Wind And Fire Part 2

A/N: I was very happy to see such a positive response to my pairings. Lmao I've always like odd pairings. Of course I like the regular pairings too. ^_^ And I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was writing Itachi too soft. How do you know it's not a trick?(It's not, btw.) Maybe he's tired of being a dick all the time or tired of being dead. Lmao It's almost like I reversed Itachi and Sasuke. I know he wouldn't act like that. And I promise you, I worked with a girl who had an irrational fear of cotton balls. I was trying to think of silly fear to give Shikamaru and was asking people to name a sillly fear. The answers were extremely funny, but I couldn't work them into the story (ex. pillows, tree bark, stupid questions, plywood, butterflies and the list goes on.) My co-worker Rhonda said, 'Remember that one tech we had who was scared of cotton balls?' Not really a good trait to have when you're a pharmacy tech and pulling cotton out of drug bottles is an every day task. Lmao Thank you again Archfiend for pointing out the spelling error, it's been corrected. Thank you again for all the reviews and ratings. Most of all, thanks for reading!

-Ani

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Like anyone would be

I am flattered by your fascination with me

Like any hot-blooded woman

I have simply wanted an object to crave

But you, you're not allowed

You're uninvited

An unfortunate slight



Must be strangely exciting

To watch the stoic squirm

Must be somewhat heartening

To watch shepherd need shepherd

But you you're not allowed

You're uninvited

An unfortunate slight



Like any uncharted territory

I must seem greatly intriguing

You speak of my love like

You have experienced love like mine before

But this is not allowed

You're uninvited

An unfortunate slight



I don't think you unworthy

I need a moment to deliberate

Uninvited-Alanis Morrisette

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Chapter 2

Still Waters Run Deep



Temari woke again to a cold empty bed. Shikmaru was still not home from his mission. Temari got up and stretched, looking out the window she watched the deer in the pasture. She let her mind wander back three days ago to the battle at near the Konoha border. Both of the Uchiha brothers denied any knowlege of the other's intent. It was pure dumb luck that they picked the exact same day to come home, not to mention the same route. Temari wasn't sure what the real reason was, but hey, that wasn't for her to decide.



She walked over to her closet and got her red scrub pants out, throwing them on the bed she went back to the closet to pick a top. She picked the white one with a syringe pattern that Shikamaru got her in honor of her needle fear. She got him back by stuffing the pockets of his jounin vest with cotton balls. She chuckled to herself, remembering how Sai told her later that he screamed like a girl when her shoved his hands into his pockets. She showered, ate breakfast and got dressed in record time. She pulled the door shut behind her and headed up the walk to the gate.

****



At the hospital Sakura was running around like a mad woman; anything that could go wrong was going wrong all at once. She saw Temari walk through the hall and yelled, "Temari-chan! Thank Kami you're here!"



Temari looked around, it literally looked like all jigoku was breaking loose. "Sakura? What the hell's going on?" she asked the senior medic nin in charge; Shizune was on a mission.



Sakura looked at her with a menacing look in her eyes. "That little shit keeps running nurses off. Now, it's like a fucking nurse mutiny in this place," she said looking over Temari's shoulder.



Temari turned around and saw nothing interesting. She patted her friend on the back. "Just tell me what you want me to do," the blond former sand nin said.



"Go treat Sasuke. No one else will touch him and he refuses to let me near him. Tsunade-sama almost 'punched the smug little bastard's face off' as she put it, so she won't deal with him either. It's on you, sorry," the pinkette looked away ashamed. Sakura sighed, her other problem was no one wanted to deal with Itachi either. She was stuck with treating him by herself and it was almost too much for her. The medical side of things wasn't the taxing part, it was the off the wall comments people kept throwing at her. Calling her a 'Uchiha sympthizer', what ever the hell that meant. It didn't matter that she was a medic and she was bound by her duty to treat all patients at the hospital; apparently she was the only one.

****



Temari breezed into Sasuke's room ignoring the dirty looks he kept throwing at her. His chakra was supressed, so what could he even do to her? She took his blood pressure and pulse before she finally spoke to him. "Hi! I'm Temari and I'll be your medic today. And seriously, you can knock off the glare and death looks. It doesn't bother me in the least," she said in and upbeat tone, even though it was killing her to do so.



Sasuke just glared harder at the blond wind user. He tried to figure out why she wasn't affected by him like everyone else. He narrowed his eyes, he'd get a reaction one way or another. He remembered hearing Tsunade say they needed to wait until Nara-san came in. Whoever she was talking to asked which one and was told Temari, Shikamaru's new wife. He got an evil smirk on his face. "Shikamaru is gay," he sneered at her.



She simply looked at him and laughed. "Could of fooled me. Maybe he doesn't know he's supposed to be gay," she mused. She laughed out loud at the irritated look on the younger Uchiha's face. She'd played his little game of petty insults for years with Kankuro and she never lost. Her secret was to get even more cheerful and sarcastic. No matter how pissed off she got, she always kept her cool. He didn't know what he was in for.



"He's messing around on you with an ANBU chick," he said, his voice dripping with venom.



"Uh, yeah. An ANBU medic. That would be me," she snorted at his look of disbelief and pulled her loose hair back in two high ponytails, holding it with her hands, "Sorry baby boy, it was me all along."



"You are a fucking bitch," he sneered at her still trying to get a reaction out of her.



"I know, it's an endearing quaility of mine," she chirped, giving him a big grin. She tried to give him his meds but he wouldn't open his mouth. She got an idea. "I heard you're the gay one," she said batting her eyelashes at him. When he opened his mouth to respond, she grabbed his jaw and tossed the pills in his mouth. Then she held his mouth closed, forcing him to swallow the offending pills.



"You tricked me!" he yelled at her. Still glaring he accepted the cup of water to get the taste of the pills out of his mouth. "That was sneaky," he huffed.



She laughed and pointed to her hitai-ate around her neck. "Niiiiinjaaaaaa!" she said in a sing-song voice. She laughed some more and in her mind thanked Shikamaru for his comeback.



He just stared at her trying to figure out who exactly she was; his memory was spotty at best. He didn't remember her from when he lived in the village. "Where are you from?" he demanded.



"Noneya," was her answer.



"Noneya? Where the fuck is that?" he demanded again.



"Noneya damn business," she laughed at him again.



"You aren't nice!" he declared. He glared some more. She was begining to get under his skin and it bothered him. What bothered him the most was unlike everyone else, she seemed unaffected by his surly attitude.



Temari threw her head back and laughed, "I know, it goes hand and hand with being a colossal bitch." She summoned her chakra to her hands and pressed them against his chest; her chakra probing his wounds. She did not like what she was finding. She hoped she was wrong.



He sat and stewed over her response. He watched her as she wrote in his chart and started to leave. "Wait! Are you coming back?" he asked her.



She flashed him a grin. "Maybe, if you're a good boy, I'll be back in a couple hours." Then she winked at him and left.



He sat staring at the door to his room wondering if she even knew who he was and what he was capable of doing. She was the only member of the Konoha hospital staff who would deal with him. That facinated him, he hoped she would come back soon.

****



Temari stood outside the closed door and looked through his chart. Nothing was adding up. Contrary to what his chart said, he wasn't getting any better. Supposedly his vitals were stable. Upon examining him she figured out all the recorded readings in his chart were fake. She rubbed her temples; she wanted to go back in the room and strangle the little fuck. He might as well of signed his own death warrant. She went to find Sakura to tell her the bad news.

****



Sakura went back to the nurse's station and sat down. She could feel the angry stares of the three nurses who were milling around the desks. She slammed her hands down on the desk, making all three jump. "Don't you three have patients? Go!" she yelled at them and they scattered like frightened rabbits. Finally alone, she flipped open Itachi's chart. Reading Tsunade's notes from the night before, she rubbed the back of her neck. She sensed someone approaching her and looked up to see her blond friend coming towards her. "Hey Temari, so how did it go?" she asked the blond ANBU medic in training. She took note of the fact that unlike anyone else who'd tried to examine Sasuke, Temari looked to be in a fairly good mood.



Temari set her mouth in a grim line and handed his chart to the pinkette. She didn't want to tell her the bad news, but she knew she had no choice. "Sakura...I'm not sure...but..." she trailed off not wanting to complete her sentance. She had to look away from Sakura's big green eyes. "Sasuke is dying," she finally blurted out and left.



Sakura frowned, she'd already known there was something not right with him. What she didn't know was the severity of his condition. She poured over his chart reading Temari's notes. The chakra points to his heart weren't healing, they were burning out. She also noticed the huge difference in his vital readings. If he would of been more co-operative they might of caught this sooner. She threw his chart down in disgust and got up to give Itachi his meds.

****



Itachi didn't bother to open his eyes to see who came into his room, he already knew. Sakura was the only medical nin who would come near his room, never mind come inside. He slowly opened his onyx eyes. "Sakura," he sighed.



She jumped slightly when he spoke. She'd thought he was asleep. "Itachi-san, how are you feeling today?" she asked him trying to give him a smile. The result was a faker smile than even Sai could give.



"I'm pretty sure I told you once not to call me that, just call me Itachi. I don't deserve your respect," he said watching the different emotions flicker across her face. There was something wrong and he was going to find out what. "Sakura? If I'm dying, I would hope you would just tell me," he said noticing her chin starting to tremble. He reached out a grabbed her wrist, making her jump.



She turned her jade tear filled eyes towards him. "It's Sasuke," she said in a barely audible whisper as the tears spilled over. She sat down in the chair by his bed and sobbed.



He sighed, he was never good dealing with crying women. He reached out and touched her cotton candy pink hair. It was as silky as he thought it would be, he ran his fingers through it and smiled briefly when she didn't punch him. He hooked his fingers under her chin and brought her face up to his, "Tell me."



Sakura stared into his jet black eyes, "He's dying and he won't let us help him," she said, her eyes tearing up again.



He chuckled, "He is exactly like our father. You couldn't tell him anything either. Did you know Sakura, that he had a chance to prevent the slaughter of the clan? Oh yes, more than once actually. He also refused to listen to reason. They told him I was dangerous and he refused to believe them and then what happened? They all died. And why? Because I wanted to prove something. And did I prove it? Yeah, I think so." He released her chin and closed his eyes.



She was intrigued. She'd read some of the old reports from before the slaughter and wondered why action was never taken; now she knew. "What were you trying to prove?" the question slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.



Itachi opened his eyes and looked at her. He was stunned to see she had no fear of him, just curiosity. Even Tsunade had a little fear of him. He raised the corner of his mouth slightly. "The very same thing you are trying to prove, Sakura-chan," he said staring into her jade eyes. He chuckled, now she looked confused.



"I'm not trying to prove anything," she said in a shaky voice. "I don't have any desire to slaughter anyone."



He sighed and tried not to laugh; she was missing the point completely. "Not what I meant. The same goal. You want to prove that you are good enough, strong enough and smart enough. And you are, Sakura-chan," his onyx stare boring through her, "Even if you aren't willing to see it yet," he said before closing his eyes once more.



"How would you know? You just met me," she scoffed.



"Because I'm older and wiser. Now give me my pills and shoo or I'll poke you in the forehead," he answered tiredly.



She laughed and narrowed her green eyes at him. "Older? Yeah. Wiser? Cha! Being older doesn't automatically make you wiser. Just look at Naruto and Sasuke. And I poke back, thank you very much," she shouted in exasperation.



Itachi's eyes opened slowly and he turned and looked at her, she was really pissed. He chuckled, "You are very pretty when you're angry, Haruno Sakura." He watched her anger melt away and a smile formed on her lips. Underneath her hard exterior, she was still a girl and all girls liked compiliments. That was the last thought that he had before he flew across the room, crashing into the wall.



He tried to suck air into his lungs, but couldn't; he opened his eyes and saw double. "Oi! What the hell was that for?!" he wheezed to the two blurry Sakuras that stood before him. He winced as he touched the already brusing lump on his forehead. "You really are a student of Tsunade," he wheezed.



She just laughed as she helped him up off the floor. "Flattery will get you nowhere with me. Oh, I know what you were thinking. You were thinking, you called me pretty and I was gonna go all goofy and shit. Am I right? You don't have to tell me, I already know I'm right. I can tell by the look on your face," she said giving him one of her best Sai smiles.



He watched her as she healed the new damage. Only one word could describe this girl. "Odorokubeki," he whispered.



"Hai," she said, smiling as she left the room.

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A/N: Odorokubeki- amazing, surprising

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Temari walked down the hall with a cloud of dread hanging over her head. She had to tell Sasuke and convince him to let Sakura examine him. She didn't know if she was going to be able to keep up the charade much longer.



"Temari-chan! Oi!"



Her head snapped around at the sound of Shikamaru's voice. "Shika-kun! Did you just get back?" she asked flinging her arms around his neck.



He kissed his wife and peeled her off of him. "Dang, I was only gone for two days, Tems. What's wrong? You're chewing on your lip," he asked her touching her face; he could always tell when something was wrong. "C'mon. I'll buy you lunch," he offered putting his arm around her shoulders.



"I want ramen," she chirped at him with a goofy fake smile on her face



Shikamaru looked at Temari and groaned, "You've been hanging around Naruto too much."

****



They sat at Ichiraku and ate in silence. Shikamaru kept sneeking glances at Temari. He wondered what was wrong at the hospital. He figured it had to do with the Uchiha brothers and since Sakura and Tsunade would be dealing with Itachi. The reason he surmised this was because Sasuke wouldn't want the pinkette around him and the Fifth Hokage had no patience. That left Temari to pick up the slack on Sasuke's case. And that meant there was something very wrong with the younger Uchiha. "So, what's wrong with Sasuke?" he asked her after finishing his ramen.



"You are scary sometimes, you know that? I think a couple of his chakra points to his heart are burning out. Apparently, I'm the only one who's taken actual vitals from him since we brought him in three days ago. If he wouldn't of acted so stupid and childish, we could of tried to repair the damage. Now I have to try to convince him to let Sakura examine him," she closed her eyes and sighed. She picked up her chopsticks and finshed her ramen.



Shikamaru laid some money next to their plates and they left. He put his arm around her and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "Hey Tems," He said nuzzling her neck.



"What Shika-kun?" She playfuly swatted at him.



"I like your scrubs. I really like whats underneath them," he nipped at her neck and slid his hand up the front of her top.



"We are in the middle of the street. People are staring," she giggled and kissed him.



He kissed her back, not giving a shit if people were staring or not. He led her to a bench behind the academy, which was desserted on the weekend. He sat down and pulled her into his lap. He kissed her again and ran his hand up her thigh, causing her breath to hitch. Neither one of them noticed the two approching jounin.



"Aren't you two a little too old to be making out behind the academy?" Asuma laughed wrapping his arm around Kurenai.



Temari giggled, "You're right. We should be making out outside of the Hokage's office."



Asuma looked away and Kurenai turned pink. "That wasn't us," she said.



"Oh please! I don't know any other pregnant ninja," Temari patted the crimson-eyed jounin's round stomach, "How much longer?"



"Eleven weeks. I swear to Kami, I'm gonna bust. I couldn't possiblely get any bigger," she whined jokingly. "Temari-chan, when are you going to have little ones?" she asked the ANBU medic.



The two of them laughed at the look of fear that flashed across Shikamaru's face. Temari tried to ignore the question. She was getting tired of hearing the same questions over and over. She'd never given it much thought; it's not like she grew up dreaming of having a family. "I don't know. I've never really thought about it too much," was the only answer she could come up with.



Kurenai's eyes went wide in surprise, "Really? You've never thought about it at all? Not even as a little girl?"



Temari felt her eye twitch, "I was raised to be a ninja. I was never a little girl. I didn't have a childhood." She heard Shikamaru groan. Her eye twitched again, "Well, it was good to see you two. Shikamaru, I gotta get back to the hospital."



Shikamaru watched his wife storm off and sighed. He felt sorry for Sasuke; she was pissed.



"Shikamaru, gomen ne. I didn't know," Kurenai said, tears welling up in her eyes and spilling over. "Stupid pregnancy hormones," she muttered.



"It's okay. She's not mad at you. She's a little touchy about the way she and her brothers were raised. Don't worry, next time you see her, she'll of forgotten all about it," the lazy jounin said as he walked away.

****



Sasuke jumped when Temari came, well, crashing through the door. He took one look at her face and decided not to fuck with her. He watched her flip open his chart, read something and throw it to the floor in anger. He jumped when the metal covered chart hit the floor near his bed. He leaned over and picked it up, ignoring the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm him. Reading over the different notes he saw what angered her. "Temari-san, you've been the only person in this room today," he said in a quiet wheezy voice.



She turned around and faced him, "I know that. It's funny, according to your chart there's been six different nurses in here. Now, who are we supposed to believe? This chart or our lying eyes?" She narrowed her eyes at him, "Are you wheezing? Lean forward a minute," she asked, summoning her chakra to her hands and placing them on his back.



He closed his eyes and felt her chakra sink down into his lungs. Thruoughout the day, he'd discovered it was becoming harder and harder to breathe. He'd tried to call for Temari, but no one ever answered him. He heard her tell him to take a deep breath, so he tried. It felt like his lungs were in a vise; he couldn't pull enough air into them. He started panting and gasping for air. He felt her chakra move around and then it was slightly easier to breathe.



Temari's frown deepened. This was bad; she needed to get someone in to help her. "Sasuke, I'll be right back. I have to get someone to help me. Don't move, stay like that and I don't want any lip on who I bring back with me," she told him in a no nonsense tone.



Still struggling to breathe, he simply nodded. He knew exactly who she was going to bring back with her and he was in no position to argue at the moment. Suddenly a thought shot through his mind, 'What if she refuses to help me?' He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing.

****



A couple minutes later, which felt like an eternity to him, Temari and a none too happy Sakura came in the room. He looked up at his former team mate, "I can't breathe," he wheezed out.



Temari unwrapped a huge syringe and gave it to Sakura. She stood in front of him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "I'm not gonna lie to you. This is gonna hurt like a motherfucker. Just try to relax. That has to be the stupidest thing to say. She's going to drain your lungs with a monster syringe," she said with a shiver.



"Temari!" Sakura snapped at her, "Keep him still." Sakura used her charka to numb the area and inserted the needle into his lung and started to drain off the fluid. She was not happy with the ammount of fluid she pulled from one lung. "Try and take a deep breath," she asked him.



He felt her pull the needle out and took a few shallow breaths. He felt her green chakra slid into his lungs and throughout his upper body. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Her chakra felt different than Temari's chakra. Sakura's felt stronger and more precise. His eyes snapped open when he felt it wrap around his heart, he'd heard Kabuto say he killed someone that way once. He opened his mouth to protest but stopped when he looked at Temari.



Temari locked eyes with the youngest Uchiha, "Iie," she told him with a shake of her head.



Sakura got two of the four chakra points to activate; the last two weren't responsive. She sighed and withdrew her chakra, there wasn't anything else she could do for him today. She sat down and started writing in his chart. As she read over the entries for vitals she cocked her eyebrow and motioned the blond over. "All these entries are fake except for the ones you did. What the hell?" she asked the ANBU medic.



"That's what I've been wanting to talk to you about. The nurses were going to let him die," Temari said glancing at Sasuke, who was laying down.



Sakura looked up at Temari with tear filled eyes, "They just might of suceeded."

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A/N: Sorry, I got carried away with medical details. Lmao oxoxox-Ani