Authoress' Note: This is a bit sad, I guess. It's my first try at a first person Point of View, so forgive me if I seem to have a bad habit of using "I" a lot. This is it… Read on!

Warning/Caution/Alert: Are you looking for direct dialogue? Sorry, you won't find any here.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I doubt I own this plot line either. And I do not own the band Evanescence. They are a band, and that is their name, right? Well, I've never heard any of their songs and therefore do not own them.

Evanescent

They were seen together quite often, I guess. If you were to ask me if they were going out, your answer would most definitely be a yes. Whether it be missions, or training, or spending simple, blissful days in the village, they were always together

It sent me off the deep end, knowing that that witless blonde was always around him and I wasn't. It wasn't that I didn't like her per se; I hadn't even met her formally. It was just that as long as she was with Shikamaru, she was dislikable.

Their public display of affection almost caused me to repulse one day. He and that smirking blonde strode into Ichiraku's once, and she was all over him, to say the least. Literally, she kissed him like every five seconds, as if he were some type of child that a mother wanted to check was safe from harm.

After night had fallen, I was strolling through the empty village streets, 'admiring' (if you would call it that) the night air. Yeah, right. The truth is, I was searching for Shikamaru, for some stupid reason I couldn't place. It might have been that I wanted to question why that… thing's hands were all over him earlier in the day.

I couldn't fathom it in my mind. She was just too ugly for any man to find an interest in.

Just as I arrived at his house in the pitch blackness of night, I was raged that I saw a blonde there — the same one from before, but more importantly, one that wasn't me.

She smiled a smile that looked horrid on her face, before throwing her arms around the teenager that stepped out of the house. Huffing, the only thing I could do was just walk away, because Shikamaru didn't even belong to me. Humph, I didn't care.

It was only till later that I realize that at that moment, the moment I witnessed them embrace, that I had literally clawed bits of brick off the building I hid behind.

I did care — a lot.

That's probably why after I walked away from that 'romantic' scene, I could feel my heart wrench. My feet started feeling like ten-thousand pound cinderblocks, some of which told me to turn around and separate the two in that instant. Even fight if I had to.

I did nothing, but kept walking.

For the next few days, I couldn't help but be pissed at him. And for the next few days, he couldn't help but not care because that little skanky girlfriend of his was around, making him blush and all that.

Whatever.

But, finally, after about what seemed like a month, he came to see me, wearing a lopsided grin, might I add. He asked how I was and things along those lines. After noticing with his enlarged brain that I was fuming, he sighed and muttered a 'troublesome.'

Which, I should say, was good enough for me at the moment. Anything from him was.

However, it didn't hinder my anger. Now, I desperately wish it did. During venting on him, I said it. I said what had been on my mind for that entire month.

I admitted I loved him. I'm not even sure I really even meant it, but dammit I was furious. Heh, it was really stupid and corny. And this was immediately after he had told me what a great friend I was. Nice one.

Shikamaru was speechless, and I… I suppose I was too.

The lazy bastard just turned his back to me, saying how 'he wish it weren't so' and asking 'why all of a sudden?'

I told him that it had been for a while, and he merely shook his head remorsefully. At ME of all people. Almost instantly, I knew was rejected.

'Gomen nasai,' Shikamaru said, 'But I have to go meet my girlfriend.' He left right after that.

Way to react to a girl confessing her feelings, genius!

I wouldn't cry. Even though I felt like I had a thousand daggers through my heart, even though there was now a hollow feeling in my stomach, and even though my heart had been ripped out of my chest by such a person, I didn't cry.

A few long years later, I still think of him. Dream of him.

Nara Shikamaru — a name I will never forget.

A man with simple words that hurt so much, they caused me to leave The Village Hidden in the Leaves for good.

I'm still single, living a life alone, as if waiting for him to rush through my bedroom window in pure white, smile that devilishly handsome smile of his, and whisk me away to The Kingdom of Yume, so we'd be blissfully joyful with each other forever….

But this is no fairytale.

There is no Prince Charming.

There are no happy endings.

There was for him and his girlfriend though, I guess. Because about a month ago, a telegram came in.

He had married her.

So, in the end, I guess the girl loved him more than I could have anyways.

My love for Shikamaru Nara was strong, true, but it was evanescent: disappearing after a short time and soon forgotten. Hm, I'm sure he probably did forget me by now.

But unlike mine, Yamanaka Ino's love for him wasn't evanescent. She had won his heart, and probably will hold it for years to come.

Owari...

Authoress' Note: For all you smart people out there, this is in Temari's point of view.

Got ya.

Be honest, did I get you? You thought it was Ino's Point of View, ne? Well, if you don't want to admit it, don't then. Be childish. -pouts- If it's bad, don't blame me, because this is the first thing I have ever written with a first person point of view. It was going to be third, but there weren't enough descriptions to get how the character really felt.

Oh, and the "Yume" up there means "Dream."

Ruh-Ruh-Ruh-Ruh-Review!