Well, yes, I know I haven't finished Busu and the Battousai, but I'm working on it, I swear. It's just that my style of writing had changed considerably, and it's difficult to maintain the dark tone that I had going. In the meantime, check out my newest obsession.
This is a collection of snapshots anywhere in the neighborhood of 500 to 2000 words each, based on the series Naruto. A snapshot would be something that you won't normally see in the manga or anime – something that happens in the in-and-out lives of the characters that we can only guess at.
I will warn you now: most of them are going to be Waffy with a capital W. If you're into angst… well, there might be something for you, but not a whole lot.
Some things you should also know:
Not all stories will take place in the same universe. Not all stories will be in chronological order, or even follow a path of continuity (unless I say so) Pairings I like: SasuSaku, ShikaIno, KibaHina, NejiTen, AsuKure, and GenShi (which I've never seen before, by the way…)Standard disclaimers apply.
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Title: For Want of a Girl
Genre: Romance/Fluff
Starring: Shikamaru, Ino, and three hyperactive genins
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"Shikamaru-niisan!"
The young man's blood froze at the terrifyingly familiar sound. Even with the warning, he was caught off guard as two whooping girls popped out from of nowhere to tackle him.
"O-Oi!"
Shikamaru went into a flailing, wobbling dance as evil cackles filled the air behind him.
"We have you now, Shikamaru-nii! You're not getting away this time!" Akito declared, stepping into view with the pride of a conqueror. At his heels was small black puppy, the trademark of all those who belonged to the Inuzuka Clan.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes heavenward and prayed for patience. Hanging off his arms were Fumari and Haru, their smiles so angelic that it was making him nervous. And gad, they were strong. Shikamaru wasn't sure if he could still feel his fingers.
Girls were so troublesome. Especially younger girls. Really, there was only one reason he was willing to put up with this.
The pressure on his arms tightened enough to make him wince. "All right, all right!" he gave in, "But you'd better let go of my arms. People are going to get ideas."
Haru instantly dropped his arm with flaming cheeks, but Fumari only grinned and held on with dogged persistence. Bugging her Shikamaru-niisan was just too much fun. He was cute – especially when he got annoyed, and oh-so-cool when he was in action. It was just too bad that they didn't get to see much of that.
Shikamaru finally gave up on shaking the girl loose and sighed in exasperation. "What do you three want anyway?"
In Shikamaru's day, Ino's team would have been a rarity. He couldn't remember seeing a single team during the Chuunin Exam dominated by girls. The sudden influx of girls into the Academy a few years ago, however, meant that half of all the genin teams now had the makeup of two girls and a boy.
Sakura had made a fuss a few years ago about the scarcity of women in Anbu and how they didn't seem to get the same recognition, so he really shouldn't have been surprised. That, and the fact that their Fifth Hokage was a great promoter of kunoichi.
Still flustered, Haru explained, "Ino-sensei wants us to replant those rosebushes around the Academy, and it's totally–" she pulled a face "– trou-ble-some. Want to help us?"
"Speaking of Ino, is she around?" Shikamaru asked, trying to bring the conversation around to the subject he wanted.
They were standing outside the Academy next to the playground, which previously had been surrounded by lush rosebushes. That is, until a large bulldog had happily demolished every last one of them last week. The "Rosebush Mission", ranked C for importance even though it had a hazard level of zero (aside from pricking the odd finger), was commissioned by the Hokage herself.
Shikamaru strained to catch a glimpse of yellow hair, but Yamanaka Ino was nowhere to be seen. Disappointment twinged.
"She said she had to go somewhere," Akito told him. "Probably just fixing her hair again. She went nuts when she found that beetle."
Shikamaru smiled to himself. Ino's vanity was legendary among the jounin.
"Why, did you want to see her?" Haru asked good-naturedly.
"Yeah. Important message from the Hokage."
As proof, he fished out the small, folded slip of paper from his pocket and dangled it in front of them. Fumari peered at it suspiciously as her two teammates crowded behind her.
Akito whistled. "Wow, this was only issued four minutes ago. You're even better than those messenger hawks they keep around."
Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched.
"Hm. It doesn't seem like you to do things so efficiently, Shikamaru-niisan," Fumari said with narrowed eyes.
The Chuunin smirked. Without missing a beat he replied, "It only takes three minutes to walk here from the Administrative Office. Besides, the Hokage was threatening me with promotion again, and I can't have that."
"…Oh."
They all knew of his promotion-phobia. It had been an ongoing source of blackmail from the Hokage for the past year.
Shikamaru sighed inwardly with relief. He had expected them to get suspicious sooner or later at his frequent visits, but he'd always held them off with carefully planned alibis. If they ever found out the real reason why he was always showing up… Well, he'd never hear the end of it.
"Akito! Fumari! Haru! You three had better not be slacking off while I was gone!" Yamanaka Ino chose that moment to appear around the corner of the Academy. She was resplendent in orange, in defiance of the green jounin uniform that she claimed was unfashionable. No one, of course, was brave enough argue with her.
"I-Ino-sensei!" Akito gulped, inching away.
Fumari and Haru did the smarter thing and darted behind Shikamaru, using him as a shield. They knew that he had known her much longer than they have.
Ino drew to a halt as she approached, her irritation quickly replaced with puzzled surprise. "Shikamaru? What are you doing here?"
The young man in question gave her a crooked half-smile and produced the folded note. Ino took it from his hand and read it carefully.
"Message from the Hokage… summoned to the Administrative Office… as soon as physically possible… dress formally?" Ino's eyebrows shot up. She waved the slip in front of Shikamaru. "Do you know what this is about?"
"What makes you think I would know?" he mumbled.
Fumari poked her head out from under his arm. "Because you're Konoha's top strategist, and you get more action from the higher-ups than any chuunin has a right to."
"It's more troublesome than fun, I tell you," said Shikamaru. "I've had the Hokage on my case about becoming a jounin for ages."
"Wait a second," said Ino, crossing her arms. "Dress formal? What is that supposed to mean? How formal is formal? Is she talking business-formal?"
Shikamaru shrugged, at a loss. "Whatever you plan to wear, you'd better hurry. 'As soon as physically possible' means that –"
"– Unless I've broken every bone in my body, I had better be there pronto," Ino finished, rolling her eyes. "I know the drill."
All three of her students brightened at the news. "Does that mean we can go home?"
"No, it means that you three have one last chance to complete this mission before I start filing failure reports," Ino put her hands on her hips, an old habit that she never lost. "And no cheating by dragging unsuspecting ninjas into it." She indicated Shikamaru with a jerk of her head.
Their groans were prematurely silenced by one skilled glare. Ino's normally sky-blue eyes could flash into pure steel at a moment's notice.
"I guess that means you'd better get going," said Shikamaru.
"But Ino-sensei, are you sure you want to leave us out here all by ourselves?" Fumari asked suddenly, sidling out from behind Shikamaru.
Haru caught on quickly and cooperated. "Yeah, I mean, just imagine what sort of trouble we'd get into once you're gone."
Akito was a little slower on the uptake. "What? But I thought we wanted Ino-sensei to–"
Ino's eyebrows furrowed suspiciously. She could tell they were up to something, she just didn't know what.
Fumari continued, "Wouldn't you feel lots better if there was someone responsible to supervise us?"
"Someone like Shikamaru-niisan?" Haru added with round, hopeful eyes.
Shikamaru's mouth opened to give a flat refusal, but the words died when he saw the sly look on Ino's face.
"Coming from you two, that's a pretty good idea," she declared. "I think that's just what I'll do."
Four mouths dropped open, two from disbelief, one from incredulity, and one from disappointment.
"Do I get any say in this at all?" asked Shikamaru, wondering how exactly a girl could to rob him of his afternoon so fast.
Haru, Fumari, and Ino all shook their heads with maternal firmness.
"If I had wanted to take care of a bunch of genin, I would've just let the Hokage promote me," he grumped.
Ino glared at him. "Well, you're not doing anything right now, are you?"
"Actually – "
"Oh, come off it. You love these kids as much as I do. You wouldn't want them to fail a C-rank mission, would you?" asked Ino sweetly. At Shikamaru's flat look, however, she quickly changed tactics. Reaching out, she grabbed his arm and drew him aside. "Okay, if you're not going to do it for them, then at least do it for me?"
Inwardly, Shikamaru felt himself freeze. There was no way he could refuse that look. "Oh – fine, seeing as how I appear to have all the time in the world anyway…"
Ino grinned widely. "I knew you'd come through! See that they don't burn the school down, okay?" And to his great surprise, she gave him a quick hug and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
He was still reeling as Haru and Fumari cheered in the background, but as he stood up to face the three terrors, only one thought permeated his mind:
That just made everything worth it.
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AN: My absolute favorite Naruto pairing ever. So here they are, a jounin and a chuunin, and still not together? Rest assured, I will rectify that in a later short. Age-wise, I estimate them to be 21/22 or so.
I like to think that Ino will be the first to become a jounin. She's not a genius and she's not a particularly great ninja, but, like Shikamaru, she does have a skill unique to her and some nice redeeming qualities. She's also a part of Team 10 (which is considered something of a joke) but look who was the first to become chuunin. --
Hmm…this might actually become a snapshot later on, depending on how prolific I am.