No time to be engaged...

"He'd proposed to me..." warm, loving, laughter played in the undertones of her voice, as Ginkage shifted to sit down next to her nephew. Her sudden interruption yanking Temari's head about at whiplash speed. The young woman's surprised curiosity said it all. "Oh, you heard me right. He got down on his knee and everything. Offered me a whole bouquet of flowers he'd stolen from his mother's garden and asked very seriously if I'd marry him before I left."

There was no laughter coming from Temari, she was too shocked to say anything as she stared between the two of them. Shika on the other hand was clearly irritated.

"Would you not bring that up again? I was eight."

"Oh, I know Shi-kun but it was so cute. The memory would make me smile every time I was lonely." Much to Shika's chagrin, she wrapped a brief hug about his shoulders and a soft kiss to his temple. Her glinting eyes flickering over to Temari as her smile bloomed across her face, "I'll admit that I've missed my favorite nephew but it looks like he's grown up pretty well and gotten himself some good friends."

The emphasis on friends had Shika looking away and Temari lightly blushing. It was then they realized that the whole atmosphere of the house was calm, which suddenly had Aunt and nephew slightly on edge. Things were never this calm in a Nara household, especially not with Ginkage and her sister in the same room for any length of time. After a few moments of companionable silence, she looked to the young man next to her with a raised brow.

"I know, I noticed it too..."

"Noticed what?" Temari asked, leaning in to keep the conversation between them.

"It's too... calm."

"Isn't that a good thing?" If she wasn't so confused Temari might have laughed as they both shook their heads in the exact same way, "alright so..."

"My sister is plotting something."

"Isn't she always plotting something?"

Elbowing him in the side Gin could not help the smirk on her lips, "Yes, but you shouldn't talk bad about your mother."

"Hey just because you're her sister doesn't mean you have all the rights to complaining."

"Actually, it does," sticking her tongue out at him earned her an exasperated sigh.

"Man, how old are you again?"

"Old enough to know when it's time to make a strategic retreat to my room. Your mother's finally showing her cards." As she rose, the two younger shinobi glanced in the direction of the taller woman. Sure enough, his mother was cutting through the crowd towards them. Leaning down, Gin whispered something in Shika's ear that had him looking at her as if she was insane. "Please? She's been talking about some guy all night and I really don't need her to work her matchmaking skills on me. I'll end up with some timid 'yes, ma'am'."

"You are so going to owe me; she's going to kill me for this."

"I'll take the brunt of it."

Patting him on the shoulder, she straightened and smiled brightly at her sister as Shika cursed. His shadow snaking through the crowd towards his mother. Temari watched in complete shock that they would do this but a smile soon began to snake over her lips. Ginkage fit right in with them, and with each moment reminded her more and more of a less lazy Shika.

"Ginkage! How dare you have my son do this!"

"Well, that's my signal." Trying not to laugh at the squatted posture of her sibling, she cast her warm grin to those gathered. "I'd like to thank all of you for coming tonight but I'm afraid I'm a bit tired from the trip in. Please, don't stop the fun on my part."

Once the shock of the outburst had worn off, everyone turned and bid her good night, completely ignoring the frozen image amidst them. Shika's hand in Temari's tightening slightly and the moment his mother was released they bolted in Gin's wake.

While the party continued on downstairs, Gin had disappeared upstairs as she said she would but instead of going to bed, she took a moment to herself in the hall. It had been ten years since she last walked the wooden floors of this house. The deer that were raised by the family roamed the patch of woods behind the home, an open window affording her a clear view of several that briefly peeked up at her from their grazing. Frustration sighed from her lips and a rake of her fingers released the tie at the base of her braid. Black silk shifted and unfurled, falling like a solid sheet down her back, she had vowed not to cut it for as long as she was gone and in those years, it had grown from short spikes to her hips.

"Ten years..." Shaking her head, she drew back from the window and stepped right into a solid form. Her whole body drew stiff. Whoever it was did not move though she could feel the rise and fall of their breathing against her back. The subtle scent of forest and dirt, pipe smoke and... bath house... invaded her senses. It was so familiar yet unknown at the same time.

After several tense moments, she prepared to step away and like turning on a switch the other presence finally moved. The weight of fingers lifting to gently slide through her hair did not tug but simply let it caress their skin. Her jaw clenched and she opened her mouth to protest the familiarity of the touch but a deep voice beat her to it.

"You've grown a lot since I last saw you, Ginkage, I didn't recognize you downstairs. If you hadn't made Shikamaru trap his mother in his jutsu to escape, I might not have realized it at all." Once more a loch of her hair was lifted only this time it was drawn up so that the soft scent could be inhaled. "Why did you runaway?"

Turning without placing any further distance between them, she looked up into the smiling eyes of the one man she had dreaded most seeing again. "My sister speaks endlessly of me settling down and finding a man to take care of. She had that look in her eye that screamed she was ready to introduce me to someone."

"And you didn't even want to meet this lucky suitor?"

"I have no interest in settling down."

Even as she said it there was no avoiding the amusement in his gaze as the fingers that still possessed her hair moved forwards, letting his thumb delicately brush across her lips. A breath sucked through them drawing up the edges of his smile even more. She could not understand the sensation that shivered down her spine but she refused to concede the floor to him, sticking to her ground, she crossed her arms over her chest.

It only made him laugh, "Twelve years, Ginkage..."

"You left first if I remember; busy with your own agendas."

"I wasn't ready."

"You weren't the only one..." looking away from him, she shrugged and shifted. Her motion a silent excuse as she took a step towards her room, "...You were young and wanted to do more... I was just of age. I really don't blame you."

"That's good to hear."

"I'll be in town for a while, maybe we'll get to see each other again sometime."

"You can count on it, Gin..."

Confusion flitted across her features as she turned to look back at his laid-back stature. The flow of his robes hiding what she had felt beneath only moments before. Ten years had been a long time. The last vision she had of him, he was wearing the typical Jonin attire and yelling at her father. The memory drew a slight smile to her lips, "Are you going to be sticking around for a while too?"

"I have to, I have a few loose ends to tie up and I've accepted a student."

"I see, well best of luck with that."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I don't really know yet." Another shrug shifted her shoulders as she pushed open the door only a few feet from where he stood, watching her with an unabridged intensity, "our Lady Hokage has put me on a temporary leave of absence since I've been gone for so long."

"Meet me at the training grounds east of the town tomorrow morning?"

"Now why would I do that?"

"I just want to hear what you've been doing... maybe see how far you've come."

"Is that all?"

"And I want to introduce you to my student," he sighed out as if it was the most irritating thing for him to do.

Her smile curving once more, she laughed at his response and nodded, "Alright, at the training grounds."

His smile broadened and those odds shivers coursed along her spine once more, leaving her to blame it on a bit too much to drink. Both of them turned but she stilled at the edge of the door, her fingers softly gripping the deep oak slat before she peeked back at him from the corner of her eye.

"Jiraiya-san..."

His feet stilled, the shifting of robes sighing with his partial turn as he looked back at her, smiling as she used his name even with the more formal touch to it. "Yes, Gin?"

"It was arranged twenty four years ago... I'm not holding you to it."

"I never expected you to."

"Good then we agree tha..."

"I didn't say I agreed to drop it, Ginkage."

"What? But you're so much older then I am, wouldn't you rather...?"

"Come on, Gin, I'm not going to assume you know nothing about me. I am the Toad Sage after all, and I..."

"Write smut novels for fun and profit?"

"I knew you would keep tabs on me."

"It was hard to miss."

"Well, then you should know that our age difference doesn't matter to me in the least."

"Unfortunately, I figured that would be your answer." His smirk was growing annoying and in that moment, she realized just what her sister had been prepared to do downstairs. "She was going to re-announce the engagement wasn't she?"

"I'm afraid so, she is rather persistent after all."

"...She's more troublesome then I remember."

"Your nephew says the same thing."

That made her smile again despite all the rest, and with a slight wave, she slipped into her room and closed the door. Apparently it was true about what they said, 'you can't outrun your past.'