72

Thank You

Gaara was sitting calmly near Temari's bed, reading her out loud one of the reports, as he was doing every single day. When he was done, he raised his pale-green eyes and looked at her. He sighed quietly. She was supposed to start coming into consciousness literally every minute now. Or maybe in a few more days. He really wanted to talk with her like he used to do before. He missed talking with her - she was smart, often treating serious topics with humour while being always sharp for the detail.

One of the nurses came in and started picking the dried flowers to replace them with new ones. Gaara's sight fixed something weird in his sister's hand.

"What's this?" He asked, pointing at the "thing".

"I don't know, Kazekage-sama." She said, leaning over to see what he was pointing at. She shrugged.

The man reached and carefully pulled out the little blue pouch. He looked at it curiously from all sides. Then attempted to open it, but seemed like he changed his mind, tightening the threads again.

"I am going to take this with me. Temari will get it when she wakes up."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama."

"You can forget about it."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama."

"Good, good. And notify me the moment she wakes."

"Of course, Kazekage-sama."

"Very well." He nodded and stuck the little pouch in his pocket. "Have a good day." He wished politely and left the room slowly.

Tenten collapsed near one tree trunk on the school yard just after she sent off the last kid. Those little monsters have really left her totally exhausted. She was handling them, all right, but it cost her a lot of effort and focus to keep them busy so they don't go over her head. In the days she got classes in the school she couldn't bring herself to go training.

"I do admit that you were right." She sighed and turned her head to the black-clad figure, leaning on the same tree trunk.

The man chuckled softly and looked back at her.

"It is probably hard to admit you were wrong."

"I have not said such a thing." She shook her head. "I just said you were right."

He stretched out his hand to pull her on her feet.

"Are you training today?"

She shook her head again and let him pull her up.

"Not today. I need to meet up with Shikamaru and go through some arrangements about the exams." She turned to him to look at his face.

"I have a light training session in the afternoon until dinner." He said, staring at something in the distance. "We could go for a walk later on if you are done at the time?"

"We could," she nodded. "How is your wound behaving?"

"It has been behaving better recently, but if I must be honest, I will need a good 2 weeks more to be able to do normal training."

There was a familiar silhouette in the distance - it was Matsuri, who was running as she usually did. She waved a greeting to Tenten.

"Tenten-sama, Shikamaru-sama has arrived!" she shouted.

"Eh, well, it is time for me to go, I guess." She said and smiled. "See you later?"

"See you later." He returned her smile.

Tenten went over to Matsuri and started to talk about something the girl was obviously hypnotised by.

Kankuro leaned to the tree again and looked after the two girls. No, after the girl and the woman, as he corrected himself innerly. He felt a real and constantly increasing pull towards her since he came back home wounded. The truth was no woman has been so caring to him until now. It was new and thrilling… Also no woman has treated him exactly like a comrade, equal…

The ordinary women didn't want his friendship and shinobi stories, they simply wanted sex. He was aware his body was in very good shape and was desired, due to which he had some serious experience behind him. Which eventually had led him to be even more wanted. But Tenten wasn't an ordinary woman, she was a shinobi - most of, if not all, of her male acquaintances were shinobis and they all had nice, shaped bodies. This was not something she would be impressed by.

What he craved so much was a woman he was able to talk about the biggest part of his life - missions, training sessions, weapons. She really was a weapon expert… Tenten has given him an idea for a new weapon to use in one of his puppets, for a really nasty, almost undodgeable hit. He was still working on that one…

His stomach was clenching in a ball every time he was stopping himself from touching her, kissing her. But he knew that was the right path to discover his true feelings, unblinded by passion. The question was if she was able to eventually return his feelings. He would get the answer to this question bit by bit… He didn't have anywhere to rush for…

"Gaara?" Whispered Temari, actually seeing her brother hovering over her bed.

"It was about time!" She heard Kankuro's voice from her other side and in just a moment his face also showed in her field of view. "Such a sleep!" He whistled. "You can make one envy you, all right." He was widely smiling before her hazy sight.

"Boys… How long have I been sleeping?" She made an unsuccessful try to sit.

"About two months straight." Said Gaaara seriously.

Her eyes widened…

"Is that some kind of twisted joke?"

"This is no joke."

She was silent for a bit. Her mind was flooded by the last battle she fought. She took a few sharp breaths remembering the really painful hits she had taken. Her confused eyes looked at the arm that was certainly broken during that fight. On the place where should be wounded, now there was just a not-too-pretty scar. She suddenly felt really dizzy.

"Whoa, easy, sis!" Kankuro's voice had changed to really concerned and he brought his large hand on her shoulder.

She looked at her thin arms, her body, almost lost her tonus. She looked really scared by what she just discovered. The woman raised her eyes to her younger brother.

"Then what happened with Suna? And Konoha? The union?"

"Everything is fine at the moment. We tightened the union in a really old and well-respected way, so they left us alone for now."

She blinked a few times and forced herself up again. Kankuro helped her and she leaned backwards to support her back on the back of the bed. She smiled at him with a gratitude

"So what did you do? Married someone?"

"Hm, I didn't get it right away, when Gaara told me about it." He mumbled and Gaara just nodded.

"And who?"

"Apparently I was the groom." Kankuro grinned.

"Wow, whom to?

"Do you remember Tenten?" Gaara asked.

She was silent again, trying to recover some memory about that name.

"The girl I beated at the first chuunin's exam?"

"That's the one."

"And how did you get her? I mean, what did I miss? Why didn't you tell me anything about you dating her?" Then she shut up, looking at their expressions. "Oh, I see…" She whispered.

"Thanks to her, Godaime came here and helped you through the coma." Gaara said.

"I am definitely going to thank her." Temari looked at her right hand, as she expected to find something there. And she was really surprised there was nothing. "When will I be able to go home? And when will I be able to start training again? I look like a corpse…"

The men exchanged concerned gazes.

"You will soon enough. But you will need to go through a serious course of recovery, including massages, chakra therapy to wake up your muscles as well. Light exercises and stretching to remind your body how to move." explained Kankuro, who was going through some procedures himself at the moment.

"What about the exams, the classes… the missions?" She asked, frantically throwing questions as fast as they appeared in her head.

"Don't worry about that right now." Gaara said calmly and smiled slightly. "Tenten was so nice to take the classes and the exams organised. The jounins have taken your missions, dividing them equally, so you got covered there as well."

"Right…" She visibly relaxed.

"Look, what is important now is to recover as fast as you can. Everything else will be taken care of." Kankuro squeezed lightly on her shoulder. Then he looked out the window, noticing the light had started to fade. "And I will be going now. I have to take care of some personal hygiene matters and take my wife out for a walk." He smiled strangely, but Temari had too much on her head to actually notice.

"Has she done talking with the Konoha organisator?" asked Gaara.

"She should be by now." Kankuro shrugged.

"What Konoha organisator?" The woman asked.

"For the chuunin's exams." Gaara replied. "There are only two months left and he is here every other week."

"You are talking about Nara Shikamaru?" She was yet again truly surprised.

"Yes."

"He had agreed to move his lazy ass that much?" She still couldn't believe it.

"Well, I don't think Tsunade-sama had given him much of a choice." Gaara shrugged. "He also visits you while he is here."

"He does?"

"According to my knowledge, every time he is in Suna."

She was left in deep wonder of how that was even possible. She knew him, that sounded like too troublesome, a thing he would do everything to dodge from.

Kankuro called her from the door before he exited:

"Hey, sis. Welcome back. I am glad you are awake."

"Thank you, brother." She smiled and sent him off with eyes.

Gaara got up and sighed.

"I am also about to go." He said.

"Are you going to leave me alone?" She smiled widely.

"Even though you are awake now, you need a lot of rest. Tomorrow your recovery will begin full time."

"Thank you, Gaara." She bowed her head slightly.

"No need to thank me, Temari. Just be well." He then smiled a real, normal smile and left the room.

She was smiling. Two most precious people to her were here when she opened her eyes. Kankuro was married! She couldn't imagine it even if she knew it was fake… She really should see Tenten… That woman should have had patience, made out of steel…

When her brothers left her alone, she sighed and looked at herself more carefully. She asked a nurse to bring her a mirror. She looked at herself, then screamed…

"Temari-sama, come down!" The nurse shouted as well in order to be heard.

"I look disgusting! I look like a… like a corpse!"

"You are not." The woman tried to calm her. "You are just a bit pale…"

"DO NOT TRY TO LIE TO ME!" She yelled, returning her voice in a snap.

"Why would I do such a thing…?"

"Just, help me out to go take a bath…" she said.

"It was way better while she was asleep…" mumbled the nurse quietly.

"Excuse me?!" Temari turned furious. "What did you just say?"

"I said… It would be easier if someone carried you to the bathroom." The nurse fluently lied without a sign of regret."

"Oh… You may be right, actually." She said thoughtfully, calming herself a bit. "Could you ask if Kankuro can come and…" She shut up at the instant when she sensed someone at the door. When she turned her head, she saw Sgukamaru standing at the door, looking at her boringly as ever.

"What a drag…" He said. "I am going to carry you."

"Sh…Shikamaru?" Temari asked in light shock.

"Good evening, Nara-sama." The nurse smiled, obviously relieved at his presence. "How was your trip this week?"

"Normal… Boring as usual." He answered calmly, shrugging.

The nurse nodded cheerfully. Shikamaru approached the shocked kunoichi and looked at her with really serious facial expression:

"You haven't really woken up yet and you are already causing headaches around…" He frowned slightly to cover his invading smile. She didn't notice.

Temari couldn't say a thing. She really didn't think Shikamaru would be one of the first people she would actually see. But still, she was kind of happy to see him anyway…

The man leaned down and picked her up as she weighed nothing.

When he heard her angry shouting from down the hall, his heart raced so fast, he had the feeling it was going to jump out of his chest. He suddenly felt boundlessly happy and really scared at the same time. It cost him much to keep his calm appearance in front of her and it was even harder now when he actually held her in his hands, so close to him.

"Shikamaru…?" She whispered.

"M?" He growled quietly.

"Is it true you've come to see me while I was in a coma?"

"Yep."

"But… why?"

He didn't really answer but growled at her with annoyance. And she was looking at him with her wonderfully green, expressive eyes. The mean smile was non-existent right now on her still pale lips. His breath was caught in his throat at the image.

"Thank you." She whispered and pulled him down, placing a light kiss on his cheek.

His face instantly became carmine red. That was not something she was usually doing… Better said, so out of character, that even his genius mind couldn't predict it.

"You must have some brain damage…" He said defensively and headed slowly to the bathroom. The man placed her really carefully to sit in the bathtub, as she was made of glass.

She was obviously amused by the result her kiss had, and couldn't hold her mean little smile. Even though he felt incredibly uneasy, his heart was warmed up by that familiar smile.

"Maybe I do have, who can tell?" She shrugged, still smiling.

"What a drag…" He said, fighting back for his normal face colour. He won the battle.

Shikamaru stepped back and put his hands in his pockets.

"I see you are preparing for a bath, so I am just going to go." He was his normal self already. "I will see you next time, Temari."

"See you around, lazy-ass." She said, grinning.

The man shook his head and rushed to get out of there.

"You really should be nicer to him," said the nurse. "He is a decent young man. Also he visited you every time he was in Suna, he was even bringing you flowers." The older woman pointed to a little ball of delicate purple flowers, hanging on a thread on the window's frame.

Temari suddenly was silent, her face in pure surprise. Once, only once she was looking at those flowers in Konoha's market. It was two years ago during the Flower festival. At the time she was having a relaxing walk with Shikamaru over the decorated streets. She was impressed by his observation and memory. Without realising, she had smiled - her smile was tender, kind, and somehow soft. Thank you she thought, looking again towards the delicate flowers.

"Come on, Temari-sama, let's get this done." The older woman got her out of her thoughts.

"Yes…"

While Shikamaru was walking with a fast pace down the hall, he was thinking of Temari. He wondered if she had already seen what he left for her. His impeccable logic told him she didn't and it is probably possessed by Gaara right now. If it was in Kankuro's hands, the Puppet-master wouldn't miss a chance to tease him about it. And he didn't think any of the hospital workers would take anything from the Kazekage's sister. That meant he had enough time to get away on a healthy distance before Temari's eventual rage to be awakened.

Shikamaru was more than smart enough to get the hell out of Suna the very same night…

Kankuro was waiting for Tenten in front of the meeting hall, where they held the meeting with Shikamaru. She soon opened the door and exited. She smiled when her eyes laid on him and her tired face lightened up.

"Temari has woken up?" Was the first thing she said.

"Oh, yeah. She's back." He grinned. "Now our home will be full and noisy again… Did Shikamaru go away?"

"He went to the hospital to see Temari earlier, but he came back quite fast… He departed Konoha just a bit ago," she went silent, as she was thinking over something. "It was quite out of character for him to rush so much, if you ask me."

"Well, my sister can be really… scary…" Kankuro laughed.

"I really can't understand how she bears you talking to and for her like that…"

"She goes along with it, because we are her brothers. I don't think she would tolerate other people talking to her like we do." He shrugged.

"What about her girl-friends?"

"What girl-friends?" He looked surprised.

"Her friends, the ones that are women, not men." She was slightly annoyed.

"She doesn't have girl-friends." He smiled a bit sadly. "She is a tough girl, surrounded mainly by men."

"This sounds terrible…"

"Well, thank you, dear…" He said laughing, causing her to smile as well.

But Tenten couldn't help imagining what it would be like if Ino, Sakura and Hinata didn't exist in her life. They all were very dear to her and she loved them very much. Three of them were quite different and every one gave her something different - a little piece, making their friendship whole. She had already gotten a letter from each of them - Ino was telling her the latest gossip, Sakura had given her a heads up and Hinata had told her how much she missed her and was asking her how she was feeling.

"Try communicating with her," said Kankuro softly, "and you will see it is not an easy thing to be a friend to her."

"It may not be easy. " Tenten nodded. "But you should agree with me that sometimes hard things are worth it more, shouldn't you?" Her hazel eyes caused his stomach to flinch. He nodded as well.

Kankuro stepped ahead and stretched his hand to her. She took his hand without any hesitation and walked beside him on the streets of Suna. The people were watching them… But the main reason she let him hold her hand was that she actually liked holding his hand. She felt like she's found her place…

And she still was thinking about Neji as well… But she kept pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind, refusing to make a decision about it… Neji had told her he felt jealousy and that he was really attached to her. It was not as if he told her that he loved her… There was no guarantee it would work out between them. Well, there was no guarantee that this would work either.

She planned to just relax and clear up her desires. But more importantly, she had a lot of tasks on her plate that she intended to finish with priority…

Kankuro was called on mission really early in the morning and had left Suna before breakfast.

Tenten went to a really exhausting training session till noon. Then she went to take a shower and have a meal. After that she planned to go and greet the woman that all thing was about.

She was walking down the hospital hallway and was looking around. Stopping one passing nurse, she asked her about Temari's room. Then she was in front of the correct door, knocking. When she heard "come in", she pressed down the handle and entered.

Temari was seated on a hard wooden chair, doing arm exercises. When she saw Tenten, she smiled and stopped.

"Good day, Temari-sama." Tenten smiled.

"Oh, don't." Temari's smile was actually really charming and even enchanting for someone that had never seen it. "I owe you quite a lot for you to address me this way." She gestured for the other woman to approach closer.

When she did, Temari grabbed her hand.

"Thank you, Tenten." She said and suddenly bowed in acknowledgement.

Tenten really didn't know how to react so she stood stiff on a spot, not moving. Then she just collapsed to the floor on her knees, getting her head to the same level.

"To put up with my brother, pretending to be his wife, requires courage, beyond my can." She added with an impish smile, causing the other woman to laugh out loud.

In her heart Tenten felt they would get along quite well…