Fun

"How did you manage to lose them?" Mitsunari snarked at his partner as they both emerged from the trees. The two of them were following Temari and the Konoha strategist into the massive forest only lost sight of them after turning just a few corners. They tried to follow the sound of rustling trees and grass, only to have the forest spit them out at a random entrance every time they'd followed a lead. This went on for what at least felt an hour.

"How did I lose them?" The brunette shot back at him. "We were both on their tail last I checked."

Feeling defeated, Mitsunari slumped down onto the grass and dropped his head between his knees until he could feel his forehead against his hands. An exhausted groan came out of him as he yanked on his hair in frustration.

"Should we follow the Jinchuriki and their other friends? Perhaps they met with them again." Yukimura suggested.

"Sure," Mitsunari said as he let out a deep breath. "No point in running around in circles again."

Both warriors looked in the direction of the festival for a brief second before darting towards it in the moonlight.

Shikamaru wanted to take his time to admire how beautiful she was. Her hair had completely fallen out of the elegant bun. The stands that framed her face would dance around her cheeks every time the occasional breeze would come around. He had always loved the way her green eyes shone so brightly amidst all the golden waves.

"What is it?" Temari demanded from him again when he didn't respond to her.

Shikamaru couldn't help but smile secretly to himself. She had always been a little firecracker: always beautiful, always fun, always full of surprises, but always loud, and at times can be very difficult.

He took a deep breath and pretended to sigh at her attitude before lazily untangling their bodies and climbing off her. "How are you going to explain the sex hair to everyone?" He mumbled as he began to rummage through the pile of clothes scattered across the floor for his cigarettes.

Temari pulled a strand of her hair to the front of her face and assessed the damage. Unable to see more than just a few inches of the ends, she reached to the back of her head and felt the clusters of knots that had accumulated from their heated session. She looked over at Shikamaru and saw that he wasn't in much better shape than she was. Though his hair was not quite as disheveled as her's, it was glistening with sweat and clung to his scalp in multiple damp sections. It was going to be near impossible to clean up well enough to fool their friends for sure.

"So, who was following you?" Shikamaru's voice broke her train of thought as he lifted a cigarette to his lips. The clang of the metal lighter being flung open pierced through the air. There was an occasional rustle from the wind hitting the trees was the only other sound they could hear while he waited for her to speak.

"They're from Sunagakure." Temari answered. Her eyes followed the lighter as he brought it to his face to light the cigarette.

"Your bodyguards?" Shikamaru joked, his voice a little strained from inhaling the smoke.

"Gaara's." She answered.

Shikamaru's smile fell from his face. He was a little stunned since he hadn't intended on guessing correctly. He blinked a few times before raising his forehead up in amusement. "Oh," was all he could say as he offered her the cigarette to which she declined by shaking her head.

"Hmm?" He arched a brow at her. "No more smoking, ever?"

"Just trying to get better at not giving into temptation." She shrugged. Her eyes quickly met his before darting to the floor to look for her clothes. She curled her lips over her teeth and pressed them together to hide a smile.

"Tch," He smirked. "Not doing a—"

"— a good job at it, am I?" She finished in unison with him. "I know, I know. You know I've always hated how impulsive I am." She sighed and reached for her robe that was sprawled across the floor, shaking off any grass or dust that might have gotten on it.

So what did that mean for them?

He was dying to know, but he knew he had to address the other situation at hand first. He cleared his throat and asked, "What are Gaara's bodyguards doing following you then? And why are we hiding from them?"

"I don't know. They're new." She began to explain as she threaded her arm through the sleeves on her yukata. "One of the elders insisted Gaara needed more protection, especially since I am always traveling to Konoha and apparently can't be there for him enough."

"Sorry…" He apologized quietly and lowered his eyes. He suddenly felt guilty for the times they've spent together.

"Why?" She asked, turning to face him. Her demanding tone startled him, causing his eyes to jump and meet hers. "My job requires me to travel. How is that your fault?"

"Just trying to sympathize," he said scoffed. "I know that's a hard concept for you." He joked as he swung his yukata over his shoulders.

"That's fair." Temari chuckled at their banter. She fastened her obi before continuing, "Anyway, I've never trusted this elder, and forcing outsiders into very high and personal ranks is very alarming. Having them follow me definitely makes it even more suspicious. I wanted to talk to you and the Hokage about it. You know, just to be prepared in case something weird happens."

"Right." He agreed. "Are you going to confront those guys for following you?"

"No," she answered. "I'm willing to bet they're going to argue that it was for my protection. Feigning ignorance would work better to my advantage for now."

Shikamaru nodded in agreement with her as they both finished getting dressed quietly.

"Feigning ignorance is something our friends won't be doing be doing once we get back…" He said quietly as he reached over to free one of the hair ornaments that was trapped in Temari thick hair.

"I have an idea!" Temari exclaimed. She grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the festival.

Next thing he knew, Shikamaru found himself glaring at the blonde kunoichi standing before him. They were back at the festival and he was sitting on top of a dunk tank. A kunai whistled in the air as she eagerly spun it around her index finger. The sight of her beaming smile would have probably looked adorable to him if she wasn't about to drop him into a barrel of cold water.

Her argument when she pushed him onto the platform earlier was that they now had an excuse to come back looking disheveled.

He was unamused.

How troubleso—.

Temari hurled the kunai in his direction before he was able to finish his thought.

The impact of the kunai hitting the target made a loud clunk, releasing the platform and dropping him into the water. He felt himself instinctively flinched and tensed up as the coldness washed over him. With a massive frown on his face, he reached for the edge of the tub so that he could climb out of the barrel. Once outside, he wiped the water from his eyes and looked up to see Temari tying her hair into the two pigtails that she traditionally wore. He made his way towards her, using heavy steps to communicate to her how unhappy he was with her idea.

"Your turn." He muttered as he nudged her towards the tank.

"No time!" She beamed at him.

"What do you mean?!" He gawked back at her.

"Shh!" Temari brought her finger to her lips to hush him. She then pointed into the crowd to his friends who were making their way towards them. Her other hand fumbled through her hair to smooth down any stray hairs that might have still been out of place just right before Ino made eye contact with them.

"There you guys are!" Ino called out with frustration in her voice. She pushed through the crowd and ran towards them, dragging Sai by the hand behind her. "Where did you guys run off to for the past two hours?" She asked as the rest of the party gathered around them.

"I had a score to settle with him from last time with the target practice game," Temari lied with a smile on her face. She didn't hesitate or stopped to think, nor did she sounded too eager or too nervous.

She's a little too good at lying. Shikamaru made a mental note to pay closer attention to her next time he had to ask her questions.

"What happened to your hair?" Ino asked with a little despair in her voice. She reached out to touch Temari's hair. "I worked so hard on it."

"Sorry," Temari shrugged and apologized. "My hair kept getting in my face. I got frustrated after a few rounds and had to get it out of the way."

Images of Temari's hair falling around her face while she was mounted on top of him suddenly flooded Shikamaru's mind when she said that. He coughed into his fist in hopes of shaking off the sudden flashbacks. Ino who was still frowning at the other blonde kunoichi.

This sly fox. She's really getting away with this.

Shikamaru cleared his throat.

"Well, I have to go home." He suddenly announced.

"What? Why?!" Ino demanded, jabbing her index finger into Shikamaru's chest. "We just found you!"

"What do you mean, 'What'? Look at me! I can't walk around drenched like this." He huffed back at her.

"Don't worry," Temari said as she pulled a small fan out from the obi. "I can fix that."

Shikamaru looked at the object in her hand and froze in horror as braced himself for what was coming next.

No!

Yukimura and Mitsunari, successful in their attempt to find Temari again, were now crouching over the corner of a rooftop directly above the group.

"I can't believe I have to waste my time watching these brats," Mitsunari scoffed to his partner. They had been following Naruto and his friends for at least an hour.

When Yukimura didn't say anything back, Mitsunari continued to complain about the situation.

"You're such a dedicated soldier to marry that brat," Mitsunari said playfully before turning his gaze down back to Temari. "Getting her to agree to marry you might be a little bit more daunting than expected. There's clearly something going on with her and that Konoha kid she took off with."

The light coming from the lanterns flickered in Yukimura's eyes as he continued to watch the group in silence.

"Well," Mitsunari sighed loudly as he ran his finger through his fiery red hair. "No matter. Women are easy. Just gotta give them a little romance, right?"

Yukimura finally let out a breath but remained silent. He felt that his friend couldn't be any further from the truth based on everything they've learned about Temari thus far. Though she was quick to speak her mind, she was also very good about being secretive. She was a guarded woman and was very cautious about the company she kept around her. She had been especially cold towards them, and Mitsunari demanding to fight her did little to help their situation.

"Do you plan on handing the village over to that old bat Toujiro once you marry into their family? You could just seize for yourself at that point, right?" Mitsunari asked.

"Be mindful of what comes out of your mouth, Mitsunari," Yukimura replied sternly without flinching.

Mitsunari's eyes narrowed at his friend as he sighed, "You're no fun."

"Fun?!"

Yukimura and Mitsunari jump and turned to face the direction that the voice came from.

"O..Orochimaru?" Yukimura asked, stunned. That was the last person he was expecting to see in the middle of a festival.

Orochimaru just grinned back at them.

He still looks like a psychopath… Mitsunari thought to himself as he stared at the unnerving smile on Orochimaru's face.

"Did you say, 'Fun'?" Orochimaru asked them again as he started to make his way across the rooftop. "What's fun up here?"

"O-oi! What do you want?!" Mitsunari barked at him.

Before Orochimaru could utter another word, a strong wind storm roared past them and into the sky, causing all of them to stumble. Orochimaru widened his stance to stabilize his weight, though he was feeling less of the impact due to being further away from the corner of the rooftop. He watched as Mitsunari and Yukimura failed to find their footing causing them to fall down to the streets beneath them.

Back on the ground, Temari was smiling deviously while Shikamaru twirled around like a rag doll in her wind tunnel. She was just about to jokingly if he was going to thank her for drying his hair and clothes when two bodies came crashing into the street before her. The long, familiar red hair caught her eye and immediately identified the sudden intruders to her. With a wave of her fingers, the wind tunnel subsided, gently tossing Shikamaru back on the ground.

Shikamaru opened his mouth to yell at her but Temari cut him off.

"What are you doing here?" Temari demanded in a chilling voice.

The sudden change in her demeanor made the entire group tense up as they watched her interrogate the strangers. Shikamaru couldn't recall the last time he heard her address anyone with such harshness. He thought back to her arrival during their chunin exams as kids when she entered their town with the intention of killing everyone there in cold blood.

"They were doing something fun!" Orochimaru exclaimed as he jumped from the rooftop and meet everyone else on the street. Once he landed, he turned and pointed his finger to Mitsunari and Yukimura. "But I think they're lying because they were just sitting on the roof and that didn't look very fun. Anyway, I'm going to find something that's actually fun to do." He declared before turning on his heel to leave.

Everyone watched, flabbergasted, as Orochimaru disappeared into the crowd while humming to himself. They were still getting used to him lingering around Konoha and popping randomly now and then.

Temari never flinched or took her eyes Mitsunari and Yukimura. She seemed mildly annoyed and began to scowl at the two men. Shikamaru knew she wanted to keep her knowledge of their presence a secret. Encountering them like this foiled her plans and probably irritated her.

Mitsunari and Yukimura picked themselves off the floor and dusted their clothes before turning to face her. They held their arms flat against the length of their bodies and gave her a small bow.

"Sorry to startle you—" Mitsunari began, still looking to the floor.

"I wasn't startled," Temari replied aggressively. "I'm not telling you to apologize. I'm demanding to know what you're doing here."

What a bitch. Mitsunari took the opportunity to roll his eye at her from under his hair while he facing away from her.

"Toujiro sent us," He answered, finally raising his level to look Temari in the eye. "We sent to watch over you."

Shikamaru smirked to himself as he dusted himself off his yukata. Temari had called it, but it didn't take a strategist to predict that excuse. They weren't even trying.

"I hate liars." Temari spat back, causing Shikamaru to now chuckle under his breath at her bluntness. "I've been traveling alone to Konoha ever since I was a child. Why would Toujiro send babysitters now?"

"Because now we're in need of an heir and you're the oldest…" Mitsunari responded quietly.

"An heir?" Naruto asked out loud.

"What?" Sakura chimed in after him. "They want you to have kids? Already?"

"No," Temari replied without taking her eyes off the two men.

"Not immediately," Yukimura chimed in. "But that day will come very soon, and we have to keep you protected for that reason."

"Listen," Temari said in a demeaning tone. She folded the small fan and tucked it back into her obi before continuing sarcastically. "First of all, I've fought in the war, personally inflicted damage onto Uchiha Madara and I still came out alive. I'm pretty sure that I can travel on my own just fine. Second, you have two more siblings that are perfectly capable of reproducing in the case that I tripped over rock and fall to my death or something." She didn't want to make to too obvious that she knew they were bullshitting her.

"Just following orders," Yukimura replied.

"Well, you can go back to Toujiro and tell him your services aren't necessary because I don't need the protection. The worst thing that could happen to me is that I'll get too tan from being in the sun." She sneered.

Mitsunari and Yukimura just stood there in silence.

"You may leave now." She ordered them.

Mitsunari's face hardened, but he managed a nod before leaping onto a roof and disappearing into the night with Yukimura.

Temari turned to see everyone staring back at her. She saw Shikamaru tapping his nail beds together as he quietly looked at the floor. It was different from his infamous "thinking" stance where he touched all of his fingertips together. He wasn't scheming or strategizing. He was fidgeting, a common sign of anxiousness amongst most people. She could tell that he didn't like the news he had just learned.

"Sorry about that." Temari apologized to everyone. "Didn't mean to make it awkward."

"I don't get it," Sakura said. "They want you to have a kid? So does that mean you have to get married?"

"Again, not anytime soon. Gaara is still in his teens and I've barely just left mine." Temari answered her. "In my village, you have to be born into the bloodline and there's three of us."

"Bloodline?" Naruto asked. "Are you like a princess or something?"

Temari rolled her eyes. "No."

"Yes, you are." Shikamaru finally spoke and called her out. He ran his hand against the length of his yukata, attempting to smooth out the creases caused by Temari's wind tunnel.

"Wow. So does that make Gaara like… a king or something?" Naruto asked. His eyes were wide with curiosity and there was a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"No." Temari huffed again. She rubbed her temples and continued. "We haven't gone by formalities like that for a while now."

"But your brother is the Kazekage," Shikamaru said.

"So?" Temari retorted.

"And he runs your village?" He pressed on.

"Yes."

"And the future generation in your family will inherit the Kazekage title no matter what? No one else would even qualify?"

"Yes."

"Sounds like a monarchy to me." Shikamaru shrugged. "The kage in our village gets voted in so royalty doesn't exist here."

Temari frown. She wasn't trying to deny that they weren't a monarchy, but she hated how he made them sound like some ancient backward civilization.

Well, your village is pretty much forcing you to be an heiress baby-making factory. Temari mocked herself internally. He was right, as per usual. She simply huffed a breath at him and rolled her eyes, not wanting to admit what she was thinking.

"Call it what you'd like. I don't care." She said as she crossed her arms. "Either way, that was rather annoying and I'm sorry that you all had to witness it. I'm going to call it a night and try to sleep off the embarrassment."

"What?! No!" Ino exclaimed and she reached for Temari's arm and held on to it. "The festival goes all night!"

"Yeah, the night is still young." Kiba slurred from the back of the group. He was already drunk.

"I'm honestly just over the whole ordeal and I have a meeting with Shikamaru and the Hokage tomorrow anyway," Temari said, pointing to the young strategist.

"Right, so I'll be leaving too then," Shikamaru said as he closed his eyes and stretched his arms behind his back.

"No, you stay," Temari instructed him.

"Temari, look at me," Shikamaru said pointing to himself. His hair was loose and was now in worse condition than back in the forest. The elegant robe he'd arrived in was covered in wrinkles and struggled to stay in place. "This was all thanks to your kind attempt to dry me. I'm not going to walk around like this. Plus, I've had more than my fair share of being out and socializing for today."

"You're just being lazy." She smirked at him.

"How troublesome..." He muttered and rolled his eyes back at her.

Temari ignored him and turned to Ino. "I'll come by to pick up my clothes from your place tomorrow if that's alright."

Ino immediately stopped protesting when she saw the opportunity for Shikamaru to be alone with Temari. The disappointed look on her face was immediately replaced by an eager smile.

"Just go back with Shikamaru and get it tonight!" Ino winked at her. "He lives right next door and has full access to my property anyway."

"Uhm…" Temari didn't know how to answer. She was already kicking herself for her lack of self-control earlier and had planned on spending the rest of the night privately beating herself up over it. Spending even more time alone with Shikamaru would just make things more confusing than they already were.

"You're just picking up your clothes," Shikamaru suddenly said as if he had read her mind. "It's not a big deal and it's on the way to your inn anyway."

Temari shifted her eyes from his to look at Ino, who was nodding excitedly at her. She was smart enough to know that this was a battle she wasn't going to win.

"Yes, it's just a quick walk! Go, go!" Ino exclaimed as she pushed the pair down the path that was in the direction of their neighborhood.

Ino was a being a little overbearing but he was thankful that she was no longer stopping him from going home. He made his rounds and wished everyone a goodnight. Just as he finally started to part ways with the group, he felt a sharp jab in his ribcage.

"Round two?" Kiba said through his teeth as he flashed his friend a sly grin.

"Shut up," Shikamaru responded under his breath and pushed past Kiba without looking at him.

Temari, who was walking in front of him, turned to look at Shikamaru when she heard his voice. "What was that?"

"Nothing," Shikamaru mumbled.

Wow, this chapter was really long and I revised it like 10 times.

Honestly, at this point, I feel like I've repeated a lot of details and it might have some inconsistent plotholes now. It's just been so long since I've left wrote anything and I can't really remember what direction I was taking the story. Let me know how you guys like it! It'll help me narrow down my ideas.

A few of you aren't a fan of the smoking and voiced your opinion about it. I read all of your messages and I listen! I don't think I can't entirely take it away from Shikamaru, especially in later chapters. That's all I can say without giving anything up. ;)

I see a few new readers and I am very thankful that you guys want to come with me on this (hopefully more consistent) ride. I am especially very, very thankful for the returning readers. Some of ya'll have been with me since the very beginning and I really appreciate you. ;-;