Who Would Have Guessed I'd Kill For You?

Summary: Under the fist of the Hidden-Lock village, Shikamaru and Temari are separately interrogated in order to discover the truth about the mission they had gone there to investigate as partners, but the answers they give only lead them to the truth about how far they'd go to protect one another. The troublesome thing is, neither of them knows.

Temari:

Had I not been born to Suna, had I not been born the daughter of the Kazekage, I would be a normal woman serving under a normal village…preferably Konoha. Perhaps I would be one of those helpless damsels running for shelter whenever an assault would take place. Perhaps I would even trip, and an enemy would find me, with a thousand blades in his hands, their tips all pointing towards my heart. Perhaps I would even scream, dreaming that someone was powerful enough to save me in the nick-of time.

Being a second just-in-time rarely happened, so I presumed screaming for help while the blades thrust to pierce my body was just a reflex founded on false hope that someone out there had trained their bloody asses off for this very moment in history, when I needed saving, and only he could do it.

Yes, it was a dream; that superhuman instinct to rescue the damsel when all hope was lost, when all voice had been screamed to no result, and all her life had passed before her eyes. In the seconds before her death, she would realize there was not much life to be saved after all.

Therefore, it was okay. It was okay to die.

No, really, it was.

Stop debating me, Shikamaru.

A flare of white light deterred and declined from my view. It thinned into a pattern of several curved lines surrounding my body. The light fluttered. The light died.

When the painted scripts whirled loose from the center of the floor, eating the space the medics sat on further in the room, my mind told me it was time to wake up. I was not a woman in need of help, although the Hidden-Lock provided as much as I needed; I could proceed by myself from here onwards.

The medics released their hands from their sealing positions. A cloth draped over my body. Hot hands rolled me on my back.

I groaned, but my voice seemed to echo from a distance. The ceiling swayed in a fog of red and black. Mix it…maroon. Mother taught me that.

A woman in a half-mask entered my field of vision. Her eyes smiled. "It was a success. The drug has been extracted successfully from your body, Miss Temari. You're safe."

"Clothes," I managed to moan. "Iz…c-cold."

Footsteps sounded behind me. The same hot hands gripped my shoulders and ran down my spine as I was hauled to sit. The woman pointed at something and then waved for someone to approach. I blinked, and the next I knew, they were slipping my arms into a robe.

The woman overlapped the seams and tied a lace around my waist. Although hazed, my brain ordered me to knot the lace into a ribbon and turn it around so it would sit at my back. Familiarity was comfort, I learned. Perhaps a sandglass would help.

A man replaced the kind woman, and he pushed me gently towards him, my forehead pressed against his shoulder, his arms laced around me, and he hefted me to my feet. Something behind me squeaked. He lowered me to a wheelchair. "Good girl," he cooed. "Karura, you can check her vital signs now."

"Ka…rura?" I mumbled, turning my head to the kind woman. She released her hair from the net that was holding it back and called on a junior medic to remove her gloves for her.

"Karura!"

"Wait a second," she grumbled. Karura tied her hair into two, low pigtails and knelt before me. Pressing the head of the stethoscope over my heart, she said, "Here we go. Take deep breathes, Miss Temari."

I focused my eyes on her.

She was Karura, but she was not my mother.

The double doors at the far end of the room split open. I lifted my head from within my hands to see.

Two military officers in green uniform shoved a piece of paper to the nearest medic's face. The balding one said, "This warrant permits us to bring her to our department and interrogate her."

The shorter, older man grazed the medical script on the floor with his thumb, scoffed, stood, and resumed to stroke his beard. "Right now, Karura. Orders from above."

"You must be kidding!" Karura excused herself from me to accost them. "She's still high on the drug! She's too vulnerable to be interrogated by the likes of you!"

"That Sand shinobi murdered two of our best men!"

"Everybody knows the truth now: they were the drug-dealers and this Sand shinobi along with that stick of a man from Konoha uncovered their scheme like we asked them to!"

"We don't know the truth!" The bearded man jostled past her.

Karura sidestepped and spread her arms. "I am her doctor, and until I say she's fit, she's not leaving my jurisdiction!"

I shut my eyes. Karura was right; I was still too high on the drug to even be angry at their stupidity.

The taller of the duo swung the back of his hand across her face, the sound of the clash making me jump on my seat. Karura hit the ground. Half the medics charged towards her, while the other halft stiffened on their posts.

I felt the shorter man advance in my direction. The stench of rotten apples deluged my nose.

He clutched my jaws and pulled my head upwards, straining my neck. "And you will tell us, you Sand slut, what really happened two nights ago."

Shikamaru:

The enamel of the metal table reflected the murk about the room more than it did the scant amount of light available. Shinobis were trained to use not only their eyes – although, personally, I trusted them the most – but also their other senses. I had long lost account of any sound resonating from the outside. The reek of fresh paint mixed with rust enlivened my memory of Konoha's Intelligence Department. The similarity of the stench assured me that they had indeed left me in an interrogation room and not some abattoir.

I would have loved to cover my nose, even if it would make me sound hideous while answering their probably more hideous questions, but they had slipped my fingers into a holed block of wood to restrain my movements. For now, all I could do was wrinkle my nose.

I wriggled on my metal chair in order to sit upright, but the chains cuffing my ankles together and linking them to my wrists sagged my posture. I gave up and slouched. These chains were so damn heavy I could hit my head against them and be certain to suffer brain trauma

It wasn't as though what they've put me through beforehand wasn't enough trauma.

Slow down, I told myself as I fidgeted some more. Breathe. The drug was beginning to pass my consciousness, and I wouldn't be as susceptible as they expected me to be.

Bolts clacked, walls whined, and a silhouette materialized in the gloom. A pair of hands clad in black shut the door.

The woman entered the light, revealing herself at last. She didn't bother to look up at me. She went straight to the other side of the table, sat down, and spread her files as though she was reading the newspaper.

Did the Hidden-Lock produce newspapers? I never noticed.

"Shikamaru Nara," she said, flicking her eyes to me. "You have quite an astonishing record from Konoha."

"Isn't that why you chose me in the first place?" I yawned. It was their fault that I couldn't cover my mouth. "You mistrust two of your strongest clans on the issue of manufacturing and selling illegal drugs, hence, to avoid bias, you decided to request two clever shinobis – one from Konoha and one from Suna – to investigate. Lo and behold, you didn't expect any bloody encounter, and although Temari and I solved it, you treat us now like we were behind the entire plot. I apologize for being rude now, but I assure you that once this reaches the Hokage, the least your village will receive is a-"

"I'm not here to condemn you, Mr. Nara." She lowered the papers on the table and flattened her long fingers on them, still looking directly into my eyes. "I believe it is the Tazu and the Yazu clans' business all along. I struggled with my superiors in order to secure my role as your interrogator today. Why? Because I want to help you. Your companion – Temari? – she was successfully cleansed of the drug. She'll be fine, but I heard before coming here that Minoru and Naoko managed to be granted a warrant allowing them to interrogate her immediately after our medics finished retracting the drug from her bloodstream."

I slammed the block of wood on the table. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you think that by interrogating her while she's barely capable of holding herself upright will allow you to find what you expect to find?"

"No, but they expect her temporary stupor to allow them to manipulate her into conceding to whatever lie the Tazu and Yazu clans had ordered for them to weave - all for the purpose of protecting their names." She stood, brushing her hair back into its chignon. She undid the first button of her red blazer. "Shikamaru. Can I call you that – Shikamaru?"

The lines on her face could not be due to age, so the other option was stress. The level of stress that cost her the years of her youth must mean she was a military prodigy.

The door was approximately six feet tall. She passed its gleaming outline while she paced, and her waist reached three or four inches below the knob. I tilted my head to peer at her back. Posture was rigid and straight. Seeing as her upper body was shorter than her lower, she must only be five foot and three inches tall. I muted her ramblings while I scrutinized the curve of her waist down to the width of her hips. Only a fraction more developed than Ino's. In conclusion, she was a petite, full-grown woman in the service of the Hidden-Lock's military Intelligence Division since she arrived at an estimated age of fifteen or seventeen.

For her to win the right to interrogate me meant she was fervently trusted by her superiors.

What a drag this was turning out to be.

I had at least expected them to cut me some slack by giving me a dimwitted shinobi to answer to. This woman was not an elfin in mind as she was in stature.

"Shikamaru!" She snapped her fingers. "Have you been listening to me?"

"If Tazu and Yazu are proven guilty, the income of your village will deteriorate to a critical forty percent. It will be easier to work with Minoru and Naoko into convicting Temari and I." I paused to gauge the authenticity of her calm. "Why would you want to help me?"

"I guess my mother owes it to Konoha – to your clan, especially."

I focused my gaze on her. "…Who are you, really?"

"Nari Morikubo," she answered with a sad smile. "The generation before you know about the bondservants; poor families were allowed to sell family members as servants for a finite amount of time equivalent their debt. The Morikubos were bondservants to the Naras because my great-grandfather stole your deer to make use of their antlers…your father never told you about us, did he?"

"When bondservants became unethical we let you go without complaint and gave you enough money to start a life in the Hidden-Lock," I said, and suddenly her felinity withdrew from my perception. "Morikubo – look how far you've gotten."

The air between us lightened. Nari returned to her seat. "Tazu and Yazu will make sure both of you are convicted – they'll risk the Hidden-Lock by so doing."

"And they think by allowing the drug to haze Temari, she can sabotage her own interrogation with only little effort on her interrogator's behalf?"

She considered my countenance for a moment. "You have so much faith in that woman."

I smiled openly now.

I did have a lot of faith in Temari, but that did not mean I wasn't worried.

Temari:

I crossed my legs.

"You-" I coughed, shifted on my seat, and continued, "You want me to narrate our investigation of the Tazu and Yazu clans from the moment Shikamaru and I stepped into the Hidden-Lock?"

"Yes, little miss." The bearded man who called himself Minoru grinned, exposing his yellowing teeth. "Why? Can't you decide where to begin? Let me help you: you and that Shikamaru Nara of Konoha met with some traitors from the Hidden-Lock and received instructions to pin the blame on the Tazu and Yazu clans. You corrupted the investigation and made those innocent families look like the bad guys!"

The aroma of black coffee ignited an urge for me to puke. If only I could throw myself over the table and puke my gut on the other, nastier man's, bald, I would. That said man whom, if I recalled correctly, was named Naoko, tapped his nose while he watched me. Noticing my inspection, he smirked.

"You never mentioned the Hidden-Lock has traitors," I said, before he could verbalize my vacillation and use it further against me. "How many do you have?"

"All villages have traitors – it's common."

"Traitors pining to bring down your strongest clans are brave and uncommon."

"Brave, you say?" Minoru snickered and splayed his fingers on the metal table as though they were claws. "Do you consider yourself brave?"

I blinked at him, perceiving him as a giant, talking fly I craved to kill. Goodness, this drug was playing with my head. "Yes, I do. All Sand shinobis are damn brave."

"You just described yourself as one of those traitors, little miss," Naoko said. "Is that what your purpose to destroy the Tazu and Yazu call you to be? Brave? Brave to go against those clans in order to achieve what? Justice?"

"Are you brave, little man?"

"What did you call me?"

"Little man," I yapped. "Are you brave?"

His face flushed pink, realizing that if he negated, I would call him a coward, and he would lose his authority in this interrogation. Otherwise, I would just proceed to call him traitor.

Shikamaru:

"When Temari and I were summoned to your Kage's office, that was the first time I saw her here. We never met along the way because the Hidden-Lock is situated in-between Konoha and Suna, meaning we travelled from east and west to get here. Your Kage briefed us on the matter: illegal drugs were being mysteriously produced and smuggled out of the Hidden-Lock, and there is high suspicion on both the Tazu and the Yazu clans. Your investigation team gave us the facts and Temari and I worked on them for one week."

"But it says here that you made no progress."

I shrugged, my interest suddenly trapped by the dangling light bulb at the center of the room. A daddy long-legs crawled out of the oval casing to greet me. "Well," I said, "she argued with me about informing any of your officers. We believed that someone was covering for the clans, but none of you told us outright because you feared to be targeted. I wanted to report a pint of our deductions to avoid any suspicion that we were helping the criminals in obscuring their crime."

"That's when the encounter with the heirs to the clans happened." She fingered through her documents in search for a report. "In the Eighty Bridges Garden – our most famous tourist destination. Was it planned? Did you know the heirs would be there?"

"Of course we did."

Temari:

Shikamaru and I had been on endless arguments since we touched the drug case. He submitted to me time and again in the most gentleman of manners, but I heard him grunt afterwards, still searching for ways to prove me wrong. It could just be my pride making something out of nothing, but then I could be right, and he was not such a pussy after all.

Our last argument had caused him to walk out on me. We lodged in neighboring rooms, so I anticipated hearing his door slam soon after he exited mine, but I didn't hear a hint of a sound. Exasperated, I had sat on the balcony's ledge to let the midnight breeze dispel my tantrum.

That was when I saw him stalking off the hotel with his back hunched, his hands in his pockets, and his head down.

I hated to admit it, even to myself, but I watched him slog the road until he was out of sight. I waited for him to come back, constantly checking the hotel corridors and the main road for that sad shadow of his.

Thirty-three minutes past one in the morning, I geared up to track him down.

I didn't know how I arrived at the conclusion that he was in the Eighty Bridges Garden. It could be because I always caught him glimpsing it whenever it was in view or that I tolerated his eavesdropping on the foreigners who had just visited the place.

Perhaps I had also wanted to go there to see what the fuss was truly about.

Shikamaru had mentioned it three days prior our battle in that garden. The memory of our conversation lingered clearly: we were eating lunch at a ramen stand which reminded me instantly of Naruto, and we had ordered two bowls of spicy beef ramen with extra vegetables. Our choice of lunch still baffled me to this moment, especially because we had been complaining about the weather since we woke up.

The heat had drained me mentally and physically, and I had changed into my purple dress and blouse without my hand and leg warmers in an attempt for comfort. When I returned to the ramen stand, Shikamaru made a comment about my retaining the red sash instead of donning the purple one that usually went with the dress, to which I responded with astonishment that he cared to note the details of my fashion. He casually diverted the conversation by handing me my bowl of ramen and asking me if I had heard the reason why the garden was such a big hit, particularly with the travelling ninjas.

"Why?" I had nearly choked on the noodles. Too hot, too spicy.

He encircled both his hands around his steaming bowl, and I thought he was going to bring it up to his lips to drink the soup, but instead he just stared at it, as if he, too, was still searching for the answer.

"Shikamaru?"

"They say the doors leading to the bridges are made of a special glass – sand hit by lightning, they make really strong glass," he had said. "You have to check each of the eighty doors to find the one that reflects your image like a mirror – the one without distortions. They say you should open that door and cross the bridge, and along the way, you will find happiness."

Minoru cleared his throat, dragging me away from Shikamaru and the ramen stand. He bent his waist and propped himself on the table with his left arm. "You entered the Eighty Bridges Garden without permission? At around two o'clock in the morning? We have enough reason to suspect you, little miss."

I uncrossed my legs and leaned my head on my hand. The spice of the beef lingered on my tongue. "With that said, your heirs to the Tazu and Yazu, who were also present at that time and in that place are also suspects."

"No," he said in an elongated melody. "Because you killed them. You killed them because they tried to expose your real agenda for accepting this mission!"

"You mean the skinny girl in pigtails and the abnormally tall person?" I laughed, clapping my hands. "Shouldn't you be happy I did? I killed them because they tried to kill my partner and I! They tried to kill us because we caught them harvesting the drugs!"

Shikamaru:

"So none of you have ever wondered why there are Eighty bridges in that garden?" I said. "That the tourists are given only one minute to cross the bridge of their choice while appreciating the garden and the river below?"

Nari shrugged off her blazer, uncomfortable. "We've tested them, Shikamaru. The flowers the Tazu and Yazu grow there are not positive for the main ingredient of the drug. The euphoria one experiences as they cross the bridge is an unexplainable phenomena; it's the very reason the garden is so famous!" She sighed, shaking her head, totally taken aback by the memory of the garden in her head. "Besides, you and Temari were called because when we grazed the garden of the flowers, the tourists still felt that same delight after crossing the bridge, therefore eliminating the possibility that the Tazu and Yazu were using the drug on their customers."

"It's not the flowers, Nari."

She batted her eyelids, her jaw hanging. "Excuse me? You're still going to persuade me that the drug is in the garden? We can agree that Tazu and Yazu are behind this, but-"

"It's the grass," I hissed.

Temari:

"The grass?" Minoru and Naoko exchanged a look and sniggered.

I had lost my appetite for laughter at this point. "Yes, the grass."

"Care to justify your lie? Just try, little miss."

"Your heirs – the girl and the tall man – they're Mai and Goro? Whatever, I'd call them what I want." I rubbed my eyes. I was so tired. "Those siblings were harvesting flowers that night. Shikamaru and I were crossing the same bridge from opposite ends when we saw them right beneath us, chucking the flowers in their sacs."

"Mai likes those flowers; she always does that."

"In the morning? And with her older brother? Fascinating! Even my caring younger brother won't go out of his way to welcome me at the gate of Suna after I've come home from a deadly mission."

"Then he's not a good brother – and what's so questionable at wanting to be in their property? It's theirs. When they go there and what they do there is their business."

"They have made it their business," I said, "and a very profitable one at that -so profitable it doesn't matter that it's illegal. We know because they attacked us for no reason."

"You were trespassing!"

"I was looking for Shikamaru!" I shrieked at his face. "And then those heirs of yours threw their shuriken at us and we had to fight back!"

Naoko nodded, descending on his chair with a sneer. "You were looking for Shikamaru because you knew he was an accomplice! C'mon, missy, admit it! Stop covering for him. Let's settle the matter and end your agony."

"Shikamaru was there because we fought and he was upset with me and he…" I shut my mouth. He was there because he was looking for happiness. He wanted to see if it was true. He wanted to see if it worked.

"So why were you there, then?" Minoru asked.

I, too, whether I liked the idea or not, was searching for my happiness. I had given up scouting for Shikamaru around the village and had conceded to do something for myself this one time. I conceded to the chance that a mirror, a bridge, or some nice view of nature, could bring me happiness. Instead, when I found the door that reflected my image, when I opened it, I saw Shikamaru in the middle of the bridge, slowly turning his head to see me.

Shikamaru:

"I stayed on the bridge long enough, waiting for happiness. I didn't know if it was an event that was supposed to just fall on me, so I stayed, and just when I was about to leave, the door on the opposite end opened, and Temari was there."

Nari chuckled, jotting this information down on her tablet.

"It's not very consoling that you laugh when I'm about to go to the part where a hundred shuriken fly at us."

"No, no, I'm sorry." She interlaced her fingers and put it in front of her to regain her professional demeanor, but her smile betrayed her. "It's anomalous and yet…appealing that you were about to give up on the theory of happiness when all of a sudden, Temari appears."

"What are you implying?"

"That you lied about knowing Mai and Goro were in the garden that morning."

"Why else would we be there if we had not known?" I said. "Sure, I tested the happiness thing, but only because I was waiting for Temari to show up. We had an argument. She was cross. Women need time to cool off, so I understood…It's fine if you don't believe me, you know."

"All right, so both of you had an argument, you went to the garden ahead of her, you met by accident in the same bridge-." She stifled another laugh. "I'm sorry. We shouldn't even be smiling, should we? Let's proceed. A hundred shuriken fly at you, and then what?"

"We jumped off the bridge."

Temari:

"The fight went on in a daze. I can't…"I puffed, widening my eyes to sustain focus.

"You can't because they never initiated the fight. You ambushed them, fed them the drug, and stabbed them!"

I rubbed my forefinger under my lower lip, trying to picture Shikamaru and I on that bridge again, showered in the bluish glow of early morning in paradise. "It doesn't happen that way…we jumped off the bridge, that's what I'm certain of. And then I was fighting Goro on the trees by the side of the garden. Shikamaru was on the other end, fighting Mai. I am a wind user, and I've swung my fan enough times towards the grass to cause the drug to be airborne. I was losing my footing on a branch. Everything was clouded in my sight, and I was very dizzy. Goro was coming for me with those blades popping from his back…and then Shikamaru tackled me from the left. We hit branches, we hit leaves, we hit the ground at last, and then we scraped the ground and fell into the river.

"The water soaked us both. I awaken. The clouds leave me, I guess because the water had washed the drug off my skin. My limbs loosened from Shikamaru's body no matter how badly I ordered them not to…and then I felt this force wrap around my ankles and pull me out of the river. Just before my head was drawn out, I realized Shikamaru could no longer hold on to me because his hands were sustaining a seal. I breathed in air, and then I heaved my head up enough to see he had used the shadow of the nearest tree to chase me. He saw to it that if ever I was too heavily drugged, I would not drown. I composed myself, and then I dived back to retrieve him. He was heavy. I dragged him to shore, panting, tired, really, very tired, and then I put my ear to his chest. No. there was no heartbeat."

The duo had gone silent now. I put my fist above my own heart. Mine was beating too fast. This drug was causing me to say these things…causing me to react this way to an incident completely natural in the battlefield. He had died – so what?

"I think…" My chest hollowed. "I think I cried. Did I? I really think I did. I pumped his chest with all my might and breathed into his mouth, begging him not to go. I even said 'please' several times. It felt so long, the moment he died. I just couldn't see it happening. When he still wouldn't breathe, I punched his chest. He coughed and rolled over. I think I cried some more. I think I was happy. I was about to cover my mouth with my hands to quiet myself when I saw green powder on my skin. I sniffed it. Oh. It was the drug. The drug was the powder that the grass was emitting. I realized it then."

Shikamaru:

"My recollection henceforth is quite distorted, but I do remember coughing and rolling on the ground, trying to regain full awareness. It felt as though I had drifted for a while, and then suddenly I was breathing, and all at once, the danger of our situation crashed on my awareness. What…" I cleared my throat and transferred the block of wood from the table to my lap. "I mean, what brought my focus back, then, was seeing Temari fight Mai and Goro on her own. I've never seen her so mad in her life. It was really…scary."

"Can you explain their battle in more detail?"

"It wasn't much of a battle," I said. "I guess those two were also high on the drugs by then and was fairly unsteady. Temari grabbed a handful of grass, tossed it, fanned a whirlwind, caught those two idiots in the whirlwinds, and they collapsed. I'm not sure if it's the entire drug's fault or they hit their heads." I paused to consider my next words. Total compliance would include admitting that Temari stabbed those two to their deaths even when they were defenseless, hence supporting the suspicion that she was a criminal, although the circumstances made the whole crime debatable.

"How about the stab wounds?"

"I stabbed Mai and Goro."

Nari stared at me long and hard. "You pierced their hearts with Temari's kunai? Was it in defense, Shikamaru?"

"Will you believe me if I said it was?"

"Tell me the truth."

"Temari was tripping from the drug. I stabbed Mai and Goro."

"The truth, Shikamaru."

"I stabbed Mai and Goro. Her kunai was the only weapon within reach."

"Was it in defense?"

"…Yes. I didn't want to die, and I didn't want Temari gone, too."

"And you don't want her to go to prison for murder."

"I killed Mai and Goro."

She capped her pen and leaned back on her chair. "Okay, Shikamaru, let's pretend that's the truth."

Temari:

"I did kill Mai and Goro," I said. "Shikamaru had nothing to do with it. He was still lying on the ground, gathering himself, when I stabbed those two bloody airheads."

Naoko and Minoru appeared dumbfounded by my confession. These dim, senile officers… They bullied me for a confession, and when I gave it, they only stared at me like bigger idiots than those dead heirs to the Tazu and Yazu clans.

Shikamaru:

"While I was busy…murdering? Yeah, killing the tall man with warts on the left side of his face you call Goro, a third man appeared and assaulted Temari."

I wanted to stop there.

The images, lucid as the heat consuming my rationalism, overtook my calm act, and there was no doubt Nari saw the change I felt.

She tapped the point of her pen on her tablet. "That third man – you are referring to Shotaru?"

A smirk crept on my lips without my permission, similar to how anger leaked into my bloodstream upon hearing that name. "So the mystery assassin doing the dirty work for the sake of the business has a name! I like that – Shotaru."

"Who did he attack first? Surely, with you stabbing Goro like your described, he would have targeted you."

"Nah, he was smart enough not to disregard Temari even in her drugged state."

"Okay, so he attacked Temari first?"

"I was practically high around that time. I was tumbling, so for several moments, all I could do was watch."

She noted this in her pad like she noted even my briefest of pauses. This must be for her later review of my diction, for reference of my speech pattern while giving my testimony.

We weren't even in court yet.

"Do you mind sharing the scope of what you watched? In concrete detail, Shikamaru?" she said.

"He swung his fists. Left hook, job…here and there, like he was only playing with her. I can even hear his laughter now. It's disgusting. He sounds like he still has food in his mouth whenever he creates a sound. He only needs to snort and I'd be convinced Temari was fending off a Hidden-Lock pig. We have a pig back in Konoha that our Hokage is very fond of – the name is TonTon. It's actually capable of human communication."

"Moving on," she said.

"Moving on," I echoed her elocution to spare myself seconds to think this through, but my mind was already set on terminating my testimonial.

Nothing happened to Temari.

I really didn't want to move on.

"Temari hit a boulder – one of those dressed as a shrine and scattered around the garden? - and he punched the protruding stone beside her face. Her face…well, I've never seen her more shocked."

She was just a girl, I remembered thinking at that moment. It was the plainest emotion she had ever let shown, and the funny thing was, she had to be dangerously high on drugs to pull it off.

"What was Shotaru's next move? There were a fair amount of bruises on Temari's body that matched the imprint of Shotaru's brass knuckles. "

"He punched her stomach. Temari recoiled over his arm while holding her stomach, a mixture of blood and saliva seeping through her teeth and dripping from her mouth. I shouldn't tell you that bit of fact; Temari will butcher me," I said. The air raced in my lungs, never wanting to leave, never wanting me to share the subsequent memory of her and that man. I palpitated. "He mocked her by laughing more and-and spitting on her face. It hit right above her upper lip, on the space below her left nostril. She would normally have kicked him in the groin to avenge herself, but she had not the power even to wince. She was so lifeless…and then his hand cupped her face, pinching her cheeks like he was inspecting beef, measuring if she was cut the way he liked his beef cut. He nodded this nod of approval, and his hand lowered to rub the…the underside of her breasts. He was disgusting – he and that sneer he possessed while doing it." I shut my mouth.

Nari's physique softened. "You sound like you don't want to continue."

I kept silent.

"You have to, Shikamaru. It's important I know exactly what he's done so I know what to charge Shotaru with."

"He's alive?"

"He survived surgery on his brain. He's in intensive care right now, and the doctors are keeping an eye on his condition."

"You cured the fracture on his skull?"

"Tell me about that fracture, Shikamaru." Nari clasped her hands behind her and took long strides around the table. "Shotaru was molesting Temari, and you were incapacitated by the drugs."

But the mind was a wonderful thing indeed, I thought.

Neurons had awaked from exhaustion at the sight of Shotaru's fingers climbing her inner thigh while his other hand was unsheathing his kunai from his holster. A surge of fresh power had possessed me, and suddenly, I was on my knees, leaning forward to help cast a longer shadow.

"I threw a kunai overhead to cut the rope of the nearest bridge so it would dangle, spreading a strong, thick line of shadow exactly where Shotaru stood to where I knelt beside the river," I said. "Before he could invade her, I had bound our shadows together, and he was mine."

Temari:

I felt wrong. Everything I had said so far only made our situation worse.

"Do continue with your account on Shotaru's assault, little miss. Did you bash your head against his or did Shikamaru smack it on the boulder to kill him?"

"Neither," I said with a snap of certainty. I was also sure my memory skipped some very important minutes between Shotaru punching me on the stomach and his paralysis due to Shikamaru's jutsu.

Shikamaru…his rubber band had split, and his hair had draped over his face. He was the most serious madman I had ever encountered, and yet he looked lousy while he thrust his head again and again in mid-air, commanding Shotaru's to do the same, only when he thrust his head, it hit the boulder.

Blood had sprayed onto my cheeks, and several drops sank into my tongue.

They tasted like…nothing.

"I smacked his head on the boulder," I said, having no idea why I would take this burden on the stead of Konoha's smartest dastard. "I was high. My mind was telling me he was a threat, and my body responded to that inclination. Are you men stupid? Don't you know that drugs heighten everything? Including fear? How about we fill the air in this room with the same drug and you provide me with a kunai and let's see what you're capable of doing, misters."

Shikamaru:

"You repeatedly hit his head on the boulder using your shadow binding jutsu…" Nari's smile slumped into a frown. She sat on the edge of the table, beside my hands, and she demanded that I look at her. "Hasn't it occurred to you that you could have killed him?"

"I killed Mai and Goro, didn't I?"

"You're cleverer than that, Shikamaru. You could have knocked him unconscious and had him arrested, therefore proving Tazu and Yazu as the masterminds."

"And I thought you were cleverer than that, Nari," I said. "Shotaru is an assassin – he has nothing that will link him back to those clans. Having him arrested is as pointless; how easy can it be for one of your militia who is secretly working for either of the clans to poke him with a poisoned needle while handcuffing him? What you're really trying to do is make me confess if I intended to kill him, correct? You could have just asked outright."

"All right." Her face bared of all emotions. "Did you, Shikamaru Nara, intend to kill Shotaru when you repeatedly smacked his head on that boulder?"

I could see Shotaru's blood splash on that boulder. I could see Temari gasp with the coldness of his blood on her face. I could see myself, burying my nails on my skin to sustain the outpouring of my chakra, to persist my criminal act, to avenge my eyes for what they had seen, to release the rage curdling in my gut, to feed the greediness of my shadow.

The clangor of the metal door of the interrogation room resonated. An adolescent shinobi – a chuunin, judging from the insignia on his armor – entered in attention.

Nari stood and turned, challenging the reason we were disturbed.

The shinobi maintained his impassive stance. He said, "Ambassadors from Konoha and Suna have arrived and are currently in a meeting with our Kage."

Temari:

The militia cuffed Naoku and Minoru and declared their arrest for contempt regarding the warrant they showed Karura in order to interrogate me.

That same medic – Karura - squeezed past the militia standing sentry to the room and hastened to my side. She mumbled something about keeping still and enduring the sting when she injected an amber liquid on the inside of my left elbow. "You'll be fine now, Miss Temari," she said. "You should be fine now. Side effects would be dizziness and temporary disorientation, but you should be fine within an hour."

That thought struck me again while I studied her pigtails.

She was Karura, but she was not my mother.

"What was that?" I croaked.

"Antidote," she said, louder." They struck you with poison, miss." Karura detached the needle and showed me the empty syringe she used. "They intended to murder you, but I snooped around their office and found the pipe containing the odorless poison I suspected they would use on you. You're lucky I specialize exactly in that field; those odorless poisons can only be manufactured by the Tazu and Yazu. The recipe originated from their ancestors."

Ï inspected my wrists and touched other parts of my body, recalling where they had physical contact with me to do such without my noticing it. I felt my jaw, at the tiny lump of flesh that now itched.

Naoku pricked me in the hospital.

A voice outside the room disturbed my increasing anxiety.

"Kankuro!" I propped myself off the wheelchair, but I collapsed, and he dashed to my side instead.

He brushed my bangs back, panting. "Gaara is with their Kage right now. We came as soon as we heard."

I gripped his arm, testing if he was real. "How? How-how did you know? So fast?"

"I didn't feel right about this mission, so I sent someone to spy on you," he whispered. "Appears my instincts are right. He alerted Gaara right after you were hospitalized. We were only waiting for them to deliver the notice of your arrest before we could take action."

My brother, who wouldn't welcome me at the gates of Suna after a deadly mission, sent a spy to watch over me. I embraced him. There were no words enough to relay how grateful I was to be his sister.

"Konoha is also here." He embraced me back, pressing his mouth over my left ear. "Shikamaru's father broke their politics down to a humiliating heap."

I perked at the mention of his name. "Where's Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru:

The militia marched inside my interrogation room, stomping their feet on the floor in the beat of a drowsy melody . Nari wriggled her blazer on and buttoned it. "Colonel Sakumo Tamura, sir," she saluted to the approaching figure.

A bulbous man waddled inside with his hands on his back. He craned his neck, which consisted of three, pink, overlapping layers of fat, until he saw me. He wore green gems of disdain for eyes, so far from the kindness I hoped that could hint me of anything good, so I waited for the worse.

Konoha could do nothing to salvage me.

I was to face death sentence in another village.

As long as my execution was simple, I would be fine with that.

Wait, if Konoha could not save me…how was Suna to save Temari?

Colonel Tamura broke the seal of the scroll he was holding. He spread it sideways and sucked in a breath to begin. "By order of General Ishiguro and Lord Masashi, the facts retracted from Shikamaru Nara of the Hidden-Leaf Village during this interrogation are to be considered null and void from this second onwards. Lieutenant!"

An officer stepped forward and handed him a set of keys.

Tamura descended on his knees with the assistance of two other lieutenants, and he twisted the keys to unlock my shackles.

The wooden panel cringed and loosened around my wrists and fingers. The man plucked it out. I kicked the metal cuffs off my ankles with a quiet, genuine, sigh of relief.

"Sir," Nari stuttered. "H-how…?"

At that moment, another man entered, one that I had known all my life, and one that I was sure was the least happy to see me sitting where I sat.

Shikaku's scar twitched, but other than that, the rest of his face remained free of the exasperation that was surely simmering in the pit of his acidic stomach. Inoichi emerged behind him along with a blonde woman I had seen enough times in Lady Tsunade's office.

Oh, dad. I'd rather face the executioner with the axe.

"Get up, Shikamaru," he growled. "We're leaving."

I rubbed my thighs to improve the blood flow in my legs. Everything else in my body ached. Frustration roasted my strength of mind, and my left leg jerked with the last of the adrenaline in my system. Gripping the edge of the table, I heaved myself up and clutched my hips to sustain my posture. I breathed deep. "Yes, sir."

I nodded at Nari as I rounded the table to join my superiors. "Miss Morikubo,"

Father cocked his eyebrows. "Morikubo?"

She finally spotted the resemblance between Shikaku and I, her mouth opening and closing in an attempt to say something in the midst of all this smog. I beckoned for her to come over. "This is Miss Nari Morikubo, sir. You will want to speak to her for her unbiased treatment of me during this interrogation."

"Nari," said Tamura. "Do as they say and escort them out of the Hidden-Lock. First, though, you have to report to Lord Masashi. He's requesting you in his office this very moment."

"Äh, y-yes sir!

Temari:

Karura provided me with a room to change into the fresh clothes that Kankuro brought with him from the Sand. It surprised me, as I pulled the rope around the knapsack and lifted the contents for inspection, that he had specifically packed my battle clothes.

I scoured myself clean with a wet towel, ridding my skin off the ink they painted on me during the medics' effort to withdraw the drugs from my bloodstream. Once dry, I shrugged on my black kimono. The hem tickled the skin above my ankles.

Kankuro had taken my oldest kimono from my closet.

The slits now revealed a little of my thighs. I should borrow his leg warmers so as not to provoke indecency.

I fished my red sash from the knapsack, feeling closer to home now that this was in my possession. I had never been more myself this whole time until the sash was wrapped around my waist, and a ribbon hung at the base of my spine. As I assessed my appearance on the lengthwise mirror, I wondered if I should replace my red sash with the purple one to see if anyone else would notice the inconsistency.

Someone knocked on my door as I was fastening my fingerless gloves.

The door stood ajar for several seconds. Gaara slipped in half his body through the gap and stretched out my forehead protector.

I tugged at the ribbon one final time before walking to him. I touched the metal placard, and then wrapped my fingers around it. "Thank you."

"Hurry up," he said in that low voice of his. "Let's get out of here."

"Yes, let us."

"Temari,"

I flicked my eyes to his face. A hint of sadness etched the crease of his brow.

"I'm never sending you back here," he said. "Do you understand?"

I tied my forehead protector in place. Now I was complete. "Understood, sir."

Shikamaru:

The precinct lobby narrowed to those two, rectangular, glass doors blurred by the afternoon sun. Our group of four walked in a steady pace past the glares of the Hidden-Lock shinobis in their respective offices. It seemed the news of our release had travelled to the bottom of the pyramid, and if not for the symbol embedded on our forehead protectors, they wouldn't have thought twice about slaughtering us here and now.

A distinct sight caught my attention: Shikaku wasn't wearing his hideous, tattered vest.

Big wonder, I thought. He must have done something that pissed mom enough for her to tear it apart and set it on fire. If mom had hinted about it much earlier – which she usually did by purchasing a pair of gardening scissors and whiskey to suckle the fire with – I would have cashed out on a bet with Ino.

Inoichi was father's best accomplice, whether he looked it or not. If Shikaku became a drunken mess and used his shadow to mock Konoha's bartenders, rest assured, Inoichi had, no matter how little, a part in his scheme. This oftentimes brought Ino knocking on my window to bet on what my mother would do to punish him. These bets were usually where she earned enough money to buy herself new leather boots, and I, enough spare to pay for what damages Naruto committed himself into while I accompanied Team Seven in their special missions.

Kakashi always excluded himself from such nuisances by heading back to Konoha ahead of our group, justifying his desertion by complimenting our skills as sufficient for survival.

Sakura, being Sakura, drove the complainants away by beating Naruto and publicly humiliating him.

Naruto never had enough money except for Ichiraku Ramen.

My next bet was that Lady Tsunade would deduct this inconvenience from my salary too.

What a drag.

Shikaku's right ear perked. He glimpsed me through the corner of his eye. "It's not what you think."

I turned to Inoichi to see if he had somewhat assisted him in reading my mind. "What do I think?"

"Lady Tsunade disposed of it." He lowered his voice further. "As ambassador to diplomatic affairs, she thought it inapt for me to be sporting such piece of…clothing."

The door was within reach. I reached for it, caressed the handle, and burst out. I snickered, realizing. "Mum dyed it pink again, didn't she?"

"That's another factor to consider," he said.

Inoichi nodded at me, confirming my suspicions, and directed us under the shade of a nearby oak tree. He kept looking behind his shoulder and at the precinct. When asked why, he said Misago should be finished handling the legal matters with Suna by now.

Oh. Ino would want to know the name of her father's soon-to-be girlfriend. Better yet, I could cheat on this bet and make up for my lost salary.

Shikaku pursed his mouth and swallowed. He couldn't help it; he yawned.

"Mind enlightening me?" I said.

Inoichi yawned as well. "Shikaku, Misago, and I were in Suna when notice of Temari's arrest was delivered to the Sand Village. It came at the most convenient moment, truly. If Kankuro had not interrupted the meeting to plead with the Kazekage, Konoha and Suna would have cut ties. It's not that the Fifth didn't like the Kazekage and vice-versa; the problem wasn't with them."

"The privileges of the Sand and the Leaf migrants on either villages." Shikaku folded his arms across his chest and bowed his head. He closed his eyes. "The usual banter about citizen rights and expanding the treatise. Don't mind me, by the way. I terribly need to rest my eyes."

"Tired, dad?" I suppressed a wince. Neither of these old men looked healthy enough to walk another mile. "Let me guess; you travelled all the way here without sleep?"

Inoichi yawned again. "As I was saying…we all forgot about the dispute upon being briefed of your condition here, and Gaara said he was going here himself. Shikaku, being the loving and concerned father he is-"

Shikaku punched his arm. Inoichi doubled sideways, laughing. "Your father forged the Fifth's signature on the letter he handed the Hidden-Lock's. What's more, it says there that if you were not released from indictment within the next twenty four hours, Konoha would discharge an entire regiment to trounce this village."

Shikaku pointed his finger at me before I could even open my mouth. "In defense, an ANBU squad met us halfway to deliver a scroll relaying the same orders. She had given me the liberty to do what must be done to bring you out of here."

I crouched down, holding my head in an effort to help it absorb the enormity of the measures taken to free me. "Why? I mean, I knew Konoha would send someone to represent me in their court, but…why?"

"This is a notorious village, son," Shikaku said. His gaze fell on the throbbing bruise on my forehead. "Lady Tsunade experienced the schemes of the Tazu and Yazu first hand during her early years. She knew that if you weren't released within a day, they would have found a way to avenge their pride, even if it costs them the lives of their fellow villagers. The Second Hokage did the same for her."

Inoichi waved his arm at the precinct. Misago shielded her eyes from the sun, trotted forward on her pumps, and smiled at us. She gave us two thumbs up. "Besides," Inoichi said, grinning. "Misago accomplished our other goal - Suna just dropped yesterday's debate. Gaara will consent to no changes in the peace treaty within the next two years. Your crisis saved Konoha, Shikamaru."

Another woman came out of the precinct. The sunlight blurred her face and highlighted her red blazer.

It was Nari.

Temari:

"Who was that blond lady with the papers?"

"A Hidden-Leaf diplomat with very high legal skills," Kankuro said. He transferred to my right side as we crossed the lobby of the precinct. He narrated the issues that had arisen in the Sand while I was away on this mission, and truly, I was shocked to hear so much could happen in one week. More so, that woman with wide, swaying hips just made Gaara agree to sign a contract that Konoha came up with on such short notice.

I hastened my steps to close the distance between Gaara and I. "You should have waited until we got home to the Sand before you signed anything," I hissed.

He continued walking in silence.

This was the problem when your youngest brother was the supreme leader of your village. There were occasions where my right as the lawful head of the family was disregarded.

"I had to repay their kindness," he grumbled.

I straightened my back upon noticing the look those backwater, Hidden-Lock shinobis were throwing my way. Most men, though scowling, aimed their gazes not on my face, but on the slit of my kimono.

Kankuro leveled his pace with mine and loosened the bandage around the face of one of his puppets, reducing my admirers. "Don't be so stingy about it, Temari. Konoha threatened to wage war on the Hidden-Lock within the next forty-two hours if Shikamaru Nara was not released…"

Gaara frowned at me.

The facts crashed on the surface of my intellect. Of course. Suna was still in the final stages of recovery, and we had not the manpower to pose such intimidation on this village as Konoha did. Although Gaara frightened them in his own way, the Hidden-Lock could not release Shikamaru without releasing me.

After all, hadn't Shikamaru and I, upon arriving here, signed the same contract containing the agreement that we were to be considered one party and liable as one man to any danger that might befall us during this mission? Wasn't that contract also signed by the Hokage and the Kazekage on our behalf?

"That's fair," I said, yielding.

Kankuro opened the door for Gaara and I. "I hate do admit," he mumbled. "It's more than fair."

Shikamaru:

Father woke up from his partial trance upon the interruption of Nari Morikubo. He feigned enthusiasm while conversing with her, and I knew he only wasted his breath because her forefathers once served ours.

My family, having descended from philosophers who died drunk in their beds, were never maniacs for luxury. Nari's pitch and posture during their discourse proved her approval of this trait of ours, other than the fact that she kept mentioning how her mother always told her stories about the Nara family and made a point of appreciating our eccentric ways.

The Sand ninjas appeared in front of the precinct steps. Shikaku cut himself short of his anecdote about our deer. Inoichi tightened his ponytail. Misago buckled her chuunin vest. I smoothed down my clothes as I stood.

I skimmed the faces of their company, seeing only male and no female.

Where are you, Temari?

Temari:

I found Shikamaru in an instant. Those dark pupils quivered in search for something. He frowned. He frowned deeper. Our bodyguards cleared a way for Gaara to pass through, and I followed behind him.

Now Shikamaru's frown was gone, and I realized with a jolt, that he was watching me.

Shikamaru:

An ANBU squad from Konoha approached the oak tree from all directions and surrounded our group. Shikaku checked our members, approved, and led us to walk abreast with the Sand on the main road leading out of the Hidden Lock village.

Nari, along with the bulbous man whose name and rank I forgot , trailed us from afar.

"Keep your focus ahead, Shikamaru," Inoichi said. Sweat skated down his cheek to his neck, but he let it be. "The streets are deserted. The Hidden-Lock is watching. Show them we mean every threat we used against them."

"Yes, sir."

"Stop looking elsewhere."

"Yes, sir."

The muscles around my brows twitched. It was difficult not to scowl under this heat. I blinked to rid of the sweat clinging on my lashes. I blinked again, this time to rid my mind of the distance between my feet and the pillared gate of the Hidden-Lock.

My mouth tightened to whistle a little tune.

Mother said the wind, no matter how far away it was, could always hear it, and would always come for it.

Temari:

Three steps. Two steps. One last step.

We were out of the Hidden-Lock. Behind us, villagers gathered to tow the wooden double-doors in order to close them. I shuddered at the sight of that village. Just when nausea was overwhelming me again, I heard a little tune. The wind blew. My temper cooled.

Leaf and Sand arranged themselves into two, parallel lines. Gaara and Shikaku Nara stepped forward to shake hands and utter some polite words of congratulations. The Kazekage's adviser and the yellow- haired senile in ponytail followed suit.

It was only when we reached my turn that I realized the person directly opposite me was the man I had been dreading to see since I woke up.

Every step that I drew closer to him made vivid my memories in the Eighty Bridges Garden; not the part where we were a bloody mess and high on drugs, but the few, peaceful moments of silent qualm while he and I stood on the same bridge, searching for happiness…and finding one another.

Shikamaru stretched out his hand.

I looked at his face. "You're livid."

"Thanks."

"I mean, you're badly bruised, that's all."

"So are you, according to the woman who interrogated me." He averted his gaze to the dust beneath our feet, probably regretting this information. "But I'm glad you're well enough to walk. It was a tough fight, especially when you're high."

"I'm…glad too." I flexed my hand to warm it with my blood before touching his. Once I did, though, and we were physically in contact, I conceded to the idea that it was his blood and not mine that was warming my skin. "I'm glad you're fine. Anyway, it's good that this is all over. This was a disaster from the beginning."

He sighed. "Tell me about it. Adjoining missions with ninjas from another village is hard work."

"Are you saying I'm hard to work with?"

"N-no!"

He squeezed my hand out of shock of my accusation, his reaction stimulating the heat throughout my arm. I shook his hand to gain a sense of finalization. "This is goodbye. We'll not be working together for a while because of this incident, so we might not be able to see each other for a good amount of time."

He tucked his free hand inside his trouser pockets. He smirked. "A good amount of time. Yeah, I guess so. Goodbye, Temari. It's been fun."

"Whatever," I sneered, noting the sensation of our hands parting.

We turned around. He turned again. "Temari, one last thing,"

The blonde lady and Kankuro had proceeded to shake hands beside us. I tilted my head enough to see him. "What is it?"

Shikamaru looked at his toes, at Kankuro, and then at my face. "I'm sorry I stormed off in the middle of night."

I shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah, okay."

"What were you doing on the Bridges Garden?"

I hugged my elbows, thoughtful of the matter. "No-nothing. I was going to warn you about Mai and Goro harvesting at that time. I have good instincts. I knew which bridge you'd be in."

"…Oh." He made a curt wave. "Understood. Bye again."

"Bye." I returned the curt wave. "And keep your hair up!"

Shikamaru:

Keep my hair up? I touched my ponytail, trying to remember if, at any point I this mission, I had let it down.

Images flashed, and I heard a snap at the back of my mind. Belatedly, I realized, as we stared at each other from our respective groups, that she was talking about the time I possessed Shotaru with my shadow and hit his head on the boulder.

Shikaku teased that I was ugly with my hair down, but it was normal to be ugly out of our usual ponytails since I was a Nara. My effort to sustain this hairdo in battles had completely abandoned me the second I saw Shotaru's hand on Temari's breast.

Why had I lost care about myself that time?

I watched the Sand leave, and I felt as though the air in my lungs left with them.

A loud clangor from the village gate jolted me from my reverie. Nari's voice made me want to return to it.

"Wait!" She sprinted towards me.

I judged by her breathing that she found the task difficult, so I jogged towards her so we could meet halfway. Nari bent on her knees, gasping. Strands of her auburn hair poked from its chignon. "Shotaru," she sucked in another breath and straightened up, placing her hands on her waist. "He's dead. The head injury was too severe."

I glimpsed at the path where the Sand had disappeared into. "You ran out all this way to tell me that?"

"You didn't exactly answer my last question in the interrogation, Shikamaru." Nari shook her head, smiling. "But you don't have to. I know the answer. You did intend to kill Shotaru."

I pressed my lips together.

"You don't have to deny it. I can't press charges or make anything further of this fact," she said. "All I want you to answer now is if you killed him because you were angry he touched Temari."

My lips remained shut.

"C'mon, Shikamaru," Nari urged. "I mean, I've been watching how both of you were this entire week, and who would have guessed you'd kill for her?"

Receiving no response, she extracted pieces of folded paper from the inside of her blazer and put them in my hand. "This is a copy of everything Temari said during her interrogation. I want you to read it because I'm mad that, despite having told you I'm your ally, you still lied about killing Mai and Goro. She confessed, Shikamaru. At least, Temari had the guts to admit she killed for you."

The wind gushed and encircled me, making me trip…making me smile.