Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I wish I did but I don't.

Temari shivered. "Why am I so cold? What happened to my blanket?" Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to roll over but a weight on her waist prevented her from moving. She growled. "Kankuro, get out of my bed. You were sleepwalking again." There was no reply. That did it for Temari. She shot to her knees, intent on killing him. Her fist was three inches away from the other person's face when her blurry vision cleared enough to allow her to see Shikamaru laying there. Memories of yesterday flashed through her mind: saving Shikamaru, kissing Shikamaru, waiting with Shikamaru, talking with Gaara, then talking with Shikamaru. "Strange how most of my day was spent with Shikamaru."
She poked him. "Wake up, sleepyhead. It's morning. Watch the sunrise with me." She blinked.

Wait a minute. What was she doing sleeping outside in the middle of the street with Shikamaru? Her cheeks flamed bright red as she realized that they had fallen asleep there last night. Her pokes evolved into jabs as she tried to wake the sleeping genius. "Wake up!"

The shadow boy groaned. "Too early. I wanna sleep. Go away."
"Shikamaru, I told you to wake up!"
His eyes flew open at the sound of Temari's voice and his startled gaze landed on her. "What's going on? Why are we in the street?"

She smiled sweetly at him. "You mean you don't remember?" At the shake of his head, she went on. "We slept together." She dissolved into laughter as his eyes widened in horror. He growled. "That wasn't funny." He sat up, yawned, stretched, and then turned his attention to the girl beside him. Her blonde hair was a mess, with strands falling out of her pigtails. The outfit she was wearing was wrinkled and had dirt sprinkled on it. He glanced down at himself and saw the same result. Temari grinned. "I thought it was. But you make it sound as if sleeping with me is a bad thing."
He blushed and cleared his throat. "She must like joking with me like that."

"I just hope no one saw us. Can you imagine what would happen if someone did see us? We'd never live it down." Temari chuckled and stood to her feet, oblivious to the fact that he had to look away to avoid seeing up her dress. "Yeah. My mom definitely can't hear about this or I'm grounded for life." Groaning, he pushed himself to his feet and winced. "Note to self. Never sleep on the ground again." "You act like you're scared of your mom." "That's because I am. She's scary. She's always yelling at me and it gets to be so troublesome."

Temari laughed. "That is your favorite word, isn't it? I bet everything is troublesome to you. I don't think I'll give you my address because it will most likely be too troublesome to write to me." "Stop using my word. And I would like to write to you. That way, we can get to know each other better."
She gaped at him. "Are you saying that you really want to correspond with me?"
"That's what I'm saying. Why do you look so surprised?" "Because I never expected you to say that. I mean, I'm three years older than you are so I just assumed..." She trailed off when he gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"I kinda like you." Shikamaru admitted. "You're not like the other girls from around here. You don't care about your clothes, your hair, or your weight." At her pointed look, he explained. "I saw you and your brothers eating a few times. I couldn't help but notice you ate almost as much as Kankuro. I don't mind it, though. I like a girl with a healthy appetite."

Temari smiled. "You're the first guy who's ever said something like that to me. Thanks. It's not healthy for a kunoichi to weigh hardly anything."
Shikamaru shook his head. "I know Ino is obsessed with her weight."
"Ino. That's the annoying blonde girl who fought against the annoying pink-haired girl, correct?"
"Yeah. Ino's also my teammate." He grinned as her mouth formed a silent 'o'. "But, yeah, she is annoying. All girls are annoying. Hey! Don't hit me. I was kidding. You're not annoying. You're troublesome, woman."
The Sand kunoichi growled and smacked him again. "It's basically the same thing."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, can we go some place else? People are starting to wake up and-"

"And you don't want them to see you here with an older
girl." She finished for him. "Let's go." She grabbed his wrist and started dragging him towards the hotel she was staying at.
"Why are we going there?"
"Because my brothers are going to be very worried if I don't show up and say that I'm fine. And if we both explain why I didn't come back last night, they might not kill you. Or me."

Shikamaru groaned. "Oh, man. I am dead."
"Don't worry. I won't let them kill you."
"No, not them. It's my dad." He pointed up ahead where they saw Shikaku walking towards them.
"Maybe he didn't notice you were gone all night."
"Yeah, right. And maybe the sky isn't blue. Hey, Dad. What's up?"

The elder Nara glared at his son. "What do you think you were doing staying out all night? Just because you're a Chunnin now doesn't mean you don't have a curfew. Now what were you-" He started when he noticed Temari standing there. A grin spread across his face. "Did my boy become a man?"
A blush stained his son's cheeks. "Dad, shut up!" He hissed.
Temari snickered behind her hand. "What's wrong, Shikamaru?" She cooed. "Is he embarrassing you?"
Shikaku grinned. He was obviously enjoying his son's discomfort. "So did I hit the nail on the head?"
"No, Dad. We didn't do anything. We just fell asleep together."
"I see. You're lucky I'm the one who came into your room to wake you up. And no, your mom doesn't know. At least, not yet. And I seem to remember seeing you at the hospital with Shikamaru yesterday." He looked at Temari.
"Yeah, I was there." "Dad, this is Temari."
"Oh, the girl you fought against in the Chunnin exam? It's a pleasure to meet you, Temari. I'm Shikaku Nara, but you probably remember from yesterday what my name is."
"It's nice to meet you, too." The kunoichi studied him. His hair was identical to Shikamaru's and he had two scars running across his face. She immediately liked him and couldn't help but compare him to her own father. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Don't think about him. Whatever you do, don't think about him or you'll fall apart right here in front of them."
"Look, Dad, we'd like to stay and chat but I have to get her back to her hotel room or her brothers are going to kill me."
"I don't think you have to worry about going back to the hotel."
Shikamaru looked confused as he heard the tone of Temari's voice. She had seen something --or someone-- that made her upset. "What do you mean?" He panicked when he looked in the direction of where she was pointing. "Oh, man. I'm dead."

Coming down the street towards them, and not looking too happy, was her brother, Kankuro. When he was close enough to recognize them, a sneer crossed his lips. "What are you doing with my sister?! What did you do to her last night?!" He grabbed Shikamaru by the front of the vest and shook him once.

"Kankuro, knock it off! Leave him alone!" Temari demanded. "He didn't do anything to me." "Then why didn't you come back to the hotel room last night?"
"Oh, since when have you ever cared about what time I come home? I don't question you about your private life!" She shot back.

"Since we're in a different village and I don't know the punks around here. I'm just trying to protect you."
"I appreciate the concern, but I don't need your protection, Kankuro. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." She spoke through gritted teeth.
The puppet master sighed. "I know that you can take care of yourself, Tem, but don't forget that brothers are supposed to be protective. It's in our blood." He caught the dark look his sister sent him and said nothing more about that. "Anyway, Gaara's hungry and wants to eat so we better go now. We'll wait for you at the front of the hotel." After one more glare for Shikamaru, he walked off.
"You still sure you want to get to know me better?" She muttered.
"Well, now I'm not so sure. But then again, women are troublesome." He sighed. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to write to you since I'm sure it will hurt if I choose not to." He stumbled backwards as her fist connected to his jaw. "Aww, man. What did you do that for?"
"No reason. I have to go now but I'll see you again later, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so." He shied away from another would-be punch. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Yes, you will see me later."
"Good." She kissed him lightly on the lips and hurried off to meet her brothers.
Shikaku watched somewhat amused as his son stared after her.
"You know something, Dad? In a few years, I just might believe what you said about the toughest woman being tender with the man she loves." Then he yawned and, proclaiming that it was still too early to be up and moving around, meandered to his favorite cloud watching spot and fell sleep.