Downpour
On the coach back, Shikamaru sat beside Temari and couldn't help but talk to her.
"Are you feeling better?"
She nodded.
"You did really well, you were amazing."
She grunted and turned away from him.
"Really, you did really well I wa-"
"When you've finished lying, you can leave me alone."
Shikamaru was taken aback. What was she on about?
"Temari, you came first in almost all of the categories!"
"I came second and third in the sprints, and then I fainted. I'm so weak..."
"Temari, you came second and third out of ten, it's amazing. You fainted because you did too much before hand."
"Look Shikamaru, you're new to the club so let me put this simply. I don't take lightly to losing. I shouldn't have fainted, that shows how weak I am, I'll just train harder from now on."
Shikamaru gaped at her.
She was truly the most troublesome human being alive.
Rather than argue with her, he let her sulk in peace.
O
It was raining.
A literal downpour.
The club would have been closed, but it was a Sunday, so no one trained anyways.
Shikamaru had just finished compiling the weeks financial accounts and prepared to leave the grounds.
He was given the spare key to the Den, and he locked the door behind him, double checking that it was well closed.
He walked past the park and glanced briefly at the vast expanse of green grass that was saturated from the rainfall.
The park was empty bar one figure in the distance, running.
His jaw dropped.
Why the hell was Temari running in the rain?
He turned into the park, grumbling about her being troublesome.
"Temari!" He called, trying desperately to make himself heard over the rain. "TEMARI!"
The figure was too far away to be heard.
He accelerated the rate he was walking at, almost at a jogging pace.
His left leg was going numb, and his shoulder was in pain.
"TEMARI!"
The figure paused for a moment and turned its head slightly to the side, frowning.
She continued to run.
She was wearing headphones.
He cursed, she was going to do more than just catch a cold at this rate.
The path was slippery and it was getting dark. The strong winds definitely didn't help.
He felt his arm starting to twitch slightly and berated himself for getting stressed.
He made his way to the nearest bench and sat down, desperately trying to calm the nerves in his arm.
He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but after what felt like an eternity, he heard footsteps approaching him.
"Shikamaru?"
The footsteps slowed as the neared him and eventually came to a stop.
"Holy shit, are you okay?"
When he couldn't answer, he felt a strong pair of hands haul him into a standing position.
Temari brought his non-spasming arm around her shoulder and held him around the middle.
"Do you live far from here?" She asked in a steady tone, making her way towards the exit.
He shook his head.
"Okay. Tell me the way."
The pair struggled back to his house, Shikamaru jerked his head in a direction whenever they needed to turn and Temari wordlessly steered them until they arrived.
She frantically knocked on the front door.
"SHIKAMARU, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN HOME HALF AN HOU-" Yoshino froze when she saw Temari holding Shikamaru on her doorstep.
She quickly took him from her and motioned her inside.
"SHIKAKU!"
He blurrily saw a confused Temari giving him a worried look, a panicked Yoshino and an uncharacteristically rushing Shikaku coming down the stairs before darkness seeped into his vision and tainted what he saw like ink on a sheet.
A/N: Hellooooo :)
Back with another chapter! This is the point in this fanfic where things get more... Dramatic?
I really hope you liked this chapter, I literally wrote it during rainy weather.
I've started writing another fanfic, I'll be posting it at some point next year, once I've finished writing it cos it's fairly long.
I didn't get much feedback on the last chapter :(
Ohud63~Thankyou for your lovely review m'dear. Don't worry, Shikatema moments doth be fast approaching;)
So yeah, this is the turning point, and the proper Shikatema moments are beyond this point.
I'm posting this a few hours earlier than intended because I actually ended up editting this quicker than I thought I would.
Please follow / fave / review!
~Lee