Words Worth Spoken

Chapter 8. Sunagakure

Shikamaru had been waiting for this ever since he received the mission to go to Sunagakure. He was finally there after three days of walking. His unusual overly excited attitude did not go unnoticed by his two teammates, Ino and Choji, this caused hours of teasing from Ino and Choji trying to contain his laughter. But at last they had finally arrived.

The three of them were standing in the Kazekage's office alone with Temari, Kankuro and Gaara. Shikamaru glanced at Temari and she caught his gaze, they smirked at each other while Ino raised her eyebrows at the two suggestively. Choji tried to look away and mind his own business but couldn't help but look, Kankuro was fuming. He kept glaring at Shikamaru as if he was a wanted criminal or something. There was an awkward atmosphere that lingered in the room until Gaara cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. They all looked at him, but Kankuro kept an irritated expression on his face.

"Welcome to Sunagakure, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru. How was the journey here? Any inconveniences?"

Ino decided to answer for the group "Oh no it was lovely, no trouble at all."

Gaara smiled slightly "That's good, now the reason you're all here. Rebuilding is taking longer than we anticipated, so we need you to take on some missions. Our shinobi need to focus on the reconstruction of the village. Lord Hokage has already booked you a hotel." He turned to Temari "Could you please escort them there."

Temari nodded while Kankuro started sputtering "G-Gaara! How about I take them, Temari needs to do paperwork."

"Kankuro, I think Temari can handle it, besides she already finished her paperwork"

"WHA?!?"

Temari shot her brother a defiant look before leading the Konoha nin out the room. Kankuro turned to Gaara with an annoyed expression.

"What did you do that for?!"

"Kankuro, Temari is a smart girl, she won't do anything stupid."

"You don't know that! Love makes you do dumb stuff, stuff you might regret,"

"You just have to trust her, besides Shikamaru's a good guy."

"Hmph. I still don't like it."

"You don't have to, but at least don't ruin a good thing. Ok?"

"Fine."

"Good."

. . .

Temari checked them in and helped bring their stuff to their rooms before going into Shikamaru's room.

"Hey."

She closed the door and Shikamaru turned to face her.

"Hey"

"I would take you out to show you Suna but there isn't much to see, not like in Konoha."

"That's fine we can just go out to eat."

"Heh, there aren't many good restaurants either."

"There might not be many, but there's got to be at least one that you like."

"Ya, there is, come on I'll show you, you must be starving."

As if on cue Shikamaru's stomach growled, he blushed in embarrassment as she just raised her eyebrows in amusement. They walked out together, not noticing their blonde and brown haired  friends following them.

They made their way through the bustling crowds to the restaurant. They got a table for two and sat down. Shikamaru said something that made Temari's eyes widen and a flash of red to cross her face before she calmed herself down.

The young couple looked around the restaurant, it was busy, they were lucky they had gotten a table. Shikamaru suddenly spotted two people wearing terrible fake moustaches, big cloaks and hats. One had a long platinum blonde ponytail and the other was quite... big boned. Shikamaru rubbed his temples, what were they doing here, and dressed like that? There was only one explanation, Ino and Choji were spying on them.

He looked to Temari to see if she had noticed but her gaze was fixed on another table with one person sitting at it. They too had a terrible fake moustache, big cloak and a hat. Temari turned to him,

"It's Kankuro, I can't believe him!"

"He's not the only one either."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Look to your left, Ino and Choji seem to have had the same idea"

Temari rolled her eyes "seriously!" Then her face lit up and she grinned evilly "I have an idea..." she leaned in closer and whispered to Shikamaru. He smiled deviously "This is going to be fun..."