there is a word limit on chapter titles :/ this one is supposed to be called 'who is the person you want to see the most right now?'
Shikamaru left bright and early the next morning. Not that he wanted to get to Wind Country that badly, like his father had remarked as he dashed out of the house before breakfast, but because Tsunade-sama had sent word to the Kazekage that he would be there exactly 72 hours from that morning. And he knew the Kazekage would pass that word along to his cruelly violent sister, who would have his ass if he was even a minute late.
And wasn't it just way too early to worry about all that?
So there he was, entering Sunagakure exactly three days after he left Konoha.
Temari was waiting for him at the gate to Suna, in a nice little reversal of roles.
"Anything troublesome on the way here?"
He knew she was just joking, but the most troublesome part of his entire trip had happened at the very beginning, when some of his friends had gathered at the gates to see him off, even though he had specifically not told anyone when he was leaving for a reason. Thanks, Kakashi.
Ino, of course, had been at the front of the pack. "Don't forget to give Temari a kiss from me too~!" She called, while the rest of the idiots laughed. She blew him an exaggerated kiss that he returned with a very rude gesture.
Obviously, he wasn't going to tell Temari that.
"Nah, you know, just sand."
This was his first time in Suna for a solo mission. Not that he came near here very often with Ino and Choji; Team 10 was usually sent out to lands north of Konoha.
Shikamaru was definitely missing his teammates right now, though. He had been in Suna for less than an hour and Temari was already getting to work.
"-And then, tomorrow, we have a training session with some of the final-year Academy students."
Speaking of, he should probably listen to whatever she's saying.
"Hold on," He started to complain. "Why am I involved in training your students? My mission is to just deliver some scrolls and help Gaara out with something."
"You are helping Gaara with something." Temari grinned at him, false innocence sparkling in her eyes. "Me."
Shikamaru stopped in his tracks. "You called me?" He stared at her in disbelief. "I knew this mission didn't make any sense. Tsunade-sama wouldn't send me all the way here just to torture me - she's not that unreasonable. You, on the other hand..."
"Quit being so dramatic, crybaby." She rolled her eyes. "I heard Konoha was sending someone with important Kage scrolls, and the Academy has been a little short-staffed lately, so all I did was hint that Gaara should ask the Hokage to send her laziest ninja."
She glanced at him, and her tone turned admonishing. "Though now I'm regretting that. You noticed that something was off and didn't do anything about it? Of all the rookie shinobi mistakes..."
"Well, no." He muttered disgruntledly. "That was too troublesome."
Shikamaru kicked the sand, though it wasn't as satisfying as the dirt back home. "Why me? Wouldn't you rather have someone less lazy?" He bit out.
"And spend an entire day training and following them to make sure it's being done correctly? I don't have that kind of spare time." Temari spun around, her hands on her hips. "You might be slow, but you get the job done. Now stop complaining, you've been here for less than an hour. Do you want to eat breakfast or what?"
She was throwing a lot of revelations at him for this early in the day, and after his journey, he barely had the energy to make sense of her insulting compliments, let alone respond. So instead, he just said the only thing that he really wanted at the moment.
"Actually, I would love a nap right now."
"Why am I not surprised." Temari snorted, shaking her head.
With that, she stalked off, waving him to follow her in afterthought. "Come on, our house is this way. You're staying with me."
Shikamaru didn't have much time to really think over that statement before she disappeared from view. He rubbed the back of his neck, sighing as he had to jog after her. He knew there was a high chance she would abandon him right there in the middle of the market, without any remorse.
Kankuro, puppet master extraordinaire and older brother of the Kazekage, was having a great time on his rare day off. Matsuri had been gullible enough to believe he had gotten attacked by a few rattlesnakes, though it helped that he was such a great actor, so now the Academy second-years were someone else's problem. At least temporarily.
With his siblings busy with their own duties, nothing was going to stop Kankuro from being a complete lazy ass - not unlike Temari's somewhat good friend, Shikanara-something. Yes, nothing at all-
"I'm home! Kankuro, where are you?"
Except that.
Their front door slammed, and Kankuro fell back on the couch with a loud sigh. He picked his magazine up again anyway. Kabuki Weekly wasn't going to read itself.
"Oi, Kankuro!"
"'Oi'?" He repeated, laughing. "All that time in Konoha, and now you're sounding like that shadow boy."
There was a distinct cough that wasn't either of his siblings, making Kankuro finally look up from his magazine. He nearly slipped off the couch as he recognized the figure standing uncomfortably behind his angry sister, half-heartedly waving. "Oh shi- Shadow boy!"
"His name is Shikamaru, and he's staying with us so if you could show him some manners-"
"Er, it's fine-"
"It's not," She hissed, and Shikamaru bravely backed away. "Kankuro, seriously, clean up!"
Temari picked up a couple of the cushions strewn around their living room floor and threw them onto the couch that Kankuro currently occupied.
Kankuro was tempted to hurl them back at her face, just to antagonize her as usual. But that meant if Gaara found out they fought in front of a precious Konoha guest, well. Kankuro didn't really want to spend the rest of the month smelling like fertilizer.
Instead, he obnoxiously flipped his magazine back open, ignoring the urge for sibling bickering.
Temari shook away her vexation. "C'mon Shikamaru, my room's this way."
Now, the magazine abandoned, Kankuro did fall off the couch. "He's staying with you?!"
"No!" Temari growled, accurately tossing a final cushion at his head. "We're just getting my things. God!"
"You know, it's fine. I can just stay out here."
Kankuro's assumption, though obviously incorrect, made Shikamaru more than a little nervous to step inside the room.
Temari rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid. I'm not going to jump you, if that's what you're worried about."
It wasn't, until she had to say that.
Face-burning, Shikamaru took two little steps inside the Suna kunoichi's bedroom. He couldn't lie to himself, he was a little curious with how it looked. Temari's apartment in Konoha was plain and bare, with hardly any personal effects apart from her clothes. Though he couldn't blame her; if he was living somewhere for only a few weeks out of the year, he probably wouldn't bother with any decorations either. He barely bothered with his own room at home.
Temari was busy digging through the drawers of her dresser, so he took the chance to look around.
There was a large bed pushed against one wall, though it didn't look as plush and comfy as his. The sheets were a deep purple, he noticed with interest.
Off to the right side was a large wooden wardrobe, and a closed door that he assumed led to a bathroom. On that wall, there were a few small decorative fans posted to the wall, centering around a framed photograph of her and her brothers and their sensei. Shikamaru figured that it must have been taken around the same time as their Chuunin exams.
The last wall was mostly taken up by a large window that overlooked the dunes. That's where Temari stood, just next to the dresser and the desk that matched the wardrobe, all a dark shade of brown. He walked over to join her and stared out the window as she finished up.
"Good view, right?"
Shikamaru turned to see her grinning at him, proud of the scenery of her homeland. He shrugged half-heartedly, looking back at the neverending sand. "Trees are better."
Temari scoffed. "Whatever, crybaby. Here." She shoved a small pamphlet and a key into his hands. "This is the key to the guest quarters, it's in a separate wing, I'll take you there next. And those are your papers as a visiting shinobi, just in case anyone stops you out in the village. Though that's probably not likely since we'll be together at all times."
"We will?"
She raised an eyebrow and gave him a look like he was dumb. "Aren't we always?"
Shikamaru suddenly realized how dry his throat was. His friends' obnoxious teasing from the night before was replaying itself in his head. He and Temari were just friends, two people who worked well together. Surely she thought the same way? Because if not, then he had a really troublesome matter on his hands.
Unable to come up with a way to really deny her observation, though, Shikamaru merely shrugged in response.
"Wow, you really are tired, huh." Temari shook her head, though with less irritation in it than before. "Not even a what a drag." She laughed as she said his trademark phrase, lowering her voice and dragging it out.
Temari grabbed onto his arm, leading him out of her room. "I'll show you to your room so you can pass out in peace - but not for too long, Gaara is expecting you in three hours and you better not be late."
Trying not to focus on the fingers that were digging into his sleeve, Shikamaru just grunted and nodded. He had a feeling he'd know what would happen if he overslept, and he wasn't too keen on bearing the brunt of her tessen this early in the day.
Meeting with the Kazekage was, unsurprisingly, not that big of a deal to Shikamaru. It helped that he had known the current leader of Suna since he was a scary, blood-thirsty, twelve-year-old.
Gaara was much better now.
The meeting was short, and really casual. They exchanged the documents and some small talk about the happenings in their respective villages, Gaara asked about Naruto, Shikamaru didn't ask much, and then they were done.
"What are your plans now?" Gaara questioned as Shikamaru got up to leave.
He snorted. "As troublesome as it is, my plans are already decided for me."
And before Gaara asked what in the world he meant by that, his troublesome plans walked in through the door.
"Are you done? Good, we've got plenty of things to do today. There's no time to waste, lazy ass." Temari marched up to him, smirking proudly.
"Oh." Gaara blinked then nodded. "Yes, I remember now. Have a good day, sister. Shikamaru."
With the Kazekage's dismissal, Shikamaru was free to get dragged out of the office. Temari wasted no time, already relaying to him their schedule for the rest of the day. Not that he really cared what it was - it wasn't like he could change anything about it, even if he wanted to. That would be way too much of a pain.
After stopping for a quick snack in the market, they worked on a lesson plan for training the students at the Suna academy the next day, and headed there for a quick tour of the grounds. The final-year students were set to graduate soon, and Temari wanted to make sure they would all be prepared for their upcoming exam, which was a lot more rigorous than the one given in Konoha - a fact that she did not hesitate in pointing out and ridiculing him over. Which he immediately - maybe unwisely - returned with a jab about the result of their Chuunin Exams.
Temari was not happy with the memory of that outcome.
"Do you really have to be this rough?" Shikamaru complained, readjusting his flak jacket with a grunt.
He scowled as he found it littered with cuts from Temari's wind jutsu.
"Do you have to be so stupid?" She taunted. "I'm not an ambassador right now - I can beat you up however I'd like."
"I'm never coming back here again."
That made her laugh. "Stop being such a crybaby." Temari heaved her tessen back into its spot on her back. "Before you so rudely insulted me, I was actually about to take you to my favorite spot in this entire village."
She turned and walked off, in a direction farther out from the village, leading him to believe that she wasn't as mad at him as she pretended to be, if they were still going.
Shikamaru sighed as he forced himself to get up off the soft sand and, as always, followed her.
There was nothing but sand at Temari's so-called favorite spot.
Shikamaru looked around glumly. "Not even any shade... How can it be a good spot if there's no place to nap?"
The Suna-nin groaned loudly. "Not everything is about sleeping, Shikamaru! I swear, if you complain one more time, I'll send you flying back to Konoha myself." She pointed at him with a threatening finger, her other hand already reaching for her tessen.
He held up his hands in surrender. "What a drag - alright, alright. Just show me what we're here for already."
Temari narrowed her eyes at him. "This way." She gestured vaguely with her head. "Use chakra to stabilize your feet. You'll never make it up otherwise."
She trekked up to the top of a rather large sand dune, and he slowly trudged behind, his eyes desperately searching the skies for a cloud.
"If you look this way, you can see over the entire village, from the outer walls to cliffs in the far south."
Shikamaru turned at the sound of her voice and immediately forgot what he was supposed to look at.
Temari was staring off into the sunset, her hands solidly on her hips. Her mouth was turned down into a little frown, but she didn't look upset, more contemplative, than anything.
Her sandy blonde hair was tied up in it's usual four ponytails, her headband proudly displaying the Suna emblem in the center of her forehead.
He'd always kind of known that Temari was attractive, not that he'd ever call her pretty to her face or anything, but in a more factual sense, like something that he couldn't really deny. And seeing her in the dying light, he was worried he would accidentally say it outloud.
But... Why would he do that? He barely counted Temari as a friend. A friendly rival, maybe, or a co-worker, really. A coworker that he was really attracted to at the moment.
His mind so focused on his (not) feelings for the woman just a few feet away, Shikamaru didn't notice his concentration slip. His chakra flickered out of his feet, and since he was completely relying on that to keep him upright on the sand, Shikamaru fell.
His feet dropped into the loosely-packed sand as he landed flat on his back, and the rolling sand immediately tried to envelop him. Shikamaru flailed wildly in an attempt to get the sand out of his eyes and mouth. It didn't really work.
Temari took one look at him and burst into laughter. A real laugh, not like the polite giggle she gave at meetings to visiting dignitaries, not like the sardonic snicker she did before destroying someone with either words or her tessen. A genuine, hearty laugh, that started in her stomach and spilled out her throat.
Shikamaru hurried to blink the sand away so he could see her. She looked even more beautiful when she was happy.
His mind raced to make sense of what he was seeing, so none of his brain was working towards making his body get up and stand.
Temari had to come help him, still chuckling to herself.
"C'mon, I'm hungry." She pulled him up to his feet, her hand warm and solid around his. "We don't really get fish around here, but do you like curry?"
Shikamaru finally looked at her to see her grinning widely, the same one that he swore he hated when he was a freshly promoted Chuunin yet somehow... didn't hate anymore.
He actually really liked it.
Shikamaru swallowed, managing out a response. "...Yeah, sure. Whatever you like."
Because all he could really think about in that moment was the strangely warm feeling in his chest when she smiled at him, but he was never going to say that.
btw this fic is updated faster on ao3! same username :) pls let me know what you think!