#mmm. yeah.

[rocket-angel]

your pastimes consisted of the strange and twisted and deranged

[shikadainara]

shikamaru dealing with the immediate aftermath of war. chouji’s right next to him as soon as the infinite tsukuyomi, thank whatever higher power. they hug and for a moment it’s just like it’s the two of them, chouji especially sobbing loudly. then the reality hits, and they have to get up sooner than either of them would like to. he’s still recovering from his brush against death, so chouji has to support him to help him walk. thankfully, it doesn’t take long for the two of them to find ino too, her face is so worn out, but through her tears she’s proud that the three of them grew up to be strong enough to survive this, after all. but...

temari.

where is temari.

shikamaru’s head is throbbing and it feels like the usual two hundred thoughts in his head have multiplied to two thousand, and he can’t clearly think through any of them. he can’t entirely remember what he was just dreaming about, but he gets this ache in his chest like... she’s really important, somehow?

and it’s not like he can drop everything to go find her, either. he’s a proxy commander, he’s supposed to be a leader. he has to help confirm casualties, confirm who’s still alive, help those in critical condition to get to medical help... and there’s so, so many corpses scattered around and he knows it’s selfish, but whenever he walks by someone in a sunagakure flak jacket completely still on the ground, his heart constricts as if...

eventually, after what feels like an eternity, he gets the faintest glimpse of that familiar hairstyle, feeling like... no. that can’t be it. my heart is playing tricks on me. still, he calls out, “temari,” like it was something he automatically did, trying to muster up whatever strength he has left to project his voice.

she turns around and... it’s her. she’s fine. she’s perfectly fine. of course she is. it was silly for him to worry, really, would someone who could have complete control the wind to so easily leverage a forest get hurt that easily? it’s even sillier how messed up his condition looks compared to her, which he’s sure she’ll tease him about later, and he’ll look forward to her doing so, just as always.

her smile is soft. it’s not her trademark beaming smile, it’s not one glittering like the desert sun, it’s just... temari’s gentle smile. shikamaru imagines his face looks something similar, once all of the tension drained from his body.

“hey,” she calls out.

“hey,” he replies back. just as if he was greeting her at konoha’s gates, just as always. like they could always just so easily pick up where they left off, no matter how many months apart. no matter what had happened in the in-between.

war changes people, but sometimes things just don’t change.