Weeeee! Last chapter was long, huh? I really wanted to squeeze as much as the party into that chapter as possible because I felt it was running really long. It's still carrying on in this chapter too. o_o;

I really wanted to capture the totally lax-vibe post war where they have a little gap to act their age so uhm, if they're coming off like alcoholics... It's because two days was spread across 9 friggin chapters. o_o 10 counting the next one as well.

That's all for announcements. Notes and rambles will be at the bottom as per usual.

Love

"Kampai!"

Shikamaru found himself slightly cringing from the burning sensation of the bitter whiskey hitting the back of his throat. He always preferred a crisp, refreshing beer and never cared for liquor, but he was getting pressured by the other guys for yet another toast they were making in honor of Naruto's engagement. Lee was the only one permitted to sit out on the shot, although that was probably decided in everyone's best interest.

Are we going to keep drinking until that fool gets married? He looked over to their future Hokage to see the rapid reddening of his cheeks.

"Oi, Naruto…" Shikamaru called over to him. "How much have you had to drink so far?"

"T-the beer Kiba made m-me chugged and… and…" Naruto slurred. He scratched his head as he tried to recall everything he drank. "Uhm…I.. I think half of another beer… that I lost somewhere… Then another half of a beer before this shot!"

Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his temples. "Alright, mister. Let's pace it out with water for the rest of the night."

"Naw!" Kiba yelled. "I'm going to let him be the future Hokage! He has to keep up with us if he wants to lead this village!"

"No way, Kiba." Shikamaru grunted.

Kiba ignored him and turned to Naruto. "C'mon, Naruto. Play a drinking game with me."

"U-uhm...heh..." Naruto laughed nervously at the instigator.

"Don't you suck at drinking games?"

The guys turned around to see Temari leading a squad of Konoha kunoichi towards them. Ino and Sakura gave Tenten a discreet nudge in Neji's direction and watched as she stumbled up to him. Once Temari saw that she was settled by his side, she directed her attention back to Kiba. "My brother wiped the floor with you last time."

"No!" he snarled back at her. "Your brother cheated! He must have used his chakra to control the ball!"

Temari smirked at him, "I'm tired of you complaining about my family. How about I settle the score for Kankuro?"

"You're on, Warrior Princess!" Kiba exclaimed with a smile on his face. He respected anyone who challenged him with drinking games.

Shikamaru watched as the two of them engage in a game of flip cup with a slightly terrified look on his face. Temari had insisted on playing with shots because she claimed she didn't want to mix liquor with beer. Not one to turn down a challenge, Kiba happy obliged.

The crowd around them got riled up when they reached their fourth and final cup. Temari and Kiba grew tense as they hunched over the table. They flipped their cups with proficiency and watched as they landed at the same time. The shinobi around them roared while the two challengers stood there with a dissatisfied look on their faces.

Shikamaru continued to stare at them wide-eyed in silence. This girl is crazy.

"Damn it!" Kiba cursed, slamming his fist on the table.

Temari just stared at the cups, unimpressed. "Tied…" she mumbled.

Kiba closed his eyes and huffed a long, exaggerated sigh. When he opened them again, he smiled at her and extended his hand. "Not too shabby… for a woman."

Temari stared at his hand for a few seconds before bringing her hands to her hips.

"You too with the gender roles?" she grunted, rolling her eyes over to Shikamaru. She let out a sigh herself before reaching out to accept his handshake. "Now you owe me a rematch too," she smirked.

"You got it!" Kiba smiled as he shook her hand.

"Alright, you. That's enough."

Temari heard Shikamaru's voice as he grabbed her shoulders from behind to pull her away from the table. Due to her slightly intoxicated state, she stumbled back and fell into into arms and landed against his chest. Although it only took them a second to straighten themselves out, feeling his broad chest against her back was enough to send sparks down her spine. It was the first time they've made any physical contact since arriving at the party.

"We… should go…" he muttered quietly. "Meeting in the morning, remember?"

"Right," she agreed. "But I need to go to the bathroom first."

It was partially true. In addition to emptying her bladder, she needed a breather after feeling his arms around her. She hated how it barely took anything for him to make her lose her composure.

And he didn't even do it intentionally! She screamed at herself as she marched towards the bathroom.

Shikamaru watched as she sped towards the back of the cabin completely flustered.

She felt it too then, he smiled to himself. He turned around and walked over to his friends to let them know that they were leaving.

"Aww, not yet!" Ino pouted at him.

"We have to wake up pretty early to meet with Kakashi," he explained to her.

"Don't bother," Sai chuckled quietly. "Kakashi-sensei is known to be notoriously late."

"Maybe with his students, but I think he treats his role as the Hokage a little different… He is meeting with Suna's ambassador after all," Shikamaru said with a smile.

"I should go too… It's going to be a busy day at hospital tomorrow and I should rest," Sakura sighed. She grabbed her water bottle and hoisted herself off the log she was sitting on.

"I'll walk you, Sakura!" Lee said, running up to her.

"Thanks, Lee." She smiled warmly at him. "You're still keeping your promise to always take care of me after all these years, huh?"

"You bet!" He smiled, giving her his usual endearing thumbs-up.

"Alright," came Temari's voice as she walked up to the group.

"Wait! Group picture before Temari leaves," Ino ordered. "Gather around Naruto, everyone!" She pointed at the drooling shinobi who was nodding off against a log.

"Oh, hell yah!" Kiba laughed as he sped behind Naruto. He made doggy ears with his hands behind the jinchuriki's head. Akamaru chased after Kiba and sat next to him, panting heavily.

"The nine-tailed beast jinchuriki, but sad one-shot wonder…" Shino sighed and chuckled to himself.

"Quick, everyone go!" Tenten instructed her friends as she fussed with her tripod.

Ino grabbed Sai and shoved her way against Shikamaru's back until he crashed into Temari.

"Oi!" He turned around to yell at her, but she just grinned back at him as she continued to push them harder until they were sandwiched between her and Choji for the picture.

His eyes found their way to Temari's as he shot her an apologetic look. She just shrugged and smiled at him. Shikamaru looked at Ino and heaved a defeated sigh before turning to smile back to Temari. They hadn't notice that everyone was already posing for the picture until the flash went off. Both of them turned to look at the camera in confusion as the group slowly started get up from their poses.

Hinata looped her arm around Naruto's waist and brought him up to his feet. "We should get going too," she smiled at the group.

"Let me help you, Hinata-sama." Neji offered as he made his way towards her.

"No!" Hinata said abruptly. Her cousin stopped dead in his tracks and looked at her in confusion. "Uhm… Neji nii-san, Lee is walking Sakura home and…" her voice trailed off as she look over her shoulder.

Neji followed her eyes to see that she was looking at Tenten sealing her camera and tripod into one of her scrolls.

"Oh…" he said. He turned back Hinata. "Will you be okay carrying him?"

"I'm awaaake…" Naruto squawked. His head was still buried in the purple locks around her neck.

Hinata glanced at him and giggled before turning back to her cousin. "Yes, Neji nii-san. You forget that I'm not that weak little girl anymore thanks to you."

"Understood," he said, smiling back at her. "Please be safe."

"I will," she nodded at him. She watched with a smile as he made over to Tenten.

"Shikamaru!" Shiho called as she ran up to him. "I heard you were leaving!"

"Oh, uh. Yeah." He muttered, turning away to scratch the back of his head nervously.

"I'm leaving too," she smiled. "Can you walk me home?"

"Um…" He pointed his thumb over to Temari. "Can't. You know. Duty calls."

A disappointed frown replaced the eager smile that was on her face. "Ah, that's right…"

"We live in the same part of town," Sakura smiled over to Shiho. "Lee and I can walk you home," she offered.

"Well…" Shiho muttered as she glanced over to Shikamaru.

"You know," Ino said as she walked over to them holding Sai's hand. "Temari is actually a bodyguard. So in reality, she's the one escorting you," she laughed nervously at Shikamaru in attempt to cut through the awkward tension in the air.

"Yeah, I'm the bodyguard." Temari echoed as she waved him off with her hand. "I can take care of myself if you need to go."

Ino started at Temari in horror as Shiho perked up again. What the hell is she doing?! She's making it worse!

Shikamaru furrowed his brows and grunted as reached over and assertively grabbed her wrist.

"How troublesome… You know that's not how this works," he grumbled as dragged her past his friends.

"H-hey!" she blurted out, feeling the heat rising to her cheeks as she trailed behind him.

"Poor Temari," Tenten laughed. "Her arm must be falling out of its socket from being hauled around all night."

"A..ayy…" Naruto groaned as he lifted his head off Hinata's shoulder. "Did I see Shikamaru holding that Suna nee-san's hand…?"

"No," Ino answered him while she watched Shikamaru disappeared into the woods with a very flustered Temari. "Not yet…" she quietly added with a smile.

Shikamaru continued to hold onto her as they made their way down the path that led away from the cabin

"Are you trying to hook me up with other women?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

"What am I supposed to say?" she giggled. "'Don't touch my boyfriend?'"

"W-well…" he stammered. It was much too soon for labels, right? He remembered that Ino dated Sai for almost a month before they became official.

The four shots she took at the end of the party suddenly decided to hit her all at once, causing her to stumble over her feet when he loosened he loosened his grip on her wrist. She wrapped her arms around his ribcage to catch herself when she fell into him.

Shikamaru quickly lifted up his arms up to prevent her head from falling into his elbow.

"Hey! Are you okay…?" he asked in concern.

Temari found her footing, but kept her arms around his ribcage.

"Yeah…" she answered quietly.

She continued to hold onto him as they stood there in silence. She wasn't drunk enough that she needed to rely on him for support, but she found it hard to relinquish the comforting feeling she got from being close to him. Her shy eyes remained glued to the floor so that they wouldn't come in contact with his.

Shikamaru stared down at her and waited to see what she was going to do next. When she didn't move from her position, he realized that she must have wanted to stay there just as much as he wanted her to. A smile tugged on his lips as he lowered his arms and wrapped the one next to her around her shoulders.

She remained silent and leaned her head against his chest as they continued to walk back to his apartment. Why was this suddenly so hard for her? Even though she's spent the past few days basically living with him, she still found moments where she would retract into a shy and bashful version of her that she didn't recognize. Was it because they were in public? Her eyes scanned the streets when they made in back into the village. Everything was dark and empty due to the late hour.

"If anyone asks… we'll just tell them that Temari of the Sand is secretly a drunkard," he joked, almost as if he heard her thoughts.

Temari frowned and pinched the skin on the side of his ribcage.

"Ow! What?! It's not far from the truth given your wild game of liquor flip cup," he grunted as he rubbed the inflicted area with his free hand. When she only responded with a giggle, he simply rolled his eyes and smiled at the dark street in front of him.

Walking her up the stairs in his building quietly proved to be a harder task than he'd anticipated. She climbed the steps noisily and laughed every time they bumped into the walls. Being under the influence of alcohol himself, he was also guilty of contributing to the commotion they were causing in the hallway before his door.

"Shhh," he shushed her while trying to contain his own laughter. "Normal people are sleeping."

Keeping his arm around her shoulders, he dug into his pockets for the keys and unlocked the door.

She laughed again when they fell past his door once it was opened. Her eyes caught the dent that she had left on his cabinetry the other day with her tessen. "What happened here?" she asked as she ran her fingers across the groove. "This is a piece by Noguchi. I can tell by the minimalistic design. It must have been expensive."

Shikamaru looked over at her as she inspected the damage she had unknowingly caused.

"Someone dropped something pretty big on it," he answered.

Temari knotted her brows together and continued to inspect the damage. After staring at it for a few seconds in silence, she scrunched up her nose and grunted, "What an asshole."

Shikamaru couldn't help but laugh as he turned around to lock his door.

"What?" she demanded.

"Nothing," he replied. "You're funny."

She looked at him suspiciously as she turned to make her way into his genkan. Her foot tripped over the step, causing her to fall forward on her hands and knees.

"Ouch!" she hissed.

Shikamaru immediately dropped down behind to her and placed a hand on her back.

"Are you alright?!" He stared at the back of her head as she back down onto her heels. Her silence was starting to make him nervous.

"I'm good," she declared. She surprised him when she turned around to smiled at him over her shoulder. It was the same big, hearty smile she gave him when she defeated Tayuya all those years ago.

Suddenly, Shikamaru was stone-cold sober. All he could do was stare back at her as he acknowledged the foreign feeling in his heart.

He knew in that moment that he loved her.

Hiiiii. I always write these/edit them soooooo late. ;_; This chapter was a little sloppy and I'm so sorry for that.

KangerTop21 - Yessssss, Ino is the biggest ShikaTema shipper in the series! I love her for it and usually have trouble reading fics when they're put against each other.

Mirin Hanashi - I planned on writing scenes with the suitor, so sit tight! ^^

Both you and Wiceriene aren't huge fans of the smoking, hehe. I promise you'll see less of it from here on out (but it's still has a part in some scenes coming up). The irony is that I hated seeing Shikamaru smoke in Boruto hahahaha. Wiceriene, I'm glad Kiba and Naruto didn't come off as obnoxious (funny because I did use that word for them just for that quick scene in the last chappie).

whattadragg - Hehe, Shiho's role will take an unexpected turn ;) I really wanted to write her with the other girls because she seemed close to them in the brief scenes in the movie! I'm glad you like it!

Stay tuned...

Some cute fluff (although important to the story) next chapter and possibly another lemon if it doesn't run too long. Hehehe...

PS: I had some fun with writing a Vampire-universe ShikaTema fic with Halloweeen looming around the corner (shameless plug). It's just a scene I wanted type up and I haven't decided if I want to pursue a second story or not. I also have another prologue from a romantic-comedy style ShikaTema story (also AU) drafted up too. Let me know if you guys are interested in it. ^^;