softly tread the sand

Summary: Fire and wind, leaves and sand. Two worlds: someone's heart always ends up broken. But hearts can heal. Multi-chaptered story- Temari, Shikamaru, Ino. Features the sand siblings and the Konoha Twelve, each in their respective villages. And a link between both. Complete in twelve chapters.

Warning: Rated T for minimal language and adult situations without getting detailed.

Set: Story-unrelated. Though this might be a companion piece to "Conversation, Inconvenient" and especially to "Never Change" there is no need to have read the other stories.

Disclaimer: Standards apply. Title is a line from "Two Worlds" by Phil Collins, found by accident. Found and judged fitting.

Chapter One

"Fuck, Temari!" Kankurou sat up again, pressing both his hands to his rib cage. "What the hell?"

Blankly, Temari stared at her elder brother. His expression had gone from surprised to angry. Now it went back to worried. "Temari, are you alright?"

"Huh? Yeah." Lifting the hand that had delivered the punch, she glanced at her fingers. They were balled into a fist tightly. It took a conscious effort to relax them again and she shook her hand, suddenly feeling a dull pain creep up her wrist. "Ouch. That must have hurt."

"Really." Kankurou was up again, his un-marked face glistening with sweat from their early-morning sparring match, his voice full of sarcasm. He dragged a hand through his hair and only achieved an even worse result than probably intended. Who would know. Men these days did things to their hair Temari wouldn't even consider doing to her own, no matter how annoying her curly, blond mane was. "You countered quickly, I'll give you this. Just remember, next time, that your steel fist can be devastating, okay?"

His tone might have been mocking but his eyes were worried. It was what made her snap back into reality, and also what got her riled all up. "What, your pride was damaged or what? Your side was wide open, I could have gotten in with a bulldozer. Learn to shield yourself correctly and I'll consider pulling my punches."

Unfazed, her brother grinned and used his shirt to wipe sweat from his brow. "There you are. I already was beginning to worry. Since you returned from Hidden Leaf…" He stopped himself, his gaze turning dark. "Does this have anything to do with Nara?"

"What are you talking about?"

"There's only one person who can make you angry enough to forget everything around you and though I pride myself in being one who almost achieves this I know this disputable honor does not belong to me."

Temari loved her brother – when he did not infuriate her – but she wouldn't discuss this with him.

"Whatever happened in Hidden Leaf," she said, deliberately calmly, "If anything happened at all, is none of your business. That clear?"

"Crystal clear," Kankurou shot back. From the frown lines deepening above his nose she could see he, even if he wouldn't ask her again, was far from willing to drop the subject just like that. The pest on all nosy, caring brothers. "So, anyway, should we call it a day? Gaara asked us to go see him."

Temari shrugged and wiped her own face on her arm. "Whatever."

She caught the glance Kankurou threw her but chose to ignore it.

…

Gaara was pacing in the huge office that somehow managed to dwarf him. Closer to twenty than to nineteen, he had grown into a proud, tall man. His shoulders had widened and his lankiness had disappeared. And yet for Temari, he would always stay the small, shy boy who had hung around when she and Kankurou trained without asking for permission to participate and whom they had ignored completely. Until one day. "Train him," their father had said, and from that moment they had trained together. Reluctantly first and later becoming closer, until Temari had two people she would trust her life with, both of them being her brothers.

"Naruto sends his regards, more sweets than I could carry and a whole lot of messages," Temari greeted Gaara and was rewarded with a smile that disappeared as quickly as it had come but nevertheless carried true warmth.

"Welcome back," he answered. "How was your journey?"

"Unspectacular." Temari put down her bag, dropped into one of the seats in front of the huge desk and fastened her eyes on her younger brother. Kankurou followed her example on her right. "Kankurou said everything was quiet during my absence."

"Wonder why," Kankurou muttered and she glared at him. He grinned back.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Gaara said and finally dropped into his own chair on the other side of the table. "Nothing Kankurou couldn't help me with, and the Council. What about Konoha?"

"Same as always. There are some trade agreements Naruto would like to go over with you. A daimyo is suing Konoha for a mission gone wrong. Leaf is requesting one of our specialists on poison to be an expert witness in the trial. I think the Godaime Hokage is planning on abdicating this or next year, Naruto was present the entire time we talked but they didn't let anything slip. And they're very worried about the situation in Tea. If the government isn't able to hold itself against the rebels they're going to ask for Konoha's help and it doesn't seem like the Hokage is very happy about the situation."

"Hm." Gaara regarded his hands thoughtfully. "Of course she didn't tell you that."

"Of course not." Temari leaned forward. "She also did not tell me that Kiri is spying on both Leaf and us."

"Because that would have been a breach of contract," Kankurou said dryly. "Not to mention that we are allied to Kiri and Leaf."

"Exactly." Gaara sighed. "I always knew shinobi politics were hell. But I never realized how bad it really was until I found myself in the middle of it."

Temari pulled a few scrolls from the bag she had slung over the chair's back. "Anyway, here are my preliminary reports. I've highlighted the most important passages. I know you don't have time right now. When would you like to go over these?"

"I have a meeting with the Council now and the usual stuff after lunch. What about we have dinner and you brief me then?"

Temari shrugged. "I could-"

"I will cook," Kankurou interrupted her. Turning to Gaara, he grinned. "You know every time she comes back from Leaf she has learned some new, weird recipe she has to try on us. Frankly I'm not keen on dying tonight."

"You could die from other things tonight if you don't stop," Gaara said bemusedly.

Temari threw him a dark look as well, for good measure. "Fine, Kankurou takes care of the food. Seven o'clock. My place." Without looking back, she marched from the room. Leaving, she heard Gaara sigh.

"What has Nara done this time?"

"I dumped him," she called back.

…

The first time Temari had met Nara Shikamaru she had thought he was a terrible bore. The guy had no sense of fashion (that hair style, please), his voice was low and endlessly boring and he seemed as if nothing could ever catch his interest. Even fighting her he'd preferred to sit on the ground, waiting, instead of taking the initiative and commencing any offensive action. It was as if everything in him had just been designed to tick her off.

Then he had defeated her so completely she could have wept with shame and had just walked away. And without wanting it – without even realizing it – Temari had been hooked.

Anyway. He had been the enemy at that time and she had had no intention of fraternizing with him. Then came Orochimaru's plot and Gaara's rampage and Sasuke's defection and suddenly he was there again. Or rather: Temari was there, saving his lazy Nara ass from Tayuya. Why had she been so glad to see him again, that fate had let her be the one to fight at his side? It was exhilarating, anyway. Better than actually fighting him was fighting at his side. Shikamaru Nara was four years younger than her and a hell of a lot smarter when it came to book smartness but Temari was at least as smart as he was when it came to street smartness, and that was what counted. Looking back, maybe it had been the advantage of experience, but whatever.

"Troublesome," he muttered when she visited Hidden Leaf for the first time in her official function of diplomatic envoy to the Kazekage, shortly after the Great War, and he was assigned to her as liaison. The village itself hadn't suffered, not in the way some small villages had suffered that had been closer to the battle field. But the aftereffects of the fights were visible in the number of patrolling shinobi at the gates – there were so few – and the way their faces kept reappearing in a tight schedule. It was visible in the way the Godaime looked exhausted even though she smiled when she greeted Temari and in the way mothers held on to their children tightly when walking through the street. Temari had witnessed these same symptoms in Suna and as it had there her heart contracted. War never went by unnoticed.

The Godaime had bid her Good Night and Shikamaru had followed her from the office, taking the lead immediately. Temari had stopped short, glaring at the dark-haired shinobi to her side. "I did not ask you to accompany me all the way. I can find a place to stay by myself-"

He didn't answer, just kept walking. Fuming, she followed.

"We're there," he finally announced, his face showing no indication that he had even heard her. The small B&B almost disappeared in between two larger buildings. He didn't stop to hold the door for her but walked through as if he didn't care whether she followed or not. "She has a room," he told the old lady at the reception. "Suna's diplomatic corps."

"Which only consists of one person." Temari was tired, having traveled the entire day. Perhaps it was the reason her own doubt managed to slip through her defenses: she had never been in such a position before. Gaara was relying on her, now more than ever, and she wasn't completely sure she could live up to the expectations that were placed on her. Far from home, in the darkness, the doubts had only waited for her.

"If the Kazekage had thought it necessary to send any number of people he'd done so," her companion replied as he scooped up the keys and handed them to her. "You will do just fine. I'll pick you up at eight tomorrow. Good Night." And he left her to stare after him.

"Do you need a towel, dear?" The receptionist asked and handed her a huge, fluffy one without awaiting her answer. "Here you go. Breakfast is at seven. Your room is just up the stairs, the second door to the left. If you need anything else, come to see me." And, with a last glance at the door and a smile: "He's harsh, Shikamaru. But he's a good boy."

Temari was left to wonder how the lady could call the seasoned, experienced shinobi who had just walked out of the door boy and came to the conclusion it had to do something with age. From her own perspective, everyone who had survived the war was far more than a boy.