A/N: It's been brought to my attention (since I forgot) that people can't copy paste stories on fanfiction, so when I asked for people to send this ('̀-'́)that actually turned out to be like, the most difficult thing I could have asked for, lmao. It's on my profile, by the way, if you want it for future reference. It's a great way to ask people to fight you through text (which isn't recommended). I realized that I didn't even end up putting the scene in with Chouji in the last chapter. He made an appearance, but I have a scene planned out, so I put it in this chapter instead. I was going to make it longer, but I got tired and fell asleep. The previous sentence, funny enough, is the name of my sex tape! Okay...on with the story now...pretend like I didn't say that...


Temari POV

A few weeks after Halloween, Mr. Yamato finished the repairs on the dormitories. He's a wood release, remember, so it didn't take him all that long to do it. Tsunade had to arrange to get everything refurnished, however, and that took a bit longer.

I moved in not long after that. The Naras weren't particularly happy that I did it, but they'll live. Yoshino made me promise I'd come visit at least once a week.

One Tuesday after school, I had a day off of work so I went to the dorms to go study. As I was walking up the stairs, I heard some yelling from below. I followed the sound to where the ice and the vending machines are located. On the floor was a very stuck Chouji.

"Um..Chouji?"

"Temari! Thank god you're here."

"Is your arm stuck up that vending machine?" I blinked a few times, not believing this.

"Maybe."

"Well why the fuck would you put your arm up there?!"

"I didn't have any more money to give the damn thing after it ate my dollar!"

"I feel like there's a more efficient way to do this..." He looked pretty pathetic, so I decided to help him. "But I'll go call someone to get you out."

I walked to Tsunade's office and told Shizune, who laughed when I told her.

"You can tell him that someone should be over to help him in a few minutes." I sighed, not wanting to play messenger. But it wasn't really out of the way, so I went to go tell him.

"how long do you mean, a few minutes? Like my mother's 'I'll be in the supermarket for a few minutes' and then she takes like two hours, or actually like 300 seconds"

"how am I supposed to know, Chouji? I know this may come as a shock to you, but I've never been in this situation before."

"Since this is coming from Tsunade's office, I'll bet it's like my mom's. Ugh I'm bored already." I crossed my arms. "and hungry!"

"Well..." I hesitated. "I could bring my study guide and flash cards down if you want to study with me. I know, I'm not the most entertaining person, but it's something."

"Really?" He smiled widely. "You'd do that?!"

"Sure, I'll be right down."

Chouji was right. It was a "mom" few minutes. Not that I would know, my mom was dead. But it did end up taking an hour and a half for someone to come and yank him out of the machine.

We had a nice little study date, however. He wasn't really that dumb, and he's really, really nice. I like Chouji.

"Hey, Temari!" I had begun to walk up the stairs to my room, but he stopped me.

"Would you want to go out to dinner, you know, as a way to pay you back for keeping me company?" I probably looked a little shocked, because he added, "not as a date, Shikamaru would kill me. I just mean like a platonic dinner, maybe study thing?" I laughed in relief.

"I'd love to. Let me go get a new batch of study guides."

We ended up going to a barbeque restaurant. I mostly tested him, since his hands were too busy cooking the meat to study.

"And what was the most important economic effect of the first shinobi war?"

He ignored my question entirely, probably signifying that he didn't know the answer. Chouji was a hard worker, so he had pretty good grades, but logic and knowledge didn't come easy to him.

"Hey, what are you doing for the harvest holiday?"

"what?"

"Oh right, I don't think they have it in Suna."

"What, the harvest holiday? No. but I've heard of it, I mean, it sounds familiar."

"Well, in the fall, during the last days of November, most families have a feast to celebrate the harvest. It's my favorite holiday. Barbeque, Pies, Dango, Scewers, Ice cream... everything I love. But it's mostly a family tradition, and since you don't have any here, what are your plans?"

"I don't have any. I'll probably just get take out. I can't make myself any food, they decided not to rebuild the kitchen, since Naruto still lives in the dorms."

"that's not right. Hey wait, aren't you invited to the Nara's?"

"They might invite me, I don't know. It's not like I'm gonna ask, they've been really nice to me, so I'm not going to be rude."

"Well, if they don't invite you, you're always welcome to the Akimichi home. The Naras are strange because they don't usually invite people over for their holidays and clan events unless you are blood related or betrothed, so don't feel too bad if they don't invite you." He smiled, eating the last piece of meat. "well, I'm gonna get going, my mom's going to be mad if I don't get home soon. Thanks for the company!"

"Thanks for the meal."

"see you in school."

"yeah."

I didn't really know what to make of our conversation. I don't really care about holidays in general, I really enjoy festivals and celebrations, but it's not like I'm going to be heartbroken if I can't make it to one.

But now, I was a little bit worried about what my plans for the harvest holiday were going to be. I thought it would be a little sad if I was going to spend it alone. But I was shocked that I cared, considering I had just heard about the damn holiday.


The next day at work, Ino invited me to the Yamanaka holiday harvest. I told her that I was already invited to the Akimichi, and she scowled.

"damn Chouji beat me to it."

"Eh, don't worry. I'll come over after and we can spend time together, maybe."

"Oh, you won't have time for me after an Akimichi feast. You'll probably be in a food coma." I laughed sincerely. "I swear, I had a food baby after the last feast I attended."

"does InoShikaChou have a lot of feasts together?"

"eh, not really 'feasts'. We do spend a lot of holidays and celebrations together, but not for some things. Some stuff is in-clan only. For the Naras, I haven't even been to one of their harvest feasts."

"Is it because the deer don't like you?" She reddened.

"No! Honestly, not even Chouji's been, and the deer like him plenty. Damn capricious little things."

"Ha. Shikamaru named one after me." She stopped doing her arrangement immediately.

"What was that?"

"He named a little baby doe Temari. I know, pretty gross, right?"

"yeah..."

"Well, just wait until you two are engaged, they'll invite you over for the harvest, then. It's a Clan-member only thing, but if you're betrothed to one of them, you're allowed in."

"Excuse me? What exactly are you implying, Ino?"

"Oh, I'm not implying anything."

"What?"

"I'm not, and you know it. No one spoons their platonic friend to sleep in their underwear like you did on Halloween." I went red with embarrassment.

"We were drunk..."

"Yeah, and you, missy, are a very honest person when you're drunk. I think you were just getting out your true emoitions."

"that's not true, I"

"admit it. You have the hots for Shikamaru. You would not stop asking for him on Halloween, it was all 'oooh Shikamaru, where is he? I wanna suck his dick!'"

"I did not say that!"

"Oh, yes you did." Oh fuck, I really did.

"whatever." I continued working on an arrangement so she wouldn't see my red face.

"it's okay, I mean, it's not like he doesn't like you. He won't just name deer after anyone, you know." I scoffed, most kids named their animals stupid things, it wasn't a big deal.

"It's really doesn't mean anything. Once, Kankuro adopted a pet rat and named it Snaggleworth. It really doesn't mean anything."

"I guess you don't know how important the deer are to the Naras then." I paused, knowing exactly how important the deer are to the Naras. I don't think I could find one named snuggles, anywhere.

"Still."

"sure, Temari. Will you go run this to Madam Shijimi, for me?"


"well?" I asked Shiakmaru. "Out with it."

He was walking me back to the dorms at night, right after one of the weekly dinners that Yoshino made me attend.

He rubbed his neck.

"We have most of next week off from school because of this thing called the Harvest holiday."

"I know, Chouji and Ino told me about it."

"Oh, well. If they haven't invited you-"

"they have."

"well, if you want to," he waited for me to fight him, but I didn't, "you're welcome to the my house for the feast." I paused from looking for my keys to my room.

"really?" I looked at him curiously.

"yeah. My mom's going to probably fight Mrs. Yamanaka and Akimichi."

"she doesn't have to." He looked at me shocked. "I'm going to your feast, of course. Crybaby." I shut the door on him so he couldn't see how my face lit up slightly, and I was for sure hiding a dorky grin.


The morning of the holiday, I went over to Ino's to borrow a dress. But it turned out to be a little party to get ready for the feast, since Sakura joined us.

"So, Nara found the balls to ask you out?"

"it's not 'asking me out', Ino, he's practically required to invite me over, Tsunade probably forced him."

"You don't really believe that, Temari, do you? Tsunade and I were talking the other day about how unnecessarily serious he takes his guide duty. She suggested that you go to our feast and he almost had a conniption." Sakura was so nonchalant about the whole matter, she just continued applying mascara.

"Ha! That's rich. He's too lazy to have a conniption."

"Sakura, leave Temari alone. If she wants to live in denial, it's okay. She'll figure out her feelings later. Let's just focus on finding dresses for tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes, but didn't correct her. I guess Nara was rubbing off on me, because I figured that it was too troublesome to keep on fighting with them over my non-existent relationship with Shikamaru.

"Ino, I'm brushing my hair now. I'll be back in like three hours."

She ended up straightening my hair, too. My hair was short, but it's incredibly thick, so it takes a long time to manage. That's why I put it up in weird ways most days.

Sakura tried to do my makeup, but she kept making me laugh, so she couldn't get the eyeliner right. At some point, one of them had to pin me down to stay still, while the other painted my face with god knows what.

It's odd, I went to her house with a specific dress in mind. I really thought I was going to walk in and out of there in a second, but I stayed for more than two, and didn't even end up wearing the dress. I wore a dark brown one. It was conservative enough to wear in front of a bunch of old people, but it was able to show off my curves nicely. I was surprised that Ino owned something like it, but she explained that her mom bought it for her.

"well, thanks for the makeover, I'll see you guys later. I'm headed over to the crybaby's house."

"wait, Temari!"

"yes?"

"why do you call him crybaby?"

"yeah, why?" Sakura added.

"well, the first day of school, I lightly, barely tapped him and he started tearing up."

They laughed, and I bid them farewell again, and headed over to the Nara compound.


A/N Pt. 2: Don't expect updates to be this quick once spring break is over... review pls! (ง'̀-'́)ง