Chapter 2: An Exasperating Inquiry
Temari had noticed something about that girl she and Ino just met. First, she seemed in a rush to get away from them. Even if she was in a rush to get her books to the Hokage, she seemed she didn't want their help at all, or rather-she smirked to her left-the lazy bum's help.
"So Shikamaru," Ino began to ask, "How'd you meet Shiho? I've never really seen her before, come to think of it." She cupped her thumb and index finger over her chin, contemplating it.
"She helped me out last year decoding a message, right before Pein invaded the village." He shrugged.
"Oh," Ino responded to his answer.
"Ino," Temari started, getting back in the conversation, "What was that little disagreement you and your sensei had this morning about?"
The Yamanaka sighed before answering. "Well, he said that he wanted to see how I would do as a proctor for the first exam. When I asked if he was kidding, he basically told me I got the job. Then, he says that he'll be there 'just in case', so I guess I got upset because he said he trusts me, but still finds the need to shadow me."
Shikamaru sighed, "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"
She frowned, "Why do you have to be so impassive?"
Temari regarded the younger girl, "What I think he means is, Ibiki-san obviously trusts you if he would allow you to proctor, especially at your age," She gave Shikamaru a pointed glare as he rolled his eyes before continuing, "He just wants to make sure you're safe."
Ino let out another sigh, "You're right, I did overreact, but I'm not a little Genin anymore, I can handle myself and he's seen that."
"Sure doesn't stop you from acting like one occasionally," Shikamaru muttered and Ino graced him with a glare of her own.
"Says the guy who still sleeps on the job." Temari smirked and Ino agreed with her.
Shikamaru yawned, "Give me a break, it was five in the morning, speaking of which, I would like to get some sleep before tonight..."
Temari scoffed at his obvious implication, "Whatever Nara, go sleep the day away for all I care." She said annoyed as she walked away past him.
"Wha-Temari, where are you going?"
"Figure it out, genius!" She called out over her shoulder.
Shikamaru absentmindedly scratched the area near his ponytail as he looked to his left. Ino had her arms crossed in an opposing position as she regarded him under her narrowed gaze. "What?" He asked finally, not knowing where the change in her demeanor came from.
"If you, a supposed genius, can't figure it out, then you don't deserve to be told." She said as she began to walk away, "I'm going to go apologize to Ibiki-sensei."
"And where does that leave me?"
"Didn't you say you wanted to catch up on some sleep?" She said over her shoulder, heading towards the outskirts of the Village.
He considered her question as he observed her figure walking away for a moment before smirking. 'Well, there is that…'
"Shiho, are you sure you're okay? You look a bit…disheveled."
The blonde standing opposite of her superior pushed her glasses back to the crook of her nose as she tried to straighten herself, "Yes, Lady Tsunade, I'm fine. Please continue."
The Godaime cleared her throat, "Very well. I would like to ask you for your assistance in the Chunnin Exams.
The diligent decoder wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion, "I don't understand, why would you need me for the Chunnin Exams?"
"I realized that the while the first Exam tests the mental ability of the Genin, it doesn't really test their capacity fully, since majority will figure out that they can cheat to get the answers. Knowing that, I would like you to assist in setting up several code puzzles for the Second Exam."
"But isn't the Second Exam in the forest?"
"Exactly. You see, each of the Genin have to obtain one scroll to pass. And while cheating is condoned during the Exams, I'd like to make it a bit harder for them to pass."
"So," Shiho began, "You want to have them figure out a series of codes, in order to get a scroll?"
"Exactly. You see, what majority of Genin forget is that being a shinobi isn't merely brute force, you have to have an adequate mental capacity as well. If it is too hard for certain students to pass, then so be; I'll take quality over quantity."
Shiho nodded as she looked at her village leader, "I understand Lady Tsunade. But what-"
Tsunade smirked, "I'm sure you'll figure it out and as for how to go about doing it, I'll have someone assist you."
Shikamaru stealthily stepped in through his front door and closed it with a dulled click. As he made his way through his living room, he slipped in through the small hallway and walked gently up the staircase.
"Where you going son?"
'Shit…' Shikamaru put his frustration in a solitary thought as he shut his eyes tightly, hoping he only imagined his father's voice.
"Shikamaru, are you deaf? Get your lazy ass down here." Shikamaru could practically see the smirk adorning the older man's face, the glee in his eyes for catching his son in the act.
Shikamaru sighed and resolutely trudged down the steps, running away was futile at this point. Shikato chuckled at his son's appearance.
"Boy, you look like Hell." Shikato regarded his son as he stood in front of him, completely worn down.
If Shikamaru made an attempt to glare at his father, it went unnoticed, as his indifferent expression remained solid on his face. Shikamaru crossed his arms and let out a sluggish yawn. "Yeah, that's what about an hour of sleep'll do to you, dad."
"Heh, so when did you get up this morning?" His father inquired as he took a languorous swig of his drink.
"Four thirty." A look of satisfaction grace Shikamaru's features as he saw his dad stiffen as he took a sip and did all, but spit out the substance in his mouth.
His father coughed, "That early, huh? I'd love to see the look on your mother's face when she knows that."
Shikamaru let out another unconcerned yawn, "Where is she, by the way?"
Shikato let out another chuckle, "Oh, she's not here right now," He took another swig of his sake and sat it down, "but if I were you, I wouldn't be here when she gets back." He finished cryptically.
As far as Shikamaru was concerned, that was reason enough to leave the vicinity and not return until later, much later. Shikato laughed wholeheartedly as he saw his son dash towards the front door, "Aren't you going to even ask why?"
"Nope," Shikamaru said as he headed out the door, "I'd rather not know."
Shiho walked back to the Decoder Department, bringing half of her manuals with her. She obviously brought more than what was needed and she felt foolish for it. She sighed as she gripped the lighter load at the bottom tighter. The breeze from earlier in the morning had slowed and her hair didn't fly across her vision as often. The lighter load also made it easier to carry, even making the walk pleasurable.
'I really need to get out more…' She thought observantly. It was true, due to her job, she was never required to leave her office, much less socialize. 'But that doesn't mean that I can't.' Her defiant thought spoke out to the rational counterpart.
She continued on forward, until she reached her the office. Setting her books on her desk with a dignified flop, she sat down sprawled in her seat, exhausted. It was more exercise than she had in a long time.
'I really have to get out more, who knew I was so out of shape?' The recurring thought came into her mind once again as she sighed and leaned back in her seat so that her head went back to better view the ceiling.
Her time as a kunoichi was brief, considering the fact that she was adept and suited to be working with configuring numbers, not performing jutsu in combat. Even though she was not an active shinobi, at least anymore, she'd kept her forehead protector as a last request. It was all she had signifying her days as a Leaf kunoichi, proof she had served her Village once.
Looking at top wall for a few moments, Shiho voluntarily shut her eyes, allowing the peaceful confines of shelves of books to distract her from her work, if only for a few moments.
Breaking the wonderful silence that filled the room, she heard laughter, one that sounded feminine, "Wow, you really remind me of Shikamaru…"
'Shikamaru?' She thought before she snapped to where the voice came from. "Yamanaka-san?"
She saw the girl she met this morning holding a large stack of papers, smiling brightly at her as she closed the shoji and walked in towards her desk. "Yeah, I have the First Exam tests here, Lady Tsunade said you could help me fix them."
Shiho sat up straighter with a start, "Oh right! Well, there's a seat right there," She stated, referring to the one opposite of her desk, "We can get started."
Ino set the stack of pages on her desk and sat down in the seat.
"What was that you were saying? About Shikamaru?" Shiho asked, somewhat anxiously. Being jarred out of her rest with the mention of his name had startled her more than she realized.
"Oh," Ino started with a laugh, "I was just saying how much you reminded me of him then." Then the younger girl got a mischiefious twinkle in her eyes, " He sleeps on the job too."
Shiho became wide-eyed, "No! I wasn't sleeping on the job, I was just-"
"Shiho, relax! I wasn't being serious, although," She continued suspiciously as she cupped her chin between her thumb and finger and raised a thinly shaped eyebrow in false contemplation, "you are giving me enough reason to be…"
"Well, I wasn't," Shiho said, not faltering, "And shouldn't we be working on adding the codes to the test?" She inquired truthfully as she tried to also change the subject.
"Yeah, we can do that," Ino said as she went through the pile of papers, then a smirk graced her features, "While you tell me what you were doing."
Shiho sighed, figuring that Ino would obviously find out, no matter how much she tried to avoid it, "I was thinking…" She began vaguely.
"About what?" The Mind Transferring kunoichi leaned her elbow on the desk, resting her cheek in the palm of her hand. Ino couldn't help it; the need to pry was strong, especially when Shiho seemed to be apprehensive about something. Her interrogation skills also went subconsciously to work.
Shiho sighed again, "Of my days as a kunoichi." She opted to say that, rather than what she had really thinking of, or more whom.
"Oh…" Ino faded off for a moment considering it. 'That explains the Forehead Protector around her waist…' She thought mutely. "So, you miss it?"
"Yeah," she said solitarily as she passed one of her manuals to Ino for her to look at. Shiho took one of the various copies of the First Exam and looked over it.
After a few moments in silence, Ino broke the silence once again, "Yeah, I'd miss it too…why'd you quit?" Ino asked suddenly and then mentally scolded herself for doing so. 'It's none of my business if she quit or didn't!' "Um, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to." She added hastily, feeling slightly foolish.
"It's okay Yamanaka-san," Shiho smiled slightly as she reassured Ino.
"Shiho, you can call me Ino," Ino started to giggle, "Yamanaka-san sounds like something you would call my father."
Shiho's face flushed and she nodded, "Okay, Ino. I did resign, because even though I excelled at my missions, I wasn't really cut out to live the life of a shinobi."
Ino nodded in understanding as she pointed out an acceptable code for them to use, "I sometimes used to think that. I mean, my father's a respected shinobi in this village and he was always expected to have a son to follow his example. Instead, he ended up with me," She ended with a chuckle.
Shiho started to decrypt the code as Ino timed it, seeing how long it would take for an average academy student to do it. "So you're only doing it because your father's a ninja?" She asked as she continued to write out the possible solutions.
"No, honestly," She stopped with a sigh, "I don't think I could picture myself doing anything else…" She smiled as counted the seconds, "I crave the excitement."
Shiho smiled also, "That doesn't surprise me. It's just; I've never had the heart to be a true shinobi, not really. And I was much more interested in figuring out problems, but not the action of actually doing it."
"But, isn't that what you're doing?" Ino's eyebrow creased after hearing Shiho's statement.
"Yes, but when I'm doing this, I don't worry about if the words or numbers get killed, just how they fit together."
They went back into a steady silence as Shiho continued to scratch charcoal on parchment for patterns and Ino kept track of the minutes.
Ino still thought about Shiho's previous words.
Was killing ever an issue for her? Yes and no. She always reasoned with herself that killing another person simply had to be done to complete the job, if it was necessary. Entering someone else's mind and invading their deepest, darkest thoughts? Only if it was for the sake of her village. Now torture…she never liked that word, it didn't describe what she did, or rather, it was a negative connotation to what she did. If by torture, she'd enter the crevices of mental thought, broke her opponent from the inside, made them scream for mercy, healed them on the outside and then walked out unscathed with a smile on her face…
Then yes, she tortured to the highest degree, all for her village.
She took eyes off the clock to look at Shiho. Cool focused calculation was all she saw; Shiho may have been a good kunoichi, but she was right, she didn't really fit the description of a kunoichi. For the sake of her village, she gave up that post, because if your heart weren't the one of a shinobi, the will of fire, then you would ultimately fail, no matter how good you were.
Ino saw Shiho blow upward at a wayward strand of hair as she continued her work. 'Hmm, something has to be done about that…' She put her focus back on the clock, to regain the time she didn't keep up.
Shiho quickly set her pencil down and looked up, "Done. How long was it?"
"Three minutes and twenty-four seconds." Ino informed the older girl as she took her eyes away from the clock.
"Alright, then the approximate time for an Academy student should be six minutes and forty-eight seconds." Shiho announced firmly, "That should give them enough time formulate and solve the problem."
'Then I'll get started on writing out the problem and how to get the answer on one of the test, then get it to the printing press…' Ino thought to herself. "Thanks Shiho!" She said brightly, as she got up to leave with her papers and the paper Shiho used to write out her answer, "I'll come back if I need help with anything else. Bye!"
"Okay Ino, have a nice day." Shiho waved as she walked out and closed the shoji.
Ino walked out, relived she was getting this done, but still unsure about something. When Shiho told her what she was thinking, she lied. She knew she did. Maybe it was nothing and Ino was thinking too much of it, but why did she get the feeling that it was about her strategizing teammate…?
Temari had stayed out and about in Konohagakure. Despite her escort and his indifferent antics, she was not going to spend the day enclosed by the four walls of her Hotel room.
She had thought of getting a head start and going to Hokage Tower to discuss the new changes to the Exams, but why do that when it was intended for her to spend the day around Konoha and tonight going over the arrangements with everyone else?
She sighed as she crossed her legs on the bench she currently occupied and leaned her fan off the back of it. 'What a waste of a day…' She thought as a frown set on her face. The Exams were not only meant to test the abilities of Genin of the host and other villages, but to show unity, make new friends, and ultimately better bonds with the Five Great Nations.
'But I get stuck with a lazy, nonsocial Chunnin…figures.' A scowl set itself upon her face as she sat annoyed. She didn't really think of Shikamaru that way, to an extent. However, she had more than tolerated him up until this point. She huffed, she had to admit, no one, with the exception of him, had ever had the gall to ditch her, let alone imply it.
She laughed humorlessly, 'Of course Nara wouldn't care what I, or anyone else for that matter, think of him.' She crossed her arms and sat farther back onto the bench. She spoke aloud this time, "That damn lazy-"
"Are you talking about me?" A male voice inquired and Temari sat up with a start, slightly startled out of her reverie. She the audibly growled and looked to her right.
"You are aware that I should kick your ass for scaring me that way?" She stated lowly as she narrowed her eyes in contempt.
"Heh, so I scared you?" He smirked and tread closer to her while she mentally cursed at that slip of her tongue. She turned her head the opposite direction as he sat beside her.
"Of course not!" She said through gritted teeth, "Where would you get that idea from, Nara?"
"Other than the fact that you said it…" He mused as her scowl deepened. He grinned wider and came in close until her was close to her ear, his breath dancing on her lobe, "I saw you stiffen too."
Whether the action Shikamaru did was intended or not, Temari felt it all the same, like a surge of chakra being pumped into a dormant heart. She turned towards him with a smirk of her own, "You better watch it Shikamaru, I already warned you this morning…"
Then sat there on that bench, for a moment regarding each other with their unrelenting stares. Then Shikamaru suddenly got up and put his hands in his pockets, "Of course you did, now we better hurry up, it's getting late."
Temari blinked, not realizing how late it had really gotten, Konoha's powdery blue sky vanished and was etched in a sunset. 'Have we really been here that long?…' She thought numbly to herself as she followed suit and got up as well.
Strapping her fan to her back, she fell in step with the Chunnin, crossing her arms as she walked. Outwardly, she had calmed to a cool indifference. Inside, she was boiling with an indescribable fury, how dare he disregard her threat?
She glanced over at him as he continued to walk by, as if nothing happened, as if she wasn't there. Despite how she was currently feeling, she would not gratify him with her anger. If he wanted to pretend nothing happened, two could play that game.
They continued onward to Hokage Tower in the same fashion they were in as they left the bench.
"Have you been enjoying the view?" He asked, but came out more in the form of a statement.
"What?" Temari asked, not knowing what he was talking about. She'd been to Konoha several times and now he chooses to ask her if she thought it was beautiful?
"You've been sneaking glances at me for almost the entire time." He stated the fact, almost exasperated.
She gritted her teeth in frustration, "Prove it," She said low enough for him to hear, challenging him to do so.
He merely looked over to her with his half lidded eyes and inquired if she was serious, unconcerned about her squared shoulders or the glare she held his face to. Her abrupt agility caught him off guard once again as she grabbed the collar of his Chunnin vest and pushed him against the wall of the ramen stand they ate at earlier.
Shikamaru expected her eyes to display anger, a fury that that exemplified the warning she stated earlier. However...looking into the depth of her eyes, he saw neither anger nor disapproval. The look in her eyes was something Shikamaru had never seen, directed at him especially. They glazed over and held something feral; an unexpressed anger was still there, but that look...Lust…
She pulled him towards her until his face was ghosting over hers, his mouth agape in shock as her lips inched closer. Her breath kept rising and falling from his lips with every breath she took She then smiled and said against his lips, "We better hurry up, it's getting late."
As quickly as she had grabbed hold of him, she released him and walked towards Hokage Tower with Shikamaru standing stunned against the ramen stand.
He exhaled deeply and wondered why he felt so hollow, the words she had reversed back to him still replaying in his mind.
…I think I made Temari OOC, just at the end, what do you think? This is my first time ever writing Temari's character, so I hope Tema fans aren't going to flame me…Other than that, I don't think this chapter was too bad…
And as for the votes, you can be a judge of that…
ShikaTema: 24 (The current winner!)
ShikaIno: 16 (Come on fans for this couple, you can do better than that!)
ShikaShiho: 13 (Remember to support the new girl on the block!)
Undecided: 2 (We'll wait for your final thoughts…)
I'm STILL taking votes, so don't stop, they also help encourage where the story would go, so keep that in mind.
As for the prologue, I shall attempt to explain again because I didn't do a good job last time, it was a flashback Shikamaru was reminiscing on, however, this event has not happened as of yet, but will happen later in the story…I think that covers it…
And Naputo, you were right, she did have a Konoha protector around her waist…still didn't make it any easier to write, but oh well, I like a challenge.
And I'll be sending PM's to certain reviewers of this story soon, I promise. I usually write review replies in the story, but I never have time to anymore…
The third's a wheel, but it just keeps spinning and spinning and spinning…
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