When Ino found out that Temari was going to be in the village, she told Shikamaru to invite her to brunch. Once Temari found out she had been invited the the girl's monthly brunch, she had to hide her excitement. Apparently it came off the wrong way. "If you don't want to go then don't go. It's not like you to do something you don't want to do anyway." Shikamaru spoke, his words making her chuckle.

"No, I want to go. I'm actually excited to go. I'm just kind of nervous as ridiculous as that sounds. I've never hanged out with any of your friends without you there so I don't want to be awkward." Now it was Shikamaru's turn to laugh.

"Temari of the Sand is nervous for breakfast? That is ridiculous. Possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Besides, I'm not invited. It's girls only. Even if I was invited I still wouldn't go. It sounds like a terrible time. All they do is gossip and squeal." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Whatever," She started, rolling her eyes. "Well, we're here. Are you going to be at the Cryptology office all day?" He nodded. "Okay, I'll just meet you there whenever we're done. See ya!" She walked into the restaurant and searched around to find the girls at a long booth next to the windows. Ino excitedly waved at her and patted the seat next to her. Temari calmly waved back and gave a small smile. "Sorry I'm a little late. Shikamaru forgot to tell me about this yesterday, so I really just found out when we arrived." Sakura rolled her eyes.

"He really is the worst at doing things in a timely manner. I hope you didn't have work today." Temari shook her head.

"No, actually. Today is my day off. I'm supposed to pack up my apartment today and leave in two days. I won't be back for awhile so there's no point in paying for a place that isn't being used." Ino sighed.

"Whatttt, why won't you be here?!" Temari was slightly surprised that Ino sounded so sad about it.

"There isn't much for me to do here until the Chunin exams. Our villages have complete trust in each other and there isn't much fighting going on with other villages. So, since we're good right now I'll most likely be placed in another village to work on alliances." All of the girls looked sad at this. "What? It's my job. I can't stay in Konoha forever."

"You'll have to visit when you can. Maybe passing through to another village? We really enjoy having you here." Hinata finally spoke. Temari gave a sad smile.

"I really appreciate your hospitality. Konoha is my favorite village outside of my own. Everyone here is always nice to me." They all smiled at her. The waitress finally brought them their drinks. Ino had ordered everyone mimosas and Temari was not mad about it. They then ordered their food and the waitress left.

"Oh, please. I'm sure you'd do the same for us if we were in Suna," Ino stated, waving her hand. "Speaking of, tell us about Suna! What's it like. We've only been a few times between all of us."

"Well, what do you want to know? It's hot and sandy." The girls chuckled.

"Tell us about your life. We don't really know that much about you. Tell us about your friends! We want to know who's lucky enough to hang out with the Princess of Suna."

"Well Gaara and Kankuro are my only friends. I mean, I guess you could count Matsuri and Yukata? But they're more of students instead of friends." Ino scowled.

"You really don't have any friends other than your brothers? You don't have a best friend?" Temari shrugged.

"I guess Shikamaru would be my best friend, but he's not from my village, obviously. Growing up I wasn't allowed to have friends." The mood at the table changed slightly.

"Awww, Shikamaru is your best friend? I love everything about that." Ino squealed. Oh god.. What have I done. "You sure you're not more than friends?" Ino raised her eyebrows and the other girls laughed. "You two do hang out a lot. Not to mention he walked you here. And I bet he's going to pick you up when were done, huh?" Temari now raised an eyebrow.

"Well, considering he's my escort around the village, yes we hang out all of the time. And like I said earlier, I didn't know about this until I got here so he had to walk me or I wouldn't have found it. And no, he's not picking me up." She crossed her arms.

"Oh, and what are you doing after brunch?" Their food arrived and Temari didn't reply until the waitress left again.

"I'm meeting him at the Cryptology office to help him try to decode something." Sakura's mouth opened.

"Is he there now?" She asked. Temari gave her a confused look.

"Yeah? Is everything okay?" Sakura shrugged her shoulders.

"I mean, if you aren't the jealous type. The lady that works there, Shiho, is in love with Shikamaru. She doesn't even try to hide it." Ino's eyes widened.

"Tea.." She then looked at her fellow blonde friend. "Are you going to kill her if she get's too close to him? I wouldn't want to mess with you." Temari shook her head.

"Why would I care?" Now, everyone else at the table looked confused.

"Aren't you two in love? Hello?!" Tenten blurted out. Temari choked on her drink.

"No?! What makes you think that?"

"Uh, well you're always together, and don't say it's because of work." Ino started. "I know for a fact that Kakashi wanted to assign someone else to be your escort once Shikamaru became one of his advisers, but Shikamaru begged him not to do that. His excuse was that you would murder anyone else assigned to you, which we all know is partially a lie. Yes, you'd probably kill someone else, but he just wants an excuse to hang out with you. Not to mention once the war ended all he kept asking was if you were okay. He tried to look for you but the medics wouldn't let him." Temari's face slightly turned pink. "Oh, and we know it's not just one sided. Kankuro told me all about how you did the same thing, asking if he was okay and trying to find him."

"Don't forget the fact that you two are alwayssssss flirting. Whether you notice it or not, it's really obvious to everyone else. Even the guys noticed it." Temari rubbed the back of her neck.

"See!" Ino shouted. "You're even picking up things he does!" She pointed out and Temari removed her hand from her neck. "You leave me with no choice. Shikamaru would be pissed if I told you this, so no repeating it! One day I was just casually searching his mind and found out his little secret. He's totally in love with you, I swear."

Temari sighed and put a hand to her face. "Ino, you shouldn't tell me something like that. It's not right. Whether I believe you or not is a different story. Can we just drop it?" Ino rolled her eyes.

"You win for now, Temari, but I know you're lying." Ino squinted her eyes. "I guess since you won't be here for a few months it probably best that you don't start a relationship now anyway. I just hope another girl doesn't come along and snatch him up before you can."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Ino, just let it go. If she says she doesn't have feelings for him then we should believe her." Hinata nodded.

"I agree, we should just talk about something else." Temari smiled at Hinata. "Ino, since you want to talk about relationships so much why don't you tell us about you and Sai?"

"Whatttt? There's nothing between us." Temari sighed in relief. The rest of brunch was nice and the girls got to know each other better. The girls said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Sakura was about to leave when she realized Temari might not know where she was going.

"Do you want to walk with me? The Crytpology office is on the way to my house." Temari smiled and fell into step with her friend.

"Thanks, I really didn't know where I was going." Sakura smiled at her. "Shikamaru didn't give me directions and I've never been there before."

Sakura laughed. "Leave it to him." Temari laughed too. The walk was mostly quiet as the two didn't know what to talk about until Sakura started speaking. "I'm really sorry about Ino, she doesn't really know when to stop and doesn't really care if she makes people uncomfortable. As you could have probably guessed from the fact that she was just 'casually searching his mind' the other day. She needs to learn boundaries, in my opinion." Temari sighed.

"It's fine, I mean Kankuro is the same way. 'Why do you always go to Konoha? Is it to see your boyfriend?'. Literally, and he is the one that assigns me where I'm supposed to be. It's not like I choose to come here on my own. I'm here for work." Sakura chuckled.

"I mean, you two do seem to like each other. It could also just be the idea of you two falling in love that would be interesting to people. I mean, you first met in the chunin exams where your village attacked ours. Then, you saved him from the sound ninja. You two slowly went from enemies to friends. You can't be mad that people think that would be kinda cool."

"So my non-existent love life is just entertainment for people? Nice." Temari looked up at the sky and saw the clouds, making her think of Shikamaru and how she really felt for him. She had been denying it to herself for years and had almost believed herself until everyone else started assuming the truth.

"We're here!" Sakura exclaimed. She decided that she would walk Temari inside so she would be able to get in, when they noticed Shikamaru was standing outside. "Is he really still smoking?" Temari nodded in disappointment. "That idiot, I've told him it's bad for his health." As they approached, they noticed a blonde standing next to him. "That's Shiho, the girl that's in love with him. It's kind of sad, really. She's such a sweet person but he has no interest in her at all." They finally made their way to the pair they were searching for.

"Oh hey Sakura, thanks for walking her here. I totally forgot to give directions.." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked to the side.

"You know, maybe I need to request a new escort while I'm in the village. You aren't very helpful." This caused Shikamaru to scowl.

"Whatever, troublesome.." He took another drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke away from everyone. "Oh, Temari, this is Shiho. She's really good at decoding messages. Shiho, this is Temari. She's the Sunan ambassador. She's going to help us decode the message we got since it seems like some kind of ancient Sunan language." She didn't know why, but when he introduced her formally instead of as his friend, it slightly hurt her feelings. She pretended like it didn't and extended her hand out to the girl.

"It's nice to meet you, Shiho." She smiled at the girl as she accepted her form of greeting. "And just because I'm from Suna doesn't mean I know ancient languages." Temari side-eyed Shikamaru.

"Stop lying, I know it's something you had to learn, princess." Temari frowned.

"Don't call me that." Shiho felt uncomfortable at the obvious flirting and Sakura giggled and started to walk away.

"I have to go, but it was nice to see you Temari! I'll try to catch you before you leave since you wont be back for awhile!" She waved at her friend and then turned back to the other people. Shikamaru was giving her a death glare.

"What?" She asked, knowing exactly what he was mad about.

"You wont be back for awhile, huh? How long is awhile?" He inhaled the last bit of the cigarette before dropping it on the ground and stepping on it.

"The Chunin exams..." Her voice stern, but he could tell that she was upset about it.

"The Chunin exams? Seriously?!" He rubbed his eyes. "When were you going to tell me?" She scowled.

"Why are you so mad?" She took a deep breath. "You going to miss me, Nara?" This time, she smirked. Temari realized this wasn't something worth fighting about, especially since she wouldn't see him for months. She wanted to end on a good note. Shikamaru just blushed and didn't answer. "Well, we can talk about it later. Why don't we try and figure this code out?"

Hey guys, thanks for reading! I'm taking a small break from Hostage because I wanted to write something more wholesome and cute. I've just been in a mushy mood lately and don't want to write anything violent, so I'm sorry about that! I am going to finish it though! This is going to be a short story. One or two more chapters, nothing more most likely. I hope you enjoyed! Please let me know if you have a moment! :)