She watched him for a while.
He looked defeated, drained. He is leaning against a tree, an arm wrapping his left knee, head bowed.
She sighed, thinking on what to say. Yes, she had lost her father but… it was different. He was a stranger, someone who abandoned her and left her in charge of two babies, someone who treat her baby brother as a weapon. Not the caring, loving father that is being mourned in front of her.
Temari approached him quietly. She knew that Shikamaru can feel her chackra even in a distance. She put a hand on his shoulder and kneels besides him. He just look at her for a moment and resume to pick strands of grass. And sighs…
"How are you holding up, Cry Baby?". Stupid question, she beats herself, he is a mess. He is not even crying…
"I'm not crying, Troublesome Woman…" His voice so low, so cracked, so strained that she has to make an effort to understand "I'm ok, I guess… I'm holding on, like he told me…"
"He told you to hold on during the fight, not forever… You are suffering; you are in pain, you are angry and hurt. You need to let go sometime…" She brushes her fingers in his cheek, tenderly.
"I'm not a child anymore. I can't hide in my room and cry or broke down in front of everyone… I need to help… I need to rebuild this village… I need…" He raised his voice, almost screaming.
"Hush… You can do all that after you let go, after you let it all out. You aren't that much help, sitting in here, moping around… Come on, talk to me…"
"What are you doing here anyway? Suna needs its Princess… We don't need more troublesome women…"
She chuckles: "I came to see you… To see if you need me… If I can help somehow. "She hesitates…
"You made a three days journey to see me? So troublesome…"
"Yes, I did. So can you please stop shutting me down and talk to me?"
"Abou what?" He sighed…
"About how you feel… About him… Talk to me, let me help!" She cries out "Let me hold you…" She whispered…
He looked at her, more startled by her whispered word than by her outburst… His eyes started to water and he looked away… How can he explain this without looking like a child? How could he talk to her, of all people, without looking like a weak fool…
"He was the best, you know? So calm. So put together. He knew me better than I know myself…"
She smiled and nodded, encouraging him.
"After my first mission, he called me spineless coward when I said that I wanted to give up being a shinobi. I never felt so ashamed in my life, but I understood… That's what I needed to hear to push me forward, to become the shinobi I am today… He always believed in me, he always had that sparkle of proud in his eyes when he talked to me… Even if he were scolding me… He always had time for me. He never turned me away or said to suck up and man up when I was a child… I always feels so protected in his arms or when I'm next to him…" He bowed his head trying to hide hi watery eyes. She stroke the back of his neck, so comforting… "I don't know what to do without him… Without them… I don't have no one to scold me, to encourage me… " Tears started to fall down his face. There is no point in hiding, she already saw him cry so many times… To many times…
He feels her puts one hand in his shoulder, the other still in the back of his neck, pulling him closer to her, until his head is in her shoulder, his face hiding in her neck, his tears streaming down, wetting her kimono…
"Shhh… I know, I know… He will be with you, deep down in your heart… And I'm here, you know? I'll be always here. I meant what I said… You can call me whenever you need, I'm here to rescue you… Doesn't matter if I have to rescue from rogue ninjas or from your one sorrow, I'm here… I'll always be…" Her words so tender and gentle, her fingers brushing lightly his cheek, her hand running circles in his back…
"I'm not a child. I'm a man! I can have a woman 'rescuing' me! The most troublesome of all the women… You can't think forever that I'm a cry baby …"
"But you can thing that I'm always a troublesome woman?" she smirks…
"You are…"he manages a shy smile. "Yeah… I am…But everything is troublesome to you…"
"You are the most troublesome thing in my life…" He shakes his head against her shoulder and sighs slightly…
"Let me be more than that… I'm not then but… I already scold you all the time… And I'm pretty good at encouraging people, you know? My baby brother is the Kazegage…" She smiles.
He laughs, for the first time since his father death "you don't encourage, you nag the poor kid around"
"Hoy! Show some respect, brat! He is a Kage!" Her smile is so bright, so happy to see him laugh.
"Already scolding me, troublesome woman?"
"That's my job! Oh and by the way, we have work to do…"
"You said you came just to see me!" He lift his head of her shoulder.
"Yes, but now we could get some work done… " She laughs at her pained expression "Oh come here, Cry Baby, I'm teasing you!" She pulls his head back to her shoulder.
He sighs, leaning in her shoulder again. "Troublesome woman…"
They stay there in silence, watching the clouds drifting away and turn in to stars.
He knows he has someone to push him forward, again… She was there all this time, after all. The most troublesome woman he have ever know…