"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Temari grunted as Shikamaru walked into the building. "I thought you tried to go out of your way to make things less troublesome for yourself."
"I do." Yawned the bored teen. "Now a good portion of the guys here will simply stay back unless I ask them something instead of try and pick a "whose village is stronger" fight with me. Also it gets rid of a lot of those troublesome guys who do nothing but glare at Gaara the entire time…"
"Table for three please…" Gaara droned to the receptionist who nodded nervously before rushing to get the table set up. "I do not recall asking for your help on the matter…" He commented.
"Other than our fight back in Konoha, I find you one of the least troublesome people I know, meaning I don't mind hanging out with you. The stares though I could do without. They're annoying…" Replied Shikamaru as they sat down at a table. Shikamaru and Temari on one side, Gaara on the other.
"I believe I have more of a right to complain about them than you do…" Gaara droned as he looked at the menu. "No gizzard or salted tongue… however they do have liver…"
Shikamaru snorted. "You should hang out with Choji if you want to talk about odd eating habits. I have yet to come across a food that he's willingly turned down before… well other than pet food, but that was on a dare from Kiba."
"That weird dog kid that hit on all the girls in the exam at least once?" Temari mused curiously. "What happened to him? If I remember correctly, he was the only one in your group that didn't make it to the finals."
"He's in a new team with Ino and this pale kid named Sai." Shikamaru replied, not even responding to the curious look that Gaara gave him. "How they work together is beyond me sometimes. Two of them are annoying loudmouths and the third just puts on these fake smiles and speaks with no tact whatsoever." He blinked and looked over the menu again. "Speaking of fake humans, how's that puppeteer of a brother of yours doing?"