Bonjour mon amie!:D
Just a quick note- I realise that this chapter will probably raise a lot of questions- the end of it anyways- and I assure you they will all be answered in the next chapter, in that I am being purposely vague. Mwa ha ha!:P It was that or either have the chapter be 8,000 words long- and I promised you no more of that, so vagueness prevails :)
The lyric below is from a song by General Fiasco called Something, Sometime. Awesome song, awesome band (not just because they're local :P) and random though it may seem this lyric really inspired this chapter, lol. Good luck to everyone trying to figure it out :P
Thanks in advance to everyone who reviews- as always it makes my brain buzz quite happily :D
This chapter is dedicated to Little ( though not at all vertically challenged) Pyromaniac Fangirl's kitten
I do not own Naruto or any oxymoron by W.B. Yeats- gotta love ole Yeatsy- hopefully someone finds it- i'm not looking at anyone *cough* Sand-Jounin-Temari ;)
SP7 :D
She says, "I'm blind but I'm fine, but maybe we don't get out much? But does is show?
Maybe we should give it loads, maybe we should give it loads.
Talks only talk 'less you're following through, You're making plans and demands, but clearly you don't get out much.
And yes it shows. Maybe we should give it loads, maybe we should give it loads.
Nothing is a reason that seems to keep you satisfied.
When she was younger, Temari used to despise the desert. There were many reasons for her dislike of the terrain but above all it was the heat.
As a child, the heat had made her ill. From her birth until she was eight years old, months flew past her where she would lie in a sweat soaked bed, delirious from the temperature. She had felt like she was suffocating, like someone was sitting on top of her chest crushing the air out of her bit by bit.
It was a mystery to all her doctors and nurses, who felt that she should have been acclimatised, being born in the desert, but still Temari's body refused to adjust, screaming out for relief. Every pore on her skin oozed sweat. Every bead of saliva on her tongue evaporated as quickly as it came, leaving her mouth as dry and deserted as the place she called home.
The desert was trying to kill her.
That was what she had thought at the time. She used to whimper that phrase to her mother. It was the delirium that made her say it, but even as a teenager she still wondered how the sparse land had not yet claimed her life.
She was told that she was saved because of who she was. The Gods had spared the Princess. Temari had always thought that was an absurdity. The desert had spared her. Had given up the battle. For now.
As she grew, she found more reasons to dislike her homeland.
The Sunese desert- as it was known before her forefathers had created a nation from it- was formed from rain shadows which in turn were caused by the fact that Suna had high mountains ranges both to the East and West of the region which prevented precipitation clouds from entering the area. In short, Suna was surrounded by mountains; closed off from the rest of the world. Most deserts received less than ten inches of water per year. Suna received none.
She had learned from her tutors that the land, before the creation of artificial oases was extremely volatile. Several enthusiastic explorers had died trying to discover the desert before finally her ancestors conquered the land and "made water". That was how royalty came to her. Through the fact that several groups of villagers moved to Suna, learning of the water, and named her family Royalty.
Temari always looked upon that fact as barbaric. She had no more God given right to rule than the rest of the people that lived in Suna. It was a joke. The idea that the desert bowed down before her family. A complete farce. How anyone had yet to recognise it, Temari couldn't fathom.
It was the isolation that killed her the most. Being the first born and a girl, Temari was refused association with other children. Her constant battles with the climate made her look ill and weak; as if she would die the moment she came into contact with someone other than her nurses. She hadn't even been allowed to meet her younger brother until he was four in case she might 'infect' him and had been separated from her mother for nine months during the pregnancy for fear that she would contaminate the baby's growth.
Her father never visited her either way. The only recollection she had of him as a child, was the time the doctors actually thought she might die and had called her parents in to be there for the final moments. As it turned out, it was just a particularly bad fit of delirium. She didn't see her father after that until she was ten.
When she was eleven, Temari had been told by her tutor of the places that existed outside of Suna. The countries, the oceans, the cultures; the people. Looking out of her bedroom window she looked for the oceans, but all she found was sand. She strained to see the different countries but all she saw was mountains. This land; this desert. It had isolated her from the rest of the world. Trapped her in this palace, this life.
She hated the desert for that.
She had often told herself that if she ever got out of Suna, she was never coming back. The desert didn't want her there and she didn't want to be there.
If someone had told her ten years ago that she would be praying to see sand dunes, she would have laughed in their face.
Temari was never religious but now, as she pulled Hinata through the rocks and rubble, she was praying. To who, she had no idea. But right now Temari was begging the heavens for noise. Any kind of rumble that would tell her.................
It was like orchestration to her ears. The humming of the sand dunes. The noise made her whole body ease with happiness. She could feel the air becoming hotter and the first few grains of sand drifting over her face.
"Hinata," she said quietly, "we're home."
Shikamaru opened his eyes and desperately tried to steady his vision. He didn't know why but every feeling in his body was telling him that he was in danger and needed to get the hell away from wherever he was.
He felt a hand press down on his forehead and a voice say, "How are you feeling?"
On closer inspection, the voice was coming from the girl that was constantly with Neji. He was trying to sit up but she wouldn't let him.
"You got hit quite badly," she told him. "You should lie down for now."
Looking around him he could see that he was in the army barracks. The maps of the region and artillery told him that much. Yet as far as he could see, he and the girl were the only ones in the room.
Trying desperately to think, he felt his head pang sharply as the memories came flooding back to him.
The bombs.....
The flames......
The guns...........
"Neji!" he called out, pushing past the girl and forcing his body to stand.
He stumbled gracelessly to the room adjacent to the one he was occupying and searched for the long haired boy.
"Where is he?!" he frantically questioned his army partner, who sat on the edge of the bed chuckling. For what reason, Shikamaru had no idea. Wasn't she supposed to be in love with Neji? He could be dead and she sits there laughing!
"He thinks you hate him" she said, staring disbelievingly at Shikamaru.
Stopping breathlessly in his tracks, Shikamaru eyed the lieutenant.
"Just because I don't agree with what he does, doesn't mean I want him dead," Shikamaru replied, feeling slightly ashamed. He had let his temper get the better of him that day. Even if they didn't talk anymore, Neji was still the closest thing Shikamaru had ever had to a friend. Well, except for Chouji. But................ that was a long time ago.
"Well, you'll be happy to know that he's fine. He's just informing your father of the situation," the brunette said, finally taking her eyes off Shikamaru. Making her way over to the wooden table at the centre of the room, she bent herself over a map and started tracing routes with her finger.
"What situation?" Shikamaru questioned, slightly more aggressively than he should have. Ever since he had been around army officers, getting them to answer questions was like pulling teeth and he had a feeling that this girl was going to be more difficult than the others.
Tilting her head towards Shikamaru, she narrowed her eyes at him and let out a long breath.
"Classified," she said simply, before returning to the map.
Shikamaru groaned inwardly. Of course she was going to be this way. This was going to be difficult.
"Look," Shikamaru started tiredly, his head still panging regularly, "I don't have any ulterior motives, I just want to...."
"Oh really?" the girl asked incredulously, finally standing up straight to face Shikamaru, "because last time I checked you were about ready to follow your little blonde Princess over the border and off to Suna," she continued loudly. "I heard what you said to Neji and as far as I'm concerned, you are no more trustworthy than those Sunan bastards who caused so much trouble last night."
Shikamaru couldn't find any way to answer her back as his brain was busy trying to process everything that she had said. Gazing intently into the eyes of the soldier, he could see the beginnings of doubt. She had said something that she hadn't meant to.
"Where is she?" Shikamaru questioned quietly. Temari hadn't even entered his head until the girl had mentioned her. He felt a pang in his stomach. He had been trying not to think about her. As the memories of what he had said to her.....how she had reacted.....flitted back into his mind, Shikamaru felt another pang.
He should have gone straight to her when he heard the bombs going off. He had told himself that he was going to protect her and instead he had ran straight to his father and when he had finally gotten to her room she had been gone.
What if she hadn't made it? What if...........
"That is none of your............."the girl began before being cut off by another voice.
"From what we can tell, she has fled to Suna," Neji said, striding confidently across the room and seating himself behind the desk. Setting a large paper folder down on the surface, he opened the files and began to study them.
"How are you?" Neji asked, never lifting his eyes from the papers in front of him.
"Alive," Shikamaru mumbled.
A tense silence settled in, as Shikamaru felt the girl glaring at him.
"Stop it," he heard Neji say quietly, still not looking up. The girl proceeded to expel a large amount of air through her nostrils and made her way over to the corner of the room, where she sat down and began to stare out of the window.
Feeling slightly responsible for whatever internal argument the two soldiers were now having, Shikamaru tried to think of some way to break the tension.
"Look, Neji, I'm sorry," he addressed the captain.
"You did nothing to apologise for, Nara," Neji said, cutting through him, sounding half distracted by his own thoughts. "The mistake was entirely mine. I gave you, a civilian, a rifle and expected you to protect yourself. It was an idiotic notion and could have cost us both our lives. As it was, we were fortunate, despite my own stupidity."
Shikamaru, still trying to think clearly, felt hundreds of questions settle in and was about to begin to voice some of them when Neji finally pushed the files to side of the desk and turned in his chair to face him.
"We were surrounded by five members of what we now know to be the Akatsuki, a group of paramilitaries from Suna, who last night bombed six of Konoha's foreign Embassy's along with two court houses and attempted a failed attack upon the parliament buildings," Neji began, staring at Shikamaru seriously. "You may remember me trying to get you to fire a rifle, despite your own resistance. During what I can only assume was your own confusion at attempting to work the weapon, a member of the group managed to beat you over the head with his own firearm, knocking you out cold."
"Then how did I...." Shikamaru began to ask, suddenly feeling extremely nervous.
"We managed to get away," Neji answered simply, beginning to root through the desk drawers.
"Yes, only because you shot three of them!" the girl interjected loudly, standing up and starting to glare at Shikamaru again.
"Tenten!" Neji snapped angrily, shocking Shikamaru. It was the first time Shikamaru had ever heard Neji sound genuinely angry.
"What?!" Tenten shot back just as loudly as before. "It's true! Does this prat over here even have any IDEA how stupid that was?! They could have killed you and you would have died protecting his ungrateful ass!" she finished, breathing heavily and red in the face.
Feeling Neji beginning to retort, Shikamaru cut in front of him.
"It's alright, Neji," he said, sighing. "She's right. I was reckless running around town like that looking for.....and it could've ended with you dead. She has every right to be furious," he finished, moving over to sit down on the bed again.
"From what we can tell, she's fine, Nara," Neji said, finding what he was looking for in the drawer and moving over to Shikamaru, who didn't need to ask who Neji was talking about. "There's no blood in any of her tracks which are continuous. There's no reason to believe that she is harmed," he continued, placing the object in front of Shikamaru's eye line.
"I'd say she'd want these back, don't you agree?" Neji asked him, as Shikamaru took the pearls from his hands.
Shikamaru raised his head to look at Neji questioningly.
"You'll be needing this," Neji said, handing Shikamaru what he recognised to be a revolver, "we're going to Suna."
Nothing had changed, Temari mused as she surveyed the barren lands that engulfed herself and Hinata. The winds were still as rash as ever, blowing sand grains everywhere and making the outskirts of the country rumble as if it was all a part of some giant vacuum.
It was funny, she thought. How a place so practically deserted of life, could look so alive. Looking around now, Temari felt something that she had never experienced as a teenager. Happiness to be home. It felt.....right; to be here. She had never realised it before, but Suna was a part of who she was.
They were alike in many ways. Temari and her country were both scorching; isolated, unlikely to produce water, extremely volatile and were only crossed by those foolish enough to attempt it. She chuckled inwardly; Nationalism. It was a new phenomenon to her. But it felt good.
Temari, Princess of Suna; it sounded good too.
From her vantage point, Temari could see that a few brave groups of people were still clinging to the last remnants of survival in the desert. The army mustn't have destroyed the last two water reserves. Previous to the war there had been at least twenty-five water reserves, littering the desert. Excessive in that ten of them were reserved especially for the Monarchy and moderate in the fact that no matter how many more water reserves they added, there were always shortages.
Either way, it meant that Temari had not made a mistake in travelling home. Suna and her people were still attempting survival; which meant she was right where she should be.
As they made their way through the dunes, Temari advised Hinata to rip off the bottom of her dress and to wrap it around her head to prevent the sand storms from blinding and suffocating them. After doing the same herself, it was all matter of making sure they didn't tumble down into the sandy abyss. Just because she was tough didn't mean she was sturdy. Never in her life had she once explored the sand dunes and she could just imagine the looks on the faces of the Sunese bourgeoisie if they saw their Royalty parading through the outer reaches of their country. It was strangely liberating; to experience the desert in this manner- as if it had been hidden from her all her life.
Finally reaching the end of one particularly lengthy dune, Temari found what she had been looking for. There it stood, in all its war torn glory. Five hundred feet long, one hundred feet high and with just over one thousand, five hundred rooms, the home of the Sunan Monarchy really was a sight to behold, even to Temari.
The Desert Palace, as it was known, was now just that. Deserted.
"We're going to have to slide down," Temari warned Hinata, who gasped in shock.
"Milady, that is.....u-un-unthinkable!" she stuttered, staring warily at the sand.
"It's our only choice, Hinata," Temari pressed, "this is no time for delicacies. I didn't bring you with me because I was hoping that you would iron my petticoats. I did it because I know that when you say you will help, you mean it. And I need your help, Hinata. I can't do this alone," she finished, looking the young girl in the eyes.
Hinata turned her gaze back to the dunes.
"What would you have me do, Princess?" Hinata asked, quietly.
Temari sighed. Even after everything, Hinata still insisted on placing this ridiculous distance between them. They had stripped naked and showered together and yet Hinata still refused to see herself as an equal. There was nothing for it, Temari decided. If it helped Hinata to have orders barked at her, then that was the way it was going to be.
"I would have you slide down the sand dune, Hinata," Temari answered authoritatively, slightly annoyed at how ridiculous she sounded.
Nodding slightly, Hinata sat down in the sand, waiting for Temari to follow suit. Taking her hand, Temari steadied herself beside the girl and pushed them both off. Skidding through the dunes, Temari felt exactly the same sensation she had experienced as a sick child. With the sand flying everywhere; blowing in her face, down her throat, into her eyes and ears- it felt as if the desert was trying to suffocate her again.
When they had landed safely at the bottom, Temari pulled a choking Hinata to her feet and began to continue towards the Palace doors. Just seeing the place again made Temari's mind explode with memories.
The day Kankuro was born.....
The day Gaara was born.......
The day they killed her mother.............
The day her father declared war on Konoha............
The day he died...............
The night they came for the three of them............
Temari had no doubt that the doors would be unlocked. She knew for a fact that the army had been using the Palace as a base of operations whilst in Suna. She doubted that there was anything left inside. If her mother's pearls and art work had made it all the way to Konoha, then it was unlikely they had left any object untouched.
Trudging forward through the sand, Temari wished she had appreciated her home whilst she had it. It was beautiful. Truly beautiful. Konoha's manors and streets had nothing on this.
"M-Mi-Milady, I-I-I can't," Temari heard Hinata stutter.
"Hinata, I hereby invite you inside the Palace. You are now officially my guest. Does that make it any better?" Temari questioned, knowing that Hinata's reluctance to enter the building stemmed from quite a different place than her own.
Hinata's own sense of hierarchy forbid her to enter the Palace without some form of invitation. It was optimistic in a way, Temari thought. It meant that she was considering the possibility that the Monarchy would be restored and she would punished for trespassing. Temari chuckled wryly at that thought. Even if Gaara was to become King, he would never punish Hinata. He would suggest that perhaps the sand had been life-threatening that day; or that Hinata was forced to enter by a pack of wild animals. Gaara would have been an excellent King, Temari thought. He found loopholes in everything.
Thinking back, the only reason that Gaara had been named heir over Kankuro was due to his innate ability to slice through the legislature's reasoning's like butter. He always found something wrong with an Act or a Bill that other minds had thought to be air-tight. Her father had been pleased with that at first. Someone who helped him keep the Privy Council and politicians on their toes. Temari supposed that it was Gaara's way of dealing with the isolation that came with their childhood. Gaara spent hours pouring himself over legal documents; Kankuro shut himself up in his room, creating imaginary worlds with the help of his toys and Temari? She didn't deal with it. She caused as much havoc as possible around the place. True, it was only small things like refusing to keep her elbows off of the table during dinner and putting pinecones in her minder's bed, but it was refreshing to think of new ways to terrorise the household each day. It helped her to keep a hold on her sanity.
Temari did not want to enter the house.........her house because...........looking around all she could think was............
War-torn, and decimated and gutted. That was her house now and she had never seen anything more terribly beautiful in her life.
Pushing past the front pillars, whose golden gates had long since been melted down for money, Temari walked swiftly up to the main door trying not to notice the Konohanian flags that now littered the grounds. Three large archways loomed in front of herself and Hinata as she noticed that the door at the back of the main archway as hanging on its hinges, it's other half being missing completely.
As they passed underneath the arch, Temari felt her nerves ease. If she was honest, the trek had insured that her emotions were on edge, in fear that someone; a Konoha soldier, a Sunan or worse- a paramilitary, would recognise her. She honestly doubted that anyone else would inhabit the castle, other than soldiers, most Sunan's sharing the same views as Hinata. She was wrong.
Side stepping around the formidable door, Temari froze as she heard a gun being locked and loaded. Due to the sunlight she could just about make out a shadowy figure sitting on the main hall's steps.
"I suggest you turn around, Missy," a voice growled. "This Palace is to be resided in solely by Gaara, Emperor and Autocrat of all Suna," it continued, "and until he returns, I'm minding it for him," the voice snarled with finality.
Neji sighed, at what Shikamaru could only presume to be the incredulous look he was now giving the Captain.
"Tenten, could we have a moment, please?" Neji requested, turning to face his lieutenant, who in response growled and stormed into the other room.
Taking a seat on the bed opposite the one Shikamaru was currently residing upon; Neji removed his rifle and set it upon the bed beside him, before facing Shikamaru.
"You are aware of this country's political situation, are you not?" Neji questioned, surprising Shikamaru who was expecting some sort of an explanation. "And I'm not talking about domestic policy," he added, as Shikamaru opened his mouth to speak.
"I assume you are referring to the fact that ever since we displaced Suna's Monarchy, no other nation will converse with our Hokage in a diplomatic manner," Shikamaru began, forcing his brain to think. Asuma would be pleased; he was missing today's lesson due to unforeseen Sunan terrorism.
Neji nodded.
"Oto, Iwa and Kumo have all been at odds with the Konoha, ever since the coup," Neji continued, again shocking Shikamaru. No Konohanian soldier would ever refer to the displacement of the Sunan Monarchy as a 'coup'. Neji however, acknowledged no mistake and continued to speak.
"All three of those countries believe the Monarchy to be the rightful rulers of Suna, and essentially that Konoha has committed severe and barbaric war crimes by its actions," the Captain finished.
"You're practically quoting Kumo's foreign secretary," Shikamaru said wryly to Neji, who replied with a small smirk.
"Suna's resident paramilitaries- the Akatsuki- formed over a wish to stop what they refer to as the 'inaction' of other countries to prevent Konoha's blatant disregard for international law," Neji continued slowly. Shikamaru still could not think for his life what any of this had to do with him.
"In other words, they want to fight back- physically, that is," Shikamaru concluded, regarding the strained look on Neji's features.
"Yes," Neji answered, before Shikamaru cut him off.
"But how would they even do that? It's a completely ludicrous thought," Shikamaru said, almost passionately. "Yes, they have weapons but without the backing of a country or some sort of military force behind them, they haven't the slightest chance in hell of defeating our army," he finished, flinching inwardly at the fact he had sided himself with the Konohanian forces.
"Exactly," Neji replied simply, leaving Shikamaru feeling quite stupid. "From what we can decipher from the threats the government has received from the group, they are aware of that."
"Then why..............." Shikamaru almost asked, trailing off as the cogs in his brain started to turn.
There was no way that......................................
Why did his head have to hurt so badly?
"I remember Asuma telling me once that the bodies of the Sunan Monarch and his family were never found," Shikamaru began, almost thinking aloud, knowing full well that one of those bodies was alive.
Neji simply nodded.
"He also told me that because of that, there was no proof that the army had murdered them," he continued quietly.
Another nod answered his thoughts.
"He said that......that if the bodies had been found, it would have resulted in Konoha tumbling into war with at least three other countries due to the fact that Konoha signed a treaty before the war, stating that it would only reprimand the Monarchy, not kill them. He made it sound as if, aside from Konoha, the Sunan Royals got along quite well with the rest of the region," Shikamaru finished nervously. He didn't like where his thought process was taking him.
"They did," Neji answered briskly. "The Sunan Queen was quite a beauty and many of the Politicians and Royals from other countries were quite enamoured with her. Not to mention the fact that the King was famous for the lavish parties he threw yearly. Konoha chose a very popular Monarchy to get rid of," the soldier continued matter-of-factly. "The other countries did not.........do not want the Sunan Monarchy dead, at any costs. Their respective populations would not take the news well."
Shikamaru chose not to answer, being too lost in thought.
"I can tell you one thing, Nara," Neji said firmly, leaning closer to him, "The King and the Queen are dead. But their children............"
"Temari," Shikamaru breathed.
"The Akatsuki will do anything to get their hands on one of the three royal children," Neji said, standing up and making his way across to the door, which he then locked. "It is understood that should they be successful, they would hold the Royal hostage and insist that Konoha remove its troops and restore Suna's borders. If that request were not to be fulfilled, the group would murder the hostage thus attempting to plunge the Konoha into a multi-fronted War."
Shikamaru didn't have time to think.
"I have to find her," he said, bolting off his bed and towards the door. Slamming his hand against it when he remembered that Neji locked it, he was about to demand his freedom before Neji stopped him.
"No, Nara," Neji said simply, taking a seat behind his desk, "we have to find her."
"What?" Shikamaru questioned breathlessly, still with half a mind to kick the door down.
"There are many," Neji began after clearing his throat, "who do not agree with the way the government are handling the situation. Should the Akatsuki get their hands on a Prince or Princess, it is unlikely that the Hokage would step in to rescue them. As you now know, that could be catastrophic," he concluded, as Shikamaru made his way to the chair facing Neji.
"You too, are sick of the fighting, are you not?" Neji questioned, disturbing Shikamaru who had not been expecting such a direct query.
But he was sick of it. He was sick of seeing photographs in the paper of dying Sunan's and bloodied soldiers. It was not a nice environment to live in. After a while; your conscience numb from hurting so badly, you discovered that you had been desensitized to the suffering from seeing so much fighting constantly litter the headlines. It was an awful way to be.
So he nodded.
"So I am" Neji answered briskly, "and so too is your father."
Shikamaru couldn't speak. He was having trouble swallowing.
Neji smiled wryly, noticing the disbelieving look Shikamaru was giving him.
"Your father did tell me that you thought he was in love with the war machine," the Captain said dryly. "It is quite the opposite, I assure you. In fact it is quite the opposite for many soldiers- nearly the whole army."
"What about?.............." Shikamaru began, finding many problems with Neji's previous statement.
"The ones who loot and steal?" Neji asked, finishing Shikamaru's thought, "they are the same ones every time and they do not do it with direct orders from any general. They do it off of their own bat."
"So, why haven't you disciplined them or stopped them?" Shikamaru questioned, incredulously, trying to figure out Neji's expression.
"We don't want to draw attention," he replied simply.
"Attention to what?" Shikamaru asked exasperatedly. He wished for once, a soldier would just say everything outright instead of leading him around these stupid cryptic explanations.
"To us," Neji said, sitting up straight in his chair and staring Shikamaru directly in the eyes. "To the soldiers who are currently refusing to fire upon Sunan people. To the officers who send out the orders to find, under any means, the children of the Sunan Monarchy and to keep them in Konoha, safe from the government and safe from the Akatsuki. And to your father, who for the past year has been planning a revolution against the Konohanian government."