Wind And Fire Part 2

A/N: Okay, yeah. I said 'the end', but in response to a request in a review .^_^ I'm going to try to continue to a better ending. Y'know, tie up loose ends and such. I really appreciate all the reviews I've gotten for my fics. Constructive criticism is always a good thing, nit-picking and splitting hairs not so much. I watch in English and Japanese with subs. I read the manga in English. If I use a phrase or name from the dubs or manga, (ex. The Final Valley vs. The Valley of the End), don't get all upset. It's just how I know it. But anyway, I guess what I'm getting at is, you can say whatever you want in a review. I won't delete it, unless you're really just flat out flaming. As always thanks for reading!
-Ani
*A/N*: Omg! Thank you to the reviewer who mentioned I had Sasuke's name spelled wrong. *Blushes, looks down, kicks imaginary rock* Well, I feel sheepish. Lmao thanks again. I've made the corrections.
-Ani
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I tried to be perfect
But nothing was worth it
I don't believe it makes me real
I thought it'd be easy
But no one believes me
I meant all the things I said
This place is so empty
My thoughts are so tempting
I don't know how it got so bad
Sometimes it's so crazy
That nothing can save me
But it's the only thing that I have
Pieces-Sum-41
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Wind And Fire Part 2
Chapter 1

The Prodigal Sons Return

****Three months after the end of part one****

Temari looked up from her medical book when she heard the front door open and close. She smiled when she saw her new husband come into the kitchen. "Hi honey! How was work today?" she asked with a silly grin.

"Almost as troublesome as you," he teased, tossing his ANBU deer mask on the table and kissing her. He picked up the book and flipped through the pages. "Trying to fit all this medical ninjutsu in your pea brain, dear?" he asked her with a smirk.

Temari smiled at her lazy genius of a husband. To anyone not friends with or related to the couple, it would seem like they were mean to each other. Truth be known it was just their way of showing their affection to each other. It tended to startle newcomers to the village.

"I'm so damn bored being on medical leave. I don't have anything else to do. I keep telling Tsunade-sama I'm fine, but for some reason she doesn't believe me," she pouted.

He looked at her poking her bottom lip out at him and laughed. 'She's so damn cute,' he thought leaning down and kissing her. "Might be 'cause you said that before and you weren't fine," he mumbled.

Temari narrowed her eyes at him, "What did you say? I didn't quite catch that."

"I said, how are your chakra reserves? Are they any better?" he said in louder voice. He sat down on the chair across form her. They stared each other down for a few minutes until Temari burst into a fit of giggles.

"That's so not what you said! Don't make me come over there," she warned him.

"Don't make me come over there," he said in a mocking, high pitched voice. He could sense her growing irritation; she hated being mocked.

"That's it! I'm kicking your ass!"

"That's it! I'm kicking your ass!" he mocked her again. He grinned when he saw her getting up. He shoved his chair away from the table and laid his arm over the back of the chair. He loved this game.

"Shikamaru, I swear..."

"Shikamaruuuu, I swearrrr," he cut her off with his mocking.

She was standing in front of him now and had her hands on her hips. Suddenly, she leaned down and grabbed him by his ANBU chest guard. She brought her face close to his, "Do not mock me one more time, or you will be sorry."
He wasn't intimidated in the least. He laughed and said, "Or you will be sorry." He saw her grind her teeth and he laughed harder. "You're awfully cute when you're mad, Temari-chan," he said against her mouth and then kissed her. He pulled her down onto his lap, so she was straddling him.

"Damn you for being so sexy," she said kissing him again. She ran her hand up his side pulling on his chest guard.

"You love it," he said raising his arms up so she could take the armor off of him; he hated wearing it anyway.
He ran his fingers through her dirty blond hair; she'd been wearing it loose since she'd been on medical leave.

"Ow! Shika-kun take off the damn gloves. You're gonna tear my hair out," she bitched at him rubbing her scalp.

"I hate all this troublesome gear," he grumbled pulling the offending gloves off and throwing them on the floor. He ran his hand up the back of her shirt and unhooked her bra.

When she felt her bra unhook, she narrowed her green eyes and said, "You fucking sneak."

"Um, seriously, I'm supposed to be," he said cupping her breast in his hand. He kissed the hollow of her throat making her breath hitch. He ran his thumb over her nipple and that's when he heard someone knocking on the door. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. What a drag," he said, wiggling Temari off his lap. He kissed her cheek and whispered, "To be continued," in her ear, brushing his lips over the shell of her ear on purpose to make her shiver. He sighed as she disappeared towards the bedroom. He got to up to see just who was trying to break his door down.
****

'Of course, it was Naruto and Sakura, who else would of cracked my door?' he sighed to himself. "I hope you are gonna fix my door. Damn Sakura, could you of knocked any harder?" he grumbled at the two ninja on his front porch.

"Shikamaru, we gotta go to the border now," the pinkette said tearfully. "It's Sasuke."

"Yeah, c'mon Shikamaru. Where's your mom? We need all the medics we can gather," the blond jounin said.

"Mom and Dad aren't due back from their respective missions for a few days. There's always Temari, she knows the basics," he said, already planing in his mind. "Wait, what? Sasuke?"

Sakura started to sob and Naruto put a comforting arm around her, "Sasuke and Itachi are battling near the Wind-Fire border," Naruto said giving Shikamaru a look so serious he got chills.

"But, Itachi was assumed dead when the Akatsuki was defeated. Kami, this is all so troublesome. I'll get Temari. Come on in," he said heading into the house. The two jounin followed him.
****

"Temari-chan, you need to get dressed; we have a mission," he said his mouth set in a grim line.

"But, I'm on sick leave. That's like being on the disabled list, you know. You just don't play when you're on the DL. Tsunade-sama is okay with this?" she asked him, trying to figure out what was wrong. She didn't like the tone of his voice or the look in his eyes.

"Just get ready, okay? We need all the medics we can round up. And that's Sakura, Naruto and you. You know more than knucklehead does," he looked in her worried eyes and kissed her. "It's Sasuke and Itachi, they're fighting near the border. We need them both alive. What's that look for?"

Temari looked away from his gaze, "I don't know why those two can't just kill each other. Why do we have to risk our lives to save those two sick fucks? You know what's going to happen. If Sasuke kills Itachi, he'll try to kill Naruto. If Itachi kills Sasuke, then he'll try to abduct Naruto and kill him. Why? The world would be a better place without those two."

Shikamaru made eye contact with Temari; she looked away first. He touched her cheek, "When you became a shinobi, you knew there would be missions that you wouldn't agree with. I don't like either one of those sick fucks either, but that's not for us to decide. We just complete the mission and go on with our lives as best we can. I remember you telling me something similar a few years ago. You said, 'It's not like we wanted to attack the Leaf; it was just a mission'. Remember?" He watched her pulling on her ANBU gear. He knew she trained in it every morning to break it in. He watched her every morning he was home. She'd feed and water Jasmine and then she'd go behind the stable and beat the crap out of the bales of hay. Sometimes his mom or dad would join her, but he never did. He sighed, "Temari-chan, you don't have to go if you don't want to go."

She continued pulling her leg guards on her legs , glaring up at him, "I know you aren't calling me a fucking coward, crybaby." She kept glaring at him as she pulled her hair back into two high ponytails. She pulled the skin tight sleeveless black fishnet shirt on and pointed at him with her right hand, "You know, your memory really is a pain in the fucking ass." She pulled her chest and arm guards on and picked up her deer mask. "I'm as ready as I'm ever gonna be," she said strapping her giant fan on her back.

He looked up at his wife and couldn't help but smile. She looked scary and cute all at the same time. He glanced at her bare right shoulder and noticed she'd finally gotten her ANBU tattoo. "I see while I was on my mission you finally got your tat. We thought we were gonna hafta liquor you up to get you to go get it done. Chicken-shit, scared of needles," he laughed at her.

"Alcohol is blood thinner, baka. Just because that's what you other idiots did," she noticed him looking at her dubiously, "Okay fine, Sakura took me and cast genjutsu over me. It didn't even hurt," she said batting her eyes at him.

He broke into a grin, "Alcohol is a blood thinner, baka. It didn't even hurt. My name's Temari and I'm a killer kunoichi, just don't throw senbon at me. Tee-hee, I'm scared of needles," he said in that grating, high-pitched voice.

She clenched her fists and glared harder at him, "There's some dirt on your face. Let me get a cotton ball..."

"There better not be any cotton balls in this house," he said as his eyes darted around the room looking for cotton balls.

She let out a peal of laughter, "At least needles is a common fear. Who the hell is scared of cotton balls?"

"I'm not scared of them. I just don't like the way they feel," he said following her out of the room.

"That's why I don't like needles. I don't like how they feel," Temari said mocking him now.

They both stepped out into the living room. The two seated jounin jumped to their feet and then all four of them were out the door and off toward the border.
****
As they got closer to the border, they could feel the rise in temperature due to one of the Uchiha brothers using goukakyu no jutsu. Shikamaru glanced over at Temari, who was keeping pace with him. He saw Temari sniff the air. She looked at him and said, "We're close."

There were several jounin and ANBU watching the spectacle unfold in front of them. Shikamaru walked over to where Asuma and Kakashi were standing, "What's the story?"

Kakashi sighed, "Lady Tsunade wants Sasuke alive. She doesn't care about Itachi."

Sakura and Temari walked up in time to hear the silver-haired jounin's last statement.

Sakura's eyes widened, "You've got to be kidding me!"

Temari grabbed Sakura's shoulder to keep her from getting closer to the fight. Sakura let out a ragged sob, "But, what if they kill each other? Or Itachi kills Sasuke? Itachi isn't going to come back to Konoha because we need the Sharingan." Sakura stared vacantly at the two Uchiha fighting in front of all the available jounin of the village.

"Neither will Sasuke," Temari said grimly.

Shikamaru studied the two brothers; he noticed that Itachi wasn't wearing his Akatsuki robe or ring anymore. Sasuke wasn't wearing his Oto clothes either. Both were wearing shirts with the Uchiha crest. He knew without asking that Temari and Kakashi had noticed as well.

Temari stood with Sasuke's former team mates and kept a comforting hand on the pinkette's shoulder. She could sense Naruto's growing rage as Itachi's shadow clone charged at Sasuke. She heard a low growl and glanced at Naruto, whose eyes were clouding over with a red haze. She squeezed Sakura's shoulder to get her attention. Temari jerked her head toward Naruto. A movement slight enough that the jinchuriki wouldn't notice but the medical nin would pick up on. Sakura nodded and quickly moved to the Naruto's right. Temari watched in horror as the real Itachi reared back to let out fireball. Without thinking she flipped her fan open and blew the fire away from Sasuke. At that moment both brothers seemed to become aware of the fact they had an audience.
****

Itachi glanced over at the gathering of Leaf shinobi who were watching them, one in particular caught his eye. He remembered this girl from when the Akatsuki went after the jinchuriki from Suna; she was the one who killed Sasori. Not that he was bitter, he'd never liked the sick puppet master. He even remembered her name: Haruno Sakura. He shifted his attention to Sasuke, who was coming at him with chidori. He sighed and stepped to the side grabbing Sasuke's wrist and twisting. He pulled Sasuke close to him. "I should just kill you now. You are nothing but a weak child," he said in a low voice only his brother could hear. He twisted harder until the bone snapped, "You are of no use to me, to anyone." He threw him down and turned his gaze toward Sakura, who was looking at him in horror. Just then, he felt the four kunai sink deep into his upper back. "You little fucker," he said falling to his knees.
****

As soon as Itachi hit the ground Sakura and Temari sprang into action. "Temari, set Sasuke's wrist bones, I'll take care of Itachi," Sakura told her, pulling the first of the kunai out of the older Uchiha's back. She heard his hiss of pain and blocked the nerves before pulling out the rest. She forced her chakra into the wounds cleaning them and mending the shredded tissue and muscle.

Itachi was stunned to have the pink-haired beauty healing him. He couldn't understand why she was even bothering to do so; the village council would put him to death anyway. He let out a pent up breath when he felt her chakra probing his body for wounds. He brought his jet black eyes up to meet her jade green eyes. He could see the fear in her eyes and oddly enough, compassion.

"Why are you wasting your chakra on me?" he asked her.
Sakura startled when he spoke to her. She looked at him questioningly and answered, "I'm a medic. I help fallen Konoha nin."

"I'm no longer a Konoha nin and you know it. They're going to execute me anyway. Go save Sasuke," he said, waiting for her reaction.

"I'm saving you. Temari is tending to your brother," she glared at him, her eyes shooting green fire.
Itachi chuckled and touched her arm, "I'm sure the Suna transplant is capable, but Sasuke is dying. I'll be okay."

Sakura looked at Itachi wondering how he knew who Temari was and where she was from. She withdrew her chakra infused hands away from his shoulder and looked over at Temari and Sasuke. Temari was frantically working. Sakura looked once again at the older Uchiha.

She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Itachi.

"Iku," was all he said.

"Hai," Sakura said standing up and walking towards Sasuke.
****

When she saw the grim scene where Sasuke was laying, it took her breath away. There was blood everywhere. Sakura swallowed hard to push down the lump in her throat. "Temari, what's his status?" she asked even though she already knew it was bad.

The blond ANBU flipped up her mask and looked at her wearily. "I can't stabilize him. He's got a collapsed lung and various other internal injuries. The other one?" she asked wiping her face and pulling her mask back in place.

"He has a name, you know. If you're going to be a medic... Never mind, he's stable," Sakura said brushing off her annoyance. She probed his body with her green chakra trying to pinpoint the worst of his injuries. As she worked to stabilize Sasuke, her thoughts and gaze kept drifting to Itachi, who was staring at her with his burning onyx stare.

Temari looked at Sakura and then followed her gaze. She snorted in disgust when she realized what had Sakura's attention. "Shouldn't you be paying attention to your patient instead of staring at his brother?" Temari said with a sneer. She couldn't help it; she did not want her friend to get killed by that sick fuck.

Sakura's spine went rigid when she heard the disgust in her friend's voice. 'How dare she!' the hokage's apprentice thought. "Temari, I can handle this alone. You're dismissed. Go see what your captain wants you to do next," she glared at the blond kunoichi, her eyes snapping with anger.

"Tsch, whatever," Temari said as she walked off.
****

Sakura looked down at Sasuke his pulse and respirations were beginning to stabilize; she had the majority of the bleeding under control. The color was beginning to return to his face and she forced some plasma pills down his throat. She noticed his eyelids starting to flutter, he was starting to come around. By no means was he out of the woods yet, but this was a promising sign. She glanced up at Itachi again, he was still sitting on the ground staring at her. Naruto and Shikamaru were on either side of him in case he tried to make a move. But Sakura knew he wouldn't; he was out of chakra. She could feel Itachi's gaze burning through her. Not out of hate, but interest. She wasn't sure what to make of this new turn of events. She couldn't help being drawn to the mysterious older Uchiha brother. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She looked again at Itachi, he was still staring at her. When he saw her looking at him, he smiled so slightly she almost missed it. A groan from Sasuke pulled her attention back to her current patient.

"S-sakura?" Sasuke croaked out.

She snapped her attention down to Sasuke, who was looking at her. "Don't try to talk," she said trying to give him a smile.

"I-is he dead?" the younger Uchiha asked.

"Ah, no. Please, don't try to talk. We're going to move the both of you to Konoha hospital," she said brushing his bangs out of his face.

"That fucker. I will kill him," he said struggling to get up.

"Sasuke, no! Stop trying to move. You're going to bleed to death," Sakura told him, her gaze being drawn to Itachi once again.

Sasuke followed her gaze and snorted in disgust. "You fucking saved him didn't you?" His eyes accused her, she looked away from him. "You bitch! You should of let him die!"

Sakura's eyes were snapping with anger once again, "He wouldn't of died anyway, you fucking asshole. The only one who is in any danger of dying is you! And since you feel fit to call me a bitch, you can save yourself!" she hissed and she rose to walk away.

Sasuke glared and spit at her, but it fell short, "Go ahead, fuck him. He'll be put to death; Konoha will never accept him back into the village." There was an evil glint in his black eyes.

"And you think we'll accept you back? Ha! You are also a traitor. You shouldn't ever forget that, you piece of garbage. I'd rather fuck him than fuck you anyway," she hissed at him, her lip curled in disgust. She turned to Kakashi, "We're ready to move them."

A look passed between Kakashi and Naruto. Thanks to them both having acute hearing, they had heard the entire conversation between Sakura and her former love.

"Kakashi-sensei, what was that about?" the jinchuriki asked.

"Let it go, Naruto. Stay out of it," the copy nin said with a sigh.
****

The short trip back to the village was made longer because they had to keep stopping to check Sasuke's condition. Sakura was disgusted at the filth that kept coming out of his mouth every time they stopped, so she cast sleep jutsu over him mostly to shut him up. Of course she told everyone else it was to keep him still. But Temari and Shikamaru because they were carrying him, knew the things he was saying to her.

Personally Temari would of hauled off and decked him a good one, but that wasn't really conducive to healing. When she heard the insults he was hurling at her friend, she wished she had a reason to shut him up. "Shika-kun, why is he being so hateful to her? She saved his life," she asked her husband.

Shikamaru sighed for the ten thousandth time, "Tems, I don't know. It must have something to do with the way she keeps looking at Itachi. This is going to be a drag and troublesome and it's going to suck out loud." He looked around and saw no one was watching. He pulled her close a gave her a quick kiss. They both flipped their masks down and acted like nothing had happened.

There wasn't much Itachi missed and he'd seen the tender moment between the wind user and shadow wrangler. He shook his head, 'When I was an ANBU captain, that kind of thing just didn't happen,' he chuckled to himself. He felt the pinkette pull him up on her back and smiled. He rested his head on her shoulder and took a deep breath. He could smell her cherry blossom scented soap on her neck. He had a strong urge to lick her neck to see if she tasted as good as she smelled. He decided to keep his urges in check. For now. He decided to see if she would talk to him. "What did he say to you to make you so angry?" he asked her.

Sakura jumped slighted when he spoke, she thought he was asleep, "What? Nothing, he's an ass. He's pissed because he didn't kill you. He's kurutteiru," she mumbled. She felt him chuckle.

"I could of told you that, Sakura. He's been insane for a long time, probably because of me,
I'm sure," he said closing his eyes in exhaustion.

The entire group was happy to see the Konoha gate as they passed through, Kakashi and
Asuma broke away to give their report to the Hokage. Temari, Shikamaru, Sakura and Naruto with the two Uchiha brothers continued to the hospital.
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A/N: The next chapter will be a little more ShikaXTema. I promise. lol! And yes, sorry I'm not too fond of Sasuke. I do however like the idea of SakuXIta. Let me know what you think and as always, thanks for reading and reviewing. -Ani