Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I guess making all those drawings and sketches and whatever and submitting them before deadlines seems like so much hard work.

Um, This is my first fanfic, so please go easy on me! I'm not sure I'm good at this!

A Wish On A Butterfly

Chapter 1 – The Wish

In his eyes, she was perfect.

She was graceful, elegant, and refined. The way she would smile, how beautiful her angelic face looked when it was happy, and the way her blonde hair would sway in the gentle breeze.

It all mesmerized him, and try as he might, he couldn't find a single flaw.

All he wanted to do was to protect her, to shield her from harm. He wanted to be her pillow when she was heartbroken from yet another rejected love request, courtesy of the Uchiha heir. He wanted to be her punching bag when she was flaring with anger. Heck, he didn't even care if he lost his life in the process.

He just wanted to be with her.

WAIT.

With…her? Of course, he liked the sound of it, but with her? With Yamanaka Ino, Uchiha-crazed fan-girl, resident flower lover of Konoha? With his teammate who bossed him and Chouji around all day?

What was he, crazy?

Oh yes, he definitely was crazy.

Crazy in love, that is.

She was not his dream wife, and she was even everything he didn't imagine "perfect" to be. He was completely different from her. He was a lazy genius, a great Chuunin strategist, none other than Nara Shikamaru, the cloud watcher.

But he knew he couldn't have her. She wouldn't accept him. Besides, she was already taken. By the man most girls are infatuated with. Yes, the raven haired, egotistical freak who was completely hell-bent on revenge. He even left the village already, now a missing-nin. And yet, even as you think that the numbers of his fan girls would decrease greatly or even become none at all, instead they increased even more. Wait a minute, what was his name again? Ah, yes.

Uchiha Sasuke.

He wouldn't even look her way, not until the time Itachi falls in love with Orochimaru and becomes gay.

Not to Ino, who did nothing but follow his every word all day. He definitely didn't deserve that love at all, and yet he had it.

Damn, was he jealous.

The world, in his eyes, could never be more unfair! She's in love with someone who will never bother to care whatever happens!

What could she possible see in him that is so amazing? What was so great about the avenger? And what did he have that Shikamaru didn't?

Of course he had his looks, and Shikamaru wasn't exactly as handsome as him, but it was so strange.

Look at Neji! He's handsome, he's smart! He's also obsessed with revenge for the Main Family! He is dark, mean and unfeeling too!

So why Sasuke?

Why not Shikamaru?

And this thing, this one, simple thing – was the only thing he, Nara Shikamaru, couldn't understand.

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"Chouji, I still don't get why Ino likes Sasuke so much. What does she see in him that makes him different? Or rather, what do all those Uchiha-crazed fan girls see in him?" Shikamaru asked a guy who was rapidly eating a big pack of potato chips as they strolled down the streets of Konoha.

"I can't stand it anymore! Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! It's always the damn Uchiha!" He yelled.

Chouji just grinned and shrugged, taking out another potato chip from his seemingly never-endless bag of chips.

"Honestly, Shikamaru, I don't get it either. Anyway, how should I know?" The fat guy shrugged. He continued to chomp on more chips. "Mmm, barbecue flavor."

"Ino and Sasuke don't even fit each other! It's obviously Sakura who should be with Sasuke, not Ino!" Shikamaru reasoned, near the point of blowing up.

"Mendokuse!"

Chouji laughed, eyeing a giant sized pack of chili and cheese chips in the store window.

"Well, Shikamaru, that's her life. It's all about the Uchiha," the fat Akimichi replied, throwing his barbecue chip wrapper in the trash.

Wow.

It seems like his bottomless pack of chips DOES have a bottom after all.

"Hey, just a minute, Shikamaru. I'm going to buy those chips over there." Chouji said, licking his lips. Eww.

Then he walked away, leaving Shikamaru to ponder on Ino's infatuation again.

Shikamaru sighed. "Girls are too troublesome," he said, looking up at the endless deep blue ocean up above him, and the great big tufts of cotton floating in it.

"Kami-sama, why did I ever have to fall in love?"

"Hey Shikamaru, I'm back." Shikamaru looked at Chouji, who was happily stuffing his greedy little mouth with chili and cheese chips.

Shikamaru groaned.

"Damn Chouji, do you think of ANYTHING else BUT your potato chips? Don't you know that's a sin? That that's gluttony? Mendokuse." Shikamaru sighed.

Chouji stopped and thought for a moment, miraculously not eating anything from his ever-present pack of chips. He shrugged and grinned again. "Nope, actually I don't. And besides, I'm never full, so how could I be a glutton when the dictionary definition of it is someone who eats more food even when he's full?"

"Aw, damn. It's no use arguing with you. Forget about it then."

"Hey, I was just wondering. Why did you ask that? You are complaining way much more than you normally do, which is – actually – never at all."

Shikamaru stiffened like a stone statue in the middle of a meadow in Greece.

"Uh…ehrm…I just wanted to know," the pineapple-haired guy stated blandly. "Ehehehehe."

"Hmm," Chouji said, his eyes turning fox-like. He leaned a little towards Shikamaru.

"You NEVER like to start conversations. You're too lazy to even say a thing. Also, you don't talk about Ino and her obsession with Uchiha-san. Doesn't it make you bored? Tired? Don't you think it's…"

"TROUBLESOME?"

Shikamaru's face turned a hundred shades of red, and he began to stutter.

"Oh, and do I sense…love in the air?" Chouji teased again.

"Uh…ehrm…gotta run!" he said, and dashed away.

"Heh, best friend, you can't hide anything, can you?"

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"Damn, if only Chouji didn't ask that, I would've gotten away with it," Shikamaru said, panting from his quick escape. "I just hope he doesn't tell everyone. Then again, Chouji's too busy eating his potato chips."

He began to remember the stuttering scene.

"Oh, great. Now Chouji will kill me with "Shikamaru's being like Hinata! Hinata, are you sure you aren't using Henge no jutsu?"

"Ugh! Oh well."

He sighed yet again, maybe another characteristic trait of his after his oh-so favorite word, troublesome.

Plopping down on the soft, dew-wet grass, he crossed his arms and propped them up behind his head to support himself.

As always, he began his cloud-watching session and stared at the moving condensed water particles suspended in the sky. In other words, clouds.

Shikamaru smiled. "They're so free, having no responsibilities at all. They're kind of like Ino's butterfly…."

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-Flashback-

"Ohayo, Shika-kun!" seven-year-old Ino said, grinning.

Saying nothing else, she laid down on the soft carpet of grass below, her hair fanned out and her purple dress ruffled, beside Shikamaru who was doing nothing but watching the clouds.

"Ohayo, Ino." He replied, a little smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

There were a few minutes of tranquil silence, both watching the swaying clouds that seemed to dance in the wind, before Ino broke the ice.

"Ne, Shika-kun."

Shikamaru stole a glance at her. "What is it?"

"Why…why are you here? Otou-san said you were sick. You weren't at your house or at the Ichiraku ramen or even at the training grounds. So I thought that you would probably be here." Ino said quietly.

Shikamaru turned a little pink, then turned away.

"I'm sorry."

That was the time Ino blew her top.

"Sorry! You BAKA! You could get worse from staying outside! Your fever might rise! And you know what else! I was…I was…"

Tears started to form, streaming down like crystalline rivers.

"Shikamaru, I was…"

Her hair covered her face as she looked down at the ground, shaking. Whether it was from anger, worry or sadness, Shikamaru didn't know.

"…Shikamaru… you baka. I was worried about you." She said, looking up at him with red puffy eyes.

Shikamaru's eyes, widened from shock that Ino was actually worried about him, looked at the platinum blonde-haired girl.

Then she suddenly stopped, wiping her bloodshot eyes.

"Sorry for shouting, Shika-kun. I wasn't thinking…" She said.

"It's okay, Ino. I'm sorry too."

That seemed to heal the wounds, and Ino smiled again.

"Now, I'm going to show you something," she held her gently closed fist up for him to see.

She opened up her palm, and sitting on it was a solitary monarch butterfly, its wings, bright orange bordered with black, fluttering erratically.

"Otou-san said that butterflies are supposed to grant wishes. All I have to do is make a wish, then let it go. It is said that the butterflies will take your wishes to the heavens, for the gods to grant them. But, you have to make sure that they have good intentions, or the gods will surely get mad and send a bolt of lightning as punishment," Ino explained.

"Hmm…so what did you wish for?" Shikamaru asked, curious.

"Oh, but that's a secret." Ino laughed.

"Just a hint: it's not about you getting well, though I do want you to."

"If so, then it's about Sasuke, isn't it?" Shikamaru said.

Ino blushed, turning as bright as shade of pink Sakura's hair color is, but shook her head frantically.

"No, no! Not this time. I wished for someone else. Someone very special."

Shikamaru only looked at her curiously, stumped as to who that might be. Who else? Sakura? Was she special to Ino?

Ino just winked, and let the winged creature go, flying up to the sky, where the gods supposedly grant wishes.

-End of Flashback-

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Shikamaru smiled at the childhood memory, which seemed to make his problems go away.

He closed his eyes and tried to doze off, but…

…a butterfly settled itself on his index finger.

He stared at it for a moment, wondering if he should make a wish and let it go, like Ino did.

"That's so childish…..but what the heck. I won't lose anything, and it's worth a try anyway."

"I…I wish Ino would fall in love with me. Or at least, let her be happy. I wouldn't really want to force her." He told the butterfly.

And then, he let go.

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TBC…

Mendokuse means troublesome.

Kami-sama means God.

Ohayo means hello.

Baka means idiot; stupid.

Otou-san means Dad. (I think ;;)

Ok, is it nice? Should I continue it or delete it? I appreciate suggestions and comments, so please leave me a review! It makes me happy to know that people are reading this.

Thanks!