Learn How To Love

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter 4: Promise

Temari didn't show up to school the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.

And when she did finally come in, she completely blanked him. She wouldn't talk to him; she wouldn't even look at him! She would make fun of him with her friends. But it wasn't just fun teasing - it was just down right mean.

It really hurt him deep down. He didn't want to see her that way.

There were more bruises appearing. Small ones…but still the most horrible ones he'd ever seen; bruises just didn't seem to look right on her perfectly bronzed skin.

He had a feeling that the bruises and the ignoring were connected. But it wasn't his place to say anything. So he would just let her do what she wanted. Sure, he cared about her, but what could he do? He had suspicions that someone was hurting her. But, if she wasn't going to say anything, neither would he. It's not like she would accept his help anyway…

But after a week of being blanked and Temari not showing up to their tutoring lessons, Shikamaru began to really worry. She had mentioned once that she enjoyed their sessions together. And with the hand-holding and the meaningless complements here and there, he had even thought that she may enjoy the fact that she was with him.

But he had been wrong before - wait! - no he hadn't.

Nara Shikamaru was never wrong. And he had a gut feeling that Temari was in trouble. So he was going to do all he could to make things better.

He felt like the hero in one of those action movies.

'This is going to be troublesome.'

"Temari! Wait up!"

"What do you want?!" she demanded as he caught up.

"Temari, what's wrong with you?" Always straight to the point, is our Shikamaru, "Why haven't you been coming to our lessons? You do realise that the tests are in six days, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then why aren't you coming?"

"Because…my brothers said I can't." she murmured almost inaudibly.

"What? Why?"

"They just said so, okay? Now…l-leave me alone!"

"Temari! You're not going to be ready for these tests if you keep avoiding our classes." he took her hand gingerly, "…I'm worried about you."

'Worried?' No one had ever worried about her before. He looked so honest - so sincere. And the warmth of his hand and the way he looked in the moon light…

"Don't be. I'm fine."

"You better come to our next class."

A small smile tugged the corners of her mouth. 'I can't believe I'm going to do this…'

But before she could convince herself not to, she pushed herself up on her tip-toes and kissed him. It was just a light brush of her lips over his. But it still made Shikamaru's mind go into meltdown and his whole face to turn a frightening shade of pink.

'Troublesome, unpredictable woman.'

As soon as her lips had left his, she was gone.

That didn't matter though. He was going to see her the next day.

He didn't see her the next day.

She didn't show up at school or at his house.

At first, he just thought that she was running late…but an hour had passed and she was nowhere to be found.

So, he came to the conclusion that she was in trouble.

As you would imagine, he was out the door in under a minute.

Temari had briefly mentioned what the number of her door was a while ago. She was three floors up, seventh on the left. And considering that he was practically leaping up the stairs and flying down the corridor, he was there in a flash.

His ear pressed to the door, Shikamaru could make out quiet voices coming from inside. He could here a female voice among many other male voices. He wondered who the female was. Temari? No. That voice was higher than hers. At least she wasn't the only girl in there.

As hard as he tried, Shikamaru couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what they were saying.

He decided that he should probably leave. Temari might not actually live there. He may have heard wrong when she told him where exactly she lived.

He sighed, and was about to leave when he heard a familiar voice. It was coming from the apartment next door. He new it to be the voice of the brunette, Temari's brother. Listening carefully, he made out about five voices. Only two voices were familiar though. One of them being the brunette's and the other being…Temari's!

He knocked on the door, hoping against all hope that Temari would answer and not one of her brothers. But lady luck wasn't on his side today.

Gaara opened the door. He let out a confused sound and stepped back. He looked kind of dazed. It was only then that Shikamaru noticed that he was absolutely wasted.

The thick scent of weed assaulted his senses. Shikamaru gasped; Temari was in there!

Bravely, - Kankurou was in there - he stepped into the apartment, the smell of alcohol and drugs overbearing. He was just about finished pushing past Gaara when he saw four spiky pigtails sticking out above the sofa. "Temari!" he called. Her head slowly turned around. And to Shikamaru's horror, she wore the same dazed look as Gaara.

Stepping forward, he caught a glimpse of the coffee table. There were bottles upon bottles of alcohol. Surprisingly though, there was no weed; that horrible stench was coming from the tiny kitchen behind him where he assumed Kankurou and his friends were.

"Temari!" he called again. But she didn't even seem to recognise him. She continued to stare blankly at him. He tried to run over to her, wanting to take her to his home - to take her somewhere safe and away from her disgusting brothers.

But being the hero is never that easy.

In a matter of seconds, Kankurou - and not without the help of his friends - had thrown Shikamaru out of the door.

Despite all attempts to pry the door open being futile, Shikamaru didn't stop trying. He needed to save Temari. He just couldn't let her stay in there and destroy herself with drugs and alcohol. He just couldn't.

But he couldn't get into the apartment either, and that meant he wasn't going to save her today - but that didn't mean he couldn't save her tomorrow.

She didn't show up to school the next day. Somehow, though, she managed to make her way to his house for his tutoring lesson.

If she thought really hard, she could briefly remember him appearing at her home the other night. She couldn't remember why he was there. But she definitely remembered him being there, even if it was only for a few minutes.

As usual, Shikamaru let her in and they made their way into his den. He was acting strangely, she could tell. He didn't say a word to her except his usual greeting: "Come in, troublesome woman."

Biting her lip, she silently prayed that he hadn't actually showed up the night before. That it had just been a crazy dream or her imagination combined with her hopes that he would come and help her.

"You've been missing a lot of school lately." he muttered at last.

"Yeah, I know."

He just gazed at her. The look on his face told her that he knew why. She should have just broken down crying. It wouldn't have been the best idea to show him so much weakness but all she wanted to do was cry. His eyes were so cold and dark and his face seemed to just scream disappointment. She knew her heart was breaking - she just didn't know why.

"The tests are three days away. There's no way you're going to pass if-"

"I don't care about the stupid tests!" That's it. Temari's lost it. "What's the point?! It's not like passing these tests is going to make my life any better then it is. There is no way I can change my life with some stupid test results-"

In a split second, Temari's world became very warm and soft. When, she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at a black shirt. The same black shirt Shikamaru was wearing. She was caught in a vice grip, held firmly in place by two very strong arms. Shikamaru was hugging her.

Shikamaru was hugging her.

Soon, she found herself clinging to him for dear life. His scent - something like a mixture of grass and coconut shampoo - became her life source as she breathed in deeply. Her whole world was his heat.

It took a while before she even noticed he was talking to her. "… These tests are important, Temari. You do well in these tests and you stand a better chance of becoming successful. Better results mean a better job. A better job means more money and more money means that you can get away from that apartment block and your brothers. Don't you want that?"

"Yes." Was her mumbled reply.

"So, you promise me that you will come to school everyday until the tests are over?"

"I promise."

She looked up at him, only now realising how tall he was and gasped. Their faces were so close… their breath mingling. Unintentionally, her lips pouted and her eyes became half-lidded against her will. Shikamaru was quick to mirror the expression and leant down slightly. Just a little further…

"SHIKAMARU!"

Temari's body froze as Shikamaru's head snapped up, surveying the room quickly. Luckily enough, his mother was nowhere to be seen.

"SHIKAMARU!" she screamed again, seemingly from the kitchen.

"Troublesome…" he muttered, methods of how to assist his mother without letting go of Temari buzzing in his mind.

A/N: Sorry for the slow update! I really am sorry!! T.T Please don't hate me. I shall probably update this in one or two weeks because, after all, it is the summer holidays and I don't know when I'll have time to type this stuff up. And I know this chapter is kinda fluffy but I am in a fluffy mood so if you have written/read any fluffy ShikaTema stories and would like to recomend them to me please PM me. Thank you!

Oh, and thank you for all of your reviews... you are all awesome people!

R&R!