Shikamaru Nara woke up as always more tired than he was before going to sleep. He briefly questioned this theory but his laziness got the better of him and chose not to bother himself with thinking about something so stupid.
It was Tuesday, the day after Monday. For Shikamaru it was the second worst day of the week. He rose from his bed and began his daily routine which consisted of a shower, then getting dressed, followed by greeting his mother. Yoshino who always made mornings near unbearable before giving her son breakfast, then he would if he could be bothered find the strength to train, however he never had the will to train so instead he would watch the clouds, and dream of anything and everything.
Shikamaru of course knew his mother felt lonely when Shikaku wasn't around to take her orders so instead she would bombard her boy with her nagging, to the point where he would make up lies that he had to go see his friends when in actual fact he would visit Chouji or sometimes if he was beyond desperate, Ino. Shikamaru was still a boy who disliked lying to his mother, but after making the lies on the spot he would go through the trouble with turning the lies into truth, as he knew his mother would call the parents of whomever he said he would be visiting.
"What a drag!" Shikamaru told Chouji who was munching on some chips. Shikamaru would always smile at Chouji when he had chips, as it reminded him of the day he and Chouji became the best of friends, as they watched the clouds for the first time together.
"Oh Shikamaru, did you hear about the festival that the Sand village will be hosting fourteen days from now, I hear it's going to be held for a whole week."
"A whole week! What the heck for?" Shikamaru asked surprisingly.
"Yes a whole week, according to dad, they'll be hosting this festival as a surprise to Temari of the Sand, who you remember well dontcha?" Chouji asked with a smirk, before grabbing more chips and munching away.
Shikamaru looked at his friend with a non-responsive face and replied "I guess. But I don't understand what this festival is for." He leaned down looking at the sky thinking about the clouds and how much he longed to be one.
"I heard it's for her proposed engagement" Chouji looked at his friend seeking a response from him.
"Oh? I see, so Miss Troublesome went and found some guy to accept her constant whining" he said expressionless. In actual fact, Shikamaru was a master at hiding his feelings or so he thought anyway. He did feel a little sad to hear the news of the Sand ninja.
"I don't think she found this guy Shikamaru. This marriage was set up for her without her knowledge and she has no choice but to accept." Chouji spoke slowly with a gloomy tone in his voice. Chouji knew Shikamaru well, they had been best of childhood friends so he could sense Shikamaru's disguised disappointment.
Shikamaru looked at Chouji and sighed. "Well I have to get going then, sorry Chouji"
"What? Where are you going? You plan to save the day? You know very well how you feel for that girl!" Chouji almost raised his voice out of annoyance towards his stupid good friend.
"Chouji, you can't ask me all these questions, because you know I'm too lazy to answer them and I have a meeting with Lady Tsunade in twenty minutes, okay!" as Shikamaru added the final "okay" Chouji knew that Shikamaru was lying to himself but decided to let his friend go do whatever he had to do.
"Well, alright then! I'll come by yours on Friday; I hope you haven't forgotten about it cause it's the night of the eclipse and it won't appear again for many years" Chouji replied with a smile on his face, no doubt planning something deviant and headed towards his favourite restaurant for breakfast.
Shikamaru walked street after street deep in thought. He has been too busy to realize he had walked into Shino, with Kiba and Hinata who had been painting the back walls of the building.
"I'm sorry" Shikamaru bowed to Shino walking backwards with his eyes closed when he hit the wall behind him. Shino was suspicious at Shikamaru's over the top polite behaviour, and then replied to him.
"Umm Shikamaru? Its fine, are you okay? You backed into the wall we just painted"
Shikamaru stood in shock when he saw his back was covered in white paint and he couldn't help but think about his mother who would without a doubt kill him when he went home.
"Oh man! What a drag! Oh well no worries I'm sure I'll be dead by the end of today so I apologize again for walking into you Shino."
Kiba was roaring with laughter. He couldn't help himself it was after all a scene you'd normally never see the genius Shikamaru getting himself into. Hinata was worried for Shikamaru and decided to speak
"Shikamaru-kun, what has you so distracted you walked into Shino and then into the wall? Is something bothering you?"
Shikamaru smiled. Boy she's such a nice girl; I hope Kiba takes good care of her, when he finally confesses. He glanced towards Kiba who had stopped laughing and was looking at Shikamaru with curiosity evident in his eyes.
"Hinata-chan, thank you for your concern but really I am fine, I just haven't been sleeping much lately. Please excuse me I have a meeting with Lady Tsunade."
Another blatant lie, Shikamaru realized and began walking away from the three of them. Hinata looked at Shino, then Kiba.
"I think we need to find out what's wrong with him, it could have something to do with the festival and Temari-chan".
"Yeah sounds good Hinata, but let's finish painting these walls yeah?" Kiba smiled when Team Kurenai all agreed on this and continued painting the walls white when Kiba began complaining about the walls already being white to begin with.
Shikamaru continued walking towards the tower not caring about looking like a fool with the white paint on the back of his uniform. He was remembering when he first laid eyes the bothersome female Temari, it was at the beginning of the round one of the chunin exams.
- -memory flashback- -
It was before the exam began, the time when they were all together in the room and looking at all the colourless thugs who didn't seem to be close to their age at all. Shikamaru was looking through the crowd to analyse their faces and where they came from when found himself gazing upon a unique blond girl in a violet garment. Her hairstyle was out of the ordinary with four pig tales.
Two pig tales would have been fine, but four? He then looked at her body and saw she had a huge fan, he thought to himself. A fan? How can you use that fan as a weapon? Surely it must change into a sword or something! It looks heavy.. She looks sort of interesting..
Before he could continue his thoughts and move onto her comrades, Naruto the fool had to open his big mouth and threaten to kick everyone's butt! Naruto had brought everyone's attention to the nine Leaf village rookies who stood there looking quite vulnerable if he was feeling the vibe of the onlookers correctly.
Temari had noticed Shikamaru's eyes seconds before the boy in orange started yelling out empty threats and she had stared right back at him. When Shikamaru realized Temari was looking right through him, his eyes met hers in an unbreakable gaze and for a brief moment he felt uncomfortable and broke his eye contact with her.
Temari however kept staring at this pineapple head and was having fun. However her attitude soon after turned sour when that Uzumaki freak had finished his piece and then the girl with pale-pink hair was yelling louder back than he had, she couldn't help but feel angry towards this group. Temari noticed how colourful and innocent the girls of the teams had looked and then quickly felt a sharp stab of jealousy as she noticed how close these kids were to each other, but this was simply a passing thought at the time.
- - end - -
Shikamaru reached Lady Tsunade's office and knocked on the door and Shizune allowed him to enter. Shizune was holding the little pig which oinked in laughter at Shikamaru's obvious wardrobe malfunction. Shikamaru felt the pig laughing at him and gave it a short cold stare before Tsunade began talking with him about some mission that had to do with the Sand siblings.
Oh great! Why is everything leading back to that troublesome female today? Shikamaru thought to himself.
"Shikamaru are you listening!" Tsunade was obviously impatient with the lazy shinobi. That's what you get for summoning me so early in the morning.
"My apologies Hokage-sama, continue" Shikamaru hid his sarcasm well.
"As I was saying. Temari, Kankuro and Gaara will be arriving here Friday morning and you are to guide Temari. Remember she is the diplomatic liaison between Sunagakure and Konohagakure after all. However you are to guide her only, not her brothers. Gaara has requested this. Kankuro will act as Gaaras sole bodyguard. I'm unaware of the reason behind this so don't even ask Shikamaru."
This is odd. "As you wish Lady Tsunade, please excuse me" he left the office after she granted him permission to do so.