Naruto was lying in his room, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, his thoughts swirling in a whirlpool of shock and ecstasy at a mile a minute.
'Oh. My. God. I can't believe this. My fifteen-year-old fiancée is hot, smart, funny, totally nice, and a kunoichi to boot! I can't believe I didn't want to marry her not half an hour ago!' he thought, already hearing wedding bells even though it would by three years until he actually heard them.
His thoughts were suddenly disrupted as Narukomi stuck her around the doorframe into his room.
"Me and Temari-onee-san are sleeping in my room; just in case you get any ideas!" Narukomi said, sticking her tongue out playfully at her older sibling.
"Do you really have to call me 'onee-san' already?" asked Temari sheepishly from behind Narukomi in the hallway.
Narukomi spun around, grin wide on her face. "Of course! What's the point in waiting three years to call you that when I can get used to it now?" Narukomi countered easily.
Temari was about to argue when she remembered that Narukomi could just take the pajamas she had given her back at anytime, even when the rest of Temari's clothes were in the wash.
Needless to say, Temari shut her mouth.
/\/\/\/\
After about an hour and a half of tossing and turning Temari still couldn't sleep, her thoughts were so out of whack. On the one hand, Naruto was attractive, but on the other, she didn't even love him…..
Frustrated, Temari got up and left Narukomi's room quietly. Tiptoeing past Naruto's room, she entered the living room as silently as possible.
Temari carefully opened the glass sliding doors that led to the outside balcony and sat down on the railing, looking out over Konoha. Now that she had a birds-eye-view at night, Temari couldn't help but think that the village was indeed beautiful.
'So this is my new home,' she thought with a contented sigh, 'Not really that bad…'
"Can't sleep?"
The voice made Temari jump, almost causing her to slip off the railing but she managed to stay on. Temari spun her head in the direction of the voice to find herself face-to-face with Naruto.
'Holy mother of crap, he scared me; and he's shirtless!' Temari exclaimed inside her head, turning a light pink and trying not to stare longer than two seconds. Luckily for her, Naruto didn't seem to notice.
"How'd you find me?" Temari asked casually, suspicious he'd followed her.
"It wasn't too hard. I couldn't sleep either, and I was about to come out here myself when I heard you get up. This is the place I usually come to think, so I took a wild guess and came out to see if you were here; and I was right," he said, staring at her.
As if becoming aware of his staring at her, Naruto turned his eyes to the twinkling lights below. "The view is one of the best in the village; Narukomi insisted we got this apartment purely for that." He said, nodding to the village.
Temari turned back to look at the lights, and Naruto seized the chance to let out the air he'd been holding in his lungs. He hadn't expected her to look so pretty with her hair down.
"How long will you be staying in Konoha? Do you know?" Naruto asked as casually as he could. 'I hope for a very, very, long time!' he thought.
"Well, we were only supposed to be here for the negotiation and the Chunin Exams, but Tsunade said as part of the deal I have to stay in the village until we get married or I take on a mission as a Leaf shinobi." Temari answered, glancing at him.
After this, they both remained silent for a long time, their glances shifting between the village lights and each other; needless to say, it soon became awkward.
Finally, Temari willed herself to say the words that had been weighing on her mind for the entire night.
"Look, I don't know how you feel about this marriage," she said, turning to look at him fully in the eye, "But I'm fully prepared to try to do this, to try to make this work as well as possible, if you're willing to try too."
Naruto stared at her in surprise for a moment before returning his gaze to the distant horizon. He remained silent for a long time; so long Temari almost thought she'd said too much, when he spoke.
"'For life cannot exist without love; life without love is a life without care, hope, or support- an empty life. Life without love is meaningless, for he who never loves is he who never truly lives.'" Naruto quoted unblinkingly.
Naruto returned his eyes to Temari, who had been sitting there listening, enraptured by his words, her breath hitched in her throat.
"That was a quote from a romance novella Narukomi used to read to me when I couldn't sleep when we were little. It's called, 'Life of the Loveless.' She used to think I liked it, but it sent me to sleep almost instantly, it was so boring. I never thought I'd ever quote it to my fiancée." He said, his gaze boring into hers like twin drills.
Naruto walked forward and sat beside Temari, who cursed inwardly as a blush tinted her cheeks.
Naruto locked eyes with her once again as he continued, "I really hated that book, but its message is true all the same; if we marry each other without the slightest spark of love between us, we'll both wither away slowly. But, if we try to love each other, and over time that love becomes real and true, we might just become proof that that damn book is right."
Naruto grinned and said, "Sure I'll give our love a chance, same as you, but you need to promise me one thing."
Temari's eyes were full of tears; she'd dated a lot of guys in Suna, but all of them had been heartbreakers, users, assholes, etc, and not a single one of them had said a single thing as close to pure poetry as this.
"Promise what?" Temari asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she gazed into his cerulean orbs.
"Promise me," said Naruto, slowly taking her hand in his, "That if our love really does become true, you'll always be by my side. I've dated plenty of girls who've said they loved me before running off with some other jerk, so I need to know you won't do that."
Temari slowly leaned forward; so did Naruto.
"Always. I swear on my life that I'll never do that to you, even if our love isn't real." Temari stated as loudly as she could, though if he'd been even an inch farther away he wouldn't have heard it.
Naruto's eyes widened at her words. "Do you really mean that?" he asked uncertainly, worry clouding his features.
Temari smiled and leaned forward a little more. "Does this answer your question?" she asked right before their lips met.
/\/\/\/\
Narukomi watched unnoticed in the shadows of the living room, tears dripping down her face.
'And he said he hated that book!' she thought as she swiped the tears from her eyes before disappearing into her own room, deciding her brother and his fiancée deserved a bit of privacy.
A/N OMG SUCH A SWEET MOMENT! Anyways, sorry I didn't update for a while, but I DO have a life, you know. Okay, so, chapter three is done! Hope you enjoy! Comment? Question? Feel free to review!
-Temari-chan :).