While shikamaru was away...

"Temari..."

"What are you doing here Sasuke?"

"Just came to check on shikamaru... Why are you still here? It's late."

Trying to keep her cool she didn't let his presence make her nervous "I'm going to be staying here for tonight just in case he wakes up and needs someone to fill him in on what happened"

"I see.." He said as he made his way to sit next to her "you're a good friend you know that?"

Blushing. "thanks" was all she could say

Inwardly laughing at himself for the new character he was playing out to be, Sasuke felt he had some control so he got closer. "You know Temari you're a strong kunouchi. One of the strongest there could possibly be.." He turned Temari's face to look at his "I like that about you"

Her heart started racing. She didn't know what to say or how to act "really?"

"Yes I do" he said as he leaned closer and closer

Temari had never kissed anybody before so when Sasuke's lips started to brush hers, she didn't know how to respond.

She was trying to get the hang of it but his movement wasn't making sense to her. She decided just to go with the flow and do it as she thought fit.

All of a sudden after some minutes she had realized her grave mistake. The reason she had never kissed anyone was because she was waiting on shikamaru. Though they have never confessed their feelings for each other, they both knew somehow that they were meant for each other and until they decided too they would wait for one another until the time was right.

She quickly stood up "Sasuke I think it's late and you should get some rest"

"I'm a big boy Temari" he stood up, and looked her straight in the eyes and saw she wasn't wavering "but if you say so then ok" he made his way to the door

When the door shut she couldn't help but feel like a trader.'What will shikamaru think of me now... That I'm just like those girls that chase after men.' Tears started to run down her cheeks. 'He won't ever look at me the same.'

Now...

Temari had fallen asleep in tears. Shikamaru had never seen her like this. He never knew how vulnerable she could get. He always considered her untouchable, no one had ever broken her emotionally or physically. He wanted to comfort her so he took his position and closed his eyes to enter her dream.

He opened his eyes.

Nothing.

He tried again. He closed his eyes harder.

Nothing.

"What's going on"

He tried one more time but nothing.

'Sasuke must've done something'

Looking out the window he saw how the stars brightened the dark night. 'I wonder how tomorrow is going to be like'

'So I guess it was only a one time dream. Shikamaru isn't hovering around like that dream made me believe' she said with her eyes closed in a sleeping position.

She heard the door open but didn't bother to move. Whoever it was could just leave a message. Right now she wanted to be left alone. To her surprise the person left a message and walked out.

After she heard the door close shut she got up and read the note:

Temari, I'm going to take Sasuke to train in our training area close to the waterfall.

-kankarou

'Wow since when does kankarou want to train? This is totally weird. He calls being cooped up in his room with his puppets training. And even if Sasuke was the one to suggest it, he wouldn't do it because he doesn't like to expose his puppets in unnecessary battle.' She grabbed her stuff and raced out to see if he was actually using his puppets.

Shikamaru had been floating in the sky when he heard Temari walk out the hospital doors. She really had a distinct voice. "Don't let anybody strange enter his room" her command had scared the nurse at the front desk "y-yes lady Temari"

Shikamaru followed her. He didn't know what else to do at the moment so he wanted to see what she was up too.

"Hey Sasuke" heaving for air "let's take a break. I'm exhausted!" Kankarou said letting his knees crash onto the ground

Rolling his eyes at how weak a jounin of the sand could be Sasuke took of his shirt and started to walk toward the waterfall. He was disappointed that kankarou being the kazekage's BROTHER wasn't a challenge for him, he was suppose to be strong... Oh well...

"Kankarou, if you want, you can go get some food and we'll eat here"

Kankarou jumped up in relief at Sasuke's suggestion. His plan was working well; he wanted to keep Sasuke away from Temari and the only way to do that was to take him to the furthest training grounds from the village. 'You better thank me shikamaru because I don't put myself through physical pain for just anybody!'

After kankarou was out of sight Sasuke was planning on also returning to the village to find Temari but before he made a move he sensed her coming.

"Where's kankarou?"

"He left to get food" splashing some water against his face.

Curiosity was killing her. She had to know! 'I knew I shouldn't have stopped to argue with Matsuri!'

"So... Did kankarou put up a fight?"

He stood up letting the water drip from his face to his exposed chest and turned to her. "Not at all... How did he even become jounin?"

She tried keeping her eyes straight with his but they kept drifting down to his wet, toned abs. "He has some skill" she said lifting back her sight to his face "he just doesn't like showing it unless it's necessary" she could see how his lips moved so hypnotically. 'Man... He's gorgeous... WHOA. I'm not that type of girl! Gosh temari get a hold of yourself!'

He saw her expression change from lust to anger and from anger to exhaustion, as if she was having a battle in the inside. "Ohhh... So why are you here?"

"I came to see Kankarou. He's always finding a way to skip out on training so when I found out he was training with you I wanted to see him in action"

"I see... Well he wasn't a challenge and he started complaining so we stopped." Letting out a loud sigh "and here I thought all sunan ninja were fierce"

Temari perked up. It had been too long since she's had a decent training buddy. Usually Gaara would be enough but since he was always busy, it was rare to ever get some training done with him which left her with her couch potato brother, Kankarou.

Sasuke, seeing the joy cross her face, decided to see if she was anywhere near a challenge to him; he doubted it since her older brother wasn't good enough, but if it would mean making her happy why not? "So you wanna fight?"

She didn't want to sound too eager so she took a while to think. "Sure why not... I'm not busy" she gave him a smirk "but I'm not a pushover like Kankarou so don't underestimate me" she unstrapped her fan and let it fall to the ground.

"Alright then" keeping a cocky smile on his face "so you want to use only taijutsu? That's fine with me. But if I pin you down, I get you all to myself for a whole day"

"And if I pin YOU down.." she said with her overconfident smirk "You do whatever I say for a whole day" even though she seemed confident she wasn't too sure anymore because of the way his body was distracting her. 'Why did I accept to this? Temari what's wrong with you!'

"Hmm... You're very confident for someone who's seen my strength. Lets hope you're not all talk" he dashed to her, aiming more to unbalance her instead of hitting her with full on blows.

Temari saw his intentions and wasn't going to allow him to go easy on her so instead of dodging his attacks she decided to go on offense.

Her change of fighting caught him by surprise. Every time he threw a punch she would as well, diverting his attention to blocking her hit instead of concentrating on the aim and power of his own punches. 'She is a challenge'

Though she was able to hold her own, she could feel herself running out of stamina. They had been at it for 20 minutes now and both of them were starting to breath hard. After blocking some more kicks and punches she got caught off guard. He pinned her down by throwing his weight on her, he let his arms catch his fall so he wouldn't crash hard on her.

"I guess I win" he said panting. He looked down at her and smiled weakly "you're mine tomorrow"

She could feel her cheeks growing warmer with how close she and him were. She could feel his breaths in the inside making his body move on hers. It wasn't in her nature to be embarrassed though "I guess I am"

He kept his eyes on hers while his breaths became even. He let one arm fall on its elbow and with the other hand grabbed one of her hands and guided it to his chest where his heart was.

His face was only a breath away from hers. Sweat was running down his forehead and dripped onto hers. He was feeling something in his stomach that concerned him... 'am I falling for her!?'