Something Like That . . .
Part XIII
More Scene Prep
Shikamaru pretty much knew where this play was going, Temari's Anbu disguise, the fact that Gaara and Kankuro were now giving one to him.
Yeah, this would all end in tears.
What bothered him more was the fact that his oh so subtle attempt at escape had been misinterpreted as an attempt to get a date from Temari . . . and he wasn't so sure that it hadn't been either, after all what would they have done once they got out?
It was too dark to watch clouds . . . he might try to go to sleep, but he wasn't tired so he guessed they'd probably have ended up going somewhere together and doing something . . . it was a bother but he knew that she'd only have to twist his arm a bit to bend him to her will on the matter.
But he hadn't planned it like that. They were, he guessed, friends. Just friends. They got along well and tried to spend at least a bit of time together whenever she was in Konoha, and he was too lazy to go and visit her in Suna. Sometimes he thought about her when she wasn't around, wondered if he'd see her again and if their villages would still be allies when it happened . . . but he thought about Naruto too, and he certainly didn't want to date Naruto!
It was dangerous, the world of the shinobi, and he might never see her again, might not see Naruto . . . almost certainly wouldn't see Sasuke unless Tsunade-sama was going to be troublesome and assign him to a retrieval mission, and Sasuke hadn't really been his friend anyway. He had a lot of time to think, it didn't mean she was anything special though . . .
He felt eyes on him and suddenly realized Temari was watching him.
What was with her? Oh wait . . . he hadn't had to turn his head at all to see her . . . had he been staring at her?
Final Prep
Temari fought the urge to hit Kankuro. Shikamaru wasn't asking her out directly, buy she could tell he hadn't been too far off from it. She'd wanted to give him just a tiny push then puppet boy had to ruin everything!
She looked at Shikamaru, he was looking at her, a thoughtful expression on his face. She smiled at him and he seemed to snap out of some daze, he looked startled for a moment, then grinned back at her.
She felt her cheeks beginning to warm, she'd have corrective surgery after this, have the medical ninjas remove . . . whatever it was in her that made her blush so damn much!
She shoved her Anbu mask on-it really was a pretty cool mask-and hid her face.
She wasn't sure that she'd have agreed to go out with him, after all she was older than him so it might not be appropriate, especially since when she turned eighteen he'd be fifteen, when he turned eighteen she'd be twenty one and hell if she wouldn't be married by then.
She'd just wanted to see if he'd ask her out . . . few people had asked her out before, and never in front of Gaara to say the least.
And she wouldn't have really cared about leaving the play early, what did Ino's dream matter to or have to do with her?.
Who knew what that half crazed bimbo would have Temari do next?
Act XI (Lover's Quarrel)
Shikamaru stepped out onto the stage and yawned a mighty yawn, man this was troublesome.
The stage had been split down the middle by a small wall, how was Ino changing the sets so quickly? Shikamaru guessed it was mostly Hinata's doing. The poorest member of the village's most prestigious clan: a mere stage hand.
And also every single extra, for as two Fantasy Hinatas fired harmless looking arrows from behind the wall, and the other two Myth Hinatas made lame looking attempts with a battering ram.
Gaara said "We are Shinobi, so that wall should not be, a hindrance to our attack."
"And yet it stopped you before, you need me to open a door, so we can get Julia back." Shikamaru said.
"Here wear this mask, as we go to our task, let not your clan know you've betrayed them." Gaara told him, though really he was explaining it to the audience since Ino had already explained the fact that Shikamaru would be going in as an Anbu too.
"Yeah that idea is good, and I'll wear this cloak and this hood, best too to hide my clan emblem." He said, removing his forehead protector from his shoulder and placing it in his pocket.
"All right man, now go! Open the gates so, we can all ransack this place!" Kiba said viciously.
"We're not here to ransack, we're here to attack, so dog boy just shut your face!" Neji scoffed.
"Now no bickering Anbu, I cant believe you, try to act professional here." Kankuro said.
"Well it's not my fault, I think that poor Walt, shouldn't have had that last beer!" Neji said.
"When you're at a pub, you drink, got it scrub? So don't go'n act like you're my father!" Kiba scoffed.
"Uh . . . Kiba you know, that there's no alcohol in this show, so what you drank was probably just water." Neji pointed out.
Kiba sighed, "It's called acting you loser, I'm not really a boozer, just get on with the play."
"Well what do we have to do? It's all up to you, to open the gates and win us the day." Neji said, turning to Shikamaru.
"Oh . . . I guess it is." Shikamaru nodded. "Well I'm best in the biz, I'll get them open all right!"
"Well if you don't mind, the guard isn't blind, so hurry so we can get in there and fight!" Kankuro said.
Shikamaru quickly dispatched the pair of Hinatas with the ram by jabbing them each in turn in the side with his prop sword, removed his mask and said, "Hello from down here, T'is Ramon and I fear, if you do not open that gate, I shall be overtaken, and turned into bacon, so let me in before it's too late!"
And the guards opened the gate.
It was that simple. In the real world they'd be executed. In fact, they were when a pair of puppets appeared on the wall and eliminated them.
Luckily they'd only been clones. Shikamaru put on his mask and leapt in to attack along with Gaara and the others.
"Now we attack! Hold nothing back! Destroy this stupid old town!" Kankuro cried.
And they were all blown back.
"No we think not. You're gonna' rot, in shallow graves 'cause you're goin' down!" Temari said, dressed as an Anbu and armed with her real life actual fan.
The one that could level a forest.
The one that would turn Shikamaru into mincemeat.
She had to be joking.
She wasn't, she came at them and slammed the huge thing into Gaara's face-his sand protecting him of course-and then swept it out into Shikamaru, knocking him into the wall, Temari was on him, her face very close to his though he couldn't see it.
"Are you insane lady? You're going to kill me, though I guess if you want to that's great." Shikamaru whispered.
Temari laughed, he could almost hear her smirk, or maybe he could just picture it since she did it so damn often. "I say we do this for real, is that a deal? If you win you can take me out on a date."
Shikamaru turned white, and he was glad for the mask. "You . . . you're so troublesome, woman!"
"You're not rhyming." Temari said. "Anyway I'm coming at you for real Shikamaru so if you want to go out, or even want to survive, I suggest you give me everything you've got!"
Off Stage
Asuma gave a half smile, "They're certainly energetic."
"I've never seen Hinata sustain so many clones for so long." Kurenai nodded.
"I meant Shikamaru and Temari, just look at them." Asuma said, pointing out the pair as they went about ignoring the actual play and trying to kill one another.
Well mostly it was Temari using her fan as a club, and Shikamaru running for dear life, still Asuma knew that was just something he did when he was trying to think of a strategy and didn't have time to really think.
"Twenty says my kid beats yours." Baki said to Asuma.
Asuma smirked, "I'll take that bet. Shikamaru can be powerful when he's motivated."
The honorable lady Hokage however, probably smelling a chance to gamble from her balcony seat on the other side of the theater suddenly appeared next to Asuma, "I'm offering three to one in favor of Temari, you want in? You want in? I know you want in!"
"Hold up . . . who would you bet on, Tsunade-sama?" Asuma asked.
Tsunade smiled, "Can't tell you that, then you'd already know who loses."
"All right, put me down for twenty on Shikamaru." Asuma said.
"The same for Temari." Baki and Kurenai said.
Asuma looked at Kurenai, he understood Baki backing his own student, but what was her excuse?
Kurenai just shrugged, "Girl power." She said. "Besides, let's face it, she's got three years of experience over him, and he runs out of chakra in less time than it takes for Chouji to decide whether or not he's hungry."
Asuma shrugged. "Shikamaru may surprise you."
"Oh he already has," Kurenai said, "Who'd have thought a lazy kid like Shikamaru would attract a girl like Temari?"
The two men with her smirked and nodded their agreement, behind them however another man made his opinion known.
Kakashi leaned forward and handed Tsunade fifty, "I knew. And what odds do you offer on them tying, Tsunade-sama?"
"Five to one, why?" Tsunade said after a brief moment of thought.
"Because they're going to tie. Put me down for fifty." Kakashi said.
Asuma was intrigued, "Why tie, Kakashi?" He asked.
Kakashi looked at Asuma, his one slightly bored looking eye seemed ever so slightly amused, "While I don't claim to know as much about these students as their teachers, to me it is obvious. Temari is clearly trying to let him win, and he's clearly trying to lose."
"Yes, I'd noticed." Baki said, "Eventually she'll get angry and viciously murder him."
"But before that," Asuma said, "He'll decide the fight is troublesome and finish her off, just like she wants." Asuma said.
Kakashi shook his head, "Or, she decides to kill him at exactly the same moment he decides to finish her off, they knock each other out."
Anko, who was sitting next to Kakashi said "Hey that sounds good, put me down for that!"
"No . . . no I still think Temari is going to win this," Iruka, who was next to Anko said, handing Tsunade some money.
"I say Lee comes in like a Taijutsu hurricane and ends the lover's quarrel!" Gai, who was sitting on the other side of Kakashi said, making a pose that Asuma didn't even want to guess at the meaning of.
"Ch'yeah right," Genma, who was next to Gai, scoffed, "Temari, hands down."
Asuma's grin didn't waver . . . but was he the only one who's be betting on Shikamaru?
More To Come . . .
Writer's Words of Wisdom: There is nothing terribly wrong with the word "dialect", I didn't mind at all. Now sadly this story is taking place some time before Naruto does come back he wont have a chance to get together with Ino, I'm sorry. I'll take it under advisement if I ever decide to do a sequel, but right now, though I am kicking around some ideas,a sequel is really doubtful.
I'm glad I'm not disappointing anyone, I really am, and I'm glad that my readers are spreading the story to their friends, that is cool beyond words. I'm also glad that Yoshino is not getting on people's nerves yet.
Shika-Tema stories do rock, I generally stick to the Ranma section of this site, but the drawing power of Shika-Tema was SO great that I could not resist writing a story for them . . . and of course one of my friends bet me it wouldn't get any reviews so I had to prove her wrong . . . you still reading Cassandra? I'm still getting reviews (nya-nya!)
I'm glad I'm not pompous, usually if I say anything positive about my abilities it seems like I'm high on myself, and I'm not . . . not really . . . sometimes, but not often . . . twice a week maybe. Anyway I love this story and it can be hard to stop writing it, or stop thinking about new rhymes for it. I laterally take notes of napkins at lunch . . . people stare at me.
When I first started writing fan fictions I did it to be stubborn and difficult and because there were no fan fictions I knew of available for the couple I liked so I decided to shove some down the public's throats, I did not actually like writing, though I did love to read. Now I cannot live without writing, so it is nice to know others think I am good at it.
Thanks to all of my kind reviewers, and my loyal readers. Almost a month online and this story has surpassed almost every other I've written so far . . . I really do think it has a mind of its own.