Yes, I said I wouldn't post the next chapter till I got 35 reviews, but I figured 32 was enough. I think we've ALL waited long enough! lol So, here's numbah seven!

Chapter 7 : Big Misunderstanding(s), Part 2

Tenten decided to take Ino's advice. It helped a little bit. A little. She would go to the dance wth Neji and not freak out. They would have fun. She would see there had never been anything to freak out about at all. Absolutely nothing...

So, the next day she travelled to the mall, a place she hardly ever went to, and looked around for something to wear. She was hesitant went it came to the dresses and make-up. She'd never worn that stuff, ever, in her entire life.

So, she was looking at some green dresses in a trendy store called Beat, when she heard the voice of another girl say, "Hey, Tenten."

She jumped and turned around quickly, and said, "Oh, Sakura. Hi. What are you doing here?"

Sakura was standing there holding a few dresses in one hand. "Oh, me? I was here yesterday looking for dresses for the dance, but I didn't find any I liked, so I came back to look at all the other stores. I noticed you're looking for dresses, too."

"Oh, yeah!" Tenten said. Tenten had never called someone for advice in her life, and she'd never asked a girl for help with dresses, but she figured maybe Sakura could help her, soo...

"Um, Sakura? Do you think I would look good in this green dress?" she asked, taking a long, lime green dress and holding it out.

"To be honest, Tenten, green isn't really your color. You would look good in a nice orange. Here, try this on," Sakura said, and she took a dress from the ones in her hand. "You also look good in light pink." She pointed at the top Tenten was wearing.

"Thanks," Tenten said.

"So, you going to the dance with someone?" Sakura asked.

Tenten nodded. "Neji."

"Oh, I see. I'm going with Sasuke." She grinned and giggled.

Tenten blinked a couple of times. Sasuke? Wasn't Ino going with Sasuke? Something weird had to be going on, because they couldn't both go with Sasuke to the dance...

"Something wrong?" Sakura asked.

Whatever was going on, Tenten was not getting in the middle of it. "Oh, no!" she said. "Just thinking. I'll go try on this dress now!"

---

Temari stood, with her eyes shut, not really feeling the ground beneath her feet, or the weight of her fan on her back. She simply tried to calm her nerves. She didn't think she'd ever felt like this in her life. It was a really weird feeling. And as hard as she thought, she couldn't figure out what it was.

"Right," she muttered under her breath, for no real reason. Then she opened her eyes and slowly walked toward the kid sleeping on a bench in front of her, trying her best to look cool like she always did.

"Hey, you," she said. "Nara Shikamaru."

He slowly opened his eyes and looked up. "Oh, you again," he sighed.

"I came to talk to you," Temari said.

Such a series of changes came across his face, it was almost scary. He went from relaxed to confused and frustrated, to freaked out. "Me?"

"Yeah, you!" Temari tried to sound tough, but it was hard. That nervous feeling was coming back at her, full force. As a result, her voice sounded really weird.

There was a long, awkward silence, and finally Temari realized he was waiting for her to start explaining.

"Ah, right..." she said. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about that note."

Shikamaru continued to stare at her.

"I've thought about it a lot, and if you want me to, I'll... go to the dance with you."

"Huh?" Shikamaru said, raising a eyebrow.

"I'll go with you! You asked me to go with you in that note, remember?"

"I didn't give you any note!"

Temari froze. He did too! That little... And in her mind, Temari called him a whole lot of names that she would never call anyone out loud. Then she took a deep breath, and smiled as nicely as she could. "Well, Shikamaru you simply must have forgotten!" she said, voice trembling with anger. "Remember when you gave me that paper the other day?"

Shikamaru blinked a few times before he finally said, "Yeah."

"That was a love note! And you gave it to me!"

Shikamaru's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Love note?"

"Yeah! 'Dear Cutie, You are the most beautiful girl I have ever met, when you smile, it brightens up my whole day, and your eyes captivate my soul...'"

Shikamaru bolted up from his seat and stood right in front of her, his nose inches form hers, and yelled, "Oh, come on! Do you really think I'd write something that stupid to you?"

Temari was taken aback. Her jaw dropped while Shikamaru continued, yelling, "I don't like you! I never liked you! In fact, you scare me!"

"Excuse me? I know for a fact you gave it to me, and that you asked me to the dance, and I came here to tell you I would NEVER go to the dance with YOU, lazy bum, and I HATE YOU!"

"I HATE YOU TOO!"

"I'm leaving!"

"Go ahead!"

And so, Temari stomped off, and Shikamaru sat back down on the bench angrily.

---

Not too long after she'd walked away from Shikamaru, she was walking through a street filled with people, when all the sudden, she felt this horrible feeling in her stomach. She felt a stinging in her eyes, and softly, she whimpered, "No, Temari, don't do that... you don't cry, stop it now..."

Temari ended up sitting on her bed in the room at the Inn, wrapped in the bedsheets, a box of Kleenex next to her. (A/N: Yes, there is Kleenex in the ninja world. It is a universal essential.)

The door opened, and there was Kankuro. He stood and looked at her, and slowly, he said, "Man, Temari, I haven't seen you like this since you broke your first fan when you were little."

"I know," she sobbed. "I hate it."

Kankuro sighed. "Lemme guess... something bad happened with that kid."

Temari took the bedsheets off her head and looked at him, her face all red and tearstained and whined, "Yeeeeesssss..."

"Want me to kill him for you?"

"Noooo... I'll do that if I want to."

"Well, at least tell me what he did."

"He pretended he didn't give me the note and he said he didn't like me and he'd never like me and I scare him..."

"And you said you hated him, didn't you?"

"Yeeeeesssss..."

"And you didn't mean it, did you?"

Silence. And then Temari buried herself under the bedsheets again, sobbing loudly.

"O-kay. I'll just go now, so you can be alone."

Kankuro left, closing the door quietly behind him, and walked over to the next room. When he walked in he shouted to his red-headed brother looking out the window, "You see any pigs flying out there? Because Temari's got girl problems!"

Preview of the Next Chapter:

Ino smirked. "Well, I was going to tell Sasuke-kun that I was going to go to the dance with him!"

Sakura completely froze. Her whole body was still, all except her twitching fingers. 'THAT PIG!' Inner Sakura shrieked. Then Sakura realized she wasn't breathing, and took another deep breath, and exploded at Ino.

"I WAS GOING TO TELL HIM I'D GO TO THE DANCE WITH HIM!"

Read the next chapter to find out what happens...

And REVIEW.