--

"Nara, situations change. Tensions are running high between all the hidden villages. We have places where you're needed more."

"This is my home."

"Once this is over, I'm giving you a new assignment. You'll be able to visit this village, but I want you on the field more often." She stood up, turning to face the window. "You're going to be part of a new taskforce, stationed in Suna as part of our alliance. The Kazekage has requested this of me, he's impressed by your skills."

I gulped, looking down at the Hokage. My heart skipped a beat.

"I can't leave this village, I have responsibilities here. I can't just leave my family, my friends."

"Nara, you won't see her again if you don't accept this offer." Her voice was nonchalant, but her expression serious. "I don't want you here waiting for her like a lovesick puppy every time she visits. This has gone far enough, everyone in the village knows what's going on. This is your chance to be with her."

"I... I know, but there are people here who need me. You can't do this."

"Gaara has asked it of me, Temari is as hopeless as you, it seems. You both need to be put out of your misery."

"I can't leave Konoha." My heart broke to say it.

She looked up at me, her eyebrows raised. "Can I take this as your final answer?"

--

I stepped forward. Temari needed to get back, we had this sorted. Long range, short range. I was glad for the plan, I wanted to put myself between her and the kage. She wasn't moving. I shot her a glare, she needed to move.

Temari's eyes were slits of rage, she spread her tessen, presenting it behind her back. I knew that stance. She was preparing to attack. Did she even remember the plan?

"You are not going to kill them," her voice was almost a growl. Her knees were shaking. My eyes widened. I had never seen her so angry. "You can kill me, but Kankarou and Shikamaru will walk away."

"Temari, stick to the plan," I stated, keeping my voice calm and loud. It didn't work, her feet were dug into the ground, she was making her stand. The Raikage was no better, his back hunched, preparing to draw his blade.

This was not going to be pretty.

"After I'm done with you," the Raikage snarled, "I'm going to hunt down Gaara. This is the end of your bloodline."

Temari swooped forward, her fan swung out. The Raikage easily dodged her blow, the wind barely missing his hair, his hand striking forward.

The counterblow caught her in the side and she cried out. Her hair stood on end, there was a hole in her dress, the flesh underneath scarred. She leapt back, the smell of charred flesh following her. The soles of her bare feet were smoking.

"No shoes," the Raikage observed. "Smart."

I understood. His hits were charged with lightning, taking off our shoes let the electricity pass through us into the ground with only superficial damage. She would probably have died if she wasn't grounded.

I needed to stop this, she was acting through anger. She would lose.

"Shadow possession technique!" I performed the seals, sending my shadow toward our opponent. He jumped back, darting faster than I could chase. It didn't matter, he wasn't heading toward Temari. She needed time to get it together, get back to the plan.

My shadow backed off. If I caught him she'd think she had an opening, but not with this man. He'd step out of a basic shadow in seconds. My basic moves were all useless. Maybe a great shadow bind, or a flicker jutsu, but that would sap most of my chakra, I needed to wait until the right time.

"Temari, stick to the plan," I hissed. She really needed to sort herself out. Her eyes hit me, anger boiling behind them. "He wants you angry. We know how to win this."

She nodded slowly. Good, she was still thinking. She walked backwards, increasing the distance. Just as we had planned. The Raikage was now focussed on me.

"Good," he sneered, "I wanted her to watch you die first, anyway."

The Speech of Certain Victory. How I had missed it.

I didn't waste time replying. I needed to see some of that massive chakra. He was taking a defensive position, this was what I had been trying to avoid. Now we'd have to expend our own chakra engaging him, and he had a lot more to waste than we did. Something big and flashy should see him retaliate.

"Greater sunlight bind!" I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the sunlight. This was easier during the day, but still a lot of work. The air around me started rippling. The heat from the sun intesified and I focussed my chakra.

The light was burning now. I heard the Raikage choke, I had caught him. I opened my eyes to the illuminated clearing. The Raikage was bound into place, cords of light wrapping around him, compressing him. If I had a kunai I would have finished him.

Temari hauled toward him, shocking him with bouts of sickling wind. His clothes tore under the light strands. He grunted in pain. Maybe not pain.

"Light prison!" He didn't even move, just hissed the words at me and I knew it was coming. My jutsu broke as I looked upwards. Bars of pure light surrounded me, stretching up as far as I could see. They were kind of a blue colour. Kind of... pretty. I reached out.

"Shikamaru!" Temari roared at me. "Don't touch them, they're lightning!"

My eyes widened. Lightning? Perfectly straight, constant lightning. The ability to call lightning down from the sky. Half of his bloodline limit. Impressive.

I looked over at Temari. It was up to her for now. She needed to get this moving again. It was under control.

This time the wind dance that struck him was harder. It was unavoidable, the best thing about Temari's moves, and it wreaked havoc on the forest, tearing up the trees and the ground. Wind was a powerful element. The Raikage didn't fall back, withstanding the wind.

I tried to warn her as his hands gestured, but there was no time. Instantly three metal spikes shot from the ground. Temari tried to leap back, but she was too slow. One of the spikes slashed across her leg, leaving a trail of blood across the ground.

The metal warped and chased, three spikes turning into nine, into twenty-seven, like a hydra it kept multiplying. Temari was on the move, feet barely touching the ground, trying desperately to dodge the snakes that pursued her. They were too many and too fast. She would be missing her iron tessen.

Lightning couldn't stop shadows, I could disrupt this.

I tried to mimic his jutsu, my shadow sewing leaping from the ground, splitting in threes again and again. Now I had him on the defensive, his metal jutsu sucked back into the ground.

"Shikamaru, you fucking fool!" Temari could take time out from anything to yell at me. But as the Raikage turned to me, I saw my mistake. A metal shield shot from the earth, my shadows bouncing harmlessly off the surface. And I couldn't move to dodge his attack.

Two spikes flew from his palms, straight towards me. If I moved I would be cut to pieces by my lightning prison. My eyes widened as the inevitable faced me.

The spikes hit, blood began to gush, the lightning around me crackled, smoke and dust filled the air. I choked, but couldn't feel the pain. That wasn't right.

The dust began to settle and a gasp echoed between the Raikage and I. Standing between us, Temari's hands were bleeding as she held the spikes back. Every vein in her arms was raised, she was grunting with effort. The steel bars bent under her hold, she hauled them downwards, straining to change their path.

Her hair had fallen from one of her ponytails, her face spattered with blood, she looked dishevelled and filthy. My beautiful, untamed princess glared at me.

"I thought," she gasped under the effort, "that you were supposed to be fucking smart."

--

My hands hurt. Badly.

I felt like the spikes I was holding would crush me given half a chance. Shikamaru needed to get free before I lost control. I could only hold on for so long, and when I let go the spikes would follow their planned path, straight through his vital organs.

There was nothing that would stop the lightning prison though, and it looked as if the Raikage could hold it without even trying. Perhaps I could talk him into releasing it, I smirked. Fuck Shikamaru for getting me into this. There was just one way I could think of to get the required results.

I let my anger build my strength, then pulled as hard as I could. The spikes barely bent, but they bent. I pulled forward. The bars stretched. I grunted fom the effort, pulling, pushing, straining, dragging that metal forward. Just a bit further.

"Are you ready, Raikage-sama?" I asked, gasping for air, but continuing my efforts. I worked those spikes toward shikamaru. "Are you ready to die?"

I heard a grunt of shock as he realised what I was doing. He tried to pull the metal from my grip, but it wasn't going anywhere. The pain sucked the breath out of me. But I only needed a few more inches.

"You're bluffing," he said, not sounding very confident. He was still fighting against me with his magnetics. "You'd kill yourself, too."

"That's exactly why I'm not bluffing, Raikage," I roared from the effort, so close. "I never expected to walk away from this fight. I never even expected to kill you."

"Temari, stop!" I ignored Shikamaru's plea. I was playing chicken and there was no way to lose.

I screamed, pushing the last half inch forward.

The lightning prison was gone instantly, a millisecond before it would have hit the metal, electrocuting the Raikage and I simultaneously. Shikamaru was gone, flitting backwards to safety. I let the spikes go, they flew into empty space.

I fell to my knees. My arms felt like they were about to fall off. It was up to him for now.

His shadows moved forward, flickering strangely. This was the technique I had seen before. The Raikage dodged easily, moving back along the road. If he had seen what I had, he wouldn't be so confident. Shikamaru wasn't using his full speed with the shadow.

"Temari," he said as he dawdled after the kage, "I'll need your help for this. Can you manage one more wind vortex?"

Was he insane? Hed he not seen what I just did? I tried to focus on the question. I had enough chakra. Just enough. "One more."

"You know what to do."

Shikamaru's shadow snapped forward, picking up the speed and capturing the off guard Raikage. It wouldn't last long, I had to make my move quickly.

I sprinted forward, biting my thumb as I ran. I was next to the Raikage as I started the technique. In the central circles of my vortex even his metal shields would be torn apart. The flicker was getting weaker, I needed to start this fast.

"Great cutting vortex!"

I poured my chakra into the air, presenting my fan above my head. The currents started, thick and fast. Leaves were rising from the ground, the wind lifting them, tossing them between the two opposing streams.

Shikamaru's shadow finally flickered out, the Raikage surging toward me. But he was too late. The wind around me buffetted him into the larger currents. The ground underneath us was losing stability, the topsoil tossed into the air. I tried to push more chakra outwards, I needed this to be at full power.

The Raikage tried to push up a shield, but it melted as though in a furnace. His skin was starting to tear, the cutting wind making hundreds of tiny incisions. His feet were still on the ground, has face grim. The air started screaming.

Maybe... My chest tightened. For the first time, the thought actually crossed my mind that this could kill him. Maybe Shikamaru and I could win.

"It's not that easy!" The Raikage roared through the wind. I wanted to shield myself, I missed my iron tessen. He held his hands aloft in the wind, I felt the air crackle. From the ground rose three long poles of steel. They tore in the wind, but I realised too late that he had wanted that.

The vortex tore the poles into bullets, then sped them up. I watched, helpless, as my own wind jutsu hurled the deadly pellets toward me from all directions. I screamed as they hit, my vortex died, the Raikage thrown clear.

My stomach, legs, arms, neck, all down my back blood poured out freely.

"Temari!" Shikamaru's arms were around me, he was cradling my head. Why couldn't I move? I couldn't see properly either. It hurt so much. My whole body felt so weak. I needed to get up, I needed to save Kankurou. My job wasn't done here.

I felt the Raikage's shadow over us.

"It's time to finish this, Sabaku no-" His voice was cut off with a gurgling choke.

I looked up through blurry eyes. Sand?

"Desert funeral."

The sand compressed, my eyes widened. The Raikage's flesh oozed from cracks in his coccoon.

Shikamaru held me tighter, two deeply lined eyes stared down at me.

"How bad is it?" Gaara's soft voice helped to soothe the pain. He was here, my baby brother. My body began to relax. The Raikage was dead? It didn't seem possible. He was dead, and Shikamaru was alive. I had succeeded. I wasn't strong enough, but I had given Gaara the opening he needed.

"She's..." Shikamaru's voice wavered, "She's bleeding heavily. I don't think her vital organs were hit though."

My eyes closed, I wanted to sleep. I was suddenly so tired. I felt a hand strike my face. "Stay awake, you need to stay awake."

"You hit me..." That had sounded more eloquent in my head, but it came out as a childish grumble.

"And I'll do it again if you don't keep your eyes open," he hissed down at me. I felt myself lifted up in strong arms. I forced my eyes open. "We need to get her to the nearest medic."

"Gaara," I mumbled, trying to focus on him. "You came to kill him, too?"

The Kazekage's empty eyes fixed on me. I could see what no one else could, what lay behind those eyes. "Kankurou is my brother, too."

I sighed, relaxing back into Shikamaru's arms. I looked up at him. His face was grim. Why did he look so serious? We had won. He looked at Gaara and smirked.

"At least this time it wasn't your girlfriend trying to kill us."

Gaara paused, a light blush coloured his cheeks. No one called Shiota his girlfriend. Ever. Then a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "She's not so bad, once you get to know her."

--