The sun shone brightly as Sakura and Naruto walked through the bustling streets of Konoha, heading for the gate. "Thank you for walking with me," Sakura said. "Tsunade-sama wants me to get the mid-day report of who's been in and out of the village."

"I haven't seen you much the last few days," Naruto said. "I figured I could catch you for a bit between your errands."

"You've been busy too," Sakura pointed out. Naruto hadn't let up his training upon achieving chuunin level; he wanted to catch up to everyone else, so he wouldn't be left behind when all of his friends made jounin. Not only that, but he had taken a lot of missions. The last few days he had barely been in the village at all.

They found Kakashi at the guard house, leaning over the counter to chat with Izumo and Kotetsu. "Oy, Naruto, Sakura," he said.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto replied.

"Here for the reports, Sakura?" Kotetsu asked. He handed over a sheet of paper. "Not many people have been through today."

"It's such a nice day; people are probably just hanging around relaxing," Sakura said, scanning over the list of names.

"Yeah," Izumo agreed. "I wish I wasn't stuck in the guard house all day." He glanced over at the village gate and started. He jumped to his feet and swiftly pulled out a kunai.

They whirled around to see what was going on, and froze in disbelief. Sasuke was staggering through the village gate.

"Sasuke… kun…" Sakura mumbled, eyes wide, looking at him as though he was a ghost. She never thought she'd lay eyes on him again but there he was.

He was wearing his Sound-ninja uniform, but the bow on the rope belt was unraveled and dragging behind him. The white shirt was stained with blood and dirt. Lacerations and puncture wounds criss-crossed his chest, and one eye was swollen shut. One arm hung limp and useless. Sasuke looked up and opened his mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out. Half of his exposed skin was covered with the markings of the second stage of Orochimaru's cursed seal. It wavered as he struggled to keep it going, as though it was the only thing keeping him alive.

"Sasuke… kun…" Sakura mumbled, eyes wide, looking at him as though he was a ghost. She never thought she'd lay eyes on him again but there he was.

"Sasuke," Naruto echoed, then again, his voice rising in joy, "Sasuke!" He started forward; Kakashi's arm shot out and clamped onto his wrist, stopping him short.

"Wait! It could be a genjutsu!" Kakashi warned. He lifted his forehead protector away from his sharingan eye and scanned over Sasuke. "This has to be a trick," he muttered, but he could see nothing strange. It was Sasuke, almost empty of chakra, the usually pulsating flow weakened to a faint glow.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto demanded.

"It's him," Kakashi said in awe.

Naruto wrenched himself free of Kakashi's grip and ran forward, Sakura following. Sasuke seemed to sigh, and the marks of the cursed seal withdrew, fading from his skin. His knees buckled and he began to collapse forward. Naruto caught him with a grunt. Sasuke's head lolled to the side as he lost consciousness.

"We need to get him to the hospital," Sakura urged, cradling Sasuke's face in her hands, feeding healing energy into him. "I'll try to stabilize him."

"Get a medical team!" Naruto bellowed. Sasuke lay limp as though dead. Naruto's eyes stung. "Hang on, Sasuke, you got this far," Naruto ordered him. "You can save him, right, Sakura-chan?"

"I'm trying, Naruto, but I need to concentrate," Sakura said calmly but firmly. Naruto fell silent, keeping his attention on Sasuke.

His best friend. How many times had Sasuke tried to kill him? How many times had Naruto tried to bring him back? He had lost hope, certain that Orochimaru had used Sasuke already. And here Sasuke was; he had come back on his own. All the other things didn't matter anymore. They were all together again, and things could go back to the way they were, the way they were supposed to be.

If Sasuke survived, that is.

A medical team arrived with a stretcher. "Uchiha Sasuke?" one of the members gasped.

"Stop gawking and get him to the hospital!" Sakura commanded. She looked pale and drained, and she swayed a little as Naruto helped her to her feet. "Let's go," Sakura said. She, Naruto, and Kakashi followed the medical ninja.

"Wake up," said a voice like the rub of sand between rocks, breaking up and scattering the soft cocoon of sleep Shikamaru had been enjoying. He groaned and pried his eyes open. Kankurou and Gaara stood at the foot of the bed, Kankurou with the best threatening stance he could muster, Gaara with his usual arms-folded, stone-faced intensity.

Shikamaru propped himself up on his elbows and gave a jaw-cracking yawn. "What do you want?" he said flippantly, to hide his surprise.

Kankurou raised a clenched fist. "You forget who you're talking to!" he postured.

Gaara paid this no attention and said, "What are your intentions toward Temari?"

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru asked innocently while his mind raced. They must have spied them last night in the greenhouse, or saw him sneak into Temari's room. What did they think went on?

"Don't play stupid," Kankurou spat. "We saw the flower in her room. Just what are you playing at?"

"I'm not playing," Shikamaru said. That much was true, at least.

"You didn't pick it, did you?" Gaara asked gravely.

"No," Shikamaru said quickly. "I waited for it to fall, like the legend said."

Surprise flashed across Gaara's face so briefly that Shikamaru thought he must have imagined it. "That's quite a gift," Gaara said.

"Do you love her?" Kankurou demanded.

"How is that your business?" Shikamaru snapped, thinking fondly of the blissful oblivion of five minutes previous and wondering when his life had gotten so damned troublesome.

Kankurou seethed. "She's our sister, and she trusts you, and admires you, and for some reason loves you, and if you're just playing around—"

"I already told you, I'm not playing," Shikamaru said irritably. Inside, he was boggling. Temari loves me?

"No, you're dead serious, aren't you? You're not an idiot, Nara Shikamaru. If you've heard the legend, you know what a gift like that flower means," Gaara said. "You love her." It wasn't a question.

The good cop/bad cop was wearing on Shikamaru. He decided to spill. "She's amazing, Temari is. Beautiful, smart, tough. I admire her. She's the only woman I can stand to be around, that I want to be around." He tore his gaze from Gaara's impassive face and stared at his feet. "I can't stop thinking about her. I almost died in a sandstorm trying to get here, and the only thing that kept me crawling through this desert wasn't some stupid mission but because I could see her again." He couldn't stop it now, and though it looked like Kankurou wanted to interject, a piercing glare from Gaara shut his older brother's mouth.

"I count the months between chuunin exams, training every chance I get, every day, so I can show Temari a new technique or trick or stratagem when I see her again." He locked eyes with each of the brothers in turn; he wanted them to understand. "All my life I never worked harder than I had to, to squeeze by. But I want her to be proud of me. I want to be worthy of her." Shikamaru fell silent, empty of all he wanted to say. An uncomfortable silence hovered over the room.

Kankurou broke it: "Would you marry her?"

"I'm only fifteen—"

"Come on, like you haven't planned so far ahead," Kankurou needled him.

"Where would you live if you did?" Gaara cut in.

"Konoha," Shikamaru said without thinking.

"You would take her away from her people when they need her so badly?"

"No," Shikamaru backpedaled. "That is… it'd be up to Temari, of course. We'd have to discuss it." Shikamaru broke off. "I never thought of it before."

Kankurou advanced threateningly. "I suggest you think it over, before you let this relationship go any further."

Shikamaru clenched his jaw. "Are you telling me to stay away from her?" he asked, his voice taut.

"If you're not serious," Gaara said, "best to end it before you get Temari's hopes up. Though it might be too late for that now."

Kankurou leaned forward until he was almost nose-to-nose with Shikamaru. "If you break our big sister's heart, we'll kill you," he growled. Shikamaru repressed a shudder. He did not want to face these two, though battle plans were forming in his head unbidden.

There was a knock at the door; it didn't seem to register with the Sand brothers. The door opened. "Shikamaru?" Temari called as she stepped in. She looked displeased to see her brothers. "What are you doing here?" she demanded in a steely voice. Gaara turned to her. Kankurou continued to eye Shikamaru sinisterly. "I couldn't find you anywhere," Temari went on. "There's news from Konoha."

"What is it?" Gaara asked.

"Uchiha Sasuke has returned."

Kankurou's glare dissolved in his amazement. Gaara's detachment was replaced with mild interest. Shikamaru felt pinned to the bed. Sasuke? His mind flashed back to that mission, his first as a team leader, when everyone was almost killed trying to retrieve the wayward shinobi. It was the mission that almost caused Shikamaru to quit life as a ninja, before his father and Temari talked him down from it. And now Sasuke had returned to Konoha?

"Kankurou," Gaara said, breaking the spell. "Stay here in Suna. You and Baki are in charge. Temari, Shikamaru, get packing."

"What?" Kankurou sputtered.

Gaara fixed his gaze on him. "I want to see this for myself," he said. He went to the door. "Come to my office when you're ready." He left. Kankurou gave Shikamaru one more warning look before following. He paused to shake his head at Temari, who looked affronted.

"Coming?" he said. Temari snarled at him and left. The door thudded shut behind him.

Shikamaru confronted a brain full of turmoil and groaned. "I want to go back to sleep," he told the empty room before heaving himself out of bed to pack.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade said. She sat in a chair beside Sasuke's hospital bed with one leg crossed over the other, an elbow resting on her knee and her chin propped on her fist. She regarded Sasuke as though considering her next move in a game of shougi.

Sasuke had been under sedation, in an induced coma, for days in Konoha's hospital while doctors siphoned venom from his body, stemmed internal bleeding, and stabilized the rogue ninja. Tsunade herself had barely slept, and neither had Sakura; she insisted on helping, and was denied; prodigy or not, she was only a student. Still, every time Tsunade exited the intensive care unit, Sakura was sitting there in one of the waiting chairs, clutching a slowly wilting bouquet of flowers and staring into space. Tsunade wondered what she was thinking.

She also saw Naruto there, once, trying futilely to comfort Sakura, before giving up and walking away. He knows, Tsunade thought sadly to herself, that the fun is over. She asked him a few days ago, when he was in her office requesting a mission, how he felt. Naruto gave her a sad smile, and the calmness and maturity she saw in him surprised her. "We're all together again. That's all that matters," he said quietly. Tsunade knew Naruto would give up anything for his friends. Even his girl.

Sasuke was awake, though silent. "We pulled a lot of venom out of you," she began. "Did you have a fight with your master?"

"I killed him," Sasuke said in his quiet, matter-of-fact voice.

Tsunade sat back, her eyebrows arched in surprise. "That's how you escaped him," she surmised. Sasuke nodded. "Why did you return to Konoha? You must know you're in the Bingo Book. You allied with our enemy and threatened the lives of Konoha ninja several times, namely attempting to kill Uzumaki Naruto." Tsunade folded her hands. "So why did you come back?"

"I wanted to come home," Sasuke said. He was staring down at his hands. His hair fell over his face, hiding any expression.

"So, have you given up your revenge on Itachi?"

"Yes—" Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

"I don't believe you," Tsunade said coldly.

"—for now," Sasuke amended. "Orochimaru gave me power but it is… dangerous to use."

"We told you that before and you didn't listen," Tsunade snapped. "Naruto is the jinchuuriki your brother is supposed to capture. If you had stayed here and trained, you might have had the opportunity to go up against Itachi, with help from others. That is if you weren't off bargaining with demons and taking dangerous shortcuts."

"You don't understand. You never did, none of you," Sasuke said, quiet but fierce. "Only she..."

"Only who?" Tsunade asked.

Sasuke ignored her and went on, "Ever since the day Itachi killed our parents, I've had this... this burning inside. This hate. I couldn't think about anything else. Revenge was the strongest desire I've ever felt, and the longer I lived without being able to satisfy it, the more I was tortured. It's like scratching an itch; you know you shouldn't, you know it'll only make it worse, but you can't sit there and ignore it and wait for a salve to take it away." Sasuke glared at her. "I was going mad, waiting to get stronger, trying to improve. And meanwhile I knew Itachi was getting better too. I'd never catch up. That's why I left."

"And why did you come back? Why did you really come back?" Tsunade pushed.

Sasuke smirked. "Why Hokage-sama, you sound as though you'd rather I'd stayed away."

Tsunade's eyebrows darted together. "Well, why wouldn't you want to come home, right?" she said. "You have a best friend you can try to kill as many times as you want, and he's still arguing with me that I should let you go free. You have a girl who you can treat with nothing but contempt, can belittle as weak, and she'll still do anything for you, kill for you, let you use her and throw her away, and she'll still be here waiting when you get back." Tsunade's voice rose. "I'm not going to allow you to use Konoha ninja in your private revenge scheme! Especially Sakura."

There was a knock on the door. "What?" Tsunade demanded.

Kakashi poked his head in. "Oh, I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama. I'll come back later." He withdrew.

"No, that's fine, I was finished," Tsunade said. The legs of the chair slid across the linoleum with a screech as she got to her feet. She turned her back on the renegade's bed and marched out of the room. Kakashi slipped in as she passed, before she slammed the door shut. All the cards on Sasuke's bedside table fell over and spread out, some tumbling to the floor.

"How are you feeling?" Kakashi asked, settling himself in the chair Tsunade had just vacated.

"All right," Sasuke replied, his dark eyes boring into Kakashi. "Are you going to ask me why I came back?"

"I have my guesses. It's not important. I'm just wondering how long you'll stay."

Sasuke looked away, focusing on a vase full of half-wilted flowers that stood on the windowsill. Sakura had brought them, while he slept. She hadn't been allowed in, no one had, and Sasuke was glad of that, that she hadn't seen him hooked up to hoses and tubes.

"Sasuke," Kakashi said. Sasuke looked back over; his old sensei had lifted the forehead protector away from his eye, and the Mangekyou Sharingan was staring back at him.

"Hmph. Who'd you have to kill, Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asked.

"I didn't have to kill anyone," Kakashi replied. "I trained and achieved this on my own. And if you'd stayed, I probably could have trained you to do it as well." His eyes narrowed. "It was never necessary to kill one's best friend. Your brother was a hasty fool. And you turned out no better.

"One of your relatives told me once, 'Those who don't care about their companions are worse than trash'." He settled down, lowered the forehead protector back over his eye. "But it isn't too late. I can teach you, if you stick around." He folded his arms. "Of course, I may not want to, considering how incautious you've been with dangerous power in the past. I shouldn't even have just shown it to you just then. Every time you use the special sight, it wears down your normal sight. Your brother is going blind, Sasuke. He relies on the jutsu too much and it's destroying him."

"Then maybe I shouldn't waste any time, while he's weak," Sasuke said.

"You're still weak too," Kakashi pointed out.

Sasuke glared at him. "Why would you help me in this?"

"Akatsuki is a threat, and your brother is part of Akatsuki. As long as he's roaming free, Naruto is in danger. It just so happens that your desire for revenge can help us neutralize this threat."

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed. "Tsunade was just telling me she wouldn't let me use any Konoha ninja for my 'petty revenge.'"

Kakashi stared at him. "Stick around, and I'll help you convince her otherwise," he said. Sasuke said nothing. Kakashi got to his feet. "Think about it. I'll see you around," he said, and left.

The Sand siblings pushed hard enough that Shikamaru didn't have breath to speak even if he wanted to. That suited him fine. He was brooding, something he normally didn't bother to do. Temari took notice; on the second day of their trip, when they had left the desert behind and were leaping through the trees, she fell back from her middle position to keep pace beside Shikamaru, who was bringing up the rear. Gaara, so far ahead that he was almost out of sight, didn't notice.

"Hey," she said.

"Hm," Shikamaru muttered.

"You've been quiet," she remarked.

"Saving my breath. Your brother still acts like he's powered by a demon," Shikamaru grunted.

"You're thinking pretty hard, but not about Sasuke."

Shikamaru wondered how she knew that. He didn't say anything.

"What did my little brothers say to you, anyway?" Temari pressed. "Did they threaten you?"

Shikamaru gave a bitter laugh. "Sort of, yeah."

Temari scoffed, "Don't worry about them."

"They asked, if you and I got married, where would we live?" Shikamaru informed her, keeping his eyes stubbornly straight ahead.

"You know," Temari said, "that Suna could use you. Your strategies, your expertise. You said yourself that the three of us are spread thin trying to teach all these kids. You could have a good life in Suna. And the Leaf doesn't need you as badly. Why waste your talent? Imagine what good you could do. The Sand could become a real power again. Our people wouldn't have to live in fear of enemy attack if we had your strategic mind working for us."

"And old men would spit on me in the street."

"They'll get over it," Temari insisted. "Anyhow, if a ninja like you can't defend himself against pissed off old codgers wielding brooms—" Shikamaru laughed then, still bitterly. "What?" Temari demanded.

"Nothing," he said. "It's just that you sound like you're trying to recruit me. Wouldn't that be funny, if—" he broke off.

"If what?" Temari said, her voice icy and sharp, sensing he wasn't heading anywhere good with this.

"You never showed much interest in me until I made chuunin."

"We were enemies until then," Temari said. Then her eyes narrowed as she realized what he was getting at. "You… you think I would feign interest in you, that I would prostitute myself, to poach another village's talented ninja?" she snarled.

"No," Shikamaru said hurriedly. "That's what I was saying, but I don't believe it. Not really."

"Why are you doing this? You're trying to push me away from you, is that it? Because of some stupid thing my brothers said? Look at me!" Temari commanded. Shikamaru obliged, though his eyes were starting to sting and the last thing he needed was to be called a crybaby.

"We'd never see each other," he said.

"We see each other now, don't we?"

"Yeah, twice a year."

"So? In between exams we could take maybe a week, one of us could visit the other. Switch off."

"Okay, so four times a year." Shikamaru looked away. "And meanwhile we'd be married and living a three-days' journey apart."

Temari struggled. "We could split our time. Six months in Suna, six in Konoha. Hell, the kids would probably think it's fun." She realized what she was saying, and exclaimed, "Ack! Why are we trying to figure this all out now? We've just started—" she reached toward Shikamaru, reaching for his hand, "—we've just started this thing."

"If we can't figure this out then we might as well end it," Shikamaru said, feeling like someone was pulling barbed wire through his chest.

"What?" Temari recoiled as though slapped. "Because of my stupid baby brothers being all tough and overprotective? I should've strangled them in their cribs," she growled.

"It would free you up to find someone in your own village, someone you wouldn't have to sacrifice for. Someone who'd make you forget about me," Shikamaru went on, digging himself deeper into the dark hole he found himself in. He didn't want to imagine Temari marrying some faceless Sand ninja, showing up for the chuunin exam pregnant with some other man's child, or maybe she wouldn't ever come to Konoha again. Never again would he find himself standing at the village gate at the crack of dawn, waiting for this troublesome woman to saunter down the path. God how he loved the trouble she inflicted upon him; it was the only time his life seemed to get interesting.

And what would he do? Give up on the training; after all, what was the point? He'd teach at the school, stagnate, marry some hometown girl he didn't like or dislike, have some nondescript kids who'd laugh behind his back about their lazy, failure of a father who was only good at shougi and sleeping all day.

"You idiot," Temari said, her voice shaky beneath the anger she was using to mask it. "My strategy was just to see how serious you are," Temari revealed. "I didn't want to make it easy for you. I left you hanging, and you kept chasing. At any point I thought you'd say it was 'too troublesome' and give up." Her eyes pleaded with him. "But this morning I found that flower on my nightstand—"

"That was a mistake. I shouldn't have given that to you," Shikamaru said roughly. Take a desert flower out of the desert, and it dies, he thought. Take a forest leaf into the desert, it shrivels and dries up. It can't work.

Temari scowled, looked about to say something, or hit him, but instead quickened her pace and shot ahead, leaving him behind. Shikamaru thought he felt raindrops hit his face. But the sky was cloudless.

Last night, cradling the flower carefully in his hands, he had slipped into Temari's bedroom. She lay there, not perfectly composed and peaceful like the princesses in stories, but tangled in her sheets, one arm flung over her face, and her mouth wide open in a rattling snore. He almost started laughing right then, but curbed it so as not to wake her.

Shikamaru had set the flower gently down atop the tiny, rolled-up scrap of paper he had written on. Temari moved then, and he jumped, thinking she was waking up. But instead she shifted and curled up on her side, facing the flower. Her face relaxed and she stopped snoring. Shikamaru wanted to hold vigil, just watching her sleep. He wanted to crawl into bed with her and sleep entwined like they did that night in the cave, when something he hadn't known he was missing clicked itself into place. Instead, he padded out of the room and shut the door quietly behind him before returning to his own bed.

It had been a perfect night, which turned into a perfect nightmare day as soon as he was unceremoniously woken up.

His throat burned and constricted, his lungs struggling for air as though he was caught in his own Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu. He clenched his jaw so tight his teeth ground together. "Damn it!" He was glad he was behind Gaara and Temari, that they were so far ahead that they couldn't hear anything over the rush of wind in their ears, and hoped neither would turn around.

"So you're a chuunin now," Sasuke said. Naruto beamed.

"Yup!" he said. "And you're still a gennin, unless Orochimaru promoted you."

Sasuke shook his head. "Those rankings don't really mean anything to me anymore."

"You'd probably be a jounin by now anyway," Naruto said. It felt good to talk to Sasuke like this. It was like all the years had washed away and there was no more distance, no more hatred, no more drama, just the two of them talking like best friends, like the way they never were. The way we should have been, Naruto thought.

"Shikamaru, Gaara, and Temari arrived today," Naruto said. "Maybe Tsunade will let them visit you. Shikamaru's a chuunin examiner now, and Gaara's kazekage!"

"Really?"
"Yeah, and—" Naruto leaned in closer, "—Shikamaru and Temari are in love. They won't admit it but it's obvious."

Sasuke had to smile a little. Naruto was acting like Ino, all full of gossip. But he let it pass; Naruto thought he was doing Sasuke a favor, catching him up on everything he had missed since he had left. Naruto laughed. "I'm glad you're back," he said.

"You are?" Sasuke replied.

"Of course," Naruto said. He became quiet and solemn. "No matter how many times you hurt me or everyone else, all we wanted was for you to come back. No matter how many times they forbade me, and told me to give it up, and threatened to lock me up to keep me from running off, I kept trying to find you, to drag you back here.

"You're my best friend. I always hoped you'd come back. Even after the three year mark passed, I hoped you'd escaped somehow, that you'd come back." He paused for a long moment. "You know Sakura still talks to you in her sleep?"

"And how would you know what Sakura says in her sleep?" Sasuke asked. Naruto said nothing. "Oh, I see. A lot has changed since I left."

Naruto hurriedly changed the subject, "Kakashi-sensei says you're going to help us go after the remaining Akatsuki."

"Maybe," was all Sasuke would say.

"Don't worry," Naruto said, laying a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I'll make sure no one kills Itachi but you."

Sasuke studied Naruto's face; it was earnest, open, forgiving. Sasuke expected Naruto to rage at him for all he'd done, for all he'd thrown back in their faces, for always running away. But he didn't; he was simply glad to have Sasuke back, and the rest was forgotten. It was a trait that Sasuke would never understand.

The moment was broken when a nurse poked her head in the room. "Time's up, Mr. Uzumaki," she said. Naruto released Sasuke's shoulder and stood up.

"I'll see you tomorrow maybe," he said. "Get some rest, Sasuke."

"Thanks," Sasuke replied. "And Naruto?" Naruto turned. "I'm sorry. For everything."

Naruto grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. "It's all right," he said, and followed the nurse out.

"So that's the situation," Tsunade finished. "What do you think, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru was sitting in a chair in front of Tsunade's desk, in his usual thinking posture; forearms resting on his knees, fingers down, fingertips and thumbs together to form a circle. After some time, he opened his eyes.

"Naruto told me," he said, "that after our failed mission years ago, Jiraya told him that if he tried to go after Sasuke again, you'd restrict him to the village and have him tailed by ANBU. Why not try that?"

"I could put him under house arrest," Tsunade suggested.

Shikamaru shook his head. "If you imprison him, he'll only get frustrated. Not only that, but you won't be able to get any work done because of the line of protestors outside your door. Let him have some freedom, and maybe he'll want to stay and cooperate. Keep him locked up, and someone will break him out and he'll be gone again."

Tsunade nodded. "Thank you, Shikamaru." She rested her cheek in her hand, and gave him a sympathetic look. "How did things go in Suna?"

Shikamaru exhaled. "Everything's so much more complicated than I thought," he said quietly.

"Hmm?"

"Oh, you mean with the training program," Shikamaru realized. "Uh, well everything so far was pretty much in my last report. I probably need to go back after all of this is done with."

"Don't worry about that, right now, Shikamaru. We'll deal with this mess first," Tsunade said, pouring herself a cup of sake. "Thank you for your help; your analysis has been invaluable." She downed the cup. "Go on and relax for now. Sasuke isn't going anywhere."

Shikamaru heaved himself out of the chair and left the hokage's office. He wanted to sleep, but the last thing he wanted was to go back to his parents' house and be bombarded by questions.

The street was full of people. He edged around them, feeling something was missing. He realized what; it was the first time Temari had been in the village and had not been at his side. Tsunade had summoned him immediately upon their arrival, and brother and sister went to their lodgings.

There was a nice grassy hill, with a single tree for shade, that overlooked the practice field. Shikamaru headed there now. It had been awhile since he'd lain there; usually he was down in the field training instead. As he walked there, he looked up at the sky; it was azure, and the clouds were as puffy as sheep's wool. It was a perfect day for gazing.

Shikamaru had been lying there for maybe an hour when the soothing breeze and lazy clouds lulled him into a shallow sleep. The shadow falling across his face, blocking out the sunlight, was what woke him. Temari, standing above him, looking down with an inscrutable expression.

"Mind if I lay here?" she asked in a quiet, un-Temari-like voice.

"Go ahead," he replied, as though he didn't care about anything anymore.

She settled down with a rustling of grass, inches away from him. "Tsunade-sama told us your plan," she said. "It seems like sound advice."

"Yeah, I guess my village needs me after all," he said bitterly. Temari flinched slightly. Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his eyes. "It's all so—"

"Troublesome," she finished for him. "And when it isn't we make it that way." Shikamaru didn't answer; he stared up at the clouds, trying to pick out recognizable shapes. "You know there's no real reason we should worry about those things my brothers mentioned."

"Why not?"

"Because we're geniuses and we'll figure it all out when the time comes," Temari replied. Then she did something uncharacteristic; she snuggled up to Shikamaru's side, laying her head on his shoulder. He curled his arm around her to keep her there.

Shikamaru gave her a little smile. "What happened to planning five steps ahead?" he asked, turning his head toward her and laying a kiss on her forehead.

"Maybe we plan too much. Maybe we should just live in the moment and see what happens," Temari suggested.

"Those moments that are worth waiting for?"

"That always come back around again." She smiled. "Those are the ones." She kissed him, long and languidly. He held her tightly; how could he have thought of letting her go, of pushing her away?

"It's still a long time between chuunin exams," he murmured, tracing a finger along her eyebrow and down around to her cheek.

"Maybe it's better that way," Temari suggested. "It makes it special. You won't get tired of me, I won't be around nagging you all the time, and you have all that time to come up with new ways to impress me."

Shikamaru chuckled. "Just like the students, eh? Six months to come up with a new technique?"

Temari smiled slyly and pulled herself on top of him. "Why not show me your old techniques first?" she suggested with that smooth aggression that Shikamaru could never resist. He smirked and pulled her down.