Chapter 12- irritators and annoyances

Gaara was anticipating his short stay in Konoha greatly for several reasons. He'd get to see Naruto, the Chunin exams were bound to be interesting and he could quite possibly get the chance to hunt whoever Temari's boyfriend was and ensure that whoever he was wouldn't dare do anything stupid. While normally he would never leave his village this was important for the treaty, Suna's morale and the doom of Temari's suitor. Besides the council all but kicked him out the village leaving Kankuro in charge for the time being. As if that wasn't enough but he had to travel with a guard and a few of Suna's nobles. Socialisation was extremely annoying. He loved Suns but socialising was still a killer.

He was extremely happy when the gates of Konoha finally came into view. No more nobles! He was even happier to finally separate from them. Not that he would let that happiness show. Gaara quickly went to visit Tsunade. The sooner this was over the sooner he could get to his other business and visit Naruto.

"Ah Kazekage-sama." Tsunade greeted smiling at the distraction from her work. He gave her a respectful nod.

"Let's make this quick." he said and she scowled at him.

XXXXX

Temari was happy to see her brother. She was happy that he was well. She was happy that he was happy to see his friends, Naruto and Lee. She was not happy that he found it prudent to invade in her space and recruit their dear friends to go on another attempt to invade her privacy by trying to spy her to find out who she was seeing! Annoying pricks, the lot of them.

Now she was stomping her way to Ichiraku's to get some ramen and if any of those spies where there kill them too. That would make her day alot better. She sighed when she got there. Nope no spies but there was Shikamaru. No spies but there had the be one of the two people she still just didn't have the heart to talk to. The other one would be Ino. She sat down anyway after giving the boy a respectfully nod of acknowledgement. She ordered her ramen and silently waited.

"They're digging in your life again." Shikamaru commented. She inwardly sighed. Not something she wanted to talk about especially not with Shikamaru. This conversation would be so much more fun with Kiba.

"I know." she told him. With a half smile. Definitely not someone she wanted to talk to now. "My brother is something else."

There was silence for a moment before he spoke again. "You know you could just stop it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked incredulously as her bowl was placed before her.

"I know what you and Kiba are doing." he said and she expertly hid her surprise with a huge slurp. How could he know? But then he was a genius wasn't he? "While I admire that you would do this much to make me jealous-"

He was cut off by Temari choking on her noodles. "Jealous? Excuse me? Where did you get that from?"

"It's quite obvious Temari." he said with a sigh. She raised both her brows at him. "It's best if you stop though. This might evolve into something you can't control."

"What makes you even think this is about you?"

"Troublesome." he muttered then took a sip of his ramen. It was obvious that this whole thing was about him. How could it not be? It was designed to make him jealous and guess what it was working. It's been working like crazy. It's like everyone wants to know about Temari. Even the jonin were interested, the little gossips they were! He could go nowhere without hearing whispers. A few people had even asked him if he knew. Him! Ofcourse he didn't tell. Kiba could be down right scary and he knew the guy wouldn't hesitate to carry through with that threat to make only his head stick out of the ground.

"You are unbelievable!" Temari said with an agitated growl. She stuck her chop sticks unto the ramen with a scowl. "Because of you? Yea freaking right."

Shikamaru knew it was best to leave girls like Temari alone when they were angry but just because he knew didn't mean his mouth knew. "Then why? Why not?"

"It's not about you, it's about us. It was never about you." she she said vehemently. "To think you thought so much about yourself. It's not like I'm anything to be jealous for anyway. You've got Ino, miss I'm-so-freaking-hot-look-at-my-curves! Don't be jealous for me Shikamaru 'cause I'm not jealous of Ino. I don't need your jealousy and I don't want it either. The one thing I need, I'm already getting."

"This is for sex?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Do I look loose to you?" she asked disgusted. How could he even think like that? "If I'm loose what the hell do you call your girlfriend?"

"Hey-"

"No, you 'hey'. My current relationship is in no way related to you and if you knew anything about it you'd shut the hell up!" she said to him and he stared at her wide eyed almost sure she would grab her fan and whack him with it. She smiled sweetly at him, too sweet. Warning bells instantly went off in his head. "If you are at all the genius that everyone says you are, you'll run. Pay your bill and leave."

He was gone instantly, leaving nothing but the money for his food.

She had known her day would get worse but to think that Shikamaru thought so little of her was... Painful. It didn't matter that they weren't to together or even that close anymore, it still hurt. That went to show just how great their relationship had been. There were certain things she wouldn't do and having a relationship just for sex was one of them. No matter how hard being a ninja got.

She quickly ate her ramen, she couldn't savour it anymore. She paid and left. She was irritated with the entire conversation. It had been ok to begin with but she had known from the beginning that it wouldn't end well. She spun at the sound of her name behind her. She half smiled at the three running towards her. Just seeing them made her feel alittle better.

"Hey." she greeted bending to pick up Sanji. He was growing up fast. They had already needed to change his basket soon he wouldn't be carried anymore.

"He is fantastic." Kiba told her excitedly and Akamaru woofed in agreement. "He's ready to train with you now."

"That's probably the best news I've heard all day."

"Well I have more news for you and I'm not sure if it's good or bad. It's kinda bad for me but it usually a good thing." he said and suddenly she was apprehensive.

"Go on." she urged.

"I got a mission." he told her and she sighed. There would be no Kiba later to make her day better. Could it not get any better. "I'm not going to be back until the end of the week and by that time you'll already be gone."

"When are you leaving?"

"Next half an hour." he answered with a slight shrug.

"So soon." she whined and just when they were going to get serious. She wasn't going to see him again for two months. Two whole months! Her day really was crappie.

XXX

Shikamaru watched in silence as he analysed the scene from a safe distance. He had been watching her for awhile wondering if he should go back and apologise for his slip of tongue but he had decided against that after witnessing her try murder her food then leave. He was going to just go about his business when he saw Kiba approach her. He briefly wondered why Kiba had Sanji but disregard it as something veterinary and possible their excuse for being around each other if the fact that they weren't making their relationship public. He had watched as they spoke too far away for him to hear reading lips would be eavesdropping by lip reading and it would just be troublesome.

As he watched them part the thought hit him. He had assumed this was to make him jealous but if it was why was the relationship private? Surely one more public would be more fruitful. The only public part was that Temari actually told people that she was seeing someone, she had never told anyone who that was. How many people actually believe her? All their immediate friends seemed to. But did they really?

Another part of this whole thing was that Kiba acted like everyone else as if he wasn't aware of this. This whole thing was supposed to be a secret. The guy had even threatened him, a threat he'd rather not have come true thank you very much.

That lead him to another question what if it wasn't really Kiba? Who would it be then? Did he care to know? Did he really want to know? Why was he thinking about this so much anyway? Did Temari even think about him anymore? If she did were they good or bad thoughts? Why did it matter? Was he really jealous of this whole troublesome complicated thing? What were they really planning? Why couldn't he, the genius, figure it out? What made this whole thing so frigging complicated? What the hell were they planning?

Damn them! This was unreasonably frustrating! What ever they were planning he would be watching.

"Troublesome."

XXXXX

Why couldn't he find this guy? Gaara had been searching around for the mysterious 'boyfriend' for the two days that he had been in Konoha. He had Naruto's help and a few others but no one them could even find a clue who it was. Who ever it was was either good or well hidden, very well hidden. It was his third day and he'd have to be leaving in a few hours with Temari and the nobles. The rest of his time would have to be spent with Naruto.

"So like I said we have alot of things to do in the next few hours." the blond said finishing up his long list of things to do. All Gaara wanted to do was find this very elusive person and make sure he didn't do the same to his sister as Shikamaru. That would make his day and the few days of travel back to the village with the nobles No such luck though but we wasn't fining up. He'd find a way to dig that lowlife out of his hiding place and destroy him even if it meant scouring the all the countries for him. Well, he wouldn't go that far, maybe only Konoha. He couldn't go to Tsunade with this, he was already utilising her ninja thorough friendship he wouldn't even try doing it through a ninja mission. That wouldn't be the proper use of ninja and the Kazekage could never use his nin like that... nor could he use other Kages nins. Well that sucks.

He and Naruto were currently having breakfast at Ichiraku's and Naruto was putting it away quickly. Gaara watched on only pushing the food around in his own bowl of ramen. He couldn't be bothered with food, there were too many things to think about. Temari would kill him if she knew he wasn't eating.

With that thought he blessed the food and began eating only to be dragged away by Naruto. This morning would be a long morning. Who knew where they were headed now.