Hey guys. I'm back with another story. This one is for the challenge on twitter for the ShikaTema month 2022. The prompt for this time is Paint | Games | "I'd Love to See You Try"

I really enjoyed this, and I hope you guys do to.

I'd Love to See You Try

Shikamaru yawned as he leaned against the A-Un gates of the village. He hated when Temari showed up so early in the morning, but he had a feeling that she loved doing this just to make him get up at the crack of dawn.

"You're actually here."

Shikamaru looked over and saw the blonde sand princess walking casually up to the gate. "Troublesome woman," he said and another yawn escaped his mouth.

"Lazy bum," Temari retorted with a smile.

Shikamaru stood up fully and placed his hands in his pocket. "You know I hate mornings."

"Yeah. I know," she said happily as she walked past him.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and quickly fell into step next to her. "Why did you have to show up so early again?"

"Hey, blame your teammate. She's the one that told me to get here before eight."

Shikamaru looked at her confused. "Why?"

"Beats me," she said with a shrug.

Shikamaru furrowed his brow to try and figure out why Ino would have wanted Temari here so early. He thought back to some of the conversations they had and finally one crossed his mind. "Mendokuse," he groaned out.

"You figure it out, Lazy?" Temari said as she looked over at him.

"Yeah, or at least, I think I did. There are some kind of games going on in the village. I think it's some kind of tournament or something that one of the local shopkeepers wanted to put on."

"What kind of games?"

"All kinds of different ones. I think there's a sack race, a kunai throwing one, egg toss, some kind of balloon fight, and an eating contest. There may be a few more, but they're too much of a drag that I don't remember them."

"Any kind of activity is a drag for you," she snickered out.

Shikamaru glared at her, but didn't say anything. She wasn't really wrong, but he enjoyed some activities. Just not these games.

"What time do they start? Eight?"

"I think so. That's probably why she wanted you here so early." Another yawn escaped his lips.

Temari chuckled. "Poor Mr. Lazy. Have to escorte this early, troublesome blonde."

Shikamaru groaned out again as he rolled his eyes. They elected not to talk the rest of the way to the tower, and once they were finished with her business at the Hokage's office, they made their way to the Yamanaka flower shop to meet up with Ino.

The door chimed as they walked through the door, and he saw Ino smile wide when she saw the other blonde. "Temari. You made it!" Ino said as she quickly made her way around the counter and over to the two.

"Yeah. Much to Lazy's dismay," Temari said, jamming her thumb back at the dark haired shinobi.

Ino laughed. "Yeah. I figured you'd enjoy that."

"Troublesome blondes," he said under his breath and looked up at the ceiling. He tuned out the two women's conversation, and only listened in when he heard his name.

"Shikamaru can take you," Ino said.

"I can take her where?" Shikamaru asked.

The two blondes looked over at him, and Ino rolled her eyes. "If you bothered to pay attention once in a while, then you would've heard what I said."

Shikamaru just sighed. "What a drag."

Ino groaned in frustration, but Temari just laughed at the two. "She said you can take me to the tournament. She has to finish up here, but we can go on ahead," the sand woman said.

"Fine. Where are they being held?" Shikamaru asked.

"I heard they were setting everything up at training ground 57. It is the largest training ground, so it makes sense," Ino said.

"Alright. Let's go," he said with a heavy sigh in his voice.

"See you there," Temari said to Ino before following her escort out.

NNNNNNNNNN

Temari was thoroughly enjoying herself. Both shinobi and civilians were participating in the games, and she had even signed up for a few herself. The kunai games were split into a shinobi one and a civilian one to make it more fair, and she actually came in first.

Shikamaru joined her in the few that required a partner, begrudgingly, but she could tell that even he was enjoying them. They lost at both the egg toss, which ended up with Shikamaru completely covered in egg, as well as the sack race, her embarrassment of being in the same sack as him making her to distracted to actually focus on jumping in time with him, but they won at the tug-of-war against Ino and Sakura, which surprised both of them considering Sakura's strength.

The other games she wasn't too interested in, but they were fun to watch, and now they were getting something to eat at one of the many stalls that decided to set up. Shikamaru handed her the giant soft pretzel and the hot dog. She had never had either one of them, so she was a bit hesitant to try them, but also really curious. She bit into the pretzel and hummed. "Mmm. This is good."

"Try it with this," Shikamaru said as he held out a cup of cheese.

She raised an eyebrow at the cheese, but decided it wouldn't hurt to try it. She dipped a piece in the cheese and ate it, not really sure if she enjoyed it or not. "It's different."

"A lot of people like it with the cheese, but if you don't, you don't have to eat it."

"I think I'll pass on it," she said and then popped another piece into her mouth. They walked around as she ate and looked at the different stalls that were selling jewelry, pottery, and other trinkets, and figured that the village was acting like this was some kind of bazaar. She enjoyed those when Suna had them.

"So the next game is a paint balloon fight," Shikamaru said, looking at a pamphlet with the times of each game on them.

"Paint balloon fight?" Temari said after she swallowed the piece of hot dog she had bit into.

Shikamaru furrowed his brow. "Yeah, it's like a water balloon fight, only with paint. It sounds like a major drag."

"I think it could be fun. We should do it."

"I'll pass."

"Oh, come on. You scared you'll lose?" she taunted.

"No. I just don't feel like getting painted."

"You're afraid I'll beat you," she said smugly.

"No I'm not," Shikamaru said. "I could easily beat you."

"I'd love to see you try," she said with a smile and popped the last of her hot dog in her mouth. "I dare you to beat me."

Shikamaru stopped and stared at her, and she could see he was actually contemplating it. "Fine, but if I win, you have to do the fashion show and let Ino choose what you wear."

"What?" Temari exclaimed, wide-eyed.

Shikamaru smirked. "If you win, I'll do whatever you want, but if I win, that's what you have to do."

'Does he want me to do it because he wants to see me in fancier clothing?' Temari's face had a tint of red to it. "What all is involved in this show?"

Shikamaru pulled out the pamphlet again and read over it. "It says that there will be two shows, one for men and women, and that each show will have four categories, casual, swimsuit, dress-up, and formal."

"Dress-up?"

"I have no idea. All it has is the names of the categories, it doesn't say what they entail, but knowing Ino, who set it up, it'll be embarrassing for you," he said the last part with a smirk.

"So you're doing this to embarrass me?" Temari huffed, but she was also a bit disappointed.

"Hey, if you win, I'm sure you'll try to do the same to me."

"Fine. I'll do it, but if I win, you have to do the men's show," Temari said as she crossed her arms.

"Fine," he said as he stuffed his hands back in his pocket.

They both headed over to where the balloon fight would be and signed up for it. Once done, they walked over to the other participants and waited for their instructions. After about ten minutes of waiting, they were separated into two different teams, the red team, which Temari chose to be on, and the blue team, which Shikamaru was on. Since they were on teams, they decided to go by which person had the most paint on them to decide the winner of their little bet.

The two teams walked into the training ground where multiple makeshift, transparent walls were set up in a kind of maze. "Ladies and gentleman," the event announcer started. "Our next game is the paint balloon fight. Each team will be going through the maze that you see before you with an arsenal of balloons filled with paint of their respective team colors. The object of this game is to see which team can cover the other with their color."

Shikamaru put on some light weight rain clothes, matching his team's color, which he assumed was to keep them from getting too dirty, which he appreciated, and some goggles and gloves. He looked up and saw the other team was also putting them on and Temari gave him a big grin and mouthed what looked like "You're going down." He groaned, but filled the small bags one of the event members gave him with balloons, being careful not to pop them early.

A loud horn sounded, and the teams were off, going in different directions. Shikamaru headed for Temari, but ran into a few others, hitting them squarely on the chest or back, being sure to follow the rule of no balloons to the face. He quickly lost sight of Temari and everything happened so quickly. He was hitting and getting hit left and right, until one hit he felt came with a loud laugh.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to beat me, Nara," Temari said.

Shikamaru turned around, hand raised with a balloon, but she darted behind one of the walls. He chased after her, managing to pelt a few others that got in his way, as well as got hit by a few more of theirs.

He finally cornered the blonde and threw a balloon as hard as he could at her and smirked. He ducked behind the wall next to him as a balloon whizzed past his shoulder, and dashed down the rows. He had used up all of his balloons and needed to reload his bag.

This went on for another ten minutes until the horn sounded again to signal the end of the match. He was covered in red paint. He was actually surprised at how many people had got him. He looked over and saw that Temari had a pretty good amount of paint on her as well, maybe even more than he did. He smiled.

Before they took their protective clothing off, he asked one of the event staff members which one of them had the most paint on them, and he gladly helped out. After looking them both over, he determined Temari had the most paint on her.

Temari huffed and crossed her arms. "You rigged it."

"How did I rig it? You were the one that got hit so much," Shikamaru scoffed.

"You told him to say that," she said.

"He didn't even know about our bet. I just asked him to tell us which one had the most paint on them," Shikamaru said, annoyed, then smiled. "You're just ticked that I won."

Temari looked away from him and scoffed.

Once they got all their paint covered clothes off, they wandered around the stalls again until the eating contest. Neither one of them were very hungry after their lunch before the paint fight, but they saw that Choji and Naruto were participating, so they cheered for them. Unsurprised when Choji came out the victor.

After the eating contest, there were a few hours where there were no games so that the stage for the fashion show could be set up. Ino was thrilled to hear that Temari would be participating and even more happy that she got to choose what Temari wore.

Now, Shikamaru was sitting next to Choji, who had decided to join Shikamaru so he could watch Ino. He knew the chubby boy was in love with their teammate, but Ino was so blind to even notice. He wasn't too surprised at the turn out as this was the last event of the day, not to mention the men and women who were going to be showing themselves off.

The men's show was first, and he had to admit that they looked pretty good in all the different outfits, but they weren't who he was here to see. When he suggested that Temari did the fashion show, he had to admit to himself that he really did want to see Temari in clothes other than her shinobi outfit. She looked good in them, but he really wanted to see her in a dress and swimsuit.

"You're blushing," Choji said as he leaned in with a smile. "Excited to see Temari in a swimsuit?"

"Shut up," Shikamaru said as he pushed his friend away, his blush deepening as he realized he was found out.

Choji laughed. "I still don't know why you guys won't just admit you like each other."

"Too troublesome," the shadow user said as he suddenly found a bird pecking at the ground very interesting.

Another twenty minutes of teasing from Choji, and the women's show finally started.

"Welcome to the last event of the day, the women's fashion show. We have several beautiful women participating tonight, and it will be all of you guys to decide who the most beautiful is," the announcer said. "The first category of our show is the casual dress. Ladies, please, come on out."

Sakura, Hinata, Ino, Temari, Tenten, Ayume, and four other girls he didn't know walked out onto the stage.

Sakura had on short jean shorts that went barely to her mid thigh, a pink tank top with a light purple jacket, and black flip flops. Hinata wore a light purple sundress with a white lacy shall and a pair of white sandals. Ino had a red skirt that went about mid thigh with a long flowing white shirt that had different flowers scattered on it as well as black high heel boots. Temari wore tan shorts that went to her mid thigh, a black V-neck shirt that showed a generous amount of skin, with a long sleeve, white, cropped jacket, and tan sandals. After that, Shikamaru didn't bother to look at the others.

He just stared at Temari, his eyes going up and down her body. To him, she really needed to wear casual clothes more often.

The girls did a few turns to show off their entire outfits, then left the stage to change into the next outfit. They came out ten minutes later with their swimsuits on, and multiple people in the crowd started catcalling and whistling. Shikamaru didn't even bother looking at the other girls, his attention was fully on Temari, who was in a yellow bikini that had black polka dots all over it, a white, see-through wrap, black flip flops, and a volleyball under one of her arms.

His face went beat red. She was hot. The bikini was very generous when it came to covering her, and he couldn't keep his eyes off her chest, that bounced with every move she made. When she turned around to show the back, there was only a string across her back to hold the top, and her butt filled out the bottoms perfectly. He had to cover his nose as he felt blood trickle down it.

He caught a glance at Choji who wasn't faring too well either with Ino in her purple and pink bikini and light green see-through wrap. They were both relieved when the girls left the stage.

Fifteen minutes passed this time and they came out with their third outfit for the dress-up category. From the men's show, they found out that this section was a costume section. All ten girls came out in different costumes, Ino as a princess, Hinata as a fairy, Sakura was a witch, Tenten was a warrior, Ayume was a maid, Temari was a belly dancer, and the other four girls were a temple priestess, a goth girl, an angel, and a devil.

The girls looked nice, but Shikamaru couldn't get over Temari's outfit. It was a black outfit this time, with a top that resembled a bikini top, but had a few bells hanging off it, and the pants were puffy and had a v shaped waist to it, see through black sashes hung down on her arms, connected by a strap on her upper arm and her middle finger, with several black ones draped across her waist, and her feet were bare. Her hair was down, but had a black veil draped over it loosely, and a black cloth covering her nose and mouth to make her look mysterious. When she turned, the sashes swayed and it kind of reminded Shikamaru of shadows dancing around her.

"Wow," he said quietly, his eyes wide.

"She looks like shadows are surrounding her," Choji said.

The announcer, after seeing Temari's outfit, smiled. "I have had a request that our beautiful belly dancer perform a quick little dance for us."

"What?" Temari asked, wide-eyed, then glared at Ino.

"Go on," Ino whispered with a smile.

Shikamaru couldn't hear it, but the look on Temari's face, even though it was half covered, was muttering under her breath as she stepped forward.

Temari closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Slow, rhythmic music came from the speakers that were set up on the stage, and she moved to the beat. She swayed her hips and swung her arms around gracefully, tipping her body and raising her feet at the right moments. She was doing a dance she had learned when she was a little girl, and was very grateful for the cloth over her cheeks because they were pink.

At the end of the short dance, everyone clapped and Temari lined back up with the other girls before they all left to change into their last outfits.

Again, fifteen minutes passed before all the girls came out in beautiful ball gowns, Sakura's a light pink, Ino's a deep purple, Hinata's a lavender that faded into a dark purple towards the bottom, Tenten's a green and black, Temari's in a teal, Ayume's in a light brown, and the other four girls in orange, black, tan, and gray. All of the dresses were done up differently, some in rhinestones, others in lace. Their hair was also done in different ways, some up, some down.

Shikamaru was blown away at how beautiful Temari looked. The teal dress she wore brought out the color in her eyes and made them look even more beautiful than before, and her hair was up with small rhinestones that matched the ones on her dress, with two strands of hair framing her face. Choji was right, they really did need to admit they liked each other, or at least he needed to tell her.

The girls stayed on the stage this time for the announcing of the winner, and the announcer came forward. "I want to thank all of you for joining us today for all the festivities and also to all who participated in the games and this show. Now, shall we decide on our beautiful winner?"

The crowd went wild with names and colors to say who they wanted to win. Shikamaru and Choji stayed quiet, knowing that yelling out Ino and Temari's names wouldn't do any good and that there had to be a better way the announcer planned on doing it.

The announcer waved his hand to shush the crowd. "Alright, alright. Now, how this is going to work is I'm going to go to each girl and I want you to yell, shout, or clap as loud as you can for whichever girl you want to see win."

The announcer did as he said and the crowd once again went wild as he passed each girl, until finally he stopped in front of Ino, Hinata, and Temari and asked them to step forward. "Alright, we have narrowed it down to these three beauties. Let's see which place each of them gets. Same as before, make some noise for the one you want to win."

They went through the same process, the crowd yelling out names and colors. Once he was satisfied with the results, the announcer walked over to his podium that was on the corner of the stage and grabbed three small trophies. "Alright, our third place winner goes to… Ino Yamanaka." The crowd clapped as he handed Ino her trophy. "Ok, now the winner is… The sand princess herself, Temari."

Shikamaru let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding and smiled at her shocked face.

"She won," Choji said excitedly as he clapped.

Temari took the trophy and looked at Hinata, still shocked that she beat the Hyuga princess.

"Congratulations, Temari," Hinata said with a smile.

"I won't lose to you next time," Ino said as she walked behind the two girls and draped her arms through each of their arms. There was no malice in her voice at all, so Temari knew she was just saying that in a friendly rivalry kind of way.

"Let's hear it for all the girls," the announcer said as he stepped back and the other girls stepped back up.

The crowd clapped and cheered one last time as the girls took a bow and wandered off the stage to get dressed.

Shikamaru and Choji stood off to the side, Choji munching on his chips and Shikamaru leaning against one of the trees with his hands in his pockets, until they saw Ino and Temari walking toward them.

"We've definitely got to do that again," Ino said. She had her arm looped around Temari's and they were both in their normal outfits.

"Yeah. I'll admit, I wasn't too sure about this, but I really enjoyed it," Temari said.

"You two look so beautiful up there," Choji said when the girls finally got to them.

Temari blushed, but Ino beamed. "Thanks, Cho. We did look pretty good."

Shikamaru walked up to Temari. "You want to join us for some dinner? Choji and I were talking about heading to Yakiniku Q's."

"Sure," Temari said.

With that, they all left for their favorite barbeque place, had a nice dinner, and headed home, Shikamaru walking Temari back to her hotel. "So you had a good time today?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yeah. I haven't had that much fun in a while. I'm going to have to talk to Gaara about doing more events like that."

"I'm sure Ino would help you with the fashion show if you wanted to do something like that."

"Yeah. I'll definitely get her help with it."

They walked quietly for a few minutes. Shikamaru was wracking his brain to try and figure out how to tell Temari how he felt. "Uh, you looked really beautiful up there today," he said, a small blush creeping up his face.

Temari blushed too. "Uh, thanks." She couldn't look at him.

They stopped in front of the hotel and Shikamaru grabbed her wrist before she disappeared into the building. "I…"

Temari looked back at him, her heart pounding in her ears. "I guess I'll see you in the morning?" she asked, trying to pull her hand free.

Shikamaru tightened his grip slightly. "I really like you."

Temari's eyes went wide, her face getting redder. "Wh-what?"

Shikamaru looked up at the stars that were starting to scatter across the sky and rubbed his neck with his free hand. "I-I said I really like you."

Temari just stared at him, then she looked down at his hand on her wrist. "I-I like you too."

Shikamaru smiled and looked back at her. He took his chance and stepped closer to her, lifting her chin, and planting a gentle kiss on her lips, which made the woman's eyes go wide again. "I'll see you in the morning," he said then stepped back, releasing her wrist.

Temari just nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment and quickly made her way to her room. The smile not leaving her face.

Shikamaru smiled as he turned and walked back home.

How did you like it. I'm sorry I didn't go into a lot a detail on the other girls' outfits. I really just wanted to focus on Temari, so... Anyway. Let me know what you thought in a review, and I'll see you in the next story.