I lied. This story changed at the last minute. I want some advice from my loverly reviewers. Question will be asked at the end because I don't want to give anything away. The next chapter will definitely be the last, though.

(x) means notes, which can be found below.

Title: Two Swan
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Characters: major: Temari, Shikamaru, Kankurou, Yashamaru, Hinata. minor: Naruto, Sasuke, Kurenai, Kazekage, Kiba
Relationships: ShikaTema,

Notes:

1. Huyga clan did some pretty ugly things to the Inuzuka tribe, which I'm going to delve into in another story. Just know that this is what Shikamaru means by this statement.
2. He was nearly twenty when Yashamaru changed him into a swan.
3. Curse supposed to emphasize his anger. They don't use swear words lightly.


"It's strange, actually hearing you speak," Shikamaru says slowly, unsure what to really say now that she can respond with words.

"How do you think it feels for me? I haven't spoke a word in more than two years." It's been several days since she was nearly burned at stake, but her leg wounds were much better. They would be scarred for the rest of her life, but she would be able to walk, at least, if not run.

"Yes, well . . . " The two of them are sitting by the grove; exchanging the first spoken conversation they've been able to have on their own.

"I'm leaving, tomorrow, Shikamaru. I can't afford to stay here any longer." Either that, or she doesn't want to. Shikamaru doesn't blame her. This people, even after hearing her state her innocence, and the true perpetrator of the crime, are unsure about whether or not believe her. The Sand had done them a grievance blow four years prior, and they were not about to forgive them just yet.

His warriors refused to allow Mi—Temari's brothers to remain in the same room with them, much less dine with them, or converse with them. Only Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto would go out of their way to speak with Temari. His own mother completely ignored all three of the Sand visitors, even after Shikamaru explicitly told her to treat them with respect.

Ino had gone as far as to leave Konohagakure for good. She had come to see him, a small pack on her bag, and Sakura at her side. Ino informed him of their decision to take a trip, possibly pay a visit to the Inuzuka tribe deep in woods. Ever since Konohagakure had signed the peace treaty with them, despite their enmity with the Hyuga clan, they had been exchanging guests. Kiba had even come to live here, although that was undeniably more for Hinata than for the good relationship between his tribe and Konohagakure.

Even so, Ino and Sakura had never shown any interest in leaving the castle at all, much less go and visit the Inuzuka castle—which Shikamaru had heard them call 'Flea Paradise' on several occasions when Kiba was out of earshot. Shikamaru did not need to be a genius to figure out they were leaving because of Temari. Because of him.

In the time span of a couple of weeks, Shikamaru had lost his two best friends. Was Temari worth it?

And this . . . Yashamaru. He had heard rumors, of course, of the chaos and anarchy occurring in Sunagakure. But he hadn't dared to send any of his warriors near there, lest they let their anger grab hold and go on a mass killing spree. Now, it seems, Temari has given him the answer. If a witch who concerns herself with only her own interests took control of the Sand kingdom, no wonder there was anarchy.

"Well, that's . . . fine with me." It's not, and Shikamaru is pretty sure that she knows this. He wants to tell her his feelings haven't changed, despite all the trouble they've been though. He wants to tell her a lot of things, about how torn up he really is about Chouji's death and Ino's departure, about the feeling he has that her brothers don't like him.

But he can't.

"I don't believe you'll find it difficult after this to annul our marriage," Temari continues, as if she's speaking about the weather or the eating habits of squirrels. There is no remorse in her tone, at all. Shikamaru wants to cry out that he doesn't want to annul anything. He wants her to say, and he wants his people to get over the fact that she is from the Sand kingdom. She didn't kill his father. Was he to blame for the cruel things the Hyuga had done (x), years ago?

Temari turned her head to the side suddenly, her hair facing him now, instead of those green eyes. "Gaara is calling me. We'll talk later." She takes his hand in her hers for second, giving him a half-hearted smile and her hand presses his encouragingly. Then she's off, and he remembers he has to see the newest influx of young warriors this morning.

Instead of seeing their proud faces staring in hopes that he'll accept them into the tough warriors they've been dreaming of joining for years, he sees that half-hearted smile of hers, the only proof he has that she isn't completely happy about how things are working out.


"And what of her, Temari? What of her?" Kankurou is leaning against the wall. The two siblings are standing behind the surplus shed. There weren't a lot of people coming or going, and that is why Temari had chosen this place to have this talk. They are leaving the next, and she's pretending to be glad, to be homesick from two years away from her homeland, but her heart hurts.

And Kankurou is her brother after all, the person who practically raised her when she lived in the tower. He knows her better than anyone, and knows when she's hurting.

And so she admitted it, rather reluctantly. She's having second thoughts. Shikamaru's never had many feelings to cover up, and so he doesn't know how. She can see right through him and she knows he wants her to stay, even though he can't bring himself to open his mouth and actually say those words.

But Kankurou's smart, a lot smarter than a lot of people give him credit for. Either that, or he sees past himself and into the big picture more than most people do.

"Yashamaru's not gone. She's ruining out kingdom, Temari! I won't let her get away with it! I'm due to be Kazekage. I'm a good twenty-one (x) years old now, and I'll fight our father if I have to! I actually care about our people, and I can't see Yashamaru doing them much good. Look what she did to us!" Kankurou's angry, and he keeps slamming his fist against the shed back wall to make his point. He wasn't so angry back in the tower.

She realizes now that changes have occurred. She is no longer Kankurou's sheltered little sister, while he is no longer her calm, composed brother. And Gaara, back in the castle, now has a swan's wing instead of an arm.

"I don't think we should leave Gaara alone for so long . . . he's only twelve, after all, and the people there don't accept him with the whole. . . " Temari says this gently, not wanting to bother her brother in this moment of anger.

"With the fact he has a wing now instead of an arm? Who's fault is that, now? Maybe if you had spent more time on what you said you would do instead of screwing with that damned Hokage, he would have his arm and now another horrid memory of living as a fucking (x) bird!"

These words sting. Partly because her brother is saying them, and partly because she almost believes them. He's right. She had fooled around and wasted too much time on Shikamaru and on the others, so caught up in their web of friendliness that she sometimes neglected her task. It's her fault that Gaara's suffering, her fault that Yashamaru murdered Chouji, her fault that Ladies Ino and Sakura left the castle.

"Temari . . . I'm sorry, I didn't mean that . . ." The look in her brother's eyes has softened, and he reaches out to her. She pulls away, the sobs threatening to suffocate her. She just needs to get away from Kankurou, from his apologetic words, because she doesn't want to be convinced on how this is her fault, when it's so clear it is. So very clear.

She runs as best she can, her legs still not completely healed from the fire, and runs with her odd gait, and is glad there is so much space in this place in this place where she can exhaust herself. Into the forest, her feet pull her, into the shadows, and she feels the branches scratching at her exposed skin, her arms and her legs, but what does she care? This is her own personal atonement.

"Oh, young one. How sad you look." Temari stops, and glances around desperately. That voice . . . it send chills up her spine . . . "It's me, Temari. Yashamaru, your dearest step-mother." Up in the trees, to her right. Temari reaches underneath her skin for her—

"Ah!" She screams echoes through the trees, but she's too far away for anyone from the castle to hear her. Temari looks at her hand to find a blade skimmed the back of her palm.

"No, Temari. You're good, but you're not that good. I can kill her three different ways before you can bring out that fan." Temari straights and looks straight at the woman. She's lounging about lazily on a tree branch, her legs exposed scandalously, and her neckline dangerously low. A thin, hungry fox grin slowly slides onto her face.

"I want to make you a deal, daughter."

Temari spits on the ground next to her, face contorted by her anger. "I'm not your damn daughter."

"We'll see," Yashamaru replies vaguely, slipping down from the tree in one graceful movement, her robes falling back into their proper places as she lands. "Now, Temari, don't get prematurely angry. Like I said, I have a deal to make with you. And I don't think it will be a too bad for you, this deal."

Suddenly, she right next to Temari, her face buried in her neck. This nearness . . . it unnerves Temari. She wants this feeling gone, and she remembers rough, rough hands, so unlike Shikamaru's and even the hands of the male Yashamaru had become. Temari wants to push her away, but finds she can't. She doesn't have control over her own body anymore. "Get away from me!" She manages to mumble.

"Oh, but you smell delicious. Your chakra smells delicious. You've got some talent, Temari. I don't want it to go to waste." Temari feels breathe against her neck, but at the last moment Yashamaru pulls away. "No, talk first." Temari still can't move and she can't block out what Yashamaru's saying.

"Temari, I'll be quite candid. You have a great deal of unused power in you. Your loyalty, your determination, the pain of those nettles and of the silence of two years, they brought that out. You ask some of the people in that castle if they see something around you and they'll say they do. If you say in the Sand kingdom, or even here, your talent will only be wasted at the side of your Kazekage brother or Hokage husband and your people. But come with me, let me train you, and I promise that you will come out strong. No one will ever hurt you again.

"And you're hurting now, aren't you darling?" She croons, her face looming closer. She smells like roses, like flowers, which are death and life, and never-ending. "It's not your fault. You were the one who was in pain, and who held back those screams for two years. You sacrificed yourself for them, and they pin one little mistake on you?

"And who killed the fat man? Me, not you. The blood is on my hands." She's hold Temari, and although she knows Yashamaru isn't her mother, and she knows she hates Yashamaru for what she did to Temari's brothers, and to Temari, herself, and to Chouji, and yet, she feels at ease. Her mother never held her, or at least not that she remembers.

Someone is holding Temari. That is enough to shock her into torpidity. "Baby, I'll take care of you. You love your brother, but he can't be a parent. I know I can't be a good one either, but I'll take care of you, like Kankurou never could. Just come with me. . ."

"You're power hungry, trying to take over the Sand kingdom . . . "

She laughs, a slight and amused sound. "I haven't been in the Sand kingdom in more than a year, Temari. I was raised in the woods, alone with my mother. It was a lot like your tower, I suppose. My mother taught me magic, and she treated me well. Or as well as she knew how. When your father fell into her trapspell, she wasn't planning on it being the Kazekage. If he had been a mere stableboy, we would have done the same.

"It was our plan, you see. I would get free, and then tie her soul to a babe. And we would be free of those woods, and we could be together! I just wanted a mother that wasn't almost engulfed by the task of freeing herself from the woods where she was caged, years and years ago." Temari finds herself interested, in spite of herself.

"How was she trapped in the forest to begin with?"

Yashamaru doesn't answer. Instead, she pulls her down, until the two of them are sitting side by side. Temari realizes she isn't controlled by Yashamaru's magic anymore, but she isn't fighting her. She's . . . engrossed. Maybe Yashamaru . . .

"She never told me. But she's my mother. Even . . . even if she was trapped there for a reason, I have to help her. That's why . . . I planted her in your brother."

"You did what?" Temari's up, and she's not under Yashamaru's mindspell anymore. Why was she even listening to this witch?

But she knew the answer, even them. She couldn't help but feel a tie to this woman, so different from the one she had seen slay Chouji, and place that spell on her brothers. Yet, they was one and the same, the girl in the forest and the murderer.

"My mother is in your littlest brother, Temari. That's another part of our deal. You come with me, become my apprentice and my companion, and I'll extract her. If not, well, you don't know how to get rid of my mother." Yashamaru's standing in front of her, blonde and powerful and beautiful even in these shadows.

Temari sees the thick aura of violet, like lightening, surround her, and it pulsates strength like nothing Temari has even seen before. This is what this woman is offering her. This, and freedom for her younger brother. And love, or something close enough like it. Appreciation at least.

Kankurou will save the Sand kingdom, and Shikamaru will marry Ino when she returns, just as Chouji prophesized. And she will get stronger, and return, and be able to help people. Even though Yashamaru killed Chouji, and there is no atonement for that, Temari could make for it with all the good she will do with the powers invested in her.

"Give me until I leave, tomorrow." Closing her eyes, and massaging her temples against the powerful rush of pain to her head, Temari sighs. Until tomorrow to make a decision. When she opens her eyes again, Yashamaru is gone. Temari turns, and heads back to her last night at the castle she had come to call home.


"L-Lady Mine! You . . . you can not be seriously considering this, can you?" Hinata is wringing her hands, dressed in a lovely light blue dress that carefully sets off her figure without making it too extravagant at the same time.

Meanwhile, Temari is sitting across from her, in another chair. She's wearing a simple, trite dress that the Leaf people are very familiar with. It's brown, and ragged, but soft and she feels comfortable in it. "Why shouldn't I? I can see it; you're surrounded by your own aura of power. It's not nearly as strong as Yashamaru's, but it's there. Someone trained you, didn't they?"

Hinata flushes, but that's far from unusual. "My father, a bit, and my teacher, Kurenai. But, they . . . never killed a—no. Kurenai never killed anyone. That's another reason I never speak to my father."

"You never speak to your father? But he's the leader of the Hyuga witch clan, while you're his eldest daughter! You're going to be the leader one day. How can you not speak to him?" Temari has always been intrigued by the complex relationship Hinata has with the people around her. She's Kiba's lover, and she loves him, just as he does her. She's Hyuga Hiashi's eldest daughter and heir, but yet Temari can truthfully say she has never seen either of them exchange words. She seems to respect Naruto a great deal, but avoids him whenever he's in the company of Sasuke. Needless to say, Hinata and Naruto don't have a lot of time to speak.

"We don't . . . agree on many things."

"Like Kiba?"

The glance that Hinata gives Temari is the closest she has ever seen the quiet woman get to annoyance. "What are you going to do about this, Lady Mine?"

"I . . I don't know."

"Why don't you ask your brothers or . . .or Shikamaru on advice on this? It effects them more than it does me, you know." She gets up from her spot on the edge of her bed, and goes through her dresser, rummaging through her clothing, her back to Temari.

"I know what they will say. Shikamaru was Chouji's best friend, and he will never forgive her for that. Gaara and Kankurou have both suffered greatly because of her, and they, too, won't forgive her lightly—"

"You suffered, too, Lady Mine," Hinata interjects.

"By choice. I could have chosen to not help my brothers and my hands and legs would not be scarred. But . . . I came to you, because I needed an unbiased opinion, and you see like the type of person I can trust to keep this between the two of us." Temari pauses, allowing Hinata to speak. She doesn't for quite a while.

"Mine . . . if you feel you can do right by this, then do so. I . . . I just want you to remember that Yashamaru is dangerous. She may not mean what she says. And you cannot rule out the creature in your youngest brother. If the choice were mine, and it was Hanabi at stake here . . . I would probably go with Yashamaru." She pulls something out of her dresser, and approaches Temari slowly.

She reaches and takes Temari's hand, opening it slowly, palm up. With her other hand, Hinata places a thin necklace with a charm hanging from it onto her palm. "Take this, Lady Mine. It's my good luck charm. Kiba gave it to me, long ago. He may notice its absence, but I fear you need it more." With a chaste kiss on the cheek, Hinata leads Temari out of the room and bids her goodnight.


So, here's the question: Should Temari join Yashamaru, or not? I will take your ideas as suggestions, so I don't make any promises. But I'm unsure as to what direction to take this to. Thank you for reading chapter five of this story, and thank you in advance for reviewing (if you do xP)