Till The Wind Changes ✔

IV. Assumptions

"We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course, it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination."

- C.S. Lewis

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Confused, she fixated his gaze on him trying to understand what had just happened. That was the moment. Her eyes met his. Surely her eyes were her most notable feature. Those teal eyes could suck anyone into their depths. They were simply mesmerizing, imposing and domineering. Someone could just fall into them without ever gaining the strength necessary to look away, or to even blink. For a moment Shikamaru sat there, still, just admiring them. At that moment he realized he had already seen the kunoichi but that he had never, until then, looked at her. Her eyes seemed to inescapably burn through all his defences and look into the very depths of his soul. Yet, in this short but endless moment, he never felt uncomfortable by her gaze and found the sudden urge to know more about the person behind that gaze.

"I give up," Shikamaru repeated. "The continuous use of my Shadow Copy No Jutsu has used up all of my chakra. I can barely bind you for ten more seconds. I had thought up about two hundred moves but... it looks like I am out of time."

"Even if we archive to damage the village the bigger loss will be for us." Her words resonated once again in her head. Temari hated to admit it but at that exact moment, she realized she had been wrong. Her assumption of this guy was completely off. Shikamaru was definitely something else.

"Well, the winner is Temari!" the instructor announced.

He looked once again at her. Temari was certainly not happy. Shikamaru could see the outrage in her expression, with still a hint of disbelief. That was definitely not the way she liked to win. She would have rather lost with dignity against a rival of worth than just to win an out-matched match.

"Man...I'm tired." Shikamaru said as his shadow detached from Temari's and proceeded to head to the stairs.

"Idiot!" shouted Naruto who was now at the edge of the arena pointing at Shikamaru

"Shut up super idiot!" he replied

"Why did you give up?" asked Naruto as he ran towards Shikamaru. Temari hated to admit it but she wanted to ask the same question.

"Forget about that already..." Shikamaru said with a smirk on his face."Let's just enjoy the next fight..."

Gaara's fight. Right. Temari couldn't waste more time. Almost for a second, she forgot about the real reason they were there. She should get to her brothers in order to see how things will turn out.

She grabbed her fan and walked towards the sector of the arena where Gaara and Kankuro awaited. As she passed by the two genin from Konoha she couldn't help but face Shikamaru once again. Their eyes meet once again. She was caught by the intrigue. Behind that slacker demeanour it hid a genius, but not only that. He was even more similar to her than she would want to confess; Shikamaru, although being a complete lazy-ass, shared her same critical and rational point of view.

Temari turned towards the wall, giving the back to Shikamaru, and jumped over the railing next to her brothers.

"Hey that boy over there gave you some trouble, didn't he Temari?" Kankuro bothered her as she landed. "I mean, he handled the situation at his will. He even got you to do what he wanted. Maybe I should give him a small chat before destroying this place, you know, to learn a few of his tricks."