Just a short fic that takes place after a war with Orochimaru and Akatsuki. The pairings are Ino/Chouji, Hinata/Kiba, Neji/Tenten, Shikamaru/Temari, and Sakura/Naruto, but mostly Shikamaru/Temari with a tiny dab of Sakura/Naruto. Also some brother/sister bonding (not romance). Please review if you like it! If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Now you can't sue me! HAHA! In your face!

Why Does it Rain?

"Temari, it's time for the funeral," Sakura announced. Temari didn't answer. "Temari, please." She knocked again on the bathroom door.

(&)

The war was over. They had one the war against Orochimaru and Akatsuki. There were many deaths; uncountable. A large stone monument covered with gold name plates now stood in between the Sand and Leaf countries.

Yamaaka Ino

Akimichi Chouji

Akimichi Chouza

Inuzuka Kiba

Inuzuka Hana

Rock Lee

Tsunade

Hyuga Hinata

Uchiha Sasuke

Nara Shikamaru

Kankuro of the Sand

Gaara of the Sand

Thousands more; Temari remembered the bloody field. Silence filled the area as survivors began to search for their loved ones.

Kankuro was all the way on the other side of the field. Temari had seen him die.

'Why?'

Gaara lay about ten feet away from her. Temari didn't need to walk over to see that he was dead.

'Gaara…'

Nara Shikamaru was laying in front of her. She remembered then; he had saved her. He took the blow for her. Why?

'I hope it was because you loved me…'

But she couldn't cry. She wanted to cry; she had to cry. It began to rain.

"Temari, why does it rain?" a young Gaara asked from the windowsill.

Temari thought for a moment and then replied, "Because, Gaara, the clouds are crying."

"Why are they sad?"

"The clouds are sad when someone dies. Especially if they have just died to save someone else."

"If I die, will the clouds cry for me, too? Even though I am a…monster?"

Temari looked at him with sad eyes. "I hope that the clouds cry for you, Gaara, but if they do not, then I will cry. Because you are no monster; you are my brother!"

Temari smiled at her brother.

"I guess…the clouds really do cry," Temari whispered as she looked up to the clouds, soaked in blood and covered with dirt. "They cry…for everyone."

(&)

"Temari, I'm coming in!" Sakura announced, fed up with her friend's behavior. She opened the door and screamed.

(&)

Naruto held Sakura in his arms as they watched the funeral procession. Sakura brought a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and read it over again, tears filling her eyes.

To my friends:

I'm sorry, I really am. But…I can't live without them. I've lost everything I have ever held dear to me. So I guess I just want to be with them again. There are many things I never got to say to them.

Please ask them to bury me next to Nara Shikamaru; he sacrificed his own life for mine. I loved him; this is one of the things I wish I had told him before the battle, but I guess that now I will get to tell him, right?

Tell them to also bury me next to Gaara; my baby brother who fought so hard to be acknowledged and taken in as an actually person. I guess he finally got his wish, right?

Tell them to bury Kankuro next to Gaara; we can always be together this way, even if people who take their own lives do go to hell, right?

I'll miss you, too. But please don't cry; the clouds will do that for you.

Love always,

Temari

Sakura looked up at the sky, which had begun to pour down rain. "Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Temari's right; the clouds really do cry. But so do I," Sakura told him, smiling. Naruto looked up and smiled along with his fiancé as they walked with the procession.

As the last shovel of dirt was poured over the four graves, the sun came out and shone a rainbow clear in the sky, and it was like their friends were smiling down on them.

Everything was well.