Siesta was interrupted by a thundering noise and *most inhumane howl.

Shikamaru was still reluctant to leave the hammock in his current ambassador's accomodations due to the tiresome heat; but once the walls were shaking so hard the swinging almost had him tumble to the ground he was wide awake and alerted instantly. Sand and crumbs of mortar were rippling from the ceiling and the quaking didn't stop. His 'paid holiday' was apparently over with a vengance.

Swift as a deer he grabbed for some Kunai and evacuated the dark room barefooted and clad in only his net-undershirt and pants; pitter-patter dashing out onto the burning hot balcony he listened to the earshattering waves of rumbling quakes and overlayering shouts and cries.

If there was an ambush he couldn't waste time redressing.

The whole Kage-tower was shaking dangerously with each impact and dust clouds were rising from below where the battlenoise arose; one of the raging voices definitely belonged to Temari, he perceived.

Trying to assess the situation he fast approached the balustrades and turned to Kankurou, who was already there. "Oi, Kankurou! What's going on? Is the Kazekage safe?", he breathed dry dust air and tried to peer against the sizzling desert sun. The puppeteer Jonin seemed rather unfazed by the whole tumult but half grinned, half snorted and just nodded down at the piazza. "See for yourself, Shikamaru..." Then he continued comfortably watching from his vantage point and the Leaf's ambassador followed his example.

With horrid fascination and mute shock Shikamaru then observed the scene unfold before his eyes...

The Kazekage was down there amidst the uproar; he spotted the red tuft of mane right away. In fact, he was right at the epicentrum of it all, and Shikamaru involuntarily shivered despite the scorching heat when he saw the very same look on Gaara's face he hadn't seen since the Chuunin selective examinations. Temari was not far away frantically bordering on her brother's purview and her furious screams roared like tornadoes through the piazza.Then Gaara's voice cut through the thick air like a guillotine and Shikamaru all but blanched at the memory trigger.

"Sabaku Kyuu!"

The hollow cry of his sand-squashed victim echoed on for a short while, then it became eerily quiet.Shikamaru released a shaky breath once he couldn't hold it anymore, his eyes still glued to the cruel execution scene below he had just witnessed. He certainly needed a smoke right now!

"How many is that now?", he reluctantly murmured in Kankurou's direction.

The Suna Shinobi snorted again and crossed his arms. "A lot more than enough, if you ask Gaara... They never seem to learn, though. Fools", he sneered, "Temari too. She keeps inviting trouble; and Gaara keeps finding and eliminating it."

The desert dust hadn't completely settled yet; but Gaara seemed to have calmed somewhat while the blonde was still in the middle of a tempest.

"I'm aware of that." The lazy strategist rubbed some cold sweat from his neck and stated wryly: "With Gaara's troublesome 'squeeze first, check later'-policy regarding your sister's boyfriends, I'm glad I didn't make a move on her back then..."

Kankurou eyed him with a slow sideglance.

"Yeah...me too", he drawled with a slightly wary edge to his voice.