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A Little Harmony	By : antagonist Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1177 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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A Little Harmony

Shikamaru/Temari

Humour, romance, a bit of angst, fluff, eventual lemon, language
Disclaimer: I don’t claim to own any of the characters and names, thank you. “Temari’s song” is Avril Lavigne’s Naked (from her first album, Let Go). I don’t own that either. I couldn’t help using it though. It just fit so perfectly.
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CHAPTER THREE
Shikamaru watched Temari’s back slowly disappear into the crowd. She looked good under the hot afternoon sun. Her blonde hair shone brightly in the light. Hit on her? That woman’s crazy. Still, he was, maybe, just a little disappointed she hadn’t given him her number. Shikamaru looked up at the sky with a sigh.
Temari was way too interesting for her own good. Unlike anyone he’d ever met before, she was a tough one to understand. Shikamaru was not used to getting confused – he couldn’t tell whether he liked it or hated it. He wished he could just file this away, but... he couldn’t. He didn’t know why, either. And that irritated him. And frankly, Shikamaru never got irritated. It was much too tiring.
But... he couldn’t help noting that, well, they’d sounded good together. Shikamaru would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t even just a little bit impressed with her. But the thing he found most impressive was how much of a natural she was. He knew that she would’ve probably handled the double bass better than Kiba, but he didn’t think she’d be that good at it. Shikamaru continued staring at the clouds, lost in thought. He recalled Kiba mentioning something to him (actually, “mentioning” is a bit of an understatement here) about a competition coming up. Originally, Shikamaru had planned on pulling his usual “I’m too busy, sorry” routine... however... Shikamaru looked back at where Temari’s retreating back should’ve been... a string quintet might make it more... interesting.
Shikamaru’s musings were interrupted by the shrill sound of his cell phone. Hmm... He really needed to change that ring tone. He groaned inwardly when he saw the number on the caller ID. He contemplated not picking up, but figured Ino would probably give him hell to pay if he didn’t. And so, Ino’s over-enthusiastic and girly voice was soon bombarding his ears. He couldn’t help but contrast it with Temari’s sure and calm one. Ino wanted him to meet her at the CD store. Shikamaru for the life of him couldn’t imagine why, but surrendered in the end. He knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t going to let it go too easily.
He begrudgingly got up from his pleasant position on the bench and pondered which way would be the fastest to the CD store. If he let Ino get there first, he’d be given hell for making her wait... and then agreeing to meet up with her at all would’ve been rendered completely pointless.
What kind of a life is that?
Temari’s laughter still rung in his head – he also couldn’t help remembering what a refreshing sound it was. It was an honest laugh, not a forced one. Shikamaru shook his head. He knew perfectly well he lived a pathetic life, but he always thought it was too much of an energy waste to bother changing it. He’d survived his seventeen years so far... he didn’t need to change it. He was satisfied.
Try to live life a little, Nara. It’d be a nice change.
Would it be? Shikamaru felt his forehead. He felt like he was catching something. He’d never thought about one thing for so long before... and quite frankly, it was scaring him. Just a little.
He reached the CD store with not much incident and stood at the entrance to wait for Ino. Something, however, soon caught his ears. He shook his head. He really was catching something, wasn’t he? He walked in and listened to the background music being played. It was an over-the-top pop song – the usual, “I wanna be your girl, let me be your girl” kind of pop song. However, Shikamaru couldn’t help but notice that... the instrumental accompaniment was... well, a guitar. And all of a sudden, a guitar solo ripped. A simple, nothing-compared-to-a-metal-group kind of guitar solo... but a guitar solo nonetheless. He’d heard this song a million times before, but couldn’t say he ever noticed. He usually heard the opening line, “Maybe I wanna be your girl” and dismissed it as fluffy and with no musical sense. But, now... he listened to the accompaniment. Hmm.
That’s when I started noticing guitars, you know?
Shikamaru couldn’t help but laugh at the influence Temari apparently had over him. He had no idea know he was so easily influenced. Now, that felt just a little pathetic. He couldn’t help but chuckle. He stepped outside of the store to encounter a smiling Ino about to cross the street.
“Shikamaru!” she shouted, when she saw him, while waving cheerily from across the street.
Shikamaru couldn’t help but sigh impatiently. Today seemed to be a very long day for some strange reason. Were Sundays usually this long? Shikamaru wondered what in heaven’s name Ino could possibly want with him today. Then again, he most likely didn’t want to know what she wanted – it always involved him spending ridiculous amounts of money he didn’t even have.
Ino jumped up in front of him and grinned. Shikamaru looked at her warily.
“Hello, Ino.”
“That’s no way to greet your girlfriend, Shikamaru!” she pouted.
He chose to ignore her. “You wanted something from me?”
She looked at him, wide-eyed for a second, and then looked at the store. “Yeah. You’re gonna get me a CD.”
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Sabaku’s new single is out. I want it, and you’re buying it for me. Okay?”
Shikamaru looked at her like she’d gone crazy – in fact, she probably had. “Why would I-”
“Come on!” she dragged him into the shop, ignoring the fact that he looked like he would rather she didn’t. Fifteen annoying minutes of Ino pouting and crying later, Shikamaru finally gave in to the whining girl and bought her the bloody CD. It really wasn’t too expensive... it was just that... you know... she should stop doing stuff like this. Honestly.
Shikamaru bade farewell to Ino, assuming that was all he needed to do for boyfriend duty, and turned around, purposely not offering to walk the girl home. Ino stared after him for a while and then shouted, “Shikamaru, wait!”
Shikamaru stopped walking, but didn’t bother turning around. “Look, Ino. I’m tired. Let’s hang out some other time, alright?” He really did sound tired. He hadn’t stayed outside for so long in such a long time, he really wanted to stay home and sleep. Or something. He just wasn’t in the mood to bear with Ino right now. “I’ll see you at school, alright?”
He turned around to face her and with an apologetic smile he said, “I’m really sorry, Ino.”
With that, he walked away leaving behind a very displeased Ino. He probably didn’t hear her when she said softly, probably to herself, “Shikamaru, you dumb ass.”
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Temari stood in front of the small music store where she’d first touched the string bass. She shook her head. Was there something wrong with her? Sure, she may have enjoyed it a little... just a tad. But, to actually even consider thinking about... no. No way. She turned and started walking back, only to stop again after a few steps and backtrack. She looked through the window display once again. Well... it’s not like she couldn’t afford it. As far as she was concerned, she was loaded with cash. You know, being a famous rock star and everything kind of did that to a person.
She stood there, still torn. She knew she looked ridiculous... but... really. She sighed. She was being completely and utterly ridiculous. After all, what was she going to do with the thing? It was too big to hide and her father was surely going to ask her what it was doing with her... and it was so freaking heavy...
“Damn. Is it just me or is this town getting smaller and smaller?”
Temari turned to see an amused looking Nara watching her. She almost fell over. She could’ve sword she’d said goodbye to this loser two hours ago. She rolled her eyes for the sake of it and turned to walk away again. However, her indecision was still tugging at her. Shikamaru chuckled. “You were thinking of buying one, weren’t you?”
Temari quickly turned around and eyed him. Was he making fun of her? Wait, no. Besides that, how in the hell did he know?!
It seemed like Temari’s facial expression answered all his questions for he started laughing. Temari felt like slamming his head against the window. But, no. Control. Control was key.
“Well, you’re definitely looking at the wrong store.” Shikamaru grabbed her wrist and started walking back in the direction he came from. For the second time today, Temari found that she couldn’t fight him, which was ridiculous. Shikamaru was a scrawny guy barely much taller than her. She could’ve easily taken him with a single kick or upper cut. But... she couldn’t. Shikamaru continued dragging her along the street, and Temari just followed him. She felt stupid for doing so, but she really could not help it. Eventually, about 10 minutes later, he stopped. They were in front of a music store, one of those big, corporate kinds, not like the one that Kakashi or whatever it was person owned. Shikamaru finally let go of her wrist and with a “Let’s go.” pushed open the door and walked in.
Temari stared after him, contemplating whether she should just walk away and leave him there or actually do something stupid like follow him. Well, he did go through the effort of bringing her here, didn’t he? Though she hadn’t known him for long, she knew ‘effort’ was not something you could easily find in his dictionary. She shrugged and pushed her sunglasses up, like a headband. She pushed open the door and walked in. Immediately, the air-conditioning cooled her. She sighed. She hadn’t realized actually how hot she felt. It was actually pretty nice in there. She looked around and was a little impressed. To her right there were rows of electric guitars. Her hands began twitching – she felt like walking into that beautiful-looking row of guitars. Right now. She looked around for Shikamaru and she noticed him talking to a weird looking man in green. Temari couldn’t help but smirk at the man’s ugly haircut. Shikamaru must’ve noticed her watching for he waved and told her that he’d get back to her in a sec, just sit still and wait.
She raised an eyebrow. Sit still and wait? Was he ordering her around? Was the Nara ordering her around? She almost laughed. She shrugged, gave Shikamaru the finger – though it didn’t seem like he noticed – and walked towards the beautiful rows of guitars. She picked up a nice looking Fender, and after looking around and making sure no prying eyes were present, she sat down on the stool and plugged the baby into the amplifier that happened to be there.
E minor... G... Cmaj7...
E minor... “I wake,” she sang softly. G... “up in the morning,” Cmaj7 “put on my face.”
She paused, looking around. Then she looked back down at the fret and continued. E minor...
“The one that’s gonna get me, through another day.” E minor...
“Doesn’t really matter,” Cmaj7 “how I feel inside...”
“Cause life is like a game sometimes.”
She stopped. She turned around to see Nara watching her intently. She didn’t know what told her he was there... she sort of just felt him. She raised an eyebrow at Shikamaru who shook his head.
“No, please. Don’t stop.”
She laughed. “That’s about as far as I am when it comes to the lyrics.”
Shikamaru looked at her. “You wrote that song?”
She nodded, standing up and unplugging the guitar. Damn. She hadn’t meant to be caught.
“It doesn’t sound like the kind of music your group usually does...”
Temari looked at him. “Gaara’s the songwriter of our group, really. Kankuro and he would never agree to playing anything I write.” She made a face. “Guys, you know.”
Shikamaru nodded. “Hey, could you play the rest of it? It sounds good.”
Temari was taken aback. No one had ever asked her to play any of her songs before. She stared at him for a second, and when she realized he was serious, she sat back down. She plugged the guitar back in, and after looking at him strangely she held the guitar and played a verse and the chorus. She was a bit intimidated at how Shikamaru looked so serious, staring at her hand as she strummed different chords. Was he trying to learn how to play it?
“Hey, do that chord again,” he said suddenly. Temari looked at him, eyebrow raised.
“D’you even play the guitar?”
Shikamaru shrugged. Temari chuckled, but did the Cadd9 for him again anyway. Temari watched Shikamaru and couldn’t help but think how... different... he looked when he was concentrating. None of that I’m-Bored-With-Life business – when he was actually interested in something, he gave out a different kind of aura. She liked it.
She stilled. Damn, what did I just say?
“So... that chord,” Shikamaru said, interrupting her thoughts, and walking towards her. He positioned himself behind her and lowered himself so he could hold the neck of the guitar. Temari didn’t fail to notice that their cheeks were practically touching. He tried to do the chord, effectively making contact with her fingers, causing Temari to involuntarily jump. Shikamaru looked at her, confused.
Temari coughed and regained her composure. She was being weird today, wasn’t she? She took his fingers and positioned them the right way. She didn’t have to tell him to hold them down firmly – he seemed to do it naturally. She also noticed that his fingers were callused. Well, genius or not, I guess you still need to practice the violin to be that good, eh? She couldn’t help but smirk. His hand felt very strong indeed.
“Not too bad. I imagine this is your first time on a guitar?” She turned to look at him, immediately finding out it was a mistake to do so. She’d forgotten how close their proximity was. Their noses bumped and she stared into his eyes that were much too close for comfort. She tried to turn her head away, but found his hand constricting her movement. The hand he was using on the fret was suddenly holding her chin. Her eyebrows arched. She could feel the calluses as his fingers stroked her cheek, pushing a wayward lock of blond hair away from her eyes. She couldn’t quite understand why it sent fire up her spine.
She didn’t know why she leant in and kissed him either. It just seemed like... the thing to do.
Neither of them closed their eyes. Shikamaru was probably too shocked at what was happening and Temari wasn’t the kind of girl who’d close her eyes before her partner. Their lips touched as they stared at each other. Temari nearly laughed out loud at the look he gave her – complete and utter shock mixed with total bewilderment. She liked it. She liked teasing him. She had began lightly sucking on his lower lip, intending to tease him some more, when, he did something she never expected him to do.
He kissed her back.
Her eyes widened in shock as his hand made its way to the back of her neck, and he lightly closed his eyes. She tried to push him away, but found herself giving into him instead. The way he was lightly and warily sucking her upper lip made her feel a little dizzy. For the life of her, she didn’t understand why she felt like closing her own eyes.
An amused-sounding cough interrupted them, causing Temari to crash painfully back into reality and the realization of what she was currently doing. With all her willpower, she turned her head away, losing contact with Shikamaru’s lips. Her hand, of their own accord, flew to her mouth. She couldn’t really believe what just happened.
“Sorry to interrupt you,” said the voice that interrupted him. “But I got that thing you were asking for, Shikamaru-kun.”
“Thanks, Gai-san,” was Shikamaru’s reply. Temari heard Gai-san’s footsteps retreat into the background. She stood up, purposely not looking at Shikamaru, and started putting away the Fender she was holding.
“Temari, just now...”
Oh great. Do we really have to talk about it, Nara? It was a spur of the moment thing. A... random... argh... I don’t know!
“Well,” she said, turning to face him with a confident smirk, “I had to do something to get your filthy little hands of me, you know.”
Where on Earth did that shit come from?!
Shikamaru looked at her, uncertainty apparent in his eyes. She looked away and prayed she wasn’t blushing like she felt she was. Please stop looking at her, already. Please. God damn it.
“Ah, right,” he said finally, standing up as well and dusting himself. “I’m... sorry about that. Spur of the moment thing.”
Stole the words right out of my mouth, bastard.
“I couldn’t help myself. You looked so beautiful holding the guitar and smiling like that.”
Temari felt her jaw drop. Was that what she thought it was? Shikamaru started walking towards that Gai person. She stayed rooted to the spot and stared after him, jaw still unmoved from its less than eloquent position. Eventually, Shikamaru turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “You coming or what?”
Temari shut her mouth, deciding not to think about that statement too much. Maybe the Nara just said what was on his mind without thinking, yeah... that was it. Wait. Did that mean he thought she was beautiful? She shook her head. Of course she was. Lots of guys told her she was beautiful... no, wait, actually no. That’s not true. Lots of guys told her she was hot, sexy and sometimes even pretty. Never beautiful. She reached him with arched brows, asking him what he wanted from her.
He smiled and moved to the side in order to show her what was behind him.
She couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“An electric... double bass.”
She looked at the instrument and touched the neck of the thing that looked little more than just the skeleton of an actual string bass. She looked at Shikamaru who was smiling as if he knew he’d won and she was definitely going to get it.
“Right...”
“So, you are getting it?” he asked. Temari noted a bit of concern on his voice that intrigued her.
“Maybe. Why you so hyped up about me getting one?”
Shikamaru looked to his right.
“See that poster over there?” he pointed at a poster. Temari looked at it and stared at Shikamaru.
“No. Way.”
“Oh come on! You were brilliant earlier... we’ll do it with Kiba and Hinata and Shino again. A string quintet. Isn’t that brilliant? We need a bassist like you and-”
Temari shut him up by raising her hand, asking him to stop. It irritated her the way he said we all the time. She looked back at the poster announcing a strings ensemble exhibition and competition on the 19th. No way in hell. Her father was probably going to be there – apparently it his school had something to do with it. Was the Nara really that selfish to forget her predicament with her father?
“Nara, get this: No.”
Shikamaru looked like he wanted to surrender... but he didn’t. He sat down at a nearby bench, and placing his elbows on his knees he looked down on the ground and said softly, “I just thought... like, when I heard you play earlier today, you were amazing. Especially since that was more or less your first time... I thought... if I got you to practice a bit, I thought... we could sound good together.” He looked up at her, eyes tired but sparkling with something within. “Temari, I want to play with you.”
He said I. Temari stared at him. He said I. There he was again, calling her by her first name. He said I. Since when did she give him the permission? He said I.
“Please. I know we’d sound good together.”
She sighed. “I can’t play, you know.”
He smiled. “I’ll teach you. You’ll pick it up easy.”
“I’m no genius.”
He chuckled. “You’d be surprised.”
She scratched her head and looked away. Was she going to let him drag her into this? Was she going to allow this?
“Please, Temari. Please.”
Stop bloody saying Please with that tone, dammit!
“Fine.”
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Ino sipped on her cafe latte, waiting for Shikamaru to get out of the music store from the coffee shop across the street. After Shikamaru dumped her earlier today, she’d decided to go for a coffee to calm her nerves. Genius violinist or not, the guy was a fucking idiot, as far as she was concerned. She couldn’t help but ask herself, not for the first time, why in the hell she was going out with the guy.
But that wasn’t why she was waiting for him. Oh no.
Earlier, she’d witnessed something rather... interesting. Shikamaru had claimed exhaustion as his excuse to leave her behind and she assumed he was on his way home. However, as she was sitting there, drinking her calming coffee, she saw Shikamaru dragging another woman with him into the store which she was currently watching.
Usually, she wouldn’t think twice about it. Shikamaru wasn’t the kind who’d cheat – hell, who in their right minds would cheat on her anyway? Not only was she hot, everyone knew she ate the male-parts of those who dared hurt her pride for breakfast. But, this was Shikamaru. To have come from the direction he came from, he would have had to track back. Meaning, even if one said he’d bumped into her randomly on the street and she wasn’t anyone special, it would still be a big deal for someone of Shikamaru’s... character... to double back for anyone.
Ino could still remember the time he’d refused to return with her to get the wallet she’d left behind at the library. She was forced to get it by herself, alone, while he waited for her at the front. In other words, and to be straight to the point, Shikamaru was too much of a lazy ass to walk the same way twice. Especially if he had a fixed destination.
So, Ino concluded, he either planned on meeting this girl and going to the store, or, she was special enough to him so he’d bother to “waste his time” on her.
However, what bothered Ino the most, really, was the fact that they’d been in that store for the past bloody hour. She fumed, anger... and something that deeply resembled jealousy... practically steaming out of her ears.
Suddenly, she heard the distant tinkling of a bell. She looked across the street and saw Shikamaru leaving the store with a grin on his face and the blonde girl he’d entered earlier with – she even had some expensive-looking sunglasses on, the cheap skank! – who was then shouldering an instrument case that looked much too big for her. Ino swallowed the last of her coffee, scrunched the expensive Styrofoam cup (probably to relieve some of her nerves) and threw it away, simultaneously picking up her belongings.
She was his girlfriend. She had every right in the world to follow him and invade his privacy if she thought something suspicious was going on. She crossed the street and easily caught up with Shikamaru and the blonde girl with the much too short skirt since they walked side by side in a leisurely manner. They weren’t saying anything to each other. It bothered Ino how they seemed so comfortable together in the silence. She continued following the suspicious couple, cleverly maintaining a fair distance from them. Not too far though, she needed to hear what they were talking about.
They walked for another 15 minutes. Ino couldn’t help noting that they were going quite a distance away from Shikamaru’s house. This frustrated her even more. Then she heard the blonde girl say, with a voice that sounded much too mature and much too sexy – even Ino had to admit – for her comfort, “It’s over there.”
Ino watched Shikamaru nod, and looked in the direction the blonde girl pointed.
Ino heard something crack.
She looked down and saw that she’d broken her new pair of sunglasses by gripping on them too hard.
With trembling hands, she reached for her cell phone. She dialled a familiar and well-rehearsed number.
This wasn’t right. This wasn’t happening... no way. Not to her.
“Sakura,” she cried into the phone. “Shikamaru... he... he’s going into a hotel with... with someone else!”
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A Little Harmony