I am so happy I reached more than 5K words and this is such an accomplishment for me. I have actually drafted a few more chapters but need to polish them. I hope the story will grow to where I see it. Enjoy !

A thunderstorm woke up Temari from her deep sleep. It was Sunday, 3PM already. The young law student could not recall at what time her classmate left her flat.

They arrived around 1AM because of the traffic and all the paperwork to be done before leaving the hospital. Shikamaru agreed to stay a bit with her but it took her so long to fall asleep, she remembered that it was almost time for the sunset when her eyes started to get heavier. He stayed with her surprisingly without complaining, it was such a pleasant night.

The class Representative finally decided to get to work. Due to her injury, she was unable to support the team at the Homeless center. She needed to call everyone and ask what could be done from her side, with only one leg functioning.

The next day, the ambitious Temari was ready for the long and challenging time. The rain did not stop since Saturday and because of the cold, it was a nightmare. All of the public transport was experiencing delays. She woke up at 4 AM instead of 6 AM to get ready and left around 5:30. All of this to arrive at YN Law firm offices at 9:10.

She was 10 minutes late, but so was everyone else. Temari was already exhausted but she could not show it. Even though she was only an intern, law firms have this vibe, only the strongest will survive. Today, she was one of the weakest but she held on to her teeth and worked without taking her lunch break.

Before joining Kono Private University, she studied law in her home country. It was an accelerated program, but still she joined the first year at Kono because she already had a bachelor of law. Not many people knew about it not even her classmates. Nonetheless, her manager at YN saw her CV and decided to involve her in any case related to her home country. It was a pretty rewarding experience and she wanted to show how much she could do. She was also bilingual which was even better. This is also why she wanted to continue law, especially with this law firm.

Before she realized it was already 9 PM. She would not have enough time to submit her deliverable for her second job. Being an intern at YN law firm sounds great on paper, with the scholarship and the compensation Temari had enough to get by, but she always had a part-time job as a translator since she started her studies at Kono. She now uses the extra money to support her little brother. Gaara was only in his 5th year of Med school, although he was not yet in residency he had a mandatory internship at the hospital. Starting in January he will officially start his residency. Something Temari was looking forward to as much as she was worrying about.

And that's it. It was 11 PM and the oldest No Sabaku was sitting in the 24/7 coffee shop near the YN offices. She just sent the triple proofread 10 pages translation. She packed her stuff and attempted to call her friend Tenten. Tenten was working for a security services company. She was living closer to the center. Temari didn't plan to bother her friend, but around 10 PM her friend called to check on her. Gaara informed Tenten of his sister's injury and asked Tenten if she could keep an eye on her. The girls agreed to spend 30 minutes catching up at Tenten's flat before she had to leave for her night shift. Temari would stay at Tenten's place which would allow her to somehow have a normal night of sleep.

While waiting for the bus, Temari thought she did not manage to see her newfound friend. She wanted to thank him for his support and to just have a few minutes to just chat. With the typhoon coming, he probably had much more things to think about other than a quick chat with his classmate. The bus was here, Temari struggled to get in but finally found a seat in the handicapped area. The night will be short but she hoped she would have enough rest.

Shikaku was one of the military advisors of the crown. He came from a line of strategic military advisors and it is almost like a tradition. He studied political science and law and met his future wife Yoshino between two lectures. He was getting old and always dreamt of early retirement. His wife was not interested at all in this early retirement scheme but for him, this was his top priority. When he would leave, someone would need to take his place, preferably a member of his clan, ideally his own son Shikamaru.

His son was a genius and everyone in the council knew this. From the age of 14, he was replacing his father whenever the latter was sent out for special missions. His sense of justice and his outstanding strategic thinking made him a favorite already amongst the next generation. The only issue he had with his son was his laziness. Shikamaru would at times fall asleep in the middle of the meetings, he would still listen but would be somehow somewhere else as well. This was unacceptable in front of the General Council of the city.

This is one of the reasons Shikaku was still there, not enjoying his early retirement yet. Money was not the issue, he, his wife, his son, and probably 4 generations down could live without working not even for one day. The issue when you are coming from certain Old money families is you need to be seen and listened to. This is the only reason a Nara member needed to be present during those boring meetings.

Tonight however everybody was fully awake. The upcoming typhoon has already flooded some of the neighboring regions. Konoha city had to provide manpower and logistic support. They could even receive some patients if needed. The planning took the whole day and it was already 11 PM.

Shikamaru was still awake, exceptional some would say. His son had a lot of flaws but he was reliable especially when it involved the life of other people. They did not even have time to eat lunch today. Shikaku sat next to his son and asked "Should we grab dinner?". Shikamaru nodded and rose from his 6 hours of sitting still in this uncomfortable chair. He checked his phone, and no interesting messages were received today. Was he expecting something? Deep down yes, but he also knew that neither he nor she had each other's phone numbers. They only had their school emails. Shikamaru quickly opened the mailing app and refreshed the page.

One new email, from No Sabaku Temari, 10:49PM.

[Hi Nara, thank you for everything. I owe you one. In case one day you need to cry again you can call me: …]

The young Nara did not hide his growing smile. She finally gave him her phone number, after making fun of him crying Sunday morning over some kindergarten memories. He would not have thought that he would share those kinds of stories with her and did not expect to learn that much about her either. But spending 4 hours talking next to each other on her cozy sofa made it easier, he thought. The bachelor proudly added his class Representative phone number to his contact list and sent a quick message:

"Come to the Christmas party and we will be even".