I Do Not Own Naruto

Chapter 25

"No," she said as she walked with Ino.

"But you agreed to go," Ino pointed out point blank and Temari folded her arms as they walked through the market.

"Yes, and I'll do it, but not until after the summit is over, Shikamaru and I have a lot of work to do," Temari said flatly.

"I wasn't saying right now!" Ino hissed dramatically.

"Why aren't you bothering weird ink guy or Sakura at the moment?"

"Hm? You mean Sai?" Ino inquired innocently.

"Yeah," Temari agreed as they walked together.

"He's busy at the moment, and Sakura's with Sasuke, and the flowershop is no longer mine to run, my cousin is over taking the civilian business end, and my other cousin wants to take care of the shinobi side, and the elders assigned another one to take care of the medical plants, also, the elders want me to focus on the Clan and my apprenticeship so I haven't had a lot of free time either. This has been my first break in weeks," Ino sighed.

Temari nodded in understanding of the list Ino had given her, she had one just like it back in her own village.

"But seriously, about the date!" Ino smiled.

Temari groaned in exasperation as she looked over the list of things Yoshino had handed her before she had left for the market. If she had known she was about to run into Ino she'd have asked for a short list.

"Look, I'm going on the date, just don't expect it to be pretty," she dismissed.

"No, we're going to do your hair, makeup, clothes and shoes," Ino replied firmly and Temari sighed. She didn't bother pointing out that she had only mission gear and her off duty garments here.

"Ino!" she sighed.

"You and I are about the same size, you can borrow some of my wardrobe, and this is important!" Ino said firmly. Temari wondered if she even knew when she was using her jutsu to read minds anymore or if she had just known that Temari didn't have date clothes. Also; what the hell were date clothes!?

"Fine, you can set the entire thing up, just don't make me look like a Cloud kunoichi or I'll kick your ass," she surrendered. The last thing she wanted was to look like one of those super models that belonged to the Cloud.

"Yay! This is going to be great! You're not going to regret it!" Ino was all but bouncing in her glee at this and Temari sighed as she grabbed the blonde by the shoulders to hold her still.

"Ino, it's one date, got it?" Temari demanded.

"Yeah, I got it," Ino admitted.

"Akamaru! Wait up!" a voice shouted just as a giant dog creamed her hip sending her toppling into the street as it sat on Ino's feet.

"Ow, what the hell!?" she demanded as she rubbed her butt and glared at the new young intruder.

"Hey Kiba, talk to you later Temari!" Ino smiled. Temari just rolled her eyes and picked up her list again and her bags as she waved the platinum blonde off and continued shopping. She didn't want to know what this date was going to entail, and more than likely it was going to be a disaster, she was going to buy alcohol for herself so she could get drunk after this crash and burn and ignore whatever injured pride she could have.

Truthfully, she was scared about the date.

It wasn't about who she was going with, but this was to be her first date ever, and that terrified her. she hadn't ever been on a date before and now she was going on one with Shikamaru. Not that Shikamaru knew yet; thank Kami, or she'd die of embarrassment. She hadn't even mentioned to Ino that she hadn't ever been on a date before, and she didn't want the blonde to find out about this.

It was truly mortifying to be officially twenty-one years old and to have never been on a date with a guy. And it was a little more embarrassing to know that the guy who was going to be going on this set up date with her was going to be her little brother's age.

Sighing she finished her shopping and walked back home, no, she walked back to the Nara Estate, she mentally corrected and tried not to think about her odd attachment forming to this place. She didn't want to know what this attachment could mean to her when she was leaving shortly after the Kage summit.

"Hello Yoshino, I collected everything off the list for tonight's supper," she said as she walked into the kitchen and saw the Nara matriarch there.

"Thank you Temari, its been a long while since I've had to cook for this many people," Yoshino admitted.

"I'll help," Temari decided. She rather liked cooking, it could sooth her and it would let her focus on something that wasn't related to the shinobi life or everything that she had to do. It was just something like a hobby for her as she chatted with Yoshino and moved about the kitchen preparing the meal. she wondered how everything was going for Shikamaru right now, he was either with the Kage, the council, the Hokage or her brother.

Part of her was amused that the laziest young man on the planet was probably the crucial key to making the Allied Shinobi Forces work at this moment. Perhaps, in time, this would change, and he would not be as needed, but she doubted it. There was something very reliable about Shikamaru which had everyone turning to him for the answers.

It was probably because he was a genius.

That would do it for anyone else.

Smiling to herself she went over to the oven and pulled out the meal before putting something else in and continuing to move around the kitchen with Yoshino. It felt like a homely thing to do, and she was enjoying it.

Shikamaru was finding it difficult to manage everything that was thrusted upon him. Did people forget that he didn't want the responsibilities, the work, or the attention? Probably, but he found himself handling the work load anyway and trying to keep up with all the demands of the council, Kage, and the superiors he was finding himself surrounded by.

It was a drag.

And not in a good way as he read over another report from Intelligence and jotted down a few important, key bits of information that he needed as he continued writing up a proposal for dealing the these terror groups.

It appeared that the Cloud, Suna, the Mist, the Iron, the Stone, and minor lands were all getting these terror groups at alarming rates. It was a bit stressful trying to write up a proposal which would appease everyone for the moment but he knew he wasn't going to succeed in this proposal.

Sighing he rubbed his brow and craved a cigarette.

Earlier this week Temari had burned them all in front of him, scolding him the entire time, and had threatened him if he bought anymore that he would have them shoved down his throat. Not pleasant so he had conceded to her wishes and not bought or bummed a single cigarette in four days, thirteen hours, twenty-three minutes, and Kami did he want one as he read over the report again.

This sucked.

Between the evaluations of Sasuke, the proposals, the demands, the new treaties, the actual gathering of the summit, and his own pet projects he was finding himself to be running out of energy and brain power rather quickly.

However, talking about his pet projects, he was secretly thrilled to hear that Gaara was very interested in implementing a similar program in Suna and had decided to back the proposal. Now, with Kakashi and Gaara on board with his proposal for a diplomatic team of shinobi working on improving relations with civilians he was certain he could win over the other Kage. They would see the usefulness of this in years to come again, and if they all signed off on it then he could tell the Leaf council to go fuck themselves.

Well, not really, but it was tempting.

He shook his head at this thought, he was clearly spending too much time with the Uchiha to be thinking about telling the Leaf's elders to go fuck themselves. However, it was still very tempting…

Dismissing the fantasy for what it was he continued his work on the proposal his Hokage had asked of him.

It was important to figure out what they were going to about the terrorist and their networks. It appeared that their enemy was going to be challenging, and not just because they were trained shinobi. According to the reports he had received from the other villages there were also civilians joining these terrorist groups and he didn't know how to feel about that.

Shinobi were one thing, they were trained killing machines from the time of their childhoods. He would admit that, he would admit that shinobi life harnessed the killer side in a human being and honed it to be a lethal weapon. But they were shinobi, and many of them knew of no other life outside of the life of the shinobi. Even he would admit he didn't know much about life outside of the shinobi life because he had been born to be a shinobi. He wasn't born a farmer or potter, he was born to be a shinobi, and he was a damn good one.

However, civilians were another thing entirely. They weren't born and raised in the world of kill or be killed. They didn't know about the world of the shinobi and lived simpler, peaceful lives, which he envied. But, they were also people and people were persuadeable to madmen causes. It appeared that madness was not something one could always cure, and these terrorists were spreading their insane radical views and their destructive ways now to civilians. Honestly it disgusted him.

Pulling his hair down he rubbed his scalp as he looked over his proposal and sighed before crushing it and tossing it into the waste bin.

Starting over he started carefully writing out a proposal which might please all Five Nations and the Iron, it was important to him to manage to get some of the basics down because the world was in need of peace. Shikamaru cared very deeply about how they were going to change the world, and he knew it was going to take a lot more than Uzumaki Naruto's reputation and will to change the fucked up world they resided in. but having Naruto eager to help them did help matters.

Dragging his fingers through his hair he groaned in frustration again as he crinkled up another proposal and scrapped it.

When the hell had his life gotten to be so damn difficult. All he wanted to do was laze about and enjoy the day, but now he was writing up proposal for the Kage. It was insane, and it was the opposite of what he wanted to do with his life. For he had just wanted the simple life, find a decent girl who wasn't too pretty or too ugly and just live a quiet life.

Now he was here, and he wondered if this was some twisted karma for having wanted the easy life. Looking at his blank papers and his notes, and the stack of reports he decided that it probably was his father's revenge for him saying he didn't want to help the Hokage when he had been six years old and wanted a nap rather than his Academy classes. He wouldn't put it past his old man to mess with his life like that.

And to top it all off he still hadn't had a chance to talk to Ino!

Sighing he rolled up his sleeves and continued his work.

He wondered what Temari was doing as he worked.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

THERE IS NOW A SIXTH UNTIL THE DAY I... STORY:

UNTIL THE DAY I CONTINUE

I started writing these little oddball spin offs from the main stories; for fun, and because there are so many Naruto characters that I want to touch up on. Now, if you read the other five stories then you know there are no instant couples, I am trying to follow the cannon line with as few deviations as possible, and is immediate post war life.

Now, all of these little spin offs will be following the same guide lines, but on top of that, they will fall chronologically in line with the other Until the Day I… Stories. Mostly so I can keep track of everything, as the writer, which is important to know. Now, also know that I will take character requests for one shots, and I might even come back to the character later in these mini-series, so don't be shy to make requests. If I cannot do your request because of reasons, mostly life, I will tell you but I will be happy to try at another character or a pairing you'd like to see.

Now, I don't mess with canon pairings or semi-canon pairings, but everything else is essentially fair game.

Now for the current list of Until the Day I Continue I have here or intend to put here and their characters:

-Until the Day I Find Serenity: [Neji & Tenten] (UtDIFS)

If you have other requests tell me the character and I'll see what I can do.

So send me a PM or a review!

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That's all for now folks!

Enjoy Until the Day I Act! =)