Temari had been running for over ten hours since her last stop. 13 hours, you can do better than this Temari, I'm almost home.. another hour and I'll be home. But she was truly beyond fatigued.
She hadn't eaten.
She hadn't slept.
She hadn't recovered.
The morning had been so calming and blue. She had never seen such a pure blue sky. Temari had seen the sky losing its rich colours and felt the wind increase. What is this, a storm? She didn't know she wasn't safe and someone had followed her from Konoha's gates. All of a sudden a female ninja in a black and blue kimono stood before her and she stopped abruptly.
"Sabaku no Temari I presume?" a voice pierced Temari's eardrums. This ninja had a face similar to Tenten's except her brunette hair was tied up in a ponytail and she had deep green eyes.
"Who's asking?" she replied with a cold sharp tone, placing her hand on her fan.
"You're to surrender and come with me immediately. Lord Takubo has given me strict orders to..."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't know who this Lord of yours is and I wouldn't go with you even if my life depended on it"
"You don't want to push me Sand Shinobi. Have you not noticed the storm?"
"What do you mean the storm? Of course I noticed you'd have to be blind not too!" she snapped.
"I am Suihino. My skills are ones I invented on my own out of boredom, I am able use all of the nature elements and combine them. As you can already imagine I can do things you've only seen in your nightmares." She was calm and didn't budge when she saw Temari put her fan in front of her own body.
"I wouldn't even think about fighting against me, you would lose. I can tell you this now and spare you the effort. You look as if you are about to die on me silly Temari." she looked at Temari with unreadable eyes.
"Don't underestimate me woman. I will take you on" thinking about Shikamaru, she picked up her fan and waved it around, but her wind attack missed the ninja as she absorbed the wind into her palms.
"Thank you sand Shinobi. It's delicious, give up you can't defeat me" she spoke with a voice that taunted Temari and infuriated her as she continued walking towards Temari.
"Why are you doing this? How are you controlling this storm?" she questioned as she was walking backwards thinking about her friends.
"I live to serve Lord Takubo and with your hand in marriage he will allow your friends to live"
"WHAT? How will you do that? You don't have the power to do that!" she yelled thinking about her brothers.
"Don't push me. My master has been planning this attack for months to the slightest detail. Currently Konoha is in the middle of a hurricane thanks to me and there seems to be a fire spreading too. They will all perish if I don't stop my Hurricane Crush Jutsu"
"I see so you are responsible for this. I will agree to go with you, just please, promise to stop the hurricane. I swear I will kill you if anyone has been hurt." Thinking about her country she threw her fan to the side and held her hands up in defeat. She knew her body had no energy and her brain couldn't come up with a better solution. At that moment the ninja vanished, turning up behind Temari and knocked her unconscious.
Shikamaru had tried to keep the fire under control but thanks to the wind had the flames had erupted into a massive fire and spread further into the buildings surrounding them. The wind was so forceful it was blinding him and there was nothing else he could do trapped in the fire. He really thought the fire would engulf the two of them, until the storm vanished with a blink of an eye and the sky returned to bright blue. Lee had turned up and begun dumping water on the fires and Gaara helped with his sand drowning the flames and within minutes they had covered all the flames.
"That was close" Shikamaru uttered "Are you alright Ino?" he looked towards her with concern.
"I'm fine, sorry I didn't do much" she spoke with sadness in her voice
"Much? You didn't do anything!" he was joking trying to cheer her up. He knew that she liked to argue with him and it would cheer her up in an odd way.
"Shut up Shikamaru, I thought we were going to die together" she cried. Her tears seemed to hit him and he kneeled onto his knees in front of her. He reached out his hand and touched her cheek.
"Ino don't cry, crying doesn't suit you, everything's okay now, alright?" he had only meant to comfort her when she pulled him by the collar, forcing his whole body to move forward and pushed her lips onto his with her tears flowing endlessly. He allowed himself to kiss her back hesitantly, he didn't know what he was doing but it felt nice to kiss Ino who was comforted by him kissing her in return.
Lee just stared at them. After he did all the work, he wanted a reward of sorts too. He coughed loudly breaking the two of them apart. Gaara stood beside Lee in shock.
"Ino-chan I will have my kiss now" he smiled with his wide grin showing his shiny white teeth.
"Dream on Lee" Ino answered in a sarcastic tone with a blush spreading on her cheeks as she hadn't realized they had an audience.
Kankuro had stayed hidden, but he saw the kiss. He came from hiding and stared at Shikamaru with the angriest look he could make. Gaara simply turned to walk away.
"We're leaving today Shikamaru." He didn't stop to talk and kept his sadness hidden. This must have been why Temari left so suddenly. He kept walking signalling for Kankuro to do the same. He turned away and walked with Gaara with equal sadness. No wonder she left.
Shikamaru felt guilty and foolish when he realized what he had done. Everything he seemed good at was causing troubles for the ones he cared for. He didn't act but helped Ino to her feet and told Lee to take her to the hospital, and then he ran in the direction of Gaara and Kankuro.
"Gaara please stop!" "I need to speak with you"
"Shikamaru you don't want to be around me right now, I'm warning you –back off." Gaara tried his best to keep calm.
Kankuro on the other hand couldn't do what his brother could and turned to face Shikamaru.
"How could you do this to Temari" was all he managed to spit out.
"Wait it's not what you think!" Shikamaru felt like the villain ready to be written out of the screenplay.
That's when Gaara couldn't control himself either and let his sand trap Shikamaru in place.
"What is it then Leaf shinobi, chose your words carefully" he spoke with intent to kill Shikamaru.
"Let me go, I want to go with you to Suna, I need to see Temari, I need to tell her how I feel" he murmured
"Boy I don't even think you know what you're feeling, by the looks of it you and that blonde friend of yours are more than just 'friends' so why would you even bother yourself with our sister!" Kankuro was pissed off and he wanted Gaara to kill him slowly a thousand times over.
"BECAUSE I'M IN FUCKING LOVE WITH HER!" Shikamaru screamed and had tears in his eyes. "I admit I am a coward when it comes to your sister; I've wanted to be with her for many years now, but I never knew how to confess my feelings for her. I wanted to last night but then my friend kissed me in front of my best friend and..." he cried unwillingly.
He couldn't finish what he wanted to say, he was overcome with anguish. Shikamaru knew that no matter how much he wanted to rewind time he wouldn't be able to; he had hurt his best childhood friend, hurt and misled his teammate and hurt the woman he loved with his entire being. The hurt couldn't be taken back it had already happened but he wanted to try and do what Temari had told him to do which was to fix the mess.
"I see. Shikamaru you understand that you and Temari cannot be together." He released the sand from Shikamaru and it was returning into his gourd.
"I understand but I wish to confess my feelings to her and have her choose what do to!" he fell to the ground "If this is marriage is set up for the sole reason to join two countries, a marriage based on lies and force will do anything but join the nations. M-Marriage is sacred and should only be used to join two people who can't live without each other." Shikamaru stood up, wiped his face and looked directly at the Kazekage.
"So this is what it took to make you confess your feelings, well you haven't confessed to her yet have ya?" Kankuro had a smile on his face. "About bloody time!" he walked over to the Leaf ninja and punched him in the guts.
"Don't you ever –ever hurt her or I will not hesitate in cutting off your member, you know which one right? Your p.."
"Kankuro if you wouldn't mind, we really need to go report to Lady Tsunade." Gaara interrupted which Shikamaru was thankful for. "Now. Let's find the Hokage"