Chapter 15: Of Kings and Women
---
Temari stared at the bedside intently, wiping her eyes furiously, drying each tear as it came. She knew that getting close to someone would lead her to this, and she felt her mind telling her 'I told you so, I told you so...' over and over again.
It wasn't fair, not right. He was in that bed, in a coma for she didn't know how long (she lost count after a week), and it was all because she had been too weak to save herself. She had made a single wrong move, and he had to make up for it.
She felt someone staring at her. She blinked ferociously and turned her head slowly.
"Temari. This isn't healthy. Go home. Rest." Tsunade's smooth voice came. She tried to hide her bitter look. They hadn't been on good terms since the headbands had been discovered. They had been disposed easily, and no one had been hurt.
The minute they had arrived back, Temari was taken in for a few wounds, and the others had told the Hokage of the deaths. Shikamaru had been rushed into the special medical surgery room, and Shizune had prepared many jutsus to keep him alive. He had made no recovery. He had been in the hospital, unconscious, for more than a week. Tsunade had taken off her necklace with a quick jutsu after researching the devices, and it had fallen to the floor, broken, much like her heart.
"I'm not leaving him." She said, turning back to stare at Shikamaru. His whole upper body was covered in bandages, and his hair still fell down his face as it had been while he was in the Akatsuki. He looked so different, it made her sick. "He didn't save me for nothing. And I'm not letting him die."
"Temari, this is crazy. You know he may not—"
"Shut up!" She cried, getting up, throwing her a fiery look, fists clenched. "You lost belief in him once, and now you're doing it again. If I were him, I would have gotten Konoha destroyed, for the way you lost all hope for him!" She sputtered out, flashing Tsunade a menacing look. Tsunade looked down, eyes narrowed.
"I regret not acting as Hokage and protecting the village, no matter what. It won't happen again, but for now...Temari, if he doesn't wake up, I want you to know that what he did was save this village, and the lives lost were inevitable." Tsunade said. She turned away, regret hardening her speech. Guilt was written all over her face. She left the hospital quietly. Temari turned her head back to Shikamaru.
"You've gotten yourself in something troublesome, no matter how much you try to prevent it. Baka," She added a little softer, "You always have to go and save the woman. That's all crap, you know it, and maybe if you stopped being a lazy ass, you'd see I don't want you saving me. And going on that whole thing about how you're dying, you wouldn't dare die on me." She said, glaring at him a little bit. "You even had to change me into an emotional wreck. I hate you!" She cried, wiping her eyes. "I hate how close we became, I hate fighting beside you, I hate playing shougi with you, and I hate needing you!" She spat out, exasperated beyond words. She turned around, resting her head on her hand.
"This is why women are so..." Coughed a voice behind her. She spun around, blinking. Shikamaru's tired eyes looked back at her behind long, pointed pieces of hair. He let out a long sigh. Temari blinked, eyes wide, than jumped off of her chair, throwing her arms around his neck.
"You're not dead, you, you—" Suddenly he received a sharp punch in the shoulder. He yelped, rubbing it ferociously. "Baka!" She shrieked. "You had to go and get yourself all hurt and you had me in a wreck! Do you hear me?! I thought you were supposed to be a genius!" She sniffed. He smirked. This was Temari's way of hiding her immediate pleasure, he was sure. Troublesome women. He tried to sit up, then clutched his shoulder hard, wincing. "You got hurt, I'm sure you remember. Saving me, when I didn't need it!" She mumbled.
"You needed it, just admit it, troublesome woman." He sighed, lying back. She glared.
"Whatever." She said, rolling her eyes, giving in, just this once. He put on a smug smile and lifted his arms behind his head.
"Violent." Was all he said, to which Temari punched him again.
---
"Shikamaru." Was all Tsunade said. He felt their eyes burning into the back of his head, and he resisted the urge to wince.
He stood before Tsunade, Shizune, and Asuma. It had been a week, and he had just gotten out of the hospital, healed albeit for pain in his shoulder when he moved it too much.
He had never lost the weighed-down feeling of pain he had gotten for the lives he had helped to take with the Akatsuki. He didn't feel right in his village after what had happened, after the people he had hurt.
"I did wrong. I'm willing to take the consequences." He said stiffly, forcing himself to look up, not to be the coward he had been. He had been through too much, and he couldn't just get away with it, even if it was out of his control.
"You were captured by the Akatsuki, and blackmailed against your will to hunt nin in their patrols, from Konoha, and kill?" She asked smoothly. He didn't hesitate. He knew what he had done, but even if it was unjust, he would make up for the lives lost. Even if it was too troublesome, it was his nindo.
"Correct." He said quietly, firmly. Tsunade pressed on.
"And you kept yourself alive, rather than killing yourself and letting Konoha be swept into a war with Suna?" He blinked a few times. What was she getting at?
"I—Correct." He said, a little unsurely. Then Tsunade did the strangest thing. She took something from her drawer, and reached it out to him. His eyes took on a look of bewilderment.
His headband. No long scratch across the symbol, it was glinting at him proudly. He turned around, to see Asuma grinning proudly.
"I don't understand." He said, not taking the headband, not yet. "I aided in the killings of innocents, I fought against my own village, even lost myself and hurt without being ordered. And you're accepting me back?" He shook his head. "I don't need any special treatment, if that's what you're doing."
"Shikamaru...for what you did, keeping yourself alive in perilous conditions for the sake of your village...you're a hero. Any coward would have saved themselves to be self-indulgent. But you—you saved us. You're no coward." Tsunade said, smiling. "And the lives...Shikamaru, you have to understand...the Akatsuki would have taken those lives one way or another. With or without you." She said firmly.
"My headband, though...it—"
"A metal-working jutsu. Quite handy." Shizune said happily.
"Thank you...Hokage-sama. Asuma-sensei." He said, relief pouring over him. To be forgiven so easily...he was so happy he was back in his village, let alone alive.
The Akatsuki were never a village. They had no compassion for each other, only their goals. They worked towards one thing only, and this was the only thing keeping them together. If put in a situation between getting what they want, and their comrades lives...they would not take their comrades, for sure.
Shikamaru walked out, only to see Temari waiting for him. He grinned at her sidelong, only to see her staring down at the ground as if something was bothering her.
"Temari...what's so troublesome that you're not being violent?" He asked, almost jokingly. She shook her head. He narrowed his eyes, and looked at her right hand. In it was a bag. "Temari—"
"I'm going back to the sand." She said stiffly. He looked thoroughly shocked.
"But, I thought you...I..."
"Shikamaru..." She turned to him, stopping. "You make me weak, can't you see? I haven't been myself in months. Even the whole year! I need to stay strong. Do you think we...can be we? It wouldn't work, you know it as well as I do." She said, wiping her eyes, although no tears came. Pain hinted at her voice.
"Temari, troublesome woman, what about when we fought—" He said, with a disbelieving sigh. Women were so dramatic. Was she really serious?
"That's just it!" She cried, turning to him. Her eyes flickered something unknown. "I can't live knowing that one day, every day...we're risking our lives, Shikamaru! If you died...a part of me would die with you. Doesn't that scare you?" She asked, her voice cracking.
She was afraid. She knew that a ninja's life was full of risks. Death lingers on every mission. People know it, but Shikamaru had felt it. He too had been scared. He felt the cold, loneliness seeping through him as his breath staggered.
"Temari...please..." He said, reaching for her hand. She shook it away, stomping off.
"Crybaby. You and I both know it wouldn't work." She said, and began to walk. 'What the hell are you doing? You remember the Chuunin Exams...this...you're scared because that stone heart is breaking, you know it. And now you're scared and running away like a coward. Baka.' She told herself, but shook the thoughts away. She was a kunoichi. Love was to be cast away, with all the other needless emotions. That was her nindo...right?
---
"Your turn." Came Asuma's voice, breaking Shikamaru out of his thoughts. Immediately after Temari had spoken to him, Shikamaru had gone to the top of the rooftops to think, although his thoughts were interrupted by Asuma, requesting a game of Shougi for old times' sake. He couldn't turn him down.
Shikamaru picked up his knight and set it down in a careless move. Asuma blinked rapidly as he picked up a piece and easily captured his king.
"I...win." He said, disbelievingly. Shikamaru just shrugged, and laid back, staring up at the sky. Asuma narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Something's wrong. I know as well as you do I couldn't win a game of Shougi to you to save my life. You're game's off. What is it?" Asuma asked, staring at him.
Shikamaru blinked, then got up, resting his head on his arm.
"The King." Was all he said, slowly. "You've told me all the other pieces, me the knight...everyone else. But you never told me the King." Asuma smiled, lighting a cigarette.
"Heh. Surprised you didn't notice it before." He said, popping the cigarette in his mouth. "The King varies." He said, picking up said piece. Shikamaru listened intently. "From person to person. Everyone's different. Basically, the King is the piece that you protect against anything else. Someone you love." He said, his eyes flickering something.
Across the way, Kurenai's team was training. He turned to see Kurenai wave, to which he did the same. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and slowly smirked.
"And your King?" He asked. Asuma chuckled, putting the piece back down. "I'll tell you one day." He said happily, then stared at Shikamaru.
"What does this have to do with your problem, again?" He asked innocently. Shikamaru caught this. He knew.
"I've gotta go. Something troublesome to deal with." Shikamaru said, getting up. He smirked, looking back at Asuma. "Thank you...Asuma-sensei." He said, and went off running.
Asuma smirked as he swept the pieces of the board. 'That kid must have found some troublesome woman to get his motivation going.'
A/N: OMG NOT THE END! No, no fairytale endings for me