Motivation
by Original Blue
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
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T is for Trust, or lack thereof.
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Has my house always been this cold?
Struggling with the blankets (why were there blankets?), Temari sat up and blinked in the early morning light, if it could even be called light. The room was bathed in a bluish–grey color. Which meant it was still raining outside.
She groaned and hugged her knees to her chest, resigning herself to an extended stay in Konoha. Even if it stopped raining later today, she didn't feel like running through slush and mud all the way to the border and then through hot and sticky Suna.
Curling up tight in the delicious warm spot made by her body, Temari went back to sleep.
...
Shikamaru made breakfast hesitantly. Normally he ate a piece of fruit in the mornings; or barbecue, but only if Choji was treating. He'd never really cooked for anyone else and had no idea if she would like what he was making.
She lives in the desert, he thought as he pulled out a carton of milk, so she probably doesn't want seafood.
He searched through his fridge and found some soup from his mother's house, tofu by the color. He turned on the stove and let it heat, filling the house with the seductive smell of Yoshino's cooking.
...
"What are you doing?"
He glanced up from the sheaf of papers as she entered, holding a blanket around her shoulders.
"I'm doing some code–breaking for the Hokage's office."
Temari gave him a skeptical look and sat on his couch. "They let you handle important papers?" she scoffed.
He stifled a smile. "Quite frequently. They even trust me step out of the village without spilling my guts to the nearest missing–nin."
"Fools, the lot of them. Should you be telling me this? It could be useful if Suna ever wants to kidnap you."
Shikamaru yawned. "I'd drive the questioners insane within the week, and being kidnapped would be troublesome."
Finally Temari laughed. "Everything's troublesome to you. If breathing weren't absolutely necessary I'm pretty sure you'd give it up in a heartbeat."
"True enough." He sighed over the papers. "Want to make my job easier?"
This earned him a look of surprise. "You want me to help you?" She hated to admit it, but he had the most analytical mind of anyone she'd ever met. She might not be able to do the work he could, or at least not as quickly.
"You, my father, and Shiho from the Code–Breakers' office are probably the only people in Konoha who could break these. I have faith."
And when he smiled at her like that, she believed him.
...
"So this one contains a 0,2,5,6 and ends in 0,6,5,3. That must be the segment of the letter that's coded."
"Great. If you ever want to defect to Konoha, I'll put a in a good word for you with the Hokage."
They traded a look and snorted.
"Here we go – this one talks about mercenary movement on the northern border. Is this useful?"
"Let me see it." He skimmed the document. "It could be. Look it over again."
"But I already broke the code–"
"The first one. This document is double ciphered. Isolate the decoded text and try to find another key."
She stared at him and looked back at the page. Shikamaru. Cipher. Shikamaru. Cipher. There was something there, something wrong with the speech pattern of the hidden letter. She checked it against the codes keys they'd already discovered.
Ah.
He was right. She diligently copied out the new words, using the cipher key for reference. It was also about mercenary movement, but this time it concerned a clan heiress traveling incognito to Konoha. The mercenaries, missing–nin possibly among them, were due to attack her.
"Shikamaru..."
He caught her pointed look and read the fresh document.
She couldn't read his expression, but his eyebrows drew together and his dark eyes narrowed.
"Should we tell the Hokage?" Temari fidgeted; that girl could be killed because some idiot on her father's council was too talkative with alcohol in his hand. "Tsunade will want to know if a clan member is in danger."
But Shikamaru was shaking his head. "I have orders to turn everything in, but she decides what's important. The girl listed here isn't from Konoha; I know every clan in the village. Like it or not, Tsunade may disregard this."
Temari looked at him in shock. "But that girl could die!"
"She's an heiress. They don't usually make weaklings the heirs to prominent clans." He looked down at the paper. "If she were going to be attacked in Fire Country, then we might have a case, but she's traveling through Grass Country right now. They plan to intercept her in Ame." He sat back, face troubled.
Breathing in and out deeply, Temari stood up and walked to the open window. Rain poured down outside. He was logical. He was always so damn logical. Sure, it made sense to just give the Hokage everything and trust her to know what was important, but shouldn't he at least mention it?
If I were in Suna, I'd... well, I'd...
She realized that if she were in Suna she would talk to Gaara about it and let him make the decision. Because that's what you had to do. You had to do your job and hope like hell that your superiors made the right choices.
I'm acting like an idiot, she thought wonderingly. I can't go running off to save someone like the old days. I'm in Konoha, which means that if anything happens to me Tsunade is responsible. And if anything happens to me, Gaara won't be happy.
Sighing, she picked up another report and broke the wax seal.
...
At sunset the rain finally let up. Temari stood around for a while, feeling angry at the world in general, but the sky in particular. Then she grabbed her fan and, after a moment of hesitation, the Nara clan jacket, and headed into Konoha's food district.
Only a few people were out, and the Nara symbol seemed to get her smiles wherever she went. It was a nice change from the suspicion she attracted in Suna garb. She headed to Ichiraku Ramen, a place she dimly remembered eating at with Gaara and Naruto, and ordered two large miso ramen to go. Then, suddenly remembering that she was eating with Shikamaru, she changed one of the ramen orders to mackerel.
She sat down to wait and stuck her hands in the huge green pockets of her coat. There was a piece of paper in one.
My dearest Yoshino,
Your beautiful lips and radiant smile are nothing compared to the burning love
that resides deep within your heart. Would you be mine, oh temptress of gods,
loveliest of lovelies, whose skin tastes of mint and raindr–
Temari looked away, flushing to the roots of her golden–blonde hair and stuffing the paper back in her pocket. It had obviously been a while since anyone had used the jackets, or they might have gathered that the Naras were a passionate clan beneath their calculating exteriors. She grinned.
"You're smiling. That means something bad is about to happen to someone." Shikamaru sat down next to her, his raincoat folded under the counter. "Is it a misogynist, bigot or bully this time?"
She smacked his shoulder. "Do you write poetry?" She shut her mouth with a click, wondering why she wanted to know.
That was nothing compared to Shikamaru's bewildered expression. "Uh... no. Should I for some reason?"
"No, I just..." she gestured stiffly, "Your parents..."
He raised an eyebrow.
Realizing that he wouldn't give up without some explanation, she dug out the love letter and passed it over. He turned an even deeper shade of red than she had and finished the letter. But his expression cleared when he reached the signature. Against all of her expectations, he started to laugh.
"My parents weren't like this, Temari. I have a cousin named Yoshino, and this was how her fiancé proposed to her last month. He's from the Yamanaka clan." Shika grimaced. "I'll be related to Ino soon."
Sighing in relief, Temari picked up the bags of ramen and walked with Shikamaru back to his house, a new storm threatening to break along the way.
...
At around midnight, both bowls of ramen empty and the stack of documents de–coded, Shikamaru went outside for a cigarette. This time Temari followed him out, strangely curious.
"Any non–disclosure agreements I need to sign now?" she asked as he blew smoke rings.
He gave her a lopsided grin. "Are you saying you wouldn't tell Gaara everything if he asked? No, don't answer that," he said, tapping some ash onto the railing and watching it steam. "I know you would."
"Then why ask for my help?"
"Because you're loyal to Gaara, and right now Gaara wants what's best for Suna. What's best for Suna is to stay on good terms with Konoha. Ergo, you have Konoha's best interests in mind." He took a deep drag. "Besides, you're intelligent enough to do the job right, and I trust you."
That made her smile. "But you don't trust anyone."
He shrugged. "Not unless I know them. But I could say the same about you, and I'm pretty sure you don't expect me to attack you at any moment."
She adopted a thoughtful expression. "But that's only because you know the painful death that would await you."
He smiled and took a deep breath of the cinnamon flavored smoke. "Whatever works, right?"
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T is for Trust, or lack thereof.
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