Chapter 3. The game begins

Normal P.O.V

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. IF I DID, THERE WOULD BE ALOT MORE SHIKATEMA AND NARUSAKU IN THE EPISODES.

A/N: Chapter 3's up! Sorry that I updated kinda late! It took a longer while to type up than I thought. Lots of ShikaTema so I hope you all like it! If you're all wondering why this story seems abit familiar, it's cause I'm using some parts/ideas of that show, Pretty Little Liars. So, I don't own the ideas that relate to the show; like the anonomous texting and the leader of the group dying, ect, ect. But, most of the story is gonna have my own made up mystery in it so it'll be alot more interesting. special thanks to my new reviewers! What you said meant alot to me :') LOL the face was okay too x) all righty, CHAPTER 3 BEGINS NOW!

When Temari got home a week later from school, all she could think about was the next pending text from "Unknown". She took off her uniform, and changed into her gray sweats and a plain purple tank-top. She let her 4 ponytails down and lazily tied it up into a messy bun. Temari liked it when she dressed like this. It was relaxing, and that was what she needed right now. That text and the coincidence of the resemblance was eating her insides and she couldn't help but feel stressed.

She had done some research on her own about Mikazuki a few days ago, since she felt like the book was missing something and she was dying out of curiousity. She had found out that the girls that were blamed for the murder were not the one who killed Mikazuki and it was a person that was texting them anonomously that did. Sadly, the person was undiscovered. Temari still felt as if something was missing though. Of course, she had told the people that were involved what she had found the next day after her discovery. They had compared her information with the book and agreed that it was pretty logical.

Temari plopped down onto her bed, and buried her face into her pillow. Why is it that something shitty had to happen on the first day of school? And of all things, WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO DAMN CREEPY? She groaned. Why ME?

Right when she was about to enter a dreamless and relaxing sleep, there was a knock on the door. She raised her head from the pillow and scowled. This better be important, I was just about to enter my world of lazy... She stood up and walked to the door. When she opened it, she saw Shikamaru with his hands in the pockets of his black basketball shorts, looking lazily at her. He wore a green shirt with a picture of a deer on it and dark pair of jordans. His hair was up in its usual neat pony tail. Woah, He looks pretty handsome… Temari thought to herself amused. Her face was still looked as if she were annoyed though.

"What do you want Nara?" Temari asked grumply, still upset by the sudden disturbance.

"Neji texted and told me to pick you up. We're going to his house to discuss about Unknown..." Shikamaru said staring at her. Who knew that Sabaku No Temari had a lazy and messy side. He mentally smirked. She looks really good though. He added to himself as he looked her up and down. He saw the curve of her waist from the tank-top and even though he couldn't see her legs, he just liked the way her body looked realaxed in her clothes. It's not everyday that you see a girl wearing sweats and a have their hair up into a messy bun.

Shikamaru didn't like it when girls tried to dress up fancy. It would be a bother to try and compliment them but he knew that if he didn't compliment a girl for her efforts on looking good, it would be rude and unappreciative. At least, that was what he thought. Temari on the other hand, was different from the other girls. He spent a lot of time with her during the past week and he found out that she didn't care about what she looked like in front of a guy. She'd eat in front of him like a pig. But even though he'd hate to admit it, he found it kind of cute. She also didn't fish for compliments from other people like a normal girl would. She had her own style and she wasn't afraid of anyone. Not even those damned fangirls. She wasn't a tomboy, yet, she wasn't a normal girl that you you'd see every day. She was a rare girl and the things that she did and said made him so smitten about her.

Temari was completley oblivious by Shikamarus admiring gaze towards her. "All right, come inside." She said as she stepped aside to let the pineapple headed boy come in. Shikamaru walked in casually and jumped onto the couch as if he always did that whenever he came to her house. Temari just rolled her eyes and went up into her room. When she came back down, she put her gray converse on. She looked at Shikamaru who surprisingly had taken a nap in less than 3 minutes. Temari had a devious plan in her head to wake him up and she grinned evilly as she went into the kitchen and filled a glass cup with cold water. She walked back to where Shikamaru was sleeping and was disappointed to see him sitting up, stretching as he yawned.

Shikamaru noticed Temari holding a glass of water with a look of disappointment painted on her face. He smirked as he realized her plan to wake him up. "Looks like you were too late eh Temari?"

Temari glared at him and took a big sip from the glass. "Shut up." She said once she had finished the glass in one gulp. That seemed to make Shikamaru's smirk spread even wider across his face. Temari was getting more pissed by the second and she nearly threw the glass cup at him. Instead, she just took a few deep breaths and placed the cup calmly back to the sink.

"Gaara, Kankuro, I'm gonna be out for a while. Please do not destroy the house while I'm gone!" Temari yelled to the direction of her brothers bedroom while walking to the door.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh! Mari, can you get some face paint while you're gone?" Kankuro yelled behind the closed door. Temari flinched at her nickname. She never liked that nickname and her brothers took the pleasure using it to annoy her on purpose.

"Not when you're calling me that stupid nickname you and Gaara made up." Temari growled.

"Aww PLEASE!? I promise I'll clean the house for the rest of the month!"

Temari snorted. "You're full of bullshit you know that Kankuro?"

"Yeah." Kankuro said while laughing evilly. Temari turned to the direction of Kankuro's room grabbing a pillow on the couch on her way. Once she was in front of his door, she opened it and threw the pillow hard on his face. Kankuro yelped and covered his now bloody nose.

"Damn it Temari!" Kankuro said nasily. Temari smiled innocently and gave no apology as she walked out of the room.

"Wise-ass deserved it." Temari mumbled to herself as she neared the door with Shikamaru leaning against the wall chuckling.

"Shall we go now?... Mari?" Shikamaru smirked as he opened the door for her.

"I hate you." Temari said as she quickly walked passed him with a scowl on her face. Shikamaru snickered as he walked out and closed the door behind him. Once he was right next to her, she slapped the back of his head which caused him to howl in pain.

"What? I kind of like that nickname. It's cute." That comment made Temari's right eyebrow twitch a little. She REALLY did not like compliments.

" And plus," Shikamaru continued, completley not noticing her twitching, " it would only be fair since you gave me a nickname that I don't like." He said as he rubbed the new bump forming in the back of his head.

"Which one? Crybaby?"

"Yes."

"Hn. Well at least you match with that nickname." Temari grumbled.

"No I don't" Shikamaru said in a defensive tone. Temari stopped scowling and grinned. She liked it whenever she got him mad or defensive. It made their arguments much more amusing. Time to humiliate/annoy him even more. She said as she mentally laughed evilly in her head.

"Oi, Shikamaru. How'd you find out where I live anyway? Have you been stalking me?" the dirty blonde teased him. Shikamaru scowled.

"No you troublesome woman. I asked you're brother where you lived."

"Which one?"

"The red haired one."

"Gaara?"

"I think that was his name…"

"How'd you meet him?"

"You're full of questions aren't you?" Shikamaru sighed.

"I'm only curious." Temari smiled innocently. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and they continued their walk to Neji's house in silence.

"I like your outfit by the way." Shikamaru said as they passed by the flower shop. Temari looked down at her tank-top, sweats, and converse. Her face silently turned pink. Why the hell would a guy like this outfit? I look like I just got out of bed.

"Stop complimenting me Crybaby." Temari said angrily, trying to mask her face that turned pink out of flattery.

"Why? Don't you like being complimented?"

"No." she scowled at him. "It makes me feel like their lying. Like they're only doing it to make me feel as if I lack self-confidence and that their kind words would help me. They don't even mean it... I don't need their fake complements ."

Ahh, that would explain it. Shikamaru thought to himself.

"Well, I'm not lying and I DO mean it." he said with a straight face. Temari saw the seriousness that he had in his eyes and she flushed even more and looked down at her shoes as she walked.

"Uhm, thanks... I guess." she was speechless. How was I supposed to respond to that?

The two turned on a corner and saw a big mansion up ahead which Shikamaru had said was Neji's house. They had a few conversations along the way, but nobody asked anything personal. Just a "How was your day?" and such. They were comfortable with each other and they both liked being in each others company even though this was their first time together alone.

As they neared the mansion, Temari saw more clearly that it was two stories tall with a fence and a big gate that surrounded the borders. Its walls were light brown and looked like it was newly painted. The roof of the mansion had dark green tiles that curved at the corner. The door of the enourmous house was made out of some dark wood. It had a design on it and it was at least 8 feet tall. They walked through the gate and knocked on the heavy wooden door. The door opened and there stood Hinata in her white v-neck and jeans. The timid girl bowed and opened the door wider to let them in.

Shikamaru and Temari walked inside, removed their shoes and walked to the living room. Their way to the living room was very long. The halls were wide so they were able to walk side by side, but Hinata was 4 steps ahead so that she can lead the way around the big house. Being the cousin of Neji meant that she knows every crook and nook of the whole place since her family lived with his. When Temari first heard that Hinata was his cousin, she wasn't shocked. They did have the same big lavender eyes and fair skin after all.

Once they arrived at the living room, Temari saw how big it was. The living room had a long clean blue couch that faced the coffee table and the mouth of the red-bricked chimney. There were also two other clean blue couches at the side of the coffee table facing each other. There were faded colored pictures on the wall behind the couch. It looked ancient like it was taken nearly 100 years ago. The recent photos were on a wide table with drawers in front of it. The window was wide and it was in between the faded colored photos on the wall, and above the wide table. Across the room, there was another door that lead to another hallway.

The two new arrivals remained standing near the door of the living room, since all the seats were taken, and looked around to see that the people involved in the "game" were there. Ino was seated with Sai, Sakura and Naruto on the couch that was facing the chimny. She wore a purple floral top with skinny jeans and pumps. Sai wore a black shirt with loose jeans and Nike shoes. Sakura wore a pink tank top with a white long-sleeved cardigan with a knited floral design in the back and skinny jeans and a pair of sandals. Naruto wore an orange shirt with a picture of ramen on it and yellow capri-shorts. He also wore a pair of orange Nike. Tenten was seated next to Neji in the couch on the right of the coffee table. She wore a big Chicago Bulls jersey with a black tank top under neath and dark skinny jeans with a pair of black Nike. Her hair up in a pony tail. Neji wore a white plaid flannel and loose jeans with a pair of Diamond shoes. Kiba wore a Stussy shirt with skinny jeans and a checkered belt. He also wore his pair of jordans that were in a lighter color than Shikamarus. Kiba and Hinata was seated on the couch in front of Neji and Tenten. Karin was sitting on the arm rest of the couch that Sakura, Naruto, Sai and Ino were sitting. She was wearing black shorts and a red button up. Temari looked around and found that only Chouji and Sasuke weren't present.

There seemed to be an air of tension cause they didn't look up from the coffee table, that contained everyones phones on it, to look at them. The pair shifted their weight, unsure if they should interupt the silence. After a few moments of waiting, Neji looked up.

"Did you get any text from Unknown yet?" Neji asked in a stern tone. The two shook their heads which caused Neji to sigh.

"Where's Sasuke and Chouji?" Shikamaru asked.

"They went to the library to check a book out." Neji replied

"Is it that book that we looked at last week? cause I still have it." Temari said.

"No, it's something else. You'll see. But can you bring that book the next time we meet up for a meeting? "

Temari nodded her head. Not everyone in the group knew the whole story about the girls in the picture and they were getting curious. There wasn't really any time for them to read it since the book has always been in Temaris house and Neji and her were to uncomfortable with the situation to explain.

"Neji, what about the documents that we need to steal?" Sakura asked. She spoke the word "steal" as if it were taboo. " You haven't finished your sentence when we were all at the library since we were intruppted by the text. "

" Well, we need to make sure that we have enough legitament information that would help us understand our situation and who we are dealing with first. And to obtain that information, we need to break in and steal. That is, IF we're still confused and don't have any other way to find info."

"Why should we steal? What if someone dies/gets injured some point during this stupid game, and Unknown frames us? The fact that we're stealing will only make matters worst and make us look guilty even after they find out that we didn't kill/injure the person." Temari said. Sure she had kind of agreed to go with his plan at first but now she felt as if this might be one of Unknowns plans to win this game.

"Temari-san has a point.." Ino said. Everyone agreed and Neji stared coldly at his phone on the coffee table.

"Fine" He mumbled. "We won't steal, but other than reading old books, how else are we supposed to find any information about this game and unknown?"

Before Temari could answer, her phone started ringing. She froze and everyone in the room stared at her intently, wondering if Unknown was calling her. She took out the phone and stared at the screen.

Matsuri. She sighed in relief and answered the phone. "Yo."

"Hey Temari!" Matsuri greeted in her usual happy voice.

"Hey Matsuri. Whats up?"

"Oh, just a problem with bachan Chiyo."

"why? what happened?"

"She's refusing to go to Konoha for some reason."

"What?" Temari asked dumbfounded. "Why would Chiyo be going to Konoha?"

"You're father told her to go there to check up on you three just to see how you're all doing."

"Why couldn't it just be you? Doesn't he know that she's far too old for traveling?" I swear, that man's getting cruler each day. She added in her head.

"He doesn't trust me. But, he IS letting me go with o bachan to care for her while she's at Konoha."

"mm, how long are you two going to be staying?"

"about 2 days."

"That's pretty short. Why would she be refusing if she won't be staying so long?"

"I have no idea. But she yelled 'unknown is looking for partners to play with and I'm pretty darn sure that I don't want to be the next sucker that falls for his/her traps!' before slamming the door shut in my face when I told her about the visit."

That seemed to make the dirty blonde pause. Unknown? Partners to play with? Traps? Could this be the same unknown that's haunting us? Temari took a glance at Shikamaru who was looking at her with a slight look of curiousity on his face. They both made eye contact and he widened his eyes as if asking if it was related to Unknown. She solemnly nodded her head and took her eyes off him.

"Matsuri, is o bachan with you?"

"Yeah, can you PLEASE talk to her? She won't listen to me."

"okay, give the phone to her." She heard the phone shuffing in the background.

"yes Temari?" Chiyo asked non-chalantly through the phone.

"O bachan, why don' you come to Konoha?" Temari could almost hear Chiyos face turn into a scowl through the phone.

"There are some things that you'd rather not know grand daughter."

"Chiyo" Temari said in a more strict tone. "I know that you know about Unkown. And right now, she has me and some other innocent people in this stupid charade. We need more information in order to win. You're the only person I know that seems to know about him/her." She was confident that Chiyos Unknown and the Unknown that her and the gang were dealing with right now were the same person.

"Oh?" Chiyo sounded concerned. "Who are these other innocent people? and be sure to include their last names.."

Temari was slightly confused for a while but continued, "Hinata Hyuuga, Tenten Sakai, Ino Yamanaka, Karin Nakamoto, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Kiba Inuzuki, Neji Hyuuga, Sai Yamamoto, Sasuke Uchiha, Chouji Akimichi, and Shikamaru Nara... "

Chiyo was silent for a while. Temari waited impatiently for her to reply. When she finally talked, it was more of a mumble. "Fine, I'll come. Me and Matsuri will be there in 2 days." Temari smiled and hung up. She then turned to the people that were seated in the room.

"Well Neji, looks like I just found the answer to your question."

Neji looked at her curiously.

"My grandmother is coming. She's gonna fill us in on Unknown. I dont know how she knows about him/her but I'm sure that she'll give us an explination when she gets here."

"When is she coming?" Kiba asked.

"In 2 days."

Everyone was silent for a while as they ventured through their own thoughts. Karin opened her mouth to ask a question but was inturrupted.

BING! All 11 phones in the room beeped at the same time. Everyone froze. New text. Everyone looked at the screen of their phones and saw that it was private, like the last time the girls had the text. They all clicked on the text and spoke aloud together:

Is this enough to convince you all that the games have officially begun? Unknown.

Everyone stared nervously at each other. BANG! They heard a loud noise in the direction of the kitchen and quickly rushed to the location. Once they were there, they saw Chouji holding a bleeding Sasuke.

"SASUKE!" Everyone shouted in unision.

A/N: What? How does Chiyo know about Unknown? Why is Sasuke bleeding? Who did it to him? and finally... WHO THE HELL IS UNKNOWN!? The answer to those questions lie in the future chapters. I feel as if I included some real good ShikaTema in here. Tell me what you think (A.K.A review) and stay tuned for chapter 4! It'll be up in a week I guess, maybe earlier hopefully. There'll be some ShikaTema on chapter 4. P.S No, there is no SakuKarin in this fanfiction so no worries. LOL, I don't like her, the only reason why I included her in this story is cause she's the only character that I think will be perfect for the UNEXPECTED chapter (;

- Fangasm