Sand's babbling:

Sand: (looks around) Sasuke… Come out, come out where ever you are…

Gaara: What are you doing?

Sand: (turns to Gaara and raises a finger to mouth) Shhh… I'm hunting Uchiha.

Gaara: (sweatdrops) You need a psychiatrist.

Fire: (pops head into the room) Did you say psychiatrist?

Sand: (sweatdrops and throws a kunai at Fire) I don't need a psychiatrist!

Fire: (dodging the kunai and mumbling under breath) Probably can't help you anyway… Let's go Sasuke. (walks away)

Sasuke: Um…Sand's coming… (runs away with Fire following after him)

Sand: (eyes widen) Uchiha! (runs after Fire)

Gaara: (shakes head disappointingly) Well, on with the story.

0o0o0o0

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto blah blah blah… The rights are reserved only to Kishimoto-san blah blah blah… Akatsuki placed Shukaku inside of Sand blah blah blah…

0o0o0o0

Legend

See chapter 1

0o0o0o0

Chapter 2: Invitation

Temari panted, wheezed heavily as she approached the tall gates of Konoha, her mind set on a dark-brown haired, lazy chuunin. She trotted towards the Academy but stopped when the little white envelope fell out of her pocket. Looking down at the rectangular, folded piece of paper with its Kazekage seal, Temari breathed in deep. She had contemplated on many different scenarios of how to give the letter to him…like leaving it in his mail box, which would be too awkward since it was an official invitation, or dropping it on his head while gliding on her fan, which would be bad since he might throw it away...or worse, he might think that it's a love letter from some fangirl!

A shiver went down Temari's spine before she gently slipped the envelope back inside her pocket. Her mind dawned on what day it was...

'He better not be sleeping on a mountain of papers...'

With the thought still fresh in her mind, the blond kunoichi sped down the street towards the Academy, careful not to bump into anyone.

0o0o0o0

Out on a tall, grassy hill, under the shade of a tree, a slumped figure with dark-brown hair could be seen with his face pointed at the sky and his eyes half-closed. The chuunin vest on his back stirred as he heard the sound of footsteps in the short grass. He turned his spiky pony-tailed head lazily to look at the person who approached him, a frown on his face.

"I knew you'd be here." The person sat down next to the boy and looked up at the clouds.

Shikamaru only shrugged at the person, then turned his head back to the gradually crawling clouds. The wind wasn't blowing too hard so they weren't moving very fast.

'Kuso...why did I accept a troublesome job like Academy examiner? There's too many troublesome papers to read and too many troublesome papers to sign and too many troublesome hitai-ate to prepare and too many troublesome— Ah...why am I thinking of these troublesome things...?'

The whining inside Shikamaru's head ended with a very long yawn. The dark-haired chuunin closed his half-lidded eyes and tried to forget everything that he had just thought of...but he found it too troublesome so he tried to fall asleep.

Shikamaru was really a chuunin examiner, not an Academy sensei. When there wasn't a chuunin exam or when there weren't any missions for him to do, he was placed in the Academy to teach. He found work at the Hokage tower too troublesome...since the Hokage was always asleep...

The Academy just had an exam for new genin and he was helping out...

"You know...you're a chuunin now, so you should really set a better example for the new genin and academy students."

The wind began to pick up. Autumn wasn't the ideal time to be sitting on top of a hill, cloud watching…even if it was a clear and sunny day.

"Iruka-sensei..."

The brown-haired man turned his scarred nose away from the clouds, towards the boy at his side to see...Shikamaru snoring fast asleep. The sight irked him and caused his left eyebrow to twitch uncontrollably with suppressed anger.

"Shikamaru!" The yell could've been heard for at least a kilometer away.

The boy stirred and opened his eyes lazily again. "How troublesome… I was about to take a short nap..." The boy groaned, yawning loudly again.

Iruka held up a tight fist. His face contorted angrily. He was thinking of assigning extra paperwork to punish the laziest chuunin in Konoha, but Shikamaru would probably come up with a smart excuse to get out of it…and the situation would grow bigger and bigger until hundreds of complaints flooded the Hokage Tower.

"Iruka-sensei..."

Iruka's anger subsided a little to give the boy his undivided attention.

"...I thought that being a chuunin examiner would be less dangerous than going out on missions but it's a lot more troublesome than leading a pack of genin or chuunin..." Shikamaru grumbled as he stared at the creeping clouds.

'Anko-san gets way too carried away in the chuunin exams...' A shiver shook his entire body. 'Like the last one...'

In the Forest of Death, gigantic snakes, man-eating plants, venomous insects and animals, as well as a whole bunch of other gruesome and horrifying creatures resided. But the scariest of them all was...

"Yosh! Everyone to their gates!" A short, violet-haired woman shouted the signal to open the assigned gates. "Don't get killed!" The smile plastered on her face scared everyone more than the lurking unknown of the forest.

Shortly after all the surviving genin teams from the first exam entered, screams could be heard from as far away as the Hokage tower. Anko really wanted to test out this year's new batch of victims, especially after the Orochimaru incident two years ago.

Three days had quickly flown by. Only a handful of genin teams made it to the tower...safely...

"I think that time's up." Anko looked at her watch as she slipped another dango ball into her mouth. "Oi!" Several teams of chuunin examiners appeared at her side, Shikamaru included. "Help the genin who didn't pass." The same scary smile was plastered on her face. It reminded Shikamaru of Orochimaru. The smile of a snake.

The chuunin examiners scattered throughout the forest. They found several dead bodies, some half eaten near the middle of the forest from the tower. Most of the genin who died were from smaller villages like Amegakure or Takigakure.

In the end, scraps of about five teams of genin were found alive. The lost of their friends and comrades had traumatized them. A few even wanted to quit being a shinobi, and did.

"The forest hasn't changed much over the years." A chuunin next to Shikamaru picked up a bloodied arm clenching a scratched Iwagakure hitai-ate in its few remaining fingers. Fresh red blood was still dripping from the dismembered limb. "It always absorbs so many promising genin every year..." His voice was sad, his eyes downcast.

Shikamaru didn't say anything. He didn't want to think about the forest. There were too many bad memories...

An image of Sasuke snickering as he dislocated Zaku's arms flashed through his mind, the sickening crack of bones unhinging from their sockets, and the high-pitched scream of agony shortly afterwards. The cursed seal imprints marked about half of his entire body.

When the remaining chuunin examiners exited the forest, Anko wasn't smiling anymore. She hadn't expected so many dead.

Shikamaru gave a sigh. He didn't want to remember such painful memories... Why was he doing something as troublesome as that...?

Iruka's eyes widened, then softened as he considered what the boy had said. 'A chuunin examiner sees a lot more horrifying sights than a regular chuunin in the Academy... He must have seen something bad on the last exam.'

Iruka had heard from Naruto about Shikamaru's first leadership experience shortly after becoming a chuunin, when they had to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. The young chuunin really blamed himself for the failure and potential deaths of his friends. Who wouldn't have if he had endangered his friends' lives due to a miscalculation?

"Shikamaru..." Iruka had no idea what to say to his chuunin colleague. But, he wouldn't have gotten the chance to...

"Ninpou Kamaitachi!"

Shikamaru quickly jumped to his feet and turned to escape…but it was too late. A large gust of wind swept him off his feet. Luckily, Iruka had jumped safely into the tree when he sensed the intense killer intent approaching.

"Ja ne, Shikamaru! Say hi to Temari-san for me!" Within a swirl of leaves, Iruka waved a hand, a smile on his face as he disappeared.

"Matte! Iruka-sensei!" Shikamaru tried to stop his former Academy sensei from leaving him alone with the enraged kunoichi. At least with a second chuunin there, he might have stood a chance at surviving.

The dread of what she was going do to him ran rampant inside of his head. Thousands of possibilities made his entire body quake with fear. 'Aw...how troublesome. I just wanted to watch the clouds in peace...' The whining inside Shikamaru's head continued for a few minutes longer. He was a little perplexed by his unexpected visitor.

'Why is she here anyway? She was just here a few days ago...' Shikamaru was hiding behind the tree. He had scrambled away from the full blow of the attack, but it was enough to jolt him from his place.

"Oi! I know you're hiding behind the tree. Come out and face me like a man!" Temari sighed as she closed and replaced the large fan on her back.

'Mattaku...I saw you jump up. You can't hide that fast...' She was breathing pretty hard from running around, looking for the worthless chuunin.

Bursting through the doors, Temari ran into every room, looking for a particular lazy chuunin. She wasn't expecting him to be inside any of the classrooms since the academy students had recently had an exam, so he should be grading the test papers or doing other conclusions like a normal examiner after an exam, right? Right...?

"Shikamaru!" Temari roared down the halls. "Where are you! Bakayaro!"

When she approached the examiner's room, another examiner yelled back at her. "Oi! Shikamaru's not here! He left right after his shougi match with all the chuunin examiners this morning!"

Temari screeched to a halt when she heard the word 'shougi'. Her eyes widened. Her anger meter shot through the roof. "What did you say...?"

The chuunin examiner cowered a little. He was in tears after losing to the laziest chuunin in Konoha and now he was afraid that the blond-haired kunoichi might turn her anger towards him. As irrational as it was, he was in a negative state of mind. It just might happen.

'I can't believe that stupid guy! He was supposed to take his job more seriously when I left...and now I find out he's been slacking off and playing shougi!'

The thoughts that ran through her mind were too gruesome to say. The chuunin had promised that he would try to make an effort to do something useful before she left...and games were not useful. At least not in Shikamaru's case.

"He...he didn't leave that long ago," the chuunin examiner stammered warily, wiping the tears from his face when he saw the blond kunoichi calm down a little. "He left around noon."

Everyone knew that Shikamaru was practically married to the girl, although he didn't care whether people thought this or not. The only reason why the enraged blond would even be allowed into the academy was to whip the chuunin's butt. He didn't do much of anything without being told by the other examiners...then they'd find out that he fell asleep and didn't do it at all. Even during actual exams!

'He's probably at that hill with the tree. I'm so going to beat the stuffing out of him!' Temari fumed as she rushed past the chuunin.

"That baka!" With the blond gone, the academy became quiet once again.

Shikamaru stepped out of the tree's shadow and quickly raised a hand in peaceful greeting.

But Temari didn't respond. She dismissed the gesture and sat down silently under the tree to look up at the clouds. Her sudden change in behaviour was unnerving. She was quiet…too quiet.

The kunoichi was normally a great listener and conversationalist, but her behaviour today was weird...and that scared Shikamaru even more than when she tried to attack him. At least, the attack was normal.

Whenever she visited Konoha, she would normally give him a friendly whack on the head when she found him. Then they would stare up at the clouds, even if there weren't any in the sky, and talk about her trip, or further plans to strengthen the two villages, or some other event that had happened that day.

But, Temari was never quiet and calm at the same time.

Shikamaru lay down next to the girl and stared at the sky. There was an immense silence. It was as if time had stopped everything but the slow motion of the clouds.

'Uggh...how am I supposed to ask him…?' Temari was immersed in thought. 'It was more of a request than a mission... And I was just here a few days ago.' Her hand clasped, then released the little envelope inside her pocket convulsively. 'What should I say...?' Her hands were clammy with sweat as the uncomfortable question burned a hole in her head. 'And why am I acting so weird around this guy? It IS only Shikamaru...'

"Why are you here, Temari?" Shikamaru broke the long silence between them.

Temari was silent.

The question hung heavily in the air as the wind picked up in the gathering darkness of dusk.

'She probably forgot to do something last time she was here...again. But if this was true…why is she wasting her time here, with me?' Shikamaru was waiting for her answer.

It was a good thing that he wasn't an impatient person because anyone else would have thrown a fit by now. Twenty minutes had gone by and Temari was still silent.

Actually, Shikamaru found impatience too troublesome so he didn't care how long it took for the girl to respond, but waiting for an hour for a troublesome response to a simple question was grating at his nerves.

"Is it about the improvements I gave you?" He couldn't wait any longer. He needed to go home, and being a man, he couldn't leave a girl alone at night...even if the girl was a powerful jounin. "I couldn't think of a better landscape improvement for Sunagak—"

"Why were you being lazy?" Temari sighed, interrupting his sentence before he could state his confused explanation of why she was here again after leaving a few days ago. He had personally seen her off at the main gates. "You said that you will try to do something other than sleep, play shougi and watch the clouds." She was trying to get her mind off the invitation in her pocket.

'Kuso! Why can't I just ask him? I know what Gaara wanted…but why…?' A frown formed on her face. 'I'm starting to act like Sakura or worse...Ino...' The thought shook a shiver through her entire body.

Shikamaru's gaping mouth hung open. She had cut him off when he was talking. He frowned. "I wasn't lazy." His lower lip jutted out in annoyance. "I was helping the other chuunin hone their strategic skills."

Temari's head jerked to face the brunette at her side. Her eyes narrowed in irritation. 'Is he justifying his laziness again…?'

She raised a white-knuckled fist. "Shikamaru..." She breathed through gritted teeth as she tried to suppress her rage.

He diverted his eyes from the clouds to the jounin…

…and they rounded when a hard fist came crashing down on top of his head.

'Why does Gaara want to meet Shikamaru? He must want a new punching bag…' Temari was furious. She kept swinging her fist at the brunette but met air every time.

"Stand still and take your beating like a man!"

And in all of Temari's infuriated swings, the little white envelope fell out of her pocket.

"I would stand still if you stopped trying to hit me!" The chuunin dodged another attack as his eyes caught on the red wax Kazekage seal on the back of a white envelope. Shikamaru's face changed from fear to curiosity.

'What's that? Is she here on a mission?' He raised an eyebrow. 'If she is, then shouldn't she be doing it? And she calls me lazy...'

He swiftly ducked another swing at his head, rolled across the ground and snatched the little envelope off the ground.

Temari's eyes widened and her anger melted away as her eyes caught on the envelope in Shikamaru's hand.

Shikamaru stood a safe distance away from the kunoichi. He had one hand inside his pocket, the other holding the envelope. He turned the letter in his hand, and his frowned deepened as he saw whom it was addressed. His eyes darted to the kunoichi then back to the envelope.

Temari's face burned red. Her mouth hung open enough to let out a little squeak as his hand moved to rip the envelope open. Shikamaru's fingers hovered at the corner. The frown on his face intensified as he saw the expression on Temari's face. It was an expression that he thought that he would never see.

Temari was scared.

She knew the contents of the envelope and she knew that she needed his immediate response. But she wished she didn't have to see him read it!

'Just send Gaara your answer… I want to go home…'

Shikamaru's face softened as he dropped his hand to his side. He looked down at the envelope, then at Temari. "Oi!" He walked towards the girl. "This fell out of your pocket." His hand was outstretched, holding the envelope a safe distance from the kunoichi. She might whack him on the head after taking the envelope back.

Temari snapped out of her spell. She looked at the unopened envelope, then at Shikamaru.

"You should be careful with important papers like these. It has the Kazekage seal on it."

Temari's face shadowed before her body shook with anger. "Why are you giving me a lecture on how to do my job when you don't even do yours?" She grabbed his arm, pulled him toward her and…whacked him hard in the head. "Besides, can't you read! It's addressed to you!" She pushed the envelope forcefully back into his hand, sending Shikamaru flying to the ground

Shikamaru rubbed his head as he looked at the crumpled envelope in his hand. He slowly pulled himself up from the ground. A frown formed on his face again.

'Mattaku... If she wanted me to have it, why was she so afraid of me opening it?'

Temari waited patiently as Shikamaru opened the envelope. Her arms lay crossed across her chest as she tried to mask the curiosity on her face with disinterest.

Shikamaru's expression didn't change. He knew that this could only lead to trouble... And going all the way to Sunagakure for something like this was going to be super troublesome.

End Chapter 2

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Sand's babbling:

Sand: (breathes heavily) Damn…you…Uchiha…Sasuke… (recovers immediately) I'm so going to kill you! Then Itachi's going to marry Naruto! (laughs maniacally)

Sasuke: (frowns) That's a stupid statement. Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!

Sand: (ducks the giant fireball) Ha! Miss me! (grabs Sasuke by the feet) Gotcha! (leaves the room)

Sasuke: (screaming) Not the toilet! Not the toilet!

Sand: (thinks) I'm going to give you the dunking of a lifetime! Mwuah ha ha ha ha… (lightning flashes in the background of Sand's mind)

Sand: (dunks Sasuke into a garbage can) Eat garbage! (laughs maniacally)

Sasuke: (splutters) …

Fire: (runs up and whacks Sand) Sasuke! (grabbing Sasuke and yelling at Sand) Don't do that! (runs away carrying an unconscious Sasuke)

Sand: (shouts) That'll teach ya not to mess with me! I'm possessed by Shukaku! Yahoo!

Shukaku: (sweatdrops) You're delusional.

Sand: (ignores Shukaku) Yahooo! You're inside of me!

Gaara: (ignores Sand) I'll see you next time in Chapter three. Review and keep reading or suffer my Sabaku Kyuu.

Temari: (sweatdrops) You're kidding right, Gaara? (laughs shakily)

Gaara: I don't kid.

Kankuro: Where am I in the story…? (cries in the dark corner, holding Karasu)

Gaara: No one wants to read about you, baka.

Kankuro: (cries) I'm all alone…

Sand: (snaps out of small bout of Shukaku madness, runs up to Kankuro and hugs him) I like you.

Kankuro: (smiles very widely) Date me…

Sand: (sweatdrops) Uh… Maybe some other day… (slowly backs away and runs out of the room)

Temari: …

Kankuro: …

Gaara: … I won't repeat myself twice.

Temari: (sighs) Please review and keep reading. Will the baka accept or refuse the invitation? I'm going to beat him up now. So Ja! (flies away on her fan)

Gaara: … (dissolves into sand)

Kankuro: (still crying in the corner) I'm all alone.

Shukaku: Now I can rant about whatever I want to talk about. So first, I'm going to kill YOU! (points at Kankuro and walks threateningly towards him) What!

Kankuro: (smiles) Ha ha! You don't have enough room!

Shukaku: (looks down to the bottom of the window) Damn! Not enough room! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!