Kojiro gave them an offer.
It was simply actually: just your standard prisoner exchange. The deal? Akemi for the Scroll of the Red Sand. No tricks. No gimmicks.
He had seen village after village pull stunts like this before, many failing because of faulty ambush plans, but that wasn't his case. All he wanted, truly, was to return his daughter under his control. He could immediately recoil and attack the second she was next to him. That is, if she was in a decent condition. Akemi would take control the moment she was back on her home turf. Her army would rise behind her and strike down the foe before they even had a moment to move.
Kojiro had made sure that he prepared his eldest child for the horrors of prisonership. If either of them had come under the hand of the enemy, such as now, they had patterns and maneuvers ready for an immediate attack the second the exchange went underway. It was simple. Akemi would be free, move half way and immediately attack with one of the many puppets Kojiro had meticulously planted under the sands in her absence. It would wipe the entire enemy convoy out in one fell swoop.
Kojiro sat with a steaming cup of tea in front of him, reviewing many of the documents Taigo was able to snag from the four Suna intruders. Akemi would be so full of rage from her captivity, she most surely would recoil with sadistic greed against her captors. She couldn't disobey her father. What kind of daughter would she be in the first place? He had taught her better than rebellion against him. She knew what came with disrespect.
His eyes skimmed over words, many of them letters from loved ones back home, others about upcoming events like festivals and crop gathering ceremonies, even an invitation to a wedding between the Kazekage's sister and some Konoha shinobi which seemed to be a big deal. Kojiro smirked. If only he had been a few years younger, he would have tossed Seka to the winds and taken that broad to be his in a heartbeat. Kojiro had a secret thing for blonds and the Kazekage's sister fit his dream type perfectly. Only, he had heard about the silver sharpness of her legendary mouth and he wouldn't be a fan of her insubordination. He might start her training by silencing that tongue before it could cut him too deeply. That would be the most secure maneuver.
Taigo entered the tent without much noise, his scarred biceps glowing pale pink in the afternoon sun. "Any response from Suna, Father?"
"Not yet, boy," Kojiro retorted, his lips curling around the lip of his cup. "Not a peep. If they don't respond soon though, I might have to head over there myself to check what the hold-up is."
Taigo made a grunt and sat at the opposite end of the table, his legs crossed beneath him. "I don't understand why you won't just send me. I'm just as strong as Akemi is, even without the Golden Strings! You know that I've improved in my training! You've seen it first hand when I defended the village from that running-rogue group last week! I didn't even need any help!"
Kojiro placed his cup down and readjusted his position, stretching his back in the process. His eyes dug deeply into Taigo. "I'm not losing you to this brat of a Kazekage, too."
Taigo bowed his head in submission, whether it was from disappointment or resentment, Kojiro couldn't tell. The boy's hands were on the table, his fingers shaking in quiet fury. "Why must you insist on treating me like a child all the time, Father?"
"Because you are!" Kojiro raised his voice, his hands slamming on the mahogany of the table. "You forget that's you're only sixteen, Taigo. You haven't even lived half of your life yet."
"You let Akemi start running the army at fifteen!" Taigo shouted angrily, his pretty face contorted. "She was younger than I am now, not to mention a woman! If women are revered so dearly around here, why would you let her take such a dangerous position, especially your only daughter?!"
"You want to grow up too fast, Taigo. You've seen what fighting has done to Akemi, but you haven't seen anything compared to what triggered her to become what she is today."
He turned his back towards the boy, eyeing the map posted in the back of his tent. He sighed quietly.
"She leads for a purpose, Taigo. I broke her before she could become anything that I didn't want her to become. And by the Gods, she will fulfill the purpose I have for her if it's the last thing she does, are we clear? She's the only one who can accomplish it. You have no place in this equation, my son. You aren't to speak of leaving for her again. You will remain here."
Taigo was stunned into silence by his father's blunt words, stood numbly and flitted out of the tent nearly as silently as he had come.
0o0o0o0o
"Papa! Papa, look what I found!" Akemi ran towards Kojiro, her chubby legs waddling as fast as they could towards her father. The older man scooped up his daughter, planting wet kisses along her hair line. "And what have you found, my little dove?"
Her sausage roll fingers pulled out a violet flower the same color of her eyes with curling petals of soft velvet. She tucked the flower behind his ear, the softness rubbing softly against his stubbled sideburns. "Auntie Junko helped me pick it out from her garden! Isn't it pretty?"
He balanced the toddler on his hip and pulled the small flora from his head, spinning the arrangement of petals between his calloused fingers. "Do you know what this is called, Akemi?" The babe shook her head, her eyes wide with curiosity.
"It's called a cyclamen," he responded quietly, his eyes locking onto his daughter's dark red hair. He placed her on the ground and got down her level, squatting low in the sand. He ran his fingers through her silky strands, the thin fibers clinging under his nails. "It means 'goodbye' in flower language."
The little girl peered harshly at the flower. "Why would she give me one that means 'goodbye', Papa? Is she leaving?"
"I don't think this was directed to you, Akemi-cha. I believe you to only be a messenger," he muttered, his turquoise eyes darkening. His breathing was heavy, each lung-full expanding his rib cage. His blood pounded in his head. "This flower has another use other than saying goodbye, my dear. Do you know why people around here grow so much of it?" His voice shook with anger. Akemi had heard that tone before when she had snuck into his office and colored his papers in red ink. The black wasn't a Tori no Suna color… She thought she had done the right thing. She just wanted to make him proud in noticing his mistake.
Akemi shrunk back a little, her brows creased with worry as she spied the groves of purple around many of the tents and adobe huts in the area. "N-no?"
"It's fed to pigs," Kojiro growled standing immediately, his large hands covering the entire range of the petals. The velvet crumpled in his hands, each petal falling towards the sands below. He strode off towards the arboretum.
Akemi stood speechless, fingers twitching towards the broken petals.
0o0o0o0o0o
Seka was busy tending to her youngest son, Sozen, who had just decided it would be the right time to roll around in a pile of crop soil to hide from a neighboring farmer.
"Mamaaaaaa," he whined, trying to worm away from the warm cloth that Seka was using to wipe him down. She grabbed his chubby arm and furiously rubbed the skin until it was red. "You did this to yourself, Sozen-kun. Next time, think before you decide to roll in dirt and track it through the hut, hm? I can't let you go to bed full of dirt!"
The boy groaned outwardly and tried to take it as best as he could, but each swipe of the harsh material burned against his skin more than his flush of embarrassment. Of course, all of his Mama's friends just had to be in the tent when he came stumbling in too… Did she have to do this in front of a bunch of giggly, smiley old women?
Taigo came into the tent and eyed Sozen, smiling into his hand. "Someone's a little nakie, eh Sozo-chan?"
"STOP!" Sozen screamed, doing his best to paw his mother away from his skin. Now Taigo was here!? This day couldn't get any worse for the tot. He felt tears sting at the corners of his eyes. "Can't we go to another room, Mama!? Why here?!"
"'Public humiliation teaches wrong doers the punishment of wrong-doing', isn't that right Taigo?" Seka said monotonously, continuing her scrubbing under Sozens fussing. Akemi and Taigo's tantrums came nothing in comparison to this kid's. She could deal with both of them in each hand. With Sozen, she needed four extra limbs.
Taigo had only smile and moved towards his mother, sitting at the small rug behind her. His turquoise eyes locked onto the back of her bright red hair. He thought about his question, took a deep breath, and let it fly. "Mama, what broke Akemi-chan?"
Seka nearly dropped her cloth. Her movement stopped and her hands slowly released Sozen, who took the opportunity to immediately scramble for his discarded pants with a blush on his cheeks. He darted into another room with the giggles of the many women following behind the curtain.
"She's not broken, Taigo-kun…"
"Father said she was broken. I don't understand. She never seemed broken to me before…" he trailed off. She knew he was egging her on. All of these Nakahara men seemed to be keen on that. They knew how to get information from their women. Even her nearly angelic son was becoming corrupted by his father's views. Her boy was no longer 'her' boy. He was his.
She placed her face in her hands, her rings cool against her burning skin. "Out," Seka said exhaustedly. The women's giggles quieted, unsure of what they heard amongst their chatter about Sozen's adorable bottom. "OUT," she commanded with authority, each of the women standing and immediately leaving the tent with a shuffle of feet. Seka never enjoyed raising her voice, but she needed space. Her 'friends' could never understand main family business.
They weren't permitted to understand anything about her or the inner workings of her family. Kojiro would strangle them with his bare hands if rumors started. Seka had seen it happen before.
Seka felt her pale hands shaking under their skin. Her fingers grabbed at the edges of her sleeves and pulled the pieces of fabric over her palms.
"Why do you want to know now, of all times Taigo-kun? This is a heavy time for all of us. Akemi-isn't broken."
"But, Father said something to me," he began cautiously as he slowly stood to face his mother. "Something about her growing up too fast. Something about fulfilling a purpose." He was silent for a second as Seka held a pregnant breath. "You know something, don't you Mother? Is that purpose… Is that what broke her? Did she crack under the pressure?"
Seka closed her eyes.
"No… The pressure cracked under her."
0o0o0o0o
Kojiro had found Junko in her beloved arboretum and threw her quickly out into the central square of the village. His pregnant wife, Seka had been visiting her older sister at her home when he stormed in without a word, grabbed Junko by the hair and nearly flew out the door with the screaming woman dragging behind him. The twenty year old did her best with her small, swollen belly to run after them, but found the stress induced was nearly impossible to deal with. She had to slow her pace as she screamed after her husband, a hand grasped under her stomach.
Akemi had come up from the square with the remnants of a broken flower in her hands, fat, rolling tears covering her grimy face. The pour girl quibbled about Daddy crushing it with his big hands after he said "pigs ate those kinds of flowers". Seka moved as quickly as she could with the toddler on her hip, the sound of ceremonial chimes ringing through the air.
A Summoning of the Birds.
Seka sped past the crowd already forming and into the circle, spying the frightened eyes of her older sister in the iron grip of her husband. She froze. There was nothing she could do at this point. Seka allowed the tears to drift into the corners of her eyes, but did not let them fall for the poor woman. Junko was under his control now. There was nothing she could do. Absolutely nothing. She was the good wife. She was the good wife.
Akemi fussed in Seka's arms, yelling "no!" over and over again until she put her down. The toddler bumbled over to her father and tugged on his lower limb, pulling desperately on the leg of his shorts. "No Papa! No!"
Kojiro stared coldly at the child. His large hand came down, picked the girl up by the front of her shirt much like a lion to a cub and placed her behind him. He pointed a dirty finger at his daughter, his turquoise eyes burning. "Sit. And watch. This is what happens to those who disrespect Papa, Akemi. If they disrespect you, you will learn to deliver this same treatment. Watch very. Carefully." He drew strings of gold to his fingertips and braided them together like a whip. It cracked menacingly in the air with violent electricity after every braid was slowly bound together.
"Seka, please," Junko pleaded, the woman stretching forwards towards her little sister. "You can't let her watch this! Cover her eyes! Take her away! Take her away!"
Akemi's eyes knit in confusion, but she plopped her chubby legs on the ground and sat. She watched, her violet depths deep in concentration on her father.
Seka couldn't bear it. She turned her back as her sister yelled her name, begging her to cover the child's eyes. Seka gritted her teeth, listening to the tearing of cloth and the screams of her sister. She clenched her teeth at each hit that reverberated off of the punished woman like rattles of thunder. Each strike was teamed with an anguished scream. The air had grown stagnant with the smell of iron. No one breathed.
The crowd was silent, smiles wide, watching the brutal beating of the herbal woman who had healed many of their sick and wounded. She had always been kind and courteous to her patients. Junko, the woman with the hair spun of gold and the eyes as deep an indigo as liquid lavender, now with blood as red as her sisters hair streaming in rivulets down her back and arms. A woman of respect was now brought to her knees by an iron fist.
It excited them.
When the sounds stopped, Seka had turned towards the abused; she spied her sister sprawled on the floor with deep lacerations etched into her bare back and across her face. Kojiro took the now naked woman by the jaw and lifted her from the ground, spitting in her face after suspending her limp form in the air. "Never. Return. Pig." She dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and remained still as he strutted away. Caws were heard around the circle in approval of their leader's decision before the bodies dispersed back to their duties.
Akemi had sat wide eyed the entire time, her face now grotesquely covered in gore and ichor from her close proximity. She was taking shaky breaths, each one a rattle in her small lungs. It was all new. All so sudden. Someone who she thought the world of was just beaten to a pulp by her loving Papa. Her Papa had done this. Her Papa. She smiled, an immense sense of pride swallowing her features through her tears. Why was she crying?
Seka didn't look at the pile of skin her sister was rendered to again, and instead, turned towards her baby who still sat in child-like awe. She was looking at her sticky fingers, eying the blood crusting onto the side of her maroon bangs. There was something on her face that Seka couldn't put a finger on; something that didn't seem natural for her sweet child. She scooped the baby up in her arms, placing desperate kisses along the edges of her head. Then, she heard it.
A soft giggle. The coo of a dove.
0o0o0o0o
"A trade? That's it?"
Temari sighed out loud, flipping the paper upside down and turning it from front to back. "All it says is 'Prisoner exchange for Scroll of the Red Sands. Have my daughter in top condition.' Not even a location where the exchange will take place…"
"That's on your terms," Shikamaru muttered. "Kojiro-sama doesn't care about anything other than getting his precious heir back. He's showing a form of submission, which probably wasn't easy for him since he normally has one hundred percent control over all situations. He's giving you the option to choose the place and the time, because his life and legacy is in your hands, Gaara-sama. He's realized he's in a bad spot and wants to show cooperation. Many rogue villages do this kind of thing when in a rough spot. The Tori no Suna are powerless without their commander at arms."
"I'm standing right next to you, you know dumbass?" Akemi muttered under her breath, her arms folded with her fists balled. "No need to act like I'm not in the room…"
Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders. "My bad. I forget you're here sometimes, pipsqueak. It's unintentional since you're, you know, short."
She growled out loud and stomped her foot, temper flaring. "WHO'RE YOU CALLING PIPSQUEAK, SPIKES?!"
"Caaaaalm yourselves," Kakashi soothingly quipped behind his mask. "Shikamaru-kun, what did we talk about? And Akemi-san, we need you to focus here. Would your father use any sort of coding in his messages? Any sort of hidden messages?"
"No. He's pretty blunt in messages. He has nothing to hide. Why should I tell you if there was, anyway? I should make you all work for it thanks to Spikes over here," she gritted through her sharpened canines.
"Stop Akemi, you're acting like a child," Kankuro muttered, a hand on his forehead. "You know why you have to help us here, right? Do I have to say it out loud?"
No he did not. She knew she would be violating all of Gaara's rules if she didn't comply with what he said. If she didn't do what he told her to…
She shuddered. "No… But what I'm saying is the truth. Father doesn't beat around the bush when he's trying to get something he wants. He'll be very blunt so there's no confusion. Also, I'm pretty sure Spikes is right on the submission thing. Father is at a loss of military prowess without me." She snorted. "He doesn't know how to run an army full of half assed warriors. I made them all who they are today. It was my training that made the squad leaders who they are. They might be loyal to my father, but they are only going to follow my lead. I earned my position. He was born into his."
Gaara eyed her quietly. "Are you saying there's some sort of insubordination among them?"
"No. They're absolutely loyal to Father. He just doesn't know how to run groups of people without running spears through them and puppeteering them himself," she said lacksidazily, "Little marionettes; each villager is a living puppet that he's learned to control..." She grew silent. Her fingers twitched.
When was the last time she had even thought about her puppets? About creating another human puppet? The last time she did, the poor thing was crushed under Taigo's meteor. It was a pretty kunoichi from Iwa that had happened to stumble upon their small village, dying of an infected wound. All Akemi had to do was wait for the woman to pass before she set immediately to work. She didn't even have to move the kunoichi from her death bed. She just started her work right in the infirmary.
She had transplanted every single hair from her head and placed them into identical follicles on her new skeleton. She even took the liberty to even mark the skeleton with her already apparent scars from years of battle wounds since they looked just so perfect on her lithe body; like they belonged (plus, it would a sign that the puppet was hers; the amount of scars on that woman was truly mesmerizing). She had reminded Akemi of a small cat; strong, yet exceedingly lithe with piercing golden eyes that, even in fever, glowed with intelligence and some accounts of mischief. She made sure to capture that essence in her paint job.
Afterwards, she had dressed the woman in traditional Tori no Suna clothing, full of feathers, leather and soft fabrics. When she had used her in sparing for the first time, the woman took to her strings like a plant to water, moving with every bit of feral grace that she had imagined. She had named her "Kuikku"; Quick. It had to have been seven years since her creation. She hadn't made another since. Her first human puppet was her first masterpiece.
"Akemi-san?" Naruto piqued, his azure eyes wide with concern, a hand hovering over her shoulder.
"Erm, I'm okay," she sheepishly replied, shirking away from his grasp. "I, uh, started remembering something my father said, and I just realized how dumb it actually was," she snorted, a nervous giggle sprouting from her throat. The jinchurriki seemed to believe her and threw a megawatt smile in her direction.
"If that's the case," Gaara continued, his elbows perched on his desk with his hands over his lips. "Then we will send a confirmation to Kojiro-sans offer. We shall wait for you to get better, Akemi-san, since you continue to refuse treatment, and will get this underway. It is a win-win scenario to both parties: your father gets what he wants, and we get what we want.
Akemi nodded with a small smirk on her lips. It was perfect. This Kazekage had to be the stupidest human she had ever encountered. Did he mistake a father's pain over a lost daughter for genuine actions? It seemed so.
She didn't notice a sharpened gaze resting on her form.
0o0o0o0o
"What were you thinking of back there?" Kankuro said quietly as they walked through the village. It was night time in the now quiet village. Many of the civilians had retreated to their beds while their constant shinobi guardians perused the nights silently. It had to be near midnight at that point. "I know it wasn't about your father's teachings. I saw the look on your face. You were recalling yes, but it was a fond memory by the way your lips had curled into a smile; not some quote unquote 'dumb lesson'…"
Akemi looked over her shoulder towards her guard and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kankuro-san. I was just telling your dear Kazekage just what I knew. I have nothing to hide."
"Bullshit. You have everything to hide."
Akemi averted her gaze, crossing her arms over her chest in the chilly night. "I can tell you that it's nothing that concerns you. I was just…" She drifted off, trying to bring the words to her tongue.
"Do you remember the moment when you decided that you were going to do something with this world? That you realized that you wanted to change something about it? That you had to change it with your own hands?"
Kankuro looked towards the bright stars, his hands hidden in his pockets. "I never had anything to change. My father, the Kazekage before Gaara, had made sure of that. It was all that I had ever known. Now that Gaara's here, I realized that things do change, although sometimes I'm not particularly fond of it." By that point they had reached the Kazekage's Mansion. "I'm still not used to his damned rules about the prostitutes… Raising their rates… Who does he think he is?"
He opened the door for her. She didn't move. "If you had nothing to change, why did you become a ninja?"
Kankuro's silhouette sagged its shoulders. "I never had a choice. Eventually I found something to fight for; something to create my ninja way upon. It all made sense when I recreated my bond with Gaara." He paused. "I'm here to protect those close to me. I let too many people through my grasps before. I swore to myself that I would never let that happen again."
He moved past the door, keeping it wide open. Akemi followed into the light without another word.
She soundlessly closed the door behind her, padding slowly behind the man who immediately set forward towards the kitchen for a beer. Cracking open the tab, he plopped down onto the couch, pulled out four white pills and dry swallowed them followed by a swig of the alcohol. The rogue grimaced leaning against the door jamb. "Are you supposed to do that?"
"Probably not, but what that pink haired hellion doesn't know won't hurt her, right?" He smiled like a cat at her. "Besides, I get so relaxed when I take it like this… it's almost blissful. Kind of like before you came here, brat."
"I don't appreciate your jokes, Kankuro-san. Personally, I think I've been pretty angelic compared to how I usually am." She plopped down next to him and sank into the cushions. "I just wish I could train or something… it's so boring now a-days…" She implied. And it was true.
She was recovering slowly but surely, but all she could do was sit around in her room and try to play with the odd lengths of her hair that stuck out of her hair like duck fluff. She had seen Naruto eying her the entire meeting that night, nudging Kakashi and asking dumb questions like "is it gonna stay like that" and "is that her natural hair color"; even adding a comment that "it suited" her. Temari had eyed her up and down in approval of her new hairstyle. It was change. It wasn't her.
She hated her hair change nearly as much as Kankuro hated the new prices of his prostitutes.
"Hey Kankuro, I'm going to the roof, okay?"
A snore responded. Her eye twitched. Shit. That stuff works FAST!
Before she knew it, she was atop the flat roof of the adobe home, the cold wind aiding the goosebumps on her tanned skin. She simply sat on the edge of the building, breathing in the cool, dry Suna air. Her feet dangled over the edge of the roof, her hands and bum the only thing keeping her grounded from falling eight stories to her death. How simple would it be to just lean over and end it all? It would be so peaceful, having the wind blow past her hot skin. She could imagine wings sprouting from her back, full of different shades of blues and greens. A few days ago, she could have hit the jackpot.
Now the only thing she was thinking about was hitting the ground.
She could see over the tops of the houses in the city, the different levels all still and quiet in the night. Some had flickers of lights and candles, but most were blending in with the overwhelming darkness. The world was stuck in a painting. Her blood on the ground would be an unwelcomed sight in such a masterpiece.
It was quiet and peaceful around these parts. The ANBU didn't dare to scope around the Kazekage's place specifically on Gaara's direct orders. She had overheard Temari and Kankuro saying that they were all too curious of Akemi and that some might "accidentally" try to run a blade through her chest. Apparently she had caused much more damage than she could have imagined if she was able to anger emotionless ANBU. She had many enemies around these parts.
A faint whistling was heard over the wind after being accompanied by the repeated sound of scratching talons. She closed her eyes and smirked. "I was wondering when you'd find me, Papa."
Turning her head, she spotted a small bird of jewel toned blue with flat orange around its neck like a collar. Attached to an equally orange leg was a slip of parchment tied by a golden thread of aura. She slipped her nail between the knots and let the energy release, a signal to her father that she received the message. She unfolded it quietly and read it over.
Activate in two months after wedding. Stay Strong, little dove.
Akemi shooed the bird with a clenched fist, its small wings fluttering into the shining moonbeams of midnight. She had to be wary. She had to be aware.
She tore the pieces of paper into bits and blew them into the cold night air.
0o0o0o0o0o0o
Temari tangled her lips with her fiancé's in pure, unadulterated greed. Shikamaru wrapped his calloused fingers over her exposed back, taking in as much of her as he could as quickly as he could. Temari and Shikamaru had spent nearly every night of the past week together and neither party had any complaints, but their time was short. Most nights, Temari snuck in at different hours of the night, the tactician easily able to maneuver around the many Konoha ninja's sleeping patterns. His fiancé had duties to attend to early in the mornings and Shikamaru had to make sure the place was spotless before Kakashi, Naruto or Sakura came banging on his door. Finding a pair of women's panties on the floor wouldn't look very good for a man of his ranking, even if they were his soon-to-be wife's.
She moved her kisses down his neck, her hips gyrating slowly into his. All he could do was smile and run smooth circles over her scapula, simply enjoying the ministrations. He let his shadows from their cages, the moonlight serving as the perfect conductor of his infamous jutsu. The arms snaked around her body, each finger fingering at the chiffon of her night shift. The material flipped to the ground with an unnoticed thud.
Shikamaru looked over the gorgeous woman perched precariously over his lap. Her skin was the color of salted caramel, her hair the color of fresh spun straw, and those eyes. The bright, clear teal drove him absolutely insane. His hands ran deeply over the curve of her waist, up to the perks of her breasts and kissed her furiously. Her throat made the most delicious moan as his thumbs ran over her pert nipples, giving each bud a gentle squeeze.
"Hey Tema?"
"Mhm?" She captured his lips again, beginning to tear at his mesh shirt with rabid fingers.
He flipped Temari under him, letting the uncharacteristic squeak from his wife-to-be carry into a fit of giggles between them. He buried his face into her neck sweetly with a smile, his lips ghosting off of her throat; her cheeks; her eyes; her forehead; her lips. He discarded his shirt the rest of the way and allowed her long fingers to dance over the ripples of his stomach.
"I love us," she muttered blissfully, a happy smile running all the way to her eyes.
"I love that," he responded, sinking his head to leave a long, lingering kiss on her nearly bruised lips.
"Love what?"
"You're smile. You don't do it as much anymore. Scientifically, there's nothing more attractive to a man than a woman with full lips and healthy teeth. You have both. Show them more, will ya?"
She sighed quietly beneath him, her hands groping around his biceps with a gentle squeeze. "I would if I didn't worry for Kankuro and that woman so much."
"She's not going to bother him, Tema," Shikamaru insisted. His fingers brushed a stray strand of dirty blonde from her forehead. "She's on her best behavior. You of all people should see that."
"That's the thing that's scaring me, I think," she muttered quietly. "They're so alike when she's not trying to bait us on or fight back. They both want changes, but don't know how to respond to them. She wants a change in leadership. He wants a change in his life. Kankuro has the opportunity for that change. He has meaning again, to fight, but she's getting between him and Gaara. Have you seen the two of them recently? They've been arguing nearly every second their together because of her. They're going to just end up ki-"
A pair of lips closed over hers. She melted into it, letting herself relax into his being. Shikamaru's voice came huskily into her ear; a deadly whisper. "Less talkie. More sexy."
There were no words between them from that moment on; only hungry hands and scorching libidos hot enough to make the Devil sweat.
Neither would have it any other way.
0o0o0o0o
It seems that I can't write ShikaTema without some sexy time every time they're alone… Oh well… it's a dream!
Thank you to all who reviewed! I love your criticism and your responses! It makes me more motivated as a writer when I receive feedback, so it you like it, throw me a message! I read all of them, even if I don't get the opportunity to respond!
I've gotten a few questions about Taigo's personality and his role in all of this. He's rather dry, but trust me; he's going to get way juicier!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'll have the next one up soon (hopefully!)
R&R
With love,
Epsilion.