As soon as Sikamaru left her in her room, Akane took a shower. Ten minutes later, she was lying on the bed in her robe while staring at the ceiling. The comfortable silence that was currently enveloping both the room and her empty mind was rudely interrupted by another knock at the door – that seems to happen quite often. She let out an irritated sigh. Now what?

"Akane I just wanted to let you know that Shikamaru and I will be going with Tsunade-sama to meet the Kazekage. You and Sakura have the rest of the day off."

Thank goodness! "Alright. Thanks Shizune." The moment she heard her walk away, Akane jumped of her bed and started getting dressed. I better hurry and get out of here before Tsunade changes her mind. A few minutes later she opened the window, went through it, closed it, and was out on the street.

I think I'll have something to eat first. Then I'll go shopping for some new weapons! She started greening like an idiot when the next thought came to her. Sasuke's gonna freak out when he finds out I took his money! She took out her wallet to take a look. Well it serves him right after insulting my cooking... I know he faked the food poisoning that time just for the heck of it! She looked up, putting the wallet back in her bag. Then again, I guess I should have checked the expiration date on that... Wow! Sweets! I'm so eating here! Akane walked into the restaurant but stopped on it's entrance after spotting a familiar face. Just great... Maybe she won't see me. Scratch that, she's looking straight at me! Alright then, she'll probably act like she doesn't see me. Although, she is waving in my direction a little too energetically for someone who is pretending not to see me. Oh dear, she's getting up... and walking towards me. "Hey! You're Akane, right?" And now she's talking to me...

"Are you alright?" Temari was waving her hand in front of Akane's face. "Sorry, what did you say? I didn't catch it."

"You seemed a little out of it a moment ago. Never mind, do you want to eat something together? My treat." Temari smiled at her while talking.

If I want to avoid it without being rude I'll have to think of a good excuse... Think fast! "Well... I..."

Temari was practically reading her mind. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I just wanted some company. Living with two brothers can do that to a person."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. You can't live with them, you can't live without them either... Wait, you have two brothers?"

Temari smiled at her reaction. "Yeah, you've met them." After seeing Akane's confused look, she added. "Gaara and Kankurou."

"Oh..." Isn't that great... I almost killed one of her brothers and knocked out the other one in front of her! I think this is a beginning of a wonderful friendship! While Akane was stuck in her thoughts Temari took her hand and dragged her to the table. Akane realized what was happening when she felt being pushed in the chair. "Now, what are you having?"

"You're not planning on letting me go, are you?"

"No. Like I said, my treat."

"Fine. I'll have what you have."

"Not very picky, ha?"

"Actually I am, but there isn't anything in this kind of restaurant that I won't eat."

Several minutes later, they got their orders and started eating. "So you have two brothers too? Interesting..." Right... I can't imagine anything more interesting than that. "Listen Temari... Why don't you just stop beating around the bush and say what you have to say. I doubt you wanted to buy me lunch just so you could talk about my family."

"Actually, I wanted to get to know you."

"Why?" After what I did, the last thing she should want to do with me is be friends... Than a thought hit her. Maybe it's just the opposite.

"I know what you're thinking and it's not it."

"Huh? How could you possibly know what I'm thinking?"

Temari smiled at her. "I'm not trying to get close to you so I could kill you. If you think about it, I'm the least of your worries."

"That's funny. I never thought that the Kazekage would be the kind of a person to tell people stuff..."

"You mean the fact that his last assassination was attempted by the person in front of me? You were right. He isn't that kind of person. Unfortunately, Kankurou and I have out methods."

Akane didn't answer. She just kept staring down at her food. "Whether you believe it or not, I don't hate you for it." That statement fulfilled it's purpose when Akane lifted her head up to look at her. "Sure, someone trying to kill my baby brother does upset me, but that was your mission, it's not like you had a choice. Besides, he's still alive, so no harm done."

"You're weird, you know that?"

"Really? Why is that?"

"Well... If someone tried to kill one of my brothers, and I met that person later, I wouldn't waste an opportunity to kill them. Mission or not."

"You take things personal, don't you? You and Gaara can agree on that one."

"And that would probably be the only thing we'd ever agree on, since I'm not a fan of him killing me in my sleep."

Temari laughed at this. This girl really knows how to make fun of a serious situation. "Don't worry, I don't think he's going to try it again, especially after today's meeting with the Hokage."

Akane didn't bother to hide her surprise or her interest. "Why not? And what about the meeting?"

"He got carried away the last time, probably because he didn't expect you to be alive. As for the meeting, it's about Suna – Konoha alliance. I think you get the picture."

"Alliance? I guess that makes sense... in a way. Speaking of which, why aren't you at the meeting?"

"Gaara gave me the rest of the day off. Apparently, just one of us is enough and thanks to the little scene you two caused earlier, he figured that someone should keep an eye on Kankurou before he embarrasses himself and the village."

It was Akane's turn to laugh. "Wow. I almost feel sorry for him."

"You better leave it on that. You don't want to actually pity him... thrust me. Anyway, do you have any other plans today?"

"I wanted to go and waste my brother's money on shopping." Temari gave her a confused look. "It's a payback for who knows what!" Then they both started laughing. "Do you mind me tagging along? I've got nothing better to do anyway..."

"Not at all. Let's just finish here and get going."

Several hours and who knows how much money later, they decided to call it a day and went towards the hotel. Temari had a huge smile on her face. "This was so much fun! We should definitely do it again sometimes!"

"Yeah... I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed. It's like a vacation! Or something like that. I wouldn't know..." Akane stared at the sky absently.

Temari turned her head to face her. "You never had a break either, have you?"

"I guess that's another thing we can relate to." Akane faced her with a small smile.

"Yeah. I wonder how the meeting went."

"Only one way to find out."

They parted on the hotel stairs. "See you later then."

"Sure thing. Bye."

Akane went into her room. She knew that someone's gonna inform her sooner or later of whatever happened on Tsunade's meeting with Gaara, so she didn't bother to go looking for someone to tell her now. She put the bags next to her bed and started taking things out of them. This went pretty well, I guess... Akane finished putting the new things away half an hour later, then she took some stuff in the bathroom to put on after the shower. She went out after a while with a white shirt and light blue shorts on and went to bed. She fell asleep a few moments later.

If Akane wasn't as careless as she seemed, she would have noticed the opened window and a few grains of sand on it.