Chapter Text
The final surprise during Shikamaru’s trip to Suna took place on the eve of his departure. Temari, needed back in Konoha for ambassador duties, had decided to travel with him the next day. And even all her teasing about protecting him from spiders and scorpions couldn’t bring him down after that.
If his time in Suna had been - surprisingly - fun, the three days it took traveling back to Konoha were incredible.
There were no younger brothers constantly checking up on them, no nosy villagers watching their every move, and more importantly, no troublesome friends bothering them all the time.
It felt like it had been forever since he and Temari had spent time alone, away from the stress from the Akatsuki threats. The last time had probably been when they were proctoring the Chuunin Exams.
He wondered, briefly, when he had started to actually want to spend time alone with her.
They made good time - after someone kept forcing him to move faster - and got to Konoha around lunchtime. After a quick stop at the Hokage’s office to let her know of their arrival, Shikamaru asked Temari what her plans for the rest of the day were.
“Nothing for now.” Temari shrugged. “Since we got here early, thanks to me ,” Shikamaru exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. “I have a break for a couple hours until the diplomats meeting.”
“Cool. Want to get lunch? I know some good places we can try.”
Suddenly, he crashed into her back. “Hey!”
Temari glanced at him suspiciously. “...Just us?”
Shikamaru paused. Had that been too forward? Not that he meant it that way - not really - they were just two hungry people standing together with no one else to eat with so they might as well eat together. Right? And they both enjoyed each other’s company. Right ?
Just as he opened his mouth to say exactly this to Temari, she beat him to it. “Actually, sure. But it better be good.”
With that, she stalked off towards the marketplace, giving Shikamaru an annoying sense of deja vu. “Tch. Troublesome.” He muttered as he sped up to join her.
She didn’t even know where they were going.
He should have known his luck was too good to last long.
Just as he and Temari were finishing up their meal, some very familiar people walked through the restaurant’s door.
“Oh, Shikamaru! What a surprise, finding you here with Te-ma-ri .”
He didn’t bother hiding his annoyance and let out a long sigh. “Good to see you too, Ino. And Sakura.”
His attitude really wasn’t fair to Sakura - she didn’t do nearly as much to bother him as Ino did.
Temari greeted them as well, though with less sarcasm than Shikamaru.
“Let’s go get our food.” Sakura said, trying to step away, but her best friend grabbed her arm.
“What’s the rush, Forehead? Not like they’re on a date, right?” Ino batted her eyes dramatically, and Shikamaru immediately thought of seven different ways to make next week’s training miserable for her.
“No.”
“No.”
Temari responded at the same time as him and Shikamaru was impressed - if not a little offended. She was right, but still.
He cleared his throat. “Actually, we were just leaving.”
All three girls looked at him.
“We have a meeting, remember?” Shikamaru said as he got up, then his tone turned more pointed even as his focus remained on paying the bill. “Because some of us actually work for a living.”
Temari gave him a weird look that told him he was definitely explaining that later, but the affronted look on Ino’s face made his comment all the more worth it.
“You didn’t have to leave. I could have walked myself back. ”
Shikamaru glanced at her through the corner of his eye. “Didn’t really feel like sitting through more of that - I get more than enough of it during team training. You mind?” He asked, holding up the worn silver lighter.
They were early for the meeting, and since Shikamaru never felt like working extra hours, he stopped outside for a quick smoke break - with a plus one this time.
Temari moved next to him, leaning on the wall of the Hokage Tower. “What’s the reason this time?”
“Ino gave me a headache.” He mumbled through his teeth and cigarette.
“So the usual.” Temari hummed.
Shikamaru grunted, and then they both stood comfortably in the silence.
That was the best thing about Temari. Just like him, she didn’t see the need to constantly hold a conversation all the time.
The second-best thing was that she didn’t mind when he smoked around her, as long as it wasn’t in a closed room. Him having to stand near the window was a much better arrangement than him being harassed by his friends.
He sighed and felt his eyes flicker closed. The sky was clear today, which was nice and all, but that meant he’d have to imagine his preferred white clouds.
Which is exactly what he did, until he was suddenly hit by a fist in his arm. “Ow!”
“What was that for?” He scowled, rubbing his shoulder dramatically.
Temari rolled her eyes, brandishing a finger in his face. “Drop the theatrics, crybaby, I know I didn’t hit you that hard. And that was for paying for my lunch - again !”
Her hand dropped threateningly to her hip. “We just talked about this. Say it’s because you’re a man again and I’ll...”
Shikamaru huffed, unable to stop the smirk that was growing. Women picked the weirdest arguments. “Troublesome... You paid in Suna. Not that it should matter, but I thought you wanted to take turns? I’m just making it even.”
“Technically, Gaara did. And just wait and see what’ll happen if you try to ‘pay me back’ again tomorrow.” She muttered, but there was no heat in her words, and she leaned back into her old position by his side.
When their shoulders bumped again, he didn’t mind it at all.
“Hey, look who it is!”
Shikamaru barely held back the groan. Blond people in Konoha were seriously troublesome today.
Naruto bounded up to them, with too many of their friends in tow. “Gaara’s older sister! What are you doing in Konoha?”
“I have a name.”
“Is Gaara here too? Kankuro?”
Temari sighed, stepping away from the wall. “No, just me. Had to drop by for the usual ambassador meetings so hitched a ride with this guy.” She jabbed her thumb towards Shikamaru, who just shrugged.
Naruto’s eyes bounced back and forth between the two of them, and as the grin grew on his face, so did the pounding in Shikamaru’s head.
Tuning him out only slightly helped, though it certainly didn’t stop it as parts of Team 8 and Team Gai showed up, followed by Sakura and Ino with their bags of food, and Chouji, who just so happened to appear when Ino had leftovers.
At least Temari seemed to be having a not-so-terrible time, he noted out of the corner of his eye. She was chatting amiably with Sakura and Kiba, likely about something related to her middle brother, and since it didn't look like she needed her guide to save her, he decided to give his mind a little rest.
Four minutes later, Shikamaru opened his eyes to Ino relentlessly poking him. He sighed dramatically. “What a drag ... You know, I wish we never met.”
“Good thing you never had any say in that.” She chirped back, and Shikamaru made up his mind to complain to his ancestors at his next visit to the family shrine.
See how they liked it.
The crowd made up of just their friends was getting louder by the minute. Shikamaru zoned back in to see Tenten and Temari scanning each other with matching glints in their eyes and briefly wondered how mad Tsunade-sama would be if there was an international incident on Temari’s first day back in Konoha.
She would probably blame it all on him, he already knew, and there would be an insanely troublesome influx of paperwork for him to do, and didn’t just the thought of that send a shiver down his back?
For the sake of his future free time, he had to involve himself immediately.
“Oi.” He chose to say as he sidled up to Temari as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Don’t you have some meetings to get to?”
Temari glanced at the large clock in the village center, her lips pursing in a pout. “Yeah. Well, this has been fun, but it’s already 3 o’clock. And I still never got my dango.”
“I’ll take you later.” Shikamaru offered, staring at his shuffling feet.
He had a new cigarette twisting between his fingers. “We’ll go during your break at, what, 5:45?”
Temari’s smile was bright, and his eyes flicked towards it even as he still faced the ground.
“Yes. Are you in the meeting at 6?”
Shikamaru nodded slowly. “It’s the last one of the day.”
“Good.” Temari looked cheery at the prospect of fresh dango. And, a part of him liked to think, maybe also the company.
She waved to the rest of his assorted friends. “I’m sure we’ll see you all later.” Temari called over her shoulder as she headed inside the tower. “5:45!”
“5:45.” Shikamaru responded with a half-hearted wave.
Once she disappeared, he kicked the dirt again, slowly bringing the cigarette up to his mouth. He hoped it would hide the upwards tilt of his lips, but he should have known his friends were some of the nosiest shinobi around.
Kiba whistled slowly. “Wow. You’re in deep already.”
“Tch.” Shikamaru straightened up, a frown already back on his face. “Once again, this is part of my job.”
“‘This is just part of my job’ what-ever !” Ino mocked. “How stupid do you think we are!”
“Yeah, we may not be geniuses like you, but there’s no way this is just a ‘professional relationship’.” Tenten added, holding up quotation marks with her fingers.
He scowled at them, irritated with their incessant meddling. “What makes you guys even say that?”
“Shikamaru, you haven’t stopped smiling since you came back from Suna.” Choji teased gently.
“I’m not smiling right now.”
“Because Temari-chan ~ isn’t here!” Naruto sang before bursting out into laughter, along with half of their friend group.
Shikamaru just shook his head and focused on his cigarette.
They didn’t know what they were talking about. None of them had the same duties as him; no, Shikamaru was unlucky enough to be the only one in his Academy year gifted with a political mind.
(Not that he really did much political work. Being an official Chuunin examiner was just a whole lot of troublesome bureaucracy.)
But if they had to sit through hours and hours of tedious debates and discussions with too many old-fashioned shinobi, then maybe they’d understand that Temari was the only person he could stand in those rooms - and it was vice versa for her. Really, at this point, they just had to stick together.
And, he supposed if he really thought about it, the one singular perk of working on the Chuunin exams was getting to see-
“Shikamaru! Can you at least stop daydreaming about Temari when I’m trying to talk to you?!”
Shikamaru groaned so loudly he felt it in his bones. “Ino, has anyone told you how incredibly annoying you are?”
“Yeah, you. Like every other day.” She said snidely.
At some point while he had been lost in his head, the group had dispersed, off to train or eat or find their suspiciously absent sensei - he wasn’t sure and he didn’t care. Team 10 was on break for the next few days, and by habit, the three of them herded together to walk back to their homes.
Ino snapped her fingers in his face. “You know what you should do later today?”
“ Nothing .” His only plans that night were to find a hill and sleep , thank you very much.
“No! Make a move!” She yelled, pushing him.
He scowled. “ Why would I do that?”
“Uh, because you like her? Genius.”
Shikamaru was pretty tired of his friends using that word as an insult. It was too troublesome of a label as it was.
He dropped the stub from his hand, grinding it into the dirt for good measure. Folding his hands behind his neck, he walked ahead, passing the entrance to the Nara compound in the Ino-Shika-Cho district.
“Hey! Where are you going? We need to discuss a plan for tonight!”
He felt bad for abandoning Chouji with her but duty called. Shikamaru raised a hand in a half-hearted wave, not even bothering to turn back around. “Gotta go. I told Kurenai I’d check on her when I got back.”