Something Like That . . .

Part IX

Scene Prep

Temari grinned at herself in the mirror as she tied her hair again. Yes, she'd been stunning. Everyone had been impressed, including and especially Shikamaru, and just when she was almost convinced he couldn't be straight!

He wasn't the world's best kisser though. She'd give him some leeway and assume that he'd have been better at it if he'd been prepared and not too busy fearing for his life, but her man needed to be able to kiss well even if he were caught off guard and about to die.

Not that Shika-kun was her man. Did she just refer to him as 'kun'? Did she just refer to him as Shika?

She eyed the discarded wedding kimono suspiciously. Yes, it must be that, there was a chemical inside of it that made her think really stupid things.

Or there were some subliminal thoughts in her head, as a little girl she never got to play wedding before. As a little girl nobody had wanted to play with Gaara's big sister and now years later nobody dared to play with Gaara's older and "nowhere near as scary or deadly as he is but still pretty scary and deadly" sister. Even Shikamaru hadn't wanted to do the scene, how was Temari going to know how to act at her own wedding having been so viciously deprived of the opportunity to act like a normal little girl growing up?

She'd just been lucky that Kankuro had liked to play with dolls as a kid, it led to his use of puppets, probably to their father's great relief . . . if he even noticed and cared. She'd just stolen his dolls whenever she felt particularly girly, but usually ripped their heads off before too long . . .

Temari sighed, stupid wedding. But it was kind of nice to do it, not that she'd do it again any time soon, it wasn't her thing. Still . . . a change of pace every now and then was okay.

"That was uh . . . pretty good back there." Ino said, "But um, try not to get my teammates killed in the future, right?"

Temari shrugged, smirking at the image in the mirror, behind her stood Ino, but behind her was Shikamaru who was being hassled by Kiba.

"Arent you going to say anything, Shikamaru?" Ino demanded.

Shikamaru grumbled something that sounded like "mind your own business" and Ino spun around, grabbed him by the wrist and shoved him forward towards Temari.

Shikamaru scoffed and said "Thanks for almost getting me killed." He said, Kiba and Ino both punched him in the back of the head, which caused him to lurch forward into Temari.

She was tough enough not to fall back herself though, and luckily they didn't bang their heads again. She just sort of glared at him as he separated himself from her, he rubbed the back of his head and said "What I mean is thanks for trying to talk Gaara out of it."

Temari smirked again and said "No problem. Didn't want you to die yet, if I'm suffering through this whole play you are too."

"Let's just leave you two alone! The next scene starts soon, so don't get too carried away!" Ino fluttered off . . . like a regular girl . . . idiot. And Kiba got dragged off in her wake. Shikamaru waited until they were out of earshot before he said in a voice so soft that Temari barely heard him, "Also that Kimono looks beautiful on you."

Temari raised an eyebrow. Had Shikamaru just come on to her? She decided to have a little fun with him and said in an angry, sarcastic voice, "Oh? Well I'm so glad you like it, thank you so much, I'll tell the kimono how lovely you think it is. You want to keep it? You like it so much."

"What?" Shikamaru looked surprised, "I mean you're beautiful."

Temari couldn't hide her smile, and she was pretty sure she was blushing all of a sudden, which was total bull. She wanted to tell him that she'd known that and she wasnt an idiot, but instead she just sort of stammered, "I-ya-um . . . really?"

"Yeah. I liked your hair too . . . but next time–if you ever want to dress up like that again . . . keep the pony tails."

"Why?" Temari asked, suddenly looking for ways to hide her reddening cheeks–what the heck? When did her cheeks learn how to do this?–she turned away from him and tried to do so in a way that didn't seem like a retreat, but lack of interest. "You . . . like my hair?" She asked, glancing back at him in case he mimed his response. Maybe he liked her hair, that was no big deal!

Shikamaru smirked now and said, "Well it's just . . . I had this really funny rhyme made up but it revolved around calling you Pineapple Hair–" He was saying, but Temari, thoroughly put out threw herself at him, screaming a battle cry that would have stopped the heart of any Shinobi, save perhaps Gaara.

The lazy, no good jerk! He'd gotten her all worked up for nothing! And here she'd started to feel kind of tingly and all that nonsense!

She grabbed him by the collar of his vest and they went down, Temari on top, she raised a fist to pound into him but he caught it and stopped it.

But that was only because she wasn't really trying! She could beat him if she wanted! Yeah . . . yeah, no sweat!

"I told you two not to get too carried away!" Ino cried.

"Look at 'em, they cant even get a room! Oh my gosh this is so awesome!" Kiba cried, "Take it off!"

Kankuro smacked him in the back of the head, "You nitwit, that's my sister, tell someone else to take it off so I can appreciate it too!"

Temari soon realized that Gaara was standing over her. "Uh . . . we were just playing, Gaara." She said sheepishly.

"Obviously." Gaara said. "Don't waste too much time . . . the next scene starts in one minute."

Temari shook her head as Gaara left, "Look what you did!" She hissed.

"Me?" Shikamaru raised his lazy eyebrows in a lazy manner.

"Get up already and go do that next scene!" Temari commanded him.

"But . . . you're on top." Shikamaru pointed out.

"Oh!" Temari blinked, then closed her eyes again without opening them. She slowly, delicately got off of him. "I uh . . . guess I am. Well get used to it, I'm always on top!" She said, lazily opening her eyes, however what she saw was not what she wanted to see–that everyone had acted their age and moved on to more interesting things–it was the opposite, everyone was staring at her.

Shikamaru got up and was clearly holding back laughter, Kiba and Kankuro didn't bother to do even that, and the others were starting to come over, clearly wanting to know what was so funny, so Temari–who felt a little tipsy–rethought what she'd just said, glowered at Shikamaru and said "I mean on top of the game, top of the scores, that kind of thing. Pervert."

"Yeah . . . of course you did." Shikamaru said with a smirk almost as obnoxiously self-sure as one of Temari's own.

Temari's glower increased in power, "Let's just do the scene."

Shikamaru bowed low and taking up his prop sword said "The epic scene where we–"

"Actually that scene has been cancled." Ino said.

Shikamaru blinked, "Eh?"

"I've rewritten the script, shouldnt matter since you guys are just making stuff up out there."

"True." Temari said. "Is there still a sex scene?"

"Oh I think you've had enough sex for one day." Ino smirked.

Temari's eye twitched, "I was trying to beat him up."

"Oh yeah." Kiba said in a lecherous tone.

"So what's this next scene?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well it's right after the wedding, Ramon and Julia are close to enjoying the married life, but Ramon must present Julia to his family so that she can become part of the village."

A scary thought occured to Shikamaru, "Who's playing my parents?"

"Hinata and Neji–" Ino began, Shikamaru felt relief flow through him!

"That's gross!" Temari cried, "They're brother and sister!"

"Cousins actually, and you didn't let me finish. Hinata and Neji talked your mother into it and she talked your father into it, so your real parents are playing the role." Ino giggled, "it's almost like you really are presenting Temari to them, since you two are getting so intimate over the course of this play!"

"I was trying to beat him up!" Temari cried again.

"Aww man! How troublesome, my real mother? You've got to be kidding me!" Shikamaru groaned.

Ino raised her eyebrows mischeviously, "Who else did we have? Blame your little pineapple princess over there, she's the one who had to change the story. Anyway they'll reject your love, and you and Julia will have to threaten to run away, we'll end the scene with your escape and her capture!"

"Yeah, you would just leave me." Temari scoffed.

"No I wouldn't." Shikamaru sighed. And he sounded like he meant it . . . which made Temari wonder if he'd ever get off of his lazy but long enough to save her from a stink beetle, let alone from prison. "Look let's just get this troublesome play over with, all right?"

Ino saluted him and said, "Go! Go in the name of art, theater, and love!"

"Shove a sock in it." Shikamaru grumbled.

Temari smirked at him, the whole smirking thing was really going around, "I cant wait to meet your mother." She said.

More To Come . . .

Writer's Worthless Warblings: I usually will cave in to requests if I feel like it will improve or at least won't harm the story (i.e. a request to have Gaara kill Kiba would both annoy me, and ultimately would not in any way improve the story) Temari with her hair down, along with just about every other request made so far, has been doable (though I might not have done them yet, keep reading because I probably will), I tip my hat to the Naruto reviewing community of for being so agreeable and though I am homesick for the Ranma section I suppose I will keep a foot in both worlds and keep writing Naruto stories as well.

Shikamaru's tape actually was duct tape, he slipped it onto her mouth right before kissing her (why he held her face as he kissed her) when their lips parted he was still holding her, allowing her time to figure out what was going on, then he ripped the tape off when he removed his hands, so the audience saw nothing, they just noticed Temari scream and some other actors laugh. Also I rather like those rhymes of yours Shikamaru's Butterrfly.

Jokes may or may not be Gaara's thing, which is indeed why he played a prank instead which may indeed have been a little OOC, but let us not forget the fact that he is playfully rhyming along with everyone else as well. In reality if Shikamaru and Temari are still in character–or if they've ever been–I'm pleased enough that I don't care if everyone else is just a little wacky, but despite all appearances characters who are in character until given sufficient reasons to be otherwise are always important to me in any fan fiction most especially my own. Ino's decision to lead the play has to do with her being a romantic and a total nagging boss type person, however that said I feel that she is the most out of character person in the story.

Well . . . except maybe Hinata.

This chapter I laid off the rhyming, not intentionally I just opened my eyes when I was ready to do the scene and saw this chapter had already reached its length limit, so next chapter is going to be all Act . . . 99? There will be rhymes. I threw one rhyme in here just because . . . see if you can find it.