Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Shikamaru would not have started smoking.

A/N: Very late again, I know. It's been a pain to write. At least I have a long Thanksgiving vacation to finish and maybe catch up with my word count. I'm way behind. I hope you like this chapter anyways. I thought the ending was a little lagging, but it's a pretty funny, yet informative chapter.

Published November 22, 2006

Chapter 7 - Understanding the Past

"Where does she get the right to go around talking smack 'bout me? She's talking to an elite Jounin here. Who does she think she is? Going around here messing up…" Temari muttered as she stomped her way to her Konoha home. Since she was a liaison, she needed a place to stay. Not wanting to stay at a hotel for so long, Tsunade arranged for Temari to have her own apartment. Later, though, Gaara and Kankuro had been coming for long periods of time, so Temari had an apartment and a house to share with her brothers. (A/N: That didn't really happen. It's only in my story) Yup, it was great having your little brother as the Kazekage.

"Hey, Tem-" Kankuro greeted while working on a puppet, but was interrupted by Temari's palm facing him.

"Don't talk to me!" Temari warned loudly as she thumped inside the Sand Sibling house. "I'm not in the mood." She finished. "That little brat…slut…annoying…stupid…" Temari emphasized as she mumbled many vicious sentences about Ino. She went to her room and slammed the door hard.

'Yup, PMS-ing, again.' Kankuro thought.

"Temari's home?" Gaara asked, somewhat of a statement.

"Yup." Kankuro nodded, not looking up at Gaara. "I wonder what she's angry about this time…" Kankuro wondered, but didn't really care for an answer.

"Must've seen Ino today." Gaara assumed.

"How would you know?" Kankuro looked up at Gaara and raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you hear what Temari was talking about when she went into her room? Isn't it obvious?" Gaara asked monotonously.

Kankuro shook his head. He felt very dumb to have his little brother know more than him, but then again, he didn't really care to know about Temari and girl issues. Kankuro shrugged. "I think she's just PMS-ing."

Gaara shook his head in disagreement. "This morning, Temari was unusually 'peppy' this morning." Gaara said, using a very spiffy word he would usually never use.

Kankuro still looked dumbfounded.

"Doesn't that tell you anything?" Gaara would be raising an eyebrow right now if he had one.

Kankuro actually tried to understand what Gaara was trying to say, but in the end, he couldn't. "I still think she's PMS-ing."

Gaara had to sigh. "Why must you always think she is PMS-ing whenever she's acting strange?"

"Because…" Kankuro tried to think of an intellectual answer. "…it's a simple explanation to everything." He grinned at his 'intellectual' answer.

Gaara shook his head again. Without another word, he left the room.

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"She thinks she can beat me. Just because I'm a Chuunin doesn't mean I can't beat her. I could whip her ass any day." Ino muttered as she trudged her way through the streets. Surprisingly, Temari and Ino never bumped into each other.

"Hi, Ino!" A pleasant voice greeted.

"I mean, sure, a Jounin is supposed to be more experienced and trained than a Chuunin, but that doesn't mean I can't beat her up. I'm a strong ninja. I mean, really, I could beat her up if I really wanted to." Ino mumbled to herself, not hearing anything around her.

"Ino?" A hand waved in front of her face.

Ino squeaked like a mouse. "What was that for?!" She angered. "I was trying to think here!" Ino spoke very 'valley-girl'-like.

"S-Sorry, I-Ino." A soft voice stuttered. It could only be one person.

"Hinata! Hi!" Ino hugged Hinata tightly as if the two hadn't seen each other in ages.

"Oh yeah. Thanks for noticing me." An annoyed voice interrupted.

"Oh, it's you. Hey Kiba." Ino said lazily, showing that she didn't care. "Well, what are you two doing here?" Ino raised her eyebrows at Hinata, suggesting something.

Hinata blushed a bright red. "Oh, n-nothing, Ino. J-Just walk-king."

"Sure." Ino acted.

"So, what are were you mumbling about? Boy troubles again?" Kiba asked, but he already knew it would be about Shikamaru.

"No!" Ino said rather loudly. "I mean, why would I have boy troubles? Any guy would be lucky to go out with me." Ino pushed up her hair, emphasizing her beauty. Then she crossed her arms and closed her eyes, making a 'hmph' sound.

"Tch. Whatever." Kiba then thought of a devilish idea. "Hey, Ino." Kiba's voice turned almost a whisper.

"What?" Ino said at her normal volume. She opened one eye.

"Do you know what Shikamaru said about you a couple days ago?" Kiba was still whispering.

"What?" Ino still said at the same volume. Both of her eyes were open, in deep in curiosity.

He shrugged. "I don't know. I thought you would know." Kiba spoke normally.

Ino grumbled in anger. 'Nobody messes with my emotions!' She thought in her head, glaring at Kiba. As soon as the thought ran through her mind, Ino punched Kiba all the way to the end of the block. You couldn't even see him.

Hinata gasped. "Kiba!" She, umm, well she didn't yell. She spoke as loudly as a normal person usually spoke. "It was nice seeing you, Ino." Hinata slightly bowed and ran to the direction she last saw Kiba.

Ino sighed with her eyes closed. "Boys." She sighed again. "They just never learn."

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"So I think it's stupid to try and do any of that junk. You know what I mean?" Kankuro tried to explain.

"I have no idea." Gaara answered.

"Well, I don't expect you to get it yet." Kankuro said.

"I don't get it either. You suck at explaining things Kankuro." Temari pointed out. "I mean, if I don't get it, you must be doing something wrong and idiotic." Temari insulted her younger brother.

"But it's so simple! Let me explain again." Kankuro wanted to get his point of view out to his siblings.

Both Gaara and Temari sighed loudly.

Kankuro just ignored the sighing. "Okay, so Temari asked to go out with Shikamaru." Kankuro stopped. "Get it so far?"

"No." Gaara said plainly.

"I don't get it either. I didn't ask him to go out with me. I merely asked if he liked me." Temari straightened.

"What's the difference?" Kankuro asked rhetorically. "I mean, if you ask someone if they like you, it's usually because you like them back. Am I right?"

"Sure." Temari hesitated. She still didn't get it that much, but she wanted Kankuro to finish his long clarification. "But wait. I told him that he should go out with Ino. I was still 'friends' with her." Temari used her fingers as bunny-ears to quote 'friends'.

"Exactly!" Kankuro pointed at Temari. "That means that you do want to ask him out!"

"What? Okay that makes even less sense than what you said before." Temari was confused with all this talk about dating and friends and everything else that came with it. 'How do I even know if Kankuro's right about any of this?' Temari thought with doubt.

"You showed your soft side! Don't try and say you didn't. A guy wants someone who is sweet sometimes. You," Kankuro pointed at Temari again. ", said that he should go out with Ino. That makes him think that you are kindhearted and tells him that there's no pressure if he doesn't choose you. That makes him want to choose you more! You probably don't know it, but you're a very conniving evil bitch."

"Hey! Don't call me a bitch!" Temari shouted. She felt offended, but it's not like she hasn't been called a 'bitch' before. 'Wow, I just overreacted. Damn! Boys make me feel like I'm PMS-ing!'

"Gomen, gomen (sorry, sorry)!" Kankuro waved his hands in front of himself. 'Geez, I almost made her go ballistic again.'

"Can we get back on-topic?" Gaara said monotonously. Though he didn't look like he cared, Gaara did care. He listened very attentively, just in case a scenario like this ever happened to him.

"Yes, okay. Now, do you get me so far?" Kankuro asked Temari.

"I think so." Temari tried to understand everything. "So, I asked Shikamaru to go out with me and now he doesn't know what to do. I've made it hard for him to choose because of what I wrote?"

"Yup." Kankuro nodded.

"Okay…well now that I see that…This is all stupid. I mean really. It's so stupid and childish to try and make him fall in love with me. If he can't choose now, how will he choose at all? If he says 'yes' to me, our whole relationship would be a lie and everything would go downhill from there." Temari realized in bitterness.

"Exactly! That's what I've been trying to say this whole time!" Kankuro was happy with joy.

"You explained it horribly, Kankuro! Why ya have to make everything so confusing!" Temari yelled at Kankuro.

Kankuro's happiness turned into frightening terror. "G-Gomen (s-sorry)?" Kankuro stuttered with fear.

"Yeah! You better be sorry! All this time you were talking on and on about random complex thoughts, when your thoughts on this were as simple as the sky!" Temari was still angered at Kankuro for wasting her time. "I could've been out training! But no! I stayed inside to listen to my stupid little brother!"

"Well, actually, the sky is…n't that sim…ple." Kankuro slowed down his words once he saw Temari's scary eyes glaring at him. Kankuro nervously laughed. "Forget I said anything."

"Don't worry, I will." Temari muttered.

"I think maybe you're just overreacting…a tad." Kankuro took a chance and spoke his though.

"Whatever! That's what you think! I could have been doing something much more productive, yet I stayed in here to listen to your hours of nonsense. Right, Gaara?" Temari shouted. She looked at Gaara, waiting for an answer.

Gaara looked at Temari, then Kankuro, then back at Temari. "Hn." He stood up and walked straight to his room. Then he shut the door quietly, with a bare creak from the door.

"Thanks, Gaara!" Temari said cheerfully at the door. Then she turned and had an irritated look at Kankuro. "See, Gaara agrees with me!"

"No he didn't! He agreed with me! That was so a 'no' hn!" Kankuro argued back.

"Hello! He said the 'hn' in A!" Temari retorted.

"No he didn't! It was a B!" Kankuro retorted back.

"Fine! Let's go ask then!" Temari walked Gaara's bedroom door. She knocked softly. "Gaara. Can you tell me what note you said 'hn' in?" Temari asked politely.

"B flat." Gaara said in his usual monotonous voice.

"Thanks again, Gaara!" Temari said, turning around and walking back to Kankuro.

"What'd he say?" Kankuro asked.

"B flat." Temari said with doubt.

"B flat?" Kankuro took out a small notebook from his pocket. "B flat, B flat, B flat, here!" Kankuro pointed to a page in the book.

"Hm?" Temari looked in the book. "I don't care. Shut up or I'll kill you?" Temari looked up at Kankuro. "Okay, who wrote that one down?" She looked back down at the page. "Gaara wrote it…umm…this never happened."

Kankuro closed the book quickly. "Nope, nothing happened at all."

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Ino sighed with boredom. "Sigh, I have no one to talk to." She said to herself.

"Awww," A voice said playfully. "Looks like little Ino here needs some help." A distinctive voice spoke, still playfully, surprising Ino.

"Maybe we should help her." Another voice spoke almost teasingly.

Ino sighed. She did not want to talk to them right now. "Shut up, Neji."

A laugh of victory could be heard in the background as Neji made a 'hn' sound. "Thanks." Neji said with sarcastic-ness written all over it. "You say shut up to me but not the baka (idiot) over here. I. Am. Hurt." Neji said humorously.

"I'm. Not. A. baka (idiot)." Sasuke mumbled under his breath. "She just likes me better."

"Sure she does. But we both know who she really likes." Neji smirked at Sasuke.

Sasuke smirked back and nodded. He turned to Ino. "So Ino, I heard you asked Shikamaru out." Sasuke waited for Ino's reply.

"Yeah, so?" Ino looked down, almost blushing.

Sasuke smirked. "Well, you know he's thinking about it. You're eligible to be his date."

"Potentially eligible." Neji added. (A/N: OMG. That was from a letter I got from Lowell High School that said I was 'potentially eligible' to get into their school. I was like lol. They wasted a tree just to tell me that?!)

"Yeah. And your point is?" Ino didn't really care about what the two ANBU were saying.

"Basically, we want help you." Neji pointed at himself and Sasuke, then at Ino, making sure he was clear and Ino understood.

"Why would you do that? I thought you always thought of me as a clueless girl blonde with longer hair than you. And a bad fighter with no foundation or strategy, not fit to be a Chuunin.

Sasuke couldn't help but chuckle just a tad. "Longer hair than you. Definitely, Neji."

"And you!" Ino pointed directly at the Uchiha. "I thought you always thought of me as an annoying fangirl who didn't have a life other than following you around. And you also didn't think I was a good enough to become a Chuunin." Ino had proven her point. "So there's no reason why I would need help from you two when you don't even like me."

"Well you might as well accept our help. I mean…" Neji started.

"…we are two of the smartest ninjas in Konoha, next to Shikamaru, and well…" Sasuke finished for Neji.

"…you can't really talk to Shikamaru about you and Shikamaru." Neji completed Sasuke's sentence.

"Plus, we're both supposed to be at work…" Sasuke started.

"…and Tsunade-sama gave us the oddest of places to go on missions so…" Neji continued.

"…we told her we would stay and help you out. One fellow ninja to another…" Sasuke nodded.

"…and Tsunade-sama agreed but I don't think she was paying much attention…" Neji thought out loud.

"…she wasn't." Sasuke confirmed.

"She had a lot of paperwork to do…" Neji explained.

"…and she was drinking a little too much Sake."

"And a little is a big understatement. You should've seen her garbage basket." Neji said.

"Oh yeah. There were almost ten bottles in there." Sasuke commented.

"And the-" Neji started but was cut off by Ino.

"Uh-hmm." Ino pretended to clear her throat very loudly. "Umm…yeah…we're supposed to be talking about me, remember?"

"Oh, right." Sasuke nodded.

"Let's start." Neji suggested.

"Okay. First of all, you two have to stop finishing each other's sentences. It's getting kind of creepy!" Ino said, shivering.

Both Jounin sighed. "Okay." They said in unison.

"What do we talk about first?" Ino asked.

"What's your question?" Neji asked.

"Umm…what do we talk about first?" Ino said hesitantly, not sure of what Neji meant.

"No, I mean what do you want us to help you find out?" Neji asked slowly, pointing to Ino, and then at Sasuke and himself, making sure Ino understood what he was saying this time.

"I just want to talk about Shikamaru and going out with him in general." Ino said truthfully. She didn't have one question in her head, she had a million.

"Okay…" Neji said uncertainly. "First question…"

"Why do you like someone like Shikamaru?" Sasuke asked.

"How's that going to help?" Ino asked.

"Someone's jealous…" Neji whispered to Ino.

"I heard that!" Sasuke said. "I am not jealous. If we know why she likes him, we can understand her situation better which will increase our chances of helping her for the better." Sasuke thought up in a quick second.

"You are so jealous." Neji shook his head and almost chuckled.

"Umm…back to me?" Ino spoke.

"Yeah, yeah. We're getting to that." Sasuke waved his hand in front of himself like a broom sweeper.

"All of this is ludicrous if you think about it." Neji decided to get on-topic and speak his opinion. "There is no point in talking about Shikamaru because in the end, it's not our decision, it's Shikamaru's and we shouldn't alter his decision."

"But we can alter his decision. We're here to help Ino, not Temari, not Shikamaru. Just Ino." Sasuke reminded.

"Fine." Neji admitted defeat. He didn't really feel like arguing anyways.

"So, anyways, I like Shikamaru and I asked him out. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but I guess it was. I mean I knew it could create complications, but I thought we could work it out, you know? But he made such a big deal about it…hey, wait a minute! How did you two know about this whole dating thing?!" Ino's eyes started to burn with anger.

"Uhhh…" Sasuke started to feel sweat coming down his forehead. "You see…"

"We're geniuses. We don't have an IQ over 200 but we're pretty smart." Neji partially lied.

"I guess that's possible. You two are pretty smart." Ino sighed. "I guess I'll take that reason, even though it was pretty lame."

Neji snorted. "Hn."

"So yeah. Shikamaru makes a big deal out of everything. But I guess I could see how this could turn into something big and drastic. I didn't even know Temari liked Shikamaru that way! I thought she was my friend. She knew I liked him, but she went after him anyways! She's such a bi-" Ino stopped. She breathed in and out very slowly.

Sasuke and Neji both raised one of their eyebrows. 'Nani (what)?' The so-called geniuses thought.

"I have to stay calm. I can't let that…girl…take Shikamaru away from me." Ino said confidently.

"How are you going to do that?" Neji asked.

"I don't know! You two are the smart-asses!" Ino said rather loudly.

"If only you asked him before…long before Temari ever had a chance to ask him…" Sasuke thought hopelessly. "Why didn't you ask him before? You waited for three years before asking him on a date? That's kind of…long…"

"Well, I didn't really know if I liked him that much. He was more of just a friend. Then, he became a Chuunin and started getting…hot." Ino admitted, blushing.

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Hot? He just became hot after becoming a Chuunin?" He wondered.

"It's probably the jacket. Shikamaru has, like, no muscle. That jacket made him look buff…but you know he really wasn't." Sasuke assumed.

"That jacket also made him taller. Did you notice that? He was almost my height. I don't know how that jacket does that!" Neji noticed.

"I noticed that too!" Sasuke agreed.

"I could've become a Chuunin too, if I wasn't trying to kill Naruto." Neji muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, sure." Sasuke spoke sarcastically. "You weren't thinking at all!" He commented. "I, on the other hand, could've become a Chuunin though. I mean, if Orochimaru didn't come, I could've finished my battle with Gaara."

"Who cares?!" Ino shouted. "You two talk too much! I didn't finish what I was saying!"

Sasuke and Neji stopped talking. They knew it was best if they didn't interrupt Ino any longer.

"Hmph. Thank you." Ino pouted her lips. "Okay. Like I was saying, I didn't start to have strong feelings for Shikamaru until he became a Chuunin. Maybe I did have feelings for him before, but I probably let it go because I didn't want to ruin our friendship. Then 'Miss Suna' comes along with her stupid fan and gets in my way! Who did she think she was? I flirted with Shikamaru all the time and she didn't take it as a hint or anything! But she left and went back to Suna. I thought that was going to be the last of her, but nooo! She comes back and becomes a liaison from Suna and coincidently she gets escorted by Shikamaru! I'm like 'What the hell is wrong with her!' and after that she starts hanging out with me and Chouji. I try to be nice to her and be friends with her. She acts and makes me think she's my friend, but stabs me in the back later! I hate her so much!" Ino was now infuriated as she vented her feelings.

"Well, that's great progress…" Sasuke said as we stepped back a little.

"Yeah…we're moving forward…" Neji agreed as he also stepped back.

"Thanks you two." Ino smiled cheerfully. "Now that I've said everything, I think I've come to a conclusion. Well I think all of this isn't worth it. I mean, if he doesn't know by now if he loves me, why should I wait for his answer? I've known him for what seems like forever and he still doesn't know what his feelings for me are. There's really no point in trying to get him to like me. Right?" Ino looked happy yet scary at the same time.

"Umm…yes?" Neji wondered if he said the right answer.

"Great!" Ino continued to smile scarily.

"Oh, look at the time." Sasuke looked at his wrist even though he wasn't wearing a watch. "Looks likes we should get going." He said as he stepped backwards more and more.

"Yeah. We don't want Tsunade-sama to get mad as us." Neji started taking larger strides backwards.

"Ja ne (goodbye)!" They both said at the same time as they ran away as fast as they could.

'What's up with them?' Ino thought. 'Hey, isn't the Hokage's office in the other direction?'

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A/N: Well, there you go. I still have a long way to go before 50,000 words so don't worry. It's not even close to ending yet! I have no idea what's next but there will be a next as soon as possible!