74
Sometimes Love Comes Softly
Kankuro was missing for over a week already. Tenten didn't let herself to feel his absence, filling up every spare minute she had - she spent it with Temari. She was trying to befriend her and she could bravely say that she was already liking her very much. In contrast to the toughness she had shown on the chuunin's exams years ago, she seemed to have a really tender, soft and even somewhat romantic side. She was hiding it really well, though, being surrounded by men all the time.
Two days ago Temari came back to the Kazekage's home. So Tenten was going to see her after she had finished the classes in the school. When she entered Temari's room, the blond kunoichi was seated on the floor bending to her legs ahead - she was stretching her back and the back of her legs. She smiled.
"Those are the last ones. - she announced, meaning the exercises.
"Good." Tenten smiled back and went straight to her wardrobe. She took out a short tunic, belt and short legging in front of the surprised look of Temari. - Get dressed, I am taking you out for a walk.
The woman looked at the window and raised her eyebrows.
-Actually this sounds like a very good idea.
She got up all by herself and succeeded to get dressed quite fast as well. She was happy she could stand on her feet and move rather freely. Then they both went out.
"My brother hasn't come back home yet?" she asked.
"No, he hasn't." A shadow of worry passed Tenten's face, but Temari was already in the full possession of her faculties so she started to notice…
"He will be fine." She said calmly and confidently.
"Probably." The brown-haired nodded. "I have just witnessed his last coming home when he had about 30 stitched on his back and he looked rather tormented."
"How does he treat you?" Asked suddenly Temari, curiously.
"He behaves fine," she confessed. "He is really careful according to me. He has been a rather pleasant company since we got here."
"Curiously."
"Why so?"
"His relationships with women have been… a bit peculiar… or particular, if you'd like it more." Said Temari, serious expression on her face.
"What do you mean, exactly?"
"He has never been boyfriend material. And I am saying it despite him being my brother. In the last few years when he started actually going out with women, his relationships have always been really limited about their potential."
Tenten was still looking at her questionably.
"I mean sex." Temari shrugged. "The women like him, he likes them. But if I think about it, he had never had a relationship with a kunoichi. This I think is on purpose though…"
The Konoha's shinobi didn't say anything. There wasn't anything to be said. What she shared with Kankuro was not really a relationship. Though whatever it was, she couldn't say it was nothing…
"His longest relationship with the same woman was like 6 months. It was with one pretty blond cheek, named Mia, I think."
Tenten quietly gasped in surprise.
"What?" Temari's eyes caught hers.
"Tall, blond, green eyes, long legs?
"Sounds like her." She nodded. "Now, how do you know about it?"
"Oh, I met her in person." Tenten smiled. "She was attending the official reception after the wedding ceremony. Kankuro had tried to shoo her out quite fast."
Temari nodded slowly. They have reached the bigger inner garden and now walked on the little paths.
"Well, it won't be a big surprise if he seeks one of his ex-girlfriends. The mеn are a bit intolerant about gaining too much of sexual tension. They just switch off at one point, if you know what I mean." She chuckled. "Though, considering the current situation, I don't think he would risk one of them to gossip about the happy married Kazekage's brother who has sex with other women than his…"
"That's what he said as well." Chuckled Tenten as well and Temari nodded.
"I am aware we may not be close enough, but… Do you sleep with my brother?"
"No!" Tenten blushed right away.
"Right… I just thought if you did, that would solve this issue for both of you, actually. I know he is a desired man and maybe there is a good reason why…"
Tenten started hectically to wave her hands.
"No, I am not having sex with anyone!"
"How come no one…?" Temari frowned, then her mouth shaped in a silent "o", when she got what she was just told. "I understand. Well, that's a really untypical and impractical choice, but it is yours, so…" She was really blunt, speaking out her opinion and Tenten started to understand why Kankuro had told her it would be hard communicating with her.
The brown-haired kunoichi couldn't help but laugh, recognising the definitions, describing her choices.
"What? Why are you laughing?" Asked Temari a bit shocked.
"You brother had coregorised my decision of not to have sex just yet with the almost same words…"
"Oh… did he?" Temari also started to laugh…
…
Temari was sitting on her bed and was looking out the window. It was so nice to have your eyes opened. It was so wonderful to be able to control the flow of thoughts to some extent and not be overwhelmed by weird dreams all the time. And not be sure which of the dreams is a fragment of real memory and which is an imaginary dream. Because Temari remembered… She remembered people who had come to her and talked to her, she remembered their voices, not really what they had told her. Especially Gaara… She got the feeling he was coming to talk to her every single day.
She sighed.
Last week she was talking a lot to Tenten, every day. She liked her, actually, she liked the passion Tenten had expressed towards the weapons. She also liked the tender tone she was using to talk about Temari's brother. Tamari wasn't supid - it was clear Kankuro somehow succeeded in winning over Tenten's friendship and maybe not only…
It was also curious the choice Tenten had made to keep intact her virginity for god-knows-what. She was feeling truly sorry for her big brother, since she was well aware how much would cost him quit having sex for such a long time. And there… he actually had done that in the name of Temari, so she could live…
Temari moved a bit. Every few hours she was switching procedures to maximise her recovery. She touched her fan for the first time today. Her fingers had caressed its edges and she felt as if she was greeting an old friend.
Quiet knock on her door got her out of her dizziness. She opened the door - it was Gaara.
"Gaara," she smiled sweetly.
"Temari." He nodded but didn't go into the room. "I don't have much time."
"All right…"
"While you were asleep, I took the liberty of taking something from you. Now I think you should get it back."
There was confusion on her face when Gaara gave her little blue pouch. She took it carefully and looked at his pale-green eyes.
"What is this?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "I didn't open it, it is yours. It was in your hand when I saw it. I have no idea who could have left it, nor how long has it been in your hand."
She nodded and started to move the pouch between her fingers. Then she suddenly remembered the touch of the material and the weight. Yes, definitely this bag has been in her hand…
"See you at dinner." Gaara said and hurried up to go back to his office.
Temari closed the door and went back to her bed. She sat down and looked at the little blue bag. It was not familiar to her at first sight. She carefully untied it and poured the content out in her palm. There was a note inside, together with the rest. She unfolded it: "Give me back one of them, or both of them. If you don't, I am going to come get them myself." She smiled softly. There was a PS as well: "Buck up, even Moegi will beat you now." Temari had to think hard to remember who Moegi was, but eventually she remembered - it was a little girl, who sent her off Konoha with the words "I am going to be exactly like Temari-san!" She couldn't help but smile again.
"Shikamaru..." She whispered tenderly and wrapped her fingers around the two rings…
…
Kankuro sighed heavily when he finally saw Suna in the distance. He was really exhausted. But even if they had been away for more than a week, all of his teammates were fine - no heavy damage was taken by any of them. He himself was well bruised, there were abrasions on a few painful places, but overall he was fine. The biggest loss for him was his broken Salamander puppet. He was going to spend some time repairing it and even more while trying to minimise its weak spot.
They have found two corpses of sand shinobies, who went missing 2 weeks ago. He was definitely going to tell Gaara about that. They should send people to gather the corpses so they could bury them properly.
Kankuro increased his pace and the others followed him. They were going to be home very soon.
Their path was passing the training grounds and the men were on alert for surprising attacks, just in case. Then he heard the sound of clashing metals and stopped. His teammates also did.
"You can go ahead, I will catch up." He said calmly and they continued to the village.
Kankuro approached the sound slowly. Amani-sensei was standing a few metres ahead of him and was watching a duel between one of his students and Tenten.
"How is she doing?" Kankuro asked, stopping just beside the teacher. Amani sensed him so he never flinched, just smiled.
"She is doing fine, Kankuro." He looked at the younger man. "But it would be useful for her to develop stronger defence techniques. She got a really strong offence and in a team they will probably be irretrievable. In case she is caught in one on one battle, or worse, if her attacks doesn't tackle down the opponents in the beginning, her defences will not allow her to survive while the help arrives."
Kankuro nodded. Amani-sensei was one, if not only, elder teacher Suna had. His judgement was impeccable.
"Ok, that's enough." He called and put an end to the duel. He approached his student and Tenten and started to point out their mistakes and explain how they can be avoided. Then he let his student go home and continue to talk a bit more to Tenten. She never noticed Kankuro, listening carefully to what the teacher was explaining to her. After a few more minutes he patted her shoulder and waved her goodbye, nodded to Kankuto and headed back to the village.
Then she saw him and smiled. Without realising he smiled back. Her heart started to race, she started to slightly shake and felt a wave of relief passing though her. Hundreds of butterflies started to try flying in her stomach at the same time. She had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
Kankuro strode toward her. While he did his last few steps to her, he took the puppets scrolls off his back and prepared to jump. Her eyes widened and she realised he was going to attack her. She prepared to defend herself. And yes, he pounced on her attempting to hit her, she dodged the hit. Finding herself behind him, she kicked hard on his knee to get him out of balance.
Kankuro laughed, realising how exhausted he actually was and that it was a lost battle already…
She didn't lose a second, turning gracefully, she dropped her elbows on his back, knocking him to the ground. He somehow succeeded at half turn, blocking her next hit. He pulled her knee - she staggered, taking advantage of the situation, he pulled her to him. The girl swung her free hand, digging her palm just below his sternum. And she won the second she needed to pull a kunai next to his throat, while pressing his chest with elbow. Her face was close to his and her eyes were sparkling beautifully.
Kankuro lifted his hands slowly to both sides of his head, surrendering. She relaxed her armed hand.
"I could have kicked you in the stomach and moved you out of your winning position." He said quietly.
"I could have cut your throat while I was flying away from your kick." She replied, still panting.
It could have been because of her closeness, or the fact he haven't seen her for some time, or because of his increased sexual tension, but her panting whisper seemed like the most erotic thing, like ever. He pushed himself up, turned and pinned her beneath him.
Her eyes widened while she held her breath.
Kankuro had pinned her wrist to both sides of her head, one of his knees was placed between her thighs and his hip was pressing hers to the ground. She couldn't really move now. Without realising his breathing had become ragged and shallow. The lust had overtaken him in the matter of seconds and his actions now were all impulsive.
"Kankuro?" She whispered, looking right in his darkened eyes, glistering with desire.
Tenten stiff and tried to break free her hands.
The man closed his eyes for a moment, grinding his hip against hers, succumbing to his primal instincts. He growled quietly feeling the wave of pleasure, washing over his body.
"Kankuro?" Her voice reached his dizzy mind and he opened his eyes again. He expected to see fear in her eyes, instead there was confusion and anxiety. "Let me go," she pleaded. She didn't insist or order, she didn't shout, she just whispered a plea. Her voice was really quiet, but there was no fear in it.
He shook his head and let go of her hands. He expected her to kick, to push him away and tightened his body to meet the hit. Her hands reached up, wrapped around and pulled him down for a hug. The man fell on his elbows and left himself being held. He placed his forehead in the curve of her neck and just stood like that.
"I can't really think of an excuse…" He said, feeling ashamed.
To his surprise she chuckled. He pulled up to look at her.
"I didn't think for a bit you would have taken me here, in the middle of the training grounds during the day."
He grinned mischievously, lowering himself to her ear:
"I actually would." She blushed at his words. "But not for your first time, no. You are right."
"What happened to you anyway?" She asked, pushing him away from herself. "It was as if you were in a trance or something…"
"It is called "haze of lust" or at least we, the men, call it like this."
She raised her eyebrows. She has never heard such a thing.
"And you just… lose your mind? Becoming savage beasts?" She smiled.
"Ah, well… This is the closest point to a savage beast I have reached. I see myself as relatively harmless." He shrugged and got up his feet.
"Even if I believe your words, why would that even happen?"
"Lack of sex." He said bluntly.
"Ok, you need to go and have sex then." Tenten said seriously. "If this so much gets you out of balance…"
"Is this an offer?" He grinned.
"No…"
"Then I should spend time with myself." He laughed out loud. Tenten just smiled…
…
Temari was glowing when she went to see her - her face had one of the most beautiful smiles Tenten had ever seen. Her eyes were sparkling just like two really bright stars.
"What happened to you?" Asked Tenten with awe.
"I got one hell of a weird love confession." She laughed, her face blushing prettily.
"Oh… That sounds interesting! Would you like to share?" Tenten sat down on the bench near the window. "I crave for a real love story since mine is a bit fake and non-existant…"
"Well… Everything started on the chuunin's exams…" Then Temari started to talk. She talked quietly and told the most enchanting story Tenten had ever heard. She had just seen one of her shinobi comrades in a totally new light. She has seen them two many times, but what it was on the surface was not what it was from the inside.
"I would say it is a joke… But then I look at you and I see it is real like the sun outside." Tenten said still in a bit of a shock.
"It took some time to realise, to be honest."
"But when did it happen exactly?"
"I don't know when. But it turns out sometimes love comes softly and it is not explosions and blind passionate desire. There isn't anything bad about blind passionate desire, though." Temari grinned. "At the beginning I thought of him as a big annoyance and couldn't stand him. But it turned out he was a smart ass shinobi, but he is just lazy."
"Yep, he tries to avoid anything troublesome, which is basically everything." Tenten smiled.
"But he still tried to hide though, leaving me all of that to see when he is not here. Probably he had doubts in me returning his affection."
"Probably he did." Tenten nodded.
"I am going to get him a hell of an answer." Temari smiled with one of the most mean smiles.
"I sense you will need some help." Tenten smiled with a bit of a mean smile herself.
"Oh, I do and your help will be warmly welcomed."
"Temari, what was in the bag?"
The blond kunoichi passed her the bag. Tenten carefully opened it and took out the 2 silver rings. She gasped surprised:
"Those have his clan emblem…"
"I know."
"Temari…" Tenten looked at her with eyes wide open. "This is not just a love confession. He asks you to marry him."
"I know…" Temari smiled… tender soft and beautiful smile.
