(I'm back *evil laughter*, and chapter 2 is out! Now, it's getting good. If you're asking if I own Naruto, didn't you read the disclaimer in the first chapter?! Of course you didn't, so I'll have to do it again. If I owned Naruto, some pretty messed up shit between Shino and Kiba would be goin' on, okay? And that messed up shit is clearly not goin' on between Shino and Kiba, so therefore, I don't own Naruto. Get it? Got it? Good. Also, I don't think I own the Ugg slippers that Temari seems to worship, so don't sue me.)

Not Because I Wanted To

On Saturday morning, Temari woke up obscenely early.

She'd been chased by horrifying nightmares the night before, thanks to Gaara's choice in film.

She'd been having nightmares since she was little, but they'd never involved a certain someone until now.

She'd been locked away in a dark room, leather straps tied around her arms and legs. Every time she'd struggle to break free of the bondage, they only grew tighter around her wrists and ankles.

She called out his name.

No answer.

There was the swaggering sound of footsteps in the distance, and she called for him again.

As set of large, calloused hands touched her, but she did no recognize their rough demeanor.

Were they Shikamaru's? No; his hands were rough, sure, but not aggressive.

The possibility of the hands belonging to either of her brothers was completely out of the question, because they were always gentle with their beloved sister.

The hands touched her more and more, in places that she swore would belong to one man and one man only: Nara Shikamaru.

After that, the horrible things that those unidentified hands did to her were too painful to bear, and Temari bolted up from bed, panting, sweating, and crying harder than she ever had in her life.

Needless to say, she rarely cried…even when she was alone.

She rolled out of bed, and immediately shuffled into her cherished Ugg brand slippers, and pulled a black tee shirt over her head. In white writing, it read 'Keep Watching and I Might Do a Trick'.

Temari squeezed into a pair of skinny jeans, couldn't breathe, and concluded that they shrunk in the wash.

Never trust Kankaro to do the laundry…ever.

So instead, she resorted to her favorite pair. They were the most faded, worn, well-loved bellbottom jeans anyone had ever seen.

It was a miracle that they were still actually jeans instead of just threads.

Hoping not to wake her brothers, Temari tiptoed towards the stairs, meeting someone halfway.

"Gaara? Aren't you"-

"Up a little too early?" he brother replied, "yes, but if you've forgotten, Temari, I don't sleep."

Gaara handed his sister a bouquet of flowers.

"These," he said, as she looked them over, "Were with the newspaper. I'm assuming that they're for you."

Temari didn't' have much knowledge of flowers, (I mean, she wasn't Ino Yamanaka, was she?) so she skimmed through some of the books in the living room until she found one titled 'Traditional Flower Meanings'.

The first in the bouquet, were a few yellow chrysanthemums.

She looked under the 'C' section of the guide and found that chrysanthemums of these particular color meant 'a secret admirer'. She groaned; great, another guy who doesn't have the guts to tell her that he liked her…just the kind of guy that she wanted to end up with.

The second was an orchid, which meant delicate beauty.

Well, that's nice, she thought, fondling the single orchid.

The next, was an odd looking passion flower, which the meaning was obvious by its namesake.

She read that it could be used in remedies to heal insomnia.

Maybe for Gaara…

Then, there were about four yellow tulips. Christ, this person must like yellow, she thought.

Yellow tulips meant hopelessly in love.

The final flower was a black rose.

Temari flipped to the 'R' section, and what she saw made her scream, and drop the rose.

Death.

She felt sick to her stomach; a secret admirer was passionately and hopelessly in love with a delicate beauty and wanted to kill her?!

"Whassup?" Kankaro asked groggily, stumbling into the living room.

He stopped dead when he saw his sister, her eye twitching, pointing a shaking finger to a bunch of flowers that lay on the floor in pure, unspeakable horror.

Gaara joined the two and held a hand to his chin,

"I'm guessing that you don't like the flowers."

And so, Temari had a stalker, Kankaro was confused, and Gaara transformed into 'Captain Obvious'.