Secret answers
"Hey Mustache, do you believe in soulmates?"
Naruto paused in his taijutsu kata training to look at her. Temari's face betrayed nothing of the intent of his question. She was sitting on a branch directly above him, her hands folded in her lap, strands of hair gently blowing in the breeze. They had both finished their chores—he with his training, and she with her duties as Suna's ambassador—for the day and had gathered here to watch the sunset. They'd been doing that a lot lately, whenever they could.
He was taking his time answering, so she glared at him, ready to defend herself if he mocked her question. That hadn't been her intention at all. She shrugged to delay her answer and finished the kata, then headed over to the tree to sit next to her.
"Why do you ask?"
It was his turn to shrug.
"Come on," he encouraged me, "I won't give you rice balls unless you tell me to."
“Withholding food? That's low, even for you,” she grumbled, but she smiled as she mocked him. “Yesterday I met up with the other girls and they were talking. That's all.”
"About soulmates?"
“Yes, now give me a rice ball. I'm hungry.”
Naruto handed her the bag, knowing she'd get a spicy curry. Temari was more likely to ignore Ino's gossip and talk to Tenten about training. He wondered what she'd heard in this conversation to pique her interest.
"What were they saying?" he asked, unwrapping a rice ball for himself.
"It was so silly," she said after eating her rice ball. "Ino was reading a magazine article about how to tell if someone is your soulmate and using that nonsense to decide whether the guys she likes are her soulmates or not. It's totally ridiculous."
"Sounds like that." He watched her take another bite of food. She always seemed so happy when he brought her her favorite flavor. She'd never explicitly told him it was spicy curry, but he'd noticed she always chose it when she could, plus he imagined it reminded her of Suna somehow. "I guess you don't believe soulmates exist."
"Why would I?" Temari snorted. "Why would there be a law in the universe that designates that any two people out of the billions in existence have lifelong compatibility? It eliminates all individuality. We choose who we fall in love with, not the universe."
"Is it really so unlikely?" I tried to study her face carefully, tracing the patterns of the fading sunlight as they traced her skin. "We don't choose the nature of our chakra, but we do choose how to wield it. Perhaps love is the same way."
"What do you mean?"
"We don't really choose who we fall in love with, do we? But we do choose how to love, how to commit to and grow for another person."
"That's all it is. We choose how to respond when we fall in love. We might choose to avoid our soulmate, so what's the point of having one?"
“I don't think love is that easy to ignore. Besides, you can't choose how your soulmate responds to you. They may not be that easy to ignore.”
"Are you arguing for the sake of arguing, or do you believe what you're saying?" Temari looked at him critically. He shrugged, trying to avoid giving an answer once again.
“Oh my God, you do! You think soulmates are real!” She laughed in disbelief.
Naruto looked at her. Her eyes glittered with amusement. He wanted to tell her the truth. He knew soulmates were real because she existed. He wanted to confess that he'd been in love with her since the first day he met her before the chunin exams. Her strength was beautiful, and he could see her goodness even when she tried to hide it behind a super-tough kunoichi mask. She could be wonderfully unpredictable, and understanding her was the same exciting puzzle as learning a new jutsu, only more intriguing and alluring. Naruto knew he was going to spend every day he could with her for the rest of his life. He wondered if she felt the same.
“Let’s just say I’m open to the possibility,” he replied, withholding his confession until she was ready to hear it or he was ready to say it.
"I'm a little surprised," Temari said, looking at him with something like awe. "You're stranger than I thought."
"I think most people would say you're the odd one out."
“That's because you're never quiet, you're a loudmouth most of the time. Usually the quiet ones are the ones people never suspect, but you're the exception. Since that's obviously a mask, no one here in Konoha really knows who you really are, which is why you're the strangest.” She took the extra rice ball he offered her. She chewed thoughtfully, still studying it. “You'll have to be more practical if you're going to become Hokage.”
"We'll see," he said, as he always did with her. She shrugged and turned toward the horizon. Naruto continued to admire the way the light painted her face until it faded, leaving stars reflected in her eyes.