Temari is in a good mood when she leaves for home. It's Friday, none of her coworkers have irritated her too much, and she finishes work in time to pick up her son from the Academy, who greets her with a hug and a smile, much more energetic than he usually is after school. Probably excited for the same reason she is - their house hasn't been complete for far too long.
On her way out, Sai asks if she can take Inojin home as well, and now the two boys run outside playing pretend, getting rid of the boundless energy that only little kids have.
Temari leaves out a snack for when they come back in, then heads upstairs to change out of her work clothes. She's just fixing the tie on her kimono when she notices the flashing light coming from the landline telephone at their bedside. She lifts out the receiver and changes it to speaker mode. Her husband's voice resonates through the room.
"Hi sweetheart, I'm on my way home now - we got done early. We'll be taking the train but only once we get into Fire Country, so I'll get to Konoha really late tonight. Tell Shikadai I say goodnight, and I'll see you in the morning. Don't wait up for me."
Just when Temari thinks her day can't get any better, it does. Not only does she have a free weekend, Shikamaru is coming soon enough to spend it with her.
After Ino picks up her son, Shikadai feigns exhaustion all through dinner until he hears the good news, and then it's a trial to get him to take a bath, and another to get him out the tub. He tries to insist on staying up and waiting with her, but her seven-year-old is definitely his father's son. Just minutes after Temari tucks him in, Shikadai's dreaming.
She sits next to him for a little longer. Seeing their son like this, innocent and peaceful and not troublesome, just reaffirms what she wants. Come tomorrow morning, Shikamaru won't have an excuse to escape their conversation. Not that he's known for ever denying her what she asks for.
She smooths back her son's loose hair and kisses him on his cheek. "Dad says goodnight."
Contrary to the instructions in the message, Temari does wait up. Shikamaru hadn't been more specific than 'really late' - she'll have to tell him off for being so vague - but by the time the clock hits midnight, Temari starts to feels a little concerned. Still, she tells herself not to worry, that the trains are still new; they run late all the time, and forces herself to sleep. She'll wake up when she feels him get into bed.
Temari's eyes fly open, not because her husband is crawling in next to her, but because of the sunlight streaming through the open curtains. Shikamaru always closes them before he goes to sleep.
She sits up, a sinking feeling in her gut. The other side of the bed is untouched.
After checking in on Shikadai - still fast asleep - Temari makes her way downstairs to check the living room and his study. She has found him sleeping there before, his head resting on piles of papers from the Hokage's office, but after missions, he always comes upstairs to her. Nothing could keep him away from the comfort of the bed.
Everything is just as she left it last night, and Temari is about to pick up the phone and call Naruto at the Tower as a last resort when there's a knock at the front door.
What little relief that gives her quickly evaporates. Shikamaru wouldn't knock on the door to his own house.
Temari shivers into the collar of a sweater that she stole from him back when they were dating. It's the middle of summer, yet she's still freezing.
"Tsuchikage-sama?"
The last person she thought to see is standing outside her house. Temari opens the door wider. "I- what are you doing here? Come in, please." She invites him in, regaining her composure as old ambassador habits kick in.
The Kage silently steps inside, but just barely, and ignores Temari's attempts to usher him further in. She stares at him, a little lost. "Ohnoki-sama, is this about the mission? Shikamaru isn't back yet, so you would have to go to the Tower. I was about to call there myself..." She trails off, hoping to get the elderly Tsuchikage to respond, to say anything. "Sir-?"
"I insisted on seeing you." Ohnoki starts, finally, his voice barely above a rasp. "I feel at fault for this, for everything; it was only right that I come here-"
"What happened on the mission? Is Shikamaru alright?" Temari cuts in, her patience gone and her heart racing.
She has half a mind to grab and shake him, how dare he make her wait?!
"Last night, on the 23:40 train from Grass Country, there was an accident," he says soberly, "The brakes failed, for reasons still unknown, and it derailed on a turn near a tunnel, resulting in a horrible explosion."
Ohnoki looks at her, and Temari is suddenly taken aback by how frail the normally proud and stubborn man is in this moment. "My deepest regrets, Temari, but your husband's team was on that train."
Temari takes in the news with wide eyes. She hasn't taken the trains that often, and never to the north, but an explosion can never be good.
Elite shinobi or not, a disaster like that would surely leave someone in the hospital for weeks, even months.
She needs Ohnoki to leave so she can leave, they've wasted enough time here as it is. "I have to go. Sakura should already be at the hospital." she says shortly.
Though, why hasn't Sakura called her? Is she still busy in surgery? Her friend would have asked someone else to get her, unless his condition is too serious? That's only all the more reason that she should be there, with him. If he's even at the Konoha hospital. Did they take him back to somewhere in Earth Country-?
But Ohnoki is shaking his head, stopping all her trains of thought. "No, child, I'm afraid he's not in the hospital."
Temari furrows her brows. He isn't making any sense now. "Then where? In Iwagakure?"
Ohnoki is looking at her with pity again, sorrow in his wrinkled round eyes.
Suddenly, she understands. She has seen that solemn look before, years ago, on a nurse who had offered her condolences to a little girl whose mother did not make it.
It's the same as now.
Nara Shikamaru did not make it to any hospital.
Temari's back hits the wall.
"No." Is the first thing she manages out. "No, that can't be right."
She doesn't know why she's denying it. The Tsuchikage of all people wouldn't show up at her house and lie to her. Temari has been a shinobi for her entire life. She has accompanied Gaara to inform the families of fallen Suna-nin - has even gone herself - but the reality to be on the other side of it, that she is the family that needs to be consoled, that knocks her off-course.
"Where..." She coughs to clear her throat because she has to ask. "Where is he?"
Ohnoki closes his eyes slowly, like he's in pain. "I wish I had an answer for you, dear girl. My best trackers and sensors are at the site right now, searching for your husband. But, you have to understand, the explosion, it-" He shakes his head. "The last carriage... there was barely anything left."
Temari only stares as he explains.
An accident. An explosion.
The words don't make any sense.
There's a buzzing in her ears and she almost misses his next words.
"If there is anything at all I can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask." The Tsuchikage bows.
Temari nods lamely, trying to swallow the lump in her throat. It won't do her any good to lose her composure right now, not when Ohnoki is watching her, not when Shikadai is sleeping just upstairs.
After he leaves, the door shutting quietly behind him, it's silent in the house. Enough that all she can hear is her heart pounding desperately in her chest.
Her feet move on autopilot, taking her stiff legs to the nearest soft surface and letting her fall into the couch.
An accident.
The word reverberates in Temari's head until it loses meaning.
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