[Open] This is *not* Suna!

[1000tinycuts]

She'd only walked out of her rooms and ended up in some strange village. It was most decidedly not the home of the Kazekage, where she had been just two seconds before.

Temari was already tired. She'd just spent time watching over Kankurou after he'd been poisoned and then she'd gone to retrieve Gaara and bring him back to Sunagakure. She just wanted to sleep. Surely the fates weren't that cruel, where they? At least she had her tessen with her.

With an annoyed sigh, she started walking into the village proper, determined to find out what was going on and how she could go the hell home!

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[1000tinycuts]

She flashed him a smile that was all teeth as she entered the teashop. It was pretty nice. Well, not as nice as the one near her house in Suna, but it would do. She took a seat at one of the empty tables and waited for Sakumo to join her before speaking again.

"I understand how it works. Just like Gaara's got his sand and has no clue how to use wind release jutsu. It's fine. If I can't do it, then that's okay too." She relaxed a little as she got warm. "I'm not being manipulative. I'll let you know when I am though, if that's what you like."

[notaflower]

He blinked at her as he settled, looking honestly bewildered for a beat. "Thanks? And that's good. Too many prospective Medics seem to think that medical jutsu is a soft alternative, thus meaning anyone should be able to do it, and it really isn't."

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"Listen, I've seen what medical jutsu does. That's why I want to learn it. If I can't, I can't. I understand my limitations," she said before placing an order for Darjeeling tea, with cream and sugar.

"The only thing I've ever refused to accept was that Shikamaru won't give me a rematch. Stupid Nara.... But, I guess that's not an issue here, right?" She fluttered her eye lashes a bit.

[notaflower]

He looked to the waitress and put in his own order, getting a plate of sweets while he was at it. Then he looked back to her, snorting softly. "Shikamaru doesn't like to waste his time, oddly enough. He might just like seeing you flustered too."

[1000tinycuts]

"Nara Shikamaru is a lazy, boring punk who got lucky and would rather nap than do his job," she said through clenched teeth. "And I'm sick of people implying that there's anything between us. He couldn't care for anyone more than he cares for lying around daydreaming and bitching about what he's supposed to do for the Hokage."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It wasn't Sakumo's fault that that idiot wouldn't satisfy her. "Sorry. Kankurou keeps telling me that I take Shikamaru too personally."

[notaflower]

"You do. He's actually smarter than I am, and I respect him for that. As for his job... that really isn't to do what you want, now is it?"

He flashed her a smile and leaned on the table as he waited for their tea.

[1000tinycuts]

"I never said he wasn't smart. But that doesn't stop him from being lazy and boring either." She sighed. "His brain is pretty interesting if you can get him to sit down to play Go or Shoji with him. But, outside of that, he's pretty lame a lot of the time. And if you knew how many times I had to hunt him down to set up the chunnin exams—which was part of his job and the whole reason I was in Konoha so much—then you'd understand why he frustrates me!"

[notaflower]

"He's teammates with Ino." He stared at her, clearly expecting this to explain everything, and he looked up with a smile for the waitress when she came back with their order.

[1000tinycuts]

"Who's Ino? The girl with the blonde hair?" She closed her eyes in thought. "Ah, yeah, she's your female self's rival, right?"

[notaflower]

He sighed softly. "So I've heard, though they seem to be friends from what I've seen." He shook his head. He really didn't understand his female counterpart sometimes. No, a lot of the time, and he decided he would be better perhaps not trying on this one.

Girls.

"In any case, with Ino on his team, being tracked down and dragged around is probably pretty typical. If anything, you were a lot softer on him than she is."

[1000tinycuts]

She blinked. "I have brothers to abuse. Why would I waste my time on someone like Shikamaru? Kankurou is easier to control anyway."

[notaflower]

"Just explaining." He shrugged. "I don't have any siblings so I can't really imagine that. The closest I have is Naruto and Sasuke and... no."

[1000tinycuts]

She leaned forward to pat his arm before taking a long sip of her tea. "I can't imagine that. My brothers might be annoying, but they've been there for a long time. Although, trying to equate either Naruto or Sasuke and the word sibling seems a little wrong to me too."

[notaflower]

In turn, he absently leaned back with one of the finger snacks. "They're pretty much all I have to work with though. We're all boys in my world."

[1000tinycuts]

She cocked her head to the side as she looked at him. "I thought that every team in Konoha tried to have at least one kunoichi on it?"

[notaflower]

"What? No. That's just how it works out a lot of the time. It all depends on the numbers and who has the best abilities when they make the teams. That's just how most of my year pulled it off, that's all."

[1000tinycuts]

"Oh, guess you do learn something new everyday, although I think I was at my limit when I arrived here." She kicked her feet a bit as she drank her tea. It was really very good. "So, this place... Can you leave it to go somewhere else?"

[notaflower]

"Like other villages? Yeah, there was a big event thrown for the shinobi last week in Riku no Sato. I didn't get to go, but some of the others did. I hear it was a nice festival."

[1000tinycuts]

"Oh," she said, a little disappointed. "I've never had a chance to go to a festival. We were always too busy."

She drank more of her tea to figure out what she was going to say next. "Is there anything that I should know about this place that you haven't told me?"

[notaflower]

"Probably a lot. If you leave the village watch for the genjutsu on your way back in, it's pretty intense and goes solid sometimes."

[1000tinycuts]

"Solid genjutsu? Kai doesn't work on it?"

[notaflower]

"Kai doesn't dispel it in the first place. It just lets a person see through it briefly. It's... anchored some way or another No one has mentioned if they've found where."

[1000tinycuts]

She looked down at her cup. This was some pretty extensive work to make a genjutsu that grew solid and couldn't be dispelled with a simple 'kai'. It was probably the work of a few really strong individual shinobi for the protection of the village. "Are there enemies here? It seems pretty peaceful, but we both know that looks can be deceiving."

[notaflower]

"None that have come to the village, but I understand the nation to the west is... less than amenable to peace talks."

[1000tinycuts]

She nodded, feeling her body relax a little. A state of tension she understood. Peace, complete peace, was something foreign to her. "So, there is the potential for something to happen, but so far it's been quiet, yes?"