DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, or the characters. I think that's pretty obvious, but hey, just in case someone thinks I'm cool like that, I'm telling it like it is.

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Chapter One: One Way

"The heart has reason which reason does not know." -?

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The thing was, she didn’t really love him. Temari didn’t really love Shikamaru. Not as anything more than a friend. But after all they’d been through, no one would have believed her. It just didn’t feel right to her, but all the pressure from people around her prevented her from saying anything. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem; Temari could care less. But she did love him. Again, not like that. The problem was, she was pretty sure Shikamaru was in love with her. And try as she might, she just couldn’t live with herself if she broke his heart.

Temari hated the situation. Gaara and Kankuro’s constant teasing and threatening about her liking Shikamaru got tiring really fast, even more so because they’d been doing it since the Chuunin Exams. At first it was mostly threatening like a light joke, but as Shikamaru’s path crossed with hers more and more, her brother’s began to get seriously concerned. Temari never really could tell if they wanted to encourage her or kill her because of her supposed infatuation.

Temari rubbed her forehead. She’d just returned from a boring C-rank prisoner escort mission from Suna to Hoshi and she was pretty exhausted from the lack of experience and expertise her companions had, thereby making her do all the real work. Being the sister to the Kazekage really didn’t change the way people treated her, especially now that Shukaku was gone and Gaara wasn’t so inhumanely powerful. (Don’t get me wrong, he’s still crazy strong).

Gaara told her after her mission report that she was being sent to Konoha again. Someone had to keep diplomatic relations well between them. Temari didn’t understand why Konoha’s shinobi couldn’t come over to Suna once in a while, though Suna was still rather secretive and independent about a lot of things.

What bothered Temari most though, was that she didn’t know if Gaara was really sending her to keep good relations, or to encourage her relationship with Shikarmaru. He was well aware that he was her escort the entire time, so he couldn’t be against her and him as a pair, right? No wait, they weren’t a pair, so it didn’t matter. Temari glanced up at the clouds. There was a strange feeling in the air. She was really dreading this visit to Konoha, but could find no explicable reason why…other than him.

Temari sighed and set off.

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A/N: I don’t have much idea where I’m going with this, but since I find it so blatantly obvious that Temari and Shikamaru SHOULD by all means be a couple, I took the challenge upon myself to reverse it. Or am I? Haha. Even I’m not sure, but that’s the angle I’m working at the moment.