I'll be returning to school next week so updates might not come as often as they have been. They most likely won't, the chapters are going to take forever to write especially with all the work college entails so this might be the last for awhile that will hopefully not be too long. Thanks for liking it so far.

I really don't own Naruto.

Chapter 5 - Back again

The lush greenery of Konoha's forest welcomed Temari back from Suna. That and her pink haired friend. After passing the gate guards she came to stand before the girl. Sakura quickly hugged her.

"I can't believe I wasn't here when you came the last time." she said. She was possibly Temari's best friend here. It was either Sakura or Ten-Ten. Hinata was so sweet too. Temari had never liked Ino too much just enough. Now that 'enough' had sunk to 'not much.'

"I was a little surprised too." Temari said pulling out of the hug. "Shouldn't you be at the hospital?"

"Yea but it's my lunch break and I heard that you were supposed to be coming back today." Sakura told her all smiles. The smiles soon gave way to a concerned look. "I heard. It's got to suck beyond everything. I'm sorry I wasn't there to be there. I would have knocked her skull clean off!"

Temari laughed. "You wouldn't have, she's your best friend.

"I knock Naruto in the head all the time. Pity it has no effect."

"Girl best-friends are different from guy best-friends."

"He's not my best friend." Sakura said in denial. Temari rolled her eyes. "I still would have hurt her for you."

"It's ok. She did me a favour," Sakura raised a brow as if to say 'have you cracked your head?' but Temari continued now smiling. "She opened my eyes."

"Do you have a fever? There's this really nasty-"

"I'm fine. It's just now I have a boyfriend that's so much better."

"Already?"

"Since two weeks ago almost three."

"Wow."

"I don't know how I didn't see it before. It's like he was right in front of me." Temari said gesturing forward where Sakura stood.

"Hey!" a voice shouted from behind Sakura. Temari froze with her hand still in her gesturing and Sakura seeped aside to look at the source.

'Oh the irony.' Temari thought mentally shaking her head. Hinata was running towards them pulling Kiba and Shino along behind her. Akamaru was not far behind. Naruto was, surprisingly, behind them walking at a slower pace and sulking. The ironic part of it was that Kiba was in line perfectly with the hand that she had been using to gesticulate.

"Hinata!" both girls said surprised as it was their usually shy friend that had shouted. They shouldn't have been too surprised because they had spent a tremendous amount of time helping her get over her shyness but these things were still surprising.

"Hey, nice to see you again Temari." Hinata said when she stopped before them. Kiba and Shino pulled their hands out of her grip.

"Temari." Shino greeted with a nod as he calmly rubbed his wrist where Hinata had been holding him.

"Hey, what's up?" Kiba said also rubbing his wrist. He winced. "This is going to hurt for a while Hinata. You almost pulled it."

"I'm sorry but you could have just come along like I asked." she said and Kiba glared at her. She smiled shyly at him. He looked away and began grumbling darkly to himself about how she was being manipulative with her shy looks. She ignored him and turned back to Temari. "So have you reported to the hokage yet?"

"No but I'll be going that way soon. It's nice to see you being such a big girl now." Temari said then looked past her at Naruto who hadn't said anything as yet. "Um Naruto?"

"Hey Temari."

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." he replied.

"Is something wrong?"

"He was being stupid so I told him I was going to ban him from ramen if he didn't behave and not attack Shikamaru or smother you."

Oh." When did you get so much authority?

Now Hinata blushed.

"She sees everything!"

"No, I don't." she said and he nodded

"Of course you do and if I have any ramen you'll make Sakura attack me as punishment." he said in horror.

"I don't attack people!" Sakura said getting angry now. Kiba, Akamaru and Shino took steps closer to Temari and away from the others. Kiba turned his attention to Temari and away from the bickering two and Hinata.

"Soooo... How's Sanji?" Kiba asked pulling Temari's attention away as well. She smiled at the mention of her puppy.

"He's alright. He's so cute. He almost bit Kankuro; he must not like the face paint because he was fine when Kankuro didn't have it on. He just loves Gaara. Half the time he just wanted to curl up in Gaara's robes. They're cute together. Gaara never had a pet before so a cute puppy was nice for him. I thought about getting him a parrot once but then he'd probably kill it for being too annoying especially if it keeps repeating what he says." Temari paused in her ranting and looked to see both boys staring at her with eyebrows raised.

"So where is he?" Kiba asked brushing it off and keeping his thought of how adorable her ranting was to himself.

"In his basket sleeping; He sleeps a lot." she said

"Which basket?"

"That one." she answered pointing to one being carried by one of her guards.

"Why are they carrying him? You debt seem like someone who would let other people carry her...baggage." Shino asked brows furrowed in thought.

"They kept insisting and being annoying. Men." she answered him and rolled her eyes. He looked off into the distance with the same thoughtful look.

"Maybe they would have found you too attractive with a basket on your hip."

"Aww that's so cute, Shino." she said and him looked at her with an expression that could only be classified as shocked. "Don't look so shocked. It's cute for you to imply such a thing."

"He has a point though." Kiba said and Temari seemed to think about it. He motioned to the guard with the basket using his head. "You do remember he has to get his shots, right?"

"Yea. I was planning to just go straight there. I even sent the guards captain to hand in the report for me." she told him as she motioned for the guard with the basket to come to her.

"I'll just go with you. I have to go do some stuff with mom anyway." he said and smiled at the now awake and barking Sanji. He took the puppy from the basket as Temari dismissed her guards. "Wazzup? You're surprisingly clean for being in the desert. Who's been having a lot of baths?"

"You're treating him like a baby." Temari laughed and Shino watched on. Akamaru let out a laughing bark and turned to leave.

"He is a baby, just not a human baby." Kiba told her also turning to follow Akamaru. He looked back at the three that were still bickering and shook his head. "Let's just go they won't miss us."

"I will be going in the opposite direction. Why? I have a mission to collect." Shino stated and Temari stared at him blankly.

"Yea, see you later." Kiba said waving his old teammate goodbye. Temari followed him as Shino began walking in his own direction. Naruto, Hinata and Sakura were none the wiser. Temari rolled her eyes at their continued antics. They could be so childish sometimes.

"Would you believe me if I told you I missed you?" Kiba asked when they were far enough away. Temari blinked at him.

"No, not really."

"I wasn't talking to you." Kiba told her looking away from Sanji.

"Ouch." Temari said belatedly then punched him on the arm.

"Hey! I missed you too!" she exclaimed defensively before pitting Sanji down to clutch him arm. The excited puppy merely ran to catch up to Akamaru as he yipped happily.

"The damage is already done."

"But I'm telling the truth. It's not like you missed me so really you shouldn't be arguing." he reasoned still clutching his arm. She pouted.

"And if I said I did?" she asked and Kiba smirked at her.

"That would make me a lot happier."

"Well I didn't."

"Sure you didn't." he said sarcastically and she glared at him. It wasn't right to have so much fun arguing like this. Normal people in normal relationship wouldn't have so much fun but then they were ninjas in a relationship that doubled as a game. That's not a normal thing.

"We're here." Kiba said bringing her out of her thoughts. She smiled and he raised a brow at her quizzically as they passed through the gate behind Akamaru and Sanji. She might as well accept the fact that normal was not going to be in this like it had with Shikamaru and this was bound to be more fun. She grinned at him broadly and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Suddenly she laughed and skipped into his house. Kiba stared after her with a bewildered look on his face. Women. You could never understand them.

He entered the house to find Temari talking with Tsume, his mother. They were talking pretty good. It seemed like Tsume had taken a liking to the girl which was a little surprising since Tsume didn't get on well with most people. Smiling he went to sit with them in the kitchen. They spoke in detail about the reactions of Kankuro and Gaara, laughing at all the funny details such as the looks on their faces, and laughed even more at their antics to try and find out who this 'mystery guy' was.

"They aren't going to give up for now." Temari finally told them as they calmed down from hearing about Kankuro's attempt to break into her room.

"If they did it wouldn't be fun." Kiba told her with a grin.

"You kids are going to have to be careful. The Kazakage has connections." Tsume said seriously then grinned and clapped them on the back." Good luck and keep me posted."

"You're just loving the drama aren't you?" Kiba said as she got up to leave.

"Naturally." she smirked at him. When she left Kiba turned his attention to Temari and silently admired her. She had really nice hair je was definitely going to run his hand through that sometime soon, probably pull a tie or two...or all. Definitely on his to-do list.

"What's with the staring? Why are you smiling?" Temari asked with a raised brow. He smiled even brighter as she gave him a look of utter suspicion.

"I had an idea while you were away from me and left me lonely." he said and she rolled her eyes at the 'left me lonely'. Yea right.

"And what kind of idea was that?"

"I could give you something that you must wear at all times. It doesn't have to be seen but when it is it could serve as a clue." he answered and she seemed to consider it. "The other reason to wear it is to symbolise that you belong to me and since I'm supposed to be getting something too, I belong to you."

"It's an idea." she said her eyes narrowing at the idea of belonging to a person. "I'll do it but I do not belong to you."

"Hey. I'm honouring this commitment you should too."

"I am."

"Well commit more. I'm willing to be committed this much you should too."

"I'm not." she said stubbornly with a growl and Kiba sighed.

"We'll eventually get to a point when we can belong to each other."