Neither the story nor the characters belong to me.

Chapter Two

TEMARI

7 YEARS LATER

In our small town of legacy, colorado, we were all a little damaged. Usually, it was hidden under the new paint, new construction, new…everything, but even the smallest scratch revealed the charred remains underneath. The people, the buildings, the town—we were all the same on one level or another—rebuilt, remade.

And not always stronger for it.

"Hey, Tayuya," I said into my phone, leaving a third voicemail as I glanced up at the clock. Six p.m. "It's Temari…again. I called the diner, but Chiyo said you'd left after your shift around three. I hope you don't mind that Cherry dropped Hoki off here, so I have both of the boys, and I'd love to know when you'll be able to grab them. Give me a call when you get this, okay?"

I hung up, letting my shoulders fall, and locked the back door of my preschool. This was one of the only undamaged buildings on Oak Avenue, because I'd had it built last year after finishing my master's.

Tayuya was one of those damaged people, too broken to rebuild after the fire. Losing her first husband on that mountain with Dad and the rest of the Konoha Hotshot Crew had fractured her, but then her second had walked out while Denki's little brother was on the way, sending her into a full spiral.

"Miss Uzumaki," Denki called out from the table where he was coloring, his eight-month-old brother, Hoki, sitting at his feet.

"Yes, Denki?" I answered, bending down to his five-year-old height.

"I'm hungry," he said, his giant brown eyes darting to mine, then Hoki's, before swiftly falling back to his picture of Spider-Man.

"You know what, buddy? I am too. How about I grab us a little snack until pizza gets here, and then I'll make a couple calls, okay?" I ruffled his dark-brown hair.

He nodded.

I fetched a few bags of Goldfish crackers out of my desk drawer emergency stash, then paused and grabbed one more. Denki was always hungry, and not in a preschooler way, but in the way no one liked to think about—a way I couldn't stop thinking about.

But I'd been assured by the county they had Tayuya and her boys on their radar.

I opened three bags and sat down next to him, squeezing my butt into the preschooler-sized seats. He waited for me to hand a cracker to Hoki and pop one in my mouth before taking any of his.

"Spider-Man?" I asked nonchalantly, keeping an eye on Hoki as he peered up at me with big brown eyes, his chubby fists squeezing one of the teething toys I'd found in his diaper bag. As babies came, he was super freaking adorable.

Denki nodded, savoring another of his own snacks as he colored the red on Spider-Man's suit. When no other kids were around, he treated each bite like it was the best dessert, a far cry from the way he inhaled both snack and lunch in our program. It was one of the reasons I told Tayuya I'd take him full-day for free. As a preschool teacher, I wasn't allowed to have favorites, but…I did, and it was Denki. He was smart and observant, sweet to every other kid in his class, and had a smile I took pride in earning.

Denki slid from his chair to the floor, handing Hoki another cracker, and was immediately rewarded with an incomprehensible babble and a two-tooth grin.

"Here you go, buddy." His voice was way too old for five. "He's gotten really good at chewing," he assured me with a nod of his head.

"Well, you're doing a very good job taking care of him." Okay, that just melted my freaking heart.

"Where's my mama?" he asked, breaking it.

We never lie to children. We never lie to children. I repeated my mantra.

"I'm not really sure, but I called her" I answered, trying to keep my voice light.

He looked skeptical but pulled Hoki closer and fed him the rest of the Goldfish crackers, one by one.

Where was Tayuya? Sure, she'd been late for pickup a time or two, but never without a call.

"You know, you should really keep that door locked after hours" Sakura called as she walked in the front door, her arms full of pizza and two shopping bags.

"My savior!" I said, jumping up to help and grabbing the pizza boxes from my best friend.

She set the bags on the child-size table.

"Hey, Temari," she said, hugging me tight. Her winter coat was still chilled from the early April air. "What's going on?"

"Nothing big, but thanks for the help."

Next to my brother, Naruto, who couldn't really help when he was called away for fires, Sakura was the most dependable person in my life.

"No, I can see they're very small." She grinned and waved at my little charges "Tayuya's kids?" she guessed, shrugging out of her coat and draping it over one of the undersized chairs, careful not to snag her long brown hair.

Small towns, man. Everyone knew everyone.

"Yeah. This is Denki, and Hoki. His nickname is Hoks." The baby offered up a grin.

"Well, hi there! I'm Sakura." She gave them both a smile and led me a few feet away. "What's going on? Not that I'm not always happy to bring pizza."

"I don't know where Tayuya is, and I don't want to have to call Shizune." My chest squeezed tight at the thought.

She nodded slowly, her face falling as she glanced at the boys.

"I get that. But if it gets much later, you might have to."

"I know." I just really, really didn't want to.

I adored Shizune, and always had. She was only a year older than I was and had never been anything but kind to me, but she was also one of Konoha's two social workers, and I didn't want to see these two little guys end up in foster care for the night.

"You hungry, little dude?" Sakura asked Denki as we headed back toward the table.

Denki eyed both the pizza box and the bags but stayed quiet.

"Sorry, Denki's not a people person."

"No offense taken," Sakura answered, grabbing the plates out of the bag. "Honestly, I'm glad you called. Sasuke-kun is gone for the night, and it feels like forever since I've seen you."

She hip-bumped me, and I took the plates, opening the plastic wrap.

"Hey now, not everyone wants to be around your love-fest twenty-four seven," I teased as she opened both pizza boxes on the table.

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes. I didn't begrudge her happiness. She and Sasuke-kun were living a hard-earned happily ever after, and I was nothing but ecstatic for my best friend, but since the hotshot team was moving home slowly in preparation for this first season, they'd been attached to each other at the face. "You could date again, you know. I know you're wicked busy keeping this place running, but there's life out there."

Dating and I didn't go well together. I didn't miss Gemma and hadn't missed him in the year since we'd broken up. If I was being honest, he'd just been a placeholder, an attempt to forget…him.

Shika. My hand gripped the plate a little tighter at the thought of him.

"Pepperoni or cheese, Denki?" I asked.

He glanced at Sakura, then the pizza, but didn't move from the floor.

"Okay, how about one of each?" I put a slice of each on a paper plate and set it in front of his chair, sliding Spider-Man out of the way of any cheesy messes.

Denki didn't move toward the plates, but his eyes certainly didn't leave them. Sakura noticed, looking my way and sighing. Then she dug out a handful of containers from the bag.

"Hey, Denki. I brought your brother some food. Do you want to tell me what you think he'd like?"

Denki's eyes lit up and he was all over it, selecting Hoki's food carefully and making sure I was feeding his little brother before he took a bite of the pizza. Then he devoured it.

"That's love," Sakura said, her voice soft as she watched Denki tear into his piece of pepperoni.

"Yeah," I agreed, wiping Hoki's tiny mouth as I sat on the floor in front of him. "He's a great big brother."

"Speaking of Naruto, any news on when he's getting home?" She snagged a piece of cheese.

"Nothing yet. He's still in Wyoming."

He'd given his previous crew an extra month before officially switching over to Konoha, and the early-season fire had caught him and his travel plans off guard. A knot formed in my throat. It wasn't that I feared fires—we'd been raised on them—but I was terrified of losing him to one just like we'd lost our father.

And now the next generation was resurrecting the very hotshot team that had taken him… taken them all.

"He'll be back before you know it. You at his place until then?" She held out a fresh slice of pepperoni, and I leaned forward, snagging a bite between feeding Hoki.

"Thanks." I nodded. "They swear they'll be done with the reconstruction from the flood damage in two weeks." Hoks grabbed a chunk of my hair and brought it to his mouth. "No, no," I said gently, smiling as I traded him my hair for the bottle Cherry had packed in his diaper bag. He grabbed onto it with both hands and sucked it down. "How's the clubhouse?"

"Finally finished," Sakura answered. She'd quit her job with the city council to manage the hotshot team. "Good thing too, since I think everyone is slated to move back over the next month. We only have this year to get the team up and certified, and it's going to go fast."

"Sasuke and Naruto will whip them into shape."

I glanced at my phone. It was nearly seven. Don't call. Not yet. Maybe Tayuya had car trouble, or her phone was dead. There were a million possible answers, but none of them were good.

"Shika too. You're going to have to call her soon," Sakura whispered.

"I know." I avoided the first part of her statement and shifted Hoki into my lap so he'd be more comfortable.

Blue lights flashed in the front windows of the school, sending shadows dancing across the walls, and we all turned our heads toward the door. My stomach sank.

"Oh no."

Three knocks sounded on the door.

"Go. I'll stay with them," Sakura said, offering Denki a reassuring smile as she reached over for Hoks.

"No. I've got him," Denki countered, sitting on the floor and holding his arms up for his brother.

I gave Sakura a knowing look and handed Hoks to Denki before heading for the door, my chest constricting with every step. It couldn't be good if the cops were here. My hands shook as I opened the door, finding Shizune escorted by two police officers, Bobby and Kaden. They were only a few years older than Naruto.

Shizune's mouth was in a tense line, the skin between her dark eyebrows all puckered up.

"Oh God," I said quietly so the boys wouldn't hear. "Is it Tayuya? Is she okay?"

Shizune sucked in a shaky breath.

"There's been an accident, Temari. The officers found Tayuya's car just off Route 192. It looks like she may have been under the influence… "

"We can't tell you any more than that," Bobby interrupted.

"Is she okay?"

A knot threatened to close my throat.

"She didn't make it," Shizune answered, shaking her head. I tried to stifle my cry, shoving my hand over my mouth. She was gone. Tayuya was dead.

Denki and Hoki were inside.

"You're here for the boys." My chest tightened around my heart like a vise, the beats stuttering.

Shizune nodded.

"They don't have anyone," I whispered. "Tayuya's parents are dead, and no one knows where their father is. He was gone long before Hoki was born." Where were they going to go?

"I know," she said softly. "Can we come in?"

I nodded, moving out of the way so they could enter. The officers dwarfed the tiny furniture.

"Hey, Shizune," Sakura said, a solemn look passing between us.

"Sakura." Shizune's smile was forced and shaky.

Suddenly, I was fourteen again, hearing the news that Dad wasn't coming off that mountain. That Sakura, my best friend, lost her father too. Shika's dad. TenTen's mom. Sasuke-kun's dad. Neji and Kiba's…the entire Konoha Hotshot team had been devoured by the very monster they'd spent their lives fighting.

I watched in a hush as Shizune gently broke the news to Denki, watched his little face fall into somber lines of confusion and devastation. Sinking to the floor next to the boys, I pulled Denki under my arm, tucking him in tight and rocking softly. He leaned into me.

God, I remembered that feeling, and I'd been so much older than Denki. How did a five-year-old process this kind of news? His entire world had just been upended, shaken like the worst kind of snow globe.

"That means I'll find somewhere for you to sleep tonight, okay, buddy?" Shizune finished.

His eyes grew huge with shock.

Where were they going to go? Denki hated strangers. Tears burned my eyes as Denki tugged Hoki closer, the baby finishing the bottle like nothing had happened.

"Hoks too?" Denki asked, his voice small but strong. Too strong. Shizune struggled for words.

Realization hit me like an avalanche, and my heart started to pound.

"Of course, they stay together, right?" I asked her, my eyebrows shooting upward.

Her eyes begged me to understand something I obviously didn't.

"It's more complicated than it looks." Then she looked up to the officers. "DSS now has custody of both the Clark boys. You guys can head back to the station."

More complicated than it looked? What the hell did that mean? Bobby and Kaden nodded to me and left, both visibly shaken.

"How exactly is it complicated?" I demanded.

Shizune glanced at Denki and then motioned for me to follow as she walked across the room.

"I've got them," Sakura said, taking Denki's other side.

"I'll be right back," I promised Denki as I stood, noting he moved away from Sakura. Then I followed Shizune, who had stopped near the cubbies, where we could see the boys but hopefully stay out of earshot. "They get to stay together, right?" I folded my arms across my chest.

She cringed.

"The Pendridges are in Milwaukee for the week, visiting their new great-grandbaby."

"You're telling me they're the only foster family in Konoha? Besides, the Pendridges are about a hundred years old. How do you expect them to take care of two little kids?"

"They're seventy and still get by," Shizune said. "We haven't had to place a kid with a non-family member in years, and we don't have anyone else. People aren't exactly lining up to foster, Temari." She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "We'll have to send the boys to Gunnison until the Pendridges get back, and DSS there has already told me they'll have to be split up, at least for the week. They just don't have a family that can take both of them."

My stomach twisted painfully.

"No!" I snapped, then whipped my gaze toward the boys. Denki wasn't looking. He wasn't looking over here, or anywhere really, just rocking Hoki back and forth as Sakura spoke softly to him. "You can't split them up."

At least when Dad died, I'd had Mom. I'd had Naruto. My eyes burned and my vision turned blurry.

"Temari…"

"They have no one," I whispered, my voice breaking as the first tear slipped down my cheek. I shoved it away.

"I know, and it's not fair."

"None of it is fair."

"It's just for the week, or until we can find Nolan." Their father.

Denki would fall apart if they took Hoki. They couldn't be split apart. I didn't even know if they could thrive with the Pendridges, but at least they were only a week away. They just needed to make it through the week. But a week had the possibility of breaking them. Every cell in my body screamed to do something, anything, to keep this from happening.

"I'll take them!" The words gushed out of me.

Sakura's head snapped up, her brown eyes going wide as dinner plates.

"What?" Shizune looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

Maybe I had, but if I had the power to help, then I had to.

"I'm background checked already, and I've read about teachers taking kids in cases like this. Just let me take them for the week. We'll figure out what to do once the Pendridges are back."

Shizune glanced at the boys.

"Where are you going to put two little boys? They need their own bedroom, and we'd have to come out and do a home study." She lifted her brows. "Tomorrow."

Oh, crap. Right. There were logistics involved here, not just emotion.

Naruto's one-bedroom bachelor pad wasn't big enough... or the right atmosphere for kids. Sakura had given up her apartment when she moved in with Sasuke-kun last month.

"I don't…" I shook my head, my mind scrambling for an answer as I looked to Sakura like she'd have it.

She glanced at the boys and then snapped her gaze back to meet mine.

"She has a place," she said to Shizune. "It's four bedrooms, almost four thousand square feet, and perfect."

I blinked, wondering what the hell she was talking ab...

"No," I said, my throat nearly closing up. "That's not an option."

There was only one house she could possibly be talking about.

Sakura tilted her head.

"It is if you want to keep them. It's only a week, right? That house is finished, furnished, and he won't be moving back here for another month. Take it. Take them." She motioned to the boys.

"You know he'll say yes."

Shika's house.

The one he'd started building seven months ago when the town council agreed to resurrect the Konoha Hotshot Crew. The one that meant he was coming home.

"What's the address?" Shizune asked.

"328 Phoenix Point," Sakura answered.

"The Hotshot neighborhood?" Shizune's eyebrows flew sky high as she penned the address.

"Yep," I answered, keeping my eyes on Denki and Hoki. I could do this.

My entire nervous system went bonkers at the knowledge I was going to have to call Shika and ask, but Sakura was right. If I wanted to keep Denki and Hoki together, it was the only option.

"Look, Temari, I'm with you," Shizune said as I pulled out my phone. "I'm willing to do whatever we can to keep the boys together, but are you sure you can actually take them tonight?" Her voice softened.

"I need a second," I told Shizune as I opened my text messages.

Sakura was by my side faster than I could open a new message.

"I can call him. You don't have to."

"No, if I'm the one who wants to borrow his house, I'm the one who should ask."

My thumb hesitated over his contact information just like it did every time I thought about texting him but didn't…which was a lot.

"He'll say yes," she promised.

"I know. That's what makes it so hard."

At least I could text him, which would cut out the whole heart-stopping-at-the-sound-of-his-voice issue I'd always had.

ME: HEY, I NEED A FAVOR.

Three little dots immediately appeared on my screen. He was texting back.

SHIKA: NAME IT.

God, that was so like Shika. Perfect in every way but the ones that really mattered. My stomach dipped and dived while I typed out my request.

ME: I NEED TO BORROW YOUR HOUSE.

Three dots appeared again.

SHIKA: CODE IS 1208.

My eyebrows hit the ceiling even as my heart did that annoying melting thing it always did when it came to Shika.

ME: REALLY? YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW WHY?

SHIKA: DON'T CARE.

ME: WHAT IF I'M THROWING A PARTY?

SHIKA: THERE'S A BAR IN THE BASEMENT. NO TIME TO CHAT, JUST USE THE CODE.

TEMARI: THANK YOU.

SHIKA: DON'T MENTION IT.

He actually meant that, don't mention it. There were a lot of things we didn't mention. Ever. Like they never happened.

"It's settled. We'll be at 328 Phoenix Point," I told Shizune as I slid my phone into my back pocket.

"Is it…" She peered up over her notebook with a knowing look.

"Yep," I repeated. Small freaking towns, man.

She whistled.

"You sure?"

"Yep." Apparently, that was the only word I was capable of saying.

"I'll accept it," Shizune said. "I wouldn't normally since you're not on title or the lease, but there's nothing normal about what's happening here. The boys have bags in the car that I grabbed from Tayuya's place, and you have to sign some papers, but I'll accept it, at least until I can do a home study. Then we'll see what we can work out until the Pendridges get back."

I nodded, my mind swimming, but something inside me unfurled, expanding through my chest until I felt stronger, capable. Determined. Those boys were not being separated or being sent to a stranger's house. Not the same night their mother had been taken from them. Not if I had a single thing to say about it.

"Okay. Let's sign."