A/N: This is feeling like a part time job I've totally screwed up. But unless you're fired you have to continue doing it. Not that I don't enjoy the process, my juice flow isn't circulating well.
Disclaimer: NARUTO not mine. I wouldn't be doing this if it were and if it were mine, I'd MAKE SHIKAMARU TOTALLY SCREW TEMARI DAMN WELL.
*****
His shadow binding technique had failed on her, she managed to break lose. Now she was hiding from him, waiting for him to be deadly weak then she attacks.
"Fucking coward," he muttered, "afraid to face up to an injured Shinobi."
He winced at the pain that shoot up from his calve, the infection was spreading, if he didn't cure it soon he might has to amputate his leg. He felt the sunken joint in his thumb, the tiny bone fragments grinding against each other with the pull of each muscle.
He had initially broke his thumb to release himself from a genjutsu this fuchsia colored hair girl put him under. She claimed to be Tayuya, one of the Sound Five, Orochimaru's people. That faggot couldn't do thing by himself, he had to send his little itsy bitsy experiments to come do his dirty work and clear his crowded path to Konoha. At a time like this, where both Suna and Konoha are at war with each other, an attack from Orochimaru was the last thing they needed.
There was a flash of flaring red hair in between trees, he cautiously shifted his positioned on the large tree branch to increase his evasiveness. She was close by and he could sense it.
"She isn't good at close combat, that's why she goes for long distance attacks," he processed, "it wouldn't be wise of her to come charging towards me thinking I wouldn't see it coming, she would rather wait for me to attack and follow up on the move with a quick combat and attack back with a genjutsu from where she is."
He slid his hand into his Shuriken Holster and withdrew a handful of Shurikens. He spread them in his palm into a lotus shape and sensed her presence.
"She isn't very far," Shikamaru thought, "a shot to the left and she would dodge to the right and get hit by the Shuriken a sent flying in that direction 0.1 seconds after the launch of the first one."
He did it, sent the two shurikens flying in between the trees one 0.1 seconds after the other. Sure enough he heard a cry of pain, it was a direct hit. He tried to reach of a couple more, but a sharp pain shoot up to his thigh and his knee gave way causing him to land on his knees on the branch.
At that point,
he was inevitably,
vulnerable.
Too vulnerable.
He looked up, she was suddenly in front of him, glaring down at him with bloodstains on her white shirt. She was snickering, like a witch.
"You dirtied my outfit," she said, with a harsh voice, "you know it's hard to get bloodstains of a piece of fabric, I've tried, but human blood just can't be washed away. I guess that's a form of reminding you of your sins, how many people you've killed. Very tormenting indeed, but at the same time it inexplicably is soothing to the soul, knowing how many less people are there in the world that can harm you."
He glanced at the flute she held on her left hand, "what do you want bitch?"
She grinned, "lesser people that can harm me."
"I don't think there will be anyone to harm you in hell," Shikamaru muttered.
She came closer to him, "I'm not going to be the one going to hell."
He was aware of the fact that death was imminent unless an angel fell from the sky and rescued him- highly impossible, seeing the fact that there aren't any angels around to begin with, the only angel he had seen has gone back home, gone back to heaven.
Yes, angels did have blond hair and blue eyes, dirty blond hair and teal blue eyes to be exact. They said angels were pretty, well they were lying, they had been spitting out rubbish, for the angel he had seen proved them wrong. She would make them cry in shame if even they said angels were pretty, cause they're not.
No, how can she be pretty.
In all the horrible ways, she was tough, strong and bold. She spoke her mind and she wasn't afraid of possibilities. She valued peace and spoke in a situation where everyone would emerge as winners in their own right. So if every angel were like that.
Pretty would be a sheer understatement.
She was beautiful.
Both inside and out.
He knew he was going to think about her every single fucking day of his life and that was not ok, not good at all.
Not only was she the 'enemy', thinking about things, dreaming about corrupt thoughts, was, simply violating the laws of being a ninja. Having emotions, dreams, thoughts and not to mention hormones devour your every senses was troublesome and uncalled for.
But he didn't blame her, he blames himself for being like this, for liking an angel, for wishing to see her more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more until he can have no more.
This was sick.
He blames his hormones and his stupid fucking retarded dick.
"Send me a postcard from hell," Tayuya said, "shadow nin."
She took out a kunai, prepared to stab him in all sorts of places that would kill him and knock him out.
He sat there crouching, pending his doom and wishing for a miracle to come by, cause honestly not matter how troublesome life seemed, there was always a reason for him to go by each day.
And so he waited there, imagining the piercing pain of the kunai and the rusted feeling of metal in his blood, he thought of where she would tackle first and hope deep it would be, cause honestly saving yourself is much more troublesome than ending yourself and he knew he wasn't sane anymore.
He was contradicting himself.
He wished to go to heaven at least sane.
But it didn't come, all he felt was a strong gust of wind and the branch he was sitting on wobble.
"Haha," he laughed in his head, "had that idiot fell off the branch cause a little tiny wind blew her off? Pathetic."
He looked up.
So a miracle happened. God was smart enough to send the most desired angel to come for him, how perfect.
Apparently, she had blew Tayuya away with her giant, iron fan.
"Temari?" he tried to pull himself up by using the support of the tree trunk.
"Tell me her battle style," Temari ordered, "you've battled her, tell me."
He explained everything to her.
She nodded and opened her fuckingly huge fan.
"Long distance," he decided to sum it up quickly, after all, it won't be long before she uses her genjutsu on them, "attacks with her genjutsu then when her opponent is at their weakest, she attacks, we're at a disadvantage here, bec-"
"I didn't ask for your opinion," Temari bit her thumb and drew a line of blood on her fan, "if that person thinks that she's going to hide away while we wait for her to play her flute, she's just too naïve."
"What?" Shikamaru looked at her firm and steady back, there was a scary aura exerting from her, she was sure of herself.
"Kuchiyose," she swept her fan to one side, "Kirikiri Mai."
He closed his eyes, everything started flying around and falling apart, wind swept all over the place and blew stuff he never knew could be blown, away.
And when he felt that all mother nature has settled down and come to place, he opened his eyes and found nothing but clear forest land with an open road and some pretty amazing person.
"It's over," she said calmly even after mass destruction, "she's dead," she turned to face him and guess what she did.
She smiled.
A ruthless and violent smiling girl stood before him and he was thankful for that. There was probably no one else in this world he would like to see smile more than her.
Which was pretty scary, considering the fact that they had just met.
"Did you send this?" she handed him the paper slip, "I highly doubt so."
"No I didn't," he said reading it through, analyzing the handwriting, "but I've seen it before, once, quite sometime ago."
She knelt down beside him, "and who does it belong to? Someone from your village?"
He shook his head, "if it were that person would have come to save me by himself, not send you here."
"Maybe that person's is from the Sound village," Temari said, "if you look at it this way, maybe this person is trying to test our skill and ability on their own people."
"Why would they want to do that?" Shikamaru asked, "you're making this much more troublesome than it's supposed to be."
"Because our villages are at war," she said calmly, "because our villages are at war Shikamaru!"
It clicked.
"So when it is a time of total chaos and destruction," Shikamaru thought out loud, "it is an opportunity for infiltration of Konoha. They've been trying to destroy Konoha for eons already and finally, they've thought of a rational plan."
Temari gasped, "they initiated it at the perfect time."
"No," Shikamaru disagreed, "the reason why the war even started was because of the conflict that aroused between our two villages. Your village said that one of the shinobis from our village killed one of you shinobi because there was a leaf village forehead protector left at the crime scene."
"And a few days after your village came to us saying we killed one of your shinobis because of a Sand village forehead protector left," Temari dwelled on the thought, "this made your village think we did it out of revenge and the war started."
They both jumped down from the tree and start picking pace on the ground.
"But look at it this way," Shikamaru suggested, "who in the fuckingly right mind would blatantly leave their forehead protector at the scene of the crime."
"It was a set up," Temari said, "to get our two villages to go into war."
Shikamaru dropped into the ground, "damn it," he inspected his leg, "the infection is spreading, if we don't treat it there is a possibility that I have to amputate it."
"What?" Temari knelt down and examine his leg, "that means you can no longer be a ninja, all your years of hardwork would be put to waste."
He sighed, "this is troublesome."
"Get up," she commanded, "get up you lazy piece of shit."
"Why?" Shikamaru didn't feel like moving, he wasn't in the mood, "it's such a drag."
"Nara Shikamaru, if you don't treat that fucking wound the infection may not only spread to your legs, it will spread through out your body, it would be pain and not to forget troublesome, and it will continue spreading until… until it reaches your heart," she tried to hold back the tears that might superfluously come down her cheeks if she weren't careful, "and when it reaches your heart… you… you will die," she said die in almost a squeak, it was a dreadful word for the victim and those around him, "and I remember that there was a young boy who once told me about an ugly feeling you would feel when you lose someone you care about, and this boy is kind and thoughtful and caring and many things people aren't, and if this boy doesn't have the will to save himself," she paused, she knew she mustn't cry, she wouldn't, she couldn't, "I would felt the ugly feeling and I don't want to feel that ugly feeling and I know he doesn't want me to feel that feeling too, because he told me, he told me he didn't want me to feel it, because it was horrible."
"Temari…"
"And," she interrupted him, "and now, he has gone back at his word and decided, 'hey why not let her feel this horrible ugly feeling, yeah, lets teach this self- centered, pathetic, arrogant, ugly bitch what it is like to feel the hurt, and then she won't be so greedy'," she paused and wiped off the salt water collecting in her eyes, "yes, I have learnt my lesson, yes, I have regretted leaving the holding facility just to get things going my own way, I have regretted defying Baki's orders, and I'm sorry. But there is nothing I can do about it now, expect move on. That's what you have to do Nara Shikamaru, you have to move on."
There was a sheer, awkward silence before he got up and steadied himself.
"You are very troublesome, you know," he started walking, leaving her behind, "and the boy has moved on, what about the girl?"
*****
A/N: don't mean to brag, but I like my last part, it was nice, in a sad way.
Next chapter:
They head back to Konoha, it was going to take them another day, but until then, what are they going to do?
Review!
