ShikaTema : Waiting For You

Chapter 1 : Shikamaru's Spark

A loud beeping erupted in the staleness of the dim, gloomy room. Heavily, a tired arm reached out with the force of gravity acting against it, leaving the warmth captured underneath the blankets that surrounded it. The hand slammed against the noise maker commanding it to stop. Bringing the free hand back towards its owner, the other hand mirrored as they rubbed against his exhausted, sagging eyes. A yawn followed the sequence as the boy forced himself to sit up. Blankets tucked themselves around his lap making it harder to leave the bed with the lingering warmth. He sifted fingers to brush through his hair, causing dark brown strands to fall; tickling the edges of his face from their newfound freeness of their usual restraint from a ponytail.

Sluggishly, with a head turn to the previous noise maker, he was met with the illuminated current time in a red tone of 6:00 am. His morning parched lips lowered into a grumble, he forced his body to lift himself from the sweet torture of his bed.

Oh, how the boy knew he could spend the whole eternity of his lifespan in the vast serenity of the comforting trace his plush mattress produced, and the silky cotton of his sheets that wrapped him in an embrace no woman could top. It was pure torture what his bed offered him. The one place he was allowed to give into his overwhelming urge of laziness and not get yelled at for it. The one place where it called out to him to let the temptations of the cushions take over his body, and he was allowed to give in. Pure torture. Especially when he had to leave it every day. He would rather have the most uncomfortable living space in the world than have to constantly be tortured from leaving the wonderful abyss his bed offered.

His feet drug across the gravel the paved the streets of Konoha. The muscles in his legs were working overtime, demanding his legs to walk. The constant fatigue over took his body, and his mind was trying to snap out of the daydream of his only love, his bed. That was all he wanted, but he was repeatedly met with two male ninjas, sitting behind a table that presented a paper that he knew he had to sign.

Slumping over to place his name on the routine paper, one of the ninja echoed at the constant subject he relived every month, "Who are you escorting this time?", like it was any different from all the times before.

Shikamaru let a "Tsk", take over his expressive face at the two nosy men. 'What a drag', he thought to himself. He continued with his signing, "You know, I'm just expecting a troublesome woman to walk through the gates from the Hidden Sand."

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Temari's observing eyes were angled up at the sky. Her view was partially covered by trees that trailed alongside her route. She noted the light breeze pick up brushing past the leaves, pushing them to dance in sync with the wind. Streams of transparent yellow beamed through the openings of the trees. She lifted her hand to meet one of the sunrays which consumed her with its warmth. She had just come from her village that was surrounded by the burning desert and the searing hot sun, but the warmth was one thing that she couldn't shake to love.

Soon enough, her thoughts were halted when her gaze was brought to the top of a big, royal, wooden gate that had: "Village Hidden in the Leaves", emblazoned on it. She charted the tall gate down to its wide-open doors, spotting a familiar black-ponytailed boy already leaned over a desk signing a paper.

Once he was done with his conversation with the two ninja guards of how he was, "... expecting a troublesome woman to walk through the gates from the Hidden Sand.", He stood up tall from signing the approval that allowed her in the village, meeting her gaze with a snarky smirk and raised eyebrow.

She despised how she wasn't even there yet and he was already starting their nagging game. She hated his dumb way of talking with such disinterest in every subject, his continuous complaining, his constant laziness, his dumb attractive face, his stupid light in his eyes when he actually found something he was passionate about, his lame excuse of flirting through their bantering, his idiotic ways of making her actually want to constantly be around him. He was dumb, an idiot, an irritation, and so much more, but even worse... he was the person who made her heart race with nerves accompanied by a tingling sensation through the tips of her fingers, the reason she continuously blushed when she came into the village, and the stupid, stupid, stupid reason, she always left Konoha with a huge smile plastered on her face.

She loathed coming to Konoha.

She passed by the snarky idiot with a lack of greeting to the two ninja's stand. She signed her part underneath the boy's neat, hand-written signature saying she had arrived, then continued her path to the Hokage's office in her own quiet peace.

She could feel the presence of her escort trailing behind her with no effort. He was supposed to be the one person to show her the way around the village, to the Hokage's office, even to her hotel, but she never made it easy for him and he never made it easy for her.

This wasn't her first time in the village after all. She was pretty accustomed to where everything was, and it definitely wasn't her first time with him.

"No greeting, huh?", Shikamaru threw his hands in his pockets as he sped up to walk by her side.

Temari's eyebrow's creased in displeasure, "If I'm so 'troublesome', then why do you meet me every time I come to the village?", She jabbed at his previous comment she had overheard him express to the other two ninjas.

His arms stretched towards the sky, letting the muscles relax as they were tossed behind his head, with his fingers interlocking when they met. His gaze lingered on the dark blue half of the sky that merged with the lighter blues and yellow of the morning sun, transitioning the new day into daylight, "You know I have to. It's an order from the Hokage to escort you. Each person that travels to the village on a mission has to be assigned a guide.", he pointlessly clarified, knowing that wasn't the real reason.

Temari eyes rolled in disbelief. His simple explanations made her think he really thought she was dull minded sometimes. Did he really think that she didn't know the system and how it worked? She was the Kazekage's assistant, the ambassador of Suna, as well as trainer of the ninja youth in her village, and yet, he had the audacity to treat her like a simple bimbo who couldn't catch onto a situation.

"And I'm just supposed to believe that you get randomly assigned to me every time?", she confronted and cocked an eyebrow, placing an un-approving hand on her hip.

Shikamaru dropped his arms embarrassed, and at a loss of words. A blush rose to cover his face, as he tried to find the words to retort back to her but couldn't. This woman really never gave him a break, did she?

Temari noted his sudden change and gave him a scoff, continuing her path to the Hokage's office.

Shikamaru wilted at his defeat, this woman was so troublesome. Why couldn't she just be happy he chose to escort her each time she came?

The constant nagging, bantering, and confrontation ruined his ego. She picked on him like they were kids, and never forgot her role of giving him a problematic time. He was saving her the trouble of always having a random escort, and having to awkwardly spend her whole time in Konoha with someone she wouldn't know.

Or well, he was saving the random ninja from her terrible attitude sounded more like the situation. In all honesty, he looked forward to the change of attitude. Everyone in Konoha was too peaceful, he enjoyed the spark she created with her brief presence.