"Ah ... what a drag."
Shikamaru thought to himself as he lay in the shadows of a tree's branches and leaves up above. The grass he was lain down upon was lush and shimmering in the sun; it was almost dreamlike as far as he could see it. To Shikamaru, this seemed to match his mood, since from the beginning of this half week off from his duties as a Shinobi, he felt as though he was in a dreamlike state. His collective emotions as of late were giving him a funny feeling inside; one he wasn't exactly accustomed to. He felt as though he was floating on air, and somehow unattached to the world around him, but not in a totally unpleasant manner, he discerned. It was all because of her; she was making him feel this way, and as intelligent as Shikamaru knew himself to be, able to figure himself out of any troublesome situation if given the time, he couldn't figure himself out of this spot, regardless of how much time he spent dwelling on the thought.
"What is it ... about her?" He wondered on with eyes closed and arms folded under his head as he lay upon his back.
"Why can't I stop thinking about her?" He continued on with these questions as the day slowly dragged by.
"Should I ... tell her ... ? No! That's dumb." He felt a quick surge of reluctance pass over him as he went on torturing himself.
"Why am I even going on like this?" He spoke aloud. But these feelings weren't anything of a surprise to himself, being for some time, he had simply been in denial of them, hoping they'd soon fade as a shadow does in the darkness of the night. However, it was because of a dream he had recently dreamt that made him feel a need to finally face these feelings, and maybe even embrace them if he could, somehow, understand them.
His dream a few nights prior was of himself and a few of his friends; all male ninja from his own village, the Hidden Leaf. Chouji, Naruto, Neji, and Kiba and Akamaru were all present ready to dig into the barbecue Shikamaru was footing the bill for.
"Itadakimasu!" Chouji and Naruto shouted sitting closest to each other, across from the other three.
"Thanks for this one, Shikamaru. We all owe ya one". Kiba grinned as he petted Akamaru.
"Yes, we're indeed grateful for this meal and your willingness to pay, Shikamaru. However..." Neji cut in sounding slightly annoyed.
"However, I do hope Chouji and Naruto don't plan on eating everything by themselves." Neji finished as he looked on broodingly in Naruto's and Chouji's direction while they scarfed down what was in front of them. Things seemed usual, and as per usual, Shikamaru could only think of how much of a drag paying for everyone was.
"Boy, these guys sure can put it away. It's kinda scary looking at it." Shikamaru thought with a semi-frightened look upon his face.
Suddenly, with a change of mood in the room, everything around him began to blur. The entire restaurant, friends included, began to be engulfed in shadows, and all Shikamaru could see was the figure of a woman standing at the entrance, to his right. Who was this? She seemed familiar by her walk as she came closer to Shikamaru.
"Shikamaru ... are you coming with or not?" She asked him, once she reached his table, in a somewhat demanding tone.
"That voice..." Shikamaru noticed from the dark figure. The restaurant was once again lit as it was beforehand and things were going on as though nothing unusual had happened.
"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked the blonde haired female, instantly recognizing her, and feeling in complete shock.
She began to walk away, toward the back of the restaurant, blatantly showing her intent to lead him off somewhere private, by the look in her eye as she briefly gazed back toward him. As his friends seemed off in their own world, Shikamaru simply got up from his seat and followed the woman, who seemingly wanted only his attention, for reasons he intended to find out.
"Hey wait!" Shikamaru yelled as he caught up with her in a back room of the restaurant with no one but the two of them around.
She halted, and seeing that she was facing opposite his direction, Shikamaru placed his hand on her shoulder to turned her toward himself, but as soon as he did so, he felt two arms embrace his body as the woman lunged forth into him, almost knocking him off balance.
"Wha-what is this? What're you doing?" He asked nervously.
"What we should have done some time ago..." The blonde haired woman said this as she gave somewhat of a giggle and looked lovingly into his eyes.
Shikamaru wiped the sweat from his forehead as he looked slightly downward to the woman holding him close to herself. He couldn't understand why this girl, this kunoichi, he knew was doing such a thing, but more importantly, why he wasn't lifting a finger to stop her. And just as suddenly as she hugged him, she moved in for a kiss, and Shikamaru, frozen by reason of confusion, or so he tried to convince himself, didn't so much as push away.
After their lips met, he began to feel more welcoming of the feeling overcoming him, which wasn't confusion as he first told himself, but desire and love.
"This time that I've known you ... has it always been like this? Have I loved you from the start..." But before Shikamaru could speak her name in his thought, he had awoken in his bed, just then realizing that trying to deny what was so painfully clear could be more of a drag than accepting it. Thus, it was something he was going to have to move forward with, though many times in the past, he couldn't have imagined himself coming to terms with such a seemingly flighty and troublesome matter such as love.