A/N: this week has been pretty awful. So much fucking school work! Plus, my mom's finishing her dissertation so like...the whole house radiated stress. But, I hope this chapter is okay! Sorry that it took awhile. I experimented with changing POV so watch out for that.

Shikamaru POV

This is going to be hard because I have no idea what goes on in a boy's mind

Eight hours in and I had already failed my first mission. Lady Tsunade had insisted, when she first gave me the assignment, that it wasn't technically a mission because she wasn't requiring me to do it, it was just a gentle demand that I absolutely could refuse. It was a blatant lie and we both knew it, just like we both knew that I was way too lazy to call her out on it. So I was stuck being Temari's escort.

The first day of school was always bad, I kept telling myself. I mean, it could have gone better, but she made some friends. Actually, she didn't. But it was too troublesome to worry about. I made plans with Asuma to play shougi so I was trying to think about strategies. But school kept coming to my mind. I kept on replaying the scenario in my head of when that idiot Kazuyuki poured his drink on her. Stupid bullying like that happens all the time at our school. Most kids with no friends get drinks poured on them. But her face when she was trying to recover was unbearable. Something struck. It was weird because I try to use reason and logic before I take any action, but when I flat out punched him in the face, it was instinctual.

I didn't tell Tsunade any of that. When she asked me why I did it, I made up that I did it because I was her escort and that it was my duty to stand up for her. Tsunade seemed to buy it. I faked a yawn, and told her I had to meet up with Asuma and she let me go quickly, just requiring me to do some detention for breaking school rules. We both knew I was going to fall asleep for that.

The Yamanaka flower shop was on the way to the training grounds. I really thought that Ino wasn't going to be there, which is why I didn't bother avoiding it, but Ino was there. She kept hollering at me to come over to her. I quickly went through the pros and cons of ignoring her and continuing my walk, but I decided I might as well stop for a second.

"Hi Ino. I'm going to go play shougi with Asuma." I tried leaving, but she pulled on my arm.

"No, wait! After school I saw Asuma and Kurenai at a tea shop. Please, don't interrupt them!"

"Why not?"

"Shikamaru, you know why. There's no way that someone with an iq of yours doesn't know exactly why I want you to leave them alone."

"He keeps saying that they're not dating. Just leave it alone, Ino."

"You're so stupid, Shikamaru. If you don't leave them alone, I'm going to knock the daylight out of you."

"tch."

She kept threatening me, then talking about how perfect Kurenai and Asuma were, then going back to threatening me, until two more blonds joined us in front of the flower shop. One was Naruto, and next to him was a cleanup up Temari in her uniform, but an added green apron. I had completely forgot that she told me she was going to be working here.

"Hey Shikamaru! Hey Ino!" Naruto belted out. "Did you see Asuma and Kurenai on their date?"

"Yes! See Shikamaru? Even Naruto sees that they're in love." To this, Temari replied.

"Please, Naruto thinks everyone's dating. He just sees two people together and assumes it."

Ino objected. "Naruto, actually has a track record of being one hundred percent right when it comes to guessing couples."

"Not anymore, he thought Shikamaru and I were dating. Idiot." Temari crossed her arms, I scratched the back of my head and looked away, embarrassed by the memory. Ino paused for a moment, contemplating it. Before she could jump to any conclusions, I stopped her.

"Well, Naruto. Since Asuma is busy, why don't we go spar. You're on your way there, aren't you?" It was out of character and I knew it was going to be troublesome, but it was the most efficient way that I could end this conversation.

"huh?" Naruto looked at me like I was from another planet.

"Lets go, moron." I didn't wait for him to follow me, I knew he would.

Ino POV

I watched them leave, but not for nearly as long as Temari did. That girl was probably starring at Shikamaru's ass. Understandable, it was nice, but he was too much of a brother-figure to me to actually consider tapping that. Being the queen of gossip in Konoha, I was determined to befriend Temari. Every single piece of gossip from today at school revolved around her. Everyone wanted to know who she was, what political scandals her family caused, why she came here, why she needed a job, who her brothers were...

I also wanted to be friends with her because I liked her, don't get me wrong. She was blunt and a little rude, but I liked it. We didn't clash at all. She didn't try to go after Sasuke, she didn't try to look prettier than me, and her hair was short. That's about all that I required for someone to be my friend.

"So, why are you still here? I thought your dad said you were retiring. I sort of depend on that to keep my job."

"Oh, right. Well I'm supposed to use this time to train, but Asuma's busy."

"Oh. So, should I leave?"

"NO!" I responded a little too quickly. "I mean, we can both do the job." I needed her to work at our flower shop in order to suck all the information I could out of her.

"Uh, okay. Is you're dad here? In the letter he sent he said he would tell me my responsibilities in person, so I don't really know what to do."

"Oh, I can do that."

I took her to the back and taught her all the arrangements she needed to know, but she didn't need me. She was a natural. Quite the green thumb on that one. "did you plant back at home?"

"Somewhat. Plants don't grow well in the desert, as you can probably imagine. But we had a greenhouse, back at our old home."

"Old home?"

"Yeah, we moved."

"Really, why?"

"My father passed away."

I did want to extort information out of her, but I paused upon hearing this. There was more to her than I ever thought there would be. My compassion overran my need for gossip.

"I'm really sorry, Temari. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I don't care, he was terrible." She shrugged, shrugged!

That really shook my world upside down. My father meant everything to me. It was so foreign, the idea of shrugging at your father's death. She must have seen my confusion in my face. She added, "he made my brother's and my lives miserable. Not to mention the fear most people in my village live in because of his poor life choices. I can't respect him at all. I can't even forgive him."

Suddenly, "sorry" didn't even sound acceptable. I was really trying hard to say something about it, but I was way in over my head. I didn't care about the gossip in her family anymore.

"Well, I'm glad you're here with us."

"Ha, I don't think a lot of your classmates share your sentiment..." She turned to take some arrangements to the display room. "but thank you."

"Hey, you know, I heard about what happened with Kazuyuki." I followed her into the display room. "He's an idiot. A real bully. He once cut off my hair, you know?"

"No, I didn't." She didn't seem all that interested, though. She just wiped her hands on her apron and went back to arranging more flowers.

"Yeah, and he was really mean to Chouji about his weight. Can you believe that? I'm the only one allowed to comment on it! He told him he couldn't play with them, anymore."

"So I take it this was in grade school?" I grimaced.

"Yeah. I guess. But people don't forget things like that. We all hate him, and if we don't show it, it's because we're scared. He comes from a real powerful clan. They work in the torture department of law enforcement. Really scary. They moved here right after he was born from the sound. And you know the reputation they have."

"They probably took off after Orochimaru, no?"

"Probably. They're still scary as hell, though." Since she got the hang of the arranging, I decided to just sit by the cashier and do my nails. "Hey, Temari?"

"Yes?" she called from the back.

"Did you pass the written portion of the chunin exam?"

"with flying colors, why do you ask?"

"well, since they got rid of the second part of the exam, which I'm so glad of, because I would not survive a day out in the wilderness, I'm getting kind of nervous for the third part. Are you?"

"I'm not. In all likelihood they're just going to make us fight someone either in our teams of three or one on one and that's it."

"You think so? Who's in your team?"

"My two brothers."

"Have I heard of them? What are their jutsus?"

"Probably. They're quite infamous."

"infamous?" I probably had stars in my eyes. Finally, some gossip!

"Yeah, infamous. Kankuro, a puppeteer, is one of them."

"you're kidding me!"

"I found out a few days ago from Shikamaru that he's even popular here."

"people love him here! He's not infamous. Some people think he's weird, sure, but he has a cult following, practically."

"Yeah, well he learned from the best."

"who was his sensei?"

"Lady Chiyo." I gasped.

"No!"

"yes. Do you want to hear about my other brother?" I knew she was egging me on. I was overreacting to her and I knew it, but I couldn't help it.

"Of course..."

"His name is Gaara."

"Stop it!"

Surprisingly, she actually did stop. She stopped talking altogether and silently made her arrangements. "not really, silly. I meant like 'no way, that's so cool' not like 'stop talking'."

"Oh." She looked a little embarrassed. "I've never heard that expression before."

"Yeah, go on." She chuckled a bit.

"Well Gaara, he's special. Our dad tried to kill him a lot during our childhood for reasons..." I was smiling like an idiot right now, not that I should have been, that was a really fucked up thing of her dad to do. "I'm sorry, but I don't have authorization to explain what for."

"No!"

"Sorry." That bitch wasn't sorry one bit. "So he had to learn from a young age to defend himself. His defense system is impenetrable. He uses the sand from his gourd as a shield. I'm not allowed to say anymore, though. I hope that satiates your gossip."

"Oh, it does."

"Don't spread that!"

"Don't worry, I won't. I just have to go see Sakura for something..." I ran off to go tell everyone I ever met all of that. This girl and her family were wild! But I would leave out the stuff about her dad, that was just too personal to tell anyone...

Once I spread the gossip around town, it was starting to get dark. Temari was still making the arrangements. She practically made an assembly line and mass producing those things. She made more than I make in a week!

"Hey Temari!"

"Hello, Ino. I'm going to close shop soon."

"Oh, I can do that for you."

"Thanks." She put her apron up and washed her hands. "So, did you tell everyone about my family?"

I reddened. "Of course not!"

"Right... I don't care. But would you help me out with one thing?"

"Sure!" I was looking for something to help her with, mostly to ease my guilt.

"So, I have to go to Ichiraku's to work a night shift. Mind showing me where it is?"

"Which one?"

"It's a chain?"

"No. But since his daughter, Ayame, went back to school, they opened up a new restaurant. They still have the stand, but now they have this swanky new place that has a whole new menu! It's amazing, and so romantic." She clearly wasn't that interested. She just handed me a piece of paper with an address.

"This is the address I'm working at. They sent it to me in a letter."

"you're working at Chez Ichiraku! Oh my god, I'm jealous!"

"You want a job as a waitress?" She cocked an eyebrow, not buying any of it.

"Not really, but you probably get a discount and get to eat all that delicious Tsukemen."

"I suppose. I'm just gonna change first, then will you take me?"

"Of course." She just stared at me. "Oh, right, you probably want a bathroom to change in..."

When she stepped out of the bathroom, she actually looked nice. The uniform was kind of like our school uniform, but black and more professional looking. I helped her with the bow on her neck and on her apron.

"You know, you actually look good."

"Actually?"

"no, don't get me wrong."

"I suppose I don't blame you, the school uniform looks atrocious on me."

"It doesn't look atrocious! It's just, a bit..."

"slutty?"

"I was going to say revealing. It's kind of like my Halloween costume from last year."

"Ha!" Her laugh was the most unusual but spectacular thing. It was awkward, like she'd only done it twice in her life.

"I'll take your school uniform, mom's doing the laundry tonight anyways."

"Oh, thanks."

"No problem."

Temari POV

Ino was surprisingly agreeable. I didn't have any expectation for the little ditz, but after spending an afternoon with her, I sort of felt bad calling her a ditz. Sure, she was pretty much just focused on getting information out of me, but I can't really blame her for it, it's in her blood. Literally, because her family's jutsu is mind control. I ended up telling her a lot about myself, which was unexpected. It's not like I could trust her. I guess, in a way, I was just looking for her hilarious reactions on everything I said. It was nice to feel important without feeling like a specimen. She wanted to hear what I had to say, which was a good change of pace from my life in Suna, where no one would listen to me.

She kept on talking about Sasuke on our way to the restaurant, but from what I could tell, he's a total asshole who ripped Ino and Sakura apart. I feel bad for them, I couldn't imagine romance getting in the way of a friendship, I could never let that happen. Then again, friendships are such a rare thing to happen to me, I don't think I really let anything get in the way of them.

The restaurant was swanky and romantic, just like Ino said. It was pretty comedic seeing the change from the stand that Shikamaru took me to, to the romantic candle-lit place I was working at. You know a place is fancy if it has a French name and no artificial light source. Actually, that always kind of bugged me in restaurants. If a place is so fancy, why can't they afford the light bill?

I felt a lot more confident once I got to change into this uniform. I didn't get catcalled in this, which was nice. Ayame was the manager of the place, and she was quite the little harpy. She would sit around barking orders at the other girls, sometimes even barking at her own customers. She didn't yell at me. She tried to, at first, but I stared her down. I think she was scared of me, for the first few hours. But once it was closing time, I could see she was tired. I offered to take over, and I think ever since then, we've gotten on better terms. I got to yell at everyone and I closed up the restaurant. I think she was thankful for it.

Once everyone left, I wished I had brought some extra clothing. The uniform was better than the school's, but it was stiff. I reprimanded myself for complaining and just walked back to the dorms. At least, that was my intention. I walked towards what I thought was the general direction of the school, but I was actually walking towards the end of town, back where the prominent clan's compounds were. I think I realized at some point that I was going the wrong way, so I turned, but it wasn't into another street, but rather, an alley. I groaned and turned around, finally accepting the fact that I was lost. Some bastard was in the way of me leaving, however.

"can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can help me."

"It was rhetorical. I've had a long fucking day, I want to go home."

"listen here, you little bitch." He didn't really finish the thought, however, because he tried to, and I stress, tried to, choke me and pin me to the wall. However, I was stronger, faster, and smarter than this asshole. I had him on his back in five seconds flat.

"Idiot." I muttered. I walked to his head to asses his condition. "knocked out, and...fuck. that is an unconscious Kazuyuki. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" Now I had my social status to think about. Plus, someone was possibly stalking me. I walked to the first house I found, and knocked on the door. It turns out I was more lost than I thought, because I was on the Nara compound, and a very tired looking Shikamaru opened the door.

"oh, hey Shikamaru. Can I borrow your phone? There's a guy who probably needs some medical attention." He took a while to register my request.

"Temari? What the fuck are you doing here."

"I got a little lost." I shrugged nonchalantly. "so, you're phone?"

"uh..." He didn't get to respond because a livid Yoshino pushed him out of the way.

"Oh, honey! Are you okay? Can I get you something? You look lovely. What are you doing here so late? Shikamaru!"

She led me into her house, giving me some tea (which I for sure did not ask for) and sat me down on a couch.

"Actually, Yoshino, could I just borrow your phone for a second? I just need to call 911, some guy is out cold over there and I know he goes to our school, so"

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry you had to see that! I assumed Shikamaru would have dropped you off at your dorm, what are you doing here?"

I was beginning to get a little frustrated that she was not paying attention to me at all, instead, she was much more interested in my life.

"well I was at work, my shift just ended."

"Shikamaru!"

"Yes mother?" He called from the kitchen.

"What's your excuse?"

I heard him muttering as he stopped whatever the hell he was doing to come and respond to his mother.

"What have I done now, mother?"

"Quit your retort. Why did you not accompany Temari home after her shift?"

"I didn't know she was working today."

I rolled my eyes, he for sure knew I was working today, he fucking saw me. His mother caught on, however. She was not pleased, I could tell she was about to yell at her son, but I stopped her, thinking about a more important issue at hand.

"Yoshino, I promise you that your son had no idea I was working today, I just forgot to tell him, then I got a little lost."

"Honey, you didn't get a little lost, your more than four miles away from where you're supposed to be."

"Right, but this kid from school might be seriously injured, he had blood coming out of his nose, so if we could call someone first, that would be great."

"Yes, let's talk about this first. You said he was from school, who was it?"

"Um, his name is Kazuyuki, I think. He has black hair, purple eyes..."

Shikamaru looked up from his school work to look at me.

"I'll go get him, mom."

"Oh, no you won't. You don't think the headmistress called me today? I know all about you and Kazuyuki."

"What happened with you and Kazuyuki?" I asked him. He, of course, ignored me.

"then do you know why I was in her office?"

"I'm going to go wake up your father, he'll sort this out."

I was utterly confused, but too tired to try and work it out. I guess it showed, because the Naras stopped talking to look at me. My eyes were drooping, I was falling asleep on my hand.

"Okay, sweetie. Why don't you sleep in the guest bedroom?"

"Oh, I'm really okay. If you'd just point me in the direction of the dorms, I'll just be on my way."

"No you won't." Surprisingly, Shikamaru said. "There's idiots like Kazu there at this time of night. Just sleep here, trouble."

"Look, I'm fine on my own, I just need to go home."

Yoshino was already out of the room, setting up the guest room.

"Look, trouble, it's a man's job to-"

"Listen here, sexist idiot. I had that moron to the floor in less than ten seconds, I can handle myself."

He looked mildly surprised that it was me who took him down.

"you're the reason Kazu's on the floor unconscious?"

"yeah, but don't tell people that. I don't need people thinking I'm going to attack them for stupid things."

"it's not stupid, he fucking poured soda all over you."

"I don't care about that, he was trying to choke me, before."

"Choke you!"

"Yeah, he tried to trap me in an alley and he tried for my neck. It didn't work, of course."

I was pissed. This guy was unbelievable, interrogating me at an hour like this. I was so tired I wasn't even going to complain and demand to go to my dorm, I was going to stay the night at his house.

"How the-" Because god is merciful, Yoshino interrupted our horrible conversation and led me to the guest bedroom.

"Good night, Temari! I'll make you a nice breakfast tomorrow and you can tell me all about your first day."

Or, she said something like that. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.