Title: Sweet Release
Summary: After him, no other man could satisfy the hunger the dark man left his lovers with. They called him Casanova. ShikaTema
Author: Bibliophile Nincompoop
--
The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
~Thomas S. Szasz
--
Chapter 8: Forgive Me
Silence passed over them, and Shikamaru looked at her with those eyes. She knew what he wanted to talk about. "Go ahead, tell me."
His genius mind was like a hamster on a wheel trying to figure what to say. Though he had thought of many ways to start, he didn't know which on to choose. "Don't interrupt me ok, this may not make much sense at first but just listen."
She nodded slowly.
"At first it was smoking, then it was drinking, then it was both, then it was killing and grueling missions but nothing could ever take my mind off of Asuma's death. It haunted my dreams at first, and then when I was awake. One day while I was drinking this prostitute came up to me and before I knew it we were back in my apartment. I wasn't dating you anymore at this time, you didn't even really want to talk to me at that point. And then when we found your attackers and it became official that you were killed, nightmares of your death and Asuma's death just brought more and more women. But it helped, being with those women helped calm my troublesome brain. Until, you came back into my life.
"I use to be able to go months, and now I can only go weeks. I don't know how or why, but it just did. I didn't want to tell you earlier and I was afraid you'd find out, I just didn't want to see your face afterward. The disgust."
He looked at her trying to see her face, but she kept her head down looking at her purple cast. "So I met up with Kagna, she didn't know who I was nor I did her. But she pulled me inside without a single thought. After we were done, all I could think about was how I betrayed you. How with every woman I've ever been with, I was betraying you. So I stopped. And suffering through those three weeks of nightmares, was well worth it."
"Why didn't you ask me?" She finally faced him. Her face held no emotion, like the perfect ninja she was. But her eyes seemed so hurt and angry.
"Ask you what?"
She shook her head lightly, "To relieve you, I am your wife after all. It would have even made our position more believable."
Shikamaru paused smiling sadly, "I didn't want to force you, I wanted to wait."
"I would have. I would have wanted it too..." A silent tear dropped down Temari's cheek. "But now it would only be an obligation to our situation."
The shadow user hung his head, he didn't care about sex. That was the last thing on his mind when thought about her. They sat in silence, the air around them was not filled with anger or animosity, just sadness and understanding. "I love you."
Her eyes brimmed with salty tears, she forced them back with every ounce of strength she had left. She meant for her voice to come out strong, but it came out cracked. "I don't love you."
"You're a horrible liar." He chuckled sadly.
"Just get out." Temari demanded.
Shikamaru rested his hand on hers, "Temari..."
"Get the hell out! Just get the hell away from me!" The blonde screamed at the top of her lungs. She bit her quivering lip, glaring at him. "I hate you. I hate you!"
"No."
"GO! You stupid idiot! I hate you!" She yelled again, her tears engulfed her eyes but she still held them back. "You've made me weak! You've made me weak."
"Sir..." The doctor peeked into the room. "You're going to have to leave the room, until she wants you to come back. We don't want her to stress her body any farther."
Shikamaru got up ever so slowly reaching over the grab Temari's hand which she quickly moved away from him, turning her head towards the wall opposite of the door. He sighed silently and walked away. Not even sparing a goodbye.
But even after he left, she did not dare to let her tears fall. "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice... shame on me."
Recovery for Temari had been easy, since she'd been through the procedures more than once, a lot more than once. She had gone home the next day, Shikamaru by her side the entire time. He made her breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the first week. But after that she went back to the usual routine, for the most part.
"Temari!" Shikamaru shot up from his spot on the bed, his forehead drenching in sweat. He automatically looked down at the woman next to him, who still had her eyes shut but was sitting up the pat his back. He laid back down squeezing her in his arms, this was the only time she would actually let him touch her now.
"Shika..." The blonde whispered in her sleep.
"Yes troublesome woman." He answered kissing her forehead, she smiled.
"Don't leave me."
He held her tighter, "Never."
Like every morning she woke up not knowing what happened when he woke from his nightmares, but he had an unusually happy smile on.
"Are you ready to go into town?" Shikamaru asked her, resting his hand on her shoulder.
She quickly walked out of his grasp and headed out the front door. She hadn't spoken to him since that night, nor did she want to. It was childish, but honestly... she had nothing to say to him, well at least nothing nice.
Temari could feel everyone's eyes on her, on her fresh scars, on her fading bruises. But she held her head high, like always and paid no attention to them. Shikamaru would attempt to keep her company until he absolutely had to go to work. But after he left, came even more pain. The men who would chuckle or even approach her asking and sometimes demanding basically to go home with them. Temari would just keep walking, but none would go after her thankfully. Even the women in town exiled her, whispering 'that's her', 'it's her husbands fault', 'if she were prettier her husband wouldn't have to go off with other women' and other such comments. If they only knew.
I am ready to go home. Go to war with this damn place, blow them off the map. She sighed inwardly, looking up at the Raikage's office. No I don't want that. But I do want to go home, my little charade is over.
Temari made her way up the stairs to the large building, her leg burning with pain with each step. Physical pain was nothing to her, she could endure it. She walked past the dainty little secretary who was more caught up in her nail polish than who was going toward the Raikage's office. Soon Temari was faced with that large doors, which her knuckled raked against with four solid knocks.
"Come in." She pushed open the doors to see the Raikage and his brother sitting together discussing some trivial thing. "Oh Miss. Temari I was actually expecting your husband, but what can I do for you."
"He's not my husband." It felt so weird for her to speak for the first time in a week, but she was just glad that her voice came out strong. "Not legally."
"But..." Both of the dark men started staring at her disbelieving.
"My name is Temari of the Desert. Temari the wind mistress. Temari the cold hearted Sunan bitch. Take your pick." She said holding back her smirk. "I was sent here to spy on your country, to find out if the rumors of war were true."
The man in the shades snapped his fingers, "I knew you looked familiar babe. Where's the big fan?"
"At home. My home in Suna." The blonde took in a deep breath. "I am leaving your village, to return home, with your permission or not. Kill me now if you wish. I just wanted to sit down and talk to you about a possible peace treaty, before I demolish this village into tiny pieces."
The Raikage cleared his throat with a smile on his face, "I am sorry Miss but a treaty of peace has was signed roughly about ten minutes ago."
"What!?" She yelled, "By who?"
"Me." A deep voice came from the door behind her. She whipped around to see Shikamaru. He had the lightest of smiles on his face. "It's nice to hear you screaming again."
"Don't get use to it." She growled looking back at the Kumo officials, bowing to them. "It's been a pleasure meeting you both, goodbye."
"You're still leaving babe?" The biju asked.
She glared at the man in the doorway, "I have no reason to stay."
The blonde woman walked from the room knocking her EX husband of balance in the process. She quickly made her way into her EX home and grabbed her bag, which she never unpacked. The day they came home Shikamaru nearly had a field day seeing it on the floor, not that he should care. Temari wrapped up four days worth of food and took one last look of the house. She went and opened the door only to find the EX cloud ninja standing in the doorway, once again.
"Move."
"No." He forced her back into the house shutting the door and locking it behind him.
He kept walking towards her, and she moved back not wanting to be near him. Her back touched the wall and she gasped in shock, Shikamaru put both of his arms beside each sides of her head leaning closely in. His earthy chocolate eyes smelted her insides, nearly making her into a puddle on the floor. Her heartbeat was erratic, she still loved him. She still wanted him, but he was going to have to fight for it.
He sighed, the fiercness lost in his eyes, "Lets go to Konoha."
"I am going straight back to Suna." She looked away from him, his arms still blocking her exit.
"Nonsense, troublesome woman." He scoffed pushing himself off the wall. "Plus my mom would like to see you, your like a daughter to her. She cried when you were announced dead."
"I can't say she'd do the same with her lazy son." Temari smirked.
Shikamaru chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, "She was probably the one who killed me." Temari laughed and so did he. "So are we ok? I mean with the whole.."
"For now, I still don't forgive you though. But I can tolerate your presence until we get to Konoha." She grabbed her bag off the floor. "Well I'm leaving right now, catch up ok."
"Oy! Don't make me run!" But she ran out the door, slamming it behind her. "Damn troublesome woman."
After two hour of sprinting Shikamaru finally caught up with Temari, she chuckled at her little game. The blonde was surprised he actually ran that far, for that long.
"Troublesome. Woman." He breathed out each word.
She smirked at him, "If you can make it all the way to Konoha without stopping to sleep within the next twenty-four hours, I'll let you take me out for dinner."
Shikamaru pondered this for a moment. Sleep or a date with the troublesome woman? Man that was a hard choice.
"Make it thirty hours and it's a deal." He bargained, hope gleaming in his sharp eyes.
"Fine."
Your lazy ass won't make it in even forty, sucker.
Temari glared at the smug bastard next to her, wanting more than anything to knock that smirk off his face. They made it to Konoha, with two bathroom/food breaks, in twenty-eight hours. If he wasn't such uncaring jerk he probably would have been grinning like the idiot he was.
People that saw her gasped and pointed. What do they know about Shikamaru cheating here too? News spreads fast I guess.
"She's a ghost." A woman whispered. Oh they still thought I was dead.
"Boo." She chuckled inwardly, while Shikamaru ran his palm over his face.
The leaf ninja sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets, "Come on troublesome woman, you owe me a well earned date."
"And what exactly are you going to do on this date?" The blonde ambassador asked skeptically.
"We need to get some rest first, my mom should be starting dinner in an hour."
Temari scoffed. What a stupid man, he finally has the chance to take her out and he wants to go home.
"At least I can bitch about you to your mother."
------------------
Ok my readers, the next chapter is quite long if I say so myself. I had written it all in this chapter but it was way to long for my liking.
There is some kind of tangy fruit in the next chapter.
Tell me about grammatical errors please.
