Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, I wouldn't have to believe the rumor that the anime-fillers are ending in Spring 2007.

A/N: I finished this as fast as I could. It's still good though! I've been listening to JoJo's CD, The High Road, which I downloaded, every time I write a chapter. It's very inspirational for writing. Got any good songs to listen to? Tell me! I'll listen to it and may be inspired to write more!

Published November 23, 2006

Chapter 8 - I Still Need You

"Great! Now that we got this whole thing over and done with, let's-" Kankuro started.

"Wait! We're not done yet!" Temari interjected.

"Awww…" Kankuro whined. "…how come? I thought we were done! You agreed that he wasn't worth any of this. Doesn't that mean we're done?" He continued.

"No!" Temari shouted and Gaara said lowly at the same time.

"But…" Kankuro continued to whine.

"Too bad! Now let your big sister finish!" His 'aggressive' sister ordered.

"Hmph." Kankuro crossed his arms. "Fine."

"Well now…I've thought about it more and I've come to another point." Temari stated.

"Yeah? And?" Kankuro said irritated.

Temari glared at her brother but flicked it off like she didn't notice. "I've realized that I still want Shikamaru."

"Nani (what)?!" Kankuro complained very loudly and exaggeratedly. "I thought he wasn't worth it! How can he still be 'the one'?!"

"It's probably too complicated for that tiny head of yours." Temari shrugged.

"Hmph." Kankuro pouted. "My head's not tiny!"

"You're right." Temari agreed sweetly.

"Hmph." Kankuro said happily as he nodded.

"You're head's just filled with too much hot air." Temari smirked.

"Yup…wait! Is not!" Kankuro shouted angrily.

Temari and Kankuro continued to argue and insult one another.

Once he got a little irritated, Gaara cleared his throat loudly.

Temari and Kankuro couldn't hear Gaara's sound, so they continued to shout at each other.

Gaara cleared his throat once again, but this time, even louder than before.

There was still no recognition from Temari or Kankuro.

Finally, Gaara gave up and shut Kankuro's and Temari's mouth with his sand.

Muffled sounds could be heard from Gaara's siblings.

"I'd like to give my interpretation of this chaos." Gaara stated in his low voice. The sand on his sibling's mouths was slowly dissipating.

Temari and Kankuro stayed silent, too scared to talk, and almost too scared to breathe.

"Temari seems to be having second thoughts about Shikamaru. She doesn't want to go out on a date with him anymore but she still has feelings for him. She doesn't want to give up though because if she told Shikamaru that she didn't want to go out with him anymore, he would choose Ino by default. Ino would feel like a winner and rub it in her face for a very long time. So she can't do that. But she also can't go out with Shikamaru. Even though Temari would love break another guy's heart, Shikamaru's different and because he's different Temari can't tell him the truth. Shikamaru would have made a bad decision and go into an 'emo' mode in a second. Their relationship would be strained. (A/N: As strained as Thomas Jefferson and his mother. lol. I learned that recently.) There's no right way out of this if you think of it thoroughly. Sure, Temari could admit defeat, but she has too much pride in herself to lose to Ino. She could tell Shikamaru the truth but she's grown too close to him to change their close-knit relationship. I haven't figured out a way in which there is no negativity involved." Gaara said monotonously yet caring at the same time.

There was another long moment of silence and Temari and Kankuro were stunned, shocked, and frozen at the long speech Gaara had spoken. The most surprising thing about what Gaara said was that it was all true.

"How did you…and when did…but I…" Kankuro could not find the words to finish his sentences. He was still too shaken at Gaara's knowledge. He knew Gaara was smart, but not this smart, and definitely not when it came to love and relationships.

Temari was traumatized. Her shock was much greater than Kankuro's. She didn't blink. She barely breathed. She wasn't too surprised that what he said was accurate, but more shocked that he knew what she was thinking. 'My little brother knows too much. I try to keep him away from all this talk about love and affairs such as this and what do I do? I put myself in a situation like this and he has to tell me what's up from down. He said everything I was thinking. He knew everything I know.' Temari sighed. "You are too smart for your own good, you know that, Gaara?" Temari complimented as she smirked proudly.

Gaara looked puzzled at Temari. He didn't understand what Temari was saying.

Temari saw Gaara's puzzling look. "Oh, forget I said anything. Thanks for explaining everything, Gaara." She turned to Kankuro. "You get it now?"

Kankuro grinned widely and nodded. "Yup." In reality, he had no idea what Gaara had said. He just wanted to stop talking about Shikamaru.

"Good." Temari and Gaara said in unison.

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Ino sighed loudly. "Great…I freed myself for the whole day…what am I going to do now?" Ino mumbled, as she walked lazily with her back slouched with her head down and her arms hanging weightlessly. Since she had her head down and wasn't really paying attention, she was bound to bump into someone. And of course, there was a large 'bump' sound as Ino's head knocked into a stack of books. "Oh, so-" Ino looked up.

"Oh, excu-Ino! Didn't expect you around here. Watch where you're going! I almost dropped my medical books." Ino's 'best friend' shouted.

"Yeah, whatever." Ino said sadly.

"Hm?" Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What's up with you? You usually call be billboard-brow and insult me. What happened? Did Shikamaru do hurt you. Damn that teme (bastard). I'll beat his ass for you!"

"Shut up!" Ino shouted. She wanted Sakura to just shut her mouth. "Nothing happened!" Ino continued to yell. "I don't care anymore!"

"Nani (what)?" Sakura raised an eyebrow as she tilted her head. "Who have you been talking to?"

"Sasuke and Neji." Ino pouted as she muttered.

"No wonder!" Sakura raised her finger the air. "Note to self: Never take advice on affection from Sasuke and/or Neji." Then she shrugged. "It's common sense. Do you see them with girlfriends? Nope. Do they have raging fangirls going after them day after day? Yup. Do they have a bad past? Mm-hmm." Sakura nodded. "Are they very 'emo'? Definitely. You see my point here?"

"Not really." Ino scrunched her face trying to comprehend Sakura.

Sakura sighed heavily. "I guess I have time to chat. I don't have to help Tsunade-sama until later anyways." Sakura walked toward a bench which coincidently happened to be right next to the two girls.

Ino followed and lazily plopped her butt on the bench. "Now what?"

"Well, first of all, forget whatever guidance you got from Sasuke and Neji. You don't need any of that. All you need is me. You can definitely trust me!" Sakura grinned. "So tell me what's up."

"Shikamaru can't choose between Temari and me, so I've come to the conclusion that he isn't the right guy for me. Am I right? He doesn't know, after all of these years, if he would like to go out on a date with me." Ino sighed. "Maybe I should just go out with Chouji or something."

"Ino Yamanaka! Don't say something like that!" Sakura disciplined loudly. Then she quickly changed into a whisper. "Chouji's great and all, but come on; everyone knows you truly love Shikamaru."

"I guess you're right, Sakura." Ino admitted sighing.

"Damn right I am!" Sakura said proudly. "Shikamaru is the one. I just know it! He loves you. He just well, doesn't want to die..."

"But he has feelings for Temari. If he didn't, then he would have answered my question by now."

"That's true." Sakura admitted.

"See…I knew he didn't really love me." Ino saddened even more.

"That's not true! He loves you! His mind is just confused because of Temari. He really does love you; it's just too foggy for him to see it." Sakura tried to make Ino feel better.

"How can you not know if you love someone?!" Ino argued.

"Well, let's see." Sakura said slightly sarcastically as she put a finger on her chin. "You didn't realize your feelings for him until he became a Chuunin. I think you had feelings for him all along, but couldn't see them until later."

"Well maybe…but still! What's the point?! Temari will stop at nothing to beat me and take Shikamaru." Ino said with great emotion.

"Temari's got nothing on you! She doesn't have the same relationship that you and Shikamaru have." Sakura sided.

"But she's gotten pretty close. Shikamaru actually talks around her…" Ino got even more depressed than before.

"Ino! You aren't going to help yourself if you keep pointing out the negatives." Sakura shouted angrily. "There's no point in me helping you if you don't look at the positives."

"Well what's the point of pointing out positives when there are so many overpowering negatives?! I'd be hurting myself even more if I stay positive just to have my heart crushed when Shikamaru chooses Temari instead of me." Ino shouted as her eyes started to water.

"Ino…" Sakura said quietly. "If you feel that strongly, then tell Shikamaru."

"I can't!" Ino yelled as she cried. "You're so…stupid, Sakura. You…don't even…know the future…problems…if I say this to…Shikamaru." She paused to sniffle in-between her words.

"I don't see any problem." Sakura muttered.

Ino chuckled as she wiped the many tears from her eyes. "Sakura, you're as dull as ever." Her eyes were watery, but she smiled anyways. "If Shikamaru chooses Temari, they'll be all happy and it's over for me. Shikamaru would be spending a lot of time with Temari. I won't even be able to talk to him because of Temari. In case you haven't noticed already, Temari doesn't like me very much. There would be many awkward situations that I really don't want to face."

"Well suck it up! Ninjas have to face many ordeals that they don't want to encounter, but they get through it somehow!" Sakura compared.

"But we're not talking about ninja business! This is totally different. This is a life-long hardship…something you can't change no matter how many times you train…a challenge with no accurate solution…" Ino smirked. "…in the words of Kakashi, 'a double-edged sword'."

Sakura was silent. She didn't know what to counter that with.

"Loss of words?" Ino laughed. "Same as always, Sakura." She smiled, but was quickly reminded that she was still talking about Shikamaru. "There are more dilemmas. I could tell Shikamaru that I don't want to date him anymore but by default, Temari would beat me. I'll regret that my whole life…and she would rub it in forever. If I go out with Shikamaru and it doesn't work out…I can't see myself having the same relationship we used to have. There are too many awkward moments that will occur in the future."

"You thought of all this just now?"

"No. I was thinking before, while I was walking. I had a lot of time on my hands to think about a lot of things. All the guys I could've gone out with but rejected so I could wait for Shikamaru to read my note. I still love Shikamaru…" Ino confessed.

"I see." Sakura said.

Both girls were silent. They took in the moment to think, but only a moment. They were soon interrupted.

"Sakura-chan!" A very, annoying, familiar voice shouted as he ran to the two girls on the bench, waving his arm up in the air.

Sakura sighed heavily. "Oh, man. He found me." She covered one side of her face with one of her hands.

"Sakura-chan! I finally found you! I've been looking for you everywhere! Oh, hey Ino." The voice panted as he stood in front of Sakura and Ino.

"Great…" Sakura quickly faked a smile.

"Hey." Ino said lazily.

"Sakura, Shizune told me to give you this." Naruto took out a plain white paper, folded twice, from his pocket and gave it to Sakura.

Sakura took the paper, unfolded it, and then mumbled it. "Oh, kuso (shit)." Sakura slammed her hand on her forehead.

"What it say?" Ino asked, looking over at the paper. "I need you to come to my office at exactly 4 o'clock. Make sure you bring all of the medical books on the list. If you're late, you're going to be in big trouble. Signed, Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage.'

"I have to go, quickly. Naruto! Carry these books to Tsunade-sama's office!" Sakura ordered.

"But Saku-" Naruto said.

"I said now! Or you're dead." Sakura threatened.

"Right away, Sakura-chan!" Naruto speedily took Sakura's books and ran towards the Hokage's office.

"You better hurry up, Naruto! I better not catch up to you!" Sakura ran behind Naruto.

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A/N: There you have it! Another chapter! I liked adding in humor. I'm good at humor and romance together. Anyways, review!