Chapter 17

You must all hate me for not updating earlier. I wanna finish this story so dont worry about me discontinue it. Im gonna make chapters shorter. It depends on how I feel and how great my idea is for the chapter. Ive already typed the next one and it will be up tomorrow if I dont have much to do at home.

The outstretched hand came closer and closer, just barely touching its objective. The hand disappeared for a second then it came back equipped with a pen. It neared its object again, this time with the mighty pen it touched its objective. Slowly the hand moved the pen to go up and on the spot. As the hand went faster the pen slipped from its grasp. "Damnit!"

"Having fun?" Sakura looked up from her outstretched position. Her hand still in mid air where the pen fell from. The incredible itch was still ever present in her bandaged leg which was set up to hang in mid air so that it does not touch anything in its weakened state. Apparently her leg was far more damaged than she first thought. The x-rays revealed that if more pressure was applied to her leg it would have been broken. They had to bandage it up and keep it away from anything that may touch it since her leg was fragile

"My leg is driving me crazy" Sakura muttered as she went back to her original position. Being outstretched that much with a damaged body like hers was painful. A short laugh brought her attention back to the figure lying against the door frame of her room.

"yar, yar" Shikamaru smirked. He pushed himself from the door. "I can see in your eyes that you want me to scratch that leg for you." He said walking towards her, his hands neatly tucked in his pants pocket.

"You are truly a genius" Sakura happily smiled at her savior who will defeat the horrible itch. She have been trying to scratch her leg for the past 20 minutes to get rid of it. The pestering itch was truly driving her insane.

"Your face is so pleading that anyone can figure it out...except Naruto. He's too dumb to notice anything." Another figure walked through her hospital door. His hands hung loosely at his sides, they barely moved as he gave his long strides across the room to Sakura. His neatly combed, silky chocolate brown hair were hanging loose over his red and black leather jacket..

"Awe what a nice hello to you too Hyuuga" Sakura smiled at the pale eyes boy. Her heart felt so warm and fuzzy at that moment as she watched the cold boy approaching her. Neji had that effect on her when he shown he cared. 'Neji cares for no one but he cares for me' The thought always ran through her mind. Neji Hyuuga actually cared for her.

"Hyuuga's don't say hello" Shikamaru muttered as he gently scratched Sakura's leg for her. Shikamaru and everyone who have ever met any of the Hyuuga's knew that they thought themselves to be far more superior to normal human beings. Their attitude literally said 'fall on the ground and praise my all mightiness'

"Funny" Neji mocked. He stood next to Sakura's bed. "It always amazes me how you all can find the time to think up all these comments" Neji continued. He did not glare at Shikamaru since there was no need to glare. Neji's eyes were cold enough to be considered a glare.

"Well its the truth. Your whole family except Hinata looks like they ate a1000 lemons. Have you ever heard of smiling every once in a million years" Shikamaru asked. He continued to scratch Sakura's leg for her with utmost carefulness.

"I do smile" Neji said as a mater of factly. "I just don't smile for no reason like a retard I know" Neji muttered as a blond haired boy flashed through his mind. "I do not have that 'I am an arrogant prick' face plastered on like another asshole I know" Sasuke's face flashed this time.

"I agree" Shikamaru added. He shoved his hands into his pants pocket to bring out a small box which he held out for Sakura to take. It was a square red box with black and white stars. In the middle of the box was a gold ribbon tied on.

"Thanks" Sakura smiled, taking the box from Shikamaru's open hand. .

"Its a get well soon gift from me and lemon ass" Shikamaru explained to Sakura as he watched her inspect the small box. He and Neji usually brought her something when she was sick or in the hospital. They knew that it made her smile and happy to know that someone cares even if she said that they didn't have to.

"You didn't have to" Sakura laughed. She carefully opened the box not to damage it's beauty. Inside was a chocolate bar covered in red foil. 'Get well soon from Neji and Shika' was printed in gold on a silver card. Sakura smiled at her gift. Nothing in the world could compare to the love and caring gestures of others.

"Awww thank you both for this" Sakura hugged Neji's arm since she knew he was not one for human contact. Shikamaru moved forward to her so that she could also hug him. Sakura was never one for hugs or human contact but after she got use to Neji and Shikamaru being around she hugged them like anyone would hug a family member. They were her 'brothers' after all.

"We knew you would love chocolate. You must be craving it by now and I know that hospitals don't really allow patients to eat chocolate or anything that actually tastes good" Shikamaru said, sitting down on the hard hospital chair next to Sakura's bed.

"I hope you recover" Neji nodded. He looked at his watch. "I have training to go to at the Hyuuga dojo. Uncle hates tardiness." Neji muttered the last part with distaste. He never did like his own uncle for what he did to Neji's father as he grew up. Neji's father always got all the blame since he was the youngest of the Hyuuga's main family. His father was made to look weak and incompetent by his own brother and because of that, Neji hated him for driving his father into depression 5 years ago after Neji's mother died. Hizazi always did blame Neji's father for being weak and useless for not being able to save his own wife. . "See you another time Sakura" Neji gave a small wave before he turned on his heel and walked out of the hospital room.

"No matter how much im with Neji or how many times I see his manners, Im always amazed." Sakura said, lying back in her bed. "He and Itachi is the only people I know with excellent manners."

"Its too trouble some" Shikamaru muttered.

"Everything is too troublesome for you" Sakura laughed. "Have you ever got a date or are girls still too troublesome" Sakura inquired.

"Well you see that's the thing" Shikamaru smiled "I found the perfect girl for me. It runs in the Nara family when it comes to bossy woman"

"Do tell" Sakura said.

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It's been hours after Shikamaru told Sakura about his date with Temari. He did not go into any details since he's a guy. A simple we went to the movies, ate dinner and dropped her off was his summary of the night. Shikamaru even fell asleep in the middle of his explaining, leaving Sakura to lay in her bed with nothing to do than listen to him breath as he slept. The boy had had spend the last 3 hours with her before he fell asleep on the hard hospital chair. As kind hearted as Sakura was, she just couldn't wake the boy up from his slumber. He must have been worried sick about her after he heard she was in the hospital. Those waiting rooms made people worry even more as they waited in total silence for the news.

Sakura turned towards her room door as it slowly opened. A blond head with four ponies on it popped in the room. Temari peered around the room before she saw Sakura on the bed, looking back at her.

"Hey Sakura!" Temari smiled at Sakura. She opened the door and came inside the room, closing the door behind her. "How are you feeling?" Temari asked, sitting down in the second hospital chair next to Sakura's bed.

"Hey Temari" Sakura waved at her friend. "I'm fine. Shikamaru here has been keeping me company today." Sakura motioned to the sleeping boy in the chair.

"I see he's sleeping" Temari stated looking at the sleeping boy. He looked so peaceful. 'bet nothings too troublesome when your sleeping' Temari thought.

"Yeah, Shikamaru has been keeping me company for the past few hours. I guess he was really tired from all that waiting in the waiting room before he came here with Neji." Sakura said deep in thought. Sure Shikamaru slept a lot in class but he would never sleep intentionally while he was here in the hospital with her.

"He's a real nice guy" Temari said. She was looking at the boy sleeping in the chair. Her heart would race just by looking at him. When their eyes locked she could feel her breath leaving her body and she became nervous around him. This was the first guy who ever affected her like that.

"I heard you guys went on a date" Temari snapped out of her daze as those words left Sakura's mouth. She completely forgot that Sakura didn't know about their date.

"Really did he tell you?" Temari asked. She remembers that she did not tell Sakura and Gaara would not tell her things that did not interest him. Kankuro wouldn't tell anyone if he liked living.

"Yes he did tell me about it a while ago before he fell asleep. He didn't really go into any details so I don't even know if the date was fun or not. I just know that you went with him to the movies and dinner and that's all he told me before he fell asleep." Sakura sighted. She really wanted to know how the date ended. This was the first date Shikamaru ever went on after all.

"Want to hear the details?" Temari asked Sakura, smiling. She could see that Sakura really wanted to know and it may have been the fact that Temari wanted to tell someone of the best night of her life.

"Sounds like fun" Sakura smiled back.

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Temari took Shikamaru by his arm as she pulled him out of the house, as far away from her psycho brothers. She knew that Kankuro was probably looking at them through one of the windows as they walked over to the boys car. 'Gaara probably went to his room' She smirked as she though of how good she knew her brothers.

"They're a bit over protective about you" Shikamaru sighted "Its so troublesome seeming as you are a totally capable girl to care for yourself"

"Yeah it's a pain but sometime I feel happy that they care that much about me" Shikamaru opened the door for a Temari.

"Its good to be protected by someone. My best friend is a girl called Sakura Hanaro who is more like a sister than a best friend to me and a guy called Neji Hyuuga. We try to protect her from everything seeming as she is a very soft and kind hearted girl who's fragile because of that."

" I met her." Temari climbed into the car. She waited as Shikamaru walked around the car and climbed into it himself. "A real sweet kid" She added as he closed his door.

"Yeah" Shikamaru started up his car. He drove away from the Sabaku household. Temari looked over to her house. A face was present at the window as they pulled away. A sly smirk spread onto her face as she mouthed the words 'your so dead' to the figure.

The masked man walked toward the crying girl on the floor who's clothing was soaked with blood. The knife in his hands glistened red as the moonlight caught the blood on it. Mad laughing came from beneath his cold, heartless mask as he plunged the knife into the girl repeatedly.

"Hahaha" Temari laughed as the girl was stabbed by the man. She just could help herself from laughing at the scene. The instant she was stabbed all the girls in the theater began screaming at the horrible scene if front of them. To Temari it was so funny that they scream at something like that.

"Having fun?" Shikamaru smirked at the laughing girl. He himself was slowly starting to fall asleep in the theater. The movie was really boring and stupid to him. When a person spends a lot of time with Akatsuki you get use to horrors. It was the only thing Deidara loved watching. Shikamaru shuddered at the memories when he was forcefully dragged by Sakura to spend sometime with her and her Insane 'friends'

"Yeah, sorry. Its just so funny hearing girls scream at lame crap like this. There are much worse things in the world than some stupid geezer with a knife"

"I Agree" Shikamaru said. "This movie is so troublesome" He added looking away from the screen to Temari. She was smiling at the screen. Shikamaru noted that her eyes shined when she smiled, her whole faced looked so happy and pleasant. It did not have any of the fierce hate that it always held when she was at school, glaring at other kids and scaring the hell out of them.

"You shouldn't stare, it's impolite." Temari said not turning her head to Shikamaru. She did not need to look at him to know that he was staring. She noticed from his body language that he was not staring forward.

"Sorry" Shikamaru muttered scratching the back of his head, a habit he learned from Naruto. He turned his head back to the big screen.

"Nah its okay" Temari laughed at him. She turned her head back to the big screen. It was the end of the movie anyway so it would be best to actually pay attention and watch the ending of the movie.

"You got cheese strings on your face" Shikamaru commented looking up from his cheese pizza. Temari sat across from him in the restaurant. They had decided to eat some pizza after the movie.

"Where?" Temari asked, wiping at her face. She tried to wipe the cheese string from her face but kept on missing the thing.

"On the side there" Shikamaru motioned to her left side of her face. He had already finished his pizza slice as she wiped for the notorious string.

"Here?" Temari asked wiping her cheek.

"No" Shikamaru shook his head. Her hand kept on brushing past the string.

"Here?" Temari asked again.

"Here" Shikamaru leaned over the table to wipe the string from her face. A light blush stained Temari's face as his hand came in contact with her face and not to mention the fact that his face was so close to hers. Temari could feel her heart racing in her chest. "See all gone now" Shikamaru sat back in his chair. Temari noticed him looking away from her and out the window.

"Thanks" Temari felt a bit down. She felt that he did not like her by the way he suddenly looked away from her after touching her. Her heart felt like it was slowly being crushed by an invisible hand.

"Your drink" The young waiter said .He had their drinks on his tray and was sitting them down on the table before them. Shikamaru turned towards the waiter to thank him for the drinks. In that instant the invisible hand that crushed Temari's heart disappeared. Shikamaru was not looking away out of disgust like she thought, he was looking away in order to hide the deep blush on his face. Feeling content she continued her drink and pizza until Shikamaru lost his blush and they continued talking.

Temari and Shikamaru stood outside her front door. They had finished their dinner 10 minutes ago and were standing outside her house for the ending of the date.

"This was the best date I've ever been on" Temari smiled at him. "I had so much fun tonight" She looked away with a small blush adorning her face.

"Hey Temari" Shikamaru softly talked to her. Temari looked up into his eyes "would you like to go out with me?" Shikamaru blushed. He scratched his head out of nervousness, waiting for her reply. This was a first for him. He saw other guys asked girls out but he have never asked a girl out himself.

"You mean like date you" Temari smiled a true smile at the boy in front of her. She could feel her heart racing, her blood was rising as she got excited.

"Yes" Shikamaru nodded his head..

"Well" Temari smiled. She leaned forward, taking his face in her hands and peck him on his cheek. "I'd love to" Shikamaru stood shocked as her lips brushed against his cheek. Her lips were warm and soft against his cold cheek. Shikamaru put his hand over his cheek where she kissed him after she pulled away; his heart was beating so fast he thought that it would burst.

"Good bye, Shikamaru" Temari whispered to him. She turned away from him towards the front door. She wanted to kiss him on the lips so bad but did not do it for she felt he did not want to be kissed on his first date.

"Bye, Temari." Shikamaru grabbed her arm and swung her in his arms, their lips made contact. His lips covered hers in a small but gentle kiss. He pulled away from her smiling. "Thanks for the date" Shikamaru winked at her. He turned away from her towards his car He waited by his car until she went into the house before he drove home

There you are. The next chapter. Sorry I took so long for it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys rock and kept me writing.

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