"Hey!" an obnoxious voice blared through the heavy oak door. The thumping on the wooden planks shocked Shikamaru and Temari out of their post-orgasmic trances. Shikamaru was unfortunate to be on the receiving end of Temari's foot in his face as she trampled all over him as she sped to reach for her clothes that were strewn about all across the floor. He rubbed his nose as he sat up, recoiling at the metallic taste of blood as the crimson drops dribbled down his lips. When he began to recover from the one-woman stampede he'd been the victim of, Shikamaru saw the comedic yet seductive sight of Temari redressing herself in a hurry. He grinned as Temari slipped over herself as she tried to slide her black lace thong, the obsidian shade seeming even darker as Shikamaru pondered the cause. His pupils dilated when he discovered the major difference of the colour of Temari's panties was actually the miniscule detail of a strange patch that spread from the centre of the fabric which seemed to stick to the inside of Temari's muscled thighs. He snickered to himself as the full picture inside his head all came together, Temari, the proud man-hating shinobi, was almost intoxicatingly aroused as she hurried around, fumbling with all her pieces of clothing. In no time at all she was fully dressed, the only signs of their activities being her cheeks, tinged red to match her ears, along with the half-naked boy Shikamaru who was barely holding himself up with his elbows propped underneath him. After seeing her irritated glare, he decided to finally put an effort into joining her in her state of fully-clothedness. But before he could muster the strength to lift him from the soft recesses of the velvet sheets, Temari had already made up her mind that Shikamaru was taking his sweet ass time on purpose and she quickly chose to punish him for his sloth. As the covers scrunched under his palms, Shikamaru pushed himself upwards, only to be met with his heavy boot hitting him dead centre of forehead, knocking him back further onto the mattress.
"Will. You. Hurry. Up!" Temari scowled at him as she pointed at the boot she'd just thrown with all the accuracy of a kunai. He looked over at the impromptu projectile that would have most likely left a significant mark on his head, noticing that the shoe was stuffed with all his clothes that Temari had scrounged around the floor looking for. The message she gave was clear to Shikamaru and he obliged as he slipped on his underwear before his pants as he rose to walk towards his cloak whilst he fumbled with the laces of his footwear. Eventually Shikamaru had joined Temari in being fully dressed as they prepared to deal with the overly energetic personality that was continuing to bang on the door like impatient child. As soon as Temari twisted the handle, the heavy oak swung open revealing the giant figure of Naruto as he leant on the framework of the door. Temari took a few steps back as Naruto towered over her with an unusually irritated look plastered across his face.
"What took you so long?" he asked, his tone was cold and fierce, completely distinct from his annoyingly light-hearted voice that spoke utter nonsense every day. Shikamaru returned to his spot on the edge of the bed, wary of Naruto's body language as he took in every detail he could from the confrontation between Naruto and Temari. Even if he measured six inches taller than Temari, her aggressive nature easily made up for what she lacked in height, even if she was taller than the majority of women from any of the Five Great Nations, standing above other girls, and a lot of guys, as they all continuously looked up at her enviously. Shikamaru was still concerned, however, because ever since he and Temari joined up with Naruto and the others, he had become accustomed to Naruto's unique presence. His usual warmth that emanated from him, was overshadowed by a sinister aura that was hard to describe as anything but demonic, his intense gaze gave away the madness that he had chosen to let loose on the shinobi world.
"We were just getting ourselves prepared for the long journey ahead" Shikamaru replied. Naruto's expression changed to one of a quizzical nature as he looked between Temari and Shikamaru. Shikamaru had a bad feeling about what he was going to say next, especially since he had grown up with Naruto who had always been one to say something completely stupid at the worst time and in the worst place, and there was no situation worse than being in a room with only one exit with an agitated Temari.
"Really? Because it looks like you were doing something naughty" he said with a sly grin beginning to stretch across his face. Shikamaru couldn't believe his luck, over the years he had perfected the art of staying far away and even escaping Temari's wrath, but he here was stuck in the same room as her with the only exit blocked. She trembled for a second, her face becoming a vibrant shade of pink before she swung her fist at Naruto.
"Shut up!" her fist dented the stone wall next to where Naruto had just been standing, the cracks spreading outwards in various veins that sprouted from her fist, small pieces of rubble fell to the ground. Her face gave away her confusion as she wondered where the target of her anger had disappeared to. When she realised it was already too late, Naruto's boots echoed of the stone floor as he walked towards the bed. Standing over Shikamaru, he looked over the covers, snickering when he saw the suspicious patches of dampened velvet behind Shikamaru.
"I never would have thought that you would be the messy type Temari" Naruto remarked, he didn't even try to stifle his laughter as the kunoichi spun towards him. She marched back towards him, waving her fist at Naruto, seething at his words. Shikamaru watched as Naruto effortlessly avoided Temari as she continued swung wildly, aiming for his jaw. Eventually, she fired one last tired shot at Naruto. He shifted his feet as he leaned away from Temari as her momentum carried her forward, tripping over his leg and crashing straight into Shikamaru. Now pinned underneath her, Shikamaru looked up to see Temari's face contorted in her irritated wrath, her breathing heavy as her chest heaved in her exhaustion.
"I guess I'll wait outside but do you guys mind making this one a quickie because we really need to get going soon" Naruto grinned as he strolled back towards the door he came in through, leaving Shikamaru and Temari to take a few too many moments to understand what he had just said. Temari's cheeks burned a fiery shade of red as her eyes narrowed into the infamous death stare, pushing off from Shikamaru. As she glared at the oak planks of the door swing closed, she failed to realise the pain the boy beneath her was truly in. She looked back down to see Shikamaru's face twisted in pain as her nails dug into his shoulder from her grip that was tight enough to almost crush his bones. Quickly letting go, Temari apologised to Shikamaru as he nursed his shoulder, five noticeably deep marks scarred both his cloak and the layers underneath, including his skin as he felt a small patch of his mesh shirt dampen with what he assumed was the few drops of blood that escaped the pierced flesh. They both left to follow Naruto outside their room as Temari grabbed her fan which she had leant on the wall next to the hinges of the door, knowing that they had pretty much everything they needed for the journey head. Walking into the corridor, they saw Naruto leaning against the far wall. When he saw them he snickered to himself at his thoughts before putting on a shocked expression that was quite overdramatic.
"Oh! I didn't realise you were such a quick shooter Shikamaru, I gotta say I was not expecting that" he said as he put his hands behind his head to cushion himself.
"Whatever, let's just go" he replied as he shrugged at Naruto, motioning to leave down the corridor. Whilst they made their way through the hideout, Temari fastened her fan behind her back using her belt, her and Shikamaru trying to keep up with Naruto fast pace. Walking with the two of them definitely carried an uneasy feeling in the air, Temari strode awkwardly as she tried to hide her wide eyes. If any enemy were to see them, their first priority would certainly be Naruto as he stood taller, looked a lot stronger and he carried a more intimidating presence than Shikamaru. At times she thought she could actually see nine uniform fox tails come from behind Naruto whenever she saw him, concerned with how much more powerful he was than her with each tail. But with Shikamaru, that hypothetical enemy would be making a grave mistake by not focusing on him, the only tell of his true danger was the calculating look of his intense gaze. Temari couldn't help but wonder how could she truly provide any sort of aid to either of them, she couldn't compete in neither wind style jutsu against Naruto nor battlefield strategy against Shikamaru. She ran her finger along her fan, trying to think of a way that she might be able to help Shikamaru if that unlikely situation ever came about. She knew that she would need to improve her combat abilities to a much higher level if she was ever going to be a match for even the only other kunoichi a part of the Akatsuki, Hinata, let alone Shikamaru, Naruto or Sasuke. Temari's thoughts of her inferiority swirled through her mind, clouding her from reality as she mindlessly continued to walk alongside Naruto and Shikamaru. The latter noticed her unusual state and, concerned at her far away look in her eyes, decided to squeeze her clenched fist with his own hand, shocking her back into the current moment. Looking over to him, her face was scrunched in confusion as to what was going on, only to be met with a worried brow that was furrowed in concern for her wellbeing. Temari offered a small smile to make for a sign of gratitude that she hoped would put Shikamaru at ease, always taken aback by how much Shikamaru cares for others, especially those closest to him. That part of his personality completely contrasted the way he usually acted, lazily milling about without a sign of his cunning mind to be seen as he hid his sharp eyes behind tired eyelids.
They seemed to walk forever, striding past uniform doors, reminding Temari that this dark, depressing maze was once called home by the insane Sannin, Orochimaru, as he ruthlessly experimented on countless innocent lives to extract the secrets of different clan's jutsu. From what she had heard before leaving the Allied Shinobi Forces with Shikamaru, was that Orochimaru and a few of the other rogue ninja associated with him, had disappeared in the confusion of the aftermath of the Fourth Great Ninja War. It was unnerving to know that someone like that was just out in the wind, completely free, but then she realised that some Orochimaru was not the priority for the ANBU Black Ops right now, when Naruto and Sasuke posed the most threat to the Five Great Nations, and they were even more dangerous with the addition of Shikamaru and his boundless knowledge of the Hidden Villages' strengths and weaknesses. Eventually they came to a dead end and waiting for them, as he leaned on the wall, was Sasuke Uchiha himself.
"Finally, what took you so long loser" he looked over to Naruto with a glare.
"I didn't want to interrupt their alone time" he replied, ducking away as Temari growled at him, Shikamaru doing barely enough to hold her back. Sasuke looked on with a sour expression as he watched Naruto cower behind Shikamaru as he fended off Temari in her pissed off state. Soon after they calmed down, Hinata came bounding down the hallway to see Naruto before the four of them left. Shikamaru and Temari shifted over closer to Sasuke, allowing Naruto and Hinata some privacy. Standing next to Sasuke, Temari repeatedly glanced out the corner of her eye, her hair on the back of her neck stood up as she looked over him. His tall frame was a lot lither than Naruto's as well as an inch or so shorter, yet he was easily the most frightening out of the two of them. The clouds on his cloak matched the crimson shade of his right eye as the Sharingan followed each miniscule movement that Naruto, Hinata, Temari and Shikamaru made with its terrifying precision. Shifting from one foot to the other uncomfortably, Temari decided to speak up and break the awkward silence that hung in the air around her and the two guys.
"So… where's Sakura? Is she not coming to see you off?" she asked, making Shikamaru eyes widen as he looked over at Sasuke with a worried look on his face. Sasuke turned his head towards her, almost as if this was the first time he had noticed her presence. The corners of his lips twitched, and his eyes glinted with an emotion that Temari couldn't figure out. It was excitement maybe? He looked up at Shikamaru with a curious expression, as if he wasn't telling Temari a crucial detail, before looking back at her with a smirk across his face. The smug look on his face made Temari take a step back away from Sasuke as he stared at her with a that excited gleam whilst he licked his lips, making Temari's eyes dart away towards Shikamaru for comfort. Shikamaru steadied her as he placed both his hands on her shoulders, gripping them tightly as he stared back at Sasuke with an unimpressed look.
"Sakura? No, she'll probably be out for a few more hours still" he said, his tone a cold one that reflected his usual demeanour, a voice that sent chills down Temari's spine as it combined with the smirk on his face, leaving Temari to wonder what he meant by his words. She hadn't seen Sakura once since her and Shikamaru had arrived at the hideout even though she'd been missing for two weeks prior. At one point, Temari didn't even think she was alive anymore, until Hinata promised her otherwise. She had never been particularly close to Sakura, but ever since she had saved her little brother, Kankuro, from Sasori's poison she'd had a newfound respect for the medical kunoichi and she had seen how much of an impact her leaving the Village had on the rest of her friends. Due to working with Shikamaru, Temari had become a lot closer with Ino than she expected, making sure to comfort her after her best friend had left with Naruto and Sasuke. Her thoughts ran back to when she saw Ino that morning, in Naruto and Hinata's room after she'd gone to get them for the strategy meeting. Comparing them to the couple she was seeing at present, the differences in their behaviour were night and day. She watched them say their goodbyes to each other with concerned expressions, completely parallel to the way they treated Ino that morning. Temari remembered them making Ino kneel as they stood over her, treating her like a pet and right in front of Temari without any regard for either of them. Seeing them humiliate Ino, Temari felt shiver run down her spine at the thought of what they had done to Sakura, she trembled as she tried to imagine all the twisted things they'd subjected her to, especially after Temari witnessed Hinata's sudden and drastic change in personality. Before she left with Naruto and Sasuke she was an extremely timid girl, almost silent for the majority of conversations, the complete opposite to the exceptionally proud and boastful Temari and similarly to Ino, she was the centre of most discussions. But after two years missing, Hinata seemed to have drastically transformed into a cruel woman who enjoyed humiliating others, something that Temari would never had suspected from her previous experiences in the Hidden Leaf Village. As the scenes of Naruto and Hinata sexually torturing Sakura and Ino played through her mind, Temari's brow felt the cool touch of perspiration kiss her skin as she failed to come up with a scenario in which Sasuke wasn't a sadistic master who didn't enjoy anything but seeing Sakura's curvy body contort in pure pain and masochistic pleasure as he denied her the orgasm she had desperately craved and begged for.
Snapping her out of her thoughts, Shikamaru's grip tightened even further as he shook Temari softly. She glanced towards him and saw his concerned expression to which she gave a small nod with an innocent look that showed her gratefulness for him recapturing her attention. She clenched her fist as she remembered Sasuke's words and the way he spoke them with a not so subtle glee. Shikamaru wrapped a hand around hers as he gave her a knowing look, one that silently told Temari that he would tell her something that she assumed would relate to Sakura, but she would have to wait. They turned towards Naruto and Hinata, who weren't so much as saying goodbye but force feeding the message down each other's throats. They held their kiss for what felt like minutes, audible smacks of lips ringing throughout the hallway as they explored each other's mouths in full view of the three others. Hinata's moans slowly began to fade as Naruto slowed his kiss and began to pull away from her, leaning his head back so the short girl couldn't reach to sneak one last kiss in before he left.
Hinata finally released Naruto from her tight embrace reluctantly. He turned towards Sasuke, Temari and Shikamaru and gave them a grin as he stepped towards them. Sasuke placed his hand on the wall next to him, pressing firmly against the stone. The section gave way under his palm, sinking further into the wall with a resounding click. The grating sounds of stone against stone echoed as the adjacent wall began to shake. After a few seconds of confusion, the wall began to descend into the ground, rays of sunlight streaming into the hallway, forcing Shikamaru to squint as he saw the clear skies for the first time in days. The four set off out of the hideout with Hinata behind them waving them all off like a traditional housewife. The entrance of the hideout came out into a forest covered in verdant shades of flora, the canopy wasn't thick enough to block out the azure colouring of the sky above. They strolled through the pillars of bark as they made their way through the forest. The sun's position allowed Temari to estimate that it was beginning to enter the late afternoon as her and Shikamaru followed behind Naruto and Sasuke.
"So…" Temari scratched her head as she tried to come up a topic for conversation, not wanting to walk in the tense silence that weighed the air down with the awkwardness between Shikamaru, Naruto and Sasuke. "What's up with the robes by the way? You never mentioned why we are wearing them" she tugged at her sleeve as it fluttered about in the gentle breeze that streamed through the leaves. She wasn't even sure if Sasuke heard her as he barely broke his stride. Meanwhile, Naruto had spun around and had begun to walk backwards as he grinned back at Temari, baring his shining fangs.
"We wear them because we have the same goals as the other shinobi to wear these robes" Naruto said as he patted one of the clouds patterned onto the fabric of his cloak.
"And those goals are what exactly?" Temari asked in reply.
"To bring peace to this cursed shinobi world" Sasuke replied without looking back at her, "The tragic fates of the Uchiha and of the Tailed Beast's Jinchuriki should never have to be forced on anyone else, the same goal that my brother, Itachi, shared with Madara and Obito Uchiha but we won't be using the Infinite Tsukuyomi and instead we'll bring about peace our way" he turned his head to the side as he glanced at Temari out the corner of his eye, revealing his intense glare that sent shivers down her spine and making her hairs on the back of her neck stand up almost with cold electricity.
"Do you think you can really pull this off?" Shikamaru asked with an expressionless face, his eyes barely half open.
"Of course we will!" Naruto stared at Shikamaru with narrowed pupils, one a crimson shade and the other his usual cobalt. Deciding to play it safe, Shikamaru chose not to press any further. They continued going through the forest, walking at a steady pace until they came to a section in the path they had been following where the path forked into two diverging routes. They stopped for a while to go over their plans for the journey ahead. Shikamaru asked what they were going to do in terms of money, looking through the small amount that he had left from what he was assigned by the Fifth Hokage for what would be his final mission for the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto frowned before reaching into his cloak and rummaging around his pouches behind his back. Eventually he found what he was looking for and he pulled out what looked to be a green frog. He unzipped the mouth before allowing some of the overflowing contents to spill into his palm. He held out his hand to Temari, presenting what looked to be an entire year's worth of her previous wages an ambassador of the Hidden Sand Village, making her eyes widen as she was handed enough money to feed family for a few years.
"Is that enough for the two of you?" Naruto asked with a smirk proudly displayed across his face.
"Should be" Shikamaru replied as Temari pocketed the bills somewhere private for safe keeping, "So I guess we'll see you guys in the Land of Waves soon then" he said, nodding to each of them.
"Three days" Sasuke turning off down the path on the right, "Don't be late or there won't be anything left but ashes" he said as he began to take his stride. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Naruto's serious look.
"Wait!" he looked around, seemingly searching for something.
"What is it?" Sasuke snapped back at him.
"Something is definitely not right here" he said. They turned to Shikamaru and Temari to give them a questioning glance.
"What are you looking at?" Shikamaru shrugged as he couldn't tell what had spooked Naruto, "Does it look as if either of us have sensory ninjutsu?" he pointed at them, wagging his finger at the two of them, "You have two powerful dojutsu and you can use senjutsu! So why don't you try using them?" Naruto's expression softened as he listened to Shikamaru, before he suddenly stiffened as if someone was speaking to him yet Temari and Shikamaru were checking their ears, certain that they couldn't hear any voices. After a few moments of still silence, Naruto's eyes began to change again. His irises morphed into a rounded cross shape and his blue pupils transformed into a scarlet shade as what Shikamaru recognised as his jin cloak appeared in a darker fiery shade than what he remembered from the Fourth Great Ninja War. He looked around more carefully, focusing on a few different spots of bushes and leaves around the group.
"For some reason I can't sense any chakra" Sasuke manifested his rinnegan to take a look at where Naruto was nodding towards.
"But there are definitely other shinobi surrounding us" Sasuke confirmed Naruto's observations as he gripped the handle of his Kusanagi. Temari reached behind her back to grab her fan as she went shoulder to shoulder with Shikamaru who drew his knife and raised it into a guarded stance.
"We know you're there! Come out now!" Sasuke announced to their audience. He received no response after a couple of tense seconds, "Okay then…" he muttered to himself, "I'll just make you come out!" he grinned as his right eyebrow rose. "Amaterasu!"
The spot of leaves he was glaring at burst into ebony flames that reached up to the top of the canopy. The next moment the air was filled with a deafening wail and an armoured figure stumbling out of the bush, struggling with the straps of his wrist guard that was covered in black fire. When he finally slipped it off, his arm was severely burnt down to the layer of skin covering his bone. In an instant, three other figures of different shapes and sizes appeared in front of the injured shinobi, ready to fight.
A/N- Hey, how are you doing? Chapter this week was a pretty short one but still let me know what you think about it. You might be glad to know that the next girl in the harem will be joining fairly soon, so try and guess who she is and who she'll be for. Anyways that's all I've gotta say so see you next time.
Yours truly,
Signing off