out and microwave meals?" even in her anger, ino's figners worked on the flowers delicately, and asuma couldn't help but be impressed.

"and chouji doesn't even like kumo cuisine! he hated it when we went and said that the meat wasn't tender or anything. there's no reason or him to constantly go there when there's nothing that he likes there." the flowers were moved to the side as ino began working on another arrangement. lee's fiancée had terrible taste in flowers, ino found herself partially sure she was upset with the flowers just for being ugly.

"love…love makes you do crazy things. like visit kumo when you don't like the food." asuma was sure that the shears were going to come for his head and he instinctively took a step back from the girl that was holding them, not wanting her to actually throw them at him.

asuma knew the reason that his student was upset, and he didn't really blame her. a lot was changing in their lives. shikamaru was engaged, chouji was toying with the idea of getting married and sai was about to move into the yamanaka compound, which essentially meant he was about to become ino's husband. his students were growing up, as gai would say, in one of the most wonderful ways and he was sure they would all be happy for each other.

except it was anything but that.

ino didn't like karui and temari. shikamaru didn't like karui and sai. and chouji, chouji who liked everyone, wasn't very fond of temari and sai either.

his trio of students never really approved of each other's significant others, but this had gotten to a point where it was bad, really bad. and that was because they all intended to marry their significant others. and asuma simply ignored it, or let them work it out on their own. it was easier to let them deal with it than do it himself. they had been his students for ten years, and he had learned which fights to break up and which ones he should just let them work out on his own.

apparently this was one that he should have stepped in sooner rather than later.

it had all exploded when at their weekly dinner––at yakiniku q, always––shikamaru mentioned that temari had been fretting over the flower arrangements, because her florist from suna was doing the arrangements and wasn't sure how to get them to konoha. and that was, unfortunately, how ino found out that she wasn't doing the flower arrangements for the wedding. that had been, without a doubt, the angriest asuma had ever seen ino. she didn't yell, she didn't fight, she didn't kick. she instead just got up and left the restaurant.

she hadn't spoken to shikamaru in a week. chouji had had tried to make it better, by pointing out to her that for his weding, karui most likely wouldn't even want flowers anyway. and that was the last time she had spoken to chouji––it had been five days.

chouji tried to apologize, but ino wouldn't' listen to him. she told him that he could go plan his flowerless, bland, and useless wedding with his awful shrewd of a girlfriend––it was rude, and chouji yelled at her, but ino didn't care, because she wasn't going to apologize. shikamaru hadn't even made the effort––his method for dealing with ino was to always just leave her be until she calmed down.

but as the week had gone on, it looked like she wasn't going to calm down, and it was starting to get on shikamaru's nerves. and mess with him in other ways. ino had been the same way, asuma learned, messing up arrangements or forgetting them or losing them.

asuma had learned a long time ago, after the kid's first big fight, that they all worked together like a well-oiled machine and when they weren't working together they all fell apart in their own ways.

and now here asuma was trying to get them back together and try to fix this before shikamaru's wedding. because if he didn't fix this before the wedding, it was only going to be bad, like really bad, and he didn't want whatever disaster could happen to happen.

"okay, ino, just…tell me what's really eating you about this." asuma sighed as he brought a cigarette from the pack to his mouth. ino always told him that smoking was expressly forbidden in the flower shop, but whatever, this time he was going to break the rule if he was going to deal with ino like this.

ino paused for a moment, as if she was ready to open her mouth and tell asuma what was really eating her, when the flower shop door was thrown open, and an angry shikamaru entered followed by chouji, trying to keep him from going in there and throwing a fit. so far, it was failing.

"what's this about you telling sakura that me and chouji are going to move to suna and kumo?" shikamaru's hands slammed on the glass counter, and asuma found himself smoking his cigarette just a bit faster.

"well i mean, if you're going to be marrying to girls from suna and kumo isn't it pretty obvious." ino argued back and asuma had to peak to make sure that the shears weren't anywhere near her hands right now.

"oh cut it out, ino, we're not moving and you know that." shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets, his expression showing his frustration as he looked at the girl, chouji nodding his head in agreement.

"then why can't you two date girls who are actually suitable for you two? karui can't even cook and temari is the exact opposite of everything that you even like in a girl." ino countered, her arms crossing her chest.

"oh and sai is mister perfect? you regularly talk about how he has the emotional capability of a sponge." and asuma couldn't help but sigh as he finished his cigarette.

"so. you're all nervous about the other getting married and maybe leaving." asuma really didn't want to step in, but he knew that he was going to have to. in order to keep them from having another meltdown like the one at yakiniku q.

he looked at the students––no, adults, in front of him and asuma could've sworn that he had been in this situation with before with them. back when shikamaru had been assaigned to his first diplomacy mission to suna and ino felt that shikamaru would be abandoning them. ino always expressed her fear that "ber boys" (yes, they were hers, forget their respective fiancees and girlfriends) were going to leave her.

asuma was sure that if ino had her way, she would be the only one who would get married and shikamaru and chouji would live in her attic for the rest of their lives.

"or the harpies won't care about tradition." asuma had told ino, long ago, to not call karui and temari harpies, but he realized now that there was no point in trying to stop her or correct her on it.

"you think we didn't tell them how important tradition is to us?" instead of sshikamaru speaking, chouji piped up, surprised that ino would actually assume that. "that's the first thing i told karui. that you guys, and sensei are my family and just how important you guys were to me."

shikamaru shrugged in agreement, implying that he did the same. and ino found some type of relief in their words––or actions in shikamaru's case.

"if you guys are done, fixed all of your problems, let's go eat. it's tuesday." asuma ran his fingers his hair before heading to the door.

if he had lived this long, he could live through another dinner at yakiniku q.

maybe, it was just genetic for at least one member of ino-shika-chou to be a handful and a half. he had heard stories of how inoichi had been a dramatic mess. and he practically helped raise the most dramatic, biggest handful, in ino-shika-cho history––one yamanaka ino who had called their dinner at yakiniku q in an emergency situation. and now, as he sat here with one child, a small infant no more than two months old, with lungs that could give ino a run for her money, he was sure of it.

but asuma loved chouchou. he practically considered her his first grandchild (number two was on the way, temari was getting bigger every day). and he found himself indulging in the infant's whims the same way he had indulged in ino's all those years ago.

"are you listening to me?" ino snapped him out of his thougths and asuma looked up from the infant in his lap, before passing her off to father, who gladly took her from him. when ino demanded anyone's attention, it was best to give it to him.

"yes, we're all listening. now, tell us what we're here for." shikamaru, had been stressed out, more than usual, because a pregnant temari was possibly the worst temari in his mind.

ino, excitedly cleared her throat, her expression softening just a bit as she looked at the table, she placed her hands on the table, as if what she had to say was the most important thing in the world.

"i'm pregnant." ino announced, beaming as she looked at her teammates and former teacher (and chouchou). there was a silence that fell over the three men at the table, before there was the congratulations erupting from the three, comments about how it took long enough, and how they didn't know sai actually had it in him.

as he took a sip of his beer, asuma mused he had survived the war, he had survived and cheated death. he hae even survived yamanaka ino in all of her, well, everything.

but a pregnant ino? asuma wasn't entirely sure, but maybe, death would've been better.