Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Shadowplay and Hurricanes	By : CosmicStorm14 Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 2912 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Naruto, including any of the characters, locations or themes in this fiction. I receive no money for publishing this fiction.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Even in winter, the Leaf villagers made an effort to fill to their little town with life and colour. The hallways leading through the Hokage's offices were lined with seasonal plants with colourful leaves and bright little berries. Such decorative displays were rare in the Sand where the few herbs that could thrive there were precious and scarce. One of the things Temari enjoyed about visiting Konoha was being able to admire all of the flowers that bloomed here.
She was stopped now, looking at one of the displays hung from the wall of the hallway. She had already collected her work from the Hokage and was in no rush. In fact, this last week or two she had been happy to take things slow with her work, allowing it to take up as much of her time as possible. It kept her mind occupied and where once she might have been keen to finish her tasks and enjoy her downtime, now her work was what she enjoyed the most. Not because she had any particularly interesting projects to be working on, but because having free time left her feeling lost. She had been invited to spend time with Ino and Sakura on a few occasions, but for the most part she wasn't entirely sure of what to do with herself. She had opted to stay indoors where possible, so as not to end up bumping into Shikamaru.
It wasn't that she didn't want to see him – a part of her wanted nothing more – but what was she to say to him? Perhaps she owed him an apology for having left him… but where to start? No, it was best left alone until her mind was clear. There was no point trying to explain things to him when she couldn't even explain things to herself. She lived in the Sand, he lived in the Leaf. No good would come of trying to make things work between them. He was best forgotten.
She ran a finger along the edge of one of the leaves on display but her train of thought was disrupted by a sound from along the corridor. Someone was coming, so she rearranged the pile of paperwork in her arms and carried on her way, dismissing her rambling thoughts. There would be other opportunities to appreciate the floral life found here. No one had ever bought her flowers before. But that was OK. She was perfectly capable of buying them for herself should she feel the need.
The noise of footsteps on the floor grew louder until a figure came around the corner. He had one hand in his pocket, his face buried in a book, but stopped reading when he saw her. It was Kakashi.
"Hello, Temari," his mask covered most of his face but his eyes gave away that he was smiling to her. "Nice to have you back in the Leaf."
"Thanks, Kakashi. It's not so bad to be here."
"What have they got you working on?"
"Paperwork mostly," she rolled her eyes and gestured to the armful of Allied Shinobi Forces files that she was carrying. "I'd give anything for a good fight instead."
"I know that feeling! I'm pretty snowed under, myself!" He laughed to her. "Let me know when you're free, we should catch up some time."
"I'd like that." Almost everyone she had met since being back had offered her a similar sentiment and every time she had agreed politely, not really thinking they had meant it. Kakashi was probably no different. He had his own work to focus on without her distracting him. She nodded him goodbye and moved to carry on her way. But something stopped her.
"Kakashi?"
"Yes?" He turned back to her.
"We could work together tonight, if you're not doing anything." What was she saying? Even as she spoke, she wasn't sure what had inspired her to offer this. Her heart pounded with embarrassment, sure that he would give a pained excuse now that she had called his bluff. But she was wrong.
"That sounds great. Yours or mine?"
She stuttered over her reply, unprepared for his enthusiasm. She couldn't bare to let anyone in her private space, and would he get the wrong idea if she offered to go around to his house? "Uhh, how about I meet you in the library?"
"Okay. See you tonight."

Climbing the steps of the Hokage Monument to get to the Archive Library that evening, Temari tried to rationalise her actions. It would do me good to have some company of an evening, she decided, and mature company would make a valuable change from the children I've been hanging around with lately. She had always been fond of Kakashi and felt comfortable in his company, but they had never spent much time alone together.
She entered the library and the lights that met her in the reception swept away the darkness of the night and brought her mind back to reality. She brought an armful of papers with her and found him with his own work sprawled out across one of the conference tables on the second floor of the library, beside the reference section. He had his back to her as she approached and as she got closer, she realised he wasn't working at all, but reading a novel.
"Looks like you're working hard." She teased him and saw him give a slightly embarrassed smile as he welcomed her.
"I just didn't want to get too much of a head start on you," he recovered, pushing some of his papers to the side so she could join him in the next seat. She settled herself and found her place in her files. The wall on this side of the building was made up huge windows, so they would have had a view of all of Konoha had it still been daylight. It wasn't late in the evening, but winter was drawing in quickly and the days were growing shorter all the time.
"How have you been? I can't even remember the last time we spoke."
How had she been? Temari didn't even seem to know. Her head was a mess after everything that had happened with Shikamaru. She avoided his question. "It must have been the last Kage summit. What have you been getting on with since then?"
"Tsunade is trying to convince me to take on another squad of new genin, fresh out of the academy."
"Are you going to?"
"I haven't decided yet. The last team took a lot out of me."
When she had been a genin, Kakashi and the other sensei had seemed much older than her, but now that she was grown there really wasn't too much of a difference. He must have been around a decade her senior but he had never spoken to her like she was a child, or looked down on her. She was, of course, a few years older than the kids in the last squad he taught.
"How are you finding your stay in the Leaf Village?"
"I like it here," she answered sincerely. "The villagers have always been very welcoming to me."
"You're an easy person to like, Temari. Not every visiting Kunoichi gets the same welcome that you do."
She told him he was making that up, but couldn't help feeling a twinge of flattery.
"Not at all. I know I enjoy your company, or I wouldn't be here." He smiled to her. "You're looking well, by the way."
His compliment took her by surprise. "Thank you. I'm trying to stay fit in between all the paperwork. You know, just in case."
"It shows."
She dismissed his comment, telling him instead about her trainings and asking him of his recent missions. He was clearly quite a private person and spoke little of his own life, but he listened well. Temari didn't give anything away about her first week back in the Leaf Village, but found herself feeling free to speak to him about some of her frustrations and even ventured to hint towards her occasional loneliness. In another time, she may have opened up to Shikamaru like this, but that was impossible now, so Kakashi was a suitable substitute. Her conversation surprised even herself. She was usually so good at keeping all of her troubles hidden away. As the conversation flowed, it was soon obvious that the two of them wouldn't be getting much more work done that evening.
"What do you say we go get ramen? I think we've earned it." Kakashi suggested. They packed up their things and headed out into the darkness. Without the sun on their little town, the chill in the winter air was icy. It would take some getting used to for Temari, who was used to hot summers and mild winters in the Sand. The Leaf had wet summers and brutal winters.
Kakashi didn't seem to mind the cold. Where she braced herself against it, tightening her core and gritting her teeth, he continued to walk with that relaxed slouch he had like nothing in the world phased him. Maybe it didn't. Now that she thought about it, Kakashi had always been very composed for as long as she had known him. He was a very easy person to be around, and she needed that right now. She felt safe around him. She didn't have to worry about him, or feel responsible for him.
She hoped that taking him up on his offer of food didn't give him in the impression that she intended to spend time with him in any kind of romantic context, but the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if that would be such a bad thing. The famous Copy Ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village, and sensei to some of her friends from here… it could be exciting. It had never occurred to her to think of him in a sexual way before, but now her train of thought was running down a very dangerous track. She put the thought to the back of her mind and let the evening go where it would.
He offered to pay for her ramen but she refused him. They compromised by paying for their own meals, but using Kakashi's home to shelter from the cold. His place was not far, but with her hands around her box of hot noodles and the enticing smell of miso and barbeque pork rising into her lungs, she was happy to walk a little slower now. The Leaf Village was pretty in winter. Other villagers hurried about their evening business, seeming not to notice the icy chill of the wind. Kakashi nodded greetings to those he knew, and she felt suddenly very far from home.
He let them into his home and she immediately felt more comfortable. The air was fresh and warm, and the apartment was clean. Why was she so surprised by this? Kakashi was a grown man who knew how to take care of himself. He probably even knows how to do his own laundry. It was not a feminine home – none of his furniture matched and she spotted no cushions or candles and only a single houseplant– but it didn't lack homeliness. A full bookcase gave away his interests, and frames photographs spoke of his affections.
They settled side by side on the couch and began to eat. He must have pulled his mask down to eat, but he never once let her catch a glimpse of his face. She'd look away at her own bowl, or around his house, and when she'd look to him again he'd be chewing behind his mask. He did it so naturally that at first it never even occurred to her that there was anything strange about it. Even when she tried to catch him out, he was always one step ahead of her, always covered. He must have felt the need to do this his whole life, so that now it came as second nature to him. In the end, she kept her eyes away from him and let him have his privacy until they were finished.
"So Kakashi, you never told me what that book you're reading is about."
He gave an embarrassed little laugh. "It's a… social commentary… discussing… physical relationships."
"Oh, I see. You mean literary pornography?"
"You make it sound so dirty."
"I'm not one to judge. If you want to use it to fill a hole in your life, you go right ahead."
"There are worst things to fill holes in your life with than books. And why insinuate I'm the one who isn't satisfied? I don't believe you're with anyone right now either, are you?"
"No." She answered truthfully. "I've never been a big fan of the whole commitment thing."
"You just haven't felt the need for a relationship?"
She thought about this for a moment. "I get why some people do, I guess. But I'm doing fine on my own. Having to worry about living my life alongside another person sounds so…" she was about to use the word troublesome but corrected herself "…tiring. I don't want anyone coming along and messing up my life just because they haven't got their own shit together, you know?"
"That makes sense. It sounds like what you're looking for is a woman."
She laughed. It was true; most of the women she knew did seem to be generally better at getting on with their lives than their male counterparts. It was just a shame that so far women had proved to be so much harder to get. "That may be true. You seem to have things pretty well sorted for yourself, though."
He gave a shrug as though not wishing to agree fully. "I'm doing OK but it's very easy to seem like everything is going fine when that's not the case. No one really has their life figured out. We all just pretend." She wanted to argue with him but wondered if perhaps he was right. "Sometimes the difference between thinking someone is doing well and thinking someone is completely hopeless comes down to how well you know them."
"That can't be true," she decided. "If that were the case, then the better someone gets to know you, the more they'll end up hating you!" She was sure that if Shikamaru knew half of the insecurities that she kept hidden from him that it would scare him off.
Kakashi laughed. "Not necessarily. By the time you realise that someone is as hopeless as they are, you might care about them enough for it not to matter. The important thing is appreciating people because of their flaws, rather than despite their flaws."
Temari sat chewing this over in her mind until Kakashi broke the silence again.
"You know, when I invited you back here I didn't exactly expect to end up staying up having such in depth discussions. Not that it's a bad thing."
"What exactly did you expect instead?" She eyed him suspiciously and he dropped the subject.
"Would you like a share a bottle of sake?"
He poured her a glass of ricewine and as they drank, the conversation fell more in line with what could be expected for two healthy, young, single shinobi alone together of an evening. He was a very comfortable host and Temari was happy to watch the time tick by, wondering if she would be making her way home soon or…
With the wine in her veins, she relaxed a little more and took the liberty of exploring his home. He told her the stories behind some of his photographs and she ended up choosing one of the novels from his bookcase to flick through. She read some of the scenes out loud to him, amused at how they sounded out of context. He laughed at her attempt at a sensual narrator's voice.
"Don't laugh! As if you've never done it in a spa!"
"I haven't actually."
"Really? Not even once, just to see what it was like? In the water, where anyone could walk in and see?"
"Nope." Kakashi sat back on the couch, scratching the back of his head with smiling eyes. She couldn't tell if he was proud of embarrassed by his apparent vanilla sexual history but she was too surprised to discontinue her interrogation. She knew he must have taken a fair number of lovers in the past. Could he really have not ventured outside of the bedroom with any of them?
"Not even when it's closed so you could break in without worrying about being caught?"
The scene played out in her head but she must have given away that the thought excited her because he avoided answering her question. "You are a filthy young thing aren't you?"
"I thought it was normal."
"Nope, just you."
It was obviously not an insult, but she glared at him playfully in mock offense. "I'm surprised you haven't explored a little more, what with your taste in fiction." She put the book back on the shelf and returned to sit by him on the sofa.
"Well I'm not ashamed to say I've had my fair share of partners. As I'm sure you have."
She was unsure whether he was attempting to make an insulting judgement on her character.
"I meant no offense. There's no shame in taking as many or as few partners as you wish. But you must know you could get any guy you wanted?" She didn't.
"You mean because I'm the sister of the famous Kazekage?"
"Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of who you are than what you are. You're a powerful shinobi in your own right, and a good person."
She avoided reacting to his compliment, not one to be won over by empty flattery. "Well, even if you think so, there aren't many people that I want."
"Would you ever go for an older guy?"
Now she knew for sure. "Are you flirting with me, Kakashi?"
"I'm trying to, but you're not making it easy."
"Don't you think you're a little old for me?"
"Does it make you uncomfortable?"
"Not at all."
"Good. Because I've seen you fight, Temari. If there was anything you didn't want, I'd know about it. I hope you wouldn't feel like I'd be taking advantage of you in any way."
His one visible eye stayed fixed on her face, as hers scanned his body up and down, considering his proposal. There wasn't enough drink in her for her vision or her reasoning to be blurred. She didn't need the influence of alcohol to find this one attractive.
"Can I use your bathroom?" It was easier to think when she was alone.
Wasn't the whole reason she had become so frustrated with Shikamaru the fact that he acted grown up but was really just a little boy inside? Maybe the age difference was no bad thing. She was still careful of damaging her reputation, but maybe that wouldn't be an issue either. He was the famous Kakashi Hatake, "the Copy Ninja" of the Leaf Village. Maybe it would be unwise to enter into any kind recurrent relationship, but a one night thing? How bad could it be?
She found herself adjusting her appearance in his mirror, fixing her hair and shuffling her breasts. Was she really going through with this? They were both young, healthy an unattached, she was a little flattered he'd even made a move in the first place, and maybe being with an older man would do her some good. When would this kind of opportunity ever come up again? There was certainly no danger of loving him, and no danger of him loving her. It would be safe. Just sex. Let's do it.
She made her way back to his living room and he had already tidied the empty boxes of their ramen away and was reclining on the couch. She moved to join him there but sat over him, straddling his legs with hers. She played with one hand on the zip of his jacket - the same kind Shikamaru wears. If his face hadn't been covered, she might have kissed him. Instead, she sat up straight, noticing his one visible eye watching her slowly pull the zip free, showing the sweatshirt underneath. He let her take his outer layer off and when she hesitated, wondering where to go from here, it was his turn to move things along. He pushed one of her thighs from his lap so that he could stretch to flick the lamps off. The room was almost pitch black, even after her eyes had adjusted.
He returned to her, and she felt a hand behind her neck. There was the sound of cloth being pushed across skin and suddenly his lips were on hers. So she wasn't allowed to see, but she was allowed to feel. She couldn't feel anything unusual about the skin beneath his mask. She took a moment to appreciate the taste of his tongue and noticed how closely-shaven the skin that brushed against her cheek was. Shikamaru often let his stubble grow out for days at a time and she enjoyed the roughness of it. No, she had enjoyed the roughness of it in the past. But that was over now.
She resisted the urge to put a hand to his jawline and search for what he was hiding. She did, however, put her fingers through his silver hair. He had taken the liberty of removing his own headband and so she could run her hand uninterrupted through his hair, behind his ear and to the back of his neck. Even though he was still fully clothed from the neck down, she was so used to seeing his face hidden that he already felt naked to her.
His kiss was strong and slow, with none of the urgency and lust that Shikamaru had shown her on their first encounter. It felt like a lover's kiss, but she was not his lover. Perhaps he had taken enough partners in his time that he had perfected the skill of feigning affection. Was he about the fuck her, or feign making love to her? Their sex was purely platonic and the thought of such artificial romance made her uncomfortable so she invited him to step things up a little. She turned her face from his and began to remove her sash. He was still too composed. She needed to excite him, to make him beg for her.
Her sash on the floor, she began to unfasten the satins of her black kimono, when he stopped her. He stood and took her hand, leading her to his bedroom. Of course he's taking me to bed. I bet he's never even done it on his couch. His bedroom was as dark as the rest of the house but she could tell that his floor was tidied, the air was fresh. It didn't smell of him. The room could have belonged to anyone. She wanted the smell of sweat and sex and smoke, she wanted mess and filth and anger. But no… this was right. This was what a home was supposed to look like when someone could take care of themselves. This was what she wanted, wasn't it?
He removed his own shirt first and though she couldn't see much of him stood beside her in the darkness, she was comforted by the first hint of his musk. She ran a hand down the centre of his chest and found it to be smooth. What a shame. She liked chest hair. He took her clothing from her shoulders but it clung around her hips as it fell, leaving her midriff bare, her legs covered. He didn't attempt to take her bra off straight away, but let his fingers play over her body. He touched the base of her neck, the edge of her ribs, the soft skin on the inner sides of her arms. So his hands were lover's hands, just as his lips were a lover's lips… but he was still not her lover.
Her teeth gritted impatiently and she shook her clothing from her hips, revealing her body to him. She discarded her own bra to the floor and pushed her body against him. Perhaps she hoped that the feeling of her naked flesh might provoke some lust in him, or perhaps she would take what she wanted from him regardless of his attitude. Her fingers sank into the flesh of his torso and she pushed at his body. He obligingly sat onto the edge of the bed and lay back to let her climb over him. But she didn't want him to do it willingly, she didn't want him to feel as though he had a choice. He was being kind to her and she felt as though he was holding back.
She pounced upon his torso again, pushing her breasts against his body and yearning for the feeling of his fingernails on her spine, willing him to hurt her. He bent his head as though to reach her lips with his but she ignored it and busied her face instead with setting her tongue against his neck. He tasted strange. Not unpleasant, but strange. His skin felt different – rougher, older. It bunched and wrinkled under her fingers and her own skin felt young and soft and elastic in comparison.
He propped himself up on one elbow until he was laid more beside her than underneath her and became more active with his hands. He still seemed to be in no rush at all, but she allowed him the chance to prove himself and was eager to see what his experienced hands could do for her. He spent a lot of time touching her and kissing her all over her body, until her skin tingled beneath his fingers. She didn't have to show him where or how to touch her - he already knew his way around a woman's body perfectly well on his own. It had been fun to share the exploration of each other's bodies with Shikamaru, but to be pleasured by such skilled hands was a different experience. She was already writhing under his touch and he hadn't even ventured between her legs yet.
He made his way down her body and spent so long kissing at her hips and thighs that she was almost begging for his tongue before he even touched her clitoris. Feeling his breath against her labia and his nose brush against her pubic hair without the stimulation that she craved but beautifully painful. She suspected he was playing his little game purely to pleasure to her but shut her eyes and pretended that he was being intentionally cruel. As soon as his tongue found what it was looking for, the coils of frustration throughout her body began to unwind. A moan escaped her lips and she let herself enjoy the experience. In the darkness, she could pretend that he was whoever she wanted him to be.
He worked slowly, never forgetting to put his hands to use as well as his tongue, brushing his fingers across her midriff and down her legs, and inside her. She hadn't realised how wet she had become until he pushed a finger inside her and played in the slipperiness that he found there. When she could take no more, she put two fingers under his chin to lift his face from her. He climbed up her body again and she spread her thighs for him to enter her. He paused.
"Are you on any birth control?"
Most kunoichi chose to regulate their cycles by using birth control – there was nothing worse than being caught out on a mission with no supplies – and she told him she was protected. He offered to wear a condom anyway, "just in case". She hadn't been worried about it with Shikamaru, seeing as she was the only woman that he had been with, but Kakashi's history was clearly much different. She was pleased to see that his health was important to him.
He returned to her, protected, and this time she didn't attempt to take control or push him towards a rough experience. All she gave him was a small request whispered to his ear before laying back to experience his sex in whatever way he wanted to give it. "Don't hold back."
A husk of his voice came through his breath as he entered her, but he was otherwise a quiet partner. She angled her hips to pull her thighs up around his waist, allowing him to push deeper and grip at the flesh of her thigh with his hands. His fingers smelled of latex. His rhythm was fluid and precise, as though he were a musician and she his instrument. She kept her eyes open, searching for the silhouettes of his body moving in the darkness, reminding herself that this was Kakashi Hatake that she was in bed with in an attempt to stop her imagination from wandering.
Neither of them were close to being out of breath yet, but when he began to slow down a little, she took the opportunity to change their position. He put up no protest in being pushed onto his back, and she swung a leg across his hips to ride him the way she liked. She fucked him until her thighs ached and longed to hear more from him than the occasional strained breath or husky groan. She knew he was enjoying this, he must be… So why wouldn't he show her? Was he going to wait for her to finish before he let himself do the same? Of course he was. He couldn't have seen her roll her eyes at him in the darkness. She leaned forward to taste the sweat on his neck, propping herself up with one hand and touching herself with the other. She took a moment to feel his girth between her thumb and forefinger, to feel him push inside her over and over, before putting her fingertip to her clitoris. She shut her eyes, and let her imagination play where it would. How dirty it was to be fucking one man while thinking of another.
She restrained herself from sinking her teeth into his skin as she came. He followed suite shortly after. He picked up his pace and let himself get a little louder as her walls clenched around him, and she put her hands to his torso to feel him contort into his orgasm. His muscles were more chiselled than Shikamaru's, the points of his hips more prominent. But she was satisfied. He rolled her onto her back again to embrace her briefly.
She felt him heave himself from the bed and take a handful of clothing from the floor before leaving the room. Through the gap in the doorway, she could see a light turn on and heard a tap running. When he returned, he was holding a cup of water and was dressed in his underwear and vest with his mask pulled over his face. He turned on a small lamp in the room and offered her the water. She thanked him for the drink, and he joined her in the bed.
"Why do you wear a mask, Kakashi?" A part of her had been desperate to ask all evening.
"I can't really tell you that."
"Oh come on. You've just been inside me, and now you want to start keeping secrets? I didn't think there was anything left to hide."
"There are far more intimate things than sex, Temari. And for me, the mask is one of them. I'm sorry."
More intimate than sex? What did he mean by that? Hadn't they all been brought up to think that it was the most intimate thing you could do with someone?
"Our bodies are not the most important thing about us," he explained. "Everyone has different boundaries of course, but for most people it's a lot easier to share our bodies with another person than it is to share more private aspects of who we are."
So he was happy to share his body with her, but not his secrets. That was fair. Now that she thought about it, she was sure she probably did a similar thing. And then she realised. She had been happy to share her body with Shikamaru, but chose to hold back everything she felt for him. She could enjoy their sex because in the moment she had felt close to him, but that wasn't true intimacy. True intimacy would have been to have shown him her weaknesses, to let him know how hopeless she really was and hope that he still wanted her. True intimacy would have been to have taken off her mask for him, the mask that she hid behind, even from herself. She had built walls around herself made of excuses, sabotaging herself and willing herself not to love him. He's sexist, he's lazy, he's inconsiderate… these were all walls to protect her from the fact that she couldn't be with him even if she wanted to. He was from the Leaf, she was from the Sand. Even if she revealed everything that she felt and, by some miracle, he requited her feelings, there was still no way that it could work. So she made herself believe that she had chosen not to want him, rather than crumble under the weight of knowing that it was impossible. That was why she had made such a big deal over such simple things, that was why he provoked so much anger inside her. It was easier to be angry than to be hurt.
"We all wear masks, don't we, Kakashi?" Maybe it was the rush of orgasmic elation still in her veins, but she could not stop a grin from taking over her face.
"Well, listen to you getting all philosophical."
She had decided not to speak with him and to let it all blow over, because she didn't know how to explain how she felt. But now it all made sense, and she had to see him. She had been so desperate to protect herself that she had hurt them both. She could see things so clearly now. Maybe it would still be unwise to enter into anything too suddenly, maybe they would be better to wait a few years until they had both grown up. But that should be a decision that they made together. She had to tell him. Happiness bubbled under her skin.
They slept on separate sides of the bed, but there was no hostility. Quite the opposite, in fact. It had taken a purely platonic sexual encounter to make Temari realise that being with Shikamaru had been about so much more than that. She had always intended for encounters with him to be purely physical, but now that she had been with Kakashi and realised what "only sex" really felt like, she was sure that what she had had with Shikamaru was quite different.
She slept a long, deep, dreamy sleep.
When the morning came and it was time for her to leave, he dressed alongside her and walked her to the end of her road. It was nice to be seen in public with him, and he was so relaxed about the whole thing. No sneaking around, no lies… he wasn't ashamed of her.
"Thank you for last night, Kakashi. I really needed that."
He said goodbye by taking her hand, and touching it against his covered lips. He didn't even glance around them first to check that no one was looking. "I had a lot of fun. Let me know if you find yourself really needing it again," he offered. Somehow she thought she wouldn't be taking him up on his offer. He had already given her so much more than she had expected.
Arriving home, she washed and changed, but didn't stay for long. Her mind felt clearer than it had done in a long time and her bones were restless. She wrapped up warm against the winter air outside and shut the door to her temporary apartment behind her. She didn't know if Shikamaru would be home or not but it seemed like a good place to start looking for him. The morning was bright and cool, and reminded of her of the morning that she had left Konoha to return to Suna and Shikamaru had been waiting for her, to see her one last time before she left. Such a lazy, unmotivated boy, stirred from his sleep by a simple Sand Kunoichi. Now it was her turn to make an effort for him.
As she walked, she rehearsed in her head everything she wanted to say to him, and each time she played the scene through, her words were different. How melodramatic she'd been over things that shouldn't really matter in the first place, and how she had only lied to him because she was lying to herself. How she wanted to be able to hold his hand in public, and how she wasn't ashamed of him, not at all. She was as excited as a child and her gut felt sick with adrenalin and a strange combination of fear and elation and hurt and joy.
She had to walk through the village to get to the path that lead up to the Nara household and was polite to those who greeted her along the way, trying not to look as though she was in a hurry when so much of her wanted to run to him. To avoid being held up by any of the villagers who may have known her, she took the quiet back roads. At last, she got to the fork in the road that would take her to his home. She followed it and, when she was sure no one see her, she ran. She ran through his gardens and slowed just in time to catch her breath before knocking on the door. The world seemed to hold its breath for a moment as the door swung open, but it was Shikamaru's father who answered.
"Good morning, Shikaku," she greeted him, trying to steady her nerves. "Is Shikamaru home?"
"I'm afraid you've missed just missed him. He's gone out for the day with Ayame."
"Ayame?" Temari felt sick. "The ramen girl?"
"Yes, I'm afraid they've been seeing rather a lot of each other recently. Should I let him know you were looking for him?"
"No!" What a fool she had been. Of course he had found someone else after she had left. He deserved someone who treated him better than she did. "No, it's really not important. Please don't say anything to him."
Shikaku promised to keep quiet, and she headed away from their home and back down towards the village through their gardens. But as she got further away from the house, the more she realised that she couldn't face having to be around anyone just yet. She left the path and took herself off into the woods, to regroup her senses where no one would she able to see or hear her. Why did it hurt so much to hear that he was seeing another girl when she had just come from another man's bed? Yes, she had consoled herself with truly meaningless sex, but at least she hadn't opened her heart to anyone. To hear that he had spent the night elsewhere might have been bearable, but to imagine him… loving someone else? She stood with a back against a tree and buried her head in her hands, then did something she hadn't done since she was a child. Temari cried.

"Temari!" Shikamaru knocked at her door but there was no answer. He wondered if she had already left to see Tsunade or gone for breakfast somewhere, but most likely she was inside and was ignoring him. "Temari!" He called through the door again. "I just want to talk to you!"
Someone stepped out of the apartment next door. It was an older woman. Her arms were folded over her ample bosom and she looked at him as though he was vermin.
"That one didn't come home last night." She told him.
He stared blankly at her for a moment. "What do you mean she didn't come home? Is she OK?"
"I told the Hokage we don't want any of those awful Sand folk in our neighbourhood, but did she listen? Sent over this dirty stop-out and now I've got to explain it to my children. Such a horrible example to be setting for our young people."
Shikamaru didn't care about her children or her prejudice. "Where is she?"
"Well," the older lady leaned closer to him as if she was sharing some juicy gossip and began gesturing with her hands. "Someone told me they saw her with that Hatake boy last night, and you know what he's like. "The youth of today are just rabbits", I said. "This town is going to the dogs," I said. And my children- "
"You mean Kakashi?" He interrupted her. "Kakashi Hatake?"
"Mmhmm. When I was young we had a little thing called romance but these days…"
She carried on rambling but Shikamaru had stopped listening. He couldn't sleep last night for thinking about Temari and came out to see her as early as he could that wouldn't raise suspicion, making up some excuse about spending the day with Ayame so that his parents wouldn't bother him with any more questions. But now he was finally here, she was already gone. He was too late.
No, this busy-body neighbour had to be wrong. Maybe she had been misinformed, and Kakashi had spent the night with a different blonde kunoichi? Maybe Temari really had spent the night as his place, but had camped out on the sofa to save walking home in the cold? Something inside him knew his excuses to be untrue. The thought of her with anyone else made him feel sick. How could he possibly compete with Kakashi? Yes, he had tried to distract himself by attempting to feel some romance with another girl, but he didn't know if he could have brought himself to spend the night with her. To picture Temari with another man, as she had been with him… his heart was in his throat.
It was clear to him then that she had stuck by her decision to leave him. It was over.

I know some of you won't be happy with the Temari/Kakashi pairing, but it's something I've wanted to explore with for a while and it was really fun to experiment with writing this. Drop in a review to let me know if came across as believable, and what you think of the rest of the story as a whole!
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Shadowplay and Hurricanes