She had done it.
She had finally stumped him. Completely. Entirely. She had finally won (not counting the time he gave into his feelings for her and had impulsively kissed her and was now her boyfriend).
It was only a birthday card. Note. Whatever anyone wanted to call it.
He had gotten the usual things, a new shogi board, books, clothes, cake, a nice birthday kiss… but he didn't expect this.
The card looked normal on the outside but on the inside the cryptogram made his head spin. After the party that his friends threw him and after she left for Suna, he sat down with her card. And he spent hours and hours on it. Days upon days. He worked for so long and so intensely on it that no one dared to interrupt him except for his mother, who only did so to tell him that he was working on the card for an unreasonable amount of hours, usually 4, and needed to do something else.
Eventually, over the span of two months, he had figured out everything in the card. All it read was "Happy Birthday. I love you." But underneath the text was a heart.
The heart he assumed, and he was 99.99 sure about this, was her name. But why a heart? She already told him she loved him, he always blushed and got butterflies in his stomach when she told him that, so what did the heart mean?
He struggled with the meaning of the heart for a week, running through the different possibilities. Every night he came to the same conclusion, this was the most troublesome thing he had ever had to figure out. His mind had been stretched as much as possible, even further than he thought to be possible, he was frustrated, he was tired, he wanted to rip the note into pieces! He couldn't believe that she had thought of something so mind bending, so difficult, so challenging, he hadn't had anything this mind stimulating in so long! Although, it was sort of fun…
Then, a realization hit him and he laughed a loud clear laugh. He laughed, not because the card was so complex that it became simple, but that she the most wonderful and intelligent woman that anyone could ever have. And she was all his.
His mother gave him an odd look when she saw the note in the picture frame Ino gave him that was now un-useless and his girlfriend only smirked when she saw it and knew he had figured it out. He himself was content and enjoyed looking at it every time he went to bed, a blissful reminder of how Temari knew him the best and had given him something that no one could ever thought of but her.
This is the shortest thing that I have ever written but I still like it. I almost missed his B-day too! I got it mixed up with Temari's day, the 23rd. Sorry Shika-kun! But anyway, I hope everyone enjoys our favorite lazy ninjas birthday!!!