Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

7 Days, Come What May

Chapter XIII: Lights

Shikamaru lay on his bed and stared up at the plain, white ceiling. He sighed. The Nara would have much preferred to be staring at the night sky, just like at home. All the lights in the room were off, because Shikamaru was trying to sleep. He had gone down to the party at the night bar but later came back up because the wildness down there was just too…troublesome for him. Suddenly, the door creaked open.

'So she's back…how troublesome.'

Sure enough, Temari strolled into the room and snapped on the lights, without mercy for her roommate.

"Hey, woman, close off the lights. I'm trying to sleep."

Temari turned to look at him with an annoyed expression on her face.

"So the genius didn't even go down to party? What a geek."

"Woman, I am not in the mood to argue with you. Just turn off the lights."

Temari went to sit in front of the mirror in the room and proceeded to untie her hair.

"No. Can't."

'How troublesome.'

Feeling too lazy to do any more arguing, the Nara just rolled around to the other side and tried to pull the blanket so that it covered his eyes from the light. It worked, yes, but pulling over the blanket made it more difficult to breathe. It really was annoying and Shikamaru found it impossible to sleep. So, the Nara decided to wait for two more minutes.

'If that troublesome woman doesn't close the lights off within two minutes, I'm going to do something.'

Two long minutes passed by. The lights were not closed. Shikamaru impatiently threw the blankets off. Temari was still in front of the mirror, now trying to remove her make up with a tissue. So, Shikamaru quickly walked to the light switch and snapped the lights off.

"Hey!" Temari cried, looking around in the darkness in anger.

"I'm going to sleep!" Shikamaru protested in an equally resentful voice.

"I'm trying to remove my make up so I can sleep so that you can sleep!" Temari said in annoyance, walking over to where Shikamaru was and switching on the lights again.

The lights came on and Shikamaru gave an annoyed glare at Temari's mascara-tainted face. Her hands were still stubbornly on the light switch. He put his hand over hers and forced the lights off. She forced the lights on. He forced the lights off. This went on for many rounds. Both were glaring at each other between the lightness and the darkness.

"….Why can't you just remove your stupid make up tomorrow, woman!"

"…Because I don't want to!"

"..."

"Can't find a clever comeback, genius?"

"…No."

"Whatever, genius."

"You're so unreasonable."

"...Does it matter?"

Finally, Shikamaru gave in to having the lights switched on.

"Hah!" Temari grinned triumphantly at him.

The Nara responded with another glare and grabbed her hand and pulled her to sit in front of the mirror.

"What are you doing!" Temari protested in a rage.

Shikamaru had grabbed the tissue that Temari had used on her face earlier and was now rubbing it hard on her face.

"What! Stop! Stop! You're rubbing it too hard! My face hurts!" Temari fumed, trying to brush away his hands.

"Look, woman, I gave in to you having the lights on. So, you should hurry up with this make up cleaning," he grabbed her face in his hands and continued to clean off the make up.

Temari huffed.

"Fine. Can you please rub more gently? It really hurts."

Although the every inch of the Nara's face still displayed the annoyed expression, his rubbing became a lot smoother. A few minutes passed by, with Shikamaru concentrated on getting the make up off without hurting Temari's face and Temari staring up into Shikamaru's concentrated face.

"…Temari, your eye mascara is hard to get off."

Temari was still staring into Shikamaru's face. She didn't even hear his voice.

"…Temari?"

"Oh! Yea. What?"

"I can't clean off your eye mascara. It's stuck, woman."

"Oh…Hmm…"

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow.

'The woman doesn't even know how to clean off her own make up, huh.'

So, he grabbed her hand and pulled her up again. Now, he led her into the bathroom. He turned on the tap water and got a little bit of the water in his hand. Then, he gently put a small amount of the water onto Temari's face and rubbed.

"…I think this is working," Shikamaru observed his work.

Temari just stared into his face again. To her, it was kind of fun. She unpredictably reddened a little when she realized how close his face was to her. She flinched and back away a little.

"Hey, woman, don't back away. Come closer, I'm trying to clean here," Shikamaru seized her face again and proceeded to clean.

Temari's face continued coloring even though she still had the annoyed expression pasted on her face.

"There, it's all finished, woman," Shikamaru smiled at her (or rather, at her cleaned face).

Temari kind of gave a small smile back.

"Thanks, then," she muttered.

"Good. Okay, now you can go to sleep, right?" he smiled at her hopefully.

"….Urm…"Temari paused. "…Actually….I have to shower first."

"What!"

"...But I'll dress in the bathroom! You can close the lights! I won't disturb you…" Temari quickly added.

The Nara breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Whatever you say, woman…good night, then," Shikamaru turned around to walk out of the bathroom door.

"Good night, Shikamaru," Temari said to his retreating back.

He stopped.

"Did you just call me…Shikamaru?"

"Yea, why!" Temari said a little bit too loudly.

She herself didn't realize that she had called him that. He turned around to look at her one more time.

"…Where'd the genius go?"

"Well…I just felt like calling you that!" Temari protested and huffed.

He gave a cool smile at her huffy face.

"Okay, then. Goodnight, Temari," the Nara said, closing the door.

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"Thanks for coming to visit. How may I help you?" Aunt Midori greeted cheerfully to the two new guests that had just walked in through the main doors of the Konoha Hot Springs.

"We're here to stay for three days," the first guest with purple hair replied.

"Please wait…" Aunt Midori tried to find her checklist. "…ahh, you're in luck. One room is currently available."

"Good," the second guest stated.

"Names please?"

"I'm Jiro Takashi," the purple hair male answered.

"Takashi, Emiko," the female stated.

Aunt Midori took a moment to do all the check-in business.

"Thank you, please follow this way," with that, Aunt Midori took the two guests to their respective rooms.

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"Hey sister, what do you think we should do now?" Jiro flopped himself on the bed and looked up at his big sister.

"You baka! How dare you ask me that? Don't you remember what Orochimaru-sama had ordered us to do?" Emiko cried, annoyed at her brother's question.

"But Emiko! Do you really want to start the job now? 'Cause like…after all, we are at the Konoha Hot Springs, you know," Jiro scratched behind his purple hair. "…what do you say we…take a try at the springs?"

Emiko was about to reprimand her brother again but stopped. The idea of relaxing in the hot springs was very appealing to her.

"Well…how about this…if our target makes his or her way to the springs…we follow them and at the same time we can catch them!"

"Hm…well that's okay, we can combine our job with having fun!" Jiro smiled. "But who's our first target?"

"How about…let's round up all the girls first? I think it'd be easier," Emiko flipped back her long blue hair.

Jiro immediately sat up. "Girls, huh? Gotcha, sis. That'll be my job. Emiko, you can round up the guys, alright?"

Emiko bobbed her blue head up and down.

"Right, Jiro."

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Ten Ten sat in the hot springs, sighing and staring up at the blue sky.

'I can't believe what happened last night…Neji was really drunk…'

She colored at the thought, closed her eyes, and sank deeper into the steaming water.

"Hey, Ten Ten."

Ten Ten immediately sat up to find Neji in the pool too. His face was normal now, not drunk like it was last night.

"Hi…" Ten Ten politely greeted back and lowered her head to hide the blush.

Unexpectantly, Neji came and sat next to her in the pool. Ten Ten stiffened.

"I don't remember everything that happened last night," Neji went straight to the subject that he had come here for. "I want you to tell me, because I'm not sure."

'He…doesn't remember?' her heart sank. She was kind of hoping that he would.

"I…You…me…" Ten Ten attempted to explain. "…Nevermind, nothing happened.

She tried to give him a reassuring smile but he did not smile back.

"Ten Ten, I don't buy that. Tell me," he paused, then added softer. "Did I…do anything inappropriate to you?"

Ten Ten reddened.

"I did, didn't I?" Neji's voice was only a whisper now.

She nodded, her head still down. If her head was up, she would have seen that Neji's face was reddening too.

"I'm…sorry, Ten Ten…are you hurt?" for the first time ever, Ten Ten heard Neji's voice that could be associated to the word 'caring'.

'No, I'm not hurt! I…kinda liked what you and I shared last night…but you, you forgot everthing!' Ten Ten thought, shaking her head vigourously.

It was as if the Hyuuga could read her thoughts.

"I'm sorry…I was drunk…but I have no excuses for my actions…" Neji started to get up. "…I'll go; you'll want to be alone."

"Wait…Neji…"

The Hyuuga turned around, looking at her.

"Did you…really forget everything?" Ten Ten's eyes were sad even though her face tried to give the impression that she didn't care.

Neji sat back down.

"…No…" Ten Ten's heard skipped a beat. "…But some things are blurry…I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry…" Ten Ten said quietly. "…but I'm just sad that…you…"

Ten Ten couldn't block the tear that was threatening to spill out of her eyes. The tear rolled down her cheek. Neji looked bewildered, uncertain of what he should do in a situation such as this.

"T-Ten Ten!" the Hyuuga stammered (which he rarely did).

His voice calling her name only made her cry harder. The salty tears combined with the steamy water of the hot springs. Awkwardly, Neji scooted closer to her and put a stiff arm around her. He just did what his first instinct told him to do. His other hand patted her head gently. An eternity passed before Ten Ten finally spoke again.

"…do I…mean anything to you, Neji?"

Neji had no idea how to answer. He just stiffened but continued patting her back.

"…please, answer me, Neji…" Ten Ten looked up into his face, her eyes sparkling of tears. "…What do I mean to you?...I promise, I won't be mad…"

Ten Ten lowered her head again.

"…am I…just…a one night fling?" her voice was hoarse now.

"Well…" Neji pulled her into a hug. "…You know you mean more to me than that."

Ten Ten was really surprised of his answer.

'What? Wasn't it only because of the alcohol?'

She quickly looked up into his face; however, he had already turned the other way. If she had seen his face, she would have seen a burning one. She felt strangely…happy.

'What am I being happy about? It's not like he confessed to me or anything,' she too, blushed.

Neji's arms were still around her although both of them were looking away from each other. Suddenly, Neji spoke up.

"Ten Ten?"

"Y-yes?"

"You enjoyed it, right?"

Ten Ten reddened even further. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know what I'm talking about…all those kisses…"

"Well…I…I…" Ten Ten's face was burning; she would rather not answer that question.

"I thought so," the Neji now turned around to smile slightly at her.

Blushing, she turned to him with a huffy face.

"You're so perverted when you're drunk, did you know that!"

Neji smirked.

"I know."

Joyce: Yess, guys, I love long reviews! I got a lot of those this time and I'm really happy! Yay:D Hmmm..what else...nothing else! Well, hope you enjoy this as always and review:D Love, Joyce