OK, while I work on my poor SakuDei story, here's a pathetic little thing to say Never-Land is not dead, only writer's-blocked. My plot hates me.
Kakashi: This is not funny!
Never-Land: No, it is VERY funny (death glare)
Kakashi: You friggin' paired me with a nineteen-year-old Sand ninja!
Never-Land: So? The Kazekage's sister is practically begging for a Leaf boyfriend, and since Shika's mine, you get her.
Kakashi: But—
Never-Land: No buts!
Disclaimer: Leave me alone, lawer-monsters. Kishimoto-san owns Naruto and you know it. So put a sock in it, 'k? *growls and eats the closest lawer*
Tide-Over
Chapter One: Storm!
Temari shivered and pulled her cloak tighter. Typical, she thought. Just my luck to be in Konoha when the biggest snowstorm in history hits.
The said snowstorm was the biggest in recorded history, but what was really odd was that all the cold winds were coming from the east—the desert. This worried Temari. to no end, because her brother Gaara would have contacted her, their best jonin, if something was wrong in Suna. And 'something wrong' included cold and snow.
She trudged down the main street, watching as the bright neon lights dimmed and store owners fluttered at their windows, hoping they were secure against the harsh wind. Nobody would be coming to a restaurant in that weather, unless they had a death wish. Only ninja could move fast enough to not lose their way in the snow, so the civilians would be staying home. It was a common wish that day for the power to stay up.
Temari reached her destination, the Hokage tower, ice-encrusted and trembling. Her long black cloak did nothing against the wind, and it kept flapping open. She pushed on the glass door with a numb hand.
"Oh, my freaking God!" squealed Ino. "Temari, is that you?"
Temari was busy slapping snow off of her pigtails and didn't answer.
Genma smiled. He looked almost as lazy as Shikamaru, but was in fact the opposite. "Well, miss Temari-san, looks like you got caught."
Temari glared at the smirking man. "Duh, Genma. Now get your butt over here and tell me how to get this snow out of my hair."
Ino, behind the reception desk, grinned. "You can't, Fanny. It melts and then you have to blow-dry it."
Temari switched her death-stare from the chuckling Genma to Ino. "Stop calling me that," she growled. "I will summon my ferret this time." She tugged threateningly on her iron fan.
"Whatever." Ino pressed the button. A door to the right of the desk audibly unlocked, gears clicking. Temari hurried on frozen feet through the portal and up a spiral staircase. She emerged in a long, wood-paneled hallway.
Temari, brushing half-melted snow out of her bangs and eyes, stomped down the corridor until she reached a plain wooden door. She turned the handle.
Tsunade dropped her bottle of sake at the sight of the furious, snow-covered kunoichi. "Temari, what on earth happened to you?" she asked, brushing shards of green glass off her feet.
"The snow. The Yamanaka girl. Cold weather in general," she replied.
It was then that the huge windows behind Tsunade shattered.