Ino had calmed down and Temari had walked the girl home. Ino thanked Temari for spending time with her today, she felt a lot better and wanted to make sure Temari knew they were now friends. She had even given Temari a small token of friendship, a bead bracelet she made by hand.

Temari happily accepted the gift and wore it straight away, but she felt guilty that she had nothing to offer Ino in return but promised to make her a gift before she'd leave the village. On that note they said goodbye to each other and then Temari realized that she had forgotten to get the snacks, so she ran towards the store once more.

Gaara was wondering what had become of Temari, he had enough time to rest his body but he never ever slept, he was dressed and was bored of waiting. The moment he heared Temari waltz in the door he ran to her, Gaara offered to help her carry the shopping bags inside.

There were so many bags filled with what appeared to be snacks, a single bag of clothing and a few bags of alcoholic drinks. Temari was old enough to buy her own alcohol and was a responsible drinker, so that's why Gaara allowed her to drink. She dropped all the bags except for the clothing one and sprinted for the bathroom to get ready. This amused Gaara, who began to shake Kankuro trying to wake him up.

Temari was pleased to have met Ino at the store; she quickly had her shower, allowed the water to soak her top to bottom and felt at peace, she ignored the pain in her hands and jumped out and dried herself, quickly doing her hair and getting dressed in the outfit she and Ino had decided on. She even let Ino talk her into buying a new pair of shoes to match the outfit, and a handbag to boot. Kankuro started knocking on the door then and nagged Temari to hurry up for he needed to get ready too.

"Hey you've had hours to get ready Kankuro so don't bug me!" she yelled out and continued to prepare herself.

Kankuro got tired of waiting for the bathroom so he went to talk to Gaara and after twenty minutes she stepped out of the bathroom. Kankuro and Gaara had no words for how mesmerizing Temari looked at that moment; the pair just stared at her for a while. Temari blushed; she was not used to this attention from her brothers.

"Do I look alright or do I need to borrow one of your outfits?"

The siblings broke away from their trance and began to laugh at Temari.

"You look beautiful, Mari" Gaara smiled at her with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"I agree" said Kankuro and then hit the showers and Gaara decided it was time to tell Temari the truth about the real reason behind visiting Konoha together.

Gaara made sure that Kankuro was in the shower before he asked to speak with Temari. She grabbed a few drinks and sat down by the dining room table. Temari assumed that Gaara would simply do his usual younger brother speech 'you know don't do anything reckless, you're a representative for Suna, and so on.' But this time was different; Gaara's facial expression had changed from being content to looking sad; Temari increased her sips. She could feel the alcohol pierce her throat from the inside and she knew whatever this was, wasn't good.

After a silence that seemed to go on for much longer than it needed, Temari asked Gaara what he wanted to discuss with her. Gaara gave her a stern look and began to explain himself.

"The council has decided that the bond between the neighbouring land of Fire and Land of Earth has become turbulent. Furthermore the Sand village had to attempt to keep the peace. And the council reached the conclusion of joining the two countries, by marriage."

Temari signalled for Gaara to hurry up and get to the point as none of this was making sense to her.

"Temari, you are the sister of the Kazekage and thus you have certain responsibilities to uphold. The council intends for you to marry a daimyo from Earth country, for you to be the link between the two nations."

Temari's mouth fell open.

Her mind was overcome with thoughts.

No words to speak.

She was simply empty.

"Wha..b-but how could this be Gaara? Don't I have a say in this? You expect me to just stop everything and hand over my life to.. another country? How could you think..."

"Listen Temari, I expect you to uphold the peace within our country, however I know that you treasure peace more than anything and therefore if you were given the opportunity, you would do anything in order to achieve this peace. Aren't I correct?"

Gaara spoke with a sad tone and although Temari was reluctant, agreed with Gaara, just not the part of marrying someone, to give up her life for another country.

"There must be another way..please..Gaara, I beg.. of you?"

Temari began to feel that familiar sting of tears beginning to form in her eyes. She never allowed herself to cry in front of anyone especially younger brother; she knew she had no right to. Especially after all the pain Gaara had suffered with being a jinchuriki. She looked toward the ground slightly bowing her head hoping that Gaara wouldn't see her emotion.

Gaara noticed Temari's eyes glistening and was caught off guard. He had never seen Temari crying, ever. Until this exact moment he believed she was incapable of crying, like him. He knew that being a Kazekage would be a lot of work but didn't expect to have so many responsibilities to Suna as he began to feel the heavy burden and shook his head slowly.

"This is the only way Temari, you have no choice but to agree with this proposition and the ceremony will be held in less than a month" Gaara began to lose the confidence in his words but caught himself

"I'm sorry Temari.".

Her world crumbled.

Her life surrendered.

She felt so cheated although she wanted to agree with Gaara, she was overwhelmed with confusion. Sure, she hadn't been in love with anyone else; there hadn't been anyone she was attracted to either, except. She thought of Shikamaru for some reason beyond her and attempted to block him out of her mind. What is he doing in my thoughts? She struggled with her reasoning.

- -memory flashback- -

Temari recollected her hidden memory about the time when the sand siblings were ordered to assist the now allied nations. They were to to aid Shikamaru's team to retrieve someone named Uchiha. It didn't matter who it was, all that mattered to her was reaching the boy who let her win the final round of the chunin exams. Thinking far ahead of Temari he lured her into a trap and captured her in his shadow possession jutsu and just as she thought the game was over for her Shikamaru gave up claiming that he ran out of chakra. At that moment she saw him differently from that little scrawny brat she saw before the beginning of the chunin exams and she had never before been so fascinated by a single person in her life.

He was a mystery to her, something that she desired to uncover for herself. Temari had reached Shikamaru just in time to save him from the enemy Tayuya. She was a little concerned to see Shikamaru almost being killed by her but when she swooped in to ask for the enemies' abilities, her initial concern for the boy was quickly replaced with aggravation as he told Temari the enemy was incredibly strong and didn't seem to have faith in Temari's skill at all. With a whip of her fan, she easily defeated the enemy and was proud of herself and Shikamaru seemed to be impressed with her quick defeat. They raced back to the hospital together not speaking a single word. She knew he was worried about his friends and it wasn't appropriate for her to intervene at the time.

- - end - -

Was it then I began seeing the boy as more than a boy? When I failed to console him with my realistic but necessary words I tried to stop him from making a mistake by giving up being a ninja. Was it when I saw Shikamaru's concerned father scold him and breaking down right of me? What was it about him that captured my interest so intensely?