TenTen opened her mouth to reply scathingly when Hinata’s soft voice was heard amidst Sakura’s sweet one as they laughed while they ran away from the red-faced Gaara and Kiba.
        The tea-house owner called after them not to run. They hastily responded with apologies as they stepped into the bright sunshine cast onto the wooden balcony.

         Neji leant back, aware he had been leaning quite far over the table. He pulled the one out next to him for Hinata and hooked his foot around the back of the leg of the one opposite hers so Kiba couldn’t pull it out. Perplexed he stared at it before yanking it in such a way that Neji was pulled into the table.

          “Oof” was all the darker haired boy said as Kiba laughed sitting down in his claimed chair. Sakura looked around at her friends.

        “Where’s Temari?” she wondered withdrawing her phone from her pocket to text her,

        “You mean she wasn’t with you?” TenTen asked incredulously halfway through doing the same,

Neji smirked and leant back in his chair,

“She’ll be here, I made sure of that.”

                                                           ***


          Temari had run into an alley after Gaara’s appearance and had scooted down a side path; she passed a street sign that seemed vaguely familiar.

Before she could remember why, she heard footsteps jogging; she began to run again further into the alley wrongly assuming it came out somewhere. It ended in a narrow two story bookshop. She walked swiftly towards it thinking she could hide and observe her pursuer from.

It was then she was pinned to a wall by ‘him.’ She could tell from his footstep he wasn’t Neji, Kiba or her brother. He had moved with a banging movement something that scared her slightly. She opened her mouth to scream as she turned when she was greeted by Shikamaru who was rather dubiously holding his guitar case.

“Yo.” He said mouth creasing into a smile at her incredulous facial expression. “Am I scary-looking enough to merit running? All I am is a friend going home from his guitar lesson…not generally a terrifying spectacle.”

“I thought you were some weirdo or something.” She murmured in apology, breathing out in relief.

Ah, now she understood, that’s why it had been familiar she had seen the address before and had inadvertently run to the street he had his guitar lessons. Noticing the large case on his back she realized he’d been chasing her with that on…hence the banging noise.

Ah, now he understood a little anyway, after Neji’s cryptic message,

-->Find Temari, she’s in the old town, where you have your guitar lessons. Catch her, shouldn’t be difficult for you deer boy:P<--,

he had been confused to say the least. Hmm…

“Why were you running anyway?” he asked perplexed moving in the direction of the main street.

“Evasion Tactics comrade, running away from our limpet friends, Kiba, Gaara and Neji showed up out of nowhere,” she answered bounding out into the boiling sunshine, “though it was foolish to do so in this gorgeous warm weather.”

“Warm” he scoffed, as they proceeded to the teahouse. She laughed

“You forget comrade, I come from a far off tropical land where the sun blazes fiercely in the cyanic cloudless sky.”

“Most poetic”

“Thank you comrade I thought so to.”

“Where did the communist diminutives come from?”

“Not entirely sure, maybe this warm sun is getting to me.” She said shoving him playfully. He rolled his eyes but grinned.

In a comfortable silence they made their way to the teahouse.

“Come to think of it…” Hinata said on their friends arrival, “Peter’s here and Temari is here now…where’s Kankuro? If Kiba and Naruto showed up he should be here too.”

“No idea.” Naruto yawned rubbing his eyes sleepily, “he left kind of quickly, withouteven saying bye so…maybe family meeting?”

“If that were so why would Temari and I be here?” Gaara asked pointedly, “also we three live alone any family meeting would be just us three.”

“I think Dei might have gone with him.” Sakura said hesitantly glancing at Kiba, “you saw him right?”

Kiba slurped thoughtfully on his ice tea, “I suppose, who is Deidara anyway he seems really cool? I mean I know who he is just..what kind of guy?”

Naruto cut in, “Cool? He freaks me out a bit, what does he mean with all the flirting anyhow?”

         Sakura laughed as the rest of her friends swiveled to face her, “No it’s just the flirting is a part of who he is.

Deidara…is cool, he’s sweet, funny a really good listener. He tends to unnerve most guys with how feminine he looks and he overacts on it just to make them feel awkward.

He…” she paused thinking of a way to say it,

“will go out of his way to comfort someone if is very protective of the people he cares for. Um what else, he’s not gay per say, he himself has a good way of describing it, it was I welcome all.” Her green eyes flicked from face to face.

“Whatever he is I like him.” Kiba said stretching no caring of the implications his words could have,

Hinata smirked, “Yes you two seem to be kindred spirits.”

“His father doesn’t like him very much does he?” Gaara asked suddenly. “Whenever they were at our company dinners or mingling sessions he would always try to talk to either me or Kankuro saying how we were true men. Not swayed by ridiculous artsy nuances.”

“What would Deidara do then?” TenTen asked intrigued, she felt Neji frown and resisted smirking.

“Usually at that point he would have disappeared about four times with various guests male and female and come back immaculate, gained about three more clients for his art and made a move on of us three and would have drunk more than anyone else there and still walking and speaking straight.”Gaara said thinking back to the occasions on which it occurred.

” He was usually only pretending to be drunk.” Temari added. “Talking to him at the party was great fun actually.”

“I still think he’s cool.” Kiba said draining his ice tea and licking his lips. “Shall we go?”