Sorry about the long delay! Just haven't had a lot of creative motivation lately. I do hope to update sooner in the future, though! Haha, I'm always apologizing for my scatterbrained writing - this chapter's a little more introspective, but things will start moving more quickly as the story progresses, I think!
When Temari woke, her eyes felt dry and her head hurt - pulsing with an uncomfortable warmth.
She remained beneath her covers, stubbornly refusing to move, even in spite of the fact that she had business to be getting to very soon. Her stomach growled and she added eating a meal to the list of things to be getting to soon. She did regret skipping dinner the night before.
Sighing, she buried her face in her pillow, finding herself wishing that she could bar out the memory of the events of the previous night. Couldn't they just go on like nothing had happened? No… no they couldn't. What did he mean by 'more stability'? (She had asked herself this over and over throughout the early morning hours.) He would have suggested something more specific if he'd intended to, right? Or was he feeling too awkward to really express his feelings or… No. She recalled something he'd told her, years ago. If Shikamaru set out to truly accomplish a task, he would get the job done. He would not have been so vague unless he intended the suggestion to be so. At least, that's what she hoped. But did she really want them to be together under such abstract terms? Or even at all? She wasn't sure what to think anymore.
Just as she had made up her mind to drag herself out of bed, a faint pounding sounded from her front door in the next room and she ran to answer it, brushing past Shikamaru who was poised to open it himself.
Kankuro stood in the hall, a brow raised beneath his lines of Kabuki paint. He looked slightly surprised to see Shikamaru standing behind Temari, but he grinned and winked at them, turning to leave. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything! I'll come back later if you'd like."
"No!" Temari said. A bit more loudly than she'd intended to. Shikamaru coughed. "Er, no."
"No, you're not interrupting." Temari insisted, rather bemused at the idea of her brother even bothering to be conscientious at all. "And why are you here?"
"Storm came in this morning." Kankuro jabbed a thumb in the general direction of 'outside'. "The canyon walls are surrounded now and no one can get out through the gates. If you ask me," Kankuro added, "the founders of our village should have done a better job of constructing this place. Yeah, it's a great fortification for battles, but it can also just as easily be turned into a death-trap."
Something stirred in the back of Temari's mind at those words, but she was too tired to really grasp a hold of them.
"Anyway!" Kankuro shrugged, seeming oddly optimistic. "This morning a sensory ninja located six chakra points around the barrier. If we could make it through and take out at least two of them, there's a chance the barrier will dissipate. The inner village itself is pretty much alright for now, though - it's like we're in the eye of the storm."
It wasn't quite as bad as being trapped in the storm itself, but it was still unpleasant, as Temari soon found out.
After Temari and Shikamaru had quickly, and wordlessly, readied themselves, they followed Kankuro out into the darkened streets, squinting to shield their eyes from the sand. Even the sky had been blocked out. Luckily, Temari and Kankuro had scarves to block much of it from their faces. (Shikamaru wasn't quite as fortunate.)
Under other circumstances, Temari might have loaned him a scarf, or let him use her own, perhaps, but…
"Oh, damn it all." Temari grumbled, resolve crumbling. She removed the swath of fabric and tossed it back into the insufferable man's cringing face. "Take this, Nara. You look pathetic."
He took it with a grateful expression, tying it close around his mouth.
She half wished she hadn't done such a thing, but it was too late to change her actions now. (Additionally, she just didn't have the time to be worrying over her fuzzy and undefined relationship with him at that moment, but guilt simmered in the pit of her stomach.)
Besides... she was accustomed to sandstorms. A memory surfaced of an angry, four-year-old Gaara, surrounded by several ninjas attempting to subdue him. She and Kankuro had hidden behind a nearby building, but the air still hurt to breathe and the whipping grains stung her eyes to tears - she still wasn't certain as to whether those tears had been her own or due to the sand. She firmly pushed the recollection away - she found it best not to dwell on those times too much.
The trio finally met up with Maki, a jounin whom Temari had frequently recruited for patrol squads. According to Kankuro, she'd agreed to join the research task force just that morning and Temari felt glad for the company. (And additional assistance, too, of course.) Kankuro went off on his own way and the remaining party hurried off to the archives.