HI FRIENDS! I noticed that you guys didn't get a "Stay tuned..." preview thingie I usually did. As mentioned, I was rushing it on my lunch break. Probably ended up being a good thing because I had originally planned on jumping around scenes from Shika and Tema, but I think everything is tidier with how this chapter played out.

So uhm, instead of Stayed Tuned... Here's...

Today on Scorpio Moon...

Fan vs Fan, may the best Tessenjutsu user win!

So if you haven't google searched Mitsunari Ishida from Samurai Warriors 4 yet, he is a tessenjutsu user in the Koei universe. The real Mitsunari Ishida has been dead for a while so who knows. Huehuehue. This was completely unintentional but worked out fabulously for my fanfic. Winning! (Oh god, is that still a thing? Is my age showing? I'm still a 90's kid, I'm not actually that old. Right? .. ... ?)

Okay important-ish note: According to the books (or Naruto-pedia I guess), Temari was declared possibly the best wind user in the world two years after the war. But they didn't need to tell us that cause we know our fav gal is. Amirite? NARUTO, YOU MAY HAVE BEEN THE BEST WIND USER DURING THE WAR BUT NOT NO MOOORE. okayenjoybye.

Tessenjutsu

Mitsunari glared at the blonde seated before him. The way she intertwined her fingers beneath her chin to cockily smile at him made his blood boil. She had gotten under his skin and she knew it.

"Temari-dono," Katsuie began. "He is simply wearing the clothes native to the land in which he had spent most of his years train— "

"I never said anything about his clothes," she interrupted. Her smile deepened when she noticed the way red headed stranger flinched. "Besides," she continued. "His skills can't be that impressive considering those flamboyant garments. His friend's armor at least looks somewhat practical."

"You're welcome to find out just how capable my skills are regardless of what I choose to wear," Mitsunari sneered at her.

Temari closed her eyes and scoffed, "I plan to do exactly just that."

"Temari-dono!" Tojuro exclaimed. "We apologize for his impulsiveness and beg for your pardon. Offending you was not our intention."

"Who's offended?" she asked when she opened her eyes to look at the elder. "You didn't think I'd let just anyone join my unit let alone be my substitute as Gaara's bodyguard without seeing their abilities first, did you?"

"Well…"

"Tceh," Kankuro smirked as he folded his arms. "That guy is the perfect replacement for you, sis. He has the same temper as you did when we were younger."

Temari looked over in his direction and narrowed her eyes at him. "May I remind you that it was you who bullied Naruto and his sidekick Konohamaru when we first arrived in Konoha for the chunin exams?" She watched her brother tensed up before continuing, "Even Gaara scolded you that day. Talk about embarrassing."

"Alright!" He snapped and motioned his hand to wave her off, "I get it."

Temari grinned at him before turning her attention back to Mitsunari.

"You. Meet me in the arena in ten minutes," she demanded as she stood up in her chair to leave. "Or get the hell out of my village," she added over her shoulder.

Mitsunari stared at her back as she filed out of the room with her siblings. He turned to face the piercing glares he felt against his very own back. Katsuie and Yukimura silently leered at him, knowing fully well that arguing in the middle of the room would induce suspicion.

All he responded with was a shrug of his shoulders before he made his way towards the battle arena. He couldn't help but give the Suna princess some credit. Despite being annoyingly witty, she was smart enough to be rightfully suspicious of him and Yukimura.

'This world has far too many idiots, but she is not one of them…' he smirked to himself. 'Shame that we have to take her down.'

Mitsunari and his comrades watched as everyone emerged into the arena. Although he was too far away to see exactly what it was, he could make out that she now had a long object strapped to her back. He presumed it to be her weapon judging from its size.

'That's fine,' he thought. 'I play with toys too.'

Temari and another man jumped from the ledge to meet him at the bottom of the arena.

"Thanks reffing the match, Baki." He heard her say to the older man. He figured the man must have been another relative because she spoke to him in a tone that he'd noticed she would only use with her brothers. Mitsunari didn't have enough time to ponder over it because she immediately turned her attention to him.

"Alright," she grunted as she leaped backwards. "Let's get this over with."

Mitsunari smirked back at her as he withdrew his tessen. It was half the size of Temari's when he flicked it open. White and crimson swirls decorated the leaves of the fan like a red sea. A kanji was decorated in the middle of it.

Temari cocked at her and smiled in amusement at his weapon. "A tessenjutsu user, huh?"

"Wow," Mitsunari heard Kankuro from the bleachers. "This kid must have a death wish."

He ignored it and crouched down to propel himself backwards until he was of equal distance from Temari.

"Just like the chunin exams," Baki's voice echoed throughout the arena as he began to explain the rules. "The fight will end when the other member is subdued. If we believe that one's life is at stake, we will step in."

'If you pathetic fools can keep up with me,' Mitsunari smirked. His honey colored eyes were fixated on his opponent who have yet to withdrawn her weapon. She merely stood back with her arms crossed.

"Begin!" Baki exclaimed as he jumped out of the arena.

"He's fast," Kankuro said to Gaara when Mitsunari took off and darted around the perimeter of the arena. He moved with such speed that the only thing the crowd could see was a blur racing around the edges. "He's almost as fast as Shira and Lee."

"Ah," Gaara nodded in agreement. His turquoise eyes shifted over to look into the similar pools of green belonging to his sister. He saw that they were shifting around as she followed the movements of the fiery-haired shinobi. The one thing that impressed him the most about Temari was he ability to sense the wind. It allowed her to follow her opponent's movement as if she were using the power of the Byakugan. Her only blind spot is the anywhere beneath the earth if the opponent was smart enough to figure out her abilities. From the looks of her opponent thus far however, the newcomer appeared to share similar abilities as his sister.

Suddenly, Mitsunari appeared in the left corner behind Temari. Crescent blades of concentrated chakra were launched at her as he skillfully drew infinity loops with the wave of his arm. They were just about to slice through her when she reached for her tessen. She opened it just enough so that he saw one deep purple circle on leaf before she hoisted it in an upward swing, easily repelling his attack.

He ran against the wall of the area until he reached the opposite wall to avoid her wind storm.

'What a tremendous amount of chakra,' he thought to himself. 'To carry a weapon of that size, she must rely solely on ranged attacks. This will be easier than I thought!'

Mitsunari pushed himself off the wall to dive directly at her. The razor-sharp edge of his tessen glistened in the light as he aimed it at her spine, fully prepared to severe it. Just as he was about to strike her, she closed her own tessen and turned around and blocked him with the guard.

'She's fast,' he thought to himself in frustration.

Kankuro laughed out loud as they began to engage in a dance of pure taijutsu. "Hey pretty boy," he called into the arena. "If you would have stuck around and trained here in our village, you'll know that my sister is highly proficient in taijutsu. She even gives Gaara a run for his money in that kind of battle."

Gaara locked eyes with Baki when he glanced over at his brother in amusement. While all three of them were lethal ranged fighters, Temari was definitely the more well-rounded shinobi when it came to fighting at both far and closed ranged combat. It was something she'd never let them forget growing up. Their mentor chuckled under his breath before turning to back to watch the match.

"Mitsunari is getting irritated," Yukimura whispered to Katsuie. "He's starting to get sloppy."

"This idiot," the larger shinobi spat under his breath. "Did you fools do any research on her like I asked?"

"We couldn't find anything about her combative abilities," he responded. "That was classified and I couldn't be a newcomer going around asking about that."

Katsuie mentally kicked himself when he realized that this was information he should have relayed to them. "She leads the tessenjutsu division and also happens to be the best wind user in the world. Even that nine-tailed brat declared so."

"Would have been useful to know," Yukimura whispered back as his eyes remained focused on the fight.

"I didn't think your moronic partner would be stupid enough to pick a fight with her," he seethed back. "He could blow our cover."

"Hn," Yukimura grunted. His best friend's irrational temper could definitely become a problem.

The sudden loud and rapid clanging sound of metals being struck together brought everyone to the edge of their seats. Mitsunari was rotating his tessen so that it spun like a saw as he came down on Temari. She held up her own tessen and blocked it, resulting in the rattling noise.

Irritated, he focused his chakra into his foot and pushed against her tessen to do an aerial flip backwards. The force sent Temari sliding back on her soles until she was only a few steps away from the wall. Completely unfazed, she set her tessen on the floor and rested her arm on top of the hilt.

"Had enough?" she taunted him.

Mitsunari grunted at her before waving his fan to send crescent blades of chakra in her direction again.

"I've already see this," she exclaimed as she repelled his attack with a deadly gust of wind again.

"Die you wrench,' he cursed to himself as he hurled his fan like a boomerang at her.

Gaara watched for his sister's reaction, confident that she clearly saw that the first attack was a diversion.

Mitsunari smirked as he watched his tessen ripping through the air towards her. However, the smile was quickly wiped off his face when she vanished from his sight. His eyes quickly searched the room to find her. When they looked forward again, he saw that she had leaped into the air and landed on top of his tessen and used it as a pivot to propel herself towards him. Next thing he knew; the wind was knocked out of his lungs as she landed on top of him. She shoved the edge of her tessen against his throat. Between the impact of her landing and the way she was crushing his windpipe, he could feel his lungs struggling to find air.

"Too easy," Temari smirked at him.

"Match!" Baki's voice called behind her.

Temari scoffed at him before finally standing up to walk towards the elders who had gathered behind Baki and her brothers.

"You know. There's a girl in Konoha who gave me more trouble than you as a genin," she spat at him.

Mitsunari could feel his nails ripping into the skin of his palms as he balled up his fists.

"Katsuie," she called over the tall figure.

"Yes, Temari-dono?"

"His friend," she said looking over to Yukimura. "How does his skill compare to this… man-lady or whatever?" She pointed to Mitsunari who remained on the floor. He was still too angry with himself to move.

"Yukimura has trained longer than Mitsunari, but his expertise lies more in close combat."

"I see," she said as she looked over to the mass of blazing red hair spilled on the ground. "Alright," she shrugged. "I'll see them bright and early tomorrow."

"What?" Kankuro questioned her as she turned to leave. "You just wiped the floor with that guy."

Mitsunari finally sat up so he could look at her. He was unable to tell whether he was more confused or angry.

Temari stopped walking and looked over her shoulder at Mitsunari. "Like that girl from Konoha," she began. "It's not that you aren't highly skilled. It's just that you're an unfortunate sap who was poorly matched with me."

The shinobi blinked his hazel eyes at her, unsure of what to say.

"I can see that you rely on wind technique and unfortunately for you, that is my area of expertise. However, you also can manipulate lightning and that intrigues me. I guess your taijutsu deserves to be mentioned as well. You are ridiculously fast… despite the unnecessary layers you wear. So… I'll give you and your boyfriend a chance," she shrugged. She turned to Baki and her brothers. "Hey, I brought you guys some souvenirs from Konoha. They just imported a ton of things I'd think you'd like."

They all nodded and followed her to Gaara's chambers. Because of frequent travels, Temari had invented that code for initiating private meetings with just their team. Normally, it was used to meet with them with news from her travels before presenting them to the elders, but they knew that this was to discussed the newcomers that Tojuro had assigned to them.

Katsuie waited until everyone else emptied the arena before marching over to grab Mitsunari by the lapel on his shirt.

"Do you want to fucking die?" Katsuie hissed at him.

"Could have warned me she was a tessenjutsu user," Mitsunari replied flatly as he tore himself from Katsuie's grip.

"No one told her you were one and she still defeated you," Yukimaru pointed out to his friend.

"Hey! Who's side are you on?!" Mitsunari snapped at him.

"Enough!" Katsuie snarled at them. "One more stupid antic like that, and I'll kill both of myself," he declared before disappearing into the night.

"Still want to work for him?" Mitsunari asked sarcastically as he dusted off his sleeve.

"We don't work for anybody," Yukimura reminded him as he started to make his way out of the arena. "I told you. We just share the same vision for this village."

"Hmph," Mitsunari grunted. His hands smoothed over his hair as he walked over to pick up his tessen before following his friend outside. He always managed to give respect where it's due and as much as he loathed her right now, the blonde kunoichi was definitely an impressive foe.

Temari watched as Gaara bit his finger until blood oozed from his thumb. He wiped it against the floor in his room and stood back to watch as a secret staircase appeared. It was a private room that was sealed so that it was completely soundproof when they were inside. Only those within the Kazekage bloodline can open the door, which allowed for all three of the Sand Siblings access it.

"That guy was out for blood, Tem." Kankuro said when they were finally gather at space beneath the floor.

"I know," she replied.

"So what do you have going on in that mischievous mind of yours then?"

"Nothing," she shrugged. "You know what they say... Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. We'll let them do what they want so we can observe them. Just make sure we keep the important things confidential."

"That's why you held back today, isn't it?" Gaara asked her.

"Can't be showing them all my tricks quite yet!" She grinned at her brother.

"Didn't look like you needed to anyway," Kankuro laughed.

"He's really not too shabby. He just had absolutely no idea what I was capable of."

"Yeah. They were completely isolated from the village during our training. I wonder if they even consider themselves citizens here anyway," Kankuro pondered.

"I'll ask them eventually," Temari shrugged.

"You're just going to flatly ask them? Just like that?" Kankuro looked at her curiously.

"It's a fair question if they're going to be my guards. Plus, keeping them close will show me their ulterior motives eventually anyway."

"Good thinking, Temari." Baki said. "Well, let's see how this goes."

The siblings nodded at him and turned around to make their way back into Gaara's room.

"Temari," Baki called after her. "May I speak with you privately?"

Temari turned to her brothers and nodded at them to close off the door before walking back over to Baki.

"Yes?"

"Are you alright?" He asked her in concern.

"Why wouldn't I be? Do you think that punk injured me?" She scoffed.

"It's not that…" He said quietly. "Are you sure about the marriage thing? I didn't think that you would oblige to something like that."

Temari blinked at the older man. Of course he'd noticed that something was off. Baki has always been more of a father figure than her own flesh and blood. Although her dad wasn't necessarily a bad man himself, he was a Kage before he was a father. Even though she still loved him, the fonder memories of her childhood were always with the man standing before her.

"It makes sense though, doesn't it? I mean I'm going to have to married eventually, and they're giving me a few years it looks like. At least they are letting me choose and are not forcing me to marry some stranger," she reasoned.

"You shouldn't have to do it at all…"

"I'll make a fuss about it when the time comes around," she shrugged. "As for now, they're agreeing to our proposals so lets just get that out of the way first."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Of course not!" She laughed. "I was going to worry about it when the times come."

Baki sighed and laughed under his breath. "You cunning child," he said. "Now I know why the weasel sought you out."

"Baki!" she playfully snapped at him. "It's still my duty to do what's best for this village. I just don't care to think about it until it happens, okay?"

"Always the responsible child," he chuckled. Still, he knew deep inside that she would never follow through if she had the slightest hint of doubt about it. He only hoped that everything will work out in her favor in the end.

You guys are all so reactive to my updates, AND I LIVE FOR IT. Ya'll get really good at predicting my ideas too but only in bits and pieces. Not enough to make out the direction I'm going to take this fic so phew. The reason why I address notes at the end of my fics is because you guys discuss my chapters so actively that I feel my responses kind of provide a... universal...message and understanding... or something like that... for my readers. Yeah.

I know you you guys want to see our love birds together therefor I decided to get this chapter out of the way so that I can give you just that. I'm about 2/3 done with the next chapter which I plan to release maybe in the middle of next week. I hope to have the following chapter done by the end of the month because I will be doing quuuuuite a bit of traveling until mid-November.

Mirin Hanashi - DID I CATCH YOU OFF GUARD? I finished this chapter before you reviewed so I kind of giggle when I read it. But, I think we might just view Temari very differently. So many authors write her as a "I-do-as-I-please" kind of gal, but I've always taken her as a, "I'll do what's best for my loved ones/home" person because of the chunin exams. I always think back to how she was opposed to going to war with Konoha but did it because as far as she was concerned, the elders knew what was best for the village and she had to follow instructions.

KangerTop21- Teehee. You're so consistent with your support. I really appreciate it. Yes, the plot thickens! AND THIS ISN'T EVEN THE THICKEST PART OF THE PLOTTTTT. We're only around a quarter into my story, guys.

ayingChan - No Shika this chapter but...

Stay Tuned!

Capricorn Rising... and the Gazebo in the Rain.

I might as well speak morse code, right? You'll get a semi-fluff. I'll give you that much. Okay, you can have this too:

Guest-starring: Team 10

Like I previously mentioned, this was supposed to be a romcom based on the girls having lunch in chapter 2, hence the out of place title... so lets bring some astrology back, yeah?