Disclaimer: I own nothing


Chapter Two

Temari woke up for the first time to the whims of her internal clock, not having to wake up super early to start training for four whole days…paradise.

But wouldn't you know it, her stupid internal clock still got her up pretty early, like 7:00 in the morning early, a most ungodly hour.

"Figures…" Temari grumbled to herself, "The one day I actually get to sleep in, I wake up early." Though Temari wasn't going to give in so easily. She tossed and turned for about another ten minutes, giving it a valiant effort, but eventually she had to admit defeat.

She rose from her bed and headed to her private bathroom where she made herself ready for the day.

After thirty minutes of showering, plucking, tweezing, crimping and thousands of other morning rituals that every female partakes in everyday, Temari deemed herself ready.

She made her way down the staircase down the room that was serving as the traveler's dining room. It was where they had had dinner the night before.

She opened the door to find that the room was already occupied to her disappointment. There sat Shikamaru, back to the door, eating something out of a bowl, and reading a book. He didn't notice her until she sat down at the table, right across from him, the farthest away she could be from him with out seeming rude.

"Oh, your up early." he said when he looked up from his book.

"Couldn't sleep, where'd you get the food?" she asked.

Shikamaru pointed over to the table in the far corner that was laden with a spread of pastries and other sundry items often found in a continental breakfast. As she made her way over there, Shikamaru studied her back. "She's even prettier then last night in the onsen…wait I didn't just think that!" He focused all of his attention towards the book in front of him, though he failed to get any further then a few sentences, being completely distracted by something else.

That something else made her way back to the table, carrying a plate with a bagel, an apple, a few slices of toast and a nice tall glass of milk. "A nice-sized breakfast," noted Shikamaru, "Not too tiny like Ino would eat, what with her constant diets, and not too big like Chouji would eat with his constant anti-diets."

Temari figured she should try to make herself act civil if not for politeness' sake.

"So, what book are you reading?" she asked while spreading some cream cheese on her bagel and taking a big bite out of it.

"Uh, it's this science-fiction book about what would happen if technology surpassed humankind's intelligence." he replied, kind of embarrassed. When he said it like that it sounded sort of dorky.

"Hmm…" Temari said, looking at the cover, "Shoyo Imamura" she said refering to the author. "I've heard about him, never really read his stuff, but I hear he's a pretty decent author. I'm more of a Saori Konoe fan myself."

"That author who does all those mystery thrillers?" asked Shikamaru.

Temari confirmed this with a nod.

"Funny, I figured you'd read more of the romantic ooey-gooey kind of stories." he said.

"Why, because I'm a girl?" she asked giving him an icy stare, but Shikamaru didn't answer. That's exactly what he thought, but he knew that that would be the wrong answer. Instead he tried to change the subject.

"So have you thought about your going to do on your four day's vacation?" he asked. But before Temari could answer, Kankuro slammed open the door and proclaimed, "I'm hungry, where's the grub?"

Midday and Temari, Kankuro, and Shikamaru were making their way down Main Street, looking for something to do. Unfortunately, Konoha wasn't really a tourist attraction, and didn't offer much for day visitors, and most of the citizens were training anyway. Temari had wanted to go shopping, but Kankuro absolutely did not, so they had to settle for walking down Main Street, which wasn't nearly as much fun as it sounds. Gaara was off somewhere else, doing official Kazekage type things and meeting with Tsunade and the Kage of the Water Country for their first of many meetings.

"Hey, I got an idea." said Kankuro suddenly, breaking the silence, "and it'll keep Baki happy too."

"What?" asked Temari with little excitement, something that kept Baki happy was most likely the farthest thing from being fun.

"We could spar-" began Kankuro only to be interrupted with Temari's groaning.

"Come on Kankuro, we're on vacation, why should we train?" she asked.

Kankuro stepped over to his older sister and leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Come on, this is the chance you've been waiting for… the chance to get back at Shikamaru for the Chuunin exam…"

Kankuro did have a point there.

"Alright, I guess I'm in. What about you?" she asked directing this Shikamaru while still maintaining to not call him by his name.

"It doesn't make a difference either way, my orders are to do whatever you tell me to do." replied Shikamaru in his perpetually bored voice.

"Then sparring it is." said Kankuro.

It took them awhile, but the three eventually made their way to an abandoned training field. Kankuro surveyed the land, looking around before declaring the spot good enough.

They drew straws and Shikamaru lucked out and sat the first round, preparing to spar against the winner.

Kankuro and Temari faced each other, as they had done a hundred times before. Temari saw as Kankuro gave her a small discreet wink, and then they began.

Soon they were nothing more than a blur of arms and legs. It was difficult for Shikamaru to keep up, but after about five minutes, Temari had Kankuro pinned, she being victorious.

"All right, all right, get your fat butt off me!" shouted Kankuro.

"Tsk tsk Kankuro, you know better than that, maybe I should teach you a lesson."

"Come on Temari! You won, now let me go!" begged Kankuro, ever the brilliant actor.

"Alright, I'm feeling merciful today, but you need to be better behaved in the future, and no more cheeky comments." Temari said, playing along as she picked herself off of Kankuro. "You ready?" she asked Shikamaru.

"As ready as I'll ever be." he said, he too getting up.

He walked over to where Kankuro had been standing only a few minutes before, and faced Temari. She had an evil glint in her eyes that only her look even more pretty, albeit a scary pretty.

"Focus Shikamaru." he told himself. He knew exactly what this was. This was revenge for sixth months ago, and unless he watched out, a girl'd defeat him. "Man, what a drag."

Kankuro declared the start of the sparring match, but neither Temari nor Shikamaru moved for a few moments. Studying each other's movements, seeing who would be foolish and rush into an attack.

Suddenly, with a mighty cry Temari whipped out her giant fan that she carried everywhere and sent a strong air current towards Shikamaru, which would have knocked him over and blown him away if he hadn't dug his heels into the ground. He covered his face to minimize any damage, and when he looked up Temari had abandoned her fan and was coming towards Shikamaru, kunai in one hand, taking this sparring match from long range to close quarters.

Shikamaru responded by reaching for a kunai himself just in time to block a downward swipe from Temari's hand that contained her kunai. "She's learned from the last time." he thought, "I can't run away somewhere to come up with a strategy if I have to fight hand-to-hand." While blocking and deflecting Temari's strikes, Shikamaru looked around, trying to come up with something. "Damn it, we're out in the open here, very few shadows for me to manipulate, I'd have to some how get into the trees over there." he thought, referring to the small grove of trees about 30 yards away.

But before Shikamaru could even begin to try and make a break for the trees, Temari had sneaked up behind Shikamaru and he hadn't even noticed.

Instead of sticking him in between the shoulder blades with the kunai, as he would have expected, Temari dropped quickly on to her hands and did a sweeping kick with her legs, almost successfully knocking Shikamaru off his feet. But as his feet were being knocked out from under him, he bent his back over and planted his hands on the ground. He then proceeded to flip his body over, much like a gymnast performing a back handspring.

Shikamaru recovered just in time to block another swipe from Temari's kunai-laden hand to his face. They continued this martial ballet for some time, while Shikamaru searched for opening, either for an attack or for a chance to duck into the trees. Unfortunately, Temari seemed wise to his game and whenever they got to close to the trees, she would attack him from the other direction and push him away.

Suddenly Temari appeared to trip, and just as she stood up, Shikamaru stuck his kunai to her neck. "Damn it, I hate being this rough with a girl."

"All right, I win." he said, breath only slightly labored.

"Are you so sure?" asked Temari, and that's when Shikamaru felt the sharp poke of a kunai at his stomach. It was a tie.

Shikamaru stared down at Temari, into her eyes most of all. At this moment they were coal black with a touch of smugness. Fog seemed to shroud Shikamaru's mind, making his thoughts become sluggish, time seemed to slow, as he stared down at those beautiful, dangerous eyes.

Temari returned the stare as she felt her brain turn to mush. Had he always had such intense eyes?

"Wow, that was really entertaining!" said Kankuro, interrupting Shikamaru and Temari's thoughts. He came over and patted Shikamaru on the back. "I thought you almost had her then, but good old Temari, knew just what to do."

"Not exactly Kankuro, it still ended in a tie." she said, voice hardly even trying to hide her anger. She went off to get her fan. "Still, it did go a lot better than last time. At least this time around I got some moves out of you, instead of having to wait around for you while you hide in the trees. Typical male, never wanting to make the first move."

Shikamaru was thinking about making several first moves right now, but figured right here and now wasn't really smart.

"Kami, what's happening to me. This is like the third time I've had these feelings. It's probably just some heat of the moment thing. I had all that blood pumping in my head from the spar, and I just wasn't thinking straight. Or it might be one of those hormonal things which I have no control over, in which case it'll probably go away soon."

These were the kind of thoughts Shikamaru was thinking as the three made their way back to the inn, repeatedly trying to reassure himself that what he was feeling was simply weird teenager stuff that his dad was always trying to explain to him.

They reached the hotel and it was decided that showers were needed all around in preparation for tonight. Tonight was a big welcoming party for all of Konoha's visitors at one of Konoha's nicest restaurants. It was 4:00 by the time they had gotten back from the training area, and dinner started at 6:00. The two boys were both done and ready with in 20 minutes, but Temari took an entire hour and half, and the boys couldn't do anything but wait. They were suppose to meet Gaara and Baki over at the restaurant, the two of them having spent the entire day at the Hokage's office, and had simply left from there.

"So, is there really not that much to do in Konoha?" asked Kankuro, striking up a conversation as the two teenaged boys lounged about on their respective beds while waiting for Temari.

"Not much for kids anyway." came the reply. "Although there is an under 21 club set up, but that's really it, you know how ninja villages are."

Kankuro did know. Suna was exactly the same way. Very little entertainment establishments were set up in Suna beyond the few restaurants it contained.

"We might have to check out that under 21 club." Kankuro said, "What's it like?"

"Can't tell you, never been."

"Really? Never wanted to check it out?" asked Kankuro, curious.

"Well, usually most of my friends are out of town on missions, and I didn't see the appeal of going alone. That's just pathetic." concluded Shikamaru.

"What about your girlfriend? Surely you got one of those, and I would think she'd be successful a few times enough to drag you there."

Till that point, Shikamaru had not delegated to look up from his position, which included laying his hands under his head and facing the wall that parallel to the length of his bed. But at that question, he tilted his head back till he saw an upside-down Kankuro and gave a short snort.

"Yeah right, I'm not really popular with the ladies."

"Why not? I figured a good-looking guy like you would have lots of girls."

"Good-looking?" he lowered his head.Shikamaru had never really considered himself good-looking, nor had he ever really cared whether he was or not, as for why he didn't have thousands of girls hanging off of him, well, Ino offered thousands of explanations to that. "You're too lazy Shikamaru." or "You're too negative."

He rested his head back to its original position. "You know how it is, girls, or at least the girls around here, expect perfection…" he faltered off, not really wishing to expound his apparently numerous flaws to the almost stranger.

"Perfection…well that shouldn't to hard for Me." thought Kankuro. "So, who exactly is single around this town?"

"Truthfully? Just about every girl in this town is single. They're all wrapped up in trying to become Sasuke Uchiha's girlfriend to notice any other male in their vicinity." answered Shikamaru.

"All of them? This is getting easier and easier."

At that point Temari entered their room dressed to kill in a simple black dress that clung just right to all of her body's natural curves. Shikamaru had to quickly turn his head, lest he be caught staring at her with his mouth open. With his luck, he'd probably be caught with a string of drool coming out of his mouth as well.

"Well fellows? Are we going, or do I have to wait around for you forever?" Temari asked.

"What are you talking about? We're the ones who have been waiting around for you. You and your stupid girly habits." exclaimed Kankuro angrily, following his sister. Shikamaru got up and followed the two squabbling siblings. "This is going to be a long evening. What a drag."

Soon enough, everyone was together, settled around a large table made up of a lot of little tables put together, although together was a rather loose term.

"I feel like I've been made to sit at the kid's table." whispered Kankuro in a hushed tone, from the far end of the table, which was where Kankuro, Temari and Shikamaru had ended up. Seeing as none were Kage's themselves, they had been deemed not important enough to join in with the conversation of the three Kage's and Baki, who all sat at the head of the table, on either side of Tsunade who was, after all, the Master of Ceremonies.

"I know what you mean." said Temari in the same hushed tone, hiding a yawn behind her hand.

"I hear the food's pretty good here, so maybe it'll be worth it." offered Shikamaru, trying to bring some encouragement to their drab situation.

"It'd have to be pretty good to make this worth it. We might as well have stayed back at the hotel; at least we would have been able to go to the onsen. The way this "party" is going we will not get back until late, with all these slow people. That's what you can expect from old people." concluded Kankuro.

"Hush, they might hear you." warned Temari, but it was in vain.

"They can't hear us, they're practically deaf. Hearing's one of the first things to go when you get old." replied Kankuro, nonplussed.

As much as Shikamaru agreed with Temari about not wanting to be overheard saying such treacherous things, he also agreed with Kankuro. The Kage's were old, with Gaara as the exception, and they seemed completely wrapped up in their own little world, and completely deaf to anything else.

"We've been here about two hours," began Shikamaru, "and if the food arrives with in the next thirty minutes, we could expect to get out in another two, that is, unless Tsunade gets a hold of some alcohol, in which case we could be stuck here awhile."

Kankuro groaned.

"Although, that could work to our advantage." continued Shikamaru.

"How?" Temari asked, somewhat intrigued, anything to get out of this boring nightmare faster.

"Well, if Tsunade gets drunk, as she is want to do whenever alcohol is in her vicinity, she might be able to convince the other adults to get drunk, in which case we might be able to sneak away." finished Shikamaru.

"You're a genius!" Temari exclaimed brightly, though still in a hushed tone.

This statement made Shikamaru blush. He had heard it many times before now, from various people, but this was the first time that he blushed as a reply. He quickly got his face under control before anyone noticed.

Just as Shikamaru predicted, within thirty minutes, the food was delivered, and within another thirty minutes, Tsunade, Baki, and the Mizukage were successfully drunk.

"Now?" asked Kankuro to Shikamaru, asking if it was time to make their move.

Shikamaru studied the three inebriated adults for a while before saying, "Yes."

Slowly and quietly, ducking their heads down, the three made their way towards the only exit.

"Shikamaru!" called Tsunade, sending a chill down his spine. He turned to face here, noticing her finger, which she was crooking, beckoning him over to her.

Shikamaru straightened up and walked over towards the old lady with grace and stoic dignity one would see in a martyr as he made his way to the guillotine or the stake.

"Yes?" he asked bending over, smelling the alcohol.

"Don't let my appearance confuse you," she whispered into his ear, "I am not drunk, and you will still report to me later."

Shikamaru inwardly groaned, he knew it was going to be a long night.

"What did she want?" asked Temari when Shikamaru joined the other two.

"Just wanted to make sure we weren't going off to cause trouble, that we were going straight back to the inn." Shikamaru said, quickly making up a lie.

As they made their way back to the inn, Kankuro mused aloud saying, "You know, Gaara's going to kill us for abandoning him back there."

Shikamaru found himself back in the Hokage's office after hours, way after hours. Tsunade didn't get done with her drunken fest until midnight, so Shikamaru had been waiting there for about two hours.

"Please don't let Kankuro wake up and notice I'm not there." he prayed.

"Alright then Nara, report?" asked Tsunade, completely sober. Apparently being drunk was an act.

"Uh…well, Yet again, there is nothing to report. I honestly think the Sunaites are here just for business, not to invade or whatever." explained Shikamaru.

Tsunade heaved a sigh. "Most likely your correct Nara, I too don't really expect them to be on some covert operation, but the feudal lords-"

"What do they know? They're here for about a week each year and then they go off far away and leave us alone. Then they order us about like they know what's best for us, but how could they? They know nothing!" Shikamaru stopped suddenly. That was most uncharacteristic of him, he never exploded like that. Shikamaru was an expert at keeping his emotions to himself.

Tsunade studied him warily for a moment before starting again. "I couldn't agree with you more Shikamaru." she said, shocking Shikamaru and causing him to raise his head which he had lowered when he had finished his outburst. "The feudal lords are fools, who think they know how to best govern us even though they hardly know us." she paused to catch her breath, which was shaking from poorly suppressed anger. "But we still have to follow their orders, no matter how foolish it might be."

They sat in silence a few moments before Tsunade stood up. "alright Shikamaru, your dismissed, but you still have to report tomorrow and until our visitors have left, no matter how idiotic it is." At this Shikamaru picked himself up and made his way towards the exit.


Please review!

Bon Jour!

That was chapter two of my ShikaTema fanfic. What will happen next? Will Shikamaru and Temari get together? Did Gaara ever escape from the boring drunken adults? Why am I asking you all of these questions? Tune in next week for the next thrilling installment of All My Children

Okay, stupidity over…So what did you think? I want your honest opinion.

This is the chapter of the poorly written action scene. Normally when I read books I sorta…skip…over the action scenes and get straight to the dialogue. That's one of the reasons I love Harry Potter so much. The big climatic scene always has some long conversation that I read…and then the rest I skipped.

Therefore, I don't have a lot of examples of action scenes that I've memorized (unlike dialogue) and I don't have much practice writing action…tell me if you were able to follow along with the action, and if it needs tweaking (I'm sure it does)