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Five, Six, Seven, Eight

The first time Shikaku had ever known Shikamaru to be awake before him, he did not know what to think. Sure he was pretty lazy, but his son was much lazier still. After mulling it around in his head for a little while, and maybe four or five cups of coffee, it dawned on him. Shikaku just snickered to himself and went about his daily routine. It was about time the squirt (okay, so he was not so little anymore) found some kind of motivation. And was that not the best kind there was?

The second time Matsuri was assigned to meet Temari returning to Suna's gates from the Leaf Village, the older girl had a smile on her face which quite frankly freaked Matsuri out. The smile was just so… genuinely happy. Temari never smiled like that (Matsuri did, but never Temari). Temari laughed because she thought something was funny, smirked because Kankuro was about to do something stupid, grinned because she knew something you did not. This whole 'happy' thing was weird when it was Temari. Really weird. Matsuri made a mental note to talk to Gaara about it as soon as possible.

The third time Ino helped Shikamaru pick out a bouquet of flowers (at his own request, no less), she stopped believing they were for his mother. It was not that she had ever really believed that excuse to begin with (who would?), she had just finally figured out who the flowers were for. (It was so obvious, Ino told herself, she should have seen it before?) She had a hard time keeping a straight face as she subtly pushed Shikamaru towards the girl's favorite varieties (because of course she knew what they were) and then had a fit a giggles after he left. Some genius, indeed.

The fourth time Baki let Temari make tea for him was also the last. (The first time she had been eleven and spilled scalding hot water all over him. The second time Kankuro had tried out a new poison on both of them and he tried his best not to remember the next forty-eight hours. The third he had completely blocked out of his memory.) But this time was the worst. The tea… it was… it tasted… different. Baki was not a man who liked change. When he inquired as to what exactly she had put in the tea, Temari replied "Oh, just a few touches I learned from Yoshino," and then gone back to humming some obnoxious tune. Okay, who the hell was Yoshino?

The fifth time Yoshino was angry enough at her son and his sloth-like habits to leave his laundry lying haphazardly around his room for two whole weeks, she half-expected the clothing to decompose. When Shikamaru finally got around to bringing the rather large pile to the laundry room, Yoshino pinched her nose closed and prepared for the worst (because his laundry smelled atrocious normally). When she could no longer hold her breath, she was surprised to be met not which an abomination of the senses, but with the smell of perfume… a slightly familiar perfume. Yoshino suddenly felt faint, and not for the reason she expected.

The sixth time Kankuro caught his sister watching Suna's wimpy excuse for clouds, he was forced to admit the first five times were not flukes. He sulked away muttering about how he hoped she would get sunburned, but really he knew she was too smart for that, and, deep down, he knew he was only masking his own bitterness (he did not want her to leave him-them, he reminded himself, because he meant Gaara too). Gaara always told him to let her be (after all, if he never went looking for her in the first place, he would never have known the difference) but Kankuro never was one to listen to him siblings. He took out all his frustration with an extra bought of training, hoping Temari would not notice, though she never failed to notice things he would rather be kept secret. Had his stealth skills gotten rusty or was his sister just that good? Damn Leaf ninja.

The seventh time Choji accompanied his best friend to the same jewelry store, he was fully prepared with non-crunchy snack foods, so as to avoid the nasty looks from the jewelers who had come to the conclusion the two of them were never actually going to buy anything. In reality, Choji was not completely sure they were wrong. He was fairly certain he had committed the entire jewelry collection to memory (and figured out the best choices should he ever need to buy something like that), which meant Shikamaru had memorized the whole thing five trips ago. But Choji just shrugged to himself, braced for the worst, and trailed the man for which he was supposed to be the "moral support", as Ino put it. He was immensely surprised when the entire trip took less than ten minutes.

The eighth time Gaara asked Temari, half-sarcastically, if she had found someone willing to marry her yet (because the council was on his back about that again and it was becoming intolerable to the point where he was convinced he was hearing some ghost of the demon telling him to just go ahead and kill them all), his sister simply gave him one of those smiles Matsuri was always so worried about and stuck out her hand.

I really wanted that to be longer, but it did not really work with the paragraph-format-thing.

I am toying with the idea of writing a sort of strange actual chapter fic and I set up a poll on my profile, so, if you care, check it out and let me know if you think I have completley lost my mind.

USR: 0.... really. (Yay for Curtis Zidane Ziraa for guessing the last one again.)