Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter:One
Temari stretched out her legs, placed her hands behind her to cradle her head and lay down to bask in the warm glow coming from the noon day sun.
Her inner warrior cautioned her to be careful and watchful, as this would be the best place for an ambush, but her inner lazy teenaged girl took over and told her to just lay down and relax. After all this was a vacation.
Temari's siblings were doing something else where, but as she had closed eyes, she could not really see what exactly they were doing. Kankuro was probably messing around with his puppets, and Gaara was off somewhere brooding, as he had been doing the entire trip.
"Two whole days of staying in the caravan with those two." thought Temari, causing her to shudder. Not that she didn't like her siblings, well…Gaara's case was kind of iffy, but still, neither one was really much of a conversationalist. They just kept staring out the window, focused on what they were to do when they reached Konoha.
"Konoha…" Temari thought with a happy inner sigh. It had been six months since the infamous Chuunin exams, and she was eager to see it again. Everything there was so new and exciting. Then again, anything that broke the monotonous routine in Suna was new and exciting. Wake up, train, break for lunch, train some more, break for dinner, train a bit more, and then go to bed to get enough sleep for the next day which was the exact same thing. Even this trip was for training.
"Yeah right." thought Temari as she rolled over to expose her back to the gentle rays. She knew that their teacher had called this trip a mission, but as soon as she heard the words "journey to Konoha…" the one thing that crossed her mind was "VACATION!!!"
"And not a minute too soon."
"Temari, come on, the horses are watered, and we have to get going if we're going to make it to Konoha any time soon." said Kankuro as he called her to get back in the caravan.
Reluctantly, Temari lifted herself up from the ground and walked over to where two horses were hitched up to a veritable house on wheels.
Temari sat down on one of the benches attached to the walls of the carriage, facing her two younger siblings. As soon as the wheels began to turn her two brothers took their positions of staring out the window, exactly as they had done for two days.
Her gaze fell across each of them as she studied them. Kankuro looked so much like their father and now on a closer inspection, she could see that he had changed in the past six months. Where as before he had been as dedicated as any other village genin (which meant not really) after Orochimaru had betrayed Suna, Kankuro had thrown himself in to his training. His face had slimmed and had lost their cherubic-like appearance. His shoulders had broadened slightly, and because she had witnessed him practicing his tai-jutsu shirtless many times, she knew his stomach was flatter and well defined. It was hard to accept that her little butterball of a brother had changed so much, but she had no other choice.
Her staring carried over to her youngest brother, Gaara. He too looked much like their recently deceased father, and although they were subtle, the changes in his appearance were also evident. His face had also grown gaunter, though not quite for the same reason as Kankuro. He did still train with his two-team mates, but he also had extra lessons that the other two did not have. Lessons on official rites and ceremonies that were needed by the Kazekage. Lessons on Kazekage business, from everyday chores to how one behave when you have a visiting feudal lord. And although he did not have the fervor that Kankuro did, he made up for this by using his long sleepless nights studying. Because he was possessed by the demon Shikaku, Gaara could not sleep, lest the demon eat his personality. This resulted in giving him a dark ring around his eyes from his insomnia.
Having lost interest at studying the only other occupants of their carriage, Temari let her mind wander. It wasn't long before thoughts of Konoha popped up. Their teacher had repeatedly warned them that while in Konoha, they were all to be on their best behavior, as they were representing Suna and the Wind Country, particularly Gaara. He was attending a meeting between the Kage's of the Wind, Fire and Water countries, and it was imperative that everybody behaved their selves. Many people still did not trust the Wind Country due to the notorious Wind and Sound country invasion, even after they had signed that treaty. So it was important for Gaara, Kankuro and Temari to show how civil and trustworthy Sunaites were, and above all else to not wreck their already fragile relationship between the other countries.
Soon, her mind took a trip down memory lane and upon the Invasion and the Chuunin Exam. Despite the fact that her nerves had been just about shot from the stress during that time, she still had managed to have fun. She had defeated a lot of opponents, which always served to punch up one's ego.
An image of a tall boy and an obscenely taller ponytail with a fish net shirt flashed across her eyes and she saw red. "Him." He was the only who had ever defeated her. She was one of the best ninjas in her village and had always been able to trounce any enemy in a satisfactory manner till him. The fact that he was some little common boy and he had defeated her just positively irked her. It wasn't that she was a sore loser; it was just she didn't like to lose.
"Maybe I'll meet him in Konoha and then I can kick his butt." she thought as she felt the beginnings of a long lazy nap come on. She let sleep claim her as she laid her head against one of the walls to the carriage, anticipating her revenge.
Else where, a certain common boy with an obscenely tall ponytail was lying down on his favorite cloud-gazing spot. He always lay here after his morning session of training and before lunch and his daily game of Go.
Suddenly, Shikamaru's quiet little world was interrupted with the arrival of his hefty teammate, Chouji, who was munching on the contents of yet another colorfully decorated bag.
"It's a wonder he doesn't eat the bag as well the way he's inhaling that food." thought the cynical Shikamaru.
In between bites, Chouji was able to convey his message.
"Asuma-sensei…munch…says he needs…crunch crunch…to see you…mmm…says it's important."
"What a drag." said Shikamaru. He could only imagine what Asuma-sensei wanted. No doubt it'd be something unreasonable like he should devote more of his time to training and less time to gazing at clouds.
After finding out where Asuma-sensei was waiting for him from the eternally munching Chouji, Shikamaru headed off in his nonchalant, somewhat slow, walk.
Walking down the familiar roads and streets as he made his way to the ramen shop, Shikamaru's thoughts wandered off as they were want to do and often did.
"It's about time." muttered Asuma when Shikamaru finally arrived. "Tsunade-sama has an important mission for you."
"Me? Why me?" asked Shikamaru.
"Because Tsunade said so, and she's the Hokage." offered Asuma as an explanation, albeit a very poor one.
Walking in silence, the pair eventually reached the mission room, where ninjas of all ranks receive various-ranked missions.
"Aw good, your finally here." said Tsunade when Asuma and Shikamaru entered the room. "Now I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to step into that room over there for awhile." She said as she gestured to some obscure door in the corner.
Once inside, Shikamaru gave the tiny room a one-over and quickly lost interest. It was a small room with one or two chairs, a bench, and a table.
"Why do they even have this room?" Shikamaru asked, turning to see his sensei have an incredibly devious and lecherous smile on his face.
"Uh, sensei?" Shikamaru began cautiously.
"What? Oh, sorry, just remembering something. I've had some good times in this room with Kurenai-sensei…" said Asuma, somewhat shamefacedly as his mind wandered off yet again, leaving a poor Shikamaru some very scarring mental images as to what those good times entailed.
"If they come in, stall them Shizune!" yelled Tsunade to the room she was leaving.
She closed the door and then turned her attention to Shikamaru.
"Alright then. Your mission is to show some guests of ours around town, you know, show them attractions, and answer any questions they may ask." she said.
"Okay… and you had to drag me into this poor excuse of a closet to tell me that?"
"You should watch that sharp tongue of yours Nara, it'll get you in trouble one day. But your intuition is correct. Along with guiding our guest around, you'll also be watching them." Tsunade said.
"Wha-"
"Our guest are from the Wind Country, and it's been decided that for now we might want to keep an eye on them while they're here." she explained, interrupting his confused interjection.
"But we're at peace with the Wind Country, we signed that treaty with them, why are we spying on them?" He was confused. This was not how Konoha handled things. They did not go around people's backs while smiling to their face.
"Your smart, I'm sure you can figure it out." Tsunade replied somewhat snappish, then sighed. "It wasn't my idea, spying on guests like this. The feudal lords wanted us to do this. They repeatedly reminded me how we had signed a treaty with the Wind Country before and they had still broken that one. It's all very complicated." she finished, saying it more to herself than Shikamaru.
"In my experience, grown-ups just say that to get out of explaining things to children." responded Shikamaru.
Tsunade smiled at that. "Yeah, they do do that. Listen, as much as we want to welcome our guests in a friendly manner for the sake of international cooperation, we still have to look out for our own."
"Okay then, why me? Wouldn't a jounin be more suited for this sort of thing?"
"Well, that's just it," Tsunade began, "if we had someone like Kakashi or Asuma-sensei show these people around, they might get suspicious. They are ninjas, they're not stupid."
"Wait, I'm spying on ninjas?"
"Yes, and it looks less suspicious if someone like you shows them around. You don't look nearly as imposing as a Jonin." Shikamaru frowned at this statement. "I also chose you because you're the only one available that can handle this." she concluded.
He didn't like this. He didn't like that he was having to spy on guests who Konoha was suppose to be on friendly terms with. He also didn't like that he was going have to spy on ninjas…
"What a drag" he muttered to himself, dragging his hand through his hair while scratching his head.
"Alright then, you just wait here until they arrive and I call for you. Here is the information on where they'll be staying and whatnot." Tsunade said handing him a fairly thick packet, one foot already out the door.
"By the way, I've already taken the liberty to have some things of yours taken over to where they'll be staying, as you'll have to stay there too for the week so you can be more easily accessible to them." she said while popping her head back in, then left.
"Don't worry, Tsunade chose you for a reason, you'll do okay." Asuma-sensei said in what he thought would be a comforting tone, while plucking another cigarette from his pack and lighting it up.
"Finally!" exclaimed Temari as they stepped out of the carriage, just outside a large building where they were suppose to meet the new Hokage. "I thought we'd be stuck in that box forever!"
She wasn't entirely surprised at the lack of response. Gaara and their teacher ever rarely showed that she might have spoken, and ever since Kankuro became dead serious about his training and being a ninja, he had lost his sense of humor.
They all walked in to the building and followed their way down a long, winding, and confusing series of hallways. "Like a warren of rabbits." thought Temari.
They finally came across the room where they were obviously suppose to be because Baki, their teacher stopped suddenly.
Turning towards the three siblings, he said in serious tone, "Now, I would hope that my previous talks might have sunk in by now, by one final reminder, behave yourselves."
"Treats us like kids…"
They walked in to a fairly large room with many windows. Across the room stood several tables where some people, mainly Chuunin from the vest they were wearing, were seated.
"Welcome to Konoha, I trust your journey was comfortable." said a young looking lady with rather large breasts. Baki shot his students a look that told Temari that this was the new Hokage. "But wait…I thought she was one of the Sannin, so that would make her like 50..."
"It is a pleasure to have you all here." the lady continued. "I'm afraid I'll have to cut this initial meeting short as I have some rather urgent business elsewhere. However, I have provided you with a guide, in order to make your stay here much easier. Asuma." she called off towards the corner where Temari now noticed a door.
"We don't nee-" started Temari before Baki hissed in her ear, "Do not argue with her."
Slowly, the door opened, and out stepped a tall man with a beard and cigarette in his mouth, followed by an all too familiar youth.
"Shit." muttered Temari under her breath
Shikamaru stepped out of the dingy little side room that he was forced to stay in for several hours to notice that the occupants of the room had grown by four since the last time he was in there, and that those four new arrivals were familiar.
They stood in a group, with strange looking man with half of his face covered by a piece of clothe in the back, and a boy of about fifteen or sixteen wearing kabuki paint. He didn't know the name of the man, but vaguely remembered the boy being called Kankuro. There also stood the notorious Gaara, all dark and brooding. Shikamaru still remembered his past encounters with this demon vessel quite well. And next to him stood a girl with blonde hair and a large fan. "Temari." he reminded himself. He had fought her, and had won, he wasn't soon to forget that fight, and neither was she from the look of unhidden anger on her face. Shikamaru could just about feel the vengeful vibes coming off of her.
He turned to see Tsunade give him an I-don't-care-if-you-want-this-mission-or-not-your-doing-it look that stifled any complaints he was about to voice. But come on, could she really expect him to guide the bloodthirsty Gaara or that ticking time bomb over there that was trying to kill him with many deathly glares?
"Well, I hope you find your stay here comfortable and relaxing, any questions you may have you can ask Shikamaru here, I'm sure he'll be more than competent."
"Stupid crazy old lady, Man what a drag…"
With a final wave from Tsunade, Shikamaru stepped forward. "Well, um I guess you'll want to go to where you'll be staying, Uh… follow me I guess." he said, leading the visitors out of the room and out into mid-afternoon Konoha.
"I can not believe this! That stupid smug snot-nose little punk is our guide! That means he's going to be with us all week! There goes my wonderfully-planned vacation!" Temari sighed pathetically at her predicament, shooting some more death glares at the back of the stupid smug snot-nose little punk in question, though to her disappointment, they seemed to have no effect.
"Then again, this could be to my advantage. After all, I was kind of hoping for a chance to get back at him, and here he is! I don't even have to stalk after him or anything. Yes this could definitely work out well for me." Temari smugly crossed her arms as she followed behind her teammates and their guide through almost empty streets of Konoha on their way to the inn they were to stay at.
"I can not believe Tsunade! She must be crazy!" thought Shikamaru. "First I have to deal with Gaara who has already promised to kill me before, but I also have to deal with his older sister who obviously has revenge on the mind." Shikamaru could feel the blond dessert-dweller's death glares targeted at the back of his head and gulped, though not loud enough for anyone to hear fortunately. "I honestly don't know who's worse, or who's scarier!"
They soon reached the hotel/onsen that the five would be staying for the week. He walked in, followed the four visitors, and two grumbling Chuunin that had been involuntarily volunteered to be luggage carriers.
"Oh hello! Welcome to the Sparkling Springs© Onsen!" said the cheery little brunette receptionist from behind the desk at the opposite wall. "And how may I be of assistance!"
Walking up to the desk, Shikamaru said, "Uh, I think Tsunade-sama has some rooms reserved-"
"Oh yes," the receptionist continued in her unnatural cheeriness, "The four rooms on the top level?" Shikamaru nodded, although he had no idea. "Yes, alright then if you'll just sign here," she handed Shikamaru a log book, which he quickly scribbled his name down on, "and here are your keys. All guests have full access to our onsens, both the private ones and the co-ed ones, and have a wonderful time!" she finished with a brilliant if not all to convincing smiling.
Turning back to the foreigners, he handed out the keys and said, "Okay, it looks like we're on the twelfth floor." The two chuunins who were hauling the luggage groaned audibly, but followed the rest up the stairs, dragging the heavy bags with them, and trying to not let the bags drag them down.
Temari looked out of the window her personal room. The sun had already set and Konoha's nightlife was awakening. Lights glowed softly from various restaurants and bars along Main Street. Off in the distance, Temari could hear the loud pulse of music emanating from one of the few nightclubs Konoha possessed. "Interesting, I might have to check it out, might be some cute local boys there."
Temari was so wrapped up in her own thoughts; she didn't even hear her oldest brother come in.
"How come you get your own room?" he complained, briefly showing the little bit of immaturity he still possessed.
Temari smiled and turned to her brother who was flopped over her bed. He had wiped off his ridiculous make-up after dinner, and while he stared up at the ceiling in self-pity Temari couldn't help think of how her brother would some day make some girl very lucky.
"Because it's indecent for a young lady to share a room with any males, even one's she related to."
"I don't see any young ladies." Kankuro replied, and was rewarded for his efforts a big smack from one of Temari's pillows.
"Okay okay, but how Gaara gets his own room?"
"Kazekage." and that was the only answer needed.
"Aw well, I guess it could be worse, I could be sharing a room with Baki. Maybe that Shikamaru fellow won't be so bad."
"I think I'd rather be with Baki than that punk." replied Temari tartly.
"What do you got against him? Oh right…" said Kankuro, and huge grin spreading across his face, "He's the guy who beat you, isn't he. Wonder why I didn't recognize him from before. Don't tell me your being a sore loser about it still?"
"And so what if I am?" huffed Temari
"Then this week will be interesting." Kankuro replied with an extremely evil-looking smile, even chuckling slightly.
"What happened to Mr. Responsible Mature Ninja?" asked Temari.
"That's just for the benefit of the adults, deep-down I'm still my good old self."
"Which can't be good at all."
"Hey, come on, lets go check out that onsen." encouraged Kankuro.
Temari contemplated it and figure, might as well. "After all, we only have five days here, four after today."
And so Kankuro left Temari so that she could change, and began to formulate his plan.
Shikamaru was reading his list of instructions that was included in the packet that Tsunade had handed to him.
"Every night you are to report in to Me." it said.
He groaned, like this mission wasn't hard enough, now he had to sneak around…
Two brisk knocks interrupted his thoughts and he hurriedly stuffed his papers into the provided folder while saying, "It's unlocked."
Kankuro walked in then.
"You know you don't have to knock, this is your room too." Shikamaru explained.
"Wouldn't want to walk in on you doing something embarrassing." Kankuro replied.
"Like what?" Shikamaru asked.
"Oh you know, this and that." not clarifying anything at all for Shikamaru. "Hey you want to come down to the onsen with Temari, Gaara, and I?" he said quickly throwing Shikamaru completely off guard.
"Uh sure…" he stammered out.
"Alright then, we just gotta get dressed and meet them down there." Kankuro said, while rifling through his suitcase and pulling out some swim trunks before heading off to the bathroom.
Shikamaru groaned, "Great, another chance to be around Temari…" He recalled all of the glares and short snippy replies to any question he might ask at loud at dinner. "This will be fun." he thought sarcastically. By then Kankuro had stepped out of the bathroom in baggy swim shorts and looked down at Shikamaru.
"Well, are you going to get dressed?"
Kankuro opened the sliding door to the nearly empty co-ed onsen. Temari was already there, swimming around lazily and Gaara was sitting by a small waterfall, with crossed arms and a brooding expression. It was late enough that none of the other patrons were there so hot steaming pool was all for them.
Temari looked up at the new arrivals, and began to climb out of the pool, grabbing a towel to dry off and walked over to where the two adolescent boys stood.
"'Bout time Kankuro." she said, heading off to a small table that held some drink with a fruit slice and bright neon little paper umbrella with a matching straw, which she began to drink from.
Shikamaru's face began to get very hot as he noticed Temari in her bikini. He couldn't help but appreciate how good she looked in it. She also had let her hair down, and it fell just between her shoulder blades, sticking to her back from the moisture. When she turned to face them, glass in hand, the effect of her slicked wet hair made her eyes appear larger, the blue standing out, which only complimented her rosy red lips.
"No, no, I will not stray down that path. I'm not some hopeless pervert like Naruto or Jiraiya." thought Shikamaru, referring to the perverted Sannin who wrote the dirty Icha Icha Paradise book series.
"What are you looking at?" asked Temari in a snippy tone, interrupting Shikamaru's thoughts.
"Er, nothing…" he said, turning his head away.
Temari gave a short derisive snort, "Better be nothing," she muttered, mostly to herself.
"This so is not fair!" thought Temari. She, her brothers and that punk were all sitting around, letting the hot water wash over them to supposedly calm their nerves, but Temari's nerves were anywhere from calm. "This just is not fair!"
She thought back to when Kankuro and Shikamaru had first entered. Soon as her eyes fell on Shikamaru her jaw almost dropped. If it weren't for her supreme ninja skills, it probably would have.
All this time she figured the little brat would be pale, sickly, and not at all appealing. But darn it all if that stupid Shikamaru didn't toally wipe away these pre-formed notions while showing off his stupidly flat stomach complete with stupid muscles and his stupid…stupidity! Temari couldn't even think straight. He was even taller than she remembered, taller than her, even without that stupid ponytail. She had then caught him staring at something and let her emotions take over.
"What are you looking at?" she had snapped.
"Er, nothing…" was the reply.
"Better be nothing." she said, more as an afterthought.
She sighed and brought her mind back to the present. "Damn it…not fair." She though yet again, sinking down into the water until only the top of her head down to her nose was above the water. She once again settled down into the activity she had found herself performing quite frequently lately, which was shooting daggers at Shikamaru with her eyes.
But this soon was interrupted when Shikamaru, who had been discussing something with Kankuro, turned towards her, and having noticed her staring at him, he asked in a forced polite tone, "Is something the matter?"
Temari sat up properly as to answer him. "No nothing is the matter." She said, crossing her arms.
"Then why is it you keep glaring at me? You've been doing it all day now." he said, finally confronting her about it.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Yes you do! You were doing it just now!"
"I was not."
"Were too."
"Was not!"
"Were too!"
Suddenly Temari got up, and headed over to where she had last left her towel, and while wrapping it around her, she opened the sliding door and left.
Shikamaru lowered his head. "I'm sorry," he began, apologizing to the room at large, "I shouldn't have yelled like that."
"No biggie," Kankuro assured him. "Don't let Temari catch me saying this, but you were in the right there. She has been glaring at you all day. Of course, it's no surprise really…"
"It doesn't have anything to do with the Chuunin exam does it?" Shikamaru asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Actually…yes. Temari can be a bit of a sore loser sometimes…"
"It's been six months though! Surely she would have gotten over it by now."
"That's the thing about Temari, she can hold a grudge for a pretty long time. But actually, I don't think she would have remembered it if it wasn't for the fact that you were assigned as our guide. The again, knowing Temari, one can never be to sure."
"Great, one of them is already mad at me and they don't even know about the spying thing. This going to be a fun four days."
Later that night, after making sure Kankuro was asleep, Shikamaru slipped out of their shared room and made his way out of the inn. Outside he breathed a small sigh of relief, and then began to make his way the Hokage's office, which still had a light on in the window, though it looked as small as a candle's flame.
Though there were no clouds out to admire, the moon was full, and it looked beautiful in the sky. It shed an eerie light upon his surroundings, making familiar places look otherworldly.
After a while, Shikamaru arrived at the building where the Hokage's office was housed, and he made his way up the many staircases.
Finally he was just outside of Tsunade's office door, which he knocked on.
"Enter." said a muffled voice from behind the heavy wooden door.
Shikamaru turned the doorknob and walked in to see Tsunade studying some medical book.
She looked up. "Ah, there you are, come on, come on, have a seat." she said pointing at a chair.
Shikamaru settled down and looked at Tsunade who studying him with much intensity.
"So…" The older lady prompted him.
"Well, actually, there's not really that much to report. We arrived at the hotel, we ate dinner, and we swam in the onsen, that's about it."
"Well, it is only the first night, I really didn't expect them to slip up and reveal anything."
"With all due respect Lady Hokage, I don't think they have anything to reveal." said Shikamaru.
"Most likely your right, but the feudal lords want to be absolutely sure. So just continue on your mission. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"
Shikamaru almost told Tsunade about Temari's attitude towards him, but he decided it wasn't worth it.
"Nope." he said while getting up and leaving the room."
"Well, good luck Shikamaru!" she called after him.
"Because I'll need it."
Shikamaru made his way back through the dimly lit streets towards the inn. His mind began to wander as his concentration and focus slipped due to fatigue. "Man, this spying stuff is such a drag…We're suppose to be on friendly terms with Suna, why do we need to spy on them?" Of course, he did see the logic in the feudal lords and Tsunade's thinking, but still…"And if they ever find out, I'm dead…Temari would kill me personally. Speaking of Temari…what was that earlier? In the onsen?" Shikamaru spent a few silent moments in contemplation. "It was probably the fumes coming off the water…yeah, all the steam and the perfume that they mix into the water must have gone straight to my head and had not let me think straight…although I never had that problem before…"
Shikamaru continued to mull over this until he came upon the inn, then he slipped in, thinking himself undetected, but actually he had been. One lone figure that had stayed up due to his inability to sleep. One lone figure watched as Shikamaru entered the building, just as he had watched him exit it before, and he made note of it.
Please review!
Heyas! Okay, it's another written-thingie from yours truly.
Anywhos.. Say Hola to Chappie 1 of my ShikaTema FanFic, because I absolutely love that couple…jes, jes I do.
By the way…a thousand pardons for the cussing…if you have a problem with it…I swear it doesn't get any worse…just the S-, D-, and H-word…which is like, Class Three cuss words (Class One being like the F-word)
And yes I know this one chapter is like humongous. This whole FanFic is kinda big. The whole thing is roughly 33 pages, in the first chapters cover approximately 11 pages. What should be one fifth of the story actually takes up about one third.
But stay with me! I swear it gets better, and the next chapters are much shorter. Come on, you know you want to find out what happens next, your curious…I know you are…You can just feel the sexual tension growing.
Okay, now I'm just being stupid.
Anywhos, I would totally appreciate constructive critique-age. I want to make my works better. So if certain things jump out at you as "WRONG!!!" tell me…just gently…
Also, I'm sure you die-hard narutards will find something to complain about, about how so-and-so doesn't quite fit into the storyline but I say phewie! I don't care…
Is it just me, or did those last two lines contradict each other? Let me clarify. I totally would love constructive critique on my writing style, but I don't want to hear how I messed up on how this fits the Naruverse.