DISCLAIMER: Naruto is a licensed product of ShoPro now...sniff oh well, there goes my dreams of becoming a ninja...
chibi Lee-kun wipes away tears anyway, I'm back! After such a long slump-slash-writer's block, I got in the mood to write again! Hee hee hee, I hope you enjoy this one-shot!
Jounin Rain
It was near midday already, and the sun is shining fiercely on the clear sky of the forests of Konoha. A young ninja girl wielding an enormous folding fan is walking mindlessly on the forest trail towards Konoha village. She does not mind being alone on such a treacherous path though; she had been promoted to jounin level earlier that morning.
--
"From this day on, Temari of the Hidden Sand, you are now a jounin," announced her sensei. She had already expected to increase her level sooner or later, but not as soon like that.
"Arigatou gozaimasu." Thank you very much. "I'm honored to receive this title," Temari replied then glanced at her brothers Gaara and Kankuro who were smiling discreetly behind her. Kankuro was also a jounin earlier than her, but Gaara was the Kazekage of the Sand after Orochimaru's assassination mission.
--
She propped herself over a fallen tree that was blocking her way. Back then, Temari would just deliver a strong, slicing gust from her fan at anything, or anyone, in her way. This time, however, she is an entirely different person from before.
--
Temari can't help smirking at her brothers after she was given her first assignment of heading to Konoha for the chuunin exam.
"I'm not anybody's little girl anymore," she boasted.
"What do you mean 'little girl?'" Kankuro countered. "You could slice us in half!"
"Well, you've been treating me like a princess before! Sheesh…"
Gaara just shrugged at the two and approached the new jounin. He gave her a small earthen gourd, somewhat like a smaller version of the sand gourd on his back. "Here."
"What's this?"
"Take it. It's my gift to you. It's some of my sand from the Shukaku," Gaara lectured calmly at the startled Temari. "It will explode upon contact on your enemy, and can be used in conjunction with your jutsu."
"Er, um, thanks," she just managed to say, as she put Gaara's gourd in her kunai purse.
"One more thing: that sand will also protect you if your life is threatened," Gaara said before going away.
"Thanks, really, Gaara," Temari said again, but this time, meaning her words.
--
Temari saw it, the seal traps that are just one of the many defenses of Konoha against outsiders that she was warned about. This seal, however, was different; it has an eye sticking out of it.
"Temari of the Hidden Sand. Jounin," she whispered at the seal. There was a certain ring to the word "Jounin" and she kind of liked it. At once, the eye closed and Temari continued her way.
--
"Here's mine," Kankuro said as he handed to her a fairly large scroll. "It's a seal for some of my puppets."
"But I'm not--"
"Nah, you don't need to control them. It's a poison swarm," he explained. "All you need to do is to blow them towards your opponents. They have a mind of their own, which I got the idea from Aburame Shino of Konoha. Pretty nice, huh?"
"Well, arigatou," she replied.
"And, um, it also warns me if you're in danger so I could come to your aid. Use it when you're in a pinch, okay?"
"Okay," she said with a half-hearted smile.
--
There was a clearing in the forest, and Temari decided to risk being seen there. After all, she's a jounin now, right? Who could stand up against her?
I'll make them wish they'd never underestimated a woman.
She was walking in the middle of the clearing now when she was stopped abruptly, as if some force willed her to do so.
"I wonder why a cute girl like you is wandering out here alone," said an arrogant voice behind Temari as she felt the cold metal of a shuriken near her neck.
--
"So," remarked Kankuro. "You've been stationed in Konoha, huh?"
"Yeah," Temari answered as she made her final preparations in her kunai purse.
"And I suppose you'll see him again?"
"Maybe."
"All the better for you there than you here staring at the sky every single day."
Without a single cloud here in the desert sky…
Seeing that Temari won't respond, Kankuro made his way out of the room. "Just don't let the jounin thing get over your head. Ja ne." See ya.
She stared at Gaara's mini-gourd and Kankuro's scroll for a while and sighed.
--
"And I wonder what a cowardly crybaby is doing way out here too," the jounin from the Sand answered coolly.
"Hmph," aired the familiar voice behind her. "I'm on an assignment, you know." Nara Shikamaru lowered his shuriken and set Temari free from his shadow-binding jutsu. "Aren't you with a jounin from your village? I'm here to escort him."
"Er, actually…"
"--I've heard that Kankuro's already a jounin, right? It must be him, since he's most familiar with our forests--"
"No, it's not him, Shikamaru," Temari managed to say amidst Shikamaru's mumbles.
"Huh?" That got his attention.
"What I meant was…I'm the jounin that was assigned here," she declared bashfully. "I got promoted just this morning."
Temari was staring at the ground when she said all these that she didn't see Shikamaru's look of genuine surprise at her. After all, he didn't really anticipate all this.
"Well, um, congratulations then," the chuunin from Konoha retorted as he scratched his head and turned away, uttering under his breath words about girls being of a higher rank than him. "I guess I should escort you to the village then."
They walked side by side along the trail that Temari has been following earlier.
"Why don't we just travel on the tree branches? It'll be much faster and safer that way," remarked Temari.
"Nah. We're on the safe ground as I recall. Besides," added Shikamaru, "both of us can use our jutsu down here on the flat surface rather than expending more chakra to keep our balance. Don't you see the shadows that we're stepping on?"
That startling intellect has not dulled yet…or he still is a bit touchy on being a man saving a girl again. The nerve…I can't believe this chauvinistic jerk. Oh well, I'll let him anyway.
--
They reached the village gates an hour later without encountering any hostility whatsoever.
"Hm. Not much has changed, hasn't it?" Temari asked.
"Except for some renovations and a new face on the mountain side, yeah, not much," Shikamaru answered. "C'mon. We mustn't keep Hokage-sama waiting."
Tsunade-sama's quarters are stationed at the base of the mountain. Aside from the usual paperwork that is ordinary in preparation for the upcoming chuunin exam, nothing exciting has happened. A knock on the door interrupted the atmosphere of monotony.
"Come in," addressed the fifth Hokage.
Temari and Shikamaru entered the room.
"Ah, you must be the envoy sent by the Hidden Sand village for tomorrow's chuunin exam," Tsunade said as she motioned towards the two. "Temari, right?"
"Hai." Yes. "We are to send ten more jounin to aid you in managing the exam."
"Understood. You may go," Tsunade ordered. "By the way, have you already eaten your lunch? You look famished…"
"Well, Mr. Bodyguard here--" Temari pointed to the distracted Shikamaru, "doesn't know how to treat a guest--"
"We will go now, Hokage-sama," interrupted Shikamaru. "Thanks for reminding me."
A familiar voice echoed along the hall as they made their way out of the quarters.
"Tsunade shishou, my summoned slug is still so small," complained Haruno Sakura, a chuunin and an acquaintance to Temari. "Temari-san! Shikamaru-kun! When did you arrive?"
The Hokage stood on the hallway, as she answered her apprentice's question, "just a minute ago, Sakura. They're just going to have a date for old times' sake."
"W-w-wait," Shikamaru stammered. "What do you mean a date?"
Temari chuckled instead.
"That's right," added Sakura. "You do look good together. Hee hee…"
"I'm just escorting a jounin here--" Shikamaru tried to reason.
"Your mission's finished, Shikamaru," said Tsunade.
"You're a jounin already, Temari-san?" inquired the medic nin-to-be. "Wow…"
"Aren't they cute?" asked Tsunade with a giggle.
"So, Shikamaru, have you given her a gift already?"
But Shikamaru couldn't take the sudden assault from the women anymore and decided to direct Temari out. "Thanks already! Sheesh…women and their talk…"
"I'm a woman too, you know," she voiced with a cold look.
--
They found Shikamaru's -- or rather, Akimichi Chouji's -- favorite barbecue restaurant. Sure enough, Chouji was eating sukiyaki with their third teammate, Yamanaka Ino.
"Yo," greeted Shikamaru.
Chouji would've greeted too if it weren't for his filled mouth. Instead, he just waved at the couple moving towards their table.
"Oh, hi Shikamaru-kun," greeted Ino, "and…Temari-san." She suppressed but still made a barely audible sigh.
"Do you mind if we ate here with you?" Shikamaru asked with a wide grin on his face.
"'ure. 'e don' 'ind," Chouji mumbled. "'ight, Ino?" He was literally eating his words.
"Yeah," she muttered as she stared blankly onto the window by her side.
I would do anything just to know what's on her mind. Shikamaru thought. Gomen, Ino-chan.
--
After their late lunch, Shikamaru insisted that he give Temari a tour around the village.
"This is not a date after all this, huh?" she asked.
"Don't get me wrong," he persisted. "I have no intention of having social relationships among your kind. I'm just looking for something."
"Hmph."
--
A couple of hours later the Konoha chuunin took Temari atop the mountain. The dusk sun is already inching its way near the horizon.
"I guess I can't find one after all," conceded Shikamaru then sitting down on the platform facing the crimson sun.
"What were you looking for anyway?" she queried after settling down herself on an adjacent platform.
"I was thinking of taking you around to see what kind of gifts you would like to receive."
"Eh!" Is it the male pride talking?
"But seeing you as the type who's not choosy, I guess I'll give you this," Shikamaru said as he handed her a kunai that looks vaguely like his ponytail.
Not some grand gift, just a kunai…
"Nani? What is this? Some sort of a special kunai?" Temari asked as she examined his gift.
Shikamaru lay supine as he watched the few clouds above floating lazily. "In a way, yeah. It's a kage-kunai of the Nara clan. It's a weapon only your shadow can keep," he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "My dad gave it to me before I became a chuunin."
…his heirloom…
"Let me guess…it calls you when I use it?"
"Nah. Knowing you, you don't need help from a chuunin like me. Besides, you're a jounin now, not a genin. I reckon you needed that because dangerous you may be at a distance, you're helpless up close. That'll give you some thing as a last resort when you're--"
He was cut short when Temari gently put her finger on his lips and he saw her head looming over him, then she leaned over to kiss Shikamaru. The moment seemed like eternity and then she lifted her lips from his.
"Who's helpless up close now? Arigatou, crybaby," she whispered as she stood up, and waved goodbye as she walked away.
Shikamaru meanwhile, was still dazed, stood up, and couldn't help but let a fleeting smile linger on his lips.
chibi Lee-kun: I hope they do get along, ne?
angry Ino: There he is! He made a fool out of us! Let's get him!
angry Sakura: Yeah! What about our love lives? Don't we have the right to match up with Sasuke-kun!
angrier Ino: Eh! I thought you were going out with that Naruto guy!
angrier Sakura: ...and I thought you were with that Shikama--
chibi Lee-kun: Sakura-chan! Don't mention...uh oh...Ino-chan?
pacified Ino: sob sob How could you...
sympathetic Sakura: I'm sorry, Ino-chan...I miss Naruto too...see? I don't have either. sniff
chibi Lee-kun: um, Sakura-chan? Ino-chan?
crying Ino: But none of them was like Shiki-kun...wah...
crying Sakura: And I really miss them...wah...
chibi Lee-kun: oh well, till next time, ja ne! group hug
SMALL UPDATE: After reading this, I'm getting more motivated to continue writing like my style here! I just addressed some of the comments suggested in the reviews...and yeah, I was putting this off for like, 2 years? Haha...