The training yard lay in silence beneath the fading light of evening, its wide expanse softened by the long shadows stretching across the sand.
For most of the village the day was already done, the bustle of commerce and duty surrendered to the quiet of mealtime or the rare luxury of rest.
Here, however, the air still carried the restless weight of expectation, as though the ground itself remembered every strike, every cut, and every gust of chakra that had scarred it in practice.
Temari stood alone at the center with her fan braced firmly in her hands, her back straight and her shoulders tense with a mixture of determination and dread. In front of her stood a practice dummy made of straw and wood.
'You know how this works... calm down... you can do it... you can do it.', she drew a steadying breath, trying to clear her mind of every wandering thought, but her body betrayed her unease.
Her grip tightened, her knuckles whitened, and her eyes narrowed as she set her focus upon the task before her.
The air around her seemed to hold its breath with her, and for one brief instant she believed that perhaps she had caught the exact balance she needed.
She moved, swinging the fan wide in a motion that had been drilled into her bones since she was strong enough to lift it. The chakra surged forward, released in a rush that struck the open yard.
The gust sputtered, scattering sand in a crooked spray. By the time it reached the dummy, it was nothing more than a passing breeze.
It carried no sharpness and no power, nothing that would have carved into an enemy or even impressed a watching tutor. It fell apart almost at once, and in the silence that followed Temari's breath sounded loud in her own ears.
Her jaw tightened as frustration clawed at her.
'NO! Not like this! NO!, she dragged air into her lungs again, and again she shaped the chakra, forcing it into the correct channels, commanding her muscles to obey.
Once more she lifted the fan, and once more she swung with all the control she could muster.
A weak gust tore across the yard, rattling against the far wall before it died like a dying whisper.
The result was a little better this time, yet it was nothing useful.
She ground her teeth and swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat. Her chest heaved as she tried again, and again, the effort leaving sweat on her palms until the fan grew slick in her grasp.
Her movements became sharper, harder, her chakra pressed with greater desperation through every nerve until her arms trembled with the strain.
The sound of each failure seemed to echo louder in the empty space, mocking her resolve.
When at last her strength faltered, the fan slipped from her grip. It struck stone with a hollow clatter that rang out across the yard, final and humiliating.
The sound seemed to slice through her composure, leaving her exposed to herself in a way that was worse than if anyone had been watching.
'... why... why do I even keep trying...', a cold, indifferent face surfaced in her mind, the same look he had worn all her life.
'Daiana was right. From the start our goals were worlds apart... I need that kind of despair. I no longer am going to fight to earn his recognition.', she stared at her hands, trembling and wet with sweat, her nails digging into the flesh of her palms until small beads of blood dripped slowly on the sand beneath her.
The ache in her arms throbbed with every heartbeat, but it was nothing compared to the warm and refreshing feeling that was slowly engulfing her body.
Temari bent, retrieved the fan, and stood again, gripping the frame so hard the joints of her fingers burned.
She raised the fan again, and this time she closed her eyes before swinging.
Different faces surfaced in her mind. They were no longer cold and indifferent like the previous one; instead, they were warm and young, with a warm care in their eyes.
It started with a few of her classmates, then there was Daiana, Shira, Kankuro. Just as she prepared to swing her fan and focus her chakra, a final face emerged as she was about to open her eyes.
He had sun-tanned skin, dark eyes, and equally dark, unruly hair. The similarity to the first face was striking, especially in their indifferent expressions, but she knew they couldn't be more different. While the first was like an ice block, indifferent to any method or means of achieving his goals, the other used that same indifference as a mask.
She was certain of it, even though she only knew him for only around to three years.
She felt her body go limp and muscles relax while still swinging gently the fan in her arms, everything felt like slow motion to her as if the world time had slowed down.
A concentrated gale erupted from her fan, slamming the dummy into the wall and shredding it to pieces.
A small, exhausted smile broke across her face as she fell to her knees, letting the rare sweetness of success wash over her.
As her mind eased and her breathing grew steady, everything seemed so much simple, to the point, that she immediately stood up while her smile widened a lot.
'... I was being so stubborn... there is something that I can do that will help me grow stronger...', lifting her gaze to the moon, its pale light softened her dirt-streaked face.
'I will no longer be useless and powerless...', a burning fire was flaring in her eyes.
'I'll need Daiana and Isan. They know sealing better than any other trainee. I can't do this alone.', slowly she sat on the hard, cooling ground, staring at her fan as an idea sparked in her mind.
'If only I had thought of this sooner… how many lives might have been spared?', shaking slowly and lightly her head, she returned her gaze to the beautiful moon, up in the sky.