Chapter Two:A FAVOR FOR A FRIEND

Everyone else had returned and was setting up their food offerings long before Shikamaru returned. Temari refused to admit it, but she could feel relief ease the tension in her shoulders when he slouched into the small park in front of her visitor quarters. He'd come back after all. Then she saw who he'd brought back with him.

"Ossu." TenTen said in general to the group. They all greeted her and Ino as they came in bearing lots of snacks, both sweet and salty. "Chouji had a family gathering to attend, but I hope you don't mind that I met up with these two?"

Temari managed a nod. She and TenTen had made a small peace truce earlier on one of her previous visits to the Leaf village, but … why had she returned with her Shikamaru???? She stared daggers at the back of the pretty Leaf nin as the others greeted her, then realizing what she was doing, turned away with a hard blush. He wasn't hers to be jealous over! Temari scowled, making Kankuro look around nervously for the source of her distress.

"Uh, Sister?" Kankuro whispered, "you alright?"

"Yeah, uhm, sure." Was all she could muster. To distract him, and herself she admitted, she started eating a bowl of the ramen noodles that Naruto was gleefully handing out to his friends. His friends? Startled, she smiled a bit sadly as she looked down at bowl. When had that happened? She had more friends since the aftermath of the chuunin exams than ever before. And these were the people they'd betrayed.

She smiled as she tasted the noodles, surprised at how good it actually tasted. "You know, Naruto, this is pretty good."

"Told ya! Heheheehe!" The young blonde stated happily as he slurped down his own huge portion of ramen.

Temari settled back in the large circle the group had unwittingly created, with all the food in the middle.

Neji looked around and didn't smile, but he did relax. This was … nice. He turned to watch his cousin Hinata as she shyly spoke with Sakura.

"How's she handling it all?" TenTen asked quietly from his left.

Neji shrugged. "Not terribly well. Her training is horrid right now, and she'd been doing so well. The focus is gone." He frowned. He understood Hiashi's decision to put the leadership of the clan in strong hands, but didn't her father realize that Hinata had hidden depths of strength? Hadn't that been obvious from the fight she'd had in the prelims against Neji himself? There had to be a way to get that strength to shine.

"She's too hung up on Naruto." TenTen shook her head. "Ever since she heard he's leaving to train with his new sensei for a couple of years, well, you can see what it's doing to her."

"Hinata either needs to get Naruto to see her, or to give up on him entirely." Neji frowned again, "but how?"

TenTen suddenly grinned. She looked around, counting the party goers. "Leave it to me."

Huh? Neji watched as his teammate made her way over to Ino. Ino? Those two had never been close, what could she possibly have in mind? He watched as the two conspired and whispered, pulling in Sakura … and the wind-user from the Sand. All of a sudden, Neji started to feel really, really nervous.

Ino squealed, "A game! That's what we need, a party game!"

Nervous? Neji almost panicked right then and there.