'As our welcoming treat to you Sand Siblings, we'll foot the bill!' Naruto cheered. Everybody sighed-this was because Naruto loved ordering the most food, and he would only have to pay a small part of it.

'I'll get the small miso soup with egg noodles.'

'Me too!'

'The spicy ramen for me!'

'Plain ramen.'

'Super Deluxe Ramen with everything-today's special!'

They all groaned. That was obviously Naruto.

'Hey, since we always order the same thing, why not share a bit of each dish?' Sakura suggested.

'What a wonderful suggestion from my blossoming dearest!' Lee yelled.

'Uh…thanks Lee…I think.' Sakura stared at the enthusiastic figure next to her. Ino had been quick in snatching Sasuke, and Naruto had swiftly occupied the other seat next to her.

As the bowls of steaming noodles came to the table, they all dug in eagerly, talking to the Sand Siblings of happenings after the Chunnin exam.

Ahh…. talking's troublesome but then again, picking up a fork is troublesome too. However…. picking up a fork takes less effort where as a conversation would mean I would have to keep it going. So the logical thing would be to start eating and not talk. Shikamaru quickly started eating from Naruto's Super Deluxe Ramen bowl. It did taste so delicious.

Naruto does have good taste in ramen at least…this is tasty. What's this? Shikamaru pulled his head up. His ramen noodles wouldn't budge! And what was this? Some sort of force was pulling back! What is this troublesome energy? Usually I would let it go, but I want this ramen! Shikamaru quickly sucked and tugged at the strands of ramen, but it seemed that no matter how hard he yanked; the other force would as well! He continued this game of tug-of-war with the ramen until he met with the actual force!

What the hell up with this ramen? Temari fumed. It's as if someone else has the same strands of ra-

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted, as she was at the end of the ramen noodle-and on the other end was none other than Shikamaru! Not to mention the fact that their lips were touching in a strong kiss, thanks to their pulling of the ramen noodles.

What the??? Shikamaru's eyes were wide open and they were both too stunned to pull back from their unlikely kiss.

This is wrong! So wrong! Temari grimaced.

'Hey! You two new lovebirds hurry up! I want to eat some of Naruto's ramen!' Ino shrieked.

Temari and Shikamaru quickly broke off to everybody's stares; just realizing that they had held that uh, kiss a bit too long…

Heh heh, this job might be easier than I thought Kankuro grinned. Just a few more of those stunts and they're set!

What the hell was that? It was… strange. Temari wondered.

Interesting… I'd ponder my feelings on this. But that's too much effort. The only thing to do now is…

'WE'RE NOT LOVE BIRDS!' Both proclaimed at the same time, glowering at Ino at the process.

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As Gaara lay down on his bed (A/N-he didn't go remember?), the young Kazekage stared at the ceiling, thinking. Temari wouldn't buy the whole lame excuse of 'I need more space.' He had said that he didn't want her so obsessed with ninja stuff and Sand business, but that was just too hypocritical of Gaara for Temari to even take note. He sighed. He was seriously too embarrassed to even give his own reason… he had wanted Temari and Kankuro out of the way for a month or two because he wanted sometime to himself…and someone else. Temari would be occupied with that arranged marriage and Kankuro was forced to be in charge of the celebrations. That left Gaara all by himself…well not necessarily. Because all that time when Temari had been fuming and throwing kunais at Gaara's head on a dartboard, and when Kankuro had been out searching for Mr. right, Gaara had been spending a little time with someone. At first it had only started out in letters, and then in a couple of secret meetings, and then it had been up to the point where she was even visiting his house-unbeknownst to Temari and Kankuro, of course.

But why Shikamaru-in fact, why even someone from Konoha? Firstly, it was partly because he wanted to make a sort of alliance with Konoha after that terrible invasion, and plus he knew the Konoha ninjas better than the Rain and Sound ninja. And most importantly, the girl, that special someone was right here in Konoha.

In all truth…Gaara hadn't meant it to get this far, he had just wanted Temari and Kankuro out of the way, and he had always thought Temari would do something like runaway, or for Kankuro to lie and say he had found no one.

Just a few more weeks, and I'll be able to stay with her. I'll even make it public-to Temari and Gaara. How I long to see her face, to touch her hair… even thinking of her makes me feel extraordinary… I really do miss her; even though she is right here… only a few streets away… I wonder how she'll feel when I ask her… because she really is the one…

And as he closed his eyes, dreaming of this girl, he whispered one word so soft only he would hear it-

Hinata…

A/N- Thanks for the reviews! And I will answer some of the questions. In fact, some of them have been answered in this chapter! Kind of funny that you guys were asking about the real reason Gaara wanted Temari to get married-and I was already halfway through a chapter about that! well, kinda about it.

So here are my explanations-

1-Age gap problem between Shika and Tem:

Who cares about age? My parents are three years apart. Its not like Temari is marrying some old geezer. Plus, in this story, Temari will be about twenty-ish, and the age gap doesn't seem so bad when you're older.

2-Wedding dress should be white:

Umm, yes I actually thought about that during the 1st chapter, but in Japan, they don't do traditional western white I think. They would do reds or oranges, plus, this is Naruto-world.

3-The whole Gaara wanting Temari to get hitched and why Konoha?:

Explained, or rather, half-explained in this chapter

And yes, I'll explain how Gaara and Hinata got together.

AmberFox and Lyell: Thanks for that SUPER long review. The criticism helped and I realized this wasn't as well planned as I thought it was. Um, I'll consider some of your pairings. I totally forgot about Rock Lee shame on me!. Sorry if I led on that there was Naru/Hina, but as u see in this chap, there obviously isn't any!!! If you guys are still unsure about the Gaara forcing marriage thing, comment and I'll try mi best.

Apologies for not researching properly and forgetting to enable anonymous comments. And also for making such a long author's note.