CHAPTER 4 - A Bittersweet Thank You

All eleven students stood around Principal Tsunade's desk worriedly, nervous for what punishment is there to come. Temari and Kin were sitting on the two chairs in front of her desk, holding the urge of glaring at each other. The other nine of them stood behind them, Shikamaru purposely standing between the two girls who fought to prevent any tension stares.

Tsunade walked into her office, slamming the door behind her. She would sit at her desk, looking at the students with concerned faces. "So, from what I heard, Temari swung first, am I correct?"

Temari looked behind her, seeing that they all exchanged glances. Temari was about to speak until Ten Ten interfered.

"Y-Yes! But..."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "But?"

Kiba then jumped in, "Kin was asking for it!"

"... Tell me more."

Shikamaru put his foot down, "Okay, okay, okay! I'll tell you everything that happened, truthfully, and honestly." He stared at their principal, not before eyeballing Temari in the corner of his eye. "We were all eating lunch, talking normally until Kin came and..." He looked down at both Kin and Temari, Kin's face was obviously holding back a smile considering she knew Shikamaru enough to know he was never a guy who spoke bullshit. But Temari's face was expressionless, however, Shikamaru couldn't read her at all. Other than that conversation they had in his car, he could tell she was a girl with a past but was also tough. He sighed, thinking this was all so troublesome.

"And?" Tsunade asked.

Shikamaru's lower lip quivered, before biting it firmly and nodding his head. "Kin was really wrapping her arms around me tight! L-Like I was about to suffocate or something!" He lied.

Everyone in the room exchanged glances again. This was not like Shikamaru. One of his best traits were honesty, and Kin just sat there with a jaw drop.

"Really?" Tsunade asked again.

"Yeah! Like my face went purple, and I was about to really fall or something, and that's when Temari jumped in and tried to save me! But Kin wouldn't budge, so that's when Temari decided she needed to pull Kin by the hair." Shikamaru lied again.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow, not really buying it. However, teachers were human and as long as no one died, she could care less.

"They're lying!" Kin shouted out.

"Bah! Whatever, listen kids, I better not hear from any of you again. I'm going to let this go, mainly because I hadn't got the chance to eat my lunch yet, so scram!" Tsunade shouted, however added on to say, "Temari, I know you're new, and I understand you may have been angry, but we have standards at this school and if you can't handle them, then it's best to tell Baki to go back to your old school."

Temari didn't know why but she felt attacked, by her own principal. She was the first to stand up, pushing through the group, walking out of the office. Ten Ten was about to go after her, until the bell rang.

For the rest of the day, Ten Ten tried to message Temari countless times. But it seemed like Temari's phone was off since her messages weren't delivering. She sighed, then went to go see if anyone else knew where Temari would have been.

Ten Ten walked out the hallway and into her dorm, seeing the girls getting ready to go to the soccer game. "Hey, have you guys seen Temari anywhere?"

"Can't say I have," Sakura responded, sighing. "Damn, I really hate that Kin."

Hinata nodded in harmony, she would never really say she hated anyone, but Kin was just.. aggravating.

"No, but I'll go see if the guys have." Ino suggested.

"They already left an hour ago for a quick practice." Ten Ten told her, then wondered. "I think I should text Shikamaru and see if-"

Ino stood up from her bed, while tying her hair in a high ponytail. "What? He can't do anything about it, he's already at the field."

"Ino's right, he's probably got a lot on his hands already, you heard them during lunch." Sakura accorded, not seeing what Shikamaru can really do about it.

Ten Ten looked at the three of them, she didn't know if she really wanted to tell them what she was thinking. But she's known these girls for years, I'm sure they won't do anything. "This is gonna sound weird but.. you don't think Temari has feelings for Shikamaru, does she?"

Hinata spoke, "W-What makes you say that, Ten Ten?"

"Think about it," She spoke. "The way she went started stuttering when I told her about Shikamaru's smarts, the car ride, and the fight? I bet you if that was Naruto being fooled around with, she wouldn't have reacted the same."

Sakura gave a blank expression. "Yeah? But it's also Naruto." Ino then jumped in, "Uh-huh."

Ten Ten joked. "Oh fuck you guys!" She laughed, "Come on, maybe our new friend here is developing a little crush?"

"Listen, I'm willing to push Shikamaru into any girl that he likes but we don't even know for sure if Temari does have those feelings." Ino told her.

The brunette smirked, raising her phone to reveal the screen. It showed that she had texted Shikamaru a text about checking up on Temari. "And that's why, ladies, we experiment."

A loud whistle blew, "Break!" called out the coach. Shikamaru grabbed a nearby towel to wipe the sweat off of his forehead, grabbing his water bottle to take a gulp. As he was about to place his bottle back down next to his bag, he saw his phone light up with a text message from Ten Ten, reading:

"Hey, I told Temari about the soccer game tonight and she saw she was going to come with us, but ever since lunch I haven't seen her since." - Ten Ten

"Well, have you tried texting her?" - Shikamaru

"No shit smartass." - Ten Ten

"Well.. why are you telling me about this?!" - Shikamaru

"You're the only one besides us she knows, plus you know where she lives! I haven't got that close with her yet!" - Ten Ten

"Bah! What do you want me to do about it? It's her choice if she wants to come or not." - Shikamaru

":( Please" - Ten Ten

Shikamaru groaned before hitting the send button.

"Fine." - Shikamaru

Shikamaru went to Coach Asuma, and told him he had to go settle some things. Asuma looked at the teen, nodding as it most likely had to do something with the ruckus that happened in lunch that day. He was well aware, considering Tsunade is a big blabbermouth in the conference room.

And there went Shikamaru, grabbing his phone and keys from his soccer bag and ran to his car before the game started.

Temari sobbed quietly into her pillow, seeing her phone constantly light up with text messages. She was ashamed of herself. She didn't know how to react in the moment, but she was filled with jealousy and atop of that, anger especially from sandbox comment Kin made towards her. The more she thought about it, the more she cried. It wasn't like her to show so much emotion, but she needed to.

Outside of her door, Kankuro placed an ear to her door. He would then step away, tip toeing towards the living room to turn on the TV. Kankuro had to admit, he thought it was so awkward whenever Temari cried. I guess it was a sibling thing, because although he wanted to kill anyone who hurt her, he also did a terrible job of comforting. As he stepped to the TV to turn it on, he looked out to the balcony and saw Shikamaru step outside his car. Kankuro raised an eyebrow, trying to put the pieces together.

'Well, I mean, he is in the soccer team, so what's he doing here? Does he live here? Psh, no way. Or maybe it had something to do with- KIN! I HEARD ABOUT IT DURING SPANISH CLASS! Ahh, que paso?' Kankuro thought to himself.

He would then slide the door to enter his balcony, looking down at Shikamaru.

"Psst!" Kankuro noised loudly, hanging his upper body over the fence. Shikamaru looked up, seeing him.

"Huh?" Shikamaru looked up, squinting. "H-Hey! Hey! Kankat! Right?"

Kankuro gave him a 'what the hell did you he just me' face. "Kankuro... so, what you doing here?"

"I need to talk to Temari! What apartment number are you?" Shikamaru called out.

Kankuro then thought to himself, wait! This is just like in the movies, where the guy tries to talk to the girl but the brother refuses since the girl is so heartbroken she doesn't want to even look at him!

"Why should I tell you?" Kankuro sassily shouted back. 'Damn, I should be an actor.'

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, "Because I need to talk to Temari!"

"W-Well, she doesn't want to talk to you!" He called back.

Shikamaru raised his eyes, 'What? Why wouldn't she? Oh no, she must be mad about Kin.'

"Please! I don't have much time I need to get to a soccer game! Tell her we need to talk!" Shikamaru shouted.

Kankuro just stared down at the pineapple head of a guy, he didn't even know the full story. "17," He told him, in which Shikamaru ran inside the building and Kankuro immediately went to go unlock the door.

As Shikamaru hopped several stairs at once, he turned the knob of the apartment and entered. He looked at Kankuro, in which the guy would point to the direction of her room. Shikamaru straightened himself out, looking at Kankuro before knocking on Temari's door.

"Go away Kankuro!" She called out.

Shikamaru called back, "I-It's not Kankuro, Temari. It's me, Shikamaru!"

Temari's face went blank. She immediately fixed herself up, wiped her tears and shot, looked in the mirror to fix her face, and so approached the door for Shikamaru to enter. Shikamaru looked at her, seeing that she was evidently crying before she opened the door.

"W-What do you want?" Temari asked him, sitting on the edge of her bed.

Shikamaru scratched his head, closing the door behind him. He would lean back against the wall, facing her. "I wanted to know why you're avoiding everybody."

"I'm not."

"You are."

Temari glared at him, "Okay, so what?" She shouted at him, "You don't know a damn thing about me!"

"It doesn't take a genius to know you're hurting inside." Shikamaru told her gently. He sat himself on the bed beside her, holding her hand in his like how she did to him during the night he drove her back home. "I get that this school, it's not what you're used to, I get it."

Temari just stared at him, listening to what he has to say next. Her eyes seemed to be rewetting as she continued to stare at Shikamaru.

"I get that some of these kids here, they're brats, I get it. They don't know what it's like to be considerate of people who haven't lived the same lives they had, but this is why it's important to choose your friends wisely." Shikamaru told her. "Many people say I should date Kin, hell some of my friends on my team always do. But I don't want a girl who focuses on growing their hair out, talk bad about people's pasts, or judges someone from where they're from. I don't.. I don't even want to be friends with her."

He began to move his thumb on top of her hand, "I may not understand, but I know you belong here. I know we want you at that soccer game. I know I want you at my soccer game."

The blonde stared at him for a long time, she looked down at his fingers. He may have came off as attractive to her, and he still is, however he really is good with words. Temari admired him for that, and she felt like she finally had someone to trust, to talk to.

And with that, a tear dropped from one of her eyes. She wiped it away, causing Shikamaru to worry.

"W-What? What's wrong? Wasn't what I said made you feel better?"

"Shut up." Temari grabbed him by the shoulder and hugged him.

Shikamaru just stared, taking in her action for a good few seconds before deciding to hug her back. They both released, smiling at each other.

"So, you showing up?"

"Definitely."