Till The Wind Changes ✔

VII. Inure

"No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories."

- Haruki Murakami

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"Come on, Shikamaru, just finish your breakfast," Yoshino said as she approached the table with a teapot. "Your father has a mission today! So you don't have a lot of time to train your technique with him this morning..."

"Yeah, yeah," Shikamaru said reluctantly as he looked down at his breakfast. it wasn't even midday and his mother was even more troublesome than usual.

"Just one year is enough. Now eat!" His mother replied as the doorbell rang. "I wonder who it is so early in the morning?"

She turned back and went to open the door. Shikamaru could no longer see his mother; he approached his father who was sitting in front of him, silently drinking his tea.

"Hey! Dad!"Shikamaru whispered

"What's the matter?" His father asked as he took another sip of tea.

"Why did you marry such a troublesome woman?" He said still in the same tone of voice, let it not be his mother would hear him.

"Mmm.. that's a good question," his father answered with demure. "Maybe she is quite troublesome, but even the most troublesome woman can be tender towards the man that she loves. There are days in which she has such a smile on her face..."

"That's the reason?"

"Not long ago I had told you that men are no good without women," Shikaku answered with a serious note. "I still stay true to those words; you'll understand when you grow up..."

Well, that explained why his father was always getting bossed around by his mother. But he wouldn't fall for that. There were men whipped because of women. Girls were selfish and annoying. They always acted like they were cordial and friendly, but in reality, they were nothing but dry. You could never tell if they were getting along or not... and besides, they thought they could boss them around. Sakura, Ino, were all the same. He just hated girls.

"Shikamaru," her mother called him as she loomed from behind the wall. You could almost say because of the change of her tone and her facial expression, that the anger she had minutes ago had dissipated. Shikamaru could even bet she had a smile on her face. "Lady Hokage had sent a messenger to see you."

Shikamaru looked at his mother amused. What was it now?

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"I knew you would be here."

Temari closed her fan and turned back to face the owner of that recognizable voice. Gaara was standing at the edge of Sunagakure's training arena. Looking at him from the distance Temari could confirm her suspicions: something had changed in her little brother.

"Oh, how did you know?" She asked as he walked into the arena near her.

Their father's death had definitely brought them closer, but still, they weren't as close as she was with Kankuro. For a long time, Baki and Kankuro were the only two people in which she trusted fully and although she wanted to trust Gaara it was still not the same. She felt really guilty for feeling like that, for being unable to bring her defences down. It just was difficult to learn to trust again. She had feared Gaara for so long, that even though Temari noticed his change, she was still terrified of waking up one day and realizing it had all been a dream: too good to be true. From her experience, good things never lasted. Happiness was only momentary. She had to be cautious.