Omg.

I had to do so much research for this chapter. I actually have to do a lot of research for this entire fic. I legit looked at a map of Konoha for a while to write the setting.

IT'S 2:51 AM. WHERE DID TIME GOOOOO?

Rain

Temari and Shikamaru were walking back to the Ninja Academy from lunch on a crisp afternoon where they were preparing for the first Konoha-Suna Joint chunin exams that was sponsored by their respective villages. They began to cut through a small park between the hospital and the Yamanaka Clan's property. Shikamaru was going over his written portion of the exam when a sudden spring shower began to pour on them.

"Shit!" Shikamaru exclaimed as he tucked his clipboard into his flak jacket to protect his notes.

Being familiar with the area that surrounded the Ino-Shika-Cho estates, he grabbed Temari by the crook of her elbow and lead her to a Gazebo was centered between the three Clan's properties. Once the structure was in sight, he released his grip and darted under it for shelter. He sighed in relief when he was assured that his work was safe. When he noticed that the Suna kunoichi's missing presence, he looked back towards the path to find her gazing up at the sky as water trickled down her golden skin.

"Oi," he crossed his arms and called at her. "You act like you've never seen rain before."

"I have," she said to him without moving from her stance. Another moment of silence passed before she whispered, "It never rains in Suna…"

Her words caused him to soften up his posture. He watched the way she turned her palms towards the sky to feel the droplets of water as her stormy eyes took in the rain clouds. She would only move her head occasionally to watch the rain fall as if she was trying to savor the way it would dance against her skin. The black kimono she was wearing began to cling to her curves as it continued to grow damper, yet she showed no signs of concern for her clothing.

His eyes began to roam every curve the robe hugged. The usually loose garment was now outlining every crevasse it could possibly find. He first watched the way it sat over the pockets of her clavicle before navigating down to see how it was beginning to gather in her cleavage. As his eyes continued to work their way down, he took note of the way they were wrapped around her legs and emphasized the fullness of her thighs. It wasn't long until he found himself feeling envious of the material was sitting against her skin.

He snapped back to reality when Temari dropped her hands. Suddenly realizing that he had been staring at her, he fumbled his way to the wooden bench that ran along the perimeter of the rectangular gazebo and sat down. He tried to refrain himself from looking at her again, but cursed himself when he felt his eyes stealing yet another glance at her. Her arms were now at her side, but she continued to lift her face towards the sky to feel the water.

'Of course you're attracted to her. It's only natural for men to be attracted to women,' he tried to reason to himself. 'She just happens to be a very attractive girl wearing a very drenched kimono. You should be worried if you didn't find that attractive… Right?'

Once he found a way to justify his lack of self control, he allowed himself to steal one last look at her. He was going to savor the sight before him the same way she was closing her eyes to savoring the cool water that was rolling against her skin. It was totally normal. His dad did have an entire stash of magazines hidden in the house with photos much worse than the Suna kunoichi before him after all.

Suddenly, the spring shower came to an abrupt stop. Temari opened her eyes to see sunlight trickling through the clouds as they continued to roll past the village.

"Are you going to go back to work like that?"

Temari turned in the direction of the voice. She found Shikamaru leaning against the bench with his fingers intertwined behind his head. He sat there with his foot resting on top of the opposite knee and stared back at her.

"Have you forgotten who I am?" A smirked appeared on her face as she reached for her tessen. Swinging it open, she yanked it upwards to enclose herself in a wind tunnel. There was so much air pressure circling around her that Shikamaru could barely make out her silhouette. When the wind finally ceased, he saw that Temari was now even dryer than he was. Her hair that she must have taken down in the wind tunnel was now cascading down her shoulders.

Shikamaru drank in the sight before him. He has never seen her hair out of their pigtails. He was pleasantly surprised by how much it softened us her usual intense features. She didn't look quite as deadly as she usually did.

"Do you mind if we worked outside in that Gazebo?" she asked him when it rained again the following day.

Shikamaru blinked at her in confusing. What caught him off guard was not so much the question itself, but the way it was delivered. Whenever Temari wanted something, she would ask for it in almost a rhetorical way. It usually came out more like a declaration than a question.

Yet, there wasn't the slightest hint of assertiveness in her voice just now. This time, it was more of a request than a demand, and a rather polite request. Temari was never rude, but she was always forthright. The way she asked him was almost… sweet.

"Sure," he heard himself answering. "Let me get a backpack to keep the papers dry on the way there."

From then on, they always found themselves back at the gazebo when it rained. The roof extended beyond the posts and railings, providing them with plenty of shelter from the rain so long as there wasn't a strong wind to direct the droplets in any direction but downwards. He always wondered if she manipulated the weather in anyway because even when it poured, it always fell in a way that allowed for them to work without any disturbance.

He grew to enjoy working with her whenever it rained. Like the way water can soften the roughest grains of sand, there was something about the downpour that always disarmed Temari's stoic demeanor. She always lit up whenever the skies grew dark and gloomy.

It rained almost every day that spring during the two weeks they spent together preparing for the joint chunin exams. He used to find the weather rather troublesome as he hated getting wet, especially when he was forced to stay in his damp clothes. It often delayed his missions or even prevented him from getting anything done, not to mention it always reminded him of the day his sensei was murdered.

However, his perception of the rain started to change as he continued to spend those weeks with her. She pointed out the tranquility that would fall upon the village every time it rained. Bustling streets would quiet down as people gathered inside to stay dry. When the sun would decide to peek through the clouds again, everything would glisten in the village as if it were brand new.

It was during the rain that he got to experience the fondest memory of the two of them. Their time slowly started to free up once they finalized the finishing touches to the exam. Temari was the type of person who kept herself busy whenever something was bothering her, which became apparent when she grew more reclusive towards the last few days. He couldn't exactly make out what it was until their meeting with Kakashi when they discussed how they planned to use her brother as bait to lure out the Akatsuki. She most likely lost sleep over the ordeal as she started to show up to their sessions looking more fatigued than she had earlier during her visit.

"Review the point system for me again," she said as she made her way over to him. He was leaning against the post in the corner of the Gazebo when she sat down beside him to look his clipboard. A gentle breeze brushed over her skin and washed her scent over him. Hints of magnolia and citrus filled his senses when he inhaled. It triggered his memory of when Ino noticed the scent on his clothing from working with her all day. She mentioned that it was one of her favorite flowers in her family's shop because magnolias are symbols of purity and nobility, and are associated with the life force.

"Uh. Sure," he replied as he glanced over at her. She was definitely a force to be reckoned with. His eyes wandered back to his clipboard as he began to explain the process of dividing the teams up in different testing rooms.

No more than a minute later, he felt her head collapsed on his shoulder. It caused him to flinch in surprise. He looked down at her to ensure that she was okay. When he realized that she had fallen asleep, he simply sat there and observed the features on her face. Exhaustion had taken over her body and replaced her usual apathetic expression with a soft and almost vulnerable one. Deciding that it was too troublesome to move her, he allowed his weight to sink against the post and nodded off to sleep as well.

When he finally came to, the sun was shining brightly as the remnants of the rain clouds slowly continued to drift away. He felt them widening when she moved on top of him. Looking down, he saw that she had curled up like a kitten underneath his arm. From the the way she was stirring, he could tell that she was waking up too. Unsure of how she was going to react, he panicked and swiftly moved his arm so that it would rest over the railing enclosing them.

He closed his eyes and waited as she slowly came out of her slumber. The warmth on his chest started to subside as she began to sit upwards. Patiently, he waited for her reaction. He anticipated for her to gasp or jump from embarrassment or shock, but felt nothing but her weight shifting as she sat up. His eyelids start to raise with great caution as he attempted to peek at her from under his lashes. When he managed to make out the back of her head, he allowed his eyes to fully open. Her head was turned to gaze at up at the sky.

He immediately shut his eyes again when he saw the slightest movement of her head. She brushed against his legs when she went to stand up. The rustling of her kimono suddenly filled his ears as she tried to straightened out the lines that must have accumulated from their nap. He tried to calm the pounding in his chest, unsure of why he felt so nervous when she was she was the one who fell asleep on him.

"Shikamaru."

Her usual bold voice was soft and calming, but still caused him to jump out of his skin when she placed her hand on his shoulder to wake him up.

"Wha…" He pretended to sound confused.

"We fell asleep," she told him.

'No, you fell asleep,' he thought, convincing himself that he was merely trying not to disturb her. "Oh," he replied. "We should get going then, we have another meeting after dinner."

With that, they gathered their materials and headed back towards the main road.

And ever since then, Shikamaru tried to ignored the fact that he suddenly opted for the heavy clouds on a rainy day rather than the peaceful ones on a calm afternoon. He grew to appreciate the drizzling sound and the quiet overcast days. It stopped reminded him of Asuma, and started to remind him of the rare softness of a certain lethal woman.

Unfortunately, it never rained again on any of her visits after that day.

"Shikamaru!"

Turning towards the direction of the voice, his eyes focused Ino who was tapping her foot impatiently at him next to Choji. He turned his head back to the gazebo sitting between the properties belongs to their families. Sunlight was spilling over the elegant Japanese architecture, thought he couldn't help but find less appealing without the raindrops dancing on its roof.

"Are you serious?!" Ino snapped at him. "You're going to go back to daydreaming after looking at me?!"

"C'mon Shikamaru…" he heard Choji plea. "It's lunch time and I'm starving!"

Shikamaru slid his hands into his pockets and laughed quietly as he walked over to join his friends. "When are you not hungry?" He couldn't help but think of the girl who shared his childhood friend's appetite.

Choji and Ino were enjoying the quiet week and managed to drag him away from his work for lunch. Ino's schedule had been rather empty ever since Naruto and Hinata decided to push back the wedding. She no longer had to worry about scrambling for the floral arrangements since she now had more time to leisurely plan for them.

Because she had more free time on her hand than she knew what to do with, Shikamaru found himself running into her quite often. She was always hanging around the Hokage's office waiting to either give Sai thelunch she had pack for him or for him to get off work. Earlier, she had dropped off a Bento for him and waited with Choji so that three of them could get barbecue for a mini Team Ten reunion.

When they were finally seated at the restaurant, Shikamaru could feel Ino's eyes piercing at him like glaciers. She had been rather respectful of his space since Temari's departure. He could tell that she was desperately waiting for him to bring up the topic first, and almost felt bad that he would leave her disappointed each time they encountered each other. In fact, he was almost sure that their lunch meeting could very well be an attempt to lure the discussion out of him.

"Alright, Shika." She commanded over Choji happily humming as he browsed the menu. "I wasn't going to ask," she continued as if she had read his mind. "You've been all mopey since Temari left. I mean I'm probably just as happy as you are that there's actually a woman out there besides me who can tolerate you," she joked sarcastically. "But… I never took you for the lovesick type."

Choji finally tore his attention away from the menu. While nothing piqued his interest as much as food, Shikamaru's sudden sullen behavior surely did. Throughout his entire life, he has only seen Shikamaru sulk over three things: the death of their sensei, the death of his father, and having to put more effort than necessary into mindless tasks. These were all things Choji was able to resonate with. A relationship, particularly Shikamaru being in one at all, was something completely new to him. He looked at Ino staring intently at their childhood friend before joining her to look at him as they waited for a response.

Shikamaru withheld from sighing in annoyance as he continued to flipped through the selections of meats. He was slightly offended that Ino would call him lovesick. That was a term saved for people like her and Sakura, who would literally have mourned over the absence of their crush. He believed that he had returned to his life just fine. The whole ordeal was disappointing, but not devastating.

"Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed as she slammed her palm on the table in front of him. "You know better than anyone else that I won't let this go until I receive an answer from you!"

"Alright," he grunted back. His eyes stole a glance at the patrons in the restaurant who were now staring at the suddenly commotion she'd caused. "Calm down, people are looking."

"Well?" She demanded.

"I'm not lovesick," he declared. "We decided to not pursue… whatever was going on between us."

"What?!" Ino gasped. She swore she felt her own heart breaking for the calm shinobi sitting in front of her.

"But you spent all weekend with her," Choji pointed out. "Ohhh… Is that how you guys found out that you were not compatible?"

"Impossible!" Ino cried. "Your charts have nearly perfect synastry! I was even jealous that you two were more compatible than me and Sai!"

"Perfect what?" Shikamaru cocked his brow at her. The word 'charts' made him realized that she was probably referring to astrology when he reflected on her words. It was something she always mindless chattered about during their missions that required traveling. "No, never mind. I don't understand what you're talking about, nor do I want to," he quickly said as he shook his head. "But no," he continued. "It's nothing like that. There's just the distance thing not to mention it's probably extremely troublesome to a Kage's daughter… or sister, I guess. It's just too troublesome for both of us."

Ino gave him a frustrated sigh. "So? Sakura and Sasuke made it work."

"Really, Ino?" He sheepishly scoffed at her. "If seeing someone once or twice a year for a few days is your definition of a relationship…"

"That's exactly why it should be easier for you guys. Temari visits Konoha two or three times a month at times!" Ino rolled her eyes. "Besides, I'm sure Sasuke will settle at home… eventually."

"Exactly," Shikamaru replied. He leaned against the backrest of their booth to closed his eyes and sighed. "Sasuke will eventually come home," he said when he opened them to look at the two teammates in front of him. "Konoha is our home, Ino. Not hers."

Ino opened her mouth to speak only to realized that she was at a loss for words. She pressed her lips together as her mind raced process everything.

"I could never leave Konoha," Shikamaru said, filling the silence that fell over their table. "And it's not fair expect her to not feel that way about Suna too."

"It's like Romeo and Juliette…" Choji muttered sadly. He had been rather delighted and amused with the blossoming romance in his stoic friend's life.

"Choji," Shikamaru began. "That story is about warring families that ended with Romeo and Juliette dying. We are not warring with Suna anymore and I can promise you that both of us are not the type to commit suicide over a relationship."

"Oh," Choji laughed nervously. His eyes suddenly beamed with excitement when the waitress arrived to take the first round of their order. After they sent the now overwhelmed girl away with Choji's extensive requests, Shikamaru vaguely relayed his discussion with Temari to them.

"She's is a Capricorn Rising after all," Ino sighed when he finished. "They bear so much responsibility…"

"You're losing me again, Ino." Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her.

"Ugh," she grunted. "You don't have to know what it is to understand it."

"It's too complicated and there's no scientific evidence behind it," he scoffed.

Ino raised her brow at him in amusement. "We took down the mother of chakra, who was thought to be a mythical creature, and scientific evidence is your argument?"

Shikamaru felt himself twitched. He had to admit that people never gave Ino enough credit. She could be a rather cunning woman who sometimes managed to leave even him at a loss for words.

"Exactly," she said almost too proudly. "Anyway," she continued. "You have a lot of signs in your astrology chart, but the rising sign describes the way you engage and interact with the world around you.

"Choji, you are a Cancer rising. You are sweet and approachable. Shikamaru has an Aquarius rising, which makes him very innovative and annoyingly too smart. However, the rest of his chart makes him a practical idealist who can change and reform the world from behind the scenes.

As for yours truly…" she winked at them. "I am direct and forward as an Aries rising."

"That's a nice way describe 'bossy'," Shikamaru snorted.

"With that being said!" She ignored him and continued over Choji's snickering. "Let's say if Choji's the 'nice' one and Shikamaru's the 'smart' more, then Capricorn risings are usually considered the 'responsible' one. It's not unusual for them to develop a strong sense of tradition, family, and responsibility from childhood. They're also prone to worrying too much… about their family, the future, and they always wonder whether they're doing enough for themselves and their loved ones."

Shikamaru's eyes dropped to the beer resting in front of him. He watched as the bubbles in the carbonated drink worked their way to the surface. Regardless of what he thought of astrology, Ino was currently describing Temari to a tee.

Ino rested her head on Choji's shoulder as they both looked at Shikamaru empathetically. Between the three of them, he was the one she worried about the most. Choji's heart was as big and resilient as he was. He was a simple guy who was easy to please, allowing him to find happiness in the smallest of things. Shikamaru, on the other hand, was about as finicky as one could get and refused to acknowledged anything or anyone unless he found significant value in them. She was terrified he would end up dying alone… by choice.

"I think you should keep fighting for it if you really want to be with her," Choji suddenly chimed in before bringing his own beer to his lips. Ino sat up straight to turn to him as Shikamaru looked up at him from his beer. "Like Ino said," he continued after wiping his lips on the back of his sleeve. "We've seen people die and come back to life. If there's anything I've learned these past few years, it's that we've always managed to make anything that was impossible… possible. I wouldn't close the book just yet."

Shikamaru tilted his head and stared at him. While conquering battles is completely different from conquering matters of the heart, Choji's optimism genuinely cheered him up for the first time in days. "Interesting choice of words," Shikamaru smiled at him.

"What does that mean?" Ino questioned him.

"Nothing," he simply replied.

"Hey! Tell me!"

"Tell you what?"

Frustrated, she turned to Choji. "What are you guys not telling me?!"

"I'm just as confused as you are!" Choji replied.

"Shikamaru, I swear…" Ino glared at him.

"Food's here!" Shikamaru smiled as their waitressed returned with towering trays of meat.

"We're not done y-,"

"Oh boy!" Choji interrupted her.

Ino silently growled at the strategist before her, who shrugged back at before reaching for the tongs. She let out a final frustrated sigh before grabbing her chopsticks. She might have lost the battle, but knew she'll eventually win the war.

BOOM. HIT YOU WITH A FLASHBACK.

I really wanted to write this chapter with more imagery but I'm not a very strong writer at all and I really don't have a lot of time to write... I'm very fortunate that you guys at least like my ideas. I also considered saving the first scene for a separate prequel because I've gotten PMs requesting for more of how Tem and Shika fell for each other prior to this fic but... I don't have enough content for that so... you get a flashback, sorry.

I know this seems like fluff and maybe filler... but it will tie together as the story progresses. ^^;

I really want to address you guys individually but I should get to bed... so I'll summarize everything. I'm glad that some of your feel that I kept Tem pretty canon since she's portrayed so many different ways. Like I said, I think most of them all canon depending on which arc. I'm also glad that you like how I portrayed Rasa! I think he's not that bad of a dude. He would never get father of the year like Minato, but he's not a villain!

I also especially love your guy's predictions. It allows for me to see what's obvious and what's going to catch you off guard later on. Hehe.

I would do a stay tuned... but I'll let you decide. Do you want to see Tem and Shika together again next chapter or just one more chapter of what Tem's doing now that she's home? It wouldn't change the story too much... but I owe ya one cause I skipped out on a lemon earlier...lol..