Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Obviously.
Languid.
That was the word she thought described him best, although everyone else routinely called him 'lazy.' True, he wasn't easily motivated, and generally tried to avoid anything he deemed "troublesome," which included a wide variety of activities and social interactions. It was also common to find him sleeping at inappropriate times, or cloud-gazing instead of arriving where he was expected to be.
They had next to nothing in common, him with his slouching walk and deliberate manner of avoiding exertion, and frenetically active and busy medical nin Haruno Sakura. Although she considered herself intelligent, and certainly one of the most knowledgable medical ninjas in the Five Nations after studying under Tsunade-sama, Nara Shikamaru was genius, plain and simple. While Sakura was often ruled by her emotions, try as she might to conceal that fact, he seemed adept at maintaining his cool, detached demeanor. It was far more befitting of a shinobi. For that much she admired him.
She'd always had a fondness for tall, dark and aloof. Having been infatuated with Uchiha Sasuke for what had seemed like forever, and finally coming to the realization that he was only ever interested in himself, she had been brokenhearted. It took a long time to recover from the disappointment of unrealized childhood dreams. Letting go of her first love, despite it having been unrequited, was agonizing. She threw herself completely into her work, leaving little time for social activities, and much less for thoughts of anything even remotely romantic.
Somehow, a few weeks ago, she'd found herself noticing the way that Shikamaru walked. There was something about the relaxed manner in which he strolled, hands in his pockets, head tilted either skywards or towards his feet, that captured her attention. He seemed to find his way without his eyes, and almost always appeared lost in thought.
"What could he be thinking about so intently?" she wondered, "and furthermore, why am I suddenly so interested in what that lazy, responsibility shirking, complaint enthusiast is thinking about anyway?"
It was true that recently their paths had begun to cross with greater frequency. His clan, long renowned for their expertise in the healing arts had recently discovered yet another medicinal use for the afterbirth of their deer. Despite his initial reluctance to be dragged from his generally preferred outdoor activities, the Hokage had convinced him to work in the medical labs in the research department of the hospital, alongside her assistant Shizune, to examine the potential of the malleable blood cells in combatting certain degenerative chakra infections. He protested, but both he and the Hokage knew he would accept her offer of assignment.
As a result, Sakura had begun to find herself walking to and from the medical department in his company. Their apartments were in proximity to one another's in the village, and now that he was on assignment in the medical department, they were working similar hours.
Long hours, much to the shadow-user's chagrin.
Although, if he was completely honest with himself, there were worse people in whose company he could begin and end each long workday.
Sakura was not as flighty or boisterous as his childhood friend Yamanaka Ino, who constituted the majority of his exposure to women his age, aside from times when he was assigned to be the escort of the Kazekage's elder sister when she was in town on embassy business from the Hidden Village of the Sand. Temari, as she was called, was an interesting woman, but altogether too masculine to really be considered as such. Ino, on the other hand, was incredibly feminine. The topics she often chose to discuss were generally uninteresting to him, although having been her teammate for so long, he knew when to interject with the appropriate "yes," "hn" or "ah." To avoid doing so meant a barrage of insults and complaints of laziness and inattention, and since such interaction was troublesome, he complied.
But Sakura- she was more the type to hang back and observe. She was clearly intelligent, and had all of the appropriate manners that were to be expected of a kunoichi, particularly one whose training under the Hokage required regular interaction with several people of significant importance, both politically and socially. She had been quite shy and unsure of herself, it had seemed, when they were younger. Now he had begun to wonder whether the shyness had simply been reservedness.
"In any case," he thought to himself, "we have been walking for more than ten minutes, and aside from greeting me and asking about the lab progress, she has said little else. I suppose I don't mind the lack of conversation, because forced pleasantries are so very troublesome... then why... Why do I feel as though I must put forth effort here? Silence is generally more than fine with me, and this silence is hardly uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact. But she keeps on giving me these sidelong glances, as though she wants me to say something..." he sighed inwardly, "Well, if I must..."
"So, have you come up with an antidote for that poison sample sent to us from the Sand Village last week yet?" he questioned, hands still stuffed in his pockets, eyes-lidded, head cocked slightly in her direction.
His voice was low and even, and were it not for his having inclined his head toward her, she might be uncertain as to whether he was actually speaking at all. The sudden conversational effort on his part startled her for a second, before she smiled warmly and replied.
"The Suna poison took me about two days worth of lab time to develop an antidote for, actually," she paused, tucking her long pink bangs behind her ear, "I had to work long after general lab hours, but Tsunade-sama generally allows me the freedom to stay as late as is deemed necessary. The Sand Village has very high expectations, given antidotes I've developed in the past. I felt it was important not to disappoint them when they specifically requested my expertise."
Shikamaru mumbled something to himself that sounded like one of his most familiar responses, "What a drag."
Sakura tsk-ed. "Why should you say that? I have several other projects that I am working on concurrently. Aside from the expectations of the Kazekage and his village, and their obvious need, it made the most sense to resolve their issue as quickly as possible. I don't need to be distracted from my other work any longer than necessary. So you see, it was actually less troublesome to put in more effort initially," she smiled, "although I'm sure my work ethic is a bit different from yours."
She crossed her arms and smiled to herself, content that she had cleverly responded to him, while simultaneously predicting what his reaction to her choosing to work late might be. Although their morning walks weren't generally overflowing with conversation, Sakura looked forward to the times when he would break their easy silence and initiate conversation on his own. He was not the most talkative of people, but that was certainly not something she wasn't accustomed to, having been on a team with Kakashi and Sasuke.
Kakashi tended to stick to what conversation was absolutely necessary, when he wasn't otherwise engaged with reading Icha Icha Paradise. Sasuke, on the other hand, was aloofness embodied. He rarely had anything to say, necessary or otherwise, and when he did speak, one was often treated to an insult at best. Only Uzumaki Naruto, her closest and most exasperating male friend, had ignored his teammates' general lack of social interaction and countered it with an almost steady stream of words, laughter, jokes, playful attempts to have someone say something, anything, that would acknowledge him in some way. When that seemed to achieve nothing, he would shout about becoming the next Hokage, and his ninja way, with such enthusiasm that Sakura could hardly help loving him, in spite of his obnoxious optimism. It was contagious, as she herself had learned.
Almost anyone that came into contact with Naruto was eventually affected by his sincere and bottomless will to help and connect with others. His sincerity and unwillingness to go back on his word was his Ninja Way. It pleased Sakura to no end that he was being groomed for the position of next Hokage. Despite his occasionally being beyond daft to the emotional and psychological temperature around him, Naruto had the uncanny ability to simply spread his sincerity with absolute bluntness and almost brute force. It was funny, really. It was inescapable.
Shikamaru had found himself suddenly being the one to steal the sidelong glance, noticing that after folding her arms in satisfaction, Sakura was clearly lost in her own reverie.
"She really is quite clever, although not nearly as slick with words as she'd like to think she is," he thought to himself, amused. "I can't begin to fathom why anyone, even under the circumstances, would actually want to work as much and as often as she does, but she doesn't just work, she relishes the work."
Shikamaru found this bit of information rather intriguing. Despite his reputation for overall laziness, he found quite a few things worth doing, one of which being the art of solving puzzles. He figured that dissecting a poison, particularly an incredibly complicated one, designed specifically for use on ninjas and their abilities, then coming up with an antidote was a great deal like solving a puzzle. Yes, Sakura was a clever girl.