64
Troublesome Woman
That was their last night in Suna, tomorrow they were going to travel back home. He didn't know when he would be able to come here again. He hoped it would be soon enough since she won't be able to travel for some time. She would need some time to regain her basic strength and agility, to become again one of the most fierce protectors of Sunakagure village.
And there was no other place he wanted to be this evening. So Shikamaru stepped into the hospital room, closing the door behind him. She was sleeping right now, for his advantage. He wasn't sure how exactly he would face her right now. There was a high chance he wouldn't endure talking with her and burst into tears instead. She still would call him "crybaby" sometimes so he wouldn't want to be seen crying by her like… ever again.
He sat on the chair near her bed. He still couldn't get used to the way she looked right now, it was hard to perceive her like that. The man was sitting silently for a good few minutes when he reached and hesitantly took her hand. He had never let himself even try to take her hand until now. And even if he had tried, he would have gotten a hard slap most probably… But now he allowed himself to actually look at her palm, her wrist, her fingers… He caressed each of her fingers, trying to savour the sensation.
"You, troublesome woman…" He said quietly. "Look at you. Now you will be beaten even by Moegi…" He smiled slightly. "I don't know if you remember her. She has red hair, two juted tails and ever reddened cheeks. When you were leaving Konoha two years ago, she told you she wanted to become just like you." He paused as he was wondering if he should continue… "But I don't think this would be possible…"
Shikamaru was silent for some time again. He stuck his free hand in his pocket, taking out the little blue pouch.
"It is not possible, Temari, because you are unique," he smirked. "Yes, you are a unique woman that is capable of giving me unique headaches..."
He put the little bag in her hand and closed her fingers around it.
"I do hate headaches, you know…" Shikamaru carefully rested her hand next to her body. "And I hate troublesome women, but you know that too. I have told it to you not once…" He was silent for just a few moments. "And even so, I think…" he didn't finish the sentence, taking a broken breath instead.
The young man leaned down to her face, lowering his voice even more:
"That's why I…" and he whispered something in her ear. Then he got up with a serious face. "It's a complication, but it's a fact."
Shikamaru tucked his hands in his pockets. He looked at her for a minute more, then he left the room…
…
"Come in." The Kazekage's monotonous voice sounded and Tenten entered his office.
"Tenten?" he raised his eyes, surprised.
"Gaara…" she started, "I want to say Kazekage-sama…" she corrected herself.
The red-haired man stopped his work and leaned back in his chair, expectantly expression on his face.
"What can I do for you?" he asked calmly, relaxing his hands into his lap.
"I… was wondering… I would like permission to train in the Village's territory and the training grounds." She said as calmly as she possibly could.
"That can be arranged," he nodded thoughtfully.
"Will it be possible to get assigned to a team and join some missions?" she asked, carefully picking her words.
He didn't say a thing, he was just looking at her with caution. For a spare moment she thought he didn't hear her and was about to repeat, but he raised a hand, causing her to stay silent.
"You can train, of course, I will give you a written permission about that," he nodded. "And about the team… The case with the teams right now is a bit complicated. But I will arrange for you to have training sessions with teams, including jounins, so you can keep on in good shape."
She smiled, radiating pure relief.
"Unfortunately I can't promise you to take part in missions. What I can promise is to look at this request again when I have feedback from the trainers you would have training sessions with."
Tenten nodded. The Kazekage sounded incredibly reasonable, almost fearful. Of course he had to know more about her abilities before risking sending her on missions.
"Just have in mind that my goal is to keep you alive and well since my agreement with your Hokage is to return you intact to Konoha."
"I understand," the girl smiled slightly. "But if I don't keep my good shape, I will be useless when I go home."
Gaara nodded slowly, understandingly.
"You can go to your room. I will send off someone there within an hour." The Kazekage took his pen and burrowed his nose in his reports again. "Oh, and Tenten…" he called her when she was almost out of the office.
"Yes, Gaara-sama?"
"How do you cope with training children?" he smiled apologetically. "We are recently short of teachers…"
"I guess I could handle training children…"
"It is about 8-9 years old children, who are in need of really basic physical lead-up. Would you feel ok with taking some classes in the school?" He raised his eyebrows. "I would be really grateful. Temari probably would be grateful too - she was the one taking those classes before she got hurt."
Tenten nodded. She thought if Temari could handle a bunch of kids, she would probably be able to handle them as well.
"You are free to go," he said, smiling slightly.
The girl left his office and headed to her room. She had serious reservations about leading classes, but she tended to try in the name of being busy with something all the time.
…
Tenten was sitting on the floor, cleaning her weapons when a knock on the door appeared. Not more than 30 minutes had passed since her conversation with Gaara.
"Yes?"
In the room entered a girl, around 13-14 years old, worry written all over her face.
"Good day, Tenten-sama," she said.
"Good day to you too." Tenten turned to her, smiling sweetly. "First, lose the "sama" and second - what can I do for you?"
"I am Matsuri. Gaara-sama sent me to bring you some notes."
"Oh, that's wonderful!" she exclaimed and got up on her feet. "Bring them in."
The girl came in, carrying quite an impressive pile of papers, causing Tenten's eyes to widen.
"Where should I put them?"
Tenten looked around and pointed a dresser to the right:
"Try over there."
Matsuri went to the pointed location and set the pile carefully down.
"So… What would all of that be?" Tenten asked.
"Oh, here you can find the training schedules for the training sessions you can join in, the school programs for the children classes and the materials for the chuunin's exams." She gave it a thought like she was checking an invisible list in her head. "That should be all."
"All riiight… It will take some time to go through all of that…"
"There are a lot of paintings in the class materials. And there are a lot of schemes in Temari-sama's notes. There are a lot of things I don't understand, to be honest. But when she wakes up, I am sure she will help.
Tenten sighed almost desperately. She started to divide the papers in 3 other piles, according to the content.
"When do I have to start with the classes in the school?"
"Next week. You have a few days to look up the plans for the first week." The girl explained.
"All right. And what about the chuunin's exams? Should I talk with Shikamaru about that?"
"I guess… What I know is Temari-sama was working on the organisation with him. I only know she was the one travelling the most. Now he will have to travel due to the situation…"
Tenten looked at her and shrugged.
"I am going to deal with him somehow."
"And about the training…" Matsuri started. "There is an evening training session for team 11. Their trainer doesn't mind including you today. They are going to be on training ground 3. The north gate leads right there."
"That's good news." Tenten nodded with a wide smile. "It is about time to start moving properly."
Matsuri was looking at her with her eyes wide open and unhidden admiration.
…
Gai-sensei and Lee were crying rivers when saying their goodbyes to Tenten. Nothing meaningful could be caught in their talkings. But it was understandable since they didn't know she was coming back. Neji on the other hand was silent as usual as if yesterday nothing had happened.
"I am going to miss you so freaking much!" cried Lee and threw himself at her for a hug. She let him do it, because she also was going to miss him really much. She hugged him back and patted his back, soothingly.
"It is all right, we will be seeing each other again," she said.
"But you're married now" Gai-sensei had returned his ability to talk understandably. "There may be some periods you shouldn't travel."
"And why would there be such periods?" She was genuinely surprised.
"Because it is possible you…" Her teacher was uneasy to explain himself.
"He meant if you get pregnant." Tsunade finished this off to put an end to it, a serious expression on her face.
Tenten blushed but held her tongue from saying something like "This is not going to happen."
"Well, let's say I don't have that for a goal right now." She said shyly and smiled.
She glanced at Neji, who didn't seem to react at that at all. She couldn't help but wonder if he knew she hadn't slept with a man yet. Or he had accepted she had slept with a man and he wanted her anyway. She couldn't really get an answer to that, especially now.
Shikamaru looked obviously bored by the whole scene, but this was highly typical for him. He had his hands in his pockets, relaxed as ever:
"Well, Tenten, we will see each other again soon." He smiled slightly and nodded at her.
"Yeah, definitely." She nodded back.
Then a full chaos was launched with questions why would he see Tenten. One little vein started to pulsate on Tsunade's forehead and she almost lost it.
"Because he organises the chuunin's exams and he will be travelling here more often now, to prepare Temari's substitute - Tenten!" She shouted, causing the others to shut up. Her clenched firsts forced the rest to keep quiet for some time.
But then she stepped in and hugged Tenten almost motherly.
"I am sure you can handle it." She whispered and patted her back. "Just trust in yourself. Your judgement is fine, you can trust it."
Tenten nodded in her hug, unable to say anything because she would have burst in tears if she opened her mouth. Godaime let her out of her arms and smiled to her warmly, then she turned with pissed off facial expressions to the men:
"Come on, last hugs and off we go!"
Lee hugged her again and squeezed her so tight, she felt as if her eyes would pop out. When he let her go, she went right in the arms of her sensei - he held her tenderly and stroked her hair like he did when she was 12.
"I am sorry Tenten, but I am going to pass." Shikamary said lazily and shrugged, adding "Not the hugging type…"
What surprised the bigger part of the group was that Neji also came ahead to hug her. When he did, he pressed her as she was something really dear to him, placing his cheek gently on the top of her head. He closed his eyes for just a second.
Tenten was the one of the surprised ones - he didn't hug her yesterday when he kind of poured out his feelings on her. Now he did… She was left stiff. She couldn't help but compare his hug with the one she got sometime earlier from Kankuro before he left on mission. The comparison was completely unconscious and she couldn't stop her thoughts… The first difference was in the scent - they both smelled good - different, but good. The second one came with the sensation of their bodies - Neji was thinner while Kankuro was a bit more strapping and his chest felt more muscular as well as his arms. Though the muscle mass quantity rarely had something in common with eventual win when a shinobi was fighting. And last was the sensation the hug itself gave her - Neji's hug felt as if had a goal to comfort him… Kankuro's hug felt as if it had a goal to comfort her…
When the sun rose, the Konoha group left. In just a few minutes Tenten was standing near the gates, looking at the rapidly fading silhouettes - five, two less than they came to Sunakagure a week ago…
She stood up there, mechanically massaging her arms, which hurt from yesterday's training. The team she went to train with had relatively unfamiliar abilities to her. The training session was good. A muscle pain was awaiting her in the near future.
Tenten turned to Matsuri and smiled:
"Well, I am all yours now…"
The girl nodded with a serious facial expression.
…
"Kankuro-sama, we are almost home." One of his teammates said.
He raised his eyes, narrowing them to see in the distance. Naturally, Suna was visible already. He smiled. He always had no patience to go home after a successful mission, but now his desire to step in the village was stronger than ever. The first thing he was going to do was to show Tenten he hadn't loosened any of his appendages, especially his head, still standing firmly on the top of his neck. He laughed out loud, causing his men to look at him in bewilderment. Well, he acquired a new wound, which will turn into an ugly scar eventually. But he was alive and well…
"Come on… Let's go home," he said, taking the man he supported more comfortably.
"Yes." One of his teammates replied and they headed down the hill to Suna…
