ok, folks, here's the third chappie. thanks for any reviews that may have been left. also, please feel free to submit ideas at any time(especially because as I begin this chapter I have no idea what's going to happen) so, thanks for reading, and I'll "tuna out" until I make some comment about me being smexy.

To put it rather blandly, Shikamaru ran. He had no idea where he was going, but away from school seemed rather promising. He was sobbing. Losing a good friend like Kiba didn't come easily, it wasn't something he could shake off. He had left Chouji behind in the cafeteria, who was probably now shouting at the "Leaf Boys" (hehe. I'm smexy). Chouji had always been a good friend, and so had Kiba...at least, until today.

"Worst..damn...first day of school...ever..." was pretty much the one thought running through his head as he ran. He eventually came upon his preferred "cloud-watching" spot(he has to be a bit in character, he can't always be as smexy as me and harrison ford) and lay down. The tears had mostly left his eyes, but he felt almost as if a chunk of him had been torn away. And it only happened with three words: "Guys...I'm quitting."

Meanwhile...

Temari raced through the school trying to find Shikamaru. After about 20 minutes she gave up. "What is going on with me today?" she asked herself. "I just met this guy, and now I want to comfort him after he recieves a big emotional blow?(for lack of a better phrase XD) I mean, he is kinda cute, but that's not really it..." she spent the rest of the day pondering this.

By the time school let out, she had come up with two half-plausible reasons:

1: She kinda liked him, and wanted to be a friend of his.

2: He seemed really depressed, and maybe it was just her, extremely sweet, caring nature, wanting to save another selfless human from-

She mentally scratched the second one off of the list. She was nice, but not exactly a clone of mother teresa. She took out a pice of paper from her pocket, meaning to start a list, when she noticed something was scrawled on the paper: (LOL. I love how things like this just come to me out of a clear sky). She raced home, thinking of what she would write to him in her head.

When she got home, her older (yes, I know, non-canonical, but you realized that already) brothers were zoned out on the couch eating potato chips and watching a baseball game on the television. She went into her room, and logged onto her hotmail account. She sent Shikamaru the email, and hoped he was online to get it. He was. A few minutes later, she got an invite to gmail from "la-z-boy", and so quickly filled out the account thingy and logged in. She then emailed him again, him emailing her back, telling her to download googletalk so they could chat. She did, and a few mintues later they began talking.

la-z-boy: so why did you even bother worrying about me?

san-d-girl (sorry): I'm not quite sure myself, but...I dunno.

la-z-boy: que?

san-d-girl: well, I dunno, I kinda liked you. not in a boyfriend kinda way, but you're a nice guy.

la-z-boy: well, thank you, I guess. and it was nice of you to check on me, seeing as how we only met today.

san-d-girl: laughs yeah, well, friends stick together, right?

Shikamaru paused. "Friends"? "Hmm..." he thought. "Are we really-"

san-d-girl: yes, silly, we are really friends.

la-z-boy: heh. well, if you say so...

san-d-girl: and I do...

la-z-boy: ...then I suppose we're friends. cya school tomorrow.

san-d-girl: ok, bye.

They both signed off, and plopped down on their bed at the same time, slightly puzzled, but feeling a small buzz of happiness that they couldn't explain.

The following day...

Chouji met up with Shikamaru at the school doors.

"Hey, man, are you feeling all right? You were really depressed yesterday."

"Yeah, I'm okay. I kinda made a new friend, as well."

"Oh really? Who?"

"You know who that Temari girl is, right?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, she's in my chem lab. Wait, is she your girl-"

Temari came up behind them, and threw her arms around both of their shoulders. "Nope, just a friend."

Chouji and Shika both reddenned a little at this, but quickly regained their composure when Temari let go.(he-he-he)

"So, Shika-kun, off to AP English then?"

Shikamaru reddenned again, and nodded. "This woman is troublesome," he thought (caaatchphrase!!) "but, despite all of that, I kinda feel something..."

A few weeks later, Shikamaru, Temari and Chouji were solid friends. They went to movies and stuff often, and this was one such night. The movie was being shown at a nearby warehouse, where some guys had gotten a projector, a large bedsheet, and a collection of Bill Murray films (Woot Groundhog Day!!!) At the time they were there, the movie being shown was Groundhog Day(LOL). Chouji was sick that day, and was rather pissed his mom wouldn't let him go. However, Shikamaru and Temari went(no sheet, Sherlock). They sat on a couple of lawn chairs Shika had taken from his garage, and they had brought some popcorn and candy.

"Too bad that Chouji couldn't come, he loves these Swedish Fish" Shikamaru said, as he bit the heads off of several of them.

"Yeah," said Temari "I bet he would've liked this movie, too."

now the cliche part!!

Shikamaru had finally decided to pull "The Move". (LOL) He yawned, stretched out his arms, and casually threw his left arm around Temari's shoulder(OH YEAH!). She was a little surprised at first, but decided she didn't mind. After all, she kinda had a small crush on him, he was cute, and pretty sweet, so why not?

They sat like that so the rest of the movie, laughing at parts like when Ned Ryerson comes up to Bill Murray exclaiming "Phil Conners?!", and Bill promptly punching him in the face; when Bill/Phil kidnap Phunxtawny(eh?) Phil (the groundhog) and drives over a cliff. and then comes back, because his day keeps repeating. Finally, on the one night where he makes sure everybody in the town has a great day, and falls asleep with Rita, then wakes up in the morning on February 3rd, the two of them kissed.(awwww...) It lasted about half a minute, then they broke apart.

Shikamaru looked at her and grinned. "We should do this more often." he said.

Temari, however, wasn't so sure. "Sure, she thought, he's sweet and all, but...he's a friend. Not really a boyfriend..."

Her indecision, however, was soon to be erased at the upcoming Christmas dance, which Shikamaru asked her to the next day.