"Why are we even being bothered about this?" It was just a whisper, barely audible, and it most definitely wasn't meant for me to hear it, but I did. I did hear it, and I guess I just snapped; I never was one to keep my temper.

I rose and slammed my fist down on the table in front of me. "Why? WHY? I cannot believe you! He was my father! A man! A person! But most important of all, he was the Kazekage! And now he's dead! He deserves to have his affairs settled!"

I guess I should explain. You see, my father died three months ago; he was murdered. However, being the self-centered jerk that he was, he never thought he would die and therefore he didn't leave a will. That jackass. Now, because of him, Gaara, Kankuro, and I were sitting in a room with a whole bunch of old people debating which of his many possessions would go to whom, and one of them had the nerve to ask why!

Someone grabbed my arm gently. "Eh, Temari?" I looked down to see Kankuro, a kind of embarrassed look on his face. "Calm down." His voice was soft and kind, the type of voice a mother would use if her child was throwing a tantrum in public.

I firmly pulled my arm out of his grasp and glared at him. "Calm down? Calm down? Did you not here what he said, Kankuro? He doesn't care about our family, none of these people do!"

He returned my glare. "Temari," he snapped. "Do you blame them? Dad wasn't exactly the nicest guy!"

My mouth hung open slightly, he was siding with them? Sure, I called our father some nasty things, but I'm family, we're allowed to do that! "You know what," I snarled. "I don't need this, I'm leaving. Sort out the rest of this stuff by your damn selves."

"Temari-"

I angrily stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind me, walking to wherever my feet wanted to go. How could he say that? Sure Kankuro was always joking, arguing, and being sarcastic to just about everyone, but I had always thought that he had cared about our father, but I guess I was wrong. And Gaara... he had been a little more social since the Chunin exams, but I can never really tell what Gaara's thinking, but I'm pretty sure that he hated Father, and who could blame him? He tried to have the poor kid assassinated.

I had somehow made my way to the balcony on the third floor of our house and was leaning over the railing, letting the wind blow through my blonde hair.

"Temari?" There was that tone again, that soft, kind tone. I turned around, ready to scream at Kankuro again, but Kankuro wasn't alone, Gaara was with him. I could feel my face soften (involuntarily, of course). Kankuro took my silence as a good sign and moved to lean on the railing, too, only a couple of inches from myself. Gaara walked over to the over side of me. "I'm sorry."

I forced a laugh, but it came out as more of a bark. "For what? You were right, Dad was a real jerk."

He gazed down at the village below. "Not just about that. Ever since Dad died me and Gaara have sort of… slacked off. And you've been taking care of us, but we're not little kids, you don't need to worry about us. So, do me a favor and try to relax some, okay? You're too young to have all of this responsibility."

Was that the reason why I was so frustrated? Because I was stressed? I let out a small snort. "Relax? How can I possibly relax? Dad's dead, someone has to handle his stuff, and it certainly isn't going to be you two. You guys are two of the most irresponsible, lazy, immature people that I've ever had the displeasure of being related to!"

Kankuro let out a long sigh as he turned around and walked towards the door. "Gaara, could you try talking to her? She'll probably listen to you." He closed the door softly behind him.

I turned slightly so that I was facing Gaara. "I'm not stressed, am I?" Gaara, my emotionless, redheaded little brother, did something that surprised me; he smiled, and not a sadistic smile, either. This confirmed my suspicions. I cradled my head in my hands and let out a groan. "Gosh, I am, aren't I?"

The smile widened just a little bit. "Just a smidge."

I couldn't help but look up at him and chuckle, Gaara rarely showed his sense of humor. I reached out an arm and ruffled his cerise mess of hair, laughing even more at the look of displeasure on his face. "I guess I could relax a little bit."

Gaara shifted uncomfortably under my hand. "That would be nice."

My hand returned back to my side as I smiled warmly at him. Sure, he's killed hundreds of innocent people, but he's still my little brother. "C'mon, Gaara, it's getting late. We should go inside and get some sleep." Gaara looked like he was about to say something (probably that he can't sleep, due to Shukaku), but decided not to and followed me into our home. Kankuro was waiting in the living room, but I ignored him and walked on. I couldn't hear anything, but I knew that behind me Gaara and Kankuro were exchanging looks.

"Goodnight!" Kankuro called out after me.

I slammed my door closed. Hard.

--In the morning--

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake u-"

I brought my fist down on the tape recorder with as much strength as I could muster in the morning. Stupid Kankuro, recording his stupid voice, telling me to wake up. I sleepily opened one eye to look at the clock on my wall. It was 10 'o' clock. Damn him.

I groaned and rolled out of my bed. Once I did that I shuffled over to my closet and pulled out my usual garb; purple long-sleeved shirt, blue-ish skirt, fishnet leggings, and my black ninja sandals. There would be no good result if I walked into the living room wearing my pajamas. Trust me, I made that mistake once. Never again. Then again, maybe that's because my pajamas are black with pink flying pigs on them, but I could never get rid of them, they were my mother's.

I wandered out of my room and into the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone. However, to my surprise, Gaara and Kankuro were nowhere to be seen. "Guys?" I called out loudly, only to have the same thing echoed back at me. I frowned, they better get back soon, or their breakfast'll get cold- wait, this is exactly the kind of behavior that Kankuro and Gaara want me to stop. I guess I'll be making food for one this morning. But still, I wonder where they are, I mean, they never told me that they were going anywhere- wait, what's that?

I noticed a small piece of paper tacked to the wall. I stepped closer and squinted to read the small scrawl that belonged to Kankuro.

Temari-

When you read this come outside.

-Kankuro

My frown deepened, what an odd note, but whatever. I took the note down as to not make the wooden wall any uglier than it already was. I wonder why- the paper slipped from my hand and floated gently to the grass. Oh. My. What is he doing here?

There, sitting on my front lawn, right in front of me, was that lazy genin from Konohagakure, and standing on either side of him were my brothers, Kankuro grinning inanely. I couldn't help but stare; it was all just so… weird.

"Last time you saw me I was a genin." His voice was one, long, bored drawl. "I'm a Chunin now."

I narrowed my eyes. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't seem at all phased by my threatening tone. "I have a mission."

I kept my glare strong, despite the fact that it wasn't working. "And what, exactly, may I ask, is your mission?"

You won't believe this, he yawned! "No, you may not ask. It's classified Konoha business."

I could feel my face getting redder. "Fine. But what are you doing here? At my house?"

He glared up at the sky and seemed to be watching a cloud float by. "When I finished my mission Kankuro-san and Gaara-sama dragged me here, insisting that the three of you took me out to lunch. I must say, Sunagakure sure is hospitable."

I turned to glare at Kankuro. "So this is your fault!" I hissed, only loud enough for him to hear. How dare he invite him here! That idiot had made a fool out of me at the Chunin exams! And, as if that weren't bad enough, Kankuro kept teasing me afterwards about how he thought that I took a liking to him. Please! Me? Him? I could barely remember that his name was Shikamaru.

Kankuro just grinned broadly and put his arms around me and Gaara's shoulders. "So let's go, family! We don't want to appear… inhospitable."

Damn him. He was enjoying every second of torturing me, but I started walking with them to the nearest small restaurant anyways. I mean, what other choice did I have? Things were pretty choppy with the Leaf Village already; I didn't want to do anything that would make our relationship worse.

Somehow, Shikamaru had ended up walking next to me, Gaara and Kankuro at least two feet ahead of us. "I bet you don't even remember my name." For some reason, his breath in my ear sent shivers down my spine, but I quickly disregarded it considering that it was at least 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

"Yes I do," I said briskly. "It's Nara Shikamaru. I'm not incompetent, like you are." He snorted slightly at this, as if he thought that he was way more competent than I would ever be. Needless to say, I took that as an insult. "Oh, so you think you're better than I am, do you? All right then, do you even remember my name?"

He was quiet for an approximate total of five minutes, and just as a triumphant smile started to spread on my lips, he had to ruin my victory and speak. "Temari."

My smile quickly turned to a frown. Dammit, he remembered. "We're there." I said gruffly as we walked up to the tiny eating establishment. It served all the typical things; ramen, tea, rice, dango, sushi, ect. Kankuro was waiting with Gaara inside, having already found a table.

"Temari! Shikamaru!" he called loudly, waving his arm around like the idiot that he was. "Over here!"

"Don't you think it's a little early for lunch?" I mumbled as I slid into the seat next to Gaara. Gaara scooted over a few inches, not liking being to be too close to anyone.

"Nope!" I scowled at my second youngest brother. Something wasn't right, Kankuro seemed too... happy. I narrowed my eyes, he was definitely up to something-

"Excuse me, what would you like, Miss?" I looked up to see the waitress, and my mouth dropped open. She was gorgeous! Platinum blonde hair, long eyelashes, full lips, big breasts, the whole nine yards. In my peripheral vision I saw Kankuro drooling a little out of the corner of his mouth, but Shikamaru seemed totally unaware of her. He was busy staring straight ahead, lost in thought. The fact that I could be the thing that he was staring at never crossed my mind.

I quickly closed my mouth and said as politely as I could, "Just a bowl of rice, please. And a glass of water would be nice."

She quickly jotted my order down with a nod before turning to Shikamaru. "And you, sir?"

His gaze never wavered as his bored monotone said, "The same." She nodded again and asked my brothers what they wanted, but I never heard their response. Shikamaru's staring became excessive and it started to annoy me, even more so when I realized that he was staring straight ahead, at me. What is with him? Freak.

The rest of the meal went on in silence, with the exception of Kankuro's failed attempts at making small talk. His ever growing grin was starting to fade; clearly whatever he was up to wasn't working out the way that he had planned. And, to my extreme irritation, Shikamaru's eyes never left me except for when he took a bite of his rice or drank some of his water. What could he be thinking?

"Well, I can see that we're all finished with our food." stated Kankuro as he stood up, taking out his wallet as he did so. Seemingly out of nowhere the waitress came to collect the check. "I guess we should leave now."

"Good." I said as I also stood up, eyes narrowed at the person sitting opposite of me. He seemed unaffected, however, and got up as well.

"Did you enjoy lunch, Temari?" Kankuro asked as we walked out of the place. I simply grunted in reply, we had spent three hours in there. Three, silent hours. "You know what they have around this time, Shikamaru?"

"What?" he inquired, sounding completely uninterested.

"Some lower rank ninjas put on a parade about this time of day. It's really cool; fire breathers, people walking on stilts, clowns, you know. It's really cool." Cool my ass. That parade was one of the most unentertaining things that I've ever had the displeasure of watching. "Temari could take you."

"What?" I demanded, turning to glare at Kankuro with my hands on my hips.

"You could take Shikamaru to see the parade." he repeated, sounding totally innocent. That evil bastard.

"But he doesn't even want to see it!" I argued.

Shikamaru decided to insert himself into the conversation. "Yes, I do."

"No, you don't." I said insistently. "Trust me, it's horrible."

His face turned serious, but his eyes told me that he was amused by this. "I would like to decide that for myself, if you don't mind."

I opened my mouth to object again, but Gaara stopped me. "Temari, just do it." I stared at Gaara in shock for a few moments, surprised that he had actually gotten into the argument.

"Fine." I mumbled. Okay, I had caved, but I can't say no to Gaara, it's, like, physically impossible. "Let's go, then." I mumbled, already walking towards the pathetic excuse for entertainment, not bothering to check if Shikamaru was following me or not. It was going to be a long day.

--4 hours later--

The parade had been just as I predicted; incredibly boring. However, Shikamaru had seemed to find it amusing, smiling at the clowns and jugglers and crap as they walked by. I, on the other hand, couldn't pay attention for a minute without fighting back a yawn. Instead, my eyes had wandered and landed on Shikamaru, taking in his disheveled hair. In the afternoon light it had looked kind of... cute-

"Okay? Temari?"

-and afterwards he had insisted on paying for my dinner, seeing as I had to suffer for four hours. "What?"

He frowned, looking slightly worried, which made him look adorable- no! Stop thinking like that! "I said I ordered the salmon for you, is that okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." At my response he folded his arms and leaned back in his seat, seeming satisfied that I wasn't in a coma or anything. I, too, leaned back, staying silent all the while. I wasn't going to talk before he did, at least, that's what I told myself. After about six minutes of silence I couldn't take it. "Why don't you talk?"

A sigh escaped his thin lips. "Because starting a conversation is so troublesome. First you have to think of something to say, and even then you can't be positive if it's a subject that the other person would want to discuss. I find it much easier to just wait in silence."

His odd explanation earned him a raised eyebrow on my part. Who thinks like that? But, somehow, I found it endearing- ack! There I go again!

"Two orders of salmon?" I looked up and was relieved to see that the waitress was much less attractive this time; stringy black hair, pasty skin, and a slight acne problem.

"Thank you." I said (very cheerfully, I might add) as I took my plate from her. Shikamaru did the same and she didn't even try to flirt with him. Note to self: remember to give the waitress a nice tip later. As she walked away I took a bite of the pink fish in front of me, momentarily forgetting that I couldn't stand salmon without lemon (yeah, I know, being picky is horrible, but I can't help it), and immediately spit it back out. And guess what? It flew across the table. Landing right on Shikamaru's shirt. Wonderful.

He looked down at his olive-ish jacket as I quickly leaned over the table with a bundle of napkins in hand and removed the blemish from his person. "Ohmigosh, I am so sorry! I'll buy you another shirt, I swear! And it'll be much nicer than that hideous thing you're wearing now- I mean, not that yours doesn't look nice- what?" My tone had transformed from panicked and apologetic to annoyed in a matter of seconds; instead of being worried about his shirt, Shikamaru was laughing!

It took him a little while to calm down (about half a minute). "Sorry, it's just that you're being so ridiculous, worrying over my clothes like that."

I could feel my face flush, partly from embarrassment and partly from being mad that he had called me ridiculous. "Fine." I mumbled as I leaned back into my seat, arms crossed. Shikamaru immediately noticed my change of mood and frowned, but not an apologetic frown, no, it was more of an I-can't-believe-that-you-got-mad-over-that frown, which, needless to say, made me even more upset. A piece of hair fell in front of my eyes and I blew it out of the way with an angry huff of air. There was no way that I was going to talk to him now.

After five minutes of me glaring at him Shikamaru finally picked up his chopsticks and started eating his fish. After a moment I warily grabbed the bottle of lemon juice and poured its contents over my own salmon before eating as well. Ten, silent, awkward minutes later Shikamaru looked up at me. "Does it taste better with lemon juice?"

I blinked, a little surprised that he had spoken. "What?"

He nodded toward my plate. "Your salmon, does it taste better with lemon juice on it?"

My eyebrows raised involuntarily; my, he was observant. "I thought that starting a conversation is, ahem, 'so troublesome.'"

His dark brown eyes made direct contact with my cyan ones and he shrugged. "I make exceptions."

I looked down at my food, blushing slightly for some unfathomable reason. "Oh. Well, it's much better with the lemon juice."

There were a couple more seconds of silence before he spoke again. "I guess I should confess something." In spite of myself, I looked up, curiosity clearly written across my face. "I never had a mission here in Sunagakure," he paused waiting to see my reaction, which was me looking slightly angry again. I don't like it when people lie to me. "Your brothers came to Konoha a couple of days ago and invited me."

I must've looked shocked, and I was. I had never even entertained the notion that it was Kankuro's idea that Shikamaru come here in the first place, and the fact that Gaara was in on it, too, was even more mind boggling. But before I could ask why, the waitress came back with two apple cobblers accompanied by vanilla ice cream and set them down next to our now-empty plates of salmon. I couldn't help but voice my thoughts. "I didn't order this!"

Shikamaru chuckled quietly and leaned over the table, stopping only centimeters away from me. I could feel my heart beat speed up as whispered in my ear. "Happy birthday, Temari."

A/N:
Okay, just in case it wasn't obvious, Temari had forgotten that it was her birthday (due to all the stress and stuff). I really like how this came out, it is definitely one of my more developed fics. Oh, and by the way, it actually is Temari's birthday today (August 23rd), so, happy birthday to the spunky, pineapple haired kunoichi from Suna! Lol, ow. I got sunburned at Aquatica :(