Forgotten Thoughts || Shikamaru X Temari

Chapter 2

"Hey, I don't like this anymore than you do." He said with a stern look and followed her out the door. This felt so wrong. He couldn't begin to understand why the Hokage had chosen his ex-girlfriend for the mission. It screamed trouble in the worst way possible. Seeing her again after he had tried so hard to avoid her was forcing memories back. Memories he had hoped to bury.

She tried to ignore him as much as possible as they walked to the gates. Her heart was racing and it took everything she had to not ask about life. She didn't want to hear about his life. He probably had a new girlfriend. Maybe even a family. She had tried to move on and it left her with a child. He probably had a child and a wife by now.

Normally he'd prefer silence, but this was killing him. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Hell maybe he'd even prefer a mission with Naruto. Scratch that maybe not Naruto, but he'd take Kiba or Sakura even. He wasn't sure if he should say anything for fear of retaliation from the blonde, but he had to try. "So, how are your brothers."

Temari looks at him. He looked the same. How could he look the same. He looked so perfect, yet she couldn't stand to look at him anymore. She looks in front of her once again. "They are fine. Kankuro is Gaara's right hand man these days." Messes with her fan, which currently had a jutsu on it so it was smaller than it normally was. It just looked like a hand fan.

"Good. That's good." He grew silent once again. The only sounds heard was the chirping of birds and the crunching of dirt under their sandals. "We should take to the trees now." He jumped up into a sturdy branch and pushed forward. Balancing and jumping from tree to tree.

Temari follows after him. She was terrified that she would end up falling out of the tree since she was behind Shikamaru. Shikamaru was proving to be quite the distraction to her, despite the fact that she hated him. She had almost forgotten about why she hated him so much, until she saw him. When she looked in his eyes and heard his voice, everything came back to her.

"I guess I should fill you in some more." Shikamaru raised his voice slighty. "The target is a diplomat that went missing a few days ago. He was supposed to show up for a meeting with the Hokage, but we never heard from him. We've tried to get in contact with his people. Finally a few hours ago we received officially word that he along with ten guards were declared missing. So, of course it's our job to bring them back. It's a drag, but it's gotta be done."

Temari stayed silent, listening. That was 11 missing people, a lot for them to find. "What village was this diplomat coming from?" She asks, her voice serious. She tried to push all other thoughts to the back of her mind. She needed to focus on the mission.

"A new smaller village we recently got word of. There was talk of them coming to Konoha." Shikamaru landed on a branch and paused before jumping again. I'd be night soon and they would have to break for camp. Temari was right though. It was a lot of people to find, but only one of them was a priority.

Temari also stops for a second, breathing a bit heavily. After a few moments she moved to catch up with him. "A new village? All the new villages that pop up either hate ninja or are to small to matter." She says, thinking aloud.