Happy Late Birthday, Temari

Disclaimer- I don't own the Naruto Series, but I do own this piece of writing.

Temari stumbled down the stairs of their house, wondering what kind of disastrous birthday party Kankuro and Gaara had planned for her this year. "Good morning!" she yawned, waving sleepily at her younger brothers.

She walked to the pantry, wondering if they had anything good to eat for breakfast. Just as she was about to pull it open, Gaara's pale hand clamped over her's to prevent her from opening the pantry door.

"Gaara! I'm hungry! Please let me open the pantry," she said, furrowing her eyebrows and glaring at the red-head.

"Here, Temari," he replied, letting go of her hand and leading her away from the pantry. "Kankuro already made you breakfast." He shoved a tray of breakfast foods into her hands.

"Now go back to your room, because Gaara and I aren't finished with your birthday present yet," added Kankuro.

"That's stupid," she snapped. "You're supposed to have someone's presents all ready the day before their birthday."

"Whatever," Kankuro said in response. "Just go back up to your room." He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the stairs. "And don't come down until one of us tells you to."

Temari's expression spoke of annoyance and confusion. Not wanting to be in the presence of her brothers anymore, she began to make her way back up the stairs.

"God, I wonder what's with them this morning," she mumbled. "They're acting like they kidnapped someone or committed murder, and are trying to cover it up."

Balancing her breakfast on her knee, she opened the door to her room, and walked over to her bed. She sighed as she looked at her breakfast. It did not look appealing at all. Neither Gaara nor Kankuro could cook, so she knew that the breakfast was going to be awful.

Hesitantly picking up her fork, she glanced down at the plate in the center of the tray. The food on it seemed to resemble horribly burned pancakes. She swallowed hard, and took a tiny bite. It was disgusting. Deciding it was better to be hungry than ingest whatever her brothers had cooked, she put the tray on her desk.

Time passed slowly. She was restless, moving from bed to floor to chair. Eventually, she decided to rearrange what little contents she had in her room. After arranging and rearranging everything several times, she pulled a chair up the window and looked out at the never changing desert.

After what seemed like hours, there was a sharp knocking on her door. "Come in," Temari said.

Kankuro opened the door. "Sorry it took so long," he said with a wide smile. "But your birthday present is finally ready."

"It took you long enough," she said, her voice having an edge of irritation to it.

"Yeah, but for you, it'll be worth it."

Temari rolled her eyes and got up from her chair. "Let's not waste any more time with this stupid ordeal."

"Wait," added Kankuro, ignoring her comment. "You need to put this on before you go any further." He held out a strip of fabric.

"What in the world is that?" she asked incredulously.

"It's a blindfold!" he replied, his smile growing even wider.

With a raised eyebrow, Temari the blindfold and put it on, obscuring her vision. Kankuro grabbed her hand and lead her to the kitchen.

"Okay, now!" Gaara said, and there was the sound that Temari could only compare to the noise of someone's shoe being pulled out of mud and what seemed like bits of cake and frosting went every where.

Kankuro untied her blindfold. When she saw what her brothers had gotten her for a present, her jaw dropped and blood went rushing to her face. They had tied up Nara Shikamaru, and apparently, stuck him in her birthday cake.

"How troublesome," he muttered, face bright red.

"Gaara, Kankuro, just because Shikamaru and I worked on the Chuunin exams together doesn't mean I want to see him half-naked, popping out of my birthday cake!" she exclaimed, unable to tell whether she was shocked, pleased, embarrassed, or all three.

Oh well. Happy late birthday anyway, Temari.

A/N- I had a lot of fun writing this. I think Temari's birthday was the 23rd of August, and when I was cleaning my room yesterday, I found an old drawing which depicts what happens in the last four paragraphs of this fanfic. The picture inspired me to write this to give a backstory to the situation.

Please review, because I love to hear what the people who read my work think.