He Makes Me Laugh

Notes: I can't believe it... done! Thanks all for sticking around so long!

She woke up with a headache. It surprised her a little; not because she was unused to it (she was very used to it), but because she hadn't even started her diplomatic negotiations. It normally took a couple days of hard-headed insistences on both sides before she woke up with such a sore head.

She tasted the sleep in her mouth as she pulled herself up. She frowned for a moment; something wasn't right-? The next instant, her hand shot down, and she grabbed the arm around her waist while the other flew to under her pillow where- her hunting knife wasn't there?

"Temari." She stilled. "Temari, it's me. Naruto. Can you let go of my arm? It kinda hurts." She let go. He sat up. "Wow. You're so fast!" He was smiling, bright as always.

Temari relaxed. "You did not feel like Kankuro," She explained. The last time they'd slept together had been an accident, and Naruto had done nothing but hold her hand. Kankuro was the only man she'd ever shared a bed with, and that was because she often missed him, holed up with his fellow puppeteers and their arts. She would come into his room at night and lay with him, and he'd snuggle up with her. They were used to only having each other.

Having a man who wasn't her brother hold her was… different.

Temari eyed the arm still across her lap. Naruto then made to move it, but she grabbed his wrist lightly, and he left it there. "You do not feel like Kankuro," She noted again, quietly.

"Yeah? Is it bad?"

"No," She said, and dropped her hand from his wrist.

"Oh, good!" He moved his arm off her anyway, but not before squeezing her hip. That felt absolutely nothing like her brother. "Hey, you wanna come with me to the library? Sakura says she needs my help!" Naruto puffed himself up, looking proud.

Temari thought that maybe Sakura needed someone to get books off high shelves for her, given that she was very petite. "You think she would not mind?"

"Nah; Sakura's cool." A glint in Naruto's eye seemed to be teasing her; like he knew that she was worried that his friend wouldn't like her, and he knew something she didn't. "C'mon! Let's get going!"

"Brush your teeth," She ordered, as she pulled herself out of bed. She had considered growing old with him. She might as well trust him on this one.

—

At first, Temari thought the Konoha library must be bigger than Suna's, before she discovered it didn't extend underground. She had to check her ambassador's pass with some security Chuunin, but apart from that she strode on beside Naruto without much worry, easily keeping up to his energetic strides.

"Let's see," He said quietly; Temari had just reminded him this was a library, after all. "We were gonna meet in the back part, with all the wind jutsu stu- uuff?" Naruto trailed off into a questioning sound of disbelief, and Temari peered over his shoulder. Then paused.

His friend Sakura was engaged in some rather passionate liplock with a taller, broader boy she quickly recognised as Inuzuka Kiba, her brother's Konoha friend.

Kiba had Sakura pressed up against some shelves, his greater bulk holding her against him. Sakura had one hand tangled in his hair, the other sliding down the back of his jacket. It looked like they were trying to devour each other.

Kiba pulled back first, staring at them with wide eyes, and Sakura noticed them with a squeak, immediately fishing her arm out of Kiba's jacket and stepping away. Kiba let her make some distance between their bodies, but his arm stayed around her waist. At first, Temari thought the hand she put on his arm was trying to push him away, but then realised she was just touching him. She didn't mind it.

Naruto, it seemed, was busy gloating, so Temari ignored him to study the young couple in love. "Well well weeell," Naruto drawled out. "What do we have here? Huh? Kiba, you dog!" he accused suddenly, pointing, but his tone was gleeful, and despite the embarrassed looks of outrage they were getting, to Temari, it felt like the time he'd bickered with Ino yesterday.

Sakura looked indignant and opened her mouth, but then Kiba's arms flexed under his jacket sleeves. She glanced up at him, rubbed his arm, and settled for glaring daggers at Naruto. Evidently, she trusted him.

"Fuck you doing, you goddamn pervert," Kiba barked back. "Just gonna be a peepin' tom when people're tryin' to have a private conversation. You little creep."

Naruto squawked at that. "Hey! Sakura! Find a new guy! This one's too rude!"

Sakura stomped her foot then. She actually stomped on Kiba's, but he winced and bit his lip without making a sound. Naruto let out a low 'ooh' in sympathy. "Naruto, you big creep! This is just like the bath houses all over again!"

"I'll have you know that guy, right there, dared me!" Naruto said immediately.

"I didn't think you'd actually do it, you snitch!" Kiba exclaimed, then looked down at Sakura, who was now scowling up at him suspiciously. "He wasn't supposed to actually do it!"

"You are peeking at woman's baths?" Temari asked her boyfriend, causing him to startle, and the other pair to notice her.

"Um…" He fidgeted. "Not anymore?"

She narrowed her eyes and sucked her teeth, and Naruto hung his head, her displeasure accurately received.

"Anyway, you gonna help Sakura with this new growin' method or not?" Kiba called, and Temari noticed that Sakura was still safely nestled in his arms, and her hands were still on him, resting against his chest. She decided that the novelty of catching two people kissing had worn off, and their continued touching was too intimate for her liking. She averted her eyes to the rows of book spines.

"Yeah, yeah; hey, Sakura, why am I here if dog breath's already helping you out?" Temari was more surprised to learn that apparently, they were just going to move on from that little yelling match. That seemed to be how it was done in Konoha. It was all resolved now.

Shaking her head, she followed after Naruto, who reached back to snag her hand, unnoticed by the pair next to him, who had their arms around each other. Temari decided hand-holding was the lesser of two evils and allowed it.

When they left the shelving, Naruto dropped her hand again, and Sakura led them all to her set-up. It was covered in books, notes, and various loose-leaf papers. "I'm gonna send you both off in different directions," She said with a shrug. "Or, Kiba will get me a book, and you'll show me your wind chakra. We'll see how it goes." Kiba let Sakura leave his arm and sit in the middle of all that chaos, standing close while she issued orders.

Naruto gave Temari a bright smile as he strode off to do what he was told, but the desert woman hadn't been told anything, so she sat down across from Sakura, who glanced up and gave her a smile. "Hey," She greeted.

Temari nodded in response, and Sakura returned to her notes, copying something out of one of the thick books, her other hand propping her head up lazily. "… You are studying wind chakra?"

Sakura sprung to life, propping her chin up with a fist and explaining, face animated; "Yes! It's actually in collaboration with Suna, so maybe you've heard of it, but ever since I made that antidote for Kankuro, we've been wondering about plant life in Suna, and how we can help it along more for vital times like that, so we've decided to start with seed dispersal!" Her eyes were shining. It was obviously a topic of great interest for her.

Temari had heard Kankuro mention something of the sort to Gaara, so she nodded. "I also have wind nature," She said, and offered; "If needed, you might study mine."

Sakura gave her another warm smile. She was quite pretty, when she wasn't giving her suspicious looks. Her soft little features and bubbly femininity were much sweeter, cuter than Temari's hard mannerisms. "Oh, I can't ask you to do that! Naruto's got such huge stores of it; I know it's no drain on him."

Since it was such a thoughtful refusal, Temari wasn't afraid to offer again; "Then maybe, when Naruto is showing you his nature, I will help find books."

Sakura seemed thrilled. "That would be a huge help! Thank you so much!"

Temari only nodded again. She wondered if maybe, after her conversation between the bookshelves, Sakura had relaxed her guard. Temari then wondered if she'd let her guard down after kissing Naruto in such a way, and wasn't in a rush to find out.

—

Watching them come and go, Temari noticed that her boyfriend and Sakura's (lover? Boyfriend? She didn't know how to ask the medic) were not just a pair of loud, exuberant, almost animalistic men; they were also built the same. Temari could appreciate Kiba's broad hands and firm rear. Sakura seemed to notice them as well, considering how often she brushed her fingers over the backs of his hands and pinched his ass. He'd throw her a quick wink whenever she did that, and Sakura, judging by how she giggled about it, enjoyed that, too.

Temari watched as the trio laughed and teased each other and talked with an amiability foreign to her. She put her chin in her hand and watched as Naruto showed the tiny woman his chakra, Kiba leaned over her chair to watch. She'd never had friends her own age, and her meet-ups with Ino were never as long as either of them would like. She felt intrusive, watching their familiarity.

Then, Naruto looked up at her and smiled, and she forgot her self-consciousness quickly.

As Naruto and Kiba were sent off to do Sakura's bidding, the girl looked up at her shyly. "Naruto's told me a lot about you."

"Yes," Temari acknowledged. Naruto told everyone about a lot of things.

She looked away, nibbling her bottom lip. "He… explained things. To me. About you." Temari nodded. She didn't really know where this was going. "I'm sorry." Oh. That's where this was going.

"There is no fault," She said to the younger woman. When Sakura looked ready to argue that, Temari went on; "I too am guilty of overprotectiveness with my own brothers."

Sakura blinked, then smiled. She looked very cute that way. Temari could see what all the fuss was about. "Okay!" She seemed even more cheerful after that, and Temari was amused by how much that incident must've been weighing on her. She was a good, cute girl.

They left after only an hour. Naruto and Kiba goofing off in the shelving meant it was taking too long for Sakura to get her books, and they were soundly kicked out.

"You just wanna kiss your boyfriend," Naruto cooed at her, and then yelled when Sakura hurled a book at him. They left quickly, Naruto laughing loudly as they went and everyone else glaring at them for it.

Temari wasn't used to this side of him. Of course, she glimpsed it once or twice, in the way he argued with Ino, in the easy way he always spoke, but they'd almost always interacted in private, or between the two of them; Temari hadn't seen him in a group since he'd come with reinforcements to save her brother from the Akatsuki. He was a man who lived off of his interactions with his friends. Temari had never known such a thing.

"She is good to you," She said to him, quietly. Naruto glanced up at her. He'd led her off, avoiding crowded main streets for empty shop fronts. There was no one else on this road. "Sakura," She went on.

"Oh, yeah! She's like, like…" He flapped his hands and wet his lips, trying to express something he had no words for. "Like my best friend, or something!" He grinned at her. "Do you like her? She's nice, right?"

Temari dipped her head, and he seemed relieved, too. It wasn't her place, to point out how close to her heart Sakura viewed him. She was still learning what 'family' meant herself.

She noticed that he kept glancing at her; more specifically, her hand. She turned her wrist out and spread her fingers. Naruto, smiling, grabbed it with no more hesitation. There was a bounce in his step as they walked now, hand-in-hand. She let him tug her along. His good mood was infectious; she always felt happier when he was happy.

She was staring at the linked hands, because Naruto had started stroking the back of her palm with his thumb, and it was very distracting, so when Naruto suddenly paused, she bumped into his shoulder. She looked up at him, and saw his humour was gone; he was tense, staring ahead of them with apprehension. She glanced over.

Shikamaru and Ino were right in front of them.

"Ino," She called, "Hello."

"Hi, Temari…" Ino said, glancing from her to her team mate. Temari made a point of staring only at Ino. The mood was soured now, and Temari was more than upset. A few more moments, and she would've given Naruto a kiss. "What're you two doing here?"

She looked at Naruto, and he was silent, his mouth shut tight. He didn't seem like he would answer. If anything, he seemed… angry. Frowning, she replied for them; "We are coming from the library. We are helping Sakura, but now we are here."

"Oh… oh, uh, we're actually heading to the library, too! You know Sakura; leave her with her boyfriend for more than a minute and they're all, like, lovey-dovey! It's so embarrassing, I mean, really, he's all over her, like a puppy, or something; I guess that's why they call it puppy-love, huh-!" Ino laughed, but it sounded higher-pitched than Temari was used to.

"Mm," She grunted, looking back at Naruto again. His eyes were a little wider; she felt a twinge, deep in her gut, and remembered how a wide-eyed Gaara had once crushed a twenty-man scouting party for daring to step on Suna's deserts.

Temari lifted their linked hands and squeezed. His face jerked towards her. She thought that maybe his eyes were a little red. "We caught them," She said to him. "Sakura and Kiba. They were kissing, yes?"

"Mm-hmm," He hummed in agreement. "In the shelves…" He grinned a little, but his eyes didn't look quite right. "Pair of lovebirds."

She smiled at him, but her face wasn't made for smiling, and she stopped quickly. "We are going somewhere now?"

If anything, Naruto's eyes got darker. He squeezed her hand back, and it almost hurt. "Lunch." He whipped his head to the two across from them. "Will you come with us?" His tone was odd; it reminded her of how Gaara had once, casually, asked her and Kankuro to check for any survivors of a 100-metre Sand Coffin he'd performed in the cliffs.

"No," Shikamaru said, sharply.

"We've got to go see Sakura!" Ino put in immediately. "So we'll- I'll see you around, right Temari?" Temari nodded at her. Ino grabbed Shikamaru's arm and heaved; they rushed passed them, and Temari didn't glance back at them to wave.

"… Well," Temari said, a few moments later, after the two of them were long gone. "That went well, I think."

"Mm." Naruto cleared his throat. She waited until he let out a long, slow breath. "It… happened."

She looked over to him then. He was worrying at his lip, a frown forming. "Tell me," She said, quietly. He was the one who talked, between the two of them, so she waited.

"I'm sorry I'm so jealous he looked so betrayed like I'd done something I didn't! And- I didn't!" He looked at her, wide-eyed, and Temari saw that he looked more harrowed by it than his anger before. "He's not the only man allowed to love you."

Temari blinked, slowly. Love… "You could say he is the only man not allowed to love me," She said, then smiled again. She stopped quickly, because he seemed so torn. It made her feel warm, though. He was a man who loved his friends, and loved them dearly; it obviously pained him, having Shikamaru look at him in a way she hadn't seen.

Yet he hadn't given her up. It made her feel so warm. She still had their linked hands raised, and she brought it to her mouth. She kissed the back of his hand. She couldn't help it. She was woman of Suna, and she liked how far he would fight for her.

Suddenly, he leaned against her, and she stumbled a step as his head hit hard against her shoulder. She winced, but squeezed their joined hands in sympathy. It must've been exhausting; a man who loved his friends so, having to hurt one of them. She felt him settle his other hand against her waist, and allowed it.

"Lunch?" He asked her, weakly.

Temari chuckled. "Lunch," She agreed. But still, they stood there, Naruto with his head against her shoulder, and Temari supporting him. She decided to give him a few minutes. He was a good man; he probably needed the time, to come to terms with how their happiness would change things.

"Temari, I like you," He said, voice quiet.

"As I like you."

"I like your freckles and your teeth and your smile. And I like sleeping in the same bed as you, even if you grab my arm really tight. And I like making you breakfast, and I like eating the breakfast you make for me." She didn't know what to say. Her face was burning. She squeezed his hand tighter. "And I know that you're worried about politics, and time, and all this stuff I can't even imagine, but I'm excited, 'cause I like you so much.

"I like how smart you are. I like how you don't talk all that much. I like that Ino likes you so much, and that Sakura's starting to like you, too." She dropped her face into his neck, embarrassed, mortified at how light and over the moon his words made her feel. "I like that you can't express yourself too well. It's cute. You're cute."

He fell silent, and they stood there, leaning against each other. She wondered, frantically, if she should say something back. If he wanted her to acknowledge his words, or to brush them off, or anything. She didn't know what to do; in the face of his feelings, all her smarts left her in an instant.

"Temari?" He asked her.

"Yes," She said hoarsely. There was something in her throat, and she couldn't seem to swallow it down.

She felt his breath against her skin as he asked her; "What do you like about me?"

She swallowed and lifted his face from her shoulder. After a moment, he straightened up, too, and peered at her flushed face. His eyes were bright, and loving, and she was too busy trying not to drown in them to speak.

He was smiling.

She felt something bubbling up her throat. Her heart? Her joy? She didn't know. It felt like everything she had, and more. Everything she had, and all he could give her. His bright smiles, his easy way with people, the way he ate the seafood ramen she hated where she couldn't smell it. The way he set all her fears to rest. How he ate the toast she burned for him and liked it. How he put her at ease, even when he walked with her in public and held her hand for all to see. Her brothers were as fond of him as he was of them. He looked at her sun spots and awkward tan lines and dry, brittle hair, and thought she was cute. She closed her eyes.

"You make me laugh."

When she opened them again, it was to his eyes wide and his lips parted, surprise evident. Then, before she could see it coming, he scooped her up and hauled her against him, his strong arms around her waist the only thing keeping her upright as she shrieked, scrabbling for a hold on his shoulders as he whooped loudly and spun her around in circles. Her throat was still so full, and this light-hearted moment, overwhelming in its joy, sent her over the edge. She couldn't help it.

She laughed.