CHAPTER 23 - You Mean a Lot To Me

Sakura entered the apartment of the Suna siblings, scanning around lowly to get comfortable in the atmosphere. Of course, she was nowhere near comfortable at that moment. Not only was she going to admit everything that had been going on, there were also a bunch of guys in the room too. Definitely something that she did not expect at all. When she looked around, she found Nagato, Deidara, and Sasori awkwardly standing there with their backpacks on their shoulders.

Temari look at them in annoyance. "Bye!" She told them, in which they said their goodnights and left.

It then left only four individuals. Sakura turned back to see the three boys exit the apartment building, looking up to see Kankuro and then Kiba, who she made extra focused eye contact with.

"Sit down, Sakura." Temari told her, in which Temari would sit on the sofa chair and Sakura on the large couch, sitting near the arm where Nagato had sat before. Nervously, she fiddled her fingers on the clip of her clutch purse on her lap, staring down at the carpeted floor in shame.

Regaining her courage, Sakura slowly lifted her head, aligning her eyes to Temari's. "Temari..." She began.

Temari sat on the chair, crossing her legs. She folded her hands, resting them on top of her knee. She fiddled her thumbs, admittingly quite as nervous as Sakura as well. "Well? What did you need to tell me?"

Sakura gulped, not wanting to make eye contact with Temari as she was about to tell her everything that was going on. "Temari, about the letter..."

"Yeah?" Temari rushed. "It was all a misunderstanding, was it?"

The pink haired girl looked up at her with widened eyes. "Y-Yes? How did you know?"

"Well, someone told me you girls have been mass texting everyone looking for Shikamaru, along with the letter being misplaced so..." She paused for a quick second. "I put two and two together, and cracked- well, part of the case."

Sakura stared, thinking to herself. 'Well, Shikamaru sure doesn't like any ordinary girl.'

"I'm glad at least you have some sort of idea," Sakura said. "But there's a whole story to it, and I know you're probably wondering why it's me in particular that's here."

Temari blinked, tilting her head. "Now that you mention it, I kinda do. Why?"

Sakura bit her bottom lip nervously. "W-Well, where do I start?" She stopped fiddling her fingers on her purse. "Shikamaru came to us in desperate need of help, since you and him..."

"Yeah." Temari noised.

"Mmm," Sakura responded. They didn't really need to clarify how everything started. "We were originally going to have Shikamaru plan to text you to meet up with him, however, the message he intended to send kind of came out too blunt. And so... I had the idea of placing a letter into Tayuya's locker instead of yours, but I guess since it was dark and at night, I had misplaced it into your locker instead of hers."

"Wait, wait, wait." Temari waved her hands, wanting to ask a question. "Why Tayuya's letter? Now that I think about it, that letter seemed like a break up one. And I'm pretty sure Shikamaru kind of made it clear he still had feelings for that chick."

"You see, no, Temari. We thought that too, but after having a deep conversation with him, his feelings were just all out of loop." She told her. "You see, Shikamaru.. He's not the best person at comprehending with his inner feelings and thoughts. He thinks he wants something that he doesn't, and he has trouble deciding what he wants."

Temari rolled her eyes. "You got that right."

Sakura smiled for a second, until going back to her serious expression. "He realized that he truly does like you. It's just when you got angry at him, he didn't know what to do. Perhaps, he probably felt attached and when you got mad at him, he seemed hopeless on how to get you back."

Uncrossing her legs, Temari leaned against the corner of the chair, raising her legs and feet up on the cushion. She was completely engaged.

"You see, Temari," Sakura placed her purse beside her instead of on her lap. "When you first get into a break up, it's such a terrible feeling. It's like your happiness just flew away and that all the love in the world just.. vanishes. Let me tell you, Tayuya was Shikamaru's first girlfriend, and when they broke up, it was like he changed into a whole different person. That's what he was like when he thought he lost you too, and hell, you two aren't even official yet."

Temari stared down worriedly. That was how Shikamaru felt? About her? And then Temari got all the pieces together. "So I guess what I'm hearing here..." Temari looked at Sakura. "Is that Shikamaru wanted to break ties with Tayuya with a letter? With all the intention of going out with me? Or.. possibly."

"Yes!" Sakura pushed her head up, almost excitedly. "But only if you can forgive him."

Temari continued to stare, but with how she is, she put on an unpleasant expression once more. "Maybe if he can put something thoughtful together, then sure, yeah, I'll forgive him. Still doesn't explain to me on why Tayuya was saying how she wanted to get back together with him."

Sakura gripped the arm rest of the couch. "She said WHAT?!"

The blonde widened her eyes. "Yeah, girl. Overhead her talking about it in the library."

Sakura loosened her grip. "In that case, it's so amazing how timing works. At least we now know that Shikamaru won't go back to that cheating skank."

"I guess-" Temari then got interrupted as there came another knock on the door. Sakura looked at the door as well, wondering who it could be. Temari then got up to open the door, in which there standing was Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Naruto.

Hours before...

Shikamaru rushed to get his shoes and sock on, grabbing anything he can into his pockets. He opened his closet to get his jacket, then feeling a hand on his shoulder.

"Shikamaru, calm down." Sasuke told him.

Shikamaru unintentionally pushed him aside. "No, I need to see her."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Alright, looks like you're driving." Sasuke then went to go put on a quick pair of slides. "Come on, Naruto. You're coming too."

Naruto looked down, already in an outfit all ready to go, but couldn't hold back a complaint. "What?! Why me?"

"Because I don't want to be a witness of a whole mess alone. And in case anything happens, Sakura might need help. Now let's go."

"But-"

"NOW."

And by then, Shikamaru was already out the door.

There was a silence that lasted for a good minute. She stared there, looking at Shikamaru, in which he did the same and looked into her eyes deeply. The two guys stood beside him, Sasuke crossing his arms, leaning against the doorway while Naruto leaned against the wall of the hallway, completely annoyed that he had to come and get himself involved, knowing that it was most likely going to get fixed anyway.

"Sakura." That was all Sasuke said before Sakura gathered her things up. She stood up from the couch, walking to the door.

Sakura placed a hand on Temari's shoulder, momentarily breaking her gaze. "Goodnight." She said, smiling softly before exiting the apartment and scooched in through the doorway to head downstairs with Naruto, who was eagerly trying to leave.

Sasuke then did the same action as Sakura did, placing a shoulder on his friend and nodded. He then left as well, leaving the two dilemma'd teens alone, standing in an awkward atmosphere.

"Come." Temari whispered, stepping backwards to let him inside before closing the door after him. She then sighed, knowing it was probably the best choice to say something in order to prevent any more awkwardness. She waited for him to finish taking off his shoes, before standing in front of him to begin talking.

"I'm sorry."

"I know what happened."

They both said this at the exact same time. Temari looked up at him, who was also looking down at her. Shikamaru took a small breath. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry, and I know I'm not so amazing at words but..." He paused, cornering his eyes to avoid her gaze. "Y-You mean a lot to me."

Temari continued to stare, she was silent, but figured her actions most likely meant more than words right now. She pressed her head onto his chest gently, and wrapped her arms around his waist. To his surprise, he looked down, seeing her blonde hair onto him but no matter, he would wrap his arms around her upper body, taking a kind whiff of her hair.

"Does this mean you forgive me?" He asked into her hair.

Temari looked up, not noticing how small the distance between their faces would be. But still managed to speak out. "What do you think?" She whispered, not wanting so much of her breath to reach him.

Shikamaru tested her by placing a kiss on her cheek. "I think so." He then trailed the kisses lower and longer. "Do you?"

Temari enjoyed the kisses he planted, in which she pressed her forehead on his. "Yeah, I guess."

He laughed, placing a kiss on her chin. The two then just paused, not knowing how else to progress. Shikamaru was for sure that he wanted to kiss her, but he didn't know how Temari would take it. Hell, he didn't even know if Temari forgave him or even felt the same way he was feeling about her. All the thinking was such a drag. That was, until she said something that spoke for everything that was going to happen in those next few moments.

"Kiss me." She told him. In which he smiled.

Shikamaru leaned in, ultimately placing a soft kiss on her lips. She didn't move, wanting to get used to the feeling before doing her part of the action. Shikamaru felt a bit uneasy when she didn't react, but was able to figure that she most likely didn't know what to do at first. However, he then felt Temari move with him, and it felt amazing. She had no idea how aggravated he was when they were about to kiss behind the dorm building, just for Ino to ruin all of it. He kept kissing her, and even sucked a bit on her bottom lip. That move then made Temari moan a bit, in which she broke the kiss to catch her breath and looked up at him with a smile.

He smiled back at her, then asked her a random question. "Can I sleep over?"

Temari looked at him surprised, but smiled and chuckled. "Why?" This caused him to turn red, making her laugh even more.

"I mean," he scratched his head. "I-It is the weekend and I just wanted to spend some more time here to make up for the time I wasn't?"

'Damn it, Shikamaru. You are such a lame person.' He thought to himself.

Temari sighed, but couldn't help but continue to smile. She just had her first kiss, after all. "You just want to keep kissing me, don't you?"

Shikamaru immediately blushed, waving a hand in his defense while the other scratched his head nervously. "W-Wait! Th-That's not what I-"

"Oh shush, you big crybaby." Temari told him. "You're acting as if there aren't going to be a bunch of other kisses in the future, but sure, yeah, you can stay over." She then brushed a hand off, saving him from making up any more excuses.

Shikamaru stayed silent, rethinking of what she just said. A bunch of other kisses? Does she mean...

"S-So... Does that mean..?" He nervously asked, in which she responded with a large smirk.

"What? You don't want to?" She asked to verify.

Shikamaru repeated his hand-waving action again. "N-N-No! That's not what I meant. Of course! I-I been wanting to for awhile."

Temari smiled sweetly. "Good." She then turned around, heading to her bedroom. And like the loser Shikamaru claimed he was, he followed eagerly.