Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: I'm sorry Rock Lee wasn't in any group! It would be very complicated and uneven if he was there! Sorry Lee fans! I love Lee too! WARNING!: This chapter is almost a whole filler. It's the aftermath of what happened when everyone left Shikamaru's office. It should still be an okay chapter to read. P.S. Thank you for all the reviews on FicWad!
Published November 8, 2006
Chapter 4 - Help Wanted Pt. 2
"That was a big waste of time!" Kankuro yawned as he walked out of Shikamaru's office. "That was pointless! Nothing happened!"
"What do you mean nothing happened?" Gaara asked. "Don't you recall Tenten beating you to a pulp not five minutes ago?" Gaara glared at Kankuro. "Now Sakura and Tenten are trying to beat each other up…you're lucky they aren't thinking…"
"Why?" Kankuro raised an eyebrow.
"If they were thinking, they would realize that they should kill you…" Gaara said 'as-a-matter-of-factly' and crossed his arms.
Kankuro chuckled nervously and scratched his scalp. "Well, then, maybe we should leave before they start thinking clearly."
"Finally…" Gaara said as the two brothers left the building.
"Wait a minute!" Kankuro stopped in the middle of the road.
"What now?" Gaara asked impatiently.
"If Shikamaru picks Temari and they start going out, and then they get married, Shikamaru will be our brother-in-law!" Kankuro just realized.
"Duh." Gaara said emotionlessly.
"That's not right!" Kankuro whined.
"Yes, it is." Gaara said, not noticing Kankuro's idiom.
Kankuro sighed. "I didn't mean it literally." Kankuro put his hand on his forehead and shook his head.
"What other meaning is there?" Gaara asked his older brother.
Kankuro sighed again. "Nevermind. Too bad we can't tell Temari about this."
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"Get back here, Sakura! Oh, you're so mine!" Tenten screamed as she ran towards Sakura who was running away.
Sakura wasn't running away because she was afraid, she just wanted to find a good spot to beat up Tenten. When she found an open place to battle, she went into a stance, kind of like Neji's. Then she bent her hand back in a 'come-and-get-me' kind of way. She was ready for Tenten, thinking she could beat her easily.
"Oh, it's on!" Tenten took out a scroll. "Soshoryu (Twin Rising Dragons)!" Many kunai started to aim towards Sakura.
Sakura speedily jumped out of the way. "Sakura Fubuki no Jutsu (Sakura Blizzard Technique)" Sakura said quickly as kunais and explosives started to fling out of nowhere.
Tenten blocked the flying explosives with her own kunais.
The battle went onward with only weapons.
"What do you two think you're doing?" Shino said in a low disappointed tone. He was walking by with Hinata.
Sakura and Tenten stopped their fight.
"What does it look like?!" Tenten shouted at Shino.
"We're having a battle!" Sakura added, also shouting.
"How childish." Shino remarked.
"What would you know?!" Sakura yelled.
Kiba shrugged. "You shouldn't have said that Sakura!" Kiba warned, moving his index finger and head back and forth.
"First of all…" Shino started.
"S-S-Shino, I d-don't think y-you should..." Hinata tried to stop Shino, but she was too late.
"…do you two realize how old you are? You are fighting over a small argument about a dumb subject. Tenten," Shino looked at Tenten. "You overreacted and beat up Kankuro for a stupid reason. If you were thinking, you would have realized that Kankuro was only calling you a 'fling' because he was smart enough to hide the fact that you had been going out with him for so long. You were blind with anger at Sakura for revealing your crush with Neji. That was very juvenile."
Sakura couldn't help but giggle a little.
"What are you laughing at?" Shino turned to Sakura. "You were just as juvenile as Tenten. Tenten never wanted you to reveal her secret, though obvious, crush on Neji. If you were more mature, you would have kept yourself from exposing her secret with your big mouth." Shino looked at both girls. "Now, look at the both of you." Shino said with shame and disappointment. "You two are battling because of what exactly? A stupid love secret revealed? It's an immature reason to get into a quarrel. Both of you, come on, you're already 16 and 17. You shouldn't be fighting a juvenile battle like this." Shino shook his head in letdown. "The meeting was supposed to be about Shikamaru and his love life. Maybe you two should stay on-topic and talk about that instead of your current topic."
Sakura and Tenten could only nod.
Shino turned around, and walked away, with Hinata and Kiba following behind him.
Once Shino, Hinata, and Kiba were out of sight, Sakura and Tenten decided Shino was right about everything he said. They were acting very childish.
"Hey," Sakura got Tenten's attention. "Did you realize that if Shikamaru goes out with Ino and they don't work out, it's going to be very 'troublesome' to hang out with the both of them?" Sakura quoted Shikamaru's favorite used word.
"I was thinking the exact same thing with Temari." Tenten sighed.
"Troublesome." Sakura and Tenten sighed in unison.
"Too bad…" Sakura started.
"We can't tell either of them about this." Tenten finished.
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"Don't you think you were a little harsh on them?" Kiba asked Shino as they walked to their usual training grounds with Hinata.
"Not at all." Shino said emotionlessly.
Hinata, without hesitation, stopped in the middle of the street. "D-Did you two r-realize t-that i-if S-Shikam-maru p-picks someone, s-she'll h-have to m-meet his m-m-m-mother."
Shino and Kiba stopped as well. 'Oh my goodness, she's right. Poor girl.' Both boys thought.
Kiba sighed. "Oh well! At least once one of them meets his mother I can comfort her in her 'time of need'!" Kiba grinned cheerfully.
"You just keep telling yourself that." Shino said lowly. Then he continued to walk to the training grounds.
"T-Too bad w-we c-can't t-tell them in adv-vance." Hinata sighed, feeling bad for both of her friends.
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"Temari and Shikamaru would make a good couple." Sasuke stated as Neji and himself walked slowly back to ANBU.
"Really?" Neji raised an eyebrow in disbelief. 'Uchiha is agreeing with me? It must be a trick.'
"Ino and Shikamaru would also make a good couple." Neji insisted.
"Are you just saying that because I agreed with you?" Sasuke turned to Neji and raised an eyebrow.
Neji shrugged. "Hey, can't two geniuses make the same observation?" Neji raised his eyebrow back at Sasuke.
Sasuke shrugged as well. "Sure…" Sasuke said sarcastically.
"I guess it's kind of hard to make up an excuse when you've just realized that one of your number one fans, Ino, never really liked you." Neji smirked.
Sasuke glared angrily at Neji. "I've known that."
"Well that's even worse." Neji shook his head and shrugged.
Sasuke glared angrily again. "What do you mean by that?"
"If you knew that Ino wasn't your fan, you must be feeling depressed that she picked Shikamaru over you. It's common jealousy." Neji crossed his arms. He made 'tisk' sounds with his mouth and shook his head. "I expected better from you, Uchiha."
Sasuke smirked. "I see…you're still pissed off because you just found out that Tenten didn't love you anymore. Worse than that, she picked Kankuro over you." Sasuke finally beat Neji at his own game.
"Touché, Uchiha." Neji smirked.
"Back at 'cha, Hyuuga." Sasuke continued to smirk.
Five minutes of walking passed.
"You're thinking about Shikamaru going out with Temari?" Sasuke asked, more as a statement.
"You're thinking about Shikamaru going out with Ino?" Neji asked back.
"You always did like more mature women. That's why you didn't go out with Tenten…she was too 'immature' for you, correct?" Sasuke gave a challenging look at Neji.
"You liked Ino, didn't you? I mean, you did almost ask her on a date, until Shikamaru came along." Neji challenged back at Sasuke.
"You know what I've realized?" Sasuke smirked.
"We both have issues with kunoichis?" Neji smirked as well.
Sasuke nodded.
Both advanced bloodline geniuses sighed. "They'll never know of our troubles."
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Naruto walked back home. He was free for the day, surprisingly. He couldn't train with Kakashi and didn't have any missions, so he didn't have a lot to do.
'I wonder what Shikamaru's going to do?' Naruto thought as he ate some cup ramen. He slurped some noodles into his mouth. 'What is he supposed to decide?' Naruto already forgot what the meeting was about. 'Oh well, I didn't get it anyways.'
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A/N: Yes, this was a very 'filler-like' chapter! I'm sorry I couldn't fit in Naruto in more! It's very in-character though! I really don't think he would get this kind of thing. He may be 16 years-old, but he can be very dull sometimes, to say the least.
