Dedication: Kits, here is your final gift-fic. Enjoy it, babe.
Disclaimer: Yeah, uhm, NO.
Love is give & take. Love is hard times, & its good times. It's challenging each other to be better. It's learning from each other. It's work in progress. It's a feeling of sadness because you couldn't be happier. It's conversations that involve no words. It's chaotic & it's unpredictable. At times, it makes you want to scream, but its a feeling that's deeper than that of any other feeling; it's a gift.
When I was twelve, you, most likely, would've seen Uchiha Sakura scrawled all over my notebooks. Back then, Sasuke was my Prince Charming and I was his Cinderella. (Or, at least, that's what I had convinced myself of.) I was going be his Only One, I was going to complete him in ways that no one else could.
Of course, I was a foolish girl with hopes too high and common sense too low. I was put on the same team as Sasuke, and it seemed everything was coming full circle; that was, of course, until those beautiful black obsidian eyes narrowed at me, and the words he hissed pierced me through like a knife.
"Annoying."
There were many degradations following that. Weak. Pitiful. Stupid. A plethora of insults, all just for me. (And Naruto, of course, but I doubt they hurt him the way they hurt me.)
It was after he got the curse seal, and he began to clam up again and the insults doubled (right after he had actually begun to maybeperhapsoccasionally open up to us) that my dream shattered around my feet like sparkling glass, the dreams of what we were, what we had been, and what we would be, and my sweet, innocent Once-Upon-A-Time became my Unhappily-Ever-After.
----
After Sasuke left, Naruto and I were left to pick up and attempt to piece back the life we once had. It wasn't easy, though, both of us pining for a ghost that would never come back again, staring out or windows late at night, hoping that he would somehow, miraculously, come walking back through those gates; that everything would return to the way it had once been.
Except that it wouldn't be, and that realization probably hurt more than our wishing. Reality is always the worst after the sweetest dream.
I became independent, training, always training, and yet, at the same time, I also depended on Naruto. He was like the life raft in a turbulent sea, where the waves threatened to pull me under but he always stopped them.
Two and a half years had passed since our former comrade had defected, and the lines of friendship began to become blurred between Naruto and I. It didn't help that Sai, the boy who had replaced Sasuke on our team, also had inky black hair and dark eyes; yet, he couldn't replace Sasuke in my heart. And neither could Naruto, though I had fooled myself that, maybe, perhaps, he could.
Eventually, Naruto got Hinata (and I was immensely relieved; she had loved him for a long time, and I was glad that someone, at least, had gotten their Happily-Ever-After) and I had a few boyfriends.
It was while I had been playing Go with Shikamaru (on one of the rare occurrences that we both had off; and, contrary to popular belief, the genius and I were just friends. Besides, it was my firm belief that Ino and him had something to go on, if the blades of grass I pulled out of her hair and the looks she cast the pineapple-haired man were anything to go by) that Temari stopped by.
I wasn't too familiar with the blonde-haired female, but she treated me to lunch a few days later, and we began to talk. We discovered that we both liked a lot of the same things, and a fast friendship was formed.
Temari began to come by more often, first with Gaara and Kankuro, then just with Gaara, and finally by herself.
I was seventeen by then, and Temari and I had been spending more and more time together. I, of course, had always been noted for my brilliance. It was by then, after more than a year of being friends with Temari, that I began to figure it out why none of my previous relationships had worked.
And, much to my surprise, I realized that Temari felt the same way I did.
I wish that I could tell you that everything ran smoothly after I admitted the way I felt about her, when I was eighteen and had finally summoned up my courage to tell her, but it didn't.
Our first kiss wasn't in a flurry of rose petals; instead, it was on a blood-stained battlefield, with people that we knew getting ready to fight. She grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me to her, our lips mashing and our teeth clanked together in a way that was almost painful. "You're alive now, you better be alive when I find you again." She growled before jumping out into the flurry.
Our love wasn't the most accepted, either: Naruto went into shock, but then laughed and hugged me, telling me that he loved me, and that whoever made me happy, he could care less. Ino didn't mind, even though she and Temari didn't exactly, ah, get along very well. Most of my friends accepted it, though I could tell that they were a little awkward around Temari and I, which is why there isn't much PDA between her and I.
I wish I could tell you that, also, that Sasuke finally came home, but he didn't. While the first time Temari and I kissed signaled the beginning to a new chapter of my life, it also ended an old one. Kakashi-sensei also died there, along with Shino, and also with others that I knew only by face.
And though Naruto helped me to the best of his ability (meaning that I literally had to kick him out the door, because I wasn't the only one grieving, and Hinata was his fiancée, so he had to comfort her more) it was Temari who held me while I cried in my sleep, who called me out of work even though I was determined to go, who knew that though I pushed people away, trying to convince everyone that I was fine, that it had been a long time ago and I was over it, Temari, however, knew me better.
And now we are at the present, me being twenty-two, and godmother to two beautiful godchildren. Shikamaru and Ino's daughter, Amami, and Naruto and Hinata's daughter, Haru. Both of which were understandable, since Amami means "beautiful sky", and she's got Ino's eyes, and Haru means "sunshine", and the beautiful baby girl is the spitting image of her father.
I doubt Temari and I will ever have children, but that suits me fine. I'm quite happy with the way things are right now.
Of course, our relationship, like so many things in life, isn't perfect. There are still the cracks and the flaws, the hardships, but that's what love is: it's simply being there, when no words are needed, when all you can do is envision being with that person, through both the good times and the bad, because they complete you.
Life is kind of like a giant puzzle. Once you find the correct piece, everything else starts to fall into place. And, for me, Temari is my right puzzle piece.
A/N-- That isn't exactly how I envisioned the ending to be, but oh well. I'm basically happy with this, especially since it's my first--and most likely last--TemaSaku. It was a tad bit awkward, but nothing I couldn't handle. (This is, of course, after several days of not knowing what to write about, and therefore, freaking out about it. Yet, finally, the words just came to me. Yay!) Anyway, thoughts on how I did?