Whispering Bells

The Ambush

The sun was just beginning to rise when Temari awoke. She had been an early riser since she was a little girl. It was the perfect time to have some quiet uninterrupted time to herself, to think about life and reflect. She usually spent the time training back in Suna, and she didn't see any reason to change things while she was on her mission. She looked over at Nara. He was fast asleep twisted in his blanket like a pretzel. She smiled. It almost looked like his shadow strangulation jutsu, but instead of shadows, his own blanket had attacked him.

She quietly got up and grabbed some training clothes from her bag. The sand ninja quickly changed behind a tree, and then grabbed her fan to head out to an open area nearby.

She started running to work up a sweat. As she jetted around the trees her mind started to analyze the past few days. If she was being honest with herself, she knew that she had started to develop feelings for Shikamaru a while back. At first, he kind of just fascinated her. The way he forfeited their chunin exam was the complete opposite of anything she could imagine herself doing. Giving up when victory was in her grasp? It was inconceivable. Her subsequent visits, he was assigned as her escort by the Hokage. At first it was awkward, but as they got to know each other better, they got into really interesting conversations. He really was an independent thinker, not really influenced by what others thought. She noticed how he respected his sensei, how he treated his friends with kindness. She saw the special friendship he had with Naruto, a jinchuriki like her brother. It was after that that she started to notice him as a man. His wild hair, his lean strong body, his warm brown eyes, the way he smirked when he figured something out.

She glanced back at the camp to see Shikamaru still lying down, but leaning back against his forearms watching her with sleepy eyes.

What was the point of thinking this way though? They lived in different villages, and aside from the sleep induced kiss, the feelings appeared to be one-sided. He never showed any romantic interest in her.

She grabbed three kunai and eyed three trees directly to the north, east and west of her. Temari lept up into the air and in a spinning twist threw all three kunai. Each one landed perfectly on target on each tree. She then grabbed her fan and waved in a zigzag pattern.

"Wind ladder" she whispered. The strong gusts of wind flowed in multiple directions allowing Temari to scale up to the top of the tree using just the air.

Still got it.

She sat down to catch her breath. It was all coming clear. She had been distracted by Nara. His kiss captivated her, but it was not real. These feelings needed to end, because it was distracting her from her true purpose – protecting Gaara. Shikamaru was just her teammate and her friend.

She would not lose focus again.

***

Shikamaru awoke to the sound of footsteps. He opened his eyes to see one troublesome Kunoichi dressed in short shorts, a tank top and her massive metal fan walking towards the trees. She started running darting around the trees. He untangled himself from his blanket to fumble around for his watch. He grabbed it and looked at the time.

5:00 a.m.

5 a.m. in the morning. What kind of time was that to be running and leaping around the forest? He rubbed his eyes. Was it always this damn bright at this time? It was not like they had gone to bed early after all. Last night the baby deer had settled in nicely on Temari's lap, and she could not bear to get up and disturb it. They had ended up staying there a lot longer than the half hour they had originally agreed upon. He didn't have the heart to pull her away.

He closed his eyes again in an attempt to get back to sleep. Memories of the previous day flooded his head. He felt guilty about how he had behaved yesterday. That wasn't like him. Normally nothing really got him rattled, and he shrugged most things off as not his business. Life was complicated enough without getting pulled into other people's drama. Truth be told, he had a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach since he heard Asuma utter the fated sentence.