Okay so I was reading Chapter 3… and I apologize for the crappiness of it. seriously.

So, onwards with the story.

ADDED: Sorry I didn't update guys TT


Chapter 4

Hangovers and Sneaky Visits

(…continuation from chapter 3)

"Hey what's up-Hi-What are you doing here??-Long time no see!-Food! Did you bring food?-…-Hello."

Temari couldn't help but smile. Konoha felt like a second home to her.

'What a riot.' she thought.

Shikamaru sighed and rolled his eyes, but grinned like a cat, and Ino smiled brightly. She went with Sakura into the kitchen while Temari and Shikamaru decided to stay in the living room.

Temari sat on an armchair beside Hinata, and Shikamaru sat on the couch beside Chouji. They all talked amongst themselves, and Temari couldn't help to feel a little bit excluded from the conversations. She had tried to make short talk with Hinata, but the girl always seemed to be distracted.

Kiba was starting to lose interest of the heated argument he was having with Naruto, so he turned and talked to Temari. Once again, she seemed to have saved her from isolation.

Shikamaru watched Temari out of the corner of his eye, and almost felt angry that she was talking to Kiba. He couldn't admit that he was"possibly" jealous of him.

"Uh… did you even hear a word I just said??"

Chouji waved a hand in front of his face. He snapped back into reality.

"Oh, sorry… I was lost in my thoughts again." he replied. Chouji just shrugged and went back to eating his BBQ flavored chips.

"So what's it like taking orders from your lil bro?" asked Kiba.

"I feel like I'm practically inferior to him, which technically is true but… I'm his older sister! Shouldn't that count for anything??" she exclaimed. He laughed and grabbed a handful of popcorn on the table.

They conversed some more, having a lot of laughs along the way. She didn't even notice Shikamaru was watching her the entire time. Sakura and Ino came back with margaritas for everyone in the room, along with cases of beer.

"Yeah!!!" shouted Naruto, jumping over the couch to get a beer. Kiba hit him hard on the head, muttering "Idiot" under his breath.

"These are Ino's famous sour apple margaritas! They're so good!" cheerfully said Sakura. Ino smiled at the compliment. They passed the drinks around and Naruto stood up.

He raised his glass and yelled, "A toast to us! To the awesomest ninjas ever!!!!!"

Everybody stood up and toasted eachother's glasses. They sat back down, sipping their drinks. Naruto swallowed the margarita in one gulp and burped.

"Whoa! Don't you want to slow down and actually taste it?" said Temari. He shrugged and reached for a beer.

Sakura rolled her eyes at him and said,

"Here it goes again; Naruto gets drunk and starts to break my things once again!"

Naruto poked Kiba and yelled in his ear,

"Let's see who can chug the most beer!!!!!!"

The others turned to Naruto and Kiba, yelling "Do it! Do it! Do it…"

The blonde grinned and said,

"C'mon, maybe you'll beat me this time." Kiba's eye twitched and a vein popped on his forehead.

"I NEVER LOST TO YOU!!!! YOU LOST LAST TIME!!!!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!! I WON LAST TIME!" replied (more liked yelled) Naruto. They started to get into a heated argument, until Kiba said,

"How about whoever wins this time gets to be dubbed as the Beer King?"

Naruto couldn't back down at the opportunity and shouted,

"Bring it on!" The two grabbed a beer, flicked it open and counted down.

"3..2..1..GO!" All of them yelled.

They both downed their beers, opening another and chugging it down as fast as they picked it up. They glared at each other while trying to drink at the same time, which didn't work very well for Naruto. He slopped beer on this shirt, but he ignored the cold and kept drinking.

Temari, Neji, Shino and Tenten cheered for Kiba. The rest rooted for Naruto.

"Go Kiba!" cheered Temari.

She glanced over to Shikamaru, and he quickly caught her in the act of staring. They looked into each other's eyes, but she looked away with embarrassment.

The challenge was soon coming to an end, with Naruto and Kiba slowing down, but never keeping their eyes off of each other. Eventually, Kiba gave up, moaning,

"Ahhhhhhhh!! Major brain freeze!!!!"

Naruto stood up for joy, stumbling and prancing around the room yelling "I win, I win, I win!!" However… he ended up running to the bathroom a second later, puking.

"Gross!" exclaimed Ino. Sakura sighed, but smiled.

"He's a real laugh that Naruto."

Kiba moaned incoherently and asked for an aspirin. His cheeks were red, and he himself was very drunk.

"I swear!-It was-ant-that-screwed-over-me." Sakura shoved the pill in his mouth and splashed his mouth with water, but got it all over his face instead. But as soon as the aspirin had entered his mouth, he fell sound asleep.

"He's going to have one hell of a hangover in the morning." said Temari.

Naruto finally came out of the bathroom, still pale, and flopped onto the couch.

"My head…it pounds…" Hinata immediately sat beside him asking,

"Naruto, are you alright?!?!?!" … and was answered by his snoring.

"They're always the first to get knocked out." said Shikamaru. Ino and Sakura placed blankets over them. Neji sighed and looked at the clock, which read half past eleven.

"It's getting late, and I promised to help the Hokage with reports of yesterday and today's mission first thing in the morning." He stood up and jumped over the arm chair.

"Bye!!" said everyone who was still awake. Ino leaned her head against Shikamaru's shoulder, closing her eyes. He didn't know what to do; he couldn't move away, but he wanted to.
Shino and Tenten also left shortly after Neji, stating they had missions first thing in the morning. Eventually, Ino fell asleep, and the only ones awake were Temari, Sakura and Shikamaru.

"Sakura… do you have a boyfriend?" she asked. Sakura smiled and replied,

"No… I used to date Lee, but it didn't work out."

"Why? You two would have been great together!" Sakura looked and Shikamaru, sighed, and answered.

"At first, I really thought I loved him. But then… my mind kept wandering off to someone else.I couldn't stop thinking about him, even if Lee was around. Eventually I couldn't stop kidding myself and I broke up with him.He was devastated… but I knew doing that would make it less painful for the both of us."

Temari nodded with understanding. Shikamaru remained silent.

"The sad thing was…. the person I loved was Uchiha Sasuke."

Temari gasped with surprise. Sasuke was known as the traitor who ran off and betrayed Konoha for Orochimaru to gain more power. Sadly for Sakura, he died from practicing a forbidden justu, killing off himself and Orochimaru, along with Kabuto.

"But now it's okay…'cause I know he's finally in peace." Sakura smiled as she was talking.

Temari felt extremely sorry for her. Who would've thought that innocent Sakura would be scarred so deeply?

Shikamaru felt agony inside himself. Hearing Sakura's story made him face the truth that he was hiding from.

Why he always thought of her.

Why he wanted to be with her every second of his life.

Why he felt jealous when Kiba talked to her.

Why he wanted to touch her, kiss her, protect her…

….. because he fell in love with her…..

….. again.


Finally!! I have uploaded Chapter 4!!!!! Aren't you all very happy??

I'm hoping it was good enough to make up for that absence. I am SO SO SO SORRY that I didn't update!

I did not abandon this story!!!! I'm hoping to have Chapter 5 up soon. Stay tuned.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!