Disclaimer: I just... Can't... Draw... Guys... So why would I own Naruto?

Okay, here it is. The ShikaIno version of Of Benches and Dreams.

Shikamaru gazed up at the sky. He was a six year old, lying down in the grass calmly. He wasn't playing with the other kids. He was pondering on the meaning of life and he failed to notice that someone was staring at him.

"What are you doing?" Asked a little girl about his age. She held a flower in her hands. "My family owns a flower shop, you know. You should stop by every once in a while. We have a lot of pretty flowers, like this one!" The girl shoved a rose into his hands.

"Watching the clouds." He replied evenly. He raised an eyebrow. "And thank you?"

The little girl looked around and saw a raven haired boy walk passed them. "Oh, Sasuke-kun, wait for me!" She squealed, taking off in the direction the Uchiha had walked off to. She paused and turned around quickly to smile at the cloud-watching six year and then began to run off after her "one true love" once more.

A twelve year old Shikarmaru knows what the meaning of life is now. The meaning of life is to put up with one of the most troublesome and annoying Uchiha Sasuke fangirls in the entire universe, Yamanaka Ino. She wants everything done her way, which is not good because her tactics usually don't go the way they are planned.

However, Shikamaru notices, that it is rather humorous to see her face after he plan fails and that she always turns to him whenever there is a problem.

"Fix it!" She would growl at him and he would simply shrug and mutter the word "troublesome" under his breath very gently, so only she would hear. She would put on a contorted face a few minutes later and demand if he had done it, and he would always shake his head. After countless hours of nagging, he would finally get the job done.

And Yamanaka Ino would always thank him afterwards, with a flower from the flower shop and a smile to go along with it.

Shikamaru lays half dead on the battlefield, drenched with blood. He ponders the meaning of life again. He is fifteen as he does this, and finally comes to the conclusion that the meaning of life is to live and to survive. His blonde teammate, who had previously been knocked out, regained consciousness. She waddled over to him and cried. She began shoving chakra in and out of him, in a desperate attempt to keep him alive. The tears were pouring from her face and Shikamaru was wondering why she was doing this. She was muttering something about not leaving her like someone else did and saying her prayers all at the same time. He heard her bargaining for his life.

She finally stops, and breathes deeply. She lays next to him, placing a flower on his chest and sighing. "Do you remember?" She would ask him quietly. "That's the cloud we saw when we first met." And they would lay there, side by side, until someone finally found them and brought them both back to Konoha hospital.

Shikamaru walks into the Yamanaka flower shop tiredly at age twenty-four. His hands were shoved carelessly in his pockets as he scanned the room for the right flower to give. He stopped at a yellow rose kissed with scarlet at the end and took it to the counter, where Yamanaka Ino was standing.

"Oh, Shikamaru, who's it for? I thought I heard Temari was in town!" Ino would squeal with false happiness. It was slightly obvious that Ino had a thing for Shikamaru, ever since the day at the battlefield. He hands her the money and takes the flower. Shikamaru then takes a ring out of his pocket and puts it around the stem of the rose. "You're proposing!?" Ino would half yell. "To that woman? I mean, she's barely in town! Where would your children live?"

Shikamaru sighs. "Not for her, for you. You're so troublesome."

Yamanaka Ino raises an inquisitive eyebrow. "Is that your idea of proposing?" She sighs and he frowns.

He hesitantly gets on one knee and says, "Would you marry me, troublesome wom... I mean, Yamanaka Ino?" He would ask, grinning sheepishly.

Shikamaru has been pondering the meaning of life ever since the day of his sixth birthday. God sent him the actual meaning but it took him a while to realize it. Shikamaru's meaning of life was Yamanaka Ino, the love of his life who he was stuck with ever since his days at the Academy.

Hope you liked it! Next will be NaruHina, followed by a NejiTen Valentine's Day one.