Chapter 8
Three hours of sleep, that’s all she had that night. The rays of sun start passing through her tent reminding her that it's already morning now. She rubbed her eyes and starts thinking about what happened yesterday.
“This is embarrassing” She slaps her cheeks to wake herself up to reality “Get yourself together Temari! You fucking bitch! You choose this! We need to fight!”
She starts preparing herself for another day. First, she wrapped the sarashi around her chest, then wore her practice clothes, and grabbed her wooden katana. When she lifts her door sideways, Shikamaru was standing beside her tent. Temari released a faint scream as she did not expect to see him there.
“You’re lucky you have a talent in fighting and you’re Rasa’s daughter. If not, I already cut your head yesterday for lying about your identity. You broke the law and that’s punishable” he said with his angry gaze
“What are you doing here?”
“You’ll have your own bathroom. It’s beside the servants shared bathroom, the water supply was broken so you need to lift a couple of buckets to have water inside. And tomorrow, when we rode the ship, you can use my bathroom. It’s outside my room so you need to inform me first when using it. Is that clear?”
“Ye-yeah, right. Thank you. I need that” Temari smiled because finally, she can have her own private bathroom. She will not worry about checking if someone is inside like she always did every night.
“What are you smiling?” He said, still with his angry gaze
“Nothing” she fixed her face and pursed her lips.
Shikamaru thought it was the shared bathroom incident that she was thinking about. The feeling of embarrassment starts crawling up through his skin after he thinks about it “And forget what you saw before! I don’t want to hear anything from it”
He immediately left her while Temari tries to hide her smile.
They start their session like they always do. Temari didn’t mind about anything that day and still continue as if nothing happened. It was only him that knows about her true identity, in fact, she trusted him about it. Omoi and Lee asked Temari to teach them about her techniques and she happily did a session with them. During their practice, she always caught Shikamaru gazing at her. Or she’s just assuming?
The next day, everyone woke up at around 5 in the morning. The day that they have been preparing for finally came. Their battle in Jiro Island, Temari's first battle.
Neji, Shikamaru, and Kiba’s army sailed the sea to reach Jiro Island while Sasuke and Naruto’s army headed to Kumogakure to assist the kages during the assembly.
When they reached the battleground. Ten samurais were commanded to block the swordsmen’s water supply and steal their food. They successfully did and put a fence around it so the enemies could no longer eat and drink.
The next day, the leaders assumed that the enemies become weaker due to the insufficient energy and supplies they have right now. Neji commands the armies to attack at night so the enemies won’t see their moves, Kiba and Shikamaru both agreed.
At around 6 pm, one of Kiba’s samurai went to the enemy’s location and shot an arrow near Zabuza, their leader. His swordsmen were startled after seeing the arrow hit their wooden wall and almost touched Zabuza’s head. They immediately position themselves to attack where the location of the arrow came from.
The first arrow shot was a dummy, tricking the swordsmen to use up all their weapons and to deplete their energies.
After hours of attack and hundreds of arrow shots, Kiba, Neji, and Shikamaru’s army marched to where the location of the enemies. They could feel that all their weapons were used up and almost hitting none to the ground. Kiba’s army shot the first hundred arrows, then Neji, then Shikamaru.
After shots and shots and shots of arrows, the island becomes mute, only the sound of the ocean waves and crickets can be heard. Three samurais were instructed to check the ground, all of the enemies were now confirmed dead.
They celebrated; the samurai armed forces just destructed one of the Akatsuki’s defenses.
But Temari was unease, her eyes glanced to the shore and she saw three ships that were docked in the dark part of the sea. They were not there yesterday.
She run towards someone that she trusted, Shikamaru.
“Shikamaru!” she yelled “Listen to me! It’s still not over! There are still swordsmen in the sea!” Temari was panting while her hands gripped to his kimono.
Before Shikamaru responds, Neji intervenes in their conversation.
“Why are you here? Back to your formation! NOW” Neji shouted at Temari
“NO! You need to listen to me! Look! That ship…..it was not there before!” She pleaded while her voice is shaking
“That’s an abandoned ship. We already won! Now get your ass back to your formation!” Neji responded
Shikamaru looked at the dark part of the ocean to see the ship that she was saying. It was dark and almost hard to see, he assumed that it was an abandoned ship like Neji said. They assessed the ground yesterday and Neji took the lead so he trusted him.
“Takeo…I think you need to get back to your formation. It’s an abandoned ship”
Temari was disappointed, she realized that he did not trust her as much as she trusted him. Her feet froze to the ground after he said those words.
Suddenly, they heard a slashing sound from the north side of their location. One of the samurai was stabbed by the second fleet of swordsmen, Haku’s fleet.
“Back to your formation! Wield your Katanas!!!” Kiba shouted
Neji glanced at both of them and runs towards his army, hundreds of swordsmen are now attacking the samurais. They were outnumbered.
A roaring sound escaped from the swordsmen’s mouths while running and killing the samurais on the ground. Slashing and shouting covered the whole island, muting the calm sound that they heard earlier.
A sharp cling was heard from Shikamaru’s side, it was Haku. He pushed Temari away to fight him and she stumbled to the ground.
Her eyes glanced at her environment. Shikamaru was right, this war was like hell. She thought of her brothers, she cannot bear to see them dead in this dark abyss. It strengthens her goal and passion to protect her brothers and her comrades in this war, her goals become clearer than before, like it was written in her palms.
She stood up and glanced at where Shikamaru at, he was now struggling to fight Haku. The swordsman’s Katana was like glass ice that could cut a thin string of hair. Shikamaru was now full of blood from all the cuts he had, luckily all of it was not fatal.
When Haku was about to stab Shikamaru’s gut, Temari blocked his attack which made him stumble to the ground. He instantly stood up and fight Temari. She was full of passion and her Katana swung like it was dancing with Haku’s glass sword.
She could feel his energy was now exhausted, so Temari give him a double offensive move and a stab right in his heart.
A loud noise and horse galloping were heard behind them. Commander Hiashi Hyuuga just arrived on Jiro Island to assist them. This time they won.
Temari walked to where Shikamaru was lying, he was full of cuts and blood. She ripped her kimono to have a long clothe to make a bandage and wrapped it around his wounds, so the bleeding would stop.
“Takeo…” he whispered
“Shhh….it’s Temari” she said with an impassive voice, she is still disappointed in him for not trusting her.
“No, someone will know if I’ll call you that” he said while whimpering from pain
“Just shut up” she responded
Temari assists him to stand up and walk to their ship. Commander Hiashi called Neji, Kiba, and Shikamaru who are now all wounded and full of bruises.
“Is this your battle plan!? You all seem dumber since the last time I saw you!” He reprimanded the three
Temari glanced at them, they were now full of sorrow and regret. She can’t help but feel sad about them.
“Shikamaru! Do you still have your brain? Is it still intact!? What happened to your battle plans!?”
“You Kiba! You are in front! Why you didn’t see the other fleet!? Do you want your army to die!?”
“And you! Neji! You failed in checking your ground! Do you really deserve to be a leader!?”
Three of them were silent, they didn’t respond to any of his insults.
“If this will happen again! I’ll rip your title out of your names! Do you hear me!?”
The three nodded without looking into his eyes. Temari heard their conversation while carrying Shikamaru on her shoulder.
Commander Hiashi left their spot and they all returned to their ships, leading to Kika Island.
