Happy Birthday, Temari

Happy Birthday, Temari

Temari, Shikamaru, and Shikadai ran through the forest towards the desert. The train they had taken from Konoha had run into some engineering issues and made it so that they had to travel the old fashioned way to get to Suna.

"Man, this is such a drag," Shikadai complained. "Did you guys really have to travel like this all the time?"

Temari smiled at him. "Maybe I should take you by foot more often if you're going to complain about it."

Shikadai rolled his eyes. "No thanks."

"It actually wasn't that bad. You got to learn the area between our two villages, so it was actually an advantage," Shikamaru said.

They finally reached the border of the forest and desert and landed just before the sand started. "Well, half a day's journey and we'll reach the village, if we don't run into a sandstorm along the way that is," Temari said.

"Sandstorm?" Shikadai questioned. He had never seen a sandstorm before, but had heard both his mother and uncles describe them.

"Trust me, you don't want to be in one. They're really troublesome," Shikamaru said.

"They're not that bad if you find shelter," Temari said.

"Yeah, but there isn't much shelter in the desert. Remember last time? We were blind for hours before you finally found that rock cave," Shikamaru said.

Shikadai looked between his parents. "Are they really that bad?"

Temari looked at him seriously. "You can get lost, and the desert has more dangers in it than most people think. If we do run into a storm, make sure to stay close."

Shikadai nodded and the three started their trek through the sand. It was a lot hotter than Shikadai remembered it being in the desert, but they were making pretty good time.

Temari had a smile on her face the entire time they were running, remembering the times when she would have to travel with her team or brothers on missions, the battles she fought, and the many traps she tricked Kankuro to fall into.

After a few hours, Shikadai pointed out a dark cloud that was heading their way. "What's that?"

"Sandstorm," Temari said, a frown on her face.

They all stopped and Temari pulled off her backpack and pulled three ponchos out. "You brought these?" Shikamaru asked as he took one.

"Always be prepared," Temari said as she tossed one poncho to Shikadai and pulled hers over her head.

Once they all got the ponchos on, hoods up and the bottom of the collar pulled up over their nose and mouth, Temari turned to the two. "Stay close, and if you see a shelter, point it out as soon as possible."

Shikamaru and Shikadai nodded and moved closer to her as they ran head first into the storm. Shikadai was learning pretty quickly why sandstorms were so dangerous. He couldn't see anything, and grabbed onto the back of his mother's poncho just so he didn't lose track of her. The sand stung his eyes and he could barely keep them open.

"Over there!" Shikamaru yelled over the sound of the storm as he pointed to a dark shape in front of them.

They slowly made their way over to it and saw a small rock cave and ducked inside. Shikadai lowered his hood and shook his head to get the sand out of his hair that managed to get inside. "You weren't kidding that those things are troublesome." He rubbed at his eyes, but immediately regretted it as he felt the sand get in his eyes even more.

"Stop rubbing them," Temari said and pulled out the canteen from her bag. She tilted Shikadai's head back and poured a little water on each of his eyes.

Shikamaru sat down next to the entrance and watched the sand blow by. "How long do you think this one will last?"

Shikadai blinked his eyes several times, about to reach up to rub his eyes again, but Temari stopped him. She dumped a little water on his hands to rinse the sand off. "Thanks."

Temari smiled, took a drink from the canteen, then went over to sit next to Shikamaru. "Don't know. From the looks of it, this one could last a couple hours." She frowned. "That would mean it would be dark by then."

"What's wrong with that?" Shikadai asked as he sat by his parents, staying a little further from the entrance and the sand blowing around.

"It's more dangerous to travel in the desert at night," Temari explained. "Not only can you not see the sand traps that are out there, but the nocturnal creatures are deadly."

"I remember Choji telling me about that creature that attacked him during the chunin exams that one time," Shikamaru said. "If it wasn't for Fuu, he, Ino, and Sakura wouldn't be here."

"Yeah. It's a good thing he doesn't let his stomach run him anymore," Temari said with a small chuckle. She laid her head on Shikamaru's shoulder and wrapped her arm around his. She didn't get a chance to do this often, and she missed it.

"They can't get us in here, can they?" Shikadai asked a bit worried.

"We should be fine in here," Temari said. "We just don't want to travel across the sand at night."

As she feared, it was dark when the sandstorm finally ended, so they decided to camp out in the small cave. They huddled together for body heat since the temperature dropped dramatically, and in the morning they set off for the Sand Village again.

"How much longer?" Shikadai groaned. He couldn't believe how hot it had gotten after being so cold the night before.

"About another hour," Temari said.

"Temari!"

They all looked ahead of them and saw two figures running toward them. They all stopped when the figures got closer. "Gaara? Kankuro? What are you two doing here?" Temari asked.

"We got worried about you when you didn't show up yesterday," Kankuro said. "We heard the train stopped working and knew you guys would probably travel on foot the rest of the way."

"With that sandstorm last night, we wanted to make sure you three were ok," Gaara added.

Temari crossed her arms and frowned. "I may have been living in Konoha for a while, but I didn't forget how to handle myself in a sandstorm."

"We know that," Gaara said.

"We were mostly worried about them," Kankuro said pointing to the two men behind Temari.

Temari just rolled her eyes, but before she could comment on that, sand shot up beside her. "What that?"

Gaara had his hand up in the direction the sand wall was and a frown on his face. When the sand wall came down, there were three females standing there and several kunai laying on the ground. "Who are you?"

Shikamaru stepped up beside Temari and Shikadai did the same, only staying a bit behind his mother when she put her arm out in front of him. Kankuro stepped closer to the group as Gaara stepped closer to the three women.

"So, you're Gaara of the Sand, huh?" a woman with sandy blonde hair in a tan shinobi outfit said.

"Don't look too tough to me," a woman with long black hair in the same type of shinobi outfit said.

"You guys are asking for it if you don't think Gaara looks that tough," Kankuro said pulling one of his scrolls off his back.

The third woman, who had red hair and the same shinobi outfit as her teammates, smiled. "Please, his jutsu doesn't frighten us."

"It should," Temari said as she pulled her fan off her back.

The red head continued smiling. "Your men don't frighten us one bit. You on the other hand may want to be worried."

"Excuse me?" Temari said with a glare on her face. She opened her fan to show the first purple circle, ready for any attack.

The three women quickly made the same hand signs before they slammed one hand on the ground each. "Size manipulation!" they all yelled at once.

Everyone jumped into the air as a sand dust cloud raced towards them quicker than they thought possible.

Temari opened her fan fully when the cloud enveloped them and swung it as hard as she could. The cloud quickly dispersed, but when she landed, she noticed that no one else had. Her eyes went wide before she looked back at the women. "What did you do?"

The blonde laughed. "I'd be careful where you step."

Temari looked down when something grabbed onto her ankle. "Sh-Shikadai?" She saw the boy looking up at her and Shikamaru, Gaara, and Kankuro standing next to her feet too. They were all about the sizes of dolls.

"Now, sisters, let's take care of the sand princess," the black haired woman said.

The other two nodded and all three of them ran at Temari.

Temari glared at the women coming at her and swung her fan again. "Wind Style: Blade Dance!" She heard a few tiny screams, and no longer felt Shikadai on her ankle. "Crap! Gaara, get everyone away and stay out of this."

She saw Gaara nod and saw all four men get lifted onto a small thing of sand and land a few feet away from her and then a dome of sand form. Once she was sure all of them were safe, she turned her attention back to the women.

NNNNNNNNN

"Dad, what happened to us?" Shikadai asked.

"I'm not sure. I've never heard of a jutsu that could do this to someone," Shikamaru replied.

"Dang it! How dare they!" Kankuro yelled.

Gaara winced at his brother's cry. "Kankuro, don't yell."

"Sorry," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

They all heard shouts and felt the ground shake.

"Gaara, will your sand hold if a kunai or anything hits it?" Shikamaru asked.

"It should," Gaara replied. "I put more sand over the dome than usual to make sure it was strong enough to protect us.

"I hate feeling useless," Kankuro said as he hit the sand wall with his fist.

"Mom'll be ok, right?" Shikadai asked looking up at his dad. He knew his mom was strong, but she was up against three people.

"Yeah. I'm sure she'll take care of those three no problem," Shikamaru said.

"Yeah, it's them we should be worried about, not Temari," Kankuro said with a chuckle.

"But why was she not affected by the jutsu too?" Gaara asked as he placed his hand on his chin. "She was in the dust cloud like we were."

Shikamaru also put his hand on his chin to think. "They did say that they weren't afraid of us men. Maybe the jutsu only works on men."

"That's stupid," Kankuro said looking back at his brother-in-law. "You can't specifically target men with a jutsu… Can you?"

"Apparently you can," Shikamaru answered. "Though I've never heard of one."

"It got quiet," Shikadai said.

The four stayed silent and listened for a minute before they felt the ground shake a bit. "Hey, it's clear. You can come out now," Temari said.

Gaara collapsed the dome and they all saw Temari towering over them. She squatted down so that she was closer to them and reached out to grab Shikamaru. "Hey!" he yelled as she brought him up to her face.

Gaara used the sand to bring him, Kankuro, and Shikadai closer to her face too. "Are they dead?" Kankuro asked.

"No," Temari replied as she rolled her eyes. "You think I would be that stupid?"

Kankuro crossed his arms. "I'm sure you were mad enough."

"Yeah I was mad, but I didn't even know this was possible. So obviously I kept them alive to figure out how to change you guys back," Temari said as she stood up. Gaara followed her so they stayed at face level.

"Can you put me down?" Shikamaru said.

Temari smirked. "What's wrong? Don't like being man-handled?"

Shikamaru placed his chin on his hand and turned away from her. "Troublesome woman."

Gaara looked over at the three women and saw that they were all tied together, but unconscious. "I can't manipulate enough sand to carry them back. How do you plan to do so?"

Temari looked over at the women and frowned. "I have no idea. There's no way I can carry all three of them by myself, but we don't know if we need all three to reverse this since all of them seemed to be needed to cast it."

"What about sealing them?" Shikadai asked. They all looked at the boy. "I've seen Inojin do it with his super beast jutsu. I think it was called Crouching Tiger."

"That could work," Gaara said. "Do you have an empty scroll you could use?"

Temari scrunched her face in thought. "I don't think so. I don't usually need them."

Shikamaru saw his backpack lying a little ways from them. "There's one in my bag." He smirked up at Temari. "Always be prepared, right?"

"Shut up," Temari said and walked over to the backpack.

She placed Shikamaru on her shoulder, who had to grab a few strands of hair to keep his balance, and shuffled through the bag until she found the scroll and brush. She painted out a seal and brought it over to the three unconscious women, made a hand sign, and sealed the three inside. She then walked back over to Shikamaru and Shikadai's backpacks and sealed them away too, and placed the scroll in her own backpack.

"Gaara, can you maintain that sand platform long enough to get back to the village?" Temari asked.

Gaara thought about it for a moment then shook his head. "I don't think I'll be able to."

Temari sighed then reached out to grab Shikadai and Kankuro and placed Kankuro on her other shoulder and held Shikadai in her arm, and finally wrapped her other arm around Gaara and crushed him into her chest along with Shikadai, which made the redhead blush. Once they were all settled, she set off for the village.

NNNNNNNNNN

It had been three days since the fight in the desert, and they were no closer to getting the information to reverse what had happened to Shikamaru, Shikadai, Gaara, and Kankuro. The women never needed to reverse the jutsu, so they weren't sure how to do so, and they couldn't find anything on the jutsu itself in any of the scrolls they had in the village.

The four stayed with Temari at the Subaku house, Gaara actually glad for the small break from the office, Shikamaru and Shikadai glad for the chance to just laze about, and Kankuro had beaten up the coffee table's legs several times, earning a scolding from Temari. At the moment they were all sitting on the couch watching some show Temari wanted to watch, Shikamaru already asleep on Temari's lap and Shikadai losing his own battle with his drooping eyelids.

"What is up with this movie?" Kankuro asked as he watched the woman on the screen stumbling on her words in front of the man she clearly liked. "It's so sappy."

"It's romantic," Temari argued.

"Like I said, sappy," Kankuro said with a pout. "Let's watch something with more action." He walked over to the remote that was sitting on the cushion next to Temari and tried to push the button to change the channel, but Temari quickly grabbed it.

"No way. I want to see what happens," Temari said.

"Let her watch it," Gaara said. He wouldn't admit it, but he was actually enjoying the movie.

Kankuro crossed his arms and continued to pout.

"I'm home."

Temari turned and saw Shinki walking in. "Welcome back."

Shinki stared at his aunt. "What are you doing here?"

Temari frowned. "Well that's rude."

"Shinki, be nice," Gaara said as he used his sand to float into the air so he could see his son.

Shinki's eyes went wide. "Father? What happened? Why are you so small?"

Kankuro struggled to pull himself over the edge of the couch armrest. "Three chicks cast some kind of jutsu on us and now we're small," he explained as he pulled himself up. He huffed a bit after making it to the top. "Man this sucks."

Shinki walked over to the couch and saw Shikamaru and Shikadai in the same situation. "Why haven't you turned them back to normal yet?"

"We haven't been able to figure out how," Temari said. "The women don't know how to reverse it, and we haven't been able to find any scrolls on this jutsu either."

"It's a major drag," Shikadai, who was now more awake, said.

Shinki sat down on the couch, Gaara landing on Shinki's leg, and he reached over and grabbed Kankuro by the back of his outfit and in front of his face.

"Hey! Put me down you little twerp!" Kankuro yelled as he swung his arms at the boy as if to punch him.

Shinki just stared at him with a blank look then looked down at his father. "Have they sent shinobi out to look for a cure?"

Gaara nodded. "Yes. Baki had three teams go to three different villages that might have an idea on how to reverse this, one of them being the village of the women that attacked us."

Shinki nodded then turned to his aunt. He didn't have his usual sand cloak around him because of Gaara's rule of no sand in the house and pulled a small package out of his vest pocket. "Happy birthday."

Temari blinked at the light green wrapped box then smiled. "Thank you," she said as she took the box. "My birthday isn't 'til tomorrow, so I'll wait to open it then."

"If that's what you want," Shinki said.

"Hey! Will you put me down already!" Kankuro yelled.

Shinki looked back at his uncle. "Sorry," he said as he sat Kankuro back on the couch.

Temari yawned and placed the present on the coffee table and realized that the credits were rolling on the screen. "Dang it. I missed the ending."

"It was boring anyway," Kankuro said.

Temari carefully picked her still sleeping husband up off her lap and grabbed Shikadai. "I'm gonna head to bed. See you three in the morning."

"Night," Shinki said.

"We should head to bed too," Gaara said as he floated back into the air on his sand, making a platform for Kankuro as well.

"Good night, father, uncle," Shinki said.

"Good night." "Night," Gaara and Kankuro said at the same time. Then Gaara flew them to their respective rooms.

Temari sat Shikadai and Shikamaru down on the pillow, got ready for bed, turned off the lamp, then crawled in next to the two. She pulled Shikamaru closer to her chest to cuddle him and reached over to place her hand next to Shikadai. "Night," she said as she pulled Shikadai closer to her so she could kiss him. With Shikamaru still asleep, she didn't bother doing the same for him.

"Night, mom."

Temari closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Mom?"

"Yeah?" she replied, not opening her eyes.

"Do you think we'll ever be back to normal?"

Temari opened her eyes to see Shikadai staring at her sadly. "Of course you will. We're not leaving you guys like this. We'll find a way to get you back to normal."

"But what if you can't?"

Temari pulled him closer and he put his forehead on his mother's cheek. "We will. Now try to get some sleep."

Shikadai nodded and settled into the pillow next to her head, pulling her loose hair over him like a blanket.

NNNNNNNNNN

The next morning, Shikamaru woke up with his face buried in one of Temari's boobs. She had pretty much rolled on top of him and while the boob was warm, it was also heavy on his tiny body. He struggled to crawl out from underneath the lump of flesh, a blush covering his face, but finally made it out.

Temari stirred at the movement, but didn't wake up. She did, however, reach out and pulled him into her chest again. His blush got deeper and he tried to push her arm away, but with his size, he wasn't strong enough. 'At least I'm not being crushed this time.'

Unable to get her arm to move, he hung there with his chin in his hand waiting for his wife to wake up. He turned his head when he heard Shikadai yawning and saw the boy stretching. "Could you wake your mother up?"

Shikadai looked down at his father and saw him stuck and chuckled. "I thought you like being in mom's arms?" he said as he untangled his body from his mother's hair and moved over to her ear.

"It's not the same."

Shikadai just smiled. "Hey, mom, wake up," he said.

Temari turned her head as a scowl crossed her face. She clutched Shikamaru tighter to her chest and he cried out in pain.

"Mom, wake up. You're crushing dad."

Temari opened her eyes and looked down in a panic only to see Shikamaru in her arm trying to push it away from himself. "Sorry," she said still tired and relaxed her arm.

Shikamaru slid out of the arm and moved over as she rolled over to look at the two. "Morning," he said with a smile. "Happy birthday."

Temari smiled. "Thanks."

"Happy birthday, mom."

Since he was closer to her head, she reached up and pulled Shikadai closer so she could kiss him. "Thanks, sweetie."

Shikadai pushed his mom's face away and quickly scurried over to his dad.

Temari rolled back on her back, stretched, got out of bed and got dressed, then picked the two up and headed to the living room. Shinki, Gaara, and Kankuro were already on the couch, and two more presents were sitting with the one Shinki gave her last night.

"Happy birthday, Temari," all three said at once.

Temari smiled and tightened her arms, carefully this time, around her husband and son. "Thanks guys." She sat down and placed her two boys on the coffee table.

"Our gifts are in our backpacks," Shikamaru said.

Shinki got up, went over to the three backpacks that were on the side of the room, rummaged through them until he found the two presents, and brought them back to place them next to the other three.

Temari opened all of them. Kankuro got her a pair of small fans, both made out of a lightweight metal with three small circles on the inside, which she realized were actually the Nara clan's simple symbol, Gaara got her a photo of all six of them, but it was a sand art picture, Shinki got her a necklace with different colored fans that had their names on them, red for Gaara, purple for Kankuro, black for Shinki, dark green for Shikamaru, light green for Shikadai, and teal for her, Shikamaru got her two tickets for a five night stay at a really exquisite spa resort in the Land of Snow that she had been wanting to go to for a while, as well as a beautiful teal dress with white swirls along the bottom, and Shikadai got her a blanket that was hand stitched with the three of them sitting on Shikamaru's favorite cloud watching hill, because she is always complaining that she's cold.

"Thank you all so much," Temari said. "I love them all." She pulled the four tiny men into one of her arms and used the other to pull Shinki into a hug.

"Yeah, yeah. Now let go," Kankuro said as he tried to push her arm away.

Temari leaned closer to Shinki and whispered something into his ear. He just nodded and got up.

"What did you ask him to do?" Gaara asked.

Temari just smiled down at the four. "You'll see," she said with a smile.

"Why do I get the feeling we're not gonna like this," Kankuro said.

Shinki came back a few minutes later with a camera.

"Nope! No way!" Kankuro yelled as he struggled harder to get out of Temari's grip.

"Awe. Come on, Kanko. Just one photo," Temari begged.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Don't call me Kanko!" Kankuro yelled.

Temari stood up and placed Shikamaru on her right shoulder, Kankuro on her left shoulder, Gaara in her right arm, and Shikadai in her left arm.

Gaara looked around the room as Shinki raised the camera. "Hold on a minute, Shinki." He sent his sand toward a vase that had three sunflowers in it and brought them back, handing one to Kankuro, Shikadai, and tried to hand the other to Shikamaru, but he shook his head and positioned himself so he had one leg on the front and back of her shoulder, so he kept the last one for himself. "I know how you love sunflowers."

Temari closed her eyes and laughed, a blush lightly coloring her cheeks. Shikamaru placed his hand on her cheek and kissed her, which caused Shikadai to look up at him and sweatdrop, Gaara just smiled, and Kankuro slid down so he was hanging over the back of her shoulder and held up the flower, a genuine smile on his own face.

Shinki snapped the picture.

"I see you've already started the party."

They turned to see Baki walking in with a smile on his face. "Baki," Temari said happily as she let Gaara and Shikadai go, and Kankuro slid off.

"Happy birthday, Temari," Baki said as he walked behind the couch and handed her a scroll.

Temari looked at the scroll confused and opened it. Shikamaru looked down at the scroll to see what it was. "A jutsu?" she asked.

"The jutsu that should return these guys to normal," Baki said.

Temari looked up at him quickly, nearly knocking Shikamaru off her shoulder. "You found it?"

"Yeah. One of the teams just got back with it," Baki said. "Figured you'd want it right away."

"Heck yeah," Kankuro said. "Activate it already."

"Kankuro, be patient," Gaara ordered.

Temari scooted her gifts to the side and laid the scroll out on the table. She read over the words written on there, formed a few hand signs, and a puff of smoke enveloped them all. When it cleared, the four were back to their normal sizes.

"Yes! Finally!" Kankuro yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

Gaara just smiled. "Thank you."

Shikadai was standing in front of his mom and leaned down to give her a hug, which she eagerly returned, and after that, Shikamaru, who was sitting next to her on the couch, turned her and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

"Geez, get a room," Kankuro said.

Temari broke off the kiss and glared at her oldest brother, not moving her arms from Shikamaru's neck. "Shut up. I haven't been able to kiss him for three days."

Shikamaru, who also didn't move his arms, smiled and kissed the side of her head. "It's good to be normal again."

After talking for a while longer, they decided to all go out to a restaurant to celebrate Temari's birthday, stopping by to pick up a cake along the way. Afterwards, Shinki disappeared and the others returned to the house just to relax and spend time with each other.

NNNNNNNNN

"Man, it's good to be home," Shikadai sighed as they walked into their house.

Shikamaru chuckled and placed his arm around Temari as they walked into the living room. "Did you have a good birthday, despite the whole shrinking incident?"

Temari laid her head on his shoulder and smiled. "Yeah, and I think the whole situation made it even more fun."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow at her and placed his backpack down by the couch.

Temari stepped away from him and placed her backpack on the couch. "It was fun to embarrass Kankuro by holding him by the scruff of his neck," she said as she rummaged around the bag until she pulled out a picture frame. It was the picture of her with her four tiny men.

Shikamaru laughed. "Yeah, that was funny."

She placed the picture on the mantel above their fireplace, right next to a picture of Shikadai and them when he graduated the academy. "It was also nice to carry you and Shikadai around like dolls," she said with a smirk as she walked back over to him.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, but the smile didn't leave his face. "Troublesome woman."

"Hey," she said as she draped her arms over his shoulders, which made him look down at her, "you know you enjoyed it too."

He leaned down and pecked her lips. "Yeah. I guess I did."

She pushed his head down so his lips met hers and gave him a deep kiss. When they broke it off, she stayed close to him. "But I do like you better like this."

He smiled and kissed her again.