Island of Storms [Sakura]

Chapter 31 | Wisteria

Temari again woke to the sound of someone banging on the door, though whoever it was had no sense of respect. She huddled closer into Shikamaru's chest. The banging continued and a vein popped on her cheek. After another moment, she slipped out of his arms and got out of bed, grabbing her pillow.

"Don't kill them..." her fiance yawned as he sat up when he noticed where she was heading. She flung open the door, already knowing who it was as it was the only person with the guts to wake her up in such a way. Kankuro opened his mouth to say something only for the pillow to smack him in the face, sending him falling to the ground. She noticed Gaara standing a few feet away, having known waking her was dangerous.

"Morning," she grumbled.

"Temari, Shikamaru turned in his room key last night and no one knows where he is," the youngest sibling informed.

"Really? He turned in his room key?" she asked before yawning.

"You don't seem too surprised..." She placed her left hand on the door frame and leaned in to look at her lazy fiance.

"So I see you turned in your– and he's fallen back asleep." Gaara peeked around his sister to see Shikamaru sleeping. He hadn't even pulled the sheets back up, not that it mattered as he was fully clothed.

"Temari... What's on your hand?" Kankuro asked as he recovered from the hit. She looked back to the hallway.

"It's a ri–" She turned and chucked the pillow at Shikamaru as she heard him shift in the bed.

"Alright, alright, I'm up," the man groaned. She turned back to her brothers.

"It's a ring, obviously."

Kankuro grinned.

"I see he finally asked," Gaara said.

"Yeah, I was meaning to the next time you all came to Konoha, but we all know how that worked out," Shikamaru murmured from behind her.

"Kakashi and Sai are coming to take us to Arashi around eight, so we've got about two hours for breakfast," Kankuro said as he rubbed his cheek, wondering why the pillow had been so hard.

"We'll meet you downstairs," she said before shutting the door. She turned and pointed to the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower, so go if you need to."

He chuckled.

╌❀✿╌╌💮╌╌✿❀╌

The couple made it downstairs to find Ino, Sai, and Tenten talking with the brothers. Though the moment the two women noticed they were downstairs, they charged them.

"Congratulations!" Tenten squealed, attacking them both in a hug. Temari rolled her eyes, knowing that Kankuro already said something.

"Way to go, Shika! You finally did it!" Ino cheered. Sai also gave the two of them best wishes.

"Didn't expect people to find out this early..." Shikamaru muttered, scratching the back of his head.

"We have limited time to eat, so let's get going," Ino grinned as she dragged the two of them out the door.

"Where are we going?" Temari asked as she released them upon exiting the building.

"We're meeting Kirai at the same place we were at yesterday. She wants to get to know you guys better, and we'd like you to get to know her. Then after that, we'll be taking you to Arashi," Ino explained. "Kakashi had some things to deal with, so Tenten and I decided to come along."

A small smile came to Temari's lips when she heard they were meeting with Kirai.

They stopped as they reached the scaffolding for the tunnel. Those who were new looked at the entryway created with three logs. The bottoms of the pillars had young flowering vines pinned to the wood. The flowers were nothing those from Suna had ever seen before. They hung from the vines in the shape of bending icicles. There was a vine with blue flowers, one with purple, with pink, with white, and with orange. They could only imagine what the archway would look like after the vines had fully grown.