After The Last

Chapter 16.1

The Wind is Pulling My Shadow

The raging wind covered the whole desert. The sand was swaying in different directions, it was a sandstorm.

A black-haired man with brushed-up hair temporarily stopped in the safest place at the moment. A dark cave welcomed him.

"What a drag. Why now?" He muttered. He was waiting for the storm to stop and continue his journey to the Sand Village.

"Why is it the wind always pulling my shadow every time a come here?" He asked.

Shikamaru made a campfire. He found some dry woods and he still had his sensei's lighter. He had his coat on that protects him from the sun's heat and the unwanted sand.

"I think I'll spend the night here." He said. The storm was still raging outside. Shikamaru returned the lighter in his pocket and suddenly his hand stopped moving. He had touched something. He pulled it out.

It's a ring.

He had decided to ask Temari's hand and make her his wife.

That idiot Naruto, I gave him the idea and now he proposed to Hinata before I got to ask Temari. He thought.

"Troublesome..." he murmured.

Will Temari accept my proposal? He thought.

Will Gaara and Kankuro accept me as their brother-in-law? He thought again.

Shikamaru shook his head and focused his mind on what he must say to Temari when he got there.

"Maybe I should talk to her brothers first then asked her for a bite. I think that's the best way to execute it." He said.

It was already dark but the storm had not stopped yet. He had just finished his dinner. He lay down on the ground. He used his coat as a sheet to sleep on and soon he fell asleep.

A grain of tears developed on the corners of his eyes. He yawned upon waking up. The storm had stopped. He walked outside the cave and a beautiful sunrise had started to color the whole desert. Shikamaru returned inside the cave to get his coat that was still lying on the ground.

"Yosh, it's time to go." He said and ran in the middle of an unending desert.

He was sweating so badly. He was traveling for three days and soon he would be arriving at the Sand Village's gate. He got a week off from work and he decided to spend it with the Sand siblings.

Without everyone's knowledge, Shikamaru has been so close to the Sand brothers months after the war. Shikamaru, as the Five Villages' Union Head, had been helping for the restoration of the public welfare of each village from the aftermath of the war. Gaara trusted him so much that if anything happens to the village he immediately calls for Shikamaru's aid as the Sand's ally from the Leaf.

"Shikamaru-san." One of the village guards greeted him. Shikamaru nodded. They let him pass the gate and entered the town.

He was heading to the Kazekage's Office to greet Gaara "Hello". Shikamaru was given the authority by Gaara to freely enter and leave the village.

He stopped in front of the office's doors. He knocked three times. A man's voice asked,  "who's there?"

"It's Shikamaru Nara." He replied. The door opened revealing Kankuro behind the door and Gaara sitting on his desk. Kankuro and Temari had become Gaara's bodyguards right after he became the Kazekage.

"You're finally here," Gaara spoke.

Shikamaru informed them to be arriving in the village three days ago.