Okay, here's the general plan. Majority of peoplewere for not breaking up Shikamaru and Temari, but I'm interested by the idea of Temari joining Yashamaru. So, I'm taking Uzamaki Liliana's advice, and making an alternative ending. Since most of you seem to like the 'happier' ending (haha) I'll post that first. Then for those of you that wouldn't mind Temari joining Yashamaru, you can read the second one. For some of you, then, this will be the last chapter. I hope it was an enjoyable read, and thank you for reviewing/reading.
Thank you, Uzamaki Liliana, Intuition, MisChibiOus, bakusensei, QueenOfTheShadowFangs, fightingdreamerccc, and WinterOfOurDiscontent for reviewing from chapter four on. Even more love to those that suggested what path Temari should take.
By the way, the fact that Temari isn't leaving with Yashamaru doesn't mean that there's a happy ending. There may be, there may not be.
(x) means notes, which can be found below.
Title: Two Swans
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Characters: major: Temari, Gaara, Kankurou, Hinata, Shikamaru, Yashamaru, Ino minor: Naruto, random ruffians
Relationships: ShikaTema
Notes:
1. Another bit of first person story telling. I don't think it's too hard to figure out who it is.
2. In the Sand kingdom, they don't trust magic very much. It's a very deep-rooted superstition that magic corrupts.
I'm (x) uncomfortable on this horse. I've never ridden a horse before.
My wing itches. I want to scratch it, but I'm not about to let go of this horse. I don't think it likes me very much.
Temari is late. Whenever I see her I feel a light bubbling feeling rise in my chest in spite of myself. Even at twelve, I still think she's lovely. But, I notice things lately. For example, the deep circles around her eyes, nowhere near mine, of course, but there nonetheless. Her hands, which she ruined because of me; her limp, also because of me; the smile she forces.
I want her to smile at me for real.
Kankurou's getting nervous, too. He hasn't told me how worried he is about her, but I know. He isn't sure whether or not Temari will even come back home with us. She's gotten attached to this place, attached to these people, attached to the Hokage.
I must admit, he's been kind to us. Even after the Sand assassination of the prior Hokage, he accepts us with compassion and without holding a grudge. It's a good guy, and I wouldn't be against Temari staying here, as long as he is Hokage.
But the Sand kingdom needs her. I don't know how, or why, but it does. It needs someone as determined and loyal as she is. It needs a hero to bring hope and admiration—two things lacking in our kingdom—back to the people.
Finally, I see her approach, her bag slung over her shoulder, and one of the Ladies at her side. They're speaking in quiet voices, and Temari looks sad. I don't want her to be sad.
"Temari!" I cry, motioning her over. She looks at me and flashes me another one of those fake smiles. I want to throw something at her.
"Okay, brothers. I'm ready." She takes the reins of the horse next to mine, and climbs up with some trouble. I hear her curse under her breath as she tries to position herself comfortably on the mare.
"Isn't your husband going to come and say his farewell?" I don't know if I like Kankurou's tone as he says that. I get the feeling that Kankurou doesn't like the Hokage despite the good treatment we've gotten at Konohagakure. Sometimes my brother is too complicated.
"Shikamaru is the Hokage. I doubt he has the time to spare to say farewell to a mere friend," Temari replies in an icy tone. Then she turns to the Lady, and smiles what looks like real smile, though sad. I don't like the fact that Temari can smile at this woman, but not at her own brother. "Farewell, Hyuga Hinata. I'll take care of that good luck charm for you."
Lady Hinata is crying opening, wiping her eyes gently with her sleeve. "Farewell, Lady Mine. I'll miss you. As well Shikamaru, though he has not come here to say so himself."
"Well, tell him . . . I . . . "
"Shush, Lady Mine. I'll tell him." Lady Hinata smiles through her tears, and the three of us set off. I have a feeling Temari's crying as well, but she's leading to two of us, and we can't see her face.
For some reason, Yashamaru had not appeared when Temari was leaving with her brothers. Temari didn't know why, but she did not dare hope that Yashamaru had forgotten Temari's promise to think about their deal.
Temari cannot say that she's not tempted but . . . she cannot see herself leaving her brothers, leaving her kingdom for simply power. Even if with the power she can save others . . . Temari does not know the future, and she cannot possibly tell what kind of effects the power could have on her. She does not want to risk it.
And yet there is Gaara. Now that she knows that Yashamaru's mother in there with her little brother . . . she's rather worried. How long will it be before Gaara can no longer keep that woman out? Will he be been drowned by the wave of that woman's power?
She wants to ask her little brother about it, but how can she bring it up. Well, hello Gaara. Have you felt yourself being taken over slowly by a witch? No? Well, if you do, just let me know. It sounded ridiculous in her head, and it would sound worse out loud.
"Hello, weary travelers. Forgive the sudden intrusion, but I have a small matter to discuss with your dear sister." It's her. Temari turns her head around, and indeed, there she is, standing behind Kankurou's horse. Before she can tell her siblings to allow the two of them a moment of privacy, Kankurou's off his horse, and drawing a sword he had been allowed to keep thanks to Naruto.
"Get away from us, Yashamaru, before you force me to sever your head from your body!" Temari slides off her own horse, and rushes up to her where her brother in confronting the witch.
"Stop it, Kankurou! She'll kill you before you can take another step!" She steps in front of him, lowering the blade with one hand. "I owe her an audience, Kankurou. Just let us speak for a few minutes, and then I'll return, safe and sound and in one piece." She hopes she's saying this in a convincing tone, because she isn't too sure herself.
"Just why do you owe her anything, Temari?" Kankurou is angry again, but Temari is not going to back down. If anything, he owes her something. At least, he owes her a little bit of trust.
"Kankurou, I am not asking you. I am telling you that I will speak in private with Yashamaru, and then I will return. You can be content with that, or you can be against it. But I am going to do it, nonetheless." With that said and done, she pivots around and heads towards Yashamaru.
Thankfully, neither Kankurou, nor Gaara follow her, and she takes Yashamaru aside.
"So, darling, what's your decision?"
Temari shakes her head gently. "I cannot, Yashamaru. My brothers and my kingdom need me."
"And what about me? How do you know I don't need you?" Yashamaru sounds half-teasing and half-serious.
"You killed Chouji and cursed my brothers. I don't care whether or not you need me." Temari likes how her voice comes out cold and uncaring. It seems she's changed too. She learned how to be stoic and cold and mean throughout these two years. It's a useful talent.
"Well, how about Gaara? What will happen when my mother's tired of being subverted by a mere child? What will you do then?" Yashamaru sounds spiteful and bitter, and Temari is glad. Now she feels a little inkling of what Temari has been going through these years.
Temari is a little saddened, though, by the fact she now gets pleasure out of someone's pain. Has she become so much like Yashamaru and all the other people she despises?
"Well, then, Temari, dear. If that is your decision, this is the last time we will meet again, I think." Temari expects her to move away, perhaps run off in a flash. Instead, she leans over at places a soft kiss on her cheek. "
I don't think I would have made a very good mother-figure, anyway."
And then, she's gone, leaving Temari with a tingling sensation on her cheek, where she presses her fingers lightly. She's surprised the witch left without a single harrying word. In fact, she's slightly disappointed. She had almost been looking forward to telling someone off.
She walks back to her brothers, where they both greet her with questioning looks. She knows quite well they want answers, but she isn't prepared to give them. They won't be able to comprehend how she could even consider Yashamaru's preposition.
After a long ride back to the Sand kingdom in relative silence, they finally arrive at the kingdom's border. Unfortunately, there to greet them are a group of ruffians, all armed to the teeth with weaponry that looks effective, if not especially in good condition. They ask them their names, but once they do, the ruffians denounce them as liars.
Why would their long-dead leader's children return to their homeland after more than two years away? It had been rumored that they, too, had been killed, though no bodies had ever been found.
Kankurou tries reasoning with them, but they threaten to kill the three of them roughly if they speak again. Temari is inwardly glad that these men have crossed their path. Now she can get out all this excess energy she feels.
Slipping out her fan, she approaches the men resolutely. Although they wave their kunai, knives, and other devices at her, she ignores them. With a swipe of her fan, a man goes flying. After a short glare from her, the remaining men begin backing away, slowly.
"How did you do that?" Gaara asks, curious and leaning forward dangerously on his horse to get a closer look at his sister. Before Gaara and Kankurou can get a good look at her fan, though, she's already put it away, and mounting her horse once more.
"A friend gave it to me," she replies stonily, forcing her horse to begin trotting in the direction they're heading once again. Before she can get very far, Kankurou pulls his own steed in front of her path.
"Have you been studying witchcraft?" His voice is accusing, and Temari dislikes his tone.
"Even if I were, I fail to see what it has to do with you." She attempts to move around him, but Kankurou's not about to let this pass.
"It has everything to do with me! Magic corrupts (x)! Are you planning on becoming another Yashamaru?" Instead of answering Temari pulls her horse around Kankurou's. He gives up the fight—for the moment, at least—and they continue on their way to Sunagakure.
And life goes on, as it must. The three Sand siblings return home, and though the chaotic city of their youth greets them with far less than open arms, they are resilient. They find the land they love ravaged nearly beyond repair, and their father long dead. Yashamaru ruled—if you could call locking yourself in a castle ruling—for only a short time before she abandoned Sunagakure to anarchy.
Kankurou takes his place as Kazekage, and tries his best. In the end, though he's barely twenty, and the former vitality of the Sand kingdom will not soon return. Fortunately, they have the alliance with Leaf kingdom. After all, Temari was married to the Hokage, and that has to count for something.
And what of Yashamaru's mother? As it turns out, he stopped hearing her voice after returning to his human form once again, but when they brought him to a residential witch, she assured them that she was still inside there, somewhere. She also told them that the woman's soul was trapped somewhere, and couldn't get out.
There was only one logical place where she could be. Gaara's swan wing. Temari doesn't see how to solve to the dilemma, but her two brothers immediately seem to agree about what must be done.
Gaara has his swan wing amputated. It was hard, in the beginning, to get used to having only one arm, as one would suppose. But Gaara was determined, to say the least, and life went on once more.
Kankurou and Temari never regain the relationship they had had those days when Temari lived carefree in the tower, and when Kankurou was still relatively innocent. But still, Kankurou knows her better than anyone . . . except maybe Shikamaru.
It is three years before Temari sees the Leaf kingdom again.
She's in the middle of a training session with five young trainees when Gaara appears behind her. She knows it's him because the young people get a sort of frightened look in their eyes, and they shut their damn mouths for once.
"Yes, Gaara?" She asks, trying to sound annoyed at having been interrupted, when in reality, she couldn't be happier to see him.
"Kankurou wants to see us." He doesn't need to say anything more; Temari immediately knows that Gaara expects it to be good news. Without a bit of gaiety in her expression, she turns to the group in front of her. "Study your attacks . . . the way I showed you." With that she swaggers off with her younger sibling.
Kankurou explains the dilemma to the two of them quickly and efficiently. The ambassador from Konohagakure is feeling ill, and some issues are in need of discussion before the winter comes and travel becomes more difficult. He wants the two of them go and discuss matter with the Hokage.
He doesn't say it, but Temari knows that he's doing this to her as a small favor. She's tried and tried to find someone, anyone, to complete her, but they've all bored her to pieces. She's come to the conclusion that she's better on her own.
So Kankurou thinks she still harbors feelings for her former husband? Temari wonders this herself. Can feelings survive so much distance and time spent apart? Even if hers can, what proof is there that Shikamaru hasn't married another by now . . . even Ino?
So Gaara and Temari leave Sunagakure, and journey for several days to reach the castle of Konohagakure. It's as alive and well as Temari remembers, even in mid-fall. It seems as if these past three years have no occurred, and she turned back that day she left, for something she forgot.
"Lady Mine?" A soft, surprised voice calls out from behind her. Temari pivots around only to find herself face-to-face with Yamanaki Ino.
"Hello. So we meet again, Ino." She gives her a half-hearted smile, despite the bad feeling she is getting in her stomach.
"Are you . . . here to see Shika?" Ino is beginning to sound like the girl Temari remembers. The bossy tone is returning to her voice.
"No. Your envoy seems to have picked a virus, or something of the sort. My brother and I are here to discussion some topics of importance with the Hokage," Temari replies curtly, not wishing to say more than she must. She does not feel like being friendly to Ino.
"Ah, so you are here to see Shika. Well, you took your damn time, is all I have to say." With this said, Ino stalks off. Was there a hidden meaning in that?
"He did break off your marriage . . . didn't he?" Gaara whispers to Temari uncertainly. Instead of responding, she leads him towards the castle.
Now . . . if she remembers correctly, which she thinks she does, the Hokage's room is . . . about . . . here.
Knock.
"Come in." His voice has gotten deeper, she notes, and blushes slightly at the thoughts that follow. Opening the door carefully, she glances in.
There he is, sitting behind a large desk, his back turned to the door. The huge window behind him is wide open, and he's gazing out, obviously not caring who knows that he's not doing any work.
"You're still a lazy prick, I'm guessing, then?" She says this in a teasing tone, with a small grin sliding onto her face despite herself.
He jumps up almost immediately, looking almost guilty. Then he sees who the speaker is, and he blushes fiercely. It looks odd on him, now, this blush. It makes her feel like the two of them are teenagers again.
"Oh . . . gods, I thought you were my mother. Your . . . tone. I should have realized, though. My mother never calls me anything as tame as prick." He gives her and her brother a nice, wide smile, and offers them each a chair. They relent thankfully, glad for the respite from their trip.
"Well, Temari. Gaara. It's been what. . . four years, now?"
"Three," Gaara corrects politely.
"Yes, of course. Three years." Even though he's speaking to Gaara, though, his eyes are trained on Temari. She feels his gaze on her, but she refused to give him eye contact.
"Well, there are several disputes that our brother wishes us to speak to you ab—" Temari begins, her tone professional and quite serious. She's ready to get down to business.
"Gaara, if you don't mind, I'd like a moment to speak to your sister in private." Glancing up at him in surprise, he smiles weakly. "If she doesn't mind, of course."
Gaara quickly scrambles out of his seat. "Yes, of course. Of course." Once they are alone, Temari turns on him.
"I'm here on business, Shikamaru," she says angrily, crossing her arms across her chest.
He sighs and leans back into his chair lazily, yawning directly afterwards. "Of course. But don't tell me you aren't glad to be back. And I hope that you're at least a little bit glad to see me."
"I don't enjoy repeating myself, Shikamaru." Temari doesn't know why she's being so angry, just as she doesn't know why Shikamaru is being so tranquil about this whole thing. Well, what does she expect? For him to pounce at her in his lust? She would probably push him away, even if he did.
"Look, Temari, it's been three years. I've missed you; won't you give me the slightest bit of pleasure before you're gone again, for who knows how long?" Now, finally that pained look is out of his eyes, but Temari doesn't feel better. She knows what he means by pleasure, but . . .
"You want pleasure, then, do you?" With a impish grin on her face, she decides to go over and not around. Climbing onto the desk on all fours, she leans her face in close to his. Before he can change his expression from complete shock, to some bored one, she goes in for the kill.
She realizes . . . she's never kissed him before. The respectful peck he gave her the day of their wedding doesn't count. She barely remembers more than a brush of skin and a deep blush in her cheeks. But this kiss is completely different. For one, it lasts more than a split second. Oh, quite a bit more.
She vaguely feels his hands on her shoulders, trying to pull her closer. Even though the sensations that his tongue is giving her are driving her insane, her neck is beginning to acquire a crick. Reluctantly, she pulls away. Sitting down on his desk with her knees folded under her, she stares him. He looks like she feels, out of breath and in need of more.
"That . . . that wasn't what I was talking about, Temari," he mutters indistinctly, his eyes still looking glazed even though he's gazing right at her.
She pouts teasingly. "Are you saying you won't like to repeat the experience?" Instead of responding, he lifts himself off from his chair and joins her on the desk.
It doesn't take too long for him to lying over her, and the two of them are making noises they've never made before. Neither of them remembers or cares about the fact that they aren't along in the world and the walls aren't soundproof. Temari, taking a brief break from their hectic kisses for each word, wants to ask him something before she does something she'll regret.
"Shika—are—you—oooh—married—to—Ino?" As soon as these words escape her lips, she feels Shikamaru raise himself off her the slightest bit.
"You've been doing this with the possiblilty in your mind that I'm married to someone else? What if I said I was?" His eyes look a little angry, and Temari can't help but feel ashamed for irritating him.
"You don't seem like the cheating type," she says quickly, making an attempt to cover for herself.
"You're right . . . it's too troublesome." This time, he's lifting himself completely, and she doesn't like the cold feeling it gives her.
"What's wrong? Did I . . . do something wrong?" She sits up, and looks at him worryingly as he straightens his clothing. "No one heard us, right?" She continues, sounding a little worried as she glances back at the door. "Would they mind? I mean, we're not married anymore, right?"
Shikamaru gives her an odd look for a moment, before taking his mussed ponytail down momentarily to redo it. What is that supposed to mean?
"You did annul our marriage, right? I mean, how did you even know we were ever going to see each other again? Your people would accept an absent queen?" She wants to leave the desk and force him to look her in the eyes, but she doesn't want to give up the hope that he'll join her again.
"I knew you'd come back," he replies simply, pushing his hair up neatly and tying it efficiently with a hair tie.
She doesn't know what to answer. After all, she had come back, hadn't she? But not to stay forever. Her people came first, in the end.
"Kiss me again, Shikamaru," is the only comeback she can come up with, and even that comes out more pathetic than it sounded in her head.
"I can't." His back is turned to her, and he's facing the window once more. The sun is going down and the sky is alight with shades of pink and purple and blue and white. It's a beautiful effect, never seen in the dry Sand kingdom. Usually it's enough to silence her with awe, but not today.
"Why not? I . . . I didn't doing anything wrong, did I?" She knows she asked this before, but he hadn't answered her, and now she's more nervous than before.
Suddenly, he spins around to glare at her. "Look, Temari, if I kiss you again, I won't be able to control myself. I refuse to make love to my wife on a desk." The angry flush he had on his face to begin with is made a deeper red as soon as he says this. Looking away, he mutters under his breath, "God, you're so troublesome."
Smiling gently, she slides off the desk at last, and wraps her arms around his waist from behind. In a low whisper, she says, "Well, then, why don't we go somewhere more comfortable?"
And they lived happily ever after. The young girl, her husband and her seven brothers that is.
Temari, Shikamaru, Gaara and Kankurou on the other hand . . .
Temari never truly knows what to call home, in the end. She goes back and forth from the two kingdoms until her life's end. The scars of her youth are still physically burnt onto her body in the burn marks on her legs and thick, knobby hands that will never been used for delicate work. Her son rarely travels with her, but wishes to remains at the Sand kingdom, growing close to Kankurou and Gaara. Kankurou, who never marries, treats the boy like he would a son.
He'll be Kazekage one day.
Shikamaru is a thoughtful ruler, and his people respect him and are grateful to him. His daughter, whom he raises in Konohagakure as a Leaf warrior princess (Naruto's words, not his own), resembles her mother in attitude and him in appears. Her hair is pin straight, and she always leaves it down, even when she's fighting.
She'll be Hokage one day.
But you said they didn't get their happy ending, you ask?
Well, in a way, they do. Despite the fact Temari is killed returning to Sunagakure at the young age of thirty and five, she found loyalty, and she found love and she found the sort of fulfillment a woman only understands after childbirth.
And what of Yashamaru?
The day of Temari's funeral, Naruto feels the fleeting presence of a strong chakra. When he asks Sasuke if he senses it, he says he doesn't. No one else seems to either. Looking around, he notices a stranger in the crowd. Her hair is cut short around her face, and she looks regretful to say the least.
If only she had accepted. He thinks he hears her say. And then she's gone.
Who knows where she went, really. Now that her mother was, perhaps she went and tried to live life as a normal woman. In any case, she was never seen again in Sunagakure or Konohagakure in the lifetime of anyone who even remembered the name Yashamaru.
And although there is no happily ever after for the one-armed Gaara who is always feared despite the trouble he goes through to prove to his people otherwise; for the bachelor Kankurou, who dies withoutseeing his kingdom restored to its former beauty and glory; for the widower Shikamaru,who loved his wife with all his heart and soul, despite the trouble she caused; for the dead, buriedTemari, they all experience fleeting happiness.
What else is there?
I hope it wasn't that bad. If there are any questions I left unanswered, please tell me. I won't be insulted, I promise.
Remember, if you want to read the version where Temari leaves with Yashamaru, wait for the next update. Mind you, just because Temari leaves with Yashamaru doesn't mean A) the ending will be sadder or that B) Shikamaru will marry Ino. It just means Temari leaves with Yashamaru, xP
If this is the last chapter you read, thank you again for reading this story. Show me some love.
