Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the show would suck. Be glad I don't.

On Reviews: The button is very well trained. It won't maul you if you try to review.

It was a quiet day, nice and warm, and Shikamaru was doing what he did best. Cloud reading. Other activities such as sleeping and beating the pants off of Asuma-sensei in intellectual games came in close second, but cloud reading would always be his favorite activity. Especially today, when the sky was blue and there were lots of cotton ball clouds just floating there, waiting to be scrutinized into a shape. And he was in his favorite cloud reading position: Leaning against the big tree in a sitting position, hands behind his head.

For Shikamaru, cloud reading held two purposes: thinking and relaxing. Today it was the first reason. Which, yes, kinda brought the whole thing away from what it was originally intended for, relaxing, but he couldn't help it. Thoughts kept running through his head, as thoughts tend to do so. Which was strange, now that he thought of it. Why do thoughts always run? Why don't they ever skip, hop, jump, attack, walk, or bother other thoughts with insane activities?

Moving away from that line of rather strange thinking, Shikamaru turned his thoughts around to something that had really been bugging him for a while. Why, or why did it have to be him? Why? He'd never been great with people, as opposed to fighting strategies and written examinations, but now he was truly and utterly confused.

Was it his fault he'd fallen for the messenger between the Sand and the Leaf? They had absolutely zero in common, aside from the fact that they were both ninja. And that didn't count. Lucky she wasn't here right now, being back at the Sand to help her brothers for a while. Otherwise he'd be even more confused, and if there was one thing he hated, it was being confused.

He understood how Hinata felt, even if he didn't understand it. Everyone, except Naruto, knew how she felt about said almost-insane hyper ninja on Team Seven. Probably because she fainted whenever she saw Naruto. He didn't quite understand Ino, but, then again, since she fell for every black-haired male on two legs, he didn't think he ever would. Before it was Sasuke, now it was that Sai person. How annoying.

He didn't know what to do, so he just acted like he didn't care. Which, in a way, wasn't that much of a lie. It didn't care about much else, except being a ninja, and he didn't even show that. Rule of living life easily number one: Pretend you don't care, and you won't be annoyed or bugged by other people.

Why? Why, why, why, why, why -

"What are you doing?" came the voice of none of none other than Temari. Shikamaru turned his head slightly to the left so that he could see her when he replied.

"Cloud reading. I thought you were supposed to be back at your home."

"Change of plans. I'm supposed to help out over here for a while."

"Ah," was all Shikamaru could think to say. He turned his head back to stare some more at the clouds. One looked suspiciously like the Sand emblem. Then there was silence, except for the occasional twitter of birds and the wind. Darn wind, always making rustling noises and making it difficult to concentrate on nothing.

"Mind if I join you?" Temari asked, jolting Shikamaru out of his careful ignoring of her. He shrugged.

"If you want," he replied, carefully keeping his eyes on the clouds. Temari sat down against the tree a little ways away from him. It was quiet for a while.

"I actually didn't mind coming here," Temari finally said quietly. "Funny, seeing as how here used to be something I'd love to see destroyed."

"Why?"

Temari shrugged, though she knew Shikamaru didn't see it. "I don't really know." There was no way she was going to say why she really liked being here. No. Way. Oh, darn it all. She could feel heat rising up in her cheeks. Furiously she pushed it down, even though he couldn't see. Darn it all! Why did she have to fall for someone from the Leaf, of all places? Why her? Why, why, why? So not fair.

Frustrated, she banged her hand down on the ground. Go figure that it was her right hand, the one closest to him. She was so doomed. It was difficult trying to pretend that this place didn't matter, that there was nothing here... Even Kankurou had begun to suspect something, and, though he was her brother, was usually the last to figure out these things. And Gaara probably knew everything already. But, then again, he was Gaara. He usually knew pretty much everything that was going on with his older siblings. Grrrrr... So frustrating.

A hand suddenly descended onto her own. Temari looked over at Shikamaru, the owner of said hand, still looking at the clouds. "Relax." was the word that he said. Temari turned and looked back up at the sky, absolutely refusing to blush, letting her hand stay right where it was.