"Well, um, bye then

"Well, um, bye then! I'll see you when I come back… which will be soon." Temari promised him, as she always had before leaving for Suna again and again. But true to her word, she had never stayed away for more than a couple weeks.

But this still put Shikamaru down.

"Yeah, see you when you get back," He said rather dully. But his attempt at casualty didn't work, because red patches were appearing on his cheeks.

Temari saw this, and giggled. Shikamaru blushed even harder. Temari smiled at him and then raised a fist and punched him softly in the arm. "don't let Ino get to you too much. She's a good person deep down."

"Deep, DEEP down." Shikamaru grunted. Temari laughed her husky laugh, her turquoise eyes twinkling with mischief at him.

"Bye Shikamaru," she said, still laughing at him.

Aw, crap. She's gonna leave again, Shikamaru thought quickly. So what now? Should I go for it? Just hug her, man! Take it one step at a time. He was sure she would let him hug her, he knew her like the back of his hand; but that didn't have anything to do with the fact that he was the smartest strategist in Konoha.

"Temari, wait." He said, grabbing her hand and swinging her around into a hug. "Don't stay away too long" he whispered into her ear, right by his mouth. Then he moved his head so that he could stare into her face, her bright, beautiful eyes dancing with amusement, as if to challenge him, their lips inches apart.

Her eyes darted down to his lips, and Shikamaru swore he saw her head mover forward…

"TEMMI!" Kankuro appeared, leaping down from a tree, still chewing the dango he had been eating for lunch. Shikamaru jerked himself away from Temari's arms, and rubbed the back of his head, shamefully. Temari was unfazed, as usual.

"Hey Kanky!" she said.

"wussup?" said Kankuro, oblivious to what had just happened.

"Not much, me and Shikamaru were-" but she was cut off by a cloud of sand that swirled around about five feet away. Shikamaru rolled his eyes when Temari wasn't looking as the proud figure of Gaara formed.

"Are you two ready to go?" Gaara asked coming up behind his big brother and sister and placing a hand on each shoulder. Though they all looked fairly harmless at the moment, the three sand ninja all standing in a line was VERY intimidating. He remembered what that puppet and that sand and especially that fan could do.

"Yup!" said Temari, smiling warmly at her littlest brother.

"You know it." Kankuro breathed, looking at the city in front of him. "the blond girl with no pupils has been driving me INSANE all week. And Naruto always gives me a headache. "

"well, thank you for-once again- making our stay here more comfortable." Said Gaara to Shikamaru in a business-like ton.

"No problem." Shikamaru mumbled, cowering. And just before the three leapt off to glide through the trees back to Suna, Kankuro winked at Shikamaru knowingly, almost as if ,aybe he hadn't been eating the WHOLE time he was up in the tree.

Which made Shikamaru turn pink. Then scowl.

As he watched the three figures dancing through the trees into the sunrise, Shikamaru was sure of only one thing. He thought about the sandy-haired girl day and night, her turquoise eyes flickering in and out of his dreams. And every time he saw her perfect dark-dressed figure, his powerful brain seemed to turn to mush and his insides would roll around inside of him.

He was in love with Temari of the sand.