AN: Hey everyone! I started this, God, probably a year and a half ago due to a prompt from my brother (when he was into this type of stuff), so obviously the writing is a bit weak in places. I've recently fallen out of Naruto, but ShikaIno will forever hold a special place in my heart. So here this is!

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.

-Slice-Slice-

-Slash-Slash-

We walk in on Team 10 as they are traveling through a jungle. Nara Shikamaru, who is in the front of the group as leader of course, pauses from his cutting of the branches, vines, and all kinds of plant life blocking their passage, to wipe his forehead with the shoulder of his shirt. The 18 year old chunin wore his regular bored/irritated expression on his face, but there was a new emotion along with it: exasperation. Summer in the fire country was hell. Of course, he had decided to remain in his regular ninja attire, in all its dark and heavy glory. His black long-sleeved shirt stuck to his body like a second skin from all the sweat. The sleeves of his shirt were pushed up past his elbows, the fishnet that usually occupied his lower arms absent, and beads of sweat could be seen dripping down the revealed skin. Even though he had removed his chunin vest, it did little to relieve him from the heat. He put his kunai away for a moment before removing his hitai-ate from his arm, then peeling his dark shirt off with some difficulty. He remained only in his fishnet now, and was feeling slightly cooler. Shikamaru retied his hitai-ate to his bicep, flexing his arm to make sure it was not too tight, but not too loose as well. He then looked up to the sky, no clouds visible on this day. The sun still beat down on the young chunin's tan face through the trees. There was no wind either; no reprieve available in the muggy climate. Damn, this mission is such a drag. He thought. There aren't even any clouds to relieve us from this damn sun. Shikamaru then felt something bump into him, rather someone, shaking him out of his reverie, and turned around to see Ino on her behind, quickly rising to feet again. She had an agitated look on her face.

"Dammit, Shikamaru, can you move any faster?" 18 year old Yamanaka Ino asked, more like demanded, glaring at her taller teammate. Ino looked over at him to see that he had removed his shirt, and was only clad in his fishnet. The fishnet basically covered nothing, and might as well not be there. Ino could see the well defined upper body of her best friend, and started to go lower until she realized she was gawking at him. Damn these last few years have been good to him! Let's just say Ino had a strange attraction to tall, tan, and muscular young men. But Ino quickly shooed away those thoughts and returned to the matter at hand. She was sick of standing there in the middle of a dense forest to just get to some damn small village to present the village's leader with a scroll from Tsunade-sama. Why the hell had the old Team 10 been chosen for this mission? Is this scroll so important that three talented chunin had to take it to this isolated place? She sighed. No use pondering over such matters. All she needed now was to get to this stupid village, which hopefully has running water, so she can get a bath. All the sweat was making Ino feel disgusting. She shot a glare at Shikamaru again, hoping to distract him from what had happened just moment ago. All she needed was her teammate/best friend feeling uncomfortable around her because she had been checking him out.

Shikamaru sighed. He had caught Ino's stare, and was starting to feel uncomfortable until she looked back up to his face with a glare, her whole body language blaming him for being out in the heat. He shook off the last few moments, figuring the heat was messing with her, and just looked at Ino with that exasperated expression painted across his usually uninterested features. He gazed at the sky again. How troublesome. Why is it always me?

It wasn't his fault they had been assigned this god forsaken mission in the middle of the summer. It was not unusual for missions to pile in during this time of year, but this was their 4th mission in 2 months! And they were not short missions either. Only one was C ranked that lasted one week, the other two were B ranked, both lasting two to three weeks each, as was this one they were currently on. If you do the math, you can determine that there were very short breaks between these missions. Tsunade-sama never does this, but for some reason she decided to pick on Team 10 this summer. Teams 7 and 8 have only been on one important mission together. The rest have been with other groups or solo missions for its members.

Shikamaru looked over to Ino, a scowl written across his face. He quickly scanned over her appearance. No doubt she was cooler than him in her regular ninja outfit, revealing as always. Although, the fishnet bands that were usually present on her elbows were absent, no doubt uncomfortable in this heat. Shikamaru knew all about that, his fishnet armbands absent as well, though he still wore a fishnet shirt. The purple shirt Ino wore was an even darker shade from her sweat, and he watched as a drop rolled down her revealed abdomen. Lower and lower down her pale skin, glistening in the sun's bright rays that made a path through the canopy of trees. Thoughts quickly poured into his tactical genius mind, and it took all he had not to blush. Times when sweat would pour down her abdomen that are X-rated and most definitely not suitable for children. Ok, now is not the time for those thoughts. he thought to himself. He stifled a blush and a hormonal reaction by shooing away the thoughts almost as quickly as they had come, and spoke to her in his regular lazy tone.

"Troublesome woman, why don't you take the lead and cut through all these damn plants." He was getting agitated as well as Ino from all this heat, and was not in the mood for Ino's complaining. It took very little for these two to argue, especially in times like these. Shikamaru threw Ino his kunai that was being used to make a pathway for the rest of the team, and she caught it with ease.

"Move aside." she said, as she shoved past him, already getting to work on the plants ahead of them. Another reason why she wanted to get ahead of Shikamaru was to fight the blush that was threatening to stain her cheeks because of the dark gleam she had seen in Shikamaru's eyes as they raked over her body. She chopped at the vegetation relentlessly, trying to forget the image and how it made her spine tingle in fright and excitement.

Ino was already tiring from previous fatigue, and the constant heat caused from the sun would not let up. She was almost ready to give up when she came across a particularly stubborn plant, and ask Shikamaru to continue, but her Yamanaka pride would not allow her to do such. Damn it's hotter than before, if that's possible, and it isn't even midday yet, judging from the position of the sun. She calculated. Contrary to popular belief, Ino was not a dumb blonde and could easily calculate things like the time by the position of the sun. Of course she was not as brilliant, nor a genius like Shikamaru, but she did know a fair amount more than most shinobi, less than some other shinobi. Damn isolated island. Curse you, Tsunade-sama! She thought again. Of course Tsunade had to assign them a mission in the hottest place in the fire country, which was an island about 13 miles off the coast of Konoha. It was so lowly populated that it didn't even have a name.

"What was that you were saying before about moving faster?" Shikamaru questioned mockingly behind her. She could feel his eyes on her back, and could just see that smirk on his lips. Oh how she wanted to just beat it off of him. Or kiss those sensual lips that mocked her. Not again! She thought. It must be the heat! No way do I have a thing for that lazy-ass! She refrained from doing either action to Shikamaru, though. This mission was important, and if they completed this with no problems the old Team 10 was promised a well-deserved vacation. She growled, counted to ten in her head, and continued hacking away at the plants. She was not going to let Shikamaru get the better of her this time!

---

It was quiet, too quiet. The only sound was Ino chopping at the vegetation and the crunch of the leaves beneath their feet. Wait, crunch! Shikamaru turned around, finding no one behind him.

"Hey, where's Chouji?" Ino asked, looking behind her after a few moments of cutting. She had sensed Shikamaru becoming anxious, and realized why it felt oddly quiet even with the noise from chopping at the vegetation. "Maybe he stopped to get a drink of water, or dropped his chip bag?" she offered, hoping for the best. Chouji was undoubtedly the hottest of them all with all his armor. It would make sense for him to stop for water. Shikamaru sighed and turned around.

"What a drag." he said, taking the kunai out of Ino's hands and starting back on the path they had created to find their other teammate.

Meanwhile In Konoha

-Knock-Knock-

"Hey, Shikamaru!" yelled our number-one-hyperactive-ninja as he pounded on the door to the young Nara's apartment. Naruto had been standing there for a good five minutes pounding away at the door. It was just before noon and it was getting hotter outside. A scowl etched its way onto the usually smiling face of the Kyuubi container. "If that lazy-ass is sleeping I swear I'm gonna…" Naruto broke off as he made a hand sign and poofed into Shikamaru's apartment.

It was quiet, even quieter than usual. "Shikamaru? Hey, I wanted to know if you and your team wanted to meet up with the rest of the Rookie 9 at the Academy tonight!" Naruto took a look around the apartment. Nothing there. "Shikamaru?" the blonde walked around the apartment. He checked Shikamaru's room first, ready to yell at him for being asleep. As he kicked the door open, he saw Shikamaru's bed made, and room clean. It looked like it hadn't been used in days.

After checking Shikamaru's room, Naruto headed over to the kitchen for a glass of water. It was summer, and it was hot as hell there! "Damn, he can't even put on the air conditioning? Lazy, cheap bastard." As he walked past the kitchen table, he noticed a short note written in Shikamaru's handwriting.

If you're reading this, then Ino, Chouji, and I have left for a mission. I should be back in a few days, so don't touch anything. That means you, Naruto.

"Damn that guy—! How did he know…?"

Well, some things are better left unknown. Ah, the mind of Shikamaru is one big unknown, so complex and simple at the same time. No wonder it was so hard to read that guy!

"Heh, well I guess that solves that!" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and did his usual foxy grin before he poofed out of the apartment, back to the ramen shack for a few bowls for lunch.

Back to Team 10

"Aaahhh!!!"

"Hey, did you hear that?" Shikamaru asked Ino, halting to listen to where the scream was coming from. Ino silently nodded, grabbing a few kunai out of her pouch. She narrowed her eyes in concentration as she tried to listen. It sounded like Chouji. "Let's move." Shikamaru commanded, breaking out into a run along the path they had made a few moments ago.

Stray branches scraped their arms and faces as they ran, the duo not heeding their vicious attacks of revenge for entering their domain, untouched for so long. Ino huffed in frustration as a particularly large branch swung back and hit her in the face. "Damn that Shikamaru, can't even hold a branch back for his own frickin teammate…" She mumbled as she chased after him. But she didn't blame him at all, knowing he was concerned for his closest friend.

All of a sudden Shikamaru stopped, holding out an arm for Ino to do so as well. She did as he bade, and peered over the top of his appendage to gaze at the scene being played out before them.

A short distance from where they stood was Chouji, eyes closed and his ever present bag of potato chips held out in front of him, almost like an…offering?

"Here! Take my chips!" He screamed. Ino and Shikamaru came across the scene with wide eyes at their friend, who was offering his bag of chips to a giant spider on a web that appeared to be about ten feet tall. Ino and Shikamaru sweat dropped. Watching their large teammate scared of a spider, scared enough to give up food, was hilarious. Shikamaru fought to keep in his laughter. But after about another minute of watching this display, a vein started to pop out of Ino's forehead.

"Chouji! You screamed because of a spider?!" Ino yelled, enraged that they had lost precious time from getting to the small village that was in the middle of this jungle. You couldn't use chakra to jump on the trees because of all the vegetation, so they were stuck traveling by foot. Damn oversized plants. She thought. If Ino was cursing plants, this was bad.

"Look at it!" He retorted, eyes never leaving the spider. Oh god, Chouji was becoming hysterical.

Shikamaru sighed, annoyed by his teammates surprising antics. He walked over to where they were standing and looked at the spider. "Not even poisonous." Shikamaru said with annoyance dripping from his words. He quickly threw a kunai just away from the spider with dead accuracy, and it quickly crawled up the large spider web.

"Alright, we need to deliver this scroll by nightfall, let's start back on the trail we already made." This mission is turning out to be such a drag. Sigh, why does my life have to be so troublesome.

AN: So that's it for the first chapter. Chapters two and three are already finished, so I'll update when I feel I have enough good feedback. Thanks for reading!