Note: I'm not finished with this story yet. So hold on!!
The sun was shining bright, white fluffy clouds floated along the sky. The tall grass was perfectly green and swaying to the light wind. Shikamaru loved this kind of weather; loved this weather because he could just sit there beside the tree doing nothing. His arms were crossed behind his head. His eyes were closed. Just then Ino stepped in front of Shikamaru, blocking the sunlight.
"Wake up!" Ino demanded. Shikamaru didn't even bother to move a muscle. "Wake up!"
Shikamaru opened one eye halfway. "What do you want?"
"We have a new mission. I've been looking for you, lazy bastard!" Ino was angry now. Her eye's nearly popping out of her eye sockets, but Shikamaru just smirked.
Shikamaru held up his hand, waiting for her to help him up. Ino seeing that he was incredibly lazy, grabbed his hand to help. Just at that second, they both skipped a heartbeat. When Shikamaru was up, Ino and Shikamaru just stared at each other.
What's this feeling? It feels so… exciting. Shikamaru thought. He didn't know what was happening.
"C'mon, we gotta find Chouji." And she knew exactly where to find him. The Ichiraku; where they normally eat ramen.
While walking there, Shikamaru kept trying to figure out what that feeling was all about. He came with no explanation but that maybe a bug had bitten him when she sat up. His bottom did feel a little hurt.
Once there, Shikamaru leaned against the wall and waited for Ino. Expecting her to be pulling out the fat Chouji by the scarf yelling at how much he had eaten and should go on a diet.
"Let me stay! I don't wanna go!" yelled the helpless Chouji, kicking and straggling to get free.
"We have a new mission to do!"
"No! I wanna stay!"
Ino rolled her eyes, staring back at Shikamaru for help, but he just returned her stare with a shrug.
Giving up, Ino said, "I'll buy you two ramen bowls when the mission is over."
Suddenly, Chouji sat straight up and saluted like a soldier. Both Shikamaru and Ino rolled their eyes.
When they arrived in the hokage, Ino went inside and got the mission from Sensei. He then came to explain it to us.
"This is a fairly hard mission. What you have to do, is go into the wood and camp there for 2 weeks. I already talked to your parents and they said it was okay."
"Oh, that's easy! I'll just bring my tent." Ino said. She was pretty confident about this.
"With out powers or special items." Sensei finished.
"What!" Ino screamed. Sensei knew she wasn't going to like this. "How am I supposed to clean my hair? And what if I break a nail?"
"Ino, Ino," Sensei tried to calm her down. "You are going to be teaming up with some one else on this mission. He is—"
"Oh, great! Another damn person to feed! Argg!!" Ino was mad now; she was practically pulling her hair off.
Sensei sighed, a frustrated sigh, and tried to continue, "He is…"
"Ahhhh!!"
"…Sasuke!"
Suddenly, Ino froze. He stared at Sensei, and then smiled. She jumped into the air and screamed, making everyone wince at the sound.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you!" Sensei raised an eyebrow at her, but Ino was too excited to notice.
"Your mission will start right now. So go to the woods, and find yourself at home."
Suddenly, at that moment, Sasuke arrived out of the hokage. Ino raced towards him and pounced on him. Shikamaru just crossed his arms behind his head and smirked.
"Let's go team!" Ino punched her arm in the air, while grabbing Sasuke's head in the other nearly choking him.
During the two hour trip, Ino kept trying to get close up to Sasuke, but Sasuke was fast and dodged it, letting Ino hug Chouji instead. Chouji didn't really care, as long as he wasn't parted between his sweet, or is it salty, chips.
Once there in the woods, the team decided to split up.
"Ino and Shikamaru, go find some food. Chouji and I will make shelter." Sasuke instructed.
"But…" Ino started to say. She badly wanted to be with Sasuke… alone.
"Chouji," Ino said, using her sexy smile. "How 'bout we switch? You can be with Shikamaru and find… food!"
"No, he can't. If we let him go find food, he'll just eat it all." Sasuke pointed out. Sasuke knew what she was up to, so he quickly walked away to find wood for a campfire.
Ino sighed and went along with the plan. The two went to find food. They found fruits and veggies. They even found a dead bird, which they would cook.
But on the way back, there was a thunder storm. It was getting cold, and wolves were out. They tried to find their way back, but were lost. They decided to stay in a hollow tree. They saved the food just in case.
There wasn't much room for the both of them to squeeze in along with the food.
"God, it's freezing." Ino complained, she was shivering and her fingers were numb. Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around her. She was surprised that it was Shikamaru.
"This is the only way to stay warm. We have to get close." He moved closer to Ino. This made Ino uncomfortable, but in a good way. She moved closer to Shikamaru and put her head on his chest. Ino smiled and blushed.
There's that feeling again. Could it be? Shikamaru thought, do I like her?
Shikamaru lowered his head to Ino's ear and whispered in a soft way, "Are you warm now?
Ino blushed even more. She turned her head to face Shikamaru. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek. Something made her inch closer to him. Soon they were so close; they could feel their faces without even touching. Ino stared into Shikamaru's eyes. She never noticed that his eyes were not pure black. It was actually dark creamy brown with a little sprinkle of hazel along the pupil. His eyebrows were lazy looking, but that's what showed his feelings. Right now, she knew he was in a dreamy state. His cheeks were deep red and smooth. She wanted to touch them. So she lifted her hand and touched the warm soft cheeks.
The feel of Ino's hand made Shikamaru look deeper into Ino's eyes. They were blue, rich blue. Her eyes were glued to his eyes. He could feel her breath along his lips and soon he wanted to kiss her. His lip touched hers, but no movement had occurred yet.
Suddenly a voice startled both of them. They let go of each other and moved to the other side of the tree, but their finger tips still touched each other. They looked away, trying to forget the fact that they were so close; so close to each other.
"Shikamaru! Ino!" Sasuke yelled. He knew that the rain must have lost them. After the sky was clear he began searching for them. "Ino! Shikamaru!"
He looked into the hollow tree and found the two. "There you are. C'mon, we've got to bring food back."
During the walk back, Ino and Shikamaru walked on the opposite of Sasuke, but once in a while they would glance at each other.
Shikamaru tried to forget about that moment when they were so close, but he wanted to feel that moment again. He wanted to see her eyes again, close up; he wanted to feel her warm breath; he wanted that kiss.
Ino didn't know what was happening. Was she suddenly falling for Shikamaru? But Sasuke was her only love. Besides, maybe she just was too cold and got lost in his beautiful eyes… his dreamy eyes… Ah! What was she thinking? She shook her head, getting rid of her thoughts for him. She glared at Sasuke, but didn't feel the same feeling she had with Shikamaru. Her feelings at Sasuke were to make Sakura jealous and have him look her way. But she didn't have to do that with Shikamaru. It felt better without that. She knew Shikamaru was all hers…
Once back to the camp, they ate the food and went to sleep. Soon everyone was asleep except for Ino and Shikamaru. Ino was off thinking of Sasuke in her grass nest, but when she thought of Sasuke, Shikamaru would cut in. With his cheeks rose red, he would push Sasuke out of her sight and… She had to get Shikamaru out of her head. She looked at her hand and touched it. She used this hand to touch Shikamaru. She smiled, and closed her eyes.
Shikamaru looked up into the stars, trying to connect them to make pictures. But as hard as he could, he couldn't. All that was in his mind was Ino. How close they were. He looked off to the side; there was Ino, her back facing him. She was probably asleep. He smiled, and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, everyone got ready for the day. They washed themselves in the lake; they ate the food left from yesterday. Unfortunately, everyone ate a piece of fruit because last night, Chouji ate the bird that was left for tomorrow. While eating, everyone stared at Chouji munching down the apple.
"What?" he asked, chewed apple fell on the ground.
"So, what are we doing today?" Ino asked, she wanted to help with protecting the camp site with Sasuke of course, but when she glanced at Shikamaru, she wanted to gather more food.
"Well…" Sasuke started. "We could gather more food. I'll do that." Sasuke's such an alone being. He thinks he's the best in everything. Shikamaru thought. He looked at Ino, she wasn't smiling or anything, instead he saw her turn her head quickly. He smiled and decided that she had been staring at him.
"Okay, I'm fine with that. I think I'll go rest." Shikamaru stood up and walked away towards the lake. Ino watched him disappear into the woods. She wanted to follow him, but decided to do that later, when no one knows.
"Ino, do you want to come along?" Sasuke asked, breaking her thoughts.
"Uh… No thanks. I think I'll stay here. I didn't get much sleep." Her chance of being alone with Sasuke, she ruined it. But it was for Shikamaru's sake.
C'mon Ino! You're missing your chance, you fool! A voice inside her spoke up. But she ignored it instead.
"Okay…" Sasuke was confused; maybe she doesn't like me after all. Sasuke walked out of the camp site.
"Why didn't you go with him?" Chouji asked. Ino looked at him. He had stopped eating his bag of chips he had snuck in on the mission. "This is odd for you. You like Sasuke, don't you?"
"I don't know…" Ino really didn't know. She looked up and saw Shikamaru in the sky. Maybe she was in love with that lazy bastard now. "I'm going to take a short walk."
Shikamaru sat beside a tree; arms crossed behind him. He looked out at the lake. Swans and ducks were swimming. Little ducklings walked up to him. He picked one up.
"Hey there. How's it like being a duck?" he asked. The duck quacked and slew off his hand.
"Scary probably." A voice said behind Shikamaru. He recognized the voice and didn't bother turning around. Instead he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
Ino sat down on the tree beside Shikamaru. She sat very close to him and turned her head to face him. His cheek was in front of Ino. She lifted her hand to touch it, but was stop by his hand.
Shikamaru held Ino's hand tight. It was good to feel her touch again.
There faces slowly moved closer to each other. Soon they were as close as they were before in the hollow tree.
"Ino," Shikamaru whispered. He was breathing hard, so hard he could talk, but only whisper.
"Yes." Ino said with a smile. Her heart was beating faster then it ever did. She had a giddy feeling in her stomach. When Shikamaru said her name, his lips would touch hers.
"Ino… Ino… Ino…" Shikamaru loved that name. He could say it over and over again, all his life.
"Shikamaru…"
Shikamaru touched Ino's lips with his, only this time he was kissing. When he kissed her, she kissed back. His lips were wet and soft, it felt good against her. They would make those kissing sounds that always happen on T.V shows when one another kiss. She loved that sound. Both heads moved form side to side. Soon, Shikamaru was kissing Ino's lower lip and Ino was kissing Shikamaru's top lip.
They both stopped, but lips still touched.
"Are you warm now?" Shikamaru asked, lips still touching hers. He wanted to kiss her again. But when he stared at her eyes, he saw something; something that wasn't part of her. It frightened him. He moved away quickly from her. And ran.