She sat silently, staring as the rain poured outside.
Closing her eyes, all she could see was Izumi's blood covered face, her dark eyes staring at her.
I saved you.
I died for you.
Save my family.
Save my father.
She opened her eyes and sighed deeply.
Moving towards the mirror, she stared at her own reflection.
Dark circles beneath her eyes became more apparent, fine lines around her eyes were more distinct than she could remember.
She looked old.
She looked broken.
She sighed again as she touched her face, closing her eyes.
The next second, she felt a warm familiar hand on her face.
She opened her eyes to see her husband, staring sadly at their reflections in the mirror.
His slit-like eyes were dark, like obsidian stones. He traced her face with his fingers, brushing across her brows, her emerald like eyes, her tall nose and full lips.
His hand paused and cupped the hand she placed on her own face.
"Sometimes I think." She said, breaking the melancholic silence in the air.
He said nothing but stared at the mirror.
"Sometimes I think what goes on in that brilliant mind of yours." She reached up with another hand and touched his chin, where he had a goatee.
"I ask the same question everyday." His arms travelled down and hugged her by the waist. He pressed a chaste kiss onto her cheek. "I feel like I have known you for so long, but I don't really know you."
Temari sighed and looked down. "I used to think I know myself, but now I was not sure who I am right now."
She used to be the Rose of the Desert, whose trail was littered with blood and sweat of those who served her. Her people are willing, no, they would vouch to die for her.
But now, she shuddered at the thought of holding a body in her arms, be it a stranger.
Every night she dreamed of the dead Uchiha girl who blocked her father's sword for her.
She had grown soft with age, no longer her proud fierce self.
Shikamaru sighed as he leaned forward, his head resting on her shoulder.
"All I want you to know, Temari." He said softly, sadly. "I love you, I always have and I always will."
He buried his face into her shoulder. "No matter what is in your past, you are my present, my future – you and our children."
Temari found her tears rolling down involuntarily. "Why do we have to waddle in sadness, after all the hardships we had been through?"
She turned around and pressed her lips onto his. "We deserve to be happy, Shikamaru, after all this time, we deserve to."
Her kisses became feverish, as she pecked across his skin; he responded by carrying her to the bed, his hand scurried to remove her long kimono from her body.
His hands soothed her curves lovingly, as she pulled him close – seeing him half naked only made her realize how she longed for him.
After the confrontation and Izumi's incident, she deliberately isolated herself from him. She refused to see him, stayed in a room of her own, far away from him.
For a second she thought she was going mad, she thought she would have ended her life.
But she did not.
When she threw that long cloth across the beam, the moonlight lit up her face and faces flashed in her mind.
Shikadai, with his father's handsome face and her emerald eyes.
Mari, with the long blonde hair she was so proud of and her hazel eyes – a mixture of the two, of two nations.
Her brothers, Gaara and Kankuro.
And most importantly.
His face – from his somewhat childish, nonchalant looking face when they first met, to his tired face that hung on the man he was now, smiling at her.
She never put her neck onto the line.
It was at the moment when it dangled in front of her, slightly waving in the cold night winds, that she realized she did not want to die.
She had too much left in the world, death was not what she desired.
She even felt a bit relieved that on the faithful night, Izumi died for her.
Not that she did not feel guilty for the girl's death, but it seemed that the Uchiha girl was destined to die for her, like many before her – her blood watered the Rose of the Desert.
She ignored her thoughts and enjoyed his sole, devoted attention on her – his lips brushed her curves, his hands caressing every inch of her skin.
It had been long since she felt him so close, inside of her, as he entered her.
It had been long since they had been together, as one.
She threw her head back in ecstasy as he thrust back and forth inside of her.
Finally, when he climaxed and laid atop of her naked, sweating body, she wrapped her arms around him.
She pressed a kiss on his forehead, and closed her eyes.
"I love you too." She whispered into his ear.
He replied with a soft kiss on her lips, before pulling her into his arms and falling into a deep sleep.
How she wished this could last forever.
Shikamaru smiled in his sleep, his heart slowly pounding against his chest.
She is still who she is, whom he loved and still do.
The moon shone on both of them, as he had her in his arms.
How he wished this could last forever.
He laid in his cell, quietly gritting his teeth in pain.
Sakura could be cruel, to administer such a potent poison, eroding his bones and tendons, rendering his once majestic body into a pile of rubble.
He panted, as he tried to shift from his side to laying on his back, every inch of him felt numb and painful at the same time, as if he was laying on a bed covered with iron nails and shards of glass.
He had lost count of the days, pain remained the constant in his life, as if always had, haunting him.
He had thought that Sakura wanted this to happen, that he should suffer instead dying a swift merciful death.
"You have a visitor." The guard banged his sword onto the bars, the clash of metal hurting Sasuke's ears.
He slowly turned his head around, and saw the guard leaving, only a hooded figure hovered in front of the bars.
He could see that it was a woman, her slender hands showing, which slowly moved up and removed the hood, revealing a head of sandy blonde hair.
"You…" He gritted his teeth as he tried to flip himself over and crawled to the bar.
How he wanted to strangle her this instant.
She should have been dead, her blood painting the emblem of the Uchiha.
This wicked woman from the Desert.
She who made him murdered his kin.
She who reduced him to this.
"Look how pathetic you are, Uchiha." She looked down at him with her emerald-like eyes.
"Why have you come here?" He tried his best to shout, to scream at her, only to realize that his voice was so weak, she frowned in struggle to hear him.
"Sakura really loved you, that pink-haired idiot." Temari crouched down, staring straight into Sasuke's fiery red eyes. "You have no idea."
"She begged for mercy, on her knees." Temari said plainly. "Besides, all that pain she had suffered, for all these years – she was nothing in your heart, how that feeling must have been."
"She should have let me go," Sasuke spat, panting in agony.
"What would happen to your family then, Sasuke?" She arched an eyebrow.
His heart pained even more as she mentioned it, his expression stunned. "Don't you dare…"
"I would not, I have made a promise to your niece when she died in my arms." Temari held up her hands, and stared down at them. "I will take care of your daughter."
Sasuke stared at her, there was a burning determination in her teal green eyes.
"No matter what, I own my life to an Uchiha."
She stood back up and nodded at Sasuke. "The Desert never forgets."
That was when she put her hood back on and turned her back on him.
Sasuke stared as she left, his sight blurring as she went further away from him.
Yamanaka Inojin sat there, his blonde hair tied neatly in a short ponytail.
He sometimes would visit his friend Shikadai here, at his family mansion.
But recently, there was something different – he had a new reason to come round.
"Inojin-nii," he turned and saw her beaming at him.
Mari grinned at this older boy, her brother's best friend who often visited them.
Her blonde hair was tied in a long plaid, fixed neatly with a golden ring; her hazel coloured eyes shone in the sun and Inojin felt a rush of blood as he stared into them.
"Mari, whe-where is your brother?" He found himself stammering.
"He is probably out at the Palace with father." Mari sat down next to him, and saw a piece of paper on his lap, along with a plate of ink and a brush.
"Ohh what are you drawing?" Mari stared and found a familiar face on the piece of paper. "This looks like me."
"No-nothing," Inojin's pale face was covered with shades of pink.
Mari smiled at him as she laid down and muttered.
"Troublesome." Her hands were placed behind her head.
Inojin said nothing as he stared at her with his sky blue eyes.
Mari was a little girl, like a little sister to him; it was only recently that he discovered these new-found feelings for her.
He felt an irresistible urge to reach out and touch her beautiful face, as he reached out, Mari sat back up; he quickly retracted his hand and pretended that nothing had happened.
"Hehe, I will see if go see if nii-chan is back," Mari leapt up and ran away, leaving Inojin with a blank stare at the direction she left, and an earful of her crisp clear chuckles.
An involuntary smile crept up his face as he sighed exaggeratedly and looked up at the sky.
"Nice clouds," he said softly, as he laid back and thought of his young love.
Author's note:
Another chapter! Sorry for the late update!
Enjoy xoxo
V.S.V