Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto or any of the characters.

Inspiration: Draw Two

Moral of the Day: Never play games with Shikamaru. You know he'll beat the crap out of you.

Everyday in the Hidden Village of Konoha, there was a time when the skies were almost overflowing with clouds. It were these times that Nara Shikamaru never missed, he was always out, on a tree, on a roof, or anywhere with a good view. His friends knew he envied a cloud's freedom; he thought everything else was too troublesome.

Inside the village gates, the air was still and the streets were deserted. It was after closing time, and no one would be out when the shops were closed. It was always like this when the skies would steadily begin changing.

The current clouds were moving, all to the north. As they floated away, more came, and in increasing amounts. Eventually, all that would be left were thin strips of blue among a thousands wisps of moisture.

Today, no one noticed.

Outside of Ichiraku Ramen, there were about a dozen small tables. Now, only one was occupied.

On that table laid two piles of cards. At the top of the messier one, there was a red card that read '3'. Next to this pile was another, a neat pile. This pile was considerably smaller, and all the cards were flipped, showing black backsides.

Temari of the Sand looked at her hand, a green 3, a red 9 and a yellow 9. Without any hesitation, she put down her green 3 and thought, yes! I'm going to win this time!

Her companion, Shikamaru, looked up, "It's my turn, eh?" He closed his eyes and sighed. "Skip you, back to me, to me again, reverse, and oh, I choose blue."

Sure enough, his cards were skip, skip, a reverse and a draw four wild card.

Temari gritted her teeth, damn! So close!

Looking at the four cards she had just drawn, she realized none of them were blue. Unfortunately, they had decided to play the 'draw until you can go' version of the game, so Temari continued to take cards.

Shit! The next one wasn't blue either. Temari placed her hand over the draw deck, she was almost afraid to look at the sixth card. She raised it slowly to her face. Yes…Blue…

The blue card was a 6. She quickly scanned through the rest of her cards, and found no other 6's. From the situation she was in, Temari instantly thought of a childhood trick she had used on a friend before. You couldn't blame her, a six does look like a nine…

Hand slightly shaking, she placed her six and two nines down. Don't notice; don't notice... she pleaded frantically in her mind.

Shikamaru dramatically lifted an arm, and started to bring his card down. Temari watched him intensely; it seemed as if the card would never touch the table.

He stopped. "You know, Temari," Shikamaru began calmly. "It's not nice to cheat," and emphasized this by poking at the nines.

"God, you're no fun…" she pouted.

"Anyways, back to me, skip you, skip, reverse…" he continued putting down cards until he was left with only three. Just when Temari thought he was done, the smart ass put two 9's on the table, making the new conditions green or 9.

"Oh yeah, Uno."

Temari stared at him.

"Hah!" She put down the two failed 9's and sat back, satisfied. The new conditions were yellow, or a 9. There was only a slight chance her opponent had either of those.

Shikamaru leant towards the table, and placed his card on top of Temari's 9's.

"I win."

A wild card.

"How—how—" Temari stuttered in disbelief. She went through the pile, desperate to see where she went wrong and only found that one of the so-called 9's was a 6. No way...Unbelievable...

"How come you get to cheat!"

"Because I can do it without getting caught." Shikamaru replied an annoyingly happy voice.

Temari glared at him, "I hate you."

He laughed, "I know, I know…"

Above him, clouds were floating by, dissolving back into the original sky. He missed it, the first time in 7 years, for a girl…

A/N:

TaurenLeaf Primary: I must admit Secondary did most of the work this time… BUT! What she wrote first had no point in it… so I…uh, added stuff…

TaurenLeaf Secondary: Oh My God! You took out most of my writing! How could you- (cough) I'm OK… (I will NEVER—FORGIVE—cough)… Nothing!

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