Since he had only three days left, Shikamaru was starting to get desperate. So despite what Sakura said about the magazines, he got a new one.
"A drop of jealously is like a drop of poison," Shikamaru read from his new magazine. "How can I get Temari jealous?"
A light bulb appeared above his head and he sprinted to where he knew Ino would be.
"Ino!" he shouted
"What Shikamaru? I'm in the middle of helping a customer," Ino said irritably.
"Ino, could you do me a favor?"
Ino thanked the customer and escorted her out. Then, she turned to Shikamaru, with her eyes narrowing.
"What do I get out of helping you?"
"I'll give you 1000 yen."
Shit, thought Shikamaru, Where am I supposed to get 1000 yen?
"Like you can ever have that much money." scoffed Ino.
"Fine! How about 500 yen?"
Ack! I don't have that much either.
"Whatever Shikamaru, I'll do whatever you want as long as you don't ask for too much of me."
"Okay! Thanks Ino! You're not as troublesome as I thought. I owe you one!"
"So that's it?" Ino asked, feeling a bit annoyed." All you want me to do is to pretend to be your girlfriend?"
"Well, yeah."
They walked along the streets near Temari's house, holding hands as Ino insisted. But there was no sign of her anywhere.
At the moment, Temari happened to be at her house chatting with Sakura. While talking, Temari happened to look out of the window as Shikamaru and Ino passed. Anger burned inside of her like never before at the sight of them holding hands and laughing. She felt a sudden urge to throttle the two of them and leave them to rot on the streets.
"What's wrong?" asked Sakura in concern, seeing the look on Temari's face.
Temari jerked unpleasantly from her daydreams of killing Ino and dating Shikamaru in her place. She nodded her head out of the window, and gave Sakura room to look.
"Look at them," hissed Temari, grinding her teeth together painfully.
Sakura obliged and looked. The sight made her angry as well. Ino and Shikamaru were holding hands like chums and laughing like a bunch of idiots.
"Is that-?"
"Yes, it's Shikamaru and Ino," Temari cut in dryly, unable to bear the sight any longer and looking away.
"Well, they are teammates, maybe they're just friends," Sakura suggested halfheartedly.
"You mean really, really good friends."
"It could be a misunderstanding," said Sakura, a fake smile on her face.
"Yeah right."
"Man," Sakura sighed, breaking the act, "I thought he liked you."
The hurt look on Temari's face made her want to take her words back.
"Can we like not talk about this right now?"
Sakura nodded, and started to talk loudly about the weather while Temari only half-listened, trying to get the image of Shikamaru and Ino out of her mind.
Temari thought about what she saw the whole day so much, Sakura found it rather annoying. She would be talking to her, and then Temari's face would get this dreamy quality to it, and she would know that Temari wasn't listening anymore. Until the point where it bothered her too much to ignore, and Sakura brought up the subject again.
Sakura suggested that Temari tried confronting Shikamaru and asking him, and in a flash, Temari was gone looking for Shikamaru.
Temari walked around Kohana, keeping her eye out for Shikamaru. It was a good thing that she seemed to run into him often. And soon enough, she spotted him with his hand in his pockets and a bored expression on his face. When Temari was sure Ino was nowhere around, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him in an alley. She then grabbed the front and pulled him closer to her face.
She honestly wasn't that mad until Shikamaru opened his big mouth.
"Yo. What the heck? Personal space" said Shikamaru.
Temari snapped. And she heard herself screaming.
"You damn bastard! You led me on! I cannot believe you! I thought that you liked me. What is your problem! Holding hands with that stupid blond bitch! I cannot believe that I fell for you! I mean what the heck! Am I that dumb! You! You probably did this with other girls too. Haven't you? HAVEN'T YOU? You're just another fuckin' playboy. You have no idea how much I want to beat the crap out of you right now!"
Shikamaru listened to every word and horror crept onto his face.
"So talk you bastard! Talk!"
He opened his mouth, but found himself speechless as he gazed up at her.
"Could…could you let go of me?" he asked meekly.
Temari let out a bellow of rage, but released him. It was then Shikamaru realized his mistake.
"No…wait …listen to me…I-" began Shikamaru
"No! I listened to you long enough!"
With that said, Temari punched him in the stomach. She watched, while Shikamaru fell to the ground, clutched his stomach.
"Serves you right."
But as Temari said this, her throat was filled up with sadness, and she turned away.
"Damn it!" cursed Shikamaru. What had he done wrong? He did everything the magazine said so. Shikamaru quickly took out the magazine from his pocket and reread it. He then saw and read the small print "The jealous act may not work on certain types of females."
"Aw! Damn!"
He really liked Temari. He loved everything about her.
So what do I do now?