Disclaimer: I do not own a single scrap of Naruto.
A tribute dedicated to my favourite Naruto pairing---ShikaTema. Shikamaru is to be married…and what will Temari do?
Warning-Not a happy story, and not a perfectly happy ending according to normal terms. It's my style, I'd really regret to say, to be angsty and tragic. But nevertheless, it is romance.
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CHPT. 1 The Night Before Dawn
He lay on the roof of his house, staring into the dark night sky, and pondered.
In the house, there came mingled voices of people talking happily and the sounds of furniture being moved about as the rooms were decorated…for the great event the next day.
The youngest descendant in the line of the Nara family was going to get married.
But strangely, the noises from below seemed to be oddly distant as he lay there under the night sky.
He thought, not of his bride-to-be, but of the face of another girl…the girl with eye-catching gold hair tied into four ponytails…the girl who would suddenly turn and flash that striking smile at him…the girl whom he met for the first time in the Chuunin Exam all those years ago…and whom he had thought all that long would be called as his wife…
He closed his eyes painfully as her image loomed into his mind's eye.
There was no wind that night.
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'You have drunk too much,' Kankuro attempted yet again to pull the motionless figure up. 'I have told you, too much sake…it can drive you mad.'
She was sitting there, crouched up on the edge of the stretch of desert beyond the outskirts of the village. It had taken him quite some effort to locate her.
'I…won't.' She refused once again, rooted defiantly to the spot as her brother tried to tug her out of the posture she had maintained the whole evening. 'You do know…what I can do…now that I'm a bit dizzy…'
Kankuro felt himself start to sweat.
'Look here…' He said in a low voice, with just a touch of hesitation that she would not have picked up. 'There's…nothing you can do whatsoever, Temari…now that things are settled. It's the law of his village…and there's nothing you can do to change that…it's…something you have to accept…and you yourself said that…that you had given in to it…that you would forget all about Shika----'
'Stop there, now----I say!' Temari suddenly flared up, the eyes that had been dimmed by tears suddenly aglow by the mention of the name. She turned to face her brother, and swaying on the spot, managed to grab his wrists. Kankuro flinched. Her grip, though slightly trembling, was firm, and grimly resolute. 'I forbid you…to mention him…at any rate. And I…I would not return to the village tonight…I would need a little time by myself to…to gather my feelings and…steel myself…'
'But Gaara…he's worried about you…you breaking down like that…and drinking that much…'
'No,' She pushed him away lightly, and Kankuro suddenly noticed how pale she looked in the dim moonlight. 'I won't go back with you no matter what you say. Tell Gaara I'm OK…there's no need for him to worry about me…just that…I need time and space out here by myself…to make things clearer…I can take care of myself alright. No, he will understand…just…go now…'
Kankuro felt her grip on him release as she dropped her head. Very cautiously, he said in a casual manner, 'And…by all means…you…you are not going to Konoha tomorrow…to watch----'
He stopped abruptly as he saw her pale face silhouetted against the dark velvet night and illuminated ghostly in the moonlight, with the light suddenly gone out of her eyes. He was completely at a loss of what to do, what to say, when the sister he had known to be so tough and proud and ruthless, suddenly appeared to be so unimaginably vulnerable and helpless.
'Te…Temari…?' Kankuro suggested tentatively.
'How can I?' She whispered, her head down and her eyes shut. 'How can I go back…to that occasion…when I had lost him? What do I do…be sneered at by her? I don't want…I don't want to watch…watch him----'
And suddenly she broke off, her head falling onto her outstretched arms as she wept vehemently like a lost child.
The sand was splattered wet all around her feet.
There was no cloud in the sky.
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-TO BE CONTINUED-
A/N: Hello you guys out there!(This is the longest bit of author's notes I have ever written in my 14 years of presence) I have disappeared off the Internet for a while for my big exams----and really big I mean, as they are my junior high school graduation exams oxox I could have dropped down dead from the workload and the strain TOT But luckily I did well, and am safely back on the net now, and am ready for some good fanfics LOL!
So…this is the first one I'm gonna post after it all…It's actually a rather mingled up and confused fiction with all my ideas in the past months crammed inside. I thought it would do well in several one-shots…but it's just got into me…I just want to write something nice and long after a long rest (and I don't mean it by the name of rest at all TOT). I still haven't got the facts worked out neatly, so sorry if it's a bit vague, and forgive me for bugs here and there, and perhaps it's gotta take some time to get completed (seeing that I have a mission to go on in the holidays)…so please forgive anything bumped up and creased and the like lol
I would say this chapter is more of the prologue sort, but because I hit it out rather long I'd sign it as a chapter. (Forgive the stupid chapter title please…I know it sucks but I can't think of a better thing…perhaps you can give ideas?)
On a final note, please please please read and review, I would really appreciate your views and suggestions (uh but no flamers please thx!)…Thanks
-oooh I'm so happy I'm liberated that I'm out of my senses hell butterfly