#this scene is really lovely you get to see just a glimpse of softer Temari....but only a little!

[twnj]

'Shikamaru looked at her just as she did. His eyes were bloodshot, his cheeks blotched with red patches not owed to his spots. They were wet, and his nose, flaky with dry skin, looked raw from all the times he must have rubbed it recently.[...]

[...]

“You know, crying about it doesn’t change anything.”

Shikamaru recoiled slightly, his eyes narrowing.

“You’ll still have a match in the morning if you keep doing that out here,” she continued, “and you’ll still have to play that match. Except, this way, you’ll be tired and sluggish, and your head will ache. It’s not worth it.”

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, and Temari’s stomach flipped.

“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, Nara, but as much as you cry, he won’t be any less dead.”

Shikamaru’s eyes crept open and up to meet hers. The boy’s bottom lip quivered. “That’s…” He exhaled sharply. “That’s a horrible thing to say.”

Grandmaster on ao3 by @notquitejiraiya