Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... if I did, Temari and Shikamaru would have more scenes together! Yay!
I just desperately wanted to write a story on the two of them.
A promise is a promise
Temari saw the two of them long before they appeared on her doorstep.
Their eyes were downcasted and their footsteps were heavy. Their ninja clothes were cut and torn in many places and dried blood encrusted their skin in various areas.
Temari's heart filled with a sense of dread. Suppressing the feeling of anxiety within her, she clung onto the promise he made before he left.
"I'll be back for Valentine's Day, and when I'm back, I'll marry you."
"Promise?" she clung to him desperately. Once she had hated the vulnerability he brought out in her, hiding it beneath her contempt and seeming superiority. But now, she relished in being able to trust another person so completely.
"Promise."
It was three days before Valentine's Day.
Temari's white fingers trembled as she opened the front gate and stood on the road, waiting for the two shinobi to approach.
They dragged their feet slowly till they stood a few metres away from her. Their expressions were weary and their postures slouched.
"Ino, Chouji." Temari managed to greet out despite the dryness of her throat.
"Temari..." Chouji began.
Ino shot one quick look at Chouji before cutting him off, "Temari, we defeated the Akatsuki. We accomplished the mission."
But that wasn't what Temari wanted to hear. She gripped her large fan tightly, not even aware that she had brought out her comfortingly familiar weapon in her anxiousness.
"Tell me."
"He... We..." Chouji stuttered, unable to get the words out.
"Tell me!" Temari roared, her composure breaking.
"He's dead, Temari. Shikamaru's dead." Ino said finally, her voice quavering with effort as she delievered the news. Then, as if saying the words somehow made them real, she turned and buried her head in Chouji's shoulder.
"He's dead! He's dead, he's dead... Shikamaru's dead..." Ino cried between sobs that wetted Chouji's uniform and washed off the blood and dirt of their cursed mission.
Temari shook her head blankly. "No... no... you promised. You promised to come back... you can't be..." She couldn't bring herself to say the word 'dead'.
Chouji, caught up in his own grief and trying valiantly to comfort Ino, didn't notice when Temari picked up her fan and resolutely walked off.
---
Temari gripped her fan so tightly it left angry red marks on her palm. She didn't notice. The sky above was overcast and lightning flashed threateningly across the sky. She didn't see. She wasn't even aware of where she was walking to. She just knew that she had to get away from Ino and Chouji and just go somewhere. Anywhere.
Lies. All lies. Shikamaru wouldn't leave me. Shikamaru promised. He promised.
Temari walked resolutely on, she walked out of the gates of Konoha and her feet took her towards the forest. Usually the lush green forest was a delightful vibrant place to be. But today, right now, it was dark and foreboding. From the distance, the rumble of thunder indicated an imminent thunderstorm. Temari didn't care.
Temari walked on, ignoring the large droplets of water that now battered down on her. There was the clearing where she and Shikamaru often sat, him watching the clouds and she watching him. Over the other side was the river bank where Shikamaru made love to her in broad daylight. Where he whispered "I love you" as he worshipped her body, his mouth tracing the new scars she'd collected from her previous mission. And that huge tree was where they had both perched on one night, watching the metor showers in comfortable silence. Everywhere she walked, Temari saw images of the both of them, playing like a broken film.
"Nara Shikamaru!" Temari cried into the thunderstorm. Climbing up onto the highest tree, she shouted across the canopy into the rain. "Nara Shikamaru!"
"You promised! You bastard you promised to come back! Baka!" Temari was completely soaked by the rain now. The rain flattened her hair and water dripped down her fringe onto her face.
Shikamaru had always liked her hair wet. He said it made her look incredibly sexy.
The memory of what Shikamaru did when he thought her irresistable brought a sharp pain to her chest. Her heart hurt, it hurt as much as when her oka-san passed away. Worse than when she found out Gaara had been kidnapped. It hurt like someone had stabbed it through a hundred times and then torn it up into a thousand different pieces.
"Nara Shikamaru! If you don't come back, I'll destroy your forest! I'll destroy your entire family's heritage by killing all the trees one by one. You know I hold true to my threats! So you better come back!" Temari shouted so loud that she could hear the dying echos of her own voice.
Straining her ears and eyes, she half expected to see a figure with pineapple hair appearing in the distance or the faint lazy drawl of "Troublesome".
But there was nothing.
"Don't think I don't dare. I'll destroy your whole damn forest if you don't return!" Temari cried.
---
Temari swung her fan angrily as yet another tree crashed down onto the forest floor, felled by her mighty fan. It joined the 100 over fallen trees that were a statement of Temari's destruction. A squirrel scurried out of its once peaceful sanctuary and hurried off deeper into the forest. Probably to warn the other animals of a menance coming their way.
Stupid boy. If he could just appear I wouldn't have to do this. He can't be gone, he's probably just lying somewhere watching the clouds and forgetting that he has to come home.
"Do I really have to kill your entire forest before you come back?" Temari shouted into the woods. "Nara Shikamaru!" As usual, there was no reply.
Baka!
Temari clutched her fan determinedly and methodically worked her way through another hectare of forest.
---
"She can't just keep destroying our trees!"
"Yeah, she's not even from Konoha, let's kick her out of this place."
"I bet she has a hidden agenda to bring Konoha down, traitor, spy!"
The dissent spread fast and wide, like a bushfire in the middle of a hot summer. Temari didn't know and didn't care. She wanted Shikamaru back and she didn't know any other way besides this to bring him back.
"No one is allowed to harm her." Gaara spoke up, his voice deceivingly quiet but his hard eyes invited no argument. Even so, the Kazekage could not prevent the ripples of displeasure reverberating amongst the people of Konoha.
Ties between Sand and Fire Country were looking to become very tensed.
Temari wouldn't have given a damn even if she had known. Sand was her home because that was where she was born. Fire was her home because that was where Shikamaru was. Didn't they all know that she was doing all this so that Shikamaru could return. That politics and borders don't mean a damn thing where love was concerned.
They didn't understand, they didn't care. They all believed Shikamaru was gone. They all believed he would break his promise to her. They all believed her mad.
Fools.
Shikamaru was going to be very very angry when he returned. She figured she had destroyed almost a quater of all the trees in the forest belonging to his clan. Shikamaru was very protective about two things. His family heritage and her. Yes, Shikamaru was going to be very angry indeed.
But that was alright with Temari, she was angry too. Angry that he was making her worried, angry that he was making her do stupid things like these so that he would return, angry that he had left her for so long. Yes, Shikamaru will get it from her when he appears.
---
Today is Valentine's Day. Shikamaru will return today. He has to. He must. Temari's hands were bleeding from the many broken blisters. She would have to hold Shikamaru with rough hands later, but it's his fault and anyway his hands will be rougher. Her eyes stung from insufficient sleep and her body protested from the lack of food and water.
All around her were the carcasses of dead trees, broken branches and scattered leaves. Still she wielded her fan systematically. Sometimes in anger, sometimes in despair, but always with the hope that with the resounding collapse of the next tree, Shikamaru would appear.
"She hasn't given up?" Kankuro spoke in disbelief.
"No." Gaara said, almost sadly.
"Temari! Shikamaru is dead! Dead! Get it? Stop destroying Konoha. He's dead! He won't come back to life!" Naruto had gotten tired of sitting on the sidelines watching his friend become insane and his home being destroyed. He was going to knock some sense into Temari.
Bad move. Temari took one cool look at him and said "Bullshit." Then, she blew him to the other end of Konoha before returning to destroy more trees.
After that, they decided to leave Temari alone. Hopefully, she would come to her senses soon.
Although they wondered if she ever would. Temari did things to the extreme. She trained too hard, cussed too loud, loved too deeply and held on too tight.
"We should go." Kankuro said to Gaara. "Perhaps she'll listen to us tomorrow."
Gaara took a long look at his sister, who was destroying yet another tree. In all his years, he had never seen her like this. She was always so strong, mentally and physically. He'd never seen her so close to breaking point.
"Let's go."
---
They had finally gone. Naruto, Chouji, Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Kankuro. Even Gaara's watchful sand had taken their leave. She was finally all alone in the forest. Or what was left of it anyway.
Night had fallen and there was only the gentle glow of the crescent moon to illuminate the world . Temari rubbed her eyes as fatigue threatened to catch up on her.
"Shikamaru... Nara Shikamaru... you promised... you promised." She crouched down beside a still standing tree and rested her back against the hard bark.
Valentine's Day was almost over and Shikamaru had not appeared. For the first time since Ino and Chouji appeared at the doorstep with the cruel news, Temari allowed doubt to enter her mind. What if what they said was true. What if Shikamaru really broke his promise. What if he really is... dead?
Temari's eyes burned with hot tears.
"You promised!" she cried as the tears spilled out of her eyes.
"You promised... you idiot... Shikamaru you idiot.. you said you will marry me, you said you will return... you idiot..." Temari repeated to herself over and over again as she hugged her knees in her arms.
Her fan lay brokenly by her side as she opened the floodgates inside of her and poured her grief out. She had no idea how long she sat there crying but slowly, a puddle formed around her.
Gradually, her sobs were reduced to hiccups.
Leaves crunched and twigs snapped as light footsteps slowly made their way to where Temari was sitting. Temari caught a wiff of smoke in the air. She stared at the sandaled feet that had stopped in front of her. Lifting her head, her gaze slowly travelled up the strong muscled legs, the green uniform, the hitai-ate on the left arm, that lazily curved lips, those eyes... the hair...
"You troublesome woman... what have you done to my forest?" Shikamaru admonished lightly, amusement glinting in his moonlit eyes.
"Shikamaru!" Temari gasped. Getting up to her feet, she flung herself into Shikamaru's arms. Burying her face in his warm chest, her eyes spilled tears of happiness. "They said you were dead... they said you were gone. But you promised. You promised me..."
"Saa... it's alright. I'm here now." Shikamaru said gently as he stroked her back.
Temari leaned into Shikamaru's strong arms. Everything was going to be fine now that he had finally returned back to her.
"Temari..."
"Hn..."
"Will you go wherever I go? Will you leave everything behind and go with me?"
"I..." Temari hesitated. "Leave sand, leave Gaara and Kankuro?"
Temari lifted her head to look at Shikamaru and saw his love shining in his eyes.
"Will you?" Shikamaru asked uncertainly.
Temari thought no more. "Yes," she replied.
"Then go with me." Shikamaru let go of her and walked some ways into the forest. "Come." he stuck out his hand.
Temari grabbed his hand and followed after him. And she never looked back from then on.
---
The next day, there was no sign of Temari in the forest.
Gaara emptied all the sand in his gourd and sent them all to find traces of Temari but she was nowhere to be found. Akamaru and Pakkun picked up Temari's scent at the spot where she dropped her fan but the trail stopped short a few metres into the forest. No one had seen her since last evening. It seemed simply that she had disappeared into thin air.
Right. Temari and Shikamaru became very OC in the end... sorry 'bout that. Do me a favour and tell me how it is... Review please!