The card was slipped in front of him like his refill always were. Silently. Discreetly. Without judgment.

It was late in the evening. Chouza and Inoichi had left the restaurant an hour ago to go back to their family. Shikaku had stayed, unwilling to hear his wife complain about not warning her he wouldn't be there for dinner. He had asked for more sake so he wouldn't be kicked out of the restaurant. Now, when he was going to go home, Yoshino would complain about him drinking too.

He put down his cup of sake, still full, and raised the card to his tired eyes. He read: "Yamanaka Yoko - Counselor". There was an address included.

The hand which had delivered the card was still brushing the table. He followed it up to full red lips, a wide nose sprinkled with freckles, and eyes of teal hidden behind oval glasses. He drew back a little and realized that the round friendly face was surrounded by a halo of golden curly hair. The lips stretched into a soft smile.

"Drop by whenever you feel like it," she said before leaving.

Shikaku turned the card to find an addendum: "Certified for A-level shinobi - couples therapy - career counseling". Frowning at the implications, Shikaku slipped the card in a pocket of his vest to forget it for a few days.

A week later, while he ate with his best friends in the same place, he showed the card to Inoichi and asked: "You know her?"

"Yoko-chan? Sure thing. Why do you have her professional card?"

"I don't remember seeing her before." Shikaku knew most of the Akimichi and Yamanaka, at least by sight, especially since she was around their age.

"Two years above us in the Academy," Chouza said helpfully. "She was very discreet. She filed for the medical corps as soon as she passed her genin exam. She didn't even try the Jounin path. She knew what she wanted."

"You know her too?" Chouza was better at remembering people than he was, but still.

"Her mother was an Akimichi. Half. Senju blood from her grandmother. That would make Yoko-san half Yamanaka, a quarter Akimichi and Senju."

Ah, that would explain it. Chouza was interested in genealogy, especially his family's. If you had Akimichi blood, he knew about you. Now that Shikaku thought about it, the counselor had indeed the round build of the Akimichi, especially around the face and hips.

"So, why do you have her card?" Inoichi repeated.

"She gave it to me last week, after you were gone. Said to drop by whenever I wanted," Shikaku admitted grumpily.

Inoichi chuckled, ignoring the glare it got him, and said: "You should. She's good. She gives lessons in psychology to the kids in the medic corps. After the war, with the increase of trauma, she managed to convince the higher-ups that every medic should know the basics. I think she's writing a book too, so everyone can have access to basic knowledge. She's very big on popularizing psychology. It ruffles some feathers, especially among the elders."

The oldest generations still stuck to the principle that every knowledge should be hoarded and kept for a very selected group of apprentices, regardless of public interest.

"Why did she give me her card?" Shikaku asked.

"Why did you stay after we left? You said you would finish your glass and go," Inoichi replied with a raised eyebrow.

Shikaku didn't bother to reply. His friends both knew he had some marriage troubles.

"Yeah. I don't think she needed to read your mind to guess you had a problem."

"Like half of the damn population," Shikaku grumbled.

"She is quite popular," Inoichi agreed cheerfully.

Chouza nodded. "Heard of her by word of mouth. Some of my men said she changed their marriage. They look happier too. You should try it."

"No."

"Why not?" Inoichi asked, playing with the skewer he had just cleaned.

"I'm the damn Jounin Commander, Inoichi. I'm not going to be seen visiting a counselor," Shikaku grumbled before emptying his cup of sake.

"Ah. Secrecy. Alright. I'll talk to her, see if it's possible to meet somewhere else than at her office."

"That's not what I—"

"It shouldn't be a problem. It might take some time to arrange your schedules, though. I'll check with your secretary and let you know," Inoichi concluded cheerfully.

Resting his cheek on his palm with an elbow on the table, Shikaku stared at his friend with annoyance and resignation. Inoichi was damn stubborn. Now that he had set his mind on it, it was pointless to resist.

"Fine," he grunted before tearing off some teriyaki from a skewer.

oOo

They met two weeks later on top of the Hokage cliff, in a deserted park between the archives and a temple. There were stone tables carved with go boards. Yoko was sitting at one, two bowls of stones open next to her, sign that she was waiting for her opponent. The black stones were hers, and she had already placed six of them, announcing that she was weaker than him by six ranks (Shikaku was well known in Konoha to be at the highest rank, 1st dan, which made her a 7th dan, not bad at all). Shikaku hadn't even planned on them playing, so it was a good surprise.

It was a warm day. Despite the tree shadowing the board, Yoko was wearing a short purple yukata and holding a pink folding fan. She was staring at the view over the village distractedly.

He stopped in front of her and waited patiently for her to notice him, noting how she startled when she did. She was really genin level.

"Good morning, Nara-san," she greeted him with a smile and pointed to the opposite seat with her closed fan in invitation.

He bowed his head and sat down. "Thank you for meeting me here."

"It's my pleasure. I certainly don't have such a nice view from my office," she replied cheerfully.

After a quick look over the board, Shikaku took a white stone from his bowl, gripping it between the index and middle fingers, and placed it without a sound.

Yoko opened her fan, looking for some fresher air as she considered her move. "Would you like to tell me about the evening you stayed so late at the restaurant?" she asked after putting down a stone next to his.

"I have some disagreements with my wife," Shikaku admitted after a minute of silent consideration and a new stone on the board.

Yoko raised an eyebrow, inviting him silently to continue as she considered his strategy.

"She doesn't like me to come home late."

When he didn't continue, Yoko placed her stone and asked: "Because you drink?"

"I drink because I know she's going to nag at me when I come home," he replied immediately, making his move too fast. He didn't like to speak while playing, but the point of this wasn't really the game itself, was it?

"Why does she do it?"

"I don't know."

"Did you ask her?"

He looked up and met Yoko's eyes for the first time. "No."

"Why not?"

He licked his lips and glanced at the Nara forest he could see at the horizon. "I assumed she just wants to control me."

"Does that seem like something she would do?"

He wanted to reply yes, but it wouldn't be true. Yoshino had never been the clingy type. Before they were married, during the war, she had been extremely understanding about any emergency he had to deal with, even when it came up in the middle of one of their dates. He had liked that about her. She had her priorities straight. "No."

Yoko placed her next stone. "Why do you assume so then?"

He considered this, and the game for a few minutes, before making his move and admitting in the same breath: "That's something a cousin told me, that wives always want to control you after marriage."

"Seems like a sexist and depressing generalization," she pointed out with a dismissive wave of her wrist, her fan making strands of honey hair flew away from her cheeks reddened by the heat.

Shikaku nodded in agreement.

She put down her next stone. "So what should you do?"

"Ask her."

She smiled, her freckles stretching. "Seems like a plan. I'll be here in two days. It looks like a good place to see the sunset. I can't believe I never thought of it before."

He understood the invitation and nodded in acceptance before leaving, back to his reports and the meeting he had in an hour.

Two days later, she was waiting for him again, the stones back to their places. She must have noted them down. It was a common practice, but he didn't think she would bother. The light was getting low, piercing under the trees' foliage.

He sat down and placed a stone at the same time. "I can't stay long. My wife is waiting for me for dinner."

"You spoke to her," Yoko replied, apparently unbothered by the absence of greetings. She was wearing a long teal yukata. The wind this evening was cooler and sharper, blowing her hair in a mess of curls.

"She called me an idiot because obviously she worried when I was late."

"A fair concern."

"Why didn't she just say so?!"

Yoko put down a stone with a sharp 'clack'. "Why didn't you ask her in the first place? Assumption, I believe you called it. In the same way that she assumed it was obvious enough."

Shikaku sighed and nodded. Fair enough.

"What will you do about it?"

"Try to remember to warn her when I'm late and apologize for worrying her when I don't," Shikaku replied with a shrug as he placed a stone. It wasn't a very inspired move.

Yoko tilted her head without commenting. She considered the board in silence before placing her next stone. With her elbows on the table, she crossed her fingers under her chin and commented: "Assumptions and the lack of communication are often the sources of many troubles in a marriage. It's considered easier to keep quiet and go on rather than risk rocking the boat, the family boat, the foundation, by speaking of the elephant in the room."

Shikaku played without replying.

Yoko glanced briefly at the board before looking at the sun setting on the forest beyond the west gate. Her hair was dancing around her face with flaming highlights.

"I have to go," Shikaku said as he stood up.

"When you're ready to talk about that elephant, Nara-san. You'll find me here during my lunch breaks. It's too windy for sunsets, after all."

oOo

Yoko had been born into this new world in a rather embarrassing turn of events for most people involved.

Her mother, Momoko, —a rather stubborn woman by her Senju lineage and a sturdy one by her Akimichi blood— had insisted to pay her respects to the Fire temple and pray for her incoming newborn a few days before the planned delivery date. It was nothing new to her, it was her third pregnancy and they all unfolded rather predictably and flawlessly (she was just one of those lucky women, but then the Akimichi often were, good constitution and all that).

So, of course, her waters broke. She was in the middle of her second bow, a monk helping her to stand and kneel as necessary, and she just stopped, a hand on her stomach and the other on the ground, murmuring: "Oh, dear."

She hadn't gone to the small temple near the Yamanaka compound either. No, she had to go to the Fire temple, the original, the first one built in Konoha. The temple to the top of the Hokage mountain.

She hadn't waited for her husband, Yamanaka Daisuke, to come home from training his genin team either. Only her six years old son and four years old daughter were accompanying her. The first ran so fast that he nearly fell down the cliff's stairs to fetch his father. The second helpfully breathed in time with her mother to keep her calm, while the monk led them to a meditation room out of the way, fanning Momoko like she was the Sage of Six Paths reincarnated.

That's where Yoko came to the world, in that little room in the temple, with a young monk turned into a —surprisingly competent, Momoko liked to say— midwife. A few seconds later, her father reached them, followed by his genin Dan Katou who, at 13 years old, was a competent enough medic that he dealt with the postnatal first care and only scared them all once when he nearly dropped the kid.

All in all, embarrassing, but it could have been worse. It certainly made a great story that they liked to recall.

It's the story that Yoko liked to use to explain her fascination for the temple. No, she wasn't particularly religious, although she followed the rites she had been taught by her mother. But she was drawn to this place. She found peace here that she couldn't reach in the crowded city of Konoha or even in the quiet of the Yamanaka gardens.

Sitting in seiza, Yoko stared at the shrine with a busy mind. She had just left Nara Shikaku after their second official meeting, and she wasn't any closer to the answers she was looking for than the first time she had talked to him in that bar.

See, her birth wasn't the only thing a bit peculiar about Yoko. She had… delusions when she was younger. She had gotten better, mind you, now she knew that the tailed beasts weren't real and that there was no such thing as a jinchiruki. Obviously, all of that was part of the Sage of the Six Paths' legend. It was just a story. Everyone knew that… Everyone except eight years old Yoko, which had made her the laughing stock of the academy, but nevermind, that was in the past.

At that age, she had also thought she could predict the future. Ah. Good one. She had said that Namikaze Minato would be the Yondaime, but that one had been easy, to be honest. Thinking that he would die less than two years later though, that was just silly. She must have watched too much TV when she was really small (she blamed her older siblings) to think that the Kyuubi would just appear and try to destroy Konoha.

But all of that was behind her now. No more delusions or daydreams about another life without chakra (she had some strange ideas… boring ones too: no chakra, how dull).

Still, when she had seen a forlorn Nara Shikaku in the restaurant where she had celebrated her sister's birthday, she had… a hunch. Something was wrong, and maybe she could help. Her mother would say she had to stop trying to fix everyone and everything, but what would she do then? what would be the point of her life? She needed to help.

Shinobi were so withdrawn and secretive though, they didn't welcome outside help with open arms. They would rather lick their wounds than to admit that they were festering. Yoko wanted to change that. She couldn't believe it had worked on the Jounin Commander though. Someone else must have convinced him. Inoichi maybe? He was a good man.

She had helped, but she felt like her work was far from done. Hopefully, Shikaku would agree soon enough.

oOo

"I don't know what to say," Shikaku admitted as he settled at the table with a bento in hand.

The stones weren't in place. Yoko hadn't brought the bowls. After two weeks, she had probably given up on him. Yet, she was here, eating her own bento despite the cloudy weather and the long climb necessary to reach this park.

She chewed on the onigiri she had been peacefully eating, watching him without judgment. "Start with what made you come today."

Shikaku sighed, stared at the meal perfectly arranged in his large box and picked an omelet roll. "Something's wrong with my wife." He chewed at the bland piece of proteins.

"How so?"

"She changed."

"When?"

Shikaku paused in his fight with the radish he was trying to grab. That was a question he hadn't considered. His focus had mostly been on why.

He'd like to answer 'recently', but it would be wrong. It had just become obvious to him after he had cleared the air a bit between them. He tried to remember with an open mind, looking for the point of change, but it had been gradual wasn't it? That's why he hadn't worried at first because… oh.

"Shikamaru's birth."

Yoko hummed and chewed thoughtfully. "What changed?"

"Nothing drastic. She became more easily irritable, but she was tired due to birth and then it was a bad time for everyone. She's… more listless, and she worries more easily although I'm less at risk with my current job than I was before. I thought all of this was due to the birth, but it has been two years."

Yoko nodded encouragingly, but Shikaku stopped and waited for her to… to what? explain to him the mysteries of his wife's mind? Nonetheless, Yoko gave him a helping hand: "It seems you have pinpointed the origin, maybe the causes, of the change. You might want to open a discussion on the subject, to learn more and see how you can help."

Shikaku made a face. "That will be hard, she keeps things close to her—" He stopped and stared to the side.

Yoko followed his look curiously. In the otherwise deserted park, near the stairs going down the cliff, a woman was staring at them. Yoko swallowed her mouthful of rice. "Your wife, I presume?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't tell her about us."

"No." Shikaku sighed. They both knew what their meeting would look like for most people. He stood up. "Excuse me for a moment." He walked to Yoshino without hurrying, not looking forward to the tongue lashing he was going to receive before he could hope to explain. When he was close enough though, she didn't speak. She stared at him without reaction. That worried him more than anything else. If there was a sign that she had changed, this was it.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. "She's a counselor," he said bluntly.

Yoshino blinked and tilted her head. Those were the only signs that this wasn't what she had expected.

"She's the one who advised me to talk to you about coming home late. I'm seeing her for advice, that's all."

Yoshino looked over his shoulder at the blond waiting and watching them. Shikaku glanced at her just in time to see her smile and wave in greeting.

"Her name is Yamanaka Yoko. Inoichi recommended her." Shikaku stared at his unresponsive wife and decided to take a chance: "Would you like to talk to her with me?"

"Why?"

"Yoshino… I know something is wrong. If you don't want to talk to me, I can also leave you two alone, if you prefer, but I think you need to talk to someone… Am I wrong?"

She stared at him, glanced at Yoko and then looked back at him. "Hitomi said you were cheating on me."

"Hitomi is an idiot," Shikaku replied firmly, adding to himself "who'll get sacked for the rest of the year." He stepped forward and reached for her cheek, caressing her softly. "I love you. I want to make our marriage work."

Yoshino watched him silently and then looked back at Yoko. "Introduce us," she demanded. She met his eyes and lifted her chin. "I want that too."

I had ideas to make this a polyamory relationship between the three of them at the end, but I felt like it was good enough as it was. I hope you liked it!