Title Time Apart
Author aoimidori

Pairing/Characters Shikamaru x Temari
Rating PG, as usual, for safety
Genre Light Romance, Borderline Fluff (?) Pairing Randomness
Timeline mangaverse, as usual, after ch238, before ch247; flashbacks to between ch235 and ch238

Summary Sequel to Time Spent. What do they think about when they're apart? More of the little things that led to getting to know and understanding each other. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, its always been the little things.

Disclaimer Nothing is mine. Kishimoto Masashi created Naruto and all the characters in it, Shikamaru and Temari included. I own Shikamaru and Temari plushies though, made for me by a friend. XD And a Nara Shikamaru sticker sheet, bought for me by another friend. Yeah, I love my friends. But I don't own them either. ;p

Author's Notes Better read Time Spent first for better understanding. Although this one could stand on its own too. Thank you chibi-onna1 for beta-ing. This time it was a strawberry-scented pink glitter pen. XD

xxx

"So, what was that about?" Kankurou asked, the moment the Big Gates of Konoha were out of sight.

"What was what about?" Temari asked back, pretending to be absolutely clueless about what her brother was hinting at.

"You know what I'm talking about," he said thinly.

And of course she did.

"I don't know what you're going on about," she denied.

But he doesn't really have to know that.

Kankurou raised an eyebrow, "That Nara boy was the reason why you wanted to stay in Konoha longer than intended, wasn't he?"

Temari rolles her eyes, "Look, like I said before, we had a tough time with those Sound nin. I figured we needed to rest for a while before going home."

"Three months of rest!" Kankurou exclaimed in disbelief.

Temari shot him a death glare, which clearly sent him "DROP IT" vibes.

"Fine, then. But we never needed a 3 month rest break before," he mumbled, "and we've handled tougher shinobi."

Temari, of course, knew that her brother was right about everything. Nara Shikamaru was the reason she'd wanted to stay in Konoha.

And he'll probably be the reason why I'll accept missions involving that damn leaf village in the future, she grudgingly admitted to herself.

She didn't know why she found it so hard to forget the brat. He was twelve for Chrissakes! She had never been the type to show interest in younger boys. She'd understand if he was extraordinarily good-looking like that Uchiha traitor (the one they were sent to retrieve, but ended up failing to do so). But Pineapple Head? He certainly wasn't anyone special. He looked pretty average, and his physical strength was pretty so-so too. But for some reason, Nara Shikamaru had sparked her interest like no one ever had.

Why?

x flashback

"That one," she pointed at a huge, fluffy cloud, "reminds me of the Hidden Leaf insignia."

"Are you going to keep on bothering me for the rest of your stay here in Konoha?" he complained.

"Maybe," she shrugged, "Is there anything else to do?"

She noticed him mutter something vaguely under his breath, and then close his eyes. Time for his afternoon nap.

That is, if she'd let him. For some reason, she wanted to bother him some more.

"I've a question for you."

"Mendokuse," she heard him under his breath.

"Oi," she said, elbowing him.

"What?" he grumbled.

"A few weeks back," she began, "how did it feel to cry?"

She noticed his right eyebrow rise higher than usual.

"Are you for real?" he muttered, almost inaudibly. He probably thought she was mocking him for the sake of it.

"I'm serious," she pressed. "Have you never had emotion training? A true shinobi must never show his true feelings. People tell me, that even as a baby, I hardly ever cried."

Emotion training was also the reason why her smiles, or whatever expression her faced held, were rarely genuine. Her only real goal in life was to become a good and strong kunoichi, and she was raised to believe that that included hiding her real feelings.

Maybe that was why she was so intrigued by the Nara boy. He kept himself in check, but he never hesitated to say or show what he really felt. Only, most of the time, he felt that everything was troublesome.

"Is it so wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know," she answered, "I just wanted to know how it felt."

Silence.

He shrugged, "It felt like crying."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Emotional training is one thing," he mumbled, "real life is an entirely different thing."

"Yes, but that's why you train hard," she argued. This was one turning into one of those rare decent conversations he sometimes had with her.

"What would you feel if you headed a mission in which people close to you almost die?"

She stared hard at him, somewhat taken aback at his question.

"You need to face every mission ready for anything, even death," she said softly.

Close to her? She didn't really have any good friends, not like he was good friends with that fat-- err, healthy boy who almost died. Everyone at Suna was probably scared of her. The only people who would fall under the description "close to her" were her brothers. And before Konoha, she never thought anyone could beat her or her brothers.

They'd been to so many missions together, and God knows they weren't exatly all that merciful. She'd shed blood before and she hadn't thought much about it.

But now she knew that it wasn't impossible for someone to beat even Gaara, of whom even she was once afraid of.

"You think that way, but it's not the same for everyone. Naruto always says he has his own ninja way, I guess everyone has their own way," he sighed. "It's troublesome, but one can't help but let out his or her own true feelings once in a while. Naruto was right about that, you can never just disregard your feelings."

And then she was quiet. Once she'd been very confident about her skills as a kunoichi. She was strong. Physically, mentally and emotionally. But now she was beginning to doubt herself a little.

Her physical strength was no problem, it was the other 2 aspects she was worried about.

Once she'd believed she was a wonderful tactician, always thinking 2-3 moves ahead. But here beside her was someone who surpassed her mental strength, even without trying. What more if he actually put some effort into it?

And her emotional training? Right at that moment her emotions were on the verge of completely taking over. This one troublesome guy was making her feel all sorts of feelings she couldn't even begin to define. And she knew that her smiles, all the expressions she wore when she was with him, she knew they were all genuine. She found it so hard to hide them from him.

He was a lazy ass who does aboslutely NOTHING and yet without effort manages to uproot EVERYTHING she'd ever believed in.

It was then that she knew, she was going to strip this person bare until she got to know every single thing about him.

.oOo.

"You're late," Ino raised an eyebrow. "Where were you? Good thing Chouji here eats a lot; else you would've missed us."

Nara Shikamaru just shrugged, and took the empty seat beside his sensei.

"He told me he'd be late Ino," Asuma said. "I told you that."

Ino eyed Shikamaru suspiciously.

"You were with that Sand woman again weren't you?" she demanded.

He just shrugged. What did Ino care anyway?

"You were!"

Chouji elbowed Ino, and, pausing from eating, said, "So what if he was?"

Shikamaru shot a look at Chouji and gave him an expression which he knew only Chouji could understand as thank you.

Ino shrugged, "You've been spending an awful lot of time with that girl lately, Shikamaru-kun."

"Do I have to answer those prying remarks of yours Ino?" Shikamaru grumbled. "She already left with her brothers. I just went to say goodbye."

"Hmmm," Ino eyed him carefully. "Oi Shikamaru, do you like her?"

He noticed Asuma look up, his interest piqued. He could tell even Chouji wanted to hear his answer, as he'd temporarily slowed his eating pace.

"Feh You girls are all so troublesome!" he exclaimed, frustrated beyond words.

But, well, did he like her?

x flashback

"Oi Lazy," she began, as usual, with the teasing nickname he'd become accustomed to after weeks of spending time with her. "What do you want to achieve in life?"

Sometimes she comes up with the weirdest conversation topics.

One thing he'd found out about her was that she always felt the need to say something. Sometimes she'd just silently watch the clouds with him and at certain times she'd even let him take a decent afternoon nap. More often than not though, she'd be rambling on and on about something.

"Oi you," she demanded. "Answer."

Ah, what a bossy woman.

"What is it to you anyway?" he mumbled.

"Well, I see you wasting your high IQ on clouds every single day. You're so unmotivated that I wonder what you plan to achieve in life with that kind of attitude."

He snuck a look at her, and she looked genuinely interested in what his answer was going to be.

"If you must know," he sighed, "I find grand ambitions troublesome. Look at Naruto, he's pretty much set his eyes on becoming Hokage. And he might become one, or he might be disappointed eventually. I'm not like that. I just want a pretty average life, one I know I can easily achieve."

"What? Marry some nice random girl then settle down?" she cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes, exactly that, as a matter of fact," he shot back. "I want to marry a girl as average as me, have 2 kids, preferrably a girl first, then a boy. I plan on retiring once my girl settles down. I don't want to become some big-shot shinobi. Attention is too bothersome."

Although, somehow, he was finding the attention she was giving him less and less so. Before her, he never had anyone to talk to. There was Chouji, but they usually just sat together, him staring at the clouds, his friend happily munching on potato chips. There was Asuma-sensei, but it always seemed like he was testing him. And Ino? Never mind.

Conversations, for him, were normally too trying. But with her, maybe not so much...

He noticed as she raised her left eyebrow, and he braced himself for a lecture on how important high aspirations are: the type his mother always gave him. And Ino too, sometimes, when she sees him 'lazing around.'

"That makse sense, I guess," she said, making him suddenly snap his head towards her direction. "In the end maybe we all just want to live a simple and decent life."

Was she actually agreeing with him?

"It used to be my one goal in life to become as strong as I can," she began.

He couldn't help but stare at the intriguing expression painted on her face.

"But recent events have kind of made me realise how being physically strong isn't the only important thing in the world. I've always believed that we, me & my brothers, were very strong, but a bunch of you guys," she cringed, "actually managed to best us in fair combat."

He raised an eyebrow.

"One day, maybe I'd want to settle down too," she continued, a tiny smile forming on her lips. "I know its too early to be thinking about this, but someday, I don't think I'd want it to be someone extraordinary. By the time I settle down, I'd like to think I'd already experienced a lifetime's worth of excitement."

There she was, with that particular smile again, and he couldn't help but turn a bit pink. He was discovering many strange things about her.

Women are so troublesome. You think you've already figured them out and then they do a complete 180.

He heard her let out a deep sigh, which was followed by a short silence.

"Oi Lazy," she pointed, "that one looks like a butterfly."

He felt a smile tug at his lips. Somehow, this girl understood him a bit more than any other female he knew. And somehow, he was beginning to understand her too.

.oOo.

"Oi bum," she said, poking at his side.

He opened his eyes and found himself looking at her again, after such a long time.

"You," he grumbled. "I heard you were coming."

She raised an eyebrow, settling comfortably beside.

"You heard, and didn't even come to see me," she smirked.

"Too -- " he began.

"-- Troublesome, yes I know," she finished for him.

They let silence pass.

"It's been a while huh?" she broke it.

"A little over a year," he answered.

"I'm a jounin now."

"So I heard. What brings you here anyway?"

"I'm here with Gaara. Business matters."

"Pssh. I heard about the newly appointed Kazekage coming to further strengthen Sand-Leaf ties. But I was asking what you are doing here."

She looked at him, looking up at the clouds instead of at her.

She shrugged, "Missed cloud watching with you."

"Yeah?" he smirked.

"Missed you too," she grinned.

"Whatever," he said, but now he was looking at her, with a little almost smile on his face.

x fin.

Author's Notes This was started quite a while back. Sort of finished too, only I didn't think it was good enough. I polished it a bit, but it still came out as slightly pointless fluff. shrugs What can I do? ShikaTem banter is fun to write. I know in the anime Shikamaru dragged his class of little genin-wanna bes along when he said farewell to the Sand siblings, but I wrote this before that ep came out. (See? I told you this was written a while back.)

As usual, you're encouraged to read all my other fics, found over at my profile, and at my account: aoimidori. Everything's in the memories, under "Fanfic – Anime" ne? It has better formatting there because FFN always screws up. And while you're at it check out shika(underscore)temari, the LJ community for ShikaTem fans. XD And of course, go and subscribe now to the ShikaTem C2 Community: Not So Bothersome. Link over at my profile, under C2 Communities. XD If you wanna help out and be a staffer just contact me: aoimidori13(at)gmail(dot)com with your FFN penname. :D