A/N: ANOTHA NARUTO FANFIC? Why yes. Yes indeed. Prepare for Shikamaru and Temari romance! Haha, they are all awkward and sniping at each other... Also, please excuse the beginning bit... I fail at fight scenes, ne? I'm quite proud of the second half, though. Feedback? They're supposed to be... idk, maybe 17 and 20?
Whatever I'm kind of proud of this one, so REVIEWS would be massively appreciated, especially about whether it is in character or not?
Also, this may be continued as a series of mostly independent snippets of the ShikaTema and sand sibling interaction variety... Do want? Don't want?
DISCLAIMER: Not mine!! Clearly.
Hit Where It Hurts
The young Sound shinobi threw himself to the right as darkness shot toward him. Gloved hands gained hold of a branch and the boy managed to get away from the shadows that were closing in. He got one breath of relief before his arms went cold. The icy feeling spread throughout his body and he knew he had underestimated the Konoha shinobi's jutsu; the shadow had wrapped up the tree trunk and along the branch.
"Kage mane no jutsu!" Shikamaru let his hands drop from the jutsu seal and slowly stretched out his fingers – the Oto-nin fell from the tree directly into the path of a miniature tornado.
Temari smirked as the enemy cried out in pain, watching the wind scythe jutsu hit him full on. A grin shot over her shoulder revealed the Leaf ninja behind her as he lowered his eyes from the now mutilated corpse. She cackled cruelly.
"Too hardcore for you, genius-boy?" she questioned teasingly, bringing a hand up to catch the kunai aimed at her face. She whipped around to face the next enemy. The sound kunoichi opened her mouth and clacked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. A pause in which everyone stared at her in confusion; then a horrific rattling filled the air, loud enough to block any and all other sound.
Temari felt bile rise in her throat as the vibrations rammed into her chest and abdomen, and she fought the urge to vomit, head swimming. She only just managed to bring the fan up in time to block the senbon thrown for her throat. The sound jutsu began to blend from rattling into one continuous drone. Temari could see Shikamaru's lips move in front of her, but without his voice, she couldn't understand him when her vision was so blurred. It was only when his hands started to dance though seals that she caught up with his plan.
The noise was cut off as the Sound shinobi froze, unable to move as the infamous shadow-nin caught her. A low growl from beside Temari's left side said in a clipped tone=, "Help, please."
She flashed her ostentatious smile and pulled back the deadly fan. "Kamaitachi no Jutsu!" she shouted, swinging the fan, her whole body twisting left with the force of the swing. "Shika, drop it now!" she shouted, not taking the time to use his whole name. The shadow paralysis was released and the Sound kunoichi let out a piercing cry as invisible blades bowled into her and sliced her skin through her Sound tunic.
Before Temari could recover and straighten up from the momentum of her swing, a kunai ripped through her exposed right shoulder.
"Son. Of. A. BITCH!" she swore in pain and anger. Another enemy had appeared from a bush nearby and taken advantage of her movement. Shikamaru was nearby reeling from another sound attack; she saw him drop to his knees coughing and gagging.
She tried to retaliate and hissed when she realized the wound to her upper arm had paralyzed her right hand. Oh well. She flicked her left wrist, flinging the monstrous fan into the air as if it weighed no more than baseball. It spun vertically as it came down, one metal edge hitting her upraised palm. The metal braces clacked together as it closed into her hand and strong fingers wrapped around the iron frame. Spinning backward on her heel, she brought the weapon around, using it as a blunt weapon to land a killing strike.
The sound of bone snapping and crunching accompanied the wide spray of blood as the Sound ninja was dropped. The flat of the fan had crushed the enemy shinobi's skull and sent a spatter of blood flying laterally through the air toward where Shikamaru was still gagging on the ground; crimson drops fell in slow motion to smack across the chuunin's back.
In the silence that followed the slaughter of the final enemy, Shikamaru could be heard gasping and wheezing as he desperately forced air back into his lungs, the blood on his lips his own, the blood on his back that of the enemy. Temari was also breathing heavily from exertion and pain; with the danger gone, she let the fan fall.
Shikamaru dragged a hand across his lips, glancing at the blood on his fingers. Sitting up on his knees, he looked toward the Suna ally. She was holding her right shoulder as darkness stained her already black sleeve a sticky purple.
"Awake now, huh? Just in time for me to finish off the enemy," she said, tone light and teasing through the strain. Shikamaru watched her grit her teeth and stand up straighter, pulling air through her clenched jaw. "Lazy bastard," she muttered as she watched Shikamaru force himself up as well and nearly fall back down.
"Women," Shikamaru sighed, but he was eyeing her wound with concern.
Temari hissed in retaliation. "Shut up, genius-boy!" she bit out at him. She could feel the wound throb with her every speeded heartbeat. Fuck, she needed to get this bandaged; moving stretched the cut wide open. Rolling her arm, she felt another, shallower cut across her shoulder blade. She glanced up at the young man in front of her. "If you're so manly and great," she taunted, "Help me bandage this scratch I got while saving your lazy genius ass."
The shadow-nin grunted his compliance, reaching up to adjust his high ponytail and steadfastly ignoring the blood that smeared into it from his stained hands. "Wait here," he said before turning and speeding off to where they had made camp the night before. Once there he began rustling through his pack for the med kit. As he was turning to leave, he grabbed an extra shirt to possibly use as extra bandaging. He was gone again in a whistling of air and rustling of leaves.
Temari glanced up from her place against a tree as Shikamaru landed beside her in a crouch, holding the medicine kit. While he was straightening up, Temari used her left hand to push aside the right shoulder of her black kimono, hissing as cloth pulled at the coagulating wound. It took some maneuvering, but she managed to get her wounded arm out of the sleeve. When she couldn't push the high collar away from her shoulder, she started to shrug out of the other sleeve.
"Hey, Sand. What're you doing?" Shikamaru asked, wondering where the kunoichi could be wounded beside her arm, and more than a little uncomfortable with the situation.
"Back. A little help?" she added in a frustrated tone when Shikamaru coughed awkwardly. He reached up to help, uneasy with the idea of touching her. Sure, they had been on several missions together as part of a mutually beneficial agreement between their villages, and in doing so they had become very close... but he was aware of a nervous feeling he got while around her, an adrenaline rush that made his stomach curl. They were friends, but this hyper-awareness of her caused Shikamaru much anxiety at the thought of touching her. However, Temari seemed to not have the same issue as she rolled her eyes in exasperation.
His hands fluttered uncertainly as he tried to strategize the best plan of action. Finally settling one hand very carefully on her shoulder, Shikamaru pulled her left sleeve while she lifted her arm out. The second she was free, Shikamaru immediately stepped away, taking an anxious breath to replace the one he had been holding. With the top of the kimono hanging off the waist sash, Temari's wounds were visible... if one could see past the blood that coated her skin, smeared around by her kimono before it could be removed.
And if he could stop his eyes from darting to look at the black bra she wore. It was a purely functional piece of clothing and a rational choice for a female shinobi in the field... It lacked any embellishment or sex appeal. And still Shikamaru had to continually force himself not to look at it; it wasn't just her breasts he was distracted by – the black against her skin was striking and the way it fit so closely to her body... his thoughts were rapidly becoming derailed.
Shaking his head to focus himself, Shikamaru snapped the cap off the tube of antiseptic, muttering, "Mendokuse," under his breath and noting the way Temari's face tightened in anticipation of the pain to come. He squeezed a large amount onto his fingers and gently moved to rub it into the slice on her back.
Teal eyes narrowed at the stinging and the crass girl swore again. "Mother FUCKER!" she yelled, stamping her foot to distract herself. Shikamaru had to jump back in order to avoid having his toes crushed. He could see the tendons standing out in her neck as she clenched her teeth spasmodically. He tried to ignore the way her body moved as she writhed in repressed pain, her spine undulating and her pretty fingers curling into fists.
"Stop moving!" he growled in frustration, trying to rub more ointment on her arm. A wry smirk stretched over her tightened jaw.
"Only if you stop staring at my breasts," she taunted. Cool eyes rolled lazily up to her face and nimble fingers started winding gauze bandages around her upper arm.
"Like there's anything to stare at," Shikamaru fired back. While Temari's eyes widened at the insult, he yanked the bandaging tight, grinning. Instead of a verbal parry, the older girl grunted in pain. "That distracted you all right," Shikamaru said, defending his insult along with his pride.
"Aren't you done yet, genius-boy?" Temari growled.
Shikamaru snorted. "If I say no, will you keep your shirt off?" he asked mischievously, smirking as he moved to tape more gauze over her back wound. Temari's eyes widened in shocked amusement. As he finished, she spun around to remove his smirk with a weak left-handed punch to a shoulder, which he allowed without dodging. He helped her get her right arm back through her kimono sleeve, holding the fabric back from dragging at the bandages.
Shrugging her other arm through the sleeve, Temari said, "Moving too fast, Nara. Don't you know how to treat a lady?" She emphasized the sarcasm by retrieving her blood and gore covered fan and wiping it on a patch of tree moss nearby, smiling her fearsome toothy smile. Walking back, she kicked a bloody corpse out of spite only to make a face as blood got into her sandal and squelched around her toes.
Watching her, Shikamaru swallowed compulsively and cringed. "You'll never be a lady," he said, turning to grab the water canteen he'd retrieved from the camp earlier.
Temari gave him a look that made him shiver in fear. Grinning viciously she said, "Well, that's fine since you're enough of a pussy for the both of us."
Shikamaru choked on the water he'd been drinking. "Excuse me?" he sputtered, voice higher than usual. He was still trying to breath through a trachea full of water as Temari started laughing. He tried to hide his face as his eyes started watering, but his attempts just made her laugh harder knowing she embarrassed him.
"Oooh, has the little crybaby returned?" she mocked in a high-pitched voice, slapping him on the back just in case. But she had taken it too far; Shikamaru whipped his head around to glare at her, teeth clenched, anger and hurt swirling in his eyes. Temari eyes widened and she scrambled to reverse the damage. "Shika, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I was just teasing, you know that – "
"Don't." he cut her off. Then he looked up sharply and asked incredulously, "Did you just call me 'Shika'?" It occurred rather abruptly to him that this entire conversation was completely inappropriate to being having with a foreign dignitary, and yet neither of them had ever thought to be politically correct around each other: they were friends more than they were allies. He shook his head, trying to focus on her response. "You did it earlier, too," he pointed out as she floundered for some logical reason.
"Well, it was quicker than saying your entire name," she justified. The young man blinked at her while she held her breath anxiously, hoping he would drop the subject.
Shikamaru gave her a skeptical look but said, "Well, I can understand expediency..."
With that, Temari let out the breath she had been holding in a chuckle that quickly developed into a full-blown laugh. Soon Shikamaru joined in with a lazy snigger, relaxing the tension from Temari's injudicious earlier comment. They laughed until Shikamaru fell against a nearby tree gasping for breath between snickers. Temari sat beside him and rested her head on his shoulder as her giggles subsided and she caught her breath. They sat together, breathing deeply, recovering from the exhaustion of the earlier fight. Shikamaru had to push her head away at some point when one of her puffy pigtails went up his nose.
"Mendokuse... Women are so troublesome," he grumbled. A gloved hand came up and slapped the back of his head.
"Or maybe it's just you." He smiled down at the woman in his lap but she had her eyes closed and she didn't catch it.
Possibly TBC
A/N: Anyway, I had this idea a few weeks ago, just the part where Temari gets a cut on her back and has to take her shirt off to get Shika to bandage it... MUAHAHA! It isn't supposed to be particularly erotic or smut-tastic (Cuz that would be fail) but it's supposed to be awkward and tense in a weird teenagery way.