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Questionable Allies

The late morning air felt like a warm blanket as it wrapped itself around Temari's sun-kissed skin. Knowing that meant that it was going to be very hot later that day in Suna, she sighed deeply to herself. It was now halfway into August and that meant that the temperature was only going to continue to get hotter. Even before her affairs with Shikamaru, she had made it a seasonal tradition to find ways to escape the cool forests of Konoha, running whatever missions or errands she could either find or make up. Unfortunately, Temari now found herself doing the complete opposite by actively finding ways to avoid that place. She knew she only had herself to blame for being stuck in Suna. If it weren't for the lack of self-control, she could have easily escaped to the cool breezes in the Leaf Village.

Her eyes found their way to the calendar that was sitting on her desk. It has now been six weeks since she was last in Konoha for their Tanabata festival. It probably won't be long before they assign a mission to her that would require to travel again. Half of her was desperately eager to go. She longed for the perfect summers that Konoha offered, and a certain shinobi that always smelled like a blend of pine and sandalwood after a rainstorm. The other half, her logical half, knew nothing good would come from it. It would have gone either one of two ways: history will repeat itself and she would find herself entangled with Shikamaru just to have the same conversation again, or she would actually be successful at fighting the temptation waltz around pretending she didn't want to jump his bones. Neither of them had ideal results for her.

But is talking about it one more time really that bad?

No! No! No! Temari! No!

She scolded herself internally. Temari shook her head as she tried to get rid of the thoughts in her head. The fact that the former option still enticed her at all was exactly why she wasn't allowed to frequent Konoha unless it was absolutely necessary.

The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted her thoughts. She looked over to Yukimura going through some paperwork in the corner of her office. He always came in a pair, of course. Mitsunari was lifelessly gazing out the window at the opposite end of the room.

Tojuro immediately flagged her down upon her arrival from her last trip to Konoha. He gave some underwhelming apology for sending the two of them without her knowing and then continued to go on about how all three of the Suna siblings needed to be guarded. After sending both men after her, he replaced Gaara's bodyguard with two new men and assigned two to Kankuro was well. From that day on, Yukimura and Mitsunari were by her side from the moment she'd step into the office and only leaving her alone to have dinner with her friends or family until she dismissed them. Even though she would retire to her bedroom without them, she figured it was always best to assume that they were always watching her.

Temari wasn't thrilled with the idea at first and definitely protested against it. Not only did she not trust them, but she thought it was ridiculous that the old nut job, Tojuro, thought she needed protection. It took her a few days to get over the idea and eventually figured that it could work to her benefit. She was able to kill two birds with one stone. In addition to keeping her enemies close, she often thought ways to bore them to death.

Her daily tasks were very mundane. It usually consisted of meetings, paperwork, training, more meetings, and more paperwork. Sometimes, she purposely went on long shopping sprees with Yukata and Matsuri just to torture the two men. She wasn't sure what they were hoping to learn by hovering around her all the time, but she found great enjoyment in making their days drag on for as long as possible. Yukimura was the tougher one to crack. He always handled his duties diligently and with no complaints. Mitsunari, on the other hand, was very much like Temari and had a very poor poker face. Every groan or eye roll from him was a personal victory for her. Much to her luck, they usually only spoke when spoken to. Neither party felt the need to initiate in any conversation, let alone waste their time on small talk. Other than having to tolerate them, she was never forced to be nice to them.

The ringing of the central bell echoed through the village, signifying the start of a new hour. The three shinobi turned toward the direction of the sound before putting down their paperwork to head towards their next scheduled meeting. Per their routine, the two of them waited for Temari to step out first before following her.

Temari smiled upon seeing that Gaara and Kankuro were already seated at the round table in the meeting room. She always looked forward to the meetings that allowed her to see faces that she didn't detest. Her entire demeanor changed as she walked over to her seat between her brothers as the meeting began. They discussed putting together a taijutsu division for those in their village without strong elemental control. All three of the Sand Siblings recently learned that Tojuro's mother was an immigrant from Tetsu no Kuni, and that he had been slowly bringing people from there to fill positions in his office branch for several decades now. Everyone who hailed from that region heavily relied on Samurai taijutsu techniques since their lineage often cannot manipulate the elementals or any type of genjutsu. Temari hated the idea, but it made sense for them to hand over that division to Katsuie. She told herself that it was only for the time being. They offered him the position of commander and requested him to create a curriculum for their militia.

"That sounds plausible," Katsuie replied, stroking his beard with a pleased smile on his face.

Mitsunari cringed at Katsuie's misuse of the word. The word Katsuie was looking for was "possible," but his attempt to come off intelligent only made him sound like a pretentious idiot. He couldn't believe that the old knucklehead across from him was someone he had to call an ally. His eyes quickly scanned to the room to see if anyone else had noticed, but everyone just sat there quietly. Was everyone around him an idiot? He rubbed his eyelids and groaned quietly in disbelief when Temari's voice called out suddenly.

"Katsuie," She said as she propped her elbows on the table and interlaced her fingers so that she could rest her chin on her hands.

"Yes?" He responded, turning to look in her direction.

"Don't use words you don't know," Temari smirked.

Mitsunari looked down to his feet as a quiet snort escaped through his nostrils. He hadn't expected the bratty princess to actually be quite funny. Upon looking up, he saw that the entire room had turned to look at him. While a few people like Kankuro were quietly smiling at Temari's joke, he was the only one that laughed out loud.

"Something funny?" Katsuie snarled quietly at him.

Mitsunari gave him an unwavering stare. He had never liked Katsuie. The older shinobi always talked down to younger ones such, Mitsunari and Yukimura included He always made it a point to call them lazy and worthless, all while behaving like an unintelligent man child with no manners. The only thing they shared in common was the same commander. Otherwise, Mitsunaru had no business with the older man. "Yeah, your impressive vocabulary." He replied sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

That made Temari laughed quietly to herself before she shifted her eyes to her brothers. Kankuro glanced at her in amusement quickly while Gaara continued to observe them. They've been suspicious of Tojuro and his men for some time now. The only thing they've gathered was that these men were brought in by Tojuro and are from the same region. It was clear that Tojuro was up to something and he was very sloppy about it. However, that seemed to work in his favor as it made all of his motives very unclear. Seeing them bicker like this was very intriguing to the Sand Siblings, and it made her curious as to how they operated as a group.

Just as Katsuie was about to open his mouth to respond, Gaara cleared his throat and spoke. "Well, if there's nothing else to discuss. Everyone is excused."

Katsuie growled under his breath and glared at Mitsunari, who simply stared back at him with a bored expression on his face.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Mitsunari rolled his eyes at him again.

"You better learn some fucking manners if you know what's good for you," Katsuie muttered loud enough for just Mitsunari to hear. His threat was met a careless shrug from the other shinobi, causing Katsuie to huff loudly as he turned to exit the room. Mitsunari walked over to join Yukimura as they waited for Temari with the other personal bodyguards.

"You guys are excused too," Kankuro ordered them. "Go grab some food, we'll be training after lunch." He watched as everyone nodded before taking their leave. "How about you guys?" He asked once they were alone. "I know we usually would only meet for dinner, but let's change it up today!" He smiled at his siblings.

"Sounds good to me," Temari nodded. It was indeed a nice change. Their schedules were always conflicting, so even making dinner plans proved to be hard at times. They were always in different places throughout the day that having lunch was a very rare occurrence for them.

The Sand Siblings found themselves inside a small local restaurant shortly after. A variety of meat and vegetable entrees were at the center of their table. The restaurant's owner, overly joyous for the Kazekage's visitation, gifted them with an overwhelming amount of extra food. Gaara, who was usually calm and stoic, was now looking nervously at Temari as she continued to pile food on his plate.

"Temari, let me finish my food first before you continue to serve me," He meekly requested of her.

"You never eat," She replied as she dumped another spoon full of vegetables on this plate. "All you do is work and you never sleep. If you're going to function without any rest, then at least eat more so you have some kind of fuel to run on."

Gaara stared at this plate, slightly intimidated by the food that was now almost falling off of it. "I'm going to turn into a ball if you keep feeding me."

"Good, that will make it easier for you to keep things in motion," Temari winked at him.

His sister's sense of humor earned a small smile from Gaara as he picked up his chopsticks. "You always take such good care of us, Temari."

"Of course," Temari said between bites of her food. "I promised mom I would and I always keep my promises!"

Gaara was about to take a bite of his food until the mentioning of their mother. He looked over to observe his sister. The way her bangs fell around her chin now that she kept her hair longer gave Temari even more of a striking resemblance to their Karura. He thought of the way his mother had protected him when he was still a child and how it is said that her will to protect him lives on in the sand. He came to realize that it has also always manifested through Temari, despite her odd ways of showing it.

"Oi, Gaara," Kankuro said when he noticed that his brother wasn't eating. "Something wrong with the food?"

"Not at all," He reassured his brother before finally taking a bite. As he chewed, he thought about how Temari and Kankuro had memories of their mother since she died at his birth. "Can you guys tell me about mother?" He asked suddenly.

Both Temari and Kankuro slowed their chewing and quickly glanced at each other. His request seemed unusually out of place and had caught them both off guard.

"What do you wanna know?" Kankuro asked, his voice a little muffled from the bits of food that were still in his cheeks. It made him look like a chipmunk when he flashed Gaara a giant smile.

Temari reached for her tea to wash down the rest of the food that was in her mouth. A smile appeared on her face as she watched the way Gaara was intently listening to Kankuro happily chatting away. It was moments like these that made staying in Suna a lot easier for her.

After their lunch, the Sand Sibling made their way to Sunagakure's massive colosseum where a large portion of their militia awaited them. The troops were already neatly lined up in formation respective to their teams. Temari looked down at her division of wind users and spotted Mitsunari at the front of the line. The red-headed shinobi was truly a conundrum to her. His comrades were all in the taijutsu division because of their lineage. Mitsunari, however, was not only able to manipulate wind but also had minor proficiency with the fire element. It was extremely curious to her as to why he was so different from the rest of his clansmen. However, Temari was never one to be subtle about how she felt towards someone. The immense amount of friction between her and the newcomers due to her lack of trust in them didn't exactly make small talk with them appealing to her.

She shrugged it off and continued with her lesson on how to manipulate the wind with chakra control. She took notice of how Mitsunari was able to master any technique she would assign to them. Although, she figured it was a given considering he was ranked high enough to be assigned as her personal guard. Although she already proved that he was no match for when it came to wind techniques, she was still curious about one thing...

"Mitsunari," She called after him one the training session was over.

Mitsunari was walking amongst all the other shinobi that were shuffling out of the colosseum when he heard her call him. He stopped and turned around to face her and was rather stunned. He has spent upwards of 12 to 16 hours with her every day for the past six weeks and not once has she addressed him. The only time she'd speak to him was to dismiss him for the day. Other than that, they'd spend the entire day in silence together. To hear her call for him was rather unexpected.

"Yes?" He replied. He didn't care to use formalities with her, even though he knew she was supposed to.

"How is your taijutsu?"

Mitsunari, unsure of her motives, looked at her suspiciously. "Uh... It's fine?"

"Would you care to spar?" She asked with a smirk on her face. She watched as the look of confusion on his face grew. She figured she had blind-sided him with the question. "You are a decent wind technique user, but your comrades are from the Land of Iron. They are experts in taijutsu because they often don't have elemental control. I'm curious as to how you're taijutsu compare to your tessenjutsu."

"Well, if that's the case. I'll be happy to show you," He replied as he pulled out his iron tessen. It was the length of a short sword, making it much, much smaller than Temari's. He crouched down for momentum and he leaped in the air to swung down at her. Temari blocked it with ease and swung her on tessen back at him. They continued like this for the next 15 minutes with neither party letting up on speed and strength.

Not bad. Temari smirked and they continued their flurry. She could see her brothers and some of the higher-ranking officers watching from the end of the arena. Mitsunari was very fast. He would scramble around Temari and forced her to keep up with him. It pushed her to stay on her toes. A loud clang echoed through the arena as both their weapons were knocked out of their hands. They both paused just long enough to hear their weapons crashing into the ground by their audience. Mitsunari waited for her next move. When she continued to come at him with her fists, he did the same.

"Hey! Careful!" Kankuro cried out arched to the side to avoid the crash. "The Kazekage's here!"

Temari ignored him, knowing fully well that the people who were still there watching them were skilled enough to deflect anything that came at them. She carried on with their striking match until they collided hard enough that it sent both of them flying to opposite ends of the arena. She came crashing down headfirst but swiftly reached out to catch herself with her hands and backflipped to land gracefully on her feet. Her eyes followed him as he did the same.

"Great," She smirked and brought her hands together to clap. "You'll be an excellent training partner for me." She announced, her voice booming across the stadium. If she was forced to keep a potential enemy around, she might as well take advantage of it their skills. Iron sharpens iron regardless of where they originate from, right?

Mitsunari dusted himself off and briefly brought his eyes to look at her. "Thanks," he muttered.

"Alright, the show's over," Temari said as she dusted her hands off. "I'm going to shower and work in my apartment for the rest of the day. It's hot and I don't want to walk back to the office just sweat up a storm after rinsing off. You and Yukimura can follow Gaara around if he needs you guys."

Mitsunari and Yukimura nodded and lowered their heads for a small bow. When he looked up again, he continued to watch her as she made her way out of the arena. She was a skilled wind user and she was a skilled fighter. Even though he was able to keep up with her, it was still challenging, and dare he say fun for him. He assumed she probably felt the same as she seemed to as out of breath as he was. Temari was a better warrior than he'd given her credit for, and as much as he hated himself for admitting it, he was mildly impressed by the kunoichi.

I'm honestly not that great with grammar myself but the "plausible" thing actually happened to between two of my friends and it stuck with me forever. Their exchange was a lot friendlier, of course, and it was hilarious.

Be honest with me, do you guys skip over non-ShikaTema scenes in fics? I used to be guilty of doing that a lot with any fanfics when I was younger. Even as a writer, I still find myself wanting to hurry to get to those scenes too. In fact, I already have one drafted up before I even finished this one!

Your reviews are all very sweet and so many of you were so sad in the last chapter! Do you guys like the drama? Is it too much? I promise I'll have more ShikaTema scenes for you. My reviewers are always consistent when telling me what they love and it's the way I write the banter between these two. I've heard ya loud and clear these past few years!

Do you guys like seeing all the other characters as well? Aside from the ShikaTema scenes, I have the most fun writing Kiba and all the girls together. Chapters like these are not as fun for me personally, but they are necessary.

Please let me know what you'd like to see. It really helps my brainstorming sessions.