Just when I thought I was finally done with this thing, more ideas attack me....

All reviews have been much appreciated!

Life on a Clear Day

Temari took a deep breath. She could not afford to mess this up. Shikamaru was lying in the grass, staring up at the sky with his usual demeanor, one foot up on the opposite knee. Wait- was he chewing a piece of grass? Temari shook her head. That was not important. She was almost there. She had to focus.

Keeping up a slight jog, Temari approached Shikamaru's bit of earth, looking twice over her shoulder before reaching him. She then plopped down next to him with an audible thud.

"Lost him," she whispered to herself as if she were out of breath.

"Huh?" Shikamaru barely glanced at her.

"Nothing," Temari attempted to sound convincing. Shikamaru reclosed his eyes and they sat in silence. The breeze blew, the sun shone down, and the clouds passed slowly through the sky.

"How was the meeting?" Shikamaru asked, because for once the silence was weird.

"Fine," Temari answered briefly.

"What's bothering you?" Shikamaru gave in, sounding annoyed.

"Nothing," Temari huffed. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. He twiddled his foot around in the air and spared a glance to his left. Temari had her eyes closed now. So she was going to play that game. What a way to ruin a nap.

Shikamaru turned back to the clouds and let Temari be. She had been acting rather weird lately, and for no apparent reason. He had even asked Kankuro about it, but to no avail.

Temari was breathing rather loudly, in Shikamaru's opinion, causing him to look over at her every few seconds to check on her.

"How 'bout you tell me now?" he tried. Temari frowned and did not reply. Shikamaru matched the frown. It was that bad, huh?

Shikamaru had not felt like doing a whole lot of thinking a moment ago, but now this singular problem had presented itself. This oh so intriguing, ever so tantalizing, extremely alluring, undeniably captivating-

Shikamaru's eyes widened suddenly. No. No. No. It was none of those things. It was just troublesome. It was just trouble and quite a bit of it. Shikamaru grumbled and squirmed in the grass. If Temari noticed, she did not comment.

A group of Sand ninja came into view in Shikamaru's peripheral vision. Three men and a woman were walking together, laughing and joking about one thing or another. Shikamaru looked their way, annoyed at them for disturbing the peace, when he saw Temari with the same wide-eyed expression he himself had displayed only a moment ago. She was staring unmoving at the sky, as if willing herself not to move or react in any way. Well, that or she was trying to blend in with the grass.

"Is it one of them?" Shikamaru inquired softly, though he knew she heard him. Temari looked away. Ah, so that was it. Shikamaru tapped his grounded foot, rather pleased with himself. Now, on to the next step.

"Not doing his work? Lazier than me?"

"Not possible," Temari muttered.

"What?"

"It's not possible for anyone to be lazier than you?"

"Ah, well…," he could not really argue with that.

"Insulted someone? Gaara? Kankuro?"

"No," now he was getting somewhere. She was talking to him. He had some clues. Living for so many years with aforementioned brothers, there were only a few things which could really get on Temari's nerves, and he had just suggested two of them.

"So he likes you, huh?" Temari just looked at him. Damn, he was right. All the symptoms added up. 'He' must have been stalking her earlier or something. Well, at least she did not seem to be too happy about the whole thing.

"Does he have a name?" Shikamaru tried to sound uninterested.

Temari hesitated, "Yamamoto. Hibiki Yamamoto."

"I don't remember meeting him."

"You probably haven't. He's from a very… influential family. He gets away with doing whatever he wants whenever he wants to."

"In other words he doesn't do much.
"Hn."

The Sand ninja were sitting down now, at a table outside a café. Shikamaru could not quite make them out clearly, but they were definitely among the group Kankuro and Temari had brought with them.

"Told him to buzz off?"

"He's too dense to get the message," Temari scoffed, and Shikamaru began to wonder how bad the situation really was.

"Can't you get him reassigned?"
Temari sighed, "I know Gaara would do that for me, but I don't want to put him in that position. He needs that family's support. I don't know who decided I'd be a good diplomat. I suck at it."

"Wait, what?" Shikamaru had totally lost her train of thought.

"If I was any good with words I wouldn't be in this situation."

"I'm sure he'll get the signals eventually," Shikamaru still did not quite understand what Temari was thinking.

"That's the problem. I don't think he will," Temari mussed distractedly. Shikamaru turned to face her. She gave him an exasperated look and went on.

"Oh, Yamamoto. Well, I saw him going into a jewelry store this morning and Kenji said he overheard him saying, well…," Temari could not bring herself to say it.

"What'll you do?" Shikamaru asked reluctantly.

"If he asks?" Temari paused, "I don't know. I don't want to say yes, but refusing could be political homicide, so to speak, for my brother."

Shikamaru frowned, "There has to be a way out."

"Of course there is. Just, no easy way."

"You wouldn't run away," he knew the answer.

"No, I wouldn't."

"Is there some kind of religious order you could join…?" Shikamaru did not even like the sound of his own idea.

"That would be rather obvious."

Shikamaru frowned, "You've thought of something else?" he solicited cautiously.

"Yes," Temari relented. Shikamaru let her take a slow breath before continuing.

"I could marry someone else first," Temari bit her lip nervously.

Shikamaru's mouth dropped open. Several things ran though his head in quick succession. First of all, he chided himself, that was such an obvious solution, he should have thought of it first. Though, of course, if he had suggested it, Temari would have called it a terrible idea and called him a terrible sexist something-or-other.

The second was an impulse to volunteer right away, but he was unsure whether or not it was an invitation. Besides, he told himself, it was only his chivalrous initiative anyway. Right, that was it. Some (very) brave and self-sacrificing man would have to step up to help Temari. Why not him?

Because, unfortunately, he was a self-proclaimed coward.

Shikamaru turned his head nonchalantly, "Any possible candidates?"

Temari turned to face him so they were almost nose to nose, "Why? Thought of someone?"

"Maybe," Shikamaru was suspicious of her innocent tone.

"Well, he'd better man up and ask quickly before you-know-who beats him to it," Temari's tone was still light. Shikamaru blinked at her. Damn the woman.

"I'll marry you."

Temari looked at him again, and this time he could not read her.

"You mean it." It was quiet. It was not a question.

"Yeah," Shikamaru answered anyway.

"How gallant of you," Temari grinned at him. There was an extended beat, but this time Shikamaru felt much more comfortable in the silence.

"So it was that simple, huh?" Temari commented after a moment of thought. She looked almost surprised.

"Yep, that simple," Shikamaru yawned.

"Hm," Temari reflected as she sat up and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a simple ring and affixed it to the ring finger of her left hand.

She saw Shikamaru's quizzical look and explained sheepishly, "I kinda carry it around with me sometimes."

That had actually not been what Shikamaru was thinking at all, "Why did you do that?" he asked.

"Duh," Temari scoffed.

"No, I mean, why didn't you let me do it?"

"Gee, Shikamaru, that might be strenuous. Are you sure you want to put forth the effort," Temari teased.

"Give it here," Shikamaru ordered abruptly as he sat up.

"If you insist," Temari did not seem to have any qualms with the demand, "I wasn't going to make you."

Shikamaru grumbled something about troublesome women under his breath as he shoved the ring on Temari's finger. She seemed nonplused by his attitude.

"Thanks, Shikamaru," she whispered sincerely.

"Anytime," Shikamaru replied. Temari giggled. Shikamaru almost chocked on his own saliva.

"Well, I'd love to stay, but I have another meeting to attend," Temari sounded like a three-year-old with a new box of crayons. Shikamaru bet it was a meeting with Ino. Ino would describe her own mostly-made up version of the proposal to absolutely everyone in excruciating detail. What's-his-name would most certainly get the news and Temari would not have to deliver it herself.

Shikamaru joined Temari as she stood up. He was thinking of finding a good hiding place until the gossip storm blew over. Maybe Choji would hide him.

As they reached the street, Kankuro happened to be walking by, looking, for once, as if he was minding his own business. Temari did not hesitate in calling him over.

"Temari!" Kankuro greeted jovially, "I haven't seen to you this happy since you figured out how to work the oven!"

Temari slapped Kankuro on the back of the head and waved her hand in front of his face.

"Ooh, shiny," her brother mocked. Temari smacked him again.

"Okay, okay, geez. Didn't think you had it in you, Nara," Kankuro kept his grin intact. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and looked the other way.

"But I see you were too cheap to buy your own ring," Kankuro finished.

"Shut up, Kankuro!" Temari commanded a bit louder than was necessary. Kankuro rubbed the back of his head none too subtly.

"Well, I'm off," Temari announced, regaining her happy turn of voice. She then proceeded to skip away in the direction of Ino's flower shop, all the while looking tremendously pleased with herself. Shikamaru could do nothing but stare after her, open-mouthed.

"I can't believe you proposed," Kankuro was still laughing at him. Shikamaru was only half-aware of the dialogue. Something was defiantly not right in all this.

"Yeah, well, she was worried about one of the guys in your squad using his political power to force her to marry him or whatever," he replied distractedly.

"What!" Kankuro exclaimed, "I spent weeks of my life I will never get back going over piles and piles of reports and paperwork to choose this team. I know more about each of them than I ever wanted to know about myself. They're all top-notch straight-laced guys, not a mark on their collective record," Kankuro paused for thought before drawing himself up to his full height, "No matter. He will die a horrible death. I'll do it myself," Kankuro nodded in approval of his own plan of action, then paused, "No, wait, maybe we should get Gaara to do it. Do you think that'd be more painful?"

Shikamaru blinked. We?

"Hey, uh, which guy did she say it was anyway?"

"Uh, Yamamoto," Shikamaru told him, "Hibiki Yamamoto."

"Yamamoto?" Kankuro's face screwed up in confusion, "Who the hell is that?"

I am not sure if I have managed to finagle it to my liking. This one was tough. Let me know if it was confusing. Or just bad.

USR: 3