Roses are red

Violets are blue

I don't own Naruto

So don't you dare sue

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AN: Woo last chapter! I'm so happy! I'd like to thank everyone. Everyone that has been reading!!!!! I love you all. You make me feel so proud. Any news...I moved, I'm starting high school, I watched a jealous Orihime-IN YOU FACE BIG BOOB HE LIKES RUKIA BETTER!!!!!!! I went shopping, I still love Shika/Tema after so long time...Very small AN, I know weird for me but I'm exited for u to read the last chapter.

Shikamaru: You are by far the most annoying, troublesome girl I've ever met.

Temari: Don't you mean I'm the only one that can beat the crap out of you?

Shikamaru: No, my mom can do that.

Temari: Huh, I was hoping that was me. By the way have you seen my fan?

Shikamaru: It's under my bed!

Temari: That bitch is so dead.

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♥♡♥

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Temari woke up and froze, her eyes wide with shock. In front of her was the pretties-no that was an understatement, it was beautiful-flower she'd ever seen. She reached a hesitant hand to touch it, she was beginning to think that the flower was not there, it was possible that she was dreaming it, a thing with this quality of beauty did not belong in her room. But it was there, as she touched it-first the blood red petals, then the leafs on the side- she felt a thrill go through her. Then her hand stumbled upon something, a note perhaps. She took it off, careful not to hurt the rose-for it was that, though it was way more beautiful than an ordinary rose- and looked at the paper, it was small and rectangular. On it there was only two words. She read them out loud:

Forgive Me.

She read it two more times. It didn't make sense. Forgive me? But who had wrote it? It couldn't be Gaara, his handwriting was way smaller and bunched together, she'd recognize it instantly. Not Kankuro either, Kankuro's handwriting was bigger and more spaced out, it was also sloppy. So it wasn't her brothers trying to make her feel better. It couldn't be- she had this almost as an after thought- Shikamaru- even thinking his name hurt her- no matter that he was drunk, he had hit on another girl and that was that. Case sealed! She couldn't have a secret admirer, who would like her? She was not pretty, almost a tomboy. So not her brothers, not...him...and no secret admirer. The rose couldn't have appeared out of thin air. Well, it could have, it looked so heavenly. But not the note, the note had been written with human hands, she was sure of that.

She sighed. No matter where the rose had come from it couldn't be meant for her. She thought that maybe they'd mistaken her room with her co-worker's two floors down. She shook her head sadly and stood up. She'd better return it. When she made a move towards the door though, she found that she could not move. Her limbs were locked in place and no matter how many times her brain signaled them to move, they would not obey.

Then she remembered. Remembered herself behind her fan, ready to do a replication Justsu, and her body had stopped responding, leaving her hands clasped and her body kneeling. She had not known what had happened then. But this time, she was not unlearned. She knew after that small flashback, that her body was now imprisoned by a single shadow. It was the same feeling, but she was not the same person.

She fought it. Believing it to be a dream. Wanting it to be one. Because he couldn't be there, standing in the shadows that were his true companions, imprisoning her. He couldn't be there because of her. He too, must have mistaken the rooms.

She tried to take another step, this time more forcefully, and would have probably jumped from surprise if she could move, when she heard the voice.

"Stop." It was not a request but a command. She found herself being turned around by invisible hands only she could feel. This time she sighed and let them guide her towards her bed. No point trying to fight them, she'd wake up sooner or later.

He was there of course, just where she'd imagined he'd be. Laying on her bad so casually. Even he looked like a dream. She had never realized how handsome he truly was. His black eyes that were always yawning looked eager and serious today, his nose was not wrinkled in the usual "it's too troublesome so I'm not doing it" way, and his mouth was pinched together as if trying to stop itself from snarling. It had to be a dream, she told herself again. Shikamaru never snarled.

She realized then, with fury, that she was gaping. This was all the fault of the boy in front of her. Yes him. It was him that had invaded her dreams. Him that had made her feel so stupid so many times over and over again. Him that had earned her trust and then stepped on her heart. She desperately wished- even if this was a dream- that her fan, or maybe something sharp were there. No matter if this wasn't real. She would hurt him and see his handsome-to her (AN: and all the fangirls)- face in pain. Then maybe, some of the pain in her own heart might cease.

He was looking at her now with a smirk. As if he could read her mind and was telling her to just try it. She remembered sorely that she could not escape his shadow. That he was- though younger- stronger than her. She cursed loudly. Damn it all anyways. This dream was not going her way!

"Stop moving, you're gonna hurt yourself." he ordered. She stood there and glared at him. He looked confused for a moment, lost for words probably and then he looked at her and shrugged. "What?"

"I'm waiting for this dream to end." She said matter of factly.

"Yea I probably look like a nightmare, I know." he sighed. "But at least listen to what I have to say."

She was going to fold her arms, then realized she couldn't and settled for just glaring at him.

"That's for you." He said. When she looked confused, he moved his head so that if she looked straight, she would see the rose.

"You think a flower will make up for it?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"I got that a long time ago." He added ignoring her question. "Old man Yamanaka worked me until i was halfway dead for it. Stupid old man took all of my money too."

"And?" she asked.

He ignored that too. "You're only hurting yourself trying to ignore the obvious. I don't know why you don't trust men, or me maybe, but I know that if I was in your situation, I wouldn't have judged too fast."

"But you-" She started to say.

"If you really cared about me, you would've stopped to think about how drunk I was- because of that stupid bet-, i couldn't even understand myself."

Furiously, she realized her eyes were burning. Stupid, stupid tears.

"I don't know why, but we can't ever have an honest discussion about these stupid feelings." He went on, not noticing her tears. Or at least, she hoped he didn't notice them.

"You are...forceful, loud, you insult me with every chance you get." he paused and took a breath. "But still I have some weird feelings, feelings that I couldn't explain before, but now...

"It's in our genes I think, my grandma, well she was nice to me, but to my father and grandfather, well she was just like my mom, yet my grandpa had married her, and they were married until they were both killed.

"My mom, have you met her? You should, you are too much like her. Loud, pushy, she makes me and my dad do everything, and if we say something wrong, I don't even want to think about it.

"So you see, I've figured that us Nara men, no matter how smart we are, are bound to fall for women like that, if not, I wouldn't be sitting here trying to explain to you how I feel..."

What did I think? That he was gonna say he loved me for me? She thought bitterly. I might be too much like his mom and that's why he likes me.

"So I told you about us, Nara men and the way they seem to fall for obnoxious women. That's a part of why I'm here. The other part- harder to explain because I'm embarrassed by it- is that I keep thinking about you. And when I do that, I don't think about how many times you've called me crybaby, when I think about you, I think of your smile- you know I've never seen you smile that way for anyone else- and I think of the time when I first noticed how great you were. I think of ways to make you see from my point of view. To see how much I really care about you.

"But the Temari I knew, she's vanished since the time you kissed me. She's been replaced by a coward, a coward that's not willing to give her heart because she's afraid of it being torn to pieces." he stopped here and looked at her, Temari could see now her actions in the past, maybe...

"Temari if you never give your heart, how can you know if it will be broken. If you never try, you'll never know.

"Please, please, please, I'm not here to tell you to fall in love with me. I'm here to tell you to trust me, please trust me because...

"Because I care deeply about you. I know it's weird, someone like me, going through all of this for a woman, but it I am, because you are the most important thing to me now,"

Temari opened her mouth to answer him, to tell him to leave her alone, but he went on.

"The rose, it is how you look to me." she was shocked when she heard that. "It is the most beautiful flower, you are the most beautiful woman. The rose is for you.

"If you're still not convinced, Temari then I will leave you. But before you say no to me, please remember...

"Just remember, I love you."

And with that, he released his shadow and in a puff of smoke, disappeared.

Temari looked at where he was sitting moments ago, she closed her eyes and tried to think.

Why won't I trust him?

Because I'm scared of my heart breaking.

"You're hurting yourself." he'd said,

Am I?

She looked at the rose, with it's beauty, he'd said that the way people saw the rose was the way he'd seen her...

He said I was beautiful...

But he'd said it before, that once when she'd gotten the courage to flirt with him.

Coward.

The word rang in her head and she realized how true it was, these past months, she'd been nothing but a coward...If she was anything but that, she'd have stayed, she'd have thought of the alcohol he'd consumed...did she deserve him?

Yes, The dominate part of her shouted. She wasn't going to run away anymore, she'd give him all she had, she'd done it before, but now, she'd do it openly she'd tell him, she'd tell him that...

"Just remember, I love you"

She'd tell him that she too, had fallen in love with him and this time, she'd stay.

She took the rose in her hands and ran out of the room.

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Shikamaru sat on top of Suna's main building staring at the clouds. They were so peaceful today, too bad he wasn't able to enjoy them.

His mind was in war. The part of him that was happy about leaving Temari to herself was fighting to desperately remain while the other part- the one that resembled his mother- was yelling in his head to go and kiss her firmly until she realized how much he loved her.

But he knew he'd done the right thing. If she had any feelings for him, she'd realize he'd meant every word he had said, and would finally trust him.

He felt the chakra before he heard the footsteps, someone was coming. He recognized the chakra, recognized it but as always, he couldn't tell who it belonged to. He tried to calculate the situation, if it was an enemy he'd seen before...but it couldn't be, not here in Suna. Maybe it was Gaara. But the footsteps were heavier, not too heavy though, but heavy enough not to be the Sands young Kazekage.

The footsteps stopped right behind him and he heard a sigh. The voice, he recognized, he'd recognize it anywhere. And then she sat down next to him and stared at the sky silently.

He looked at her, she was holding the rose, the Desert Rose, it resembled her so much.

They sat like that for what seemed like hours when she finally spoke.

"Coward." She started. "You're right, I've been that, so unlike me to be afraid of something." she smiled and shook her head. "But I've been thought, that if you trust a boy, then someday you'll be all alone and regretting it." she smiled. "Growing up didn't help, the men I grew up with were brute...and then I found you, you were so different, you did nothing I expected, you even cried in front of me...though you weren't aware of it then...and I had this weird feelings toward you, feelings that scared me. So I denied all of them, but I couldn't, not when they made me spend so much time with you, and you were always there-complaining about it being troublesome- but for some reason you didn't weasel out of working with me...so they grew.

"And when I kissed you, I thought what an idiot I was, how could you feel the same way about me...someone like me...really so there was no way, it's not that I don't trust you, it's that I don't trust myself.

"But today," she handled the rose in her hand. "I think now is the best time, because...because you're worth all the hurt in the world. And I...I'm here to beg you to forgive me..."

Shikamaru looked at her with astonishment. She was asking him to forgive her. Forgive her for what?

"And that I...I...love..you." She managed before her voice broke. She offered him the rose. "You're the one that deserves it." she said after her voice was back to normal. "I haven't done anything but being an idiot."

He smiled, giddy with joy. "You know that's a Desert Rose." He watched her surprise and his smile widened. "I gave it to you because you're a rare creature, and you were born in the heart of the desert, and you're beautiful, it's a gift I won't take it back."

She closed her eyes and a few tears escaped from under her eyelids. "This is you're fault." she said pointing at her tears.

Shikamaru glared at her. "It's not my fault that you have such a week heart." Then he smiled. "It is also not my fault that I'm extremely handsome."

"Handsome my ass." She laughed. And the laugh made him happier than anything he leaned in to kiss her, and with the kiss, erase all the past.

xxx

Later when they were both watching the stars something suddenly came to his mind.

"You know I have a feeling I'm forgetting something." He said removing his arm from her shoulder.

"If you forgot it it's not important." She answered.

xxx

Somewhere in the Kazekage's building

"WHERE IS THAT DAMNED NARA?! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM! NARA, GET BACK HERE AND REMOVE THESE STUPID KNIVES, NARA, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?!?!"

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❧❤♥♡♥❤❧

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EPILOUGE

"Hey dad! Why the hell did you marry such a loud woman?" The boy asked as he was eating his rice.

Shikamaru smiled. His dad might have been right after all, but Temari was nowhere as strict as his mom. Well, he'd give his son a better explanation.

"Because, I love her." he said simply.

"Love her? Are you crazy?" Just then Temari came in holding a flower so beautiful, it made the house look plain. Shikamaru watched with satisfaction the look on his son's face.

"Mom! Where did you get that?" he asked dumbstruck.

Temari looked at him and he shook his head. His son was too young to learn about their past. Maybe if he found a girl for himself...

"That's a story for later." Temari said smartly. "For now," she turned towards Shikamaru. "Happy Anniversary!"

❧THE END❧

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AN: It is done! I am finally free... Tell me what you think please! I'm so very happy. I hoped you enjoyed my story...I know I enjoyed writing it.

Some things I wanna point out:

Tenten and Neji's child was indeed a girl.

Sakura decided that Sasuke was way too cold for her and stayed with Ino and Chouji for a while, then she helped Kiba win Hinata's heart, and she herself fell for Naruto.

They all lived happily ever after.

Oh and Lee married Gai ;P haha jk...!!!!

and if you didn't realize it, the person shouting in the kazekage's building is Kankuro, Shikamaru imprisoned him there so he could get away, aparantly, he forgot the poor makeup-boy