Disclaimer: I don't own anything
It's funny how you ended up with certain friends. For some, they were next door neighbors. Others were school friends. Maybe you went to the same church. No matter how the friendship started, there were some relationships you knew would last for the long run.
Temari just didn't think it would be with Sasuke Uchiha.
They're friendship beginning was unorthodox to say the least.
Temari first met Sasuke at a park. Not just any park, this park had a pond. That was home to ducks.
It was Temari's favorite park as a child for that reason alone. Temari's mother took her on a chilly Saturday morning. Her father and brothers went out for a "boys day" so they were not there to witness history.
Temari eagerly pulled her mother to the pond. Karura allowed her daughter to run up the wooden fence that stopped young children from jumping into the water. She set down a blanket to sit on and watched her daughter giggle in glee at the ducks.
The ducks paid no mind. They swam and did what ducks do best.
Quack.
Eventually Temari ran back to her mother and held out her hands.
Karura placed a small baggie filled with various seeds into her 6 year old hands.
Temari, with a giant grin on her face, retreated to her spot at the fence. She proceeded to toss seeds toward the ducks.
Some landed in the water, some landed on the grass. The ducks happily ate the offerings. Temari would move down the fence, still within eyesight of her mother, to try and feed all the ducks she could see.
She bumped into a boy by accident. Her baggie fell, some of the seeds spilling out.
"Sorry!"
Temari bent down to pick up her bag. No use in trying to pick up the fallen seeds. The wind would either carry them away or the ducks would later duck under the fence to eat them.
The boy frowned. Temari blinked at his expression. She didn't understand the look when she was a child but later as a teenager she knew the look very well.
"Did you just touch me?"
Since he didn't say anything, Temari took this as a sign to continue her journey to feed all the ducks. That wasn't too far away from her mom of course.
After some moments of silence the boy finally spoke.
"Ducks don't like seeds."
Temari looked at the boy confused. "Huh?"
"Everyone knows ducks like bread."
Temari blinked. She looked down at the bag of seeds, to the boy, looked at the ducks happily eating, then back to the boy. "They're eating."
The boy scoffed. "Only because I haven't given them bread."
Temari was very confused. Her uncle Baki has a ranch in Suna. He has a lot of animals. Ducks and chickens were half of the animals on his ranch. Baki never gave his birds bread. Baki was smart. He knew a lot of things.
"Ducks like seeds."
"Only if they are starving."
Temari could feel herself getting angry. "Birds are not people. Why would they like bread?"
"Are you stupid?"
Temari gasped. The kid looked smug. Temari did what any child would do after being insulted, she pushed him.
The boy dropped his bread. Both children looked down at the fallen bread. Then they looked up at each other.
The boy pushed her back.
Seeds once again feel onto the ground.
Soon both children started a brawl. Hair pulling, scratching, name calling, the works. It was quite a show for two 6 year old's.
They were separated by their mothers. Who were completely horrified by their actions. Both women were apologizing profusely to each other. The children glared at each other.
Then they turned to face their spawns and the ultimate lecture began.
Sasuke pouted as his mother yelled at him. He looked at the ground. He wouldn't dare show the girl the tears in his eyes. Not caused by her! He just didn't like being yelled at by his mother. He was a sensitive kid.
Temari kept eye contact with her mom and didn't say a single word. She knew her real punishment would be given out by her father. Violence was not tolerated unless defending yourself.
She did technically start the fight. Even if he did call her stupid, it was no means justifying her actions. Temari just nodded weakly as her mother said "wait until we get home and your father hears about this."
Mikoto Uchiha once again apologized. "I am so sorry. My son has better manners than this I assure you."
Karura shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. My daughter is short tempered. Unfortunately she inherited that from her father."
Temari blushed and tried to hide behind her mom. She hated whenever her mother talked about her to strangers. Karura was not having any of that. She firmly placed Temari in front of the boy and his mother.
Temari softly spit out "I'm sorry."
Mikoto pushed her son forward as well. He kicked some dirt before mumbling "sorry."
Both mothers sighed.
The children were taken home. Temari got another lecture from her mom on the way back. Her brothers thought the situation was funny and laughed. They were quickly silenced with a single look from their father. They scampered off to their shared room.
Her father gave her a disappointing look. He didn't have to say a word. Just one look and Temari began to cry. She was grounded from the outside. Meaning if she wasn't going to school, or a doctor's appointment, or anything important, she wasn't able to leave the house.
No more park. No more ducks.
Temari went to bed that night with a wet pillow.
During her punishment, she would longingly stare out her bedroom window. She would watch in jealousy as her brothers played in their front yard. Or watched them play with the neighborhood kids. She grew bored of watching tv. She grew tired of playing video games.
She loved playing outside. This punishment was killing her.
After a full week of this, her father finally showed her mercy. He sat her down and had a talk with her.
"Do you understand what you did wrong?"
She nodded.
"Tell me."
"I got mad and pushed a boy. You hurt people if you do something when you're mad."
"Very good. I've told you and your brothers plenty of times. Violence is only used as the last resort. Only to defend yourself or someone you love."
"I'm sorry dad."
"You can go outside now."
Temari ran out the front door and stayed out until the street lights turned on.
Life continued normally for Temari after that. She got good grades, harassed her brothers, and tried to listen better to her parents. She continued to go to the park but never bumped into the boy again.
Come November, snow blanketed the streets. White everywhere. This did not discourage Temari from visiting the ducks at the park.
Even if the pond was frozen over. And only a few ducks stayed behind.
Temari went up to the wooden fence and tossed her seeds. She knew this would be a short visit. Her father brought her today. He was not a fan of snow.
Temari had finished throwing all her seeds. She let out a huff. She didn't want to go home yet. She held onto her baggie and pretended to throw seeds. Maybe she could fool her dad into staying out just a little longer.
She heard snow crunching. She turned and was surprised to see the boy. He held a baggie of seeds in his hands. Wordlessly he offered her the bag. He looked away with a blush on his cheeks. She took some seeds and tossed them.
Neither child said anything. They just stood next to each other and tossed seeds. The start of their unusual friendship.
Any time Temari would think back to the incident, it made her laugh. Sasuke would never admit it but she totally won the fight.
You could never get the two to admit they were best friends. On a good day they might say they were friends. On most days they simply referred to each other as "someone from my childhood."
They didn't attend the same school, they didn't even live in the same part of town. Yet they always went to each other's birthdays, invited their families to holidays or weekend get-togethers.
As such, it wasn't uncommon to find Temari at Sasuke's house and vice versa. Most days they would just walk right through the front door, no notice, and no one batted an eye.
Today was no different.
Temari waltzed through the front door, greeted Mikoto and Fugaku, then went upstairs to Sasuke's room. She knocked once for courtesy, he was a teenage boy after all, and went in.
Sasuke was sitting at his desk, gaming headset on, playing on his desktop. Temari walked over to see the status of the game. His team was losing.
"You suck Uchiha."
"Suck a toe."
"Can't you're busy."
He flipped her off and she laughed. She grabbed his extra chair and plopped herself next to him.
"Naruto says hi."
Temari removed his headset. He didn't react. She placed it on her head.
"Sup losers."
"Hey Temari!" Naruto
"Don't you have your own house?" Kiba
"Troublesome." Shikamaru
"Nice to hear that I've been missed."
A loud explosion rang in her ears. Sasuke let out a string of curses.
"Might as well throw in the towel boys. You can't come back from this loss."
"I'd like to see you do better!" Kiba barked.
"Clearly you don't remember the smack down from last week."
She could hear Naruto howling in laughter and Shikamaru snigger. Sasuke smirked beside her. Kiba just continued to throw insults. The game continued with their team losing. The guys decided to take a leak break and grab some snacks.
Kiba returned to his room once his bladder was empty and he had a plate full of junk food. He patted Akamaru on the head. He settled into his gaming chair, placed his headset back on, and waited for the others.
As he was munching on some pizza rolls he could hear Temari talking. He was ignoring the conversation until something caught his interest.
"Hey I need you to come over on Sunday….you gotta take care of my bunny...I'm serious…no one is gonna be home…shut up… it'll take you 30 minutes tops…you're coming over…stop being difficult…see? Was that so hard?"
Kiba grabbed his phone and called Shikamaru. It took a minute for Shikamaru to answer.
"I told you. They're not just friends."
"Can you just drop that?"
"NO! They're way too friendly to be 'just friends'."
"Sasuke wouldn't lie about something like that."
"And you're just biased because you like her."
"What makes you so sure this time?"
"I heard them talking."
"Spying."
"Microphone was still on, anyway! He's going over to her place on Sunday to take care of her bunny."
Silence.
"So because he's going to take care of her pet, they're in a relationship?"
"If you think that's what that means."
"What other possible explanation could there be?"
"You know exactly what I'm thinking."
"You're an idiot."
"Whatever man. I just thought, as your friend, I would let you know what I heard. Guys just can't be friends with cute girls. It's just not possible."
"You're friends with Hinata."
"She's friends with everyone!"
Shikamaru ended the call.
Sometimes his friends told him stupid things.
Sometimes those stupid things played tricks on his mind.
He was equally stupid when he decided to not ignore those stupid things.
The next time Shikamaru saw Sasuke was on lunch break, at school, Monday afternoon. All the guys were just hanging out like normal. Shikamaru could still hear Kiba's stupid words in the back of his mind. He tried really hard to squash those words.
"Hey guys we should do a sleepover at my place this weekend. I got a copy of the new army game! It's bad ass."
"Hell ya man I'm in!" Kiba
"Will there be food?" Choji
Neji and Shikamaru both shrugged. They had nothing else fun to do. Sounded like fun so they also agreed.
"I can't stay the whole weekend. I have stuff to do on Sunday." Sasuke
Shikamaru involuntary twitches. Kiba noticed.
"Seriously man? Whatever! Your loss." Naruto stuck out his tongue.
"What are you ditching us on Sunday for?" Kiba asked.
"Nothing important. Just some chores."
"Chores? Skip them man!" Naruto shook Sasuke's shoulder.
Sasuke smacked Naruto's hand away. "I can't."
"You really are a stick in the mud!" Naruto pouted.
"Sasuke's just afraid to lose. We shouldn't pressure him." Neji smirked.
Sasuke glared. "I'll get bored beating all your sorry asses. So I'll be leaving."
Kiba made eye contact with Shikamaru and raised his brow. He wordlessly said "I told you so."
Shikamaru hated his friends sometimes.
Part 2 will be the next chapter. Thank you everyone for reading! Let me know your thoughts!
