Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

7 Days, Come What May

Chapter XXI: Social Lessons

Birds cheerfully chirped outside the window. The sun was shining, and everything looked like it was going to be a perfect day. However, one person was not very cheerful. Shino pulled the covers around himself tighter and put his pillow on top of his head. He was not a morning person.

'…Stupid, stupid chirping birds…'

For a moment, he thought of ordering his bugs to go kill those birds, but decided against it. They were just birds, after all, and Shino was not that cruel-hearted. After a few moments, he was sound asleep again, even though it was already seven in the morning.

He had no idea that a huge commotion was going on outside with the rest of the gang. Right now, sleeping was best.

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"Hey, Temari, are we going to die here?" Naruto asked, leaning on the wall of the cave.

Temari was pissed. She was an impatient person. Being stuck in a closed cave with an idiot was the last thing she wanted to do. In three strides, she had gone over and bopped Naruto on the head.

"Shut. Up. Maybe the others are going to come and rescue us," she told him, annoyed.

Naruto was momentarily glad that Emiko had taken Temari's fan. He was sure that if Temari still had her fan with her, he would be dead by now. Not only dead, but his corpse would also be in a hundred thousand pieces.

"Fine, fine…" and Naruto was silent for a while.

'A while', meaning five seconds.

"Temari!" the fox-boy had the nerve to speak again.

"What now!" Temari was really annoyed now.

She did not like her freedom to be limited to just a few meters in a cave. It was making her jumpy.

"…You know, what would happen if we die, huh? What if we starve to death in here? Oh, ramen…" Naruto paused. "…And what if…I never get to see Hinata-chan again?"

Temari was about to shout at Naruto for the first part of his statement, but stopped when she heard him say Hinata's name. The Sand shinobi was curious.

"…What's with you and Hinata? You like her?" Temari asked, turning to look at him.

"Ooooh, yes! I do like her!" then, he hesitated, and a little bit of a sad look came over the fox-boy's face. "…And she acts like she likes me too…but…I'm not 100 percent sure, you know? …Sometimes, I'm not so sure…And then I confessed to her one time, and she wouldn't answer…so I don't know."

Naruto sighed, and then gave Temari and weak smile. The Sand shinobi raised her eyebrows back at him.

"…And then? Did anything else happen between you and her?" she pressed.

"…Well…" here, Naruto reddened a bit. "…I guess I did make out with her once…on the night of my birthday, you know?"

And Naruto felt another bop on his head.

"H-Hey! Temari! What did you do that for!" he shouted defensively.

"You…" Temari had a pissed off popping vein on her forehead. "…Are the dumbest guy in the world."

"W-What! Why?"

"It's obvious, idiot. She likes you, and you like her back. Gosh, you're so slow," Temari explained as-a-matter-of-factly. "…She's a girl, understand that. Girls can be shy sometimes."

"Oh…" Naruto took the information in.

It seemed to cheer the fox-boy up somewhat.

"Hey, but Temari, you are in no state to lecture me about 'being dumb'," said Naruto suddenly.

"What!" Temari looked prepared to give the fox-boy another bop on the head. "…What makes you say that, idiot?"

Naruto grinned teasingly. "Ehehehehehehe…."

"What the heck are you laughing about, idiot!" Temari demanded.

Naruto took a few steps back, taking extra precautions against her bopping him on the head again.

"You and Shikamaru…" Naruto said in a very teasing voice. "Ohohohohohoho.."

Temari's eyes grew wide. The cave was dark, but Naruto could spot her cheeks going pink. Then, she went over and picked up his shirt collar, like a bully would.

"WHAT about me and the Nara," she gave Naruto a frightening death glare.

Naruto, however brave he may be in front of enemies, simply could not find the courage to finish his sentence.

"Eh…hehehehe, nothing, Temari-chan! Nothing between you and Shikamaru!" the fox-boy said, giving her a cheesy smile.

"That's right! There is nothing between me and that stupid Nara!" Temari released her grip from his shirt collar, making him fall down to the ground.

'Ohohohohoho…I hit a nerve, didn't I,' Naruto was satisfied.

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Hinata rushed through the trees as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn't even care if the branches tore at her favorite jacket, or cut her skin. She had gone a long ways from where her friends had been buried in the swamp…and now, she didn't know where to go next. No one had told her any directions. There was, obviously, a very slim chance of her finding the right spot where Emiko was.

After about five more minutes, the Hyuuga heir came to a clearing…and there was a cave in the middle of it. Her eyes grew wide. From far away, she could see two people sitting in the cave, both with blonde hair.

'T-There's no mistake about it…t-that's Naruto-kun and Temari-chan! …I can't believe I got lucky!'

Hinata quickly ran over to the cave, but stopped midway when she heard a commotion in the sky. She looked up. It was Gaara and Shikamaru on the sand transporter!

"H-Here, Shikamaru! Gaara! Naruto and Temari are down here!" Hinata called up.

In a few moments, Gaara had already lowered his sand transporter to the ground.

"Where, Hinata!" Shikamaru asked her hurriedly. "Where did you say they were?"

Hinata pointed towards the cave and began running towards it again. Shikamaru followed suit.

"Hinata, we've got to hurry and get them out of there!" the Nara genius shouted to her while running.

"W-Why?" there was a hint of worry in Hinata's voice.

"The Sound nin's put a bomb in that cave! We've got approximately 20 seconds before it explodes!"

Hinata went pale and ran even faster.

'I won't let you die, Naruto! Not until I tell you what's on my mind!'

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Naruto took another look out at the entrance of the cave. He had expected to find no one there, just like every other time. To his ultimate surprise, he found his Hinata-chan and Shikamaru running towards the cave, and Gaara standing in the background.

"Hey! Hey! HI!" the blonde stood up and waved like crazy.

Temari turned around to see what Naruto was waving at. When she saw the people running towards the cave, she silently breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Heh. So they've come for me at last…" she commented.

Then, she heard a mechanical voice somewhere say 'Ten'. Or was it just her ears gone bad?

Nine.

Now, Temari was positive that she's heard it. She whirled around, trying to find the source of the voice. She saw a beeping red light at the corner of the cave.

Eight.

Temari's eyes widened. She knew what that was. A bomb. A deadly, deadly bomb.

Seven.

Hinata had already reached the cave, and she tried to step into the entrance. She was sprung back. She didn't know there was a Kin Tag on the cave, preventing her to go in any further.

"No, Hinata! Peel off that Kin Tag!" shouted Shikamaru to her. "I'll peel off this one!"

Six.

They peeled off the tags.

Five.

Temari ran out of the cave.

Four.

Naruto was still in the cave.

"Hey, hi, Hinata-chan! Why does everyone look so nervous! I'm not dead or anything!"

Three.

"N-Naruto-kun! Hurry! There's a bomb in the cave! Come, come!" Hinata shouted to the fox-boy desperately.

Two.

Naruto finally got the message and everyone ran to Gaara's sand transporter.

One.

Everyone was on the Gaara's sand transporter as it shot up into the sky.

BOOM!

The heat from the bomb rose up, almost reaching the sand transporter, but didn't. Gaara made the sand transporter go up even higher. Gaara turned around to everyone.

"…Everyone is fine, I assume," the redhead commented.

"Yea! I'm so very fine!" Naruto grinned at him. "…And your sand is super cool!"

Gaara looked mildly pleased at the compliment. Or, maybe a bit more than 'mildly pleased'.

"Heh, what took you so long, genius?" Temari turned to the Nara with a huffy voice.

To her surprise, Shikamaru hugged her.

"Hey, woman…I'm really sorry for not being with you that night...It's my fault you got captured…" he told her.

Never had the Nara sounded so emotional. It was a big, big change from his usual lazy drawl.

'So this…is what love is called…' thought Gaara silently, carefully observing the two.

Shikamaru and Temari didn't even notice that the redhead was watching. Temari reddened at the Nara.

"..Y-Yea! It's totally your fault!" Temari covered up her embarrassment with a tough-girl voice. "…Make up for it!"

Shikamaru released her from the hug and looked at her. He gave her a casual smile now.

"…Yea, I guess I gotta make up for it, eh, woman?" the Nara genius's lazy drawl was back.

"Yea, you have to," Temari looked back at him triumphantly.

The Nara looked at her lazily, a mischievous grin tugging at the corner of his lips.

"…First, though, woman, let me ask you something…" his grin grew wider. "…It isn't like you to get captured this easily. Was there something…that distracted you?"

Temari grew even redder and gave him a very fierce look. She paused for a moment, because she wasn't sure how to answer. Temari had a lot of pride in herself. She didn't want to admit that she got captured because she was distracted.

'…But if I say that I wasn't distracted…My reputation will go even lower…'cause the Nara's gonna think I was just simply not as good as that Sound nin!' Temari thought, making up her mind.

"…Look, Shikamaru, yea, I was distracted. So what?" Temari's voice was still in tough-girl mode.

"…Care to tell me what made you so distracted?" he smiled lazily at her.

His lazy looks simply drove her crazy.

"It's none of your business, Nara…" Temari couldn't even stop her cheeks from getting red.

Gaara looked from Shikamaru to Temari, and from Temari to Shikamaru. This was a very interesting social lesson for him.

'So…when people are in love…they go red in the face…' This was the redhead's hypothesis of 'love'.

Shikamaru didn't think to end there. It was rare, making Temari embarrassed. He didn't want to stop now.

"…Let me guess, woman…" he drawled. "…Was it because…you were jealous? Seeing me with that Sound nin Emiko?"

"WHAT!" Temari glared at him. "….WHY would I be jealous, huh?"

Shikamaru then sighed lazily.

"…Hey, woman, I'm too lazy to pretend anymore, okay?" he casually scratched the back of his head. "…And you might as well drop the act now, woman…since yea, I like you…"

Temari couldn't think of anything to say to this. She just blushed.

"Aa…How troublesome…" there goes the Nara's famous quote, as he bent down and gave Temari a light, lazy kiss on the lips.

The world froze for Temari. Actually, the world literally froze for everyone on the sand transporter. Shikamaru and Temari sprang apart about five meters when they realized everyone was staring at them. Staring most intently at them was Sabaku no Gaara.

"G-Gaara…did you see that?" Temari asked her brother very, very wearily.

The redhead nodded. Temari's face paled. All her life, she'd tried to be a good big sister and shielded Gaara's mind from witnessing….inappropriate activities like this… And now…she was the one who was corrupting his mind!

"Uhh…Gaara….please forget what you just saw…" Temari went over to Gaara. "…It's much, much too young for you to understand…"

"Sister, that's love, right?" Gaara asked, nothing shown on his face.

Temari and Shikamaru went red. Hinata blushed at the word. Naruto tried (very, very unsuccessfully) to suppress his loud laughter.

"Uhh…Uhhh…Uhhh…" the big sister didn't know how to answer.

The Nara couldn't stand any more of this humiliation. He walked over to where Temari and Gaara were, and put his arm around Temari.

"Yea, that's love, Gaara. Your sister and me are an item," Shikamaru tried to sound as casual as he could, even though he couldn't stop his reddening face.

Temari couldn't find her voice to say anything at all. Gaara simply nodded.

"I understand…" the redhead finally spoke. "…Then you have to take good care of my sister."

'Wow. How straight to the point,' Naruto thought, watching the 'in-laws' scene.

"Yea, of course…" the Nara replied with another lazy sigh and sat down.

Temari was secretly touched that her red-headed brother cared for her this much.

"…One more thing, Nara…" the redhead said.

"Hmm?" Shikamaru looked up at the Sand shinobi.

"…I'm not sure Kankurou will be very pleased."

Shikamaru paled. Temari paled. The Nara slapped his hand of his forehead."…Ugh…how troublesome….I finally got one of your brothers to approve of me…and then there's another one…"

Temari couldn't help but giggle.

"..But you'll do it for me, right?" Temari grinned at him mischievously.

"Yea, yea…I guess I will…" was the Nara's lazy reply.

By this time, Naruto couldn't hold back his laughter any longer.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

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Shino finally was in the mood to wake up. He looked at the clock. It read 9:30 A.M. The bug-guy got up, stretched, and yawned. Shino took a look around the room, and found that both Neji and Lee were gone from their beds.

'Whatever…the early birds don't always gets the worms…' he thought, then walked in the bathroom to take a shower.

Joyce: Hope you like this one and review! XD….And yea, ladies, Gaara is hot…in answer to most of the people's reviews! Hahahahaha…Well, I guess I'm too lazy to answer reviews for this time! XD …But please review:D