Chapter 104
But Kankuro's words fall on deaf ears as Gaara announces, "I choose to save Kankuro."
"GAARA, NOOO!" shouts Kankuro, helpless as two long blades swoosh past, cutting the wooden plank cleanly on both sides of Kamaru's feet.
Shikamaru's hands are tied on his back, his feet are also bounded and his neck is attached to a rope looped around the makeshift horizontal beam above his head. With the wooden plank beneath his feet cut down, he struggles futilely as the rope tightens around his neck, slowly cutting his blood supply to his brain.
Similarly bounded, Kankuro stands on the same plank, only on his side, one end of the plank is still attached to the makeshift wall but as he tries to come closer to Kamaru, the plank sways down, making the rope attached to his own neck taut. But that doesn't stop him as he struggles to reach out. "I'll get you, big bro! I swear!"
"Stop doing that, Kankuro, or you're gonna slip off that plank yourself," orders Gaara, "Go towards the plank's supported end. That's the most stable area."
Kankuro ignores his youngest brother's command. The rope chaffing his neck painfully as he strains—uselessly—to reach his oldest brother. That's what Kamaru is…his big bro. Maybe not by blood but still they grow up together. That still counts for something.
"Go near the support," Gaara repeats his order in a sharp voice. "Now, Kankuro."
"No," grunts Kankuro, his effort to reach Kamaru making his voice hoarse.
"I need you to do what I say," Gaara utters quietly, "please."
Kankuro gazes at his youngest brother then. He distinctly heard Gaara saying please…and that word is like a bucket of ice cold water drenching him. Yes, Kamaru is gasping for breath like a fish out of the water, and his face is losing its color as blood fails to reach it. But what's happening isn't just hard on Kamaru or on him as he watches his big bro die. In fact, it must be hard too on Gaara—maybe even harder for he is the one making the decision. The one that will live with it.
Finally, Kankuro twists and swings his body, moving, not towards Kamaru but towards the supported end of the plank.
Shikamaru continues to struggle for breath, his feet twisting in a useless effort to free himself. Suddenly, another set of two blades swoosh past. The blades cut the suspended rope tied around his and Kankuro's neck.
With the rope severed, Shikamaru starts to fall down towards the pit of bubbling lava. Already weak from recent beatings he sustained and with his hands and feet tied, he can only close his eyes as his mind automatically calculates his chance of survival.
With both his brothers turning their back on him, his chance is zero.
—o0o—
Four months later…
Only Shikamaru's death could melt his mother's stubborn heart…
Then bam suddenly, with that thought, an insidious suspicion occurs to Temari.
He wouldn't. Shikamaru wouldn't plan something that stupid. He must know that he needs to be alive to change people's mind or in this instance—heart. The ass must know that!
Shit! Temari grumbles to herself. She needs to get out of the room she shared with that ass. She's having weird and weirder thoughts.
So to clear her mind, she ends up walking, with no actual destination in mind. Her feet guiding her, she reaches town, then the training ground. She just continues walking, strolling along, trying to render her own thoughts, blank.
But she isn't succeeding. Stupid thoughts vie for attention in her head. And the winner is that Shikamaru has counted on himself dying in Suna. That's why he didn't bother to tell her about his and Yoshino's agreement.
Shit!
And now Suna is covering up his death…
No! There's no way that that's the truth! Her mind screams.
Even though Temari's huge belly makes movement difficult, she still quickens her strides, trying to outrun her own thoughts. Panting, she reaches the residential area on the opposite side of the Nara clan's forest.
There are people here and there doing their everyday business. Kids are playing outside while their mothers tend the garden or their home. Most fathers are probably out, doing their jobs.
The place is not swarming with a lot of people unlike the town she has passed through awhile back. So then here, she sort of stands out, briskly walking on the pavement, hugely pregnant and alone.
But then everyone's busy. Nobody bothers her, leaving her to her thoughts until...
"Temari," a voice calls out.
Temari swivels to face the owner of the voice, grateful for the opportunity to escape the irrational voices in her head even if only for a while. "Sasuke," she says at the dark haired nin, who is standing by his fence, mending a row of smashed planks of wood that used to be a part of his immaculate white painted railing. "Sakura's handiwork?" she asks, focusing on the mini-destruction.
Sasuke nods his head, lifting a hammer to nail one of the wooden planks into place.
Temari's lips twist in mock sympathy, then with an almost imperceptible dip of her head she bids the other shinobi goodbye. She's not gonna stay and listen to him talk about his marriage. Or any marriage for that matter.
She has taken about two steps when Sasuke speaks again.
He grounds out, "That bastard is really a genius."
"Who are you talking about?" Temari turns around to frown at Sasuke but he just continues to hammer on the nail's head. "Kamaru?"
"You know another bastard?"
Temari gives an irate hmp.
"I have a wife and a newborn daughter," Sasuke drawls. "I couldn't go away myself. But your husband's different. He already figured out a way to leave you and your child. Genius."
"Shut up," scowls Temari. She doesn't need Sasuke criticizing Shikamaru. Shikamaru didn't leave in order to shirk his responsibilities. Far from it. That ass is facing his responsibilities as a shinobi of Suna, as a brother to Kankuro and Gaara. And just recently she discovered, he's facing those responsibilities as a husband who promised stupid things to Yoshino.
Sasuke just picks up another nail and hammers it into place. "So where's the bastard?" he questions, acting as if he didn't hear Temari's short outburst.
Temari is the only one who can call that ass names. Nobody else. "If you keep on referring to Kamaru as bastard, I swear to—"
"That's what he is," interrupts Sasuke before he leans down to get the next plank of wood from the ground then making it stand next to the already fixed ones. Taking a nail from the can, he put the piece of metal in between his teeth while positioning the plank of wood into its proper, final place.
"What did Kamaru ever do to you?" Temari quips, crossing her arms on her chest in a fit of pique.
With the plank arranged, Sasuke takes the nail from between his teeth, ready to hammer it into place. "That bastard claimed to be Sakura's lover."
"Huh?" Temari can't help but gasp her surprise, her arms dropping to her sides.
Sasuke finally lifts his eyes from his task to glance at Temari. "You didn't know?" he asks.
She doesn't know because it's not true. The mere idea sounds ridiculous. "I don't think Kamaru's brave enough to have an affair with your wife," argues Temari.
"I didn't say that they actually had an affair. Your husband just gatecrashed my wedding claiming my kid is his. All because he thought I was marrying you—Why did he think that anyway?" Sasuke raises accusing eyes at Temari. "He almost made me ruin my own wedding."
"Kamaru did what at your wedding?" Temari's mouth gapes in utter disbelief. Then she starts imagining how that scene had played out. The stupid ass putting his foot wrong and then encountering a mad, bad bridegroom. Temari can't help it, she starts to laugh. Shikamaru must really love her even then to act so irrationally, insanely jealous.
"Stop laughing." Sasuke's eyes sharpen contemptuously but Temari's laughter sounds so boisterous that he can't help it, his own lips pursing into an unwilling smile.
—o0o—
With the way the heavily pregnant woman is laughing with the other nin, the foreign shinobi who just arrives at the scene decides his news about Sunagakure can wait.
Let her enjoy whatever she finds so funny for he has in his possession one particular information that can wipe out her laughter soon enough…For news about how someone died usually does that to the recipient. Especially in cases where death could have been prevented. Should have been prevented.
Gaara had expressed regret for the role he played in it. But now that he is the new Kazekage, every sacrifice is worth it for Suna. The Kazekage's children all recognize that statement as truth. And it's his task now to inform and make sure that Temari does so too.
—o0o—
~1 7 13, 1 17 13, 7 15, 8 1 15A 15~
A/N: Are you guys ready for the end?...I'm still not…
In the meantime, feel free to review, guess, and comment...Thanks guys.