Betrothal
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 4 - Thunderstorms.
Morning. Morning had come. And with it had been bought a whole new world of pain to her body as she sat up in bed, the golden light of early morning streaming in from the spaces where her curtains didn't quite cover the window properly.
"Ugh..." Haruno Sakura started to stretch, then immediately regretted it when her back and arms decided to burn in agony. "Ooooaaawww..." She moaned, ceasing all attempts to move and instead lying limply in bed. She could feel the stinging sensation of the most crucial part of her new technique lying just under the wall of pain.
Well, actually it was more than one technique really, but at the same time it was just one technique. She knew it was something that neither Naruto, nor anyone else could copy. Heck, Sasuke and Kakashi wouldn't even be able to copy it - not even with their Sharingan!
Unless, of course, they went through the same ceremony she did. That, however, was something that would never happen because the only people who knew how to perform the ceremony were her mother and grandmother.
"Sakura?" The withered voice of her grandmother filtered through the door, "May I come in grand-daughter?"
"Y-yes..." Sakura winced, it was hard to keep the pain out of her voice. Then again, her grandmother was probably skilled enough to be able to detect even the faintest traces of pain - so it wouldn't really have mattered anyway.
There was a slow, rattling sigh from the other side of the door. With a smooth sliding sound of well oiled hinges the door to her room opened, admitting the shrunken and shrivelled form of the head of the Haruno family.
"I wish you had not made the choice to go through with the ceremony child, I worry that it may have been to hard for-" Sakura's voice cut her off, surprising the old matriarch.
"No. It... It was something I had to do." Sakura's voice was strong and filled with steel. "I can't be protected forever."
The wrinkled old woman smiled at Sakura's announcement. Whilst she was slightly annoyed at being interrupted in such a rude manner, she did believe that such disrespect was most likely caused by the pain from the previous day's ceremony.
"I am glad that you feel this way child... no, not a child any longer, for by going through the ceremony you have agreed to become an adult - albeit a rather young one." Sakura grinned slightly and tried to sit up, she didn't get far instead wincing in pain and slumping back down onto her bed. Her grandmother watched the effort and sighed once more. "Roll over ch- I mean, grand-daughter, I have some ointment that should reduce the pain."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun that awoke Sakura was the same sun that also woke the displaced Sand-nin, Temari. Her eyes were heavy, and veiled with fog as she slowly sat up in bed. If there was one thing she hated as a ninja, it was having to wake up at sunrise.
"Wh'r'm'I?" She slurred as she sat blinking the sleep away from her eyes. The room was unfamiliar, it wasn't her room at all. Slowly she began to remember the previous days events and, as she did so, she slumped over. "Oh." She murmured, "Leaf village, yes, I remember now."
She glanced around the room, taking note of the clothes still in their boxes, her fan leaning against the wall alongside her fan repairing equipment. Swinging around to sit on the edge of her bed, Temari hooked a foot around one of the boxes and dragged it into reach. She smiled a moment before pulling out one of the outfits it contained. It was similar, in many ways, to her normal outfit except this one was a dirty pink colour and had a longer jacket - one that reached past her knees.
Folding the outfit over one arm, she grabbed a towel from near the bed and wrapped it around herself. Now, all she had to do was find the bathroom. Preferably without letting Naruto know that she was going around his house almost naked. Striding over to the door to what was now her room, the blonde haired girl put her ear to the door.
Nothing. It was silent, which hopefully meant that Naruto was still asleep. Sliding open the door as quietly as she could, Temari peeked down the small hallway. Satisfied that Naruto wasn't awake - or at least wasn't around - she slipped out of her room and creeped down the short hallway at the top of the stairs.
As she went along, she nudged each door she passed open, checking the contents in her search for a bathroom. In hindsight, she should really have explored the house the day before - but that just hadn't occurred to her then.
The first door she opened led to an empty room with various dummies tied to the walls or hanging from the ceiling. She smirked as she realised that most of the dummies were dressed up to look like various people she had seen in the Chuunin exam. There was Kakashi, and the bug-guy, and the Hyuuga boy and in one corner, there was one that faintly resembled Gaara next to one that looked like the boy, what was his name? The one Gaara had been injured by in the preliminaries.
It looked like Naruto used this room for training, or something similar at least. It seemed good enough, given the limited resources the boy must have.
Temari nodded as she slid the door closed and moved onto the next one. The next door was almost opposite the one she had opened, and was the room on the opposite side of the stairs from hers. This room, really, was nothing special, just a lot of junk crammed in around an old bed. Once it had probably been a second bedroom - or a guest room. Now it appeared that Naruto used it to keep all the stuff he couldn't fit in anywhere else.
'Heh... So that's why this place looked so tidy' Temari thought, 'He probably got told to clean up and just dumped everything in here.' She smirked slightly as she shut the door to that room and moved onto the next. Upon opening it she could see that she had found the subject of her search.
It was a rather nice bathroom actually, it had everything one needed and had been decorated in a rather nice blue and green colour scheme. Granted there was the occasional missing tile on the walls, and the paint was starting to flake away in places - but that was to be expected given that Naruto probably had absolutely no idea of how to fix any of the minor problems.
Temari paused at the entrance to the bathroom and glanced around the hallway. There was, she noted, one door she hadn't tried yet. It was the door situated at the very end of the hallway, next to the bathroom in fact.
She tried to fight the urge, but in the end her curiosity won out and she slipped over to the last door.
"I wonder..." She whispered, and opened the door.
Or, at least, she tried to open it. Evidently the door was locked tight, though for what reason she knew not. This was something she would have to ask Naruto about but, for now, the bathroom - and the promise of a nice warm bath - beckoned her away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mmm... Gonna have Raaaamen..." Murmured Naruto, still lost within sleep. "An' some ribs an' some... some..." his eyes snapped open as the faint sounds of running water reached his ears. "Hwah?"
Now, it must be noted that Naruto isn't exactly a morning person. In fact he bounces between two standard modes of awakening. Namely the 'I'm a hyper chipmunk' and the 'huh? Wha? Wake me up in 'nother five minutes' mode. Now, whilst these two awakening methods are quite standard, Naruto manages to pull them both off with a certain brilliance.
Namely, Naruto's brain doesn't actually start working until up to an hour after waking up. Before then the boy relies entirely on pure instinct.
Right now, Naruto's instinct was telling him that there was an intruder in the house. Judging by the sounds that reached his ears, the intruder was upstairs. Had his brain been working properly, Naruto's common sense would have been sending out dire warnings of what would happen should he go up there and seek out this 'intruder'. Not that it would have had much effect, as Naruto ignored his common sense all the time anyway.
Skulking and sneaking towards the stairs, the blonde-haired ninja paused. There was something he was forgetting... Something important.
Oh well, no matter. He'd remember soon enough, until then whatever it was couldn't possibly be a problem. Grinning at his instinctual logic, the foxy youth slipped up the staircase with not even a single sound of creaking steps, nor the beat of footsteps to give him away. His ears twitched slightly as he heard a splashing sound, along with a faint humming.
Since his common sense had decided that there was nothing it could do to save Naruto's hide, it whiled away the time by paying more attention to the hummed tune than the rest of Naruto did. It was a rather nice tune actually, one from a relatively common song about rain and clouds and freedom and all the other things which usually got put into songs just to make them seem complete.
Naruto's hand rested on the handle to the bathroom door, with a quiet tug he checked it and found it locked. This fact alone should have sent warning bells through Naruto. Unfortunately most of his mind had decided that Naruto deserved a good beating, if for no other reason than the fact that he had ignored all the previous warning signs.
A gently lifting motion unhooked the, rather badly fitted, latch. Naruto had always ignored the fact that it could be forced open so easily - after all, who would want to force open a bathroom door?
Other than himself of course.
He slid back the door slightly and peered into the room. Not that he could see anything, since the place was filled with steam and mist - heck, he couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face in that indoor-fogbank! The humming was louder no, off to his left and... wait. Hang on.
Several bells had gone off in Naruto's mind, which was just beginning to pull out of it's early morning post-sleep haze.
Wasn't he sharing the house with someone now?
And wasn't that someone a gir- oh. Oh my.
Temari had just stepped out of the bath, the mist in the room clearing just enough for Naruto to get something Jiraiya would kill for, the mother of all peep-shows.
Unfortunately, the mist had also cleared enough for Temari to see him too. The older girl froze, half in shock at being seen, half in anger at being seen. Her hand reached out, grabbed a towel and pulled it about her before the mist cleared enough for Naruto to see anymore of her body.
"Na..." She began, her voice a growl of rage.
"Ru..." The boy suddenly had a mental image of himself, at the foot of the stairs, dead from being beaten to a pulp by a fan-wielding maniac. The image was not a very nice one.
"TO!!! I'll kill you!" Temari's scream of anger filled the house, spilled out onto the street and was even heard by those at the local bath-house. Just outside the bath-house one perverted, white-haired man blinked and looked up from the peep-hole he had been peering though.
"Ah..." He murmured, "So the boy is more like me than I first thought."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Urgle..." Naruto groaned as he rested his head on a desk. His face was a collection of bumps, bruises and more than a few red handprints that signifies particularly powerful slaps. Beside him was Uchiha Sasuke, who looked particularly amused by his companions pain.
Well, at least it was possible that he was amused. It could have been anger, or irritation, or indigestion for all anyone could tell. Sasuke really wasn't one to show his emotions particularly well.
The two were sitting in a small classroom, awaiting the arrival of both Sakura and Kakashi. The two boys were both slightly worried over the fact that Sakura was late, Kakashi's time-keeping, however, they really couldn't care less about. Kakashi is, was, and always would be late to pretty much everything he didn't consider super-urgent, which was pretty much everything really.
Naruto perked up slightly as the classroom door opened, lifting his head form the table and peering at whoever it was that had opened the door. Sasuke, on the other hand, just glanced at the door out of the corner of his eyes.
"Urgle..." Sakura stumbled in through the door, her arms covered in bandages and, judging by the way her dress seemed slightly odd, her chest and abdomen were wrapped in the things too. The pink-haired girl staggered in and literally dumped herself down next to Naruto and lay her head upon the table.
Naruto put his head back on the table and looked at Sakura. "Sakura-chan?" he asked after a moment. "You look like hell." He stated, nodding slightly.
Sakura merely nodded. "Naruto?" She asked, pushing herself into a slightly more comfortable position. "So do you."
Sasuke snorted slightly, then turned to the other two members of his team. "So," He began, "Why are you two so beat up?"
"Training." Was Sakura's answer, "Painful training." Inside her mind, however, Inner Sakura was doing a mad little dance. 'he cares enough to ask about our well-being!' she squealed, though outside Sakura didn't give any indication that this was going on inside her head.
Sasuke grunted. Training was an acceptable reason for being bandaged up like that. On the other hand, if she had said that she'd been attacked, Sasuke would have gone to deliver the wrath of the gods unto her attacker.
Not because he liked her or anything, it was just that it was wrong to leave an injured team-mate un-avenged. Hell, he'd have done the same for Naruto...
Maybe, anyway.
If he didn't have anything better to do at least.
"So. Naruto. What happened to you?" he asked at last, keeping his expression blank. The foxy-ninja turned his head to face Sasuke and glared.
"Ran into a door." He muttered, his face flushing red as he remembered the real reason for his injuries. He'd got quite an eyeful before Temari noticed he was there - and had then beat him senseless for being a pervert. "Several times. Then I fell down the stairs."
One of Sasuke's eyebrows lifted as the dark-haired boy smirked. "Really?" he could tell Naruto was lying, and that instead of running into a door the boy had been beaten up by a girl - the slap marks were evidence enough of that. As to which girl, and why, he had no idea.
The three young ninja all glanced towards the door as it slid open with a slight scraping sound.
"Yo." Kakashi smirked under his mask, holding up one hand in greeting as he strode into the room - then he paused, blinked and looked hard at Sakura and Naruto. "What happened to you two?" he asked at last, causing the duo to groan in annoyance and pain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Temari was fuming. Really, really fuming. That PERVERT Naruto had just walked in on HER in the BATHROOM and worse yet, he seemed like he had actually done it on PURPOSE!
The ex-san-nin's fist lashed out and smashed into one of the training dummies Naruto had in his training room. This particular one she had dressed in a dirty and torn orange outfit - to resemble the current object of her anger.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid pervert!" She screamed, each yell being punctuated by the sound of her fist slamming into the dummy. Though her blows weren't as co-ordinated or as well performed as the attacks of someone like, say, Rock Lee, they were filled with her current rage.
Temari wasn't all that good at unarmed Taijutsu. Well, she was, she could easily take out any non-ninja without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, anyone with sufficient unarmed combat could beat her - and this included pretty much any other ninja.
Now, when she had her fan however, the scales tipped in her favour. As far as she knew, she was one of the only three sand-nin who had ever wished to learn the unusual fan-based fighting style. Even then, she hadn't been quite as good as her peers - but she had the advantage of being related to Gaara. That was, quite possibly, the only reason she had been picked to enter the chuunin exam - to keep Gaara under control.
And she'd failed.
So they sent her here, used her as the sacrificial pawn in a giant game of politics and intrigue. After all, she hadn't been sent here because she was skilled, or because she had any good jutsus to give to the leaf village... no. She'd been sent here because she had been expendable.
An inter-village marriage really had very little to do with the two people getting married really. The real point behind it was that the village in the weaker position was sending someone and, effectively, saying 'This person has knowledge of some of our jutsu and chakra types, we'll give them to you via him or her if you agree, aid or forgive us'
A faint sound of distant thunder echoed in Temari's ears as she fell to her knees, slowly believing herself to be as useless and expendable as her village had believed her to be when they had sent her here.
A single tear crept down her face and splashed upon the dusty floor. As she cried the weather outside began to echo her feelings as rain began to fall down upon Leaf village.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rain also fell down upon the building in which team seven were currently situated, casting a dull gloom over the classroom. Staring outside ate the rain, Kakashi sighed in slight irritation. Fortunately there were no plans for any missions today, or else they would have been in a right mess - what with Sakura obviously in almost constant pain and Naruto, evidently, beaten senseless.
"Well," He murmured, "Since we have nothing better to do I may as well..." Smiling to himself the copy-ninja looked at his students and smiled wider.
Or, at least, his mask was in a certain pattern of stretches and creases which his team had, eventually, learnt to recognise as a smile. The creases moved over the fabric of the mask as Kakashi's mouth moved up and down with his voice, many times the three young ninja had tried to remove the mask, however, they had failed each and every time.
"Since you're in no shape to train - well, except for Sasuke - I have an important announcement for you all." He nodded, smirking slightly as Naruto pushed himself into a sitting position. This, thought the grey-haired man, would be amusing. "Teams even, eight and ten will be changed slightly - from three-man teams, to four-man teams. This is mostly in response to..." He paused, there was no easy way to say this as all the instructors and students had been deeply affected by the source of this problem. "... in response to the removal of Rock Lee from ninja service."
Both Sakura and Naruto winced slightly, each of them remembering in perfect detail the look on Lee's face when the news had been broken to him. Sakura, especially, was upset by the statement - as she had also seen how Lee had tried to continue, even after being told he would never be able to be a ninja due to his injuries.
Kakashi waited for Naruto and Sakura to calm themselves a little before continuing. "The remainder of team nine is to be split up, with Tenten joining team eight and Neji joining team ten. We, your instructors, agreed that this was the best way to push forwards with the chuunin-level training you will all now be going through until you decide on the path you wish to take."
The path, quite simply, referred to the fact that some ninja would branch away from standard duties and take up more specialised roles - such as medical-nin, teacher or even something as rare as shrine-nin which, basically, were ninja highly skilled in sealing-type jutsus. Although the most common path for a chuunin to take was the one that eventually led up to the point of becoming a jounin - unless, of course, the chuunin died before they got that far...
Hesitantly, her face twisting at the pain, Sakura raised her hand and spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei? If both members of team nine are joining other teams then... who'll be joining ours?"
Kakashi could have laughed, it was so amusing to watch Naruto's battered face pass through expressions of agreement, confusion, thought, realisation and then shock before finally reaching a look that was usually seen on stunned bunnies - shortly before they became dinner for a larger animal. "You'll meet them soon enough." Stated Kakashi, his one visible eye in a little arch of amusement. "Just as soon as we walk to, and reach, Naruto's house."
Naruto's face changed from the stunned bunny look to one of pure horror. Not that Sakura and Sasuke noticed, they were both too busy trying to think of who could possibly be at Naruto's house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Temari sniffed and wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve. Ninja, especially sand-nin, were not supposed to cry.
"But..." She whispered, "I'm not of the Sand anymore, am I?" That point bought forth a new wave of tears which she just barely managed to hold off. Reaching up she patted the bare space at her neck, the space in which - until a few days ago - a head-protector marked with an hourglass had sat.
Pulling herself to her feet, Temari walked over to the window - her feet scraping trails on the dusty floor. The window was, like most windows, merely a hole in the wall which could be covered with shutters - in this particular instance the shutters were made of wood, though glass shutters were not quite common on some of the more important buildings.
There was only one shutter on this window, possibly because the other was damaged and, to be honest, Naruto probably couldn't afford to have it repaired or replaced. Not that it mattered, there was enough of an overhang above the window to prevent the rain coming in - unless the wind was blowing the right way of course.
Temari stared out at the dark clouds above and listened as a boom of thunder and a bolt of lightning split the heavens. She fancied that she could see the gods of the sky, beating their drums to make thunder, and stamping their feet upon the tops of the clouds to force the lightning through the bottoms.
Yes... Baki had told her that little myth, that thunder and lightning were just the gods of the sky having a party. Apparently, when he had been younger Temari's mother had told him the tale herself.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A young Temari huddled under her bed as thunder filled the air and rain, a rarity in the desert, came smashing down to cause flash-floods in many places just outside the village. The room suddenly lit up with a ghostly glow as a bolt of lightning speared down from the heavens - illuminating everything, including herself.
"Temari?" Baki had been younger then too, a young adult in his early twenties, the man picked to look after Temari and Kankuro - the duty of looking after Gaara fell to the brother of his mother, Yashamaru. It was a little known fact that Gaara was, in fact, only half-brother to Temari and Kankuro - their real mother having died on a mission not long after Kankuro had his first birthday. Gaara's mother had just been a tool, used by the Kazekage to create the demon-child of the Sand. Either way, the Kazekage hardly cared about his children anymore - all he seemed to care about nowadays was the decline of the Sand village and the advice of his latest advisor, Oro-something.
"B-Baki-san?" Temari's voice was frail and trembling, hardly surprising since the girl was only about four-and-a-half years old, only a year and a half until she started at the ninja academy. "I-is that y-you?" She asked, fearful of what the response might be - her young mind already filled with the mental pictures of the horrible monsters that made the loud booming she heard and the bright light she saw, along with all the water falling from the sky.
This was, after all, the first time she'd ever experienced rain - whilst she was old enough to know what was going on at least.
"Yes Temari," Baki's voice was soft and kind - a far cry from the much harsher and colder voice he would have almost twelve years from now. "It's me."
Baki stepped into the room, and almost instantly found himself almost tripping over a terrified Temari, who had glomped onto his leg at the first chance she got. The little blonde-haired girl wailed in fear as another booming crash rattled the window shutter - followed quickly by another ghostly illumination as lightning filled the sky.
"Ohhhh..." Baki nodded to himself in understanding, "Scared of the storm are we?" He asked, looking down to see Temari look up at him, confusion on her face.
"Staw-em?" She asked, her childish voice mangling the word and causing Baki to smile slightly at her attempt.
"That's right," He whispered, sitting down on a chair and letting Temari clamber up into his lap. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to have a family of his own, then he'd just shrug and ignore the matter. After all, as far as he was concerned Temari and Kankuro were his children - at least, he was the only one who looked after them. "And that noise is thunder, and the light is called lightning."
Temari blinked. "Dunder and Wighting?" She hazarded, causing Baki to smile at her little mispronunciations. "What're they?" Came the question Baki had expected, just as another peal of thunder caused Temari to cling to his chest and try to hide herself.
He grinned slightly and patted Temari on the head. For a moment he wondered why it was always Temari who was the bother, Kankuro hardly complained about anything - instead he spent his time messing around with little wooden soldiers and slightly battered puppet-like toys.
"Thunder and Lightning..." he began, "Are the sounds of the clouds having fun."
That answer obviously confused Temari, as she glanced out of the partially open window at the large black blobs hanging in the sky. "Cwouds have fun?" She whispered, half to herself and half to Baki.
"Yes," Replied the older man, as he picked her up and carried her to the window. "Up there," He said, pointing, "The gods of the sky bang their drums and party, That's what makes the thunder - the sounds of their drums. And when lightning comes down, it means that the dancing sky-gods are stomping the floor and having fun."
"Oooooohhhh..." Temari stared up at the sky in awe and Baki was pleased to see that she hardly winced when the next booming wave of thunder swept over them both. "The sky-god bang-ed his drum!" Squealed Temari, her eyes filled with wonder.
"That he did Temari, That he did." Baki looked up at the sky, an almost dreamy expression on his face. "That's why your mother always said that thunderstorms are happy, because when there's thunder there's a party."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Temari stared out the window of Naruto's training room. Cautiously she reached out with her palm facing up, to catch some of the raindrops on her palm.
"I may not be part of the Sand anymore, and maybe most of the people in this village hate me... but..." She closed her eyes and smiled slightly, "Naruto was nice to me, even if he is a sneaking little pervert."
The blonde-haired girl pulled her hand back, reached up and gently tugged at the bands which kept her four ponytails in order. With their support gone, her hair fell downwards, leaving it as a golden wave that reached to the base of her neck.
Taking a deep breath she looked out the window and stared up at the clouds.
"Temari of the Sand... is, for now, no more." She stated, "Soon I may be Temari of the Sand again, or I may instead become Temari of the Leaf." Closing her eyes Temari flung the hair-bands out of the window, letting the flimsy things be carried away in the wind and pounded down by the rain.
"Either way, I promise that the next time you clouds are feeling this way, I'll be feeling the same... after all..." She smiled slightly and raised her voice, shouting her promise to the clouds above.
"I want to be happy like the thunderstorms are too!"
Chapter 4 - Ended.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes:
Ack x.x I apologise for the lateness of this chapter ^.^;; but things seem to have conspired to stop me from getting it done x.x first I lost my original copy and had to re-write it all, then one of my kitties died ;.; and I just couldn't write anything for a while.
But here it is now! In a slightly larger than normal chapter that is full of some scenes that should make it worth the wait ^-^ I hope o.o;;
A big thankyou to aaaall those who review my ficcie, and another big thankyou to those people who pre-read =P
Well, I noticed that someone commented on my theory that henge no jutsu can't touch something... now, I'll say this only once. I didn't make a mistake ^.~ you only heard half the theory - the other half will be explained when it seems appropriate.
Until the next chapter, let the Thunderstorms be happy ^.~
I can't help but think that the last scene was more inspired by One Piece than Naruto x.x Since it's a ver OP-ish thing for someone to do ^^;;; Either way, I like it.
Now remember peoples - nothing was ever said about Temari + Kankuro's parents and I thought it strange that (as Yashamaru said to Gaara) that Gaara's mother hated and cursed the sand. Which bought up the question of 'if she hated the sand, did she really have two prior children there?' it seemed kinda doubtful, so I wrote in my theory on it.
Oh yeah, one more thing... Anyone got any suggestions as to Temari + Kankuro's family name? As the family names of the three sand-nin are never mentioned . if they even have family names that is o.O;; Yeah, anyway, slap your thoughts on that up if you review this chapter ^.^
Lackey H, Thinking of Temari in the rain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Special bonus!!
List of musics which I reckon should be background tunes for the various scenes in the first three chapters. (or at least, they were the tunes I listened to when I wrote those scenes ^.^; ) Most of these tunes come from the Naruto OST x.x which I was listening to almost religiously after I first got my hands on it ^^;;
Chapter 1 --
Scene 1 - Inside the Sand council-hall: Evening (Naruto OST)
Scene 2 - Sand village Bathouse: Evening (Naruto OST)
Scene 3 - Packing in Temari's room: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)
Scene 4 - Leaving Sand village: Loneliness (Naruto OST)
Scene 5 - Talk with Gaara: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)
Scene 6 - Leaf council-hall: Frogs Hidden Past (Chrono trigger soundtrack)
Scene 8 - Naruto's appearance: I Said I'm Naruto (Naruto OST)
Chapter 2 --
Scene 1 - What's a fiancee? : I said I'm naruto (Naruto OST)
Scene 2 - Iruka plans to drop Kakashi in it: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 3 - Lets go exploring! : Naruto's daily life (Naruto OST)
Scene 4 - Asuma discusses with Kakashi: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 5 - Poor mr. Bunny!: Nervous (Naruto OST)
Scene 6 - Iruka drops Kakashi in it redux: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 7 - The fight: Bad Situation (Naruto OST) and The Raising Fighting Spirit (Naruto OST)
Chapter 3 --
Scene 1 - Run away! : Go Go Naruto! (Naruto OST)
Scene 2 - Kakashi's search: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 3 - Lifetime of agony: Go Go Naruto! (naruto OST), Sexiness (Naruto OST), Turn Over (Naruto OST)
Scene 4 - Are you sure child?: Nervous (Naruto OST)
Scene 5 - SLAP!: Morning (Naruto OST)
Scene 6 - The pain...: Nervous (Naruto OST)
Scene 7 - dinner table discussion: Morning (Naruto OST)
Scene 8 - Letter from family: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)
A Naruto fanfiction.
Chapter 4 - Thunderstorms.
Morning. Morning had come. And with it had been bought a whole new world of pain to her body as she sat up in bed, the golden light of early morning streaming in from the spaces where her curtains didn't quite cover the window properly.
"Ugh..." Haruno Sakura started to stretch, then immediately regretted it when her back and arms decided to burn in agony. "Ooooaaawww..." She moaned, ceasing all attempts to move and instead lying limply in bed. She could feel the stinging sensation of the most crucial part of her new technique lying just under the wall of pain.
Well, actually it was more than one technique really, but at the same time it was just one technique. She knew it was something that neither Naruto, nor anyone else could copy. Heck, Sasuke and Kakashi wouldn't even be able to copy it - not even with their Sharingan!
Unless, of course, they went through the same ceremony she did. That, however, was something that would never happen because the only people who knew how to perform the ceremony were her mother and grandmother.
"Sakura?" The withered voice of her grandmother filtered through the door, "May I come in grand-daughter?"
"Y-yes..." Sakura winced, it was hard to keep the pain out of her voice. Then again, her grandmother was probably skilled enough to be able to detect even the faintest traces of pain - so it wouldn't really have mattered anyway.
There was a slow, rattling sigh from the other side of the door. With a smooth sliding sound of well oiled hinges the door to her room opened, admitting the shrunken and shrivelled form of the head of the Haruno family.
"I wish you had not made the choice to go through with the ceremony child, I worry that it may have been to hard for-" Sakura's voice cut her off, surprising the old matriarch.
"No. It... It was something I had to do." Sakura's voice was strong and filled with steel. "I can't be protected forever."
The wrinkled old woman smiled at Sakura's announcement. Whilst she was slightly annoyed at being interrupted in such a rude manner, she did believe that such disrespect was most likely caused by the pain from the previous day's ceremony.
"I am glad that you feel this way child... no, not a child any longer, for by going through the ceremony you have agreed to become an adult - albeit a rather young one." Sakura grinned slightly and tried to sit up, she didn't get far instead wincing in pain and slumping back down onto her bed. Her grandmother watched the effort and sighed once more. "Roll over ch- I mean, grand-daughter, I have some ointment that should reduce the pain."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun that awoke Sakura was the same sun that also woke the displaced Sand-nin, Temari. Her eyes were heavy, and veiled with fog as she slowly sat up in bed. If there was one thing she hated as a ninja, it was having to wake up at sunrise.
"Wh'r'm'I?" She slurred as she sat blinking the sleep away from her eyes. The room was unfamiliar, it wasn't her room at all. Slowly she began to remember the previous days events and, as she did so, she slumped over. "Oh." She murmured, "Leaf village, yes, I remember now."
She glanced around the room, taking note of the clothes still in their boxes, her fan leaning against the wall alongside her fan repairing equipment. Swinging around to sit on the edge of her bed, Temari hooked a foot around one of the boxes and dragged it into reach. She smiled a moment before pulling out one of the outfits it contained. It was similar, in many ways, to her normal outfit except this one was a dirty pink colour and had a longer jacket - one that reached past her knees.
Folding the outfit over one arm, she grabbed a towel from near the bed and wrapped it around herself. Now, all she had to do was find the bathroom. Preferably without letting Naruto know that she was going around his house almost naked. Striding over to the door to what was now her room, the blonde haired girl put her ear to the door.
Nothing. It was silent, which hopefully meant that Naruto was still asleep. Sliding open the door as quietly as she could, Temari peeked down the small hallway. Satisfied that Naruto wasn't awake - or at least wasn't around - she slipped out of her room and creeped down the short hallway at the top of the stairs.
As she went along, she nudged each door she passed open, checking the contents in her search for a bathroom. In hindsight, she should really have explored the house the day before - but that just hadn't occurred to her then.
The first door she opened led to an empty room with various dummies tied to the walls or hanging from the ceiling. She smirked as she realised that most of the dummies were dressed up to look like various people she had seen in the Chuunin exam. There was Kakashi, and the bug-guy, and the Hyuuga boy and in one corner, there was one that faintly resembled Gaara next to one that looked like the boy, what was his name? The one Gaara had been injured by in the preliminaries.
It looked like Naruto used this room for training, or something similar at least. It seemed good enough, given the limited resources the boy must have.
Temari nodded as she slid the door closed and moved onto the next one. The next door was almost opposite the one she had opened, and was the room on the opposite side of the stairs from hers. This room, really, was nothing special, just a lot of junk crammed in around an old bed. Once it had probably been a second bedroom - or a guest room. Now it appeared that Naruto used it to keep all the stuff he couldn't fit in anywhere else.
'Heh... So that's why this place looked so tidy' Temari thought, 'He probably got told to clean up and just dumped everything in here.' She smirked slightly as she shut the door to that room and moved onto the next. Upon opening it she could see that she had found the subject of her search.
It was a rather nice bathroom actually, it had everything one needed and had been decorated in a rather nice blue and green colour scheme. Granted there was the occasional missing tile on the walls, and the paint was starting to flake away in places - but that was to be expected given that Naruto probably had absolutely no idea of how to fix any of the minor problems.
Temari paused at the entrance to the bathroom and glanced around the hallway. There was, she noted, one door she hadn't tried yet. It was the door situated at the very end of the hallway, next to the bathroom in fact.
She tried to fight the urge, but in the end her curiosity won out and she slipped over to the last door.
"I wonder..." She whispered, and opened the door.
Or, at least, she tried to open it. Evidently the door was locked tight, though for what reason she knew not. This was something she would have to ask Naruto about but, for now, the bathroom - and the promise of a nice warm bath - beckoned her away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Mmm... Gonna have Raaaamen..." Murmured Naruto, still lost within sleep. "An' some ribs an' some... some..." his eyes snapped open as the faint sounds of running water reached his ears. "Hwah?"
Now, it must be noted that Naruto isn't exactly a morning person. In fact he bounces between two standard modes of awakening. Namely the 'I'm a hyper chipmunk' and the 'huh? Wha? Wake me up in 'nother five minutes' mode. Now, whilst these two awakening methods are quite standard, Naruto manages to pull them both off with a certain brilliance.
Namely, Naruto's brain doesn't actually start working until up to an hour after waking up. Before then the boy relies entirely on pure instinct.
Right now, Naruto's instinct was telling him that there was an intruder in the house. Judging by the sounds that reached his ears, the intruder was upstairs. Had his brain been working properly, Naruto's common sense would have been sending out dire warnings of what would happen should he go up there and seek out this 'intruder'. Not that it would have had much effect, as Naruto ignored his common sense all the time anyway.
Skulking and sneaking towards the stairs, the blonde-haired ninja paused. There was something he was forgetting... Something important.
Oh well, no matter. He'd remember soon enough, until then whatever it was couldn't possibly be a problem. Grinning at his instinctual logic, the foxy youth slipped up the staircase with not even a single sound of creaking steps, nor the beat of footsteps to give him away. His ears twitched slightly as he heard a splashing sound, along with a faint humming.
Since his common sense had decided that there was nothing it could do to save Naruto's hide, it whiled away the time by paying more attention to the hummed tune than the rest of Naruto did. It was a rather nice tune actually, one from a relatively common song about rain and clouds and freedom and all the other things which usually got put into songs just to make them seem complete.
Naruto's hand rested on the handle to the bathroom door, with a quiet tug he checked it and found it locked. This fact alone should have sent warning bells through Naruto. Unfortunately most of his mind had decided that Naruto deserved a good beating, if for no other reason than the fact that he had ignored all the previous warning signs.
A gently lifting motion unhooked the, rather badly fitted, latch. Naruto had always ignored the fact that it could be forced open so easily - after all, who would want to force open a bathroom door?
Other than himself of course.
He slid back the door slightly and peered into the room. Not that he could see anything, since the place was filled with steam and mist - heck, he couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face in that indoor-fogbank! The humming was louder no, off to his left and... wait. Hang on.
Several bells had gone off in Naruto's mind, which was just beginning to pull out of it's early morning post-sleep haze.
Wasn't he sharing the house with someone now?
And wasn't that someone a gir- oh. Oh my.
Temari had just stepped out of the bath, the mist in the room clearing just enough for Naruto to get something Jiraiya would kill for, the mother of all peep-shows.
Unfortunately, the mist had also cleared enough for Temari to see him too. The older girl froze, half in shock at being seen, half in anger at being seen. Her hand reached out, grabbed a towel and pulled it about her before the mist cleared enough for Naruto to see anymore of her body.
"Na..." She began, her voice a growl of rage.
"Ru..." The boy suddenly had a mental image of himself, at the foot of the stairs, dead from being beaten to a pulp by a fan-wielding maniac. The image was not a very nice one.
"TO!!! I'll kill you!" Temari's scream of anger filled the house, spilled out onto the street and was even heard by those at the local bath-house. Just outside the bath-house one perverted, white-haired man blinked and looked up from the peep-hole he had been peering though.
"Ah..." He murmured, "So the boy is more like me than I first thought."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Urgle..." Naruto groaned as he rested his head on a desk. His face was a collection of bumps, bruises and more than a few red handprints that signifies particularly powerful slaps. Beside him was Uchiha Sasuke, who looked particularly amused by his companions pain.
Well, at least it was possible that he was amused. It could have been anger, or irritation, or indigestion for all anyone could tell. Sasuke really wasn't one to show his emotions particularly well.
The two were sitting in a small classroom, awaiting the arrival of both Sakura and Kakashi. The two boys were both slightly worried over the fact that Sakura was late, Kakashi's time-keeping, however, they really couldn't care less about. Kakashi is, was, and always would be late to pretty much everything he didn't consider super-urgent, which was pretty much everything really.
Naruto perked up slightly as the classroom door opened, lifting his head form the table and peering at whoever it was that had opened the door. Sasuke, on the other hand, just glanced at the door out of the corner of his eyes.
"Urgle..." Sakura stumbled in through the door, her arms covered in bandages and, judging by the way her dress seemed slightly odd, her chest and abdomen were wrapped in the things too. The pink-haired girl staggered in and literally dumped herself down next to Naruto and lay her head upon the table.
Naruto put his head back on the table and looked at Sakura. "Sakura-chan?" he asked after a moment. "You look like hell." He stated, nodding slightly.
Sakura merely nodded. "Naruto?" She asked, pushing herself into a slightly more comfortable position. "So do you."
Sasuke snorted slightly, then turned to the other two members of his team. "So," He began, "Why are you two so beat up?"
"Training." Was Sakura's answer, "Painful training." Inside her mind, however, Inner Sakura was doing a mad little dance. 'he cares enough to ask about our well-being!' she squealed, though outside Sakura didn't give any indication that this was going on inside her head.
Sasuke grunted. Training was an acceptable reason for being bandaged up like that. On the other hand, if she had said that she'd been attacked, Sasuke would have gone to deliver the wrath of the gods unto her attacker.
Not because he liked her or anything, it was just that it was wrong to leave an injured team-mate un-avenged. Hell, he'd have done the same for Naruto...
Maybe, anyway.
If he didn't have anything better to do at least.
"So. Naruto. What happened to you?" he asked at last, keeping his expression blank. The foxy-ninja turned his head to face Sasuke and glared.
"Ran into a door." He muttered, his face flushing red as he remembered the real reason for his injuries. He'd got quite an eyeful before Temari noticed he was there - and had then beat him senseless for being a pervert. "Several times. Then I fell down the stairs."
One of Sasuke's eyebrows lifted as the dark-haired boy smirked. "Really?" he could tell Naruto was lying, and that instead of running into a door the boy had been beaten up by a girl - the slap marks were evidence enough of that. As to which girl, and why, he had no idea.
The three young ninja all glanced towards the door as it slid open with a slight scraping sound.
"Yo." Kakashi smirked under his mask, holding up one hand in greeting as he strode into the room - then he paused, blinked and looked hard at Sakura and Naruto. "What happened to you two?" he asked at last, causing the duo to groan in annoyance and pain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Temari was fuming. Really, really fuming. That PERVERT Naruto had just walked in on HER in the BATHROOM and worse yet, he seemed like he had actually done it on PURPOSE!
The ex-san-nin's fist lashed out and smashed into one of the training dummies Naruto had in his training room. This particular one she had dressed in a dirty and torn orange outfit - to resemble the current object of her anger.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid pervert!" She screamed, each yell being punctuated by the sound of her fist slamming into the dummy. Though her blows weren't as co-ordinated or as well performed as the attacks of someone like, say, Rock Lee, they were filled with her current rage.
Temari wasn't all that good at unarmed Taijutsu. Well, she was, she could easily take out any non-ninja without breaking a sweat. Unfortunately, anyone with sufficient unarmed combat could beat her - and this included pretty much any other ninja.
Now, when she had her fan however, the scales tipped in her favour. As far as she knew, she was one of the only three sand-nin who had ever wished to learn the unusual fan-based fighting style. Even then, she hadn't been quite as good as her peers - but she had the advantage of being related to Gaara. That was, quite possibly, the only reason she had been picked to enter the chuunin exam - to keep Gaara under control.
And she'd failed.
So they sent her here, used her as the sacrificial pawn in a giant game of politics and intrigue. After all, she hadn't been sent here because she was skilled, or because she had any good jutsus to give to the leaf village... no. She'd been sent here because she had been expendable.
An inter-village marriage really had very little to do with the two people getting married really. The real point behind it was that the village in the weaker position was sending someone and, effectively, saying 'This person has knowledge of some of our jutsu and chakra types, we'll give them to you via him or her if you agree, aid or forgive us'
A faint sound of distant thunder echoed in Temari's ears as she fell to her knees, slowly believing herself to be as useless and expendable as her village had believed her to be when they had sent her here.
A single tear crept down her face and splashed upon the dusty floor. As she cried the weather outside began to echo her feelings as rain began to fall down upon Leaf village.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The rain also fell down upon the building in which team seven were currently situated, casting a dull gloom over the classroom. Staring outside ate the rain, Kakashi sighed in slight irritation. Fortunately there were no plans for any missions today, or else they would have been in a right mess - what with Sakura obviously in almost constant pain and Naruto, evidently, beaten senseless.
"Well," He murmured, "Since we have nothing better to do I may as well..." Smiling to himself the copy-ninja looked at his students and smiled wider.
Or, at least, his mask was in a certain pattern of stretches and creases which his team had, eventually, learnt to recognise as a smile. The creases moved over the fabric of the mask as Kakashi's mouth moved up and down with his voice, many times the three young ninja had tried to remove the mask, however, they had failed each and every time.
"Since you're in no shape to train - well, except for Sasuke - I have an important announcement for you all." He nodded, smirking slightly as Naruto pushed himself into a sitting position. This, thought the grey-haired man, would be amusing. "Teams even, eight and ten will be changed slightly - from three-man teams, to four-man teams. This is mostly in response to..." He paused, there was no easy way to say this as all the instructors and students had been deeply affected by the source of this problem. "... in response to the removal of Rock Lee from ninja service."
Both Sakura and Naruto winced slightly, each of them remembering in perfect detail the look on Lee's face when the news had been broken to him. Sakura, especially, was upset by the statement - as she had also seen how Lee had tried to continue, even after being told he would never be able to be a ninja due to his injuries.
Kakashi waited for Naruto and Sakura to calm themselves a little before continuing. "The remainder of team nine is to be split up, with Tenten joining team eight and Neji joining team ten. We, your instructors, agreed that this was the best way to push forwards with the chuunin-level training you will all now be going through until you decide on the path you wish to take."
The path, quite simply, referred to the fact that some ninja would branch away from standard duties and take up more specialised roles - such as medical-nin, teacher or even something as rare as shrine-nin which, basically, were ninja highly skilled in sealing-type jutsus. Although the most common path for a chuunin to take was the one that eventually led up to the point of becoming a jounin - unless, of course, the chuunin died before they got that far...
Hesitantly, her face twisting at the pain, Sakura raised her hand and spoke up. "Kakashi-sensei? If both members of team nine are joining other teams then... who'll be joining ours?"
Kakashi could have laughed, it was so amusing to watch Naruto's battered face pass through expressions of agreement, confusion, thought, realisation and then shock before finally reaching a look that was usually seen on stunned bunnies - shortly before they became dinner for a larger animal. "You'll meet them soon enough." Stated Kakashi, his one visible eye in a little arch of amusement. "Just as soon as we walk to, and reach, Naruto's house."
Naruto's face changed from the stunned bunny look to one of pure horror. Not that Sakura and Sasuke noticed, they were both too busy trying to think of who could possibly be at Naruto's house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Temari sniffed and wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve. Ninja, especially sand-nin, were not supposed to cry.
"But..." She whispered, "I'm not of the Sand anymore, am I?" That point bought forth a new wave of tears which she just barely managed to hold off. Reaching up she patted the bare space at her neck, the space in which - until a few days ago - a head-protector marked with an hourglass had sat.
Pulling herself to her feet, Temari walked over to the window - her feet scraping trails on the dusty floor. The window was, like most windows, merely a hole in the wall which could be covered with shutters - in this particular instance the shutters were made of wood, though glass shutters were not quite common on some of the more important buildings.
There was only one shutter on this window, possibly because the other was damaged and, to be honest, Naruto probably couldn't afford to have it repaired or replaced. Not that it mattered, there was enough of an overhang above the window to prevent the rain coming in - unless the wind was blowing the right way of course.
Temari stared out at the dark clouds above and listened as a boom of thunder and a bolt of lightning split the heavens. She fancied that she could see the gods of the sky, beating their drums to make thunder, and stamping their feet upon the tops of the clouds to force the lightning through the bottoms.
Yes... Baki had told her that little myth, that thunder and lightning were just the gods of the sky having a party. Apparently, when he had been younger Temari's mother had told him the tale herself.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A young Temari huddled under her bed as thunder filled the air and rain, a rarity in the desert, came smashing down to cause flash-floods in many places just outside the village. The room suddenly lit up with a ghostly glow as a bolt of lightning speared down from the heavens - illuminating everything, including herself.
"Temari?" Baki had been younger then too, a young adult in his early twenties, the man picked to look after Temari and Kankuro - the duty of looking after Gaara fell to the brother of his mother, Yashamaru. It was a little known fact that Gaara was, in fact, only half-brother to Temari and Kankuro - their real mother having died on a mission not long after Kankuro had his first birthday. Gaara's mother had just been a tool, used by the Kazekage to create the demon-child of the Sand. Either way, the Kazekage hardly cared about his children anymore - all he seemed to care about nowadays was the decline of the Sand village and the advice of his latest advisor, Oro-something.
"B-Baki-san?" Temari's voice was frail and trembling, hardly surprising since the girl was only about four-and-a-half years old, only a year and a half until she started at the ninja academy. "I-is that y-you?" She asked, fearful of what the response might be - her young mind already filled with the mental pictures of the horrible monsters that made the loud booming she heard and the bright light she saw, along with all the water falling from the sky.
This was, after all, the first time she'd ever experienced rain - whilst she was old enough to know what was going on at least.
"Yes Temari," Baki's voice was soft and kind - a far cry from the much harsher and colder voice he would have almost twelve years from now. "It's me."
Baki stepped into the room, and almost instantly found himself almost tripping over a terrified Temari, who had glomped onto his leg at the first chance she got. The little blonde-haired girl wailed in fear as another booming crash rattled the window shutter - followed quickly by another ghostly illumination as lightning filled the sky.
"Ohhhh..." Baki nodded to himself in understanding, "Scared of the storm are we?" He asked, looking down to see Temari look up at him, confusion on her face.
"Staw-em?" She asked, her childish voice mangling the word and causing Baki to smile slightly at her attempt.
"That's right," He whispered, sitting down on a chair and letting Temari clamber up into his lap. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to have a family of his own, then he'd just shrug and ignore the matter. After all, as far as he was concerned Temari and Kankuro were his children - at least, he was the only one who looked after them. "And that noise is thunder, and the light is called lightning."
Temari blinked. "Dunder and Wighting?" She hazarded, causing Baki to smile at her little mispronunciations. "What're they?" Came the question Baki had expected, just as another peal of thunder caused Temari to cling to his chest and try to hide herself.
He grinned slightly and patted Temari on the head. For a moment he wondered why it was always Temari who was the bother, Kankuro hardly complained about anything - instead he spent his time messing around with little wooden soldiers and slightly battered puppet-like toys.
"Thunder and Lightning..." he began, "Are the sounds of the clouds having fun."
That answer obviously confused Temari, as she glanced out of the partially open window at the large black blobs hanging in the sky. "Cwouds have fun?" She whispered, half to herself and half to Baki.
"Yes," Replied the older man, as he picked her up and carried her to the window. "Up there," He said, pointing, "The gods of the sky bang their drums and party, That's what makes the thunder - the sounds of their drums. And when lightning comes down, it means that the dancing sky-gods are stomping the floor and having fun."
"Oooooohhhh..." Temari stared up at the sky in awe and Baki was pleased to see that she hardly winced when the next booming wave of thunder swept over them both. "The sky-god bang-ed his drum!" Squealed Temari, her eyes filled with wonder.
"That he did Temari, That he did." Baki looked up at the sky, an almost dreamy expression on his face. "That's why your mother always said that thunderstorms are happy, because when there's thunder there's a party."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Temari stared out the window of Naruto's training room. Cautiously she reached out with her palm facing up, to catch some of the raindrops on her palm.
"I may not be part of the Sand anymore, and maybe most of the people in this village hate me... but..." She closed her eyes and smiled slightly, "Naruto was nice to me, even if he is a sneaking little pervert."
The blonde-haired girl pulled her hand back, reached up and gently tugged at the bands which kept her four ponytails in order. With their support gone, her hair fell downwards, leaving it as a golden wave that reached to the base of her neck.
Taking a deep breath she looked out the window and stared up at the clouds.
"Temari of the Sand... is, for now, no more." She stated, "Soon I may be Temari of the Sand again, or I may instead become Temari of the Leaf." Closing her eyes Temari flung the hair-bands out of the window, letting the flimsy things be carried away in the wind and pounded down by the rain.
"Either way, I promise that the next time you clouds are feeling this way, I'll be feeling the same... after all..." She smiled slightly and raised her voice, shouting her promise to the clouds above.
"I want to be happy like the thunderstorms are too!"
Chapter 4 - Ended.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authors notes:
Ack x.x I apologise for the lateness of this chapter ^.^;; but things seem to have conspired to stop me from getting it done x.x first I lost my original copy and had to re-write it all, then one of my kitties died ;.; and I just couldn't write anything for a while.
But here it is now! In a slightly larger than normal chapter that is full of some scenes that should make it worth the wait ^-^ I hope o.o;;
A big thankyou to aaaall those who review my ficcie, and another big thankyou to those people who pre-read =P
Well, I noticed that someone commented on my theory that henge no jutsu can't touch something... now, I'll say this only once. I didn't make a mistake ^.~ you only heard half the theory - the other half will be explained when it seems appropriate.
Until the next chapter, let the Thunderstorms be happy ^.~
I can't help but think that the last scene was more inspired by One Piece than Naruto x.x Since it's a ver OP-ish thing for someone to do ^^;;; Either way, I like it.
Now remember peoples - nothing was ever said about Temari + Kankuro's parents and I thought it strange that (as Yashamaru said to Gaara) that Gaara's mother hated and cursed the sand. Which bought up the question of 'if she hated the sand, did she really have two prior children there?' it seemed kinda doubtful, so I wrote in my theory on it.
Oh yeah, one more thing... Anyone got any suggestions as to Temari + Kankuro's family name? As the family names of the three sand-nin are never mentioned . if they even have family names that is o.O;; Yeah, anyway, slap your thoughts on that up if you review this chapter ^.^
Lackey H, Thinking of Temari in the rain.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Special bonus!!
List of musics which I reckon should be background tunes for the various scenes in the first three chapters. (or at least, they were the tunes I listened to when I wrote those scenes ^.^; ) Most of these tunes come from the Naruto OST x.x which I was listening to almost religiously after I first got my hands on it ^^;;
Chapter 1 --
Scene 1 - Inside the Sand council-hall: Evening (Naruto OST)
Scene 2 - Sand village Bathouse: Evening (Naruto OST)
Scene 3 - Packing in Temari's room: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)
Scene 4 - Leaving Sand village: Loneliness (Naruto OST)
Scene 5 - Talk with Gaara: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)
Scene 6 - Leaf council-hall: Frogs Hidden Past (Chrono trigger soundtrack)
Scene 8 - Naruto's appearance: I Said I'm Naruto (Naruto OST)
Chapter 2 --
Scene 1 - What's a fiancee? : I said I'm naruto (Naruto OST)
Scene 2 - Iruka plans to drop Kakashi in it: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 3 - Lets go exploring! : Naruto's daily life (Naruto OST)
Scene 4 - Asuma discusses with Kakashi: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 5 - Poor mr. Bunny!: Nervous (Naruto OST)
Scene 6 - Iruka drops Kakashi in it redux: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 7 - The fight: Bad Situation (Naruto OST) and The Raising Fighting Spirit (Naruto OST)
Chapter 3 --
Scene 1 - Run away! : Go Go Naruto! (Naruto OST)
Scene 2 - Kakashi's search: Kakashi's theme (Naruto OST)
Scene 3 - Lifetime of agony: Go Go Naruto! (naruto OST), Sexiness (Naruto OST), Turn Over (Naruto OST)
Scene 4 - Are you sure child?: Nervous (Naruto OST)
Scene 5 - SLAP!: Morning (Naruto OST)
Scene 6 - The pain...: Nervous (Naruto OST)
Scene 7 - dinner table discussion: Morning (Naruto OST)
Scene 8 - Letter from family: Sadness and Sorrow (Naruto OST)