Authors note:
I never had wanted to write a story with cannons until reading Firefly's work. :) Its inspiring really. Im sorry this chapter is so short but eh ya know? Its just the intro after all.
~Nightmare Raven
Disclamer:
I dont own Any character. They are property of Kishimoto and Viz.
ShikaTem HidaTem
1. (Introduction) Henceforth
Did it matter? In the end had it matter truly? The only answer she could even think to murmur was no. Had she cared, second thoughts wouldn't be had. But there they were. A deft glare shone its way to her in a cold response to the fridged treatment he had received. He had known somewhere, all along, that everything they seemed to have was nothing but a conundrum of hopes and failures. Built on a rickety foundation meant to fail even from its doomed beginnings.
"So," Shikamaru murmured, ice biting his tongue," that's it then?"
It was a question Temari didn't know how to answer. Whatever relationship they had, had always been nothing more than a stern friendship, if that. Never had she imagined the boy would have though of her silly playful flirting as an invitation for something more.
His eyes hardened as he willed an answer from her lips but they were fastened tightly. She had no intention of replying to him. For a moment, he imagined himself smacking her face, forcing her to speak to him, but that feeling drowned in the darkest recesses of the shadows of his mind. Temari had turned away from him, refusing to glance his way.
"I think you'd better go."
"Tch. Haveto get back to the leaf anyway. I've already wasted enough time here"
The words stung her but it was hard to tell from the outside. The girl was a rock, it seemed, but even a rock crumbled after so many blows.
Ignoring the stinging that throbbed throughout the right side of his face, he turned away from her. 'Hopefully,'he thought, 'for the last time'
As darkness cascaded down over the sand village, the blue eyes shinobi stood where she had been. She didn't go after the boy, but part of her wished she had. He was the first outside of the sand village who had ever taken her seriously as a competitor. He spoke to her, sometimes even traveled with her. And now…
She licked her lips; the faint aftertaste of cigarettes filled her mouth. It was enough to make her wretch. It wasn't bad my any means. Only, so very unwanted. Something like that to her was perceived as comparable to incest.
Tamari's limbs seemed frozen by the time she had decided to move out of her trance-like state. 'He'll get over it' she told herself, 'by the next time he sees's me no doubt.' Men were nothing to fret over so she might as forget it ever happened. Regret wasn't in her vocabulary. A huff of air escaped her lips before she turned on heel and ran home. She didn't want to be stuck outside in the ice cold weather when nightfall overtook the city this time of year.