#so shes meant to look harsh but a bit pensive 😬 i hope

[twnj]

'A sour mix of guilt and sympathy burrowed through Temari’s veins as she looked down. She began picking at her thumbnail, chipping away at the deep purple shade that reminded her far too heavily of Kankuro’s bedsheets not to bite her lip. She shook her head and looked back up, blinking sharply, to find Shikamaru still staring in horrified disbelief. A lone tear trickled down to the point of his nose and pooled at the side of his nostril, and the acid inside her bubbled, burning until she eventually felt numb.

Numb enough to speak without thinking.

“If tears brought back the dead, my mother would be reborn ten times over, at least. But they don’t.” Temari waited as her words registered in his eyes, and his brow began to soften before continuing, “And time doesn’t stand still for the living just because those they love die. Life isn’t fair like that — nothing about it is — and we just have to deal with it. You understand that, don’t you?”'

Grandmaster on ao3 by @notquitejiraiya