Chapter I — Up we go on The Flying Fan.
Out of all things she did know about Shikamaru, that wasn't something she did expect. Who would have blamed her? That man wasn't exactly open to her about his fears. They were both ninjas from different villages, so knowing this type of thing would give Temari the advantage to exploit his weakness in the battle back then, when the Sand Village attacked the Leaf.
It was like the skilled ninja admitting and shouting 'stab me in the heart!' In other words, the height of stupidity.
Shikamaru was far from stupid.
Lazy? Yes.
Ignorant? Sometimes when he didn't want to do anything besides cloud watching.
Too much smug in her presence? Of course, he was!
But stupid? Definitely not.
That's why when she heard what Shikamaru's fear was at first she laughed it off. They started to be very close friends after the Sand and Leaf village alliance. To think he was scared of something so ridiculous, not to mention of something she does daily in front of him! Temari felt like her pride would crumble to pieces if she didn't do something about this little fear of his.
Fear of heights.
At first, Temari didn't think she would learn what Shikamaru's weakness in battle could be. The moment they started to be friends, his mini-phobia stops him from spending time with her!
Why?
Because Shikamaru didn't trust her enough to hop onto her fan and fly to the next location on the joint mission! From that time one month ago he avoided her and that was constantly pissing her off. Enough! That was something she needed to deal with as fast as possible. Otherwise, she'd go on a crazy rampage.
It took three days for her to travel from Suna to Konoha. Three days. And Shikamaru had guts to avoid her unfortunately for too long. For him, that is. Especially with the 'amazing' idea, Temari thought of ways to get rid of that problem in their friendship.
She'd be his private instructor during the flying lessons on her fan. It was like killing two birds with one stone, she helped him with his fear and he wouldn't have an excuse to avoid her before Christmas. On top of that, she'd not waste three days of travelling just for Shikamaru to avoid her again. If it comes to the worst-case scenario, Temari plans to reach out to the Ino, or Chouji that got along with her pretty swimmingly these days.
Changing into her shinobi gear, tying up her blonde hair into her four-spiky ponytails and taking out her fan was the sign that Temari was now combat-ready if something unexpected occurred. Making her mindset on proper tutoring of Shikamaru in terms of using ninja tools like her fan to fly and helping her with his little 'fear' wasn't only a matter of wanting to help him but her pride too.
"Up we go!" she shouted while imagining that an invisible version of Shikamaru is here with her. It served to imagine how would she convey her lessons to him after she sees him three days later.
Well, maybe a little later depending on the weather condition, but still, she was coming and planning to outline her lessons during that required time.
Shikamaru should prepare himself to face her soon, or she isn't Temari No Sabaku!
Shikamaru sneezed. Perhaps he was lazing too much-watching clouds, but for some reason, he had that unexplainable feeling of dread when looking at the sky.
He decided to ignore that feeling, in favour of the nap. There's a possibility that if he knew what awaits him, Shikamaru instead of napping would be preparing to run away from Konoha. But he didn't.
Why?
Because he was known as the lazy-genius, so sleeping for him was always in fashion.
Little did he know that in fact, this reputation would bite him in the ass and didn't prepare him for the amount of the 'troublesome torture' he'd face in not-so-far-away future.
Even the status of a genius wouldn't prepare him for what fate has for him in the store. If he knew, he would run away to another village and change his identity to avoid the hurricane called Temari No Sabaku.
If he only knew... But he didn't. Till, the three days later, that is. Where it was too late to escape from this fate.
First lesson?
Never avoid talking to Temari for longer than one week if you're her friend. Otherwise, you're screwed.