I hatedthis chapter the first timeI posted it,and it was on my mind all day. I don't like happy endings because I feel they aren't realistic. Even if the two get together, I don't believe everything should be solved. That's one of the reasons I disliked this chapter. So I deleted the first version (I was rather ashamed)and tweaked it quite a bit. Bwjaja.

The LAST chapter of Two Swans. I've really enjoyed writing this, and I'm grateful for the response it got. A few of you have been reading it from the beginning, and I thank you for sticking around. Even those that are reading it now, I appreciate that you took the time to read it.

Remember, just because Temari goes with Yashamaru doesn't mean she won't end up with Shika! xP

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

Title: Two Swans
Chapter: Seven
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Characters: major: Temari, Gaara, Kankurou, Shikamaru, Yashamaru, Hinata, minor: Sakura, Ino, Moegi's mother, Hiashi, Konohamaru, Moegi
Relationships: ShikaTema, slight InoSaku, implied SasuNaru, implied HinataKiba

Notes:

1. I keep saying in her own BLANK way! Sorry, I just couldn't think of another phrase!
2. Where is Tsunade, you ask? Well, perhaps you haven't noticed—I didn't until the last chapter—that none of the older shinobis are in this story. Why? Well, that's because I've stuff them into another one! BWJAJAJAJAJA!
3. They don't know what the disease is, and in turn, don't know how its spread.
4. Lavender and sage are names of plants, apparently some that Yashamaru grew in her garden. Shikaka for Shikamaru's father and Yoshimo for his mother.


It took Temari a long time to fall asleep, worried as she was. When at last she did, it brought her little relief. She was already there, in her true form, waiting for the answer.

An answer. This could ruin her life or it could save her. Which one was it?

"Temari," she began, her voice smooth like honey. But honey sticks onto your hands long after you're sick of it, and the smell doesn't go away. "What have you decided?"

Tmeari doesn't say anything for several long seconds.

If the choice were mine, it was Hanabi at stake here . . . I would probably go with Yashamaru . . .

She's ruining our kingdom, Temari! I won't let her get away with it! Look at what she did to us . . .

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 . . .

Baby, I'll take care of you . . .

The voices orbit around in her head moths flying hectically towards a flame. And the flame is her final response, the decider of her fate.

"I will go with you," she replies with a defeated sigh, and turns away. "Let me rest in peace, please, now that you have your answer . . . I want to say goodbye in the morning." So she's chosen to go with her. Her heart and mouth had plotted against her mind and spoke before she could really realize it.

She can see their angry faces now . . . they're going to hate her forever.

But Yashamaru ignores her request, and follows instead her, and with an thin outstretched hand spins Temari around to face her. "Why say goodbye? So you can see the expression of hurt on their faces personally? Don't do that to them." Temari angrily pulls her hand away.

"Who are you to lecture me on what I should do to my brothers or not? You hurt them, by placing that curse on them! I can't do I what I wish to!" Temari knows she's being childish, but right now that's not important.

Where has she learnt about love, about loyalty and the bitter side of betrayal, Temari wonders, looking into Yashamaru's passionate face. It seems not only Temari and her brothers have changed.

"Anyway," Temari continues heatedly, "do you want me to leave in the middle of the night, like some common thief? They'll think I was kidnapped." In the back of her mind, though, Temari does agree with Yashamaru. Seeing their reactions to her decision may be too much for her, and it's something she feels she can live without witnessing. It'll just be proving to the people at Konohagakure how right they were about her.

They always did think she was a witch, someone they couldn't trust, a succubus waiting to suck their castle dry. Well, in this, they'll only have one out of three right, but they'll invent the rest.

"Your friend Hinata won't," Yashamaru adds slyly, slipping Temari out of her silent reverie.

"You don't miss a trick, do you?" Temari answers demurely, still mulling over the whether or not to face everyone with her decision.

"No . . . I really don't." There's a long silence after her words, and finally, Temari lifts her head to look Yashamaru straight in the face.

How old is this woman, really? How long was she holed up in the forest with her aging, trapped mother? She looks barely older than I am, but I know better than anyone how looks can be deceiving.

"Alright. Meet me outside my window. If you're half as clever as you claim to be, you'll know where it is. I'll climb out after I . . . do something." It's a pathetic ending, but she doesn't want to tell Yashamaru what she's planning on doing. She'll leave them a letter, and with any luck, Hinata will understand. Perhaps she could even cover for Temari?

"Be my guest. Write your little note. Just don't let them catch you. I can easily take care of anyone who gets in our way, but it will be . . . hmm, for lack of a better word, troublesome." Before Temari can snap a furious retort, Yashamaru is gone, and Temari is staring up at the ceiling instead.

She jumps out of bed, as quickly and quietly as she can manage. Standing there, she realizes she has no idea what to take with her. She regrets not asking Yashamaru about what she might need for their trip, but knows this is not the time for look backwards. Deciding, at last, to take nothing but the clothes on her back and Hinata's necklace, she hunts through her wardrobe for the most comfortable traveling clothes she can find.

Then for a pad of paper and a pen.

Dear Hinata, she scrawls, but then crumples the paper into a bag. It will attract too much attention to her and they'll question her directly until she gives in. Finding no better spot to place it, she stuffs it down her shirt. She begins again.

Dear Shikamaru-scratch. Crumple. Stuff.

Dear Kankurou, Gaara, Shikamaru, and all the others that were kind to me these past few years-scratch.Too long. This time she doesn't take the time to crumple the paper, and just continues without a greeting. Don't look for me. I left Konohagakure of my own free will. Brothers, I send you all my love and enthusiasm, in hopes you can help our kingdom return to its former glory. Shikamaru, I thank you for all you have done for me, but I ask you not to cling to any ties you may have to me. Don't cling to me, Temari silently whispers to herself—or to Shikamaru, more specifically. Temari.

She lays it on the mussed bed, and quickly pushes open the window. The cold air hits her like a slap, and she has to bite her tongue to stifle the cry. Balancing on the windowsill, she plans the best way of getting down. Rapidly deciding on a plan, she uses the uneven stones to ease herself down the wall, she reaches the grassy bottom with little trouble. Turning around, she immediately spots Yashamaru, a meter away, playing with her hair coolly. When she notices Temari's presence, she glances up at her with a slow grin.

Temari approaches, her feet making light squish sounds against the wet grass. "Let's go, then," Temari greets the woman coldly, unconsciously moving her hand to clutch the necklace. Yashamaru's grin grows larger, until it almost looks like a grimace, and nods her head nonchalantly.

They set off, and the outcry the next morning is deafening.


Eight years. That's how long it takes for Temari to become a witch. Good at controlling her chakra, knowledge of herbs and flowers, solemn in demeanor. The two of them avoid people, for neither of them wants attention drawn to them. The climate is cold all the time, and for a short time Temari and Yashamaru dislike it immensely, both being girls born and raised in the hot weather of the Sand kingdom. Eventually, they grow accostumed to it, and live relatively content.

Yashamaru learns love. Temari gains knowledge.

For the first few years, Temari is still stiff and awkward around the older woman. In her eyes Yashamaru was a murderer who was only there to teach her what she wanted to know. But it was impossible to live with someone for as long as she did and realizes there was more to her than that.

She became so much more than that, in the end. Yashamaru was her teacher, her friend, her disciplinarian, and her mother. So many roles that Temari had lacked in her childhood.

"No, Temari. Concentrate on the red mark, not the ball."

"Aim for the apple. Use your chakra to push it."

"Eat the damn food before it gets cold! I don't care if you don't like carrots!"

Temari learns she has the ability to do things she had never imaged to be possible. It is hard, not only at the beginning, but in the middle and in the end. Yashamaru does not believe in giving her a break, not because she a female, nor because she's young. Temari enjoys the work, though.

It keeps her mind off her brothers, her kingdom . . . Shikamaru.

She misses them at night. Look up at the stars, she wonders if they're looking up at them as well. Well, probably not her brothers, but Shikamaru . . . yes, it's very likely.

He's a lazy bastard, painfully arrogant at times, and endearingly sexist. She wants nothing more on those silent nights than to see him, to hear his forgiveness and to hold him. Damn it, no. She wants to do a lot more than hold Shikamaru.

But these years don't last forever, very few things do. Yashamaru is not invincible, witch or not. And diseases don't differentiate between one human and another. The deadly disease eats at her bones, probably since before the curse. She's in excruciating pain for months before she dies, and Temari can do nothing more than try and numb the pain.

And when she's gone, Temari cries. She cries over the murderer, the teacher, the mother. She cries in the cold, empty cottage, where no one hears her but the stupid bird that don't care either way.

Temari buries her in their garden, where Yashamaru had raised their herbal remedies so carefully. She lays a couple of plants over the grave, unsure of their symbolism. She had never paid much attention to Yashamaru when she had started with them. That had been Yashamaru's one real passion. Herbs, their significance, their symbolism; flowers, their scent, their cycles.

Plants, even poisonous ones, weren't good or bad, Yashamaru always said, but neither, or perhaps both at the same time. Like people.

Temari holds back her tears, having decided that she had more self-control than that. Yashamaru would not have wanted Temari to cry on her account. But even so, she finds herself biting her tongue to fight them back. If Temari leaves, all Yashamaru's children will die, will wilt. She gathers what she can from the garden, packs what little she owns, and leaves the small cottage she has called home for the past eight years.

Traveling on her own reminds her of the brief time she had to herself before Shikamaru came along. Sitting up in the trees, concentrating on her task, keeping her brothers company at dusk. This brings her mind back to her brothers, and she wonders if Yashamaru's spell worked.

A month after they had arrived at the cottage, Temari had harried her until Yashamaru had begun the preparations for the spell to free Gaara of the soul of her mother. There was chanting, herbs filling the entire cottage with their aroma, and a bright flowing light that escaped from the open window. Then Yashamaru tells her a raw, scratchy voice that her mother is gone.

Temari realizes the next day that Yashamaru probably killed her mother with that spell. She doesn't know whether that makes Yashamaru a good person, or a bad person. Probably neither, or both at the same time.

She does not head in the direction of the Sand kingdom, though. Even after eight years, there is nothing she fears more than the expression on Kankurou's face when she tells him where she has been the last few years, and the word traitor on his lips.

So she goes to the Leaf kingdom, instead. She doesn't know why; the thought of Shikamaru shunning her hurts her as much as imagining her brothers rejecting her. Perhaps she thinks he'll forgive her, regardless of Chouji's murder. Perhaps he'll open his arms to her, and whisper to her in gentle tones that his feelings haven't changed.

She reaches Konohagakure at midday, and the sun is shining brightly on the familiar castle. But there are too many people swarming around the castle, and she doesn't want to make a ruckus. All these years in solitude had made her a recluse. She didn't feel any need to be around people anymore and the thought of all these people's eyes on her . . . it makes her cringe.

She hides in the woods, then, hidden from them all. Lying on the outskirts, it seems as if she seems more than the people out in the open. She catches the little actions that completely give them away, the lies, the secret feelings, the anger. It's so plain when you're on the outside.

Most of the faces of the people flitting around are unknown to her. How odd, how things have changed in only eight years. She barely recognizes anyone! She remembers when she could have been able to waves a silent hello to most of people that resided in the castle.

There are a couple of people she recognizes, though. Sakura and Ino, for one. Their hair has grown, and their faces look . . . more mature. Does hers? Like with the others, Temari sees the little things that the people around them are probably missing. The little touches, and small glances. Even if Temari had been an idiot, it's painfully obvious how the two of them feel towards each other. Friends don't slip their hands subtly up the other's skirt.

Well, at least that rules out the idea that Shikamaru married Ino. Although, Temari thinks sadly, that doesn't mean he hasn't married. Her hand slips upwards to rub the necklace between her thumb and forefinger.

And then, much later on, she watches as Hinata and her father take a walk nearby. Hinata still looks lovely, in her own timid way. They seem to have the same walk, the two Hyugas. There is where the similarities end.

"Father, I . . . I am going to take this trip, just . . . just as I do every year." Her voice hasn't gotten any stronger in the past eight years, but she is as determined as ever in her own quiet way (x).

"Why? They are murderers by nature, Hinata, you should realize this. That is how they live. How can you willingly relate yourself to them?" His voice is so much harder, colder than Hinata's could ever be. You would never have guessed that she was his daughter, the way he spoke. As their voices fade with their footsteps, she hears Hinata say one last thing.

"Well, father, I-I suppose the mate of the . . . the venison you ate last night would s-say that same about you." Footsteps make odd noises on grass, but recognizing the sound is like second nature to Temari now. Hinata is walking away from her father. Temari silently sends her encouragement.

Finally it is dark, and general area around the castle is empty of people.

It is time. She is hesitant, though, and almost decides to stay in the tree, balanced on the tree branches. But Yashamaru did not teach her to be fearful or anything less than determined. And so, she lowers herself to the ground. Temari has learned the important skill of keeping quiet at all costs. As she crosses the field towards the castle, she knows that none of the guards will hear her. Even if she didn't remember where Shikamaru's room was, it was obviously the one with the ornate window and lovely view.

Standing below that window, she grips the necklace in a tight hold. So close to what she's been fear and looking forward to all these years. Is she feeling fear or excitement? Both, more likely than not. She climbs up the wall and through his open window—thank goodness, it was open—before she can let the doubts make her hesitant.

And then, there he is, after such a long wait. His hair is loose, and Temari realizes she's never seen it down before. She just stands there for longer than necessary, leaning against the windowsill, watching him sleep. Nara Shikamaru.

He's . . . Before she can finish the thought, Temari is shaking him awake gently, a hand over his mouth to stop him from crying out. "Shikamaru?"

They stare at each other in silence for a good couple of minutes before one of them finally speaks.

"Temari? What are you doing here?" His voice a bit muffled by her hand, so she removes it, perhaps sliding her fingers across the skin of his cheek more than necessary.

"I . . . I've come back," she answers lamely. She still hopes that maybe . . . just maybe, he won't ask where she's been, and he'll just take her back like nothing's changed.

Not likely. He's sitting up, his gaze intent and questioning. "Where did you go? Do you have any idea what your brothers thought happened? They stayed here a month searching for you. I began to even distrust my own people, thinking one of them might have hurt you. You owe me—and your brothers—a good long explanation." There's a short pause, but soon he adds something under his breath. "Your damn note wasn't very confidence-inspiring, either."

Temari stands up, turning her face away from his lest it show him something she doesn't walk revealed. "I . . . I can't. I can't explain."

He's standing next to her now, but she can barely make him out in the dark. "Temari," he says in a firm, demanding voice, "tell me." He reaches over and takes her hand, his cold fingers wrapping around hers, and she feels her defenses crumbing. Hell, they've been crumbling since she saw him lying there.

"Will you . . . will you promise not to hate me? No matter what I say?" Her words sound so much less firm and more pitiable than she meant them to be. Eight years of preparation, and this is how she's acting?

Pathetic.

"What did you do?" He asks, his tone now sounding accusing, unsure, reproaching. This isn't going as planned.

She pulls her hand away from his, almost glad to have her fingers back, and faces him. "Promise me, Shikamaru!"

"I'll accept you, and what you've done, when I hear it. What have you done?" His voice is desperate, but Temari still is reluctant to give in. "Temari, the fact that you refuse to tell me what happened it proof enough that you believe you have done something wrong." Logic, logic. Damn it, who needs logic?

She's got powers at her disposal that Shikamaru couldn't even dream of, but she's being defeated once again by his stupid, irksome logic?

"No! What I did was not wrong. I have not done a single creature harm in eight years' time!" Passionate, and too loud, she realizes too late. He's pushing her done on the bed, covering her with the blanket and lying down beside her himself. He shushes her quietly, and presses her against him.

His scent is encompassing her. It's in the blanket, on the bed, and that's not even including the fact that her face is pressed against his side. She could reach out and feel his heart beat.

She hears the footsteps outside, probably before he does. A door squeaks open. "Hokage?" She smells the faint aroma of wax, and the footsteps had been the powerful, supercilious footsteps of a warrior. A guard, more likely than not.

"It's okay, Konohamaru. Just talking to myself." Soon the boy is gone, and silence falls upon them once more. Her breath hitches, suddenly, and she wonders—or maybe it's more of a hope—that he's fallen asleep. Or that some twist of fate will cause them to end up with her lips against his. Instead, he pulls her away from him gently, though, and turns his body to her. Neither of them appears ready to get up, not just yet.

"Temari?" he whispers in a voice so low, she can barely be sure she heard it.

"I . . . She offered me a chance to learn how to control this power I have, and to free my brother's spirit from the terror inside that wing . . . I . . . accepted, and now she's . . ." A low cry escapes from her throat at the memory of the garden, and the buried body and . . . and . . .

"Who's she?" Shikamaru asks, a frown growing on his brow.

A long, hesitant pause. "Yashamaru."

He's out of the bed in an instant, the look on his face hidden by the shadows. Temari follows suit, crawling out from beneath the covers that smell deliciously of him, slower and more carefully than he had. "Shikamaru, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm stronger now, and I can do so much good with my powers." With her hands she is reaching out to him, but he's pulling away—in disgust?

"She killed Chouji, and forced your brothers to live as swans for two years. And. . . and you leave us for her?" His voice betrays the pain and hurt he feels, as well as the anger and frustration. No, no, no. This was the reaction she feared to receive from him.

"She did it all for her mother, Shikamaru. She just wanted to know freedom with her mother. Yes, she went about it in the completely wrong manner, but she offered to free my brother of that spirit inside! How could I refuse?" She wants to convince him, she wants to make him see what she understands to be true. "I did nothing wrong."

"You didn't even tell us!"

"How could I? You would only have reacted the same way you do now! With suspicion, fear and closed-mindedness! Damn it, Shikamaru! I can cure diseases you don't even know the names of! Is that something wrong?" Both have them forgot to be sly and quiet in thier anger.

"Yes! Yes, if you learnt these things from a murdering witch!"

"You wouldn't say this if your mother were dying slowly of some painful disease, and I had the ability to save her, would you?"

"It's a little late, Temari, for your heroics. My mother died last fall of a heart illness."

They're both silent, even at the pounding footsteps approaching quickly. Once they arrive, the warriors do not attack. Perhaps some of them recognize her from their childhoods, or the older ones remember one-sided conversations with her. In an case, they stare at Temari and Shikamaru with their confused gazes and surprised looks. "Damn you all. I could kill half of you before the rest could even think of attacking me." She doesn't plan on going through with her threat, though, and turns to leave.

If Shikamaru is going to be stubborn in his beliefs, then there is no reason for her to remain at Konohagakure any longer than she has to. She'll take her chances with Kankurou.

"Wait! Can . . .you really do what you say you can?" Temari faces the girl who spoke out with the hesitant voice in a flash, her eyes furious and alive with power.

"Would you like a sample of my power, girl?"

"My mother! She's dying! Won't . . . won't you save her? You said you could heal rare ailments (x)!" Even in the darkness, Temari can make out the sparkling tears in her eyes. She's too soft, it's painfully obvious. Perhaps the death of her mother will be the thing to toughen her up. That's what a good warrior is supposed to be—tough.

"Moegi, shut up. Don't talk to her, she's only bluffing. She can barely make two shirts, much less heal your mother!" It's the boy that came in first, the Konohamaru from before. Temari turns her angry gaze at him, concentrating all the power at him.

"Don't make me angry, boy. I remember you, don't think I don't. I can do more than you think. Show me this woman. I will prove to you damn ignoramuses just how much you don't know."

The girl, Moegi, shows them through the castle, and none of the make a single move toward Temari. She is satisfied with the fear she has instilled in them—even, it seems, in Shikamaru. He hasn't uttered a word through this entire exchange, and she is unsure of where Shikamaru stands in this. Does he too believe she is merely pretending to have power?

It's a door, a thin red X painted on it. Behind it is the sick woman, apparently. Is the X there to show that a disease-ridden person inhabits the room (x)? Temari pushes the door open in disgust, and takes a good look around. It's stuffy, and the atmosphere is thick with bad air. The first thing she does is pull open a window and open the curtains wide.

"No! What are you doing? The illness with spread and then we will find ourselves with an epi—" Temari silences the warrior that spoke up with a single glare, and turns back to the task at hand.

Looking over the woman, it seems that there is a problem with her lungs, especially with her breathing. This isn't something that Konohagakure's own medical team could not have figured out, though. What is so different about this disease? "Give me three hours," she announces to the crowd that has accumulated outside the door.

"Even if you do manage to heal her, Temari, don't think it's going to make it all better." Temari pretends she didn't hear Shikamaru's words and slams the door shut in their faces.


Even if she does, even if she does . . .

Shikamaru paces back and forth in his room, hoping that he falls through the floor and into Hell, just so he can be done with this torture. This is too much strain in his mind. She's making him crazy still.

She's so incredibly troublesome. She definitely hasn't changed in the time away.

Why did she do it, though? Who knows what that woman taught her, poisoned her mind with lies and false ideas, no doubt. And why did she return here, now? Why not flee back to her family, to her people? Did she have no pride?

Three hours, she asked for. If Sakura—their best medical warrior—could not find a cure for the woman, what hopes were there that she would? Yashamaru could not have known cures; that went against everything a witch like her would know. Only curses and evil things, Yashamaru could teach. Not medicine and power that can help.

Of course not.

Then why is he imagining a future where Temari could . . . redeem Yashamaru with these powers? Where he . . . take her back?

Damn, these thoughts. Damn Yashamaru, damn Temari, damn damn damn.

"Hokage?" Shikamaru recognizes the quiet voice. Hinata. After all the time they've known each other, Hinata still finds it necessary to call him Hokage.

"Yes, Hinata?" He turns to face her, pausing temporarily in his pacing. She is standing hesitantly in the doorway, her expression groggy with sleep and hope.

"Is it true? Has she . . . has she returned? Lady Mine?" Optimistic, she sounds. He remembers, suddenly, that Hinata is leaving tomorrow on her annual trip to the Inuzuka castle. Perhaps she's hoping to see her old friend before she's gone.

"Yes. She's downstairs, paying a visit to Moegi's mother."

"W-what? Is she trying to heal her?" Hinata's agitated, but that isn't very difficult to do to begin with. Her fingers meet halfway, and she fidgets for a little bit, before forcing her hands down again.

"I suppose so." There's a long pause, but Shikamaru breaks through it easily enough. "Did you know she was leaving to see Yashamaru eight years ago?"

Hinata tries to answer, but her stutter makes her increasingly difficult to understand. Shikamaru takes this as a yes.

"You couldn't have at least told me?" He continues, his voice suddenly cold.

"She did not want me to. This w-was her secret to tell, Hokage. The well-being of . . . of her brother lied in the b-balance, what other choice did she have?"

"She could have refused, it's as easy as that."

It's not long before a young warrior comes rushing up, practically imploding in his excitement. "She's awake, she's awake!" That's all Shikamaru needs to hear, and he speeding down to the Moegi's room, Hinata at his heels.

And there she is, leaning against the doorway, and smug smile on her face. As soon as she sees him, the smile only widens. She's like a sly fox this way. "What did I tell you, Shika? Did I do wrong?" Behind him, he hears Hinata cry out her name. Shikamaru brushes past Temari without a word, though. Inside the room, which seems to have been cleansed of its horrid smell, and replaced with lavender instead, Moegi is sitting on the bed, her arm around her mother and a blissful expression on her face.

Moegi's mother is breathing well for the first time in months, perhaps years. Although her face is thin—too thin—and her complexion is ghastly, she seems far better than she did three hours before. He turns back to face Temari, who still has that smirk on her face.

"So? Did I?"


She returns to Sunagakure, as she knows she must. It is strange, because she has not been to this place since before Gaara was born. It doesn't feel the slightest bit like home.

She is not welcomed as she expected. She finds only one of her brothers there to greet her . . . Gaara. He leads her up to his room for drinks, and explains what had occurred since her absence. As soon as it had been obvious that Temari was no longer at Konohagakure, Kankurou had left on his own in search of his sister. He had abandoned his post of Kazekage and left Gaara to travel to the Sand kingdom on his own.

Temari is angry, at first. How could Kankurou have left their younger sibling alone like that? With her gone, he was all Gaara had left. The sad truth doesn't really hit her for a couple of minutes. Apparently, Kankurou had not found her. Then where was he? There were two possibilities, both not ones she wanted. He was either still looking . . . or he was dead.

And Gaara had been left to lead this place as best he knew how. In the beginning, Gaara told his sister, he had lived among the former revolutionaries, too young to claim his place as Kazekage.

When he finally did take back Sunagakure from the grips of autocratic radicals, the people had made friends with were at his side, and the chaotic lifestyle of the people was easier to attempt to fix that way. Sunagakure was a much more peaceful place than Yashamaru had left it, thanks to Gaara.

But that didn't stop Temari from wishing Kankurou could come back.

And it turns out, the witch-mother had fled from Gaara's body, just as Yashamaru had promised. Just before Gaara and Kankurou had left Konohagakure, Gaara had stopped hearing the woman's whisper words in the back of his mind.

So she had killed her own mother. Hopefully, they were together . . . wherever the dead go.

But she could not stay in Sunagakure. Gaara had his only family now—he had married a young woman by the name of Kyo; Temari wished them the best of luck—and he was a good man. He had no need of her, no matter how much he disagreed.

And this place didn't feel like. Even when she returned for a short time to the tower of her youth, the nearby lake and even her own room seem so far away. It was too long ago; it all seems foreign, as if the room had belonged to another girl, not Temari.

Before she leaves, Gaara makes her promise that she will visit often . . . he wants his children to know their aunt. She reluctantly agrees, and returned to Konohagakure.

Where Shikamaru was waiting for her.

He hadn't annulled their marriage, she had expected . . . and feared. Which saved them the time from marrying again.

But it was not long before Temari was causing Shikamaru trouble. Most of the people in the castle had not personally known Temari, or Mine, but had only heard her story through another source. Even some of the people that had turned against her, and wished her gone. Eventually the tension was too much, and they tried . . . well, they tried something. They never got the chance to initate their plan before Temari had launched her own counterattack.

Unfortunately, she had misjudged her own strength, and fear—she had not forgotten the damage the warrior had done to her in that dungeon eight years before—and before she knew it, a man was dead. It probably wasn't him, and even if it had been, it made no difference to the people of Konohagakure. They did not see it as vengance, as Temari personally saw it.

It was the name of Hokage, or Temari. That was the decision they left Shikamaru. There were some who tried to persuade the general populace, like Hinata and even Ino. But to no avail; they only saw the blood spilled on their behalf, the betrayal they saw in Temari's decision to learn from Yashamaru.

Shikamaru chose Temari. Leaving behind his friends, his life, everything he had ever known, he traveled with Temari. He doesn't care who takes over after him, the betrayal of his people making him bitter. Shikamaru was not a traveler by nature, though, and neither was Temari. Although Temari had never really known a true home, her heart yearned for one. She found one in Shikamaru.

Life resumes for Temari much like before. The two of them find a home in an obscure city closer to Sunagakure than to Konohagakure, and each of them revel in the privacy it gives them. Temari works as a residential witch, and eventually her reputation grows so that people flood from all over for her treatment or advice.

Her powers were few compared to others'—Naruto, Sasuke, Lee, just to name a few—but these facts went unheard. Sasuke and Naruto disappeared from Konohagakure because of the attitude people still had towards Sasuke because of his betrayal. After a particularly vicious attack, the two of them had abandoned their city. Their story was far too alike to Temari's own, and she found herself seriously doubting the honor of the warriors of Konohagkure. Lee was far too modest, and after all, limited in power only to combat.

Although her power did not wane with time, her took as much time as possible to care for her children. The pain of childbirth was remarkably close to her task, and wonders if she was preparing for this all along. Lavender, Sage, Shikaka and Yoshimo (x).

Eventually, Shikaka left for Sunagakure, and remained there for most of his life, learning the ways of the Sand kingdom, and eventually becoming Kazekage himself much later in his life. Lavender and Sage, twin siblings, left their stifling home in search of excitement and adventure, like the kind their parents went through. They returned more than a decade later, with stories to tell and scars to prove them.

Yoshimo stayed with both her parents until they grew old, enjoying their company, and even going as far as bringing her husband to live with her, even though the custom was for the woman to live with the man.

Shikamaru and Temari never did return to Konohagakure, although every so often they got visits from old friends. When they die, only months apart, the two of them were buried simply in a nearby cemetery. A few decades afterwards, their story was most erased from memory, living on only in a story told by mothers at bedtime, or by old grandparents speaking of different times.

Two changes to seven, Yashamaru becomes a power-hungry witch and the betrayal of a people morphs into a happy ending for all.


Bwjaja. I majorly tweaked the ending. Hopefully for the better.

I TOLD YOU SHIKA WOULDN'T MARRY INO!

By the way, for those that may be interested, I am considering writing another side story. A SasuNaru one (suggested by Uzamaki Liliana) using the Snow White idea (yes, this is where the older shinobis will pop up). Check it out, if you enjoyed this story. Once again, thank you for reading this.

Now, go to bed.

Or better yet, show me some LOVE first.