Hey everyone, sorry about the wait. School sure has been hecktic this term. Anyway, I hope that this was worth it.

…

Sai's POV

…

Sai waited patiently for his fiancée as she finished up in the washroom. She had been in there for over an hour preparing for the day that was ahead of them. She seemed to be in a fouler mood than normal that day, even though it was a day that she claimed to have been setting in motion for the past years.

"You know, she could have been a little more grateful," Ino complained from in the washroom. "He wouldn't be half the man that he is today if it weren't for me, and she doesn't even seem to understand that."

Sai nodded happily along with his future bride's ramblings. He held her dress in his hands, as he waited for her to be ready enough to put it on.

"I mean, the least that she could have done would be to make me a bride's maid. I'm not asking to be the maid of honour, just a bride's maid. This has to be the first time in generations that a Yamanaka hasn't been a part of a Nara wedding party," Ino huffed from in the washroom.

"But you put so much effort in this wedding, you planned the entire thing, I'm sure that she just wanted you to be able to rest and enjoy it," Sai offered.

"No, she's always had it out for me. I'm sure that she's still scared that I'm going to try and steal the Nara away from her. Can't she see that I'm over him now, I have something way better," Ino went on. She finally opened the washroom door and stuck her arm through so that she could claim the dress that Sai had been holding.

"I'm not scared of Shikamaru stealing you away from me," Sai confessed. "Because he doesn't even want you."

"What did you just say, Sai?" Ino demanded.

"I said that he doesn't even want you. He seems to be very happy with his choice of a wife, so I shouldn't be scared of him ever deciding to choose you, even though you are far more beautiful," Sai clarified, kind of.

"Nice save boy," Ino responded from the other room. Sai wasn't even sure what he had saved, but he was glad that he had done a good job of it.

Ino then finally exited the bathroom. She was in a long purple kimono that slightly trailed out behind her.

"How do I look?" she asked as a slight blush covered her face.

"Beautiful," Sai replied.

…

Karui's POV

…

"You aren't supposed to be more beautiful than the bride," Choji stated as he watched his fiancée exit from her dressing room. "You know, you'll put a curse on it or something if you keep looking this beautiful."

Karui blushed as she tried to brush off his compliments. She was wearing a simple purple kimono that had a neckline that hung just low enough for her to feel uncomfortable. The kimono had silver flower designs that hung around the bottom, it was just noticeable enough to set her apart as the maid of honour.

"Are you sure that I don't look ridiculous," she asked as she peered down at her cleavage.

"I think that you look amazing," Choji replied as he took his future bride's hand. "I would marry you right now if I could, but we'll sadly have to wait another two weeks."

"Don't you have a groom to tend to?" Karui asked, as she was completely nervous about her own impending wedding, and wanted nothing more than to be able to avoid the topic for as long as she could.

"I don't think that he needs much tending to. He is going into this pretty well prepared, and he wouldn't have gone into this marriage without thoroughly thinking it through beforehand. He's not having any second thoughts, if he was going to have them, he would have had them before he decided to marry her," Choji explained.

Karui nodded. She almost hated that her fiancé was right, she just wanted to get this day over with so that people would stop asking her if this made her jealous that hers hadn't come first. In a way she was, because she had to sit through two of these before her own, and it gave her plenty of time to second guess herself and her decision to move to Konoha and marry this man. But she was also glad that hers was last, because then she got more time to ensure that she was confident in her decision.

All of a sudden there was a rackette down the hall. There was yelling and fighting, and one of the voices was obviously the bride-to-be's.

"Don't you have a bride to tend to?" Choji teased as he had obviously heard the noise as well.

Karui sighed as she let the large man pull her in for a quick kiss before gently nudging her down the hall from where the commotion was happening.

…

Temari's POV

…

"Go. Get out. Leave me alone," she yelled as she pushed her two well-meaning brothers out of her change room.

"Geeze," Kankuro groaned, "we were just trying to help."

"I do not need your help to get dressed," Temari huffed as she slammed the door in their faces.

She knew that the boys were only trying to help, but she honestly just needed a few seconds to be alone. This wedding was what she wanted, it was what she had been looking forward to for the past three years, but she was also scared. Temari may have been the cruelest kunoichi, but she was still a girl. She was scared that she would trip as she walked down the aisle, or that maybe she wouldn't look as beautiful as she hoped in her wedding gown. Her wedding was the first in a series of three; a series of three that were all important and political. Ino and Karui's weddings would be compared to hers, and their dresses and elegance would be compared to hers for the rest of their days. Though, there were more important things that she was scared of as well.

This wedding meant that her home was no longer Suna. Though she had been living in Konoha fairly consistently since she had started to see the Nara, she had always been comforted by the thought of returning home. Though she knew that she wasn't going to NEVER see the beautiful deserts again, it still felt like she was being separated from them.

Then there was her brothers themselves. Even though they had proven themselves fairly well the past few years, it still hurt her to be leaving them alone. The first few times that she had left, she had a shit show to clean up on her return. They had gotten better over the years, but it was still hard to trust them. She had raised them from the time that she was young after all. She had changed their diapers and ensured that they had gotten food, they were all that she had for years. Now she was going to have a new family, and she was scared that she wasn't going to be enough.

There was a gentle tapping on the door of her dressing room. Temari was tempted to scream at the intruder to go away, but she didn't quite trust her voice enough to respond. So she sat there in silence and waited for the person on the other side of her door to make up their minds for themselves. The intruder apparently had decided to come in.

"I hope that you aren't having second thoughts," came the voice of one of her best friends. "We can't have you be the first one to get married, and also be the first one to run away from the altar."

"Shut up," Temari snapped back, even though she couldn't force the venom to show through in her voice the way that she normally could.

"You can't seriously want to fight me on your wedding day," Karui teased. "Now that wouldn't be a good show either."

"Uuugh," Temari huffed as she dropped her head onto her arms on top of the table that was in the room.

"If it helps," Karui started as she walked over to her friend and started to remove the four pony-tails from her hair. "I'm scared that I will miss it too. I'm even scared that I'll miss going home as an excuse to leave if things start to get stale between Choji and me."

"There won't be any more long winded letters that I write to him, that he replied to in half a page. His words were never less meaningful than mine, he was just more concise than me," Temari offered in return for her friend's confession.

"Or the good-bye sex," Karui added.

"It was always the best, wasn't it?" Temari agreed.

"Or the surprise visits when it was impossible to return for a while," Karui added. "Long distance wasn't all bad, but it sure is going to be nice to be with him forever."

"Yeah, it's going to be nice," Temari agreed, though she still refused to lift her head.

"Come on, let's get you dressed before all the boys out there lose their minds about not being able to see you," Karui instructed.

"Ugh, my brothers can be such a pain," Temari complained as she stood up.

"It's not just your brothers," Karui corrected. "Sai is out there, and so are Choji and Shikamaru. I was half tempted to let Sai in, but I'm sure that Ino would have had a heart attack if Sai was counted as a bride's maid and she wasn't."

"Should I have included her?" Temari asked, almost feeling a little ashamed that she had been petty enough to exclude the other blonde girl.

"It was your choice. I'm almost glad that she's not in your party, or else I would have felt even worse about not including her in mine," Karui consoled. "Though, if it would make you feel better, I'm sure that she would settle for being able to help with your dress, as she's probably better at this sort of thing than I am."

"You're right, and she will probably have some sort of romantic non-sense to say that will make me excited to walk up to the altar," Temari sighed. "Let her in."

Karui walked to the door and called for Ino. She told the blonde that Temari was having trouble with the dress and that Ino was the only one that could help. The skinny blonde didn't believe the cover story, but she went with it anyway, because she was grateful for the extended olive branch.

…

Shikamaru's POV

…

Shikamaru stood nervously at the altar as he waited for Temari to appear. They had settled for being married in the Hokage's tower as since they were the merging of two hidden cities, their wedding was supposed to be one of the biggest in history. The wedding was as Suna themed as Ino had been able to make it. His female teammate had even gotten a hold of Matsuri from Suna in order to help with the wedding. No matter how much Ino hated asking for help, she was also scared of losing Temari as a friend for fucking up on the wedding.

"What a drag," Shikamaru muttered to himself as he stood waiting at the altar. He knew that he was supposed to be happy, they had been planning this far longer than the council even knew about. He was supposed to be happy that he could finally call her his, but all he really wanted was a nap. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He wanted to nap beside Temari and not have her worrying about feeling productive because she was supposed to be in Konoha on business. He wanted to be able to hold her in his arms for the rest of his life; he just didn't want all of the pageantry.

There was no escaping the big wedding though, they were the merger for the two countries. If they hadn't had the big wedding, then there would have been too many people who were pissed off to count, and that was even more troublesome than the event itself. Shikamaru also knew that it was important that a woman got to feel like a princess at least once in their life, and he didn't want to take that opportunity away from his Suna Princess.

Shikamaru was wearing the same kimono that his dad had worn at his parents wedding. His mother was sitting in the front row, clutching a picture of Shikamaru's late father as she cried her eyes out. She was as proud of him as she was sad that she was going to lose her baby boy. She had insisted on helping him get dressed for the wedding, even though he was more than capable of doing it himself. He wasn't going to argue with her though, he knew that she needed it, and maybe he did a little bit too.

Soon a slow march that Shikamaru only recognised from the rehersal started to play and the door to the Hokage tower started to open. Karui and Choji came through the door first, as the maid of honour and the best man. Next Tenten and Neji came through as the bride's maid and the groom's man. Next little Mirai walked up the isle with her little dress. She only made it about half way up the isle before she got nervouse and ran to her mother.

Finally Temari walked through the doors with one of her brothers on each arm. The two men were wearing thick, black, layered kimono's that matched Shikamaru's. Temari was wearing a long white kimono that had purple embroidered flowers that started in the center of her back and worked their way down to the hem of her kimono. The collar hung low on her chest, but clung to her features in the most stunning way. Shikamaru couldn't keep his eyes off of her, but he did his best to keep it out of his expressions.

"Pick your jaw off of the floor, crybaby," Temari teased as she finally reached the altar.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru replied, though he couldn't bring himself to roll his eyes.

"You better treat her right," Kankuro warned as he let Temari's arm go.

"I don't think that she'd let anything else happen," Gaara responded, though the tone of his voice sent more shivers down his spine than Kankuro's threat had.

Shikamaru tried to smile in response, but he was cut off by Kakashi clearing his throat.

"Now that the threats are over, shall we get started?" the silver haired Hokage asked and the crowd laughed in response.

Shikamaru and Temari nodded in indication that they were prepared. Kakashi grabbed both of their hands and started to wrap them up in a crimsoned sash.

"Who is giving the bride away?" Kakashi asked as he placed the end of the sash in the couples' hands.

"I, Gaara, the Kazekage of the Sand do," Gaara replied.

"And I, Kankuro of the Black Sand," Kankuro added.

"Very well," Kakashi droned. "The bride and the groom may present their vows now."

Temari cleared her throat and pulled a small piece of paper out from the inner folds of her kimono.

"I, Temari no Sabaku, promise to be the wind in your sails. I will motivate you to go when you don't want to move. I will give you encouragement and will stand by you even when you feel like you could be doing better. I will love you always and I will never leave your side."

"Shikamaru?" Kakashi prompted.

"What a drag," he started as he cleared his throat. He didn't need a piece of paper as he had been so nervous that he had memorised it.

"I promise to stand by you no matter how troublesome it will get. And I promise to help you out and to follow your lead. I won't fight your battles for you, because I know you can handle them, but I will be there as soon as you need me. I promise to love you and to provide for you the best I can."

With that, Kakashi grabbed the ribbon that was wrapped around their hands and held them up. The couple turned their gaze to the Hokage as he got prepared to officiate things.

"Temari no Sabaku, do you take this man to be your lawfully wed husband?"

"I do."

"Shikamaru Nara, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wed wife?"

"I do."

"You better," Temari added with a smirk.

"Then with the power invested to me by the Fire Daimyo, I pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride."

"Get over here crybaby," Temari grinned.

For a few seconds it looked as though Temari was going to sweep the Nara off of his feet, but he stopped her last second and caught her by surprise. He took her in his arms and leaned her back as he went in for the kiss. The entire crowd erupted in roars of excitement for the couple. As soon as they broke apart, they were grinning at each other and practically laughing. This was the start of forever.

So, how was it? Was it cute enough? Did I keep everyone in character? Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed it.

Special shout out to my beta for this story: Poodie. You're the best. Thank you!

Song recommendation: A Comprehensive List of Things I love by Jpnsgrls.

love

Donny