Scenes I felt that should have been. Spoilers, obviously, and AU. Obviously.

Enjoy.

if you're lost you can look and you will find me
time after time
if you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting
time after time...

"See you've been keeping up on the place."

Her voice grates along his skin before he opens his eyes. He can picture her, that damn arrogant smirk on her face, her eyes narrowed at him. Her black dress hugging her body...she has curves like he's never seen before, silky blonde hair and at times a softness in her eyes that could fool you as soon as pulverize you. A seductive killing machine, to say the least.

"You always were lazy. Worthless, you know?"

She kicks a few shogi pieces, scattering them farther around the room. He can smell her now, a faint hint of orchid on a sharp breeze, and he hates that it's a soothing scent, one that can always loosen his tense shoulders. Right now, that's the last thing he wants. He deserves this discomfort.

"I don't know what's sadder, that you're actually lying in a pool of your own tears, or that I expected to find you like this. You're such a disgrace."

"You talk too much." He mutters, rolling over to face her.

"That might hurt a little more if I heard it a little less." She says with a shrug. "Anyway, it looks like I owe your village so here I am."

He raises an eyebrow. "Owe Konoha? For what exactly? And how did you get in here, anyway? Man, what a drag."

Temari sets her fan carefully against the wall, displaying a gentleness with her weapon that he's only seen in her interactions with her brothers, and even though he hates to admit it, once or twice with him. "I used the front door, idiot. And while it may be easy for you to forget, I seem to recall you saving my life a while back." So it's been a few years, but Temari is from Suna and those of the desert never forget debts.

Shikamaru waves this off. "That was me paying you back, remember? Besides what difference does it make, that's water under the bridge."

"It makes all the difference in the world, Shikamaru. But I guess you're right; it was a long time ago."

"Yep." He says, rolling back onto his side, his back her. "So you can just use the front door again, and don't let it hit you on the way out."

Temari sighs, then tosses something on the floor, near his head. "So what's it gonna be? Are you going to wallow in your self-pity, or are you going to let your testicles descend and man up? That old guy had to have taught you that much, at least."

Shikamaru reaches for what she's dropped, and his hand closes around a pack of cigarettes. They were Asuma's preferred brand, and even the picture on the front of the box makes his stomach clench and his eyes water.

"What would you know about it anyway?" Shikamaru says, slamming his fist on the floor. With his free hand he hurls the cigarettes back at Temari.

"I've lost a father, too."

And it's the first time anybody has ever said it aloud, but Shikamaru can't deny that it's exactly how he feels about Asuma. His father in so many ways, in ways different than Shikaku, in ways that even Shikamaru doesn't understand.

Shikamaru swallows. "I...forgot." Of course, the Kazekage, killed before the final round of the chunin exam...

"Lucky you." Temari says, but there isn't the usual malice in her voice.

Shikamaru shrugs. "What do you want, an apology? Fine, I'm sorry you lost your dad. Didn't think he was much of a family man."

Temari laughs. "If I wanted an apology, you'd be on your knees begging for me to forgive you. And you're right. He wasn't a great dad. But I still loved him, and our people loved him. He taught me a few things."

It'd be different if Asuma had only taught him a few things, but really almost everything he knows about being a worthy shinobi is from his sensei's example, and Shikamaru can't grant Asuma's dying wish, that he teach and mentor the growing child in Kurenai's belly, because how is he supposed to be happy again when his heart is broken?

"You know, if you were from Suna, you wouldn't be such a crybaby."

Shikamaru rolls his eyes. "That so."

"You got it. See, in the desert, we don't just mope around when somebody we love is taken from us. We are shinobi, and we don't dishonor the fallen like that."

Shikamaru can tell from her voice (and he's known Temari long enough to hear the calculating tone, the subtle hint of persuasion) that she's going somewhere with this, even if it is all troublesome and women are a drag anyway.

"In Wind country, Nara, we get revenge."

Shikamaru turns over, sees that Temari has carefully and silently picked up the shogi board, placing all the pieces in their correct places. "That baby is going to need you. It's going to need you the way you needed Asuma."

Shikamaru sits up, his arms resting on his knees. He knows Temari is right, and Asuma would be ashamed of him right now, and rightly so.

"You know what to do. The shinobi of your village aren't so different than the shinobi of my village, you know."

Shikamaru raises an eyebrow. "How can you say that? You have Gaara." So Konoha has Tsunade, but Gaara is a force like nothing ever seen before, and he's pure strength and intelligence and truly the best weapon Suna has. If Gaara wasn't so valuable, the Akatsuki wouldn't have wanted him so badly.

Temari cocks her head to one side and gives him a smile. His stomach drops, reacting to those lips (and dammit those lips will surely be the death of him) "Yeah. The Sand has Gaara...and the Leaf has you."

Her fingertips graze his jaw, and then she's gone, only a faint breeze left in her wake. Shikamaru takes a deep breath, carefully puts the pack of cigarettes in his pocket, and settles down in front of the shogi board.

oooo

"So?" Ino asks, standing from her spot outside the Nara house. Choji is behind her, their faces hopeful.

Temari secures her fan, tightening her headband. "He's back. But I think it all is going to depend on his plans...he's really going to need you guys to step up."

"Alright! So he's planning a counter attack?" Choji asks, pumping a fist in the air.

"You have to come. We need you." Ino says immediately. Temari's skills would be nothing but an asset against two Akatsuki, and Ino knows that Temari feels some sort of protectiveness over Shikamaru.

Temari gives a slight smirk, then a shake of her head. "This is something you have to do...as Leaf ninja. Shikamaru..." Temari turns back toward the house, and Ino raises an eyebrow at the tenderness in Temari's eyes, "will be fine. He's strong, and he's smart as hell."

Ino gives a nod. "We'll make sure he's okay. He'll come out of this alive." Temari meets Ino's eyes, accepting the promise there, the promise of a woman. Ino is Shikamaru's sister in every way that matters, and Temari can't think of anybody else better suited to see this mission through with him.

"Well, I hate to think who the Hokage would put in charge of the next chunin exam if Nara went and got himself killed." Temari turns, lifting her hand in farewell.

"Wonder when we're going to stop need Suna's help." Choji mutters, but Ino smiles, grateful that Temari is the girl that cares for her brother in a way nobody else can.

"I'm just...I'm so worried about her." Sakura says, wringing her hands together.

It's dark and she's looking up at the stars, Kakashi leaning casually up against a tree behind her. She'd been training alone when he found her, and he can't really even say why he went looking for her in the first place. Since the reformation of team Kakashi, and especially since Sakura had put her skills on display during the whole Gaara and Akatsuki incident, he's been wanting more and more to be around her. Not for any particular reason, really, just that her presence is comforting, and he finds himself more and more annoyed when she isn't around. Even Yamato has commented that his temperament is more pleasant when Sakura's there.

"She's a strong kunoichi. She'll make it." Kakashi says, wishing he could say something more to comfort her.

Sakura sighs, and drops her gaze. "I guess...I guess if it were me," and she comes closer to him, and there a few red flags going up in his mind, but he doesn't move, just stays still as his eyes catch on the flyaway ends of her hair, of the slight spark of her jade eyes against the starlight. "If it were me," she says again, her voice nearly a whisper, and she's looking up at him in that way she always does, like he's a hero and yeah, he can save her, "I'd never stop until I felt their blood. Until I'd massacred them." Her jaw is set and there is something savage in her eyes.

"Sakura..." He says, but she blinks and her old softness is back.

"Sorry, lost in thought." She says, waving her hand dismissively. "Kakashi-sensei...would you do something for me, if I asked? If I asked from the bottom of my heart?"

He feels stirrings, stirrings of things he used to think were beyond him, because he's lost so much, and how could anything ever be hopeful again? How could somebody make him smile, after the things he's done, the lives he's ruined?

"Sensei?" Sakura says softly, her palm flat against the chest of his vest.

He isn't even going to think about how inappropriate these feelings he's developing for Sakura are. For his former student! For a girl hardly a woman, and yet really that's in age only. Sakura has been older than her years, always, more mature and clever then her peers, and certainly with as much life experience as most women decades older.

"What do you need?" And it doesn't come out as he wanted it to, not monotone and only slightly curious, but as determined and like she's holding a piece of meat over him, and he's a starving beast. She smiles at his tone and drops her hand, so that their fingers are ghosting each other's. He wants to pull away, but he's not that strong.

"See, if it were me...and Naruto and Sai, I know what we would do. They're planning on leaving the village, they're going after those two Akatsuki. I get it, I do, and I...think they need to go. They need to try."

"Even if it means they die?" He marvels at the faith Sakura has in her comrades, because it's a gift and he wishes that when he was her age he'd had that ability.

Sakura shakes her head. "You know they don't care about that. This means too much to them. Shikamaru will make sure his plan has zero cracks."

Kakashi sighs. "It's reckless."

"Exactly. And you know them, they won't wait for Tsunade's approval, or wait for her to assign a team leader or a back-up squad. They need somebody with true battle experience, somebody who has skills on par with their enemies. They need somebody who will help keep them alive." Their eye contact is unbroken, and Kakashi swallows thickly at the closeness of her, of the smell of her skin and the feel of her warmth.

"Ino is my best friend...and Choji and Shika are like family. We're all in this together, and there's only one person I trust enough to lead them."

Sakura lifts her hand to his face, pushing up his headband, revealing his Sharingan, her nimble fingers lost in his hair, hovering over his ear. "We can back you up, we're the best suited to work with Team Ten anyway."

"It'll mean one hell of a fight. These two...they're stronger than the ones we fought before. You almost died." Kakashi manages to get out, and he bites the inside of his cheek to keep from moaning at the brush her skin on his scalp.

Sakura shrugs, and his skin prickles at the ease with which she disregards her own well-being. "I've grown since then. Every battle only makes you a stronger fighter, right?"

"I'll go." Kakashi says, and he knows Sakura is right, that Tsunade will send his team to back them up, and at least if he's the one calling the shots he can keep Sakura out of harm's way as much as possible. Not that she needs him to grant her any favors, and much less that she'll want him to, but tit for tat.

Sakura lets out a breath and grips his hand, her forehead against his sternum, and her heat is sinking into his clothes, her sweet smelling hair and soft skin too easily within his reach.

"Thank you, sensei. You know," She tips her head up, a smile on her face, "you're the only man I've ever been able to count on."

"Heh. I don't know if that's a good idea." He says, and it makes him uncomfortable that she's so willing to trust his promises, because he knows how vulnerable it can make you.

She steps back and threads her fingers through his, and Kakashi can only think of how well her hand fits with his, not about how he should be pulling back from her, not about how Tsunade would flay him alive if she could see him with her favored student right now. The moment is him and Sakura and the mild breeze around them.

Kakashi gives Sakura's hand a final squeeze, then he eases from her, tugging his headband back down over his eye.

"Be safe." Sakura says, and tosses him a small box.

"Be easier to do that without these." Kakashi muses, but he slides the box into his pocket anyway. If anything, they're a reminder of Sakura, and that's something worth taking with him.

Sakura glares, folding her arms across her chest. "Well excuse me if I go for nutritional value over- "

"Thank you." His lips graze at her temple, her soft hair sliding against his cheek as he passes her. He's out of the clearing, on his way to the gates of the village, when he looks back up at the stars, sure Sakura's head is tilted skyward again as well. "Thank you for believing in me."

Meh. I might write some more scenes as I get farther in Shippuden. We'll see. As always, feedback is appreciated! Lyrics from Time After Time by miss Cindy L. There's a really well-done ShikaTema video set to the remake by Quietdrive if you're interested. Youtube it!