I just decided to write this because I got bored and well it seemed like something interesting and probably hard to write. I'm still working on the other story but it takes awhile and obviously life goes on outside of fanfics. I'm not sure if this will get anywhere but I'd appreciate review to atleast know what you think. Maybe from those reviews it will get somewhere good. I suck at romance so if romantic parts come up they'll probably be crappy but writing this might help me to improve in that area... maybe... oh and the title is because of the thoughts of the friends of who I'm using as the main characters to depict their confusing thoughts. Kiba and Temari are not confused...at least I dont think so. the summary was from Shikamaru's POV but the story is not. it's rated T cause it makes sense.

Anyway enjoy

I own naught.

Is it this or that?

Chapter 1- The Knowing and It's Effects

Kiba thought it through again as he watched her talk to the gate guards. Should he ruin her relationship with Shikamaru? Shikamaru pretty much already ruined it. It only took an Inuzuka so much to know when a man has two mates. He hadn't been around Shikamaru too often recently or at all really but it had been easy to tell that he and Ino had been all over each other and more, alot more. The looks didn't help either but poor Temari didn't see. Should he be the one to show her?

He was still in thought when she left the gates heading into the village. He had to think fast because she was already headed towards Shikamaru's apartment. Should he or should he not? He wasn't one to meddle but still this actually kinda bothered him. Why? He wasn't sure. He himself had several sexual encounters with several women of various ages on a regular basis. If he stopped he'd be severely missed. Blame it in the Inuzuka genes if you will. He couldn't help it.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't realise that the object of his thoughts had suddenly disappeared to appear behind him until "RAWR!"

It was only his ninja training that prevented him from attacking her before he realised who it was. But not before letting out an undignified yelp, not that he'd admit that. A yelp? Seriously? Not very manly or ninja like. He'd settle for grunt even thought they sound nothing alike but still...

He looked back at Temari's laughing form and glared at her. She quieted herself down just enough to ask.

"What were you doing?"

"Thinking about you." he answered before he knew what he was saying. She stared at him for a moment before falling back into a laughing fit.

"Now I know you really are a player." she said between laughs then gave him a look. "So shamelessly flirting with someone elses girl and he's your friend too. Don't you know i'm off limits? You know, in a relationship?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking about." Kiba muttered darkly. Surprisingly Temari didn't catch it.

"So why were you watching me?" Temari asked leaning on the back of the bench he was sitting on.

"I was thinking and what I was thinking had something to do with you." he answered turning to look at her. She raised a delicate brow at him

"So you weren't just flirting when you said you were thinking about me? Aww how cute." she cooed grinning broadly at him.

'She's so darn oblivious.'

"What I was thinking wasn't cute. It's about Shikamaru." Kiba began in all seriousness.

"What happened? Is he ok? Is he sick?" Temari asked suddenly, worry written all over her face.

Before Kiba could reply she was off like the wind. He stared after her for a moment then sighed. Maybe he had started off a little too serious with that one. Nothing he could do now but go back home and go see if Akamaru was done resting from that last mission they had. Hopefully Hana wouldn't kick him out again.

Temari was over run with worry as she sped across the rooftops to Shikamaru's apartment. If he wasn't there she would go to his old home then the hospital. Hopefully thats not where he was.

She jumped right through the window and into his living room. Nothing seemed out of place. She was about to call for him when she heard it. Strange sounds emmanating from his bedroom. She stepped a bit closer to the door when she heard it, soft moaning and it definately wasnt Shika's voice. Groaning and grunting. She stepped closer and slowly began to open the door abit more than before. She gaped at the scene before her, Shikamaru and Ino in all their naked glory. That was until what was going on really clicked to her. She felt a vein burst in her head.

Shikamaru looked up at the unearthly growl that she let loose but it was too late. Ino screamed just seconds before being hit with a slicing gust of wind that knocked both her and Shikamaru into the wall along with the bed.

Temari jumped through the window landing expertly on the ground with her fan in hand. She swung it over her shoulder seething. How could he? After she pushed herself to get here early for a surprise? And with his team mate no less? But no she should have seen this coming. That Ino was always around too often and was so flirty and bossy. It had been her mistake to put it down to being her normal behaviour. But that jerk had the heart to play around with her? The bloody lazy bum had the audacity to hurt her like this. He would rue the day he did this to her.

'Rue it, I tell you.' she thought an evil scowl crossing her face. The people in the street all looked at her with weary eyes.

"What?" she screamed at them and they immediately turned away and scampered along. She glared around the unfamiliar street. Now, where the hell was she? You'd think that after all the times she came here she'd know the place alittle better right? Wrong. Great. Now she was ticked and lost.

"Temari?" a voice asked from behind her. She spun around quickly causing the person to have to take a step back to avoid being hit by her fan. "Watch where you're swinging that thing."

She glared at tall chocolate haired Inuzuka. He blinked back at her.

"About earlier." he began but she stopped him with a raised hand.

"Save it." she told him and sealed her fan once more. "That's what you were going to tell me wasn't it? The... Thing with the THAT!"

"I take it you know then." he said quietly subconsciously running a hand through Akamaru's fur. Temari glared at him again and he watched her quietly fume for a minute before Akamaru whined nudging him in the side 'you've gotta help her.'

"Let's go shopping!" he said suddenly.

"What?" Temari asked incredulously breaking from here seething to raise a brow at him.

"Shopping. I've got some groceries to pick up and you're not doing anything helpful to your mental health." Kiba said grabbing her by the arm and pulling her along. "Come on, it'll be fun. Besides I suck at grocery shopping. You'd think with a nose like mine I would pick the right fruits"

"So you're gonna pull a depressed and ticked girl along to do your shopping?" Temari asked but didn't resist his pulling.

"Yep. Pretty much." he answered nonchalantly and she stared at him a moment before erupting in laughter.

"You're crazy."

"And you're laughing." he said with a cheesy grin.

"I can't believe it, but I'm going to have to be here for a few days. What am I going to do now?"

Kiba looked over at Temari leaning against the tree beside him. He was lying fully on the ground with Akamaru's head resting on him. He looked at the patches of sunlight that fell through the leaves and onto her face. She was actually beautiful.

"You could pretend that nothing happened and that you were never together." he suggested and she looked at him with sad eyes.

"If only it were that easy."

"Ok. You just try to do the whole pretending thing tomorrow and I'll figure out what to do in the meanwhile."

"Why would you do that?" Temari asked focusing her attention on him

"I like you and you don't deserve what you got." Kiba said simply and Temari had to wonder what kind of things were going through his mind. More importantly what kind of 'like' was that?

"You're not thinking of getting in my pants, are you?" she asked suddenly. He chuckled looking up at the sky.

"Despite what everybody thinks that's not the only thing that goes through my mind."

"But that's what was right now, wasn't it?"

"No, I was actually trying to find something to help."

"Nope, it was definitely my pants."

"If I was I would have said so already. You're not even wearing pants"

"Self preservation. You know I would kill you if you said so and you know what I mean"

"You know what? I'm carrying this stuff home before mom gets mad." he said getting up and grabbing the bags. Temari followed him to her feet.

"It's only because I'm right." she called as he began to walk away.

"If I was, I'd already be there."

"No, you wouldn't."

"Yes, I would."

"Nope."

"Yea."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Whatever." he said brushing her off. "I'll fix your problem tomorrow."

"Sure." Temari muttered watching him go with Akamaru walking beside him. Turning to go to the hotel that she would be staying at the betrayal came crashing down on her. A new thought popped up with every step she took.

How the hell could she be civil with him tomorrow? There was noway she could just forget or even pretend? What did Ino have that she didn't? She had class Ino looked loose. Did he really think that she was of that standard? Sure she wasn't the girliest girl but she wasn't loose or overly boy like? Or was it that Shika just had a thing for blondes? Why was she even still referring to him as 'Shika'? If it's a blond thing then did that mean he had Naruto too? How many blondes would be safe from him then? Did it streach to red hair? If that the case then beware Choji and Gaara!

'Where the hell is my brain straying to?' she thought miserably.

Temari woke the next morning feeling none the brighter. The massive headache didn't help either. Well she could always skip work but then what kind of an ambassador would she be? She glared at her reflection in the mirror.

'Kiba will help me.' she thought slightly. But what could he possibly do to make this better? Maybe she should just do what he said. She tried the brightest smile she could muster to the mirror. It was so fake! Who would have thought that she of all people would be going through something like this?

"Damn!" she screamed stomping out the door. Time to deal the ninja way: nothing ain't happened. She stepped into the street to see Shikamaru leaning against a wall across the street. He immediately walked over to her. She smiled at him. "Good morning!"

"Good morning." he said frowning at her seemingly 'happy' nature. They both started walking. Shikamaru scratched one of the small scraps on his face that he had gotten from Temari's fan. This was really uncomfortable. With a silent 'troublesome' he turned to look at her. "About yesterday-"

"Yesterday? What about it?" she asked before he could finish. He frowned, maybe she was taking this hard.

"About-"

"Oh! Did you know that there is a very cute store over on market street that sells all sorts of trinkets? I'd never been over there until yesterday. It's so lively almost like the market place in Suna." she said happily and he had to close his mouth not to gape. What the heck was she talking about?

"You should really go there sometime with your girl friend."

"Hey, can we go out later. We need to talk."

"Later? I thought you and your girlfriend would like to go out in celebration of loosing the third wheel." Temari said giving him a clueless look. Now Shikamaru was getting confused and that didn't happen often. Her spirits were way too high. He gave her a once over then she grinned again and jabbed him in the side. "Besides you can talk to me anywhere. We don't have to go out to talk. I've got something to do later anyway."

"Really?" he asked skeptically.

"Yea." she lied. Shikamaru raised a brow at her awkward behaviour but did't question it. Why make life more troublesome? If thats the way she was going to treat it, why push it? Suddenly Temari saw a familiar flash of white.

"Hey, you go ahead I'll catch up in two." she said quickly and he watched her disappear in a poof of smoke.

'Now what the hell is going on?' he thought staring at the empty space that she had just occupied. 'First she's super happy and friendly then she's just up and gone. What's going on?"

Kiba paused in his chewing to stare at the girl that appeared in front of him. She had her hands in her hair wide eyed horrified. A wave of concern he didn't know he was capable of washed over him.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. Faking it shouldn't be so hard! I'm a ninja, we lie for a living!" she said frantically. He nodded understandingly and got back to chewing the price of jerky he had been eating. He handed another plate full to Akamaru as she continued. "It hurts and it's so difficult that I end up rambling so that I can pretend better. I'm a ninja for crying out loud."

"Usually emotions aren't involved when we lie or pretend." Kiba stated absently. Temari glared at him.

"Why are you sounding so smart and calm?" she asked cautiously and he shrugged.

"It's morning. I haven't had my pick me up yet." he answered with a yawn. Temari sighed as she took a step forward to pet Akamaru.

"Yea well. Now I said a stupid lie that I have something to do later just to not talk to him." she said and a wolfish grin spread across his face. She looked up at him with a questioning look.

"That's great!"