Shikamaru loved to lie on his bed, his arms behind his head. He was staring at the ceiling, again. He was thinking about all of the things that had been happening. The trip to Suna, the surprise attack and how the Akatsuki wanted to kidnap the Kazekage.
"It's not the Akatsuki anymore, it's Itachi and Kisame." Shikamaru spoke his thoughts.
He stood up and began to pace around his room, a thousand counterattacks coming to his mind, but not sure how to make them work. He stopped in front of the transparent door. Something, or better yet 'someone', caught his attention. He got closer, opening the door and stepping onto the balcony. He saw Temari training without her fan. Shikamaru hadn't been here for long but he knew that she always fought with it or at least always had it with her.
"What are you doing?" Shikamaru asked as he was leaning over the balcony.
"Training, what do you think?" Temari answered, not looking up.
"Without your fan?" Shikamaru asked, still leaning even farther.
"Yes," Temari answered. "is there a problem?"
"No, but why?"
"Because I want to." Temari said as she stopped and looked up, her hands on her hips.
"Why?"
"Dammit, why do you ask so many questions?"
Shikamaru grinned a little. He enjoyed making her angry.
"What's so funny?"
"What do you mean?"
Temari narrowed her eyes and turned.
"You know…AAAHHHHH!!!"
Shikamaru had fallen of the balcony and hit the ground face first. It seemed that a strong wind had pushed him off. Temari grinned, her smile turning it to a laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"What do you mean?" Temari asked innocently.
"What did you do?" Shikamaru asked as he stood up. This was not the first time he had fallen off a second floor. Before, it was at the chuunin exams and that knuckle-headed ninja, Naruto, had pushed him off. Unfortunately, on both cases, Temari was there.
"I'm not following you."
"And I'm not stupid. What did you do?" Shikamaru asked again, placing his hands on his back, attempting to crack it but failing miserably.
"Nothing."
He raised an eyebrow, not believing one word she said.
"Ok! I might have accidentally pushed you off." She whispered, looking at everything else but the boy in front of her.
"What? How?" Shikamaru asked a little confused.
"It's called ninjutsu, duh."
"But why?"
"To see if it worked…and to shut you up." Temari answered, still laughing.
"Fine. So why are you training without your fan?" Shikamaru asked again, amazed at himself at why he was still asking or why he was still here.
"If I tell you will you stop asking questions?"
Shikamaru nodded, still trying to crack his back.
"Ok, I'm training because I realized that during the attack I'm not as strong without my fan." Temari explained as she walked and grabbed her fan that was resting on a tree.
"Really?" Shikamaru mocked. "I didn't notice."
"Look, do you want to know or not?"
"Yeah go ahead."
"I want to get strong…with or without my fan."
"I see, so that whole scene with the shinobi leader affected you."
Temari stood quiet and turned away.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Shikamaru asked, searching for her face.
"N-Nothing."
Shikamaru came closer and grabbed her chin lightly. He looked at her big beautiful blue eyes; they seemed to be sparkling at the moment.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
Temari looked away once more. Shikamaru was actually worried. Why? Did he care about this girl? Damn it, he didn't really like the idea.
Temari looked down.
"Did he hurt you?" Shikamaru concluded.
"What? Where did you get that from?" Temari asked, removing her face from his touch.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure out something's troubling you."
"He obviously hurt me, I mean, he was chocking me…you where there. So?"
"You know what I mean. Did he do anything else?"
"No." Temari lied. She wouldn't tell him, it wasn't a big deal.
"Ok." Shikamaru finally said half convinced.
"Why do you care anyway?" Temari asked, finally looking at him.
"I-I don't know." This time Shikamaru looked away.
"Hey, I thought you weren't going to ask me any questions after I told you about my training."
"Oh, yeah…I forgot."
Temari laughed.
"What?"
"The great Shikamaru…forgets." Temari teased.
"That's great that you think I'm…great but no need to go crazy over it." Shikamaru said, continuing the game.
"Well," Temari said as she opened her fan. "I've wasted too much time on you."
"I thought you said you weren't going to train with your fan."
"Who said I was going to train with it." Temari said, a smirk on her face.
She raised her giant fan and waved it. The strong wind sent Shikamaru flying, his back hitting the wall of the house. He saw her close her fan and turn to walk away.
"Ow." Shikamaru cried, rubbing his shoulder. "This troublesome girl only causes me pain."
A small smile spread across his face.
"Atleast my back finally cracked."
"Hey Chouji," Ino said as she was sitting on a bench located in front of the Kazekage's home.
"Yeah?" Chouji answered, sitting next to Ino.
"I'm sorry." Ino apologized, looking at the ground.
"For what?" Chouji turned to look at her.
"For being impatient, being mean, being…"
"Hey, those are few of the qualities you have. You are also caring, smart, funny…beautiful."
Ino turned.
"You think so?"
"Yeah. That's what makes you…you."
She smiled and turned to hug her best friend. Chouji blushed and hugged her back.
'Ino, if you only knew…'
"Yutaka…well done."
"Thank you." Yutaka responded as he knelt in Itachi's presence.
"I am assuming you want your reward?"
Yutaka nodded.
"Well," Itachi remained motionless, his eyes blood red.
Yutaka noticed this and caused him to panic. Itachi only activated his sharingan when he intended to kill.
"Itachi…" A voice interrupted the silence. "Please, allow me to take care of this."
Itachi never moved except that his eyes went from crimson to onyx. Kisame knew his answer.
"Wait! I've done what you've asked! Why do you want to kill me! I've done nothing wrong!" Yuataka yelled as he stood up and began to step backwards.
Itachi continued his stare.
"That may be true…but since when do we need a reason to kill?" Kisame asked as he pulled out his sword, a wide grin on his face.
"Wait…NO!"
"Shikamaru!" Ino cried, grabbing his left wrist. All three leaf ninja where once more in Shikamaru's room. "C'mon! You know you want to come with us!"
"No, it's fine. I'm not much of an outdoor person." Shikamaru responded, trying to free himself from Ino's grip.
"C'mon, Chouji and I would love for you to come with us and see what this village has to offer!" Ino yelled, tightening her grip. "This village has to have something that's interesting, right Chouji?"
"Yeah! Let's go, Shikamaru." Chouji nodded as he grabbed his right wrist, also pulling him. "A little fresh air never hurt anyone."
"Guys, one of us has to stay. What would Tsunade say if all three of us when out not doing our jobs. What would Temari say?"
Ino and Chouji stopped pulling and looked at him, suspiciously.
"…and Gaara and Kankurou?!" Shikamaru quickly said.
"Who cares? It's only for a little while!" Ino began pulling again, ignoring what Shikamaru had said. "No one will know!'
"Guys, I want to stay. One of us has to be on duty."
"Man, you're so lazy! Making up excuses, you can't even spend one afternoon with us!" Ino cried, finally releasing his hand and turning her back at him, crossing her arms.
Now Chouji was the only one grabbing Shikamaru's wrist.
"You can let go now."
"Yeah, sorry." Chouji laughed, releasing Shikamaru.
"Hey, don't be stupid Chouji, take advantage of the situation." Shikamaru whispered so that only Chouji could hear. Ino too busy mumbling to herself.
"Huh?" Chouji asked in confusion.
"Take Ino out for a walk, you know, just the two of you."
"I dunno…"
"Shikamaru!" Ino yelled, turning back to her best friends.
"What?"
"C'mon!"
"Uh, Ino…maybe we should listen to Shikamaru…I mean, he wants to stay." Chouji spoke as both his index fingers fought each other.
"Yeah, I want to stay."
"Shikamaru, I really wanted you to come but if you really want to stay…"
"Thank you." Shikamaru said in victory as he threw himself on his bed.
"Whatever." Ino cried as he grabbed Chouji's hand. "Let's go Chouji. Let's leave Shikamaru with his boring self."
Shikamaru laughed as he saw Ino leave in defeat and Chouji with a small smile and a huge blush on his face.
"Hey Ino, where do you wanna go first?" Chouji asked as they walked down the hall.
"I don't know. I bet there's something out there for us to see."
"See what?"
They didn't even notice that Temari was there, walking towards her room after finishing her training for the day.
"Do we need to give you an explanation?" Ino asked, raising her eyebrow.
"You do when you are in our village, our home and, if I remember correctly, you were and still are hired by us."
"We're going out for a walk if you don't mind." Chouji responded before the fight between the blondes began.
"All of you?"
"No, just me and Chouji." Ino said her lips forming a frown.
"You can't leave. What if they attack again, we'll be short two ninja."
"They won't. It's only been a day; I doubt they'll attack again so soon. Besides, Shikamaru is here." Ino snapped as she continued to walk, Chouji following her.
Temari frowned as she headed towards Shikamaru's room and opened the door without knocking.
"Hey!"
"Why are your friends leaving?" Temari asked, Ino and Chouji forced to follow behind her.
"What? Can't they go out for a while?"
"Not when they're suppose to be working!"
Ino and Chouji began to walk backwards, hoping to escape without Temari flaming on them. Chouji was the first to go out and then Ino as she brought the door with her. She gave him a thumbs up as she closed the door and left, Temari never noticing.
"C'mon, they deserve a little break especially about what happened yesterday."
Temari stared. Shikamaru stared back.
"Fine. It doesn't make a difference since they already left." Temari said as she slightly turned her head back towards the direction of the closed door.
"Yeah, they do that a lot." Shikamaru almost laughed.
"I see." Temari said as she turned her attention back to Shikamaru.
"How's your training going?"
"Just finished." Temaris answered, knowing he was trying to distract her from her anger.
"Learn anything new?"
"What, the jutsu I performed earlier doesn't answer your question?"
"Yeah, but besides that?"
"Hmmm, been working on something else since I've mastered that jutsu." Temari answered. "Why do you care about what I do or not do, huh?"
"You can say I'm curious."
"Curious…about me?" Temari asked, wondering what she was going to get as an answer.
Shikamaru panicked. He had no real reason to but he did.
"Umm, just a little…maybe." Shikamaru whispered, starring at the ceiling. "You are different."
Temari's eyes grew big, thinking that this guy, only days ago, hated her…now he thought she was different.
"I hope it's in a good way."
"Yeah it is." Shikamaru said almost laughing at her comment.
"But, why?"
"I haven't been here long but you are different then what I had expected."
"I'm not sure if I should be glad or disappointed."
Shikamaru and Temari both laughed.
"You know, it's nice getting along with you." Shikamaru admitted.
Temari stood quiet but she knew that he was right. She did like getting along with him.
"Hey…" Temari said after a long pause.
"Hmmm?"
"When two people get along, what does that mean?"
Shikamaru was suprised by the weird question.
"I guess it means they're allies or something."
"And when they like each other?"
"You can say they're friends."
Temari turned as she headed towards the door.
"Yeah…"
"Yeah what?" Shikamaru asked.
"…I like the second one better."
Shikamaru was stunned.
"D-Does that mean we're friends?"
"Do you want to be?" Temari asked as she stood by the door, ready to leave.
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Temari smiled and left.
Shikamaru saw as she closed the door. He formed the same facial expression Temari had.
"I'd really like that."
Author's note: Well there you go...ch. 5. I'm not sure if this is what i wanted but i didn't want to keep u guys waiting too long so i decided to finish it. I'm so sorry it took me a long time to finally update but the final exams, the sat, and hexads (hexads are tests we take every 6 weeks for each academic classu kno...math, english, science, etc that are worth 50 of ur grade! yea, no kidding) are coming up and i dont really have free time anymore. I bet if i did, this ch. could have been better. oh well...dont expect ch. 6 in a while k? i'll try to write it asap!!! thanks 4 ur patience! dont forget to review on ur way out!