The suspense!

Enjoy

Temari kept her eyes on his face her body still and her hand pressed firmly on the wound. She didn't know why she did it, why her body moved on its own to help him, her enemy. He saved her after all, covered her from the blast. That's why he was avoiding this route from the start, this was an ambush set up for the Earth. When he pulled her away her legs moved with him, she could have stopped, she could have just as easily killed him right then and there, his blade could have killed her. She could have killed him when the blasts ended, or now while she held the cloth to his head. Hell, she could have saved her own damn self, without his help.

Her body stiffened when she thought of the arm wrapped around her waist and how he shielded her body against his. His steady gaze unflinching as he stared at her, dark eyes analyzing her, she felt the slightest unease to shrink down suddenly feeling exposed, how strange. He didn't look twelve anymore, he was older more handsome his eyes darkened by the years of war, the fight against her. Her breath stilled the moment he looked at her and she didn't like it one bit. Her lips turned up at the unusual heat rising to her cheeks and she snarled.

"Why did you do that?" She demanded leaning closer yet kept her touch soft on the wound. He shrugged unfazed eyes shutting in her rise in volume, his response not answering her well enough "I asked you a question, why did you do that?" This time the demand got through to him and he glared up at her clearly annoyed.

"Do you always have to yell?" Temari pulled back her face faltering for a moment, his eyelids lowered, and he looked bored out of his mind "Why do you care anyways?" She narrowed her eyes her nose scrunching at his arrogant tone. He pulled back when she leaned in shoving her free hand to his collar and grabbing the shirt to keep him still.

"Why did you cover me like that? Why didn't you just leave me out there" She had more patience than she wanted to and when he finally sighed rolling his eyes in defeat, she pulled away slightly when he looked up at her through narrowed eyes.

"How honorable would it be if a man left a woman in danger? Sure, I could have just ran off on my own, but that would be a pretty low thing to do" He smirked when she stiffened "Even for me" Temari's fingers loosened on his shirt and slowly she pulled her arm back. She ignored the sting in her eyes from the smoke of the cigarette resting at the edge of his turned lips, arrogantly raised at her silence, and turned her eyes away finding anything else to look at, the blush rose to her cheeks again and she refused to give him permission to see it. She glanced up at the darkening smoke in the sky and began to compose herself "Why are you helping me, Temari?" She almost jumped at the sudden question, his voice was soft and gentle, yet curious nothing about it sounded threatening. She didn't know the answer and it irritated her, causing her anger to rise again she glared back, but he only matched her look. For once she was at a loss for words.

"Temari!" Their eyes widened in unison, and they turned to pinpoint the sound behind them. Temari could hear the distant call coming from Kankuro and although relieved she felt a tinge of panic as she looked back at the wound she was holding, then Shikamaru who's face hardened into that of shock mixed with annoyance. She hesitated to formulate her plan quick as her name was called again. Reaching down she grabbed his free hand gripping tightly and placing it to the cloth ignoring his wince at the change in pressure. He stared up at her as she stood, her eyes leaving his as she turned grabbing her folded fan that fell from her hands earlier and slipping it behind her, quick in her moments and her escape. Shikamaru watched silently as she stopped and tilted her head towards him back turned and peeked over at him with an unreadable expression in her eyes.

"Consider this my thank you" She muttered and stepped past the brush towards the road just in time to hear her brother and a unit of three spot her leaving.

"Temari, damn it I thought you got hit" his voice betrayed his worry and he paused when she raised her hand silencing him.

"Do you honestly believe I'd get caught up in an ambush?" Her voice was stern and held authority, once again the woman that commanded an army, not the one who was just sheltered in the embrace of her enemy. Her brother relaxed shook his head and a laugh rang from his painted lips.

"Guess not sis, how did you manage to get away from the blast anyways? That thing rang all the way to the camp" He looked down the road to the collapsed canyon.

"I took cover, idiot" She snapped, clearly irritated, lifting her head and scoffing, he sighed with a groan.

"Why are you mad at me again" He muttered but she ignored him eyes taking in the damage before her.

"Come on, we have to get out of here before the Leaf shows up" She had already began leading the group away, slipping her cover over her nose to hide the sudden unease from what had occurred.

Shikamaru pressed his back tightly against the tree his mind making way to why he had grabbed her wrist and covered her, why he sat back and let her demand her answers. He couldn't help the awkwardness rising over the whole situation then an ease, now he wondered why she had walked away taking her troops with her without giving him up. That was her thank you, sparing his life, he tilted his head back and smirked, well what do you know all women had a soft spot it seemed. He sighed glancing at the bloodied cloth she had torn off for him before pushing off the tree to stand and grumbling at the faint spots in his vison when he straightened. Damn blast got him good. He took a moment to focus before finding his sense of direction and heading for the meeting point.

Choji glanced between Neji and Kiba, Akamaru by his side, as the two spoke in haste, he was nervous as he looked around again the ambush went perfect, however their captain was missing, had been for nearly half an hour. Sai was already in the air searching the rubble before him, while Kakashi searched below with Naruto on his tail.

"I told you already I can't smell him, it's like he went missing the moment the damn things exploded" He grumbled at Neji who was already focusing his gaze from the rubble to the woods around him.

"It went off to early" he spoke more to himself then Kiba who sniffed the air once again.

"Why can't we just split up" Choji suggested turning back to Sai as he slid down his mount, the majestic bird shuddering and becoming ink on the dusty rocks below. He nodded to the three.

"He's close, I spotted him just down the cliff" As if summoned Shikamaru caught himself in a crouch wincing as his headache lingered with throb.

"Shikamaru" Choji rushed over helping him stand straight. With a sigh the captain let out a groan.

"Might have miscalculated my distance from the blast" he muttered pushing from his friend with a grateful nod. "Did it go well?"

"If you mean, are they dead then yes" Kiba grinned with his canine companion barking in response. Shikamaru only nodded to him and turned to Naruto and Kakashi as they made their way up from the ravine.

"That looks like it hurts" Kakashi leaned in poking his head resulting in a grunt, holding back the sudden pressure in his head, from him and a lazy wave to push him away.

"Don't touch it" he muttered and huffed peering down the cliff at the collapsed canyon. "We'll report as soon as we get back" He glanced over the cliffs to where the trees ended, and the sand began.

The seven made their way back towards their outpost near the border having completed the task at hand. By high noon they had arrived and settled down. Although Shikamaru preferred to report back himself, Kakashi had taken over as captain and left with the news at hand back to Konoha, a nearly two-day journey from where they were. Now he sat quietly arms crossed and Sakura glaring down at him as she pressed her hands over the wound pulling the sandy bandage off to observe the damage.

"Of all the people to heal, you're the one to get hurt" she shook her head in disappointment "how can you say you couldn't get to cover fast enough, what did you take a nap along the way?" He dropped his head grinning weakly when she laughed. "It'll be a day or so but a very minor scar" she tucked the bandage back in and turning to the table beside her rummaging through the instruments.

"Plan worked so I can't complain" He muttered wincing when she pulled the strip off and began to wipe at the blood with a clean cloth. He stared a moment to the bloodied fabric beside her and blinked away the widened teal gaze that flashed in his mind.

"Well at least we stalled them for a while, Sai said he spotted some Sand ninja running from the blast before they found you. Good thing they didn't find you like this huh?" He only nodded not interested in explaining what had occurred.

Several days had passed since their ambush had successfully occurred. Furious the Tschuikage had supplied more troops near the border and in return Tsunade did the same. The tense scent of war in the air hovered over the Land of Fire as three sets of eyes stared into the border of the land of Earth, under the cover of dusk. Ino slumped into the gentle embrace of Sai as he stared down watching a few shinobi pace the cliff side across from them. Shikamaru crouched beside the two eyes following the path of the captain below talking between two of his guards then glancing to the hovering bat as it flew the border hovering in places before Ino's haunting blue eyes flashed open Sai quietly lifting her to sit straight. Shikamaru waited expectantly as the bat scurried away.

"The army is huge at least four times as big as what we have. They are planning a split unit towards us, I saw the captains tent hidden just behind that cliff, they have a cave system set up and it's pretty stocked up too, I'm guessing supplies inside" She reported turning from her friend to the captain below as he left back down the cliff side towards their camp. "The cave had a pretty simple layout, three exits, but the shinobi are just down the side in a tented camp that's all I could see before I started following the captain. Heard him saying something about Kurostuchi coming to the camp tonight" Shikamaru gave her a small grin betraying his rising worry.

"Planning a large-scale attack on us huh?" Ino chuckled leaning her head on Sai as she spoke.

"Well, us and the Sand, heard about two shinobi found dead on their border couple of days ago" She sighed "Means Temari and Kankuro have made it to front lines, and their army has captains to lead the attack"

"How troublesome" He muttered eyes narrowing silently, zoning out for a moment to the taunting eyes the surprisingly soft hair he had nestled in, while protecting her. Mentally he slapped the thought away finding it's been happening to frequently. With a sly grin Ino turned to him unaware of his thoughts.

"So, what's the plan captain?"

"We wait" He pushed off his knees standing and finally pulling his focus away leading them back. He was quick to brush off the questions of the awaiting crowd and muttered something about needing time to think.

He did need it, just a moment alone to stare down at the shogi board his father had left behind before he departed a few days back, he said he'd need it before he left. Seated quietly his hand stroked his chin freezing a moment his other hand made a move the clink of wood hitting wood the only noise inside the tent then returned while he looked on again. One wrong move and he'd be losing to many people. Sacrifices were inevitable, but he didn't want to do anything to rash they were outnumbered after all. He momentarily thought of sneaking into their camp stealing the plans and using that to counter. A quick brush of the Sand also being a target crossed his mind. He could just direct them towards their border, but that could result in an unwanted scuffle with his troops and the Sand army. He wished for a moment of just some magic luck coming into play and not having to battle at all.

The war was always too costly, to tiring, and just all around a drag. Yet no one stepped in first to ask for alliances, each land to proud than the next to offer a hand in truce. To give up was to lose. His lip pulled up and he smirked, he'd given up before. The limits he had back then still lived on with him and he knew when he'd been beat, thought it rarely happened during his battles over the years. He was the Leaf's main strategist after all, raising his hand he slid a pawn forward pausing a moment and dropped his hand from his chin as he glared down, then smirked.

Time to play the games of war.