Chapter Twenty-Eight

Slaves of the Smoke

It took two days for Temari to finally talk to Shikamaru again, and then it was only because poor Rock Lee had been acting as a go between, and frankly he was getting a bit tired of their attitudes.

"This had gone on long enough!" Lee stated "The pair of you must stop this right now!"

"He started it!" Temari pointed at Shikamaru.

"She started it!" Shikamaru said at the exact same time.

"You are acting like a pair of children! And not in the good way, but in a bratty way!" Lee said. "I know that you two care for each other, so you should not act this way towards someone you love!"

Temari sputtered "I never said-I never-what makes you think that I love him!?"

Rock Lee rolled his eyes "Temari, if even Naruto can tell from the first moment he saw you together then surly everyone else can see it as well."

Shikamaru grunted. If Temari wanted to be that way then so be it! Bratty evil woman!

Rock Lee sighed "Look, setting aside the fact that the two of you are being purposely oblivious," More snorts from his audience "there is also the fact that we are heading towards enemy territory. If we do not get our act together we will be in trouble! I know that you both are extremely smart and tactical thinks, so put your anger aside and please, please act like adults!

Temari sighed and finally looked at Shikamaru "You know, if the guy who gives people sparkly thumbs up and who constantly talks about blooming flowers of youth is telling you to grow up then you know that you are really acting childish."

Shikamaru nodded "I don't like that your brother hurt you."

"And I don't like people dissing my brother. Look, Nara, you don't have siblings. I'm his big sister. I am supposed to take care of them, especially when they do something stupid. You don't know Kankuro like I do. Trust me; he is punishing himself more right now than anyone else ever could."

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru asked.

"My brother is very traditional Iifernati. Me, I think its all crap, but Kankuro follows the old ways like a puppy. One of those old beliefs is that you shouldn't attack or hurt a family member. He's probably doing something incredibly stupid right now, and I won't be there to tell him to stop it!"

Man, this woman had a control issue that just would not stop! Shikamaru sighed. "Okay, look, I am not going to ever be happy about Kankuro attacking you. Sorry, but you are just going to live with that."

Temari wacked him over the head. "I don't want you to like it you drip! I want you to leave my brother alone!"

"Okay, okay." Shikamaru rubbed the bump on his head.

"Are you two quite done now?" Rock Lee asked with mild impatience.

"Alright, let me think." Shikamaru proceeded to think, pose and all.

"Great, while he focuses on spinning the hamster wheel I'll gather information." Temari said, and before Lee could ask her what she meant she had summoned her white wind weasel, Kamatari. Usually, she would summon the little creature on her fan and incorporate him in her attack, but she was fanless at the moment. And the weasel had other uses.

"Go and tell me what the Smoke are talking about. Find out as much as you can about them." She whispered. Kamatari leaped and vanished into the wind.

After few moments the weasel returned and whispered into Temari's ear. She nodded. "That is useful." She muttered.

"What?" Lee asked.

"Kamatari here heard a rather odd conversation. Apparently two Smoke soldiers were discussing how to make sure that family groups of prisoners remained together after they, and I am quoting here 'are bought'"

"'Bought'" Lee growled "I really do not like that word."

"Neither do I. For use when we capture prisoners we keep them apart, but these Smokes seem to want to keep family groups together."

For the first time, Kamatari spoke "They seemed most interested in keeping husbands and wives together." His voice was reedy and light.

"Hmmm, we still know little of their plans, though I don't like grunts will know that much." Shikamaru said. "I don't think they will kill us right away…I think we need to go along with this. However, if we are separated then that will be a problem."

"We can pretend to be related."

Shikamaru smiled "If they are most interested in keeping married couples together I think we need to make one. It will keep at least two of us together, and make communication a bit easier."

Lee nodded. "It should be you and Temari."

Temari glared at Lee. "Are you still pressing this lovey-dovey shit?"

Shikamaru tried not to wince at the description of his inner feeling as "shit".

"Yes, I think the pair of you are in love, even if you will not admit it." Lee said bluntly. "But, there is another reason. If these people are taking us as slaves I will be the most capable of surviving alone without ninjutsu due to my training. Second, the pair of you are, as I have stated before, brilliant tacticians. The pair of you should be able to come up with something."

Temari sighed. She really did not like this at all. She didn't like to be pressed into this whole…whatever it was that was between her and Shikamaru. Yeah the plan made some sense, but she did not like it at all.

"I suppose it's a good enough plan." She said, and glared at Shikamaru "No funny business."

"Yeah yeah, keep your shirt on." He growled at her.

"I intend to." Temari said.

Damn it! Shikamaru thought. Why was she acting this way! He just did not understand this woman!

Temari was still glaring at him. It was freaking unnerving. It was like looking into the eyes of a mountain lion. A female mountain lion that was going to rip your face off for daring to get near her cubs. Yeah, that is what Temari was, a lioness. A fierce and terrible lioness.

And Shikamaru?

He was just a lazy deer who wanted nothing more than to chomp the grass and not be bothered.

Troublesome.


By nightfall they had reached what Shikamaru could only describe as a hellhole.

It started with the dark clouds in the sky, ominous and ever-present. Then, as they drew closer they saw the buildings. Now, neither Suna nor Konoha could ever be described as ordered places, but this place! It was wall to wall buildings. They all seemed glued together. They were cramped and way to bunched together. A good fire would have reduced the entire place to kindling. Also, there was the smell. The smell of burning coal and human waste and things dying permeated the air and settled on them like a blanket of pure sensory horror. Shikamaru thought he was going to die from it. He could see some buildings in the distance, belching smoke and nastiness. It was horrible.

The vehicle finally stopped at a warehouse near the smelling buildings. The prisoners were lead out of their cages and lined up against a wall.

To Shikamaru's surprise Temari was no longer sending him her angry signals. Instead, she had gripped his hand and squeezed. He knew that was her way of telling him that the play was on. It was time to act married.

How was he going to survive this? Yeah, he liked Temari, but he was not sure if he wanted to marry her!

It appeared that the wind weasel had been right. The soliders whent from group to group, and anyone who was a "couple" (and Temari wishpered to him that she regonized a few of them and they were indeed married), were put aside in another line.

A solider approached them. Shikamaru really really hoped he knew their languae.

"You together?" the soldier was looking at Shikamaru's and Temari's entwined hands.

Temari just nodded. She knew that if she spoke she would end up hitting something and that would be bad.

The solider apparently bought it, because he grabbed the two and led them over to the couple's line. Lee gave them one last cheery thumbs up as they were led away.

It was then that Shikamaru noticed that Temari was limping. Badly. In fact, really badly. It was like she could barely move.

"Are you okay?" He whispered.

"Yep." She said, and squeezed his hand again, a little too hard. He got it. She was doing this for a reason. She would tell him eventually. He hoped.

"What wrong with her." The solider glared at Temari.

Shikamaru thought quickly "She was attacked by a mountain lion."

"A mountain lion?"

Shikamaru nodded and lifted Temari's shirt, just a bit so that the man could see a little bit of the scaring that ran along her sides. She squawked at him in protest.

The man looked away as if Shikamaru had done something really offensive, like spitting during one of the Hyuga's little ball things that Shikamaru had somehow managed to get himself roped into one night.

The man hustled them to the line. They were last ones in. Soon enough the line was moving to the east side of the warehouse. Shikamaru realized with a chill that the warehouse was wall to wall cages. He and Temari were shoved into a cage in the middle. An elderly couple were at their right side, holding each other and weeping silently. The cages to the left were empty. Shikamaru could not see any of the single slaves. They must be at another end of the warehouse where he could not see them.

Rock Lee was gone now. Shikamaru felt a pang. Sure he was not good friends with the energetic green one, but the man's optimistic presence had been both a buffer between him and Temari as well as uplifting and encouraging him.

The lights went out, and the weeping continued. Soft, almost inaudible, but still there. It was heartbreaking.

Finally, Temari spoke. And she was pissed as usual.

"I will make you pay for that, you know?" Temari hissed at him.

"Yeah yeah." He growled. "I thought you wanted them to think you were crippled or something?"

"Think, deer boy. Would you see a poor little crippled woman as a threat?" Temari hissed.

"Ah." Shikamaru nodded "Nice. You might have to use a small transformation if they examine you."

"Don't worry; just keep watching the enemy, Nara."

"You know, technically you are a Nara now, at least in the Smoke's eyes. In fact…" Shikamaru did not know why his eyebrows were moving up and down, but…

"Stop thinking with your nuts." Temari grumbled at him.

Shikamaru, who now deiced that he was going to enjoy this as much as he could, tried to slide close to Temari while they slept, she keep rolling away from him.

"Aww, come on 'honey'," this was becoming fun! "We are married after all."

"Yeah, but I am still pissed at you and we don't have a couch, so back up against the other side of the cage."

"But-YEEEEEEEEEEEEOWCH!"

"Move!"

"Okay, okay, you don't have to pinch that area that hard you know!" Shikamaru moved to the other end of the cage. She was so freaking evil!

It was very very cold that night.


A/N: Yeah, short chapter.

The thing is, most of the action is happing in Konoha right now. Kankuro and Neji are not really doing anything except dreaming, and I don't want to oversaturated this fic to much with the past that suddenly becomes more about the past then about the war and the wolf thing (if I am making any sense hear. As for Shikamaru, Temari and lee, well you have just seen what is going on, and not much will go…

Until…well you will see.